Name/Title
Sarah Gurney - Sarah Wells GenealogyEntry/Object ID
003505Tags
Sarah Gurney, Elizabeth HortonScope and Content
Given by Mr. &
Mrs. Francis
Brees of Skipwith
March - 31 1804-0
Fables by Boy
Margt De (unknown)
Saint Johns, Michigan,
August 20, 1944.
My dear Miss Booth:
Through some correspondence with Miss Elizabeth Horton of Middletown, I learned of the existence of the Bull Family Association. My husband and I are both interested in Genealogy, and sometime we hope to be able to attend one of your yearly meetings at the Old Stone House. On a separate page I will give you his line of descent from William and Sarah Wells Bull.
Miss Horton suggested that I write and tell you about an old book which we have among my husband's family keepsakes. The title printed on the ~~fly leaf~~ title page reads: "To His Highness William, Duke of Cumberland, These New Fables, Invented for His Amusement, Are humbly dedicated by His Highness's Most faithful and most obedient servant, John Gay." The date of publication of the book is 1757. On the fly leaf and on one other blank page further over in the book, is written in long hand: "Sarah Bull Her Book". There is a torn leaf, only part of which is still there, on which is written something, but all of it is not there. What is left reads like this:
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"-- -- this book be preserved by Sarah Wells descendants ~~as~~ proof of our lineage
Sarah A. Gurney,
Sept. (?) 1873"
There is a note in the book written by my husband's aunt, Julia Bross Pinnell, which says, "This book is 160 years old. It was owned by Sarah Bull - the first white woman in Orange County - New York. History has it that she lay under the leaves three days and two nights— hidden from the Indians— while her father went back to the trading post for supplies. She is an ancestor of Mrs. J. S. Pinnell."
In the book also is a piece of paper on which is mounted a piece of black velvet. On the velvet is mounted part of a gold ring. On the paper Aunt Julia has written, "This is a cross section of the wedding ring of Sarah Bull Wells." Obviously she has the two names reversed.
Miss Horton tells me that little is known about the Wells family. My husband must be descended from them— or from another family of the same name— in another connection, because we have a hand-embroidered sampler signed "Julia Wells - 1815." I wonder if she wasn't the mother of his great-grandmother, Evelinda Hill Bross. The style of the work and the color of the thread are very much like that on other articles we have which
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--belonged to Evelinda Hill and which came from the same source. We've never known her parents' names.
Incidentally, I'm giving a great deal of attention to the Bross line right now, and would greatly appreciate it if you'd let me know if you have any data on anyone by that name or deBrosse or desBrosses.
I sincerely hope that someday we may visit the Old Stone House at Hamptonburgh, and if we ever attend a meeting of the Bull Family Association, we shall certainly bring along "Sarah Bull - Her Book".
Yours very truly,
Hila Axtell Bross
(Mrs. H. Manning Bross)
P.S. If you wish more complete data— such as dates and places of marriage, occupations, etc., I'll gladly send it. Julia Bross Pinnell died without children, so my husband and his sister are the only living descendants of this line.
H.A.B.
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These 3 leaves was cut-
from Great-great-Grand Mother
Sarah Wells book in Aug 1874
this book being then 122 years
old
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These 3 leaves [W]as cut from Great Grand
Mother Sarah Wells Bull's book in Aug 1874
This book being then 122 years old
The name of the Book was Fables dedicated to
Wm Duke of Cumberland by John Gay
MDCCLVII
1757
