Ephraim Tiffany

Biography

Ephraim Tiffany was a son of Ebenezer Tiffany and grew up in the Swansea–Barrington area, spanning today’s southeastern Massachusetts and neighboring Rhode Island. The Tiffany genealogy describes him as a sea captain. His marriage to Esther Viall took place at Barrington, then in Massachusetts and now in Rhode Island, on December 27, 1744, after their intention had been recorded the previous month. Their children included Elizabeth, Rachel, Molly and Ebenezer.

The household was also connected with slavery. Bicknell's History of Barrington reports that the inventory of Ephraim's estate, made after his death in 1771, valued an enslaved Black man at £30. The passage does not name the man, but it records his treatment as property within Ephraim's estate.

An earlier document concerns Esther's side of the family. The published abstract of her father Benjamin Viall's 1750 will made a conditional bequest to her of an enslaved boy named Scipio. It would take effect if Scipio survived Benjamin's wife, Sarah. That provision and the later inventory concern the same family circle, but the surviving accounts do not establish that the unnamed man in Ephraim's estate was Scipio.

Ephraim died in 1771, leaving Esther a widow. Their son Ebenezer was still a teenager. Esther lived until 1792; the family's memorials are at Princes Hill Burial Ground in Barrington.

The chronology gives Ephraim’s birth in the dual-year form 1703/04, names his mother Elizabeth, and records marriage intentions on November 3, 1744.