I am sorry I ever started this particular page. This has been nothing
but confusing...and remains confusing even as I write these words. The confusion
stems from a variety of things. To begin with (as though there is a good
place to begin) there were 2 girls apparently born about the same time in
the same area... Tisbury, Dukes Co., Massachusetts...Hannah Freeman
and Hannah Tilton. It seems that Gov. Thomas Prence took as his 3rd wife,
the widow Apphia (?) Freeman...the widow of Samuel Freeman, whose son John
Freeman is mentioned in Gov. Prence's will...lucky John received 2 books
from his step-father:
"A further supplement or addition, and prte of the last Will and Testament
of the honored Thomas Prence Esqr: Deceased as followeth I Give unto my son,
mr John ffreeman Speeds Cronicle and Wilsons Dictionary and the abridgment;
and Simpsons history of the Church and Newmans Concordance "
Along with all of this mess, we have to stir in a few Mayhews/Mayo's and
Sanborn's and Wing's. I hope you can follow me...I am not even sure of where
it is I am going with this. On Dec. 17, 1662 along comes Samuel Tilton, son
of William Tilton and Susannah, and on this date he marries Hannah Moulton...and
just to keep things hopping...William Sanborn marries Mary Moulton. William
Sanborn is the son of Ann Bachiler who married John Sanborn/Samborn. If you
read the timeline you will know that William Sanborn came with his grandfather,
Rev. Stephen Bachiler and Deborah Wing and her 4 sons on the William and
Francis. So I think our first ingredient in this stew of family would
be William Sanborn who married Mary Moulton.
Okay, so we have Samuel Tilton marrying Hannah Moulton, and we have William
Sanborn marrying Mary Moulton and somehow along with all of this mess we
have John Freeman, stepson of Gov. Thomas Prence stuck in here for no apparent
reason EXCEPT...that Walter Goodwin Davis, one of the renowned historians
for the Tilton family for some reason (apparently he had a good one...although
I haven't found it yet) proposes that Hannah Tilton, the daughter of Samuel
Tilton is really the daughter of Samuel Freeman. There is no Samuel Freeman
mentioned in Gov. Prence's will...just John Freeman. There are family charts
that indicate that Samuel Freeman and Apphia had a son by the name of Samuel,
but frankly I gave up. I have also read where Samuel Freeman and Apphia had
a daughter named Hannah Freeman.
Alright, so now we have William Sanborn and Mary Moulton who has a daughter
by the name of Mehitable. Mehitable runs out and marries Daniel Tilton, the
brother of Samuel Tilton, the father (?) of Hannah Tilton. And then, guess
what, we have Nathaniel Wing and Ananias Wing and Joseph Wing all running
in and out of Hampton, Chilmark, Tisbury and every place else. Joseph Wing
(Ananias's brother) marries Jerusha Mayhew who is real tight with Gov.
Thomas Prence and his family (he had 4 wives). Okay, so we know that Nathaniel
Wing married Sarah Hatch...but he waited to marry until he was about 40 years
old...what in the heck was he doing all that time? Chances are he was hanging
out in Chilmark and Tisbury with his cousins and unwittingly helping to confuse
further generations...and although I have not uncovered one shred of
evidence...is it possible that Nathaniel was married before he married Sarah
Hatch? Who knows? Okay, so while Joseph, Ananias and Nathaniel Wing are all
chasing all over Massachusetts, Ananias meets a girl named Hannah, falls
in love and marries her. Once again we have the Tilton family historian,
Walter Goodwin Davis, who states that Hannah Tilton marries Nathaniel Wing...but
there is nothing in writing that proves that...and we do know that Ananias
Wing married a girl named Hannah from Tisbury...and Samuel Tilton mentions
his daughter Hannah Wing in his will. We also must bear in mind that around
this time we only had one Nathaniel Wing and certainly one Ananias Wing.
The other thing to bear in mind is that Nathaniel Wing, for whatever reason
married out of the Quaker religion. There is no indication when he turned
from his father's and uncles' religion...but he did. Samuel Tilton was a
Quaker down to his toes. But...we still have a mystery going on. Gov. Thomas
Prence was quite famous for his persecution of Quakers...he didn't like
them....and just to keep things even more interesting, the name Prence is
pronounced Prince...and was even spelled that way by Gov. Prence's forefathers,
but Gov. Prence, being the interesting fellow that he was, changed the spelling
to Prence. Have you ever wondered why in the world we wound up with so many
Wing's who had the first name of Prince? I have. Now I think I am getting
a clue...Prince/Prence. The only problem with that is that the 3 Prince Wing's
that I have in my database at this time are all descended from Stephen Wing,
who was the father of Nathaniel...but the Prince used as a first name seems
to be started by Stephens grandsons by other son's, not by Nathaniel.
Anyhow, as I continue to drown deeper and deeper in this muck, it might
also be interesting to know that Samuel Tilton's father, William supposedly
purchased the Lynn propety from John Wing, Ananias's father, when the Wing
family moved to Sandwich in 1647. (See Phoebe Tilton III:445-6). Another
fact is that Samuel Tilton and his wife, Hannah Moulton, had 2 other daughters
that they named Rachel and Mary...Ananias and Hannah had 5
daughters and their names were: Hannah, Rachel, Mary, Elizabeth
and Deborah...not neccessarily in that order. Ananias and Hannah also
named one of their son's Samuel... although I would have been happier had
they named him "Tilton" or "Freeman".
One more teeny item to include here is:
Banks History of Martha's Vineyard stated "NATHANIEL WING, probably
the son of JOHN WING of Sandwich MA was a transient resident of West Tisbury
MA in 1686 and also owned land in Chilmark MA (both Martha's Vineyard). It
is assumed that he married Hannah Tilton, daughter of Samuel Tilton." It
is probable that this actually referred to Ananias.
Well, we know that John Wing was not the father of Nathaniel...so that's
the first mistake. And we also know that in 1687 or there-abouts, Nathaniel
married Sarah Hatch. One other to consider, and it might sound silly, but
I feel like it needs to be mentioned. I wonder how many times Ananias told
someone what his name was and they went "huh?"...Ananias apparently wasn't
overly fond of his name because he does not name any of his sons Ananias...but
he does name a son Elnathan...of course, he would. Is it possible that Ananias
sometimes went by Nathan...or a form thereof? To take it a stretch further,
accounting for New England accents, could Ananias and Nathan or Nathaniel
sounded alike? Just a thought.
Okay, so we have Samuel Tilton who names his daughter, Hannah Wing in
his will. We have Ananias who we do know married a Hannah...we have Nathaniel
who we know married Sarah Hatch. According to which family history you read
you will find that Hannah Freeman supposedly married John Mayo and/or Nathaniel
Wing...and you will read that Hannah Tilton also married John Mayo and/or
Nathaniel Wing. I tend to believe that Hannah Freeman did indeed marry John
Mayo/Mayhew and that Hannah Tilton married Ananias Wing...and until I discover
anything different, thats my story and I'm going to stick to it.
Ananias Wing was born in Yarmouth, Plymouth Colony about 1652. There is
no record of Ananias's birth...but it was said that that he was younger than
his brother Joseph, and older than his brother John, which places his date
of birth around 1652. In 1675 Ananias signed a petition which indicates that
he would have been at least 21 years of age by that time.
Ananias Wing married Hannah Tilton in Tisbury, Dukes, Massachusetts, their
date of marriage is unknown, but their first child was born May 2, 1687.
Hannah was born in Hampton, Massachusetts Bay Colony on September 15, 1663,
the daughter of Samuel Tilton and Hannah Moulton. The fact that Ananias Wing
married a girl who was born in Hampton, New Hampshire, the town that his
grandfather, Stephen Bachiler founded, indicates that the Wing family and
the Bachiler family may still have kept in touch and that perhaps Ananias
Wing met Hannah Tilton during a visit to Bachiler relatives in Hampton.
It may also be of interest of Wing and Bachiler descendants that Hannah
Tilton's uncle, Daniel Tilton married Mehitable Sanborne, the daughter of
William Sanborne and Mary Moulton. William Sanborne was the son of John Sanborn
and Anne Bachiler. So we do have many family connections between the Wing's
and the Bachiler's and the Sanborne's and Tilton's. In fact ,this whole history
begs for more research and as time allows I will be delighted to research
this further..and share what I learn.
Walter Goodwin Davis who is the family historian for the Tilton family
states that the will of Samuel Tilton of Chilmark, Martha's Vineyard which
was made on June 5, 1718 names a daughter, Hannah Wing. Davis mistakenly
thought that Hannah Tilton married Nathaniel Wing, but the only Nathaniel
Wing around at that time was the son of Stephen Wing and he would marry Sarah
Hatch around 1687.
Ananias Wing was one of the citizens of Yarmouth who lost horses in the
first expedition to Mount Hope against King Philip in 1675. Ananias was assessed
£3,16 s. Dr. Conway Wing has noted that Ananias Wing united with
many other in petitioning Gov. Josiah Winslow and the Gerneral Court on the
subject of war against the Narragansett Indians. Ananias finally went to
war as a private soldier under Captain John Gorham in the second expedition
against the tribe in 1676, when the troops suffered so severly. Ananias Wing
is mentioned in 1733 as one who would receive a grant of land in the province
of Maine (town of Gorham) for seving in the Indian Wars...but Ananias did
not live long enough to know that he was even appreciated, much less served
a grant of land.
It is believed that the old orchard, known as "Wing's Orchard," near the
Sautuckett, was the home of Ananias. Ananias inherited this property from
his father, John Wing.
Ananias died testate. Will dated 1718, proved Sept. 17, 1718. Son Elnathan
Wing executor; mentions "Dear and Loving Wife," mother of his children or
some of them, but no name. Mentions sons Elnathan, Samuel, John and Joseph;
daughters Deborah Weeks, Hannah (Astin?), Rachel, Elizabeth and Mary.
Ananias Wing and Hannah Tilton had the following children:
1. Deborah Wing, born 1687, probably in Harwich, Barnstable,
Massachusetts.
2. Hannah Wing, born August, 1690, probably in Harwich, Barnstable,
Massachusetts.
3. Elnathan Wing, born October 20, 1692, probably in Harwich, Brewster,
Massachuetts.
4. Samuel Wing, born, August, 1694, in Harwich, Brewster, Massachuetts
(Sautucket)
5. Rachel Wing, born December 20, 1697, in Harwich, Brewster, Massachusetts
(formerly Sautucket).
6. Elizabeth Wing, born Frebruary, 1699/1700, in Harwich, Brewster,
Maschusetts (formerly Sautucket).
7. John Wing, born April 3, 1702 in Harwich, Brewster, Massachusetts (formerly
Sautucket).
8. Mary Wing, born May 18, 1704 in Harwich, Brewster, Massachusetts (formerly
Sautucket).
9. Joseph Wing, born September 17, 1707 in Harwich, Brewster, Massachusetts
(formerly Sautucket).