Marian (Bretoun)(Ayrault) Goodrich is not the writer's ancestor, but the importance of Marian to the writer is: 1) she was the 2nd wife of a son of the writer's ancestors; 2) Moses Crafts, the first witness to the will of Marian's first husband, is the writer's ancestor and adds to documenting where Moses was prior to his death; 3) descendants of Marian's children by her first husband married into the writer's ancestral Wethersfield families; 4) there are anomalies in the records regarding Marian that need explanation; and 5) part of Stiles' footnotes to the Ayrault family (Ancient Wethersfield, 2:42) are confused and misplaced.
Marian (q.v. Marianne, Mary Ann) Bretoun, as her maiden surname is spelled on the Ayrault family's tabletop cenotaph at Wethersfield, b. circa 1681-82 at an unknown place of unknown parents. She d. at Wethersfield Aug. 27, 1741, "in the 60th y. of her age" (Weth. TR.), i.e. at 59 years old and Æ 60. Both the Weth. TR's and the Ayrault monument imply she was born on or after Aug. 28, 1681.
In Stiles' Ancient Wethersfield, the sketch of Dr. Nicholas Ayrault says Nicholas arrived in New England soon after 1687 and married at Rhode Island, Marian Bretoun, who he had met during the voyage to America. They then settled at Wethersfield.
On an unknown date and place, Marian Bretoun m. 1) Dr. Nicholas Ayrault. The structure and children of this marriage are summarized by his separate memorial. Following Dr. Ayrault's death, by 1714 the widow Marian m. 2) as his 2nd wife, Lieut. William Goodrich, Jr., s. of Ens. William Goodrich and Sarah Marvin, b. Feb. 8, 1660/1 at Wethersfield. This marriage is not of record, but that Marian's recorded date and age at death as "Mariaanne, widow of Lieut William, died Aug 27, 1741, in the 60th year of her age" is matched by her name as well as her date and age at death on the Ayrault Family cenotaph verifies that she died as the widow Goodrich. The Ayrault family cenotaph was concerned with detailing only part of the family by Marian's marriage to Dr. Nicholas Ayrault.
Lieut. William Goodrich d. testate at Wethersfield Dec. 27, 1737, Æ 77. Although Marian was provided for in husband Goodrich's will, the will was poorly structured and nearly all of the children by both of William's two wives objected.
Marian Bretoun and Lieut. William Goodrich, Jr. had four known children at Wethersfield:
• v. Ethan Goodrich, bapt. Dec. 26, 1714 (Weth. Ch.); not included in the 1738 appeal of his father's will.
• vi. Elizabeth Goodrich, claimed by the Goodrich Gen. as b. Sept. 15, 1715, but no extant record of birth exists. She was bapt. Jan. 8, 1715/16 (Weth. Ch.); she is included in the 1738 appeal of her father's estate, but her fate thereafter is unknown.
• vii. Lucenia Goodrich, claimed by the Goodrich Gen. as b. June 23, 1717, but no extant record of birth or baptism can be found. Like her sister Elizabeth she is named in the 1738 appeal of her father's will. The Goodrich Gen. errors in stating she, as Lucy Goodrich, m. in 1732 at the age of 15 as his 1st wife, Rev. Daniel Fuller of Willington, Conn., b. at Dedham, Mass. in 1699. Rev. Fuller m. Lucy Goodrich, b. 1699 at Wethersfield, the dau. of Jonathan Goodrich (John,1). The current writer believes Lucenia was one and the same as the Lucy Goodrich who m. Nov. 8, 1739 at Wethersfield, William Butler, s. of James Butler and Hannah Edwards, b. Feb. 8, 1714/15. They had five children before their death at Wethersfield; he May 17, 1786 and she Mar. 13, 1797.
• viii. Eunice Goodrich, claimed by the Goodrich Gen. as b. Dec. 8, 1719, but no extant record of birth or baptism can be found. Like her two older sisters she is named in the 1738 appeal of her father's will, but her fate thereafter is unknown.
Inscription
See the full Ayrault centotaph transcription in Dr. Ayrault's memorial
On the day Marian died she was 59 years old, and Ætatis suæ (i.e., Æ, "Aged," in the XX year of her Age) 60, indicating she was b. on or after Aug. 27, 1681.