Robert Girdler - Mary Pedrick Family Group

What We Know About This Family

An Overview of Their Lives

The marriage of Robert Girdler, son of John and his second wife, Margaret Greenfield, and Mary Pedrick, daughter of Joseph and his wife Sarah Martin is a union of mariner families in that Marblehead era. We also see some "cousin' marriages here in this tight-knit, small community. Their sons made their livings with the sea. Joseph Girdler was in association for many years with his brother-in-law, Captain Nicholson Broughton, in successful ventures dispatching sloops to the banks and merchant vessels to foreign countries. (Nicholson's wife was Sarah Pedrick, Mary Pedrick Girdler's sister). Mary was also the sister of Marblehead legend Major John Pedrick, who at the peak before the Revolutionary War owned some 25 vessels that sailed nearly every port in England, Spain, and the West Indies. His story is covered in the John Pedrick/Sarah Martin Family Group page. Nicholson's sister Anne was the wife of Jonas Dennis, Jr. son of Jonas and Suzannah Devereaux Dennis. I suspect Robert left a will because his daughter Eleanor Girdler Harris had property "in her own right" according to her husband's will. I could not find any probate information for her father.

My great grandmother Martha Harris's roots were tangled: See also Family Groups 711, 1000, and 911 for more information for the ancestors below:

About the Children

• Robert their first-born child apparently died young.


• Sarah could not be traced after her birth.


• Mary married Captain John Easton of Boston. He was one of the protesters who decorated himself as an Indian at the Boston Tea Party.


• Eleanor and her husband, John Harris, were our direct ancestors and have their own family group page.


• Margaret remained single and lived a relatively long life dying at the age of 94. She left a dwelling house with barn and land by Beacon Street to her four nieces (daughters of her brother Joseph).


• Captain Robert, a Revolutionary War patriot who fought at Bunker Hill, had a busy life at sea, and lived a long life. was a mariner/shoreman and single without children when he died. He left his estate to his sister Margaret during her life, and then to the children of his deceased brother Joseph - Joseph, Mary Lawrence, Elizabeth Stacey, Rebecca Stacey, and Margaret Ireson.


• Captain Joseph died when he was about 45 and still had several young children. His wife Rebecca was initially the administratrix of his estate, but she too died very soon after her husband. Robert's brother-in-law, John Harris, became the new administrator. The estate was insolvent and the real estate was sold. I could find no records about where the children went to live. Sadly, Rebecca's brother, also a mariner, was lost at sea a year later and left even more young children.


• Thomas, second mate, was washed overboard from the William Lombard in 1827 four days out from Boston to Valparaiso.

Proof of Relationship

Proof of relationship can be found in the vital records. Robert's will links him to his sister Margaret and his brother Joseph, and Joseph's estate being administered by John Harris is a link to Eleanor.

What Else We Need to Learn

The goal of this project is to trace every line of ancestry to the arrival of its first immigrant to America. The basic information of each couple is considered complete when we know the dates of birth, marriage, and death for both spouses. their parents' names (or whether they were the immigrant), and the child or children in our ancestry line.

The research on this family is complete. Robert Girdler's will is a document to search for.