52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks: #9 Joanna Reed, Daughter of Peter and Lucy

Baptism of Joanna Reed, 25 Dec. 1763

Joanna Reed was born on 8 September 1763 in Abington or Bridgewater (records vary) and was baptized in Bridgewater, Plymouth County, Massachusetts, on 25 December 1763. She was the daughter of Peter Reed and Lucy Hugens.

Hill Top Cemetery, Plainfield, MA

Her life can be traced from Plymouth County to Cummington and later to Plainfield, both in Hampshire County. Charles N. Dyer, in his History of the Town of Plainfield, Hampshire County, Mass., wrote that many of Plainfield’s early settlers moved west from Abington, Bridgewater, and Weymouth. Joanna’s path seems to fit that pattern, although I do not know when she left Plymouth County.

Joanna is believed to have been the sister of my fourth-great-grandfather, Benjamin Reed. Benjamin was in Cummington before the Revolutionary War. When their father, Peter Reed, died in 1780, it was said that his widow, Lucy, moved to Cummington. Did Joanna go to Cummington with her mother, or was she already in Hampshire County by that time?

On 14 April 1788, a marriage intention was recorded in Cummington for Joanna Reed and Jacob Nash, and they were married there on 27 November 1788.  Jacob Nash was born in Weymouth in 1760 and came to Plainfield soon after the close of the Revolutionary War. Dyer noted in his book that the Jacob Nash home was still standing in 1891.

Joanna and Jacob had five known children: 

Sibyl, born 19 August 1789 

Arvin, born 19 November 1790 

Roxanna, born 22 August 1792 

Eunice, born 30 April 1795 

Mandana, born 19 January 1800

The family remained closely tied to Plainfield and the surrounding area. Joanna died on 8 September 1849 in Plainfield, Hampshire County, Massachusetts, on her eighty-sixth birthday, and was buried there.

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Diana

© 2026

“Amherst, Hampshire, Massachusetts, United States records,” images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QSQ-G979-927F?view=fullText  : accessed 13 March 2026), image 505 of 562; Amherst (Massachusetts), death of Sibyl Nash, showing mother’s birthplace as Bridgewater; Image Group Number 007009211.

Charles N. Dyer, History of the Town of Plainfield, Hampshire County, Mass., from Its Settlement to 1891, Including a Genealogical History of Twenty Three of the Original Settlers and Their Descendants, with Anecdotes and Sketches (Northampton, Massachusetts: Press of Gazette Printing Co., 1891), digital images, Internet Archive (https://archive.org/details/historyoftownofp01dyer/page/n13/mode/2up  : accessed 13 February 2026).

“Cummington, Hampshire, Massachusetts, United States records,” images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QS7-8979-H9YZ?view=fullText  : accessed 5 March 2026), image 134 of 162; Cummington (Massachusetts) marriage of Joanna Reed and Jacob Nash; Image Group Number 007009226.

“Find a Grave,” database and images (https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/64880706/jacob-nash  : accessed 13 March 2026), memorial for Joanna Nash, Find a Grave Memorial ID 64880706; citing Hill Top Cemetery, Plainfield, Hampshire County, Massachusetts, USA; maintained by Anonymous. 

First Parish Congregational Church (North Bridgewater, Massachusetts), baptism of Joanna Reed, dau. of Peter Reed, 25 Dec. 1763; digital image, Congregational Library & Archives Digital Collections (https://congregationallibrary.quartexcollections.com/Documents/Detail/church-records-1740-1805-first-parish-congregational-church-in-north-bridgewater/5618?item=5679

 : accessed 9 March 2026).

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

“Plainfield, Hampshire, Massachusetts, United States records,” images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QHV-P3X5-MR9N?view=fullText  : accessed 5 March 2026), image 30 of 67; marriage intention of Jacob Nash and Joanna Reed; Image Group Number 107028903.

“Plainfield, Hampshire, Massachusetts, United States records,” images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QHV-L3X5-M5DJ?view=fullText  : accessed 6 March 2026), image 35 of 46; Image Group Number 107028906; death record for Joanna Reed.

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 they 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. 

If you would like to learn more about the families I research, follow my Facebook page , where I share each post along with other genealogical finds.

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.