Rebecca RAWSON

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Name:
Rebecca married in Boston 1 July 1679, THOMAS RUMSEY, who pretended to be of status and wealth in England, but apparently was not, and also was already married. Legend has it that they went to England where Rumsey stole her possessions, deserted her for his other wife, and that Rebecca had a child by him. Supposedly, she died on a voyage back to Boston in June 1692 when her ship stopped at Port Royal, Jamaica, and an earthquake struck. A portrait of her is in the NEHGS Fine Art Collection, and is reproduced on the cover of the Spring 2019 Register.

No documentation to support the story of Rebecca's life after she left Boston has surfaced. But in the early 1680s Nathaniel Mather, a pastor in Dublin, Ireland - where Rebecca's older sister Rachel (Rawson) Awbrey was living - may have referred to Rebecca in two letters to his brother, Rev. Increase Mather of Boston. On 2 march 1680/1 - just twenty months after Rebecca's ill-fated marriage - he wrote: Mrs Aubrey & her sister are well." On 7 NOv. 1682, Nathaniel related that "Mrs Aubrey was with mee this day & is well, but concerned for her sister who is in London & was not well, & from whom she hath not heard these sundry weeks."

Perhaps Nathaniel Mather was referring to one and/or two of Rachel's sisters-in-law. but it seems unlikely he would have bothered to mention a sister-on-law of "Mrs Aubrey" to his brother in Boston- since it is questionable if Rachel's husband William Awbrey had any New England relatives. It seems ore likely that Nathaniel was sending information for Increase to convey to Edward Rawson about the latter's daughters. Of Rachel's own siblings, only Rebecca would seem to be a fit for this unnamed "sister."