My great-great-great-great-great-great grandmother—one of 128 women to hold that distinction nine generations ago—was Sarah Clark, the product of an intricate and very interesting series of intermarriages among the Woodward, Gates, and Clark families of colonial Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut.
Sarah Clark was born 04 April 1769 in Shaftsbury, Bennington, Vermont, the seventh of eight children born to Jeremiah Clark and his wife, Susanna Clark. She married Nathan Robinson 28 Jul 1791 in Shaftsbury, and gave birth to five children—Clark, Aurilla, Amos, Jesse and Sarah—before her death at the age of 32, on 21 Nov 1801 in Shaftsbury.
Jeremiah Clark was a major in the American Revolution, commanded troops in the Battle of Bennington, and served his community and state in a variety of public offices, the final one being that of judge.
Jeremiah Clark was the son of James Clark and Thankful Woodward. Susannah Clark was the daughter of Benjamin Clark and Sarah Gates.
James and Benjamin Clark were half-brothers, both sons of Benjamin Clark, whose father Walter and grandfather Jeremiah Clarke served as early colonial governors of Rhode Island. So Jeremiah & Susannah Clark were first-cousins through their fathers.
Thankful Woodward was the daughter of Daniel Woodward Jr. and Thankful Gates. When they married, Daniel was barely seventeen, Thankful was thirteen and a half. Thankful Gates was the daughter of Stephen Gates III and Jemima Benjamin, and her younger sister was Sarah Gates. So Jeremiah and Susannah Clark were first-cousins, once removed through their mothers.
And to make it even more interesting, George Woodward was the son of Richard and Rose Woodward. Stephen Gates Jr. was the son of Stephen and Anne Gates. After the deaths of Rose Woodward and Stephen Gates Sr., widower Richard Woodward married widow Anne Gates.
And to be honest, this isn’t even the most convoluted branch of my family tree. The noble Irvins of Scotland and the Huckins-Heath intermarriages in New Hampshire also make interesting charts. Of course, this could also explain some of my interesting relatives.
2 comments:
I'm left very confused: Who is Walter? I haven't found any Walter in the Clark family tree until the late 1800s.
According to what was sent me, James and Benjamin were half-brothers, some of Governor Walter Clark/Clerke of Providence. My cousin who actually did the research said he had found letters from the time period proving that it was so, but I never saw them.
Post a Comment