No marriage record was found in England or New England which could be positively identified as Edward’s. Marriage records for an Edward, which predated his immigration to Dover, were found near Edward’s English origin but none were to a lady named Katherine. There is no doubt he had a wife named Katherine when he lived in Dover and on Nantucket. Beginning with a deed in 1653, three original records identified Katherine as Edward’s wife. The deeds are the only original records found thus far which include her given name. As with most records made on a woman after her marriage, no mention was made of her maiden name.
| Date | Location | Transaction |
| 20 Jul 1653[1] | Dover (in Rockingham County Deeds) | Edward & Kathren sold ½ Edward’s grant of Cochecho upper falls to Peter Coffyn p. 1 & 2 |
| 6 Mar 1659/60[2] | Dover (in Rockingham County Deeds) | Edward & Kathren sold land to Peter Coffin |
| 19 June 1678[3] | Dover (in Rockingham County Deeds) | Edward & Katherine sold land to Peter Coffin (p. 1 & 2) |
Despite the lack of a marriage record, Katherine has been identified with the surname Reynolds in several compiled sources, sometimes with the addition, “of Wales.” Clarence A. Torrey listed many of the histories in his New England Marriages to 1700.[4]
Of the nine books and four issues of The Register Torrey used (all printed between 1870 and 1988), each identified Edward’s wife as Katherine Reynolds but without an original source to back their statements up.[5]
That means no one has found a record made during Edward and Katherine’s lifetime that indicated her maiden name was Reynolds. So, where did that surname come from?
The earliest printed mention found of the surname Reynolds for Katherine was in John Farmer’s 1829 A Genealogical Register of the First Settlers of New England.[6] The book identified Edward’s origin as Derbyshire and his wife as Eunice Reynolds of Wales. There was no record of a marriage for Edward to a Eunice and the only original records with a wife’s name are his deeds with Katherine. While the name Eunice might be associated in some way with Katherine, there’s no source to indicate she ever went by that name.
Farmer’s source for Edward was listed only as “Coffin,” but there is no doubt this is his frequent correspondent, Joshua Coffin, an early historian who researched his Coffin family line and that of other early New England families. Several pieces of surviving Coffin-Farmer correspondence have been checked, but none explained why Joshua Coffin or John Farmer thought Edward’s wife was Eunice Reynolds. Eunice could also be a writing or printing mistake since most historians use only Katherine for Edward’s wife’s name.
While it was possible Edward went to or lived in Wales before immigrating (there are a few years with no records for him) and married Katherine there, Wales is a significant distance from what we call Starbucky Territory (the area at the confluence of Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire, and Leicestershire). Early writers may have assumed Katherine was from Wales based on her typically Welsh surname. For that matter, Edward could have stayed closer to home and still married a Katherine Reynolds. A Katherine Reynolds was baptized in Southwell parish (within Starbucky territory in England), in 1607.[7] No burial or marriage record has been found for her in that area.
As with many details from Edward Starbuck’s life, there is no original record to back up his marriage, or possibly marriages (see Was Katherine Edward’s Second Wife?), but at some point before 1829 the tradition for Katherine’s surname being Reynolds was started, and the three deeds listed here prove that he did have a wife named Katherine at those dates at least.
[1] “Rockingham County, NH deeds,” database with images, Ava (www.ava.fidlar.com : accessed 9 Jun 2022), Edward Starbuck, 1653-07-20 p. 1 & 2.
[2] “Rockingham County, NH deeds,” database with images, Ava (www.ava.fidlar.com : accessed 9 Jun 2022), Edward Starbuck, 1660-03-06.
[3] “Rockingham County, NH deeds,” database, Ava (www.ava.fidlar.com : accessed 9 Jun 2022), Edward Starbuck, 1678-06-19 p. 1 & 2.
[4] “Clarence A. Torrey, New England Marriages to 1700,” database with images, American Ancestors (www.americanancestors.org : accessed 25 July 2022), Edward Starbuck.
[5] John R. Ham, “New England Marriages 1623-1823,” digitized manuscript, Family Search (www.familysearch.org : accessed 21 December 2022, Edward Starbuck.
“Ancestry of Charles Stinson Pillsbury and John Sargent Pillsbury,” database with images, Ancestry (www.ancestry.com : accessed 21 Jun 2019), 614.
Noyes, Libby & Davis, Genealogical Dictionary of Maine & New Hampshire (reprint Baltimore, Maryland: Genealogical Publishing Company, 2002), 657–658.
Sylvanus J. Macy, Esq, “The Coffin Family,” The New England Historical and Genealogical Register 24 (1870):150-1; digital images, American Ancestors (www.americanancestors.org : accessed 29 July 2022).
William C. Folger, Esq., “The Gayer Family,” The New England Historical and Genealogical Register 31 (1877):297; digital images, American Ancestors (www.americanancestors.org : accessed 29 July 2022), Dorcas Gayer.
Alonzo Hall Quint, “Notes on the Dover Combination of 1640,” The New England Historical and Genealogical Register 33 (1879):98; digitalimage, American Ancestors (www.americanancestors.org : accessed 29 July 2022).
Rev. Arthur Wilmot Ackerman, “Memoirs of Deceased Members of the New England Historic Genealogical Society,” The New England Historical and Genealogical Register 81 (1879):453; digital image, American Ancestors (www.americanancestors.org : accessed 29 July 2022).
Edith Bartlett Sumner, Descendants of Thomas Farr of Harpswell, Maine and Ninety Allied Families (Los Angeles, California : American Offset Printers, 1959), 252; digital images, Family Search (www.familysearch.org : accessed 10 September 2022).
Will Gardner, The Coffin Saga (Cambridge, Massachusetts: The Riverside Press, 1949), 308; digital image, Internet Archive (www.archive.org : accessed 10 September 2022).
Ruth Lindenberger, Beard Family History and Genealogy (Lawrence, Kansas: The World Company, 1988), 14; digital images, Family Search (www.familysearch.org : accessed 10 September 2022).
Frederic Rockwell Sanborn, The Ancestry of Frederic Rockwell Gladstone Sanborn (Brooklyn, New York: Priv. print., 1928), 93; digital images Ancestry (www.ancestry.com : accessed 12 September 2022).
Orrin Peer Allen, The Allen Memorial First Series (Palmer, Massachusetts: Press of C. B. Fiske & Co, 1905), 104; digital images, Internet Archive (www.archive.org : accessed 12 September 2022).
Silas Bunker Coleman, The Coleman Family: Descendants of Thomas Coleman of Nantucket in Line of the Oldest Son, X Generations, 1602-1898-296 Years (Detroit, Michigan: S. B. Coleman, 1898), 5; digital images Internet Archive (www.archive.org : 22 September 2022).
[6] John Farmer, A Genealogical Register of the First Settlers of New England (Lancaster, Massachusetts: Carter, Andrews, and Company, 1829), 273.
[7] “Nottinghamshire Baptisms,” database only (transcript), FindMyPast (www.findmypast.com : accessed 10 January 2022), Catherine Reynolds 16 Feb 1607/08.
