Samuel Howell and Sarah Stretch were married in the presence of their parents at Friends' Meeting, Philadelphia, on December 12, 1745. Their wedding certificate, a large document which all family members present signed, states: ". . . Samuel Howell of the city of Philadelphia, and province of Pennsylvania, Hatter, son of Thomas Howell of Township Chichester in the County of Chester. . .". The signatures on this document include Samuel Howell's parents: Thomas Howell and Rachel Howell, and Sarah Stretch's parents Joseph and Lydia Stretch. Samuel's great-grandfather, also named Thomas Howell, emigrated to New Jersey arriving October 28, 1682. Thomas was from Tamworth, Staffordshire, England where he possessed a landed estate. He represented Gloucester County in the West Jersey Assembly in 1683 and 1685, at the time he acquired lands in West Jersey. Thomas died March 9, 1687 at Newton, Gloucester, New Jersey. His coat of arms, from England, is shown below. Samuel Howell married Sarah Stretch (1733-1770), daughter of Joseph Stretch (1709-1771) and Lydia Knight, at Friends' Meeting, Philadelphia, on December 12, 1745. Samuel's wife, Sarah, died March 28, 1770 at the age of 37. Her father, Joseph Stretch, was the brother of Thomas Stretch. Children of Samuel and Sarah Howell: Sarah Howell Van Wyck (1806-1830) married James Budd (1798-1833) of New Jersey. Misinformation based on an erroneous family genealogy confuses Samuel Howell (1723-1807), "the Merchant", who was a Member of the Committee of Safety and Signer of the 1765 Non-importation Agreement, the son of Thomas Howell and Rachel Clayton, with another Samuel Howell (1718-1780), son of Jacob Howell and Sarah Vernon. As demonstrated in documents cites above, including his Last Will and Testament, it is Samuel Howell the Merchant whose business was based at the Sign of the Beaver, located at the corner of Chestnut Street and Strawberry, which was among the properties he bequeathed at the time of his death in 1807. Among the source documents and research confirming this are birth records, will and probate records and other sources cited above. Samuel Howell (1718-1780) died eleven years before President Washington bestowed a Commission to Samuel Howell, the financier and merchant, as a Commissioner of the United States Bank. The confusion arises from Jonathan Howell's unsourced family genealogy conflating these two Samuel Howells.