~1769? - 1854
Ireland - Canada - New York
Sarah Needham, daughter of William Needham and Annie Hill, was born about 1769 in Ireland, probably the Wexford / Wicklow area. [Note - if she is the sister of William Needham of London, Ontario, it is possible that she was born in England and lived her married life in Ireland.]
That seems like a pretty early date, considering that her daughter Sarah was born ~1818, when she would have been 49 years old, but it is possible.
She married George Bates. They had six children we know of:
William 1799?
Benjamin ~1807
Thomas ~1807
Ann 1800-10?
George ~1810
Sarah ~1818
This also seems strange - the Irish had the earliest marrying age of any people in Europe before the famine (although now that I think of it, that might not have referred to the Protestant portion of the population). If William were her first child, she would have been 30 when he was born, and we generally figure the marriage date as a year or two before the first child - which means she would have been 28 or 29 when married. That is awfully late. Again, it is possible - and possibly normal for her people - all her children seem to have married late - Sarah at 27, William and Ann in their 30s probably, George at age 41, so.
If she had married earlier, one would expect her to have several more (older) children.
Son Benjamin joined the British Army in 1825, when he was (he said) 18. He also said he was born in Arklow, County Wicklow, which is where his grandfather Needham died - although his father died in Wexford, County Wexford, so maybe they moved after he was born? He also said he was a baker - so possibly (just possibly) his father was also. One interesting thing about Benjamin - he was described as 5'6" when he enlisted, and 5'10" when he was discharged. This is interesting because Dad got his growth quite late too - he was a shrimp in high school, but eventually made it to (almost) 6' tall.
George Needham of Ontario suggests George and Sarah may have lived in the Inch area, near Gorey, County Wexford (this is about halfway between Arklow and Wexford town).
George Bates died before 1832, leaving her with all those children - and with very little to support them according to the reunion notes. So she gathered her brood about her and headed for America. Her brother, Valentine, was already there (Prince Edward Island). Sarah and children sailed from Dublin on 20 Mar 1832 (OR 1 April 1832) and arrived in Quebec on 12 May 1832 (OR 23 May). The first set of dates comes from the reunion notes, the second from Sarah Bates’s diary.
Reunion notes: . . . [S]ailed from the city of Dublin Mar 20, 1832. They landed in Quebec, Canada, being there 7 weeks and 4 days on board ship at sea
Sarah’s diary: We came to America the year 1832 landed 23 of May. Set sail the first of April
They stayed in Canada for a while, no one knows quite how long, and then moved down to New York - to a place then called Andover (now Lowell). They were there in time for the 1840 census:
1840 New York, Oneida Westmoreland 104
Thomas Bates 000102 0000110001
1m 15-20 (?), 1f 20-30 (Sarah), 2m (Thomas 33, George 32), 1f (Elizabeth? Ann?)30-40, 1f 70-80 (Sarah Needham); 2 agriculture, 1 manufacture
Thomas had married Elizabeth Unknown, but I don’t know the date - so possibly one of the females is Thomas’s wife. But in that case, one of his sisters is missing.
Brother William was not too far away:
1840 New York, Oneida, Westmoreland p. 109
William Bates 3000001 (40/50) 000001 (30/40)
Break - There is a William Bates, who matches perfectly with this 1840s fellow, on all the censuses from 1830 until 1870. The Bates reunion notes say the family did not leave Ireland until 1832 - but is it not possible that William might have come over earlier, to scout out the land? Then Sarah came over with the rest of them, taking passage to Canada, which was cheaper, and stopping off to see her brother before moving on down to New York where William was. ???
It is possible that they had relatives in New York as well as in Canada. Most of the early Bateses are buried in Lowell Cemetery, and there are two different George Bateses - our George, who died in 1883, and another whose dates were 1816-1903. A cousin possibly??? (Or he could be the unknown male in Thomas’s census listing. But I haven’t been able to find him in the later censuses, and if he were buried in Oneida, you would think he lived there.) And in another cemetery in the same general area was Hannah Bates:
Old Westmoreland Cemetery
Bates, Hannah died July 5, 1839 age 30 yrs (in Nathan Crane Lot)
But there were plenty of Bateses in the county from a very early time. I have tracked them through the censuses for a while, but I haven't noticed any obvious links. [2011 - I recently found a possible Needham relative living there - Hannah Needham Armour]
Later on in 1840, George and his two sisters headed west.
. . . the son George and two sisters Ann and Sarah went west as far as Illinois, making the trip over land and by boat on the Great Lakes. The sisters both married and remained in the West (reunion notes)
Kearney points out that this was a little odd, and wonders if they had not gone to visit still other relatives. He has focused on a group of Bateses living in La Salle County in Illinois:
I checked the census for Bates in La Salle Co. in 1840 and found one family, headed by Harvy with the eldest male listed as between 20 and 30. Checked 1850 and found five Bates familes, the heads of four of which all were born in New York: one headed by Oliver A. Bates, age 30, two headed by men named James H. Bates, one 42 and the other age 35; and one headed by Bradley Bates, 25 (Bradley's wife was Canadian born but was only 18 in 1850). The fifth family was headed by Barbara Bates, 36, and I think she was from Pennsylvania but I can't be sure from the handwriting. However, all five of her children, ranging in age from 2 to 14, were born in the same state as Barbara, so she's probably eliminated.
There were two reasons Kearney was interested in La Salle County. First of all, he found a marriage for an Ann Bates there in 1839, and second, La Salle is the county where the other group of Irish Bothwells from Canada appeared.
You would think that 1839 was too early for Ann to be getting married, since she’s with the rest of the family on the 1840 census -BUT. What if the woman we think is Ann were actually Thomas’s wife Elizabeth? And what if it was George and Sarah going out to Illinois to visit ANN who was already there????? On the other hand, Ann Bates of La Salle County married Asher Lane, and Jennie Bothwell Bratney's notes said that Ann married a Mr. Green, lived in Chicago, and was a milliner. Our Ann died in 1848, according to another scrap from young Sarah’s journal, so the 1850 census is not going to help us one bit.
George soon returned to New York - possibly to take care of mother Sarah, now that Thomas had died (in December, 1840) . You wouldn't think this necessary, since brother William was in the area (if the person I have assumed is William is really William), but in any event Sarah did live with George in 1850 (for the census) and was still with him when she died four years later.
Meanwhile, our GGGrandmother Sarah didn’t marry until 1845, so I wonder where she was between 1840 and then - did she stay with her sister, or what?
Here is Sarah Needham in the 1850 census with George and his first wife:
1850 - New York, Oneida, Westmoreland 104 (302/336)
George Bates 40 m mason 800 Ireland /Sophrona Bates 35 f NY
Parker Sherman 13 m NY
Sarah Bates 81 f Ireland / Patrick Bates 1/12 m NY
In 1853 she was in Canada, at least for a while. She was concerned about the whereabouts of her soldier son Benjamin. This comes from Jennie Bratney's notes (Jennie was Sarah's granddaughter):
Copy of letter sent to Mrs. Sarah Bates in regard to a son Benjamin who was a British soldier and was abroad at time rest of family came to America.
Fralic Barriks, Apr. 3, 18
In reply to your communication bearing date New London, Can., 22 Feb 1853, I have to inform you that Benjamin Bates obtained his discharge from the 57th regiment in Madras East India in the year 1846 having by good conduct raised himself to the rank of Quarter Master Sergeant, and was discharged on 2s/2d per and in consequence of being married to a country-born woman preferred to remain abroad. I have been creditably informed through letters received from Indian that he left Madras and having saved £300 proceeded to the Island of Ceylon where he purchased a coffee plantation and shortly after died leaving wife and 5 children to lament his loss. Am unable to give further information relative to said Benjamin Bates.
Respectfully
She died in 1854 (June 12). Sarah Bates Bothwell got this letter from her sister-in-law Almira (George’s second wife - first wife Sophronia died in 1850):
Westmoreland June 17 1854
Dear sister - we wrote to you a short time ago but have received no answer yet. I have heavy news to write you. Mother is dead and gone she died last Monday the 12th of this month she has been failing ever since last winter. she had a very hard coughf and ? a great deal she suffered (crossed out) was a great sufferer [hole in paper] she bore it with patience she seeme [hole] have her work done. she was not able to say much the last twenty four hours before she died. The last letter I wrote she (crossed out) I wrote what she told me, she was quite anxious to here from you. If you want to know any more particulars you write and I will write. Aunt Betty Acton was out here the friends are all well out there. Uncle Armers folks are all well and so are Williams We are all well We should like to have you write as soon as you receive this
George sends his respects to you accept the same from me
Almira H? Bates
I don’t know for sure where she is buried, but most of the New York Bateses were buried in Lowell Cemetery, in the town of Westmoreland. Update 2011 - Elizabeth Acton lived in Madison County, NY, the next county down from Oneida. She was born in about 1780 in Ireland. Uncle Armer was possibly Nicholas Armour, who was married to Hannah Needham, born 1788 in Ireland. These are possibly sisters of Sarah Needham Bates??? And there are Needhams in London, Ontario, who might well be related, although I haven't found the link yet.
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Page last updated 14 Jan 2011