♂Stephen Dudley

Stephen Dudley (died 1735) was a farmer of Exeter, in the Province of New Hampshire^W. He was the seventh great-grandfather of Nancy Jane Blanchard (1929–2006), through his son James Dudley (1690–1746).

Family

A family history published in 1886 makes him a son of the Reverend Samuel Dudley, minister of Exeter, by his third wife, Elizabeth, and so a grandson of Thomas Dudley^W, governor of Massachusetts Bay; it gives his birthplace as Exeter but no date. He was probably born about 1654.

Stephen Dudley and Sarah Gilman were married at Exeter on 24 December 1684. The Gilman family history of 1869 and Savage’s dictionary of New England settlers both make her a daughter of John Gilman of Exeter, whom the Dudley family history calls a judge, a royal councillor and Speaker of the colonial assembly. The books count ten or eleven children, all of them, the 1886 history believed, born to Sarah; James, the third son, was born at Exeter on 11 June 1690. Sarah died on 24 January 1712/13. According to the family history, Stephen married twice more, to Mary Thing and then to Mercy Gilman, who outlived him.

Public life

A history of Exeter published in 1888 prints his name among the men who took the oath of allegiance and fidelity at Exeter on 30 November 1677. Fifteen years later a genealogical dictionary of Maine and New Hampshire lists him among the signers of the address of the New Hampshire inhabitants dated 10 August 1692. He was probably a grand juror in 1695.

Queen Anne’s War

Their son John was killed by Indians in the woods near Epping in 1710, during Queen Anne’s War^W, in his eighteenth year. The 1886 history dates his death 23 June 1710, from a note written by his brother Nicholas, and places it in the attack that killed Colonel Winthrop Hilton^W; the 1888 history of Exeter, however, dates Hilton’s death to 22 July 1710 and lists John Dudley on a scouting party from 21 to 23 June.

Land and will

The family history twice mentions a deed by which he gave his son James a twelfth share of the six hundred acres the town had granted to the Reverend Samuel Dudley, once dating it 1703 and once January 1711; in the second, Stephen is called a planter and James a cooper. In his papers he was styled at different times gentleman, yeoman, planter and farmer. In June 1713 he gave his son Nicholas land at Deer Hill Plain, near Deer Hill mill. In the town’s division of the common land, voted on 12 April 1725, he was listed as “Stephen Dudley, Sen.” with a share of 100.

His will, made at Exeter on 17 February 1734/5 while he was “weak of body”, is printed in the family history, and he signed it with his mark. He called Mercy “my well-beloved wife, Mercy Dudley,” and left his house and lands to her for her life and then to his sons James and Trueworthy, with small legacies to his other children and to grandsons. The witnesses swore to the will before the judge of probate at Portsmouth in May 1735.

Notes

Birth

His birth is given as about 1654. Two compiled genealogies differ: Macomber (1968) and the Founders & Patriots lineage book give 1654, and Weis (1958) gives 1656. Neither cites a record.

Oath, address and grand jury

The oath of allegiance and fidelity is printed in Charles H. Bell, History of the Town of Exeter, New Hampshire (1888), pp. 61-62. The address of the New Hampshire inhabitants of 10 August 1692 is in the list printed by Noyes, Libby and Davis in the Genealogical Dictionary of Maine and New Hampshire, which holds it as a compiled entry. The grand jury service of 1695 is compiled only: the same dictionary gives “Gr.j. 1695” (p. 209), and Macomber repeats it.

Common land, 1725

Bell (1888), pp. 141-142, gives the vote of 12 April 1725 and lists “Stephen Dudley, Sen., 100” and his son “Stephen Dudley, Jr., 30”. The list does not name the unit.

Wives

The 1886 family history prints the second wife’s name as Mary Thyng; the spelling Mary Thing is used here. She is given as born 6 March 1673, daughter of Jonathan Thing, in the Genealogical Dictionary of Maine and New Hampshire, which takes the dates from Bell. Mercy Gilman’s place as third wife rests on his will of 17 February 1734/5, which names “my well-beloved wife, Mercy Dudley” (Probate Records of the Province of New Hampshire, vol. II, pp. 525-526). Sarah Gilman died on 24 January 1712/13, so both later marriages came after 1713.