vital records sources
go to Jonathan Glover's page

Tabitha's mark on her children's guardianship bond

Tabitha was baptized with three of her sibling in the First Church of Salem on 12 July 1712.1 Although her first husband died and left her with 4 young boys to raise, it was 20 years later after the boys were grown and she was no longer of child-bearing age that she married again. Second husband Thomas Jillings was a Newburyport resident. There's no obvious circumstance that suggests how they met. They married in Salem by Rev. Dudley Leavitt. Leavitt was a "New Light" minister who preached for a splinter congregation that had split off from the First Church. Tabitha's son Daniel and Thomas's daughter Hannah married the following year in Newbury, but lived in Marblehead, where all three of her sons lived. She was admitted to the Congregational church at Newburyport in 1757 and given a psalm book.2
     Tabitha survived both of her husbands. After Thomas died she may have moved to Marblehead to live with one of her sons. She was an elderly widow and had no blood connection to the Jillings children. It is widely stated that she died in Marblehead, since it's recorded in the published vital records of the town, but this isn't a town vital record. It's based on her gravestone, so it can only be speculated that she died there. She's buried in the family plot bought by her son Gen. John Glover. Her headstone says she was the "relict" of Thomas Jillings, "but formerly the wife of Capt. Jonathan Glover, from whom the present families of that name are descended." Clearly a Glover was responsible for this.

children of Tabitha Bacon and Jonathan Glover:3

i. Jonathan bap. 4 July 1731
ii. Samuel bap. 4 July 1731
iii. John bap. 26 November 1732
iv. Daniel, bap. 19 January 1734/35

vital records sources: Tabitha's baptism and marriages are in Vital Records of Salem, Massachusetts to the end of the year 1849 vol. 1 (Salem, MA: Essex Institute, 1903), 61, and ibid, vol. 2 (Salem, MA: Essex Institute, 1904), 70 (to "Jonathn Glover, Jr.") and 548 respectively. The subsource for her second marriage was Rev. Dudley Leavitt's private record of marriages. Her death is in Vital Records of Marblehead, MA to the end of the year 1849, vol. 2 (Salem, MA: Essex Institute, 1904), 593, citing a gravestone in the Gen. John Glover plot in the cemetery on Old Burial Hill.

1. see "vital records sources" above.
2.year only; Congregational Archives & Library website, https://congregationallibrary.quartexcollections.com/Documents/Detail/church-records-1725-1816-first-religious-society-in-newburyport-mass./25497?item=25563, image 100, "Gillings."
3. Vital Records of Salem, Massachusetts to the end of the year 1849 vol. 1 (Salem:Essex Institute, 1903), 61, taken from First Church of Salem records (confirmed at Congregational Archives & Library database online).