Person:Sarah Barnes (4)

From Genealogy and Ecclesiastical History of Farmington, Connecticut

... We pass over these lists and dates, and come down in the record to 1st March, 1679-80, when we find a full roll of church members in "full communion'(*) in the church in Farmington. This roll or list seems to be numbered and graded according to rank, standing, or dignity, in the community, beginning with 1, down to 42 heads of families. It is thought our fathers in these nice distinctions took for a basis, "age, list, titles, and whatever else makes a man honorable." Let not the reader be surprised at this practice in the olden time. It was only a necessary preparation for the assignment of seats in the meeting house. If you say such comparisons would not be tolerated in this age, it might be replied, we have no such necessity, for our seats are rented to the highest bidder.

(listed seventh after the numbered names, at the very last of the list, is "John Scovil's wife.)

(*) Implying that others were under the "half way Covenant" as it was called.

From the Scoville List

Please be advised that in Fred Barnes' book on Thomas Barnes, he says John Scovell and Sarah Barnes had 7 children. (Brainard lists only 4: John, William, Edward, and Benjamin.) According to Brainard, Barnes' first 3 are wrong.

      They are:

1. Mehitable Scoville m Caleb Thompson.

2. Eleazure Scoville m Abigail Langdon, b 18 Jan 1780 to Joseph Langdon and Ruth Hooker. Eleazure was actually born about 1769 at New Chesure, Wallingford, New Haven, CT, the son of Abijah and Elizabeth. Abijah was the son of William and Hannah Richards. (This Hannah Richards, b 26 Jun 1702, was the daughter of John Richards and Mary Welton.) William was the son of John Scovill and Hannah Richards. (Hannah Richards b abt Nov 1671 to Obadiah Richards and Hannah Andrews.). John Scovill was the son of John Scovell and Sarah Barnes. (That's Eleazure, Abijah, William, John, John)

3. Thomas Scoville m Kity Langdon.

Not only can I not find Mehitable or Thomas, Caleb Thompson and Kity Langdon are not even in Brainard's book. (There is a Mehitable Scovil, but she is the daughter of Philemon Scovil and Mehitable Prior.) Just because I can find Eleazure elsewhere casts doubt in my mind about the accuracy of the other two. The sources Mr. Barnes cites give different vitals for John as well.

From Leann <sweetheart_usa@@yahoo.com>

I read on a post that Sarah drowned her baby daughter (?) and then killed herself due to the pressures of her mother Mary being accused of witchcraft. I know the witchcraft part is true (we have the documentation from the Smithsonian) but the drowning and suicide is a mystery. Does anyone have information on this?

Here is a copy of the post I found:

After she was hanged as a witch, later her daughter committed suicide/murder by taking her infant daughter and drowning to death in the well in East Haddam?, I'm not sure of the location. It seems she was convinced the devil possessed the females of the family. My now deceased Great Aunt Emily Louise Calkins Ritz told me that tale.

Here is a copy of the trial as it appears: Mary Barnes thou art here indited by ye name of Mary Barnes for not having the fear of God before thyne eyes thou hast entertained familiarity with Satn the great Ebemy of God and man and by his help hast acted things in aer natural way beyond the course of nature for which according to ye laws of god and of ye established lawes if this colony thou deservest.

1. ↑ Frederic Wayne Barnes and Edna Cleo (Bauer) Barnes. BARNES: Thomas Barnes of Hartford, Connecticut. (Gateway Press, Baltimore, MD 1994)
   p. 7.
2. ↑ Brian J.L. Berry, Ph.D. BARNES: The Ancestry of Fanny Barnes and her husband Thomas Knight. (Printed for the author at McKinney, Texas by Prestige Printers, Inc. 1989)
   p. 26.
3. ↑ Compiled By Trescott C. Barnes, Secretary and Genealogist. BARNES: The Barnes Family Year Book, Vol. I - 1907 & II - 1908. (Vol. I -The Grafton Press, New York; Vol. II - Winsted Printing and Engraving Co, Winsted, Conn. 1908)
   p. 9.
4. ↑ Researcher.

   Lynn Dielman

5. ↑ Alfred Andrews. Genealogy and Ecclesiastical History of Farmington, Connecticut. (Chicago, Illinois 1867)
   p. 14-15.