Person:Sarah Clement (12)

Sarah Clement’s origins have yet to be established. The age given when she died suggests she was born around 1745. Her first confirmed sighting is on 5th January 1764, when she married Thomas Roper at Sidlesham in Sussex. At the time of their marriage she was living in the neighbouring parish of Donnington.

Sarah and Thomas settled in Sidlesham after their marriage, having seven children baptised there between 1764 and 1773, although two of them died young. Thomas worked as a husbandman, looking after farm animals.

Between 1781 and 1791 there were another five children baptised at Sidlesham whose name is given as Sarah Roper, but no father is named, with some of the children explicitly described as illegitimate. No other Sarah Roper living in the area has been identified, and it is therefore possible that Sarah and Thomas had separated. It is also possible that the mother of these children was a different Sarah Roper who was not from the Sidlesham area.

Thomas died in 1813, aged 78.

Sarah survived Thomas by fourteen years. She was buried at Sidlesham on 25th February 1828, when she was said to be 82 years old. Immediately before her death she had been living in the workhouse.

1. ↑ ^1.0 1.1 Burials register, in Church of England. Parish Church of Sidlesham (Sussex). Parish registers of Sidlesham, 1566-1901. (Chichester: West Sussex County Council).

   BURIALS in the Parish of Sidlesham in the County of Sussex in the Year 1828
   No	Name	Abode	When buried	Age	By whom the Ceremony was performed
   250	Sarah Roper	Work House	Feb[ruary] 25	82 [1745/6]	G.T. Hodson, Curate