Hannah Bent

Hannah married Richard Rice in 1734. Richard (son of Jonathan Rice and Elizabeth Wheeler) was born on 31 Jan 1710; died in 1737. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

1. Hannah Rice was born on 10 Nov 1735 in Framingham, Middlesex, Massachusetts; died on 19 Sep 1814 in Framingham, Middlesex, Massachusetts.

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate birth: of Sudbury, Middlesex, Massachusetts

Notes:

Regarding the identity of the mother of this John Bent: was it the first wife of his father John Bent (1636-1717), Hannah Stone, or his second wife, Martha Rice?

Alicia Crane Williams's entry for John Stone (1618-1683), the father of his father's first wife, Hannah Stone, in the Early New England Families Study Project, says of Hannah that she was born 6 Jun 1640, and died between 9 Jun 1683 and about 1691, "between when Hannah Bent participated in the deed by heirs of John Stone and the estimated year of birth of youngest child, David, who died at age 39 in 1730." After Hannah's death, her husband John Bent (1637-1717) married Martha Rice; Williams places this second marriage as taking place "aft. abt. 1691."

The evidence Williams cites for placing those particular bounds around the death of Hannah (Stone) Bent is Allen Bent's 1894 NEHGR article "The Bent Family" (volume 48, page 288) and his subsequent 1900 book The Bent Family in America (citation details below), both of which say that John Bent (1637-1717) was twice married, first on 1 Jul 1658 to Hannah Stone, then (no date given) to Martha Rice, and that he had three children, all by his first wife Hannah Stone: Hannah, born 6 May 1661; John, born 29 Nov 1689, and David, born about 1691, a date no doubt estimated based, as Williams says, on the fact that David died in 1720 and was said at the time to be 29.

But given the dates of these three children's births, and the fact that all we actually know about the death date of Hannah Stone is that she was alive on 9 Jun 1683, Allen Bent's assignment of all three children to Hannah seems...unlikely! A man is married twice, to a first wife in 1658, and then to a second wife at an unspecified date. And he has three children, one born in 1661, one born twenty-eight years later, and a third born two years after that. Which is likelier? That his first wife suddenly bore two further children after a break of nearly three decades? Or that the second two children are by the second wife, and that the first wife died sometime not at all long after 9 Jun 1683, rather than after 1691?

Finally, the record of the birth of the younger John Bent, as found in the published vital records of Sudbury, quoting Middlesex County records at East Cambridge, clear gives his parents as John and Martha. "BENT, John, s. John and Martha, Nov. 29, 1689" (italics ours). This seems a reasonably clear indication that John Bent was a son of his father's second wife. (And if this was the case, then his younger brother David must have been as well.)

(It seems notable that James Savage in his 1860-64 Genealogical Dictionary of New England, volume 1, page 169, says that John Bent was born "prob. by sec. w. Martha, d. of Matthew Rice". And it seems also relevant that Clarence Almon Torrey's listing for the marriage of John Bent to Martha Rice dates it as taking place "by 1689", despite the fact that several of Torrey's listed sources assert otherwise. Conceivably both Savage and Torrey were perfectly well aware of the entry for the younger John Bent's birth in the vital records of Sudbury.)

John married Hannah Rice on 15 Nov 1711 in Framingham, Middlesex, Massachusetts. Hannah (daughter of Deacon David Rice and Hannah Walker) was born on 5 Jan 1692. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Baptised: 24 Jan 1637, Weyhill, Hampshire, England

Notes:

The first petition for the incorporation of Framingham, in 1693, was headed by John Bent. It was incorporated in 1700, and at the second town meeting, 3 Mar 1701, he was chosen one of the tythingmen.

John married Martha Rice. Martha (daughter of Matthew Rice and Martha Lambson) was born on 17 Aug 1657; died after 14 Oct 1716. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

He was one of the founders, and one of the first deacons, of Framingham.

David married Hannah Walker on 7 Apr 1687. Hannah (daughter of Thomas Walker and Mary Stone) was born in 1669; died on 18 Dec 1704 in Framingham, Middlesex, Massachusetts. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

He arrived with his wife and five children in 1638 on the Confidence, and settled at Sudbury.

John married Martha before 1624. Martha died on 15 May 1679 in Sudbury, Middlesex, Massachusetts. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Her surname is unknown, but given that one of their shipmates on the Confidence was Peter Noyes and that they named a son Peter, it seems possible that she may have been connected to the Noyes family.

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate birth: Bef 28 Feb 1630, Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire, England

Notes:

The Google Books copy of A Genealogical History of the Rice Family (citation details below) is heavily marked up in a distinctive hand, and the anonymous annotater evidently believed that Matthew Rice was born in 1629-30.

Matthew married Martha Lambson on 7 Jul 1654 in Sudbury, Middlesex, Massachusetts. Martha (daughter of Barnabas Lambson and Mary) was born before 13 Jan 1634; was christened on 13 Jan 1634 in Ridgewell, Essex, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

She was alive in 1717 when she is mentioned in her husband's will, and in 1718 when she is mentioned in the will of her son Isaac.

Notes:

He and his wife were step first cousins once removed.

Henry married Elizabeth Moore on 1 Jan 1644 in Sudbury, Middlesex, Massachusetts. Elizabeth (daughter of John Moore and Elizabeth) was born about 1626; died on 23 Aug 1705 in Framingham, Middlesex, Massachusetts. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate birth: Abt 1628, England
• Alternate death: 3 Aug 1705, Framingham, Middlesex, Massachusetts

Notes:

She and her husband were step first cousins once removed.

Thomas married Mary Stone before 1661. Mary (daughter of Dr. Daniel Stone and Mary) was born on 22 Mar 1644 in Cambridge, Middlesex, Massachusetts; died in 1731. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]