Sylvanus Wentworth and Elizabeth Steward

The following is transcribed in style and spelling, as it was printed in  The Wentworth Genealogy:  English and American, Vol 1. by John Wentworth pgs 154-5.

Sylvanus 2 (7) son of Elder William Wentworth, married (as by Rowley, Mass., Records, in Salem, Mass.).7 Nov. 1685, Elizabeth Stewart, of Rowley.  She is believed to have been daughter of Duncan Stewart of Rowley. (See Coffin's History of Newbury, p.319)  This is the first mention yet found of Sylvanus.

The next is when his name was signed, 20 February 1689, at Dover, N.H.. to "A petition of the Inhabitants and Train soldiers of the Provence of New Hampshire," and he was of course a resident of Dover.

It appears also from a deed of his father, Elder William, to the Elder's son Benjamin, 9 May 1693, that Sylvanus had received land from his father, and had lived upon it.  In that deed, Elder Williams gives to his son Benjamin, besides the "Corn that he hath sown and planted this year in my home lott and black cow that he hath made choyce of, " "the Land yt my son Sylvanus had passed; certainly none is on record.  But it proves that Sylvanus lived on Rollinsford  property.

The birth of "Elizabeth, daughter of Sylvanus and Elizabeth Wentworth, born 27 August 1689" is recorded at Rowley, Mass.

There is nothing to indicate when Sylvanus moved from Dover in 1689, and that his child wa born in Rowley, in the following August.  It will be noted that his signature as "of Dover in February 1689, with four months before the massacre of 28 June, while the birth of his child at Rowley  was two months after that massacre.  By that destruction the settlement at Cochecho had been temporarily broken up, execpt in the garrison houses; and the Wentworth property was beyond the last garrison.

There is nothing to show where or when he died, nor is there trace of child except:

Elizabeth born 27 August 1689.  Rowley Records say, "Nathaniel Dresser, of Rowley, Mass., married Elizabeth Wentworth, 13 November 1707.  "This Nathaniel Dresser, born 27 August 1681, was alive in 1724.  In 1711-12  John and Rebbecca Dresser, of Rowley, give to son Nathaniel Dresser land in Rowley, for their maintenance.

After the most diligent search, the above is all that has been learned of Sylvanus or his family.