Person:Sarah Stanton (25)

Sarah Stanton was baptised on 29th July 1764 at Hinxworth in Hertfordshire, daughter of Elizabeth Stanton, formerly Blee, and her husband Francis Stanton, a carpenter. Sarah was the third of the couple's eight children, although one of her older sisters had died as a baby before Sarah was born. Sarah only had one brother, the rest were sisters.

Sarah's paternal grandparents Edmund and Eleanor Stanton also lived in Hinxworth at the time of Sarah's birth, owning the building which is now known as the Three Horseshoes public house, although it is not clear whether it was a public house at that time. Eleanor died when Sarah was about eighteen months old. In February 1781 Sarah's grandfather Edmund died, and Sarah's father Francis appears to have inherited the Three Horseshoes.

Later in 1781 Sarah was married, aged 17, to John Travis. She signed the marriage register, showing that she was literate. They married at Hinxworth and appear to have had seven children there between 1782 and 1796, although the third and seventh children died as babies. Shortly after the burial of the seventh child in 1796 the family left Hinxworth and moved over fifty miles away to West Tilbury on the Thames Estuary in south Essex. At West Tilbury they had another four children, although one of them died young too. In total Sarah appears to have had eleven children, three of whom died young.

Back in Hinxworth, Sarah's father Francis died in 1805. She was one of the beneficiaries of his will, receiving £5, whilst her son Thomas received a piece of land. Sarah's mother Elizabeth died in 1811.

Sarah lived to see some of her children marry; she witnessed the marriage of her son David in 1817.

Sarah died aged about 56, being buried at West Tilbury on 22nd June 1820. John outlived her by over 22 years, appearing at West Tilbury in the 1841 census living with their son Edward.

1. ↑ Church of England. Parish registers of Hinxworth, 1551-1985. (Hertford: Hertfordshire Archives and Local Studies).

   1764
   Baptiz[e]d Sarah the Daughter of Francis & Elizabeth Stanton the 29th day of July

   This baptism can be linked to the Sarah Stanton who married John Travis on the basis of Sarah's father Francis's will which names his daughter "Sarah the wife of John Travies".

2. ↑ Burials register, in Church of England. Parish registers of West Tilbury, 1546-1979. (Chelmsford: Essex Record Office).

   BURIALS in the Parish of West Tilbury in the County of Essex in the Year 1820
   No.	Name	Abode	When buried	Age	By whom the Ceremony was performed
   61	Sarah Travis	West Tilbury	June 22d	56 [1763/4]	W.E. Fitzthomas, Licenced Curate

   This burial has been linked to the Sarah wife of John Travis who had been having children in Hinxworth on the basis that the family disappears from Hinxworth after 1796 and several of the children appear from the later censuses to have married and settled in West Tilbury, suggesting the whole family moved from Hinxworth to West Tilbury. This burial is approximately the right age.