Please leave us a message including your name below and don't forget to check back for a reply!

Thanks

Illustrating the Problem

As a preliminary to this discussion, keep in mind that we aren't sure that John Reeves who died in Salem is the same as the one who came on the ship Christian. The one who came on the ship was apparently born c1616 while a later deed for John Reeves of Salem indicates he was born c1609 (Deed Book 6, p452). They may not have been careful to keep track of ages, but that's a big enough difference we rightly don't assume this is the same individual. But keep those possible dates in mind for the following points.

1. John of Salem names three children in his will: Elizabeth, Mary, and William. Elizabeth married Richard Richards in 1660. Assuming she was about 15-25 at the time, that puts her birth around 1635-45. Her father would have been 26-36 or 19-29 the time depending on what birth date for John you go with. That works so far. Mary d/o John probably married a little later as her first known son Ephraim Kempton Jr. was born 1674. We know the son William was still alive in 1681 when John wrote his will. There is only one marriage in the 1600s in that area for a William. He married Elizabeth Collins in Salem in 1670. This fits fairly well with what we know of the sisters.
2. This same William was still living in 1702 when he and his wife Elizabeth along with other Collins heirs sold the land of her father Francis Collins. (See deed here.)
3. The earliest probate record for a William Reeves in that county and only one who could possibly be this William wrote his will in 1718. (See his 1718 Will. In it he mentions his wife Elizabeth which is consistent with what we've seen already. He names the following others: daughter Elizabeth, sons Cockeril and William, and GRANDSON Freeborn Reeves.
4. There are only two known individuals with the name Freeborn Reeves. One was Sr. and the other his son Jr. Freeborn Sr. was married in 1715 and his son was probably born 1716 based on a probate document which gives his age. Sr. was deceased in/by 1732 when Jr. chose a guardian.
5. There are birth records for a Freeborn Reeves b. 1658 and his brother Benjamin Reeves b. 1661 in Massachusetts Vital Records (See https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:DZMS-36W2). They are each listed as children of John & Eliza Reeves. Thus the grandson Freeborn mentioned in William's will would have to be Freeborn Sr. if he's his actual grandson. Freeborn Jr. would have been about 2 years old when William wrote his will. Either way, the problem being described shortly still holds.
6. So far, what this would seem to indicate is that Freeborn Sr. was the son of John who was the son of William who wrote the will in 1718. Thus Freeborn grandson of William. However, Freeborn Sr. was born 1658 as mentioned above. Let's assume a fairly short generation of 18 years. With Freeborn b. 1658, his father John would be b. c1640 and John's father William b. c1622. However, we've been working under the assumption that the grandfather William is the same one who married Elizabeth Collins in 1670. That's 12 years after his GRANDSON Freeborn was born. See a problem?

Option 1:
What if William was married multiple times and Elizabeth Collins was a later marriage? In that case, let's just calculate the age William would have been at his death. Again, grandson Freeborn b. 1658, John b. c1640, William b. c1622. That would mean William would probably be at least 96 when he died in 1718 (will probated same year). That seems rather unlikely, although not impossible. This would also seem to make it impossible for William to be the son of John Reeves of Salem.

Option 2:
Could we be dealing with two different William Reeves's here? Maybe William who died in 1718 was not the same as William son of John of Salem. However, review point 2. If we postulate two Williams's, then William s/o John would be the one married to Elizabeth Collins and we know that William was still living in 1702. However, I'm not seeing much in the records to indicate two different Williams.

Evidence From Described Ages:
A couple other pieces of evidence. In a 1706 deposition, William Reeves is described as "slaughterer aged about sixty years." That puts his birth around 1646. The only court records I've been able to easily go through are here: Records and Files of the Quarterly Courts of Essex County Massachusetts. William's age is given twice in 1678 and 1679, which agrees with the above deposition. So William b. 1746 is present from the late 1670s to at least 1706. There are a number of other entries for a William Reeves back to 1668 and nothing to indicate multiple individuals. I do notice he was charged with committing fornication in 1668. If there's only one William, he got his act together pretty quickly given that he married Elizabeth Collins a little under two years later. But the original problem still stands. There's no way William b. 1646 could be the grandfather of Freeborn b. 1658.

Connection to Cockerill Family:
One other piece of strong circumstantial evidence. We've already seen that Elizabeth Collins who married William in 1670 was a daughter of Francis Collins per the heirs deed. Well Frances Collins was the administrator for the estate of an Elizabeth Cockerill, who may have been his mother-in-law. Online genealogies claim Mrs. Frances Collins was an Elizabeth Cockerill and daughter the elder Elizabeth's whose estate Frances administrated. William and Elizabeth Reeves of the 1718 will had a son named Cockeril Reeves. This is supporting evidence that this couple were the same William and Elizabeth, parents of Cockerill Reeves. But that brings us back to the ages conundrum.

Occupation/Titles:
I did notice that two of the heirs deeds from children of the William of the 1718 will describe him as "Mason" whereas the 1706 deposition and two earlier deeds describe William as slaughterer and butcher. He doesn't give himself any title in the will. (See 1725 deed and 1739 deed for the heirs deeds. See also the earlier 1671 deed and 1675 deed describing him as Butcher.)

Vital Records on William Reeves & Elizabeth Collins:
The marriage of William Reeves and Elizabeth Collins is included in Massachusetts Vital Records. (See https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:Q29G-G442). Interestingly, immediately following the marriage entry it states: "their son John borne ye 12 July 1673." This obviously cannot be the same John who was father of Freeborn.

I haven't been able to find any good records on what happened to either of these Johns. There is one entry for a John in the Quarterly court records which I've transcribed that mentions "Jno. Reives, aged about thirty years" in 1665. That would fit with this John being the father of Freeborn b. 1658.

∗ A related thought or reply can go immediately above this line ∗