Sarah Howcutt was born in Chowan County, North Carolina in about 1750. The daughter of planter Nathaniel Howcutt, she married William Hoskins sometime before her father wrote his will in 1771. In 1774 along with either her mother of sister-in-law Sarah Hoskins (both women shared the same name), she signed a nonimportation agreement that later became known as the Edenton Tea Party Resolves. She survived her husband's death and died sometime after 1802.