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Second Generation


6. Jonathan, Sr PETERSON2,3,6 was born in 1674 in Duxbury, Plymouth County, Massachusetts. He died on 30 September 1760 in Duxbury, Plymouth County, Massachusetts. He was buried in Plymouth County, Massachussetts.
See notes under his father John concerning grants of land in Duxbury, Massachusetts.
The History of Duxbury has his death as 1760. The Peterson Family of Duxbury and the Society of Mayflower Descendants has his death as 1745.
After his marriage he lived at West Duxbury and at Pembroke. In 1732 he conveyed his Duxbury farm to his sons Jonathan and Reuben and his Pembroke lands to his son John. His will dated Pembroke 20 Feb. 1744/5, proved 24 May 1745, names wife Lydia, eldest son John, sons Jonathan and Reuben and daughters Hopestill Delano and Lydia Soule, with sons Jonathan and Reuben as executors.
From the Mayflower Descendants Through Five Generations, Volume 3, "In 1732 he conveyed his Duxbury farm to sons Jonathan and Reuben, and his Pembroke land to son John. Jonathan Peterson's will dated Pembroke 20 Feb. 1744/5, proved 24 May 1745, names wife Lydia, eldest son John, sons Jonathan and Reuben and daughters Hopestill Delano and Lydia Soule, with sons Jonathan and Reuben as executors."

Jonathan, Sr PETERSON and Lydia WADSWORTH were married after 23 April 1700 in Duxbury, Plymouth County, Massachusetts. Lydia WADSWORTH2,3,7,13 was born on 23 February 1679 in Duxbury, Plymouth County, Massachusetts. She died on 26 May 1756 in Duxbury, Plymouth County, Massachusetts. The Old Cemeteries of Southeastern Massachusetts A Compilation of Records by Charles M. Thatcher in the 1880's records that Lydia is buried at Old Cemetery at South Duxbury and died 26 May 1766 at 73 years, 3 months and 3 days which brings her birth date to 23 Feb 1693. Since the Lydia, wife of Jonathan gave birth in 1701 this record is unlikely. A record contained in notes herein has her death date as 26 May 1756 and died at 77 years, 3 months, 3 days giving her birth date as 23 Feb 1679 which is more likely. This writer has seen other variations.
She was buried in Old Cemetery (Standish), South Duxbury, Plymouth County, Massachusetts. Contained below is an exerpt from an article written by George Ernest Bowman of the Massachusetts Society of Mayflower Descendants. It was prepared onto the internet by Agnita Byrl Chisholm Moore, CPS, of Duson, Louisana. The complete article is to lengthy for my database but I am willing to share it with others if they desire. The article contains his resolve to the issue of whether Jonathan Peterson married Lydia Thacher or Lydia Wadsworth.
AARON(3) SOULE'S WIFE MARY WADSWORTH AND THE MARRIAGES OF FIVE OF HIS SISTERS BY GEORGE ERNEST BOWMAN
..........The investigation of these marriages necessitated a personal examination of the original records at Duxbury, Marshfield and Plymouth, Mass., and at Plainfield, Lebanon and Groton, Conn., as well as of much manuscript data belonging to this Society, and it was impossible to complete the work in time to publish the article in the July issue.
The results obtained, however, were well worth the delay, since I have been able to prove not only that Aaron3 Soule's wife Mary was the daughter of Deacon John and Abigail (Andrews) Wadsworth of Duxbury, but also that Jonathan Peterson's wife Lydia was a daughter of Deacon Wadsworth, not of Rodolphus Thacher, as heretofore claimed, and that this Lydia Thacher married John Dean.....
[Michael Peterson Note: The article contains the will of John Wadsworth and widow Abigail Wadsworth's inventory of her estate]
.....The parentage of Jacob Tomson's wife Abigail Wadsworth, of Benjamin Peterson's wife Hannah Wadsworth, of William Sprague's wife Grace, and of William Brewster's wife Hopestill Wadsworth is also established by the evidence here presented, all of them having been daughters of Deacon John and Abigail Wadsworth.
Deacon John Wadsworth died 15 May, 1700, "about Sixty two yeares of age." His widow, Abigail, died "about Midnight betwixt ye 24th and 25th,' of November, 1723, "about 76 years of age." "Hannah Peterson ye wife of Benjamin Peterson "died" the night following the 6th "of February, 1732/3. ["General Records Dates Included 1645—1749 Town of Duxbury," p. 166.].......
.......Winsor's History of Duxbury, published in 1849, states that Jonathan Peterson married Lydia the daughter of Rodolphus Thacher of Duxbury, and this appears to have been accepted without question hitherto. It was necessary, therefore, to determine whether Lydia Thacher married Jonathan Peterson or some one else-or died unmarried. The investigation was rendered more difficult by the various migrations of the Thacher family, but I was able to secure absolute proof that Lydia Thacher married, not Jonathan Peterson of Duxbury, but John Dean of Plainfield, Lebanon and Groton, Conn.......
.........As already stated, Lydia Wadsworth was still unmarried on 23 April, 1700, and became Lydia Peterson before 4 December, 1723 Jonathan and Lydia Peterson had children born at Duxbury as follows: John, 22 August, 1701; Hopestill, 20 January, 1703; Jonathan, 20 September, 1706; Reuben, 8 April, 1712. The births of these four children, with those of William and Grace Sprague and of Jacob the son of Benjamin and Hannah Peterson are the only records on this page of the original. [Ante, VIII: 233.]
Lydia the widow of Jonathan Peterson died 26 May, 1756, aged 77 years, 3 months, 3 days. She was born, therefore, 13 February, 1678, old style, (or 23 February, 1679, new style). [Ante, IX: 161.] Lydia the daughter of Rodolphus and Ruth Thacher was born 24 January, 1679, according to the Duxbury records. [Ante, IX :175.] This date is undoubtedly in old style. If this supposition is correct, Lydia Thacher was born 3 February, 1680, new style, or nearly one year after Lydia Wadsworth. If the year as recorded had already been changed to new style, which is not probable, then Lydia Thacher was about one month the older. This difference in ages would alone raise a doubt as to the parentage claimed for Lydia Peterson in the History of Duxbury.......
.......... Rodolphus Thacher of Chilmark, formerly of Duxbury, signed a deed on 5 June, 1694. Again, in 1707, Rodolphus Thacher and wife Ruth, of Chilmark, conveyed land. [Plym. Co. Deeds, III: 173, V: 220, X: 67.] Rodolphus Thacher removed, therefore, from Duxbury to Chilmark, on the island of Martha's Vineyard, in 1694, when his daughter Lydia was about fifteen years old, and I am now able to prove that she is the Lydia of the following note printed in the New England Historical and Genealogical Register, Vol. XIV, p. 12: "[From Chilmark Records:—-'Then was married John Deane and Lydia Thacher both of Lebanon in ye Colony of Connecticut by James Allen, Esq., on Martha's Vineyard, on June 10 [—], R. L. Pease. The year must have been as early as 1709. D.]." .....
......On 24 December, 1737, "Silas Dean John Dean Junr & Barzillai Dean all of Groton" sold to "our Honored Uncle Mr Thomas Thacher of Lebanon" all their rights "In or unto all the Land, which our Honored Grand father mr Rhodolphus Thacher Late of Groton abovesd deceased dyed seised of Lying in the Town of Lebanon" [Lebanon, Conn., Deeds, V: 405.]
"Mrs. Lydia Dean the wife of Ensign John Dean Deceased January the 15 : 1737." [From page 129 of book numbered I, Groton, Conn., Records.] The copies and abstracts given furnish conclusive proof that Rodolphus Thacher's daughter Lydia married John Dean and not Jonathan Peterson.
* The words in italics are later additions to the record.
---End Of George Ernest Bowman Article---

Jonathan, Sr PETERSON-445 and Lydia WADSWORTH-446 had the following children:

+20

i.

John PETERSON-430.

+21

ii.

Hopestill PETERSON-447.

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iii.

Jonathan, Jr PETERSON-448.

+23

iv.

Reuben PETERSON-449.

+24

v.

Alice PETERSON-450.

+25

vi.

Lydia PETERSON-451.