Sarah (Sale) Hickling (1714 - 1756)

Born 1714 in Boston, Suffolk, Massachusetts

Ancestors

Wife of William Hickling — married 21 Nov 1734 in Boston, Suffolk, Massachusetts

Descendants

Died 12 Oct 1756 at about age 42 in Chelsea, Suffolk, Massachusetts

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Sarah (Sale) Hickling 1714-1756

Note

Her death date might be 12 Jan 1756 if this year started in March.

Biography

1. William Hickling is the earliest member of this family who has been identified. He was a tailor and is known to have settled in Boston by 1730. It has been suggested that he was perhaps born in the town of Sutton Bonnington, St. Michael, Nottinghamshire, England 25 March 1704. But Peter Wilson Coldham states in his book that he was the William Hickling of Leicestershire that was a Midland Circuit prisoner reprieved 22 February 1692 to be transported to America. William was married 21 November 1734, by the Rev. Thomas Foxcroft of the First Unitarian Church of Boston, to Sarah Sale.

Sarah Sale was the daughter of Captain John & Ann (Townsend) Sale of Boston and Chelsea and had been born in 1714. Sarah’s mother, Ann Townsend, had been born 10 November 1690, the daughter of Judge Penn Townsend, the Chief Justice, and his wife Sarah Addington.^[1]Ann Townsend and John Sale were married 5 June 1712 in Boston. ^[2]John Sale was a well-known innkeeper in Boston. He was the son of Obadiah and Sarah Sale and was born 23 July 1680. He was third sergeant of the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company of Boston in 1714 and its ensign in 1719.

Judge Penn Townsend had been born in Boston, 20 December 1651, the son of William & Hannah (Penn) Townsend. He had been made freeman in 1674, was a member of the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company of Boston and served as ensign, lieutenant and colonel of militia. He was a deputy to the General Court in 1686, the last year prior to the revocation of the charter of the Massachusetts Bay Colony and after the overthrow of Governor Andros, Penn was reestablished as a deputy every year for a considerable number, and became speaker of the House and Counsel for many years and was Chief Justice of the Superior Court for Suffolk County. He married first, Sarah Addington, the youngest daughter of Dr. Isaac Addington (the first) and his wife, Anne Leverett. Sarah Addington was born 11 February 1652. ^[3]She died 11 March 1692, aged 39 and Penn married secondly, Mary (Leverett) Dudley, the daughter of Governor Thomas Leverett and the widow of Paul Dudley, the son of Governor Thomas Dudley, the Royal Governor of Massachusetts. Mary was buried 5 July 1699 ^[4]and Penn married thirdly, Hannah (Unknown) Jaffrey, widow of George Jaffrey, Esquire of New Hampshire, whom he married in 1709. Her maiden name has not yet been ascertained. Her will made 6 April 1736, proved 23 November 1736, mentions kinswomen Elizabeth and Lydia Watts, the latter of whom had lived with her many years and was then with her. Her friend James Pemberton, merchant, was appointed executor. ^[5]Penn died in Boston, 21 August 1727. ^[6]His widow died in the end of October and was buried 1 November 1736.^[7]

Judge Townsend’s will, dated 10 August 1721 and witnessed by Jeremiah, Mary and James Allen, was proved 26 August 1727. ^[8] The estate of the Honorable Penn Townsend amounted to £6768.18.6. He was survived by his third wife Hannah (Unknown) Jaffrey and his two daughters by his first wife, Mrs. Sarah Thayer, wife of Ebenezer Thayer and Mrs. Ann Sale wife of John Sale and their husbands who became executors. Hannah was to get the use of the house, a place to live until her death and then the house would revert to the estate. The two daughters and their husbands could enjoy the residue of the estate until their deaths. Or in other words, any funds generated by the estate would be distributed between the two daughters and their husbands as long as they shall live. His daughters and their husbands were to ask the counsel of “their kinsman Addington Davenport Esquire,” in case they found it necessary to sell any of the real estate to settle his debts. Other legatees were his sister Hannah Way, Revd Mr. Benj. Wadsworth, the Revd Mr. Thomas Foxcroft, the widow of the late Revd Thomas Bridge, the poor of the church, etc. Penn left his entire estate to his grandchildren, and named two of them, Sarah Sale, then under age, and Penn Townsend Sale but the wording was such that if his daughters were to have other children, they too would receive a portion of the estate. He even made provision so that the daughters got as much as the sons. His daughters and their husbands were to jointly manage the estate and to receive the income from it. And were only allowed to sell that portion needed to pay bills.

Everything went according to plan. The executors did sell some property to generate cash which was spread over the four of them. There is no mention of the grandchildren receiving anything from the estate other than a place to live. But the grandchildren were not supposed to receive anything until the last of the executors had died. And that is how it lay in 1739. At that point they had gone along with the program for twelve years. Now, the only surviving executors, John Sale and his wife Ann, wished to sell the old house situated at the corner of Beacon and Tremont Streets, which Penn had inherited from his uncle, Elder Penn and the Townsend farm in Chelsea. I might add that this Boston house was where Sarah Sale grew up with her grandfather. She, and her husband William Hickling, objected to the sale. By that date, Sarah was the last of the surviving grandchildren. The executors had no more children and Penn Townsend Sale had died leaving only Sarah (Sale) Hickling. So, she saw the estate as hers eventually. So, she and her husband objected, and the Probate Court upheld their objection. This displeased the executors, especially John Sale, who put the matter into the hands of the Governor and Council who were the applet court of its day. ^[9]And there is sat for 24 years. The law was defiantly on the side of William & Sarah Hickling, and the Governor did not want to pit father against daughter so a compromise was reached between the two parties, that left William and Sarah Hickling as very wealthy people.

Both Mrs. Sarah Thayer and her sister Mrs. Ann Sale, had received £10 each, by the will of their uncle Judge Addington. ^[10]Eben Thayer, John Sale and their wives, executors of the estate of Penn Townsend, sold 25 August 1729, a parcel to John Ruston and his wife, for £825. On 3 July 1734 they sold a messuage or tenement with land situated in the south end of Boston, fronting on Marlborough Street, for £1,070 to Sylvester Gardiner.

William and Sarah (Sale) Hickling objected to this additional sale. They forced John Sale to make improvements on the property prior to its sale to increase the value of the property, and to share with them the greater part of the profits. ^[11]Following this settlement of the case the heirs of the Townsend estate sold the property to Samuel Sturgis 12 November 1753. ^[12]The proceeds of this sale gave William and Sarah capitol in which to invest in other ventures and Boston Real Estate. He became an accomplished merchant and trader in Boston. William was already a noted distiller in Boston. He joined the Old South Church 17 January 1730.^[13]

William Hickling was active in establishing new churches in Boston. On 20 January 1762, he was one of the signers of a petition concerning the formation of a religious society. ^[14] A small brick church had been erected on School Street in Boston for the use of French Protestants of the “Reformed Religion” in 1716. The minister died before it was completed and for some years it was unoccupied until 1784 when Stephen Boutneau, the only surviving Elder, Andrew Le Mercier Clerk, Minister of the Church, Zachariah Johonnot, John Arnault, John Brown, Andrew Johonnot, James Packenett, William Bowdoin, and Andrew Sigourney, proprietors of said Church, made over their right and interest to Thomas Fillebrown, James Davenport, Wm. Hickling, Nathl. Proctor, and Thomas Handyside Peck, Trustees for the new Congregational Church, whereof Mr. Andrew Croswell was to be Pastor, for the sum of £3000, in good bills of public credit of the old tenor, for the sole use of a Protestant Church from henceforth and forevermore.^[15]

Sarah Sale, the daughter of John and Sarah Sale died the 12th day of the 10th month of 1756 in Chelsea, Massachusetts. ^[16]William Hickling died 10 December 1774 in Boston.^[17]

Sources

1. ↑ Essex Institute, Historical Collections, Volume XIX, Salem, Mass. 1882, p. 280.
2. ↑ Essex Institute, Historical Collections, Volume XIX, Salem, Mass. 1882, p. 280.
3. ↑ Register 12[1858]: chart on Leverett Family; Essex Institute, Historical Collections Volume XIX, Salem, Mass. 1882 p. 279.
4. ↑ Register 4[1850]:121.
5. ↑ Essex Institute, Historical Collections Volume XIX, Salem, Mass. 1882, p. 280.
6. ↑ Homer Worthington Brainard, “Some Lines of the Townshed-Townsend Families of Old England, New England and Minnesota” 1931, pg. 45; “Genealogical Notice of the Family of Elder Thomas Leverett” by Nathaniel B. Shurtleff, M.D. in the Register IV[1850]:133; Researches among Funeral Sermons in the Register 8[1854]:184.
7. ↑ Essex Institute, Historical Collections Volume XIX, Salem, Mass. 1882 p. 278.
8. ↑ Suffolk County, Massachusetts, Probate #5489.
9. ↑ Commonwealth History of Massachusetts edited by Albert Bushnell Hart. Volume second, Province of Massachusetts 1689-1775 [1928], pg. 185.
10. ↑ Essex Institute, Historical Collections Volume XIX Salem, Mass. 1882 p. 280.
11. ↑ Massachusetts State Archives 17:690, 720-723, 864-899, 1848-49, and 139-140.
12. ↑ Suffolk County Deeds 811:8.
13. ↑ Publications of the Genealogical Society of Pennsylvania Volume 7 Issue 1, pg. 88-89; Hill, History of Old South Church. 1890, pp. 589-592.
14. ↑ Massachusetts Archives 14:291, 301
15. ↑ Massachusetts Archives 14:291, 301
16. ↑ Vital Records of Chelsea, Massachusetts to the year 1850, Deaths pg. 529.
17. ↑ The U.S., Newspaper Extractions from the Northeast, 1704-1930, William Hickling; birth year: abt. 1704; Event: Death; Death date: Abt. 1774; Age: 70; Newspaper: Various newspapers; Publication Date: 10 December 1774; Publication Place: Massachusetts, USA; Call number: 109363 Ancestry.com database.

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