Mary Hyanno, Austin Bearce, Zer Newcomb
Mary Hyanno (Ihyannough/Yanno/Wianno/Iyanough)
-supposed daughter of the Sachem of the Cummaquid Wampanoags at "Barnstable" is supposed by many 21st-century descendants of Austine Bearce to have married Bearce in a Wampanoag ceremony on Cummiquid in 1639. If the Bearce/Hyanno marriage actually occurred, then would not this be one of the first instances of a New England-English/ Native American marriage? If this is not the first instance, how many of these intercultural marriages occurred in the 1630s and 1640s?
However, all of the Bearce/Hyanno genealogical claims appear to stem only from a work by one Franklin Bearse who
wrote in 1933 of his family's descent from Augustine Bearse of Barnstable who was supposedly of Romish (i.e. gypsy) ancestry and so was shunned by the other Puritans and therefore married Mary Hyanno.Franklin Bearse's genealogy is a document that appears to be riddled with errors and does not
inspire my confidence that it is a reliable history (it contains obvious myths such as Mary having "flaming red hair" and
that "Wampanoag" means "white Indian"--which it doesn't-- with the implication that Iyannough and his children might be of Viking, not Native American lineage etc.).
There are several Bearse descendant that I have come across who question the Hyanno line and believe that Bearce married an English woman named Martha Wilder or her daughter Mary Wilder, both of whom sailed with Bearce in 1638 on the "Confidence" and that this M. Wilder--not Mary Hyanno-- was Augustine Bearse's wife and mother of his many children (see James Nohl Churchyard's "Our Family Museum").
Franklin Bearce bases his 1933 Hyanno claim on the supposed diary of a grand-daughter-in-law of Austine and Mary Bearce--Jerviah or Zerviah Newcomb (born 1698 Edgartown to Andrew Newcomb and Anna Boyle). The key to proving this claim would be Jerviah's diary or an 18th or 19th century transcription of it--otherwise the Bearce claim really doesn't seem to hold water.
1. Has anyone seen the Jerviahor Zerviah Newcomb diary? Or does anyone know more about her? She did marry Austin's grandson Josiah Bearce in Barnstable abt. 1716 and died soon after--they don't appear to have had children together, perhaps she died in childbirth?
2. Is there any genealogical information on Sachem John Hyanno's daughter Mary--so far the only record that I know she exists in is Franklin Bearce's 1933 manuscript which is not reliable enough of a record to know that Mary Hyanno even existed--let alone that she married and had many children with an English settler.
Please don't direct me to the many Bearce descendant web sites unless you find one that is based on info other than the Franklin Bearce manuscript!
Thank you!!!!
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Re: Mary Hyanno, Austin Bearce, Zer Newcomb
Keelan Jenkins 12/01/08