Person:William Sabin (2)

Origins

No positive ancestry for Person:William Sabin (2), rather, speculative alternatives include Family:Richard Sabin and Mary Bushe (1), Family:Samuel Sabin and Elizabeth Wife Of Sabin (1) and Family:Samuel Sabin and Mary Bushe (1).

"Sabin Family of America" claims that his baptism is recorded in St. Peter's Parish, Titchfield, England: 'Oct 1609 bapt. William Sabin, the XI daye.' The parents of William Sabin are not listed.

Some believe that William was the son of Richard Sabin and Mary (Bushe) Sabin who were married 29 October 1608. Richard was buried 1 June 1641 and Mary was buried 14 October 1644 (Extracts from the Parish Register of St. Peter, Titchfield).

The IGI has William Sabin as the son of Samuel and Elizabeth Sabin bc1615, Titchfield, Hampshire, England. Lillian Swihart, a subscriber to the Sabin/Sabine/Sabean Genealogical Newsletter offers the point of view that this information might be correct since the first two children of William were named Samuel and Elizabeth and that William failed to name any of his children Richard which was the name of both his father and father-in-law.^[12]

Initially proposed to be of French Huguenot (Protestant) origins (NEHGS Register, volume 36, 1882, pp 52-58), this theory was soon put down (NEHGS Register Volume 37, 1883, pp. 37-38) with a) a sound review of the history of the Huguenots, the timing of their persecution and emigration to England and North America not being compatible with Sabin's age; and b) the existence of the SABIN surname in England for centuries before this time.

It is likely that he may have come from that part of England -- Northampshire, Southern England or Wales-- where many other Rehoboth settlers were from. Possible towns might be Titchfield (Morris & Prittie) or Killby (NEHGS Reg Vol 37).

From the family of a later Sabine immigrant we read: "The Sabine family can be traced back as far as 1600 AD. The first we find of them is in the County of Hampshire (Hants) England, at Titchfield and towns nearthereto. They were Puritans and Nonconformists of early date and glorious memory." (Sabine, John Dickinson. The Family and Descendants of Rev. James Sabine. Washington, DC, 1904. John Sabine was an immigrant from England to America in the early 1700s and not a descendant of William Sabin.)

He may have come over as early as 1638 with a group of Tichfield residents on the ship, "Brevis." But this has not been proven.

Life in New England

Said to have been a man of great wealth based on the account of his estate and amount of land he owned. He was a miller by trade and operated the mill previously owned by his father-in-law, Richard Wright.

1643: On record at the organization of the town of Rehoboth. On Dec 22, he married Martha Allen, twin to Mary, both daughters of James & Anna Allen of Medfield; and sister to Nathaniel and Joseph Allen who married a daughter of William Sabin by his first wife.

1644: Signed Rehoboth compact of 1644; with his father-in-law Richard Wright, appointed to collect taxes.

1654: With three others on May 16, authorized to negotiate with Capt. Miles Standish, et al, regarding a land squabble with Indian chiefs Osamequin & Wamsetto.

1656: town constable

1657: Selectman (for many additional years, as well)

1675: Was foreman on the jury that convicted 3 native Americans for the Rehoboth murder of the Englishman John Sassamon. Two of these were hanged on 8 June 1675, inciting an Indian attach on Swansea 16 days later, commencing King Philip's War.

1675-6: Contributed liberally to the (King Philip's) war effort.

Legacy

The first birth record in Rehoboth vital records was son Joseph, b. 24 of 4th month (June), 1645. Between his two wives, he sired 19-20 children-- 12 by the first; 7 by the second.

His will was made 4 Jun 1685, probated 17 Jul 1687; in it he mentions 16 of the 19 or 20 children.

In the three hundred and fifty years that have passed since the first record of William Sabin in MA some 10,000 Sabin descendants have populated the United States. (Sabin Family of America)

Will of William Sabin

TAG 14:14-15 “Stray Wills at Suffolk County (Mass.) Probate Registry” copied or abstracted by G. A. Taylor, Esq., of Boston, Mass.

William Sabin of Rehoboth, Mass.

Liber 10, folio 61

Will of William Sabin of Rehoboth, Government of New Plymouth, New England, in good health, etc., 4 June 1685. Deare children after my decease to keepe with God [religious preamble].

To deare & beloved wife, Dwelling House & halfe of the barne & half my home ltt & orchard, a piece of salt meadow called Wrights meadow, & my pasture in montons ome [?] neck & six acres in 2d Division adjoyning Mr. Smiths in the great playne... during her widowhood...

To eldest son Samuel, lands lying between Saml & Nathaniell Peres land & John Tituses...

To son Joseph, lands at Palmers River...

To son Benjamin, land...

To son James, land....

To son John, the mill lot...

To son Hezekiah, land...

To son Noah, land at Mr. Browns pond...

My four sons James, John, Hezekiah & Noah shall have my commonage.

To my 3 daughters Experience, Abigall & Hannah, 3 pounds apeece... to be paid by Nathl Allen that is due me...

To my grandchild Samuel Allen 6 pounds of a debt due me from Nathl Allen.

To my daughters Elizabeth & Patience each a Cow.

To my four youngest daughters, Mehitabell, Mary, Sarah & Margarett, five pounds apeece at their marriage out of rest of my estate.

To wife, books, etc., also to my children, books by choice, one first and so on. If wife marry, lands etc. given her to go to son James who is to pay her 5 pounds a year during her natl life.

Wife to be executrix; sons Saml and Benjamin, overseers.

Signed by Wm Sabin and seal. Witnesses: Thomas Cooper, Wm. Carpenter. Probate, 15 July 1687.

1. ↑ Arnold, James N. Vital Record of Rehoboth, 1642-1896. (Providence, RI: Narragansett Historical Publishing Co., 1897)
   Deaths, p. 874, 1687.

   1, 57: [SABEN] William, buried Feb. 9, 1687.

2.   Savage, James. A Genealogical Dictionary of the First Settlers of New England: Showing Three Generations of Those Who Came Before May, 1692, on the Basis of Farmer's Register. (Boston: Little, Brown, and Co, 1860-1862)
   4:1.

   "WILLIAM, Rehoboth 1643, sign. the combina. or compact of 1644, was aselectman, rep. 1657 and sev. yrs. more; had Mehitable, b. 10 May1673, unless she were ch. of one of his s. He was liberal incontribut. for Philip's war, and prob. two, if not more of his ch.render. personal serv. What number of ch. he had is unkn. vol. 4, p.2 nor is the date of either giv. but seven appear with somedistinctness, and the names are thot. to be Mercy, in add. to the fiveforegoing, and William, beside, perhaps, ano. s. whose wid. gave of her mite to the cause. WILLIAM, Rehoboth, s. perhaps of the preced. had Mary, b. 18 Sept. 1675; and Margaret, 10 Apr. 1680. Easi. this name gains final e."

3.   Fisher, Frank. Sabin Family of North America (Rootsweb WorldConnect)
   http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?db=gamorris.
4. ↑ ^4.0 4.1 The Sabin Family of America, in The New England Historical and Genealogical Register. (Boston: New England Historic Genealogical Society)
   36:52-58; 37:311, 1882; 1883.

   He was a Huguenot... Who his first wife was we know not, but she died shortly after 1660. He married second, Martha (born Dec 11, 1641, a twin sister of Mary), daughter of James and Anna Allen, of Medfield, Dec 22, 1663. Martha was a sister of Nathaniel and Joseph Allen, who married daughters by the former wife... His children by his first wife-- all born in Rehoboth except the two eldest, whose place is unknown:
   
   i. Samuel
   ii. Elizabeth, b. ___ 1642; m. first Robert Millard, Nov. 24, 1663; m. second Samuel Howard. She died Feb 7, 1717.
   iii. Joseph, b. May 24, 1645.
   iv. Benjamin, b. May 3, 1646.
   v. Nehemiah, b. May 28, 1647.
   vi. Experience, b. June 8, 1648; m. Samuel Bullin Aug 20 1672; d. without issue June 14, 1728.
   vii. Mary (or Mercy), b. May 23, 1652; m. Nathaniel Allen. She d. Feb 27, 1674, leaving son Samuel.
   viii. Abigail, b. Sept. 8, 1653; m. Joseph Bullin March 15, 1675; d. without issue May 1, 1721.
   ix. Hannah, b. Oct. 22 1654; m. Joseph Allen of Medfield, Mass., Nov 10 1673; removed to Pomfret, Conn., had 12 children.
   x. Patience, b. Dec. __, 1655.
   xi. Jeremiah, b. Jan 24, 1657. Perhaps Jonathan, as a Jonathan is mentioned as being in the Narraganset Expedition, 1676. Bliss's Hist. of Rehoboth, p. 117.
   xii. Sarah, b. July 27, 1660. [d. before 1677 when dau by same name born.]
   
   Children by second wife:
   xiii. James, b. Jan 1, 1665.
   xiv. John, b. Aug. 27, 1666
   xv. Hezekiah, b. April 3, 1669; d. 1693.
   xvi. Noah, b. March 1, 1671; d. 1694.
   xvii. Mehitable, b. May 15, 1673; m. Joseph Bucklin July 30, 1691; d. Sept 27 1751. He died July 28, 1729.
   xviii. Mary, b. Sep 8, 1675; m. Dec. 8, 1696 Nathaniel Cooper.
   xix. Sarah, b. Feb. 16 1677
   xx. Margaret, b. Apr 30, 1680; d. July 19, 1697.

5.   Savery, A W.. William Sabin, the Patriarch. Was he a Huguenot? NEHGR
   37:37-38, 1883.

   [argues against Huguenot origins for Sabin]
   1. It seems highly improbable that a native of France could have written the long holograph will of William Sabin in such pure idiomatic English of that day, unless he had come to England as an infant and received the whole of his education there.
   2. The name William was an English, not a French christian name. [and the French equivalent Guilliame was not very common in France at that time.]
   3. William Sabin must have been more than 21, probably more than 25 years old when he appeared at Rehoboth in 1643. Two children had been born to him before that date. He died about 1687, havng been the father of twenty children, the youngest but 7 years old. It is safe to conclude that he was born not later than 1618, nor earlier than 1610. But from the time of the Edict of Nantes, A.D. 1598 to about A.D. 1675, protestants enjoyed toleration in France, and were under no necessity of exile for conscience sake. Their peace was interrupted when their leaders made common cause with the Prince of Conde, and afterwards when Louis XIII attacked them; but both the brief struggles which ensued ended in express confirmations of the edict-- the first in 1615, the second in 1620. Again, they revolted during the war between France and Italy, and an intermittent struggle took place, which resulted in 1628 the capture of Rochelle and other Huguenot strongholds; but the victors made no attempt to deprive the vanquished of liberty of conscience, and Richelieu is commended even by his most adverse critics for his moderation and good temper on this occasion. No general prosecution followed; and although some of the discomfited leaders in the politico-religious strife may have exiled themselves, it is submitted that William Sabin was too young to be implicated. The two great migrations of Huguenots to England took place at the periods between the massacre of St. Bartholomew's day, 1573, and the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, 1685. The latter event sent over to New England the Oxford settlers of most honorable memory. It is suggested that the probate of William Sabin's will at Boston may be accounted for by his removal to Oxford to join his compatriots, but I should think it improbable that he would be influenced by such considerations at his then advanced age. Might not the probate of the will at Boston during the administration of Gov. Andros be due to circumstances arising out of the recent cancellation of the colonial charter?
   4. The name Sabin does not appear at all in the Camden Society's publications, "Lists of Foreign Protestants and aliens resident in England, 1618-1688," edited by W. Durant Cooper, London, 1862.
   5. Experience has taught me the futility of relying on oral traditions of a Huguenot ancestry in American families bearing French names. The learned and judicious, yet anonymous author of a valuable work on "The Norman People and their descendants in England and America" (Henry S. King & Son, London, 1874) ... clearly and conclusively accounts for many French names erroneously assigned to a Huguenot origin. He gives the name Sabe as existing in Normandy 1180, Robert and William Sabe in the Hundred Rolls, England, about 1272.... and in the Borough of Cambridge, temp. Edw. I. A.D. 1272, he gives 106 Norman names, among them Sabyn. Ferguson on English Surnames cites Sabas as a Gothic name of the fifth century, and refers to Sabbe and Sappi as Friescic names, from which he deduces the modern English Sabine, deriving them all from words in the old German and Norse languages meaning "a sword," whence our modern "sabre." ...
   "I should judge that Sabin is much more common as an English than as a French name... Still, as to Sabin, all the above facts are consistent with the possibility of his having been a son or a grandson of an exile from the scenes at St. Bartholomew's day; or the youthful son of one (if there were any such) who brought his family over to England after the fall of Rochelle; but my judgment is very strongly in favor of assigning a Norman-English rather than a Huguenot origin.

6.   Notes and Queries Replies: The Sabin Family, in The New England Historical and Genealogical Register. (Boston: New England Historic Genealogical Society)
   37:311, 1883.

   "Long before the time of the edict of Nantes the Sabin family were settled in Northamptonshire, England. Before the middle of the sixteenth century, persons of this name were settled at Kilsby in that county, the very same village... Mr. Titus in his account of the "Sabin Family of America" writes that the second wife of William Sabin was a Martha Allen. It may be only a coincidence, but it is worth observing that the name Alyn occurs in the court roles of Kilsby."

7.   Moris, Gordon Allan. The Descendants of William Sabin
   pp 2-7, 13, 1994.
8.   Hicks, Joan. A New England/New York Heritage (Rootsweb Worldconnect)
   http://worldconnect.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=jhicks-fam&id=I1481.

   William Sabin must have had two wives since he recorded children born as early as 1645, and the date of his marriage to Martha Allin is recorded in both Medfield and Rehoboth as Dec 22, 1663...
   Arnold's VR of Rehoboth (p 736) notes that birth records for all the children are recorded on Book 1 p 17, and those for the all the older children through Hezekiah are also recorded on 9 R.

9.   Morris, Gordon Alan and Thomas J. Prittie. Descendants of William Sabin of Rehoboth, Massachusetts (Philip Sabin Hibbard/Penobscot Press)
   pp. 2-7, 13, 1994.
10.   Notes on the Indian Wars in New England, in The New England Historical and Genealogical Register. (Boston: New England Historic Genealogical Society)
    15:149, 1861.
11.   Sabine, John Dickinson. The Family and Descendants of Rev. James Sabine
    1904.

    http://www.archive.org/stream/familydescendant02sabi/familydescendant02sabi_djvu.txt

12. ↑ Sabin Association. Sabin / Sabine / Sabean genealogical newsletter: celebrating the descendants of William Sabin (1609-1686) of Rehoboth, Massachusetts. (Aiea, Hawaii: Sabin Association, 1983-)
    Vol. IX, No. 4, p. 6, Winter, 1991.