03/01/2026
In celebration of Womens History Month, I am going to be focusing on some of my ancestors who were the first women of my line to step foot in America.
Sarah Hopcott Macy 1612 Wiltshire Eng
1706 Founders Burial Ground, Nantucket, Massachusetts (paternal line)
TLDR: She and her husband came from England to Massachusetts Bay in 1640. They grew to a family of 7 who believed in total religious freedom in a time when freedoms were narrowly applied. They were tried/conicted of harboring Quakers in their home from a vicious rainstorm, so they left to help found Nantucket where they demanded everyone be free to practice whatevr faith they wanted, even no faith!
Full story:
Like most women in history, very little is known about Sarah outside of her male relations. Sarah Hopcot was born in 1612 in Chilmark Parish, Wiltshire, England, and married Thomas Macy on June 9th 1639 in Chilmark, Eng. Thomas first came over to the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1635, with Sarah joining him on his last voyage from England to America in 1640. They had 5 children together. In 1640, he was granted land in Salisbury, Massachusetts five miles up the Merrimack River. The family lived in Newbury and Salisbury before Thomas became a founder of the town of Amesbury, Massachusetts. He served as Amesbury's first town clerk; he held many town offices, including those of school overseer and deputy to the Massachusetts General Court, and became a large landholder. Around 1649, he built and lived in the Macy-Colby House in Amesbury. Today it is still standing as a listed historic building. He sold this house to Anthony Colby in 1654 and Macy moved his family to the center of Amesbury, where he built a new saw mill for the growing town.
At the time, the puritan government in Massachusetts made it a law to follow strict allegiance to the Protestant church as a requirement for all citizens. Among the strict rules was a ban against a religious sect called the Society of Friends,AKA Quakers. Thomas Macy was,unlike many of the other early settlers, a member of the Baptist church. He was said to be a man of strong positive convictions and deep moral righteousness. In the absence of a minister he sometimes preached in church for any christian faith holder on Sundays. Hypocritically, the Puritans who came to America to enjoy religious freedom passed laws denying the same right to others. Thomas Macy, who believed in complete and total religious freedom, resented these laws and he spoke against the puritan restrictions whenever he could. Thomas Macy, although a Baptist, was kindly disposed toward people of other faiths, and was known to be very outgoing yet strong willed. The Puritans had passed a specific law forbidding Quakers from living in the colony, under penalty of death. The law also banned anyone from befriending them. Thomas Macy was summoned to appear in court and to answer charges for “giving shelter to illegal Quakers”. He was ill at the time of the hearing and could not appear in court, but he wrote a letter to the court explaining what happened. He said it was raining very hard for many hours, the family saw the strangers (one Thomas recognized) in need of help from the soaking rain, Thomas invited them in. He claimed the travelers did not stop for more than an hour, they only sat by the fire to dry out and wait for the downpour to subside. The courts didn't think this was a good enough reason to break the law, they fined Thomas 30 shillings, and then removed him from his public positions in town.. Sadly, 2 of these 4 Quakers were hanged about 2 months after this incident, they were only hanged because they were caught being Quakers in a Puritan town. Recognizing the threat to the lives of all free men living in a colony that sanctioned such bigotry and hypocrisy, the Macy family joined with some of their neighbors to purchase land on the Island of Nantucket from a native tribe inhabiting the island. In the fall of 1659, the family set out in a small boat on a treacherous journey for the island of Nantucket to become its first European settlers. It is told that Thomas and his wife Sarah took along their 5 children and 3 adventurous young friends: Edward Starbuck, Isaac Coleman (a twelve-year-old orphan), and eighteen-year-old James Coffin. Crowded into a relatively small, open boat, the exiles sailed first to Martha’s Vineyard, where they put into Great Harbor (now Edgartown) for ‘comfort and further direction,’ as Macy succinctly phrased it. They shortly left for the island where they ran into a large squall, with rain, strong winds and mounting seas, but Macy held his course for Nantucket. During the tumultuous journey he was reported to have said “I fear not the witches on earth nor the devils in hell!” They made landfall at the western end of the island, in what is now known as Madaket Harbor. The Macy family built a hut on the shore of the harbor and lived for many happy years in harmony with their native neighbors, as well as their quaker neighbors who fled to Nantucket for religious freedom. Nantucket was part of the New York colony until 1709 and not subject to the strict Massachusetts Bay Colony Puritan regulations. Nantucket became a Quaker stronghold in the early 1700’s. Thomas Macy, who became a Chief Magistrate in 1676 was imperative to the new outpost thriving in peace among a variety of faiths and lifestyles. He is said to have remained a Baptist, and defender of justice and personal freedoms until his death on April 19, 1682, Sarah and the children are said to have converted to Quakerism sometime after his death. (many of my ancestors were responsible for building the Quaker community of the 17th century America)
There is not much mentioned about Sara by name, but I can imagine that she was behind the invitation to “welcome the stranger” into their home and out of the rain. It is easy to believe she shared her husband's sense of justice and demand for religious liberty, even if she was not allowed by law to publicly express it. The family must have shared an incredible sense of adventure and starting anew. Sarah passed away in 1706 and is buried in an unmarked grave in Founders Burial Ground, Nantucket, Massachusetts, where a memorial stone stands in their honor.
Having said all of this, I am aware that the coming of my ancestors lead directly and indirectly to the loss of other native ancestral lines. I am simultaneously proud of the grit and determination of my ancestors and saddened by the destruction their arrival unfolded. I am extra proud to read how loving and generous and just this family of pioneers were. I hope to make her proud.
