Sarah (Nutt) Fuller (bef. 1624 - 1688)

Born before 19 Sep 1624 in Barking, Suffolk, England

Ancestors

Wife of John Wyman — married 5 Nov 1644 in Woburn, Middlesex, Massachusetts

Wife of Thomas Fuller — married 25 Aug 1684 in Woburn, Middlesex, Massachusetts

Descendants

Died 24 May 1688 after age 63 in Woburn, Middlesex, Massachusetts

Problems/Questions Profile managers: Billie Walsh [send private message], John Putnam [send private message], and Gillby Weldon [send private message]

Biography

Sarah (Nutt) Fuller immigrated to New England as a child during the Puritan Great Migration (1621-1640).

Sarah Nutt daughter of Miles Nutt (bef.1598-1671) and Sarah (Branson) Nutt (abt.1600-bef.1659) was baptized Barking, Suffolk, England, 19 Sep 1624.^[1][2]

Sarah emigrated to New England with her parents 1636 settling at Watertown Massachusetts.^[2]

Sarah Nutt married first to John Wyman, the father of all her children, 5 September 1644 at Woburn Massachusetts^[3] Sarah's children with John Wyman were recorded at Woburn (except Jacob):^[4]:

1. Samuel September 20 1646
2. John March 28 1648
3. Sarah April 15 1650
4. Solomon February 26 1652
5. David April 7 1654
6. Elizabeth January 18 1656
7. Bathsheba October 6 1658
8. Jonathan July 13 1661
9. Seth August 3 1663
10. Jacob June 4 1665 [not seen in Woburn records]

As only child, Sarah and her children are named in Miles Nutt's will. John is identified at the eldest child so Samuel must have died young. Sarah's husband John is named as the executor of the Will.^[5]

Sarah and John had at least one negro servant, Joanna, named in the Woburn town records when she gave birth to her daughter Habinah November 1 1685 the year after John's death.^[4]

Soon after John Wyman died Sarah married 25 August 1684, to Thomas Fuller as his second wife,.^[6][7]

Sarah died May 24, 1688.^[6][8]

Research Notes

1. Sarah's birthplace

Some have suggested that Sarah's birthplace was in Massachusetts, specifically Woburn, MA. She could not have been born in Woburn, MA in 1624, as Woburn didn't exist at that time. People began to settle Woburn in 1640. The profile of Sarah's father lists his baptism location as Barking, Suffolk, England and his marriage there on 16 July 1623. It stands to reason that their first child was born there. Furthermore, Savage reports that Miles Nutt of Watertown brought his daughter, Sarah, from England.^[9]

2. Sarah's middle name

The two references to Sarah Nutt found in the Woburn, MA Vital Records do not list a middle name. Modern cut-and-paste "genealogists" have picked up a middle name for Sarah, but it has no factual grounding. This myth may have begun at ancestry.com which lists the middle name "Ruth". But none of the 5 sources listed at ancestry.com list a middle name.

See Robert W. Baird, "The Use of Middle Name"; web content, Bob's Genealogy Filing Cabinet.

The use of two given names – a first name and a middle name – was essentially unknown in Europe until the late Middle Ages, and even then the practice was limited to a few distinct cultural groups. Middle names among English-speakers were essentially nonexistent until the mid-1600s, remained quite rare for another century or so, and did not become common until well after the American Revolution.

See Chris Laning, "Faire Names for English Folk: Late Sixteenth Century English Names" (c2000); web content, The Academy of Saint Gabriel.

An Elizabethan character would not use what we now call a "middle name," which is essentially an extra given name (as in Katherine Anne Cox or John Francis Ferrer). Double given names were slowly spreading on the Continent, but the custom had not yet reached England, and in fact did not become really common in English-speaking countries until much later, as late as the 19th century in places. We know of literally only about a dozen cases in all of Elizabethan England (before 1600), and most of them are among the nobles, or are people who were born abroad, such as Jane Sybilla Grey, who was born in France.

3. Possible Confusion:

As Sarah Wyman,^[10] b. abt.1613, m. 22-09-1643 in Dedham MA, d. 24 May 1688, she is incorrectly found on unsourced family trees as the wife of Thomas Flowers (bef.1616-).

And with her own daughter, Sarah Wyman of Woburn who married 1669.

Sources

1. ↑ Suffolk : Barking : St Mary : Parish Register : "Parish Register" database, FreeREG (https://www.freereg.org.uk/search_records/61b6049bf493fd3e18fd335b : viewed 20 Sep 2023) baptism Sarah Nutt 19 Sep 1624
2. ↑ ^{2.0 2.1} John B. Threlfall, "The English Origin of Miles Nutt Whose Daughter Sarah Married John Wyman," The American Genealogist 52 (1976):21-22; digital images by subscription, AmericanAncestors; includes select entries from the "Parish Register of Barking."
3. ↑ "Massachusetts, Town Clerk, Vital and Town Records, 1626-2001," database with images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:FHVJ-1VQ : 20 May 2022), Sarah Nutt in entry for John Wyman or Wiman, 5 Sep 1644; citing Marriage, Woburn, Middlesex, Massachusetts Bay Colony, British Colonial America, Massachusetts Secretary of the Commonwealth, Boston; FHL microfilm 007011120.
4. ↑ ^{4.0 4.1} Johnson, Edwin, Woburn, Massachusetts, Records of Births, Deaths, and Marriages From 1640 to 1873, 3 vols. (Woburn, MA: Andrews, Cutler & Co., 1890-1891) Vol. 1, Births, p. 285
5. ↑ Middlesex County, MA: Probate File Papers, 1648-1871.Online database. AmericanAncestors.org. New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2014. (From records supplied by the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court Archives. Digitized images provided by FamilySearch.org) https://www.americanancestors.org/DB536/i/14465/16116-co3/38342585 Transcript of this is on Miles Nutt Profile
6. ↑ ^{6.0 6.1} Page 11 of A brief sketch of Thomas Fuller and his descendants (1896).
7. ↑ "Massachusetts, Town Clerk, Vital and Town Records, 1626-2001," database with images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:FHVV-SYN : 20 May 2022), Sary Wyman in entry for Thomas Fuller, 25 Aug 1684; citing Marriage, Woburn, Middlesex, Massachusetts Bay Colony, British Colonial America, Massachusetts Secretary of the Commonwealth, Boston; FHL microfilm 007011120.
8. ↑ Find a Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/59629309/sarah-ruth-fuller: accessed 28 July 2022), memorial page for Sarah Ruth Nutt Fuller (19 Sep 1621–24 May 1688), Find A Grave: Memorial #59629309, citing First Burial Ground, Woburn, Middlesex County, Massachusetts, USA; Maintained by BeNotForgot (contributor 46974545).
9. ↑ James Savage, "A Genealogical Dictionary of the First Settlers of New England," (1860-1862), multiple vols., 3:301.
10. ↑ Source: #S782 Page: Ancestry Family Tree