Three Oake marriages into the Maynard family, 1735 to 1737

On Thursday, September 28, 1738, the Rev. Ebenezer Parkman of Westborough wrote in his diary: "Old Mr. Maynard came and requested me to go over to his son in laws, Nathaniel Oakes to see their Young Child." The child was in great danger. The parents asked him to baptize it, and they sent around to the neighbors, and "There came upward of 20 persons." Parkman baptized the baby Ebenezer, then rode up to Lieutenant Holloway's and visited the Fays. Four days later he was at the child's funeral. The Westborough church records show why a Maynard was fetching the minister: Nathaniel Oake had married Keziah Maynard on June 7, 1736. The man who came for Parkman was probably Kezia's father.

That marriage was one of three. Over three years, three members of the Oake family married into the Maynard families of Marlborough and Westborough. They share their names with three of the eight children placed under Jonathan Forbush's guardianship in 1721/2 after their father Nathaniel Oak died, and were probably the same three.

Mary and Daniel, 1735

The Westborough church records enter the marriage of Mary Oake and "Daniel Maynard of Marlborough" on February 20, 1734/5. Mary was born at Marlborough on March 31, 1710. Marlborough's records give the couple's children from 1735: Lucy (December 8, 1735), Daniel, Sabilla, William, Jedediah (January 15, 1744/5), Elihu and Mary (1751).

Daniel's parents are not named in any record of his marriage. Marlborough enters the birth of "Daniel, s. John Jr. and Lidiah, March 16, 1692," and a Daniel Maynard died at Marlborough on January 1, 1760, "in his 68th year" according to his gravestone, which fits that birth. John Maynard's will of April 15, 1731 names his wife Lydia and "my beloved son Daniel Maynard," and gives Daniel land at Westborough. The Daniel named in the will was probably both the boy born in 1692 and Mary Oake's husband; the will does not name his wife, and Charles Hudson, the town historian, wrote that he was "not confident" of Daniel's parentage.

Daniel and Mary's son Daniel died on December 27, 1759, "in his 23d year," and his father five days later. Mary lived on as a widow. Marlborough enters the death of "Mary, wid. Daniel, April 4, 1805, a. 95," which fits her birth in 1710 exactly.

Kezia and Nathaniel, 1736

Kezia was born at Marlborough on July 10, 1703, to David and Hannah Maynard, and her brother David on January 20, 1704/5. David Maynard made his will on August 14, 1755 (he signed with his mark), and it was allowed on November 18, 1757. It leaves "to my Dauter Kezia the Wife of Nathaniel Oake the sum of Twelve pounds Lawfull Money," to be paid by her brother Nathan or his heirs within two years of his death. It also names his daughters Ruhamah, widow of Deacon Josiah Newton (five pounds), Martha, wife of Daniel Mason, Hannah and Mercy (ten pounds each), and his sons David (the eldest), Ebenezer, Nathan, Jesse and Jotham, with David and Ebenezer as executors; the witnesses are Ebenezer Nurse and two Parkmans, and it is recorded in volume 5, page 389. The will shows Kezia alive in 1755 and married to a Nathaniel Oake, though it gives neither her age nor his parentage. She was probably the Kezia born in 1703, and David Maynard was probably the "Old Mr. Maynard" who fetched Parkman. The Maynards were also Parkman's neighbors, and years earlier he had written of "Landlord Maynard" (August 12, 1724) and, in July 1726, "My Barley Secur'd by Neighbor Maynard and his son." The editors of his diary identify the neighbor of December 14, 1726 as David Maynard.

Nathaniel Oake was a neighbor too. On January 22, 1736, less than five months before his marriage, Parkman noted that "Neighbour Nathaniel Oake and his Team," with eight other men, had brought him nineteen loads of wood. The rest of Kezia and Nathaniel's life, including their move to Bolton by 1746, is on Nathaniel Oake Jr. and Kezia: from Westborough to Bolton.

Ann and David, 1737

On March 14, 1737 Ann Oake married David Maynard, a marriage the church records enter without parents. This is probably Kezia's brother David, born at Marlborough in 1704/5 to David and Hannah; the record does not say. If so, he had already married Jemima Brigham on February 6, 1732/3; the records read do not say what became of her. Westborough records the children of "David Jr. and Ann" between 1737 and 1757: Gemima (November 3, 1737), Solomon, David, Loveniah, Levi, Ann, Hannah and Abigail. The printed record names Ann as Gemima's mother, although Gemima was born less than eight months after the March wedding and shares the first wife's name; if the wedding date is Old Style for March 1737/8, she was born before it. If Kezia and David were brother and sister, Nathaniel and Ann Oake were a brother and sister who married a sister and brother.

What is missing

The families were neighbors; nothing in the records explains how the marriages came about. The will and the diary say nothing of the marriages themselves. No deed ties Daniel and Mary to the Westborough land in John Maynard's will. Kezia's burial has not been found, and neither has a record naming Hannah Maynard's relation to the others. Possible leads remain in the Middlesex deeds for Daniel Maynard, and the copy of David Maynard's will in the Worcester probate record book is still to be checked.

Sources

• Ebenezer Parkman, diary, August 12, 1724; July 16, 1726; December 14, 1726; January 22, 1736; September 28 and October 2, 1738, with the editors' notes (Ebenezer Parkman Project). diary.ebenezerparkman.org/
• Vital Records of Westborough (church-record marriages, February 20, 1734/5; June 7, 1736; March 14, 1737; births from 1737). Vital Records of Marlborough (births of Mary Oak, March 31, 1710, and of the Maynards; deaths of Daniel and Mary Maynard).
• Worcester County probate, David Maynard, case 39457 (will of August 14, 1755, allowed November 18, 1757, Vol. 5, p. 389), read from the loose will on the page images.
• John Maynard's will, April 15, 1731, Middlesex probate case 14854, Vol. 19, pp. 208-209, from a published transcription. Charles Hudson, History of the Town of Marlborough (1862), pp. 413-414.

The family that Nathaniel Oak left at his death in 1720/21 is on Where Nathaniel Oak's family went, and the searches made for them are summarized on the research log.