William Pew Jr. (1775 - 1848)

Born 3 Jun 1775 in Gloucester, Essex, Massachusetts Bay

Ancestors

Husband of Alice (Parsons) Pew — married 30 Jun 1798 (to 22 Jan 1814) in Gloucester, Essex, Massachusetts, United States

Husband of Lois (Unknown) Pew — married 26 Mar 1815 in Gloucester, Essex, Massachusetts, United States

Descendants

Died 6 Nov 1848 at age 73 in Gloucester, Essex, Massachusetts, United States

Problems/Questions Profile manager: Christopher Childs [send private message]

Biography

William Pew was born at Gloucester, Massachusetts, in early June of 1775, a son of William Pew and Abigail (Grover) Pew; a mariner, he married first, Alice Parsons at Gloucester, their intentions filed the last day of June, 1798. They had six children. ^[1] Following her death in 1814, he married, second, "Mrs. Lois Kinsey" (aka "Kusey" in a different marriage record, and "Lois McKensie" in the death record of a son; this may have been her maiden name), at Gloucester, in late March of 1815; they are reported to have had eleven children ^[1] Widowed again -- at some unrecorded point after the birth of the couple's last child, son William, in 1831 -- he married, third, "Mrs. Mary Aikins" -- it is again unclear whether this is a maiden, or previous-marriage, surname -- in early January of 1838.

Capt. William Pew died intestate, at Gloucester, in early November of 1848; he was survived by third wife Mary. The administration and distribution of his estate took more than a year.^[2]

Research Notes

The image of son John Pew's handwritten death record^[3] shows an apparent misidentification of his mother-in-law, née Sarah Knutsford, as his mother; his actual parents (per his birth record) are, as indicated above, William (Jun.) and Alice (Parsons) Pew -- married in 1798^[4] -- and no record has been found of a second marriage of William to a "Sarah". Alice (Parsons) Pew lived until 1814^[5]: a margin note is shown in the image of the original record of the family of "William Pew, Jun.", stating, "Alice Pew first Wife of Wm. Pew Jun. died Jany. 22. 1814" -- underscoring that William's marriage to wife Lois, shown with their offspring in the body of the record, was his second. This second marriage and thereafter, a third, are in fact recorded at Gloucester... the multiple unions being unsurprising, since William survived Alice by more than 30 years and lived to age 73 in 1848; the record of his death includes the "m." that indicates he was (again, and still) married.^[6] We do not have a death record for (the former) "Mrs. Lois Kinsey" the second wife, whom William Pew married in 1815, the year after Alice's death^[7], but she obviously lived until at least 9 October 1831, the birthdate of her last recorded child, William. The senior William married (at least) once again, in 1838, his third wife being "Mrs. Mary Aikins"^[8]... whose origins are also elusive.

Was William, at any time -- in, for one possibility, a gap between the death of Lois (after 1831) and his marriage to Mary Aikins in 1838 -- married to a woman of the maiden name "Sarah Knutsford"... which was the exact maiden name of the mother of his daughter-in-law Sarah Knutsford (Tarr) Pew? It does not appear that that Sarah was a widow at any time prior to William Pew's death in 1848 -- her husband William Tarr did not die until 1864, at Gloucester^[9] -- and thus for her to have married William Pew, a divorce from William Tarr would have been required. No record, or report, of such a divorce has to date (Nov. 2021) been located.

Tracing the prior history of William Pew's second wife -- mother of most of his children^[10] -- has proved challenging. Was she a widow? -- she is referred to in the marriage record as "Mrs. Lois Kinsey" (or, in the couple's intentions, "Kusey"). In the death record of their son Joseph Marshall Pew, however, she is reported as having the maiden name of "Lois (McKensie)", born at Gloucester.^[11] No online-accessible record of a marriage of either a "Kinsey" or a "McKensie" groom, under any likely variation of spelling, is found at Gloucester -- or elsewhere in Essex County -- to any Lois, Louise, or Louisa; thus McKensie, in some form, may well have been her birth surname. A reasoned guess is that she might have been kin to Philip McKenzie (or McKenzey), whose marriage to Susanna Hobbs was recorded at nearby Ipswich in 1777^[12] (that couple had recorded children at Ipswich and Topsfield; interestingly, one was a daughter recorded as Catherine, born in July of 1779 -- the estimated year of Lois's birth -- of whom there seems no further record).^[13])

The "Marshall" middle name given to two of William and Lois's children invites speculation that Lois might have been, or been kin to, the Lois Marshall born at Marblehead (or Danvers?) on 12 July 1787^[14][15]; that Lois however married, as his second wife, John Shed, at Salem on 1 July 1851.^[16]

William's third, and last, spouse, "Mrs. Mary Aikins," is no easier to trace than her immediate predecessor. No birth is recorded under that name at Gloucester, and to date no reasonable candidate has been identified elsewhere in Essex County.

Note that the record of the death of "PEW... –––––, w. William Pew, July 9, 1827. CR3" (see https://ma-vitalrecords.org/MA/Essex/Gloucester/aDeathsP.shtml) presumably denotes the passing of Abigail (Grover) Pew, wife of William Pew, Sr., and mother of the William of this profile.

Sources

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1} (Cutter) Page 208 (II)
2. ↑ Probate record (NEHGS): Case no. 50051, Volume Essex Cases 50000-51999, p. 50051:1; Essex County, MA: Probate File Papers, 1638-1881.Online database. AmericanAncestors.org. New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2014. (From records supplied by the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court Archives.); https://www.americanancestors.org/DB515/i/14214/50051-co1/259896960 (by subscription)
3. ↑ NEHGS; image of original handwritten record, 7 March 1890 [Note: shows a Sarah (Knutsford) Pew as mother -- rather than actual mother Alice (Parsons) Pew, clearly shown in birth record]: "Pew, John... | [aged] 82 [yrs. | 6 [mos. ] | 12 [days] |... [parents] William & Sarah Knutsford" -- Massachusetts VRs (Gloucester), Vol. 409, p. 265; Massachusetts: Vital Records, 1841-1910. (From original records held by the Massachusetts Archives. Online database: AmericanAncestors.org, New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2004.); https://www.americanancestors.org/DB191/i/10223/265/23047165 (by subscription)
4. ↑ "Massachusetts Marriages, 1695-1910, 1921-1924", database, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:FCHC-GX5 : 28 July 2021), William Pew, 1798.
5. ↑ "Massachusetts, Town Clerk, Vital and Town Records, 1626-2001," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QG1V-B8QT : 29 November 2018), Wm Pew in entry for Alice Pew, 22 Jan 1814; citing Death, Gloucester, Essex, Massachusetts, United States, Massachusetts Secretary of the Commonwealth, Boston; FHL microfilm 007011154.
6. ↑ "PEW... William, m., mariner, s. William and Abigail, heart complaint, Nov. 6, 1848, a. 73 y. 5 m. 3 d." -- Massachusetts Vital Records Project, John Slaughter, Owner/Administrator; https://ma-vitalrecords.org/MA/Essex/Gloucester/aDeathsP.shtml
7. ↑ "KINSEY Lois, Mrs. [Kusey. CR5] and William Pew, jr., Mar. 26, 1815.*" -- Massachusetts Vital Records Project, John Slaughter, Owner/Administrator; https://ma-vitalrecords.org/MA/Essex/Gloucester/aMarriagesK.shtml
8. ↑ "PEW... William, jr., and Mrs. Mary Aikins, Jan. 4, 1838 [Jan. 7. CR7]* -- Massachusetts Vital Records Project, John Slaughter, Owner/Administrator; https://ma-vitalrecords.org/MA/Essex/Gloucester/aMarriagesP.shtml
9. ↑ NEHGR Vol. 153 (April 1999), "The John Wallis Family of Cape Ann, Massachusetts", by John Bradley Arthaud, p. 190; The New England Historical and Genealogical Register. Boston, MA: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 1847-. (Online database: AmericanAncestors.org, New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2001-2018.); https://www.americanancestors.org/DB202/i/11657/190/23501290 (by subscription)
10. ↑ "Massachusetts, Town Clerk, Vital and Town Records, 1626-2001," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QG1V-B8QT : 29 November 2018), Wm Pew in entry for Alice Pew, 22 Jan 1814; citing Death, Gloucester, Essex, Massachusetts, United States, Massachusetts Secretary of the Commonwealth, Boston; FHL microfilm 007011154. See image of original record at https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QS7-9979-9H7C?i=211&cc=2061550
11. ↑ "Massachusetts Deaths, 1841-1915, 1921-1924," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:N7V3-1FK : 2 March 2021), Lois Mc Kensie in entry for Joseph M. Pew, 19 Jul 1868; citing Gloucester, Massachusetts, v 211 p 179, State Archives, Boston; FHL microfilm 960,192.
12. ↑ "McKENZIE Phillip, and Susanna Hobbs, Nov. 13, 1777. CR3" -- Massachusetts Vital Records Project, John Slaughter, Owner/Administrator; https://ma-vitalrecords.org/MA/Essex/Ipswich/aMarriagesM.shtml
13. ↑ Massachusetts Vital Records Project, as above; https://ma-vitalrecords.org/MA/Essex/Ipswich/aBirthsM.shtml
14. ↑ "Massachusetts Births and Christenings, 1639-1915", database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:VQ69-CHG : 15 January 2020), Lois Mrs. Marshall, 1787.9
15. ↑ "MARSHALL... Lois, Mrs., at Marblehead, July 12, 1787." -- Massachusetts Vital Records Project, John Slaughter, Owner/Administrator; https://ma-vitalrecords.org/MA/Essex/Danvers/aBirthsM.shtml
16. ↑ "Massachusetts, Town Clerk, Vital and Town Records, 1626-2001," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QS7-8979-7795?cc=2061550&wc=Q4D4-NQ3%3A353349401%2C353660301%2C1006030901 : 13 July 2016), Essex > Danvers > Births, marriages, deaths 1752-1857 vol 5 > image 114 of 272; citing Massachusetts Secretary of the Commonwealth, Boston.

• Cutter, William Richard. Genealogical and Personal Memoirs Relating to the Families of Boston and Eastern Massachusetts (Lewis Hist. Pub. Co., Boston, 1910) Vol.1 Page 208 (II)

• Marriage (1) to Alice Parsons, 30 June 1798 (intentions, at Gloucester): "Massachusetts Marriages, 1695-1910, 1921-1924", database, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:FCHC-GX5 : 28 July 2021), William Pew, 1798. Alt. transcript: "William, and Alice Parsons, int. June 30, 1798." -- Massachusetts Vital Records Project, John Slaughter, Owner/Administrator; https://ma-vitalrecords.org/MA/Essex/Gloucester/aMarriagesP.shtml

• Marriage (2): "PEW... William, jr., and Mrs. Lois Kinsey [Kusey CR5] Mar. 26, 1815.*" -- Massachusetts Vital Records Project, John Slaughter, Owner/Administrator; https://ma-vitalrecords.org/MA/Essex/Gloucester/aMarriagesP.shtml

• Marriage (3): "PEW... William, jr., and Mrs. Mary Aikins, Jan. 4, 1838 [Jan. 7. CR7]*" -- Massachusetts Vital Records Project, John Slaughter, Owner/Administrator; https://ma-vitalrecords.org/MA/Essex/Gloucester/aMarriagesP.shtml

• Death: "PEW... William, m., mariner, s. William and Abigail, heart complaint, Nov. 6, 1848, a. 73 y. 5 m. 3 d." -- Massachusetts Vital Records Project, John Slaughter, Owner/Administrator; https://ma-vitalrecords.org/MA/Essex/Gloucester/aDeathsP.shtml

• Death: "Massachusetts State Vital Records, 1841-1920", database with images, citing FHL microfilm: 959811; Record number: 84, FamilySearch Record: N7G9-KZ5 (accessed 1 April 2023) FamilySearch Image: S3HT-DCXQ-S8K Image number 210.
• FamilySearch Person: LZXT-2YP