vital records sources
go to Margaret Briggs's page

Ebenezer's signature on his will

The above signature is the only one for which I've found an image. Redding was spelled by others with one and two "d"s. His father spelled it both ways. Since it's somewhat ambiguous, I've spelled the name "Redding."
     When Ebenezer was in his later teens, the estate of Seth Howland paid him 5 shillings for unidentified services to Howland.1 The account that includes this is dated in November 1729, but there is a line item that says that taxes were paid for 1731. Ebenezer was between 16 and 18 at this time. Howland lived in Middleborough, as did the Redding family. Ebenezer, Sr., was a constable there and is also in the estate account being paid taxes.
     Ebenezer married Margaret Briggs in June 1737 by Rev. Nathaniel Fisher, minister to the church at Dighton, Massachusetts. Several years earlier, the part of Dighton east of the Taunton River, along with a part of Taunton to the north, were incorporated as the Town of Berkley. This is where the Briggs family lived. The church in Berkley wasn't organized until November 1737, so Ebenezer and Margaret went to Dighton to marry. At this time, Berkley and Middleborough shared a town border, so Ebenezer's move wasn't far.
     The first and only record of Ebenezer acquiring land was on 2 February 1742/43, 41:272 when his father-in-law gifted a piece of land in Berkley to Ebenezer and Margaret. This is described as being on the road from Taunton to Freetown. It was part of John Briggs's real estate holdings north of the Berkley village, which placed it on Berkley Street above North Main Street.
     Ebenezer was a blacksmith and may have moved to Berkley for business opportunities and possibly served there as an apprentice. He and Margaret received a "renewal of their baptismal covenant" at the Berkley church on 9 December 1739 and the following 23 December they renewed the covenant and confessed to the sin of "fornication." Ebenezer, Jr., was born six months after his parents were married. They weren't re-baptized, but rather admitted to the church by the baptismal and then the sacramental covenants. The latter may have been specific to their confession of sin. Ebenezer, Jr., was baptized the same day as the confession. The rest of their children are in the Berkley church records being baptized except Samuel.
Some sort of illness caused Ebenezer's death when he was 41. In his will he described himself as "being in a poor languishing condition." 2110 He gave Margaret "the priveledge of living in my dwelling house during her natural life," the "improvement of all my land" until their son Zebedee came of age, and two cows. Son Ebenezer was given "all my blacksmith tools," the blacksmith shop and their house when his mother died, as well as his grindstone, gun, sword, and half his clothing. Half of the land and half his clothing was to go to Zebedee. Son Samuel was given the other half of the land. Daughters Mercy and Hannah were given $13. The remainder of the estate was to go to Margaret, whom he named his executrix. The will was written on 12 August and Ebenezer had died by the time the order was made for his inventory, the earliest document in his probate file, dated 16 September 1754.

Ebenezer's inventory lists:

a gun and sword
a blue coat
a black jacket
a blue drugget great coat
a green coat
a pair of leather breeches
a jacket
2 linen shirts
2 pair of long breeches
a fine shirt
a poor hat
a cotton handkerchief
an old silk handkerchief
a fly coat of a grayish color
the whole of his stockings
2 checked flannel shirts
a pair of silver buttons
a note of hand due from Nathaniel Babbitt
a pocket book
2 beds and the furniture which is 4 sheets, 2 coverlets that stand in the lower room
3 sheets
4 bedsteads and 4 bed cords
2 beds and bedding and furniture which is 4 sheets and 2 coverlets in the chamber
2 tubs
barrels
a small chest
a quilting wheel
flax and wool
2 chests
a small cedar tub
2 tables
a peck
a jug
a meal trough
a great wheel
a pair of stilyards
6 plates
9 basins
3 porringers
a quart pot
3 basins
a tunnel
a paper box
a grater
earthenware
woodenware
glass
5 yards of brown drugget cloth
a sugar box
6 baskets
2 pails
scales
a pair of cards
a reel
4 powder horns
a brass ink horn
a razor
an ink jug
24 bullets
books
knives
candlestick
salt mortar
kine? (an archaic word for a cow, but surely not in this context)
5 chairs
an old brass skillet
frying pan
2 kettles
a pot
2 trammels
tongs
fire shovel
(fire) goose
9 old barrels
2 tubbs
a pair of quilting bars
a table cloth
2 towels
an anvil
a "beacorn" (must be a blacksmith's tool, but not identified)
2 sledges
a small sledge
hammers
stakes
a pair of bellows
6 pairs of blacksmith's tongs
a grindstone
diverse, small blacksmiths tools
4 hogs
2 cows
a quarter part of a seine
a pair of looms
2 sleighs and furniture
2 grease bags
a pair of mittens

children of Ebenezer Redding and Margaret Briggs: Ebenezer, Marcy, Zebedee, Marcy, 140/273, Ebenezer, Marcy, Zebedee, Molly, Samuel, Hannah, 123/240>

i. Ebenezer, b. 11 December 1737, bap. 23 December 1739
ii. Marcy, b. 13 January 1739/40, bap. 9 March 1739/40
*(an additional daughter Marcy is in one group of records with the birth date 17 August 1741, but this surely is a clerical error given when Zebedee was born)
iv. Zebedee, b. 17 January 1741/2 (another record says 7 December 1743, but "Molly" is given this birth date, which makes more sense), bap. 2 May 1742
v. Mary/Molly, b. 7 December 1743 (Molly), bap. 22 April 1744 (Mary), d. 10 October 1744 vi. Samuel, b. 31 December 1747
vii. Hannah, b. 5 May 1753, bap. 20 May 1753

vital records sources: Ebenezer's birth is recorded in "Middleborough, Mass., Births, Marriages and Deaths," in The Mayflower Descendant, Vol. 3 (1901), p. 85.

1. Plymouth Co., MA, volume 6:147.
The Acts and Resolves, Public and Private, of the Province of the Massachusetts Bay, Vol. 15, p. 591.