Sarah (Brewer) Webster (abt. 1638 - aft. 1699)

Born about 1638 in England [uncertain]

Wife of Thomas Webster — married 2 Nov 1657 in Hampton, Norfolk, Massachusetts Bay Colony

Descendants

Died after 15 Oct 1699 after about age 61 in Hampton, Province of New Hampshire [uncertain]

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Note: This is not the profile for Sarah Brewer who was born in Roxbury on March 8, 1638, who was the daughter of Daniel Brewer of Roxbury, and who married John May there in November 1656.

Biography

This is the profile for Sarah Brewer who married Thomas Webster in Hampton, New Hampshire (then part of the Massachusetts Bay Colony) on November 2, 1657.

Parentage

Sarah was probably the daughter of Thomas Brewer of Roxbury. That assertion appears to have been first made in A.W. Brown's 1855 NEHGR article on the Webster family^[1] and has been adopted either as a possibility or a fact by subsequent sources.^[2][3][4] Set forth below is the supporting argument:

• There is no evidence of any Brewer families in Hampton prior to the 1680s. Therefore, Thomas Webster's wife Sarah Brewer must have come from a family outside of Hampton.
• Thomas and Sarah (Brewer) Webster's daughter Sarah married a man named William Lane in Hampton on June 21, 1680. William Lane was the son of William Lane of Boston, whose 1656 marriage record states that he married Mary Brewer the daughter of Thomas Brewer of Roxbury.^[5] This suggests that the reason that Sarah (Brewer) Webster of Hampton's daughter married Mary (Brewer) Lane of Boston's son is that they knew each other because they were related. Since Thomas Brewer of Roxbury is not known to have had any brothers in New England and Sarah Brewer and Mary Brewer were married within about one year of each other, it is reasonably probable that they were sisters and that Sarah Brewer was thus the daughter of Thomas Brewer of Roxbury.
• There is an entry in Hampton town records of the death on March 23, 1689/90 of "ould Goodman Brewer."^[6][7] Since there is no record of his presence in Hampton at an earlier date and since there are no records for Thomas Brewer of Roxbury after 1656, it is reasonably plausible that Thomas Brewer of Roxbury moved to Hampton in his later years to live with his presumed daughter Sarah or one of his grandchildren and died there.

Date and Place of Birth

Sarah's date of birth and place of birth uncertain. Based on her date of marriage (November 1657), she was probably born sometime in 1632-1639. However, based on the fact that her last child was born in January 1678/9, she was probably born no earlier than 1637. Sarah was therefore probably born sometime in 1637-1639 with about 1638 being a reasonable midpoint estimate. Since, as discussed in his profile, Thomas Brewer of Roxbury probably immigrated in 1638 and first appeared in Ipswich, Sarah was probably born either in England or in Ipswich.

Some family webpages say that Sarah was born in Roxbury on March 8, 1638. However, the Sarah Brewer who was in Roxbury on March 8, 1638, who was the daughter of Daniel Brewer of Roxbury, and who married John May in November 1656.

Marriage and Children

Sarah married Thomas Webster in Hampton on "2: 9mo 1657" (November 2, 1657 in the "new" calendar).^[8][9][10]

Sarah and Thomas had the following children, all born in Hampton:

1. Mary, b. December 19, 1658,^[11][9] m. 1st October 20, 1676 William Swaine at Hampton,^[12][9] m. 2d after June 12, 1694 (contract date) Joseph Emmon,^[9] living at Hampton in 1706^[9]
2. Sarah, b. January 22, 1660/1,^[11][9] m. June 21, 1680 William Lane (her first cousin),^[9] d. January 5, 1744/5^[9]
3. Hannah, b. December 27, 1663,^[13][9] d. February 1, 1663/4^[14][9]
4. Thomas, b. January 20, 1664/5,^[13][9] m. Sarah ______,^[9] d. March 7, 1732/3 at Kingston^[9]
5. Ebenezer, b. August 1, 1667,^[15][9] m. July 25 1709 Hannah Judkins at Kingston,^[9] d. before March 16, 1735/6 at Kingston^[9]
6. Isaac, b. April 12, 1670,^[15][9] m. 1st April 1, 1697 Mary Hutchins,^[9] m. 2d Sarah _______,^[9] d. February 21 1717/8 at Kingston^[9]
7. John, b. February 16, 1673/4,^[16][9] m. 1st September 21, 1703 Abiah Shaw at Hampton,^[9] m. 2d Sarah ________^[9]
8. Joshuah/Joshua, b. November 8, 1676^[16][9]
9. Abigail, b. January 1, 1678/9,^[17][9] m. John Hay, d. August 31, 1758 at Hampton^[9]

Death

No record of Sarah's death has been found. The last known record of her appears to be a record of her joining the church in Hampton on October 15, 1699.^[4] According to A.W. Brown's 1855 NEHGR article on the Webster family, she was living in 1699, but her death is not recorded.^[1] Some family tree webpages say that Sarah died in Kingston, New Hampshire on February 15, 1718/9. However, reliable secondary sources say that that record relates to the death of the wife of Sarah's son Thomas Webster, Jr. of Kingston.^[4][1][10]

^{[10] [5] [9] [8] [14] [17] [16] [15] [13] [11] [12] [4] [7] [6] [1] [3] [2]}

Sources

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3} Brown, A.W. "Webster Family." The New England Historical and Genealogical Register. Volume IX (1855). pp. 159-160. Link to pages at hathitrust.org.
2. ↑ ^{2.0 2.1} Savage, James. A Genealogical Dictionary of the First Settlers of New England, Showing Three Generations of Those Who Came Before May, 1692, on the Basis of Farmer's Register. Vol. IV. Little. Brown and Company, 1862. p. 450. Link to page at hathitrust.org
3. ↑ ^{3.0 3.1} Stearns, Ezra S. Genealogical and Family History of the State of New Hampshire (Lewis Publishing Company, 1908) Vol. 1. p. 18. Link to page at books.google.com.
4. ↑ ^{4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3} Noyes, Sybil, Libby, Charles T., and Davis, Walter Goodwin. Genealogical Dictionary of Maine and New Hampshire, Vol. 5. 1938. p. 731. Link to volume at familysearch.org.
5. ↑ ^{5.0 5.1} Lane, Edmund J. "Descendants of William Lane." The New England Historical & Genealogical Register. Vol. XXVII (1873). p. 176. Link to page at hathitrust.org.
6. ↑ ^{6.0 6.1} State of New Hampshire's Copy of Volume 1 of the Hampton Town Records. FHL Film # 005510722, image 80. Link to image at familysearch.org.
7. ↑ ^{7.0 7.1} "New Hampshire Death Records, 1654-1947," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:FSK4-FXC : 10 March 2018), Ould Goodman Brewer, 23 Mar 1689; citing , Bureau Vital Records and Health Statistics, Concord; FHL microfilm 1,001,060.
8. ↑ ^{8.0 8.1} State of New Hampshire's Copy of Volume 1 of the Hampton Town Records. FHL Film # 005510722, image 283. Link to image at familysearch.org. See image attached to this profile.
9. ↑ ^{9.00 9.01 9.02 9.03 9.04 9.05 9.06 9.07 9.08 9.09 9.10 9.11 9.12 9.13 9.14 9.15 9.16 9.17 9.18 9.19 9.20 9.21 9.22 9.23 9.24 9.25 9.26} Jones, William Haslet. "The English Background of Some Early Settlers of Hampton, New Hampshire from Ormesby St. Margaret, Norfolk." New England Historical and Genealogical Register. Volume 142 (1988), pp. 267-268. Link to pages at americanancestors.org.
10. ↑ ^{10.0 10.1 10.2} Torrey, Clarence Almon. New England Marriages Prior to 1700. Vol. 3. Boston, Mass.: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2015. p. 1617. Link to page at americanancestors.org.
11. ↑ ^{11.0 11.1 11.2} State of New Hampshire's Copy of Volume 1 of the Hampton Town Records. FHL Film # 005510722, image 290. Link to image at familysearch.org.
12. ↑ ^{12.0 12.1} State of New Hampshire's Copy of Volume 1 of the Hampton Town Records. FHL Film # 005510722, image 284. Link to image at familysearch.org.
13. ↑ ^{13.0 13.1 13.2} State of New Hampshire's Copy of Volume 1 of the Hampton Town Records. FHL Film # 005510722, image 291. Link to image at familysearch.org.
14. ↑ ^{14.0 14.1} State of New Hampshire's Copy of Volume 1 of the Hampton Town Records. FHL Film # 005510722, image 298. Link to image at familysearch.org.
15. ↑ ^{15.0 15.1 15.2} State of New Hampshire's Copy of Volume 1 of the Hampton Town Records. FHL Film # 005510722, image 292. Link to image at familysearch.org.
16. ↑ ^{16.0 16.1 16.2} State of New Hampshire's Copy of Volume 1 of the Hampton Town Records. FHL Film # 005510722, image 294. Link to image at familysearch.org.
17. ↑ ^{17.0 17.1} State of New Hampshire's Copy of Volume 1 of the Hampton Town Records. FHL Film # 005510722, image 295. Link to image at familysearch.org.

See also:

• Hurd, Duane Hamilton. History of Rockingham and Strafford Counties, New Hampshire (Philadelphia: J.W. Lewis & Co., 1882) p. 375. Link to page at archive.org.
• Dow, Joseph. History of the Town of Hampton, New Hampshire, from Its Settlement in 1638, to the Autumn of 1892. Vol. II. 1898. p. 1033. Link to page at hathitrust.org.
• Webber, Prentiss. One Branch of the Webster Family from Thomas Webster of Ormesby, County Norfolk, England. The Lowell Courier Publishing Company, 1894. pp. 11-12. Link to page at archive.org.