Matilda (Bassett) Tompkins with her 2 Oldest - William and Elizabeth

Margaret Tompkins mother’s mother, Sarah Widdifield has been the focus of much of my online searching over the years. What a puzzle. There were at least 3 Sarah Widdifield’s alive in Ontario (Upper Canada) during our Sarah Widdifield’s life – all Quakers. Records show ours as Sarah Widdifield b. December 21, 1811, in Ontario, Canada; father, Mordecai, 28 and mother, Anna Lundy, 20. Mordecai and Anna were Quakers from New Jersey. There is proof Sarah married Isaac Bassett and they had two children together between 1844 and 1846 – William and (Mary) Matilda, (Matilda Tompkins, mother of Margaret). When Matilda was 5 years old in 1850 Isaac married Almira Barnum. There is no information anywhere as to what happened to end Isaac and Sarah’s marriage, or why she would leave her 2 children.

 

Since the Widdifields were Quakers, I suspect that she married outside of the faith and somehow that is related to why the couple split up, and maybe why there is no divorce record. Since it was not a Quaker marriage, maybe it was not recognized by them. Still, I can’t imagine what would compel her to leave 2 kids behind, and in very close proximity. Sarah is later married to a James Hilborn, and when James died she married Ira Chapman. Sarah did not have any more children after William and Matilda.

Matilda Bassett was 16 when she married Daniel Tompkins.  Ship records show Daniel came over in 1855 by himself at age 19. He arrived in New York and then came to Canada. The rest of his family came 2 years later in 1857 again via New York. Mabel thought that Matilda was also born in England. Since Margaret was the youngest child, I can imagine that she just never got a chance to dig into the details of her mother’s youth.