Susan Harding

Biography

Susanna Harding moved from Medway, southwest of Boston, to Sturbridge, farther west in Massachusetts, through her marriage to David Wight. The Wight genealogy identifies her as a daughter of Thomas Harding and Susanna Cummings, born at Medway on March 3, 1765. Her name also appears as Susan.

She married David at Medway on November 7, 1782, when she was seventeen. A later history says that they had met earlier that year while she was travelling to Sturbridge to visit friends. Their home stood south of the Quinebaug River, on land David had received from his father.

Their twelve recorded children were born at Sturbridge between 1784 and 1806. The first Raddai died shortly before his second birthday, and the first David lived only ten days. A daughter Augusta also died in infancy. Later children received each of those names again. Other children included Thomas Harding, Susanna, Matilda, Calvin, Marinda and Hannah.

Susanna became a widow in October 1813. Hannah, the youngest, was seven, while several older children were already adults. During her widowhood, daughter Susanna married Silas Fiske and moved to Utica, in central New York; Marinda married Tilly Woodward. The family was beginning to spread beyond the household in which the children had grown up.

Susanna died at Sturbridge on August 22, 1829. Her documented adult life spanned nearly forty-seven years in the Wight family, including sixteen years of widowhood.