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Frances was raised in South Kingstown, Rhode Island. She may have married before she came of age, but I've seen no record of the event. It certainly isn't in Austin's compilation of vital records of Rhode Island, which includes North and South Kingstown, or those in Cornwallis, Nova Scotia, where she moved not long after. Despite this, the date of 19 June 1760 is claimed on the internet and, as usual, no source given. Given how many guesses and confusion and untrustworthy things happen with genealogy on the web, I won't give this credence without a good source. The date is plausible, but since Benjamin and Enoch were very likely older than Hannah, whose 1763 birth is the first of the family recorded at Cornwallis, I lean toward a circa date of 1757, allowing Benjamin and Enoch to have been born in Rhode Island abt 1758/59 and 1760/61. Another statement taken for truth is that the family moved to Nova Scotia in 1760. People started moving there in that year who were part of the wave that brought the Steadmans, but they didn't all come at once. The first record of John there is in June 1761, so Enoch and Benjamin were born before this and aren't in the Cornwallis records. This also means Frances was married when she was about 20. All reasonable.
     There aren't many details about the Stedmans after they went to Nova Scotia. It isn't known when Frances died. She signed a deed with John on 26 June 1780 as co-heir of her father, and that's the last I find of her.1 (2:141)

children of John Stedman and Frances Congdon:

Benjamin b. ca. 1758
Enoch b. 1761

(births hereafter from Cornwallis Township Book)

Hannah b. 15 February 1763
John b. 19 April 1765
Elizabeth b. 20 December 1767
Thomas b. 30 January 1771
Sarah b. 20 September 1774
William b. 25 April 1777
James Congdon b. 2 June 1781




1. Kings Co., NS, deed 2:181.


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