Mary Hoyt Wells (1703-1750) was born in Deerfield, Massachusetts, to David Hoyt and Mary (Edwards) Hoyt. Mary was only nine months old when she survived a devastating raid on the town by the French and their Native allies in 1704, as her parents took part in the desperate defense of the fortified house of Benoni Stebbins. Her father was killed in the subsequent fight in the Deerfield meadows as the raiding party withdrew with their captives. Her mother married Samuel Field the following year and they had six more children. When Mary was 20, she married Jonathan Wells, Jr. (1684-1735), a widower with no children. Mary and Jonathan had six children, one of whom died at age 16, and two who died in their 20s. Mary Wells never remarried; she died in 1750, aged 47.
In the same year that Jonathan died, Mary moved into the home of her father-in-law, Justice Jonathan Wells, Sr. (1659-1739). She brought with her a "Negro boy" identified as Caesar in her husband's probate inventory as well as "Negro woman Cloathing." This may have been clothing used by Rebecca, an enslaved woman. (transcription, Probate Inventory of Jonathan Wells Jr. (1684-1735), HIstoric Deerfield Library.) On June 14, 1741, Deerfield's minister "baptized Caesar servant to the widow Mary Wells"; four years later, "Caesar to the widow Mary Wells was admitted to the communion." In 1736, "Pompey Negro and Rebecca his wife" were admitted to membership in the church. (Records of the First Church of Deerfield.) Pompey was enslaved by Justice Wells; Rebecca may have been enslaved by Mary's deceased husband Jonathan Jr. but she does not appear in in his probate inventory, making it more likely that she was enslaved in the same household as her husband, Pompey.
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