Hepzibah Munroe Wheeler (1751-1829)

I’ve told you that our fascinating Granny Hepzibah Munroe Wheeler was born in Billerica; and so she was, 3 August 1751. It was with that understanding, on Memorial Day 2001, that I brought roses from Billerica Centre to her grave in Hillsborough, New Hampshire.

Her birthplace, then in the western part of Billerica, now lies a bit to the west of Carlisle Centre, but they still had 30 years of fussing to do, before there would be such a place. By then, Hepzibah and her descendants would be long gone from the neighborhood.

Hepzibah Munroe and Oliver Wheeler II, her neighbor, married¹ in Acton on 3 March 1773, at the very conventional ages of 24 and 21, respectively. Their new household needed a place to settle. Oliver was his parents’ firstborn and so might have had some expectation of inheriting the family spread in Acton/Carlisle. On the other hand, Oliver I and Abigail Woods Wheeler still had years to live, and eight siblings were also in line.

Hepzibah’s first cousins Thaddeus Munroe and Dr. Joseph Munroe were both making plans, along with members of Carlisle’s Wilkins family, to settle in Hillsborough, New Hampshire.

¹Vital Records of Billerica, Massachusetts to the Year 1850 (New England Historic Genealogical Society: Boston, 1908), p.292.