According to The Life and Times of Francis Cabot Lowell, 1775–1817, by Chaim M. Rosenberg: Sarah was known as Sally. After her mother and sister died, Sally was living alone in the family house and decided to move to Cambridge to be closer to her brother, Rev. Charles Lowell. When she moved to Cambridge, she boarded at the house that would one day be known as the Longfellow House at the same time as (future owner) Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was boarding there, and Sally and Henry became friends. They were friends for years and the book quotes a number of his references to her in his extant writings, including a tale of how Sally's nephew lost the money she and other family members had invested with him and she had to move from the house where she and Longfellow were boarding into a small cottage.
The above-referenced book says Sally died at age 86, but Sally's Cambridge death record says she was 80 (and lists her cause of death as "Old Age") and her gravestone lists her as being born on 1 January 1771. It appears that all of these sources are incorrect, however, as her birth record in Newburyport lists her as having been born in January 1770, so the latter is what I have listed on this memorial.
The above-referenced book says Sally died at age 86, but Sally's Cambridge death record says she was 80 (and lists her cause of death as "Old Age") and her gravestone lists her as being born on 1 January 1771. It appears that all of these sources are incorrect, however, as her birth record in Newburyport lists her as having been born in January 1770, so the latter is what I have listed on this memorial.
According to The Life and Times of Francis Cabot Lowell, 1775–1817, by Chaim M. Rosenberg: Sarah was known as Sally. After her mother and sister died, Sally was living alone in the family house and decided to move to Cambridge to be closer to her brother, Rev. Charles Lowell. When she moved to Cambridge, she boarded at the house that would one day be known as the Longfellow House at the same time as (future owner) Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was boarding there, and Sally and Henry became friends. They were friends for years and the book quotes a number of his references to her in his extant writings, including a tale of how Sally's nephew lost the money she and other family members had invested with him and she had to move from the house where she and Longfellow were boarding into a small cottage.
The above-referenced book says Sally died at age 86, but Sally's Cambridge death record says she was 80 (and lists her cause of death as "Old Age") and her gravestone lists her as being born on 1 January 1771. It appears that all of these sources are incorrect, however, as her birth record in Newburyport lists her as having been born in January 1770, so the latter is what I have listed on this memorial.
The above-referenced book says Sally died at age 86, but Sally's Cambridge death record says she was 80 (and lists her cause of death as "Old Age") and her gravestone lists her as being born on 1 January 1771. It appears that all of these sources are incorrect, however, as her birth record in Newburyport lists her as having been born in January 1770, so the latter is what I have listed on this memorial.
Gravesite Details
Moved to Forest Hills from the Lowell fmaily's Roxbury tomb
Family Members
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