Ebenezer Keith
Ebenezer Keith was born at Bridgewater, Massachusetts, on 25 October 1716. The town clerk entered him as "Ebenezer, ch. Samuel and Bithia, Oct. 25, 1716." He was the sixth of the nine children of Samuel Keith and Bethiah Fobes. His grandfather was the Rev. James Keith, the Scot who was Bridgewater's first minister, and his mother was a daughter of Deacon Edward Fobes.
On 18 March 1741 he married Mary Pierce at Scituate, on the coast. The Scituate clerk noted that the intention of marriage had been published at Bridgewater. An intention was the public notice of a coming marriage, posted in both towns. Mary had been born at Scituate in 1717, a daughter of Benjamin Pierce Jr. and Mary Cowen, and a great-granddaughter of Capt. Michael Pierce.
He brought her home to Bridgewater, and over fourteen years she bore him nine children. Luther was born on 3 April 1743, Rachel on 22 July 1744 and Mary on 15 October 1745. Ebenezer followed on 1 September 1747 and Amos on 25 February 1749/50. Lucy was born on 20 July 1751 and Susanna on 11 April 1753. Caleb came on 6 May 1755 and Calvin on 22 May 1757. Each one is entered as a child of "Ebenezer and Mary". Mary died on 9 August 1758, in her forty first year, when Calvin was fifteen months old.
On 6 November 1759 he married again. His second wife was Hephzibah, the widow of Lt. Eleazer Carver Jr. and a daughter of Thomas Perkins. She bore him three more children: Hepzibah in 1760, who married Abiezer Alger; Alexander in 1762; and Lavinia in 1764.
His daughters married at Bridgewater. Mary married Benjamin Leach in 1764, Lucy married Jireh Swift, and Susanna married Caleb Fobes in 1776 and went north with him to Lyme, New Hampshire.
He died on 12 April 1778, of smallpox, in his sixty second year. Smallpox was feared as contagious, and its dead were buried away from the common burying grounds. He was buried in his own field, about two miles southwest of the First Cemetery, where his widow would later lie. Hephzibah lived another twenty two years and died on 12 April 1800, the same day of the year as he had. Her stone carries his memorial as well as her own.
Mitchell's history of Bridgewater gives him one entry: "Ebenezer (s. of Samuel 4) m. Mary Pierce of Scituate 1741, and had Luther 1743, Rachel 1744, Mary 1745, Ebenezer 1747, Amos 1750, Lucy 1751, Susanna 1753, Caleb 1755, Calvin 1757; she d. 1758, and he m. Hepzibah, wid. of Eleazar Carver and D. of Thomas Perkins, 1759 ... he d. of small-pox 1778; she 1800, ae. 80. ... Susanna m. Caleb Fobes 1776."
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Cite: Heirology, "Ebenezer Keith (1716-1778)", https://heirology.com/ancestors/ebenezer-keith-1716-1778-210ebb.