Peleg Sanford

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Governor Peleg Sanford (1639–c. 1701), son of John Sanford and Bridget Hutchinson

Mary Coddington (1654–after 1701), daughter of Governor William Coddington and Anne Brinley

Peleg Sanford was born on 10 May 1639. He died shortly after 1 September 1701. He married first Mary Brenton, the daughter of William Brenton, the Governor of Rhode Island. He married second Mary Coddington on 1 December 1674. [1]

Mary Coddington was born on 16 May 1654 in Newport. [2] She died after 1 September 1701.

On 17 December 1661 William Brenton of Newport, merchant, gave a power of attorney to Peleg Sanford of Newport to be his attorney in Barbados to collect what was due him there. [3]

Peleg was a merchant in Barbados in 1663 and 1664 and he was in jail in Boston for a commercial matter in 1668. [4]

In his will of 7 April 1667 Samuel Hutchinson of Boston left his cousin Peleg Sanford his orchard and land in Portsmouth. [5]

In his will of 9 February 1673 William Brenton left his son-in-law Mr. Peleg Sanford, “one eight parte of my saide land at Natticott; and all my right in Elizabeth Ilands and the Gay head, and lands adjacent thereunto and all Debts Due to me in the Iland of Barbadoes.” [6]

His mother left Peleg large tracts of land that her second husband left to her in his will. [7]

Governor Peleg Sanford was “easily the most prominent member of the [Sanford] family.” He shipped wool and horses to Barbados, sugar to London and English goods to Rhode Island. He was a large landowner at Jamestown, Rhode Island. He had a house at Black Point and a townhouse at Newport. [1]

Sarah Reape, Benedict Arnold, Sr., Caleb Carr, Peleg Sanford and Thomas Ward signed an order in Newport on 18 November 1673 to Mr. Joseph Borden, Mr. Roger Goulding, Mr. Elisha Sanford and Mr. Josiah Arnold in Barbados to sell the ship Joanna and Sarah. [3]

On 11 August 1676 Captain Benjamin Church was at Peleg’s house at Black Point and Peleg and Captain Goulding told Captain Church that King Philip was at Mount Hope. The next day Peleg went with Captain Church to the fight at Mount Hope where King Philip was killed and King Philip’s War ended. [1]

Peleg was Governor of Rhode Island from 1680 to 1683. He was Lieutenant Colonel of the Colony’s forces in 1687. He was Crown Judge of Admiralty at Newport. [1]

By a deed of 7 April 1690 Ebenezer Brenton sold Peleg land on the Elizabeth Islands. By a deed of 24 April 1696 Captain Caleb Arnold sold Peleg land at Pettaquamscutt. [8]

Peleg wrote his will on 28 February 1700/1. It was proved on 1 September 1701. His executors were Francis Brinley, Nathaniel Coddington and Andrew Willet and he made them guardians of his minor children Peleg, William, Bridget and Elizabeth. He left his wife Mary one third of his plate, household goods and three negro slaves. He left his son Peleg two houses in Newport, 450 acres at Winnegquot, 160 acres on the Merrimac River, his land at Saco given to him by his mother, 573 acres of land on the Elizabeth Islands, several tracts of land at Portsmouth and one eighth of his plate. He left land, houses and plate to his children William, Peleg, Anne, Bridget and Elizabeth Sanford. He also left bequests to his sister Eliphal Stratton and his nieces Mary Brinley, Mary Cole and Katherine Vernon. [1]

The town of Sanford, Maine is named after Peleg. [1]

Sanford and his first wife had several children, but they died young and their names are unknown. [1]

Children of Peleg Sanford and Mary Coddington:

i. Anne Sanford married first Dr. James Noyes. She married second Captain John Mason on 15 July 1719 in Stonington. [9]

Anne, the wife of Captain John Mason, was admitted to the first church in Stonington on 24 February 1706. [10, 192.]

ii. Bridget Sanford died before 14 January 1766. She married Job Almey of Tiverton, Rhode Island on 6 December 1705. [1]

iii. Elizabeth Sanford was born about 1685. She died on 23 October 1762. She married Captain Thomas Noyes.

iv. Peleg Sanford was born about 1685. He died in October 1702 in Boston and is buried in the King’s Chapel Burial Ground. [1]

v. William Sanford was born about 1690. He died on 24 April 1721. He married Griselda Silvester on 1 March 1713/4. Griselda was the daughter of Nathaniel and Margaret (Hobert) Silvester of Shelter Island, New York and Newport, Rhode Island. She married second Reverand Nathaniel Cotton of Bristol, Rhode Island. [1]

William graduated from Harvard College in 1711. He owned 6,000 acres of land in Maine. [7] His daughter Margaret married Thomas Hutchinson, the last Royal Governor of Massachusetts. [1]

Endnotes

1. G. Andrews Moriarty, "President John Sanford of Portsmouth, R.I., and His Family," New England Historical and Genealogical Register 103 (1949): 208-216, 271-277.

2. "The Great Migration Begins: Immigrants to New England 1620–1633, Volumes I-III," digitized book, AmericanAncestors.org, originally published as: Robert Charles Anderson, The Great Migration Begins: Immigrants to New England 1620-1633, 3 volumes (Boston: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 1995), 395–401.

3. G. Andrews Moriarty, “Additional Barbadian Notes,” New England Historical and Genealogical Register 68 (1914), 177–81.

4. G. Andrews Moriarty, “Additions and Corrections to Austin’s Dictionary of Rhode Island,” The American Genealogist 20 (1943), 53–58, specifically 58.

5. William B. Trask, “Abstracts from the Earliest Wills on Record and on the Files in the County of Suffolk, Mass.,” New England Historical and Genealogical Register 16 (1862), 331–3.

6. “Plymouth Colony Wills and Inventories,” Mayflower Descendant 31 (1937), 76.

7. Elliot Sanford, “The Hutchinson and Sanford Families,” New England Historical and Genealogical Register 27 (1873), 81–82.

8. “Tables of Contents to the Land and Notarial Records of Rhode Island, Collection in the Secretary of State’s Office, Archives Division, State House, Providence, R.I.,” Rhode Island Roots 13 (December 1987), 85; (June 1987), 33.

9. "Connecticut: Vital Records (The Barbour Collection), 1630–1870," database with images, AmericanAncestors.org > Stonington, 176.

10. Richard A Wheeler, History of the First Congregational Church, Stonington, Conn., 1674–1874 (Norwich, T.H. Davis and Co., 1875).

Revised June 26, 2023