Eleazer Partridge (1664-1736) Elizabeth Smith (1672-1704)

{Ellis Ancestors}

Eleazer Partridge was born in the west section (now Medway) of Medfield, Massachusetts, on 20 February 1664.1 He was the fourth of ten children of John and Magdalene Bullard Partridge. His father, John, was at Dedham in 1652 and settled at Medfield the next year. Indians burned his buildings, grain and cattle in the attack on Medfied during King Phillip’s War in 1676.2

Elizabeth Smith was born to Samuel and Elisabeth Turner Smith in Medfield, on 29 February 1671-72.1 Just before her fourth birthday, Elizabeth’s mother was killed by a tomahawk during the Indian attack on Medfield on 21 February 1676. Elizabeth and her one-year-old brother, Samuel, survived the attack. A year later, her father remarried to Sarah Clarke Bowers, a widow whose husband was also killed in the attack.1

Eleazer Partridge and Elizabeth Smith were married on 25 April 1692 in Medfield.1 He was 28 and she was twenty.

"Eleazer inherited his father's homestead in Medfield (at what is now Mechanic St and Oak St., Medway), and resided there until about 1723, [when he moved to property he had purchased]. This property was in the vicinity of what is now North Bellingham, which for a century and a half was known as Partridgetown, and is still so designated by the oldest inhabitants."3 [This was written in 1901.] The History of the Town of Bellingham says,

"Eleazar … bought in 1720 for two hundred and sixty pounds, one hundred and two acres "of wild land" in Rawson's Farm, one-twelfth of the seven hundred and forty acres, and other tracts, all from Thomas Sanford, with the buildings. His wife brought with her from Medfield a small homemade chest which I have now, with the date 1694 carved upon it. The name Partridgetown came from this family, and one of the descendants still owns a part of the original land. Eleazar Partridge was the third town clerk, and his son Benjamin was treasurer four years and schoolmaster. Benjamin's great great grandson, George F. Partridge, a graduate of Harvard College and a Boston high school teacher, is the author of this book. Sixty births of this name were recorded to 1850".2

Eleazer and Elizabeth had eight children, all born of record in Medfield.1 Four grew to adulthood.

  1. Eleazer born 1[torn] May 1693

  2. Joseph born 16 May 1695

  3. Elizabeth (Julia's ancestor) born 16 August 1696; married Joseph Ellis 12 December 1716 died 14 January 1717/18 in Medway.

  4. An unnamed baby boy, born and died 19 May 1696.

  5. Job born 19 May 1698

  6. Abigail, born 23 March 1699/1700

  7. Rachel born 11 March 1701/02

  8. Silence born 19 June 1704, died 31 October 1704

Elizabeth Smith Partridge died in Medfield on 4 July 1704, two weeks after the birth of her daughter, Silence.

On 9 April 1705, Eleazer married Elizabeth Allen. They had six more children:

  1. Joseph 15 March 1705/06

  2. David 22 March 1707/09, died young

  3. Phebe 5 September 1709, died 12 November 1709

  4. Benjamin born 16 May 1713

  5. Peter 22 May 1716, died young?

  6. Zechariah 22 March 1718/20

Elizabeth Allen Partridge died 26 October 1733; and Eleazer died 8 November 1736. His will was proved 2 December 1736 (Suffolk Co. Prob. Rec., vol. xxxiii., p. 5). Bequests were made to his sons Eleazer, Job, Joseph, Benjamin, and Zachariah; his daughter Abigail Clark; and three of his grandchildren, Joseph Ellis, Sarah Ellis and Reuben Ellis.3

Sources:

  1. Massachusetts Vital Records 1620 – 1850 - Medfield

  2. History of the Town of Bellingham, Massachusetts, 1719-1919:

  3. NEHG Register Vol. 57 P 52: