Individual Details

Martha's time line:
2. Martha Smith
a. She is listed as the wife of William (Gen 1) and mother of his three children by Seth Presbrey in 1839, but she also appeared in the Mayflower Silver book as the wife of Joseph Presbrey and mother of his three children bearing the same names William, Joseph, and Hannah.
b. The Mayflower Silver books has her born 20 October 1686 daughter of Andrew Smith and Mary Bundy, with her birth date and father’s name confirmed by the Taunton vital records.
c. Martha Smith married Joseph Prisbery on 9 December 1714 in Norton, matching the Mayflower Silver book.
d. Probate records show widow Martha Presbrey being assigned a guardian in 1772 for what appears to be age related infirmities. First son William is assigned and then upon her request the guardianship is transferred to her son Joseph later in the summer. Martha refers to both as her sons. This matches the Mayflower Silver book.
e. Martha is still alive in 2 August 1773, when a deed was written “four dollars a per year during ye life of one Martha Prisbrey widow of Joseph Presbrey Deceased for which sd Martha Claims a right of Dower in her husbands estate Real and having received of Mary Prisbry of sd William deceased and administratrix to sd Estate on sd Deceased Williams estate … warrentee [sic] deed sd Wiliam gave me as on record dated February 2 1773.” The deed executed 2 February 1773 being referenced is about 6 acres “it being what my hon[ore]d father gave me by deed … .”1 This places William, who died in 1773 with his wife Mary as his administratrix, as the son of Martha and having received land from his father before summer of 1772 as Martha is a widow then. This deed is a result of not clearing the dowers rights from the land, since the 2 February 1773 deed was not released by Mary and apparently the earlier one was not released by Martha.
f. The Mayflower Silver book suggested Martha was the “Mrs. ‘Old’ Prisbrey” who died 1 January 1778, matching the Taunton vital records.2


1 Bristol County, Massachusetts, Registry of Deeds, 55:104, William Presbrey to Nehemia Liscome, 2 Feb 1773 ; digital images 70 of 610 (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QS7-99ZS-BSQ9?wc=MCBL-HPD%3A361612901%2C361701701%26cc%3D2106411&i=69 : accessed 1 Feb 2025).
2 Mayflower Families Through Fifth Generations, vol. 15 , p. 70-71; images 70-71. And,
Vital Records of Taunton, Massachusetts to the Year 1850, Vol. III, p. 168, Mrs. “Old” Prisbrey, 1 Jan 1778 (Haverhill, MA: Record Publishing Co., 1929); digital image 172 of 248 Internet Archive (https://archive.org/details/vitalrecordsofta03unse/page/166/mode/2up?q=prisbry : accessed 1 Feb 2025).

Death

Aft Aug 1773

Spouse	Joseph Presbrey ( - 1772)
Child	WILLIAM Presbrey (1690 - 1771)
Child	Joseph Presbrey (1693 - )
Child	Hannah Presbrey (1715 - )