Gurney Genealogy Library Updated 15 July 2026 by Allen Gurney

Benjamin Gurney (1730–1805)

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Plymouth County farmer born of an unmarried liaison and raised by his maternal aunt, Sarah Harden Gurney; sold Abington land in 1770 and bought into Cummington with Silas Reed.

Born
Baptized 30 May 1730, Abington, Plymouth County, Massachusetts, as Benjamin, son of Jean, in the First Church of Abington-derived Harden/Hardin entries; later confirmed by John Harden's 1751 will as John Harden's grandson. 15
Died
28 September 1805, Cummington, Hampshire County, Massachusetts. 2
Occupation
Farmer. Listed as head of household in the 1790 federal census, Cummington, with structure 3-0-3 (three males under sixteen, three females). 3
Buried
Dawes Cemetery, Cummington, Hampshire County, Massachusetts. 2
Marriage(s)
Elizabeth "Betsey" Harden — daughter of Samuel Harden; married 1 January 1752 at Abington; died 30 July 1800 at Cummington. 4
Mercy Noyes — married 17 November 1800 at Cummington; died 28 March 1813. 4

Highlights

  • Confirmed as John Harden's grandson. The original Plymouth County record-book copy of John Harden's 1751 will gives "my grandson Benjamin Gurney" twenty shillings. Read with the Abington baptism of Benjamin, son of Jean, this makes Jane/Jean Harden Spear the best-supported maternal candidate; the older "Elizabeth" reading is substantially weakened because Elizabeth Harden appears in the will as a witness, not as a daughter or heir. 15
  • Raised by his maternal aunt, Sarah Harden Gurney. Born of an unmarried liaison, Benjamin was brought up in Abington by his mother's sister Sarah and her husband Nathan Gurney — keeping the boy within his father's Gurney kin as well as his mother's. Sarah, a daughter of John Harden, had married into the Gurney family a few years before Benjamin's birth. 9
  • Sold Abington land and bought into a frontier town in 1770. In June 1770 Benjamin sold his Abington land and, by Springfield, Massachusetts records of 5 November 1770, purchased land in "Town No. 5" — soon to be incorporated as Cummington — with Silas Reed. The move opens the Cummington chapter of the family. 6
  • Exchanged farms with Philip Shaw in 1787. Foster & Streeter's "Only One Cummington" (1974, p. 390) records Benjamin's 1787 farm exchange with Philip Shaw — a small but specific transaction that places him concretely in the town's land record. 7
  • The 1790 census shows a working farmstead at full extent. Six dependents in the household (3 males under 16, 3 females) is consistent with a household of small children and a wife — exactly what is expected in his late fifties with a young second family. 3
  • Buried in Dawes Cemetery, Cummington. One of the few direct-line ancestors in the Massachusetts colonial generations whose burial place is firmly recorded. 2

Children

Name Dates Notes
Benjamin Gurney1752 – 1804Born at Bridgewater; married Esther Cole at Cummington in 1802. 11
Betty "Betsey" Gurney1756 – 1805Born at Bridgewater; died at Cummington. 11
Asa Gurneyb. 1758Born at Bridgewater; married Molly Reed. 11
Jane GurneyNamed in the family genealogy. 11
Amos Gurneyc. 1770 – before 1850G8 in the direct line; married Ruth Gilbert; born around the time of the family's move to Cummington. All five children were by his first wife, Elizabeth Harden. 811

Narrative

Benjamin Gurney is the man who moved the family from old Plymouth County into the Massachusetts hill country. He was baptized at Abington on 30 May 1730 as Benjamin, son of Jean, and his grandfather John Harden's 1751 Plymouth County will names "my grandson Benjamin Gurney." Read together, the records point to Jane (Jean) Harden as his mother; his father, Benjamin Gurney (G10), is identified by two compiled genealogies rather than by the baptismal entry itself. Born of that unmarried liaison, Benjamin was raised in Abington by his mother's sister Sarah and her husband Nathan Gurney. 15910

The decisive year of his life was 1770. In June he sold his Abington land. By 5 November he had bought into "Town No. 5," soon to be incorporated as Cummington, with Silas Reed — the Springfield, Massachusetts records preserve the transaction. Cummington at that date was barely a settled place: the Bryant family, who would produce the poet William Cullen Bryant, were establishing themselves nearby in the same period. Benjamin took up farming there and remained for the rest of his life. In 1787 he exchanged farms with Philip Shaw — a small detail preserved by Foster & Streeter's "Only One Cummington" — and in the 1790 federal census he appears as head of a six-person household, structure 3-0-3.

He married twice. His first wife, Elizabeth "Betsey" Harden, daughter of Samuel Harden, he married at Abington on 1 January 1752; she bore his five children — Benjamin (1752), Betty (1756), Asa (1758), Jane, and Amos (G8) — and died at Cummington on 30 July 1800. Months later, on 17 November 1800, he married Mercy Noyes. Amos, the bridge to the New York chapter, was born around the time of the 1770 move to Cummington. Benjamin died at Cummington on 28 September 1805, in his seventy-sixth year, and was buried in Dawes Cemetery, where his marker survives; Mercy followed in 1813 and lies beside him. He is the last firmly-documented Cummington-resident generation in the direct line: his son Amos remained in Cummington only to about 1802, and the family's western Massachusetts chapter effectively ends with Benjamin's death.

Citations

  1. Vital Records of Abington, Massachusetts, to the Year 1850, vol. 1, Births (Boston: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 1912), Harden/Hardin/Hardeng entry for Benjamin, son of Jean, baptized 30 May 1730, C.R.1; PDF on Wikimedia Commons. The abbreviation "bp." means baptized, and C.R.1 identifies the First Church of Abington record source. Source ID: abington-vr-1850-vol1. ↩
  2. Died 28 September 1805 in his seventy-sixth year and buried in Dawes Cemetery, Cummington, Hampshire County, Massachusetts; his second wife Mercy died 28 March 1813 and was buried beside him. Jean Gurney Rigler, The Gurney Family from Aaron to Zuinglius: A Genealogical Dictionary, rev. ed. (Honolulu: J. G. Rigler, 1994), Benjamin-5 entry (Cummington Town Records). Source ID: rigler-gurney-family-aaron-zuinglius-1994. ↩
  3. U.S. Federal Census, 1790, Cummington, Hampshire County, Massachusetts (household 3-0-3). ↩
  4. Married first, on 1 January 1752 at Abington, Elizabeth "Betsey" Harden (b. c. 1730, daughter of Samuel Harden), who died 30 July 1800 at Cummington in her seventieth year; married second, on 17 November 1800 at Cummington, Mercy Noyes (b. c. 1740/41). Rigler, Gurney Family from Aaron to Zuinglius, Benjamin-5 entry (Abington and Cummington records). Source ID: rigler-gurney-family-aaron-zuinglius-1994. ↩
  5. Massachusetts. Probate Court (Plymouth County), Probate records, 1686–1903; with index and docket, 1685–1967, Plymouth County Probate Court record book, manuscript pp. 383–384, will of John Harden of Bridgewater, Plymouth County, Massachusetts, blacksmith, dated 17 September 1751, proved 7 October 1751; FamilySearch catalog; p. 383 image; p. 384 image. The will names daughter Jane Spear and gives "my grandson Benjamin Gurney" twenty shillings; Elizabeth Harden appears as a witness. Source ID: plymouth-probate-john-harden-1751-will. ↩
  6. Springfield, Massachusetts records, 5 November 1770: Benjamin Gurney and Silas Reed purchased land in Town No. 5 (Cummington). Foster & Streeter, "Only One Cummington" (1974), p. 390. Source ID: foster-streeter-cummington. ↩
  7. Foster & Streeter, "Only One Cummington" (1974), p. 390 — Benjamin's 1787 farm exchange with Philip Shaw. Source ID: foster-streeter-cummington. ↩
  8. See Amos Gurney (G8) fact sheet. ↩
  9. Rigler, Gurney Family from Aaron to Zuinglius, Benjamin-5 entry, records that Benjamin "was raised in Abington by Nathan & Sarah (Harden) Gurney, his mother's sister." Sarah Harden — born 9 April 1707, daughter of John and Mary Harden — married Nathan Gurney and is named "daughter Sarah Gurney" in John Harden's 1751 will. Vital Records of Abington, Massachusetts, to the Year 1850, vol. 1 (John and Mary Harden family entries); John Harden will, pp. 383–384. Source IDs: rigler-gurney-family-aaron-zuinglius-1994; abington-vr-1850-vol1; plymouth-probate-john-harden-1751-will. ↩
  10. "John Gurney, US 1636," The Neverending Hobby, public compiled genealogy, identifying Benjamin Gurney G10 as father through Jane/Jean Harden — agreeing with Rigler's compiled account; the Abington baptism itself names only the mother. Source ID: neverending-hobby-john-gurney-us-1636. ↩
  11. Children of Benjamin Gurney and Elizabeth Harden, from Rigler, Gurney Family from Aaron to Zuinglius, Benjamin-5 entry (Cummington and Bridgewater records): Benjamin (b. 25 August 1752, Bridgewater; d. 1804, Cummington; m. Esther Cole 1802), Betty "Betsey" (b. 15 November 1756; d. 12 May 1805, Cummington), Asa (b. 24 October 1758; m. Molly Reed), Jane, and Amos (m. Ruth Gilbert). Source ID: rigler-gurney-family-aaron-zuinglius-1994. ↩