Person:Sarah Lister (2)

Sarah Lister's origins have yet to be established. Her first confirmed sighting is on 1st December 1773 when she was married in the town of Grantham in Lincolnshire to a labourer named William Ward, who was living at Somerby, to the south-east of Grantham. At the time of their marriage Sarah was said to be 25 years old, implying that she was born around 1748. One of the witnesses to her marriage was a Thomas Lister, who may well have been a relative. After their marriage they had two children baptised in Somerby, before moving to Belton, about three miles north of Grantham, where they had a third child baptised in 1779.

The family then moved about seventeen miles east of Belton to Great Hale, where Sarah would live for the rest of her life. Her husband William was buried there in 1783, aged 37. Sarah was left with the three children to look after, who ranged in age from nine down to four years old at the time of their father's death.

Just under three years after William's death, Sarah married again. Her second husband was William Burks, a labourer and widower, who appears to have been a few years older than her, having adult children. They were married for just under six years. He died in 1792.

Each of Sarah's three children married in Great Hale: Rebecca and Thomas both in 1797 and Luke in 1805. Her first known grandchild was born in 1798.

In 1808, after sixteen years as a widow, Sarah married for a third time. Her third husband was her son Luke's father-in-law, John Allam, a carpenter and millwright. He appears to have been about eleven years younger than her. Sarah and John were married for fifteen years. In this time John became deacon of the Baptist chapel at nearby Heckington.

Sarah died on 16th September 1823 at Great Hale. She was said to be 83 years old, although this would make her a few years older than had been implied by the age given when she first married, which would suggest she was about 75. She had seen at least seventeen grandchildren born in her lifetime. John survived her by seventeen years.

1. ↑ ^1.0 1.1 Burials register, in Church of England. Parish Church of Great Hale (Lincolnshire). Parish registers for Great Hale, ca.1568-1988. (Lincoln, England: Lincoln Archives Office, 1993-2002).

   BURIALS in the Parish of Hale Magna in the County of Lincoln in the Year 1823
   No.	Name	Abode	When buried	Age	By whom the Ceremony was performed
   159	Sarah wife of John Allam	Great Hale	September 17	83 years [1739/40]	by Rev[eren]d Lewis Jones Vicar of Burton Pedwardine

2. ↑ Stamford Mercury, in United Kingdom. The British Newspaper Archive
   Page 3, Friday 19 Sep 1823.

   DIED.
   On Tuesday last, aged 83, Mrs. Allan, wife of Mr. John Allan, of Great Hale.

3. ↑ See marriage.