♀Susanna (surname unknown)

Susanna was an early settler of Braintree, in the Massachusetts Bay Colony^W, with her husband John Hayden; the town records there enter four of her children born between 1640 and 1648. She was the ninth great-grandmother of Nancy Jane Blanchard (1929–2006) by two separate lines of descent, both through her son John Hayden (died 1718).

Life

Her husband is said to have been living at Dorchester by 1632. She and John Hayden probably married about 1634. By 1640 the family had moved to Braintree, where the town records enter the births of Jonathan in 1640, Hannah in 1642, Ebenezer in 1645 and Nehemiah in February 1647/8, each a child of “John Hoidon and Susanna his wiffe”.

Their children were John, Joseph, Samuel, Jonathan, Hannah, Ebenezer and Nehemiah. The eldest, John, is most likely the John Hayden who married Hannah Ames at Braintree on 6 April 1660. Their son Joseph is said to have been mentally ill, and the colony helped to support him.

Later years

She was still living when John Hayden is said to have made his will on 31 October 1678. It named his wife Susanna and his sons John, Joseph, Ebenezer and Nehemiah, and the children of his son Samuel and of his daughter Hannah, who had most likely died before him. He died by February 1681/2, and his will was proved at Boston on 26 July 1682.

Lines of descent

Both lines run through her son John Hayden and John’s daughter Hannah Hayden, who married Nathaniel Thayer at Braintree on 27 May 1679, and through Hannah’s son Hezekiah Thayer, whose son Noah Thayer (born 1745) was the father of Mary Thayer (1770–1827). Two of Mary’s grandchildren, Joseph Knapp Blanchard (1820–1885) and Elizabeth Trueworthy Blanchard (1825–1884), married each other, so their son Wesley Blanchard (1844–1908) descended from Susanna through both parents.

Notes

Her name

Her maiden name is not known; the Braintree records call her only Susanna. A compiled index of early New England marriages gives her as Susan or Susanna and dates the marriage to about 1634. Her death is not recorded.

Her son John

Two John Haydens lived at Braintree, father and son. A compiled study of the early New England settlers gives the elder John’s eldest child as a son John, who married Hannah Ames at Braintree on 6 April 1660 and died there in 1718; no record names that son’s parents. The same study is the source for her husband’s years at Dorchester and for her son Joseph’s illness and the colony’s help.

The will

The date of the will, the names in it, her husband’s death by February 1681/2 and the probate date of 26 July 1682 all come from the study’s abstract of the Suffolk County probate record. Her son Jonathan, born in 1640, is not named in it.

The Braintree births

The town clerk wrote the dates with numbered months, the year then beginning in March. Nehemiah’s, “(14) (12) 1647”, is 14 February 1647/8, which is why he is given as born in 1648.