Oseah Dillingham



This cannot be a very lengthy, informative biography for the primary reason that we don't know much about Oseah. Oseah, like most women in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, lived and died in the shadow of the men in her life, therefore, unless it pertains to the men, there is very little mention of her in any surviving historical records.

Secondly, Oseah died at the young age of 33 years. Certainly 33 was not as young in 1654 when life was harder than we will ever know. When the the day began before the sun came up and ended after the logs in the huge fireplace had turned to embers.

Oseah Dillingham was born in the early part of the year of 1620/21 to Edward Dillingham and Ursula Carter. She was christened at Cotesbach, Leicester, England on February 10, 1621/22. Although Oseah's name is not mentioned on the ship roster, it is almost certain that she accompanied her parents to New England on the William & Francis. The William & Francis embarked on their voyage on March 9, 1632. Oseah Dillingham would have been about ten years old when she left her homeland.

Most historians agree that the only Dillingham children that were on the William and Francis were, Henry Dillingham, who was about seven or eight at the time and John Dillingham, the youngest child, who was about two years of age.

It is true that there are holes wide enough to sink a ship in when it comes to the list of passengers on the William & Francis. We probably will never know the full story. However, it doesn't seem reasonable that the Dillingham's would bring a seven year old and a two year old and leave an eleven year old girl behind.

Assuming that Oseah was on the William & Francis,it must have been an exciting adventure to board the William & Francis on that day in March. Voyages being what they were in those days, if they didn't know some of their fellow passengers when they boarded, they would most certainly get to know them in the weeks they were on the sea. We will never know, but chances are that it was this voyage where she first met Stephen Wing, the man that she would marry. Stephen would have been about the same age as Oseah and their sojourn to a new country surely bonded them in a way that nothing else could.

According to the Caldwell Records, page 9, "the Dillinghams were respectable yeomen of old England. The picture of their Coat of Arms may be found in Nichols' History of Leicestershire. Edward Dillingham's descendants in Massachusetts were of the first class of landed gentlemen. The late Hon. John Dillingham, State Senator, was of this family. Also, Edward Dillingham Bangs, Secretary of State.." Edward Dillingham would make his name known in the Massachusetts Bay Colony as well, he was one of The Ten Men of Saugus and he would remain active in the affairs of Sandwich, Massachusetts all of his life.Because of her father's reputation, Oseah Dillingham must have enjoyed a prominent position among her peers in the small village of Sandwich, Massachusetts. Therefore it must have been doubly humiliating for Oseah to have to endure the censure of the magistrates because of her pregnancy before her marriage to Stephen Wing.

"Whereas Steven Wing, of Sandwich, [and] Oseah Dillingham, were found to haue had carnall knowledge each of others body before contract of matrimony, which the said Steven Wing, coming into the face of the Court, freely acknowledging, he was, according to order of Court, fined in x li, and so is discharged." Plymouth Court Records, March 2, 1646/47.

There are no any historical records that have survived that describe the outrage the Edward Dillingham must have experienced when he learned the news that Stephen Wing had taken advantage of his daughter. Chances are that Stephen Wing got a good thrashing in the woods followed by a severe upbraiding by Edward Dillingham and Stephen's older brothers, John and Daniel Wing. There is no question that Stephen planned to marry Oseah all along but it is certain that a marriage was planned immediately. So it happened that in the fall of 1646, Stephen Wing married Oseah Dillingham.

Stephen Wing and Oseah Dillingham were not alone however. The Plymouth Court Records literally bulge with accounts of children being born at unseasonable times. There are even accounts of men and women who were married that were censured by the court for becoming amorous at inopportune times. The fact that Stephen and Oseah were in love and very young appeals to the romantic side of us all and we only wish we could say that the young couple lived happily ever after.

Either very late in February or early in the month of March of 1646/47, Oseah Dillingham Wing gave birth to her first child, a son, Nathaniel Wing. Chances are that Edward Dillingham completely forgave his son-in-law, Stephen Wing, once he laid eyes on his first grandchild. Whatever caused Stephen and Oseah to name their first son, "Nathaniel," is unknown to us. Why not John or Edward or Stephen or Matthew? The only Nathaniel that we are aware of in either Stephen or Oseah's family is Nathaniel Bachiler, Stephen Wing's maternal uncle.

In fact, Nathaniel may very well have inherited his name from his paternal uncle. Evidently Nathaniel Bachiler had died not long before Stephen and Oseah had their first son. Administration of Nathaniel Bachiler's estate was granted to his 2nd wife, Margerie on April 9, 1645 (according to the biography of Stephen Bachiler). Nathaniel Bachiler had never come to New England, but his son, Nathaniel did arrive in New England on the William & Francis with his grandfather, Rev. Stephen Bachiler. This may be an indication that the Wing family and the Bachiler family still continued close family ties.

According to the tablet erected by the Wing Family Association, Stephen Wing started building his home, the Old Fort House in 1641. In fact, the Old Fort house was a former fortification to be used against Indians that might attack. It turned out that the Indians were not so hostile or given to unwarranted attack, so that the village of Sandwich granted the house to Stephen in 1641. Stephen altered the house and made it more livable and it was probably in the Old Fort House that Nathaniel Wing was born.

The second child of Stephen and Oseah Wing was Ephraim Wing, born April 2, 1649. At least, most Wing authorities agree that Ephraim is Stephen Wing's son. For whatever reason, the person or persons responsible for recording these major events in the lives of their citizens, did not record the all of the names of the parents of the newborn children in the years 1648 & 1649. It becomes a process of elimination for the descendants of these individuals to figure out who belongs to who. The OWL has recorded that Stephen Wing had a son, Ephraim, born April 21, 1649.

What is extremely confusing for all involved is that John Wing also had a son named Ephraim. The Plymouth Court Records are terribly confusing about both Ephraims. Let me print them here;
page 292
1648 [Ya]rmou[th] Regester of the beirth of their Children

Hannah the Daughter of Richard Templare was borne the fift of January Anno Dom 1642
(*)"Allen" was first written, but it was crossed out in the same ink, and the entry completed as printed.
Elezabeth the Daughter of Edward Sturgis was born the twentieth of aprell
Mary the Daughter of Robert Davis the 28th of the same
Samuell the sonn of ffrancis Baker the first of may
Mary the Daughter of John Marchant the twentieth of may
Ephraim the sonn of John Wing the thirtieth of may
John the soone of Roger Elles the first of December
Ann the Daughter of Richard Tayler the 2cond of the same
Beniamin the sonne of John Gray about the 7th of December
[worn]nn the Daughter of Willam Eldred about the 16th of the same
[worn]amuell the sonne of Richard Templer the 22cond of January
The Daughter of Peeter worden febrewary the tenth
Mary the Daughter of mr hedge the [worn]
[worn] the son of Richard Templ[worn] yarmouth

*1648. Yarmouth Regester of Burials.
[*7.]
Elizabeth, the daughter of Hugh Norman, of the age of six, was drowned in a well the 28th of May.
Ruth, the daughter of Richard Tayler, was buried.
The sonne of John Winge drowned in the snow about the eleuenth of December.
1649. Sandwidge Regester of Marriages and Burialls.

Willam Allen married to Presilla Browne the 21 of March.
Richard Chadwell married to Katheren Presberry July the 22cond.
Ephraim Wing was buried December the 10th.

1649. Yarmouth Regester of Marriages and Burialls.
YARMOUTH.
Hester Templer, aged fiue yeares and an halfe, was buried September the 13th.
x x sonne of Robert Dennis, died at the x x
*Ephraim Winge, of the age of one yeare and seauen months, was buried the last of December.
1649. Sandwidge Regester of the Beirth of their Children.
SANDWICH.
MARY WOOD born March the 29th.
Ephraim Winge born Aprell the 2cond.
Mary Newland born Aprell the 16th.
Elizabeth Jenkins born Aprell the 30.

Obviously the person doing the recording was very confused about the two Ephraim Wing's. It would appear that however coincidental it might seem, both Ephraims died in the month of December, a year apart. Stephen Wing's son, Ephraim appears to have been born the April after John's Ephraim died in December of 1648. Possibly Stephen named his son Ephraim to honor his young nephew. Sadly, it appears as though Stephen's young son did not survive either.



The Plymouth Court records are very clear about the birth of Mercy Wing on November 13, 1650. Mercy was born to Stephen Wing and his wife Oseah, very likely at the Old Fort House. There is no further record of Mercy Wing and it is assumed that she died in infancy. It must have been a sad burden for Oseah Dillingham Wing to lose two children in two years. There are no reports of anymore pregnancies or children after 1650 for Stephen and Oseah Wing. The OWL has attributed the birth of a daughter, Deborah Wing, to Stephen and Oseah born in 1647 or 1648, but that would be impossible, unless Deborah was a twin of Ephraim Wing. There is no mention that Ephraim was a twin in the Plymouth Court records and there are no Deborah Wing's born after Daniel's Deborah on October 10, 1648. Oseah could not have given birth to the Deborah that was born in October of 1648 and then turned around and had another child as soon as April of 1649.

Oseah was twenty-nine years old when she gave birth to her last child. All around her it seemed that everyone was having babies. Joseph Wing had been born to John Wing and his wife two months before Oseah gave birth to Mercy and apparently he was healthy and well. On August 28, 1652, Daniel and Hannah Wing gave birth to a son, Samuel. John Wing's wife would have another baby around that same year, Ananias Wing. Then, on December 23, 1653, her own brother, Henry Dillingham and his young wife gave birth to a daughter, Mary Dillingham who would grow up to marry Samuel Wing, the son of Daniel and Hannah Wing.

While Oseah probably shared her joy with the parents of the newly born children, her own grief must have been more poignant. Since sometimes even live births were sometimes not recorded in those early days of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, we should not be surprised to suspect that Oseah was pregnant at least once more in the last four years of her life. Perhaps it was the complications of a pregnancy that we are unaware of that took her life too soon. We will never know. We only know that whatever caused it, Oseah died on April 29, 1654 at Sandwich, Massachusetts.

At the time of her death, Oseah was thirty-three years of age. She had given birth at least four times and probably the only child surviving was her first born, Nathaniel Wing, who was only about seven or eight years old when his mother died.

The Spring Hill Cemetery had not been established when Oseah Dillingham Wing died. Thanks to information from Raymond Wing who has consulted Dave Wheelock, who has a degree in colonial archaeology, it is very likely that Oseah is buried near (or even under) the Wing Family Fort House. It was the custom in those days to bury the dead near to the house since that land was not typically valuable for growing crops. During the years when different Wing families occupied the house and made additions, it is very possible those additions were inadvertently made over the grave of Oseah.

The chances are very good that Oseah was buried where she had come as a young bride, where she had borne children and where she died, too young and too soon. To our knowledge she was the youngest of the Wing wives to die. Hannah Swift would live to be about forty-four, John Wing's first wife enjoyed a long life, Anna Ewer, Daniel Wing's second wife lived to be about eighty-five and Sarah Briggs, Stephen Wing's second wife lived to about the age of forty-seven or forty-eight. Oseah left not only her husband and her son, she left her father, Edward Briggs and her mother, Ursula Carter, who would follow her about two years later. She left two brothers, Henry and John and possibly a sister, Elizabeth. She left many nieces and nephews.

Oseah Dillingham Wing had no way of knowing that her young son would one day marry and become the father of seven children. Of those seven children, six of them would marry and between them have at least twenty-seven children. She would become the matriarch of hundreds of descendants who record her name in their genealogy charts and store her genes within their DNA. Literally scores of those descendants have have faithfully visited the Wing Family Fort House to honor her husband Stephen, her son Nathaniel and Oseah, their matriarch.