Thanks, Paul, for the further information. In regard to the question of Coffin vs Wheeler, I think the circumstantial evidence in favor of the known marriage in 1800 (i.e., Wheeler) is very convincing, but I've seen cases before where a young widow remarried and used her 1st husband's surname as a middle name for one or more subsequent children, so it's still possible that Abigail's maiden name was Coffin. However, I went back to the VR of Stoughton and verified that there was neither an Abigail Wheeler nor an Abigail Coffin born there at a suitable time. It's too bad Walter Blanchard didn't explain where he got the name of William's wife. > They first settled after marriage in > east Stoughton, Mass., accumulating considerable property. I also checked to see if any of their children's births were recorded in Stoughton (something I never did before because they are after my cutoff date of 1800) -- they are not there, so it would seem that maybe Walter was wrong about where they "settled" in the sense of actual residence, even if William bought real estate in Stoughton. > Children were------ > William -- who died quite young in consequence of a fall upon the ice. > John W. -- Born March 29, 1803. > Richard -- Born Sept. 10, 1801 > Mary -- who died in infancy, Given the out-of-order appearance of John and Richard, it would be a mistake to assume that William was the first son. There seems to be no real impediment to the conclusion that the 1800 marriage is the right one for this family. > William (1747) first wife was Rachael Spear, they had one child, William > (above) and Rachael died in 1779. On April 1, 1782 William married Betsy > Mann of Randolph MA. Two small corrections. First, the town of Randolph was not formed until 1793, so she would have been of Braintree in 1782 (as indeed she was). Second, their marriage *intention* was entered on Apr 1, so the marriage itself would have had to be later. The marriage does not appear in the VR or Braintree or Stoughton. The births of the children (except Lemuel) are recorded in Stoughton (but, most provokingly, they are listed as children of "ditto and ditto" underneath the entry for William in 1771, which says "son of William Blanchard and his wife"). John