Family:Nathaniel Moore and Sarah Vail (1)

There is considerable controversy over the identification of Nathaniel's wife.

What is known: Nathaniel's wife was named in his will as Sarah; Nathaniel's will called Jeremiah Vail his brother-in-law, leading people to assume his wife was Sarah Vail. But Robert Jackson's will of 1683 named his daughter Sarah as wife of Nathaniel Moore, suggesting Nathaniel's wife was Sarah Jackson (the year of this will ruling out the younger Nathaniel Moore as Sarah Jackson's husband). Further, the town clerk labeled Jeremiah as Thomas Moore's son-in-law, a relationship that could not be explained by Nathaniel marrying Sarah Vail.

Sarah Jackson was born abt. 1654, based on being oldest of 2 children of a mother who died in 1656. So this Nathaniel Moore is a good match for her, as other Nathaniel Moores are about 10 years younger. Likewise Sarah Vail, bp. 1647, would not be an appropriate age for any other known Nathaniel Moore. None of the male children were named either Robert or Jeremiah.

Charles B. Moore, a leading researcher of this Moore family, says the brother-in-law reference is due to Jeremiah Vail marrying, for his second wife, the widow Anne of Nathaniel's brother Benjamin, and so does not imply that Nathaniel's wife was Sarah Vail. The Vails and the Moores were contemporaries while in both Salem and Southold and there remains the possibility that there still an undiscovered connection between the two families (the identity of Jeremiah's first wife is not known).

Further discussion may be found on the page of the younger Nathaniel. It seems most probable that this Nathaniel Moore married Sarah Jackson. --Jrich 10:20, 5 August 2009 (EDT)

1. ↑ Macy, Harry Jr. "Robert Jackson's Wives and Children", in The New York Genealogical and Biographical Record. (New York, New York: New York Genealogical and Biographical Society)
   Vol. 131 Number 1, page 6-7, Jan 2000.

   Son in law John Terry is mentioned in Nathaniel's will of 1698. John and Hannah Terry had two children by 1700. Working backward to estimate her birth, the marriage must have been about 1675.