Sally Benedict Nott

According to family-based/traditional resources and particularly to a memorial obituary, Sally Benedict (more formally Sarah Marie) was born in August 1774. She was the daughter of Reverend Joel and Sarah Marie Benedict of Norwich, Connecticut.

In July 1796, Sarah Marie married Eliphalet Nott - who had studied theology with her father. Their daughter was christened at the Albany Presbyterian church in December 1799. A son was born in 1801.

After initially serving as teacher and pastor in Cherry Valley, New York, the couple settled in Albany where Nott was ordained in 1798 and then installed at the Presbyterian church. Sally assumed roles of mother and wife of a prominent and rising cleric in an evolving community in the process of being transformed by newcomers - particularly those who, like the Notts, came from New England.

Her marriage, however, would not be a long one as Sally Benedict Nott died in 1804. The inscription on her stone read: "Sally Nott, consort of Eliphalet Nott, Minister of the Presbyterian Church, Albany, and daughter of Rev. Joel Benedict, died 9 March, 1804, aged 29 years 6 mo." Nott remarried in 1807 and again in 1841.

About the time of Sally's passing, Eliphalet Nott removed to Schenectady where he became president of Union College - a revered status he retained until his death in 1866.

Sources: The life of Sally Benedict Nott has no CAP biography number. This sketch is derived chiefly from family and community-based resources.

An extraordinary discourse on her life and character appeared as an appendix (on page 37) to the published version of a public discourse presented by her husband in Albany at the time of her death. This eyewitness account (signed by the author simple as "a friend") one has few equals as a qualitative resource among the people of colonial Albany. The final (and detailed) discussion of her decline and death is particularly fascinating.