Sarah (Alden) Standish (abt. 1634 - bef. 1688)

Born about 1634 in Duxbury, Plymouth Colony [uncertain]

Ancestors

Wife of Alexander Standish — married about 1660 in Duxbury, Plymouth Colony [uncertain]

Descendants

Died before 13 Jun 1688 before about age 54 in Duxbury, Plymouth, Plymouth Colony

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Sarah (Alden) Standish was related to a passenger on the Mayflower. Join: Mayflower Project Discuss: mayflower

Sarah is the daughter of Mayflower passengers John Alden and Priscilla Mullins and granddaughter of passengers William Mullins and his wife, Alice.

Biography

Very little information is found on Sarah Alden, daughter of John Alden and Priscilla Mullins. She was probably born at Duxbury, Massachusetts, between 1630-1640.^[1] Robert Charles Anderson, in The Mayflower Migration, estimates Sarah's birth to be about 1634.^[2] The Alden family removed from Plymouth to nearby Duxbury in about 1632, so the actual place of her birth might have been either town.

Sarah married Alexander Standish, son of Capt. Myles Standish^[3] and his wife Barbara, about 1660, (estimated marriage date based on first child born in early 1660s).^[1][2][4]

Sarah and Alexander Standish had the following children:

1. Lorah,^[3] wife of Abraham Samson,^[4][5] was born about 1660^[1] and died after 2 August 1725^[6]
2. Lydia, wife of Isaac Sampon,^[4][5] was born about 1662^[1] and died after 1748 (date of son Isaac's will)^[3]
3. Mercy,^[3] wife of Caleb Samson,^[4][5] was born about 1664^[1]
4. Elizabeth, wife of Samuel Delano,^[4][5] was born about 1665^[1] and died after 1731^[3]
5. Sarah, wife of Benjamin Soule,^[5] was born about 1666/7^[1] and died 4 March 1740^[3][4]
6. Miles, eldest son,^[5] husband of Experience Sherman,^[4][6] was born about 1668,^[1] and died 15 September 1739^[3]
7. Ebenezer,^[5] husband of Hannah Sturtevant, was born about 1672^[1] and died 19 March 1755^[3][4][6]
8. probably David,^[3][7] who died before 14 February 1689, when an inquest into the death of David Standish of Duxborough was sworn. The jury determined the cause of death was a broken skull caused by a tree falling on his head while David was cutting it down.^[1][8] David predeceased Alexander, so he is not named in his father's will.

Sarah died before 13 June 1688, when Alexander Standish, in right of his wife Sarah, deceased, and the other heirs of John Alden signed the settlement of his estate.^[1][9]

Sarah's husband, Alexander, remarried Desire (Doty) (Sherman) Holmes by 1689^[2] (their first child was born in May 1689).^[1] They had three children: Desire, Thomas and Ichabod, all who were named in Alexander's will).^[1][4]

Alexander died on 6 July 1702, aged about 76 years.^[1][5] He left a will dated 21 February 1701/2 with a codicil dated 5 July 1702. His will was proved at Plymouth on 29 July 1702, the inventory having been taken on 23 July 1702 On 10 August 1702, four of his sons-in-law on behalf of themselves and their wives, daughters of Alexander and Sarah Alden, contested Alexander's will..^[1] Alexander left only five shillings to his five daughters from his first wife, and they argued that an unfair share was given to their brother, Miles, and to Alexander's three children from his second marriage.^[5]

Sources

1. ↑ ^{1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 1.11 1.12 1.13 1.14} Esther Littleford Woodworth-Barnes, comp., Alicia Crane Williams, ed. Mayflower Families Through Five Generations, Vol. 16, Part 1: John Alden. Plymouth, MA: General Society of Mayflower Descendants, 1999, pp. 39-43. Not available online - checked 4/13/22 by Thiessen-117.
2. ↑ ^{2.0 2.1 2.2} Robert Charles Anderson, The Mayflower Migration: Immigrants to Plymouth, 1620. NEHGS: 2020, p. 21 (Alden) and 162 (Standish). Online at Mayflower 2020 at AmericanAncestors.org: Alden
3. ↑ ^{3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 3.7 3.8} Susan E. Roser. "Mayflower Births and Deaths: From the Files of George Ernest Bowman at the Massachusetts Society of Mayflower Descendants". 2 vols. Baltimore, MD: Genealogical Publishing Company, Inc., 1992, Vol. 2, p. 311. Ancestry.com.
4. ↑ ^{4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 4.6 4.7 4.8} Mrs. Charles Alden. "Alden Genealogy" in the New England Historical and Genealogical Register, Vol. 52, pp. 363-365. Boston, MA: New England Historic Genealogical Society, July 1898. AmericanAncestors.org [$].
5. ↑ ^{5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 5.5 5.6 5.7 5.8} George Ernest Bowman. "Alexander Standish's Will and Inventory and the Settlement of His Estate" in the Mayflower Descendant, Vol. 12, pp. 99-108. Boston, MA: Massachusetts Society of Mayflower Descendants. AmericanAncestors.org [$].
6. ↑ ^{6.0 6.1 6.2} Susan E Roser. "Mayflower Increasings", pages 106-107. Ancestry.com [$].
7. ↑ NOTE: NEHGR 52:363 lists him as a son of Alexander and his second wife, but this is unlikely.
8. ↑ Plymouth County Court Records, 1686-1859. Vol. 1, p. 4. AmericanAncestors.org [$]
9. ↑ "John Alden's Inventory and Settlement of his Estate" in the Mayflower Descendant, Vol. 3, no. 1, Jan 1901. Boston, MA: Massachusetts Society of Mayflower Descendants, 1901, p.11. Archive.org.

See also:

• Warner, Russell, re-edited by Wakefield, Robert S., FASG, Mayflower Families through Five Generations, Vol. 14, Family of Miles Standish. Plymouth MA: General Society of Mayflower Descendants, 2007. Not available online.
• Alden.org website: Descendants of John Alden, Second Generation, Sarah Alden. (Link via Wayback Machine, capture date 14 May 2021.)
• Genealogies of Mayflower Families from The New England Historical and Genealogical Register. Volume I, Adams - Fuller. Baltimore MD: Genealogical Publishing Co., Inc., 1985: birth c.1629, death c.1685. Not available online.
• Landis, John Tannehill. Mayflower descendants and their marriages for two generations after the landing. Washington, D.C.: Bureau of military and civic achievement, 1922, p. 35. Archive.org.
• Find a Grave, database and images (accessed 12 November 2020), memorial page for Sarah Alden Standish (1627–13 Jun 1688), Find A Grave: Memorial #14421267, citing Myles Standish Burying Ground, Duxbury, Plymouth County, Massachusetts, USA; Maintained by Kaaren Crail Vining (contributor 11705756): headstone photo appears to be that of Elder Cushman, not Sarah Standish.
• Goodrich, Merton Taylor. "The Children and Grandchildren of Captain Myles Standish" in the New England Historical and Genealogical Register. Boston, MA: New England Historic Genealogical Society, April 1933, Vol. 87, pp. 153-156. AmericanAncestors.org.