Sarah Cushman
| Charts | Ancestors of Adele La Force |
Sarah Cushman, whose ancestry is unknown (or not traced here), died at Plymouth, Plymouth Co., Massachusetts, before 21 December 1638.1
Sarah married William Hoskins, son of Henry Hoskins and Anne Winthrop, at Plymouth 6 October 1636.1,2,3,4
Sarah was likely born in Leiden, but that is not certain. Her father married his first wife 31 July 1606, and her brother Thomas was baptized roughly a year and half later at Canterbury, Kent, 8 February 1607/8, making it unlikely Sarah was born before Thomas. Her father is first on record at Leiden in May 1609 when he joined the Pilgrim Church there and did not permanently leave Leiden until 1619.
It appears that James Savage was the first to "presume" Sarah was the daughter of Robert Cushman. Later, Lora Underhill would adopt the same view, citing Savage but also presenting some evidence (see below). In three accounts in the ''Great Migration'' series, Anderson considered this possibility "only a surmise" (to believe that something is true with no evidence to confirm it). The issue is not addressed in the account of William Hoskins.
However, although circumstantial, there is evidence on which to believe Sarah was the daughter of Robert Cushman:
1. First suggested by Underhill, William Hoskins was granted a share of land for the "first-borne children of this government." As Hoskins himself did not arrive until about 1634, he must have received this share in right of his wife, though that is not stated in the record. Eugene Stratton echos this, referring back to the original act which defines those children as "such children as are heer borne & next unto them such as are heer brought up under their parents, are … be provided for…before any that either come from England or elsewhere," and that William was on the list because he had married a "first born" child, Sarah Cushman.
2. A Sara "Couchman" was listed as one of seven servants of Nathaniel Tillden of Tenterden, along with his wife and their seven children, on the manifest for the Hercules of Sandwich, April 1635.
3. Her would-be father, Robert Cushman had strong ties to the area around Tenterden:
* He was baptized at Rolvenden, Kent. This village is about two miles from Benenden where he died and was buried, and about five miles from Tenterden.
* Robert had an older brother, Richard, who lived in Benenden and was buried there in March 1623/4 and had children living there who were Robert's neices and nephews.
* Their sister, Sylvester, lived in Tenterden. Though she died in 1610, Robert still had additional neices and nephews (surnamed Everden) living there when he died.
4. Robert's mother, and Sarah's would-be grandmother, Eleanor Hubbard was step-mother to the above-named Nathaniel Tilden, making Robert a step-brother to Nathaniel.
After Robert died in 1625, Sarah was an orphan. As her aunt (Sylvester) and uncle (Richard) were both dead, it seems likely that Nathaniel Tilden, step-brother to Robert and hence "uncle" was the closest kinsman she could be placed with and was still with him when he chose to immigrate in 1635.
Which of his two wives was her mother is another matter, and as Underhill points out, may never be known.
Sarah married William Hoskins, son of Henry Hoskins and Anne Winthrop, at Plymouth 6 October 1636.1,2,3,4
Sarah was likely born in Leiden, but that is not certain. Her father married his first wife 31 July 1606, and her brother Thomas was baptized roughly a year and half later at Canterbury, Kent, 8 February 1607/8, making it unlikely Sarah was born before Thomas. Her father is first on record at Leiden in May 1609 when he joined the Pilgrim Church there and did not permanently leave Leiden until 1619.
It appears that James Savage was the first to "presume" Sarah was the daughter of Robert Cushman. Later, Lora Underhill would adopt the same view, citing Savage but also presenting some evidence (see below). In three accounts in the ''Great Migration'' series, Anderson considered this possibility "only a surmise" (to believe that something is true with no evidence to confirm it). The issue is not addressed in the account of William Hoskins.
However, although circumstantial, there is evidence on which to believe Sarah was the daughter of Robert Cushman:
1. First suggested by Underhill, William Hoskins was granted a share of land for the "first-borne children of this government." As Hoskins himself did not arrive until about 1634, he must have received this share in right of his wife, though that is not stated in the record. Eugene Stratton echos this, referring back to the original act which defines those children as "such children as are heer borne & next unto them such as are heer brought up under their parents, are … be provided for…before any that either come from England or elsewhere," and that William was on the list because he had married a "first born" child, Sarah Cushman.
2. A Sara "Couchman" was listed as one of seven servants of Nathaniel Tillden of Tenterden, along with his wife and their seven children, on the manifest for the Hercules of Sandwich, April 1635.
3. Her would-be father, Robert Cushman had strong ties to the area around Tenterden:
* He was baptized at Rolvenden, Kent. This village is about two miles from Benenden where he died and was buried, and about five miles from Tenterden.
* Robert had an older brother, Richard, who lived in Benenden and was buried there in March 1623/4 and had children living there who were Robert's neices and nephews.
* Their sister, Sylvester, lived in Tenterden. Though she died in 1610, Robert still had additional neices and nephews (surnamed Everden) living there when he died.
4. Robert's mother, and Sarah's would-be grandmother, Eleanor Hubbard was step-mother to the above-named Nathaniel Tilden, making Robert a step-brother to Nathaniel.
After Robert died in 1625, Sarah was an orphan. As her aunt (Sylvester) and uncle (Richard) were both dead, it seems likely that Nathaniel Tilden, step-brother to Robert and hence "uncle" was the closest kinsman she could be placed with and was still with him when he chose to immigrate in 1635.
Which of his two wives was her mother is another matter, and as Underhill points out, may never be known.
Family | William Hoskins b. bef. 1611, d. 7 Sep 1695 |
| Child |
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| This person was last edited on | 29 Dec 2023 |
Citations
- [S2053] Robert Charles Anderson, George F. Sanborn Jr. and Melinde Lutz Sanborn, The Great Migration: Immigrants To New England, 1634-1635 (7 vols., Boston, Massachusetts: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 1999-2011), 3:414-420, further cited as Anderson, et al., The Great Migration.
- [S86] Eugene Aubrey Stratton, Plymouth Colony: Its History & People 1620-1691 (Salt Lake City, Utah: Ancestry, 1986), further cited as Stratton, Plymouth Colony.
- [S38] Robert Moody Sherman, Verle Delano Vincent, Robert S. Wakefield and Lydia Dow Finlay, Mayflower Families Through Five Generations, Descendants of the Pilgrims Who Landed at Plymouth, Mass. December 1620: Volume Fifteen: Family of James Chilton and Family of Richard More (Plymouth, Massachusetts: General Society of Mayflower Descendants, 1997), 3-15, further cited as Sherman, Vincent, Delano, Wakefield, and Finlay, MF 15.
- [S1872] Clarence Almon Torrey, New England Marriages Prior to 1700, 3 vols. (Boston, Massachusetts: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2011), 793, further cited as Torrey, New England Marriages (2011).