Hannah (Unknown) Barnum (abt. 1640 - abt. 1683)

Wife of Thomas Barnum — married 1660 in Norwalk, Fairfield County, Connecticut Colony

Descendants

Died about 1683 at about age 43 in Norwalk, Fairfield County, Connecticut Colony

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Biography

Name

The Barnum Family, 1350-1907 calls her Hannah Hurd (while providing no source for that surname) and also calls her the mother of only four of Thomas' children. All other available sources give her surname as unknown and state that she was the mother of all ten of the children of Thomas. Having died in 1683, she would only be the mother of those born before that date. Some well-documented research by Ann Tappero indicates that her given name probably was Hannah, but that Hurd almost certainly was not her surname. [see: http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~tapperofamily/barnum2.htm#hannah for details]. Reference is made there to a Hannah Hurd born in Boston in 1640, the same year that Hannah Unknown was born in Norwalk, Connecticut. Those two persons are not related.

It is believed that the use of the name Hannah Hurd may have resulted from confusion with the previous surname of the second wife of Thomas Barnum, Sarah Thompson, who was the widow of John Hurd when she and Thomas married.

A family group record in the LDS archives, submitted in about 1942, mistakenly shows the source for Hannah Hurd as The Families of Old Fairfield by Donald Lines Jacobus. When that source is viewed, using the page number given, reference is found to Thomas Barnum and his second wife, Sarah Thompson, but the name of his first wife is not mentioned.

Birth

The birth date given for Hannah is 20 Sep 1640, Norwalk, Fairfield, Connecticut Colony^[1][2]. {better citations needed}

Death

1683 Norwalk, Fairfield, Connecticut Colony {citation needed}

Marriage and Children

Hannah married Thomas Barnum by 1663,^[3] the year their first known child was born.

The Ancient Historical Records of Norwalk, Connecticut lists the following four children of Thomas Barnum:^[4]

1. "Thomas Barnam, the sonne of Thos. Barnam, born the 9th of July, 1663."
2. "John Barnam, the sonne of Thomas Barnam, borne the 24th of ffebruary, 1677."
3. "Hannah Barnam, the daughter of Thos. Barnam, borne the 4th of October, Anno 1680."
4. "Ebbinezer, the daughter of Thos. Barnam, borne the 29th of May, 1682." ("daughter" is an error as Ebenezer "the fifth son" was found on Thomas' probate records)

According to Thomas' probate records he had 10 children.^[5] Why they are not all listed in the Hall source is unknown. In the probate records Ebenezer is the fourth son listed, but it labels him as "the fifth son" and then the next son that is mentioned, John, it also says he is "the ffifth son." Regardless, between the Hall list and the probate record eight children are accounted for until 1682. That leaves two daughters unaccounted for, and who were born after 1682. If Hannah died in 1683, then it is most likely that the two youngest daughters of the probate, Abigail and Sarah, were born to Thomas' second wife, Sarah.

Sources

1. ↑ Backus, Nancy E. Title: Information provided by Nancy E. Backus, 172 Post Avenue, Rochester, NY 14619-1157; 1996
2. ↑ Bradley, Hal. Information provided by Hal Bradley
3. ↑ Clarence Almon Torrey, New England Marriages Prior to 1700 (Baltimore: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 1985), image 60 of 1022, p. 45 by subscription at Ancestry.com.
4. ↑ Edwin Hall The Ancient Historical Records of Norwalk, Connecticut (Norwalk: James Mallory & Co., 1847); [images 207-08 of 350, pp. 191-92 at HathiTrust.org.
5. ↑ Thomas Barnum Probate

See also:

• Barnum, Eben Lewis and Fr. Francis Barnum, SJ, Genealogical Record of the Barnum Family, Presenting a Conspectus of the Male Descendants of Thomas Barnum 1625-1695 (Gardner, MA: Meals Printing Co., 1912)
• Barnum / Barnham: Thomas Barnum His Ancestors and Descendants; Vol.1:2, May 1998, Ann Manning Tappero online [1], accessed 05/15/1998
• Cutter, William Richard New England Families, Genealogical and Memorial, (Clearfield Company, Baltimore, Maryland, 1913) Vol. 3, Page 1443