Benjamin Gale and Deliverance Codner Family Group

What We Know About This Family

An Overview of Their Lives

Benjamin Gale was the eldest son of Ambrose and Mary Ward Gale. He was a shoreman by trade. His wife, Deliverance, was the daughter of John and Joan(a) Bartoll Codner. Their story begins with genealogical puzzles surrounding her name. As shown below, the Marriage Records indicate that Benjamin had two wives, the first a Lydia with unknown surname, and the second, Deliverance Codner. The Birth Records shown are all the birth records of children born in this time period to Benjamin and Lidia, Benjamin, or Deliverance.

Fortunately, three sets of Probate records assist in clearing up the mystery and arriving at the conclusion that Benjamin Gale had only one wife, Deliverance Codner (aka Lydia/Lidia Codner):

1. Her statement in the name "Deliverance Gale" as administratrix of her husband's probate that his estate was insolvent and her request to have the administration transferred. (The estate took a while to close because of the number of debtors. It appears that the bequest of her father enabled the closing.
2. The will of John Codner naming his daughter, Deliverance, and the heirs of her seven surviving children. The names of the children correspond to the baptism records of the children born to Benjamin and Lidia.
3. Her own probate in which her only surviving son, Samuel Gale, identifies his mother as "Deliverance," her father as John Codner, and also names the co-administrator, Robert Girdler, husband of his sister.

Now for the second mystery: Did Benjamin and Deliverance Gale have seven or eleven children? Let's assume they had all eleven of those listed even though the four names of children under "Possibles" had baptism records that did not follow the format of the others. The first Deliverance in that list did not survive as evidenced by a sister of the same name being born later. The name "Joseph" does not appear as one of the children in their grandfather Codner's will. Note that there were three girls named "Deliverance/Delyverance" in the two lists, and this gives rise to the second mystery: which Deliverance married Robert Knight? If all eleven were siblings, then only the last-born Deliverance would have survived childhood to marry Robert Knight. So what doesn't work perfectly with that scenario? 1. The marriage record for Robert Knight shows that he married "Delyverance" Gale, the same spelling as the only Delyverance/Deliverance in the first list; 2) the last Deliverance would have been only 15 or 16 when she married. Not impossible of course, but I don't think it was as likely. Spellings of names varied much in those days. Gale was spelled as Gall, Giulle, Ghoul, etc., so the spelling in and of itself would not be a definitive answer. However, the age of the final Deliverance at marriage coupled with the spelling leads me to the conclusion that only the seven were their children. That conclusion is still not absolutely certain, but what we do know for sure is that only seven were named in the will.

Benjamin operated a fishing business from his father's property while his father lived, and then inherited the house and land beneath from his father upon his death. The property went to Robert Girdler, the husband of his sister Elizabeth, after his death.

 

About the Children

• John Gale and his wife Miriam Stacey are our direct ancestors and have their own family group page. According to his probate administration, he was a cordwainer. They had eight children, four of whom died young. Miriam married her second husband, Ephraim Sandin, the great-grandson of our direct ancestors, Arthur and Margaret Sandin and William and Sarah Bassett. Guardianship papers for minors John, Joseph, Benjamin, and Ambrose Gale, sons of John, deceased, were filed formally choosing Ephraim Sandin as their guardian. Miriam and Ephraim had ten additional children. Miriam had a total of 18 children!


• Ambrose Gale married as far as I can determine a woman named Jemima Pousland. There is a vital record for their marriage and the baptism of one child, Benjamin. The name Ambrose Gale was numerous among the Gale progeny, but the dates available seem to point to Ambrose, son of Benjamin, being the Ambrose who married Jemima. Sadly, the probate administration for Ambrose only four years after their marriage lists expenses for the doctor who attended her husband and coffins for her husband and child (unnamed). I could find no trace of her after the deaths of her family.
  


• Elizabeth Gale married Robert Girdler, shoreman, the son of Francis and Deborah Girdler, our direct ancestors. Deborah Girdler was also the second wife of Benjamin's father, Ambrose. Robert and Elizabeth received her father's house and the land around it after his death. and these in turn went to their son Francis.


• Benjamin Gale and his wife Eleanor Scadlock had four daughters before he died about the same time as his mother. His brother, Samuel, who co-administered their mother's will, accepted guardianship of Benjamin's minor daughters, Deliverance and Mary. I could find no further records for the other two daughters. I presume they predeceased the date of the guardianship. A marriage record for Elenor Gale to Ebenezer Hanniford exists for a date about two years later. This couple had four additional children.


• Samuel Gale, the youngest son, survived to the age of 73. His brothers predeceased him by a considerable amount of time. He administered his mother's probate and accepted guardianship of two nieces, daughters of his brother Benjamin. His wife, Mary Stadden, outlived him by a very short time. Five of their six children grew to adulthood, and the married names of their daughters were detailed in the probate administration.

Proof of Relationship

The baptism and marriage records and the wills are our best proof of relationship for our direct ancestors in this family.

What Else We Need to Learn

The goal of this project is to trace every line of ancestry to the arrival of its first immigrant to America. The basic information of each couple is considered complete when we know the dates of birth, marriage, and death for both spouses. their parents' names (or whether they were the immigrant), and the child or children in our ancestry line.

The research on this family is basically complete.