The Sterling genealogy

248 THE STERLING GENEALOGY
" Where as there was a writing made to Me, Mary Sterling
of Lyme, that after ye Decease of my honored husband, Mr.
William Sterling, I shoufd be paid the sume of fifteen pounds in
money and some other consideration, I ye sd Mary Sterling, do
here by acknowledge that I have received full satisfaction for all
that was due me, or that I might demand on my own account,
what so ever, from ye estate of my sd Husband deceased, or from
Mr. Daniel Sterling, and I do hereby ocquit and discharge Mr.
Daniel Sterling and his heirs from all dues and demands whatsoever,
and the estate of my sd husband, as witness my hand and
seal in Lyme, Feb. ye 8 th 17 |?
Mary Sterling " [Seal]
(Lyme Town Records.)
Mrs. Mary Starling witnessed a deed of sale, Apr. 24, 1706,
and on Sept. 7, 1714, deeded to her " beloued son moses Sawyer,"
the portion of his father's estate due him. (Ibid.)
Haverhill, where William Sterling lived for twenty-eight years,
from 1669 to 1697, was first settled by twelve men from Ipswich
and Newbury in 1640.
Peace and prosperity reigned in the settlement until 1675, at
which time it had grown to rank twenty-fifth among the forty-
nine towns in the Colony. King Philip's War, the most general
and destructive ever sustained by the infant colonies, broke out
in 1675. A meeting was held in Haver lull, Feb. 19, of this year,
to take steps for protection against the Indians and to complete
the fortifications around the meeting-house, begun several years
before. The meeting-house was built in 1648, and was the only
place of worship of the settlers until 1699, when a new one was
constructed. This church stood to one side of the central portion
of what is now Pentucket cemetery. Back of it was laid out in
1660 a burial ground which is now a part of the Linwood and
Pentucket cemeteries. Here undoubtedly were laid to rest Wil-
liam's first and second wives and those of his children who died
in Haverhill.
The General Court of the Colony furnished the troopers and
militiamen with arms and ammunition and a number of houses
were barricaded and garrisoned. The first settlers of Haverhill
to fall victims to the Indians were Ephraim Kingsbury and