Sarah (Coblar) Fish (1761 - abt. 1829)

Born 15 Jun 1761 in Lincolnshire, England

Wife of Joseph Fish — married 9 Jun 1784 in Crowland, Lincolnshire, England

Descendants

Died about 5 Feb 1829 at about age 67 in Connecticut, United States [uncertain]

Problems/Questions Profile manager: Alton Fish [send private message]

Biography

Sarah was born in 1761. She passed away in 1829.

Buried Elmsford, Westchester County, New York, United States of America.

Notes:
JOSEPH FISH, SON OF John and Jane Fish, was born on 31 March 1762 in the small market town of Crowland near the southern border of Lincolnshire County, England. “Fish” is an ancient name derived from Anglo-Saxon Fisc meaning “fish”. It is also related to Fisk, Fisch, Fische, Fysh and Fyshe. It is likely occupationally derived from a fisherman or fishmonger. The earliest identified ancestor is an individual named “Fisc” recorded in the 1086 Domesday Book of William the Conqueror as a free man and a landholder in Laxfield, Suffolk. Possibly this Fisc was descended from Scandinavian Viking settlers that arrived in the 9th Century. Unfortunately, Fisc’s land seems to have been confiscated by the conquering Normans. The earliest ‘Fish’ spelling is recorded in Lincolnshire in the early 13th Century; ‘Ernis Fish’ is listed in the Assize Court Rolls of Lincolnshire in 1202. Lincolnshire County comprises the central east coast of England, occupying the area between the Humber River and The Wash. Much of the area south of The Wash was marshland, known as The Fens, but now drained. Crowland, listed as Croiland in the Domesday Book, is an ancient town on the western edge of The Fens. Crowland had a medieval monastic Abbey founded in 716 by Aethelbald, King of Mercia, on the site of a hermitage established by St Guthlac in 699. The monasteries were dissolved by Henry VIII in 1538 during his row with the Catholic Church, and the Crowland Abbey is now a well-maintained ruin.

Unfortunately, nothing is known about the life of Joseph Fish and his family. Marriage and death registrations were only made mandatory in 1837, and births in 1875. All that is known is that Joseph married a girl named Sarah and their son William was born in 1786. He grew up during the turbulence of the Napoleonic War, married Frances Gunnell (b1775), and settled in the hamlet of Fotherby, north of Louth. Fotherby is an ancient Saxon site listed in the Domesday Book as Fodrebi. Nothing is known about William and Frances’ lives except they are reported to have had three children born in Fotherby: daughter Maria christened 1806; son David christened 15 April 1810; and daughter Helen on 12 January 1812. Nothing is known of Helen’s or Maria’s lives.

Mary Ann Kirkby/Kirby grew up in the village of Castle Bytham in Lincolnshire. The Kirkby family originally settled in Lancastershire around the 12th Century. Castle Bytham is a small hillside village lying north-westerly of Fotherby, in the shadow of an old Norman motte and bailey castle built by Odo, half-brother of William the Conqueror, upon the remains of an older Saxon fort. Edward III destroyed the castle in 1221 and it is now only a grassy mound. On 17 or 27 June 1833, David Fish and 21-year-old Mary Ann Kirby were married in St Leonard’s Parish church in South Cockerington, a small village four miles east of Louth. In 1831 the number of inhabitants of South Cockerington was only 214. On 4 May 1834 their son William Kirkby (also seen as Kirby) Fish was born. He appears to have been an only child. It also appears that his mother Mary Ann may have died that year, possibly in childbirth or a complication therefrom. The fate of his father is likewise unknown. Interestingly, a “Mary Ann Fish age 24” (therefore born 1812, same year as Mary Ann Kirby), “wife of a bookkeeper”, died of tuberculosis in 1836. She is recorded as the first person buried in the newly-opened Sheffield General Cemetery in Yorkshire. For whatever reason, William Kirkby was taken in by his maternal grandparents the Kirby’s in Louth; the 1841 Census shows that William was living with them. At a young age William went to sea, and in 1854 at the age of 20, he arrived at Hamilton in Upper Canada. Why he left England is not known.

There is no record of William between 1854 and 1860, but in 1861 he was working as a carpenter in Lambton County. Sometime during this period, he met Eliza Ann Huff, daughter of Abraham and Ann Jane Huff. William and Eliza were married on 31 March 1862 in Orford Township, Kent County, by Reverend William Hawke of the Wesleyan Methodist Church. William Hawke became the Minister of Palmyra United Church from 1864 to 1865. Eliza was 19 years old. William and Eliza settled on a farm near Tavistock in East Zorra Township, North Oxford County. Between 1862 and 1877 William and Eliza raised a family of seven children. Five were born on their farm in Tavistock near Woodstock: Cecilia (Celia) Victoria (1863), William Syrenous (24 November 1864), Mary Ann (1866), George David (19 February 1869) and Joseph Wallace (5 August 1871). Author Wayne Sturgeon^[1]

Buried Elmsford, Westchester County, New York, United States of America.

Buried Elmsford, Westchester County, New York, United States of America.

Sources

1. ↑ Wayne Sturgeon Genealogist

• Connecticut, U.S., Deaths and Burials Index, 1650-1934
• Ancestry Family Trees Publication: Online publication - Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com. Original data: Family Tree files submitted by Ancestry members.Ancestry Family Tree Ancestry Family Tree 100606632