1Dale C. Kellogg and John B. Threlfall, Richard Sawtell of Watertown, Mass., and Some of His Descendants, NEHGR Vol. 126, pp. 3-5 (Jan 1972).
"1. RICHARD1 SAWTELL first appears in New England records 25 July 1636 as a proprietor of Watertown, Mass. (Henry Bond, Genealogies of the families and Descendants of the early Settlers of Watertown, Mass., 1860, p. 424).
. . .
Since his first child was born 1 May 1638, he obviously married about summer of 1637. His wife was probably the daughter of one of the middle aged proprietors living nearby.
. . .
On 16 May 1692, Richard Sawtell executed a will (Bond, op. cit., p. 424) and he died at Watertown 21 Aug, 1694, "an aged man" (ibid., p. 932). In his will, he provided for wife Elizabeth, mentioned son Obadiah of Groton and Enoch of Watertowen, daughter Bethis Sawtell, Hannah Winn, Ruth Hewes, son John, and son Jonathan, deceased, who he had given to
"in his lifetime what I judged meat (and more too) But yet unto his children I bequeath the moiety of one shilling apiece. . . ." (Middlesex County Probate, No. 19965).
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Children, all probably born at Watertown:
i. RICHARD2 served in King Philip's War under Capt. Jonathan Remington at the Billerica, Mass., garrison on 20 Dec. 1675 and in April and July of the next year (George M. Bodge, Soldiers in King Philip's War, 1906, pp. 279, 356, 375). Richard Sawtell Jr. d. 9 Aug. 1676 "according to England" (Watertown Vital Records), apparently in military service. He was not necessarily the eldest son.
ii. ELIZABETH, b. 1 May 1638 at Watertown (Vital Records); by elimination, she is undoubtedly the daughter who mar. ------- STERLING and was dead by 16792 per her father's will. Her husband is probably Daniel Sterling, who was at the Groton garrison in 1675-6 (Bodge, op. cit., p. 360). A Daniel Sterling was taxed in 1688 as a single person at Little Cambridge (now Newton, Mass.) and died in 1690 in the disastrous expedition to Quebec, evidently unmarried, leaving a nuncupative will bequeathing all to two friends (THE REGISTER 31:304; Middlesex County Probate, No. 21196). He would probably be a son. Perhaps another child was Sarah Sterling who mar. Ralph Farnum at Andover, Mass., 9 Oct. 1685 and d. 12 April 1732, although A. M. Sterling's Sterling genealogy say that she was a daughter of William and was born 4 May 1669.
2. iii. JONATHAN, b. 24 Aug. 1639 at Watertown (Vital Records).
iv. MARY, b. 19 Nov. 1640 at Watertown (Vital Records) and d. 22 March 1664/5 at Charlestown, Mass., Mary "Soatly' mar. 19 April 1664 at Charlestown JOSEPH JOHNSON; d. s.p.; he mar. (2) Hannah Tenney (Thomas B. Wyman, The Genealogies and Estates of Charlestown, 1879, p. 555).
v. HANNAH, b. 10 Dec. 1642 at Watertown (Vital Records); mar. 13 July 1665 at Woburn (Vital Records), INCREASE WINN, b. at Woburn 5 Dec. 1641, son of Wdward and Joanna. Nine children recorded, and he d. 14 Dec. 1690 at Woburn; she d. there 18 Feb. 1722/3 (op. cit.). She was not Hannah Sawyer, as stated in Woburn Epitaphs, 1890, p. 17.
3. vi. ZACHARIAH, b. 26 of 5th mo. 1643 at Watertown[!]
vii. BETHIA, b. about 1647; mar. at Watertown 27 Jan. 1701/2, JOHN GREEN of Watertown; she d. there 12 Oct. 1714 (Vital Records) "in ye 68th year of her age"; she was admitted to full communion in the Watertown church on 8 Jan. 1687/8 (Bond, op. cit., p. 495).
4. viii. OBADIAH, b. about 1649.
ix. RUTH, b. about 1650; mar. 9 March 1676/7, JOHN HEWES, weaver, of Watertown; four children. They were residing by 1693 at Cambridge Farms (now Lexington), Mass., and she d. there 12 Jan. 1720, se. 70 per gravestone; he d. there 15 dec. 1721, ae. 68 (Charles Hudson, History of the Town of Lexington, 1913, 2:300).
x. JOHN, named in his father's will; mar. ELIZABETH POST. She was the daughter of Thomas Post of Cambridge, who, in his 1691 will, bequeathed books to his grandson John Satell, together with the residue of his estate, John's father to give security that he get it when he came of age (Middlesex County Probate, No. 17802). Elizabeth Satle of Cambridge made her will 3 Oct. 1700 and bequeathed all to her sister-in-law Anna satle. The will was proved four days later (ibid. No. 19951). On 21 oct. 1700, Bethia, Obadiah and Enoch Sawtell and Ruth Hewes, as heirs, quitclaimed their interest in John's realty, calling him "late of cambridge deceased" (Middlesex County Deeds, 15: 575-6). Thus it appears that this line had died out by October of 1700.
5. xi. ENOCH, b. perhaps about 1656.".