Robert Ellenwood & Abigail Ober (3rd Generation)

ROBERT ELLENWOOD

BORN:  26 Nov 1704 • Beverly, Essex, Massachusetts

DIED:  1751 • Beverly, Essex, Massachusetts/21 March

ABIGAIL OBER

BORN:  21 Mar 1708 • Beverly, Essex, Massachusetts

DIED:  29 Feb 1796 • Beverly, Essex, Massachusetts

MARRIED: 5 Oct 1725 • Beverly, Essex, Massachusetts

This post features the third generation of the Ellenwood family and also introduces new ancestors due to the marriage between Robert Ellenwood and Abigail Ober: John Woodbury, William Woodbury, John Dodge and John Ober. Also, be sure and read the postscript to the Salem Witch trials at the bottom of this post.

As stated in the previous post, Benjamin & Mary Ellinwood had 14 children between the years of 1688-1714, all born in Beverly. A breakdown of this generation and their spouses with a few notes:

1. Eleanor (1688-1759) married Jonathan Woodbury in March of 1708. They had 13 children, two of whom married back into the Ellinwood family as 3rd cousins. More on the Woodbury family later in this post.

2. Benjamin II (1689-unknown) no records beyond the age of three.

3. William (1691-1773) married Abigail Woodbury in 1711, then Mary Swinerton in 1718.

4. Patience (1693-1760) married John Ashby in 1712 then Moses Morgan in 1717.

5. Mary (1695-1695) died in infancy.

6. Priscilla (1696-1760) married Robert Woodbury Jr and had five children.

7. David (1698-1777) married Joanna Balch in 1719. They had three babies who died in infancy. Joanna died one week after giving birth to her third and last child. This last child was not named and they are buried together in Beverly. David then married Margaret Wallis with whom he had 5 children who lived to adulthood.

8. Samuel (1700-1734) was lost at sea between July and December 1734 with brother-in-law Zebulon Woodbury, who was married to his sister Eunice. There is no record of a marriage for Samuel.

9. Mary (1702-unk) married Robert Smith in 1720.

10. Robert (1704-1751) married Abigail Ober in 1725 and produced nine children:

• Hannah
• Robert
• Nicholas
• John
• Samuel (direct ancestor) married Sarah Giles and removed to Yarmouth, Nova Scotia and started the line of Ellenwoods in Canada.
• Hannah
• Nicholas II
• Mary
• Benjamin

11. Andrew (1706-1778) married Elizabeth Wallis and had seven children.

12. Jonathan (1708-1745) married Joanna Hunt and had three children. He died in the Cape Breton Expedition that captured Louisbourg, June 17, 1745.

13. Eunice (1710-1733) married Zebulon Woodbury in 1729. They had two sons, Ebenezer and Wilkes. Eunice probably died during childbirth with Wilkes. Wilkes died a year later and then Zebulon was lost at sea with Eunice's brother Samuel. Ebenezer grew up to be the master of the brig "Polly" and was washed overboard and drowned at sea off the coast of South Carolina. 

14. Anne (1714-1775) died at 61, there is no record of marriage or children.

As mentioned above, our direct ancestor from this third generation is Robert Ellenwood. He married Abigail Ober, and through her adds four new "earliest known" direct ancestors to our tree in addition to Ralph Elwood. 

Additional ancestors through Abigail Ober. Highlight indicates "earliest known"

The beginning of Beverly as a community dates to 1635 when a 1,000 acre grant on the Bass River Side of Salem was made to five men, later called the “Old Planters.” All five men had been part of the short-lived fishing station at Cape Ann in 1623. When the enterprise failed in 1626 some of the colonists decided to stay in the area. They sailed south along the coast to Naumkeag “to a neck of land lying a little to the westward” – today called Salem – that they believed would be a favorable site for an agricultural colony. Here about 30 people built their homes and began farming. 

Excerpt from the Salem Book of Grants:

"(Ordered) that Cap Trask, Jn Woodbery, m Connant, Peter Pallfrey and John Balch are to have 5 farms each 200 acres a peice to fearme in all a thousand acres of land togeather lying and be(ing) at the head of the Basse River 124 pole in breadth and soe (to) runne northerly to the river by the great pond side, and soe (in) breadth making up the full quantitye of a thousand acres, these lymits laid out & surveyed by us."

John Woodbery

John Balch

In 1635 a grant was requested and made of 1,000 acres across the Bass River. The land was divided into farms of 200 acres each and given to William Trask, John Woodbury, Roger Conant, Peter Palfrey and John Balch. The land was divided into upland, meadow or marsh and each of the grantees received an equal amount of property of each type. Peter Palfrey never lived there, instead selling 200 acres of his grant to William "Farmer" Dodge. 

John Woodbury (1579-1641) and his brother William came from Somerset, England about 1624. The name "Wodeberie" occurs in the Doomsday Book and a family estate has been traced in Somerset since 1304. The surname has been recorded with multiple spellings over the years.

Ancestral home of the Woodbury and Dodge Families

John Woodbury was married in England to Joan Bishop, but she died before John and his son Humphrey (direct ancestor) emigrated. Once in Beverly, John married again to Agnes (no record of her given name). They had four children:

1. John 1630-1673 m. Elizabeth Tenny
2. Peter 1640-1704 m. Abigail Batchelor, then Sarah Dodge
3. Abigail unk.
4. Hannah unk.

John must have been highly regarded by his peers because he was chosen to return to England to plead their cause to be granted to settle in a new town, which he was successful in doing. He was commonly known by the title "Father Woodbury" as a tribute to his role in founding Beverly, but also to distinguish him from his son John Jr (who was called "Senior".  

Humphrey Woodbury (direct ancestor) married Elizabeth Hunter and they had 10 children. Their son Peter was a colonial soldier, serving under Captain John Lothrop and died in the Battle of Bloody Brook. The soldiers were guarding a haul of grain that they were moving to storage when they were attacked. This was one of the battles of King Phillip's War. Their youngest daughter Christian tragically died by suicide and her death got caught up in the Salem Witch trials, see postscript below.

William Woodbury (1589-1677), was John's brother and the father of Nicholas Woodbury, a direct ancestor. He married Elizabeth Patch in 1616 in South Petherton, a parish in the south eastern part of Somerset, England. He was one of the original members of the independent church of Beverly, as was Ralph Ellenwood. He had a 40 acre grant near the Old Planters in 1636, with ten people in his family by 1637. Children of Elizabeth Patch and William Woodbury, all born in South Petheron, Somerset, England (except Nathaniel) :

• Hannah 1617- 1703 m. Roger Haskell
• Nicholas 1618-1686 m. Anna Palgrave (our direct ancestor)
• William (III) 1620-1668 m. Judith Glover
• Andrew 1622-1685 m. Mary Cockerel
• Hugh 1624-1702 m. Mary Dixey
• Isaac 1626-unk m. Mary Wilkes
• Nathaniel 1639-unk

William "Farmer" Dodge (1604-1686) was also from Somersetshire, who came to Massachusetts Bay in 1629 on the "Lyon's Whelp." William Dodge bought 200 acres of Peter Palfrey's land from the 1,000 acre grant. Tradition says he was tall with black hair and a dark complexion. He was known as "Farmer" Dodge to the community. He became a "freeman" in 1637 and was also one of the founders of the First Church of Beverly. His wife's name was Elizabeth. William and Elizabeth Dodge had three children:

• Captain John Dodge 1636-1722 m. 1) Sarah Proctor, 2) Elizabeth Tenney (who was previously married to John "Senior" Woodbury) and 3) Sarah Porter
• Captain William Dodge 1640-1720 m. Mary Conant
• Hannah Dodge (our direct ancestor) m. Thomas Woodbury, son of Humphrey and Elizabeth, and had nine children

Richard Ober (1641-1715) was born in Abbotsbury, England, emigrated to the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1664 and became an active citizen of Beverly.

Ancestral home of Richard Ober

He owned land near 'Plum Island' (probably Beverly Cove) He married Abigail Woodbury in 1671 and they had nine children:

1. John (1673-1744) m. Hannah Woodbury (direct line)
2. Anna 1675-1702 died at 26
3. Elizabeth 1677-1730 m. John Balch
4. Abigail 1680-1752 m. Samuel Butman
5. Hezekiah 1681-1739 m. Anna Morgan
6. Richard II 1683-1725 m. Priscilla Woodbury
7. Nicolas 1686-1723 m. Abigail Conant
8. Benjamin 1689-1723 m. Rachel Raymond
9. Samuel 1693-1725 m. Elizabeth Stone

Richard Ober's occupation is given as "shoreman", one engaged in fisheries whose duties kept him on the shore. Richard was constable and collector of taxes in 1682-84, was guardian of Anna Morgan, who eventually married his son Hezekiah. Richard was a member of a committee of ten men named to inspect their neighbors to prevent drinking and drunkenness, which they felt they needed to control due to its contribution to the breakdown of the family and society.

Being an Agrarian society, survival depended on having a family with lots of children to help with the farming and other household responsibilities. If a spouse died early, it was typically only a few months later that a re-marriage would occur. Widows with property were in the most advantageous position to re-marry, as their property once married belonged to her husband. I also noticed that if a child died young, another child born later would be given the same name. The Ellenwood, Woodbury and Dodge families would marry so frequently into each others families that it was common to find several people in the same generation with the same first and last name but belonging to different parents, which makes research tricky. At any rate, our ancestors did more than their fair share to help populate New England.

H.L. Mencken said, “Puritanism is the haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be happy.” To be fair, the Puritans did have some fun. Hunting, fishing and archery were allowed, and they held athletic contests. They drank beer, wine and liquor, but not to excess, hence the committees to monitor neighbors who drink too much. I can't imagine the women had much fun though.

It's a gross understatement to say that life in colonial New England was brutal, especially for women. The amount of infant deaths, childbirth deaths and early death to small pox, the sea, or war is shocking. But these Puritans knew they were creating the foundation of a new society and they persevered despite the hardships.  

Postscript to the 1692 Witch Trials:

Christian Woodbury was the youngest daughter of Humphrey Woodbury and Elizabeth Hunter, a ninth great-aunt for my generation. She tragically died by suicide in June of 1690.

From History of Salem, vol. III 1671-1716, by Sidney Perley:

Christian Trask, wife of John Trask, who lived on the Rial Side took her own life June 3, 1690, by cutting her windpipe with a small pair of scissors, from which she died "an untimely death," being only twenty-nine. She had been "out of her right senses" for about a month previous to that time. On the Beverly Town records, her death is recorded as follows:

Christian, wife of John Trask of Salem, "being violently asalted by the temptations of Satan, cut her own throate with a paire of sisers to the astonishment and grief of all, especially her most near relations."

Records show that Christian Trask and Hannah Bishop (the first woman to be hanged as a witch) had a long time feud with one another which two years later led some to believe that Hannah played a role in Christian's death. John Hale (minister of Beverley Church) testified at trial that he thought Hannah had caste a spell on Christian. It's clear that Salem was full of hysterics, a fact borne out during the legally-sanctioned murders of nineteen people for witchcraft. Christian may have actually suffered from post-partum depression. During the eleven years of her marriage she had five children, the last one born just five months before her death by suicide.

Sources:
The Old Planters of Beverly by Alice Gertrude Lapham
Great Migration Begins: Immigrants to New England 1620-1633
History of Salem by Sidney Perley

Next: The Fourth Generation: Samuel Ellenwood and Sarah Giles