vital records sources
go to Benjamin Burges's page

     In late December 1729, a Rochester town meeting lists people who had provided the Burgeses provisions while the family was sick. It wasn't unusual for people who had fallen on hard times to have some of their living costs covered by the town they lived in. It was mostly reimbursements for someone voluteering to take an indigent person into their house or the afflicted person having their taxes abated. The situation with the Burgeses was very different. Specific ways the family was helped can be found at Benjamin's page, but the final accounting June 1730 to determine how much it would cost the town was the considerable sum of £9, 19 shillings, which included food, firewood, doctor fees and making a coffin. It isn't said who had died, but it was likely Benjamin, who is referred to as deceased in a deed acknowledgement in May 1730.
     At the 3 March 1729/30 session of the Plymouth County Court of Sessions, "Priscilah Burges's presentment for not frequenting the publick worship of God continued til next term the court being informed she was sick."1
     "Widow Priscillai Burges" joined the Mattapoisett Precinct church in full communion and was baptized on 7 May 1749.2 "Priscilla Burgis" was warned out of Dartmouth, recorded in the town meeting minutes on 24 January 1754.2 People were warned out if they weren't established residents and were thought to be at risk of needing the town's financial support. Some of the Burgeses and the family of her daughter Phebe Howard lived in Rochester and Dartmouth, moving back and forth to places very near the towns' common border. Daughter Patience Merithew was probably in Nova Scotia by 1754 and son Samuel was in Freetown, Massachusetts. Phebe and her husband Matthew Howard had themselves been warned out of Dartmouth in 1726 as single people shortly before they married. They eventually settled permanently on land Matthew bought in Dartmouth, but the date of that isn't recorded. Priscilla's son Joseph, who evidently was a poor laborer, also had a fluid residence between the towns and never owned property in either. His children's births are recorded in Dartmouth, so Priscilla may have moved from the Howard household in Rochester to live with Joseph, which raised a reg flag with the Dartmouth selectmen. This is the last record found of her.

children of Priscilla Gatchell and Benjamin Burges:3

i. Elizabeth, b. 13 March 1706/07
ii. Phebe, b. 16 December 1708
iii. Joseph, b. 15 December 1710
iv. Joanna, b. 24 August 1712, supp. d. y.
v. Thomas, b. 6 October 1714 (there was a Thomas who m. Patience Doty 26 Jan 1744/45, Plymouth, had Elizabeth and Thomas)
vi. Patience, b. 4 October 1716, m. Roger Merithew 24 Feb 1736, Rochester
vii. Benjamin, b. 2 April 1719, supp. moved to Lanesborough, MA, but this could be a cousin or nephew.
viii. Samuel, b. 9 July 1721, lived in Freetown, farm laborer, ch. Priscilla, Mary, Thomas, Benjamin, Jeaheleel (from Bible, Jahleel) and Samuel were warned out of Dartmouth in 1757. Who was the Benjamin Burge of Rochester who intented to Marcy Wing? of Sandwich, 3 Mar 1770? Who was Mary Burgess who m. Stephen Landers, both of R, m. 1 Apr 1770, Roch? Check Thomas who m. Dolly Newton, both of D, d. in 1775
ix. Sarah, b. 24 April 1724

vital records sources:

1. Plymouth Colony Court, vol. 2, NEGHS image 81, mss 8:127-128.
2. Congregational Library & Archives database online, https://www.congregationallibrary.org/, "Mattapoisett, Mass. Congregational Church, Church records, 1736-1855," http://nehh-viewer.s3-website-us-east-1.amazonaws.com/#/content/Mattapoisett/viewer/Clerk27s20records2C2017361855/37, original ms record p. 23.
"Bristol County, MA: Extracts from Court of General Sessions of the Peace, 1697-1801," New England Historic Genealogical Society database online (2012), https://www.americanancestors.org/DB483/rd/13134/73/234407937.
3. Vital records of Rochester, Massachusetts, to the year 1850, vol. 1 (Boston: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 1914), 64-65, Vital Records of Dartmouth, Massachusetts to the Year 1850, vol. 1 (Boston:1929), 52.
"Massachusetts, U.S., Town and Vital Records, 1620-1988," Ancestry.com database online (Provo, UT: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011), "Rochester, Town Records, with Births, Marriages, and Deaths," image 131 of ms p. 123.