Thomas Chase 1679-1767 and Sarah Gowell

Thomas Chase was born Yarmouth, (in an area that is now Dennis) Barnstable County, Massachusetts on 20 August 1679. He was the son of John Chase (son William 2, William 1) and Elizabeth (Baker). He is my 7^th great-grandfather on my grandmother Milly (Booth) Rollins’ side of the family.

Thomas married about 1703 Sarah Gowell, born circa 1692, the daughter of Richard and Hannah (Remick) Gowell of Kittery (in area of Massachusetts that became Maine). Their marriage record isn’t found but Sarah is called Sarah Chase in her father’s 1729 will and she named one of her twin sons Gowell and her eldest daughter Hannah. 

Sarah is maddeningly invisible—I have found no birth, marriage or death record for her. But we do know she had nine children recorded at Yarmouth (now Dennis):

Twins Gowell (“Guell”)  and Samuel, born 22 January 1708

Hannah, born 24 May 1712

Phebe, born 4 July 1713

Richard, born 3 March 1715

Joseph, born 17 March 1717/18

Priscilla, born 10 April 1720

Sarah, born 20 May 1722

Abner, 22 June 1729

I descend from Richard who married Thankful Berry. I wrote about this couple here.

A Thomas Chase, not positive this Thomas, received  7.5 shares in 1712 division of common lands and land at Crocket's Neck  (now Dennis Port) in a 1739 division of lands.

Thomas was a church Deacon. He died 20 November 1767 and is buried at the Ancient/Town Hall Cemetery in South Dennis. His slate stone in adorned with skull and wings and reads: Mr. Thomas Chase Died Novemr ye 20^th 1767 Aged 88 years & 3 months.

Thomas Chase's stone

There is no stone nearby for Sarah. But the cemetery has hundreds of gravesites but very few surviving stones. There is a large slate stone near Thomas but the inscription is completely eroded.

I have read that Sarah died in 1726 but that's inaccurate. Her son Abner is born in 1729. The gap in years between Sarah and Abner’s births made me wonder if perhaps Abner was the son of an unknown second wife of Thomas Chase. But Sarah is named as Sarah Chase in her father’s December 1729 will, so she definitely didn’t die in 1726. 

If anyone has additional information on Thomas and Sarah, I'd very much like to hear from you. 

Sources:

"Some of the Descendants of William Chase of Roxbury and Yarmouth, Mass., contributed by John Carroll Chase, compiled for him by George Walter Chamberlain, NEHGR, January 1933

"The Yarmouth Family of Chase," Library of Cape Cod History & Genealogy, No. 59, CW Swift, publisher, Yarmouthport, MA, 1913,