3/17/2024 0 Comments Rootsmagic 7 adding censusSeeing double: two lines to my Mayflower ancestors! “mistress, n.s.” A Dictionary of the English Language, by Samuel Johnson. In this instance, the term “Mrs.” clearly recognized Sarah’s position in society!ġ. Notice marital status was not included! Further research shows Sarah Greenleaf was the unmarried daughter of Joseph and Thomasin (Mayo) Greenleaf, a family of prominence in Newbury, Essex County, Province of Massachusetts Bay. “Mrs.,” an abbreviated form of mistress, was defined in Samuel Johnson’s 1755 dictionary 1 as follows:Ī woman who governs: correlative to subject or to servant.Ī woman who possesses faculties uninjured. A closer look, however, reveals something different. For years I wrongly concluded that Sarah Greenleaf was someone’s widow, having been married before. Take the above record of marriage, for example, in which “Mrs.” Sarah Greenleaf weds Benjamin Bradstreet. There are challenges when we view history through the lens of modern times. Sarah Greenleaf both of Newbury were married November ye 9th 1726
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