Daniel Sackett

Daniel Sackett, whose parents have not been identified, was born in 1788.² He died in Troy, New York, on 8 April 1845^3,4 and was buried in the Nassau-Schodack Cemetery, Nassau, Rensselaer County, New York.⁵ He married Sarah H Pardee.⁵
     Daniel left a will (not yet researched, but recorded at the Surrogate Court, Rensselaer County).⁶
     There were two Daniel Sacketts of about the same age found in Rensselaer County records, and there may be confusion between them. This Daniel Sackett, listed amongst Troy's "prominent citizens" in the History of the City of Troy, died there in 1845. He would appear to be the same Daniel Sackett who played a minor role in the publication in 1823 of the poem, "The Night Before Christmas". The authorship of the poem became a matter of some controversy in the 1840s and Daniel's name appears in the records in a letter to Professor Moore (who probably wrote the poem) from Moore's publisher, Norman Tuttle, of the Troy Sentinel, who wrote, "I understand from Mr. Holley [editor of the Sentinel] that he received it from Mrs. Sackett, the wife of Mr. Daniel Sackett who was then a merchant in this city."⁷
     The other Daniel Sackett is recorded as the son of Benjamin and Phebe (Davis) Sackett, although that identification remains doubtful.
     There is circumstantial evidence to link this Daniel Sackett, the merchant, with Benjamin and Phebe (Davis) Sackett. Daniel married Sarah H Pardee, daughter of Calvin and Rachel (Johnson) Pardee. Benjamin and Phebe (Davis) Sackett named one of their sons, Calvin Pardee Sackett, and this would suggest a significant link between this Daniel and the family of Benjamin and Phebe.