Fiction | November 08, 2019

(1741)

Sarah Campbell Howland, Ada Campbell

In 1803 Sarah Campbell Howland told her story to her granddaughter, Emma Howland, who wrote the story down and, shortly before she died, passed it to her granddaughter, Elizabeth Carelton.

My grandmother, Sarah Campbell, was born in Port Ellen on the Isle of Islay, Scotland on August 13, 1722, to pious parents who instructed her in the Christian religion. When she was about nineteen years old, her father went to Pennsylvania, and finding land suitable for his family, he wrote for her mother and the children to take passage in the first vessel and come to Pennsylvania. Her mother, with three daughters, left on board a large ship. On July 28, 1741, they sailed from Glasgow, Captain Knight commander. For some time after they sailed, they had pleasant weather, and everything was agreeable, excepting their seasickness. The ship’s company daily assembled on the quarterdeck for prayers, which were performed alternately by four or five of the passengers, to the great satisfaction of many on board.