• Perhaps the Phebe Post who m. at Westbrook, 10 Nov 1766, Billey Willard of Guilford (Joseph Willard and Charles Wilkes Walker, Willard Genealogy, [Boston, Mass., 1915], p 89).
3251, p 226• Phebe Post m. Caleb Chapman, 18 Nov 1764
Phebe Chapman d. 3 Apr 1766
3251, p 61,2197, p 2
• Dear Mr. Mills:
This will refer to your query in the current Nutmegger re Phebe (not Phoebe) Post, wife of Billey Willard. I am hastening to reply, as later today I will expect to commence a series of tests which will result in some lengthy hospitalization, and may not be able to answer later on.
In the process of collecting the Descendants of Stephen and Eleanor Post of Saybrook, this Phebe Post has proved to be one of the principal problems encountered, frustrating not only me, but a goodly number of her descendants in the Hubbard family clan especially, also one good researcher in the family of Billey, Jr.
Billey Willard, as you may or may not know, was a descendant of Stephen Post through his daughter Katherine (Post) Chalker, so it appears Billey and his wife were remote cousins.
My research led me to believe that Phebe (Post) Willard, was the Phebe, born to Cornelius[4] Post (Daniel[3] Abraham[2] Stephen[1]) and his first wife, Sarah Kelsey, 12 April 1745 (Saybrook Land Records 4:476) and gave this to the committee revising the Willard Family account in the recently published Guilford Families. Unfortunately, they left out the word “probably” which I regret, as later on I discovered that Phebe signed a deed as witness with her father, Cornelius, as ‘Phebe Chapman’ (wife of Caleb Chapman).
Therefore, I returned to the old theory that she was the Phebe, born to Nathan[4] Post (Abraham[3][2] Stephen[1]) and his first wife Hannah Barnes, b. 10 October 1743 (Saybrook Land Records 2:158), as stated in the 1963 Denison Genealogy. This is strictly based on probability through the process of elimination, and I have found no documentary proof. Several members of the family have joined me in this research and none to date has found solid proof of her parentage. If you find anything, I would be glad to have it.
3249• When researching the descendants of Abraham[2] Post, I was unfortunately unaware of the work of the late Donald E. Poste (1916-1990) of Buffalo, N. Y., and Newberry, S. C. Mr. Poste spent over fifty years tracing the Connecticut Post family. A copy of his manuscript has been donated to the Connecticut Historical Society and is another valuable resource for descendants of this family.
3251, p 61