| Notes |
- From The Winthrop Woman, a historical novel by Anya Seton (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1958):
"There's Will now," Elizabeth cried, suddenly catching sight of his tall figure standing at the gate and talking to someone. "Isn't he splendid in that new scarlet coat? I had a time getting the everlasting leather jerkin off him."
Anneke laughed. "Bess, you look at your husband, eager as a girl vith her first sveetheart. And at your age, lieveling!"
"Aye -- " said Elizabeth breathing deep. Then she added slowly, "Why, he's talking to the young widow Thorne, she seems to be the first arrival."
Anneke glanced sideways at her friend, and knowing Elizabeth as she did, sensed a withdrawal, though Elizabeth's face showed nothing. Anneke examined the widow Thorne who was very pretty, had dark curly hair, and a roguish smile. She was demurely droved in black, with a plain white collar. She looked about twenty-five. Anneke had never seen the young woman before and was struck by a resemblance to someone. In a moment she realized to whom. In coloring, and height, in the tilt of the head while laughing up at Will, there was a suggestion of Elizabeth as she had been when Anneke first met her in Watertown over twenty years ago.
"Do you see much of this widow Thorne?" asked Anneke, carefully counting the stitches on her needle.
"From time to time," said Elizabeth, and went on with some incoherence. "Susannah Thorne lives over in Maspeth with her father Mr. Booth, rather lonely for her, and she comes to visit the girls. The Thornes were Dorset folk so Will and Susannah often reminisce too. I expect she'll marry soon again."
"No doubt," said Anneke, knitting fast while she had an uneasy thought. Will Hallet was only thirty-nine, and men of about that age were susceptible. Her Toby was much younger than she, but it did not matter, since romantic passion had never been their bond, and she neither inquired nor cared what he did on his voyages. When Will and Susannah Thorne walked over to them, Anneke favored the pair with a sharp stare. But Will gave his wife his usual warm attentive look, while Susannah cried in sincere pleasure, "Oh, Mrs. Hallet, I'm so glad to see you! What a wonderful day for Hannah's fete!"
Elizabeth smiled, and pressed Susannah's hand with extreme cordiality because the thoughts which had just occurred to Anneke, she had already suffered many times; ever since she had first seen the pretty young widow, and the resemblance to her younger self, and Will's unconscious response to it.
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William Hallet was the third and final husband of Elizabeth Fones, who had previously been married to Henry Winthrop and Robert Feake. After Elizabeth died in 1655, William Hallet married Susanna (Booth) Thorne, as her second husband. The marriage ended in divorce in 1674.
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Nielsen Hayden genealogy
- Aft 1676
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