Margaret Baret Notes

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THE NEW ENGLAND ANCESTRY of DANA CONVERSE BACKUS
Compiled and Edited by MARY E. N. BACKUS Mary E N Backus Printed for private
distribution Only 150 copies of this book have been printed of which this is No. 104
NEWCOMB & GAUSS CO., PRINTERS
SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS
1949

HUNTINGTON

Church records of Roxbury, Massachusetts contain, in the handwriting of the Rev. John Eliot, an entry stating that one of the members of the church, Margaret Huntington, a widow, had come in the year 1633, that her husband died by the way, of smallpox, and that she brought children with her. The number of the children is not given. Family tradition holds that the father's name was Simon. The widow married Thomas Stoughton, then of Windsor, Connecticut where he was prominent in the early history of the settlement, and where he died March 25, 1661. Her death is not on record.

In an old volume of Land and Miscellaneous Records, 1640-1656, (now on file in the State Library, Hartford) was found a long letter written from Norwich, England, dated the 20th of April 1650, signed Your loving uncle Peter Baret, which had been sent to Cozen Christopher Huntington in answer to one from him dated at Seabrook (Saybrook) 20th of September 1649. The letter establishes the maiden name of Margaret Huntington as Baret, the names of her children as Christopher, Simon, Thomas and Ann (though except here there is no record whatever of Ann) and as Peter Baret speaks of my brother Stawton as well as of my sister it is confirmation of her second marriage. As William Huntington of Salisbury is not named in the letter, it has been surmised (there seems to be no proof) that he was Margaret's step-son, if he were one of the children who came with her.