Abigail (Downing) Montague (1616 - 1694)

Born 5 Oct 1616 in St. Lawrence, Ipswich, Suffolk, England

Ancestors

Descendants

Died 8 Nov 1694 at age 78 in Hadley, Hampshire, Massachusetts Bay

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Biography

See notes under her husband.

It seems that Abigail's precise baptism date has been found in the records of St. Lawrence Church in Ipswich. It confirms her parents being Rev. Joseph Downing and his wife Mary Rose.

Abigail Downing was the daughter of Rev d Dr. Downing, a clergyman of Norwich, Norfolk County. England, she is said to have come to America with William Montague, the elder brother of Richard Montague of Hadley. William afterwards returned to England. There does not seem to be any room for doubt, that on her arrival in America she went at once to the home of her relative, Emanuel Downing in Salem. The Annals of Salem," by Rev. .1. B. Felt, states that she was at one time a member of the Salem church. And it was here, probably, that Richard Montague found her, and married her. It seems probable that the families in England were acquainted, and that William Montague brought her to these shores by previous arrangement.

In the Mass. Hist. Coll., 4th Series, Vol. 6, p. 79, appears a letter written by T Emanuel Downing from Saiem, Jan. 15, 1652, to his cousin John Winthrop at Pequoit,* a portion of which reads as follows : " Deare Sir. I wrote this winter to you with letters enclosed to my cousin Mountagew ; I directed them to Amos Richardson to be sent unto you. George hath put Joshua into a Customes place in Scotland. I have had no letter from Joshua, nor any one from George, in answer to anything I wrote him. He wrote a short loving letter to my wife, and excuseth his not sending anything to her in regard of the troubles at sea. Your loving Uncle, Em. Downing."

The Cousin Mountagew, referred to in this letter, could have been no other than Mrs. Abigail Montague, who was at that date living in Wethersfield, Conn.

It has been impossible to discover who the Joshua referred to was. No reasonable doubt, however, exists that her father was a near relative of Emanuel Downing of Salem, and that she belonged to the same line of descent as the Norfolk and Essex Downings, and that she. was a relative, near or remote, Of Calibute Downing, as it has been shown that Emanuel Downing also was.

Abagail was born in 1614. Abagail Downing ... ^[1]

Sources

1. ↑ Entered by Deneze Lujanen, Sunday, July 21, 2013.

• History & Genealogy of the Montague Family of America, by George & William Montague, 1886.

• MinerDescent.com (a blog listing much information & some pictures dealing with Richard Montague)

See Also:

• U.S. and International Marriage Records, 1560-1900 Author: Yates Publishing Publication: Ancestry.com Operations Inc S-1277116197 This is an aggregated source and includes information from family group sheets (family trees). S-1290466045
• A Study of the Downing Family in England, with connections in Early New England The American Genealogist. New Haven, CT: D. L. Jacobus, 1937-. (Online database. AmericanAncestors.org. New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2009 - .), Jul 1999, Vol 74, No 3, page 161 $Subscription states:
  • Family lore is included in the Montague Genealogy
  • Emanual Downing wrote to John Winthrop Jr 1652 and said, in part, "I wrote this winter to you with letters therin inclosed to my Cosen Mountagew"
  • If Emanuel Downing used 'cousin' to mean 'niece / nephew', his statement supports the conclusion that his 'niece' married a Montague, but this is no proof that her maiden name was Downing. Perhaps she was athe daughter of one of his sisters.

• Ancestry Profile This information comes from one or more individual Ancestry Family Tree files.

Acknowledgments

• Thank you to Deneze Lujanen for creating Downing-692 on 21 Jul 13.

• WikiTree profile Downing-451 created through the import of phillip Foltz family tree(3).ged on Jan 13, 2013 by Curtis Foltz Boyd Phillip Curtis Foltz. See the Changes page for the details of edits by Curtis Foltz Boyd and others.