Possible Parents of Huldah

One of the parallel approaches to solving this mystery is looking at the two Harwood lines in colonial New England and tracing them forward to identify possible parents for Huldah. As discussed earlier, those lines are those of John Harwood, b. abt. 1600, in London, England, and Andrew Harwood, b. "probably" 1627 in Dartmouth, Devon, England. 

Since there is no birth record for Huldah, as we trace forward we are looking for situations where there are reasons to believe that an unrecorded birth might have occurred. While births out of wedlock are a possibility (though rare in those times), more likely the parents resided in a place where the recording of births had not yet started. Where we see that a male descendant lived in a location where births were recorded and no gap exists around the 1733/34 timeframe when Huldah was born, we can be fairly confident that the descendant was not the father of Huldah. Working back from Huldah's birth year, we can assume that the latest her father would have been born was about 1715/16. Other circumstances may have also been in effect, such as a move from one location to another, when the birth may have occurred without being recorded. 

Andrew Harwood is known to have one son who came to America, James, b. 1655, in Stepney, Middlesex, England (a suburb of London). Andrew had two other sons that survived to adulthood, Nicholas and William; Nicholas lived in Dartmouth and nothing more is known of William. James came to American early (to Boston) and was a soldier in King Phillip's War, participating in the "Falls Fight" on May 19th, 1676. He married Lydia Barrett on 11 Apr 1678 in Chelmsford, Middlesex, Massachusetts and resided there until about 1717, after which he moved to Littleton, Middlesex, Massachusetts where he died 1 Aug 1719.  The two known sons of James and Lydia, John and James, Jr., are the candidates in this line to consider as Huldah's father. 

John was born 27 May 1703 and married Mary Powers in Littleton, whose family was among the early settlers there. John and Mary were living in Lambstown (Hardwick), MA (where the Powers family had connections) "as early as 1735, or earlier", which was "new country, just beginning to be settled". Birth records for his children in the timeframe of Huldah's birth exist, with Lydia, born 22 Jan, 1732; Mary, born 3 Mar, 1734; and John, born 5 Jun 1736, in Hardwick, Worcester Co., MA. This makes it unlikely that Huldah was a daughter of John, for it seems likely her birth would have been recorded.

James, Jr. was born 1 Sep 1695 in Chelmsford and moved with his father to Littleton in 1717. Sometime before 1727 he married a Lydia (maiden name unknown). In 1731, he was living in a part of Groton, MA that is now part of Harvard. After 1739, he moved from Groton to Dunstable, now part of Nashua, N.H. Watson Harwood's genealogy (Vol. 2) of his Andrew Harwood line, lists the children of James, Jr. and in the range of Huldah's birth there is a gap. The children born in Littleton are listed with precise birth dates, ending in Mary, b. 6 Jun 1726.  Listed after that, presumably born in Groton, are John, born "between 1728 and 1734", and James, born "about 1736". With no record of their births and a gap that could leave vacant the date of Huldah's birth, James Jr. and wife Lydia must be considered as possible parents of our Huldah Harwood. 

Going on now to the John Harwood line:  John Harwood of London was a merchant who is said to have never come to America, or, if he did, later returned to England, where he died. He had four sons however, who did go to America. Watson Harwood lists them as Thomas, Robert, John and Nathaniel.  Thomas, b.1623, who died in Boston 5 Jan 1707, married a Rachel, widow of  Robert Woodward, and had "six children, but nearly all died young"; son Jeremiah, b. 1656, d. probably before 1705 (not mentioned in father's will), and son Benjamin, b.1663, married and left only a daughter." Robert married a Joanna (maiden name unknown) and had one son Thomas, b. 31 Jan 1673, who "died in early manhood" (1688). John married an Elizabeth (maiden name unknown to Watson Harwood) and had one son who lived to adulthood (John), who remained in Boston and carried on his father's business as a merchant. Watson Harwood says nothing about the children of John in Vol. 2, but goes into more detail in Vol. 3. The fourth son was Nathaniel Harwood, born in England (as were the other) in 1626; he married an Elizabeth (maiden name unknown to Watson Harwood) and "they resided in Boston until after 1665, when they removed to Concord, Mass". John and Elizabeth had four sons; William b. 1665 in Boston; Nathaniel b. 1669 in Concord; Peter, b. 1671 in Concord; and John, b. 1674, in Concord. Clearly the John Harwood, of London, line opens up several possibilities for the Harwood grandfather of our Huldah that I'll now discuss in more detail.  

Of the possibilities above, Jeremiah, son of Thomas, seems to have the potential to have had children, however no records of any have yet been found. He lived in Boston and we know that Huldah met John in Boston, so this can't be dismissed. 

In Vol. 3, Watson Harwood discusses more detail of son John, who carried out his father's business in Boston. While John spent time in Boston, his sons that lived to adulthood (John, Jacob and Joseph) were born in London and all but possibly one died there; that one was Joseph, born in 1667 who was a merchant in New York City in 1693. John's early children (b. 1650-1657) were born in Boston. It seems unlikely that Huldah is a descendant of John's sons. 

Many records are available relating to Nathaniel Harwood's children, who are potential grandfathers of our Huldah. I'll now discuss the likelihood of each. 

William Harwood, b. 28 mar 1665 in Boston, married Esther Perry in Concord and was the father of one son, John Harwood, b. 28 May 1699 in Concord.  John died 8 May 1725 in Fryeburg, Maine, at age 25, in a battle with Indians; he is buried in Nashua, Hillsborough Co., N.H. He died before Huldah was born. 

Nathaniel Harwood, b. 1 Oct 1669 in Concord, married Mary Barron. They appear in our Josiah Proctor tree, which several of our Chr#14 matches descend from. They had one son, Jonathan Harwood, b. 21 Apr 1710 in Chelmsford. WikiTree shows Jonathan Harwood as being married twice, first to Joanna Spaulding, with the second marriage being to Mary Parker in 1738, after Huldah was born; all children recorded in WikiTree are those from the second marriage. Chelmsford records show three children born to Jonathan and Joanna; Mary, b. 16 Jan 1732, Joana; b. 27  Mar 1732/33; and Olive, b. 8 Feb 1734. These records span the birth of Huldah and seem to eliminate Jonathan and Joanna Harwood as her parents.

Peter Harwood, b. 12 Jan 1671 in Concord, married Mary Fox and had five sons; Nathaniel, b. 24 Aug. 1701 in Concord;  John, b. 28 Apr 1703 in Concord; Joseph, b. 26 Feb 1708 in Concord; Benjamin, b. 30 Apr 1713 in Concord; and Ebenezer, b. 22 Feb 1714 in Concord. 

* Ebenezer married in 1737 with his first child born in 1738, well after Huldah's birth. 

* Benjamin married Bridget Brown in May of 1733 and their first recorded child, Peter, was born 14 Jul 1735 in Concord; the gap before Peter's birth could leave room for another child in the timeframe of Huldah's birth, but the theory would be helped by an explanation of why it would not have been recorded; lacking this explanation, Benjamin seems doubtful as the father of Huldah. 

* Joseph Harwood, b. 26 Feb 1708 in Concord, married first Lidia Brooks, 14 Apr 1732 in Concord. WikiTree lists no known children and shows that Lidia died 15 Nov 1732, seven months after marriage. Other records show Joseph later (about 1737) remarried and had three children. There is an open question here: Did Lidia Brooks die when a baby, perhaps Huldah, was born prematurely? If such a baby was born and taken in by another family (perhaps in another town), might that baby's birth have gone unrecorded? This theory cannot be dismissed, leaving Joseph and Lidia (Brooks) Harwood as possible parents of Huldah. 

* John Harwood, b. 28 Apr 1703 in Concord, married Hannah Aldrich, 9 Feb 1726 in Mendon, Worcestor Co., MA, where their first child Peter was born 26 Oct 1727, followed by John in 1730. Daughter Mary was born in Concord 26 Mar 1733. Daughter Hannah was born in Uxbridge, Worcestor Co., 23 Mar 1735. While it is possible that Huldah was born in a gap between these recorded children, why was her birth not recorded - perhaps the movement between towns? Possible, but this seems less likely.

* Nathaniel Harwood, b. 24 Aug 1701 in Concord married Hannah Taylor. During the range of time when Huldah was born they lived in Lunenburg, Worcestor Co. Children born to them in this timeframe were James, b. 4 Oct 1730, Hannah, b. 1 Apr 1732, and Sarah b. 26 Jun 1735. Once again, could Huldah have been born in a gap, but why would her birth not have been recorded when the others were? In this case, their residence did not change through that timeframe. 

Finally, we come to John Harwood, son of Nathaniel and Elizabeth, born in Concord 8 Feb 1674, per Vol. 3 of Watson Harwood's works, which say nothing further about him. WikiTree lists no spouse or children for this son. Without further information, this John Harwood cannot be eliminated as a possible grandfather of our Huldah.

Trees can be created for potential parents of Huldah and the names in those trees could be found in the research that we do on DNA segments. For example, Peter Harwood and Mary Fox both have a very strong Wheeler presence in their pedigrees and those Wheelers are coming up often in our research of a couple of other segments that have the potential to come from John and Huldah. Other clues could come from simply the names that appear there - was Huldah named after one of her grandparents? For example, Hannah Aldrich, wife of John Harwood (son of Peter and Mary Fox Harwood) had a grandmother named Huldah Thayer.

Of course there is always the possibility of other Harwoods being present in New England that Watson Harwood did not identify, though Watson Harwood suggested that they likely left no descendants, went back to England, or moved to a different colony. He said in Vol. 1 "I have never come across a Harwood, who was of New England origin who did not trace his lineage to one or another of these three great Families of the New England Harwoods" (the three being John of London, Andrew of Dartmouth, Devon, and Henry Harwood of the Salem, MA branch). 

Addendum:  I have since discovered that Andrew Harwood, b.1627, had another son John, who married a Martha Barton in Chelmsford, where it was noted that both were "of Boston". Watson Harwood had no more knowledge of what became of them or if they had any descendants.