BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES

Edmund Goodenow and Rebekah Graves

Edmund Goodenow was born October 16, 1661 in Sudbury, Middlesex County, Massachusetts. He was the third of twelve children and the oldest son of John Goodenow and Mary Axtell. Edmund would marry four times.

Edmund's first wife was Dorothy Mann who was born in 1663. They married on June 6, 1686 in Sudbury and had two children:

Edmund's wife Dorothy died in 1689, still in her 20's.

About 1690, Edmund married a woman named Sarah who died in November 1691, just days after giving birth to their son, Ebenezer Goodenow. Ebenezer died in his teens about 1703.

Edmund's third wife was Rebekah Graves, 15 years his junior. Rebekah was born in Sudbury on November 7, 1676 to John and Mary Graves. The couple married in 1694 and had twelve children, all born in Sudbury:

  • Mary Goodenow, born about 1694
  • Samuel Goodenow, born about 1694
  • Sarah Goodenow, born in 1695/96
  • John Goodenow, born in 1698
  • Joseph Goodenow, born in 1700
  • Rebekah Goodenow, born in 1702
  • Ebenezer Goodenow, born in 1704
  • Cornelius Goodenow, born in 1705
  • Jonathan Goodenow, born in 1707/08
  • Dorothy Goodenow, born in 1710
  • David Goodenow, born in 1712/13
  • Mercy Goodenow, born in 1714/15

Rebekah (Graves) Goodenow died in Sudbury on February 6, 1719/20 at age 43.

Later that year, Edmund married once more, to Hannah Allen. By this time, Edmund was close to 60 years old. He died about seven years later, on May 31, 1727 and was buried in Sudbury.

Sources & Related Information

  • "Goodenow Who Originated in Sudbury, Massachusetts" by Theodore James Fleming Banvard, Goodenow Family Association (Gateway Press Inc., Baltimore, 1994)
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