John Girdler - Margaret Greenfield Family Group

What We Know About This Family

An Overview of Their Lives

A few available records exist for John and Margaret Girdler, both of whom were the children and grandchildren of some of the earliest arrivals in this area of Massachusetts. John was described as a fisherman or a mariner in several deeds where he was recorded as a grantor or grantee in Marblehead. His mother, Deborah, married our direct ancestor Ambrose Gale after her husband Francis Girdler, died. Margaret was the daughter of Hannah Devereux and the first of her three husbands, Peter Greenfield.

Both John and Margaret were married previously to being married to each other. Margaret married first Elias Henley, Jr. of Salem, a mariner, and the son of Elias, Sr. and his wife Sarah Thompson. The father Elias Henley (also spelled Hendley) arrived in Boston in 1637. Margaret and Elias had two sons Elias and Benjamin, two daughters Sarah and Hannah, and two other children who were still living when his estate was probated in 1716 (he died in approximately 1712). A record exists of the couple being summoned to court as witchcraft witnesses in 1692, but he "being at sea," they did not appear.

John married first Mary Ingalls in 1707, and no records can be found of any children born to this particular couple. Mary was the daughter of Eleazar Ingalls and his wife Mary Hendley, who was the daughter of Elias and Sarah Thompson Hendley. So John's first wife was the daughter of Margaret's in-laws, the Hendleys (and her first husband's niece). Benjamin Dennis, son of James and Sarah Pitman Dennis, married a Mary Girdler who could have been born in the three years that John Girdler was married to Mary Ingalls before she died. This is simply a possibility for which no documentation exists.

Widow Margaret Greenfield Henley married John Girdler on 16 Oct 1713 in Marblehead. They had two children, Hannah born about 1720 and Robert, our ancestor, born about 1724. The birth record of a son to John and Rebecca Girdler in 1733 suggests that John Girdler may have taken a third wife.

Daniel Southwick of Salem named his daughter "Hannah Girdler" in his will in 1733. Hannah had married first in Salem Ebenezer Shaw. I can find no marriage record of her Girdler marriage, but several users have named John as her husband. Several users also place her as the mother of John born in 1733, so it's possible that the birth record erroneously posted "Rebeckah: as his mother instead of Hannah,

About the Children

• Margaret's son Elijah Henley, born about 1687, married in December 1710 Hannah Stadden. They had nine children including three who died young enough that they each had namesake siblings.


• Margaret's second son, Benjamin, born about 1701, was a Selectman in Marblehead for many sessions between the years 1733 and 1751. He was also a deacon in the First Church of Marblehead from 1749 until his death.


• John and Margaret's daughter Hannah married twice, and had one known child with her first husband, Daniel Lisbrill or Lesbrill. No records of births exist for her with her second husband Joseph Dolliber.


• John and Margaret's second child together, Robert, our direct ancestor, married Mary Pedrick, daughter of Richard and Sarah Martin Pedrick, and they had a total of seven children. Sarah Martin was the daughter of Thomas Martin and Eleanor Knott, who was Margaret Greenfield's half sister. Robert and Mary have their own family group page.


• John Jr. married Rebecca Dennis, daughter of Samuel Dennis and granddaughter of our direct ancestors James and Sarah Pitman Dennis.

 

Proof of Relationship

Genealogical publishings are our best proof of relationship for John's first two marriages. Vital statistics and the will of Daniel Southwick offer hints as to possible subsequent marriages.

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 basically complete. Further research may one day confirm the existence of a third and/or fourth marrage for John Girdler.