Biography of Sarah Ruston Kennedy
Family Background
Sarah Ruston Kennedy was born in 1737 in Oxford, Chester County, Pennsylvania, into the large and influential Ruston family. Her father was Job Ruston, a landowner and community leader who emigrated from Berwick, England, and settled in Faggs Manor, Chester County, in 1738 on land purchased from Letitia Penn. Before immigrating, Job Ruston had served as a burgess while in Wales. In Pennsylvania, he became a prominent local figure and established Faggs Manor Presbyterian Church in Londonderry Township, which served as a central religious institution for the Ruston family and their community. During the French and Indian War, Job Ruston commanded a company raised from Chester County. Over the course of his lifetime, he owned more than one hundred enslaved people.
Sarah’s mother was Mary Ruston, who bore twelve recorded children with Job Ruston. One of Sarah’s siblings was her brother Dr. Thomas Ruston, who was also one of the twelve children and later became a physician. Mary Ruston died on June 19, 1757. Shortly before her death, in May 1757, Job Ruston married Elizabeth Budd Ruston, despite still being married to Mary at the time. Elizabeth Budd Ruston became Sarah’s stepmother and gave birth to a daughter, Elizabeth Ruston, on September 16, 1758, making Elizabeth Sarah’s half-sister. Elizabeth Budd Ruston died in 1769. In 1770, Job Ruston married Edith Claypoole, who, like him, had previously been married twice.
The Ruston family remained closely connected to Faggs Manor Presbyterian Church, where Sarah later worshiped with her husband. Sarah married Samuel Kennedy, whose family were also parishioners at Faggs Manor Presbyterian Church, reinforcing longstanding social and religious ties between the two families. Although no surviving records describe Sarah’s personal feelings about her mother’s death or her father’s remarriages, the loss of her mother when Sarah was about twenty years old likely had a lasting impact. The later naming of Sarah’s daughter Mary Kennedy suggests an enduring connection to her mother’s memory.
Biographical Timeline
1737
- Sarah Ruston was born in Oxford, Chester County, Pennsylvania, into a family marked by landownership, religious leadership, and strong local influence.
1738
- By this year, Sarah’s father, Job Ruston, had settled the family at Faggs Manor in Chester County after emigrating from Berwick, England, establishing the family’s permanent presence in the region.
May 1757
- In this month, Sarah’s father, Job Ruston, married Elizabeth Budd Ruston, despite still being married to Sarah’s mother, Mary. This marriage introduced a new and complicated family structure.
June 19, 1757
- Sarah’s mother, Mary Ruston, died on this date, leaving behind twelve recorded children. Sarah was about twenty years old, and the loss likely altered both household responsibilities and family life.
September 16, 1758
- Sarah gained a half-sister when her stepmother, Elizabeth Budd Ruston, gave birth to Elizabeth Ruston, adding another child to the extended Ruston family.
1763
- Sarah Ruston married Samuel Kennedy, uniting two families long connected through Faggs Manor Presbyterian Church.
- In the same year, Sarah gave birth to her first child, Thomas Ruston Kennedy, in Chester County, Pennsylvania.
1764
- Sarah gave birth to her son John Kennedy in East Whiteland, reflecting the family’s residence there at the time.
1766
- Sarah gave birth to twins in Chester County, Pennsylvania. One was a daughter, Sarah Kennedy, and the other was a son, also named John Kennedy.
1768
- Sarah gave birth to a daughter, Mary Kennedy, in Chester County, continuing the growth of the Kennedy family.
1769
- Sarah’s stepmother, Elizabeth Budd Ruston, died this year, marking another maternal loss within the Ruston family.
- In the same year, Sarah gave birth to her son Samuel Kennedy Jr. in Chester County.
1770
- Sarah’s father, Job Ruston, married Edith Claypoole, who, like him, had previously been married twice, further reshaping the family structure.
December 1772
- Sarah and Samuel lost their son John Kennedy, who had been born in 1764. He died in December at the age of eight. His cause of death was not recorded.
1773
- Sarah and Samuel lost their son Samuel Kennedy Jr., who died in Chester County at the age of four. His cause of death was not recorded.
June 1776
- By this month, Samuel Kennedy was camped at Long Island, while Sarah remained in Great Valley, indicating that their Whiteland plantation had not yet been taken by British forces.
June 29, 1776
- Samuel wrote to Sarah from New York on this date, confirming their physical separation and Sarah’s continued presence in Chester County.
August 1776
- Samuel wrote again to Sarah from Ticonderoga while Sarah remained in Great Valley, reflecting ongoing separation during military operations.
September 1776
- By this year, Samuel addressed letters to Sarah and the children in Chester County, though he did not know their precise location and routed the correspondence through Philadelphia. By this point, Sarah and the household likely had moved to Yellow Springs.
Early 1778
- Sarah was present at Washington Hall, where she likely assumed extensive responsibilities as hostess and manager of the household during wartime.
- During this period, Sarah wrote to Dr. Jonathan Potts at Pottsgrove Manor requesting supplies, suggesting familiarity and a possible longstanding connection between their families.
- Sarah and Samuel hosted Reverend Sproat during his visit. By April, Samuel was noted as being ill.
June 17, 1778
- Dr. Samuel Kennedy died on this date from putrid fever, now understood as typhus. His illness was likely contracted through his close, hands-on care of sick soldiers during the Revolutionary War.
- Sarah was left a widow with responsibility for her surviving children and household during an active period of military conflict.
After June 17, 1778
- Following Samuel’s death, Sarah was named as an executor of his will alongside his brother, Montgomery Kennedy, reflecting her legal authority and trusted position within the family.
January 1785
- Sarah’s father, Job Ruston, died in this year, closing the life of a man central to Chester County’s religious, military, and social history.
1815
- Sarah Ruston Kennedy died in Charlestown, Chester County, Pennsylvania, at the age of seventy-seven or seventy-eight, concluding a life shaped by family prominence, repeated personal loss, wartime disruption, and long-standing community ties.
Further research ongoing!
See our reconstruction of the Kennedy’s family tree on Ancestry.com here!