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| Born December 25, 1745. Died August
9, 1788. On March 15, 1770, he married Martha Weeks (born April 22, 1750), a daughter of
Abel and Mary (Ireland) Weeks. Elnathan was a blacksmith of Chappaqua, New York. James Wood was his helper. The will of Elnathan Thorn of North Castle, executed May 16, 1788, and proved January 6, 1789, remembered his wife Martha, five sons, and three daughters (Rec. v.55, pg 147 cf. Westchester County Wills:A:89). Two other children named in the Purchase Friends Records died young. Elnathan had eight children:
Martha Weeks: She married as her second husband, James Wood. Ahah! She married Elnathan's helper! Makes you wonder...poor Elnathan. This marriage caused quite a stir in the Quaker Meeting a Purchase, as evidenced by the following minute extract: "4m 15 1781 Shapaqua Perpareative Meeting inform that Martha Wood formerly Thorn has so far deviated from the principles of Truth as to keep company with a man who resided in the same house with her and married him out of the Unity of friends after being timely Precautioned. Testimonial of disownment 5: 13: 1791" (Friends Rec. Com., Purchase Rec.). However, Martha Wood was later reinstated, and her young husband was accepted into the Society of Friends. The romance of James Wood and the Widow Thorn is one of the agreeable old stories of Westchester County. (Herbert Barber Howe, Yorkshire to Westchester: a Chronicle of the Wood Family, 1948, pages 77-83). |
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