♀Susanna Bates

Susanna Bates (fl. 1660–1674) was the wife of Nathaniel Blanchard of Weymouth, in the Massachusetts Bay Colony^W, and the mother of five children, four of whose births were recorded there between 1660 and 1674. She was the eighth great-grandmother of Nancy Jane Blanchard (1929–2006) by two separate lines of descent, both through her son John Blanchard (1660–1733).

Life

Her parents are not known, and her surname Bates rests on a compiled genealogy alone; no record of her birth or her death has been found. She married Nathaniel Blanchard at Charlestown, Middlesex, in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, on 16 December 1658. She was living at Weymouth by 27 March 1660, when the town recorded the birth of her son John, entered as “John, s. Nathaniell and Susan”. Their daughter Mary was most likely born in 1662. The births of Nathaniel (25 September 1665), Edward (7 June 1668) and Mercy (14 April 1674) followed, and the town’s entries spell her name variously as Susan, Susannah, Susanah and Susana.

A genealogical dictionary of early New England settlers compiled by James Savage^W gives her as Susanna, daughter of Edward Bates of Weymouth, and says that his widow married, probably, Thomas Bass in 1680. No record found so far confirms her parentage or her surname, and none names Thomas Bass as her husband. The Suffolk County probate records do show Nathaniel’s estate settled on her: on 30 April 1679 the County Court at Boston granted administration of the estate of “Nathanael Blanchett late of Waymouth Deced intestate” to “Susanna his Relict widow”, and she and Capt. John Holbrook, both of Weymouth, gave bond. The inventory had been appraised on 27 August 1676. The record gives no surname for her, and names none of the children. On 7 February 1678/9 she sold part of Nathaniel’s pasture to Joseph Dyar, and when the deed was acknowledged on 13 July 1685 she appeared as “Susanna Bass (late Blancher)”, which fits Savage’s account of a remarriage to a Bass, though no record found so far names her husband.

Lines of descent

Both lines pass through her son John (1660–1733). They meet again in Wesley Blanchard (1844–1908), whose parents, Joseph Knapp Blanchard (1820–1885) and Elizabeth Trueworthy Blanchard (1825–1884), were both her descendants. From Wesley the descent to Nancy Jane Blanchard runs as one, through George Wesley Blanchard (1868–1939) and Kenneth Blanchard (1897–1975).

Notes

The descent rests on taking the John Blanchard who died at Weymouth in 1733 to be the John born to Nathaniel and Susan in 1660. He was the only John of that name born at Weymouth in his generation, but no record names him as their son.

The marriage

The Charlestown vital records, as printed in Roger D. Joslyn’s Vital Records of Charlestown, Massachusetts, give the marriage in the tenth month of 1658. In the old calendar, which began the year in March, the tenth month is December. The day, 16 December 1658, comes from Chamberlain’s History of Weymouth, volume 3, and Savage’s compiled dictionary gives the same day; the Charlestown record gives only the month. The printed Charlestown text is garbled in places, and a later transcription that reads 16 October misreads the month.

The children

The Weymouth vital records (volume I, pages 53 to 56) print the births of John, Nathaniel, Edward and Mercy. Mary’s birth in 1662 is given by compiled books: Savage gives 1 December 1662, and Little’s Genealogical and Family History of Maine (1909) lists her among the children.