West in New England: 52 ANCESTORS IN 52 WEEKS 2015 WEEK 32: CALEB COBURN PT1

Wednesday, September 02, 2015

52 ANCESTORS IN 52 WEEKS 2015 WEEK 32: CALEB COBURN PT1

The three posts about the TChart I did for Caleb Coburn contain all I had known about my
5x great grandfather up until last week. For his installment of the 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks
challenge, I'm going to discuss what I discovered about him since then.

I'll start with another document I found in the Middlesex County, MA: Probate File Papers, 1648-1871 collection on the AmericanAncestors website. It's a petition from Caleb and his two younger siblings, Mary and Abiel, asking the Court to appoint a Timothy Coburn as their guardian:

Middlesex County, MA: Probate File Papers, 1648-1871.Online database. AmericanAncestors.org. New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2014. (From records supplied by the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court Archives.)

This raised a few questions for me. Why didn't they want their stepfather Edward Coburn as a guardian? From what I have found, he didn't die until 1771. I haven't found a date of death for their mother Deborah (Wright) Coburn yet so it's possible that she had died.Had the relations between Edward and his three youngest stepchildren suffered if that were the case?

Then there is the puzzle as to why Caleb and the others had chosen Timothy Coburn. I can find only one family member living at that time in Dracut named Timothy and he was a second or third cousin. According to the Coburn genealogy he was a prominent citizen and there was a "Negress" working for him who was the subject of several family stories. (I'll go into those in another post.)

The family dynamics behind the petition will probably always be a mystery. At any rate, the petition was granted by the court. Notice that on the second document, a Moses Coburn had signed as well as Timothy, and not Edward. Had older brother Moses Coburn been acting as guardian for Caleb and the others?