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William Kimble and Sarah Worthington

William Kimble was born in Buckingham, Bucks County, around 1730 to 1735, the youngest child of Anthony and Matilda Kimble.1 William grew up on land given to Matilda by her father Richard Morrey, of the wealthy Morreys of Philadelphia and Cheltenham. William might have known his grandfather Richard, who died in 1753. Richard and his children fell away from the Quaker faith and joined the Church of England. When William married Sarah Worthington in 1770, they married at Christ Church in Philadelphia.2

Sarah was the daughter of Samuel Worthington and Mary Carver, from two good Quaker families of Buckingham township, although they were falling away from the Society by this generation. One of Sarah’s sisters, Esther Worthington, married William’s brother Anthony. Samuel named his daughters Sarah and Hester Kimble in his will of 1775.3 The marriage in 1770 was a late one for William, but they nonetheless had a large family.

William and Sarah lived in Buckingham. The tax records for Buckingham Township, starting in 1761 and extending for years, include William Kimble and his brother Anthony.4 In 1763 William added to his farm by buying 92 acres in 1763 from his nephew Thomas Hicks. He also received land, another fifty acres, from his mother’s estate in 1750.5 This entire tract of 275 acres in Buckingham adjoined the land of Benjamin Worthington.6 In 1790 there were three Kimble households living close to each other in Buckingham: William, Anthony and John.7 There is also a William Kemble living in Abington, Montgomery County. This William appears in the census with two older males, two younger males, and two females, which would closely fit the profile of his family. This would also make it easy for William’s daughter Martha to meet her husband Peter Tyson of Upper Dublin. In the direct tax list of 1798 (the “windowpane tax”) William Kimble was listed as the owner of a stone house in Abington, 30 feet by 18 feet, with two floors but no outbuildings. The occupant was William’s son Jonathan. If this is the same William, then he must have been renting out the Buckingham land, since he still owned it.

William Kimble died in 1812 or early 1813. On February 1, 1813, letters of administration were granted to his son-in-law Peter Tyson. Sarah had died before him, since she was not named in the court record.8 The Orphan’s Court of Bucks County noted that he owned 264 acres in Buckingham.9

After William’s death, Richard Kimble sold the family homestead, placing an advertisement for it.

Plantation of 269 Acres in Buckingham Township, 24 miles from Philadelphia – and 4 ½ miles from Doylestown. The later Property of Wm. Kimble (dec.d) Adjoins land of Benjamin Worthington, Wm. Titus (Anthony Kimble’s homestead) and others. Improvements are – good two story Stone House. Well of excellent Water near Door. Log Barn with Stabling. The place is well watered and divided in 2 Farms by a Road leading from Doylestown to Newtown (Swamp Road). Apple Orchard is in Prime of bearing, with many other Fruit Trees. With the Buildings, is proposed to sell about 100 A. – with a sufficient proportion of Meadow and Timber. The remaining 169 A. the Principal Part of which is under Timber will be sold in Lots of 5 A or more as may suit the Purchaser.10

Children of William and Sarah:11

Jonathan, died 1852. He served as administrator of William’s estate along with Peter Tyson. He owned a tract of 150 acres in Plumstead. He died in 1852, unmarried and with no children.12

Martha, died 1832, married about 1793 Peter Tyson, son of Rynear and Mary. Peter and Mary lived in Upper Dublin, Montgomery County, and had children Rynear, William, Peter, Martha, Sarah, Mary, Rebecca and Jesse.13 After Peter died, the daughter Mary took care of Martha. Martha and Peter are buried at Upper Dublin Friends, although they were not Quakers. Peter had close relations with his Kimble in-laws. He administered William’s estate, sued Isaiah, borrowed money from Richard and Jonathan.14

Richard, born about 1775, died in 1843, married Mary Jane Kerr, lived in Moreland, Montgomery County.15 Children: Abel, Chalkley, Isaiah, Sarah, Owen, William and Richard.16 His sons Owen and Isaiah were the administrators.

John, married a woman named Charlotte. They lived in Montgomery Township, Montgomery County, where he died in 1812, leaving Charlotte with seven children under 21. Children: John, Sarah, Mary Ann, Martha, William, Isaiah, Azor. John did not leave a will, and his estate of 94 acres was handled by the Orphan’s Court.17

William, died before 1852, married Rachel Dungan in 1794.18 William was living in Northampton when he married Rachel at the Neshaminy Presbyterian Church of Warminster. Children: William, Garret, Sarah.19

Isaiah, married a woman named Anna Maria. They lived in Abington, where Isaiah died in 1848, leaving his widow and seven children: G. Washington, Tamysan, Harriet, Jonathan, Juliana, Isaiah, Mary Jane.20 Isaiah owned 120 acres in Abington, on the Welsh Road and Limekiln Road, which was sold in two pieces after his death, part to Owen Kimble and part to Isaiah Kimble.21

Christopher, alive in 1830 but died before 1852.22 Christopher was unable to manage his own affairs, and Peter Tyson was appointed trustee for him. “Peter Tyson was appointed trustee for his brother in law Christopher Kimble a lunatic, amount unascertained but supposed to be on the 18th June 1830 to be about 6831.00.”23

Sarah, alive in 1813, died before 1852. No further records.24

Frances, died before 1852.25

  1. There is some uncertainly about the name of William’s father. It is usually given as Anthony, beginning with a reference in Davis’ History of Bucks County in 1876, but there are no known original records of Anthony. There is one record of a Matilda Kemble with husband John, but it is not clear whether it refers to the same Matilda Kimble.
  2. Pennsylvania Marriages Prior to 1810, vol. 1, Pennsylvania Archives, series 2, vol. 8, ed. by Linn and Egle.
  3. The witnesses were Joseph Carver, William Worthington, and David Evans. The will also named Samuel’s nephew Isaac Worthington.
  4. On the web at www.rootsweb.com/~pabucks/buckinghamtownshiptax.html
  5. Seruch Kimble and Helen Kimble, The Kimbles of Bucks County, 1994.
  6. Kimbles of Bucks County, p. 32
  7. 1790 federal census.
  8. Bucks County Orphan’s Court Record #2127.
  9. Orphan’s Court Record #2127, May 1813. All were alive then except John. By 1852 only five were alive.
  10. The Kimbles of Bucks County, p. 33
  11. Orphan’s Court Record #6841, the estate of Jonathan who died in 1852. The dates of birth are unknown; the order here is estimated.
  12. Bucks County Estate file #6841. The estate papers show the names of his nieces and nephews alive at that time.
  13. Orphan’s Court Record #6841, and records of Montgomery County.
  14. After Peter died, his administrator David Thomas paid off debts owed to Richard Kimble and Jonathan Kimble. (OC 19328, first account filed Nov 17, 1830). The debt to Richard Kimble was a bond and interest for $744.53; the one to Jonathan Kimble was a note and interest for $169.07.
  15. Orphan’s Court Record #5801. One of his grandsons Seruch T. Kimble was the informant for Davis.
  16. Bucks County OC record 6841, estate of Jonathan Kimble. Since he was childless, his nieces and nephews were his heirs.
  17. Bucks County Orphan’s Court Record #6841; Montgomery County Orphan’s Court Book 3: p. 3, 13, 20, 34. The land was sold to Jacob Knipe for $37.74 per acre.
  18. It is possible that the William who married Rachel Dungan was William’s cousin, the son of John and Mary. However, the names of the children suggest that he belongs here as a child of William and Sarah.
  19. The children are from the Orphans Court Record #6841.
  20. Montgomery County Orphan’s Court Record #10259. At some point Peter Tyson and Jonathan Kimble filed suit against Isaiah; at Peter’s death the suit was still pending. (Montgomery County OC Record #19328)
  21. Montgomery County Orphan’s Court Book 10: p. 160, 167, 221, 351, 369.
  22. In the Orphan’s Court record of Peter Tyson in 1830, but not in the record for Jonathan Kimble in 1852.
  23. Montgomery County Orphan’s Court record #19328. Christopher was a late child; did he have Down Syndrome?
  24. She was in the Orphan’s Court record of William’s estate in 1813, but not in the record for her brother Jonathan in 1852.
  25. She was in the Orphan’s Court record of William’s estate in 1813, but not in the record for her brother Jonathan in 1852.

Anthony Kimble and Matilda Morrey

Matilda Morrey, daughter of Richard and Ann Morrey, married a man named Kimble between 1710 and 1720. His name is usually given as Anthony, but there are no contemporary records showing this.1 There are no immigration records, church records, marriage records, or birth records for any Anthony Kimble. The only reference to Matilda Kimble is a cryptic one. In 5th month (July) 1710, Ann Kemble was buried in Philadelphia, the daughter of John and Matilda Kemble.

Although the burial record appears amid papers of Philadelphia Monthly Meeting, Ann was buried as a non-Friend.2 If in fact this was a daughter of Matilda Morrey Kimble, then the name John was either a mistake in the record or researchers have gotten the name of Matilda’s husband wrong.3 There is another record of a John Kemball in early Philadelphia.4 In March 1696/97, a long list of inhabitants of the city signed a letter to Governor William Markham complaining about proposed changes to the frame of government. Among the signers was a John Kemball.5 There were other Kimble or Kemball families in the area; the name was not unusual, but the name Matilda was rare at the time.6

Matilda and her husband were married about 1710. The marriage does not appear in any Quaker meeting records. Matilda’s grandfather Humphrey Morrey had been a Quaker, but his children fell away from the Society and became Anglicans. The Morrey family was wealthy, due to Humphrey’s successful land speculation. They were also well-connected, with marriages with prominent members of the “Philadelphia elite” such as the Budd family. However these connections did not continue into the next generation. Matilda and her family lived in Bucks County, instead of Philadelphia, probably because Matilda inherited land there from her father. The Kimble children married into families surrounding them in Buckingham, such as Carver and Worthington.

In 1735, Jane Laurence died in Philadelphia. She was a wealthy spinster and friend of the Morrey family. In her will Jane Laurence named Matilda and two of her daughters: Rose and Ann Kemble. The same year Matilda inherited 200 acres in Buckingham Township from her brother Thomas, while her children were to share another 200 acres. This land later passed to her children William, Anthony, Rose, Ann and Mary, along with additional land from Matilda’s father Richard and cousin Humphrey.7 After Anthony’s death, Matilda married a man named Carty, and later married again, to a man named Flannagan.8  She died in 1749 or 1750. She did not leave a will, and her heirs petitioned the Orphan’s Court to divide the land.

The court ordered four men to view and partition the land, “in the township of Buckingham of which Matilda Flannagin, late Matilda Carty and theretofore Matilda Kimble died seized”. The map shows the shares allotted to the five claimants: Thomas Watson, William Kimble, Mary Hickst, the children of Charles Hickst, and the children of Rosa Wilkinson. Watson got the largest share, because he had already bought one-third of the land from Anthony Kimble. Ann and John Bewley had sold their share to Charles Hickst.9

Children of Matilda and her husband: There are no birth records for them, but they must have been born about 1715 to 1735.

Mary, died 1758, married Charles Hickst by Sept 173610, had children Edward, Kimble, Matilda, and Thomas. They lived in Buckingham, on land given to Mary by her grandfather Richard Morrey.11 Charles died in 1753. He did not leave a will, but Mary did, naming her three sons.12

Ann, married 1739 John Bewley at Christ Church. They lived in Buckingham and had seven children: Anthony, George, Nathan, Isaac, John, Jesse, Christopher.13 Some of the children ended up in Virginia.

Rosa, married 1740 Josiah Wilkinson at Christ Church. They had two children, Matilda and Israel, before Rosa’s death.14 He then married Mary Carver, daughter of William Carver Jr. and Elizabeth Walmsley and had more children.15

Anthony, died 1796, married first by 1750 Esther Worthington, daughter of Samuel & Mary. Esther died in 1779 and Anthony married a woman named Sarah.16 Between his two wives, Anthony had ten daughters and three sons, named in his will of 1791, probated in 1796.17 The children were Phebe, Esther, Rachel, Matilda, Sarah, Ann, Mary, Elizabeth, Christopher, Cinthia, Tabitha, Anthony, and John. He left his son Anthony “the plantation whereon I now live”, conveyed from Richard Morrey in tracts of 100 and 40 acres. All of the ten daughters except Cinthia lived to marry.

William, born about 1735, died 1813, married 1770 Sarah Worthington, daughter of Samuel and Mary.18 They were married at Christ Church, Philadelphia.19 This was a very late marriage for William, but Sarah must have been considerably younger, since they went on to have nine children.20 For over twenty years starting in 1761, William and his brother Anthony were taxed in Buckingham township.21 By the time he died William was living in Moreland, Montgomery County and renting out his property in Buckingham. The inventory of his estate was taken in February 1813.22 Children of William and Sarah: Jonathan, Richard, Martha, John, Isaiah, William, Christopher, Sarah and Frances.23

  1. The identification of Anthony as Matilda’s husband goes at least as far back as W. W. H. Davis in his 1876 History of Bucks County. Since Davis’ biographies were based on interviews, the information about Anthony would have come from a great-great grandson, Seruch Titus Kimble, the subject of Davis’ biography. There is no evidence of a Kimble family Bible that could aid family memories.
  2. William Hudson kept a list of burials of non-Friend in Philadelphia, saved on Ancestry, US Quaker Records 1681-1935, Philadelphia Monthly Meeting Arch Street, Record of Births Deaths and Burials 1688-1826, image 183.
  3. There is one problem with the identification of the Matilda in this record with Matilda Morrey. Richard Morrey, Matilda’s father, was baptized in 1675. (He could have been born a year or two earlier, of course.) He could not have married much earlier than age eighteen, and age twenty-one at least would be more typical. Even if Matilda were born as early as 1693, she would also have to marry extremely early in order to have a daughter by 1710. On the other hand, Matilda was an unusual woman’s name for the time. It stretches belief to have two women named Matilda Kimble/Kemble at the same time. And yet the name Anthony does appear in the names of Matilda’s children and grandchildren.
  4. The name shows up in many spellings: Kimble, Kimball, Kemble, Kemball, etc.
  5. Samuel Hazard, Register of Pennsylvania, 1831, vol. 6, p. 258.
  6. In 1713 Thomas Kemball of Philadelphia County bought land near the Great Swamp in Bucks County with Thomas Groom and William Marshall. They intended  to build a mill. (Egle, Early Pa. Land Records, pp. 569-570) There was a Kimble family of Burlington County, New Jersey, with a distant connection to the Budd family (the Budds intermarried with the Morreys), but no direct connection to Matilda.
  7. Davis, History of Bucks County, p. 550.
  8. Bucks County Orphan’s Court Record #113, in Vol. A1.
  9. Bucks County Orphan’s Court Record #113.
  10. She is mentioned as Mary Kimball alias Hicks in the will of Matilda’s brother Thomas, written in Sept 1735/6.
  11. Mary’s will, proved in 1758, Bucks County wills, Book 2, p. 346.
  12. Orphan’s Court Record #177 and Mary’s will; Charles died in 1753. In her will Mary left the “plantation I live on conveyed to my husband and myself by my grandfather Richard Murray.” The daughter Matilda was not named in the will; the name comes from Ancestry trees.
  13. Bewley Family History, by Stephenie Flora, online at Oregonpioneers.com, accessed 3/2020.
  14. Ancestry trees, not verified.
  15. W. W. H. Davis, History of Bucks County.
  16. Kimble and Kimble suggest that she was the same as the Sarah who later married his brother William, but the dates make this impossible. (Seruch T. Kimble & Helen Matchett Kimble, The Kimble Family from Z to A) After Anthony’s death Sarah married Joseph Johnson and released her dower rights to a tract of land. (Bucks County deeds, book 29, p. 449)
  17. Bucks County wills, Book 5, p. 523.
  18. According to The Kimbles of Bucks County he was born in 1720 and lived to be 92 years old. This would make him 50 when he married.
  19. Pennsylvania Marriages Prior to 1810, vol. 1, Pennsylvania Archives, series 2, vol. 8, edited by Linn and Egle.
  20. The children were listed in an Orphan’s Court petition in 1814 by Peter Tyson, who was married to William’s daughter Martha.
  21. Terry McNealy and Francis Waite, compilers, Bucks County tax lists 1693-1778.
  22. Montgomery County probate records, RW 13141, filed 27 February 1813.
  23. Petition by Peter Tyson, husband of Martha Kimble and administrator of William’s estate, in 1814. (Montgomery County Orphan’s Court Record, #10915)

William Jeanes and Elizabeth McVaugh

William Jeanes was born in 1754, the son of Isaac Jeanes and Isaac’s second wife Mary Walton, Quakers of Moreland, Philadelphia County.1 William would not have known his father. Isaac died in 1757, leaving Mary with three children: William, Levi, and a daughter Mary from his first wife, Abigail Sands. Four years later the widowed Mary married James Tyson. But she died in 1762 or 1763, leaving James with the Jeanes children, and in 1764 James Tyson married Sarah Harper at Oxford Meeting. James and Sarah became the step-parents of the Jeanes children, and went on to have a large family of their own children. William may have lived with them, as one of the older children, or he may have been apprenticed out to another family.

In the tax assessment of Cheltenham for 1776 William was listed as a single man.2 He probably married Elizabeth McVaugh the next year, since he was disowned by Abington meeting in 11th month 1778 for going out in marriage.3 From her last name and the name of her son Edmund, Elizabeth was from the McVaugh family of Montgomery County, but her parentage is not yet known.4 It is also not known where William and Elizabeth were married or when their children were born. William and Elizabeth were not members of a Quaker meeting, although two of their children applied to join as adults, and when their daughter Rebecca married the Quaker Seth Holt, it was contrary to discipline and Holt was disowned.5

William and his brother Levi inherited their father’s property in Moreland, over 170 acres. In 1788 Levi sold his share of the land to his brother for £100.6 William and Elizabeth probably moved into the house, if they didn’t already live there. In 1788 William paid taxes for the land with one dwelling, 3 horses and 4 cows.7 He was shown there in 1790 census, in the “windowpane tax” of 1798 (with a stone house 38 feet by 20 feet, assessed at $450) and in the 1800 census.8 In 1820 William is still in Moreland, in a household with 17 people.9 William died in March 1828, leaving no will. His estate was administered by Isaac and Isaiah Jeanes, two of his sons. The inventory was taken on March 20, and showed the usual household goods and farm tools, along with horses, cows, sheep and pigs.10 Isaiah Jeanes and Seth Holt petitioned the Orphans Court of Montgomery County for partition of a tract in Moreland of 189 acres. It was sold in two pieces, to William Hallowell and to Joseph Wood.11 After paying the usual charges for the funeral and estate, there was almost $8,000 to be distributed to the heirs. After setting aside a one-third share for the widow’s dower, each of the eleven children (or the husbands, in the case of the daughters) received $482.63. Elizabeth died intestate around 1847, in Abington. Her son-in-law Seth Holt administered her estate.12 She had outlived all but seven of her children.

Children of William and Elizabeth: (born between 1780 and 1800)

William Jr., born about 1783. He requested membership at Horsham Meeting in 9th month 1807 and married Hannah Webster there in 3rd month 1809. They were disowned later that year for fornication.13

Edmund, born about 1793, married Mary Eastburn. She was a distant cousin, daughter of David Eastburn and Elizabeth Jeanes.14 Edmund died 5 February 1828 of a “remitting fever”, possibly malaria.15 His estate was administered by his wife Mary, Seth Holt, Isaiah Jeanes and Joshua Jeanes.16 The account of Edmund’s estate showed that he was a grocer like some of his cousins. It included cigars, beeswax, raisins and currants, pepper, mustard, ginger, tea and coffee, soap, crackers, scrubbing brushes, wine and spirits.17 Edmund was not a Friend, but was buried at the Cherry Street burying ground because his wife was a member.18

Isaac, married and left a child.19

Benjamin, alive in 1830

Sarah, alive in 1847, no further information.

Isaiah, possibly born about 1799, married Sarah LNU, moved to New Garden, Chester County, and kept a store in Toughkenamon. He appeared in the 1850 census with Sarah and two children. He was in the census there in 1870 and 1880, but as a widower.  Children: Catherine and Joshua.

Hiram, born about 1802, died 1860, probably in Moreland. 20 John Smith was the administrator for his estate, because the widow Agnes renounced.21 Hiram and Agnes were members of Horsham Monthly Meeting and the names of their children were recorded there as Mary, Sarah, and Arthur.

Jonathan, a “lunatic”, died 1831 in Moreland. Seth Holt was the administrator of his estate.22

Mary, married Samuel Lloyd or James Lloyd.23 No further information.

Martha, died between 1807 and 1828.24

Elizabeth, born about 1785, married Aaron Richardson. By 1847 she was married to David McCartney.

Eleanor, born about 1795, died 1876, married Rynear Tyson, born about 1800, the son of Peter and Martha. Rynear was the oldest son of Peter Tyson and Martha Kimble. He and Eleanor married around 1818 and lived in Upper Dublin, where they had six children. Rynear died young, only a year after his father. Eleanor did not remarry and  lived with relatives in Montgomery County. Children: Edmond, Peter, Sarah Ann, William Jeanes, Seth Holt, Ephraim.25 Only Edmond and Ephraim married. Sarah Ann lived with Seth and Rebecca Holt before she died of consumption at age 40. Seth Holt Tyson, named for his uncle, headed west for the gold rush and died in California.

Rebecca, born in 1799, died 1883, married Seth Holt and lived in Philadelphia. Seth Holt was disowned at Philadelphia MM in 1824 for marrying contrary to discipline. In 1850 they were living in the Spring Garden ward where Seth was a confectioner. In 1860 they were in Plymouth, Montgomery County and in 1870 in Germantown. Seth died in 1876 and Rebecca died in 1883; both were buried at Laurel Hill with several of their children. Children: J. Franklin, Seth, Allan, Chalkley, Ann Rebecca, Sarah Cordelia.

Keziah, married in 1829 Thomas T. Webster. Thomas Webster was a birthright Friend but disowned in 4th month 1829 by Frankford Monthly Meeting for marrying outside the Society.26 They were probably in the 1840 census in Lower Dublin, with three children under ten, and probably taxed in 1864 on Darkrun Road, north Philadelphia.27 Thomas was probably buried at 1889 at Belvue Cemetery, in north Philadelphia, just south of Frankford.28

  1. It is important to keep the facts of his life separate from those of his two cousins: William, son of Joseph and Sarah (Roberts), who died in 1767 in North Carolina, unmarried; William, son of Jacob and Leah (Harmer), born 1774, married Hannah Webster. Note on places: There were two places named Moreland Township, both originally in Philadelphia County, then in Montgomery County when it was created in 1784. The Manor of Moreland was later called Upper Moreland to distinguish it from Lower Moreland. The Jeanes family lived in the Manor of Moreland (Upper Moreland).
  2. Jacob McVaugh was listed there too, also as a single man. Was he a brother of Elizabeth? Did William own two separate pieces of land or did he move from Cheltenham to Moreland?
  3. He had two cousins named William, as noted above. If this William was in fact the son of Isaac, one of the two men from the meeting appointed to give him the testimony was Samuel Lloyd. In a twist of circumstances, William’s daughter Mary married a Samuel Lloyd, possibly the son of this Samuel.
  4. In the family Bible passed down through the descendants of Eleanor Jeanes Tyson, her name was spelled McVaw. She named her oldest son Edmund, suggesting that she was the daughter of an Edmund McVaugh. She cannot be placed in the known McVaugh family at this time. From her presumed birthdate, she is either a daughter of one of the four sons of the immigrant Edmund McVaugh and his wife Alice Dickinson, or an early birth in the next generation.
  5. A William Jeanes was in trouble with Abington meeting in 1765, but it was more likely William’s cousin William, the son of Joseph Jeanes and Sarah Roberts. In 10th month 1765, the meeting noted that William Jeanes had attended a marriage contrary to the usage of Friends. He was not willing to submit a paper of condemnation, and four months later a new charge was added. He had been at a shooting and gaming match, along with Lewis Roberts, Benjamin Harmer, and the brothers Thomas and Daniel Waterman. In 3rd month 1766, Benjamin Harmer and Thomas Waterman added to their troubles by attending a dancing and fiddling frolic. William Jeanes finally submitted a paper of condemnation in 6th month 1766, but it was not accepted, and in 1st month 1767, he was disowned. (Abington Monthly Meeting minutes, 12th month 1765 through 1st month 1767). Daniel Waterman became ill and died before the case was concluded.
  6. Montgomery County deeds, Book 14, p. 332.
  7. “Moreland Residents 1788”, Old York Road Historical Society Bulletin, Vol. XLIV, 1984.
  8. In the 1800 census William’s household included three males over 45 (William himself and two others), one woman over 45 (probably Elizabeth), one woman over 26 (not identified), and nine younger children. Since William and Elizabeth were believed to have 13 children, this is no surprise. In 1810 William was in the census with no women over 45, 4 sons and 4 daughters.
  9. His son William Jeans Jr. is also shown there, with another large household; he had married Hannah Webster in 1709. By 1830 there is only one William in Moreland, the younger William. By 1840 there are no Jeans left in Moreland.
  10. Montgomery County probate record #RW 12495, at Montgomery County Archive.
  11. Montgomery County Orphan’s Court record #OC 9588.
  12. Montgomery County estate files, RW12332, and Orphans’ Court record OC9215. In Seth Holt’s OC petition, the children living then were: William, Sarah, Hiram, Mary Lloyd widow, Elizabeth intermarried with David McCartny, Ellen Tyson widow, Rebecca intermarried with the Petitioner and Isaac deceased leaving children one of whom is a minor.
  13. Horsham Monthly Meeting men’s minutes.
  14. Findagrave and other web sources. Elizabeth Jeanes was a granddaughter of Joseph Jeans and Sarah Roberts and a great-granddaughter of the immigrant William Jeanes.
  15. Records of Philadelphia Meeting Arch Street.
  16. Seth Holt was his brother-in-law. Isaiah Jeanes could have been his younger brother Isaiah, but was more likely his cousin Isaiah, son of Jacob and Leah (Harmer). The older Isaiah was a successful merchant in Philadelphia; he died in 1850. Joshua Jeanes was a son of Isaiah, the Philadelphia merchant. Isaiah and Joshua were probably administrators because they were grocers in Philadelphia and could assist with the contents of Edmund’s grocery store.
  17. Philadelphia Wills and Probate Records 1683-1993, on Ancestry, Admin Files 21-86, 1828.
  18. Interment records of Philadelphia Meeting Western District. The record gave his age at about 35.
  19. In the OC petition of Seth Holt, 1847 estate of Elizabeth Jeanes.
  20. In the 1840 census there as a farmer.
  21. Montgomery County Orphan’s Court record #OC 9290.
  22. Index of Wills and Administrations at Montgomery County Historical Society, Norristown.
  23. His name was given as Samuel in an Orphans’ Court petition and as James in the 1830 account of her father’s estate.
  24. She was named in the will of her uncle Levi Jeanes in 1807, but was not in the Orphan’s Court petitions of her father’s estate in 1828.
  25. From the Orphan’s Court record #4108, on the death of Rynear’s father Peter, which listed six children of Rynear (who died soon after his father), and the Orphan’s Court docket for Rynear’s own estate, November 1831.
  26. Frankford Monthly Meeting minutes, on Ancestry.
  27. IRS Tax assessment lists, on Ancestry.
  28. Findagrave

William Jeanes and his wife Esther

According to lore passed down in the Jeanes family, Esther Brewer was one of the first white children born in Philadelphia.1 This suggests that her parents, whose names are unknown, arrived in the first rush of Quaker settlers in 1682.2 This is a fine story, although improbable given the ages of Esther’s children.3 When Esther grew up and married William Jeanes, the marriage was not recorded in Quaker meeting records, and their first child was baptized in the Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia in August 1713. However William and Esther remained Friends. At least four of their children married as Friends, and William himself got a certificate from Abington meeting when he married his second wife.

The family lore about William was that he was French, probably because of the sound of the name.4 “William Jeanes is believed to have come to this country with his father and two brothers from England, and settled at New Rochelle, Westchester County, New York– the family being originally from LaRochelle in France.”5 However the Jeans name is quite common in southeast England, appearing in Wiltshire, Dorset, Somerset, and Gloucestershire. It is more plausible for Quakers to move to early Pennsylvania from England than from anywhere else.6

There is some circumstantial evidence for William’s origin and parentage. His oldest son was named Joseph. In February 1713, William and Mary Jeanes were the administrators of the estate of Joseph Jeanes of Bucks County. Joseph was either William’s brother, or—less likely—his father. In either case—brother or father—it is plausible that William’s own father was named Joseph. In fact the baptismal records of Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire, show a Joseph and Elizabeth Jeynes with four children born at the right time: Elizabeth in 1681, Joseph in 1683, William in 1687, Nathaniel in 1691.7 Tewkesbury had a Quaker community, with a cemetery reportedly dating to 1660.8 Jeanes is a common name in Gloucestershire, and there is no evidence yet that this is the family of the immigrant William, but the pattern fits well.9

The first record of William in Pennsylvania is not an immigration record, but rather the death of Joseph Jeanes in 1713. Letters of administration were granted to William Jeanes, of Bucks County, and Mary Jeanes. Mary was not William’s wife; she was probably Joseph’s widow and William’s sister-in-law. Joseph’s estate was small; the bond of administration was for only £50.10

William and Esther were probably married about the same time. There is no record of a marriage for them in Pennsylvania or England.11 By tradition her last name was Brewer. It is possible that they were Quakers who did not marry under the care of a Monthly Meeting. This often happened when the woman was already pregnant and they did not want to wait for the multi-step Quaker approval process. In any case the birth of their first child, a daughter Mary, was recorded at a Presbyterian Church.12 After that they either joined Abington Monthly Meeting or reconciled with the meeting, since the birth of their next child, Joseph, was recorded there in 1716. The births of later children were not recorded at the meeting, but it was common for Quaker families to omit the recording step. At least four of their children married under the auspices of Abington Meeting, and in 1739 Abington gave William a certificate to proceed in marriage with his second wife Elizabeth.

The first record of William buying land in Pennsylvania is in November 1732, when he bought a 142-acre tract in Moreland Township, Philadelphia County, from John Van Boskerck.13 William paid £88.19. In 1739 he extended his land by buying another 30 acres from Benjamin and Elizabeth Cooper. How was William making a living between 1713 and 1732? It is very likely that he was working for others as a farm laborer. The inventory of his estate shows no special tools of a craftsman, and in deeds he is listed as a yeoman, the typical description for a landowner.14 Since he was married, he was probably not an indentured servant. Hired labor was in demand at the time, and he probably saved up his earnings to buy his own land.

William and Esther had seven known children from 1713 to 1735. This suggests that Esther was born about 1690, so that she would be no more than 45 or so at the birth of her youngest child.15 She died in 1737 and William married Elizabeth Baker in 1739.16 He died in 1747.17 In his will he named his wife Elizabeth, children Joseph, James, Isaac, Jacob, Mary, Esther, and Rebecca, as well as grandchildren William and Esther Walton (the children of James Walton and Mary Jeanes). He left his plantation in the Manor of Moreland to Joseph, with a provision that Joseph should pay his brother James £25 “if he ever arrives in Pennsylvania”.18 William also left land to sons Isaac and Jacob, and money to the daughters, in the traditional legacy pattern of the time. He required Jacob to provide Elizabeth with “one-third of the grain and apples, the keeping of one horse and one cow the year through, the best chamber upstairs to reside in, necessary firewood, a part in the kitchen and at the spring house”. He left his son Joseph a suit with white metal buttons, but specified that Isaac should have the leather breeches, the great coat, and the “last wedding suit of worsted apparel”.19 The executors were the son Joseph and William Walmsley. The inventory showed the usual household goods and farm tools, much livestock including 9 horses, 40 sheep, 11 cows, 8 hogs, and 376 bushels of wheat.

Elizabeth lived until 1785, probably in the house with Jacob’s family. In her will she named her stepdaughter Esther Bond, and her step-son Jacob Jeanes as executor. The sons Joseph, Isaac and Jacob all lived in Moreland.

Children of William and Esther Jeanes:20

Mary, baptized 1713, married James Walton, son of Thomas and Priscilla in 9th month 1730 under the care of Abington Monthly Meeting.21 They had two children, William and Esther, before James died.22 In 1745 Mary married Thomas Carrington, also at Abington. In 1755 they moved to Richland, Bucks County, but moved back the following year.23 Thomas bought land in Abington in 1758. In 3rd month 1760, Mary and their son Thomas died within a day of each other. Thomas moved to Londongrove Meeting, Chester County, where he was approved as a minister. He married Mary Baker in 1762.24 Thomas died in 1781. In his will he named his wife Mary, sons Aaron and John, and six daughters.25

Joseph, born in 1716, died 1762, married 1738 Sarah Roberts at Abington Meeting.26 He bought land in 1752 in Moreland Township, and later lived in Whitemarsh, Montgomery County.27 Like his father and brothers, he was not very active in Abington meeting, but did serve on a few committees. Joseph wrote his will in 9th month 1762 and died the next year. The inventory of his goods showed a typical farmer. His heirs sold the plantation the next year, placing the customary ad in the Pennsylvania Gazette. It containing about “100 Acres of good land, about 25 or 30 acres of woodland, 10 or 12 acres of good meadow ground, but not all cleared, Water very convenient in every Field, a young bearing Orchard, a good Stone and Log house, with a Spring house near the Door, and a Log Barn”.28 In his will Joseph named his wife Sarah, and eight children: William, Esther, Joseph, Sarah, George, Abel, Daniel and Isaac.29 The son Daniel became a Loyalist, joining the “British Army when they were in possession of the city of Phila and continues to adhere to them by means whereof his one third part of the lands became forfeit to the Commonwealth”… and his share of the estate was sold in 1781 to Benjamin Harbeson.30

James, not in Pennsylvania in 1747 when his father wrote his will, no definite records of him.31

Esther, died 1809, married Joseph Bond, son of Joseph and Ann.32  Although Joseph and Esther were both from Quaker families, they were married in October 1750 at the German Reformed Church in Philadelphia. It is not known when Esther died. She is named in the will of her stepmother Elizabeth Jeanes in 1782. Her husband is probably the Joseph Bond, age 70, who died in 1803 in Philadelphia and was buried as a Friend.33 Children of Esther and Joseph: Elizabeth, Joseph, Rebecca, Sarah, Isaac, Mary, Esther, Rachel, Anna.34

Rebecca, born in 1725, living in 1759. Was she the Rebecca Jeans who was disowned in 1756 by Abington Meeting for marrying contrary to discipline?35 As Rebecca McVeagh, she signed a wedding certificate for her brother Jacob in 1759 and for James Tyson’s second marriage in 1764. Her husband cannot be placed in the family of Edmund McVaugh and Alice Dickinson, although he was probably a grandson of theirs. They were not Friends, and their descendants are poorly documented.

Isaac, born about 1726, died 1757,  married first, in 1749 at Middletown Meeting, Abigail Sands, daughter of Richard and Mary. Isaac married second in 1753 at Horsham Meeting, Mary Walton, daughter of Jeremiah and Elizabeth (Walmsley).36 They lived in Moreland, Philadelphia County on a 170-acre farm. Isaac died in 1757, leaving his wife Mary and three children: Mary, William and Levi.37 The inventory included typical household goods, farm tools, horses, cows, sheep, and hogs. After Isaac died, Mary married in 1761 James Tyson, son of Henry and grandson of Rynear and Margaret.38 Children with Abigail: Mary (married Timothy Roberts, son of William Roberts). Children with Mary: William (born 1754) and Levi (born 1757).

Jacob, b. 1735, d. 1812, m. 1) — Roberts39, 2) Priscilla Waterman in 1759 at Abington40, 3) 1768 Leah Harmer at Abington41; lived in Moreland, a cabinetmaker42. Jacob Jeans had to turn in a paper of acknowledgement to Abington Meeting in 8th month 1766, for fighting and marrying contrary to good order. Was this because of his first marriage? He was on the tax list of 1798 with two stone houses. He married Priscilla Waterman in 12th month 1759 at Abington Meeting and married Leah Harmer in 1768, also at Abington Meeting. He died in 1812, age 76. Leah died 1833, age 87, as his widow. He and Leah had children: Isaiah, Elizabeth, Jane, William, Jacob, Leah, Rachel, Keziah, Anna. The son Isaiah married Anna Thomas and had eight children, including the wealthy philanthropist Anna T. Jeanes, who died in 1907.

  1. The earliest reference to his claim seems to be Charles Dawson, A Collection of Family Records, 1874. He was concerned primarily with the Dawson family; the reference to Esther Jeanes is in a footnote on page 430. He attached the story to the daughter Esther, but if there is any truth to the story, it could only have been her mother Esther who was supposedly born in 1682. The daughter Esther, who married Joseph Bond, was born about 1720. How is Esther’s surname known to be Brewer? It does not appear in any original records.
  2. However, if Esther’s last child was really born in 1735, then she was probably born closer to 1690 than 1682.
  3. They are believed to have been born between 1713 to 1735. She could not have had a child at age 53. The last child, Jacob, could have been born earlier, but his birth date was taken from the records of Abington Meeting, normally reliable. (Abington Monthly Meeting, Minutes 1629-1812, (actually births and burials), online at Ancestry, US Quaker Meeting Records 1681-1935, Montgomery County)
  4. The Jeanes-Jeynes family may have been originally French but settled in England for some generations.
  5. “Jeanes”, manuscript at Friends Historical Library (Pamphlet Group 7), attributed to Augusta I. T. Hicks. A note at the end of the manuscript says “The foregoing taken from a paper furnished by Augusta Isham Thomas Hicks, Piqua, Ohio, Feb. 18, 1899; and which she obtained from Emma Walter, Philadelphia.” Emma Walter was a relative of the philanthropist Anna T. Jeanes, named in Anna’s will of 1907 and given a bequest of $5,000. (Will of Anna Jeanes online on Ancestry) So the family of Anna Jeanes, at least Emma Walter’s part of it, probably originated the story of William coming from New Rochelle, “with his father and two brothers”. I have not been able to verify this claim. Bolton’s History of the County of Westchester, p. 395, has lists of early Huguenot settlers, which do not include Jeanes. The records of the Huguenot cemetery of New Rochelle also do not include any Jeanes. (at the Bucks County Historical Society, Spruance Library, Doylestown)
  6. This is assuming that William was in fact a Quaker. See the discussion about the birth of their daughter Mary. There is a very large family of Janes in Massachusetts, with the tradition that they descended from William Janes, born in 1610 in Essex. He had 16 children with two wives. There is no apparent connection between this family and the Pennsylvania family. There is also a Joseph Jeanes of Prince George’s County, Maryland, born in 1680, died in 1719, leaving a wife Elizabeth and five children, including Joseph, Mary, Edward, Ann and William. William Jeans, son of Joseph and Elizabeth, was a Quaker and surveyor in Montgomery County, Maryland. The names Joseph and William are suggestive, but there are no records to connect them to the Pennsylvania family.
  7. Church records on FamilySearch. Another record shows the marriage of Joseph Jeynes and Elizabeth Chandler in 1680. It is particularly interesting to see the name Nathaniel, since a Nathaniel Jeines of Tewkesbury was taken from a religious meeting and committed to prison in 1660. (Joseph Besse, Sufferings of the People called Quakers, vol. 1, p. 212) There is a Nathaniel Jeans who died in Penns Neck, Salem County, West Jersey in 1702, who left a substantial estate. His associates named in the will are not Pennsylvania names. (Calendar of NJ Wills online)
  8. Church listings online at http://churchdb.gukutils.org.uk/GLS871.php. George Fox held meetings there in 1660 and 1686. (http://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/glos/vol8/pp154-165) The records of Tewkesbury would have been kept at Stoke Orchard Monthly Meeting, which also included the meetings for worship at Cheltenham, Stoke Orchard and Tirley (D. Beaver, Parish Communities and Religious Conflict in the Vale of Gloucester, 1590-1690).
  9. “Few names are more common in the northern vale than Jeynes. A family of this name owned a substantial landed estate in Southwick. known as Jeynes Farm, …. Another branch of Jeyneses practiced trades in Tewkesbury, and the Independent Thomas Jeynes may have been the son of a wealthy joiner of the same name, a friend of the joiner Francis Godwin, prosecuted in 1635 for sitting at divine service.” (Beaver)
  10. Philadelphia County estate files, 1712, #106, City Hall, Philadelphia.
  11. A search in RG6, the non-conformist records, turned up nothing.
  12. Records of the First Presbyterian Church of Philadelphia.
  13. Montgomery County deed book 46, p. 128. The deed from Benjamin Cooper is immediately after it on page 130. These deeds were not recorded until 1830, when they were brought in as part of the estate settlement of William’s grandson William.
  14. He is listed as a yeoman in the 1732 deed from Van Boskerck. It is not clear what land William might have owned before then.
  15. The date of birth of Jacob Jeanes, in 1735, was recorded by Abington Meeting along with the births of the children of his brother Joseph. (Ancestry, US Quaker Meeting Records 1681-1935, PA, Montgomery County, Abington Monthly Meeting, Minutes 1629-1812. All of the Quaker meeting records referred in this narrative can be found on Ancestry.)
  16. In second month 1739 Abington Meeting gave a certificate to William “Janes” to proceed in marriage with a Friend from Middletown Meeting.
  17. The inventory was taken on July 2.
  18. Where was James and did he ever arrive? Was he the James Jeanes of Northern Liberties, Philadelphia who advertised in the Pennsylvania Gazette in February 1762 that his wife Jane had “very unbecoming behavior” and gave a “warning to creditors”? There are no references to James in records of the next generation of the family.
  19. The will was witnessed by Joost Van Buskirk, Thomas Walton, and Phillip Wynkoop. The sole executor was Joseph Jeanes, since William Walmsley had renounced.
  20. Only the dates for Joseph and Jacob were recorded at Abington MM. Joseph recorded his own birth date when he brought in the list of his children. The date for Jacob is very late and might have been a scribe’s error. Who were the Sarah Janes and William Jeans who signed the certificate at the wedding of John Brock and Sarah Jenkins at Abington in 1753? William the elder was dead; he had no known son William; the grandsons were a bit young for this. Is this an otherwise unknown son of William and Esther? He was not in William’s 1747 will.
  21. Abington Monthly Meeting Minutes.
  22. His death was apparently not recorded by Abington Meeting.
  23. Abington Meeting recorded the certificate received for Thomas and his wife and step-daughter Esther Walton.
  24. Marriage records of New Garden Monthly Meeting 1704-1765. Thomas was described as the son of Thomas Carrington and Mary, deceased. The wording is ambiguous, but it can only refer to Thomas the widower. It can’t be a son of Thomas and Mary Jeanes, since they were married only in 1745, and their son Thomas died in 1760.
  25. The will is available online on Ancestry, PA Wills and Probate 1663-1993, Chester Estate Papers No 3760-3868. In the will Thomas said he had six daughters, but only named Mary and Sarah. From other meeting records, the others are probably Rachel, Margaret, Hannah, and one unidentified.
  26. Sarah’s parents are not known. She was not the daughter of Thomas and Eleanor Roberts. Their daughter Sarah married Isaac Jones (not Jeanes) in 1749 at Abington Meeting. Her parents Thomas and Eleanor signed at the top of the witness list, along with Katherine Jones, probably the mother of Isaac. His father’s name has not been traced.
  27. Philadelphia deeds, Book H6, p. 72.
  28. Pennsylvania Gazette, Feb 24, 1763.
  29. Philadelphia County wills, Book M, p. 540. The births of the children were recorded at Abington Meeting.
  30. Philadelphia County deeds, book D4, p. 403.
  31. Unless he placed the ad in 1762 about a runaway wife; see Footnote 18 above.
  32. In some sources Esther is said to be the first white child born in Philadelphia in 1682. This doesn’t seem possible. There is some evidence that the first English girl born in Pennsylvania was Mary Britton, daughter of Lyonel Britton. She was born in June 1680 in Bucks County. (Davis, History of Bucks County) The record of her birth is in the handwriting of Phineas Pemberton, a well-known Quaker leader of the time.
  33. Philadelphia Monthly Meeting Southern District, Record of Births and Interments 1734-1806.
  34. Children from Katie Ives, who has researched this line extensively.
  35. There were not many other possible Rebecca Jeans at this time. In spite of the coincidence of names, she is not the Rebecca McVaugh, wife of James McVaugh. Rebecca and James took out a mortgage in 1747 on a tract in Oxford. She was the widow of Isaac Worrell when she married James (Phila Deeds, Book H12, p. 222). After James died, she ran a tavern in Oxford until her death in 1776. According to Jordan, Colonial Families of Philadelphia, vol. 2, her maiden name was Hawley. In any case, Abington Meeting would not have waited ten years to disown her. James and Rebecca McVaugh had a daughter Rebecca who married William Roberts in 1765 at Trinity Church, Oxford.
  36. At the wedding of Isaac and Mary, the certificate was signed by Elizabeth Jeanes (his step-mother), Elizabeth Walton (her mother), Richard and Mary Sands (parents of Isaac’s first wife), Joseph Jeanes (his brother), William and Phebe Walton (her brother and his wife), Joseph and Esther Bond (his sister and her husband), Thomas Walton (her brother), Thomas and Mary Carrington (his sister and her husband), two more of Mary’s brothers, and many of the large Walton family.
  37. Philadelphia County wills, Book K, p. 564. The inventory is at City Hall, Philadelphia, will #349, 1757.
  38. Mary died in 1762 or 1763, and in 1764 James Tyson married Sarah Harper at Oxford Meeting. Rebecca McVeagh was one of the witnesses. (Abington MM records)
  39. William Roberts wrote a will in 1780 naming a son-in-law Jacob Jeanes. This suggests a first marriage for Jacob, to a daughter of William Roberts. Mary Jeanes, daughter of Isaac and Abigail (Sands), married Timothy Roberts, a son of William Roberts. (Will of William Roberts, Philadelphia County, Book R, p. 493 (not page 365 as listed in the abstracts on the Philadelphia County PAGenWeb Archives).
  40. The marriage certificate was signed by Joseph Janes (brother, signed first because Jacob’s father was dead), Hannah Waterman Priscilla’s mother), Thomas and Mary Carrington (his sister and her husband), Rebeckah McVaugh (his sister), no other McVaugh signed, Mary Janes (widow of his brother Isaac), Joseph and Esther Bond (his sister and her husband), Jane Merrick (Priscilla’s sister), William Janes (not identified) and others.
  41. They were married in 12th month 1768. Abington meeting records show the marriage as accomplished, but the certificate was apparently not recorded.
  42. The reference to him as a cabinet maker was online at: artarchives.si.edu/guides/crafts/wood.htm, no longer online. The evidence for the first marriage is from the will of William Roberts in 1780 who named his son-in-law Jacob Jeanes as executor. In 1774 Jacob had witnessed the will of Jno. Eastburn, who was related to the Roberts family.

Isaac Jeanes and his two wives

Isaac was born about 1726 in Moreland, Philadelphia County, one of seven children of William and Esther Jeans. He was one of their younger children, and his older sister Mary probably helped take care of him. Isaac and the others grew up in Moreland, on land bought by their father William in 1732 and 1739. Isaac’s mother Esther died in 1737 and two years later William married again, to Esther Baker. William was a Quaker at this time, and he got a certificate from Abington meeting for the marriage. Most of the children, including Isaac, considered themselves Friends and married according to Quaker customs. In 1747 William died. He left his land to his three sons, Joseph, Isaac and Jacob. Isaac’s portion was 170 acres.

Two years later, in 1749, Isaac married Abigail Sands, daughter of Richard and Mary. She was a member of Middletown Monthly Meeting and Isaac got a certificate from Abington Meeting to show his clearness for the marriage.1 Isaac and Abigail probably lived on the land he had inherited, but their marriage was short-lived. Abigail died between 1750 and 1752, leaving Isaac with a baby daughter Mary. Isaac soon remarried, possibly as soon as the customary one-year mourning period allowed. His second wife was Mary Walton, daughter of Jeremiah and Elizabeth (Walmsley).2 They were married in 8th month (August) 1753 at Horsham Meeting, probably the closest meeting house to Isaac’s farm in Moreland.3 The marriage was witnessed by Isaac’s stepmother Elizabeth, several of Isaac and Mary’s brothers and sisters, his Sands in-laws Richard and Mary.4 Mary was one of nine children, two of whom had died young. The Waltons were a large, well-established Quaker family, so she had many relatives.

Isaac and Mary had two sons, William and Levi.5 But in 1757, Isaac died, leaving Mary with three small children.6 He left a will, written a month before his death.7 He left the plantation to Mary until his two sons reached the age of 21, to support and school them. After they reached the age of 21, they were to have the plantation in Moreland to share, paying £20 to their sister Mary as her inheritance. The inventory of the estate included typical household goods, farm tools, horses, cows, sheep, hogs and hives of bees.8

Four years later Mary married James Tyson, son of Henry and grandson of Rynear and Margaret.9 James became the stepfather of the three Jeanes children. Mary died a few years later and James married Sarah Harper in 1764. In a chain of parenthood, James and Sarah were now the stepparents of Isaac’s children, and they added more children of their own.

Child of Isaac and Abigail:

Mary, born about 1751, married in 1772 Timothy Roberts, son of William Roberts10. They were married at St. Michael’s Church in Philadelphia. Timothy was a farmer. They lived in Moreland, Philadelphia County, where he wrote his will on 11 Nov 1786.11 It was proved 2 weeks later. His wife Mary was to stay on the farm until their youngest son Timothy reached 21. A Negro man Ishmael was to have his freedom after ten years, and to be maintained by the estate if necessary after that.12 The sons Timothy and Williams were to be placed out as apprentices, in trades suitable to their abilities and with respectable men who would use them well. The daughters were Martha, Catherine, Abigail, Elizabeth. Mary was the executor.

Children of Isaac & Mary:13

William, born 7th month 1754, died in 1828, married Elizabeth McVaugh, probably in 1778, since he was disowned by Abington meeting in 11th month 1778 for going out in marriage.14 When William reached the age of 21, he inherited a tract of land, shared with his brother Levi. William bought out his brother Levi’s share in 1788. William died intestate in 1828, leaving his widow Elizabeth and children Edmund, Benjamin, Isaac, William, Isaiah, Hiram, Jonathan, Mary, Martha, Elizabeth, Eleanor, Rebecca and Keziah.15

Levi, born 3rd month 1757, died in 1807, m. Hannah —, no surviving children. He wrote his will on September 2, 1807 and died three days later. He was buried in the Quaker cemetery at Mulberry and 4th Streets, Philadelphia.16 His still-born daughter died the day after him and was probably buried on the same day, perhaps in the same plot.17 His will of 1807 named four of the  daughters of his brother William: Mary, Martha, Elizabeth and Rebecca.18 (William had other children as well.) Levi lived in the Northern Liberties section of Philadelphia County when he made his will.

  1. Abington Monthly Meeting minutes.
  2. At the wedding of Isaac and Mary, the certificate was signed by Elizabeth Jeanes (his step-mother), Elizabeth Walton (her mother), Richard and Mary Sands (parents of Isaac’s first wife), Joseph Jeanes (his brother), William and Phebe Walton (her brother and his wife), Thomas Walton (her brother), Thomas and Mary Carrington (his sister and her husband), two more of Mary’s brothers, and many of the large Walton family.
  3. As of September 1752, the Julian calendar was replaced by the Gregorian one, making the year begin in January, instead of March. The Quakers still used the numbers for months instead of the names that they considered pagan.
  4. Abington Monthly Meeting marriages 1745-1841. The certificate was signed by Isaac and Mary, Elizabeth Jeanes (Isaac’s stepmother), Elizabeth Walton (Mary’s mother), Richard and Mary Sands (parents of Isaac’s first wife), Joseph Jeans (Isaac’s brother), William Walton and Phebe Walton (not present, someone signed for them), Thomas Walton (Mary’s brother), Thomas and Mary Carrington (Isaac’s sister and her second husband), Jeremiah Walton (Mary’s brother), Jacob Walton (Mary’s brother), and many more.
  5. Their births were recorded at Abington meeting.
  6. He died on 12th 8th month 1757, according to Abington Monthly Meeting Records.
  7. Philadelphia County wills, Book K, p. 564. The inventory is at City Hall, Philadelphia, will #349, 1757.
  8. For some reason bees are rarely mentioned in inventories of the time, just like chickens and geese. Perhaps they were so ubiquitous that it was not worth counting them.
  9. Mary died in 1762 or 1763, and in 1764 James Tyson married Sarah Harper at Oxford Meeting. Rebecca McVeagh was one of the witnesses. (Abington MM records)
  10. She was named in her father’s will of 1757, and was named as a granddaughter by Richard Sands, Abigail’s father, in his will in 1758.
  11. Philadelphia County wills, Book T, p. 418. It was proved two weeks later.
  12. This is quite late for a Quaker to own a slave. After about 1765, Quakers were reported to their meeting for owning a slave, and by the 1770s some were disowned for refusing to free them. In 1779 the Yearly Meeting suggested that former slaves were due some compensation.
  13. The births were recorded at Abington Meeting.
  14. He had two cousins named William. William, son of Joseph, wrote his will in North Carolina in 1767; he was unmarried. (Philadelphia County deeds, book D14, p. 191). William, son of Jacob, was born in 1775, according to records of Abington Meeting. If this William was in fact the son of Isaac, one of the two men from the meeting appointed to give him the testimony was Samuel Lloyd. In a twist of circumstances, William’s daughter Mary married a Samuel Lloyd, possibly the son of this Samuel.
  15. The births of the children were not recorded at Abington Meeting, since William had been disowned. The names are from Orphan’s Court records, the will of Levi Jeanes, and a Bible passed down in the Tyson family through descendants of Eleanor Jeanes Tyson, daughter of William and Elizabeth.
  16. Mulberry Street is now called Arch Street. The grounds surrounding the Arch Street Meeting are the site of the oldest Quaker burying ground in Philadelphia, in use for interments until about 1848.
  17. Philadelphia Monthly Meeting Northern District, Deaths of Members 1807-1885. The burials was shown in the records of Philadelphia Monthly Meeting, Grave Books 1806-1814. The cause of death is given for Levi, but it is unrecognizable. For Hannah to have a daughter born when Levi was 50, she must have been at least eight years younger than Levi.
  18. Philadelphia County wills, Book 2, p 183, written on 2 Sep 1897, proved 7 Oct 1807.

Jacob and Ann Waters

Jacob Waters appeared in Upper Merion, Montgomery County, around 1777 when he joined the militia. His origins and family are unknown.1 He served in the Sixth Battalion, in Captain Lette’s company in 1777 and in 1784 in Captain Arnold Francis’ company.2 Since he was born in 1757, he was a young man during the Revolution.3 He was a blacksmith. In 1783 he was still in Upper Merion, taxed for a modest estate.4

In April of 1783 he married a woman named Ann. Her last name is not known, but she was the niece of Edward Tew (or Tue), who died in Philadelphia in 1788 and named her in his will.5 She might have been the daughter of Samuel Tew of Gloucester County, New Jersey, who was known to have a daughter Ann, but there is a question of how a young woman of Gloucester County would meet a young man from Montgomery County.6

In the 1790 census, Conrad Waters of Upper Merion had two men, one boy and four females living with him. This could be Jacob and Ann and their three oldest children, suggesting that Conrad was Jacob’s father. In 1793 Jacob Waters of Upper Merion bought land in Easttown, Chester County from Henry Ruth.7 In 1795 Jacob and Ann sold land in Easttown to Henry Zook8, and bought land in Honeybrook from Isaac Gibson.9 Honeybrook was about 20 miles west of Easttown. In 1798 they still owned a house in Montgomery County, a two-story stone house with a stone kitchen.10

By 1800 Jacob and Ann were settled in Honeybrook, living close to Benjamin Jones, whose son Benjamin would marry their daughter Sarah.11 Jacob subscribed to a fund for building a stone wall around the graveyard of the Presbyterian church in the forks of the Brandywine.12 They were still in Honeybrook in 1810.13

At some point they moved their family about 350 miles west to Licking County, in central Ohio. Why would they move so far across Pennsylvania and halfway across Ohio? “… In 1840, the population had almost tripled to over 2,700 people. Most residents earned their living from agriculture in Newark’s early years. By the late 1840s, the town was home to three newspaper offices, ten grocery stores, two gristmills, an iron foundry, a wool factory, a bookstore, two hardware stores, as well as several other business establishments. Construction of the Ohio and Erie Canal began just south of Newark at Licking Summit in 1825. The canal led to local prosperity in the 1830’s and 1840’s.”14 As a farmer, Jacob apparently hoped to benefit from that prosperity. Jacob and Ann’s daughter Sarah Waters Jones visited them there with her husband Benjamin, “riding the entire distance from Rockville, Chester county, on horseback.”15

In 1832 Jacob applied for bounty land as a Revolutionary War veteran, submitting a paper with the names of his children and dates of birth for him and his wife Ann.16 Records show that he did receive a pension, paid until his death in 1840.17 He is buried at Brushy Fork Cemetery, Licking County.18 Ann died in 1849, aged 84, a widow, survived by seven of her children.19

Some of the children stayed around Brushy Fork and associated with families in the Church of the Disciple there. “The Brushy Fork Congregation… was organized in the latter part of 1837 with… John Oatman and wife, Andrew Nicholson and wife…first members”.20 Andrew Nicholson was married to Nancy Waters; Nancy’s sister Jane was married to Andrew Oatman, probably related to John Oatman.

Children of Jacob and Ann:

Nathan, b. June 1784, alive in 1849.

Sarah, b. June 1786, d. 1872, m. Benjamin Jones, moved to Huntingdon County, Pennsylvania. Benjamin died there in 1828, leaving Sarah with eight children.21 Children of Benjamin and Sarah: Nancy Ann, Samuel, Caleb, Hannah, Mary Ann, Jacob, Benjamin, Sarah.

Jacob, b. June 1788, d. 1860, m. Mary Trout. Jacob was a farmer in the 1850 census in Crawford County, Ohio. He and Mary had five children. She died in 1877 and is buried with Jacob at Luke Cemetery, Crawford County.22

Nancy, b. July 1790, m. Andrew Nicholson. In the 1820 census Andrew Nicholson lived in Hanover Township, Licking County, Ohio with four people in his household, a farmer.23 They have not been found in later census records.

Joseph, b. July 1792, d. July 1799

Rachel, b. August 1794, d. October 1795

Liddy, b. Dec 1796, no further records

Elizabeth, b. April 1799, m. John Patterson.24 In the 1850 census they were in Hanover Township, Licking County, Ohio.25 John was a farmer, age 60. Their sons Joseph and John were living with them.

Joseph, b. Oct 1802, d. before 1849.

Mary, “Polly”, b. Dec 1804, married a man named Lake.26

Jane, b. 1810, d. 1889, m. Andrew Oatman. In the 1860 census they were living in Mary Ann Township, Licking County, where Andrew was a farmer.27 In 1860 they owned 200 acres of land, managed eight horses, 15 cows, 14 sheep and nine swine, grew corn and produced wool.28 Andrew and Jane were buried at Barnes Cemetery, Licking County.29 Children: Charles, Harriet, Emily, Eliza, Warren, George, Jemima, Nancy.30

  1. He may have been related to Conrad Waters of Upper Merion, also in the militia. See the discussion about the 1790 census.
  2. PA Archives, series 6, vol. 1-14.
  3. Ancestry tree, Gofton-Jones, created by Benjamin Gofton. He includes documentation such as pension rolls, tax lists, tombstones.
  4. PA Tax and Exoneration 1768-1801, Upper Merion, on Ancestry, image 59.
  5. Philadelphia County wills, books U, p. 46, proved in 1788.
  6. Samuel Tew died in 1774, left a will in Gloucester County.
  7. Chester County deeds, book H2, p. 392. Easttown is about eight miles west of Upper Merion.
  8. Chester County deeds, book O2, p. 210. Note that Jacob’s first two land dealings were with men of German background.
  9. Chester County deeds, Book M2, p. 35.
  10. US 1798 Direct Tax, Montgomery County, on Ancestry, image 170. This was the “windowpane tax”.
  11. 1800 census, Honeybrook township, Chester County.
  12. McClune, James, History of the Presbyterian Church in the Forks of the Brandywine, 1885.
  13. 1810 census.
  14. Wikipedia, Ohio History Central website.
  15. Biography of Benjamin Jones Jr, Commemorative and Biographical Record of Central Pennsylvania, 1898, p. 357.
  16. The list of dates is saved on the Gofton-Jones Ancestry tree.
  17. US Revolutionary War Pension Payment Ledgers, 1812-1872, 8-Vol. H, on FamilySearch, image 314.
  18. Findagrave, Jacob Waters, buried in Brushy Fork Cemetery, Licking County, Ohio. The entry says that Jacob was born in Upper Merion, but there is no evidence for this.
  19. 1850 census mortality schedule, Licking County, Ohio, District 9, on Ancestry, image 1. For what it’s worth, the census entry said she was born in Pennsylvania. The children who survived her were: Nancy Nicholson, Nathan Water, Sarah Jones, Jacob Waters, Elizabeth Peterson, Polly Lake and Jane Oatman. (Findagrave entry for Jacob Waters. This record, probably from a probate record or obituary, has not been traced.)
  20. Jacob Winter, “Historical Sketches of the Disciple Churches in Licking County, Ohio”, Pioneer Paper #53, Licking County Historical Association, on Google Books.
  21. Two others had died in infancy.
  22. Findagrave, which includes photos of their tombstones.
  23. 1820 census, Licking County, Hanover Township, image 2. John Oatman and Vincent Lake were in the same township.
  24. Ancestry trees say that she was born in April 1800 and married John Peterson. The date here is from Jacob’s application for bounty land in 1832. The name of her husband is from the 1850 census.
  25. 1850 census, Hanover Township, on Ancestry, image 12.
  26. From the Findagrave entry for her father Jacob, citing the surviving children after Ann Waters died in 1849. This record has not been traced to a source.
  27. 1860 census, Mary Ann Township, on Ancestry, images 15-16
  28. Federal non-population schedule, 1860, Ohio, Agriculture, Licking, Mary Ann Township.
  29. Findagrave.
  30. 1850 census, Mary Ann Township, on Ancestry, image 14; 1860 census; Ancestry trees.

Benjamin Jones and Sarah Waters

Benjamin Jones was the son of Benjamin Jones and Hannah Kirk. Born in 1781, he was a middle child in a large family. His father Benjamin was a tanner, who owned almost 300 acres of land in Honeybrook township, on the extreme northwest corner of Chester County.1 Some of the children of Benjamin and Hannah stayed in Chester County, while several, like the younger Benjamin moved west.

Around 1804 Benjamin married Sarah Waters, daughter of Jacob and Ann. Benjamin was one of the first men in his family to marry outside the old Chester County Quaker families. By the early 1800s, many had fallen away from the Society, including Benjamin’s parents, who married out of meeting in 1765. Sarah’s father Jacob Waters, a blacksmith, was from Upper Merion, possibly the son of Conrad Waters. Jacob had served in the militia during the Revolution. Around 1793 he bought land in Easttown, Chester County and moved there with his family, including his daughter Sarah. Around ten years later he and Ann moved to Licking County, Ohio, and settled there. The story is told that Benjamin and Sarah visited him there, “riding the entire distance from Rockville, Chester County, on horseback.”2

Benjamin and Sarah started their family with a daughter Ann in 1806 and went on to have ten children in all. Benjamin supported them as a tanner, following in his father’s footsteps.

In 1821 Benjamin and his brother Samuel inherited their father’s land. Benjamin got the northern end of the property, where he was already living. Samuel got the southern end, which included the main house, where their mother Hannah had the privilege of living during her lifetime. In the usual provisions Samuel was to bring her firewood and care for her cow. Benjamin and Samuel also shared a 50-acre tract, probably of woodland.3

In the spring of 1824, the family of Benjamin and Sarah was uprooted. Benjamin had fallen into debt, owing $482.79. His property was seized by the sheriff and both tracts were sold, the woodland tract of 30 acres and Benjamin’s 108-acre share of the family farm. The smaller tract was sold to Richard and Thomas Walker, while Samuel Jones bought the larger tract.4

Benjamin and Sarah left Chester County and moved their family 150 miles west into the mountains of central Pennsylvania, settling in the Spruce Creek Valley.5 Benjamin did not live there long. “He was also engaged in hauling iron to Pittsburgh and while on one of these trips contracted a fever, from which he died September 21, 1828.”6 The early death of Benjamin probably the family in distress. He left Sarah with a large family of children, ranging in age from 3 to 22. Two of the daughters, Sarah and Elizabeth, died in infancy, possibly from consumption, a common disease of the poor at the time. Yet the sons flourished, becoming solid citizens, successful businessmen, and fathers of large families. The daughters fared less well. One suffered from mental illness and died in an asylum (Nancy); one died in the prime of life from consumption (Hannah); one lived to see her son sent to prison for murder (Mary Ann).

Children of Benjamin and Sarah:

Nancy Ann, “Ann”, b. 26 June 1806, d. 1872, m. James Hunter. After her husband died she lived with her sister Mary Ann LaPorte.7 Nancy died in an asylum in Harrisburg in 1872, according to testimony by her brother Samuel in the 1885 murder trial of Jack LaPorte8. The family was trying to get Jack acquitted on the grounds that insanity ran in his mother’s family.

Samuel, b. 23 Jan 1808, d. 1894, m. 1829 Elizabeth Mattern, daughter of David and Catherine. Samuel was a potter. He became a justice of the peace, a trustee of the Presbyterian Church, and a well-known figure in Tyrone.9 In 1889 he and Elizabeth celebrated their sixtieth wedding anniversary, hosting a celebration with their families, including nineteen grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren. He died in 1894, as one of “Tyrone’s oldest citizens”, according to his obituary in the Democratic Watchman of Bellefont.10 Elizabeth died in 1897.11 Children: Catherine, Benjamin, Christia Ann, Sarah Jane, Lucinda, David, Charles, Emaline, Aaron.12 Only Benjamin, Charles and Emaline (Hiltner) survived their father.13

Caleb, b. 28 May 1809, m. 1834 Catherine Mattern, dau. of David and Catherine, a carpenter. Caleb married Catherine Mattern in 1834. They lived in Franklin Township through 1840, later moved to Clarion County, Pennsylvania and farmed there for a time, then moved to Wabasha County, Minnesota. He died in 1882 and Catherine died in 1896. Children of Caleb and Catherine: Luther, Sarah, Susanna, Albert, Oliver, Sylvester, Catherine, Amanda, Mary Ann.14

Hannah, b. 20 April 1811, m. John D. Bell; she died in January 1850 of consumption.15

Mary Ann, b. 3 May 1813, d. 1887, m. ab. 1833 John LaPorte, lived in Spruce Creek Valley. John was a farmer and judge on the county court.16 Their son Jack was convicted of murder in 1885. Two of the sons, Samuel and Lemuel, fought in the Civil War and never fully recovered from the experience. Children of Mary Ann and John: Benjamin J, Samuel, James Hunter, Lemuel, Anson, Adolphus, Elmore, Sarah Margaret, Jack. John died in 1899, impoverished by the expensive defense of his son in the murder trial.

Sarah, b. 9 April 1815, died in infancy.

Elizabeth, b. 2 December 1817, died in infancy.

Jacob Waters, b. 30 Nov 1819, a carpenter and contractor. He married Rebecca Burley in 1844. They lived in Philipsburg, where he had a “large and successful business”, later moved to Tyrone. Jacob died in 1898, survived by six children. Children: Margaret, Orlando, Elvira, Nancy, Lewis, Delcena, Paul, Lisle, John.17

Benjamin, b. 10 Dec 1823, d. February 1910 in Tyone, m. in 1848 Margaret Rye, apprenticed as a carpenter, built houses in Tyrone with his brother Jacob, moved to Philipsburg and worked in several businesses there.18 Benjamin and Jacob were early builders in Tyrone. “About the same time the city of Tyrone was being laid out, and there the brothers purchased a couple of lots and erected homes of their own in the fall of 1851, when only about three houses adorned the present site of that now flourishing city.”19 Children: Oliver Perry, Ella, Lot, Mary Ann, Dwight.20

Sarah, b. 18 Dec 1826, d. March 1899. She lived with the household of her sister Hannah (Bell) and kept house for the family after Hannah died. Around 1852 she married Amos Gingrich, who died a few years later. They had a daughter, born September 1856, who lived to be 96 and died in Tyrone in 1953.21 Sarah then married William O. Myers.22 Children of Sarah and William: Carrie, Mary, Jennie.23

 

  1. Chester County tax lists, deeds, wills.
  2. Commemorative and Biographical Record of Central Pennsylvania, 1898, p. 357, biography of Benjamin Jones, son of Benjamin and Sarah.
  3. Chester County wills, estate file #6947.
  4. Chester County deeds, Book X-3, p. 246 and p. 307.
  5. According to the biography of Benjamin Jones Jr, they moved west in the spring of 1824. His 1910 obituary said it was the spring of 1821. The earlier record is more likely, as they would have moved when they lost their land, not three years earlier.
  6. Biography of Benjamin Jones Jr. The biography also said that Benjamin Sr was a “prominent and influential man of the community where he made his home”. This seems unlikely. Influence usually came from wealth, which he did not have.
  7. 1860 census, Franklin Township, Huntingdon County.
  8. She became insane, according to Samuel’s testimony, and died in 1872 in the State Hospital in Harrisburg. The trial was covered extensively in the Huntingdon Globe, available at the Juniata College Library in Huntingdon. The testimony about Nancy’s illness was on September 24, 1885.
  9. Wiley, Samuel T. and W. Scott Garner, ed., Biographical and Portrait Cyclopedia of Blair County, Pennsylvania, 1892, p. 499, biography of Samuel’s son Charles.
  10. Spangler Notebooks, Centre County Library, number 106, p. 26.
  11. Her obituary in the Altoona Tribune, 28 July 1896.
  12. Biography & Portrait Cyclopedia, p. 499; census records.
  13. His obituary in the Tyrone Herald, August 2, 1894.
  14. Census records of 1850, 1860, 1870, 1880.
  15. Federal census Mortality Schedule 1850, Franklin Township, Huntingdon County.
  16. Census records for Franklin Township, Huntingdon County; John’s application for a pension in 1897 (NARA); burial records; obituaries.
  17. Census of 1850, 1860, 1870.
  18. His obituary in the Tyrone Daily Herald, Feb 16, 1910.
  19. Biography of Benjamin Jr, Commemorative and Biographical Record…, p. 357.
  20. Commemorative and Biographical Record.. Four other children died as children.
  21. PA State Death Certificate of Sarah McLanahan, daughter of Amos Gingrich and “Sarah Watters Jones”.
  22. Her obituary in the Tyrone Daily Herald, March 20, 1899.
  23. From the census of 1870 and 1880, Tyrone, Blair County.

Benjamin Jones of Honeybrook and his two wives

Benjamin was born in East Bradford in 1740, one of nine children of John Jones and Sarah Taylor.1 Benjamin grew up to be a currier and tanner. Since his father John was a miller, Benjamin must have been apprenticed to learn the tanning trade. Around 1771 he moved about 15 miles northwest to West Nantmeal township.2 From 1796 on he was taxed in Honeybrook. He probably didn’t move; Honeybrook had been formed from West Nantmeal in 1789.

Benjamin bought several tracts of land. In 1785 he bought 217 acres in 1785 from William Logan.3 He added another 50 acres in 1799, and in 1812 he bought a house and ten acres on the turnpike road.4 In 1814 Benjamin and Hannah sold four acres of the ten-acre tract to George Bunn, making a tidy profit.5 In 1817 they sold the remaining six acres to William Davis, reserving the privilege of water from a spring at the southwest corner. In 1818 they donated a tract of 52 perches (1/3 of an acre) to the trustees for a schoolhouse to be erected, part of the land bought from William Logan in 1785.6 In his will Benjamin gave three pieces of land to his surviving sons Benjamin and Samuel. Benjamin got the northern end of the home plantation, while Samuel got the southern end. They were to share a tract on Barren Hill.7

Benjamin’s first wife Alice Temple was the daughter of William Temple and Hannah Taylor. Since Sarah and Hannah Taylor were both daughters of Joseph Taylor and Elizabeth Haines, Benjamin and Alice were first cousins. Marriages between first cousins were against the rules of the Society of Friends, which might explain why Benjamin and Alice were married outside of the meeting in 1765.8 The births of Benjamin’s children were not recorded, so it is not known whether he had children with Alice.9 In her 1827 will Hannah named her six daughters, including Alice and Phebe. This strongly suggests that all of Benjamin’s known children were with Hannah.

William Temple wrote a charming letter to his niece in England in 1772, mentioning that his daughter Alice was dead and asking her to find the record of his birth.10

Respected Niece Mary Isaac:

On the 23rd of Nov. 1772 with great satisfaction & pleasure rec’d thy kind letter dated Bath 18th of Aug, 1772, & was greatly rejoiced to hear from one that was the offspring of my sister Susannah for whom though young when I left her, had a particular regard & esteem for, being my favorite sister as I well remember the younger children laboured under some hardships & difficulties by our fathers marrying a second wife, which is often the case in second marriages, & that was the cause of my leaving my native land, but through the blessing of Almighty God & my care & industry I have acquired a handsome share of the things necessary to be enjoyed in this life, besides which I’ve had nine children, 4 whereof are now living (to wit) 2 sons & 2 daughters all married & have a competent living, my son Thomas is the oldest, Hannah, Lydia and Benjamin are the others living, and those Dec’d are Susanna, William, Elizabeth, Sarah & Alice, … I married one of the family of Taylors who came from Didcot not far from Reading in Berkshire, … as for my ever seeing the land of my nativity I much despair of, being far advanced in years and the infirmities attending old age makes it difficult crossing the seas. I earnestly request if an opportunity should offer that thee make search for the day and year that I was born in. I suppose it may be found in the records of births for the parish of Atford alias Atworth in Wilts as I remember my parents saying I was born at Coonslane in said parish (my fathers name was William Temple) and send me an acct on a piece of paper with the parsons hand to it in thy next letter …”

On 9 April 1770, Benjamin married Hannah Kirk (as “Kark” in the record) at Old Swedes Church in Philadelphia. They had a large family. Apparently none of his children married as Friends. In his will, written in 1819 and proved in 1821, Benjamin named his daughters first, as Alice, Phebe, Cordelia, Hannah, Sarah, and Mary, followed by sons John deceased, Benjamin and Samuel.11 Hannah survived him and died in 1829, and left a will naming six daughters.12

Children of Benjamin and Hannah:

Alice, b. ab. 1771, d. between 1819 and 1827, m. 1) Joseph Trego of Honeybrook (b. 1763), 2) 1797 Isaac Gibson in Middletown Church. Joseph Trego died in 1794, and named his wife Alice and father-in-law Benjamin Jones in his will.13 He was a prosperous farmer, leaving much livestock and many tools.14 Most of the estate was to be sold and divided among his heirs, his wife Alice and children Joseph and Hannah. Alice (as “Else”) married Isaac Gibson on 28 February 1797 at St. Peter’s Lutheran Church in Middletown. He was a widower; his first wife Ann Liggett was the widow of John Starrett.15 Isaac was a physician, who lived first in West Nantmeal, then in Honeybrook when it was separated from Nantmeal. “Dr. Isaac Gibson, about 1786, and Dr. Effinger Happersett, about 1816, commenced the practice of medicine; but as neither of them had received a medical education they were not largely patronized.”16 Gibson was a pewholder in the Presbyterian Church at West Brandywine and subscribed to build a stone wall there.17 He is probably the Isaac Gibson who died in 1829 in Lancaster.18

Phebe, b. Aug 1772, died in 1826, married Jeremiah Trego, b. 1771, son of Joseph and Alice.19 They moved to Northumberland County where he died in 1834. Children of Jeremiah and Phebe: Nancy, Sarah, Hannah, Joseph, Benjamin, Phoebe, Polly, Samuel, Ann, Smith, Mary, Washington.20

Cordelia, m. John Smith before 1819. The were ten men named John Smith in Chester Co in 1820. It is not known which one she married.

Hannah, b. ab. 1777, d. 1863, m. ab. 1793, Joseph Pennock, son of Jesse & Hannah21. Joseph died in 1853, left a will in Chester County. Hannah died in 1863. She and Joseph are buried at London Grove Friends meeting.22 Children of Hannah and Joseph: Benjamin, Mary, Sarah Ann, Joseph. The son Benjamin became a physician, perhaps serving as an apprentice with one of his uncles, Isaac Gibson or Effinger Happersett.

John, died before 1819, left daughters Jean and Hannah.23

Benjamin, b. 1781, d. 1828, m. ab. 1804 Sarah Waters, daughter of Jacob and Ann, moved to Huntingdon County in 1824. Benjamin was in the business of hauling iron to Pittsburgh, and on one trip he caught a fever and died.24 Most of the children of Benjamin and Sarah stayed in Huntingdon County, although at least one ended up in Minnesota. When Benjamin died in 1828, he left Sarah with a large family of children, ranging in age from three to 23. Sarah outlived him by many years, dying in 1872 in Tyrone, Blair County.25 Children of Benjamin and Sarah: Samuel, Ann, Caleb, Hannah, Mary Ann, Sarah, Elizabeth, Jacob, Benjamin, Sarah.

Sarah, b. Nov 1779, d. 1850, m. Davis Roberts before 1819. They moved to Waynesburg, Greene County, where Davis died in 1845. Sarah is buried in the Methodist cemetery in Honey Brook.26 Children of Davis and Sarah: Hannah, Davis, John, Benjamin, Joseph, Mary Ann.

Samuel, b. 1788, d. 1875, m. 1813 Rachel Happersett, dau of Jacob and Agnes, sister of Effinger. They were married at St. Mary’s P.E. Church in Warwick, Chester County. Samuel was a tanner. They had 10 children.27 Samuel died in 1875 in Honeybrook.28 In his will he named Rachel and children Samuel, Agnes, Rachel, Emelia, and Levi. The daughters received a cash legacy, while the sons Samuel and Levi shared the land. Rachel died in 1878 and was buried with Samuel at St. Marks Episcopal cemetery in Honeybrook.29

Mary, b. 1790, d. 1869, married in 1822 Effinger Happersett, a widower whose first wife was Margaret Jones, daughter of David Jones (not a close relation).30 Margaret died in 1821 leaving Effinger with two small children, born in 1815 and 1817. Effinger was a physician, who died in 1861 in West Nantmeal. His inventory included cupping fixtures, syringe, medicine cases and medical library.31 Some said that he was “not largely patronized”, since he had not gone to medical school.32 Mary and Effinger were buried at St. Mark’s P.E. cemetery.33

 

  1. Benjamin Jones, son of John and Sarah, is confusable with several other men of the same name in Chester County. A Benjamin Jones, weaver of Tredyffrin, died in 1755. Another Benjamin Jones, of Westtown, was the son of Benjamin Jones and Rebecca Eavenson. A Jacob Jones of Whitemarsh died in 1816, naming brothers Benjamin and John. (Montgomery County wills) The distinguishing signs for Benjamin Jones, son of John and Sarah, are his trade of tanner and his residence, first in East Bradford, later in West Nantmeal and Honeybrook.
  2. He appeared in the Chester County tax lists from 1762 to 1770 in East Bradford, and in the West Nantmeal tax lists from 1772 on. (Chester County tax lists, Chester County archive)
  3. Chester County deeds, book book A-2, v. 25, p. 20.
  4. Chester County deeds, book R-2, p. 463; Chester County deeds, book G3, p. 71.
  5. Chester County deeds, book M3, p. 235.
  6. Chester County deeds, book Q3, p. 81.
  7. The home plantation was probably the 1785 purchase of 217 acres. The Barren Hill tract was probably the 50 acres bought in 1799.
  8. Probably at Trinity Church, Wilmington.
  9. Benjamin was named as a son-in-law in the will of William Temple, written in June 1769. Between 1769 and 1775, when he died, William did not revise his will, so we don’t know whether he had any Jones grandchildren.
  10. Temple Lines in America, website of L. Parker Temple, accessed July 2019.
  11. Chester County estates, #6947, Chester County Archive. The file includes the will, inventory and account.
  12. Chester County estates, #8351, Chester County Archive.
  13. Chester County wills, book 9, p. 281.
  14. The inventory of his estate included, besides the usual horses and cows, 20 sheep, 16 swine and 28 geese. (Chester County estates, Book 9, p. 281)
  15. Some or all of the children in Isaac’s will of 1829 may have been with Ann.
  16. James McClune, History of the Presbyterian Church in the Forks of the Brandywine, 1885, p. 214.
  17. McClune, p. 202.
  18. He is not listed in the estate index (wills and administrations) for Chester County to 1845. (FamilySearch)
  19. Some Ancestry trees claim that the Phebe Jones who married Jeremiah Trego was the daughter of Benjamin Jones and Rebecca Eavenson. The identification of this Phebe as Jeremiah’s wife is from the estate account of her father Benjamin Jones, filed in 1824 by Samuel Jones and Joseph Pennock. (Chester County estate papers, #6947, Chester County Archive)
  20. History of Wyandot County, Ohio, 1884, biography of Ann Trego Updegraff.
  21. Ancestry World Tree for Joseph Pennock on Ancestry. In the 1850 census they are in London Grove, Chester County, with their son Benjamin, a physician. Joseph was 77; Hannah was 73. Phebe Pennock named “daughter” Hannah Jones in her will, proved in 1818 in Londongrove.
  22. London Grove meeting, births and deaths 1792-1895, on Ancestry.
  23. Not the Hannah Jones born to John Jones and Elizabeth Graham (Ancestry tree); the dates are wrong.
  24. Commemorative Biographical Record of Central Pennsylvania, 1898, p. 357, biography of Benjamin Jones, son of Benjamin Jones and Sarah Water.
  25. In the 1870 census she was living with the family of her daughter Sarah Myers. (Blair County, Tyrone, Image 32).
  26. Findagrave.
  27. The exact dates of birth are known.
  28. Chester County wills, book 24, p. 324.
  29. Burial records of St. Marks are online.
  30. The identity of Effinger Happersett’s wife Mary is from the account of her father Benjamin Jones’ estate, where Effinger and Mary received part of their legacy.
  31. Chester County estates, #14112, including the will, inventory and estate accounting.
  32. McClune, p. 214. This was also said about his brother-in-law Isaac Gibson.
  33. Ancestry, PA & NJ Church & Town Records.

John Jones and Sarah Taylor

John Jones of East Bradford first appeared in Chester County records in 1738, when he was listed as a landholder.1 His origins are not known, even whether he was born in Pennsylvania or emigrated.2 Around 1732 John married Sarah Taylor, the daughter of Joseph and Elizabeth Taylor, who were members of Concord Monthly Meeting. John too was a Quaker. When he went before a justice in 1744 to attest to the will of his brother-in-law Richard Taylor, John affirmed rather than swearing.3

Sarah was born in Kennett Township, near the Forks of the Brandywine, in 1711. If John was a few years older, then he would have been born about 1708. He died in 1772, when he would have been in his 60s.4

In 1744 Sarah’s father Joseph Taylor died and left her a tract of land in East Bradford containing 26 acres. Sarah’s husband John and their sons built a mill there on the Brandywine River, later known as Sager’s Mill.5 There were two mills, a sawmill and corn mill, still owned in common in 1773, when one of the sons, Edward, sold his share.6

“By 1740 Joseph Taylor was a large land owner in the Brandywine Valley near Lenape. In 1744 he deeded twenty-six acres of land located on the east side of the Brandywine to his daughter, Mrs. Jones, whose husband and sons soon built a dam and erected a grist and saw mill… The mill property was purchased by Joel Baily in 1775 and sold two years later to Benjamin Powell for one thousand pounds. Among owners in subsequent years was Isaac Dixon who, in 1817, was running the grist and saw mills and built a four story cotton factory. This was known as Adelphi Cotton Works and produced cotton yarn and muslin… The property was purchased in 1855 by John P. Sager, a mill from Delaware County.”7

John was taxed in East Bradford for the saw mill and grist mill on this tract through 1770. In addition to the mill John probably farmed on the remainder of the land. They kept a horse or two and three cows, to provide milk for the family.8

John and Sarah were probably members of Bradford Meeting. In 1741 when her brother Samuel married Deborah Darlington at Bradford Meeting, Sarah and John both signed, along with some of Sarah’s siblings and relatives.

John did not leave a will. When he died in March 1772 in East Bradford, letters of administration were granted to Sarah his widow. She died three years later, living in East Bradford. Her will was written in January 1775 and proved in June 1775. In it she named sons Edward, John and Benjamin, daughters Hannah, “wife of Thomas  Temple” (sic), Lydia, wife of James Jefferis, Elizabeth Harlan, Cordelia Webb, and Ann Chandler.9

Children of John and Sarah:10

William, b. 1732, d. 1766, probably unmarried.11 William died in East Bradford, with administration granted to John Jones. The inventory of his estate, taken December 1766, showed no furniture, a few tools, gear for one horse, and his share in the sawmill and gristmill. He was probably living with his parents.12

Edward, b. 1733, married Ann, a miller in East Bradford in 1771.13 In 1773 Edward and Ann sold a one-sixth share of the water mill to Benjamin Taylor of Pennsbury (Edward’s uncle). They may have left East Bradford after that.

John, b. 1735, named in the wills of his parents, no further information.

Hannah, b. 1737, d. ab. 181014, m. 1770 Benjamin Temple, son of William and Hannah. Children of Benjamin and Hannah: John, Jane, Hannah, Joseph, Elizabeth, William, James.

Benjamin, b. 1740, d. 1821, m. ab. 1765 1) Alice Temple, b. 1743, dau. of William and Hannah (Taylor), m. 2) Hannah Kirk, b. 1747, dau. of Adam & Phebe. They moved to Honeybrook Township by 1799. Alice Temple Jones died before November 1772, and most (or all) of Benjamin’s children were with his second wife Hannah Kirk. Children of Benjamin: Alice, Phebe, Cordelia, Hannah, John, Benjamin, Sarah, Samuel, Mary. They were all named in Benjamin’s will except for John, who died before 1819.

Lydia, b. 1742, m. James Jefferis, son of Benjamin and Elizabeth (Carter); after Lydia died James married Mary Perkins15. James probably lived in East Bradford in 1790.

Elizabeth, b. 1745, d. 1811, m. 1766 Phineas Harlan at Birmingham Meeting, son of John and Sarah. Phineas died in 1795 in St. Georges Hundred, New Castle County. Children of Phineas and Elizabeth: Sarah, Cordelia, Elizabeth.

Cordelia, b. 1749, d. 1785, m. 1773 Ezekiel Webb, at Birmingham Meeting, son of William and Elizabeth. After Cordelia died, Ezekiel in 1787 married Elizabeth Hollingsworth and had seven children with her16. He owned a farm and kept the Anvil Tavern in Kennett. Children of Cordelia and Ezekiel: Elizabeth, Rebecca, Sarah, Hannah, Thomas, John, Ezekiel.17

Ann, b. 1754, m. 1773 John Chandler at Christ Church, Philadelphia. They were probably in East Marlborough in 1783 when he bought land in East Bradford. According to some sources they moved to Kentucky.18

  1. Tax lists, Chester County Archive.
  2. Some Ancestry trees give his parents as Cadwalader Jones and Eleanor Evans. They did have a son John born in 1711, but he is not named in Cadwalader’s will and probably died young. Cadwalader Jones died in Uwchlan in 1758. Another source suggests that John’s parents were named Edward and Cordelia. John named two of his children Edward and Cordelia (an unusual name for the time), but this is not conclusive.
  3. Probate of Richard Taylor, 1744, Probate records of Chester County on FamilySearch.
  4. The Gofton-Jones tree on Ancestry has a birthdate of 1710 for John, with no evidence.
  5. J. Smith Futhey and Gilbert Cope, History of Chester County, 1881. Also a 1773 indenture from Edward and Ann Jones, in the Gilbert Cope notebooks, Jo-Jy, at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania.
  6. Chester County deeds, in the Cope notebooks.
  7. Arthur E. James, A History of East Bradford Township, 1971, pp. 10-11.
  8. Tax lists of East Bradford, 1765 through 1770, Chester County Archive.
  9. Hannah married Benjamin Temple, not Thomas. Her marriage to Benjamin is well-documented. The “Thomas Temple” in Sarah’s will is from the courthouse copybook. Perhaps the clerk made an error when he copied the original. Clerks sometimes made mistakes.
  10. These birthdates are from the Ancestry tree of Benjamin Gofton, where they are given exactly. ( I have not included the full dates here.) He also includes a daughter Sarah born in 1748, and two daughters named Mary. These girls probably died young. I have not seen Bible or Quaker birth records for the family.
  11. He should not be confused with other men named William Jones, one in Goshen, one in West Town, one in London Grove (a spinning wheel maker), and a tavernkeeper in Birmingham. (Chester County tax lists)
  12. Chester County Probate Records on FamilySearch, estate number 2330.
  13. In the Chester County tax list of 1765, Edward Jones was listed as an inmate (married but landless). His brother William was listed as a single man. (Chester County Archive)
  14. Her death was noted in Kennett Meeting Records, in a listing of graves, but the date was given only as “1810 or 12 about”. (Kennett Preparative Meeting, Minutes 1910, image 71 on Ancestry, US Quaker Meeting Records)
  15. Ancestry World Tree for James Jefferis
  16. Ancestry World Tree for Ezekiel Webb
  17. Births and burials, Kennett Meeting 1706-1806, on Ancestry. The family Bible, kept by Cordelia, was handed down to Thomas, the oldest son. (Chester County Historical Society)
  18. Ancestry trees, no source given.

Joseph Taylor and Elizabeth Haines

Joseph Taylor of Chester County was the son of Abiah Taylor of Didcot, Berkshire, and the grandson of John Taylor.1 Abiah became a Quaker, probably before 1671 when he was absent from services at the church in Didcot. His father John died in 1677, and on his deathbed changed his will, leaving everything to his two children by his second wife and cutting off Abiah with a shilling. Abiah contested the will, but the archdeaconry court found that John was lucid at the time of his death and ruled against Abiah.2

Abiah married a woman named Alice, probably in a Quaker ceremony, and had three known children with her, two sons and a daughter. The daughter, Sarah, married Thomas Hunt.3 The two sons, Joseph and Abiah, both married and immigrated to Chester County.4 It is known when their father Abiah or mother Alice died.

The younger Abiah married Deborah Gearing in 1694 at Faringdon Meeting, Berkshire, and immigrated in 1702. He bought rights to 1000 acres of land from John Tovey while still in England. In 2nd month 1703 the Commissioners of Property granted him a vacant tract “in Consideration of his Sufferings in Comeing into this Place”.5 He settled on the Brandywine and build a mill. In 1708 and 1713 he bought more land.6 He and Deborah were members of the Friends meeting. He died in 1747 in East Bradford township. The inventory of his estate was sparse, suggesting that he was living with one of his children by then.7 Children of Abiah and Deborah were: Ann, Abiah, Alice, Deborah, and Samuel. They married into other Quaker families, mostly at Birmingham Monthly Meeting.8

His brother Joseph apprenticed himself in 1699 to Edward Weston, a carpenter of Harwell near Didcot. Joseph was a grown man by then, not a youth, and probably wanted to learn the skills. The next year he and Elizabeth Haines of Harwell declared their intentions of marriage at the Quaker meetings at Harwell and Blewbury.9 They started their family, having four sons before immigrating to Chester County in 1708. By then Joseph’s apprenticeship would have ended. He must have saved money while working, since in 1711 he bought a tract of 705 acres on Brandywine Creek.10 He later bought more land, eventually owning over 1100 acres. Later in life he divided the land among his sons and became a shopkeeper. When he died his inventory included 12 iron pots, spectacles, buckles, calico, thread, silk bindings, buttons, alum, writing paper, nails and tobacco.11

Joseph and Elizabeth had seven known children, one of whom died young. In March 1732 three of the sons were hauled into Chester County court for rioting. They had apparently gathered, along with ten other youths, and assaulted Jacob Way, beating and abusing him.12 Joseph, Richard and Benjamin Taylor were found guilty, but the verdict was set aside on a technicality.13 Although Joseph and Elizabeth were Quakers several of their children married outside of meeting.

Elizabeth died in 6th mo 1743. Joseph died 3rd mo 1744. Only their three youngest children survived them. In Joseph’s will he named the children of his son Joseph deceased and a son of his son Jeremiah deceased, as well as two living sons and two daughters. All received cash bequests except for the daughter Sarah Jones, who received 26 acres in East Bradford.14

Children of Joseph and Elizabeth:15

Joseph, b. 1701, d. 1740, m. Catherine. Her last name is unknown; she was the widow of a Baxter. A wheelwright and blacksmith, Joseph died in 1740 in Kennet. He left a will, naming four children and a Baxter stepson. His estate included shares in a copper mine and lead mine.16 Children of Joseph and Catherine: John, Susanna, Elizabeth and Joseph.

Richard, b. 1702, d. 1744. Richard died in 1744 and left a will naming his wife Eleanor, four children and an unborn child.17 His widow Eleanor later married Thomas Huston. Children of Richard and Eleanor: John, Joseph, Sarah and Hannah.

Jeremiah, b. 1704, d. 1732, m. Mary; she later m. a man named Smart. Jeremiah died in Kennett. Administration for his estate was granted in 1732 to his father Joseph. Children of Jeremiah and Mary: Elizabeth, Joseph, Jeremiah.18

John, b. 1705, d. young.

Hannah, b. 1708, d. 1768, m. in 1725 William Temple (son of James and Susanna) at Birmingham Meeting. William died in Kennett in 1775; he left a will naming several children and one grandson. Hannah and William had nine children.

Benjamin, b. 1710, d. 1775, m. Sarah Nookes. They lived in Pennsbury on land conveyed from his father Joseph. Benjamin left a will, naming his wife Sarah and children Isaac, Benjamin, Elizabeth, Hannah and Ann. Sarah survived him and died in 1789. She left a will naming her son Isaac, three daughters and a granddaughter.

Sarah, b. 1711, d. 1775, m. John Jones about 1732. In 1744 Sarah’s father Joseph left her a tract of 26 acres in East Bradford. John and his sons built a mill there.19 John died intestate in 1772; Sarah died in 1775. Only two of their nine children were known to marry as Friends. Children of John and Sarah: William, Edward, John, Benjamin, Hannah, Lydia, Elizabeth, Cordelia, Ann.

  1. Didcot was historically in northern Berkshire, but is now considered part of Oxfordshire. Gilbert Cope, prominent Chester County genealogist and historian, studied the Taylor family and gathered material about them in his notebooks, preserved at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. He also wrote about them in his History of Chester County, 1881, written with John Smith Futhey.
  2. The story was told by Didcot historian Brian Lingham, in Long Years of Obscurity: A history of Didcot, volume 1, and is quoted on the family tree of Joel Swink, at: https://www.genealogy.com/ftm/s/w/i/Joel-N-Swink/GENE8-0025.html, accessed July 2019. I have not seen the original will. John’s first wife, the mother of Abiah and his sister Anne, was named Lettice.
  3. Joel Swink tree.
  4. Futhey and Cope.
  5. Minutes of the Board of Property, volume 1, p. 366.
  6. Futhey and Cope, p. 163.
  7. Ancestry, Chester County Estate Papers 1714-1838, Wills 1016-1149, images 334-337.
  8. Futhey and Cope.
  9. Joseph Taylor material gathered by Gilbert Cope, Historical Society of Pennsylvania. Harwell and Blewbury were villages a few miles from Didcot. The existence of two meetings so close together suggests a large Quaker population.
  10. Taylor material, HSP, gathered by Gilbert Cope.
  11. Chester County Estate Papers, #892.
  12. Chester County Quarter sessions, dockets 1723-1733, p. 243, Chester County Archive.
  13. The verdict was not delivered until the day after the jurors had decided it. This looks suspiciously as if the court was sympathetic to the rioters and looking for an excuse to let them off. The offense of Jacob Way against the community is not known.
  14. Chester County wills, Book B, p. 162, written and proved in 1744.
  15. Futhey and Cope.
  16. Chester County wills, book 2, p. 62.
  17. Chester Couny wills, book B, p. 171.
  18. The children are from Ancestry trees, not verified.
  19. Futhey and Cope.