Gurney Genealogy Library Updated 29 May 2026 by Allen Gurney

These research notes are provided as-is and contain supplementary working research.

Benjamin Gurney (G09) Notes

Research notes for g09-benjamin-gurney-fact-sheet.md.

Current evidence summary

Benjamin Gurney G9 is now anchored by two strong, independent record points: the Abington church-derived baptismal entry for Benjamin, son of Jean, baptized 30 May 1730, and John Harden’s 1751 Plymouth County probate will, which names “my grandson Benjamin Gurney” and gives him twenty shillings.[1][2]

This combination materially improves the older narrative. The baptismal entry gives the mother-name as Jean but does not name a father. John Harden’s will confirms that the later Benjamin Gurney belonged in the Harden grandson set. The will also names daughter Jane Spear, making Jane/Jean Harden Spear the best-supported maternal candidate when the will is read with the baptismal entry.[1:1][2:1]

The will does not explicitly state that Benjamin Gurney was the son of Jane Spear. The most accurate present wording is therefore: Benjamin Gurney G9 was baptized at Abington on 30 May 1730 as Benjamin, son of Jean; John Harden’s 1751 will confirms him as John Harden’s grandson; Jane/Jean Harden Spear is the likely mother.[1:2][2:2]

Abington baptism: Benjamin, son of Jean

The Abington vital-record compilation places Benjamin under a Harden/Hardin variant entry:

HARDENG (see Harden, Hardin), Benjamin, s. Jean, bp; May 30, 1730. C.R.1.[1:3]

This should be cited and described as a baptism, not as a birth. The abbreviation bp. means baptized, and C.R.1 identifies the First Church of Abington record source.[3]

The entry is unusually important because it names the mother rather than a father. That is consistent with, but does not by itself prove, the later tradition of a non-marital Gurney/Harden birth. It does establish that the key 30 May 1730 record is a Harden-side church entry and that the mother-name was Jean.[1:4]

John Harden’s 1751 will

John Harden’s will is the strongest new document in this cluster. The record-book copy identifies him as John Harden of Bridgewater, Plymouth County, Massachusetts, blacksmith. The will was dated 17 September 1751 and proved 7 October 1751.[2:3]

The will gives Mary, his wife, the use and income of the estate during her life. After Mary’s death, the estate was to be divided among five daughter-lines: daughter Mary Hobert/Hobart, daughter Sarah Gurney, daughter Jane Spear, the children of deceased daughter Rebecca Noyes, and daughter Lydia Dawes. Son John Harden received the blacksmith tools. Benjamin appears in a separate clause:

Item, I also give unto my grandson Benjamin Gurney twenty shillings to be paid by my executors.[2:4]

The will confirms Benjamin Gurney’s Harden-side kinship without relying on the later Hobart abstract. It also resolves the older Elizabeth problem: Elizabeth Harden appears in the will as a witness, not as a daughter or heir.[2:5]

Jane / Jean Harden Spear as likely mother

The identification of Jane/Jean Harden Spear as Benjamin’s likely mother rests on a combined chain:

  1. Abington records identify Benjamin as son of Jean, baptized 30 May 1730.[1:5]
  2. John Harden’s will names a daughter Jane Spear.[2:6]
  3. The same will names my grandson Benjamin Gurney.[2:7]
  4. Elizabeth Harden appears as a witness, not as a daughter/heir, removing the strongest competing reading in the older abstract tradition.[2:8]
  5. Abington records independently place Jean/Jane in the John and Mary Harden child set, with Jean Harden/Hardin, daughter of John and Mary, born 19 November 1709.[4]

The Jane/Jean name variation should be preserved rather than silently flattened. The Abington vital records use Jean in the birth and baptismal material; Hobart and the will use Jane. The records are best treated as variant forms for the same Harden daughter unless a later conflicting record is found.[4:1][5][2:9]

The “Elizabeth” problem

Older or derivative accounts introduced an Elizabeth reading into the Benjamin Gurney / John Harden story. The original will materially changes that reading. Elizabeth Harden is present in the will record, but as a witness:

Samuel Reade Elizabeth [her mark] Harden Woodbridge [his mark] Brown[2:10]

She is not one of the five daughter-lines receiving John Harden’s estate. The daughter-lines are Mary Hobert/Hobart, Sarah Gurney, Jane Spear, deceased Rebecca Noyes’s children, and Lydia Dawes.[2:11]

Until a separate primary record proves otherwise, the Elizabeth wording should be treated as an abstracting or derivative conflation with Elizabeth Harden the witness. It should not be used to identify Benjamin’s mother.

Was Benjamin raised by a maternal aunt?

The will does not prove the “raised by his mother’s sister” claim. It confirms Benjamin’s Harden kinship, but it says nothing about guardianship, upbringing, household placement, or who cared for Benjamin after the baptism.[2:12]

The aunt tradition remains plausible because John and Mary Harden’s daughter set included several possible maternal aunts. The strongest candidate is Sarah Harden Gurney. She was born 9 April 1707, was about twenty-three at Benjamin’s baptism, is named in John Harden’s will as daughter Sarah Gurney, and secondary compiled genealogy reports that Nathan Gurney married Sarah Harden on 12 May 1725.[6][2:13][7]

Sarah is stronger than Mary, Rebecca, or Lydia as a reconstruction because she was both chronologically plausible and already married into the Gurney network. Mary Harden Hobart was old enough and remains possible. Rebecca Harden Noyes was about fourteen in 1730, and Lydia Harden Dawes was about nine, making them weaker candidates for an infancy-caregiver role.[8]

The fact sheet should not say Benjamin was raised by his aunt as a proved fact. A durable phrasing is: Family tradition says Benjamin was raised by a maternal aunt; Sarah Harden Gurney is the strongest candidate, but no guardianship or household record has yet been found.

Father identification: Benjamin Gurney G10

The Abington baptism does not name Benjamin Gurney G10 as father. The father identification currently rests on secondary compiled genealogy plus the broader record chain. The public compiled genealogy at The Neverending Hobby states that Benjamin Gurney G10 had a non-marital relationship with Jane Harden and fathered Benjamin in Abington; it also says Jane returned to Braintree with her parents while Benjamin moved to Middleborough with his parents.[7:1]

That secondary account aligns well with the primary-derived chronology: Benjamin, son of Jean, was baptized at Abington on 30 May 1730; Benjamin Gurney G10 married Sarah Morse at Middleborough on 14 June 1731; and the later Sarah Morse family produced a second Benjamin in the child set, creating a known two-Benjamin disambiguation problem.[1:6][9][7:2]

The father link is therefore credible but should be carefully phrased. Do not cite the baptismal record as if it names G10.

Harden sibling set

The John and Mary Harden child set matters because it frames both the maternal identification and the aunt-household question. The Abington vital records and John Harden’s will together support this core set:

  • Mary Harden, born 25 July 1705; later Mary Hobert/Hobart in the will.[8:1][2:14]
  • Sarah Harden, born 9 April 1707; later Sarah Gurney in the will.[8:2][2:15]
  • Jean/Jane Harden, born 19 November 1709; later Jane Spear in the will.[4:2][2:16]
  • Rebecca/Rebacka Harden, born 27 January 1715/16; deceased Rebecca Noyes by the will, with her children receiving her share.[8:3][2:17]
  • Lydia Harden, born 4 August 1720; later Lydia Dawes in the will.[8:4][2:18]
  • John Harden, born 3 September 1723; son John Harden in the will, receiving the blacksmith tools.[8:5][2:19]

This set also confirms that no daughter Elizabeth is needed to explain Benjamin’s Harden kinship.

Later-life anchors

The Harden evidence does not change the later Cummington arc. Benjamin Gurney G9 remains the man who sold Abington land in June 1770 and bought into Town No. 5, later Cummington, with Silas Reed on 5 November 1770. Foster and Streeter preserve the later 1787 farm exchange with Philip Shaw at Cummington.[10]

The 1790 federal census summary for Cummington still requires image-level rechecking. The currently carried 3-0-3 household structure is consistent with a later-life farm household but may not include son Amos in the expected older male category. Treat this as a check item rather than a resolved household reconstruction.

Open questions

  1. Direct aunt-household proof. Search guardianship, church, deed, probate-distribution, and loose estate-file records for evidence that Sarah Harden Gurney, Mary Harden Hobart, or another aunt raised Benjamin.
  2. Loose John Harden estate file. The record-book will has been located; the loose Plymouth County estate file may contain bonds, receipts, or distributions that further clarify relationships.
  3. Original Abington church record. The NEHGS town vital-record compilation is strong, but the original First Church of Abington register entry would be preferable for the exact wording around “Benjamin, son of Jean.”
  4. Original Middleborough marriage record. The current 14 June 1731 Gurney/Morse date comes from a marriage index; obtain the original register page if possible.
  5. G9 marriage records. Elizabeth Harden and Mercy Noyes remain underdocumented in this companion.
  6. Cummington deeds and probate. Direct deed citations for the 1770 sale/purchase and any 1805 estate settlement would strengthen the later-life section.

Sources consulted

  • Plymouth County Probate Court record-book copy of John Harden’s 1751 will.[2:20]
  • Vital Records of Abington, Massachusetts, to the Year 1850, volume 1.[1:7]
  • Aaron Hobart, Historical Sketch of Abington.[5:1]
  • Middleborough marriage index.[9:1]
  • The Neverending Hobby — John Gurney, US 1636.[7:3]
  • Foster and Streeter, Only One Cummington.[10:1]
  • Jean Gurney Rigler, The Gurney Family from Aaron to Zuinglius (rev. and expanded ed., 1994). Key compiled genealogy for the G4-G13 direct line; source ID rigler-gurney-family-aaron-zuinglius-1994. Full page-level audit still pending.

  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. Source ID: abington-vr-1850-vol1. ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎

  2. 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. Source ID: plymouth-probate-john-harden-1751-will. ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎

  3. MassachusettsGenealogy transcription/explanation for Vital Records of Abington, Massachusetts, to the Year 1850, vol. 1, noting the abbreviation structure and church-record notation. Source ID: abington-vr-1850-vol1. ↩︎

  4. Vital Records of Abington, Massachusetts, to the Year 1850, vol. 1, entry for Jean Harden/Hardin, daughter of John and Mary, born 19 November 1709. Source ID: abington-vr-1850-vol1. ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎

  5. Aaron Hobart, Historical Sketch of Abington, Plymouth County, Massachusetts; with an Appendix (Boston: Samuel N. Dickinson, 1839), online transcription at LDSGenealogy, recording Mr. Niles of Braintree’s baptism of Jane Harden, daughter of John Harden of Little Comfort, 22 February 1711. Source ID: hobart-abington-1839. ↩︎ ↩︎

  6. Vital Records of Abington, Massachusetts, to the Year 1850, vol. 1, entry for Sarah Harden, daughter of John and Mary, born 9 April 1707. Source ID: abington-vr-1850-vol1. ↩︎

  7. “John Gurney, US 1636,” The Neverending Hobby, public compiled genealogy. Use as secondary compiled genealogy. Source ID: neverending-hobby-john-gurney-us-1636. ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎

  8. Vital Records of Abington, Massachusetts, to the Year 1850, vol. 1, John and Mary Harden/Hardin family entries for Mary, Sarah, Jean, Rebecca/Rebacka, Lydia, and John. Source ID: abington-vr-1850-vol1. ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎

  9. Middleborough Public Library, “Marriages by Men’s Name,” marriage index PDF, entry for Benjamin Gurney and Sarah Morse, 14 June 1731. Source ID: middleborough-marriages-by-mens-name. ↩︎ ↩︎

  10. Foster and Streeter, Only One Cummington (1974), p. 390, Benjamin Gurney / Cummington land and farm-exchange context. Existing sourceId in repo may be foster-streeter-cummington; if absent, add a separate data/sources.json entry before citing. ↩︎ ↩︎