Thomas Buckminster’s Two Wives and Nine Children: Which Wife Gave Birth to Which Children?
Thomas Buckminster: 1593-1656 (Maternal 9th
Great-Grandfather)
Margaret Cossen: 1597-1629 (Maternal 9th
Great-Grandmother)
Joanna Robinson: 1597-1676 (Wife No. 2)
I’ve been making use of the new Ancestry feature, the Tree
Checker program. It helps me identify errors in my tree, and equally important,
which individuals in the tree lack sources and records. I discovered that when
I originally added the Thomas Buckminster family (my maternal 9th
Great-Grandfather) to my family tree, I had found sources verifying basic
birth, death and marriage information for my direct ancestor, Thomas’ son
Zachariah Buckminster. However, I had failed to do the same for Zachariah’s
eight siblings. I hadn’t even verified which of Thomas’ two wives had given
birth to which child. Ancestry’s Tree Checker flagged all of Zachariah’s
siblings as “people with no sources”. I decided it was time to rectify this
omission.
My 9th Great Grandfather Thomas Buckminster was
born in England in 1593, and immigrated to the American Colonies around 1630
following the death of his first wife, Margaret Cossin, in 1629. He settled in
the Muddy River area of Suffolk County, Massachusetts and married Joanna
Robinson.
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| Muddy River on a 1777 map of Brookline area near Boston. |
I had some theories about his nine children’s parentage. Other
Ancestry trees tended to show that second wife Joanna was the mother of at
least six or seven of the nine children. I believed that first wife Margaret
was actually the mother of not only my 8th Great Grandfather Zachariah, but
four or five of his siblings as well. I needed to see if I could verify that
theory.
Thomas Buckminster’s first wife died in 1629. Obviously, any
children born after that date were the children of second wife Joanna Robinson.
So my first job was to find birth records or documents that verified the birth
year of the eight siblings.
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| Muddy River today |
I located a transcription of Thomas’ will, made out in 1656
shortly before his death. His heirs included the following children: Zackery
(Zachariah); daughters Elizabeth Spowell, Mary Stevens, Dorcas Corben, and
Sarah Buckminster, and sons Thomas, Joseph and Jabesh (Jabez). The will offered
me some clues about which children were the progeny of second wife Joanna. Thomas
noted that sons Thomas, Joseph and Jabesh, and daughter Sarah were all minors
under the age of twenty-one. The will instructs that they receive forty
shillings “each to be paid when severally ‘one & Twenty years of Age.’”
That means that each of them were born after 1636, so could not have been the
children of Margaret, who died in 1629. All four, therefore, were Joanna’s
children.
But what about the other children? I found birth and probate
records for Thomas’ son, Lawrence Buckminster. He was born in England in 1619,
so his mother must have been Margaret Cossen. Lawrence was Thomas’ eldest son,
six years older than my ancestor Zachariah. Lawrence died at sea in 1645, thus
preceding Thomas in death.
As for daughter Elizabeth, I found a baptism record for her dated
August 17, 1628. The baptism took place in Sempringham, Lincolnshire, England.
This is the same parish where her brothers Lawrence and Zachary were baptized. Although
I have found no actual birth record, she was obviously born before August 17,
1628. This confirms she was Margaret Cossen’s daughter. Elizabeth accompanied
her father to Massachusetts and married William Spowell in 1652. I have been
unable to find a death record for her.
As for daughter Dorcas, I have been unable to find any birth
or baptism records for her. Her headstone states that she died January 22, 1721
at the age of 92. That would mean she was born in 1629 when Thomas Buckminster
was still in England, meaning Dorcas was Margaret’s last child. Perhaps Dorcas’
birth led to her mother’s death, which occurred in 1629.
Thomas Buckminster’s ninth child was daughter Mary. I was
unable to find any birth records for her. However, court records related to her
father’s estate hint that she was the daughter of second wife Joanna Robinson
Buckminster. Following Joanna’s remarriage, several of Thomas' children petitioned the
court that administration of the estate be transferred from Thomas’ widow
Joanna to them as Thomas’ children.
“On 27 July 1669, "Jabesh Buckminster, Mary Stevens,
Dorcas Corbin, and Sarah Lawrence, son and daughters of Thomas Buckminster
sometimes of Muddy River in Boston deceased," petitioned the court to be
appointed administrators to their father's estate, referring to the marriage of
their mother, Joanna Buckmaster, to Edward Garfield. Among the many depositions
collected during the consideration of this petition was one from "Henry
Stevens" who "affirmed in court 27 July 16[70] its four years come
August next since his mo[ther]in] law Joanna Garfeild died."
Henry Steven’s reference to Joanna as his mother-in-law would
suggest that his wife Mary was Joanna’s daughter. Mary’s uncomfirmed birthdate
from several Ancestry trees was 1632, which followed the estimated 1630-31 date of
Thomas’ marriage to Joanna. Henry and Mary also named one of their daughters “Joanna”.
While these things suggest Joanna is Mary’s mother, without any actual
documentary evidence, Mary’s parentage will remain theoretical.
So my original theory was only partially correct. I was able
to confirm that three of my 8th great grandfather’s siblings were his
full siblings—the children of Thomas Buckminster’s first wife Margaret Cossen.
However, I confirmed that four other siblings were the children of Thomas Buckminster’s
second wife, Joanna, and that last sibling is probably also her child. I had
theorized that at least one and possibly two of those siblings were Margaret
Cossen’s children.
I need to continue to research this family to see if there
are any additional records that can clarify family relationships. But at least the
entire Buckminster family now has records attached to them, and will no longer
appear on Tree Checker as “people with no sources.”
Sources:
Photo of Muddy River. Wikimedia Commons. John Stephen Dwyer,
CC BY-SA 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0>, via
Wikimedia Commons https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Olmsted-Park-Muddy-River.jpg
Henry Pelham’s 1777 Map of Boston area.
Photo of Dorcas Buckminster Corbin headstone. Gravestones of
the First Corbins in America.
