He is married to Sarah Cummings.
They got married before 1800 at New York City, New York County, New York, USA.
Child(ren):
The couple are divorced.
SOURCE: Charles Alfred Strange, "The Strangs of Westchester," New York Biographical and Genealogical Record, 1967-1970..
John4 Strang, son of Daniel3 and Mary (Hubbs) Strang, was born in Rye, between 1768 and 1774 (1800 Fed. Cen., N.Y.C. 6th Ward, p. 194), and died, locale unknown, between 1819 and 1838. He was a house carpenter and first appeared in the Manhattan directory of 1794 as living at 20 Rose St. That same year, on 22 April, Sarah Cummings, daughter of George and Mary (Giffin) Cummings, married the gunsmith Charles Gatfield in Trinity Church (M.J. O'Brien, Marriages in Trinity Church, Amer.-Irish Hist. Society, 1928). Sarah, who had been born in Ireland, where her parents were traveling in 1774 or 1775, was soon to be widowed, and married John Strang prior to the census of 1800 (unpublished ms. of B.E. Underwood).
John and Sarah lived in her house at 21 Mulberry Street, today on the edge of Chinatown, from 1800 to 1805. On 5 January 1803 they bought the building lots at 14 and 16 Mulberry Street, on which John presumably erected houses, as the family lived at one or the other of those addresses from 1807 until 1816 and at No. 14 until 1827 (N.Y. Co. Conveyances 65:218). According to the reminiscences of persons still living in 1917, there were fruit trees and a well in the back yard (Underwood MS.).
John served his community in public safety capacities, but he was an indifferent husband and father, and lacked business acumen. From 1804 to 1809 he was a member of neighborhood fire companies. In November 1814 he was appointed constable of the Sixth Ward, and in May 1815 was elected to the same office (MCC vols. 3,4,5,8). A granddaughter of John, Mrs. Sarah Thompson Townrow, believed that he served in the Navy during the War of 1812 (Underwood Ms.), and there exists a commission dated 1 May 1807 to one John Strang, Gentleman, as ensign in the Fourth New York County Regiment of militia, but the absence of corroborative evidence renders such or military service somewhat unlikely. In 1814 John opened a grocery at 16 Mulberry Street, and listed himself as both carpenter and grocer through the troublous years that followed.
According to New York Supreme Court Records, in August 1815, during a debtor's suit brought by one Aaron Smith, John stood up and declared himself pledge and manucaptor for his friend Eber Hale, should Hale be convicted and fail to pay or serve time in debtor's prison. By 9 May of the following year, Hale had defaulted and was not to be found. As John produced no money, he was declared an insolvent debtor on 16 August 1816 and clapped into jail in Hale's place. He was still there four months later, for on 28 December he had a hearing in the Recorder's Office (West Co. Spy 7 June 1831; N.Y. Daily Columbian 22 June & 23 Nov. 1816; N.Y. Supr. Ct. File S-165 1816; N.Y. Co. Insolvent Debtor File 1816). Debtor's prison would not be abolished in New York State until 26 April 1831.
Even before his prison term Sarah had had enough of John's peccadilloes. He had become a problem drinker, he no longer worked, and he had a "girl friend" named Jane Collins who lived on Catherine Street. Sarah decided on divorce--a daring step is those days--and engaged as her lawyer the noted personality, Aaron Burr. Although her divorce decree was not granted until 24 November 1819, from mid-1816 onward she listed herself as the widow of John Strang at 14 Mulberry Street. Nothing further is known of John after the decree was served on him late in 1819 (N.Y. Chancery Ct. Div. Rec. CL 371).
John Strang | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
< 1800 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Sarah Cummings | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
John4 Strang, son of Daniel3 and Mary (Hubbs) Strang, was born in Rye, between 1768 and 1774 (1800 Fed. Cen., N.Y.C. 6th Ward, p. 194), and died, locale unknown, between 1819 and 1838.