Sarah Was Named in Stephen's Will

Yesterday, March 8th, I wrote about Sarah Champion, my 7th great-grandmother. She had married Stephen Scoville in 1705 and apparently they were happily married until Stephen died in 1752. They had ten children and nine of them lived to be married, so Sarah would have been a grandmother a number of times. There are over 40 named in the Scovell genealogy.

I was pleased to see how Stephen included Sarah in his will of 1752. Quoting from it as published in the Scovell genealogy. "Unto my Beloved wife Sarah Schoval I do give and bequeath the use of my House and Lands and Tenements During her Remaining my widow......to be understood that she keep sundry moveables as she shall judge needful for Her to keeping House so long as she lives." I checked the dictionary for the word moveables and found it is just as it says, capable of being moved, but often used for wares, especially furniture.

The genealogy also gave a transcription from the inventory of Stephen's estate. I really enjoyed reading the furniture and housekeeping utensils included. Wouldn't they be what

Sarah had been using? Here are a few of what was listed: 

Great chair, 2 small chairs, 1 brass kettle, 1 pewter quart, 

2 pint basons, 1 pewter platter, 5 pewter spoons, 1 wine

 glass, 1 earthen platter, 4 wooden dishes, 6 wooden plates, 1 iron skillet, 5 pairs of knitting needles, 1 churn, 1 iron pot and hooks, frying pan, 2 sheets and a tablecloth, 1 linen sheet, 1 flannel blanket, 6 coverlets.

It is fun to think that Sarah shared a craft with me, as we both have knitted.

Ancestor Birthday - Sarah Champion - 8 March 1687/88

Sarah Champion was a 7th great-grandmother of mine. She was born in March of 1687/88. I have found her in two older genealogies: the Champion genealogy first published in 1891 and the Scovell genealogy first published in 1941. They both give her birthdate as March 8th. However the Barbour collection of Connecticut vital records shows her birthdate as March 3rd. They all agree that she was born in Lyme Connecticut to Thomas and Hannah (Brockway) Champion.

I was hoping that the Champion genealogy, which I was able to download from archives.org, would give me more information about Sarah than just her parents, date of birth and who she married. Wrong. Most of the female descendants in this book only have those facts. So I looked elsewhere.

Sarah married Stephen Scoville 4 Nov 1705, probably in East Haddam, Connecticut, since that is where their children were born. It was in the Scovell genealogy where I found a little more about Sarah. In discussing the church membership for Stephen, the authors note that "Mrs. Sarah Scoville was admitted to full communion in the First Church of East Haddam Dec. 19, 1731". It was about 1742 when there was a church at Hadlyme and she became a member of it.

Sarah was named as Stephen's wife in his will and I plan to write more about that tomorrow. Again with women in these very early days, I have not yet found death information for her.