Tirza (Bartlett) Sawyer (1684 - 1739)

Born 20 Jan 1684 in Newbury, Essex, Massachusetts Bay

Ancestors

Wife of Josiah Sawyer — married 22 Jan 1708 in Newbury, Essex, Massachusetts Bay Colony

Descendants

Died 2 Sep 1739 at age 55 in Newbury, Essex, Massachusetts Bay

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This profile is part of the Bartlett Name Study.

Biography

Tirzah Bartlett was born in 1683/84, the daughter of Samuel Bartlett and Elizabeth Titcomb.^[1] Note that some of the references attached hereto identify Tirzah, wife of Josiah Sawyer, as daughter of Thomas and Tirzah Bartlett, instead of Samuel and Elizabeth. There were in fact two "Tirzah Bartlett's" born in Newbury, one b. 1683; one b. 1689. However, the inscription on Tirzah Bartlett Sawyer's gravestone (reference below), indicates an age of 56 at death in 1739. The daughter of Thomas would have been only 50. Hence the certainty she was Samuel's daughter.

On 22 Jan. 1707/08, in Newbury, she married Josiah Sawyer, also of Newbury.^[2] The couple settled in a house that Josiah had acquired in July of 1707, later known as the "Sawyer House".^[3] This property was located in the area that became known as the West Parish of Newbury, shown as "Nbr. 23" on the map of the West Parish as drawn by John Brown and dated 15 Sep. 1729.^[4] At this location, they raised the following children:

1. Josiah, b. 12 Apr. 1709
2. Moses, b. 21 Feb. 1711/12
3. Tirzah, b. 7 Nov. 1713
4. Israel, b. 9 Oct. 1717; d. 2 Aug. 1739
5. Gideon, b. 15 Dec. 1719
6. James, b. 12 May 1722; d. 27 Sep. 1723, and
7. Hannah, bpt. 28 Apr. 1723 (Queen Anne's Episcopal Chapel, Newbury); d. 6 Sept. 1739.

Youngest daughter Hannah appears to have been the first child of this family baptized in the new Episcopal Church in Newbury, called Queen Anne's Chapel. Her father Josiah was actually one of 22 who petitioned for establishment of this Church in 1712,^[5] and one of 18 (another being his father-in-law Samuel Bartlett) who adopted the rules of this church on 28 Nov. 1722.^[6] This Queen Anne's Chapel was only the second Episcopal Church in all of New England, and was frowned upon by the authorities in its early years. Even when his son Josiah moved across the river to Amesbury, the grand-children were brought back to Queen Anne's in Newbury for baptism.

Tirzah passed away in 1739, at the age of only 56.^[7] There must have been an intense disease in the family, with TIrzah and two of her children passing away within days of each other. Tirzah was buried in Sawyer Hill Burial Ground in the West Parish of Newbury, in the area soon afterwards (1764) set apart from Newbury as Newburyport, MA.^[8]

Sources

1. ↑ Vital Records of Newbury, Massachusetts, to the End of the Year 1849 (Essex Institute, Salem, Mass., 1911)| Volume 1, Page 44
2. ↑ Vital Records of Newbury, Massachusetts, to the End of the Year 1849 (Essex Institute, Salem, Mass., 1911)| Volume 2, Part 2, Page 441
3. ↑ Ould Newbury, Historical and Biographical Sketches (Damrell and Upham, Boston, 1896)| Page 357
4. ↑ Ould Newbury, Historical and Biographical Sketches (Damrell and Upham, Boston, 1896)| Pages 392-93
5. ↑ Ould Newbury, Historical and Biographical Sketches (Damrell and Upham, Boston, 1896)| Page 373
6. ↑ Ould Newbury, Historical and Biographical Sketches (Damrell and Upham, Boston, 1896)| Page 384
7. ↑ Massachusetts Death Records, Newbury| Death, Tirzah Sawyer
8. ↑ Find A Grave: Memorial #54581074 for Tirzah Bartlett Sawyer

See Also:

• Family Search | Tirzah Bartlett
• Hoyt, David W. The Old Families of Salisbury and Amesbury, Massachusetts (Providence, Rhode Island, 1897)| Page 56
• Appleton, William. Some Descendants of William Sawyer, of Newbury, Mass. (D. Clapp & Son, Boston, 1891) Page 4: says she is the dau. of Thomas Bartlett of Newbury
• Family of William Sawyer of Newbury- William Appleton, NEHGR- Vol. 28, pp. 196 (Apr. 1874)| NEHGR 28: page 196, Person Nbr. 11
• Sawyier, Nathaniel. A Genealogy of Some of the Descendants of William Sawyer, of Newbury, Mass. (W.E. Moore, Manchester, N.H., 1889) Page 6
• Ould Newbury, Historical and Biographical Sketches (Damrell and Upham, Boston, 1896)| Ould Newbury, Page 359
• The Essex Antiquarian ... Vol 26. (Salem, MA: 1903) Archive.org Vol 26, Page 2.