Hannah Manning Stearns

The long widowhood

Hannah Manning married Samuel Stearns in February 1662/63. Their family grew over two decades, with ten children listed in the Stearns genealogy. Their first son Samuel died as a child; their youngest, Joseph, was born in December 1682.

Samuel died the following year, leaving Hannah with children ranging from infancy to young adulthood. Joseph died in February 1683/84. Hannah’s daughter Abigail, born in 1681, was still a small child.

A family compilation citing the proceedings of Watertown, just west of Boston in Massachusetts, identifies Hannah’s household with a July 1694 relief order. Phillip Shattuck was instructed to provide for Samuel Stearns’s widow and children for one month because they needed assistance.

Hannah lived to see several children marry and establish households. She also outlived Abigail, who died in 1710, and Nathaniel, who died in 1716. Her own life ended in 1724, roughly forty years after Samuel’s death.