52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks: #8 Eunice Reed, Daughter of Peter and Lucy

On 25 March 1748, in Abington, Massachusetts, Peter Reed married Lucy Hugens and began their life together in Plymouth County. A little more than a year later, the First Church in Abington recorded their first known child: “Ap -9 1749 Peter Reed owned of Covenant and had his daughter Unice Baptized,” a common church notation meaning Peter was recognized by the church and could present his child for baptism. The clerk recorded her name as “Unice” in that entry; in this post, I use the more familiar spelling “Eunice” while keeping the record wording as written. With only a brief line in The Reed Genealogy, her story is reduced even further to the quiet note that she “died previous to her father.”

Found on the third line: “Ap -9 1749 Peter Reed owned of Covenant
and had his daughter Unice Baptized”

After that, the records go mostly silent. I have not found an Abington record, a Bridgewater record, or any other record showing whether Eunice died as a child, lived into her teens, or reached adulthood. Still, she seems to have been remembered. In the next generation, both her sister Joanna and her brother Samuel named daughters Eunice—a double tribute that makes me think Peter and Lucy’s first daughter was not forgotten. 

Any later record for a “Unice/Unis/Eunice Reed” will need to be tested against this 1749 baptism and Peter and Lucy’s Abington family before I treat it as more than a possibility. Even so, with only her baptism and the note that she died before Peter, who died in 1780, we can still see this much: Eunice lived, she was part of this family, and she was remembered.

Click the family chart above for a clearer, slightly larger version. 

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Diana

© 2026

First Congregational Church (Abington, Massachusetts), church records, 1714–1749, entry for baptism of Unice Reed, 9 April 1749; digital image, Congregational Library & Archives, Digital Collections, “Church records, 1714-1749, First Congregational Church in Abington, Mass.,” item 40856 (https://congregationallibrary.quartexcollections.com/Documents/Detail/church-records-1714-1749-first-congregational-church-in-abington-mass./40810?item=40856 : accessed 25 February 2026).

John Ludovicus Reed, The Reed Genealogy: Descendants of William Reade of Weymouth, Massachusetts from 1635-1902 Vol. I  (no publisher named, 1901). 

“Massachusetts, U.S., Town and Vital Records, 1620–1988,” database with images, Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/2495/records/3455181  : accessed 25 February 2026), entry for Eunice Nash, daughter of Joanna Reed Nash, record no. 3455181.

“Massachusetts, U.S., Town and Vital Records, 1620–1988,” database with images, Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/2495/records/4206214  : accessed 25 February 2026), entry for Eunice Reed, child of Samuel Reed and Matilda Doty, record no. 4206214.

Vital records of Abington, Massachusetts, to the year 1850, vol. 2, Marriages and deaths (Boston: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 1912); digital images, Internet Archive  (https://archive.org/details/vitalrecordsofab02newe  : accessed 25 February 2026), no entry found for Eunice/Unice Reed.

Vital records of Bridgewater, Massachusetts, to the year 1850, vol. 2 (Boston, Mass.: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 1916); digital images, Internet Archive (https://archive.org/details/vitalrecordsofbr021916brid/page/420/mode/2up  : accessed 25 February 2026), no entry found for Eunice/Unice Reed.