Tombstone Tuesday ~ Mary (Batchelder) Preston, buried 1758 Beverly, Massachusetts

This tombstone was photographed at the Abbott Hale Burying Ground in Beverly, Massachusetts (also known as the Ancient Burying Ground or Abbott Street Cemetery)

Here lies ye Body of

Mrs MARY PRESSON

wife of Mr. STEPHEN

PRESSON who Died

Novr. 24th 1758

in ye 25th year

of her age.

Mary Batchelder, daughter of Nathaniel Batchelder and Anna Meacham, was born in Beverly, Massachusetts in 1733.  She married Stephen Preston (AKA PRESSON) on 25 March 1755 in Beverly, the son of Nehemiah Preston and Abigail Allen.  Mary died on 24 November 1758 and Stephen died a month later on 23 December 1758.  He was about 28 years old and Mary was only about 25 years old.  They had two children, Mary (born 1756) and Stephen (born 1758).  Stephen died in 1759 as an infant.  I don't know what happened to little Mary.

Stephen Preston was my 6th great grand uncle, and I descend from his sister Hannah Preston (1722 - 1812) who married Robert Woodbury.   I'm also related to Stephen Preston through our common ALLEN, WILLIAMS, TUCK, and BROWNING ancestors.  I'm related to Mary Batchelder through our common WOODBURY, WINDOW, HERRICK, and HUNTER ancestors.  Mary is descended from John Batchelder (1604 - 1675), and early Salem settler, not from my ancestor Rev. Stephen Batchelder of Hampton, New Hampshire.  These two early New England settlers are probably not related.

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Heather Wilkinson Rojo, "Tombstone Tuesday ~ Mary (Batchelder) Preston, buried 1758 Beverly, Massachusetts", Nutfield Genealogy, posted December 29, 2015 ( http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2015/12/tombstone-tuesday-mary-batchelder.html: accessed [access date]).