William Darracott

1754 - 1806  (52 years)

• Name	William Darracott
  Alternate birth	Abt 1753  [1]
  Birth	24 Apr 1754	Boston, Suffolk, Massachusetts   [2]
  Gender	Male
  Death	16 Oct 1806	Boston, Suffolk, Massachusetts   [1, 3]
  Person ID	I21179	Ancestry of PNH, TNH, and others
  Last Modified	1 Jan 2019

  
  

  Father	William Darracott
  Mother	Sarah
  Family ID	F13397	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

  Family	Mary Lowell,   b. 14 Jan 1750, Boston, Suffolk, Massachusetts
  Marriage	25 Dec 1783  [4, 5]
  Children	+ 1. George Darracott,   b. 6 Oct 1784, Boston, Suffolk, Massachusetts d. 13 Jul 1865, Boston, Suffolk, Massachusetts (Age 80 years)
  Family ID	F12525	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
  Last Modified	1 Jan 2019

  
  

• Notes

  Delmar Lowell's 1899 Historic Genealogy of the Lowells of America says of William Darracott, second husband of Mary Lowell, that: * He and Mary were married 25 Dec 1783. * He was previously married to Sarah Earle, and after the death of his second wife Mary Lowell, he married again a third time. * He died 16 Oct 1806. * He "came to this country about 1742. Before this, he commanded a packet, plying between Hull, England and Boston, Massachusetts. His father was Sir _____ Darracott of Biddeford, Devonshire County, England. The same coat, now used by the family, is carved over the door of the Knight Templars in Malta, which indicated nobility." A John Darracott was in fact mayor of Bideford, Devon in 1687 -- see Alexander G. Duncan, "Bideford under the Restored Monarchy," Report and Transactions of the Devonshire Association for the Advancement of Science, Literature and Art 47:306, 1915, page 331. So there may be something to gentry origins for the Darracotts. Also, for what it's worth, the Bunker Hill Monument Association obituary for George Darracott, son of William Darracott and Mary Lowell, says he was "of Norman-English descent, his ancestors having resided for many generations in Devonshire, England." But the dates here seem out of kilter. The Boston record of the Wm Darracott who died 16 Oct 1806 says he was 53 years old, thus born about 1753. The 1894 Report of the Record Commissioners of the City of Boston, Containing Boston Births from A.D. 1700 to A.D. 1800 shows a William Darracott born in Boston 24 Apr 1754, son of William and Sarah Darracott. This seems much more likely to be the William Darracott who died in 1806. If Mary Lowell had married the first William Darracott, and we're to believe that he came to New England around 1742 after a period of commanding a cross-Atlantic packet, then Mary Lowell would have been marrying a man roughly 30 or more years older than her. Possible, but (to our mind) less likely than marrying a man four years younger than her. It seems to us far more likely that Mary Lowell's husband was the second William Darracott, and that the first wife named Sarah attributed to him by Delmar Lowell was in fact this William Darracott's mother. Whatever the case, it seems crystal-clear that only the older William Darracott could have been born in Devon, as the birth of the younger one is shown by multiple records to have happened in Boston.

  
  

• Sources

  [S2705] "A Record of Deaths in Boston and Vicinity, 1799-1815." The New England Historical and Genealogical Register 78:177, Apr 1924. [S2706] Boston Births, Baptisms, Marriages, and Deaths, 1630-1699 and Boston Births, 1700-1800: two volumes in one, ed. William S. Appleton from the records of the Boston Registry Department and the Boston Record Commissioners. Baltimore: Clearfield, 1994. [S2704] The Historic Genealogy of the Lowells of America from 1639 to 1899 by Delmar R. Lowell. Rutland, Vermont: The Tuttle Company, 1899., date only. [S2704] The Historic Genealogy of the Lowells of America from 1639 to 1899 by Delmar R. Lowell. Rutland, Vermont: The Tuttle Company, 1899. [S2708] Ancestors and Descendants of John Coney of Boston, England and Boston, Massachusetts by Mary Lovering Holman. Concord, Massachusetts: The Rumford Press, 1928.