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Sarah (Finch) Grant (1779 - 1848)

Sarah "Sally" Grant formerly Finch
Born in Cortland Manor, Westchester, New Yorkmap
Ancestors ancestors
Wife of — married 1807 [location unknown]
Descendants descendants
Died at age 69 in Hamden, Delaware, New York, United Statesmap
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Profile last modified | Created 8 Jun 2018
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Biography

Biography of Sarah “Sally” (Finch) Grant Prepared by Deborah M. Finch, July 27, 2021

Sarah was born 2 March 1779 in Westchester County, New York, probably in the area of Cortland Manor or North Salem. She died in 5 Apr 1848 in Hamden, Delaware, NY. Sarah’s nickname was “Sally". She was the daughter of James Finch and Mary Finney. The 882-page genealogy by Claude B. Thummel (born 1885), dated 1965, titled Descendants of John Finch of Connecticut, identifies Sarah Finch as a descendant of the immigrant John Finch who arrived in America in 1630. Thummel’s book also briefly describes Sarah’s parents and siblings, and her husband, her son Nathaniel Lewis and 2 additional unnamed children, and some descendants up to the mid-1900s. The book is available online at familysearch.org.

Sarah’s father James Finch was approved by the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) as a Revolutionary War patriot (Ancestor A040341). An approved DAR application for a descendant of James Finch (DAR Natl # 976728, available by purchase) shows Sarah, born 2 Mar 1780 with a birthplace of Westchester Co, NY, and the name of her husband Elijah Grant. Other relatively recent genealogies and family histories that offer information about Sarah, her parents, siblings, and children are listed in the Sources section of this profile.

In the 1790 Salem, Westchester, NY census, Sarah's father James Finch is present and has a daughter of Sarah's age in the age range listed in the census record. After 1790, Sarah's parents and siblings moved to Colchester, Delaware, NY and James Finch is found in the 1800 Colchester census with a female under 10 (Abigail), a female in the age range of 16-25 (Sarah) and a female in the age range of 45 and older (wife Mary). Sarah would have been about 20 at this time so it appears she moved with her parents and was still living in their household.

Elijah Lewis Grant married Sarah “Sally” Finch in about 1807 to 1809, a few years after her mother Mary (Finney) Finch’s death in 1805. No marriage certificate has been found yet, so the marriage date is based on when the first children were born. Elijah was about six years younger than Sally, and in the 1810 Middletown, Delaware, NY census, he was 25 years old. In the 1810 U.S. census, the home of Elijah L. Grant included an unnamed adult female who would logically be his wife Sarah (Finch) Grant. Elijah’s father John Grant lived nearby with his family. In Sarah (Sally) and Elijah’s home were two boys under 10 [Nathaniel L. and an unknown child], a male ten to fifteen who was born between 1795-1800 [Elijah in the wrong column] and a woman sixteen to twenty five born 1785-1794 [Sarah/Sally also in the wrong column].

Sarah Finch Grant lived in Rockland, Sullivan Co., NY, 27 in 1820 with Elijah Grant. In a land indenture on 12 April 1828, Elijah L. Grant of town of Rockland, Sullivan Co. (one of the sons and heirs of late John Grant of Middletown, Delaware Co., NY deceased), and Sally his wife and Asa Grant of Middletown and Avery Grant of same place, “both sons and heirs of John Grant, on second part…Elijah L. Grant and Sally his wife for and in consideration of the sum of two hundred dollars paid by parties of the second part, Elijah L and Sally Grant quit claim… fifty acres of land ..indentured by William Spaulding of Middletown, Ulster Co. to said John Grant 24 June 1795 and one hundred sixty five and a half acres in 39th Division of the Hardenburg Patent Lot 34 sold by Gillian Verplank of NYC to William Spaulding May 1795, conveyed to John Grant 29 Jan 1799 and forty acres 39th division north of lot 33.” John Grant died intestate.

Sullivan Co. was also home to Sarah's brother Isaac Seeley Finch. Seeley was James Finch’s mother Abigail’s maiden name. Sullivan County was also the same county in which Sarah's brother Solomon Finney Finch lived in 1827. These records place Sarah, Solomon Finney and Isaac Seeley Finch in Sullivan Co., NY in the 1820s near Clarkstown, Rockland, NY [now New City] forty miles southeast of Middletown not far from where their brother John and his wife Caty (Rider) Finch lived in 1810 in Clarkstown. Sullivan Co. was the same county in which Sarah's parents James and Mary (Finney) Finch were granted their land in 1791 by NYS Surveyor General.

In 1830, Sarah (Finch) Grant and her sister Abigail Finch Signor were neighbors in Hamden, Delaware Co., NY, and Sarah's brother Jesse Finch lived nearby. Their widowed father James was six miles south in Colchester. Colchester and Hamden are both situated on the banks of the West Branch of the Delaware River, an ideal location for a lumberman like James to run his business. It appears the sisters had come home to care for their aging father who was an invalid as identified in his pension application. Abigail has been proven by D.A.R. as a daughter of James Finch and Mary (Finney) Finch. James listed Sarah’s husband Elijah Grant in his pension application as a person who knew him well. After the 1830 census. James moved from Colchester to Hamden, and he received his invalid pension in 1833. The approval document stated he was a resident of Hamden.

In 1840 in Colchester, Delaware, NY, Elijah L. Grant was in his fifties and his household had two men in their twenties (one may have been son Lemuel Jackson Grant), and a woman in her fifties [Sarah “Sally’]. They lived next to Nathaniel L. Grant [their son] in his thirties who had a boy and girl under five, and a female fifteen to twenty who lived with them. The Finch family siblings were still partly together in Colchester, Delaware Co., NY. Abigail (Finch) Hitt, Sarah's aunt and sister of Sarah's father James, and her husband Dennis Hitt, were next door to Sarah and Elijah. On the same census page was Sarah's brother Jesse Finch in his forties born 1791-1800 with his wife and children. Jesse has been proven by DAR to be a son of James Finch and Mary (Finney) Finch.

Sarah died 5 Apr 1848 in Hamden, Delaware, NY, and her husband Elijah L. Grant died in 1852. In the 1865 Tompkins, Delaware, NY census, the household managed by Sarah's and Elijah's son Nathaniel L. Grant had a man listed as “Uncle John” residing with him. Uncle John was Nathaniel's mother's brother John Finch, another son of James Finch and Mary (Finney) Finch. John, eightyone, twice married and still married, was born in Westchester Co., NY ca. 1784. John Finch had been living in VA since the 1820s not far from their sister Phoebe (Finch) Catlett. Sarah's brother Jesse Finch was living in Tompkins at this time, and John may have been in Tompkins to see his brother whose son was wounded in the Civil War while John's wife Hannah (Nesmith) Finch remained in Virginia.

Sarah and Elijah's daughter Mary FINNEY Grant married Austin Dodge. The Dodge Bible recorded Mary Finney's parents, her spouse’s birth, their marriage, her spouse’s family, herself and her siblings. Note that Jackson Grant who is found in census records appears to be Lemuel J. Grant, the middle initial J. standing for the name Jackson, which is what he often went by. Parents:

  • Elijah L. Grant was born March 10, 1785.
  • Sally Grant " " March 2, 1779.

Children:

  • Nathaniel L. Grant 2 “ July 2 1809.
  • Hannah M. Grant “ January 13, 1812.
  • Lemuel J. Grant “ May 6, 1814.
  • Mary F. Grant “ February 17, 1816.

Mary Finney Grant's husband, Austin Dodge, was born February 13, 1799. Children of Austin and Mary F[inney] Grant Dodge named in the Bible:

  • Matilda Dodge…. born November 5 1850.
  • Emma Dodge…” December 7, 1852.

Mary F. (Grant) Dodge recorded her mother’s death of 5 Apr 1848 in the Dodge Bible. Mary F. Grant Dodge named her third daughter for her mother “Sarah Finch” just as Sarah had given Mary her own mother’s name “Mary Finney.”

More information about Sarah and Elijah's four known children were found by searches in Ancestry.com and FamilySearch.org:

1. Nathaniel Lewis Grant, b. 2 Jul 1809; married 22 Dec 1836 in Hamden, Delaware, NY, to Matilda Knowles. He died 28 DEC 1898 • Granton, Delaware County, New York, USA.

2. Hannah Grant Lewis, b. 13 Jan 1812; married in Westfield Flats, NY, to Ammon Hitt. She died 31 JULY 1865 • Colchester, Delaware County, NY.

3. Lemuel Jackson Grant, b. 6 May 1814 in Middleton, Orange, NY, d. 17 MAY 1889, Delhi, Delaware, NY. 1865 Tompkins census and Alms House census suggest he had been married, but no wife or marriage record has been found.

4. Mary Finney Grant, b. 17 Feb 1816; married in Westfield Flats, NY, to Austin Dodge; d. 23 Apr 1898.

In addition to Mary F. Grant, connections of two other children of Sarah (Finch) Grant with the James and Mary (Finney) Finch family have been found. Daughter Hannah M. Grant married Ammon Hitt, the grandson of Sarah's Aunt Abigail Finch and Abigail's husband Dennis Hitt. Ammon's father was Henry Hempstead Hitt and his mother was Hannah (Hagar) Hitt. This relationship and the respective parents are described in the book by Maurice R. Hitt, Jr., 1993, "Descendants of Henry Hitt of Woodbury, Arriving in...". Interestingly, Sarah and Elijah were living next to Sarah's Aunt Abigail (Finch) Hitt and her husband Dennis Hitt in the 1840s.

In the 1860 Fallsburg, Sullivan, NY census, “Jackson” Grant age 46, birth year 1814, was identified as a lumberman living with Edward Finch, age 40, another lumberman who was the son of Sarah's brother John Finch. Based on age and birth year, this must be Lemuel Jackson Grant, son of Sarah and Elijah Grant. The 1875 NY State census showed him living with his brother Nathaniel Grant in Tompkins. Jackson led a difficult life, ending up being admitted to an alms house in 1877 due to old age and destitution.

Sarah's close proximity to her siblings Abigail and Jesse, her Aunt Abigail and her father James, and the fact that her brother John lived with her son Nathaniel who called him "uncle" supports that Sarah Finch was James and Mary (Finney) Finch’s daughter. This conclusion is validated by Thummel's Descendants of John Finch of Connecticut, VanKin's Finch Family History (a proof record in D.A.R.), Paul R. Finch's Geneology Report - Descendants of John Finch, FamilySearch.org's biography of Sarah Finch, and the Find the Grave Memorial for Sarah's brother Isaac Seeley Finch. These genealogies and family histories prepared by Finch families disagree with Arthur Hastings Grant's Genealogy of the Grant Family which names parents "John Finch and Mary Lewis" without any proof (i.e., no sources, dates or places). After fruitless searching and given a multitude of Finch genealogies and the description above, one has no choice but to conclude that the parents named by Grant do not exist.

Finch Geneaology Sources:

  • Lillian VanNakin’s Finch History. Date Unknown. Membership Application, Jennie L. Neff, no. 211956, Daughters of the American Revolution, verified 2 6/22/2005, Finch History, Lillian Van Nakin, compiler, Finch, James, Ancestor no. A040341.

Other Sources:

  • 1810 U.S. census Delaware Co., NY, town of Middletown, p. 487 handwritten, 392 (stamped), line 7, Elijah L. Grant; image at Ancestry https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/7218/images/004239202_00376?pId=602325. images reproduced by FamilySearch; citing NARA microfilm publication M252, 71 rolls, Bureau of the Census, Record Group 29. National Archives, Washington, D.C. John Grant is seven households below the entry for Elijah L. Grant.
  • NY, Delaware Co. Clerk Office, Deeds Bk I, Asa Grant to Asa Grant et. al., 29 April 1828, quit claims establishes relationships between Elijah L. Grant and John Grant and Elijah’s siblings. Elijah’s wife’s name was given as “Sally” a nickname for “Sarah”, p 139-141.




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DNA Connections
It may be possible to confirm family relationships with Sarah by comparing test results with other carriers of her mitochondrial DNA. However, there are no known mtDNA test-takers in her direct maternal line. It is likely that these autosomal DNA test-takers will share some percentage of DNA with Sarah:

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Comments: 1

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Finch-5812 and Finch-4142 do not represent the same person because: Probably not the same person. Finch-5812 was a daughter of John Finch and Mary Lewis, whereas Finch-4142 was a daughter of James Finch and Mary Finney. No similarities between the two lineages, and no indication coming from the F-A-G memorial to connect them. Not sure where "Thummel's notes" came from, but perhaps he conflated two distinct people.
posted by John French Ph.D.

Rejected matches › Sally (Finch) Grant (1779-1848)

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