Deborah Williams

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Deborah Williams (Wiswell)

Also Known As: "Widow Cheney"
Birthdate:
Birthplace: Roxbury, Suffolk County, Massachusetts Bay Colony, British Colonial America
Death: July 09, 1687
Dorchester, Suffolk County, Massachusetts
Immediate Family:

Daughter of John Wiswall and Margaret Wiswall
Wife of William Cheney and Ebenezer Williams
Mother of Deborah Cheney; William Cheney; Deborah Cheney; William Cheney, III and John Cheney
Sister of Rebecca Johnson; Lydia (Wiswall) Ballet; Martha Cutler; Esther Fisher; Hannah Wiswall and 5 others

Managed by: Erin Ishimoticha
Last Updated:

About Deborah Williams

Ebenezer Williams also married Deborah Cheney (maiden name Wiswall) according to Adin Balou's history. The source is Adin Ballou’s History of Milford pg. 635.


https://www.genealogy.com/forum/surnames/topics/cheney/1609/

WILLIAM CHENEY, son of William Cheney and Margaret Cule, was born in 1635 in Roxbury, MA and died September 21, 1681 (hanged) in Dorchester, MA. He married Deborah WISWALL who wasbaptized March 30, 1641.She was the daughter of John of Dorchester.

While married to Deborah, William became the father of a son William, born August 3, 1666 to Sarah Daniels and probably surnamed DANIELS.Sarah was the daughter of Robert and Elizabeth DANIELS.

William Cheney had an unhappy life. He had a turbulent marriage to Deborah that led to at least one separation.

In 1681, William was accused of raping Experience Holbrook, a girl he was living with. His wife Deborah (Debbara) testified for William, calling Experience (daughter of Capt. Joseph and Elizabeth HOLBROOK) "a lying wench". The Grand Jury found William guilty of rape and sentenced him to hang. William could have won a reprieve if he had not refused to hear a sermon on the day of his execution. William "hardened himself still in his unrepentant frame of mind" and faced the scaffold.

(From "The Ancestry of Eva Belle Kempton" by Dean Crawford Smith, C.G.; New England Historic Genealogical Society 1996, pp 230 & 232)

The children of William and Deborah were:

  1. Deborah who died as an infant,
  2. William who died as an infant,
  3. Deborah,
  4. William,
  5. John,
  6. Benjamin and
  7. a child born after William’s execution.

THE CHILD OF WILLIAM AND SARAH DANIELS was WILLIAM who was BORN AUGUST 3, 1666.

Deborah married (second) Ebenezer WILLIAMS, son of William and Sarah WILLIAMS. [these parents?]


Origins

Suffolk County Probate Records, file #1617, John Wiswall, (1687) Will Vol. 10:98, Letter of Admin 10:97.

John Wiswall "of Boston, late ruling Elder of the first Church" wrote his will dated 9 July 1687 and proved 1 September 1687, in which he named his son John Wiswall; daughter Hannah Overman; daughter Deborah (no surname); daughter Fisher and her children (unnamed); son and daughter Cutter; son and daughter Johnson and their (unnamed) children; daughter Lydia Ballard's children "eighty one pounds I had from their grandfather Smith in London"; daughter Mary Emands "the use of a chamber and garrett over his shop" during her life; son and daughter Mountfort "being sensible of her tender love and great care of me ... especially in my old age"; executors to be son Henery Mountfort and Ruth his wife and my son Matthew Johnson.[20]


References

  1. New England Marriages to 1700. (Online database. AmericanAncestors.org. New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2008.) Originally published as: New England Marriages Prior to 1700. Boston, Mass.: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2015. Page 306. < AmericanAncestors > CHENEY, William (-1681) & Deborah WISWALL; by 1661; Medfield/ Dorchester {Reg. 16:165; Medfield Hist. 343; Cheney 42; Johnson (,6) 37; Dorchester Hist. 138; Hastings 20}
  2. New England Marriages to 1700. (Online database. AmericanAncestors.org. New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2008.) Originally published as: New England Marriages Prior to 1700. Boston, Mass.: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2015. Vol. 3. PAGE : 1678. < AmericanAncestors > WILLIAMS, Ebenezer & Deborah (WISWALL) CHENEY, w William; aft Sep 1681, by 1688?; Medfield/Dorchester {Medfield Hist. 344}
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Deborah Williams's Timeline

1641
March 30, 1641
Roxbury, Suffolk County, Massachusetts Bay Colony, British Colonial America
March 30, 1641
Dorchester, Suffolk, Massachusetts
May 23, 1641
Dorchester, Suffolk, England
1662
1662
1664
1664
1666
January 11, 1666
August 3, 1666
Medfield, Norfolk, Massachusetts
1673
May 1, 1673
Medfield, Massachusetts