Documents at Salem prove that when John Rolfe of Salis. and Nb. came to this country, he left a dau. in Eng., who was wife of Richard Ring of Marlborough, Wilts. Rolfe's will, 1663-4, 2d item, refers to his dau. Hester Sanders, wife of John Sanders and her chil.; 3d, to Sarah Cottell, wife of William Cottell and her two children, Sarah C. and Ann C. [the only ones then born], to be improved by Wm. Cottl for their benefit, "in addition to what I have given her before;" 4th, to four Ring grandchil. then liv. in Eng. The will of Robert Ring, 1688, gave property to "Will. Cottle, son to Sarah, now wife of John Hale of Nb., and Joanna, dau. to said Sarah." It has been assumed that Sarah Cottle was dau. of John Rolfe; but her age and other circumstances render it much more probable that she was his grand-dau. If she was the Sarah Hale, aged 33, who testified in the Caleb Powell case, in 1679-80[C Nb], she was b. ab. 1646 (or possibly a little earlier, as that would make her only 16 on the birth of her first child). The "Hale Genealogy," 1889, says she was prob. b. 1636. She was, therefore, 10 to 20 years younger than her husband. She was, also, probably the "Goody Hale" named in Wm. Morse's evidence in his wife's case, 1681[C Nb]. In view of all these facts, we venture to suggest that she may have been Sarah Ring, born in Eng., perhaps after the Rolfes came to this country, that Robert Ring (perhaps her uncle) brought the child over when he came to this country the second time, ab. 1652, where she was brought up in either the Rolfe-Sanders family or the Ring family. Her mother was evidently dead in 1663, and perhaps d. soon after her birth. C Nb. gives John Hale's third wife, Sarah Symonds; but the record is without date, and evidently not official. It has been suggested that she might have mar. and bur. a Symonds in the brief interval between 1668 and 1673; but it seems more probable that the Symonds story is an error, arising from the fact that a step-daughter of Deputy Gov. Samuel Symonds m. another John Hale.
