Thomas Williams appeared in Burlington, West Jersey, in 1686, when he sought to marry the widow Rebecca Bennett. There are no records to show when he immigrated, but circumstantial evidence that he was from Pembrokeshire, Wales. When the merchant Abraham Hardiman died of smallpox in Philadelphia in 1702, he left behind a will, naming among others his cousin Rebecca Williams, whose passage he had paid along with Samuel Carpenter. Carpenter was the richest man in the colony, but he had not paid Rebecca’s passage solely because he could afford it. He was married to Hannah Hardiman, Abraham’s sister.1 When Thomas William’s daughter Rebecca married Thomas Iredell in 1705, the certificate was signed, in the place for close family, by Hannah Carpenter, two of her children, and three Hardimans.2 It is clear that Rebecca Williams was a relative of the Hardimans, probably a first cousin.

The Hardimans were from Haverfordwest, Pembrokeshire. George Fox visited there in 1657 and held a large gathering for worship.3 By 1681 the Quaker community was large enough to have a monthly meeting and multiple meetings for worship.4 On the 24^th day of the 6^th month (August) 1681, Abraham Hardiman of Haverfordwest married Diana Thomas of Lowhadon.5 The certificate was signed, after Abraham and Diana themselves, by William Thomas and John Hardiman, almost certainly the fathers.6 Two women of the Hardiman family also signed, Rebecca and Hannah.7 When Hannah Hardiman immigrated in 1683, the meeting at Haverfordwest gave her a certificate, signed by Abraham Hardiman among others.8 Hannah also brought a certificate signed by her mother “Jone”, giving her consent for Hannah to depart.9

Abraham and Diana were married in the summer of 1681 and a year later, in 7^th month 1682, John, son of Abraham, was buried at “Nesthook”.10 This was not the home of the Hardimans as some have assumed; it was the burying ground for the local Friends.11

“…The earlier West Hook was considerably closer to Haverfordwest town, near the farms now called East Hook and Honey Hook. An old Quaker burial ground is located on or near the older farm’s grounds. You probably won’t find the name of either farm site on most present-day maps, although you will find East Hook and Honey Hook, both of which are near to the place that it was located, and some maps show the burial ground.”12

On the Ordinance Survey map of 1898, Westhook Farm is shown west of Marloes, adjoining Easthook Farm.

Some time after the death of their son John, Abraham and Diana immigrated to Philadelphia where they both appear in records of Philadelphia Monthly Meeting and where he worked as a merchant. Diana died in 1694 and in 1698 Abraham married the widow Rebecca Willsford.13

If Rebecca Williams was in fact a first cousin of the Hardimans, then her mother must have been a Hardiman, a daughter of John and Jane. Rebecca was not born in Pennsylvania; her cousins paid for her passage.14 From her marriage date of 1705, she was probably born between 1680 and 1685. Could her mother have been the Rebecca Hardiman who signed the marriage record of Abraham and Diana in 1681? If that Rebecca married Thomas Williams and had a daughter Rebecca, it would account for the family relationships. By this account, the mother died in Wales and Thomas immigrated without his daughter, presumably leaving her with relatives. He then remarried, and at some unknown date his daughter Rebecca came to Pennsylvania.15

When Thomas wanted to marry Rebecca Bennett, they needed permission from Burlington Monthly Meeting where he was living, and Falls Monthly Meeting in Bucks County where Rebecca was living near Cold Spring. Burlington Meeting gave him a certificate with no concerns.16 The Falls meeting appointed Phineas Pemberton to make sure that the estate of Rebecca’s deceased husband William Bennett was properly set aside for his daughters.17 This was settled, but Thomas still had to make satisfaction for his improper conduct. When he went before the women’s meeting to propose his intentions, he refused to remove his hat. He also said something disrespectful to the women’s meeting and its de facto leader, Margaret Cook, and was forced to acknowledge his error. He refused to write a paper at first, but complied the next month, removing the impediment to their marriage.18

Thomas and Rebecca lived in Burlington. At some point they had a daughter together, named Mary.19 The town had been settled early by Quakers, even before the tidal wave of ships to Pennsylvania in 1682 and 1683, and the meeting in the town of Burlington was founded in 1678. In 1693 Thomas bought a house and 40 acres of land in Burlington County from Bridget Guy, widow of Richard Guy. He and Rebecca probably did not live on this land, since in 1699 he gave a power of attorney to his wife Rebecca and Edward Burroughs to take possession of a 40-acre property above Burlington, bought from Bridgett Guy in 1693.20 If this was the same property, why did he wait six years to take possession of it? The land they might have lived on was the 160-acre tract bought in September 1694 from George Hutchinson, a distiller of Burlington.21 Did Williams combine these two tracts to make the 200-acre plantation that he sold to William West in November 1699?22

It’s possible that Thomas was selling off his property in order to leave West Jersey. In 1701/02 the grand jury in Burlington presented him for fornication. According to the records, the jury was “disturbed that Thomas Williams got his wife’s daughter with child.” He ran away but the daughter is “yet in the place and ought to answer for it.”23 The grand jury presented Rebecca Bennett, now wife of John Scholey. Her husband was fined five pounds to resolve the matter. Where had Thomas Williams gone? He disappears from the records until February 1706/07 when the will of Rebecca Williams, “widow of Thomas of Philadelphia, carpenter” was probated in Philadelphia.24 In the will she named her daughters Rebecca Schooly, Sarah Edwards, and Mary Williams.25 Mary was the executor. Rebecca Williams made no mention in the will of her step-daughter Rebecca Williams Iredell. Perhaps they were not close.

Child of Thomas Williams and a first wife, possibly Rebecca Hardiman

Rebecca, born about 1680 to 1685, possibly in Haverfordwest, Pembroke, Wales. She immigrated before 1705 when she married Thomas Iredell in Philadelphia. They moved to Horsham, where Thomas died in 1727. Children: Mary, Abraham, Rebecca, Robert, Rachel and Hannah.

Child of Thomas Williams and Rebecca Bennett, widow of William Bennett

Mary, born after 1686, unmarried in 170726

Step-children of Thomas Williams, children of William and Rebecca Bennett

William, in his father’s will of 1683, probably did not immigrate.

Mary, married to Thomas Chandler, in her father’s will of 1683, probably did not immigrate.

Rebecca, immigrated with her parents in 1683, married John Scholey Jr of West Jersey.

Sarah, immigrated with her parents in 1683, married Robert Edwards.27

Elizabeth, immigrated in 1683 on the Concord, married Richard Lundy, died before 1707.

Ann, immigrated with her parents in 1683, probably died before 1707.

Thomas Roberts was a Welshman who emigrated to Pennsylvania as a young man around 1699.1 By some accounts he sailed on the Canterbury, along with William Penn, who was returning to Pennsylvania after an extended stay in England.2 Roberts lived in Bristol Township, on the Old York Road, and worked as a stone mason.3 Germantown surged in population around 1745 to 1767 and there would have been much work there for a stone mason.4 He is traditionally said to have helped build the meeting house in Germantown.5 Friends there originally met in members’ houses, traditionally the house of Thonis Kunders, but in 1705 they decided to build a new meeting house and asked Abington Monthly Meeting for help. Subscriptions were raised and in September Heifert Papen donated fifty acres for the meeting house (and presumably a burying ground as well).6 Since that was the closest meeting to Bristol, Thomas probably attended the Germantown meeting for worship and may have helped with the building.7

In 1705 he married Eleanor Potts under the auspices of Abington Monthly Meeting.8 Eleanor was an orphan who had come over in 1698 with her sisters and brothers.  Their father John had died in Wales and their mother was presumably also dead. Her sister Mary and brother John were placed as apprentices by Philadelphia Monthly Meeting. It is not known where Eleanor lived until she married Thomas.

In 1713 Thomas bought 200 acres in Bristol on Tacony Creek. He was taxed on this land in 1734.9 He owned this land until 1753 when he and Eleanor gave it to their son John for love and affection.10 In 1739 Thomas bought a four-acre lot in Germantown, on the Germantown road, adjoining the burying ground. In 1748 they sold two acres of this lot to Samuel Bell.11

Thomas appears often in the records of Abington Monthly Meeting.12 In 1725 he was named as an elder to attend meetings (along with Reynear Tyson of Abington and John Duncan of Byberry. He was an overseer.13 He attended the Quarterly meeting several times. In 1750 he and John Hammer were appointed to attend burials.14 He and sometimes Eleanor attended wedding at Abington meeting and signed as witnesses.15 She was an elder of Abington at her death.16 Three of their children married under the auspices of Abington Meeting.

He died in 1756 in Germantown.17 He left a will naming Eleanor and children Thomas, John, Mary and Sarah (deceased), as well as two grandsons, Thomas Jones and Thomas Roberts Jr.18 The inventory of Thomas’ estate, taken 20^th 8^th month 1756, showed household goods, one cow and one horse and two properties, one in Germantown and one on Gilberts Alley. The total value was a respectable £587.19 Eleanor died before 8^th month 1768, when Philadelphia Quarterly Meeting reported that Eleanor Roberts, an elder of Abington, had died.20

Children of Thomas and Eleanor:

Mary, born about 1706, married 1727, at Abington Meeting, Peter Tyson, son of Rynear and Margaret. They lived in Abington, where Peter was a farmer. He died in 1791, and left a will naming his four surviving children: Rynear, Thomas, Margaret, Peter. His daughter Eleanor died before him, as did his wife Mary. His substantial estate was not settled until 1804.21

Thomas, born 1709, died 1757 in Germantown.22 Thomas married in 1734 at Abington Rachel Livezey, daughter of Thomas and Elizabeth.23 Thomas worked as a mason and was living in Bristol in 1743 when he bought 40 acres from Thomas Edwards.24 He died in 1757.25 The inventory of his estate included household goods, farming implements, and farm animals, for a total value of £241. Rachel died in 9^th month 1760 and was buried in Germantown.26 Children: Thomas, Mary, Elizabeth, Ann, Jonathan, John, James, Daniel.27

Sarah, married 1749 Isaac Jones, at Abington Meeting.28 Thomas and Eleanor signed at the top of the witness list, along with Katherine Jones, presumably Isaac’s mother.29 Sarah died before her father and was named as deceased in his will written in 1753. She and Isaac had at least one child, a son Thomas, also named in the will.30

John. He is said to have married Anne Nanna in 1750 in a Reformed church, but this has not been confirmed.31 John was a miller and lived in Bristol Township. In 1753 his parents gave him a tract of 200 acres that had been conveyed to them in 1713.32 In 1756 John bought more land in Bristol, two tracts totaling 161 acres, from Robert Strettell and his wife Philotesia.33 In 1775 John wrote a will leaving his real estate to be shared among his five children, with the “mill seat near the quarry” to be reserved for the son Nathan.34 However in 1781, when four of the children partitioned his real estate, Nathan was “absent”. In fact Nathan had sided with the British during the Revolution, was declared a traitor by the Council, and forfeited his one-fifth share of the land in Bristol.35 The other four children were Israel, Sarah (married to David Evans), Eleanor, and Ann.36

John Potts was a Quaker of Llangurig, Montgomeryshire, who died there around 1698. He was the son of Thomas and Elizabeth Pott, one of eight children.1 Thomas had been persecuted for his Quaker beliefs. In 1675 he was brought before a jury for failure to attend services at the parish church.2 Thomas died before 1683, when Elizabeth immigrated to Pennsylvania with her daughter Jane in 1683. Three of her other children also came to Pennsylvania, but John did not live to immigrate.

John did not leave a will and his wife’s name is unknown, but she must have died by 1698 as well, because they left behind five known children, described as orphans, who were brought to Pennsylvania under the care of Quakers. The children came on the William Galley. In March 1698, the ship was hired by David Powell and John Morris, both of Radnor, who agreed to pay £5 for each passenger over 12 years old, and 50s for each child.3 The owner and master of the ship were to provide food and drink. The ship was to leave in May. Powell and Morris between them paid for 17 passengers.4 It is unclear who paid for the orphans of John Potts.

In 1699, John Austin told the Philadelphia meeting that “several orphans, children of John Potts of Wales, came here last year, their passage being paid, this meeting desires Edward Shippen and Anthony Morris to speak with the persons concerned, and see for convenient places in order that the Children be bound out apprentices by the next Orphans Court.”5 In early 1700 the meeting reported that “There are two orphan children of one Potts to be put out, Thomas Potts, being their uncle.”6 Mary was placed with Isaac Shoemaker for two years. In 1702 he requested an extension. “A Friends child named Mary Potts, having been with Isaac Shoemaker for two years, the time agreed is near out and she wants learning. That she may have what learning is sufficient, he desires to have her bound to him for some time.”7

Her brother John was apprenticed to John Austin to be a ship carpenter. Apparently he did not like it, since in 1703 he asked the meeting to find another place for him. In 1708 he complained to the meeting that he had served out his time of apprenticeship, but that his mistress would not discharge him.8

Children of John: born in Wales, around 1680 to 1690, “the orphans”9

Thomas, born about 1680, died 1752.10 He lived first in Germantown, where he worked as a butcher or innkeeper, possibly working for his father-in-law Peter Keurlis.11 In 1699 Thomas married Metgen (in the English-form Martha), daughter of Peter and Elizabeth, in a Quaker ceremony. Thomas bought and sold land, moving his family to Philadelphia and finally up to Colebrookdale, where Thomas Rutter had built an iron furnace on Manatawney Creek. Potts invested in the furnace, and later bought much of Rutter’s house, land, and estate. After Martha died, Thomas married a woman named Magdalen.12 He died in 1752, leaving a large estate. His will named his wife Magdalen and five living children: Thomas, David, John, Mary and Elizabeth.13

John, born about 1682, died about 1721. As a youth, after his arrival, he was placed as apprentice to his uncle John Austin, a ship carpenter. He married a woman named Rebecca and they are believed to have had four children, none of whom survived infancy.14 John died about 1721.

Eleanor, born about 1685, d. 1766, m. 1705 Thomas Roberts the emigrant, under the care of Abington Meeting. He was a stone mason. They lived in Bristol Township, Philadelphia County, where he died in 1756. Children: Thomas, Mary, Sarah, John. She died about 1766 in Bristol Township.

Mary, placed as an apprentice with Isaac Shoemaker, married first in  1707/08 Matthias Tyson, son of Rynear and Margaret, lived in Abington. With Matthias, she had eleven children, six of whom lived to marry.15 The children were Margaret, Mary, Rynear, John, Sarah, Elizabeth (died young), Isaac, Martha, Elizabeth, Matthew. Mathias died in 1727 and in 1732 Mary married Thomas Fitzwater Jr, son of Thomas and Mary. The Tysons and Fitzwaters were the largest landowners in Abington, digging and burning limestone as well as farming. He had six children, named in his will of 1748.16 Mary survived him.

Margaret, married Evan Morgan in 1709 at Christ Church, Philadelphia. In 1714 they sold a tract of land in Bucks County to Margaret’s brother Thomas .17 Three years later Evan was dead. Letters of administration were granted to Margaret (as Margery), her brother Thomas, and her brother-in-law Mathias Tyson. The inventory of the estate (taken by Thomas Fitzwater) was rather sparse, with a value of £49. It is not known whether Margaret married again.

The ancestors of the Pott family of southeastern Pennsylvania lived in central Wales, in the parish of Llangirig, Montgomeryshire.1 It is a countryside of rolling hills, and the land outside of Philadelphia would have looked familiar to the early Potts immigrants.2 The Potts were farmers and their wills mention cows, horses and especially sheep. To sell the wool from their sheep, they would have ridden five miles through the hills to the nearest market town, in Llanidloes. There they would sell their goods in the old timber-framed market hall, and shop for goods in the booths surrounding the hall on fair days.3 Until the mid-1600s, when some of them became Quakers, they would have gone to the local church, dedicated to St. Curig.4 The town takes its name from the church; Llangirig means the church or enclosure of Curig.5

In February 1672 John Pott of Llangurig wrote his will.6 He called himself a yeoman and began the will with the usual religious clause.7 He named seven children, but no wife. His wife, whose name was Anne, must have died before him. The first child named in the will is Thomas, possibly named for John’s father, who has not been identified.8 A Thomas Pott of Llangirig wrote his will in August 1654, and named his daughter Anne and son-in-law John Pott; this is believed to be Anne’s father, not John’s, in spite of the coincidence of names.9 According to Thomas’ will, Anne and John lived on Nant-gwernog farm on the outskirts of Llangirig.10 Since they had eight children by 1654, John and Anne were probably married about 1630.11

John was not a wealthy man. He left each of his children sixpence except one, the daughter Sarah. She was to receive livestock, grain and “all the rest of my goods”, on condition that she pay his debts and legacies and execute the will.12 (The will was proved in 1673 by the court of the Bishop at Bangor.) The others were Thomas, George, Margaret, Ales, Elizabeth, and Anne. Thomas could not read and signed the will by mark. It was witnessed by John Pott and Thomas Pott, an indication that there were other Potts in the area, about whom little is known, since they did not leave wills.13 Another witness was Edward Jarman. The Jarman family were Quakers and one of them, John Jarman, immigrated to Pennsylvania in 1683 and settled in Radnor.14

In the spring of 1675, at the court in Welshpool, four Quakers of Llangirig were charged with non-attendance at Church and holding conventicles.15 In 1677 the authorities raided the house of John Jerman of Llanidloes while a Friends’ meeting was being held. John Pott was there, and he was punished by having a cow and six calves taken from him for a value of £12.10.0. Seven Quakers were thrown into prison; he may have been one of them.16 This John Pott was probably not the elderly man who had made his will three years earlier. It was probably a younger man, a nephew or even his grandson John, known to be a Quaker. A Quaker burial ground was established on the land of Nant-gwernog farm, called Quaker’s Garden in 1708 when it was granted as a burial ground for an annual rent of one peppercorn.17 It is not clear when the farm first came into the possession of the family, or when the first family members were buried there as Quakers. Some of them were Quakers in 1693, including John’s grandson, son of his son Thomas.

“The Pott family were still Quakers at the end of the 17th century, for in a Minute of Montgomeryshire Monthly Meeting held at Dolobran, 5th month, 1693, is entered: ‘care is to be taken to have the house of John Pott of Llangurig recorded for a meeting house at next Quarter Sessions.’ This, of course, was after the passing of the 1689 Toleration Act which allowed freedom of worship. The ‘house of John Pott’ was the farmhouse of Nantgwernog … This farm is situated close to another, Fedw ddu, whose owner, one Thomas Hamer, in 1708 sold land to the Quakers for a burial ground.”18

Thomas Pott, the son of John

Thomas Pott, son of John and Ann, was born about 1632. His parents lived on Nantgwernog farm and Thomas would have grown up there, one of eight children. Around 1656 he married a woman named Elizabeth; her last name is unknown.19 Since they were Quakers, they would have been married in a Quaker ceremony, probably in the house of one of the members. He was probably the Thomas Pott persecuted as a Quaker in 1675. In Poole (present-day Welshpool), the grand jury presented nine people for absenting themselves from services at the parish church. They were David Owen Edward and Griffith Jarman, John Pott, Thomas Pott, David Jenkin and his wife Jane, Sarah Rees, and James Hamer.20 Two years later the mayor of Llanidoes came with the constables to a Friends meeting at the house of John Jarman and committed seven Quakers to prison and fined others, including John Pott.21 He was fined one cow and six “yearly beasts”, worth £12.10.0.

Thomas and Elizabeth had eight known children before his death. He died before 1683, and in that year Elizabeth emigrated with her daughter Jane.22 In 7^th month 1684 they requested their headright, fifty acres per person granted to servants, and the Commissioners issued a warrant for a hundred acres to be laid out, plus a lot in the city.23 being a servant”. (Minutes of the Board of Property, Minute Book G, 3^rd month 1703.)] A month later the Commissioners ordered David Powell to survey the land “among the Welshmen for the conveniency of the poor woman”.24 Elizabeth probably did not live among the Welsh of Chester County, since in 1685 she married Edmund Bennet of Bucks County at the house of John Otter near Burlington.25 Edmund had immigrated from Bristol, where he had worked as a tobacco cutter. While still in England he bought rights to 1,000 acres of land. In 1682, 300 acres were laid out for him and in 1684 the remainder was laid out. He served in the Assembly, was a justice of the peace for Bucks County, and was a member of Middletown Meeting.26 He and Elizabeth moved to Philadelphia, where he died in 1692, leaving his estate to her.27 She was no longer a “poor woman”. Elizabeth’s daughter Jane Austin was one of the witnesses of his will.28 Elizabeth sold much of the land in Bucks County between 1691 and 1696.29 She died in 1707 in Philadelphia and was buried in the Friends burying ground there.30

Some of the children of Thomas and Elizabeth immigrated, including Thomas, David and Jonas, while John and George did not. Those who did live in Pennsylvania were very close, frequently signing as witnesses for each other’s weddings and serving as witnesses or executors for wills and deeds.31

Children of Thomas and Elizabeth:32

John, born about 1658, died before 1696 in Wales, father of the five orphan children.33 His wife’s name is unknown; he is sometimes said to have been killed for his faith, though this is unlikely. Five of the children came to Pennsylvania in 1698 on the William Galley and were under the care of Philadelphia Monthly Meeting. The meeting found places where the children could be placed as apprentices, and all five of them lived to marry. The children were: Thomas, John, Eleanor, Mary and Margaret.

Thomas, born about 1660, d. 1719, in Pennsylvania by 1686, married in 1712 Judith Smith of Long Island, a late marriage for him. He

became a traveling preacher for  the Friends, traveling to England, Ireland, the West Indies.34 William Penn referred to him as “honest Thomas Potts”. He built two mills on Frankford Creek, Cheltenham Township. He lived in Bristol Township, Philadelphia County, and died in 1719. His will named his wife Judith and son Thomas.35

George, born about 1662, married a woman named Joan and had children with her in Wales. They immigrated in 1690, but George died at sea. Joan was a midwife. “She, with her four daughters, settled in Germantown, where she supported her family by means of her profession”.36 She was a member of Germantown meeting and witnessed marriages there. She died in 1740. Philadelphia Monthly Meeting minutes said that her testimony at meetings was well received.

Jane, born about 1663, d. 1734, immigrated with her mother, married John Austin in 1686.37 John was a ship carpenter and in 1696 they moved to Philadelphia, presumably for his business. He died in 1707, killed by a falling timber. Children: Elizabeth, Ann, Samuel and Mary.

Jonas, born about 1665, d. 1719, married twice, the second time to Mary Burson. At different times he lived in Germantown (where he served as sheriff), Gilbert’s Manor (later Limerick Township), Philadelphia, and Saucon Township, Bucks County. The last record of him is around 1740 in Saucon Township; there is no evidence that he moved to Virginia with some of his sons. Children of Jonas: David, Rachel, Elizabeth, Hannah, Jonathan, Deborah, Jonas.

Margaret, born about 1666, d. 1706, married Jacob Shoemaker, the emigrant, lived in Bristol Township, Philadelphia County. She was active in Abington Meeting, and attended Quarterly Meeting as a delegate. Jacob left a will in 1722, naming Margaret and his sons George, Jacob and Thomas.38, 39

Elizabeth, born 1667. She immigrated, possibly with her mother, and died unmarried in 1690. She was buried at Middletown Meeting.

David, born about 1670, d. 1730, m. 1693/94 Alice Croasdale, daughter of Thomas and Agnes

(Hawthornthwaite). Alice had come as a child in 1682 on the Lamb with her parents.40 David and Alice lived in Bristol Township, Philadelphia County. He was active in Germantown Meeting and served in the Provincial Assembly. In his will of 1730, he named his children Thomas, John, Jonathan, Elizabeth, Stephen, Mary, Rebecca, Daniel, Nathan, Ezekiel.41

The Iredell family of Pennsylvania claims its descent from a Norman knight who supposedly saved the life of William the Norman at the Battle of Hastings. When Sir Pierre saved the king by slaying the enemies around him, the King said “Sir Pierre, thou hast given me eyre to breathe.” The king then gave the family a grant of land in Dale, or Dell, which led to the name Eyredale, from which it is a short step to Iredell.1  This is delightful, if apocryphal. The Eyre family of Bucks County has exactly the same story.2

Closer to historical reality, the family homestead was at Loweswater in Cumberland. Thomas Iredell, the immigrant, came with a certificate from the Monthly Meeting at Pardshaw Crag in Loweswater, issued 6^th month 1700. Pardshaw was a stronghold of Quakerism. George Fox preached there in 1650 and a meeting of Friends, the first in Cumberland, was formed. At first the people met outside on Pardshaw Crag, until in 1672 a meeting house was built. “They dwell far distant from any church, and having high-crags or clinty rocks above the town, they have their great Quaking meetings there, from whence they do readily espye any who come to disturb their conventicles; and so they were wont to disperse before they were caught, to prevent their convictions…”3

The Iredell family had lived around Loweswater for years. In 1524 William Iredale was warned to mend his roof or pay a fine.4 In the 1660s and 1670s, Loweswater was full of Iredales; “Half of the families listed, [in the Hearth Tax list] 33 out of 67, shared only six surnames: Iredale, Pearson, Mirehouse, Burnyeat, Wilkinson or Jackson. There were no less than thirteen families of Iredale alone and confusion is made worse by the fact that the number of first names used was also very small.”5 The parish registers and tax lists show multiple Iredales named William, John, and Peter.

Thomas Iredell, the immigrant to Pennsylvania, is usually said to be the son of Robert Iredell and Ellinore Jackson of Rigg Bank.6 However Robert and Ellinore were apparently married on 26 April 1628, at Loweswater Church, ruling them out as parents for Thomas the immigrant.7 A Thomas Iredell with father Robert was christened on 6 Dec 1676 in Loweswater, but this is surely a different Robert.8 Given the number of Iredell or Iredale families around Loweswater, it is possible that Thomas’ parents will remain unidentified.

Thomas became a Quaker before 1700, when the meeting on Pardsay Crag in Cumberland gave him a certificate of fitness to carry to Pennsylvania.9 It stated that “he has of late years come frequently among Friends. His carriage appears to be sober and truthlike, those who know him best give no other account but well. He comes with consent of his mother, though [she was] no Friend, and inquiry hath been made as to his clearness in relation to marriage, and nothing appears to ye contrary.”10 One of the signers was John Burnyeat, possibly the prominent Quaker minister from Loweswater who converted early and travelled widely.11

After immigrating, Thomas lived in Philadelphia for several years, a member of Philadelphia Meeting. There he married Rebecca Williams, daughter of Thomas Williams and his first wife, under the care of the Friends Meeting in 1705.12 Thomas Williams had immigrated before 1686, when he declared his intention of marrying Rebecca Bennet, widow of William Bennet.13 However, his daughter Rebecca was not with Rebecca Bennet, who already had a daughter Rebecca with William Bennet. In early 1702 the court at Burlington found Thomas Williams guilty of fornication with his “wife’s daughter” Rebecca, who was by then married to John Scholey.14 Thomas Williams’ daughter Rebecca (as opposed to his step-daughter) probably immigrated separately. Her passage was paid by her cousin Abraham Hardiman and by Samuel Carpenter, who was married to Hannah Hardiman.15 This strongly suggests that Thomas William’s first wife was a Hardiman, that they were married in Pembrokeshire, Wales (where the Hardimans were from), and that their daughter Rebecca was born there.16 It is not clear why Rebecca Williams immigrated without her father, if in fact she did.17

After Thomas and Rebecca Iredell were married, they may have lived in Philadelphia at first. In 1710 they asked for a certificate from Philadelphia Meeting, as they had moved out of the limits of the meeting. They settled in Abington, where Thomas built a stone house which stood for more than 150 years.18 The land they lived on, 200 acres, was bought from Samuel Carpenter, married to Rebecca’s cousin Hannah Hardiman.

In 1712 Thomas gave in a paper of condemnation to Abington Meeting for his “unbecoming expression and foolish behaviour” to Sarah Hood. He remained in good standing and in 1717, when Horsham Meeting was established as a meeting for worship, he was one of five members who took the title to the land donated by Samuel Carpenter.19 “Horsham Meeting had its official beginning in a Youth’s Meeting, established in the spring of 1717….The road to Abington was a long and difficult one in those days, and it is unthinkable that such pious families as the Cadwalladers and Iredells would long be content to be deprived of the privilege of religious services.”20 Thomas was appointed overseer and represented Horsham Meeting at the Quarterly Meeting almost every year from 1717 to 1725.

Thomas died in 1^st month 1726/27. He did not leave a will, and Rebecca served as the administrator. The inventory of his estate showed the household goods, farm tools, and animals of a prosperous farmer, with a value of £172.21 Rebecca was still in Horsham in 1734, when she was taxed for 200 acres.22

Children of Thomas and Rebecca:23

Mary, born about 1711, married in 1730 Thomas Good. They lived in Plumstead, where Thomas died in 1791.24

Abraham, married in 1740 Sarah Coffin. They lived in Horsham. Abraham died in 1749 and Sarah was one of the administrators of his estate, along with Isaac Cleaver and Abraham Lukens, who were both weavers.25

Rebecca, born 1717, died after 1797, married Isaac Cleaver in 1737 at Abington Mtg, son of Peter and Catharine. They lived in Cheltenham, where he was a weaver.26 Isaac died in 1797,  and left a will, naming Rebecca, his living daughters and some grandchildren. Children: Hannah, Mary, Rebecca, Rachel, Agnes, and Sarah. Of the six daughters, four married Tysons and the other two did not marry.

Robert, born 1721, died 1799, married in 1745 Hannah Lukens, daughter of Peter and Gainor. They lived in Horsham. Robert and his son Robert supported the British in the Revolution and some of their property was seized.27 Robert wrote his will in 1799, named his wife Hannah, six living children Seth, John, Jonathan, Robert, Abraham, Hannah.28

Rachel, died after 1800, married about 1745 Abraham Lukens, son of Peter and Gainor. They lived in Horsham, where Abraham was a weaver. He died in 1800. His will named wife Rachel, children Nathan, Robert, Seneca, Gaynor, Lydia.29

Hannah, married in 1745 Benjamin Fell under the auspices of Abington Meeting. They lived in Bucks County, where Benjamin died in 1758. In his will he mentioned a former wife (apparently Hannah) and present wife Sarah.30 He placed some of his children in the care of their aunts Mary Good and Rebecca Cleaver, and uncle Isaac Cleaver. Children John, Asa, Benjamin, Phebe, Deborah, Hannah, Thomas, Levi.

Peter Cleaver was an early settler at Germantown, buying land there in 1689.1  As a German Quaker he could have come from one of two areas in the Rhineland. A small group of Quakers from Krefeld, near Dusseldorf, formed a monthly meeting there. Almost all of them immigrated together in 1683, sailing on the Concord, and drawing lots for land in Germantown.2 Since that was such a small close-knit group, it is possibly that Peter lived further south along the Rhine. Another group of Quakers lived in a broader area around Kriegsheim (now Monsheim), 170 miles south of Krefeld.3 Most of these people had been Mennonites who were converted to Quakerism by traveling missionaries, including William Penn himself.4 Peter is not listed in known lists of Mennonites, such as the censuses of Kreigsheim, but other known Mennonites such as the Umstat family are missing from those lists as well.5

In any case, Peter Cleaver first appeared in Germantown records in 1689 when he bought a lot of 50 acres from William Strepers.6 In 1691 Peter was naturalized, along with many of his German neighbors, taking an oath of allegiance to the English crown and thereby gaining the freedom to own land and conduct business as natives.7 In 1692 he signed a petition against a tax bill, and the following year appeared on the tax list.8 In 1695 he added to his holding by buying 25 acres from the carpenter John Silans.9 In the deed Peter was listed as a husbandman, but like many of the Germans, he was also a weaver.10

In 1695 at Abington Meeting Peter married Catherine Shoemaker, the daughter of Peter Shoemaker. She came from Kriegsheim with her father and sisters on the Francis and Dorothy in 1685.11 Her name is often Anglicized to Gertrude or Catherine, but she was from a family that spoke a Rheinisch dialect of German; her name as they spoke it probably sounded more like Geertje. The English Quakers of Abington meeting who recorded their marriage intention wrote it as Catherine. The marriage would have been performed in Germantown, where the Quakers of the town met, first in the house of Thones Kunders, later in a small log meetinghouse.12

In 1699 Peter and Catherine sold their 50-acre tract in Germantown to Reyner Janson and moved to nearby Bristol Township.13 They would remain there for the rest of their lives. In 1721 Peter and his son Peter bought 165 acres near Upper Dublin or Whitemarsh. There they built a stone house with several outbuildings.14 The younger Peter lived there, while his father stayed in Bristol.

In 1709 Peter had a difference with William Harmer. They took it to Abington Meeting, which chose four men to “hear and determine it”. This was done and the difference settled. In 1724 Peter was chosen as an overseer for Germantown, responsible for guiding the younger generation in Quaker ways.15 The births of several of the children of Peter and Catherine were recorded at Abington Meeting, and most (though not all) of the children married under the auspices of the Meeting. Catherine does not appear in the meeting records, except for the record of her marriage; she may not have been comfortable speaking English. The date of her death is not known, but she was not named in Peter’s 1727 will and must have died before him.

Peter could not write and signed his will only with his initials. In the will, written in 12^th month 1727 and proved the same month, he named all seven of his children.16 The sons Isaac and John received land, while the other children got cash legacies. The inventory of his property included the usual household goods, farm tools and animals, as well as the plantations in Bristol and Cheltenham.17 The family of Peter and Catherine was prolific, and by the time their granddaughter Elizabeth married Jacob Kirk in 1760, twelve Cleavers signed their marriage certificate.18

Children of Peter and Catharine:

Christine, born 1696, married William Melchior in April 1727 at Christ Church, Philadelphia. In her father’s will as Christiann Melchier.19 Her father left her £20 in his will, but left her younger sister Agnes £30, so Christine probably received a marriage portion from her father before he died.

Peter Jr., born 1697, died 1776, married 1722 Elizabeth Potts, daughter of David and Alice (Croasdale), and lived in Upper Dublin. Elizabeth died in 1762; Peter died in 1776.20 He left a will naming children Peter, Nathan, Elizabeth, John, Isaac, and Ezekiel.21 A daughter Mary had died unmarried in 1744. His land was to be sold and the proceeds divided among the children. Most of the children remained Quakers and married in meetings.22

Derrick, born about 1702, died possibly 1768. He married in 1725, at Abington Meeting, Mary Potts, daughter of Thomas and Magdalen. Derrick and Mary supposedly settled in the Oley valley, since Mary’s father owned a share of the iron furnace at Colebrookdale. Derrick burned limestone in a kiln on his farm to sell to the furnace. He owned much land in Amity and Douglass Townships, becoming the first tax collector of Douglass Township and was himself the largest taxpayer, paying £16 in 1759.23 Children: John, Elizabeth, Martha, Mary and another daughter.

Eve, married a man named Adams after 1722. His first name is not known. No further information.

John, born about 1705, died 1773. In 1729 at Abington Meeting he married Elizabeth Levering Taylor, daughter of William Levering & Catherine and widow of a man named Taylor. They lived in Bristol on land bequeathed to him by his father. In a property release of 1748 he called himself a weaver. John died in 1773 and left a will.24 Children: Peter, Elizabeth, William, Sarah, John, Hannah and a daughter Mary who died before her father.25

Isaac, born 1713, died 1799. In 1737 at Abington Meeting he married Rebecca Iredell, daughter of Thomas and Rebecca. Isaac and Rebecca lived in Cheltenham and had six daughters, four of whom married Tysons.26 In his will of 1797, he left Rebecca £150 and the income of the estate.27 He left a clock to the oldest daughter Hannah; at her death it was to go to her son Isaac Tyson. He also named his daughter Mary and six of her children: Peter, Rynear, Benjamin, Jesse, Mary and Hannah Tyson.28 He died in 1799. The inventory of his estate included the household goods of a prosperous farmer, valued at over £1350. Children of Isaac and Rebecca: Hannah, Mary, Rebecca, Rachel, Agnes, Sarah.

Agnes, m. Richard Shoemaker, son of George Jr. and Sarah (Wall)29

Isaac was born in 1713, the son of Peter Cleaver and Catherine Shoemaker of Bristol, Philadelphia County. His father Peter was a farmer and weaver. Isaac grew up there, one of seven children in a Quaker family. In 1737 he married at Abington Meeting Rebecca Iredell, daughter of Thomas and Rebecca Williams. Isaac and Rebecca lived in Cheltenham and had six daughters, four of whom married Tysons.1  Isaac was respected in Abington meeting, though not active. In 1754 he was chosen as overseer.2

Isaac died in 1799. In his will of 1797, he left Rebecca £150 and the income of the estate.3 He left a clock to the oldest daughter Hannah; at her death it was to go to her son Isaac Tyson. He also named his grandson John Tyson, son of Agnes, and three children of his daughter Hannah. He named his daughter Mary and six of her children: Peter, Rynear, Benjamin, Jesse, Mary and Hannah Tyson.4 He died two years later. The inventory of his estate included the household goods of a prosperous farmer, valued at over £1350. The daughters were Hannah, Mary, Rebecca, Rachel, Agnes, Sarah. Only Hannah outlived her father.

Daughters of Isaac and Rebecca:

Hannah or Ann, born 1^st month 1737/38, married in 1759 John Tyson, son of John and Priscilla, at Abington Meeting. She married second Thomas Leech in 1774 at Abington Meeting. He died in 1804 in Upper Dublin. Hannah died after 1797.

Mary, born 1^st month 1739/40, died 1787. In 1760 she married Rynear Tyson, son of Peter and Mary. They lived in Abington and attended Upper Dublin Friends Meeting for worship. In 1774 Abington meeting reported that Rynear Tyson, son of Peter, had been drinking strong liquor to excess and had sued a Friend at law. Testimony was prepared against him and he was apparently disowned.5 Rynear died in 1796. In his will, written in 1793, he named his second wife Elizabeth (about whom nothing is known), children Peter, Rynear, Jacob, Benjamin, Thomas, Jesse, Mary and Hannah.6

Rebecca, born 3^rd month 1742, died 1765, age 19

Rachel, born 1^st month 1744/45, died 1765, probably unmarried

Agnes, born 12^th mo 1746/47, died 1779 at age 31, married in 1766 Joseph Tyson, son of John and Priscilla, the brother of John Tyson who married her sister Hannah. Agnes and Joseph had children Rebecca and John before Agnes’ death in 1779. Joseph later married Agnes Luken.7

Sarah, born 2^nd month 1751, married 12^th mo 1772/73 Isaac Tyson, son of Isaac and Sarah, at Abington Meeting. Sarah and Isaac had a daughter Abigail before Sarah’s death at age 22. Isaac then married Lydia Tomkins and had four children with her.8

Richard Morrey was baptized in February 1675, in London, the son of Humphrey and Ann Morrey. He was baptized at the church of St. Bartholomew the Great in Smithfield. His parents would later become Quakers.1 He was the youngest of their known children and only one of two to survive to adulthood.2 He first came to New York as a child with his parents before 1683, then moved to Philadelphia with them. His father Humphrey was a successful merchant, and Richard may have gone back to England to be educated. About 1695 he married a woman named Ann, whose last name is unknown.3 There are no records of Richard Morrey in Pennsylvania until 1702, when he witnessed a deed of sale by his father Humphrey of a Philadelphia city lot.4 Was he acting as the English agent for his father’s trading business until then? The family owned a house in Tower Hill, London, where Richard and Ann could have lived. In 1708 the neighborhood had “many good new buildings, mostly inhabited by gentry and merchants.”5

By 1716 Richard and Ann were living in Cheltenham, when Richard inherited considerable land from his father Humphrey, sharing some of it with his cousin, the younger Humphrey.6 They shared the Cheltenham estate of at least 450 acres and another 400 acres in Gloucester County, West Jersey. Richard got a Philadelphia lot, probably the one on Mulberry Street, while Humphrey received the “water lot”, probably the Chestnut Street property.

Richard and Humphrey probated the will of the elder Humphrey in May 1716, and the next month they began to sell his land. In June 1716 they confirmed a deed of a lot on Mulberry Street sold by the elder Humphrey but never conveyed; they confirmed the sale to Richard Hill, a Philadelphia merchant.7 In October 1716, Richard sold part of his city lot to Sven Warner, cordwainer of Philadelphia, conveying the rest to Richard’s son Thomas.8 In 1717 Richard and his cousin Humphrey made a large land purchase of their own, buying rights to 2,000 acres to be laid out from the three daughters of Nathaniel Bromley, a First Purchaser of land from Penn.9 Two years later, in 1719, Richard, his wife Ann, and cousin Humphrey sold a lot in the city to Joseph Taylor, a Philadelphia brewer.10 It was the city lot that went along with the Bromley purchase.11 The next year the Morreys sold another lot from the Bromley purchase to William Branson, joyner, and in 1721 they sold yet another part of the lot to Hugh Cordry, pulley maker.12 In 1722 Richard and Humphrey partitioned the 2000 acres of the Bromley land, laid out in Wrightstown, Bucks County.13

In May of 1720 Richard and Ann Morrey made an unusual transaction that reveals something about their marriage and possibly Ann’s birth family.14 Thomas Turner of London had conveyed a credit from the stock of the East India company to Richard Morrey, supposedly in a will written on May 11, 1711. He conveyed one-third of a credit worth £325, a handsome bequest.15 What was Morrey’s relation to Turner? Given the terms of the 1720 conveyance, it is possible that Turner was Ann Morrey’s father. The money was clearly intended for Ann’s use. Richard and Ann conveyed the one-third part to Job Goodson and John Warder of Philadelphia, who were to invest the money for the use of Ann Morrey. Her husband was not to meddle with it, and it would be excluded from his estate. Ann was to dispose of the profits “at her own will and pleasure”. This unusual provision suggested that the profits were to be Ann’s because they came from her father.

Who was Thomas Turner of London? He was certainly well-off, possibly a merchant. According to the 1720 deed, he wrote his will on May 11, 1711. There was a Thomas Turner of St. Botolph, Aldersgate, London who wrote his will on May 11, 1711, but he named no family in the will except a cousin, left most of his money to charity and the poor, and did not name any stock credits.16 Other men named Thomas Turner died around 1714 to 1715, but did not name Richard Morrey in their wills, and none of them signed their wills in 1711.17 The Thomas Turner who made the bequest must remain unidentified for now.

In 1726 Richard bought 1,000 acres from Nathaniel Roberts of Kent County, England, for £30.18 This purchase may have overextended Richard’s funds, since in August 1729 he was in financial trouble. He turned again to Job Goodson, John Warder, and Samuel Preston, and set up a trust to cover his debts.19 He conveyed to them his house and 250 acres in Cheltenham, his land in Gloucester County, a house and lot on Front Street in the city, and several lots on Chestnut Street, including the rents.20 The properties were granted to the three trustees for a term of 60 years, they paying one peppercorn to Richard Morrey each year if it was demanded.21 From the income of the properties, the trustees were to pay Morrey’s debts, make a payment to Ann for her maintenance and that of their son Thomas, and pay a smaller amount to Richard for his “pocket expenses”.22 Richard also transferred to the trustees the 984 acres laid out for him on Manahatawny Creek in Philadelphia County with the intention that they should sell it. The question arises: why did Richard go through this complex deed instead of selling the some of the properties himself? It is possible that he could not find ready buyers or that his creditors were pressing for immediate payment. Richard may have been living beyond his means. In various records he is described as a gentleman, suggesting that he lived off the income from the rents of the city lots, and perhaps any profits from his rural land. This may not have been enough.

Richard may have been trying to speculate in real estate because his sister-in-law, brother-in-law, and nephew had been successful at it. Richard’s brother John, about nine years older than Richard, married Sarah Budd in 1689 under the auspices of Philadelphia Monthly Meeting.23 Sarah was the daughter of Thomas and Susanna Budd, wealthy Quakers who owned property in West Jersey and Philadelphia.24 After John and Sarah were married, he worked as a merchant. In early 1692 he requested two trees from the proprietor’s land to build a crane on his wharf.25 John died at a young age, in 1698, leaving Sarah with three young children, only one of whom would like to adulthood.26 After John’s death, Sarah began to buy and sell land with her brother John Budd and son Humphrey (after 1718 when he came of age). At one time or another she owned a share of land in Chester County, rights to 3000 acres in Philadelphia County, and land in West Jersey.27 Her son Humphrey would be even more successful as a land speculator (and as a distiller). With his uncle John Budd, Humphrey owned rights to 5000 acres to be laid out in Pennsylvania.28 When he died in 1735, Humphrey left legacies of over £1400, plus his extensive real estate holdings.29

In 1735, Richard lost three members of his family. The first to die was his nephew Humphrey, who made his will on 6 August and died about a week later. He left large sums of money to his cousins on the Budd side (his mother was Sarah Budd), and left his uncle Richard and cousin Thomas each £20 per year.30 The second loss was that of Jane Laurence, who probably died in late September. Jane wrote a will remembering Richard and Ann, their son Thomas, their daughter Matilda Kimble and three of her children, as well as Richard’s “Negro woman Mooney”.31 The inclusion of Mooney, also known as Cremona, strongly suggests that Jane was a member of Richard’s household.32 Some of the wealthier families of Philadelphia included an unmarried lady in their household, who helped manage the servants and the children.33 Jane Laurence must have filled this role for the Morreys for many years. Humphrey Sr. had named her in his will in 1716. She was a lady; her inventory included some silver spoons and a silk gown.34 She was obviously capable. In 1708 the administration of the estate of Richard Sutton, collar maker, was granted to her after his widow renounced. This was at a time when women were rarely administrators unless they were the widow. The final death in 1735 was Richard’s son Thomas. He made his will in September and died in late October.35 The fact that Jane and Thomas died so soon after Humphrey suggests that they were victims of an infectious disease. This was a time when malaria, smallpox, measles, pneumonia and other diseases could sweep through a community, especially in the summer months.36

Thomas’ will revealed some of his life and that of his family.37 He left to his father Richard any books he wanted. He left his mother Ann the rents of a house at Tower Hill, London, to be given after the death of his parents to cousins in Cheshire. He left 200 acres on Neshaminy Creek in Bucks County to his sister Matilda Kimbal and an adjoining 200 acres to her children. He left his microscopes to Christopher Witt, and money to his father’s servants and Negroes. He left £2 to the minister of St. Thomas Church at Whitemarsh to preach the funeral sermon. The picture is of an unmarried Anglican gentleman living a comfortable life with his books and scientific devices, fond of his family and generous to his servants. Christopher Witt was an especially interesting acquaintance for Thomas. He worked as a physician, cast horoscopes, and was a friend of the botanist John Bartram.38 His library in Germantown was filled with books on philosophy, “natural magic”, and divining. Perhaps he used Thomas’ microscopes to study the plants from Bartram’s garden.

By 1745 Richard’s finances were apparently mended, since he was able to make two generous gifts.39 The first was to his kinsman Leonard Morrey formerly of Buerton, Cheshire. Richard and Ann sold 700 acres in Cheltenham to Leonard for 5 shillings, a nominal sum to make it a legal contract.40 The land adjoined Richard’s other Cheltenham land.41

The other gift that Richard made that winter was unique in the early history of Pennsylvania. Richard had been involved in a long-time relationship with his Negro slave Cremona, known to the family as Mooney. It is not clear whether it was consensual on her part or whether his wife condoned the relationship. But the relationship produced five children and ended only when Richard freed Cremona. It is hard to believe that his wives, Ann and later Sarah, would not have known about it. In January 1746 Richard gave Cremona a tract of 198 acres in Cheltenham adjoining the land of Isaac and Rynear Tyson. She was to pay a rent of one peppercorn per year, but the land was hers and her heirs, “in consideration of the good and faithful service unto him done and performed”.42 This liaison, between an older man and his dependent slave, is unsavory, but at least he freed her in the end and made her financially independent. She did not marry for eight years, until after Richard’s death, suggesting that she had an emotional bond to him.43 By January 1754, she was married to John Frey, a freed slave. In 1772, after Cremona died, the land was put in trust for Cremona’s children, the five with Richard Morrey, and Joseph, the son with John Frey.44 A difference had arisen after Frey’s death and the family chose this way to settle it.45 The trustee was the Quaker farmer Isaac Knight of Abington. John and the children conveyed the land to Knight for 30s, to be held in trust until John Frey’s death, at which time Knight was to sell it for the benefit of the six children.

Ann Morrey died some time between 1735 and 1746. Administration on her estate was granted to her husband Richard.46 For some reason there is no record of the administration in Philadelphia, but it was noted in England, probably because the family still held property in London.47 She had made a will and left a legacy to Abington Monthly Meeting. The minutes of the meeting noted the legacy, “I give and bequeath unto Abington Monthly Meeting the sum of 5 pounds, the Which legacy this mtg is given to understand is in the hands of Henery Vanaken of Phila, wherefore James Paul our Treasurer is appointed to receive the said legacy of the said Friend and place it to the common stock of this mtg and to give a receipt in the name and behalf of this mtg for the same.”48

In June 1746 Richard married Sarah Allen, a widow, at Trinity Church in Oxford. Richard had been raised as a Quaker, but at some point he had fallen away. He does not appear in the records of Abington Meeting or Philadelphia Meeting. Sarah’s background is unclear, although much has been speculated about her. Her brother was John Beasley; he served as the executor of Richard’s estate.49 When she married Richard, she was the widow of an Allen.50

In 1752 Richard and Sarah went to court to solve a problem. His father Humphrey had left Richard the Philadelphia lots with their valuable yearly quitrents, but they were entailed in the male line. That is, Richard owned them but could not sell them; they could only be passed down to his male heirs. That must have seemed feasible in 1716 when Humphrey died, but after 1735, when both Thomas and his cousin Humphrey died, there were no male heirs in the Morrey line. Richard and Sarah went to the Court of Common Pleas for a common recovery, an elaborate legal fiction which circumvented the terms of the bequest. This involved a token sale of the property, a “straw man” who appeared in court briefly then disappeared, and a judgment from the court that the actual owner should recover the land in fee simple, with the right to sell, instead of fee tail.51 Now Richard and Sarah were free to sell the rents, and in January 1753 they sold them to Israel Pemberton for £550, a large sum.52 Pemberton, a wealthy merchant and philanthropist, was sometimes called the “King of the Quakers” for his wealth, power and influence.53 On August 1753, Richard and Sarah sold a lot “on the Northern Bounds of the said city” to William Chancellor for £500, as well as a property in Cheltenham.54

Finally, in August 1753, Richard Morrey made his will, after a long and eventful life. He was 78 years old, and outlived his first wife and his only son. He left all his property to his wife Sarah, and made her and her brother John Beasley the executors, with William Chancellor and Jenkin Jones as overseers.55 He died not long after. Joshua Harmer, a Quaker neighbor, was asked to be a bearer at the funeral. He refused, saying that there were younger men more fit for the purpose, but the sexton gave him a pair of gloves anyway, as was the custom for bearers at an Anglican funeral. Joshua was reported to Abington Monthly Meeting for taking the gloves against the rules of the Society of Friends, and he had to make acknowledgment of the fault.56

The inventory of Richard’s estate was taken on February 11, 1754. By then Sarah Morrey was also dead, her brother John Beasley acted as the surviving executor. The inventory shows the level of comfort that Richard and Sarah had enjoyed. In their main house, in northern Philadelphia, they had walnut leather chairs, prints on the walls, a clock and looking glass, a Delft punchbowl, a mahogany oval table, spice box, and ample linens.57 In addition, they still had a simple home in Cheltenham, sparsely furnished. After their deaths, the house was offered for sale in an ad in the Pennsylvania Gazette: “House where Richard Murray, dec’d, formerly dwelt, near the northern bound of Phila., bounded on W. by ground of George Royal and on E. by land of Jonathan Zane, for sale; apply to William Chancellor in Market St. (2 May 1754)58

Children of Richard and Ann:59

Matilda, m. Anthony Kimble about 1715. Nothing is known of Anthony’s background. He is not named in any Quaker records. They lived in Bucks County, where Anthony died before 1735. Matilda married again, possibly twice.60 She died in 1749 or 1750. Children of Anthony and Matilda: Mary, Ann, Rosa, Anthony, William.61

Thomas, born about 1698, died 1735 unmarried. He was a gentleman, who probably lived with his parents. He left a will, naming his sister and her children, as well as his parents. He left fifty pounds to St. Thomas (Episcopal) Church in Whitemarsh on condition that they maintain his tomb for “all times hereafter”. He requested that a brick tomb be built over his grave with a stone over it and six evergreen trees to be cut and trimmed in good order.

Richard and Cremona had five children. Robert used the surname Lewis; the others used Murray.

Children of Richard and Cremona:62

Robert, b. ab. 1735; apprenticed to a shoemaker, possibly neighbor Reynier Tyson63

Caesar, b. ab. 1737; apprenticed to a shoemaker

Elizabeth, b. ab. 1739. She was a maid for Nicholas and Sarah Waln; they wrote a letter of testimony for her in 4^th month 1773.64 Elizabeth later married Cyrus Bustill, a prosperous black businessman and founder of a school for black children. It is said that Cyrus donated bread for Washington and his troops, and that Bustleton is named for him. Elizabeth and Cyrus lived as Quakers but were unable to join as members because of their race. One of the descendants of Cyrus and Elizabeth was Paul Robeson, the actor and singer.

Rachel, b. ab. 1742, m. Andrew Hickey

Cremona, b. ab. 1745, m. 1766 John Montier, had four sons.

Humphrey Morrey was a wealthy Quaker merchant and the first mayor of Philadelphia. Although he lived in comfort to a ripe old age, there were disappointments in his family. He and his wife lost four children in infancy and another son died before Humphrey did. Humphrey wanted to leave a legacy of land to his descendants, but the family name was lost when his two grandsons did not marry. His two sons turned away from the Quakers and became Anglicans. While the family did not follow in Humphrey’s path, nonetheless he became wealthy and well-respected among the elite of Pennsylvania.

Humphrey was born about 1640 in England, and his first known child was baptized in 1661 in London. No records have been found of Humphrey’s birth, but his brother Leonard lived in Buerton, Cheshire, and it is probable that Humphrey was born there.1  He named his sons Humphrey, John, Leonard and Richard.2 The registers of Audlem, Buerton’s parish, show various Morreys with these given names, but no birth of Humphrey or Leonard in the right time.3 Humphrey’s family in Pennsylvania stayed in contact with Morreys in Buerton, even for two more generations. Thomas Morrey, Humphrey’s grandson, in his will of 1735 left a legacy to the children of John Morrey “on the Meer in Cheshire in old England”.4 Leonard Morrey, one of John’s children, came to Pennsylvania, since in 1745 Humphrey’s son Richard sold land to his cousin Leonard Morrey “of Buerton in the County of Chester now residing in Cheltenham Township”.5 The land was 700 acres of Richard’s property in Cheltenham, sold to Leonard for 5s in consideration of the “affection he hath for his kinsman”. A deed in 1757 from Leonard Morrey to Robert Greenway for part of the same land confirmed the relationships, naming Leonard as the son of John and grandson of Leonard, Humphrey’s brother.6

At some point Humphrey married a woman named Ann. A record of marriage has not been found, but the assumption is that she was the mother of his children. In the 1660s Humphrey and Ann were living in London, where several of their children were baptized at St Bartholomew the Great, in Smithfield. If this was their home parish, they were living north of the City in a suburb.

“London, in 1654, was a quaint mediaeval city, not a tenth the size of the present metropolis, but within its confined area densely populated. Surrounded by walls whose foundations had existed from the times of the Romans, its only entrances were through embattled gateways, jealously guarded by a local militia; within these it was a labyrinth of narrow lanes and winding streets…Looking beyond his city’s walls, the Londoner of 1654 found strong lines of distinction between what he knew as the city and those surrounding places now indefinitely merged within it. To him Islington, Hoxton, Homerton, Clerkenwell, Stepney, Shadwell, meant villages separated from his city wall and” ditch by pleasant fields…”7

Smithfield was not as far north as Hoxton or Islington, but it was northwest of the City proper. Life in the city was primitive by our standards.

“Few of our modern comforts were then known. The pavements, where any, were so rough that no carriages could go over them save at a footpace. Most of the sewers were open brooks that in storms rushed brawling in torrents to the Thames. There was no lighting of the streets at night, each one who ventured out after dark having to carry his own torch or lanthorn, and his own weapon of defence, for, except the trainbands or local militia, there were no watchmen. The tradespeople kept shop in open places unprotected by glass, and closed at night by doors or shutters. The citizens lived with but few of our social appliances; they fetched their own water either from the conduit or the public pump…”8

The baptisms of Humphrey’s children extended from 1661 to 1675, suggesting that he spent much of his young adult life there. It is possible that Humphrey and his brother Leonard were in business together in London. A Leonard Morrey, probably Humphrey’s brother, had a son Richard baptized at St. Martin in the Fields in December 1674, just two months before Humphrey’s son Richard’s baptism.9 In all Humphrey and Ann had five children baptized at the church of St. Bartholomew the Great, plus another son, John, who was apparently not baptized there.10

It was a difficult time to live in the crowded city. In 1665 London was struck by the bubonic plague, in its last major eruption in England. Over 100,000 people were killed.11 There are no records of children born to Humphrey and Ann during that year. They may have left London for the countryside, or a birth record in London may have been lost. If they left for Buerton, they would have had a week’s travel by horses; it was 170 miles north of London. The death rate from the plague peaked that summer and many people returned in the spring of 1666. In fact Humphrey and Ann were living in London in 1666 when another child was baptized at St Bartholomew. This was the year of the Great Fire, the second calamity to strike the city in two years.12 Much of the center city burned, but the suburban slums did not.

At some point Humphrey and Ann left London and moved to New York, presumably taking their two surviving children with them. It is not known when they became Quakers and little is known of their life in New York. Some have speculated that they lived in Oyster Bay, Long Island, where there was a small Quaker community.13 By early 1684 they were planning to move to Philadelphia. On February 11, 1683/4 Humphrey paid £50 for a house and lot on the south side of Chestnut Street between Front and Second.14 In a letter to William Penn in August 1685, Robert Turner wrote, “Humphrey Murray, from New York, has built a large Timber House with Brick Chimnies.”15 Apparently this replaced the earlier house. This property became the foundation of Humphrey’s wealth, as he eventually owned the entire block.

Humphrey was a merchant and distiller, and a land speculator. His account book shows that he sold wine by the bottle and barrel, “Canary wine, Madeira, claret and ‘cyder royall’.”16 He also sold provisions such as Indian corn. The wine was imported from London and Dublin and unloaded at his wharf at Front and Chestnut Streets.17

They obviously came with some capital, which they increased through land speculation. Humphrey himself owned property in the city, in Cheltenham and in West Jersey, while his sons and grandsons owned thousands of acres in the province. Humphrey bought, while still in England, rights to 250 acres to be laid out in Pennsylvania.18 This purchase entitled him to a lot in the city, but not on the Delaware waterfront, since 250 acres was considered a small purchase.19 This led to some confusion when he arrived in 1683 and asked for his land to be laid out. The 250 acres were laid out in Cheltenham, ten miles north of the city.20 The city lot was laid out on Mulberry Street between 4^th and 5^th streets from the river.21 Apparently Penn had promised Morrey that the lot would be on Delaware Front Street, probably in an effort to encourage merchants to settle and trade in the city.22 Four months later Penn sent another warrant to Holme for a lot for Morrey, this time on the waterfront, “by order of the governor”. However this warrant was apparently never executed.23 A note on the reverse said, “Vacat.. make void.” A few months later Morrey got what he wanted by buying a lot with 30 feet of frontage on the Delaware; he bought it from Mercy Jefferson for £50. It was on the south side of Wynne Street, later renamed Chestnut Street.24 In 10^th month 1688 Morrey bought the bank lot opposite this house. Front Street at that time lay along the waterfront, before later land fill moved it back. The Delaware front lots were on the west side of Front Street, while the land between the street and the river was known as the bank. With the purchase of the bank lot, he now had a way to build a wharf adjoining his house and lot on the other side of Front Street.25 He later bought another bank lot from the Commissioners of Property, but sold it in 1702 to Thomas Oldman.26

In 1684 Morrey added to his Cheltenham land by buying 100 acres from Thomas Fairman, one of Holme’s assistant surveyors.27
In 1686 he bought more adjoining land from Fairman, and in 1692 completed his Cheltenham tract with another 109 acres from John and Susanna Colley.28 At the same time Morrey was buying more land in the city. In 10^th month 1685 he bought a lot on Second Street from Richard Ingelo for £39.29 The next year he bought a lot, 49 feet by 300 feet, on Mulberry and Third Street.30 Morrey bought his West Jersey land in pieces, 315 acres on the Delaware River from William Steel and an adjoining 105 acres from Philip Richards.31

By 1692, just ten years after he had arrived in Pennsylvania, Morrey’s land holdings were at their peak. In Nicholas Wainwright’s Plan of Philadelphia, we see the location of Humphrey’s city lots.32 He owned a lot on Chestnut Street between Front Street and the Delaware River, and another on Chestnut between Front and Second, and one on Mulberry between Fourth and Fifth Streets. He owned over 500 acres in Cheltenham and over 400 acres in Gloucester County, West Jersey, on the Delaware River. His Front Street property was assessed for £500 in the tax list of 1693, and his Mulberry Street lot for another £30.33

After 1693 Humphrey began to sell some of his properties. He sold the Ingelo lot, on Second Street from Delaware, to Andrew Robeson and two other men.34 He sold his Mulberry Street lot to the tavernkeeper Adam Birch.35 In a complex and puzzling transaction in 1696 Morrey sold his four Cheltenham pieces, a total of 559 acres, to the merchant Samuel Spencer. But Spencer apparently did not pay as agreed, and the land reverted to Morrey.36 In 1702 Morrey sold the lot and brick house on Chestnut and Front Streets to Thomas Oldman.37 In 1707 Morrey sold 50 acres of the Cheltenham land to Matthias Tyson, of the Tyson family of adjoining Abington.38 Over several years he sold lots on the south side of Chestnut Street in four transactions, keeping the valuable yearly rents for himself.39 These rents eventually became the property of his son Richard.

As usual in the times, wealth brought influence in the government. The early government in Pennsylvania went through several changes because of disagreements between Penn and the leaders of the colony, and among the leaders themselves. In 1685 he pleaded with them, “”For the love of God, me, and the poor country, be not so governmentish”.40 One constant, from 1682 on, was the existence of two bodies: the Council and the Assembly. Their number and powers fluctuated, but the Council was always a smaller group with more executive power while elected Assembly was more legislative.41 Morrey served on both bodies. He was elected to the Assembly in 1687 and 1690, but was not active there. In October 1700 Penn appointed him to the Provincial Council, where he served for a year.42 In addition he was a Justice of the Peace for Philadelphia County in 1685 and 1686.

Finally, in 1691, when Philadelphia received a city charter, Humphrey was appointed as its first mayor. The position must not have been very powerful; several early council members were known to decline the honor. The Minutes of the Provincial Council for June 1691 gave one of Humphrey’s official acts as mayor. “Humphrey Morrey, the present Mayor of the city of Philadelphia, on behalf of the said city moves the Governor and Council to lay out and regulate the landing place near the Blue Anchor. Where upon was ordered that the said Mayor and the Aldermen of Philadelphia have notice to attend the Governor and Council about the 8^th hour in order to view the said landing.”43 It is interesting to remember that the entire government of the city of Philadelphia and colony of Pennsylvania lived in Philadelphia, probably a few blocks from each other.

In 1695 Morrey and other prominent men of the city presented a petition to the Assembly, stating their grievances about conditions in the city of Philadelphia. They complained about the “many ordinaries and tipling houses in this town of Philadelfia Kept by several as are not well qualified for such undertakings, tending to debauchery and corrupting of youth.” They wanted more law enforcement with “stocks, or cages be provided for the incarceration of drunkards or other violators of the good laws of England and this province, when taken up by the watch or constables”. They complained that the Indians were “reeling and bauling on the streets, especially by night, to the disturbance of the peace of this town”. And, as good Quakers, they wanted more social controls – “a check put to hors raceing, which begets swearing, blaspheming God’s holy name, drawing youth to vanaty, makeing such noises and public hooting and uncivil riding on the streets; also that dancing, fiddling, gameing, and what else may tend to debauch the inhabitans and to blemish Christianity and dishonour the holy name of God, may be curbed and restrained, both at fairs and all other times.”44 This was not his only activity on behalf of the city. He helped arrange for a prison, petitioned for the laying out of a street under the bank, and petitioned for laws regulating watercourses and wharfs.45

Humphrey and his wife Ann were not particularly active in Quaker affairs. The only time her name appears in the records of Philadelphia Monthly Meeting is a notice of her death. Humphrey and Ann were both middle-aged by the time they immigrated. She may have been in poor health. Humphrey did participate in the meeting affairs, but less often than many of his peers. He did not do routine work such as clearing young men for marriage. Typically he was called on for financial affairs, such as securing the estate of a widow who wished to remarry or settling a difference between two Friends (often the wealthy merchants such as John Jones or David Lloyd).46 Humphrey was a witness at several weddings between 1688 and 1699.47

Ann died in 8^th month (October) 1693.48 By then her son John was married and living in Philadelphia. John married Sarah Budd and had a son Humphrey. Ann’s other son Richard married twice and had three children with his first wife, as well as children with his long-term mistress Cremona. Humphrey (the elder) was still living in Philadelphia until about 1710, but in a deed in 1713 he was described as “Humphrey Murray late of the city (but now of Murray at Edge Hill in the twp of Cheltenham)”. He had retired to his country estate. This was an extensive landholding and valuable farmland.49 Did Humphrey own slaves as part of his labor force? His son Richard did. No slaves were mentioned in Humphrey’s will or the inventory of his estate.50 Many early Quakers, including William Penn himself, did own slaves; it took years before the Quakers condemned slaveholding by their members.

Humphrey lived in comfort in Cheltenham.51 As befits a good Quaker gentleman, he did not have an extensive wardrobe: two coats with plate buttons, a riding coat, a vest, an old hat, three shirts, stockings and shoes. He owned 14 coverlets and blankets, piles of sheets, table cloths and napkins. His furniture included beds, chests of drawers, tables, stools, and cane chairs. His kitchen was stocked with pans, tongs, kettles, pots, and a frypan. He ate off of pewter dishes and drank from a silver tankard, and drank his cocoa in cups trimmed with silver. His livestock included three horses, twelve cattle, 29 sheep and lambs. He still kept his house in the city, but with only one room of furniture: a bedstead and table, a case of drawers, a few dishes and some candlesticks.52

Humphrey died on the 28^th of second month 1716.53 In his will he named his brother Leonard and first cousin John, along with Mary Kimball, a friend Jane Laurence, his son Richard, two daughters-in-law (not named), and two grandsons Humphrey and Thomas.54 Nicholas Hickst was one of the witnesses.55

Much of Humphrey’s estate was tied up in his landholdings. In the will he left it to his son Richard and grandsons Humphrey and Thomas. The tract to Thomas was given to him in fee simple, that is to say, in outright ownership. The land to Richard and Humphrey included the Cheltenham estate “adjoining to William Harmer”, the lot in Philadelphia next to James Sickles, the water lot in Philadelphia, and the 400 acres in Gloucester, West Jersey. The land was given to them during their “natural lives” but it was entailed to their male heirs. The younger Humphrey died unmarried, and after Richard’s son Thomas died in 1735, Richard had no heirs through the male line.56 Eventually in 1748 Richard went to court to break the entail and enable him to sell the land.

In the will Humphrey asked his heirs to follow the Quaker way of arbitration. “If my son and grandson should not agree they shall not go to law but Apply themselves to the Monthly Meeting of Philadelphia and the Meeting shall appoint two men out of the meeting to end such differences as may arise between them and those men shall have reasonable satisfaction….So I warn you to take Joseph’s Council which he gave to his Brethren: fall not out by the way. If I see cause either to add or diminish of this my Will it shall not lessen nor break the value of it.” Humphrey remained a Quaker to his death, although his sons and grandsons became Anglicans.

Children of Humphrey and Ann:57 Humphrey and Ann are both named as parents in four of the baptisms; the Ann who died as his wife in 1693 is presumed to be the same woman and the mother of all the children.

Elizabeth, bapt. September 1661, daughter of Humphrey and Ann, no further record

Humphrey, bapt. August 1663, son of Humphrey and Ann, died in infancy

Humphrey, bapt. August 1666, son of Humphrey and Ann, no further record

John, born between 1665 and 1669, d. 1698 in Phila., married in 1689 Sarah Budd, daughter of Thomas and Susanna58. They had five children: four who died in infancy (John, Elizabeth, Thomas and another John), and Humphrey, who died unmarried in 1735. John and Sarah were extensive land speculators before his death.59 After his death she continued to buy and sell land with her brother John Budd.

Leonard, bapt. July 1671, son of Humphrey, died in 167660

Richard, bapt. February 1675, son of Humphrey and Ann, died in 1754 in Philadelphia.61 He married twice and left descendants, although none in the male line. His first wife Ann died before 1746, when he married the widow Sarah Allen. He had two children with Ann: Thomas, who died unmarried in 1735 (the same year as his cousin Humphrey), and Matilda, who married Anthony Kimble and left descendants. Richard also had a long-term liaison with his slave Cremona and had five children with her: Robert, Caesar, Elizabeth, Rachel, Cremona.