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BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION:
From Salem Marriages
Sarah Forbes 1 and John Diamond Preston
of Boston, int[ention] recorded Feb. 21, 1795.
From Marriages of Boston 1752-1809
John D. Preston and Sarah Forbes [of Salem] married by
Rev. Dr. Peter Thatcher, February 26, 1795.
[Intention reads John Dirmond Preston and Sary]
From The Diaries of William Bently 2, Pastor
of the East Church, Salem, Massachusetts.
June 20, 1798 Mr. John Dimon
Preston is missing. They left this port in a small fishing smack
belonging to Capt. S[amuel] Ingersoll, bound to the W. Indies.3
Sunday, July 8, 1798 Sarah Preston, delivery, prayed for husband
long absent and missing. 4
September 20, 1798 We now conclude that Diman Preston and his
crew, who have been long missing, and who left this port for
the Spanish Main 5 in a shallop 6, have foundered at sea. Their vessel was deep and
small and they had a heavy gale upon leaving port.
March 24, 1799 Sarah Preston, death of her youngest
child, husband absent, brothers at sea. 8
From The Parish List of Deaths recorded by William Bently,
Pastor of the East Church, Salem, Massachusetts.
Sept. 20 1798. John Diman Preston,
captain, from Marblehead, missing, 37. 1st marriage ____ years,
2nd marriage ____ years, 3d marriage five years. Left a wife
with two children, males. She was a widow Forbes with three children,
one female; married abroad, supposed repeatedly.7 The shallop
sailed from Salem 10 Nov., 1797, and has not been heard of since.
Footnotes
1 Sarah Whitford married John
Forbes 10 September 1782 in Salem. He died in 1791.
2 Mr.
Bently not only recorded the events of the lives of his parishoners,
he often would write down those same events and post them at
the church so members of the parish would know who was sick,
who had lost a loved one, or who had been delivered of a child.
3 Although
this was a small vessel there is evidence that these ships were
used to travel even as far as the Carribean. (see Brendan
Foley web-site)
4 July 8 1798 was the day that the infant
son, John Diamond Preston was christened. He was born in June.
5 The
Spanish Main is the area of the Carribean where the vessels from
Spain sail to trade for spices and sugar. The fishermen of Salem
began sailing to the Carribean with salted, dried fish to trade
for goods from Europe in 1636.
6 "Shallop:
An open, heavily constructed, double-ended workboat propelled
by both oars and sails and employed for in-shore fishing and
limited coastwise trading. Shallops had either (a) a single-masted
fore-and-aft rig consisting of a spirit mainsail and a staysail
or (b) a two-masted square rig having a large mainsail on a smast
stepped nearly amidships and a small foresail on a mast stepped
well forward." Colonial Vessels p.151. (See
illustrations in Photo Album)
7 John
Diamond Preston, 9 month-old son of John Diamond and Sarah Preston
died 18 March 1799 of atrophy. (See Salem Vital Records vol IV,
p.160)
8 John
Diamond Preston was married abroad several times prior to his
marriage to Sarah.
Footnotes 1-6: NHC,
9/2001
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REFERENCES:
Vital Records of Salem, Mass
Vol. 4- Salem Marriages
[Salem, MA:Essex Institute,1916]
US/Can 974.45/S1 V2e v.4
Marriages of Boston
US/Can 974.461 V2b v.2
The Diary of William Bentley
[Salem, MA:Essex Institute,1906]
JSMB US/Can 921.73 B446b v.2
 Reverend
William
Bentley
1759 - 1819
Parish List of Deaths
[Salem, MA:Essex Institute,1882]
US/Can 974.45/S1 K2b
Colonial Vessels
by William A. Baker
[Barre, MA:Barre Publishing Co,
1962]
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