Person:Sarah Colton (2)

Researcher Dan B. Cooley notes that there is no source for Sarah's maiden name.

Some researchers believe she may be the sister of Benjamin's close friend George Colton, but there is no documentation of this. This theory is based on the fact that while Benjamin and George were very close, their lines did not intermarry for many generations.

Eleanor Cooley Rue suggests that she might be the Sarah Collen who joins the Dorchester church in 1640, a month after Phebe Cooley Sikes, sister of Benjamin. Note the closeness in spelling between COLLEN and COLTON. She therefore could have been still single at this time.

MANY family trees on the Internet indicate that Sarah was born in Springfield in 1620, but Springfield did not exist at that time. In fact, 1620 was the year the pilgrims arrived at Plymouth Rock. It is extremely unlikely and implausible that Sarah was born in the new world.

Others have suggested TREMAINE and SAVAGE as possible surnames, but I have no idea where these theories originate.

1. ↑ Pusch, Bruce Cooley.
2. ↑ Cooley, Mortimer Elwyn. Cooley Genealogy: The Descendants of Ensign Benjamin Cooley: an Early Settler of Springfield and Longmeadow, Massachusettsand other members of the family in America. (Rutland, VT: The Tuttle Publishing Company, Inc., 1941)
   Chapter 14.
3. ↑ Stott, Clifford L. Vital Records of Springfield, Massachusetts to 1850. (Boston, Massachusetts: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2002)
   66.

   Sarah the wife of Ensign Benja: Cooley was sicke and died Aug: 23d: 1684.