Friday, October 2, 2020

52 Ancestors - Week 350: #561 Thanks (Shepard) Dill (1650-1733) of Massachusetts

Thanks Shepard (1650-1733) is number 561 on my Ahnentafel List, my 7th great-grandmother, who married #560 Peter Dill (1645-1692) in 1669 in Chelmsford, Middlesex County, Massachusetts.

I am descended through:

*  their son #280 Thomas Dill (1682-1718) who married #281 Mary Pierce (1682-1713) in 1706.
*  their son #140 Thomas Dill (1708-1761) who married #141 Mehitable Brown (1714-1758) in 1733.
*  their son #70 Thomas Dill (1755-1839) who married #71Hannah Horton (1761-1797) in 1782.
*  their daughter  #35 Elizabeth Horton Dill (1791-1869) who married  #34 Alpheus Smith (1802-1840)  in 1826.
*  their daughter, #17 Lucretia Townsend Smith (1828-1884) who married #16 Isaac Seaver (1823-1901) in 1851.
*  their son #8 Frank Walton Seaver (1852-1922) who married #9 Hattie Louisa Hildreth (1857-1920) in 1874.
*  their son #4 Frederick Walton Seaver (1876-1942) who married #5 Alma Bessie Richmond (1882-1962) in 1900.
*  their son #2 Frederick Walton Seaver (1911-1983) who married #3 Betty Virginia Carringer (1919-2002)  in 1942.
*  their son #1 Randall Jeffrey Seaver (1943-living)

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1)  PERSON (with source citations as indicated in brackets):
 
 
*  Name:                              Thanks Shepard[1–4]
*  Alternate Name:              Thanks Dill[5-7] 

*  Sex:                                  Female
 
*  Father:                             Ralph Shepard (1603-1693)
 *  Mother:                          Thankslord Perkins (1612-1675)    
 
2)  INDIVIDUAL EVENTS (with source citations as indicated in brackets):
   
*  Birth:                               10 February 1650/1, Malden, Middlesex, Massachusetts, United States[1-2,5]    
*  Distribution:                   3 May 1693 (age 42), administration of husband's estate; Littleton, Middlesex, Massachusetts, United States[6]    

*  Death:                            1733 (about age 82), Littleton, Middlesex, Massachusetts, United States[7]

3)  SHARED EVENTS (with source citations as indicated in brackets):

*  Spouse 1:                       Peter Dill (1645-1692)
*  Marriage 1:                   13 December 1669 (age 18), Chelmsford, Middlesex, Massachusetts, United States[3–4,8]

*  Child 1:                        Peter Dill (1670-1695)
*  Child 2:                        Anna Dill (1673- )
*  Child 3:                        Thanks Dill (1676-1722)
*  Child 4:                        Samuel Dill (1678- )
*  Child 5:                        David Dill (1680- )
*  Child 6:                        Mary Dill (1681-1720)
*  Child 7:                        Thomas Dill (1681-1717)    
    
4)  NOTES (with source citations as indicated in brackets):  

Thanks Dill was born 10 February 1650/1 (10th day of the 12th month 1650) in Malden, Massachusetts, the daughter of Ralph and Thankslord (Perkins) Shepard[1-2,5].

She married Peter Dill on 13 October 1669 in the Chelmsford, Massachusetts, recorded in the town record book[3-5].  The marriage record says:
"Peter Dill and Thankes the Daughter of Ralph and Thankes
Shepard of Concord were Married the 13'th of the 10'th month
1669.  by Samuel Adams."
Peter and Thanks (Shepard) Dill had seven children, five of whom were recorded in the Concord or Littleton town record books:

*  Peter Dill (1670-1695), recorded in Concord.
*  Anna Dill (1673-????), recorded in Littleton.
*  Thanks Dill (1676-after 1722), recorded in Concord, married 1698 to Philip Reade (1671-1720).
*  Samuel Dill (1678-????).
*  David Dill (1680-????).
*  Mary Dill (a twin, 1682-1720), recorded in Concord, married 1697 Robert Robbins (1675-1749).
*  Thomas Dill (a twin, 1682-1718), recorded in Concord, married 1706 Mary Pierce (1682-1713).

Peter and Thanks (Shepard) Dill seem to have resided east of Ralph Shepard's property in Littleton, Massachusetts, in addition to Concord and Chelmsford, at some time. 

Her father, Peter Dill, died intestate on 13 August 1692 in Chelmsford, and his estate papers are in Middlesex County Probate Court Packet 6,280[6].  Administration on the estate was granted to the relict widow, Thanks Dill, and the eldest son, Peter Dill,  on 3 May 1693.  She was granted her widow's thirds of the real and personal estate.

Thanks (Shepard) Dill died in 1733 at age 82, per the Littleton town records, quoted in the History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts[7]:
 “The first pauper on record was the widow, Thanks Dill, concerning who there appears to have been a question between this town and Concord as to where she belonged.  The poor woman was carried back and forth from one town to the other and finally died in Littleton in 1733, whereupon the town expended nine shillings for rum for her funeral and a further sum for gloves used on the same occasion.  It was a common thing to carry paupers to other towns to get rid of them, and to warn out of town persons who were likely to become a charge against the town.”
There are no death or burial records for Thanks (Shepard) Dill, and no probate record in Middlesex County Probate Court records.
     
5)  SOURCES
1. Robert Charles Anderson, George E. Sanborn, Jr., Melinde Lutz Sanborn, The Great Migration,
Immigrants to New England, 1634-1635 (Boston Mass. : New England Historic Genealogical Society,
2000-2011), Volume VI, R-S, pages 262-269, Ralph Shepard sketch.
2. Deloraine Pendre Corey, Births, marriages and deaths in the town of Malden, Massachusetts,
1649-1850 (Cambridge, MA : University Press, 1903), Births, page 79, Thanks Shepard entry. 10 (12)
1650.
3. Massachusetts, Town and Vital Records, 1620-1988, indexed database and digital image,
Ancestry.com (https://www.ancestry.com, Chelmsford > "Town and Land Records, with Births,
Marriages, and Deaths," page 23 (image 33 of 230), Peter Dill and Thankes Shepard marriage entry,
13 December 1669.
4. Joseph Alfred Harwood and Samuel Smith, Records of Littleton, Massachusetts marriages, births
and deaths, from the earliest records in the town books begun in 1715 ( Littleton, Mass. : n.p., 1900),
page 414, Peter Dill and Thanks Shepard marriage entry, 1669.
5. Robert Charles Anderson, George E. Sanborn, Jr., Melinde Lutz Sanborn, The Great Migration,
Immigrants to New England, 1634-1635, Volume VI, R-S, page 266, Thanks Dill marriage, 1669.
6. "Middlesex County, Mass.: Probate Papers, 1648-1871," digital image, American Ancestors
(http://www.AmericanAncestors.org : accessed, 3 June 2020), Probate Packet 6,280 (8 images), Peter
Dill intestate estate, 1693.
7. Duane Hamilton Hurd (editor), History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts : with biographical
sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men (Philadelphia: J.W. Lewis & Co., 1890), Volume
2, page 874, Thanks Dill note.

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NOTE:  In 2014, Amy Johnson Crow suggested a weekly blog theme of "52 Ancestors" in her blog post  52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks on the No Story Too Small blog.  I have extended this theme in 2020 for a seventh year to 364 Ancestors in 364 Weeks.  The list of 52 Ancestors biographies from my great-grandparents to the 7th great-grandparents (in work) is in   https://www.geneamusings.com/p/ancestor-biographies.html.


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