“To the honourable Samuel Danforth Judge of the Probates for the County of Middlesex
“These are to —- you to appoint my grand Father Mr Joseph Daby of Stow for my Guardian
[signed] Simon Puffer”
This short request, contained in the guardianship packet for all of Ephraim Puffer’s children, confirms that Joseph Daby was the grandfather of the Puffer children. Based upon the marriage date for Ephraim Puffer and Mary Daby, he would have been the grandfather of all the children referenced in the packet: Jonathan, Simon, Catherine, and Ephraim.
Mary (Daby) Puffer would have likely retained physical custody of her children. The other three had a separate guardian appointed. It may have simply been that Joseph did not want the responsibility of all the Puffer children or that Ephraim was actually living with this grandfather. That is speculation.
What is stated is the relationship between Simon Puffer and Joseph Daby and Daby’s residence at the time of this undated document. On 2 May 1763, Daby was appointed Simon Puffer’s guardian, so it seems reasonable that the statement was made out shortly before that.
Guardianship records do not always indicate if there is any biological relationship between the guardian and the ward.
In an upcoming post we’ll see that there are a few more documents in this guardianship file.
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