Week 40 (Oct. 1-7): Longevity

 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

In the 1820 Census, she is listed:

Record details

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

The only problem with that is she doesn't list herself as a female over 100 years old. She is among the 26-44 year old females.

So that gives me some doubt that this is our Mary Bowers Swasey. Though she had been married to Joseph Swasey Sr. after all.

How was their life before possibly turning up in Boston and living with all those other people?

Her husband Joseph Swasey Sr. is remembered thus:

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.

This is known as the Joseph Swasey House, Somerset Mass, built 1749 (now taken down.)

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...

Joseph Swasey Sr. married Mary Bowers on Aug. 30, 1744. They lived and raised their family in Somerset MA. Their sons Jerathmel and Joseph fought in the Revolutionary war. They had three other sons, who I haven't looked into yet, and one daughter Hannah. As far as I know they only had these 6 children.

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.)

Mary Bowers Swasey

She was the oldest living ancestor that I know of.

enlargement of directory

No wonder her tree had her death as "unknown" for the longest time.  And so did all the other trees over at Ancestry.

The widow Mary Swasey, Mrs. Joseph Swasey, that is, lived on High St. in a boarding house in Boston MA in 1823.

High St. is now covered by tall buildings in downtown Boston, no more boarding houses.
Did Mary really live to 104?

She was born in 1719, in Somerset, MA, married Joseph Swasey in 1744, and had their first child in 1745.

There is a history of the Swasey family published, (Link here) which says this about her husband..

 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.

So we know that Mary lived at least until 1801 since she was mentioned in Joseph's will. 

The question I have (which will remain unanswered today probably) is why she didn't stay in Somerset living with her children, but instead is located down in Boston in the midst of the city at a boarding house, on her own apparently?

So now I'll have to pursue some census reports of her children...to see where they were by 1823.

Gideon was born first, in 1745 in Salem, before they moved back to Somerset/Swansea.  There is only that one mention of his birth on Ancestry, so I don't have any other information about him.

Hannah was born next, in 1747 in Swansea MA, and her descendants are mentioned in Joseph's will.  Her first husband was Surbinas Palmer and they had 5 children.  She married Henry Bragg also, unknown date.  Her children have birth dates listed, but only one has a death date, and no other information seems available about them. Hannah had died before 1801, as it was her descendants mentioned in her father's will.

Mary and Joseph Swasey's third child was Joseph Jr. born in 1750 in Swansea MA. One source lists him as Major and taking part in the American Revolutionary War. He married and had 4 daughters. He died April 1, 1816.  In The History of Ipswich, Essex and Hamilton, he is noted as the Town Clerk in Ipswich.

The next sibling was Lt. Jerathmel Bowers Swasey (who became my ancestor) born in 1752 in Somerset.  He married Sarah Hellon and they had 3 children. He was active in the Revolutionary War.  Jerathmel lived in Somerset until 1826, with his wife and all 3 children outliving him.

Son Samuel Swasey was born in 1755, and appeared in the 1790 census of Somerset, living with 2 females (ages not indicated) and one other male.  He did marry and have one child, Stephen Simmons Swasey, according to the current information over on Ancestry.  He died in 1797.

And Peter Swasey, their youngest child, was born in 1757 and died in 1778, unmarried.

So in that will of Mary's husband, Joseph, two sons are living in 1801, Joseph and Jerathmel, and the descendants of Samuel and Hannah, who are themselves deceased.

Between 1801 and 1823, a lot happened in the state of Massachusetts.  And a lot happened in the Swasey family, I would imagine.  The War of 1812 was one historic event.  So mother Mary Swasey ended up living at least till age 104, in Boston in a boarding house.  I can see several elderly women in my line having made just that kind of choice being opinionated women, and many offspring having their own ideas about things.

The Bowers children of Somerset

I shared some photos of houses of the Bowers families in Somerset, MA yesterday.

Here's an older post with some more photos that might be of interest. Ah, the Somerset Bowers!

Jonathan Bowers (Capt.) (1673-1750) and his wife, Ann Sylvester Bowers, (1669-1745) had their first child, Anne Bowers in 1695, who died in 1696.

Second, Benanuel Bowers was born in 1699 and lived till 1752, having 3 children of his own.

Third child of the Jonathan and Ann Bowers family was Jonathan Bowers Jr (1) born 1701, died 1702.

Fourth born was Benjamin Bowers (Rev.) who had 10 children before dying in 1775.

Their fifth and the second Jonathan Bowers Jr. was born in 1708 and lived till 1775, having 2 daughters.

Sixth born was George Bowers, in 1710-1752, with one child noted.

Seventh, Elizabeth Bowers married but had no children, and she lived from 1711-1771.

Eighth Henry Bowers (Esq.) married and had 8 children with his first wife. He lived from 1716-1790 and married a second time at age 44.

Ninth, Mary Bowers was born in 1719 and married Joseph Swasey in 1744...to become my ancestors.  She died sometime after 1823, when she was in a census of Boston living in a boarding house, age 104, listed as widow of Joseph Swasey.  They had 6 children.

Tenth and the last child of Jonathan and Ann was Jerathmel Bowers, born in 1720, lived until 1799 and had 4 children.

This week I've enjoyed getting to know the Bowers of Somerset.  By the time Jonathan and Ann Bowers might have counted their grandchildren (had they lived to see them all) they had at least 34.

I'm sorry to have left out the names and dates of the wives and husbands of most of these Bowers...not to mention those of the grandchildren.  But I want to check out a few more in my direct line which I don't know enough about, before going astray again to learn about cousins!

Somerset MA with Jonathan Bowers Jr. home on l, and Henry Bowers Esq. home between the masts of the Sullivan.  Of note is that Ann Sullivan Bowers was the mother of Jonathan and Henry. Perhaps the ship was named for her father.