Ruth Sparrell

Following written by Charles F Sparrell who before his passing did quite alot of family genealogical research and was quite active in the Scituate Historical Society

JAMES NEWTON SPARRELL I and RUTH VINAL SPARRELL

JAMES NEWTON SPARRELL I - Family tradition (in italics): James came from London. His father was an English mariner and his mother was a French Huguenot. James and a brother came first to the Carolinas. James met Ruth Vinal on a voyage north, married her and settled in Scituate. Jameswas a short, stocky, man of dark complexion. ( I have searched the Church of England Parish Records which generallybegin about 1600 and whichhave been collected and published by the Mormons. The only records oftheSparrell name occur in the area below the Tower of London in what isnowknown as the Docklands or East End of London. For example, Millicent Sparrell, child of James and Elizabeth Sparrell was christened at St. Mary?s Whitechapel on 21 Jan 1634. There are numerous records of theSparrell family in the records of St. Mary?s Whitechapel and St. Dunstan?s Stepney, but I cannot find a record of our particular James. However, thearea below the Tower was the port of London for 500 years and washometomany English mariners and French Protestant refugees duringthe 17th and18th centuries. If James? parents were married in a French CalvinistChurch their marriage and James? baptism would not be found inthe Churchof England records -C.F.S.).

James and Ruth Vinal were married January 10, 1767 in the First ParishMeeting House in Scituate.

In 1771, James purchased a small cape cod cottage fronting on Scituate harbor at the present corner of Beaver Dam Road and Front Street. The house was torn down 100 years later.

April 28, 1770, Captain Sparrell cleared the Boston Custom House outbound for Nova Scotia.

January 1, 1774, Captain Sparrell cleared the Boston Custom House inbound from Philadelphia.

(The problem here is which calendar is being used, Old Style or New Style)

Since his estate was inventoried in January 26, 1774, James presumably died without time to settle his affairs in January 1774. The inventory suggests that he was master of the schooner Hannah, named for his daughter, that he made his own barrels and that he was engaged in fishing andtrading. The list of debts submitted by Ruth Sparrell to the probate court, indicates that he was deeply in debt and left her in dire straitswith three small children and no assets.

Samuel Deane (History of Scituate, 1831) reports that in 1770 upwards of 30 vessels out of Scituate harbor were engaged in the mackerel fisheries. He further states that by 1828 there were 35 vessels of from 50 to150 tons carrying six to 15 hands. More than 15,000 barrels of mackerelwere taken in 1828. He also states that in winter these vessels were employed in the coastal trade carrying fish south and returning with plantation products.

Salt mackerel packed in barrels of brine was purchased by planters as acheap source of protein to feed their slaves. Prior to the Revolution,the Scituate sea captains traded lumber and salt mackerel for sugar and molasses in the British West Indies and salt mackerel for flour, tobacco, rice and indigo in the Carolinas and Georgia.

RUTH VINAL SPARRELL - Ruth Vinal was born 23 April 1746, the daughter of John Vinal, Jr., A farmer in North Scituate, and his wife, Mary Stetson Vinal. Shortly after their marriage, Ruth and James sold two acres of salt marsh on the Gulph River which she had inherited in the divisionof her father?s estate. Since she signed the deed with an X, she was illiterate which was not unusual for women prior to 1800.

Ruth and James had three children: Elizabeth (2 September 1767), James Newton (7 April 1770) and (Hannah 18 June 1772). Only James survived to adulthood.

Captain James?s inventory suggests the multitude of tasks that Ruth hadto tend to in addition to the care of three small children while Jameswas at sea - a cow, spinning wheels, a loom, soap-making, baking, etc.

In March 1778 Ruth married another shipmaster, Captain Joshua Jenkins. Ruth and Joshua had two children, Ruth (Dec 1778) and Davis (1781). Captain Joshua was lost at sea before 1786 and Davis was alsolost at sea.

In 1810, Ruth was reported in the records of the 2nd Parish Church as living with her son, Capt. James II and his wife Betsy Turner Sparrell at their home in what is now Norwell. No record of her death exists.