Person:Sarah Tarrant (4)

Identity

This is Capt. Benjamin Putnam's first wife, mother of all his children. Her identity is confused.

Source:Putnam, Eben. History of the Putnam Family in England and America : Recording the Ancestry and Descendants of John Putnam of Danvers, Mass., Jan, p. 58, says that Col. Perley Putnam says that Capt. Benjamin Putnam m. Elizabeth Putnam, d/o Thomas, on 25 Aug 1686. However, this date is the date of birth of son Nathaniel, and Thomas Putnam's widow names the daughter as Elizabeth Bayley in her will. So the identification of Benjamin's first wife as Elizabeth seems pretty much ruled out. Source:Crane, Ellery B. Historic Homes and Institutions and Genealogical and Personal Memoirs of Worcester County, Massachusetts, p. 2:55, gives the date 25 Aug 1684 along with the identification of the wife as Elizabeth. The date is not found in Salem VRs, and since there seems to be no evidence for Elizabeth, this date carries no credence. It appears to be too similar to Nathaniel's birth date.

Putnam says the births are "by wife Hanna" but if so, he was clearly looking at a different set of records than the compiler of the VRs, who names the mother as Sarah in all the birth records. The compiler of the VRs also names the first wife as Sarah in her death record 21 Dec 1705. Benjamin then married a second wife, also named Sarah, on 1 Jul 1706.

Source:Danvers Historical Society. Historical Collections of the Danvers Historical Society, p. 10:35, says Benjamin Putnam "apparently" married Sarah Tarrant, "the eldest being given the family name". This is at least consistent with the published records, but clearly this is only speculation and not based on any documentary evidence. Since Tarrant was not the eldest son (Nathaniel was), it is not clear how credible this is. Some newer sources mangle this theory into a wife named Elizabeth Tarrant.

1. ↑ Salem, Essex, Massachusetts, United States. Vital Records to the End of the year 1849. (Salem, Massachusetts: Essex Institute, 1916-1925)
   6:171.

   PUTNAM, Sarah, w. Benja[min], [died] Dec. 21, 1705.

2. ↑ ^{2.0 2.1 2.2} The different names are listed as alternates so that people looking for this page using any of these names, all of which are represented as such in the literature, will find this page. They should be removed when the real name is discovered. Of course, determining the real name will take something more than yet another secondary source speculating who she is.