♀Elizabeth Woodford

Elizabeth Woodford (1682 – before 20 March 1738/39) was a woman of Farmington in the Connecticut Colony^W, a daughter of Joseph Woodford (died 1710) and the first wife of Nathaniel Cole (1682–1743). She was the sixth great-grandmother of Frederic Roger Curtis (1928–2007), through her daughter Lydia Cole (1709–1776).

Family of origin

She was one of the nine children of Joseph Woodford and Rebecca Newell (born about 1643) of Farmington, eight daughters and one son. Her father’s will, made on 10 December 1701 and proved on 6 November 1710, names “my daughter Elizabeth Woodford” and leaves her £30; it was written six years before she married. Her mother is identified through James Savage’s Genealogical Dictionary of the First Settlers of New England, which names Rebecca, a daughter of Thomas Newell, as Joseph Woodford’s wife and lists Elizabeth among their children. The will’s overseer, “my brother Samuel Newell”, fits that account, and Thomas Newell’s 1689 estate lists “Rebeckah Woodford” among his children.

No record of her birth at Farmington is known, and the year, given in the family record as 1682, is uncertain. Her father’s will lists her after her sister Hannah, who married in 1699, and before her sister Susannah, whom Savage says was baptized on 3 December 1682. If the will names the daughters in order of age, a birth in 1682 is possible only early in that year.

Marriage and death

The Farmington town records list her marriage to Nathaniel Cole there on 11 June 1707. Their daughter Lydia was born in 1709; a Curtis family genealogy names Lydia’s parents as Nathaniel and Elizabeth (Woodford) Cole. Elizabeth died before 20 March 1738/39, the date of her husband’s will, which names his wife as Lydia, a second wife. A death date of 19 June 1749 was once given for Elizabeth without a source; it cannot be hers, and it may belong to the second wife or to another woman.