vital records sources
go to Moses Farnum's page
| ancestral chart | father | index | home |
vital records sources
go to
Moses Farnum's
page
Abigail is often put within the list of Thomas and Christian's children's births about 1700. I haven't seen a reason for this, but the last of her children, twins, were born in 1745, culminating 17 years of child birth. If she was 45, about the norm for the end a woman's fertility very generally speaking, but quite normal in New England, this would be her approximate birth year. Another indicator of this end of fertility is a gap of about 3-5 years between the last and second to last children, which isn't the case for the Farnum children. The gap is only between January 1743 and June 1745. I also think 1700 is an uncomfortably close fit between sisters Bathsheba and Ruth, even granting that we don't have exact birth dates for either. It's was also the norm in first marriages that the husband was either very close in age or older than his wife. Moses was born in 1705. All things considered, I feel Abigail was the last known child born, after John and about 1705.
Abigail apparently converted to become a Friend or Quaker, maybe when she married Moses, whose family were members of Smithfield Monthly Meeting. She and Moses are undoubtedly buried in The Uxbridge Friends Cemetery across from the Meeting House. The latter was built in 1770, so she would have worshipped there as a widow for several years.
children of Abigail Sanford and Moses Farnum:
i. John b. abt 1728
ii. Moses b. 25 October 1730
iii. Anna b. 2 September 1732
iv. Mary b. 2 September 1732
v. Hannah b. 11 September 1737
vi. Stephen b. 19 September 1739
vii. Abigail b. 19 August 1741
viii. Rachel b. 13 January 1742/43
ix. David b. 28 June 1745
x. Jonathan b. 28 June 1745
vital records sources: Her marriage is in Vital Records of Mendon, Massachusetts, to the end of the year 1850 (Boston:1920), 375. Her death appears in a town and a Friends record, but the dates don't match: 18 July (Smithfield MM, in Rhode Island Vital Records, 7:187) and 2 October (Vital Records of Uxbridge, Massachusetts, to the end of the year 1850 (Boston:1916), 372, confirmed in original town records, "wido. Abigail Farnum").
1 1.