This week we were contacted by a probable descendant of Paul Shackford (1702-1786) who was interested in learning more about the details of this family line! We love collaborating with other researchers of Shackford Family History so we’ll try to focus on this line for a while!
We’ve previously shared the probate records of Paul’s father, John Shackford (1678-1738) which lists his son Paul who had inherited his father’s dwelling house and the land it stood on. Based on Paul’s death announcement on Dec 4, 1786, we know he was 84 years old in Dec 1786 so we believe he was born in 1702.
There are multiple sources for Paul’s marriage stating that Paul Shackford married “Mrs” Rebecca Hudson on Feb 9, 1727-28 but all seem to be transcriptions of the hand written marriage record shown below which states: “So far are returned to ye Cler of ye county – Marriages returned by ye Reverend Mr John Lowell
…
Mr Paul Shackford & M??? Rebecca Hudson both of Newbury were joyned togather in marriage February ye 29th 1727-8″
There are many transcriptions of this document which state “Mrs Rebecca Hudson”, many of which are possibly copied from the first listing of the first transcription. When we look closely at the handwritten version, the words could be Mrs or Miss. And when we look at the entire page we notice that this same word – either Mrs or Miss is written before the name of each of the woman listed on this page which indicates that the word is most likely Miss, not Mrs.
Also page 16 of The Descendants of Andrew Ford of Weymouth, Massachusetts, Part I The First Six Generations states that Rebecca Hudson, the daughter of Eleazer Hudson and Deborah Ford born 14 Feb 1709 married Paul Shackford. The author Elizabeth Cobb Stewart does not provide any sources for her statement but if correct, Rebecca would have been 18 when she married Paul so if she was a Mrs when she married, she would have had to marry another Mr Hudson to become Mrs Hudson. However if the written marriage record is stating “Miss”, the book may be correct.
Since Eleazer died on May 15, 1736, we reviewed Eleazer’s will to see if it helped verify that Rebecca was Paul’s husband but discovered that his will was written on 11 May 1727 before Rebecca’s marriage and lists Rebecca as one of his unmarried children who was to receive 150 pounds.
We’ll keep looking for source information to help verify Rebecca’s parentage but will assume for now that they are Eleazer Hudson and his wife Deborah Ford.
[Updated 1/7/2016 multiple times after reviewing the original marriage record]
SOURCES:
“Died, on the 4th instant,” Essex, Journal (Newburyport, Massachusetts), 20 December 1786; digital images, News Bank (http://newsbank.com : accessed 24 September 2013).
Massachusetts, Massachusetts, Town and Vital Records, 1620-1988, , Paul Shackford m. Mrs Rebecca Hudson, ; digital images, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 6 January 2016); Town and City Clerks of Massachusetts. Massachusetts Vital and Town Records.
Stewart Elizabeth Cobb, The Descendants of Andrew Ford of Weymouth, Massachusetts, Part I The First Six Generations (Montpelier, Vermont: Capital City Press, 1968), page 16-17; digital images, Ancestry.com (www.ancestry.com : accessed 6 January 2016
SHACKFORD Family History 