"Samuel Starr … m. (1st) Aug. 20, 1724, Elizabeth De Jersey. She d. Aug. 26, 1768, æ. 65. Tradition says that she and her sister were the only children of a French nobleman, proprietor of a large estate in Jersey, one of the Channel Islands, near the shore of France. They were left orphans at an early age, and placed under the care of an uncle, to whom the estate would revert in case of their decease. He, under the pretense of sending them to England to be educated, put them on board of a ship bound for America. On arriving at New York the captain sold them for their passage-money. They were brought to Middletown and given the surname of their native island. The elder was about 10 years old at this time;—the sister married a Redfield. After many years, the uncle on his death-bed confessed his great wrong, caused letters to be written to his nieces, begging them to return and claim their rightful estate. They were too old themselves to respond, and their children did nothing about it. This romantic tradition is preserved among all the descendants of said Elizabeth De Jersey now scattered over the country. In one family in Ohio they have it in writing, taken down from the lips of a granddau. of said Elizabeth. In another family a grandson, b. in 1779, d. in 1852, often said that when a boy, living in Mid., he saw in the garret of the old Starr house those very letters from the uncle, that he read them himself, and that they contained the above story."
