Sackett/Sackett on Pages 341-344
The Colonial ancestors of the Sackets and Sacketts of
America came from England. The Sackets, Sacketts and Sackvilles of
England trace descent from a common ancestor whose forbears were natives
of Normandy. The name Sackett originated from one whose pursuit was
the sacking of wool for shipment. In the records of early days Adam
S. Sackere (Adam the Sacker) is met with, as one busied not in the care
of shearing sheep, but as one engaged in the purchase and shipment of wool.
This man, whose father or grandfather came to England with William the
Conqueror, is recognized by the Sacketts and Sackvilles of England as their
common ancestor. Just when or under what circumstances the last syllable
was changed from "er" to "ett" and "ville" does not appear.
Few families have played a more important part in founding,
developing and maintaining our republic than the descendants of Simon Sackett
of Cambridge, Massachusetts, and John Sackett, of New Haven, Connecticut,
brothers, who landed at Plymouth, Massachusetts, from England, with Roger
Williams. No authentic records have yet been discovered which establish
beyond question the name of the father of Simon and John Sackett, the accepted
tradition being that the came from the Isle of Ely, Cambridgeshire, England.
In the early records the name is spelled with the final double "t."
[Note: Recent research by Sackett researchers in England
have found records of the birth, and two marriages for Simon Sackett in
Isle of Thanet, County of Kent, England. No records have been found
for a brother named John Sackett. T. King]
.
Page 342
(VI) Dr. Samuel Sackett, son of Reuben Sackett,
was born April 5, 1754, died
February 13, 1833. In his diary, still preserved,
he says he was born at
East Greenwich, Kent, Litchfield county, Connecticut.
On August 2, 1774, he
was living in Spencertown, Connecticut. He studied
medicine, and during the
revolutionary war served in the Continental army as surgeon.
On February 10
1777, he was married and in 1780, in company with his
brother Aaron, he came
to Western Pennsylvania. In a letter still preserved,
dated Shistee
Settlement, Youghiogheny county, October 27, 1780, he
writes to friends in
Connecticut: "I do not think I can cross the mountains
back home until
spring. There are no doctors here between Pittsburg
and Wheeling, and all
the way is thickly settled. It is a healthy looking
country. I do not think
I will get much to do until I get acquainted with the
people. Tell Jonathan
Hamilton I think this is the best place for land jobbing
in the thirteen
states, and in case of invasion by Indians it is supposed
that fifteen
hundred men would rid them out." In the family
record, under date of
September 15, 1781, he writes: "We set out from
New England to come to
Redstone township, and arrived at Beesontown, or Uniontown,
on October 16,
1781. The following children were born at Beesontown:
Betsey, April 4,
1782; Lucinda, March 5, 1784; Alexander, January 10,
1786; Mary Anna,
September 3, 1788. On November 10, 1788 we moved
to Georges creek, Fayette
county, Pennsylvania, where the following children were
born: Annie,
November 9, 1790; Lydia, November 22, 1792; Samuel, September
21, 1793; Sarah,
October 20, 1797, married Dr Louis Marchant, of
Huguenot descent." These
entries are in the doctor's handwriting. His eldest
son, Alexander, born in
Pennsylvania, studied medicine with his father and served
as surgeon in the
war of 1812. He was attached to Genral Harrison's
command and died of fever
at Fort Meigs, aged twenty-seven years. His first
born son Reuben (not named
previously), learned the printer's trade in Pittsburgh
in 1802 at the Gazette
office. In 1803 he went to Alexandria, on the Red
river, Louisiana, where he
was thrown from his horse and killed, being then aged
forty-nine years. His
second son, David (not mentioned previously), learned
the saddler;s trade in
Pittsburgh and later studied medicine with his father.
He located in
Centerville, Indiana, where he died, aged eighty-four
years. His children:
Guiliena, Elizabeth, James, Alexander, Emily, Mary, Martha,
David, Margaret,
and Agnes.
Dr. Sackett was probably the first physician to practice
in Fayette county.
He was skillful, successful in his practice and held
in highest esteem. He
moved in 1788 from Uniontown to the fame (?farm?)
yet known as the old
Sackett homestead on Georges Creek, one mile south of
Smithfield. He
continued hes practice and cultivated his farm until
his death in 1833. Dr.
Sackett's wife was Sarah Manning, to whom he was married
in Sharon,
Connecticut, by Rev. Smith, February 10, 1777.
Children (not previously
mentioned): Reuben, born January 16, 1778 died
1823; David Filer, January
18, 1780, died 1864, married Martha Milliken. They
were born at Kent, East
Greenwich, Litchfield.
The Sacketts have in their possession many souvenirs of
the good doctor,
dating back into the eighteenth century. There
are ninteen copies of the
Pittsburg Gazette to which paper he was a subscriber,
and on which his son
was a sompositor, dates 1794, 1795, and 1796. There
are fourteen letters
over one hundred years old written him from friends in
Connecticut. There
are $700 in Continental money, the largest note being
for $80, the smallest
two shillings. Probably this money represents his
pay as surgeon in the
army. There is a doctor's account book printed
in London in 1603, and an
account book of Dr. Sackett's in which the oldest date
is 1774.
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