Whipple

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.

Sources

John Whipple b. 1617

/ Kirstin Miller

John Whipple 10th great grandfather on RootsMagic tree.

John Whipple was born in Essex, England in 1617. John age 14 or 15 arrived in Dorchester, now part of Boston, late summer of 1632. A servant of Israel Stoughton, John would have agreed to work 4-5 years in exchange for travel to America. His arrangement with Stoughton didn’t start out so well. October of 1632 John and another servant, Alex, were brought to court and ordered to pay Stoughton a certain sum each, for the powder and shot they’d wasted. In 1640 John was a Freeman, he’d worked off his debt. In 1641 he married Sarah, her last name is not known.

By 1658 he lived in Providence and stayed through King Philipps War, one of 27. These 27 who ’ staid’ were rewarded with a servant, an American Indian, captured in the war. Depending on their age the captured servants worked a certain time then had their freedom again. The Puritans believed this was an OK arrangement compared to other colonies that killed Indians captured in King Philips War. Through the years John was a carpenter, farmer, tavern keeper and chosen for lots of town services: selectman, treasurer, surveyor, etc. He was also on several committees, even in colonial America there were committees and meetings.

John Whipple's will 1682

John Whipple’s will 1682

John wrote his will May 8, 1682 with all his children named and son Joseph as executor. “Be it known to all persons to whom this may come, that I, John Whipple of the town of Providence, in the colony of Rhode Island, and Providence Plantations, in New England (Sen.) being in good measure of health, and in perfect memory, upon consideration of mortality, not knowing the day of my death, and having many children, and to prevent difference that otherwise may hereafter arise among them concerning my worldly estate, do see cause to make my will and do hereby dispose of all my estate in this world and do make my last Will and Testament.”

John died May 16 and is buried in Providence at North Burial Ground. He and Sarah have matching headstones, dated from 1740, not the 1680s.

 

Records of the Governor and company of the Massachusetts Bay, Volume 1 page 100 John Whipple and another in court.

The early records of the town of Providence, Volume 8 page 12 27 who ‘staid’ And Volume 15, page 161 details 

Rhode Island historic cemetery database
http://rihistoriccemeteries.org/newgravedetails.aspx?ID=215026

The early records of the town of Providence Volume 6 page 124-135 John Whipple’s will, inventory, probate.

369 North Main Street, the Whipple house

/ Kirstin Miller

At 369 North Main Street in Providence Rhode Island.

369 glory

ca 1912 Howard W. Preston, “369 North Main Street,” in Virtual Exhibits, Item #370, http://sos.ri.gov/virtualarchives/items/show/370 (accessed November 23, 2018).

These two photos and the description are from the ebook at FamilySearch.org:

The 1912 house likely reflects additions built by Captain John’s granddaughters and their husbands, the Crawford brothers, wealthy merchants, who lived there in the eighteenth century. The 369 property stayed in the Crawford-Whipple (and allied families) family for over 150 years. See the chapter on Joseph Whipple for details. The house was damaged in the New England hurricane of 1938 which devastated much of Rhode Island. It disappeared shortly thereafter.

Whipple, Charles M. A History of Captain John and Sarah Whipple of Dorchester, Massachusetts and Providence, Rhode Island, 1617-1685: A Multigenerational Study of the First Whipple Family in America. Victoria, B.C.: Trafford Pub, 2007369 1912

369 2002