vital records sources
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Top: Ebenezer's signature and his wife's mark on one of her father's probate papers; bottom: from the probate papers of his brother John. This shows the fluidity of spelling that was common in 17th and early 18th century New England.

Bio in progress

The earliest document found that likely mentions Ebenezer is the adult baptism of a man with that name at the First Church at Cambridge on 15 September 1700.1 This year may be significant given that his death record points to a birth year of 1679. If so, he came of age in 1700. He is generally thought to have been the son of John Redding and Mary Bassett. They married and had a daughter in Sandwich whose birth is recorded in 1677. The family was in Weymouth, Massachusetts, in early 1679 and Wells, Maine, in 1680. (York Deeds show John was there in 1690 to 1693). It was then on to Ipswich by 1698, then Gloucester. John deposed in Boston on 17 November 1683 that he was about 30, formerly of Casco Bay and that he had been a fisherman with his father at "Mair Point" in Gloucester before the war.2 Thomas Redding, the presumed father of John, was named as a former owner of a piece of land at "Mair Point Neck" in Gloucester in an Essex County deed.3 John's first wife Mary died and he married a woman named Jane by the time they were in Gloucester. John died there on 17 November 1716.4 Obviously their life at sea led them to live in various ports. Ebenezer was not a seaman, and he may have ended up in Cambridge as an apprentice. There are no other Redding families to stand as alternatives to that of John and Mary to which Ebenezer may have been attached. As an adult he was free to live where he wanted, provided he wasn't at risk of needing public support. He spent nearly his whole adult life in Middleborough, Massachusetts Bay.
The birth records for Weymouth are missing between 15 January 1676/77 and March 1677/78. Ebenezer doesn't appear after this in Weymouth or before in Sandwich. It isn't recorded where the family was between Eleanor's birth on 22 February 1677 (if New Style) or 1678 (if Old Style) and      At the First Church in Middleborough, Ebenezer "made a relation consented to ye confession of faith & was admitted into full communion" on 10 July 1715. His first four children were baptized there on 22 January 1715/16 as were the other children as they were born.5 Church records, 1707-1821, First Congregational Church of Middleboro, Mass, image 6.Ebenezer was very active in Middleborough town offices, committees and as a juryman at the Plymouth County Court. The citations for the items below follow the citation links, which have yet to be formatted. See the first citation for the full source.

*His most frequent service was as a sealer of weights and measures, elected at the following town meeting dates: 1 Mar 1733/34,1 ("Massachusetts, Town Clerk, Vital and Town Records, 1626-2001," familysearch.org database online (2020), Middleborough, Births, marriages, intentions of marriage, deaths, indexes, and miscellaneous town records, 1674-1854, image 294 of ms p 146 (hereafter image/page) 3 Mar 1734/35),1 297/152 1 Mar 1735/36,1 301/160 1 Mar 1738/39,1 318/191 17 Mar 1739/40,1 321/198 25 March 1741,1 323/202 15 Mar 1741/42,1 328/211 21 Mar 1742/43, 1332/220 14 Mar 1743/44,1 339/233 29 Mar 1745,1 353/255 4 Apr 1746,1 "Massachusetts, U.S., Town and Vital Records, 1620-1988," ancestry.com database online (Provo, UT: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011), Middleborough, Town Records, with Births, Marriages, and Deaths (vol. 1746-1772 begins at image 600), 622/2 and 7 Apr 17471 Ibid, 626/10

*chosen to be on the jury of trials at the Plymouth court, 7 May 17171 232/41 2 Mar 1732/33, grand jury,1 286/130 26 Feb 1739/40, grand jury,1 321/197 20 Feb 1744/45, jury of trials, "chosen by drawing from a box as the law directs"1 350/250

*pound keeper, 9 Mar 1718/19,1 240/52 9 Sep 1729, paid 6 shillings for repairing the pound and stocks1 276/111
1, 29 Sep 1740, paid 8 shillings for repairing the pound1 322/200 29 Mar 1745, paid £3 for finding timber and making the pound1 353/255

*field driver 5 Apr 17201 248/60 and 10 Mar 1723/241 260/82

*constable, 1 Mar 1727/28,1 248/60 24 Mar 1741/42,1149/212 and 10 Mar 1728/29.1 275/109 1 Sep 1738, a record of Ebenezer's rates collected as constable1 263/89

*tythingman, 17 Mar 1717/18,1 237/49 16 Mar 1736/37 and 1 Mar 1737/381 312/180

*fenceviewer, 1 Mar 1738/391 318/191

*28 Sep 1741, paid 6 shillings for mending the stocks1 327/209

*surveyor of highways, 18 Mar 1724/51 267/94

*town meeting moderator, 16 June 17271 273/104

*1 Mar 1722/23, he was one of three men "improved to have an inspection over the boys at the meeting house on the sabbath days and to prevent their playing at meeting"1 254/71

children of Ebenezer Redding and Mercy Miller:2

i. William, b. 7 November 1706
ii. Mercy, b. 30 March 1708
iii. Hannah b. 8 February 1709/10
iv. Ebenezer, b. 11 October 1713
v. Margaret, b. April 1716
vi. Moses, b. 8 October 1717
vii. John, b. August 1719
viii. Deborah, b. April 1722
ix. Lydia, b. July 1724
x. Thomas, b. 29 March 1727

vital records sources: Ebenezer's first marriage is recorded in "Middleborough, Mass., Births, Marriages and Deaths," in The Mayflower Descendant, vol. 2 (1900), 157. The second marriage is in Vol. 5 (1903), 40, by "Peter Thacher." Joanna was the widow of Elisha Vaughn. Ebenezer's death appears in First Church of Middleborough, Massachusetts; Mr. Putnam's Century and Half Discourses (etc.), 83, "aged ab't 72."

1. Records of the Church of Christ at Cambridge in New England, 1632-1830, p. 59.
2. The births of their children are recorded in "Middleborough, Mass., Births, Marriages and Deaths," in The Mayflower Descendant, (1900) (William in 2:105; Mercy, Hannah, Ebenezer in 3:85; Margaret and those after her in 7:241, not all have days of the month given). Massachusetts, U.S., Town and Vital Records, 1620-1988, Middleborough, Town Records, with Births, Marriages, and Deaths. The town's vital records says "was born some time in the month of...," inferring that the family didn't know the day when the Town Clerk came to gather the information after all the children were born. This wasn't unique to the Reddings, but very unusual given the rest of the Middleborough birth records in the early 18th century. It's odd that two of these births have the day given. William, 16/1; Mercy, Hannah, Ebenezer, 44/29, the rest image 96 of ms p 80.
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