When most people talk about a Revolutionary War ancestor, they are usually referring to someone who served as needed in state militias and thus spent much of the war at home.  In contrast, both of Sarah Handy Merrill’s grandfathers served throughout the war as part of the Massachusetts Line, a full-time unit of the Continental Army, and fought in battles all over the American colonies.  Each town in Massachusetts had a quota of soldiers that it had to supply.  Most towns offered bounties to get enough men to fill the quota.

Sarah’s paternal grandfather Joseph Handy (born in 1759) and her maternal grandfather Paul Sawyer (born ca. 1753) were both Massachusetts natives and descended from early New England immigrants.  In fact, both had ancestors who came to New England in 1620 on the Mayflower.  Although born in eastern Massachusetts, by the time of the American Revolution both were living in the western part of the colony – Handy at Lee in what is now Berkshire County and Sawyer at Ervingshire (which eventually became part of the new town of Wendell) in what is now Franklin County.

• Joseph Handy
• Paul Sawyer

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