Samuel and Selah were both about 24 years old when they married. They were married at an important time in history, during the Revolutionary War. Samuel did enlist in the war and I was able to find his pension file on footnote. According to this file, he served from May 1775 to August 1777. He did not fight in any battles, but marched from state to state, town from town, carrying supplies and goods for the army. Perhaps Selah knew Samuel before he enlisted and waited for him to come home to marry him, or maybe she did not meet Samuel until he returned in 1777. Either scenario, it was only seven months after Samuel returned from service that they were married.
The marriage record in Abington does not state which church they were married in. I looked for some historical books on the town of Abington on google books and found, History of the town of Abington, Plymouth County, Massachusetts, from its first settlement. According to this book, the only church for the town at this period in time was The First Congregational Church in Abington Center. During the time that Samuel and Selah were married, the Reverend was Samuel Niles. Below is a drawing of the church from the above mentioned book.
Samuel and Selah Bates did not stay in Abington, as their first child, Elijah, was born in Weymouth in 1781, about three years after they married. They continued to have seven more children, all born in Weymouth.
I looked in the History of Weymouth book available on ancestry.com and found some references (vol. 2 page 554) to a Samuel Bates living near Whitmond Pond in Weymouth around 1752. This was a couple of years before this Samuel Bates was born, but perhaps it was his parents, Samuel and Hannah, who were living here. There are a lot of Samuel Bates in the Weymouth Vital records (book available on google books), so it difficult to say which Samuel they are referring to that is living by Whitman's pond. I do know that both Samuel and Selah (Celia) were buried at Elmwood Cemetery in South Weymouth, so by the end of their lives they were at least living near the parish and cemetery in South Weymouth. They probably did not move around the town throughout their lives, so it will probably be safe to assume they lived in South Weymouth for most of their lives. I am not sure if his parents lived in this different section of town near Whitman Pond, but it could be that Samuel moved when he was older to South Weymouth.
I took a look at the census data for Samuel and Selah to find some clues as to where they may have lived in Weymouth, if they were living in South Weymouth near the cemetery they were buried in. The early censuses listed only head of households, and sometimes the enumerators alphabetized the surnames when they re-wrote the data to submit it. For the censuses that were alphabetized, it would be impossible to figure out who their neighbors were. Luckily, the enumerator for the Weymouth 1790 census listed the families in the order he visited them. This shows me that Samuel and Selah Bates were neighbors with some of my other ancestors that I know lived on Union Street in South Weymouth. They were neighbors with David Whitman, Widow Whitman (there is a parenthesis linking the Bates with Widow Whitman, but I have not established who this is yet), Widow Holbrook (who I established was most likely Jerusha Vining, mother of his daughter's husband - in another blog entry here), and John Vining (Jerusha's father). This fits in with what I already know of this family. First, they were buried at Elmwood Cemetery on Union Street. According to their neighbors on the census information, they would have lived across the street from this cemetery. Secondly, their daughter, Hannah Bates (my 4th great-grandmother), married James Holbrook, their neighbor that lived on Union Street with them according to the 1790 census as mentioned above.
The 1800 and 1810 Census entries are alphabetized and provide no information as to the location in Weymouth that this Bates family lived. The 1820 Census does list the families in order they were enumerated once again, and we still see them living near the same families of the Holbrooks. Some other families listed are most likely his son, Samuel Bates Jr., Cushing (their daughter Selah married David Cushing), White and Shaw (their son Reuben married a Shaw) families. The 1820 Census also lists the street they live on as Boxbury Street. I have not been able to find the location of this street in Weymouth, as it no longer exists. The 1830 Census again lists neighboring families of the Holbrooks in addition to Lemuel Paine (their daughter Lydia's husband) and Whitman families.
The History of Weymouth book also lists in the chapter of Century old-houses in Weymouth, a Samuel Bates living on Union Street after the Holbrooks. Chamberlain states that it "was later times known as the house of Melvin Bates. It was until recent years owned by the Bates family, and then became the property of Thomas Kiernan, 520 Union Street." (vol. 2, p. 934) Melvin Bates is Samuel and Selah's grandson, the son of Samuel and Phebe Bates. This makes it likely that the property was handed down to their son Samuel, then to Melvin. The map of Weymouth from the Historical Land Ownership and Reference Atlases on ancestry.com does have an M. Bates listed next to the cemetery. This location on the map is most likely the original property of Samuel and Selah.
It seems that Samuel and Selah both spent their lives together in Weymouth. They both died in Weymouth, Selah in 1832 at the age of 78 and Samuel in 1838 at the age of 84. They lived a very long life together.
to do list:
1. find a connection between the samuel bates living in whitman pond area in 1752 and the samuel bates living on union street in 1790-1830
2. find connection between widow whitman and samuel bates living on union street
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