Nathaniel Croade & Elizabeth Marshall

Nathaniel Croade, my wife's 5th Great Grandfather and father of Elizabeth Croade, was born August 4th, 1706 in Halifax which was part of Plymouth Colony until the late 1600's when the Massachusetts Bay Colony united with it to form the Massachusetts Commonwealth.  Halifax had a population of about 500 in the 1734 when it was incorporated as a town.  Nathaniel married Elizabeth Marshall on December 29, 1742.  Elizabeth was born Jan 2, 1718 in Halifax.  I believe she was married previously to Benjamin Cartee and had a child, Benjamin.  That marriage was May 27, 1736.  What happened to Benjamin is unknown.  It's hard to imagine they were divorced in the early 1700's in puritan Massachusetts.  I assume that he must have passed away.  The evidence for her previous marriage is thin.  There is a record of Elizabeth Marshall marrying Benjamin Cartee (1736), and an Elizabeth Cartee marrying Nathaniel Croade (1742).  From those records it is not clear whether they are the same Elizabeth.  However I did find a fragment of a record from Plymouth that says:

Halifax: Nathaniel Croade "of Plimoth...Hatter [who] Came from Plimoth into ... Hallifax with his wife and one Son Nathaniel and his Wife's son Benjamin Carter and hath Since Resided in Said Town," and John Hicks, "a Transient Man Come from Duxborough," 12 June 1751

I have no record of what sort of work Nathaniel did, perhaps he was a hatter.  The above record is part of a list of "warnings" published at the time to give the locals a heads up that people who had no means of support had come into town.  So Nathaniel and Elizabeth may have been especially poor.

They had five children;  Elizabeth (b. May 31, 1743 d. Sept 17, 1744) , Nathaniel (b. Sept 5, 1745), Mary, John, and Elizabeth.

Nathaniel died March 6, 1789/90.  He is buried in Tomson Cemetery in Plymouth.  Elizabeth died in 1798.