Sarah Whipple b. 1642

/ Kirstin Miller

Sarah Whipple 10th great grandma on RootsMagic tree

Sarah Whipple was born on February 6, 1642 in Dorchester, Massachusetts. Her parents were John Whipple and Sarah, new to America in the 1630s. Sarah had 10 brothers and sisters. By 1658 the Whipple family was in Providence, Rhode Island where Roger Williams had set up a community.

John Whipple will in The early records of the town of Providence

In Providence Sarah married John Smith, known as John Smith (Miller), because he owned the town mill and there were a 2 John Smiths in the area, the other a mason. Sarah and John had 10 children. Two children, Sarah Smith m. Richard Clemence and Joseph Smith m. Lydia Gardiner, are 7th great grandparents of Elizabeth Speedy. In that small community the families were linked together through generations. Sarah Whipple’s sister Mary Whipple m. Epenetus Olney also 7th great grandparents of Elizabeth Speedy.

Sarah and family lived through King Philips War. “March 30, 1676, Providence was attacked … citizens had removed to Newport … leaving only 27 men to defend the town … the Indians burned houses, the mill, the tannery, and the miller’s house on Moshassuck river. John Smith [Jr] town clerk … the records were in his possession [and] thrown from his burning house into the millpond to preserve them … One wonders what part Sarah could have played in saving the records.”

Sarah’s husband John died in 1681. She and her son John Jr. were overseers of the estate. In John’s will. “I bequeath to Sarah my wife halfe the mill with ye halfe of ye land”. Lots of lands in the will: ten acres on a hill and valley where the house stands, land & meadow at the west River, the meadow at the Great meadow.

Sarah is in her dad John Whipple’s will of May 8, 1682, “I Give unto my three daughters (Namely) Sarah , Mary & Abigall unto Every of them Tenn shillings”.

Around 1684 Sarah married 2nd husband Richard Arnold, also a widow. Richard’s will of 1710 mentions Sarah too. “I Richard Arnold of Providence … Considering the uncertainty of this life, & not knowing how soone it may please God to take me out of this world … my last will … First I give to Sarah my wife for the Terme of her naturall life my two lotts in the Towne with the orchard & house upon them & also my meadow at the West River”. Sarah probably died a few years after 2nd husband Richard and at her death she had at least 20 grandchildren.

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