Sarah Woodruff

Biography

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Cooper-15263

Sarah was born on 17 Mar 1665/6 in Springfield, Massachusetts to Timothy Cooper and Elizabeth Munson.[1] On October 25, 1683, she married John Woodruff in New Haven, Connecticut.[2] They had several children who were buried in the same place: Timothy and Thomas. The Woodruff Chronicles lists several more sons:[3]

• Timothy (1683-Nov 15, 1766)
• Elias (1684- )
• John (1686/7-after 1749)
• David (1688-1749)
• Thomas (1689-1754)

Sarah died June 3, 1727. Her gravestone in the First Presbyterian Churchyard, Elizabethtown, Essex, New Jersey, reads, "Her Lyeth ye Body of Ms Sarah Woodruff, Wife of John Woodruff Who departed this Life the 3, of June 1727 in the 62d Year of her Age."[4]

The Sarah Woodruff marker in the burying ground of Elizabethtown’s First Presbyterian Church displays a variety of Puritan motifs. The skull and crossed bones stand for mortality, the carrying on the hourglass for life’s brevity, the birds may be either mourning doves or peacocks—the later standing for eternity. Flames are shown below the image, a particularly stark reminder of the fate of sinners. [5]

Comments

“The children of John Woodruff, of Elizabethtown and Sarah Woodruff of Elizabethtown, New Jersey included Benjamin, Thomas, Elizabeth (born 1680), Daniel, and David.” But cannot find an Elizabeth as their daughter as of 18 April 2023, so have detached Elizabeth ‘Sarah’ Potter from them.

Notes

From Find A Grave Memorial - SmartCopy: Mar 12 2017, 21:35:30 UTC

Born Sarah Cooper in Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1666--the same year that diarist Samuel Pepys wrote of the Great Fire of London--Mrs. Woodruff died in her 62nd year in Elizabethtown (present day Elizabeth) New Jersey. She was the wife of John Woodruff.

Her brown sandstone stele was carved by a craftsman known as "The Old Elizabethtown Soul Carver I". Active during the 1720's-30's, his work is distinguished by highly detailed mortality imagery and the use of skull-with-crossbones soul effigies. Mrs. Woodruff's gravestone typically speaks to the Puritanical emphasis on the brevity and fragility of life on earth, but the combination of the cross bones effigy together with an hourglass flanked by doves is a rarely seen arrangement of symbols. Birds have universally been used to represent spirituality since ancient times, and in colonial America, a bird in vines symbolized the soul partaking of celestial food, with the dove a Christian icon of constancy and devotion. For more information, click on uppermost photo (taken in 1991 by Nikita Barlow, originally uploaded anonymously in January 2002, refreshed in October 2014).
Inscription:

• "Her Lyeth ye Body
• of Ms Sarah Woodruff,
• Wife if John Woodruff
• Who departed this Life
• the 3, of June 1727 in
• the 62d Year of her Age"

Note: Sources: maiden name: Findagrave member Mary Olive; birthdate & place: Findagrave member Glen Hockenjos

References

1. "Massachusetts Births and Christenings, 1639-1915", database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:F4DH-1BC : 14 January 2020), Sarah Cooper, 1665.
2. Genealogical Publishing Co.; Baltimore, MD, USA; Volume Title: New England Marriages Prior to 1700. Source Information: Ancestry.com. U.S., New England Marriages Prior to 1700 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2012. Ancestry Record 3824 #174467
3. Woodruff chronicles : a genealogy: the Long Island-New Jersey family of John Woodruffe, the immigrant ancestor to America Volume 2. by Woodruff, Ceylon Newton, b. 1893; Herod, Maurine R. Publication date 1967. Page 8. < Archive.Org > (login to borrow for an hour) lists 5 sons: Timothy, Elias, John, David, Thomas. Page 124. < Archive.Org > John(5) Wade, Jr. , b. about 1720, m. ca. 1750, Sarah Potter (a daughter of Joseph Potter & Elizabeth Wood ruff). Compiler's Note: Further data may be found in Volume I, Woodruff Chronicles, indexed under the name, Elizabeth Potter. Their children, Eli, Rachel, Jane, Lois and Matthias.
4. Woodruff chronicles, a genealogy : the Long Island - New Jersey family of John(1) Woodruffe, the immigrant ancestor to America : gathered from unpublished manuscripts, private correspondence and many other sources--illumined by fragments of con, Vol. 1 < FamilySearch > (not viewable on line) (lists Elizabeth Woodruff / Joseph Potter) Page 124
5. Find a Grave, database and images (accessed 10 May 2021), memorial page for Sarah Cooper Woodruff (17 Mar 1666–3 Jun 1727), Find a Grave Memorial ID 6079238, citing First Presbyterian Churchyard, Elizabeth, Union County, New Jersey, USA ; Maintained by Nikita Barlow (contributor 46508077). https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/6079238/sarah-woodruff
6. Nonestied, Mark and Richard Veit. Carrying on the stone-cutting business.” www.GardenStateLegacy, Issue 11 March 2011. https://gardenstatelegacy.com/files/Carrying_on_the_Stone_Cutting_B...
7. RootsWeb's WorldConnect - SmartCopy: Mar 12 2017, 18:17:26 UTC
8. https://www.familysearch.org/tree/person/details/LVJX-SV9 no daughter Elizabeth is listed.