Rebecca Sale

Second Marriage to Rebecca

Edward Sale married secondly Rebecca _____. The "wife of Edward Sails" died at Rehoboth on 13 July 1664. (On 14 July 1664, at Rehoboth, a coroner's jury ruled that "Rebeckah Sale, the late wife of Edward Sale, was her own executioner, viz: she hanged herself in her own hired house."

Though Edward's first wife Margaret ____ Searle/Sale could have been the mother of several children, her banishment for adultery makes it unlikely, and it is more likely that Edward's second wife Rebecca, who died in 1664, was the mother of most children, including Miriam. See Great Migration, Volume 6, pp.142-3.

R. C. Anderson in his Great Migration quotes the following: On 6 June 1637, "John Hathaway being accused of adultery with Margaret Seale, wife of Edward Seale, James Penn & Samuell Coles testified that he confessed it to them; so the grandjury found the bill of indictment to be true. Rob[e]rt Allen & Margaret Seale, being accused of adultery, confessed the fact; so the grandjury found the bill of indictment to be true." Anderson continues with the following quote: On 19 September 1637, "Margaret Seale, the wife of [blank] Seale, confessed adultery, & was found guilty." Anderson's quote: On 12 March 1637/8, it is "ordered, that the 3 adulterers, John Hathaway, Rob[e]rt Allen, & Margaret Seale, shall be severly whipped, & banished, never to return again, upon pain of death." On 30 March 1638, "Edward Seale of Marblehead [was bound in] twenty pounds for his wife's appearance when she shall be called for after her delivery.")[2]

Comments

• Parentage and maiden names are often assigned to this person, but scholarly consensus rejects them as without value. The person's origin is currently unknown, see Robert Charles Anderson, The Great Migration 1634-5, 7 vols. (Boston: New England Historical and Genealogical Society, 1999-2011), 6:142-143.
• Due to the fact that Edward Sale was a beastly drunkard, one of his wives committed adultery, and another hanged herself, Robert Anderson, FASG, concluded there is insufficient data to decide which woman or women were the mother of his children. The solution used here is to place them all under "Mrs. Edward Sale."
• Supposedly hung herself Though it is theorized that her husband had 2 wives, and that the second committed suicide, I believe there was only Margaret. She was also convicted of adultery in 1637, lashed and banished from the town they were living in.

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References

1. Great Migration 1634-1635, R-S. (Online database. AmericanAncestors.org. New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2012.) Originally published as: The Great Migration, Immigrants to New England, 1634-1635, Volume VI, R-S, p. 143. by Robert Charles Anderson. Boston: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2009. Featured Name: Edward Sale. < AmericanAncestors >