How can Mary Welles be a widow and die before her first husband at the same time?

Question

According to the profiles listed (Baldwin-123, Welles-35, and Hawkins-81), 

Mary Welles died in 1647. 

Timothy Baldwin married Mary Welles in 1643.
Timothy Baldwin died in 1664/65.

Anthony Hawkins married Mary (Welles?) by 1644 (the year their first child was born). (Torry, Clarence A. New England Marriages Prior to 1700. Baltimore, MD, USA: Genealogical Publishing Co., 2004.)

Anthony Hawkins married Anne Welles Thompson about 1655.(Clemens, William Montgomery. American Marriage Records Before 1699. Pompton Lakes, NJ, USA: Biblio Co., 1926. AND Torry, Clarence A. New England Marriages Prior to 1700. Baltimore, MD, USA: Genealogical Publishing Co., 2004.)

Anthony dies in Feb 1674.

Clearly, Mary cannot have been been the widow of Timothy AND his deceased wife at the same time. I am not familiar with the sources of the Baldwin family. Assuming that Mary Welles was married to Timothy Baldwin, and Timothy died around 1664, then Mary Welles CANNOT have been married to Anthony Hawkins. His Mary must have been someone else.
Or it could have been the other way around.

In any case, these profiles need researched and corrected.

Answer 1

Hi Laura,

It seems that somewhere along the way, someone confused or incorrectly combined information about Thomas Welles dau. Mary (m. Timothy Baldwin) and her sister Anne (m 1 Thomas Thompson; m2 Anthony Howkins). 

Have added the two sources that follow to the profile of Mary Baldwin. 

*Robert Charles Anderson, Great Migration: Immigrants to New England, 1634-1635, Volume VII, T-Y (2011), 288-292 for "Thomas Welles"; digital images, AmericanAncestors.org (accessed 2014).

 

*Donald Lines Jacobus, An American Family: Botsford-Marble Ancestral Lines' (1933), 28-37, "Ancestry of Hannah Baldwin" for both "Baldwin Family" and "The Welles Connection"; digital images, Heritage Quest (accessed 2014 via a local library Internet portal).

 

Comments

Thanks Gene. That seems to clear up the Welles-Baldwin issue.
 

Another contributor (David) has Isabel Brown as Anthony's first wife. I sent this note to him asking for the source to add to my tree for this marriage, but I will repeat it here in case anyone on G2G has any further information. Thanks again for everyone's help!

"I have used (Torry, Clarence A. New England Marriages Prior to 1700.
Baltimore, MD, USA: Genealogical Publishing Co., 2004.) for referencing Anthony
Hawkins' marriages. It definitely lists Anne Welles as his second wife, but the
first wife is less straightforward.
   It says "1/wf ?Mary ___?/(?Isabel Brown error) (-1655); (b 1644); Windsor,
CT/Farmington, CT", which, according to the legend/key means 'uncertain about
first wife's name, but she died in 1655 and they were married before 1644 as
that was when their first child was born'.
   So in regards to Anthony's first wife, it seems equally unsure about whether
her name was Mary UNK or Isabel Brown. Do you have a source for Isabel? That
would be great! Can you send it to me please? I would love to get this little
mystery cleared up in my tree."

   


 

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Isabel Brown as the 1st wife of Anthony Hawkins/Howkins appears in Stiles Families of Ancient Windsor page 369 and NEHGR 5:228. The latter gives a marriage date of 16 May 1656 which was after the birth dates given for the children. It also notes Simsbury within parentheses after Anthony's name. The Torrey item suggests her name might be Mary (with a question mark). At any rate, her name remains a mystery.