Three women called Sally on Covey

The 1817 slave register for John Tharp's Covey estate lists seven individuals whose mother was called Sally: Marina Little (b. 1773), Nighingale* [sic] (m) (1775-1824), Joan (b. 1777), Kitty (b. 1777), William (b. 1777), Bess (b. 1778) and Rose (b. 1790). 

There were two women called Sally who were old enough to have given birth to these children, both born in Jamaica: Sally (b. 1743) and Sally Gairdner (1760-1832) . 

Sally (b. 1743) would have been between 30 and 47 when these children were born, and could therefore have been the mother of any or all of them. 

Sally Gairdner would have been about 12 when Marina Little was born, and although that is  theoretically possible, it is more likely that Sally (b. 1743) was Marina's mother, as shown in the family tree. By the time Nighingale* [sic] was born, Sally Gairdner was 15, which would still have been young. However, since four children were born in 1777/8, it's likely that the younger Sally was having children by the time she was 17.



Going down a generation, Joan had three children: Sylvia (b. 1802), Sally (b. 1804), who was named after her grandmother, and Oliver (b. 1808). Another generation down, Sally had two children before slavery was abolished: H. Joseph (b. 1825) and James Bernard, who was born and died in 1832. James Bernard's mother was named as Sally Brown, indicating that she had adopted Brown as her last name by that date.

Possible children for Marina, Kitty and Rose are discussed in post called 'Two women called Marina on Covey', 'Two women called Kitty on Covey' and 'Two women called Rose on Covey'. 


It seems likely that this was a mis-spelling of Nightingale.


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