FATHER

Thomas Leonard

MOTHER

Hester Floyd

HUSBAND

John White

CHILDREN

1. John White

2. Abigail White

3. Peter White

4. Sarah White

5. Leonard White

6. Catharine White

7. James White

8. Ruth White b. 28 Feb 1738/9

Sarah Leonard
by Susan Brooke
Jul 2022

Sarah's mother was a young widow with six children when she married Sarah's father in Jul 1698.  Sarah was probably the only child born to this marriage although she did have 6 half brothers and sisters.  Her father died in 1704 in Northhampton, VA when she was about five.  Her mother immediately bought an extra 60 acres of land in Shrewsbury that lay next to land of her deceased husband.  Sarah and her mother must have moved to Shrewsbury, Monmouth Co., NJ about this time.  In 1719 her mother,  Hester Leonard,  died and Sarah was left a very wealthy orphan.  She would have been about 19 or 20.  She married John White about this time.  She is named as John White and Sarah, "his wife" on May 22, 1722 when she and her husband are selling for five hundred pounds all the land that had belonged to her father, Thomas Leonard. (1) 
They had at least 8 children, the last one, Ruth, being born in 1739.  At that time they were living in South River, Middlesex Co. NJ. 

There were a lot of demonstrations in New Jersey at that time.  In New Jersey colonial history they are known as the Riots of 1747.  John White, Sarah's husband was caught up in some of the discord and may have been losing property.  In 1749 he obtained a land grant in Maryland.  According to the recollections of her great, great grandson, Jack Geary, Sarah died shortly after that move. (2)  On Ancestry.com there is a "Family Data Collection" that says she died 24 Oct 1749.  However, this is not substantiated and that same record also says she was born in 1729 which is obviously incorrect.

Her great, great, grandson, Jack Geary, wrote that she was an accomplished, beautiful and remarkable woman. 

(1) Deed BK G pg 87-88 Monmouth Co., NJ    22 May 1722 John White and Sarah his wife "late of Wentipenk Neck in New Jersey" selling land to John Throckmorton and Samuel Dennis Jr. on the east side of mine brook.   "bounded west by s'd Thomas Leonard's father's land and his brother Henry's east by land of his own.    ---  Also another tract of land beginning at a white oak marked on four sides standing on a branch of Swiming River being Col. Lewis Morris his corner thence south, etc.  --   thence north westerly eight degrees thirty chains to the place where the road crosses the river thence along the road east northerly six degrees ten chains to the first mentioned tree bounded east part by Col. Lewis Morris & part by barren land south by Nathaniel Leonards meadow west by land of s'd Thomas Leonards & north by a branch of Swiming River aforesaid containing after allowances for barrens high ways etc sixty acres english measure which said Lands meadow & premisses were by the proprietors of the eastern division of said Province patented unto sd Thomas Leonard dec's by patent bearing date the fourth day of October Anno Dom. 1695ndenture "Between John White and Sarah his wife late of Wentipenk Neck in Shrewsbury in the County of Monmouth - and John Throckmorton and Samuel Dennis Junr of Shrewsbury. - John White and Sarah his wife heirs of Thomas Leonard dec'd - bounded west by s'd Thomas Leonard's father's land and his brother Henry's east by land of his own."  signed by "John White Capt."

Deed BK G pg 87 Monmouth Co., NJ Deed BK g pg 88 Monmouth Co., NJ

 (2) Recollections of Jack Geary from "Ancestors of Kentucky" Volume 5. pg.

"Sarah Leonard was an accomplished beautiful and remarkable active woman, born in the province of New Jersey.  She was celebrated as a graceful and skillful rider, also as a devoted church woman.  She is said to have inherited a fortune.  The family estate was called Shrewsbury and is so known on the records of New Jersey.  John White, Jr. a son, was sent to England to recover a large estate accumulated by his uncle, William White, at the Cape of Good Hope, who died a bachelor and intestate.  The estate was large but was lost to the American Heirs through the mismanagement of the said John White, Jr. who spent quite large sums in dissipation while in Europe.  The result of that was embarrassment of home and the removal of the family to Maryland where the mother Sarah Leonard White died shortly afterward.  Of the union of John White and Sarah Leonard there was issue five sons and four daughters: John, Peter, Leonard, Thomas and James.  Abigail, Catherine, Sarah and Ruth.

John married and settled near Easton, Penn. and had a large family.  Peter married Margaret Stull, our great great grandparents: Leonard married Mary McCoy and settled in Fayette Co. PA.  His widow married Benjamin Bloomfield.  Thomas died unmarried.  James married Sarah Clark and settled near Leonard.  His widow with one son emigrated to Kentucky.  Abigail married first Rev. W. DeButts and later John Furgeson; Catherine married Peter Jones; Sarah married John Stull the brother of Margaret Stull.  Ruth married Peter Bainbridge, the son of her Aunt Abigail."

(3) On 18 Feb. 1749/50 Capt. John White was granted a warrant for 573 acres on the Potomac River in Frederick County, Maryland

Virginia Northern Neck Grants H. pg 82  573 acres

The New England historical & genealogical register and antiquarian ..., Volume 7 By New England Historic Genealogical Society

* MS. Letter of J. B. H. Leonard, Esq.
"Thomas married his wife in Virginia ."

For more information about the Leonard line see:  http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~bart/LEONARD3.htm