DUTTON, Rebecca b. 13 Aug 1686 Reading, Middlesex, Massachusetts, United States d. 2 Oct 1749 Haddam, Middlesex, Connecticut, United States

1686 - 1749 (63 years)

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Name	DUTTON, Rebecca
Birth	13 Aug 1686	Reading, Middlesex, Massachusetts, United States [1]
Gender	Female
Burial	Oct 1749	Haddam, Middlesex, Connecticut, United States
Death	2 Oct 1749	Haddam, Middlesex, Connecticut, United States
WAC	19 Mar 1931 [2]
_TAG	Reviewed on FS
Headstones	Submit Headstone Photo
Person ID	I19737	Joseph Smith Sr and Lucy Mack Smith
Last Modified	19 Aug 2021

Father	DUTTON, Joseph , b. 25 Jan 1661, Woburn, Middlesex, Massachusetts, United States Woburn, Middlesex, Massachusetts, United Statesd. 24 Jan 1734, Haddam, Middlesex, Connecticut, United States (Age 72 years)
Mother	MERIAM, Rebecca , b. 21 Oct 1662, Lynn, Essex, Massachusetts, United States Lynn, Essex, Massachusetts, United Statesd. 17 Sep 1693, Reading, Middlesex, Massachusetts, United States (Age 30 years)
Marriage	19 Aug 1685	Reading, Middlesex, Massachusetts, United States [3]
Notes	~SEALING_SPOUSE: Also shown as SealSp 24 Sep 1932, LOGAN.
Family ID	F10319	Group Sheet \| Family Chart

Family GATES, Daniel Sr. , b. 4 May 1680, Haddam, Middlesex, Connecticut, United States Haddam, Middlesex, Connecticut, United Statesd. 24 Nov 1761, Haddam, Middlesex, Connecticut, United States (Age 81 years)

Marriage 1705 Haddam, Middlesex, Connecticut, United States

Notes

MARRIAGE: Also shown as Married East Haddam, Middlesex, Connecticut, USA. ~SEALING_SPOUSE: Also shown as SealSp 25 Mar 1954

Children 5 sons and 4 daughters

+	1. GATES, Daniel Jr. , b. 5 Feb 1706, Haddam, Middlesex, Connecticut, United States Haddam, Middlesex, Connecticut, United Statesd. 5 Oct 1775, Haddam, Middlesex, Connecticut, United States (Age 69 years)
	2. GATES, David , b. 27 Jun 1709, Haddam, Middlesex, Connecticut, United States Haddam, Middlesex, Connecticut, United Statesd. 16 Jan 1795, Hartford, Hartford, Connecticut, United States (Age 85 years)
	3. GATES, Rebecca , b. 27 Jun 1711, Haddam, Middlesex, Connecticut, United States Haddam, Middlesex, Connecticut, United Statesd. 1806 (Age 94 years)
	4. GATES, Abigale , b. 18 Mar 1714, Haddam, Middlesex, Connecticut, United States Haddam, Middlesex, Connecticut, United Statesd. 15 Jul 1791, Durham, Middlesex, Connecticut, United States (Age 77 years)
	5. GATES, Joseph , b. 7 Sep 1716, Haddam, Middlesex, Connecticut, United States Haddam, Middlesex, Connecticut, United Statesd. 1 Aug 1741, Haddam, Middlesex, Connecticut, United States (Age 24 years)
	6. GATES, Mary , b. 29 Mar 1719, Haddam, Middlesex, Connecticut, United States Haddam, Middlesex, Connecticut, United Statesd. 1799 (Age 79 years)
	7. GATES, Ruth , b. 10 Aug 1721, Haddam, Middlesex, Connecticut, United States Haddam, Middlesex, Connecticut, United Statesd. 25 Dec 1789, Haddam, Middlesex, Connecticut, United States (Age 68 years)
	8. GATES, Ephriam , b. 18 Aug 1724, Haddam, Middlesex, Connecticut, United States Haddam, Middlesex, Connecticut, United Statesd. 22 Jul 1741, Haddam, Middlesex, Connecticut, United States (Age 16 years)
	9. GATES, Judah , b. 2 Aug 1727, Haddam, Middlesex, Connecticut, United States Haddam, Middlesex, Connecticut, United Statesd. 25 Jun 1767, Haddam, Middlesex, Connecticut, United States (Age 39 years)

Family ID F10310 Group Sheet | Family Chart

Last Modified 24 Jan 2022

Notes

Rebecca was admitted to full communion in the First Church of East Haddam, June 29, 1712.

Thirty one years after the arrival in Boston of Robert Smith there landed in the same harbor another youth in quest of adventure or wealth in the new world. His name was John Mack.

He was sixteen years old and he came from Iverness, Scotland. It is thought by Sterling a genealogist, that the young man brought with him only a half, or maybe only a fourth of his name. The rest of it having been dropped for religious reasons. There is no doubt, however, that he had stowed away somewhere a family crest on chich was inscribed the motto, "In hope and labor I go."

Although young Mack ran down the gangplank in Boston, he does not seem to have stayed there long. Instead, he went to Salisbury, Massachusetts. At 38 he married Sarah Bagley, daughter of Orlando and Sarah Colby Bagley.

Orlando Bagley was once a constable in Amesbury, Ehile. Holding this position, he arrested a certain Susannah Martin, a neighbor, who had bewitched some cows in the neighborhood so that they lost either their milk or their calves. The stern Puritan took her to Salem (MA) where she was tried and executed. The incident was later celebrated in on of Whittier's poems.

After the birth of the first child, John and Sarah moved to Concord, MA. in 1696 they again changed their habitat, this time to Lyme, Connecticut. Here and in Concord twelve children were born. Lyme became the proving ground for the Mack family for generations.

The eighth of these children was named Ebenezer. He was born in 1697, and lived to become the Reverend Ebenezer Mack, pastor of the second congregational church in Lyme. When John Mack died at the age of 81 Ebenezer, who was 24, inherited the estate. At 31 he married Hannah Huntley, daughter of Aaron Huntley and Deborah De Wolf Huntley.

The Huntleys were a notable family in 1774 so we are informed in the New England chronicle. Thirteen Huntley brothers, sons and one woman, went to ward. They were all six-footers-"very brave men". What happened to them in the war we are not told. But when one of them died, he bequeathed his "soul to God who gave it and his body to the earth to be decently buried."

Ebenezer "departed this life in 1777" says his son Solomon. "He went to the door to fetch in a back-log and returned after a forestick and instantly dropped down dead on the floor". Solomon assures that his parents had large property and lived in good style "till various misfortunes overtook them" and they became destitute and their children scattered.

Solomon is the most interesting charter among the Mack's. Whether he is thinking of his strange career, his adventures by sea and land, his mental wrestlings with the invisible powers, or the large number of accidents he met with his 88 years of ups and downs.

He wrote his own biography. It is entitled "A Narrative of the life of Solomon Mack" Containing an account of many severe accidents he met during a series of years, together with the extraordinary manner in which he was converted to the Christian faith.

When financial reverses came to Ebenezer and Hannah Mack in 1736, five children "were obliged to disperse and throw themselves upon the mercy of an unfeeling world". Solomon who was but four was "boundout" to a neighboring farmer who mistreated him. On reaching his maturity he left for the French and Indian War without religion or education. Six years he served as a soldier, gathering experience and accidents.

After his discharge from the army he married Lydia Gates, daugther of Daniel and Rebecca Dutton Gates. Daniel was a deacon in the church. The Gates lived in East Haddam Connecticut.

On their marriage the couple took up residence in a place called Marlow. "A desolate and dreary wilderness" with only four families within forty miles. Here, Solomon learned the value of his school keeping wife. For having been a school teacher instructed the children in the various branches of ordinary education and taught them to pray night and morning.

Solomon, in his narrative, regards his conversion to religion as the crowning event of his checkered life. As a matter of fact, it was a missionary impulse that led him to write it and publish it.

In his childhood he knew no religious influence. His later association with soldiers and sailors had not improved his mental or spiritual state. Yet all the time he assured us God was endeavoring to attract his attention through numerous accidents, sicknesses, and Lydia but he continued to live in sin, an enemy to God.

When he was a very old man he prayed "that the Lord would deliver him from the horrible pit of sin." This would doubtless be a very hard thing for God to do because he had abused the Sabbath.

One night, however, he saw a bright light in the dark; in consequence of which he "literally watered his pillow". After that when his rheumatism became so bad that his wife was "obliged to help him to bed and up again" he requested a sign. "As I was sitting one evening by the fire, I prayed to the Lord, if he was with me, I might know by this token that my pains might all be eased for that night." His prayer was answered for "blessed be the Lord, I was entirely free from pain that night, and I rejoiced in the God of my Salvation."

Mack had an experience once (there is no reason to believe that he had more than one) which has been made to do prodigious duty of late years as an explanation on how Mormonism originated. It was nothing more than an epileptic fit. The narrative says:

"I was taken with a fit, when traveling with an ax under my arm. I was covered with blood and much cut up and bruised. When I came to my senses I could not tell where I had been, nor where I was going but by good luck I went the right way and arrived at the first house. I was under a doctor's care all winter."

This was prior to his conversion.

By the year 1773, Solomon and Lydia had found their way to the town of Gilsum, New Hampshire. Here they lived the rest of their lives and here at least two of their children were born.

Meanwhile, Stephen, who was married, had made his home in Tunbridge, Vermont. Tunbridge by this time was also the home of Asael Smith with his seven sons and five daughters. It was in this place that the lines of the Macks and the Smiths came together in Joseph Smith, son of Asael. And Lucy Mack daughter of Solomon.

A death in the family was the occasion for two great changes in Lucy's life. In 1788 Lovina, her sister died. This event so affected Lucy that for a time her health was endangered. She was persuaded to make a visit to her brother, Stephen, which lasted a year and was repeated. On the second visit she met Joseph Smith (Sr.).

About the same time, she was overcome by a desire to join one of the churches for in spite of her Mother's teachings (her father was not yet converted) none of the household belonged to any religious society. She spent much time reading the Bible and praying. She says "but not withstanding my great anxiety to experience a change of heart, another matter would always interpose in all my meditations--if I remain a member of no church, all religious people will say I am of the world, and if I join one of the different denominations, all the rest will say I am in error...the results was," she continued, "to remain aloof from churches."

--Copied from Joseph Smith, An American Prophet by John Henry Evans

Sources

[S989] The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, International Genealogical Index(R), citing microfilm 170453, page 35, reference number 940, downloaded 30 Dec 2009 (Reliability: 3).
[S989] The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, International Genealogical Index(R), citing microfilm 458578, downloaded 30 Dec 2009 (Reliability: 3).
[S989] The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, International Genealogical Index(R), citing book 178077 for batch A178077, sheet 00, downloaded 30 Dec 2009 (Reliability: 3).