Sarah Woolsey Lloyd was born in Glen Cove, Long Island, on April 17, 1719, to the Reverend Benjamin Woolsey (1687-1756), who graduated from Yale in 1709, and Abigail Taylor (1695-1771). On December 24, 1741, Sarah Woolsey married John Lloyd (1710-1795), the son of Henry Lloyd and Rebecca Nelson, from nearby Lloyd's Neck, Long Island. Shortly after their marriage, Sarah and John moved across Long Island Sound to Stamford, Connecticut, where their eight children were born. Sarah became pregnant ten times in the eighteen years of her marriage; her last four pregnancies were particularly difficult. She became very ill in May 1755, after the birth of a son who died the day he was born. In December 1756 her child was born prematurely and lived only three months, and in September 1757 she survived a miscarriage. She was pregnant again in July 1760, when the last entry in her journal was written. The last sentence in her journal is a prayer, "Grant me the blessings of the womb and of the Breast." She died five weeks later on September 3, 1760, likely because of complications from childbirth. She was 41 years old. The ages of her five surviving children were Henry, age 16; John, Jr., age 15; Rebecca, age 13; Abigail, age 9; and Sarah, age 7.
(For more information on the Lloyd family consult the Manuscripts Division.)