Re: PACKARD (William Garfield of Alaska)/POTTER

Your question, Dale, has prompted me to review various sources to look for Sarah Howard Packard's birthdate. Apparently I entered it in my computer database early on before I began to identify my source of each data item.

Charlotte Fike Packard in “The Packard Family of America,” film by The Genealogical Society: July 1968; Salt Lake # 547,231 gives the wife of Zacheus as "Sarah Howard - she b 20 Aug 1647-d after 1701-dau John-Martha (Hayward) Howard." No birth place or specific reference given. CFP's document contains a list of references but they are not connected to specific facts. Unfortunately, I have misplaced or lost those pages listing references of my copy of her document. Note- The author's middle name is Fike, not Fiske; Fike is her maiden name.

Diane Moore Hunt in "Descendants of John Howard through three generations" Old Bridgewater Historical Society: 2000 gives "Sarah Howard (child of John Howard and Martha Hayward) b. August 20, 1648, Bridgewater, Mass; d. Bridgewater, Mass." and "She married Zacheus Packard February 01, 1681/82 in Bridgewater, Mass, son of Samuel Packard and Elizabeth Stream." Hunt cites Bridgewater Vital Records as her source.

We are virtually certain that Samuel's wife was not named Elizabeth Stream. I do not know if there are any Bridgewater Vital Records which confirm the birth date and place of Sarah Howard. When I get a chance I will look for a date in the CD's I have. You probably have already looked at the Bridgewater VR's.

The "History of Ancient Bridgewater" by Bradford Kingman (1884) confirms that John Howard was one of the original 54 proprietors of "Duxborrow New Plantation" which was part of Duxbury until June 1656 when it was incorporated as a separate township by the name of Bridgewater.

Bradford Kingman in "History of North Bridgewater, Plymouth County, Massachusetts, from Its First Settlement to the Present time, with Family Registers": 1866 says "John Howard came from England and settled in Duxbury. John removed from thence to the West Parish of Bridgewater, and became one of the first settlers of the town, in 1651." (I understand this to mean that John Howard settled in the part of Duxbury which much later became identified as the West Parish of Bridgewater and finally in 1822 was incorporated as the Town of West Bridgewater.)

Lawrence Conant of the Old Bridgewater Historical Society has sketched a map of the first house-lots which were about 6 acres each and were located along the Town River. One of the lots was John Howard's and another nearby was Samuel Packard's. The place was first known as Nuckatest or Nuncketetest.

Bradford does not give a birthdate for Sarah Howard. I don't know which birth year, 1647 or 1648, is correct, but it appears clear that Sarah Howard was born in what was then politically part of Duxbury, became Bridgewater, and is now West Bridgewater. It has always been part of Plymouth Colony or Plymouth County, but never part of Plymouth Township.

Dick Packard