Mary Fairbanks Wilder (1692-1745)

Marian and Agnes Wilder were the daughters of

Mary Fairbanks, who was the first wife of Colonel Oliver Wilder, of Lancaster, Massachusetts.

Mary Fairbank Wilder (1692-June 12, 1745) was born in Lancaster, MA, probably at the homestead of her parents, Jonathan Fairbank and Mary Hayward Fairbank.

Mary Fairbanks Wilder was the great granddaughter of Jonathan fFairebanke, who immigrated from England to Dedham, Massachusetts in the 1630s. Jonathan fFairbanke and his family built the Fairbanks House, the oldest existing timber frame house in North America. It was owned by the Fairbanks family continuously for over 250 years, and never had a mortage on it. Around the turn of the century, it was placed in family trust and is now operated as a museum by the Fairbanks family.

Jonathan’s farm was on southeastern slope of George Hill, either adjacent to the Wilder farm or very nearby. Little is known about Mary Fairbanks Wilder's life. As a child, her father Jonathan, a sister, and possibly an uncle or brother by the names of Grace and Jonathan were murdered by an Indian raiding party, which attacked the Fairbanks farm on George Hill, south of Lancaster, Massachusetts, in 1697 . Her mother Mary Hayward Fairbanks was taken captive at this time by the Indians. Mary Fairbanks and her sister Hannah, both small girls, escaped capture. How Mary Fairbanks Wilder escaped, and with whom she and her sister lived in the absence of her parents is not known but may have been a brother of her father, Jabez Fairbanks. Her mother eventually appeared with the natives in Maine, was ransomed by the colony of Massachusetts and returned home. Mary Hayward Fairbank remarried to David Whitcomb, and spent the rest of her life with him running an ordinrary--or tavern, in Bolton, Massachusetts. It could probably be presumed that Mary Fairbank Wilder, then still a young girl, lived with her mother and stepfather until she married Oliver Wilder in 1713. She and Oliver had ten children, including our ancestor Moses Wilder, (he when she was 44 years old). Mary died at age 53, probably at Turkey Hill.

Mary Fairbanks was the wife of Colonel Oliver Wilder who she married in 1713 at Lancaster. She was the mother of ten children, including Moses Wilder, the grandmother of Abel Wilder, and the great grandmother of James M. Wilder, who was the grandfather of James Lewellyn "Lew" Wilder.

Below are links to the grave sites of the Jonathan Fairbanks and his daughter, Grace Fairbanks, the father and sister of Mary Fairbanks Wilder.

The Gravesite of Jonathan and Grace Fairbanks, 1697, Lancaster, Massachusetts

Here are links to Mary Fairbanks Wilder's headstone.

The Grave of Mary Fairbanks Wilder, Lancaster, Massachusetts

Mary Fairbanks Wilder headstone

The Whitcomb Inn and Farm, probable childhood home of Mary Fairbanks Wilder