John Tuttle wrote: > I have several questions about Elizabeth Hills. I have noticed > the past discussions about her but am confused by them. > > I have her born or baptized 21 Oct 1627 at Malden, Essex, England, > the daughter of Joseph Hills and either his first wife, Rose Clarke, or > his second wife, Hannah (Smith) Mellows. Definitely the first wife. > However, the Hill discussion group has the name of the first wife of > Joseph Hills as Rose Dunster. Her name in the marriage register was Rose Clarke. There is some evidence that she was the sister of Henry Dunster, however. I don't know if it's conclusive. > The group has Joseph Hills born 3 > Mar 1602 in Malden, England, That's undoubtedly a baptism. > dying 1688 in Malden, Mass. No, he died in Newbury. > group has Rose Dunster born 1603 and dying 1650 in Malden, Mass. > The date of marriage is given as 22/23 July 1624 in Essex, England. Birth is not clearly known, I think. Otherwise, yes. > The discussion group gives Joseph Hills a second wife, Hannah > (Smith) Mellows, and a third wife, Ann Lunt. Ann was the fourth. The third was Helen Atkinson, whom he married in both senses of the word in 1655/6 Jan. He was given an official censure for conducting his own wedding. (He was a magistrate, but that was considered bad form.) > Then I have Elizabeth Hills marrying George Blanchard about 1653 > and marrying Dea. John Blanchard about 1658. Neither of these > Blanchards are in my direct line but I would like to straighten out > the relationships between Elizabeth Hills, George Blanchard and > Dea. John Blanchard. I have also looked through Torrey, Savage > and other sources and remain confused. There was a long time when folks thought she married George Blanchard. Lots of old books repeat this theory as an accepted "fact". Here's the evidence in favor. Joseph's will mentioned two granddaughters Hannah and Elizabeth Blanchard (dated 1687 Sep 14). George is known to have had daughters Elizabeth and Hannah (in that order), both still living in 1700. That's all there is, aside from the fact that Joseph Hills was a witness to the will of Thomas Blanchard (George's father). It's not clear to me that has any relevance. Here's some evidence against. George's two daughters Elizabeth and Hannah were just two among many children of George, with nothing known about them to explain why Joseph would leave them property and not the others. By the way, I haven't seen any evidence that George's wife was named Elizabeth or that she wasn't living in 1687. If anyone knows of such evidence, I'd be very interested in hearing about it. Here's some evidence in favor of John Blanchard. John did have a wife named Elizabeth, and she was dead before 1665, and she had exactly two children known to have survived: daughters Hannah and Elizabeth (in that order). The property left to the Blanchard "girls" was 50 acres each of farm land in Dunstable, part of a farm that had been granted to Joseph Hills for his many services to the colony. In 1717, Hannah's husband Thomas Read sold some land in Dunstable to Joseph Blanchard (a half brother of Hannah) that apparently was Hannah's share of this farm. Also, Elizabeth's husband Robert Parris' will mentioned land that his wife had inherited from her grandfather Joseph Hills. I'm convinced. John Chandler