These research notes are provided as-is and contain supplementary working research.
Open question
Is the 1693 Samuel Gurney John Jr. and Ruth's Mendon-born son?
Whether the Samuel Gurney who married Sarah Shapley at Boston in 1693 is John Jr. and Ruth's Mendon-born son (b. 14 March 1671) is unresolved. No record names either Samuel's father. The identification is chronologically clean - a Samuel born in 1671 would have been twenty-two in 1693, an ordinary marrying age - and no other Samuel Gurney appears anywhere in the surviving colonial-era record to compete for it, but age and the absence of a rival are not the same as a document naming the connection outright. The identification is probable, not proven.
Why this conclusion
- Depends on Finding John Jr. and Ruth's Mendon household, 1671-1676The identification is tested against this household's own documented third child, Samuel, born 14 March 1671.
- Supported by Evidence 26 Oct 1693 Boston marriage: Samuel Gurney x Sarah ShapleyThe 1693 marriage record is the primary evidence the identification question turns on.
Qualifications and conflicts
- Qualifies Negative result Negative: Boston town, notarial, deed, and vital record classes hold no John-era GurneySoftens the record-coverage unit's flat 'John's grandson' phrasing to a probable, not proven, identification.
Related context
- Provides context for Analysis Torrey's John3 entries: a plausible but unconfirmed grandson readingThe colonial-collaterals unit's Providence-generation reading treats this same Samuel identification as already established; this item is where that identification is actually tested.
Topic file location: Family — Mendon: John Jr. and Ruth Bundy
Technical details
- Research item:
G13-RI-000197 - Graph revision:
244 - Machine-readable JSON:
/assets/g13-graph/findings/G13-RI-000197.json
This is one research item from the John Gurney research graph; the fuller narrative treatment is in the linked topic above and the research library.