How many children did Andrew and Rachel have, and when were they born?

In 1763 Ezra Stiles, who became the president of Yale, transcribed a memorial stone erected by Samuel Hubbard, which was remarkable for the amount of information it conveyed. Unfortunately the stone was destroyed around 1765, so this transcription is all that remains. The stone, dated ca September, 1688, recorded the grandchildren of Samuel and Tacy Hubbard by each of their three daughters:

• Ruth, wife of Robert Burdick: 11, 1 dead, 10 living
• Rachel, wife of Andrew Langworthy: 10, 3 dead, 7 living
• Bethiah, wife of Joseph Clarke: 9 living

All three of Samuel Hubbard's sons-in-law were among the party which agreed to purchase land in Westerly in 1661. Only Robert Burdick and John Clarke actually moved there - Andrew Langworthy sold his Westerly land to William Reape before 1670. Andrew and his family stayed in Newport and the land records of early Newport show that Andrew and Rachel owned land adjacent to the Hubbards.

When King Philip's war broke out, many of the Westerly settlers went back to Newport for protection. Here are excepts from two of Samuel Hubbard's letters:

• (Nov 1, 1675) "My wife and 3 daughters, who are all here by reason of the Indian war, with their 15 children, desire to remember their christian love to you."
• (Nov 1676) "In the midst of these troubles of the war.... we sent a boat ...and my two daughters, and their children (one had eight, the other three, with an apprentice boy) all came... My son Clarke came afterwards before winter, and my other daughter's husband in the spring, and they have all been at my house until this day."

From these letters we learn that Samuel Hubbard had 15 living grandchildren on November 1, 1675. The Burdicks had eight, the Clarkes had three, so Andrew and Rachel must have had four living children at the time.

So summarizing the above argument:

• Andrew and Rachel Langworthy had 10 children.
• On Nov 1, 1675 four of these children were alive.
• By September 1688 all ten of the children had been born. Seven were alive and three had died.
• We may know the identity of four of the surviving children and one of those who had passed away.
• We know nothing of the other five children, except that two of them had died before September 1688.

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