SARAH (BARCROFT) HILL
Sarah Barcroft was born on June 8, 1788, in Kingwood, N. J., and was married at Flemington, the county-seat of Hunterdon County, to Joseph Hill on November 30, 1809. The same year they removed from New Jersey to Tompkins County, New York.

A local historian has said of this:
“Two teams brought their goods. They drove two cows and made butter on the way by putting the milk in a churn, the motion of the wagon bringing the butter. Mr. Hill had the choice of a section (six hundred and forty acres) of land in Seneca County or one in Dryden. He chose the latter on account of the pine timber. The land lay in lot No. 6, upon which was a small log cabin, but during their first night a heavy wind blew off the roof.

“Mrs. Hill had been anxious to leave New Jersey, as it was the custom for farmers to keep slaves, and, although her husband was homesick and wanted to return to New Jersey, she would not consent, because of this custom. She wove woolen and linen cloth and in this way helped pay for clearing this new land.”

Sarah Barcroft was thus a true helpmate to her husband. He carried forward both the business of dealing in timber and also in herds of cattle and stock. The herds were driven from central New York to New Jersey, where profitable sales were made.

They had a family of eleven children. Their eldest son’s son still possesses and occupies the homestead, Edward S. Hill, and has named it “Hillscroft.”

Joseph Hill died September 12, 1853, aged seventy-one years. Sarah Barcroft Hill died April 8, 1874, in the eighty-sixth year of her age. They as well as many of their descendants are buried in the cemetery at McLean, Tompkins County, N. Y.

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by Don Krüger
June 2017

The information above is copied directly from the Barcroft Family Records: An Account of the Family in England and the Descendants of Ambrose Barcroft, the Emigrant, of Solebury, Pennsylvania (Google eBook) – Emma Ten Broeck Runk – 1910, pp. 199-201.