Mary (?)

Mary (?)

• Name Variation: Mary Sydenham
• Name Variation: Mary Packingham

• Birth*: between 1650 and 1660; England; Birth date range is a guess based on date of daughter's birth.
• Marriage*: before 1676; Marriage date a guess based on date of birth of daughter Elizabeth.; Spouse:William Paxson
• Death*: between 1685 and 1698; Pennsylvania; No record of Mary's death has been found. She is presumed to be the wife referred to in William Paxson's 1682 removal certificate. And she is presumed to be the mother of William, born 1685. Her husband is known to be remarried by 1698.

Family:

William Paxson b. 21 Dec 1648, d. 2 Jan 1709

• Marriage*: before 1676; Marriage date a guess based on date of birth of daughter Elizabeth.; Spouse:William Paxson

Children:

Elizabeth Paxson b. 17 Feb 1676/77
Mary Paxson+ b. 15 Mar 1678/79, d. 22 Feb 1755
William Paxson b. 4 Mar 1685

Notes

• Married Name: Paxson
• Immigration*: 1682; Pennsylvania
• Note*: William Paxson and his wife and children emigrated in 1682.
• Note: William Paxson's first wife's given name was Mary, but her maiden name is unknown. Paxson family descendants and various genealogists have given her maiden name as Packingham or Sydenham. But no contemporary evidence has been found for either.
  
  The only evidence that her given name was Mary comes from the records of the Marsh Gibbon parish, England: "Mary the daughter of William Paxon and Mary his wife was baptized 15th Day of March 1678/9".
  
  Most earlier published genealogies give her maiden name as 'Mary Packingham', but none have been found which cite sources. The case for 'Mary Packingham' is best given by Margaret Tatnall, a Paxson descendent, in a 1904 letter to Gilbert Cope, found in the 'Paxson' file of the Cope Collection. She states: "My Watson & Paxson Records were taken from Sarah M. Fell's unpublished Records, & may not have been authentic, but she said they were correct...[William Paxson] married Mary Packingham. Tradition gives this name of his wife, as we have no certain records. I also send thee a 'Paxson tree' which has been in the family for a good many years, & this also says Wm Paxson married Mary Packingham."
  
  The case for 'Mary Sydenham' is based on a 'Sydenham-Paxson bible', now held at the Spruance Library of the Bucks County Historical Society. This is a Sydenham bible in that the section between the Old and New Testaments contains the birth dates of three, or possibly five, children of William and Ann Sydenham, born between 1682 and 1689, the first in Boston, the second two in England. It was written in old script, and appears to be a contemporary record. This is also a Paxson bible in that the section "pasted on back board" records the births of five children of William and Mary Paxson, from 1712 to 1724/5. The same births are recorded in the Middletown Monthly Meeting records. (From Falls and Middletown Meeting records, we can tell that this is William, born 1685, son of the immigrant, who married Mary Watson in 1711.) This Paxson portion of the 'Sydenham-Paxson bible' was also written in old script, and appears to be a contemporary record. However there is nothing in these two sections linking them together - no Paxson Sydenham marriage is indicated. Likewise nothing in these pages explicitly links any Sydenham to any Paxson.
  
  [See also the William Sydenham & William Paxson (junior) pages in this database.]
  
  A third portion of the 'Sydenham-Paxson bible' was written in 1941 and "pasted on front board". An examination of the original bible by a Spruance librarian indicated that this front matter was all written in one hand with a fountain pen in 1941, when the bible was donated to the Bucks County Historical Society. It starts "THIS BIBLE was brought from England in 1682 by WILLIAM PAXSON on the ship Samuel. He was born in 1633. His wife was Mary Sydenham." It continues, listing a line of descendants to the tenth generation, followed by the names of those who donated the bible. To reiterate the point: The statement "His wife was Mary Sydenham" was written in 1941, and so can only be taken as a family tradition or as the work of some unnamed 20th century genealogist.^1,2,3,4
• Note: Various genealogists have made assertions about the maiden name of William Paxson's first wife, but their documents reveal no additional sources:
  
  The earliest work found by this compiler is that of Sarah Fell (the genealogist named by Margaret Tatnall). Copies of her original work have not been located by this compiler; we see them only through transcriptions made by genealogist Jane W. T. Brey, author of "A Quaker Saga". In her "Supplement" Brey published a "Genealogy of Known Descendants of Thomas and Rebecca (Mark) Watson's Children" compiled between 1877 & 1895 by Amos Satterthwaite & Sarah Fell". There are two different versions of this Satterthwaite/Fell manuscript on FHL microfilms. In the version filmed in 1967 (FHL #511756, item 10) William Paxson's 1st wife is given as "Mary Packingham" on page 3, and as "Mary Packingham(?)" on page 5.
  
  Then Brey changed her transcription: In the version filmed at a different library in 1988 (FHL #1561672, item 9) William Paxson's wife is given as "Mary Packingham" on page 3, and as "Mary Sydenham" on page 5, with a partially illegible handwritten footnote referencing a "Sydenham-Paxson bible" at the Bucks Co. Hist. Soc. Library. [Perhaps the change was induced by Brey's receipt in 1970 of the following Scollay manuscript.]
  
  In 1902 genealogist Anne Hansell Lane Scollay compiled a "Gillam Pedigree", which was included as Part II, Extension 4, in the second version of Jane T. Brey's 'Supplement To A Quaker Saga' (FHL #1561672). This is a 32 page typescript, with handwritten additions made by Jane T. Brey in 1970-74. The Scollay manuscript is significant in several regards: It says William Paxson married twice. It names his first wife as Mary Sydenham, who died ca. 1692 in Bucks Co., Pa., and cites a source, "Sydenham-Paxson family Bible". It names his second wife as Mary White, who died 6.30.1719, buried Falls M.M. cemetery Bucks Co., widow of Hon. John White of Philadelphia & New Jersey, with no children by this second marriage. It does not identify Mary (White) Paxson's maiden name. [Scollay would have seen the bible before addition of the 1941 front piece.]
  
  Genealogist Martha Janet Paxson Grundy, in her NGS Quarterly article, states that "His first wife was Mary, who, according to an old family Bible, was surnamed Sydenham" - presumably she is referring to the portion of the "Sydenham-Paxson bible" written in 1941. Grundy adds "William's second wife was Mary White, the widow of Judge John White of Philadelphia, and her maiden name may have been Packingham, as appears in other old family records." She does not cite a source for the old family records. The idea that the second wife was Packingham appears to originate with Grundy.
  
  Regarding the maiden name of William Paxson's second wife: It is fairly certain that John White first husband of William Paxson's second wife was the same John White of the 1693 Philadelphia will (see her page in this database). But it is difficult to trace the origins of this John White - he was not a Quaker, and his name is extremely common. He may have been the John White from New Castle who played an important role in the Philadelphia assembly. This compiler has found nothing that might bear on his marriage or his wife's maiden name.^5,6,7