When I first saw the documents about Mary Bowers Swasey's life, I thought, there's got to be a mistake. She couldn't have lived that long, 1719 to after 1823!
But the last document says she was living with a large family, and was the widow of Joseph Swasey (1717-1799). He had lived a nice long life himself.
Another record says Mary was born between 1720 and 1729, according to The American Genealogical-Biographical Index (AGBI) which has lots of records especially of the ancestry in the Northeast of the American colonies.
However, my family tree had had her birthdate in 1719, because that was the year her mother Ann Sylvester Bowers turned 50 years old. So the later dates for Mary's birth are pretty much unfeasible!
Can her mother Ann Sylvester Bowers have been born a bit later herself? If Mary had been born as late as 1723, her mother could have been pretty unlikely to have been age 54. Not in that day and age at least. So how about Ann. Is her birth date written in stone, as they say?
The AGBI says Ann could have been born between 1670-79. My tree gives an exact date for Ann as 4 April 1669 (with AGBI as source of 70-79, and this new site, Geaneanet Community Trees Index saying 1677. Nothing to substantiate any of these dates that I could find.
But Ann's mother Grissell Wase Brinley Sylvester (16 Jan 1635-13 June 1698) was married in 1652, there's documentation of that. So she had only been 17, and then other children were born into that family from 1653-1674, with Ann tucked into the series of births of 14 in the middle! So that's the facts as much as we have them today.
Mary Bowers Swasey must have been born at latest 1720, unless another mother appears in the lineage!
. And lived until that 1823 Boston City Directory said:
| Mary Swasey | |
| Gender | Female |
|---|---|
| Residence Year | 1823 |
| Street Address | Gh |
| Residence Place | Boston, Massachusetts, USA |
| Occupation | Boarding |
| Spouse | Joseph Swasey |
| Publication Title | Boston, Massachusetts, City Directory, 1823 |
| Name | Mary Swasey |
|---|---|
| Enumeration Date | 7 Aug 1820 |
| Home in 1820 (City, County, State) | Boston Ward 9, Suffolk, Massachusetts, USA |
| Free White Persons - Males - 10 thru 15 | 2 |
| Free White Persons - Males - 26 thru 44 | 9 |
| Free White Persons - Females - 10 thru 15 | 1 |
| Free White Persons - Females - 26 thru 44 | 2 |
| Free Colored Persons - Males - 26 thru 44 | 1 |
| Free Colored Persons - Females - 26 thru 44 | 1 |
| Foreigners not Naturalized | 1 |
| Number of Persons - Engaged in Commerce | 7 |
| Free White Persons - Under 16 | 3 |
| Free White Persons - Over 25 | 11 |
| Total Free White Persons | 14 |
| Total Free Colored Persons | 2 |
Joseph Swasey, shipwright, Bapt. in Boston, Mass. Aug. 12, 1714; died in Somerset, Suffolk County, Mass; bef. 1801; married,daughter of Jonathan & Ann Sylvester Bowers, of Swansea, Mass. She was of Spanish descent. Feb. 20, 1790, Shewamit (or Somerset) was set off from Swansea & formed a separate town. Joseph, removed with his family to Salem, where he lived until 1749. He followed there the trade of hatter. In that year he bought Swansea of John Palmer, 10 acres of land on Taunton River for which he paid ~1300 O.T.
He put up a set of buildings, including a hat shop, built a wharf & engaged in shipbuilding, floating his craft down to Fall River. The dwelling house occupied by the family for 3 generations was taken down several years ago. The old cellar & the broad stone step still remain to mark the site. The "Swasey burying ground" occupied about an acre of the original lot, upon which are many tombstones that mark the resting place of his descendants.
In 1758-9, he was a private in his Majesty's service from the Province of Massachusetts, in Capt. Stephen Whipple's Co; Col. Jonathan Bagley's Regt; for the reduction of Canada. In 1801, his estate was divided among his heirs which included the widow, sons Jerathmel & Joseph heirs of his son Samuel, & daughter Hannah.
SOURCE: Joseph Swasey, history.1714-1801, taken from the Swasey Genealogy. There wasn't any Spanish blood that I could find.
We have the probate records for Joseph Swasey Sr. in 1799, so we know he had to have died prior to that date. His estate inventory was done by sons Joseph and Jerathmel. Son Joseph married Suzanne Wise, so no confusion of Mary Swasey there. But there could have been a cousin Joseph, or second cousin, with wife Mary. I'll need to do some digging on that...
Mary Bowers Swasey had come from a family of 11 children. And her husband Joseph Swasey was one of 7 children. Of course I don't know how many lived to adulthood.
But this is my perhaps longest lived ancestor...if these records are to be believed. (Of course tomorrow I may find that these Boston Swaseys were just cousins.)
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