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Note: e very few dates for thi s family, and many unanswered questions. The household of Francis Sprague consisted of three persons in 1623 and again in 1627 [PCR 12:5, 11], and we assume here that these three are in both cases Francis, Anna, and Mercy. Mercy was clearly the daughter who married in 1637, but opinion is divided as to whether Anna was wife or daughter of Francis. We know that a daughter of Francis Sprague had married William Lawrence by 1644, but we have no record which gives her Christian name. But to have married by that date, and be born after the cattle division of 1727, she would be seventeen at marriage at most, an perhaps younger. The more likely solution is that the Anna of the cattle division was a second daughter, and Francis did not bring a wife with him to New England.
The other two children of Francis (John and Dorcas) were apparently born in the 1630s, and so fifteen or twenty years younger than Mercy and Anna, with no evidence of any children born in between. This alone suggests that these were children of a second marriage. We postulate, therefore, that Francis Sprague had two wives, the first of whom died in England before 1623, and the second of whom he married in New England about 1630. If our conclusion that Anna Sprague of the 1627 cattle division became wife of William Lawrence is correct, then we do not know the given name of either of the wives of Francis, nor do we have dates of birth, marriage or death for either of them. ====== From A. J. Sprague, correspondent. Francis came to America on the Anne as stated. All the lists of the passengers on the ship list Francis as coming with two (apparently) females. Anna and Mercy. There is no Lydia on the list anywhere. I have been searching for several years now. I can find no historical evidence of any kind as to the existence of a Lydia. The only reference to a Lydia was where a Lydia Sprague made her mark on a document selling the land in Duxbury. It was sold by Francis' grandson, John. John had a wife named Lydia. The laws of the time said that wives had to sign off on property that was to be sold. The only logical assumption was that this Lydia was John's wife. If she was Francis' wife she would have to be quite old and there is still the problem of where did John's wife sign . Some believe that Francis married a second time, his fir t wife having died in England. If so, this marriage would have to have been before 1633 or after 1640 as his marriage is not listed in the Records of the Colony of New Plymout h, Vol. 1.
1
Note: The Great Migration Begins", by Robert Charles Anderson, Volume III, 1996, page 1727 There ar
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