Sarah Paine

Biography

Sarah Paine married Joshua Knowles in Eastham, on Cape Cod in present-day Massachusetts, on March 13, 1717/18. The town-record transcription names both partners and the official, Nathaniel Freeman. She became the mother of eight children whose births, recorded between 1723 and 1740, trace nearly two decades of family life in Eastham.

The children were Jesse, Rebecca, Sarah, Joshua, a second Sarah, Josiah, Simeon and Susanna. The first Sarah died young. Her younger sister, born on June 3, 1732, later married Elkanah Higgins; Rebecca married Isaac Sparrow, and Susanna married Zoeth Smith.

Sarah lived long enough to see her children establish their own families. The published death entry records that Sarah Knowles, wife of Joshua, died on July 12, 1772. Joshua survived her by almost fourteen years. His eventual probate papers name a later wife, Phebe, while preserving the identities of the children from his marriage to Sarah.