General Notes

b. Middleboro, MA

Abigail Tomson, a "Singlewoman" of Middleborough, is noted for her complaint before the June 1721 session of the Court of General Sessions of the Peace in Plymouth. In that session she accused Jonathan Inglee, a Middleborough cooper, of being the father of her illegitimate child, Moses Inglee.[1] Abigail later married Jonathan Packard in Middleborough on November 27, 1723.[2]

In the early editions of Mayflower Families In Progress for the Francis Cooke family, Abigail's death was given as probably in Bridgewater occurring after 20 February 1776.[3] On that date "Abigail Packard Widow relict of Jonathan Packard Late of Bridgewater" deeded land in Middleborough to "My Son Moses Inglee of Halifax."[4] A footnote in those early editions of MFIP Cooke stated that "She is apparently the Mrs. Abigail, widow of Mr. Jonathan Packard who died May 19, 1766 in 91st yr. (BRIDGEWATER EPITAPHS p. 15), but the year or age is surely wrong." The citation of Bridgewater Epitaphs refers to a circa 1882 transcription of her gravestone in the Old Graveyard on South St. in West Bridgewater, which reads in part "In memory of Mrs. Abigail, widow of Mr. Jonathan Packard, who departed this life May ye 19, 1766, in ye 91st year of her age."[5] The same date is given as a gravestone record in the published vital records of West Bridgewater,[6] and that record appears to have been taken directly from Latham's published transcription. This footnote does not appear in Abigail's entry in volume twelve of Mayflower Families Through Five Generations,[7] which follows the MFIP booklet in giving the date of the 1776 deed as an early limit for her death.

The year on Abigail's gravestone, as published by Latham, is in error. Her stone still stands in the Old Graveyard, and, as transcribed by the author during a 2004 visit, reads in part "In Memory of Mrs / Abagail wido to Mr / Jonathan Packard, who / departed this life may / ye 19th 1786 in ye 90th / Year of her Age." The gravestone's date and age at death agree with Abigail, daughter of Jacob3 (Mary2 Cooke, Francis1) and Abigail (Wadsworth) Tomson, born in Middleborough on 14 February 14 1696/97.[8]

Photographs of Abigail's gravestone are included in the Farber Gravestone Collection at the American Antiquarian Society in Worcester, Mass. They are also available in the online collection of Farber photographs where all can now plainly see the correct date of death.[9]
Dale H. Cook is a member of the Mass. Society of Mayflower Descendants in the line of John Alden. He serves as Plymouth County Coordinator for the USGenWeb Project, and specializes in Old Bridgewater families.

1 David T. Konig, ed., Plymouth County Court Records 1686-1859 (Wilmington, Del., 1978), 7: 35-36.

2 Barbara Lambert Merrick and Alicia Crane Williams, eds., Middleborough, Massachusetts Vital Records (Boston, Mass., 1986-90) [hereafter Middleborough VR], 1: 27, that would be his second wife.