Sarah Backus (Spencer) - Quizzical Death Date & Place Data

Started by Private User on yesterday
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It seems odd seeing a death place being Cambridge, MA and seeing a Specific date: May 28, 1707
Sarah was born and lived in Connecticut and had her cchildren in Canterbury. What proves death in Cambridge, MA? Her living children all lived in Connecticut when she died.

Find A Grave cites a book under copyright for data in provides:
– 1707
– Canterbury, Windham County, Connecticut, USA
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/81254109/sarah-backus
However, the quoted matter posted there doesn't mention this death year and place.
Backus, Reno Warburton. "The Backus Families of Early New England", 1966, p.12 – https://search.worldcat.org/title/1342165814
Whether this book cites gives further information isn't knowable without access to the book.

If there's specifically sure evidence for Sarah's death date and place, it would probably be found at AmericanAncestors (for someone paying to have access to it) or in other books under copyright protection such as:
"The Connecticut Nutmegger:, Volume 29 (1996) — https://search.worldcat.org/title/4428851
"The Spencers of the Great Migration", Volume 1 (2008) — https://search.worldcat.org/title/1011746047

Even a birthplace of Lyme, CT seems at odds with history.

From ConnecticutHistory.org:—
"Lyme, in New London County, is located in southeastern Connecticut on the Connecticut River and adjacent to the Long Island Sound. Formerly East Saybrook, the town separated from Saybrook in 1665 and named in 1667."
https://connecticuthistory.org/towns-page/lyme/

Much depends on when Sarah's father is first found living in Connecticut.. Her father died in Haddam, which wasn't yet founded when Sarah was born.

While Wikipedia shows Lyme was settled in 1645, the webpage shows no support for the year. As for in-line sourcing, the write-up is woefully ill-supported.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lyme,_Connecticut
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saybrook_Colony

Unless the Great Migration Project at American Ancestors provides a Bio for Ensign Gerard Spencer, II (missing in the printed book series) provides specifics of residencies and years, I can only find a one wide-spanned source for Gerrard arrival in Cambridge, MA: between 1620-1650—

BANKS, CHARLES EDWARD. Topographical Dictionary of 2885 English Emigrants to New England, 1620-1650. Edited, indexed and published by Elijah Ellsworth Brownell. Philadelphia: Bertram Press, 1937. 295p. Reprinted by Genealogical Publishing Co., Baltimore, 1957. Repr. 1987.

https://www.ancestry.com/discoveryui-content/view/774511:7486?ssrc=...

The information in the books belonw MIGHT be correct, but the information they provide refers to no authoritative source(s).

BOOK: "Comstock-Thomas ancestry of Richard Wilmot Comstock", Part I claims that “Gerard Spencer settled at Cambridge, Mass. by 1634, Lynn, Mass. by 1638, Hartford, Conn. by 1660 and finally at Haddam, Conn.”
https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/17269/images/dvm_G...

BOOK: "John Clarke of Hartford and Saybrook, Conn. and Some of His Descendants" claims Gerrard arrived in 1632 and was admitted Freeman in Mass. Bay Colony on 9 Mar. 1637.
https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/61157/images/46155...

Wikitree provides a timeline for Sarah's father, which seems to prove that Sarah was probably born in Massachusetts—perhaps in Lynn— https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Spencer-165 . However, I don't find Lynn birth record for her at FamilySearch

I misspoke. There IS a bio in Anderson's printed "Great Migration", but the name is spelled Jared. It confirms much of what Wikitree provides, which means all children of Gerard were probably born in Lynn, MA before the family moved to CT. Perhaps church record keepers in CT recorded his children's birth in records well after they were born.

https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/2496/images/42521_...

Robert Charles Anderson states the following about the name of “Jared’s” first wife:

"We suggest that the given name of his first wife may have been Grace. Two of the sons of Jared Spencer named daughters Grace [TAG 27:169, 170], and Jared made a special point of making small bequests to these two grandchildren when many other grandchildren went unmentioned."

“New England, The Great Migration and The Great Migration Begins, 1620-1635”, Vol. 6, p. 426. — https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/2496/images/42521_...

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