| Epes Sargent | |
| Office: | Representative of the General Court of Massachusetts |
| Term Start: | 1744 |
| Term End: | 1744 |
| Birth Date: | 12 July 1690 |
| Birth Place: | Gloucester, Massachusetts |
| Death Place: | Salem, Massachusetts |
| Parents: | William Sargent Mary Duncan |
| Spouse: | |
| Children: | 16, including Daniel, Paul, John |
| Relations: | Daniel Sargent (grandson) Henry Sargent (grandson) Lucius Manlius Sargent (grandson) Judith Sargent (granddaughter) Winthrop Sargent (grandson) William Sargent (grandson) John Sargent (grandson) Winthrop Sargent (grandson) |
Colonel Epes Sargent (July 12, 1690 – December 6, 1762) was an American landowner, merchant, politician and military officer from Gloucester, Massachusetts.[1]
Sargent was born on July 12, 1690, in Gloucester, Massachusetts. He was the seventh of fifteen children born to William Sargent II (1659–1707), who came to Gloucester before 1678, and Mary Duncan (died 1724),[2] [3] daughter of Peter Duncan and step-granddaughter of Samuel Symonds, deputy Governor.
His maternal grandparents were Mary Eppes (1629–1692) and Peter Duncan (1629–1716), who emigrated from England to Massachusetts. His paternal grandfather was William Sargent (born) from Exeter, England.
Sargent was one of the largest landholders in Gloucester. He served as a colonel in the Massachusetts militia before the Revolutionary War and was a justice of the general session court for more than thirty years.
In 1744, he was selected as Gloucester's representative in the General Court of Massachusetts.[3]
In 1760, two years before his death, he had his portrait painted by John Singleton Copley.[4]
On April 1, 1720, he married Esther McCarty (1701–1743), daughter of Florence McCarty, one of the founders of the first Protestant Episcopal society in New England.[3] Before Esther's death, she gave birth to:[3]
After Esther's death, Epes Sargent married Catherine (née Winthrop) Brown (1711–1781), the widow of Samuel Brown and the daughter of Ann Dudley and John Winthrop (1681–1747), on August 10, 1744, and moved to Salem, Massachusetts. Catherine's maternal grandfather was Gov. Joseph Dudley and her paternal grandfather was Wait Winthrop, son of Gov. John Winthrop the Younger and grandson of Gov. John Winthrop, both Governors of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Together, they were the parents of:[3]
Sargent died on December 6, 1762, in Salem[9] and his remains were removed to Gloucester for burial.[10]
His grandchildren included Daniel Sargent (1764–1842), a politician who was close friends with President John Quincy Adams,[11] Henry Sargent (1770–1845), a painter, Lucius Manlius Sargent (1786–1867), a temperance advocate, Judith Sargent Murray (1751–1820), a poet and advocate for women's rights, and Winthrop Sargent (1753–1820), Governor of the Mississippi Territory.[12]
The artist John Singer Sargent is a descendant of Epes's son Winthrop.