Sarah Newbold was the middle child of nine. As an only child myself, I would imagine this an unenviable position. When she was seven, her father died and was buried just a month before the baptism of his son George. Whether he had lived to see the child is anyone’s guess. I would think not, as it was usual to baptise a child soon after birth. Sarah’s mother – whose name I have not been able to find – was left with her nine children, the eldest fifteen years old.
The family were probably not destitute. Sarah’s father left a will so that implies there was some wealth to leave. Some years later her brother Godfrey was a master linen draper: perhaps he was following in his father’s footsteps. Also it looks like her brother John may have been the parish clerk, which indicates a certain standing in the community.
I am intrigued by the parish register for 1726: Sarah’s three eldest siblings all married in that year at the ages of 35, 33, and 31 respectively. Sarah Newbold married on Christmas Day 1729, when she was 30. These ages are quite mature for eighteenth-century marriages but the reason for the delay, if there is one, we will never know.
Sarah’s new husband Joseph Hallat (also Allat) took her back to Dore Moor, his birthplace, on the border between Yorkshire and Derbyshire. Their parish church was actually in Derbyshire, at Dronfield. There are records of four children: Sarah, Samuel, Phoebe and Mary, our ancestor. Sadly both Sarah and Phoebe died as children.
I have not found a record of Sarah’s death but there is a mysterious postscript: her husband Joseph died in 1784 at Beckingham in Nottinghamshire. His body was brought back to Dronfield for burial, a distance of 55 km. This would have taken the best part of a day to travel in a coach or cart. It strikes me as an unusual proceeding, which is of course why they recorded the fact in the church records. I have not been able to find any connections in Beckingham – another research opportunity for someone!
Mother of Mary Hallat (Allot) and daughter of Godfrey Newbold
Baptised on 20 March 1699 (NS 1700) at Handsworth, Sheffield, Yorkshire
Married Joseph Hallatt on 25 December 1729
No record of death found