I'm returning to the problem of Sarah Jeffcoat / Hemmings / Field again as I'm revisiting a Chancery Case and updating my information.
I have made some new discoveries and decided to make a timeline:
SARAH JEFFCOAT
Born 8 Jan 1772 at Upper Winchendon to Joseph and Mary Jeffcoat, Quakers.
Married William Hemmings in 1794 in a Quaker ceremony at Aylesbury.
Three children born at Brailes, Warwickshire:
John 1797
Joseph Jeffcoat 1798
Hannah 1801
1801 William Hemmings died 3 months after his daughter's birth.
1806 Sarah's father Joseph Jeffcoat died. He made provision for his daughter Sarah Hemmings, widow, and her three children.
1807 - I found the following references this morning! Sarah seems to be in Bedfordshire.
1807 Concern for mental wellbeing of Sarah Hemmings
Reference: FR2/7/8/1b
Title: Letter
Description:
From Jn Wells & Thos Hodgkin, Shipston to Emmott Skidmore of Rickmansworth
Society of Friends, Luton and Leighton Meeting
Sarah Hemmings is now in a state of derangement under the care of a doctor in the neighbourhood of London
Date: 4th Nov 1807
Held by: Bedfordshire Archives & Records Service, not available at The National Archives
Language: English
Letter
Reference: FR2/7/8/1a
Title: Letter
Description: From Jn Wells & Thos Hodgkin of Shipston [on Stour Glous]* to Emmott Skidmore of Rickmansworth, Herts
*Shipston on Stour is 4 miles from Brailes where the Hemmings family lived.
MM wld have been more satisfied if they had been informed that Sarah Hemmings
was under the care of the Executors of her late Father - feared that "expence might probably fall upon our MM [Monthly Meeting] for we have been informed the expence already amounts to about £50"
Request as full a minute as possible
Date: 10th Nov 1807
Held by: Bedfordshire Archives & Records Service, not available at The National Archives
Language: English
The executors of her father's will were:
Mary Jeffcoat, relict
John Jeffcoat, son
Richard Littleboy
Joseph White
1811 John Hemmings (Sarah’s son) at Ackworth Shipston and Brails mentioned
1812 Joseph Jeffcoat Hemmings (Sarah’s son) at Ackworth
1811
Sarah Hemmings mentioned at Shipston-on-Stour (I assume this is her.)
Reference: ER 12/19/25
Description:
Memorandum of Agreement between Sarah Hemmings, Shipston-on-Stour, widow and Richard Hemmings for the sale, for £160 of her life interest in estates at Burmington under the will of her late husband.
Date: 26 February 1811
Held by: Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, not available at The National Archives
Language: English
1813 Sarah Hemmings married John Field at Meppershall, Bedfordshire.
1814 Disownment by the Society of Friends
Sarah Field (nee Hemmings) of Hitchin
Reference: NQ2/5E/95-96
Title: Sarah Field (nee Hemmings) of Hitchin
Date: 1814
Held by: Hertfordshire Archives and Local Studies, not available at The National Archives
Language: English
Physical description: 2
https://archives.hertfordshire.gov.u...CNQ_2_5_5_2_34
Disownment Hitchin Monthly Meeting
1818 By this time John Field had died. He and Sarah had had a son John.
Two documents cited mentioning Sarah Field (widow of William Hemmings and John Field) and her son John Hemmings.
They are mentioned in #8.
Then she disappears, though a family member states she died in Southwark in 1840. The age is right so I've just ordered the death certificate.
Poor Sarah sounds as though she suffered a mental breakdown after her first husband died. She had three very young children. I wonder if the Jeffcoat family arranged for the Hemmings boys to attend Ackworth as most of the family went there (Sarah didn't).
Sorry this is so long.