Edward Dillingham was born June 12, 1595 in Cottesbach, Leicestershire, England, the son of Rev. Henry Dillingham and Oseth/Oseah Unknown. Edward Dillingham married Ursula Carter February 14, 1613/14 in Bitteswell, England. Edward died in 1667 in Sandwich, Massachusetts. Edward Dillingham was one of the 10 men assigned to organize the settlement in Sandwich, Plymouth Colony...and he and Deborah Bachiler Wing's oldest son, John Wing are listed as Heads of Families in Sandwich, Plymouth Colony.

Edward and his wife, Ursula Carter, had 6 or 7 known children. They were;

1. Elizabeth Dillingham, born April 2, 1616 in Cottesbach, Leicestershire, England, date of death unknown...long believed by many Wing family historians to be the first wife of John Wing.

2. Marie Dillingham, born November 1618, died 1628.

3. Oseah/Oseth Dillingham born February 10, 1620/21 in Cottesbach, Leicestershire, England. Oseah married Stephen Wing...she died April 29, 1654 in Sandwich, Plymouth Colony, Massachusetts.

"Baptized as "Osee" 10 Feb-1621/22 her name in the Sandwich records has been read as Oseah, but the parish registers Cottesbach and Deane give the name of her aunt and grandmother "Oseth".

4. Henry Dillingham, born October 13, 1624 in Cottesbach, Leicestershire, England. Henry married Hannah Perry...and he died July 26, 1705 in Sandwich, Plymouth Colony, Massachusetts.

5.Sarah Dillingham, born June 1627 in Bitteswell, England, died January 1628/29.

6. John Dillingham, born April, 1629 in Bitteswell, England, died May 9, 1629.

7. John Dillingham, born 1630 in Bitteswell, England. Married Elizabeth Feake...and he died May 21, 1715 in West Brewster, Massachusetts.

At some point when developing a website that is essentially involving one family...it has to grow beyond that family...if for no other reason than explaining relationships. The problem is...where to stop. Since the Dillingham's are so intensely interwoven with the Wing family I feel I have to include as much information as possible in order to make the relationships clearer...not only for visitors...but for myself.

First let's start with Elizabeth Dillingham who may or may not have been the first wife of John Wing. Elizabeth has been discounted by some family historians as being the first wife of John Wing because no record of her appears anywhere in New England history. By the same token, Yarmouth records that could be very critical to our research were destroyed by fire in 1674...so what might be known of Elizabeth Dillingham may have wound up as ashes. Secondly, the only known records that exist of Oseah Dillingham, Elizabeth Dillingham's sister,are the facts that she and Stephen had carnal knowledge of each other before their marriage and secondly that she died. We must bear in mind that Elizabeth and Oseah were women...and in those times their activities mattered very little in comparison to their husbands'.

We must also bear in mind that the passenger list on the William and Francis is incomplete because Stephen Bachiler's reputation preceded him to the Colony and many of the passengers were afraid of persecution. Therefore, in a mild form of duplicity, many names were purposefully kept off the record.

And finally...even Deborah Bachiler Wing left very little recorded history behind. She was always it seems in the shadow of her father, her husband or her sons. It is outrageous to think that she was the lone parent in a family of 4 boys in New England and yet we cannot find any records of her. Even the reference in 1692 "Olde Goody Wing Buried." is probably not a reference to Deborah Bachiler Wing. It is believed to be a reference to John Wing's wife. Enough said. Perhaps Elizabeth Dillingham did die in England as some Wing historians believe...but there is not even a record of her death in England...or in New England for that matter...and yet...there is a record for Marie, Sarah and John Dillingham, all 3 of which died in England.

I have also been very interested in the relationship between John Wing and John Dillingham. John Wing was born about 1613...while John Dillingham was born in 1630...that makes John Wing 17 years older than John Dillingham. It just seems strange to me that John Wing appears to have been closer to John Dillingham than he was to his own brothers. Before I noticed this age difference I didn't think much about it...but now I believe that there had to be a deeper relationship involved...a relationship that developed partly because of marriage between John Wing and Elizabeth Dillingham.

If the records can be believed, Ursula Carter Dillingham had 3 children in 3 years...2 of which died. I don't think that it is a stretch of the imagination to believe that by the time she had the last child, Ursula herself was pretty much done in...then in March of 1632 the Dillingham family climbs aboard the William & Francis (not exactly your Cunard luxury liners) and spends eighty-eight days at sea. Is it not likely that Elizabeth...if indeed she was aboard the ship...would have possibly taken over the care of her youngest brother, John Dillingham? If young John Wing, who was on the William & Francis, was close to Elizabeth...then it follows that he may also have assumed a paternal role in John Dillingham's life.

The biggest mystery to me is why John Wing and Elizabeth Dillingham would have waited so long to get married. Unless it was perhaps because Elizabeth's mother Ursula was in need of her oldest daughter's help at home...and also because John Wing was the oldest son of Deborah and he needed to be his mother's and brothers' provider before he could think about taking a wife. The other thought that has occurred to me is that we don't really know when John Wing took a wife...we only know that his first child was born about 1647. Who is to say that there were not children before? John Wing supposedly waited until he was about 32 years old before he took a wife. Perhaps they were married earlier and what children they had either were still-born or died in infancy. I welcome any and all input...a forum, if you will, on this subject.

The other thing I think that we need to take notice of while we are discussing the possiblity that John Wing and Elizabeth Dillingham were husband and wife is who married who in the next generation? Does it seem odd to anyone else but me that neither John or Stephen had any children that married their same generation Dillingham's ? Even though Stephen's children by Sarah Briggs could have married Dillingham offspring...they didn't...perhaps the relationship still seemed to be too close in view of his first marriage to Oseah Dillingham. None of John Wing's offspring married Dillingham's either...but Daniel Wing's children were a different story...his son, Samuel Batchelder Wing married Mary Dillingham, the daughter of Henry Dillingham and Hannah Perry....then Daniel Wing Jr, another son, marries Deborah Dillingham, the other daughter of Henry Dillingham and Hannah Perry. Go figure.

While I have spent much time reflecting on this I have not come up with one shred of "proof" ...just an overwhelming "hunch" that Elizabeth Dillingham was the first wife of John Wing. Not that it means anything, but both Ananias and Oseah Wing, John Wing's son and daughter, named their first daughters "Elizabeth". Secondly, John Wing named one of his daughters "Oseah" and it has long been believed that she was named for Stephen Wing's wife...Oseah. In fact the name Oseah began with Edward Dillingham's mother...and so there might be the possiblity that if John Wing and Elizabeth Dillingham were married they would name a child to honor her grandmother. When you look at the names that John named his other children there is no indication that he named any of them after Wing's...except perhaps John who would be considered his namesake. I do keep thinking that if we could know why John Wing named a son "Ananias" we might have a clue as who he was married to first...but so far I have not found that name in either the Dillingham side or the Wing side.