Sarah’s family tree
Nathaniel Lewis and Abigail Ashley
Sarah Lewis‘ parents were Nathaniel Lewis (1676-1752) and Abigail Ashley (1681-1727). Both the Lewis and the Ashley families can trace their ancestry back to the earliest days of British Colonial America. The Lewis family were mainly Welsh and the Ashley family mainly English.
The Lewis connection
The Lewis family was originally from Wales. However, about 1620 the family moved to Essex in England. It was from Essex that William Lewis and his wife Felix emigrated on the Lyon/Lion to Plymouth Bay Colony. Their son, William, at the age of 13 went with them. As an adult he married Mary Cheever and one of their sons was Nathaniel Lewis (1620-1752). Nathaniel, in turn, was the father of Sarah Lewis.
As he came of age, the young William served in various administrative positions in Hartford, Connecticut (apparently he joined Rev. Thomas Hooker’s exodus together with his parents). He was appointed a Captain of the local militia. whether it was his father or himself, the family home is an impressive colonial building.
Mary Cheever was the daughter of Ezekiel Cheever (1614-1708). He was a school master for about 70 years, first in England and then in the New World. About Mary herself we know practically nothing.
American author Nathaniel Hawthorne summed up Cheever’s teaching style succinctly:
“It would require a pretty good scholar in arithmetic to tell how many stripes he had inflicted, and how many birch rods he had worn out, during all that time, in his fatherly tenderness for his pupils.“
Ezekiel was the first to publish a latin textbook in America and perhaps it was the first American school book.
Hawthorne went on to comment that even from the grave could Ezekiel continue to plague children through this book. (Grandfather’s Chair: True Stories From New England History and Biography, Nathaniel Hawthorne, 1841)
Edward Albee used the character of Ezekiel Cheever as a prosecutor in his play The Crucible, dramatizing the Salem witch trials. Ezekiel as dead by that time and he did not live in Salem, but the characterization of a zealot rings true.
The Ashley Connection
The Ashley connection seems milder and perhaps more progressive that the Lewis connection. Abigail Ashley was the daughter of David Ashley and the granddaughter of Robert Ashley. Robert immigrated from England about 1638 and for many years he had a license to sell alcohol from his home. Unsure if he was an innkeeper or if you could call his establishment a public house (pub). Keeping an ordinary or inn in those days was a highly respectable position and was only filled by those who were considered responsible persons.
Robert may have abused that trust:
David Ashley (1642-1718) was the son of Robert. He had a twin sister who died shortly after birth. He married Hannah Glover. Together they sired Abigal Ashley (1681-1727) who, in turn was the mother of Sarah Lewis.
In 1661 grants of lands had been made to Captain Pynchon, Robert Ashley, and George Colton at the new settlement then being made at Woronoco, now Westfield, and David Ashley eventually had his father’s title confirmed to him. On February 8, 1663-4, David received a thirty acre grant at Woronoco, on condition that he and the others grantees were “to pay the Indians for their purchase within three years and that they go there to dwell.”
The gravestones of David Ashley and his wife are among the oldest in the old Westfield cemetery. They are short irregular slabs of native stone, and are so weather-beaten that they were deciphered with difficulty as follows:
Most of the information we have about the Ashley family comes from this book:
Robert had 3 boys and 3 girls. David had 5 boys and 6 girls. Each boy is credited with up to several pages about their careers, land purchases, court cases, etc.
The females only figure in the list of children together with the name of the spouse, if known or noted.
Therefore there is no mention of of the wives of Robert and David nor is there information about their daughters unless they were mentioned in a will.
Children of Sarah Lewis
Joseph Hooker
- Abigail HOOKER (1735-
- Noadiah HOOKER (1737
- Mercy HOOKER (1741-1814)
- Ruth HOOKER (1743
- Anna HOOKER (1749-1822)
- Joseph HOOKER (1751-1799)