Title: Introduction to Clarence Almon Torrey

1 Torrey s New England Marriages Prior to 1700 Title: Introduction to New England Marriages Prior to 1700 Author: Clarence Almon Torrey This e-book is brought to you by the New England Historic Genealogical Society, a non-profit national center for family and local history. Please visit our web site to learn more, and consider joining the Society as a member or making a donation to support the work we do. Copyright 2001, New England Historic Genealogical Society Torrey s New England Marriages Prior to 1700 Copyright 2001, New England Historic Genealogical Society Acknowledgements The New England Historic Genealogical Society would like to acknowledge the dozens of individuals who have worked on the Torrey Project over the years including: Jerome E. Anderson John Bradley Arthaud David Curtis Dearborn Robert J.

2 Dunkle Jane Fletcher Fiske John W. Fiske Marshall K. Kirk Dick Lynch Debra MacEachern Julie Helen Otto Alicia Crane Williams Electronic Publications Director, Michael J. Leclerc Creative Director, Carolyn Shepard Oakley D. Brenton Simons, Assistant Executive Director Errata As with any project this size, there will be errors. We have endeavored to provide the information to you as quickly as possible. We realize there may be errors and will work towards correcting them in the future. Look for a part of our website, to contain an area for updates and corrections to " Torrey ." The information contained herein is exactly as it was compiled by Mr. Torrey . We have made no attempt to correct his work. Consult the leading genealogical periodicals for articles that have been published over the last forty years which may add to the information he was able to find.

3 Torrey s New England Marriages Prior to 1700 Copyright 2001, New England Historic Genealogical Society Introduction by David Curtis Dearborn, NEHGS Reference Librarian Among the most frequently asked questions at the sixth-floor main reference desk at NEHGS are "Where's Torrey ?" and "Can you help me interpret these Torrey references?" Newcomers to genealogy, hearing these questions, might well wonder if the visitor is looking for a Revolutionary War ancestor who served on "the other side," but they would be mistaken. Among die-hard New England genealogists, " Torrey " refers to Clarence Almon Torrey 's New England Marriages Prior to 1700, a massive twelve-volume manuscript. We have a copy of it on the shelves behind the main reference desk and it is one of the most often used library resources.

4 " Torrey ," or Torrey 's Marriage Index, as it's often called, is a compilation of approximately 37,000 known or presumed marriages that occurred prior to 1700, arranged alphabetically by groom. The work is so huge and so comprehensive (it is estimated that 99% of all marriages are included), that it has become one of the principal resources for seventeenth-century New England genealogy. Indeed, the usage of " Torrey " to refer both to the creator and to the work itself places it within that exclusive genealogical lexicon of by-names that includes "Savage," "Pope," and "Filby." Many readers are familiar with, or even own, a copy of the printed version of Torrey . In 1985, Genealogical Publishing Company published the list of marriages, without the all-important references, in a single volume of over a thousand pages (two supplements, containing references to marriages discovered after Torrey 's time, have since been published).

5 When the book was prepared, it was decided that the references shouldn't be included because of the time that it would take to do a faithful transcription and the cost involved, and also because the resulting text would be too massive to market at a cost considered acceptable by the public. Nonetheless, despite the drawback of not including the references, Torrey 's New England Marriages Prior to 1700, with over 7000 sales, has proven to be one of the most popular genealogical books of the past fifteen years. For each couple, we are provided with the following information: name of groom, with years of birth and death (if known), name of bride, followed by her dates, date of marriage, place of marriage, and/or place(s) of principal residence. To understand fully how the information is presented, let us examine each element separately: The groom's name is given by surname and first name.

6 In almost all instances, both names are known. Rarely, the groom's given name is unknown, as in the case Torrey s New England Marriages Prior to 1700 Copyright 2001, New England Historic Genealogical Society of____ MAVERICK, who married by 3 Jan. 1681, Abigail VIALL, daughter of John Viall of Swansea. Those with unknown given names are placed at the end of that surname section. Dates of birth and death for both groom and bride are placed in parentheses, : (1639-1720). The date to the left of a dash is the birth date, and the date to the right is the death date. For example, when a date is rendered as (?1619-), the person was perhaps born in 1619, whereas (-1713) indicates that the person died in 1713, and (-1686+) indicates that the person was living in 1686, and died at an unknown later date.

7 The bride's name may be presented in a number of ways, and it is very important to understand Torrey 's conventions regarding this matter. When the bride's full name is known, without brackets or punctuation preceding or following her surname, the entry is almost always seen with an actual marriage record, complete with the date and place of the marriage. Example: "Stephen TOBY (1665-) & Hannah NELSON; 29 Nov. 1688; Kittery, ME." When the bride's surname is within brackets, Torrey had found a reliable source that identified the bride's maiden surname with a good deal of confidence. These sources are often based on indirect evidence such as a deed or a will. In such cases, the exact marriage date is almost never known, and Torrey will often give an approximation. Example: "John GARDNER & Susanna [GREEN]; b 1681 [the "b" meaning "by"]; " When the bride's surname is in brackets and preceded or followed by a question mark, Torrey was less than certain of the bride's identity, or had reason to doubt the credibility of the source.

8 Example: "Benjamin BARNES & Abigail [?LINSLEY]; b 1700; Branford, CT." When the bride's given name is followed by an underscore, her first name is known from some record associated with her husband (such as a court record or children's birth records), but her surname is unknown. Example: "Emanuel WHITE & Katherine ____; b 1636; Watertown." Finally, when the bride's name is given as two underscores, Torrey had found evidence that the man had a wife, but nothing about her identity is known. Example: "Henry FELTON & _____ ; b 1699; Salem." When the full marriage date is given, the record itself almost always exists, and is usually found in the records of the first town of residence following the date. For example, "Thomas HUNTINGTON (1664-1732) & Elizabeth BACKUS (ca 1670-1728); 10 Feb. 1686, 1686/7; Norwich, CT/Windham, CT," indicates that the marriage occurred in Norwich, Conn, on 10 Feb.

9 1686 ( : 10 Feb. 1686/7) and that the couple later lived in Windham, Conn. A "b" again signifies "by." Although evidence for the "by" date might be the birth Torrey s New England Marriages Prior to 1700 Copyright 2001, New England Historic Genealogical Society record of the couple's first child, the "b" does not stand for birth; evidence might show the couple as husband and wife on any public record. Example: "John ANDREWS & Mary [PECK] (1662-1752); b 1682; Hartford." In other cases, the year may be preceded by "abt" [about] or "ca" [circa] when the evidence for the date is less precise. In some instances, a man or woman might have had more than one spouse in his or her lifetime, and Torrey presented such cases in a stylized but consistent manner. A rather extreme example: "Thomas COLEMAN (-1682) & Margaret/ Margery (FOWLER) (OSGOOD) [ROWELL], w Christopher, w Thomas, m/4 Thomas OSBORN 1682; b 1670; Salisbury/Nantucket.

10 " In this example, parentheses were used to show both the woman's maiden name (Fowler) and the surname of her first husband (Osgood). This entry should be interpreted as follows: Thomas Coleman of Salisbury and Nantucket, who died in 1682, married (probably in Salisbury) by 1670, Margaret or Margery Rowell (of whose name Torrey was certain despite the lack of a marriage record). Margaret or Margery's maiden name was Fowler, and she married firstly, Christopher Osgood; secondly, Thomas Rowell, and fourthly, in 1682, Thomas Osborn. Occasionally a wife's name will be followed by "dau," followed by a man's name, as in "dau John." In the entry, "John JENNER (-1679) & Alice [PIGG], dau Robert; b 1648; Stratford, CT/Brookhaven, LI," we learn that Alice Pigg was the daughter of Robert Pigg. A bride's name followed by "w Obadiah" indicates that the woman was the widow of Obadiah.