Pierce - Surname Saturday

>Mom
>>Daniel Michael Carlisle, 1885-1960; Buchanan, MI
>>>Isaac Ashley Carlisle, 1842-1929; Edwardsburg, MI - Buchanan, MI
>>>>Daniel Carlisle, 1797-1872; Westmoreland, NH - Buchanan, MI
>>>>>Daniel Carlisle, 1767-1822; Lunenburg, MA - Western New York
>>>>>>Lydia Conant, 1737-1774; Concord, MA - Westmoreland, NH
>>>>>>>Ruth PIERCE, before 1717-1797; ???-Ashburnham, MA

I started this post way back when Randy Seaver posted his PIERCE line and I didn't see a connection to mine. This is another line that I have not looked at in years and in preparing this post I realized that it is a line I imported back before I knew what I was doing. I could leave it sitting in my drafts floder until I get it figured out or I can share what I know while I continue my research.

I have had Ruth Pierce as the daughter of John PIERCE and Patience DODSON, and for a source I have an online tree that I can no longer access. FamilySearch, Ancestral File has the same information that I do.

However, I also found this source note in another tree [emphasis mine]

Colonial Dames of America, Volume I.
Chapter X, Page 203-204 PIERCE Captain Michael Pierce, was the son of John Pierce I, who came in the Mary and John, 1630/1 and died August 19, 1661. Captain Pierce lived at Hingham, Mass., from the year 1646 until March 26, 1676, when he was killed in the battle of Pawtucket. He was Captain from 1669 to 1675. His son, John Pierce II, married Patience Dobson, whose daughter, Ruth, married Ebenezer Conant. Their daughter, Hannah Conant, married Josiah Dodge IV, whose son, the Rev. Daniel Dodge, married Letitia Mankin. Their daughter Miriam Dodge, married Jacob Brandt III, whose daughters are: Miriam Brandt; Lenita Brandt Poundstone

Then I found an abstract of John Pierce's will that lists his daughter as Ruth CORNWELL, so she could not be my Ruth PIERCE. (Unless of course the abstract is incorrect.)

Becky Wiseman also has some information on the Pierce family and has Ruth, daughter of John & Patience PIERCE, married to Stephen CORNELL, as do several other trees.

I then started looking at other trees and found many that have Ruth PIERCE, wife of Ebenezer CONANT, as the daughter of Joseph PIERCE and Hannah MUNROE. Poking around further I found trees that say that Ruth, the daughter of Joseph PIERCE and Hannah MUNROE died at the age of a few months. FamilySearch, Massachusetts Deaths and Burials, 1795-1910, has a record for Ruth PEIRCE, wife of Joseph PEIRCE, died 17 Jan 1711 but does not give a location. An online transcription of Vital Records of Lexington, MA, From Earliest Record to End of 1853, does list Ruth, daughter of Joseph born 8 Apr 1710 but does not list the death of Ruth.

So what do I know? Ruth Pierce was the wife of Ebenezer Conant and died in Ashburnham, MA 19 Nov. 1797, "aged over 80 years."


History of Ashburnham, Massachusetts, from the grant of Dorchester Canada to the present time, 1734-1886: with a genealogical register of Ashburnham families (Google eBook), Ezra Scollay Stearns, Pub. by the town, 1887


So my Ruth Pierce was most likely born about 1712.

She married Ebenezer Conant (but when and where?)

Based on the abstract of the Will of John Pierce, it is unlikely that she was his daughter.

She could well be the daughter of Joseph Pierce and Hannah Munroe. However, in the Peirce Genealogy, by Frederick C Peirce, he does not record a marriage for Ruth.

Peirce genealogy: being the record of the posterity of John Pers, an early inhabitant of Watertown, in New England ... with notes on the history of other families of Peirce, Pierce, Pearce, etc (Google eBook), Franklin Clifton Peirce, Press of C. Hamilton, 1880

Another Pierce connection

Backing up - Lydia Conant (1737-1774) was the 1sr wife of Daniel Carlisle (1738-1794). Daniel married 2nd Lydia Pierce (1756-1856). Were Daniel's wives cousins?

Lydia Pierce (1756-1856)
>Benjamin Pierce (??-1793) d. Westmoreland, NH
>>Ebenezer Pierce (1686-?)
>>>Benjamin Pierce (1646-1730)
>>>>Michael Pierce (1615-1676)