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I'm still puzzling over Asahel's wife or wives and would like to float a new possibility, that "Churchill Family in America" somehow got it wrong in saying that Asahel's wife was Eunice Piney.
Starting with the cemetery records for Jefferson County that Irene located, it appears to me that the Asher and Ashbel of the cemetery was indeed Asahel. Asahel was born May 1, 1754, according to CFA. The Asher in the Jefferson County cemetery died according to the cemetery records at the age of 85 years, 7 months, and 27 days. If we add that to Asahel's birth date, we get December 28th 1839, just one day off from the December 27th date on the cemetery stone. CFA has Asahel dying December 25th. Minor errors of this sort are pretty common, I've found, and I'm satisfied that Irene's suggestion of weathered stones explains the seeming name discrepancy and that this is Asahel.
The Elizabeth shown as Asahel's wife by the cemetery records died 3 Feb. 1840 at 85 years, 9 months, and 10 days, which gives her a birth date of April 23, 1754. This makes her the same age as Asahel.
Age is one problem with Eunice Piney. She was four years older than Asahel. Though not ruling out a marriage, this certainly is unusual. Moreover, Eunice died only two months before Asahel, yet we know from the property records that Irene has in her possession that Elizabeth was Asahel's wife at least as early as 1809. This means that if Asahel and Eunice were married, they would have had to have divorced at least by 1809, and that would be an unusual occurrence in that era.
The Piney/Finney/Phinney family of Eunice Piney originated in the heartland of the Plymouth Churchills. CFA shows several marriages between Plymouth Churchills and both Finneys and Phinneys. However, unless the compiler of the Finney-Phinney information that Irene quotes from confused Bristol, Rhode Island, with Bristol Connecticut, there is no commonality between locations of the Finney/Phinney family and the Connecticut Churchills. Asahel married in Southington, Connecticut, and also lived in Bristol, Connecticut. The family of Eunice Finney moved first to Lebanon and then later to Warren in Connecticut, and neither of these places is close to Bristol or Southington nor associated with any Connecticut Churchill.
If the source material on Finneys-Phinneys has any dates for the moves, that might further confirm whether there was any likelihood that Eunice Finney and Asahel Churchill could have met each other. Lebanon is very far east in Connecticut, way east of Connecticut Churchill territory. To get to Warren requires passing through Connecticut Churchill territory, but the family presumably would have had to have moved from Lebanon before Asahel's marriage in 1778 and stopped for a spell in, presumably, Southington.
What seems to me more likely is that Eunice Piney/Finney/Phinney married a Churchill from Massachusetts who somehow was confused with Asahel of Connecticut. Since Eunice's date of death is known, someone had more information about her, perhaps a Finney-Phinney family compiler. If the source for her date of death could be found, perhaps additional information on her places of residence could also be found. However, my guess is that she is not to be found in Jefferson County. The 1790 census shows Asahel and his family to have been living in Bristol. The 1800 census shows him in Litchfield County, to the west. Sometime between 1800 and 1809 he moved to Jefferson County, and it seems reasonable to suppose that if there was a divorce it came before the move rather than after more than 22 years of marriage.
What do you all think?
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