Category Archives: Families related to Worthington

Samuel Worthington and Mary Carver

The Worthington brothers, John and Samuel, arrived a generation later than the first rush of Quakers in 1682. There are no records of their parents in Pennsylvania; they probably came together as young men.1 Worthington is a common name in Lancashire and it is possible they came from there.2 John Worthington married Mary Walmsley in 1720 and had a large family. Samuel married four years later, declaring his intentions in early 1724 to marry Mary Carver.3 She was the daughter of William Carver and his second wife Mary.4 They were married under the care of Abington Monthly Meeting, which had jurisdiction over Friends who lived in Byberry.5

The Friends of Byberry had their own meeting for worship, held first at member’s houses, then in a log meeting house, finally in 1714 in a large stone meeting house with galleries upstairs.6 To transact business such as getting a marriage approved, they would travel to Abington Monthly Meeting, which initially rotated among the meetings at Frankfort (also called Oxford), Byberry and Abington. After 1710 all the monthly meetings were at the meeting house in Abington.7 The ride from Byberry to Abington Meeting was about ten miles, and would have been a hard one on the rough roads of the day.

For the first twelve years of their marriage, Samuel and Mary moved four times. They moved to Buckingham Meeting in 1726 and spent three years there before moving back to Byberry.8 In the spring of 1732 their house was burnt to the ground with all the household goods, always a hazard when wooden houses were lit by candles.9 Samuel and Mary moved their family to the Manor of Moreland, living as tenants there.10 Their servant man Malaci Garvi ran away and they advertised for his return.11 In 1736 they moved back to Buckingham, at the same time as William Carver Jr., Mary’s brother.12

Samuel and Mary were Quakers, members of several different meetings, but they did not live a blameless life as far as the Society was concerned. In late 1724, several months after their marriage, Abington meeting reported that they had been intimate before their marriage and they were forced to acknowledge the fault. The minutes reported that “Saml Worthington being Lately Married Amongst us Delivered a paper Relateing to his offence together with his wife touching their uncleanness with Each Other before marriage Signifying their sorrow for ye Same. Friends do Order that ye said Paper or a Coppy of ye Same be Publickly Read at Byberry Meeting upon a first Day.”13 After submitting this paper they remained in good standing, but their children did not marry as Friends.

Samuel died in 1775, living in New Britain, and leaving a will that named his wife and seven surviving children, as well as nephew Isaac Worthington.14 The witnesses were Joseph Carver, William Worthington and David Evans.15 The will provided that his beloved wife Mary should get the interest from the estate after the sale of the land. After her death the residual estate would be divided among sons Jonathan, David and Samuel. The date of her death is not known.

The inventory of Samuel’s estate was taken by David Evans and Thomas Goode. It included a riding mare and saddle, featherbeds, two Delft bowls and plates, a chest of drawers, a looking glass, chairs, some tobacco, a dough trough, brass kettle, pepper box, tin funnel and cream jug, chopping knife, a hat brush, an old water pot, a snuff bottle, two mares and their colts, three cows, a sow and seven pigs, four shoats, three hives with bees, grain in the garret, oats, buckwheat, bran, dried beef, smoked bacon and gammon, seven acres of green corn in the ground, and an old churn with some soap.16 The inventory was particularly interesting because it included the rooms of the house: the “room”, the kitchen, the stable and out house, the garret, and the cellar. There were two beds in the “room” and one in the garret, not a lot for two parents and seven children.

Children of Samuel and Mary:17 (The order is uncertain, based here mostly on dates of marriage. This is not the order that Samuel wrote in his will.)

Hester, m. about 1750 Anthony Kimble, son of Anthony and Matilda. After Hester died, he married a woman named Sarah. Anthony had thirteen children; it is not known how many of them were with Hester. Anthony died in 1796. In 1798 his widow Sarah (by then remarried) released her dower to a piece of land for  payment of £50.18

Jonathan, b. about 1737, d. 1801 in New Britain. Jonathan married first, Ann Wilson, widow of Daniel Knight. She died in 1775 and Jonathan married Charity Fell. After her death he married Mary Naylor Childs. He had children with Ann (Benjamin, David, Israel, James, Jonathan and Phebe) and with Mary (Zenas, Cephas, Jane, Macre, William). Jonathan died in 1801.19

David, alive in 1775. He is probably the David Worthington who married Sarah Williams in June 1768 at the First Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia, lived in New Britain, and died in 1834, leaving heirs.20

Samuel, alive in 1775. He may have been the Samuel Worthington Jr whose servant Patrick Connor ran away in 1769.21 Samuel may have moved to Virginia.22

Rachel, married in 1765 John Rice, son of Edward and Elizabeth.23 In 2nd month 1759 Buckingham Meeting reported that Rachel Worthington was with child; is that this Rachel?  They were married by license dated August 1765.24 She is probably the Rachel Rice who wrote a will in 1816, naming children Mary, Elizabeth, Hannah, Ann, James, Edward and John.25

Pleasant, around 1769 she married a man named Lapp or Delaps. She married contrary to Quaker rules and to a man who was not a Friend.26 In Samuel’s will she is called Pleasant Lapp; in a record of Buckingham Monthly Meeting disowning her for going out in marriage, it is Delaps. There was a German family of John Lapp living in New Britain around 1755 to 1760; did Pleasant marry one of John’s sons?27

Sarah, born about 1740, married in 1770 William Kimble, son of Anthony and Matilda. They lived in Buckingham, probably on land inherited from Matilda’s father Richard Morrey. Sarah and William had nine children. Children: Jonathan, Richard, Martha, John, Isaiah, William, Christopher, Sarah, Frances.28

  1. It is often said that they arrived in 1705 and settled first in Byberry. No records have been found for their arrival. (Joseph Martindale, History of the Townships of Byberry and Moreland, 1867)
  2. There are other Worthington families in Bucks County and Philadelphia at the time. Richard Worthington and his wife settled in Wrightstown and founded a large family. Daniel Worthington and his wife brought a certificate to Abington Monthly Meeting from Philadelphia in 1728. (Martindale) The descendants of Samuel Worthington were known as the “Plumstead Worthingtons” to distinguish them. (W. W. H. History of Bucks County, 1876)
  3. Abington Monthly Meeting Minutes, 25 3rd month 1724.
  4. Some sources claim that the younger Mary was the daughter of William and Joan Kinsey, his first wife, but she died about 1692, leaving only a daughter Sarah, and William remarried, to a woman whose last name is unknown. (After Mary died, William married again, to Grace Carter. He had one daughter with her, but most of his children were with Mary.)
  5. The meetings are shown on a map in James Bowden, History of the Society of Friends in America, Vol. II: Pennsylvania and New Jersey, 1854.
  6. Martindale; Isaac Comly, “Sketches of the History of Byberry”, in Memoirs of the Hist. Soc. Pa, Vol II, 1827; John and Isaac Comly, “History of Byberry Meeting”, Friends Miscellany, Vol. VII, 1835.
  7. Arthur and Ann Jenkins, A Short History of Abington Monthly Meeting, 1929; “Account of Abington Monthly Meeting”, Friends’ Miscellany, vol. 9, 1837, John and Isaac Comly (eds.)
  8. They brought a certificate from Abington to Buckingham Monthly Meeting, accepted on 1st 9th month 1726. In 10th month (December) 1729 Abington Monthly Meeting accepted a certificate from him from Buckingham Meeting. They must have been in transit that month, since in December 1729 Samuel was on a coroner’s jury to hear the death of Alexander Tomson, killed when felling a tree that fell “contrary-wise”. (PA Genealogical Magazine, vol. 35(3), 1988)
  9. Scott, Kenneth and Janet Clarke, Abstracts from the Pennsylvania Gazette 1748-1755, p. 284: 13 April 1732. “Samuel Worthington, of Byberry, Friday last his house was burnt to the ground.” The fuller text is on the webpage of Anne White, “The Worthingtons and allied families”, https://www.genealogy.com/ftm/w/h/i/ANNE-W-WHITE/BOOK-0001/0003-0001.html, accessed March 2020. Anne White gathered many Worthington records.
  10. Philadelphia County Landholders, 1734, online.
  11. Samuel advertised in the Pennsylvania Gazette for February 1, 1733.
  12. Abington granted them a certificate on 26 2nd month 1736, “to recommend them to Friends at Buckingham”. William Carver Sr. died that year and left land in Byberry to his wife and son William; did the widow Grace Carter buy out the share of her stepson William Jr?
  13. 22 12th month (February) 1724/25, Abington Monthly Meeting Minutes. The record said 1724, but it must have happened after their marriage in 3rd month 1724.
  14. This bequest is the proof that Samuel was the brother of John Worthington of Byberry. The will was recorded in book 3, p. 406.
  15. Joseph was Mary’s nephew. He was married to a Worthington.
  16. Bucks County estate files #1460, inventory taken 17 March 1775.
  17. No birth dates have been found for them. They were probably born between 1724 and 1744.
  18. Bucks County Deeds, book 29, p. 449. There is no other Anthony in his generation. Many Ancestry trees show a death date of 1816 for Hester, but I can find no record that shows this.
  19. Research of John McKee, online at https://www.genealogy.com/ftm/m/c/k/John-Mckee-PA/index.html, accessed March 2020. The house that Jonathan built in 1768 is still standing in Doylestown.
  20. Presbyterian Church Records on Ancestry; Bucks County Orphans Court Record #4463 (book 8, p. 303; book 9, p. 80, 311)
  21. Runaway Servants, Convicts and Apprentices, 1728-1796, compiled by Farley Grubb.
  22. Ancestry trees, no evidence.
  23. Some researchers read this as Rue (starting with W. W. H. Davis), but the original will clearly shows Rice. And the marriage license shows his name as Rice.
  24. Compiled Pennsylvania Marriages, on Ancestry.
  25. Bucks County wills, Book 9.
  26. Buckingham MM minutes, 6th month 1769. Testimony was prepared against her.
  27. Davis, History of Bucks County; a John Lapp died in 1793. Was that Pleasant’s husband?
  28. The names were given in a Montgomery County Orphan’s Court record #10915, in a petition by Peter Tyson, husband of Martha Kimble.

John and Lydia Goforth

John Goforth was born in Yorkshire about 1667, the son of William Goforth and Ann Skipton.1 His parents were convinced Quakers, who were married in 1662 in a meeting at Elloughton, East Riding of Yorkshire. They immigrated in 1677 to West Jersey with their five sons, including John, and lived at first in Burlington, New Jersey. William died in March 1678, six months after their arrival. Ann soon married William Oxley and had a daughter Honora with him. They moved to Chester County, Pennsylvania. John was not yet of age then, and would have grown up with his mother, stepfather, and two stepbrothers and a stepsister. William Oxley died in 1717 and Ann died in 1723. After that the Goforth sons—John, George, William, Miles and Zachariah—scattered. George stayed in New Jersey, where he died in 1732. In his will he left land to his son, but if the son did not arrive to claim it, it was to go to his brother John. William lived near Easton, Maryland, but moved to Red Lion Hundred, New Castle County before his death in 1748. Miles moved to Kent County, Delaware and died there before 1734. Zachariah also died in Kent County, in 1736.

John moved to Red Lion Hundred, where he was a tanner and miller. He owned a sawmill on Christiana Creek, but worked as a tanner2. He bought land in St. Georges Hundred in 1725, and another tract in 1728, on the road to Bohemia Manor.3 He was supposed to have a wife Hannah who died in 1721.4 At some point he married a woman named Lydia. John had five known children, named in his will.5

John and Lydia were not Quakers. In 1740 they were both baptized at Welsh Tract Baptist Meeting in Pencader, just west of Red Lion Hundred.6 John died in 1750. In his will he left land and the sawmill to John, land to William, and money to the three daughters, following the typical pattern of the time. He hoped to keep the land in the family, and left it entailed, to the heirs of his sons. 7

Children of John:8

William, the eldest son. He married twice. He married before 20 July 1742, Ann, daughter of Andrew Anderson.9  By 1756 he was married to a woman named Mary. William and Mary bought and sold several pieces of land, including some of the land he had inherited from his father John. John had left the land entailed, to William “and the heirs of his body lawfully begotten for ever”. William had to go through a process of Common Recovery in order to own the land in fee simple, so that he could sell some of it.10 The last reference to William and Mary is in 1767 when they sold a tract on the Kings Road and another near the Black Bridge.11

John, alive in 1750. He may have lived in Bucks County for a time, possibly as an apprentice to learn the sawmill trade. In October 1747 a John Goforth was accused in Bucks County of fornication and bastardy with Rebecca Kelly. William Groom, father of Thomas Groom, stood surety for John.12 In 1750 John inherited a saw mill on Christiana Creek with its “great saw and timber wheels”, and the adjoining land, partly in Pencader Hundred and part in White Clay Hundred. He was to inherit the silver watch and some of his father’s apparel. A marriage or probate record has not been found for him.

Elizabeth, married a Cochran before 1750, possibly the James Cochran, mariner, who gave power of attorney to his wife Elizabeth in 1783.13

Margaret, married a Cannon before 1750.14 “The Cannons were a prominent family who came to [St Georges Hundred] in 1724.15 She might have been the wife of Isaac Cannon, who was living near the Dragon Swamp in 1742.16

Lydia, m. 1750 Thomas Groom of Bucks County, son of William and Margaret. They lived in Southampton where Thomas owned a mill. They were often in debt and in 1785 they lost the mill property in a sheriff’s sale.17 After that they lived on a property leased from their son Thomas. Children: Thomas, John, William.

 

  1. George Tuttle Goforth, Goforth Genealogy, 1981, 1988.
  2. He described himself as a tanner in his will.
  3. New Castle County land records 1715-1728, deeds of 20 Aug 1725 and 22 Nov 1728.
  4. Goforth Genealogy.
  5. Since there are no marriage or birth records for this family, it is difficult to know which mothers bore the children. The relatively uncommon name of Lydia surely means that Lydia was the daughter of Lydia.
  6. Church Records of New Castle County, vol. 1.
  7. Ancestry, Delaware Wills and Probate Records 1676-1971, New Castle Register of Wills Glasgow-Goldsborough, image 632.
  8. Since John’s brother William also lived in Red Lion Hundred, it can be difficult to untangle the records of his life and his children from John’s children.
  9. F. Edward Wright, New Castle County, Delaware, Marriage References & Family Relationships, 1680-1800.
  10. Delaware Land Records 1677-1947, New Castle, on Ancestry, Roll 8, p. 172; Roll 7, p. 362. Other land transactions of William and Mary at: Roll 5, p. 235; Roll 6, p. 548; Roll 7, p. 348, p. 454, p. 497.
  11. Delaware Land Records, Roll 8, p. 309.
  12. Bucks County Criminal Papers, #458, Spruance Library, Doylestown. This is an unlikely scenario, since Bucks County is 70 miles north of Red Lion Hundred. However, there is no question about the identity of the Thomas Groom who married Lydia Goforth in May 1750, and a relation between William Groom and the Goforth family would explain how Thomas and Lydia met.
  13. Delaware Land Records 1677-1947, New Castle, roll 11, image 707-08.
  14. Not Andrew Cannon, who was married to Veronica Gooding. (Delaware Land Records, Roll 6, p. 634).
  15. J. Thomas Scharf, History of Delaware, 1609-1888.
  16. Delaware Land Records, Roll 4, p. 389. Delaware Wills and Probate, on Ancestry, New Castle, Register of wills, Cann, Eliza-Cantrill, Samuel, Image 647-648, has his inventory but no will.
  17. Bucks County deeds, vol. 31A, p. 457.

The interesting ancestry of Ann Skipwith: the Royalist and the Quaker

Anne Skipworth was the daughter of Willoughby Skipworth and Honora Saunders—a Royalist and a Quaker.1 Willoughby was born in January 1613 in Ormsby, Lincolnshire, the son of William Skipwith and Anne Portington. Both William Skipwith and Anne Portington had royal ancestry, well documented through the Lincolnshire Pedigrees, the Complete Peerage, and other sources.2 The “best royal line”, that is the shortest descent, places William as the 8th generation from Edward III and his wife Philippe of Hainault. As his first cousin Anne Portington had the same descent.

The illustrious background did not make an easy life for William He “suffered from the pecuniary misfortunes brought upon his family by his father [Richard]. He is found in several instances joining with his father in mortgaging, or selling, the family property, probably to pay his father’s debts. At one time he was in the Fleet Prison for debt.”3 William and Anne had nine children, of whom Willoughby was the eldest son.4

Willoughby inherited the family manors when his father died in 1622. The following year his mother Anne married Francis Guevara of Stenigot, from a Spanish family that settled in Lincolnshire. In 1634 Willoughby married Honora Saunders, daughter of Patrick Saunders and Sarah Smith. The same year Willoughby’s father-in-law Patrick had paid off a debt for him, secured by the manors of Skipwith and Menthorpe in Yorkshire.5 Two years later Willoughby, Honora and Patrick mortgaged the manor of Ormsby to Sir Charles Harbord. They forfeited on the mortgage, but “Sir Charles Harbord does not wish to take advantage of this, and for a sum of money conveys all his rights to Drayner Massingberd.”6 The same year Willoughby moved his family back to their old manor of Skipwith, Yorkshire.

During the English Civil War, Willoughby sided with the king and “took an active part on the King’s side in the wars between King and Parliament, and was heavily fined as a delinquent when the Puritan party got the upper hand.”7 He “laid down his armes… in March 1644”. He died in Skipwith in 1658, and letters of administration were granted to his widow Honora.

Honora brought her own history to the marriage with Willoughby. Her father Patrick Saunders was a Doctor of Physick, who had been admitted as a candidate for the College of Physicians in 1620.8 His degree as a doctor of medicine was granted by Franeker in 1619. Franeker University was the second-oldest university in the Netherlands, later disbanded. Patrick is supposed to have acquired some of the books of John Dee, the scholar of science and the occult, who assembled one of the largest libraries in England.9 Many of Dee’s book were stolen from his house in 1585 and dispersed. Some of them ended up in “the hands of John Pontois and Patrick Saunders.”10  Pontois was Dee’s executor; Saunders may have worked for Dee. “Since John Woodall and Dee’s servant Patrick Saunders were Pontois’s heirs, they must have been responsible for the final dispersal of Dee’s belongings in 1626 or 1627.”11

Patrick married Sarah Smith in 1613 at St. Saviour’s Southwark.12 They lived in St. Helen’s, Bishopsgate, where he died in 1638. Sarah died before him, in 1632.13 They had a daughter Honora and at least one other child who died young.14

By 1662 Honora had become a Quaker, along with her daughter Ann. Honora was imprisoned in York Castle, where she died in 1679. She is considered to be a Quaker martyr. As George Goforth put it, “The early Quakers were of two main types – those who followed the pacific teachings of George Fox, and those who felt they must force their beliefs on others. The latter were frequently subject to severe punishment, even imprisonment, for disturbing the peace.”15

Known children of Willoughby and Honora:16

John, b. ab. 1634, d. 1680 in Hemingbrough, Yorkshire. He married and had four sons.

Patrick, b. 1635, no further record.

Anne, b. 1642, d. 1723 in Philadelphia, m. 1) William Goforth, 2) William Oxley. Ann immigrated to West Jersey with her husband William Goforth and their sons when it was opened for settlement as a Quaker refuge from persecution. Goforth died six months after they landed at Burlington and Ann married another Quaker, William Oxley. They moved to Chester County and had three children, a daughter Honora and two sons. The Goforth sons fell away from the Quakers, which would surely have dismayed their grandmother Honora.

  1. Martin Hollick, “The Royal Line of Ann (Skipwith) (Goforth) Oxley ca. 1642-1723”, in two parts, on Hollick’s blog at: https://mhollick.typepad.com.
  2. Hollick, part 2.
  3. W. O. Massingberd, History of the parish of Ormsby-cum-Ketsby in the Hundred of Hill and county of Lincoln”, 1991, on Ancestry. Massingberd was the rector of the parish. His family intermarried with the Skipwiths.
  4. Massingberd, p. 112.
  5. Massingberd, p. 113.
  6. Massingberd, p. 113.
  7. Massingberd, p. 114.
  8. William Munk, Roll of the Royal College of Physicians, vol. 1, online at Internet Archive.
  9. Julian Roberts, “John Dee”, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, online at http://www.oxforddnb.com.
  10. Julian Roberts, “Additions and corrections to ‘John Dee’s Library Catalogue”, online through Springer.com.
  11. Roberts, “John Dee”.
  12. New York Genealogical and Biographical Record, vol. 29, 1898, p. 171
  13. Publications of the Harleian Society, vol. 31, p. 292, 288, on Google Books.
  14. A daughter Anne died in 1621. (Publications of the Harleian Society, vol. 31, p. 280)
  15. George Tuttle Goforth, Goforth Genealogy, 1981, p. 3.
  16. Massingberd, p. 115; Goforth Genealogy.

William Goforth and Ann Skipwith

William Goforth was born in 1631 in Knedlington, Yorkshire, the son of Miles and Mary Goforth.1 William grew up on a farm and attended the large Howden church, as his ancestors would have done for generations. As the oldest son he might have expected to inherit the farm. His mother died in 1659 and was buried at Howden.2

Around the same time that his mother died, William became a Quaker. Yorkshire was at the northern edge of Quakerism in England.

“The north of England holds a special place in the history of Quakerism. It was there that the message of its charismatic founder George Fox (1624-1691) first took root and from there that the early converts, known as ‘First Publishers of Truth’, spread out across the country. It was also the site of the first settled Meetings and the source of early forms of Quaker organisation and discipline.

‘Truly Friends in the North is rare and precious, very few I find like them’, wrote Richard Roper to Margaret Fell in October 1656 … By the end of 1653, the main areas of Quaker convincement were Westmorland, Cumberland, north Lancashire, Durham and Yorkshire.”3

The meetings in eastern Yorkshire were scattered and distant. The closest meeting for William was probably at Elloughton, about 15 miles east of Knedlington.4 Quaker converts around there may have been convinced by William Dewsbury, an early minister, who “loved not his Life unto Death, but was willing to Hazerd it for ye word of his Testimony, wch he faithfully Bore through several Marketts, and in Steeple Houses, and in other Places where people were together.”5 William Goforth might have been convinced of Quaker teachings at the large horse market in Howden.

In 1662 William married Ann Skipwith at a Quaker meeting, probably in Elloughton or in Hull.6 Ann had an interesting ancestry for a Quaker. She was the daughter of Willoughby Skipwith and Honora Saunders. Willoughby was born to a family that traced its ancestry for generations in the village of Skipwith. “They are first mentioned in the early 13th century, when Osbert of Skipwith had an interest there. …and in 1418 Sir Thomas Skipwith died seised of the whole manor of Skipwith, two-thirds held of the Durham fee and one-third of the Wake fee.  The manor was held by the Skipwiths … until 1709….”7 Willoughby was a Royalist, who fought for Charles I against Cromwell, and died in 1658 leaving his wife Honora and several children.8 Honora and her daughter Ann became Quakers. Honora was later imprisoned in York Castle for her Quaker beliefs, where she died in 1679. Before then she was probably living with her family in Skipwith, which is about ten miles north of Knedlington.

William and Ann were married in 1662, probably at Elloughton, although a record of the meeting was kept at Hull.9 It is pleasing to see that William’s father Miles attended and signed the marriage certificate as a witness, along with Ann’s mother Honora and her brother John.10 The record of the marriage read: “William Goforth of Knedlington and Anne Skipwith, after publishing, &c., upon the 11th day of the 7th mo: 1662 their marriage was consummated in presence of Miles Goforth, Honora Skipwith, John Hodgson, John Skipwith, George Canby, Anth. Collier, Josh. Wright, Chr. Graves, Martha Monckton, and Alice Wright.” The following month another Knedlington man, Christopher Graves, married at Elloughton. William was a witness, along with Honora Skipwith.

William and Ann lived together in Yorkshire for fifteen years and probably had all of their children there.11 They had five known sons and possibly a daughter. In 1677 another event changed their life completely. The colony of West Jersey opened up for Quaker settlement, under the leadership of William Penn and other trustees, who circulated descriptions of the land encouraging Quakers to escape persecution by settling in the new colony.12 William and Ann made the commitment to leave. They sailed with their children on the fly boat Martha, leaving from Hull, thirty miles east of Knedlington on the Humber. The Martha was a relatively small boat, yet it made the crossing safely and landed, probably at Burlington, in September 1677.13 William bought two pieces of land there.14

A Quaker, John Crips, who landed about the same time on the Kent, wrote a glowing description of their situation back to a Friend in England.

“Through the mercy of God, we are safely arrived at New-Jersey; my wife and all mine are very well and we have our healths rather better here than we had in England; indeed the country is so good, that I do not see how it can reasonably be found fault with: As far as I perceive, all the things we heard of it in England, are very true; and I wish that many people (that are in straits) in England, were here.

“Here is good land enough lies void, would serve many thousands of families; and we think if they cannot live here, they can hardly live in any place in the world; but we do not desire to persuade any to come, but such as are well satisfied in their own minds. A town lot is laid out for us in Burlington, which is a convenient place for trade; it is about one hundred and fifty miles up the river Delaware; the country and air seems to be very agreable to our bodies, and we have very good stomachs to our victuals: Here is plenty of provision in the country; plenty of fish and fowl, and good venison very plentiful, and much better than ours in England; for it eats not so dry, but is full of gravy, like fat young beef. You that come after us need not fear the trouble that we have had, for now here is land ready divided against you come: The Indians are very loving to us, except here and there one, when they have gotten strong liquors in their heads, which they now greatly love: But for the country, in short, I like it very well; and I do believe, that this river of Delaware is as good a river as most in the world.”15

In spite of Crips’ description of the healthful air of West Jersey, William did not live long there. He was buried on the 25th 1st month (March) 1678.16 He was about 47 years old. Ann would outlive him by 45 years. After his death she was left with five sons and a possible daughter. Within the next few years she married William Oxley, who had also come on the Martha.17 William and Ann lived first in Chester County, where they had a daughter Honora and two sons.18 The sons with William Goforth were under age and would have lived with their mother and stepfather at first.

The Goforth sons were unruly. In 1687 William Goforth testified in Chester County Court against Samuel Rowland, who had beaten Samuel Baker in a drunken rage. William had seen them drinking together at John Hodskins’ place; presumably William was drinking there too.19 The same month William testified against Richard Crosby, a notorious troublemaker when drunk. Crosby struck Goforth on the head and threatened to do violence to the Swedes.20 Crosby was poor company for a young Quaker man. When two of Ann’s sons, Miles and Zacharia Goforth, were arrested by the Commissioners in January 1692, for cutting down trees from the Proprietor’s land near Philadelphia, their stepfather William Oxley appeared on their behalf and gave his word they would not do it again. Richard Jennett, who was accused with them, was insolent upon examination and was held on bond.21

William and Ann and their family lived first in Chester County. He serves on juries there in 1681, 1682 and 1683, and was overseer of the highways in 1682 from Upland Creek to Amersland.22 In 1684 he was sued in a complex case involving payment for a cattle barn built for him.23 Henry Hasting and Richard Friend were supposed to build a “cattle house” for Oxley, but Oxley was actually sued by a third party, Stephen Chambers. In the end Oxley had to turn over the plantation with its livestock to Chambers, and Oxley was to be held harmless from “any party or parties that may or shall lay Claime to the premisses”.

In 6th month 1688 a lot was surveyed for Oxley in Philadelphia, on Mulberry Street.24 How was he making his living? If he moved to the city, he could not have been a farmer. William was not active in Philadelphia Meeting of Friends. He died in 2nd month (April) 1717. In 9th month 1719 Ann requested a certificate from Philadelphia MM, “she being moved to Burlington”. The same month a certificate was requested for John Oxley.25 But the next month, the meeting reported that, “It doth not appear that she now stands so related to friends as that a certificate can be granted”.26 She was probably not disowned and her death four years later was reported in the records of Philadelphia Meeting.27 Ann died in 2nd month 1723.28

Ann’s Goforth sons did not remain in Philadelphia. One of them lived in West Jersey; two or three of them moved to Delaware. They also did not remain Quakers. There are no Quaker records for any of their marriages. Her Oxley stepchildren also scattered, one apparently moving to Barbados.

Children of William Goforth and Ann:

George, born 1663, died 1732, supposedly married Jane Robinson, was a mariner.29 In a slightly dubious claim, he is said to have carried dispatches in 1682 from Governor Markham to authorities in New York, protesting actions of Lord Baltimore.30 He owned land in Burlington, Jersey.31 George was sued three times in Burlington Court in cases of debt: by Edward Hunloke in 1689, by Abraham Senior and Richard Russell in 1690.32 In all three cases the jury found for the plaintiffs and against George.  He made a will leaving his land to his wife Jane and son William, “provided they come into the Province to claim it within five years after my decease”, otherwise it was to go to his brothers and sister: “John Goforth, William, George and Susannah Robinson”.33 The precise identity of these people is unclear.34

William, born 1665, died 1748 in New Castle County, Delaware, married in 1694 Sarah Preston.35 It is often stated that he was disowned from Falls Meeting around 1682 for privateering, and assumed from this that he met his wife Sarah in Maryland “in his sailing trips”.36 That was based on a misreading of the Quaker meeting record and does not pertain to this William. He married Sarah in Maryland and had four children baptized at St. Peter’s Church, Easton (Episcopalian). According to the Goforth Genealogy, which follows this line, he and Sarah had five children before her death. He supposedly then moved to Red Lion Hundred, New Castle County, where his will was probated in 1748.37 The will is problematic because in it he named his wife Ann and son William, but no other sons. William was to pay £10 to “each of his sisters”. There are numerous land deeds in New Castle County referring to the William who died in 1748. He was a weaver, with wife Ann, married to her by 1731.38 After his death his estate was administered by Adrian Laforge, then married to the widow Ann.39 The younger William, the one named in the will, became a carpenter and married Ann Ferguson in 1759 at Immanuel Church.40 In 1761 they sold land on the Dragon Swamp that had belonged to William the weaver.41
The fit between the William who married Sarah Preston and the William who died in 1748 is not very close. The will only names one son, where there should be more. It is possible that they are the same man, if only because the 1748 William must be accounted for in the family.42 The strongest argument for the identity is that no probate records have been found for William in Maryland.
Children of William and Sarah (as given in the Goforth Genealogy): Willoughby, Marcy, George, Sarah, Preston.43 If the 1748 will is his, then there was also a son William.

John, born 1667, died 1750, m. 1) Hannah —, 2) Lydia —. John was named in the 1732 will of his brother George. There are no marriage records for him that have been found. He is supposed to have a first wife Hannah, who died on July 3, 1721.44 He then married a woman named Lydia. They lived in Red Lion Hundred, New Castle County, Delaware, where John owned a saw mill and worked as a tanner. In his will, written on 26 April 1750, he named his wife Lydia, three daughters and two sons. Two of the daughters were married by then, and another would marry within a month.45 In the will John left money to his three daughters. He left the sawmill on Christiana Creek with its land to his son John, along with personal goods like a silver watch. He left his son William a tract of 330 acres and all the farm animals.46 Lydia was to have full use of the estate during her natural life. Children of John: William, John, , Elizabeth, Margaret, Lydia.47

Miles, born 1673, died before 1734, married 1) Francis —, 2) Elizabeth Brown.48 In 1704 he was admitted as a freeman in Philadelphia, licensed to do business.49 He later moved to Kent County and settled there. Miles had at least two sons, but they apparently left no heirs.50 Children: George, Miles. The younger Miles is probably the one who sold land in Kent County in 1742 that he had bought in 1735.51

Zachariah, born 1675, died 1736, married Ann Morgan, lived in Delaware. Moved to Dorchester County, Maryland around 1700, later to Kent County, Delaware52 When Zachariah died in 1736, his son Zachariah was the administrator.53 Child: Zachariah.54

? Susannah, m. William (or George?) Robinson. She is inferred from the will of George Goforth in 1732. No other records have yet been found for her.

 

Children of Ann and William Oxley (surname Oxley)

Honora, b. about 1680, d. 1742, m. 1698 George Harmer at Phila MM. Harmer was a comb-maker.55 They were married on 20th 11th month (January) 1697/98. William and Ann Oxley signed their wedding certificate as nearest relations. It is noteworthy that none of Honora’s half-brothers signed. Honora and George had a large family. He died in Upper Dublin, Philadelphia County in 1732. Honora died in 5th month 1742.56

Joseph, buried in Philadelphia on 8th of 8th month 1700 as a non-Friend.57

John, born about 1682.58 In 1706 Philadelphia Quarterly Meeting reported that he goes about as a preacher among Friends, with which they were not satisfied.59 They found that some of the charges against him were unfounded, being when “he was but a boy”, but asked him to be more careful for the future. He died in 3rd month 1743.60 Samuel Hazard, in his Register of Pennsylvania, said that John lived in Barbadoes and had come to Philadelphia before he died, “for the recovery of his health, and to see his brethren and Friends.”61

  1. Howden parish register, Publications of the Yorkshire Parish Record Society, Vol. 21, p. 254. All of the early Howden records were published by the Society, in volumes 21, 24, 32 and 48, from the earliest records in the 1500s to 1770. The standard reference on the family is by George Tuttle Goforth, Goforth Genealogy, 1981. There were later editions, up to 1988, but they added little new material on the early generations. The book followed the line of William Goforth, son of William and Ann, who married Sarah Preston and died in 1748.
  2. Howden parish register, Vol. 32, p. 283, available on ancestry.co.uk.
  3. “Yorkshire Quaker Project”, Hull History Centre, online at: http://www.hullhistorycentre.org.uk/research/research-guides/yorkshire-quaker-project.aspx
  4. Records of Pickering and Hull monthly meetings, Society of Friends (Quakers), http://catalogue.hullhistorycentre.org.uk/files/u-dqr.pdf
  5. “Yorkshire, Early publishers of truth and sufferings for the same”, Journal of the Friends Historical Society, Journal Supplement Issues 1-5, pp. 295-297, on Google Books.
  6. See the map of Yorkshire meetings at http://www.settlequakers.org.uk/quakers-in-yorkshire/attachment/yorks-map/.
  7. “Skipwith”, History of the County of York East Riding: Volume 3, 1976, online at https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/yorks/east/vol3/pp89-101.
  8. George Tuttle Goforth, Goforth Genealogy; Martin Hollick, “The Royal Line of Ann (Skipwith) (Goforth) Oxley ca. 1642-1723”, in two parts, on Hollick’s blog at: https://mhollick.typepad.com.
  9. The record of their marriage was later kept at Hull, but Hull Monthly Meeting was probably not established then. The record can be found at RG6, Quaker Registers 1578-1841, Number 1288, online at https://bmdregisters.co.uk.
  10. John had his children baptized in Hemingbrough Church a few years later; he was probably never a Quaker. (W. Massingberd, “The Skipwiths and the Quakers”, Lincolnshire Notes and Queries, Vol.. 8, pp. 188-189, on Google Books. Other Skipwith material is scattered through this volume. Massingberd was the rector of Ormsby parish, Lincolnshire, where the Skipwiths lived before moving back to Yorkshire.
  11. Some online trees suggest that William married an unknown woman before Ann and had children with her. This is probably in an attempt to account for Aaron Goforth, born before 1660, who became a Quaker and immigrated later to Philadelphia. Since William was born in 1631, this is possible, but there are no records to support it, and the likelihood that William and Ann would have immigrated without an underage son seems small. The names in Aaron’s family do not match the family of William and Ann. Note that the Goforth Genealogy claimed that Ann Skipwith Goforth Oxley and Aaron’s wife Tabitha Bethell Goforth died together in a fire in May 1722, which would certainly show a close relation between the families. However, Ann died in 2nd month 1723 and Tabitha died in 5th month 1722, not at all closely. (Phila MM, Births deaths and burials, 1688-1826, Image 143 for Tabitha; Image 148 for Ann Oxley)
  12. Samuel Smith, Nova Cæsarea: The Colonial History of New Jersey, 1890, on www.westjerseyhistory.org/books/smith. The Griffith from London brought the first Quakers in 1675, led by John Fenwick. No more came until 1677, when the Kent, the Willing Mind, and the Martha brought more colonists.
  13. Smith, chapter 6; Walter Sheppard & Marion Balderston, “Early Shipping to the Jersey shore of the Delaware”, in Sheppard, Passengers and Ships prior to 1684, 1970, pp. 135-148.
  14. Goforth Genealogy.
  15. Smith, chapter 6.
  16. Burlington Monthly Meeting, Minutes 1677-1777, on Ancestry, US Quaker Meeting Records 1681-1935, New Jersey, Burlington, image 404. By Old Style dating, the year began on March 25 (Lady Day). The clerk first wrote the burial date as 1st month 1677, then wrote over it to make 1678. In either case it was March 1678 by our dates. All of the US Quaker records cited in this account can be found on Ancestry.
  17. Ann must have married William Oxley soon after the death of her first husband, since their daughter Honora married George Harmon in 1697. Honora could not have been less than 17 years old at her marriage, thus born no later than 1680.
  18. It is a little odd, but apparently the case, that Honora had a son John with each of her husbands.
  19. Chester County Court Records, 7th month 1687, on Ancestry, mis-labeled as Record of the Courts 1910-1975, image 99-101.
  20. Chester County Court Record, 7th month 1687. Crosby was often in trouble with the court for drunken behavior.
  21. Minutes of the Board of Property, Minute book E, 1st month (March) 1691/92.
  22. Chester County Court Records, 1681-1683.
  23. Chester County court records, 7th month 1684, p. 40.
  24. Warrant and Survey Books, vol. 3, p. 266, Philadelphia City Archive.
  25. Philadelphia MM, on Ancestry, Phila MM, Minutes 1715-1723, image 124.
  26. Philadelphia MM, Minutes 1715-1744, image 63.
  27. Philadelphia MM, Record of Births death and burials, 1688-1826, mislabeled on Ancestry as Lancaster County, Nottingham and Little Britain Monthly Meeting, image 74 (out of chronological sequence).
  28. Hinshaw, Encyclopedia of Quaker Genealogy, vol. 2, p. 401.
  29. NJ Colonial Documents, vol. XXII, do not show a marriage for them.
  30. Goforth Genealogy. It is unlikely that a 19-year old would have his own boat or be trusted with such important business.
  31. NJ Colonial Documents, vol. XXI, several references.
  32. Burlington Court Book 1681-1709, on Ancestry, image 154, 157, 167.
  33. Ancestry, New Jersey Abstract of wills, 1670-1817, Vol. XXX, 1730-1750, image 202. The location of the original will is unclear.
  34. The wording is ambiguous. George could not have had a brother George. This must be a brother-in-law George Robinson. But the executor was “brother William Robinson”. Could George have had a sister Susannah who married a Robinson? The terms brother-in-law and sister-in-law were not commonly used at this time.
  35. Goforth Genealogy, which follows this line.
  36. Goforth Genealogy. The date is an error, probably based on a misreading of Davis’ History of Bucks County, 1876, pp. 105-06. William Goforth was disowned by Falls Meeting, but it was in 1759, and clearly refers to a later William. (Falls Monthly Meeting, 1731-1767, Image 151)
  37. Ancestry, Delaware Wills and Probate 1676-1971, New Castle, Register of Wills Glasgow-Goldsborough 1799, images 638-639.
  38. Delaware Land Records 1677-1947, on Ancestry: Roll 3, p. 302, p. 155, p. 156, p. 214, p. 304, p. 12; Roll 4, p. 363, p. 55, p. 523. The son William, carpenter, son of William can be found at Roll 6, p. 396.
  39. Roll 5, p. 523.
  40. F. Edward Wright, Church Records of New Castle County.
  41. Roll 6, p. 396.
  42. It is possible that another of the sons of William and Ann had a son William early enough to marry before 1730. It would have to either Miles or Zachariah, since the other brother John had a son William otherwise accounted for. (See Delaware Land Records, Roll 6, p. 548 or Roll 7, p. 348, p. 362. That William was always described as a yeoman and was married to a woman named Mary.) The Goforth surname is rare enough that any William found in New Castle County should fit in.
  43. Goforth Genealogy, p. 6.
  44. Goforth Genealogy, p. 6. No record has been found to substantiate this. Unfortunately, George Tuttle Goforth did not give references for his facts. This very specific date clearly refers to a record that he found somewhere, not yet traced.
  45. Lydia Goforth and Thomas Groom took out their marriage bond in Delaware on May 22, 1750. (Delaware Marriages 1645-1899, on Ancestry)
  46. The land left to William was entailed, left “to him and the heirs of his body lawfully begotten for ever”. William had to go to court to carry out a Common Recovery before he could sell the land. (Delaware Land Records, Roll 8, p. 172; Roll 7, p. 362)
  47. It is not known which wife was the mother of the children, if in fact there was a first wife Hannah. The relatively rare name of Lydia surely came from the second wife.
  48. Goforth Genealogy.
  49. Minutes of the Common Council 1704-1776, on Google Books, image 10. The record does not show what business he was in. Goforth Genealogy said it was passenger and freight. No record of that has been found.
  50. Goforth Genealogy.
  51. Ancestry, Delaware Land Records 1677-1947, Kent, Roll 779, Image 447.
  52. The move to Maryland is from Goforth Genealogy, p. 8.
  53. Calendar of Kent County, Delaware probate records 1680-1800, on Ancestry, p. 79.
  54. The Goforth Genealogy added a son George, who married Mary Brown, but Charles Ward in a correction to the work argued that he was in fact a son of Zachariah’s brother William. There is also no evidence for a son of Zachariah named Willoughby. (Charles M. Ward, “Corrections and additions to the Goforth Genealogy”, on Ancestry message board for Goforth, Aug-Sept. 2017)
  55. William and Ann Oxley signed the wedding certificate, along with George’s father William Harmer. The certificate is on Ancestry, Philadelphia Monthly Meeting, Marriages 1672-1759, image 27. They had followed the usual procedure of scrutiny by the women’s meeting and presentation to the men’s meeting. Honor’s mother Ann was one of the women assigned to inquire about Ann’s clearness; there must not have been much concern about it. (Women’s Minutes 1688-1728, Philadelphia Monthly Meeting, Arch Street, image 28.) Honora and George’s certificate was signed by some prominent Quaker leaders of the time such as David Lloyd and Edward Shippen, perhaps reflecting Oxley’s status as a committed Friend.
  56. Philadelphia Monthly Meeting, Arch Street, Record of births, deaths and burials, 1688-1826, image 85.
  57. William Hudson’s List of burials of non-Friends, appended to records of Philadelphia Monthly Meeting, on Ancestry, Phila MM, Births and burials 1686-1807, image 141.
  58. Samuel Hazard, Register of Pennsylvania, vol. 7, 1831, p. 84.
  59. Philadelphia Quarterly Meeting, minutes 1701-1727, image 116, 119.
  60.  Hinshaw, Encyclopedia of American Genealogy, vol. 2, Philadelphia Monthly Meeting, p. 401.
  61. Hazard, p. 84. Hazard added that John was 61 years old when he died.

Miles and Mary Goforth of Knedlington

The Goforth family appears in the records of Howden Parish as early as the 1500s.1 At first the family name could be written either Goforth or Gofar. At a time when few people were literate, this would have been at the choice of the rector.2 Howden is in the southwest corner of the East Riding of Yorkshire, close to the West Riding and northern Lincolnshire.3 Howden parish included a number of villages, and covered 20 square miles of flat land.4 Miles and Mary Goforth lived in Knedlington, an old town, named in the Domesday Book in Howden hundred.5 The nearby town of Howden was historically a market town, especially known for its horse market, and under the jurisdiction of the Bishop of Durham.

Miles was baptized in March 1608, the son of George Goforth of Knedlington.6 He was one of six known children of George, three of whom died in infancy.7 The children were: Margaret, baptized 1600; Robert, baptized 1602; William, baptized 1605; John, baptized 1607; Miles, baptized 1608; George, baptized 1611.8

About 1630 Miles married a woman named Mary. 9 They had three known children, and possibly one or two more. In the baptismal records Miles is shown as a resident of Knedlington. In 1659 Mary died. Three years later Miles’ son William married Ann Skipwith in a Quaker ceremony in Elloughton; Miles was one of the witnesses to sign the marriage certificate.10 Although there is no record of Miles becoming a Quaker himself, he did not disinherit his son, and left land to William in his will. The will, written in July 1674, and proved in December of that year, did not name his wife. Miles left three pieces of land, none of them in Knedlington. The tracts in Sandholme and Hive were left to his daughter Elizabeth Halliwell and son-in-law Henry Nutbrowne to pay for Miles’ debts and funeral expenses, with the remainder to go to his grandchildren Alice and John Awdus and Miles, Marie, and Elizabeth Nutbrowne.11 Henry Nutbrowne was the husband of Miles’ deceased daughter Mary.12 The house and farm buildings in Gilberdike were to go to his son William, and after William’s death to the grandson Miles. Sandholme, Hive and Gilberdike were three hamlets close together, and about four miles east of Knedlington. Miles was buried on July 15, 1674.13

Children of Miles:14

William, bapt. Jan 1631 O.S.15, married Ann Skipwith in 7th month (September) 1662, buried in Burlington, NJ on 25th 1st month (March) 1678.16

Elizabeth, bapt. May 163417; married – Helliwell, possibly first married – Awdus.

Mary, bapt. Aug 163618; married Henry Nutbrowne in June 1663, had children Miles, Mary and Elizabeth before 1674

George, son of Miles, died June 1657.19 There is a burial record for him, but no birth record.

  1. The early parish registers of Howden, which includes the village of Knedlington, were published by the Yorkshire Parish Register Society in four volumes. George Redmonds, an authority on England surnames, stated that the Goforth surname was unusual, probably originated in Snaith, Yorkshire, and probably derived from Gofar. (George Redmonds, comments after his talk at the FGS Conference, Philadelphia 2008) I think he was wrong about Snaith; there are no early Goforth records there, but many in nearby Howden parish. The first volume, volume 21, included the earliest weddings. It is available on Google Books in combination with Vol. 19 and 20 as well as ancestry.co.uk, Yorkshire, England, Church of England Parish Records 1538-1873, Yorkshire: Howden Parish Register, 1543-1659. The index to this volume is included in Vol. 32. The second volume published by the Register Society, volume 24, included the earliest burials plus marriages from 1659 to 1702. It is available on Google Books in combination with Vol. 25, and on ancestry.co.uk, York:Howden 1543-1702. It does not have its own index. The third volume, volume 32, was a continuation of volume 24 and was paginated starting with page 281. It included baptisms and marriages from 1703, plus burials from 1659. It has a combined index for all three volumes (21, 24, and 32). The index referred to volume 21 as I, and volumes 24 and 32 as II. This volume is not viewable on Google Books, but is on ancestry.co.uk, Yorkshire: Howden Parish Register, 1695-1725.   The fourth volume, volume 48, covered records from 1725 to 1770 and included its own index. It is available on ancestry.co.uk, Yorkshire: Howden Parish Register, 1725-1770, but is only limited view on Google Books.
  2. See the index to the parish register, volume 32, on Ancestry.co.uk, image 121, where the Gofar and Goforth entries are adjoining. The index differentiates between Gofar and Goforth, yet many of the same personal names are found in both, for example, Agnes, Anthony, Edmund, Miles, as well as common names like George and William.
  3. Map of the parishes of the East Riding, on https://www.blunham.com/big/eng/YKS/YRY/Maps/ERYParishes.png.
  4. Publications of the Yorkshire Parish Register Society, vol. 21, p. vi.
  5. Open Domesday Book, online. Knedlington is place SE7328.
  6. Howden parish register, Vol. 21, p. 198. Also in George Tuttle Goforth, The Goforth Genealogy, 1981, which does not trace the family further back than George. There are earlier entries in the parish register for Gofar and Goforth, but it is difficult to place them because of the common names.
  7. This is assuming that all six of the children baptized between 1600 and 1611 were children of the same George. The parish registers did not give the name of the mother. Around the same time, other men named Goforth were having children baptized: Arthur of Metham, William of Balkholme, Frances of Skelton, all in the parish of Howden (Howden parish register, Vol. 21, p. 176.) The children who died young were Margaret, William and George. Besides Miles, the two others who may have survived were Robert and John.
  8. The dates in the parish register use Old Style dating, where the year began on March 25 (Lady Day). For example, the entries for winter 1610-1611 are ordered: December 1610, January 1610, February 1610, March 1610, March 1611, April 1611, where the March entries roll over to the new year on March 25. (Vol. 24, pp. 140-141) In the list here, the dates have been corrected to New Style, that is, the years for January through March have been increased by one.
  9. A record of their marriage has not been found. Mary wife of Miles “Gofarr” was buried 3 Jan 1659 (Old Style), according to the Howden parish register, Vol. 32, p. 283.
  10. Goforth Genealogy, taken from the records of Hull Monthly Meeting.
  11. With no mention of a husband for Elizabeth, she was presumably widowed by 1674. The names suggest that she first married a man named Awdus and had children with him, then married a man named Halliwell.
  12. They were married in June 1663. (Howden parish register, vol. 24, p. 253)
  13. Parish record of Howden, Vol. 32, p. 322.
  14. From his will and the baptismal records of Howden. It is possible that he had another daughter who married an Awdus and had children Alice and John, or else his daughter Elizabeth married twice.
  15. Howden parish register, Vol. 21, p. 254.
  16. Ancestry, US Quaker Meeting Records, Burlington MM, Marriages births deaths 1677-1765, image 4. The year was only partly legible. Hinshaw’s index to Quaker records gave the year as 1678.
  17. Howden parish register, Vol. 21, p. 259.
  18. Howden parish register, Vol. 21, p. 263.
  19. Howden parish register, Vol. 24, p. 124.

James F. Scott and his three wives

My grandmother Helen Worthington never knew her maternal grandparents. Her grandmother Jenny Scott died before she was born, and she apparently had no contact with her grandfather James. But she had heard a family story about them, probably from her mother Elizabeth. Elizabeth’s father was James F. Scott. He was in business in Philadelphia with his brothers. His first wife, Jenny, died when Elizabeth was young. When James remarried, to the sister of his first wife, the new wife did not want the baby, and Elizabeth was sent away to be raised in a Catholic orphanage.1

So far the story seems mostly true.2 Elizabeth’s father was in fact James F. Scott.3 In 1880 she was not living with her father and stepmother, but in a residential school for girls run by the Sisters of the Good Shepherd.4 When she died in 1911, Elizabeth was buried at Holy Sepulchre Cemetery in Glenside.5 The open question is whether his first and second wives were sisters. They were both born in New York, which is unusual for wives of a man living in Philadelphia.

Scott Brothers is listed in city directories of Philadelphia between 1872 and 1902. Variously described as express, teams, carmen, and livery, it was a delivery service, in business for over 30 years, first at 146 South Street, and later at 1529 S. Front.6 From the directories the brothers were James, Samuel, and Ezekiel.

They came from northern Ireland, near Newtown Limavady in County Derry. Samuel and Dorothea Scott had five sons there: Ezekiel, James, Samuel, Joseph, and Alexander. They were Presbyterians, and attended a church in Carbullion, a few miles north of Newtown Limavady.7 They all emigrated together in 1851 on the Superior out of Londonderry, and arrived on May 5.8 The ship carried 217 passengers, all Irish, and mostly farmers and laborers. In Philadelphia, the parents died before the 1860 census was taken, and the brothers scattered. James lived with his brother Samuel, boarding in the “eating house” of John and Sarah Gallagher.9 (Samuel would later marry their daughter Sallie Gallagher.) By 1867 James was married, to the first of his three wives.10 Her name was Jennie.11 She was born about 1843, and was just a few years younger than James. They had one known child, a daughter Elizabeth, born about 1867, probably in August.12 In 1870 James, Jennie and Elizabeth were living a few houses away from James’ brother Ezekiel, his wife Ellen and their young sons Samuel and Ezekiel, surrounded by other Irish immigrants in Philadelphia’s rough-and-tumble 4th ward.13 The 4th ward was just south of the 5th ward, “Bloody 5th”, and probably shared its character. “Poor newcomers to the Fifth Ward lived in and amid crowded streets and alleys, apartments, taprooms, cheap rooming houses, warehouses, and small stores. In this increasingly marginalized district, murder and prostitution became chronic, and law enforcement nonexistent.”14 On Election Day 1871 riots spread through both wards as Irish clashed with African Americans and police over the blacks’ right to vote.15 Brick-throwing Irish mobs erupted on Election Day 1871, causing deaths and injuries among blacks attempting to vote. The Irish were led by their “ward boss”, William McMullen, who controlled the 4th ward for almost fifty years.16 McMullen was “certainly behind much of what happened in the Fourth Ward…. He was the key to the riot.”17 After that incident, political deals kept the wards quiet on election days.18 Unemployment made it easy to exploit discontent. “Irish males carried bricks, portered goods, and produced textiles and clothing, while women worked largely as housekeepers and maids. Employment was at best sporadic, too frequently leaving Irish males out of work and in the streets.”19

James and Jennie had only the daughter Elizabeth, before Jennie’s death in August 1875.20 She was 32 years old, buried at Mt Moriah, a large non-sectarian cemetery along Cobbs Creek in southwestern Philadelphia.21 James remarried on October 10, 1877, at the Third Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia.22 His wife was Mary Maxwell. She was 28 years old, and born in Bath, New York.23 This was an unlikely match. Bath is in Steuben County, upstate New York, largely rural and agricultural in the 1800s. It was not a core destination for Irish immigration, yet in the 1850 census, there was a cluster of Scots-Irish families living near the family of James and Sarah Maxwell, possible parents of Mary.24

In 1880, when the census was taken, James and Mary were living on Federal Street.25 This was south of his old location in the 4th ward. Elizabeth was not living with them. She was a resident in a school on the corner of 39th and Pine, the Immaculate Conception School run by the Sisters of the Good Shepherd.26 In 1880 the school housed girls between the ages of seven and twenty-two; it must have served as an orphanage as well as a school, although the girls were taught housekeeping, sewing, and a “good English education”, presumably reading, writing and arithmetic.27 Elizabeth was 14 years old, and probably stayed in the school until she was 17 or so, or old enough to find a job as a domestic servant or similar occupation. There is no way to know whether she had any contact with her father or stepmother during this time.

James and Mary had a daughter Sarah, born on September 20, 1878.28 She is probably the same as the daughter Asseth listed in the 1880 census, age one. There are no further records of her, suggesting that she died young. At the time infant mortality was high. In 1880 an infant in Philadelphia had a one in six chance of dying before its first birthday.29 This rate was probably higher for poor Irish families such as the Scotts. James’ brother Samuel and his wife Sallie buried at least six of their children, most of them less than a year old. Mothers sometimes stopped breastfeeding early and fed their children bottled milk, which was often adulterated, infected with bacteria, or taken from tubercular cows. The city distributed forty thousand copies of a circular urging mothers to breastfeed their babies longer, especially through the summer months when the milk supply was more at risk due to the lack of refrigeration, but more babies still died in the summer until the early 1920s.30

In January 1882 James and Mary had another child, named Fannie.31 Like her half-sister Elizabeth, she would survive to marry. In February 1885 Mary died at age 39.32 She was buried at Mt Moriah, like Jennie ten years before her. Her death left James with little Fannie, just three years old, and Elizabeth, who was by then 17 years old. Instead of bringing Elizabeth back to keep house for him James remarried, for the third and final time around 1886.33  His wife was Martha Maxwell, probably the younger sister of his second wife Mary.34 They lived on Federal Street, where they owned the house. James worked as a contractor, still part of Scott Brothers. James and Martha had two children together, James F. and Cora Ferguson.35 Little James was stillborn in February 1888 and buried at Mt Moriah.36 Cora, born in December 1891, would live to marry, the only one of James’ five known children to outlive him. In 1900 James and Martha were still on Federal Street, with Fanny and Cora, as well as a housekeeper Sarah Mason, a widowed cousin.37 By 1910 they had moved north to the Oak Lane neighborhood of north Philadelphia, probably a step up in living conditions.38 In 1912 they were received at the Oak Lane Presbyterian Church, from the Third Presbyterian Church where they were already members.39

In 1911 when Fannie was 29, she made an unusual marriage to a fellow member of the Oak Lane Church, but someone of a different social background.40 John Mahn Thissell had graduated from the University of Pennsylvania, where he was on the chess club and the championship bowling team.41 He had both a Bachelor’s and a Law degree and was set to practice law. He and Fannie were married for just three years. She gave birth to their son, John M. Thissell Jr, in October 1914, but she died soon after, from complications of the birth, and the baby died the next month at the age of five weeks.42

The following year Cora married Philip Guckes, probably at Oak Lane Church.43 This was another unexpected marriage for the Scott daughters. Philip was a grandson of Philip Guckes of the International Brewing Company, who built a brewery on School House Lane, produced 2,000 gallons of ale in 1870, lost the brewery to fire in 1881, and lost everything in a sheriff’s sale in 1883.44 Cora and Philip moved to Montgomery County, where they had two sons, Philip and James Ferguson. Cora died in 1965; Philip died in 1974.45

In October 1916, James Scott died, at age 76. He was buried at Mt Moriah, the preferred burial place for his immediate family.46 He had outlived three of his brothers, two of his wives, and most sadly, four of his children.47 After his death Martha lived with Cora and Philip in Montgomery County, until her death in 1928.48 The funeral was held at her home church of Oak Lane Presbyterian.49

 

  1. Personal communication, Helen Worthington Tyson. Helen never told me the name of her grandmother. Either she never knew it or had forgotten.
  2. If in fact Elizabeth told Helen the story, she would have known whether she was sent away to an orphanage or not. The question is whether Helen related the story accurately. She was elderly, but not senile, when she told me the story in the 1970s.
  3. PA State Death Certificate of Elizabeth Worthington, who died in Montgomery County in August 1911.
  4. 1880 census, Philadelphia, ED 584, Images 25-27, on Ancestry. At the corner of 39th and Pine Streets, this was the school run by the Sisters of the Good Shepherd. (“Early Catholic Secondary Education in Pennsylvania”, Records of American Catholic Historical Society, vol. LIX, 1948, p. 264, on JSTOR)
  5. The death certificate gives her birth date as August 7, 1873. This is wrong. See Footnote 12.
  6. These addresses are near present-day Jefferson Square in Philadelphia.
  7. Records of baptisms of Samuel and Joseph on derry.rootsireland.ie.
  8. Ancestry, PA Passenger and Crew Lists, 1800-1962, M425, image 423. Samuel was 51; Dorethea was 35; Ezekiel was 12; James 10; Samuel 8; Joseph 6, and Alex was less than one year Since there are no further records of Alexander he may have died young. The death certificate of James F. Scott in 1916 listed his birthdate as July 25, 1840, which would make him 10 in May 1851.
  9. 1860 census, Philadelphia, 5th ward Southern Division, Image 35.
  10. No marriage record has been found for James and Jennie, but it is inconceivable that a good Presbyterian would live in sin.
  11. Her last name is not known. In the 1911 death certificate of her daughter Elizabeth Worthington it was given as Maxwell, but this may have been a confusion with the known name of James’ second and third wives. If they are in fact daughters of James and Sarah Maxwell of Bath, Steuben County, New York, then Jennie is probably not their sister, since James and Sarah are not known to have a daughter Jennie. (1850 census of Bath, image 75; 1860 census of Bath, image 28)
  12. In later census records and in her death certificate and burial record, Elizabeth’s birthdate is given as 1870, 1871, and 1873. There is no indication that the child born in 1867 died and another Elizabeth was born a few years later. It seems that Elizabeth fudged her age downwards, and that her husband provided inaccurate information after her death. But he probably got her birthday right, August 7.
  13. 1870 census, 4th ward, 11th district, image 96.
  14. Frank Fuller, “Bloody Fifth Ward”, Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia, on philadelphiaencyclopedia.org/archive/bloody-fifth-ward/.
  15. Fuller.
  16. Harry Silcox, “William McMullen, Nineteenth Century Political Boss”, PA Magazine of History and Biography, vol. 110(3), 1986, pp. 389-412, on JSTOR.
  17. Silcox, p. 404-405.
  18. Silcox, p. 409.
  19. Silcox, p. 390.
  20. Ancestry, PA Church and Town Records 1669-2013, Philadelphia, Mt. Moriah, image 174.
  21. Wikipedia article on Mt Moriah Cemetery (Philadelphia).
  22. Ancestry, US Presbyterian Church Records 1701-1970, Philadelphia, Third Presbyterian Church, Baptisms Marriages Deaths 1794-1955, Image 95.
  23. Her Philadelphia Death Certificate and the 1880 census record said that she was born in New York State. The reference to Bath is from a microfilm record of the marriage at Philadelphia City Archive. Difficult to read, the record said: ?October ?10 1877. James F. Scott, express bus., residence Philadelphia, age 37, married Mary Maxwell, residence Bath NY, age ?28. The New York State Census of 1875 gave her age as 27.
  24. 1850 federal census, New York, Steuben, Bath, images 73-76. The Maxwell family is on image 75. Is it a coincidence that they adjoined William and Sarah Robinson? When the Scott family immigrated on the Superior in 1851, the name on the passenger list after theirs was Ellen Robinson, age 12, who was not listed with any adult Robinsons. (Cf. footnote 8) Were the Robinsons the connection between James Scott and the Maxwell family? A search for Robinson in Griffith’s Valuation (series of tax lists) returns many hits in County Derry. (online at derry.rootsireland.ie)
  25. 1880 census, Philadelphia, ED 35, Image 11. He was indexed as Jas. T. Scott.
  26. 1880 census, Philadelphia, ED 584, Images 25-27.
  27. “Early Catholic Secondary Education in Pennsylvania”, Records of American Catholic Historical Society, vol. LIX, 1948, p. 264, on JSTOR.
  28. Phila City Births 1860-1906, on FamilySearch. Her parents were James F. Scott and Mary J. Scott. In the 1800 census James and Mary were shown with a daughter Asseth, one year old. It would have been impossible for Mary to have Sarah in the fall of 1878 and another baby before mid-1879. Sarah and Asseth must be the same person.
  29. Gretchen A. Condran, Henry Williams and Rose A. Cheney, “The Decline in Mortality in Philadelphia from 1870 to 1930: The Role of Municipal Services”, The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, Vol. 108(2), 1984, pp. 153-177, on JSTOR. The chart on page 156 shows the 1880 probability of dying from age 0 to 1 as 159.7 out of 1000. This was down from 174 out of 1000 in 1870, and would fall steadily through the end of the 1800s.
  30. Conran et al, pp. 170-174.
  31. Philadelphia City Births 1860-1906, on FamilySearch. Her parents were listed as James Scott and Mary M Scott. The date of birth was also shown on her death certificate.
  32. Phila Death Certificate Index on Ancestry. No husband or parents were named on the death certificate. Living at 386 Federal Street, 2nd ward, so it is definitely the right Mary Scott. The cause of death is not given in the index, or in the burial records of Mt Moriah.
  33. A marriage record has not been found. The date is based on the 1900 census, when James and Martha were married about 14 years.
  34. Martha Maxwell was born in New York, like Mary. Mary was from Bath, Steuben County (from her marriage record). The family of James and Sarah Maxwell in Bath had a daughter Mary J, born about 1845 and a daughter Martha, born about 1852. It is highly likely that this is the same Martha. This gains added credence from the story from Helen Worthington that two of the wives were sisters (although she may have mistaken which two they were).
  35. Cora’s middle name was clearly a commemoration of James’ mother Dorothy Ferguson.
  36. Phila Death Certificate Index on Ancestry.
  37. 1900 census, Philadelphia, ward 2, District 37, Images 11-12. Whose cousin was Sarah? Born about 1836, she was the same generation as James. As a widow her married name was Mason; her maiden name is unknown.
  38. 1910 census, Philadelphia, ED 1068, ward 42, Div. 12, Image 15. They lived near Cheltenham Avenue, and the Old York Road. The church is just around the corner from where I lived for a year when I was in third grade.
  39. Ancestry, US Presbyterian Church Records 1701-1970, Oak Lane Church, Baptisms Births Deaths 1907-1920, (Church Register #2), Image 114. Martha’s name was given as Martha E. Maxwell Scott. Cora was Cora Ferguson Scott.
  40. He had been received in membership there in 1904 on profession of faith. (Oak Lane Church, Baptisms Births Deaths, image 118)
  41. General Alumni Catalog of the University of Penn, p. 239, 1906 graduates, online through the HathiTrust site. After Fannie died, Thissell married Grace Garren.
  42. Death certificate for Fannie Thissell, in Ancestry, PA & NJ Church and Town Records, Kirk and Nice Funeral Home, Image 296; and her PA State Death certificate. Death certificate for John M. Thissell Jr, Kirk and Nice Funeral Home.
  43. They were married in 1915.
  44. The descent is from Findagrave entries for Philip Guckes (1821-1897) and his son William (1857-1905), father of Philip who married Cora. Stories about Philip the brewer are found at: “Philadelphia University Guide to Architectural History”, online at: http://www.philau.edu/library/digitalcollections/ah/presidentshouse.htm; “Philadelphia’s Long Lost Lagers”, at: http://pabreweryhistorians.tripod.com/ASN0407LongLostLagers.html; Public Ledger Almanac for 1880-1881.
  45. 1930 census, Montgomery County, Cheltenham, District 24, Image 44. Philip sold typewriter supplies. They are buried at Whitemarsh Memorial Park, Ambler. (Findagrave)
  46. His PA State Death Certificate, which gave his parents at Samuel Scott and Dorothy Ferguson. He was living at 6803 North 11th Street, Philadelphia.
  47. Ezekiel Scott had moved to a farm in Gloucester County, New Jersey, with his wife Ellen. Ezekiel died in 1888 and was buried at Williamstown Presbyterian Church Cemetery. Samuel Scott died in August 1905 and was buried at Old Cathedral Cemetery, West Philadelphia. This was a Catholic cemetery; Samuel probably converted as a result of his marriage to Sallie Gallagher. Alexander Scott immigrated with his family in 1851, but there are no further records for him and he probably died in Philadelphia before 1860. Joseph Scott, the next youngest of the brothers, kept his own livery stable, married Mary White, had four children, and died in 1920. His son Clarence probably joined the family delivery business around 1900.
  48. 1920 census, Montgomery County, Cheltenham, District 74, Image 47. She was listed as Mary Scott, instead of Martha, but this is clearly an error. Her age was given as 52, an underestimate. It is characteristic of the women in the family to understate their age.
  49. US Presbyterian Church Records 1701-1970, on Ancestry, Oak Lane Church, Baptisms Births Deaths 1907-1920, (Church Register #2), Image 115, on the right-hand page of the listing for membership.

Samuel Scott and Dorothy Ferguson

Samuel Scott and Dorothy Ferguson came from the county of Londonderry, in the north of Ireland, near the town of Newtown Limavady, where records about them are found in two adjoining parishes: Aghanloo and Drumachose. Londonderry was confiscated from the O’Nials in 1607 along with the rest of Ulster. “In 1608, under James I what became known as the Plantation of Ulster began. This period saw the arrival of settlers from England and the building of walled towns designed in orderly patterns, unlike the clusters of huts that the Gaelic Irish lived in.”1 Because of the Plantation, the county was a mix of Gaelic Irish and settlers from England and Scotland, many of whom later immigrated to America.2

Samuel and Dorothea Scott had five sons—Ezekiel, James, Samuel, Joseph, and Alexander. Two of the sons, Samuel and Joseph, were baptized at the Presbyterian Church in Carbullion, a townland in the civil parish of Aghanloo.3 Either the other sons were not baptized there, or their records were missing. Presbyterianism came to Ulster from Scotland. It was illegal for many years because the Church of Ireland was the state church. By the 1830s there were several Presbyterian churches north of Newtown Limavady.4

Samuel may have been the son of Ezekiel Scott, found in the 1831 census in the townland of Ballyclose in the parish of Drumachose.5 Ezekiel Scott was also named in the 1825 tithe book of Carbullion, as well as in Artikelly, both in Aghanloo parish.6 It is noteworthy that Samuel named his oldest son Ezekiel. There are also three entries for Samuel Scott in the tithe books for the parish of Aghanloo: one in Maghryskeagh, one in Carbullion, and one in Tullyarmon.7 In Griffith’s Valuation, published from 1847 to 1864, taken as a basis for taxation, Samuel Scott appears in the landholding of Glenkeen (Drumachose parish), in a house assessed at 5s which he was renting from James McFarland.8 These records may not refer to the same Samuel Scott.

By 1851 Samuel and Dorothy had five known children, all sons. By then the worst of the Great Famine was over. It had affected Ulster as well as Ireland, but the southern part of Ulster more heavily than the north. In any case, Samuel and Dorothy decided to leave in early 1851. They packed up a few belongings and traveled 20 miles around the southern end of the Foyle estuary to Londonderry, a port where they could get a transatlantic steamer. They either walked or took a horse-drawn carriage, if they could borrow one.9 The Bianconi coaching service, a great service for travelers in the south of Ireland, did not reach Ulster until 1852.10 Once they reached Londonderry the Scotts boarded the steamship Superior, operated by the J. & J. Cooke Company. It was a relatively new ship, and considered well-run, clean, and well-provisioned.11 They were in steerage, not in cabins, and survived there for several weeks while the ship crossed the Atlantic.12 In all there were 217 passengers on the ship, all Irish, and mostly farmers and laborers.13 Finally on May 5, they arrived at the port of Philadelphia.

There were seven in the family: Samuel and Dorothea Scott with their five sons. Samuel was 51; Dorothea was 35; Ezekiel was 12; James 10; Samuel 8; Joseph 6, and Alex was nine months old.14 Since there are no further records of Alexander, he may have died young. They settled in Philadelphia, where the family scattered.15 Ezekiel and Joseph were living in the 4th ward, where Ezekiel worked as an ostler, caring for horses. James and Samuel were living in the “eating house” of John Gallagher in the 5th ward, working as express men, perhaps for a delivery service.16 By 1870 three of the sons—Ezekiel, James, and Joseph—were married. They were all working as drivers or expressmen and by 1874 they had formed their own delivery business, Scott Brothers. It operated for years, even into the next generation. The business, variously described in city directories as express, teams, carmen, and livery, was a horse-drawn delivery service. It operated out of South Street, probably at number 146, Ezekiel’s house for years until he retired.

There are no records of Samuel or Dorothy in Philadelphia after they arrived. They probably died before the 1860 census was taken.

Children of Samuel and Dorothea:

Ezekiel was born in 1838. He married a woman named Ellen.17 They lived in Philadelphia for years, and Ezekiel ran the family delivery business with his brothers James and Samuel.18 About 1885 Ezekiel and Ellen moved to a farm in Washington Township, Gloucester County, New Jersey, where he died in 1888. After his death Ellen stayed on the farm, living with her son Samuel and his family.19 She died in 1917 and was buried at Williamstown Presbyterian Church Cemetery with Ezekiel.20 Children of Ezekiel and Ellen (some of whom died young): Samuel, Elizabeth, Ezekiel, Ellen, Vera, Dora, Annie.21

James F. was born on July 25, 1840. He lived at first in the 5th ward, later moved up to north Philadelphia. For over 30 years he was part of the Scott Brothers delivery service. He married three times. His first wife Jennie died in 1875, leaving him with a daughter Elizabeth, about eight years old. James then married Mary J. Maxwell, born in New York, probably from Bath, Steuben County, raising a question of how they met. Mary and James had a daughter Fannie before Mary died in 1885. James and his third wife Martha (probably a younger sister of Mary) had a daughter Cora. James died in 1916. He had outlived three of his brothers, two wives, and four of his children. Children of James: Elizabeth (with Jennie); Sarah and Fannie (with Mary); James and Cora (with Martha).

Samuel Joseph was born in December 1842. He immigrated in 1851 with his parents and arrived in Philadelphia as an 8-year old. By 1860 he was living with his brother James, probably as boarders in the “eating house” of John and Sarah Gallagher.22 In 1870 he was still living with the Gallaghers, including their daughter Sallie, age 11, who would later become Samuel’s wife.23 By 1880 Samuel, now married to Sallie, was still living with John and Sarah Gallagher, now at 418 German Street.24 By 1900 Samuel was finally the head of his household, widowed, a contractor, living with his mother-in-law Sarah Gallagher and two of her unmarried children, Charles and Elizabeth. In addition three of Samuel’s sons were there: Samuel J, Paul, and Joseph.25 Sallie died in 1896 and was buried at Old Cathedral.26 She left Samuel with some very young children. He died in 1905 at the age of 62 and was buried at Old Cathedral with Sallie. He had become a Catholic, probably at the time of the marriage with Sallie, and a Mass was said for him.27 Children of Samuel and Sallie: Mary F, Samuel Joseph, Regina, Dorothea, Paul, Joseph, Sallie, Mary, James Francis, Mary Agnes. All but Samuel, Paul and Joseph died young.

Joseph was born in December 1844 and immigrated with his parents and brothers in 1851. At first he lived with his brother Ezekiel in 1860, then married Mary White in 1866 at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church.28 In the 1880 census Joseph Scott was keeping a livery stable, continuing in the family trade. His household included Mary, his mother-in-law Ann White, and four children: Clarence, Walter, Anna Mabel, and Mary Viola. The son Clarence later appears in the listing for Scott Brothers in 1902. In 1900 Joseph and Mary were living at 2313 Catherine Street with Anna and Mary.29 Joseph died in October 1920, age 75, living on 2313 Catherine Street.30 Children: Clarence, Walter, Anna Mabel, Mary Viola.31

Alexander, b. 1850, no further record.

———-

  1. History of Limavady, on limavady.org/history/newtown.html, accessed March 2019.
  2. County Derry, on http://www.rootsireland.ie/derry-genealogy/derry-surnames.
  3. Records of baptisms on derry.rootsireland.ie. This church is not shown on the map of Presbyterian churches in Londonderry, online at http://www.rootsireland.ie/derry-genealogy/londonderry-presbyterian-church-registers/. Also see the Irish Townlands website, at www.townlands.ie, accessed March 2019. Aghanloo parish was north of Drumachose parish, which included the town of Newtown Limavady.
  4. “Presbyterianism came to Ulster from Scotland in the 17th century but its freedom was severely curtailed by penal enactments to the extent that it was illegal until 1782 for Presbyterian ministers to perform marriages even of Presbyterians … Religious and civil persecution resulting from the Penal Laws meant that many Presbyterian baptisms, marriages and burials are to be found in the registers of the Church of Ireland, albeit sporadic, until well into the 18th century. Burial registers for Presbyterian churches are uncommon as there were few Presbyterian burial grounds.” (https://www.nidirect.gov.uk/sites/default/files/publications/PRONI-Guide-to-Church-Records.pdf)
  5. 1831 census on the website of Bill Macafee, available on his page of sources for research in Limavady, online at http://www.billmacafee.com/derryancestors/limavady/limavadytown.htm, accessed March 2019. The only other Scott in that census in the area surrounding Limavady is Betty Scott. Ezekiel was on p. 8.
  6. The tithe books are available through a search for census substitutes, on the search page of derry.rootsireland.ie. They were compiled between 1823 and 1837 as a basis for the tithe owed to the Church of Ireland, the state church until 1871. The books show who owned land in each townland and how much land they owed. (http://titheapplotmentbooks.nationalarchives.ie/search/tab/home.jsp) The pages on RootsIreland act only as an index and do not include the amount of land held. Although Ancestry is supposed to have the tithe books for Northern Ireland, a search for Ezekiel Scott does not return any hits, even in www.ancestry.com/uk.
  7. Tithe books on derry.rootsireland.ie. These are all townlands (landholdings) in the civil parish of Aghanloo. Aghanloo was about 15 square miles, lay north and east of Limavady, and contained 31 townlands. (www.townlands.ie/londonderry/aghanloo/. Wikipedia has a list of the townlands, with meanings of their names. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_townlands_in_County_Londonderry#Aghanloo) Are these separate men with the same name or did Samuel own three properties? Could the Samuel born around 1799 be old enough to pay tithes in 1825?
  8. At http://www.askaboutireland.ie/griffith-valuation. A discussion on the John Grenham website of Irish resources pointed out that the Valuation would have “little genealogical significance” if the 1851 census had not been lost in the 1922 burning of the Public Records Office in Dublin.
  9. Deirdre M. Mageean, “Emigration from Irish Ports”, Journal of American Ethnic History, vol. 13(1), p. 24, online on JSTOR. With a baby in arms, one hopes that they did not have to walk.
  10. William McCutcheon, The Industrial Archaeology of Northern Ireland, 1980, p. 20.
  11. Mageean, p. 21. Mortality was relatively low on ships of the Cooke company.
  12. A record has not been found of how long the voyage took, but it would have been a matter of weeks rather than months.
  13. Ancestry, PA Passenger and Crew Lists, 1800-1962, M425, image 423.
  14. He was one of the relatively few infants on the ship (under a year old).
  15. Samuel and Dorothy do not appear in the 1860 census records, suggesting that they died by then. There are three entries in McElroy’s Philadelphia City Directory of 1852 for a Samuel Scott, but no way to connect them to this Samuel. (p. 391) There was a Samuel Scott who died in 1861, buried at Mt. Moriah, but his burial was in the records of an Episcopal church, St. John the Evangelist, and Samuel was probably Presbyterian. (Ancestry, PA & NJ Church & Town Rec, Episcopal, Church of St John the Evangelist, image 122)
  16. Alexander does not appear in the 1860 census.
  17. A marriage record has not been found for them.
  18. In the 1860 census, Ward 4, East Division, image 48-49, he was unmarried, living with his brother Joseph. By 1870 he was married to Ellen and had two children, 1870 census, 4th ward, 11th district, Image 96. In 1880 they were living on South Street with four children. (indexed as Zekiel Scoot, district 71, image 8).
  19. 1895 NJ state census, Washington Twp., Gloucester County, image 8; 1910 federal census, Gloucester County, Washington Twp., district 136, image 11.
  20. Ellen’s funeral notice was in the Philadelphia Inquirer from September 26 through the 28th, on Newspapers.com.
  21. Census records, 1870-1910. The son Ezekiel died of cholera at age one (Philadelphia death certificate). Elizabeth died at age two. Dora was probably named for her grandmother Dorothy Scott. Three of the children, Elizabeth, Samuel and Ezekiel, were baptized at the Mariners Bethel M. E. Church, suggesting that Ellen was a Methodist. (Ancestry, PA & NJ Church and Town Records, Philadelphia, Methodist, image 151, image 156.)
  22. 1860 census, Philadelphia, 5th ward South, image 35. The ages of the Gallaghers and the Scotts seem to be completely wrong in this record. James was listed as 30 (instead of 20), Samuel was 40 (instead of 18). This is probably not their father Samuel, who would have been 60 years old if he were still alive. Sallie Gallagher, presumably the daughter of John and Sarah, was age 12. Could this be an error for 12 months? If she were really 12 years old, there would be contradictions with other records including the 1870 and 1880 census.
  23. 1870 census, 5th Ward, Dist. 14 2nd enumeration, image 29-30. John Gallagher was 55, his wife Sarah was 43. Their children were Charles 17, Lizzie 13, Sally 11, George 9, John 7, Mary 5, Katie 3, and James 2 months.
  24. 1880 census, Dist. 60. The households included John Gallagher, age 53, Sarah Gallagher, age 45, Samuel Scott, son-in-law age 36, Sallie Scott daughter age 21, and six other Gallagher children. Between 1874 and 1881 Samuel moved around, as shown in the Philadelphia City Directories, from 144 South Street to 342 Catherine Street, to 418 German Street. By 1889 he and Sallie were living at 760 South 4th Street.
  25. 1900 census, Phila. ward 1, district 2, image 5 (South Front Street).
  26. Philadelphia Times, 13 March 1896, p. 5; Old Cathedral burial records on Interment.net. She was buried in Chapel bor. (border?), section 24, in the same location as at least three of her children, and, some years later, her husband Samuel.
  27. Philadelphia Death Certificate Index; Philadelphia Inquirer 26 Aug 1905.
  28. Ancestry, PA & NJ Church and Town Records, Philadelphia, Episcopal, St. Paul’s Church, image 391.
  29. 1900 census, Philadelphia, ward 30, district 767, image 7. Anna M. was a saleslady; Mary V. did house work.
  30. Pennsylvania state death certificate. It listed his father as James (error for Samuel) and his mother as Dorothy Ferguson (probably right). It gave his birth as June 1845. He was buried at Fernwood Cemetery, Delaware County, with the clergyman as Rev. Dickerson of Bethany Church. (Burial records at Ancestry, PA & NJ Church and Town Records 1669-2013, Delaware County, Yeadon, Fernwood Cemetery, image 721 and Oliver Blair Funeral Director, image 1055.)
  31. An Ancestry tree adds a daughter Olive, not found in the census records.

Benjamin Worthington and Hannah Malone

Benjamin Worthington was born in 1742, one of the younger children of John Worthington and Mary Walmsley. Benjamin grew up in Byberry, where his father was a weaver and his parents were members of Byberry Meeting. When Benjamin was about twelve, his mother died, leaving John with many children to raise. By then Benjamin was the youngest surviving child. By 1769 he was on the tax list in Byberry, along with his father John, and in 4th month 1774 Benjamin was given a certificate from Abington Meeting to marry a Friend of Buckingham. This was Hannah Malone, daughter of Patrick Malone and Hannah Beal.

After their marriage Benjamin and Hannah stayed in Byberry and raised their family. By 1800 they had 11 people in the house.1 In 5th month 1811, Benjamin wrote a will, providing for Hannah’s care after his death and  leaving legacies to the living children. But in 1811 Hannah died, and Benjamin rewrote his will. He never signed the second will before his death in April 1813, but it was admitted to probate.2

The earlier one provided for wife Hannah to have two rooms in the house, with firewood and an annuity paid by son Enos. Son Joshua was to have the plantation and provide for Hannah’s needs…”he must keep in good order winter and summer for his mother one horse one cow fit for her use, shall harness her horse, put him to her chair when as often as she may order it to be done, on her return shall take the necessary care of the chair and harness by cleaning and oiling them carefully when wanted. He my said son shall have liberty to use the horse moderately when his mother do not want to use him.” The other children received cash legacies, to be paid by Asa and Enos. The second will omitted those provisions, but Joshua still received the home plantation. The inventory was taken on April 20, 1813. It was divided by rooms: a bedchamber and three other chambers on the first floor, a parlor and a kitchen, a garret and a loft above, a cellar below. Outside there was a barn and a wagon house. The estate was valued about $750.

Children of Benjamin Worthington and Hannah Malone: 3

Mary, b. 1775, d. after one month, buried at Byberry

Asa, b. 1776, d. 1846, m. Rebecca Subers, disowned by Byberry Meeting in 1799.4 In 1st month 1799, Byberry Meeting complained that Asa was under suspicion of attending “places of divertion and dancing”, which was referred to the monthly meeting for discussion.5 They moved to Wrightstown; buried at Middletown Mtg. In 1st month 1819 Rebecca, wife of Asa Worthington, requested membership in Byberry Meeting.6 In 3rd month 1831 Middletown Meeting received a certificate from Wrightstown Meeting for Asa, Rebecca and their three minor children (Rebecca, Chalkley and Asa Curtis).7 They also had older children Amos and Adin.

John, b. 1777, d. 1852, m. 1805 Sarah Walton, disowned then by Byberry Meeting 8, daughter of Joseph and Deborah.9  In 1850 they were living in Byberry.10 He was 72; she was 68. In his will he left $90 yearly to Sarah out of the rent of his farm. She was to have as much house room as she wanted. The farm was to be rented out during her life, kept in fence and 120 bushels of lime to be put on it every year. An annuity was provided for his son Edward. The other sons named in the will were George, Benjamin, and Walton.

James, b. 1779, d. 1852. He was a butcher and lived in Southampton on a small lot. He married two or three times.11 His first known wife was Ann Maclay.12 They had two children before her death in 5th month 1815, reported by Byberry Meeting.13 He then married Elizabeth Groome between 1820 and 1824. Elizabeth was twenty years younger than James.14 She was part of the Groom family of Byberry and Southampton, possibly an undocumented daughter of John and Phebe of Upper Makefield. James and Elizabeth had five known children before his death in 1852.15 He did not leave a will, but the Orphan’s Court record listed his six living children. Elizabeth died in 1856 and left a will, leaving all her estate to her son Warren G, and naming her son-in-law Charles B. Terry (married to her daughter Margaret) as executor.16 Children with Ann: Franklin, probably Margaret. Children with Elizabeth: Evan G., William, John, Emily, and Warren G.17

Benjamin, b. 1780, m. 1809 Ann Walton, born 1792, a daughter of Joseph and Deborah; this was out of unity and they were disowned by Horsham Meeting in 8th month 1809.18 They had five children. Benjamin died in August 1849 in Byberry.19 Children: Amanda, Rebecca, Alfred, Abner, Mary.

Mahlon, b. 1782, m. Matilda Edwards, had a large family.20 He died in 1842 and was buried at Byberry.21

Hannah, b. 1784, d. 1823, m. Jonathan Walton in 1803 at Byberry meeting.22 He was one of three children of Isaac Walton and Susanna Kirk.23 Jonathan died in 1825 in Warminster, Bucks County.24 Hannah died two years before him. Children: Martha, Agnes, Emily, Hannah, Isaac, Benjamin, Josiah.

Joshua, b.  1786, d. 1866, m. 1814 Mary Tomlinson, daughter of John and Phebe. in 1850 a farmer in Byberry, by 1860 still there and calling himself a gentleman. He “lived on the homestead in Byberry”.25 He left a will, naming wife Mary and children Spencer, Comly and Adaline.26

Elizabeth, b. 1789, died 1797, buried at Byberry

Enos, b. 1791, m. Sarah Heaton, died in 1850 in Moreland of cholera. Left no will in Phila Co. Children: Thomas, Benjamin, Joshua and a daughter.27

Martha, b. 1794, m. John Tomlinson, son of Thomas Tomlinson and Phoebe Carver.28 John died in 1846; they had children Ezra, Stephen and others.

  1. Federal census, Philadelphia County.
  2. Philadelphia County estate files, D22, City Hall.
  3. Joseph Martindale, History of Byberry and Moreland, 1867, p. 368; Byberry Monthly Meeting, Births and Burials, 1810, on Ancestry, US Quaker Meeting Records 1681-1935, Philadelphia County, image 44. All the Quaker records in this account can be found on Ancestry.
  4. Byberry Preparative Meeting, Member List 1797, image 34.
  5. Byberry Preparative Meeting, Minutes 1792-1825, image 81.
  6. Byberry Preparative Meeting, Minutes 1798, image 144.
  7. Middletown Monthly Meeting, Minutes 1813-1837, image 119. A copy of the certificate is in Wrightstown MM, Removals, 1815-1836, image 22.
  8. Byberry Preparative Meeting, Member List 1797, image 34.
  9. Philadelphia County wills, Book 29, p. 385.
  10. Federal census 1850, Philadelphia County, Byberry, image 18.
  11. A James Worthington, possibly this man, was disowned by Byberry Meeting in 1806 for marrying a woman not in membership with Friends, by a magistrate. (Byberry Preparative Meeting, Member List 1797, image 34; Byberry Preparative Meeting, Minutes 1792-1825, image 189) If this is the same James, then he married three times—to the unknown wife in 1806, to Ann Maclay around 1814, to Elizabeth Groom between 1820 and 1824.
  12. Joseph Martindale, History of Byberry and Moreland, 1867, p. 368.
  13. Byberry Monthly Meeting, Minutes 1726-1825.
  14. 1850 federal census, Southampton, Southampton, image 7. James was 71; Elizabeth was 51. They were living next to Warren Groom, a son of Evan Groom of Southampton. This is one of several connections between Elizabeth Groom Worthington and Evan Groom. Elizabeth named her first son Evan Groom Worthington. Her son John married and had a son Evan, born in 1850, who was living with the family of Evan Groom, son of John and Phebe, in 1860 as an apprentice. When James died he owed money to Evan Groom and Hazel Scott (Evan’s brother-in-law). The close connection between this family and that of the older Evan suggests that Elizabeth Groom may be an undocumented younger sister of Evan. She is not listed in the children of John and Phebe, and may be illegitimate or adopted.
  15. Bucks County Orphan’s Court records, September Term 1852. His personal estate was not sufficient to pay the bills and the lot, about an acre and three-quarters, had to be sold.
  16. Bucks County wills, Book 14, p. 59. Charles was a blacksmith. Charles and Margaret named their seventh child Ellen Groom Terry. (The well documented website of Dick and Maralyn Tolman, “Five generations of the Terry Family…”, accessed March 2019). They assume that Charles was the son of David Terry and Esther Groom, partly based on the name of their daughter Ellen. I assume that her Groom middle name came from Margaret, not from Charles.
  17. Emily was not named in the Orphan’s Court record and probably died before 1852.
  18. Norman W. Swayne, Byberry Waltons, 1958, p. 208.
  19. Federal Mortality Schedule, 1850.
  20. Martindale, p. 368.
  21. Byberry Monthly Meeting, on Ancestry, PA & NJ Church and Town Records 1669-2013, Philadelphia, Quaker, Byberry MM, image 166.
  22. Their certificate of marriage is online, misfiled on Ancestry, under New Jersey, Camden, Haddonfield MM, Marriage Certificates 1782-1813, image 94.
  23. Byberry Waltons, p. 65.
  24. Byberry Waltons, p. 143.
  25. Martindale, p. 373.
  26. Philadelphia County wills, Book 56, p. 525.
  27. Martindale, p. 368.
  28. Martindale, p. 373.

Benjamin Worthington and Lydia Ann Groom

Benjamin Worthington was born in 1813, the son of John Worthington and Sarah Walton. He grew up in Byberry, Philadelphia County. His parents had been disowned by Byberry Meeting for marrying contrary to Quaker discipline. Around 1838 Benjamin married Lydia Groom, daughter of Evan Groom and Rachel Randall. Evan Groom was a well-off farmer of Bensalem, Bucks County.

In 1848 Benjamin was keeping a store, probably in Southampton. They sold land there to Evan, adjoining other land Evan already owned along the Poquessing Creek. By 1850 Benjamin and Lydia were living in Bensalem, Bucks County, with four children.1 By 1860 they had moved to Moreland, and had another child.2 By 1870 they had moved again, to Warrington Township, Bucks County, with children Rebecca, William, and Rachel.3

Benjamin did not leave a will at the time of his death in 1876. His son Watson and widow Lydia renounced their right as administrators in favor of William Brunner and William E. Worthington, Watson’s younger brother. The inventory of the estate gives evidence that Benjamin kept a store. It included  canned fruit, a barrel of pickles, tin pans, canned tomatoes, benches, barrels, potatoes, a Buffalo robe, feathers, three bags of beans, onions, a shotgun, a hay wagon and ox cart, tools and plows, 500 bushels of corn, 100 bushels of oats, 125 dozen brooms, 15 pair of pigeons, 3 horses, 12 head of cows, a bull, and winter grain in the ground. The house and land was sold to John Rhoads for $7700. Expenses against the estate included $30.66 for marketing the brooms and $1817.59 for loss of an outstanding debt due from Watson Worthington.4

In 1880 Lydia was living in Cheltenham, Montgomery County, with her daughter Annie R. age 33, and in the same household as her son Emmor and his wife Tamsen. He was described as a huckster.5 In 1900 Lydia had moved to the Bustleton area, Philadelphia County, living with Emmor and Tamysen, and her daughter Rebecca. Emmor was listed as a gentleman, which seems to mean that he was retired.6 Emmor and Tamsen probably did not have any children. Lydia died in January of 1908, at the ripe age of 89. She was living on Bustleton Avenue in Somerton at the time and was buried at William Penn cemetery.7 She left a will, naming her brother Evan J. as executor, and leaving her property to her children Rebecca, Watson, Elmira, Emmor and Rachel.8

My grandmother Helen Worthington Tyson remembered Watson’s siblings. They were her great-uncle and great-aunts. She said that they were Quakers and used the old thee and thy speech.9 They may not have been members of a Quaker meeting, but they still kept the cultural tradition.

Children of Benjamin & Lydia:10

Watson, b. 1839, d. 1919, m. Elizabeth Cornell, daughter of Alfred Cornell and  Rebecca Jane Van Buskirk; Watson was buried at William Penn. Elizabeth was of Dutch heritage, from families who moved down from New York to Bucks County in the early 1700s, had their own church and cultural heritage and intermarried for several generations. Watson and Elizabeth first lived in Bucks County, then moved to Somerton, where Watson was a toll booth keeper on the Bustleton Pike for twenty-five years. Elizabeth died in 1906 and Watson moved in with his youngest daughter. Children: Harry, Benjamin F, Nellie, Edna May.11

Elmira, b. April 1840, d. Nov. 10, 1926, m. Franklin Tomlinson, lived in Somerton on Tomlinson Road. 12. In 1880 they were living in Philadelphia County where he was a farmer. Edward Worthington, age 73, and Elmira’s uncle, was living with them and working on the farm.13 The daughter Anna married Harry Chapell.14 In 1890 Franklin was dead and Elmira was the head of household. Anna and Harry were living with her. Frank died in 1898 (born 1836).15 They were buried at William Penn.16 Children of Elmira and Franklin: Ellsworth, Anna, Franklin.

Annie Rebecca, known as Rebecca, b. 1845, unmarried, living with her brother William in 1910. She died on Dec. 13, 1914, at the age of 69. She had been keeping house on  the Bustleton Pike. The doctor stated that she died of Bright’s Disease, with a contributing cause a burn on her right arm, “not serious, clothing caught fire while she was lighting a lamp”.17 She was buried at William Penn Cemetery.

William Emmor, known as Emmor, b. Feb 1849, d. Dec 28, 1919, m. Tamyson H. Greaves18 He was a groceryman. An ad in the Bucks County Gazette for May 26, 1898 included him in a list of grocers who were “up to date” and sold Karang Java coffee. They lived in Somerton and were buried at Hatboro.19 His wife Tamyson died in 1932. No known children.

Rachel, b. March 5, 1854, d. 1934, married Edward Clark, lived in Norristown. In the 1900 census he was a train engineer and they had three sons: Edward, William and Albert. In 1910 he was working as a foreman in the paper mill.20 Rachel died in 1934 and was buried at Riverside Cemetery.21 Edward had died before her, in 1932.22

  1. 1850 census, Bucks Co., Bensalem Township, shows parents Benjamin 38 and Lydia 33, with children Watson 11, Elmira 10, Rebecca 5, and William 1, along with three others in the household, Michael Kane, 19, farmer, and Jane Connagh, 21, both from Ireland, and Samuel States, 23, mason.  Benjamin is described as a merchant, with real estate valued at $2,850.
  2. 1860 census, Montgomery County, Moreland, Image 43. The children were Watson, age 21, Elmira, age 19, Rebecca, age 14, Wm. Emma (sic), age 12, and Rachael, age 6. The closest post office was Hatboro.
  3. Warrington Township, Bucks Co., 1870 census, Image 13. The children were Rebecca, age 24; William E. age 21, Rachel, age 16. The farm was valued at $15,000, more than the others right around it.
  4. Bucks County probate files, Bucks County courthouse.
  5. 1880 Census, E.D. #2, Image 53.
  6. Emmor was indexed as Emmit or Emma.
  7. Phila. County Death Certificate, name as Lydia Ann Worthington, b. 3/17/1818, d. 1/8/1908, age 89, died of “LaGrippe”, doctor in Bustleton, father Evan Groom, mother Rachel Randall, residence Bustleton Avenue in Somerton, 35th ward, buried from Bustleton Avenue at William Penn.
  8. Rebecca was actually Annie Rebecca, while Emmor was William Emmor.
  9. Helen W. Tyson remembered the sisters as Annie, Rebecca, and Rachel. She said that Annie married a Tomlinson and had three children, while Becky was an old maid. Annie Rebecca must have used “Rebecca” or “Becky”. The Worthingtons lived around Somerton, near Byberry Friends.
  10. According to Helen Worthington Tyson. Also from the death certificate of Watson Worthington, which shows the names of his parents.  This is important, since there is another Benjamin Worthington with a son Watson.
  11. They buried a child Joseph at William Penn Cemetery in 1897, less than a year old. He was buried as the son of Watson and Elizabeth, but from the timing was more likely a grandson, born too soon after the parents married.
  12. They lived near the Bustleton-Somerton Pike in 1880 (Census, E.D. 461, Image 11). Elmira’s uncle Edward Worthington was living with them, working on the farm. The census enumerator was a Tomlinson.
  13. 1880 census, district 461, 23rd ward, image 11.
  14. Helen remembered Harry as the husband of Anna. Annie died in 1935 and was buried at William Penn cemetery.
  15. Findagrave.
  16. Her Pennsylvania death certificate.
  17. Philadelphia Death Certificate.
  18. Helen Worthington Tyson claimed that he married Pamela Bready as his second wife. She said “We called her Aunt Pam.” But he is buried at Hatboro Cemetery with his wife Tamyson who died after him in 1932. This seems to rule out a second wife. Did Helen remember Aunt Tam as Aunt Pam? And mix up Greaves and Bready?
  19. His Pennsylvania death certificate.
  20. Federal census 1910, Montgomery County, Norristown Ward 6.
  21. Her Pennsylvania death certificate, which gave the date of birth too.
  22. His Pennsylvania death certificate.

William Walton and Sarah Howell

William Walton was the youngest of the four Quaker Walton brothers of Byberry. He was renowned as a preacher at Byberry Meeting and as a traveling Friend, who visited meetings as far as Maryland and Carolina.1 In 1689 he married Sarah Howell under the auspices of Abington Meeting.2 They settled in Byberry, and had ten children, “most of whom migrated to Warminster, Warwick and Buckingham in Bucks County, and to the neighborhood of Horsham in Montgomery County.  His descendants are now widely scattered, but a greater proportion of them probably retained membership in the Society of Friends than the descendants of his brothers.  His grandchildren and those of his brother Daniel intermarried.”3

William first bought a tract in Byberry in 1688, adjoining the land of his brothers. He later added more holdings, one of 100 acres from John Holme and 555 acres from William Allen, both in Moreland Township. Pennypack Creek flowed through his lands, and Byberry Road cut across a corner of it.4

William was one of the elders of Abington Meeting. He was a representative many times to the Quarterly Meetings in Philadelphia. He also visited families in Byberry and went on ministerial visits to other areas. In the records of Abington MM he is sometimes referred to as the Preacher.

He may have been personally associated with Penn.5 In 1708 William Penn was in England, during a long absence from the colony and his manor house of Pennsbury. Penn wrote to his secretary James Logan and instructed him to “let William Walton, that comes from Bristol, keep all in order till we come.”6

Walton lived about fifteen miles south of Pennsbury, but he could have been in charge of the manor house, since there is no other known William Walton at the time and the second generation of Waltons would not have been old enough.7 (The alternative is that Penn was sending out a man named William Walton from Bristol in England to be his manager; he was known to send other servants from England.)

William died in late 1736 or early 1737 while on a missionary trip to Tortola Island. At the time Henry Tomlinson called him “a public Friend in good esteem.”8 In his will he named his wife Sarah, six children, and three grandchildren. His son William Jr. was the executor.

Sarah died before September 1749, when her will was probated. In it she named her daughter Sarah Alberton, two sons of her son Isaac, granddaughter Mary Mardon, and granddaughter Rachel Mardon. Sarah had outlived at least six of her children.

Children of William and Sarah:9

Rachel, b. 7th month 1690, d. 1718, m. 1714 Edward Parry, lived in Horsham. Edward had a daughter Sarah from his first marriage, to Jane Evans.10 Edward and Rachel had children Edward and Rachel, before Rachel’s death at a young age, possibly related to childbirth.11 Edward died in Horsham in 1726.

Isaac, b. 4th month 1692, d. 1755, m. 1) ab. 1713 Mary Parry, 2) 1728 Sarah Kennet, 3) 1737 Sarah Holt.12 He was in trouble with Abington Meeting for the marriage with Sarah Holt, being “indecently familiar” before the marriage. He was in trouble again with the meeting in 1755 for drinking to excess, but died before the meeting could give him a copy of the testimony against him.13 He died in Manor of Moreland, Philadelphia County, without a will. He had at least nine children, possibly by all three wives.

Jeremiah, b. 9th month 1694, d. Feb. 1740/1, married in 1718 or 1719 at Abington Elizabeth Walmsley, daughter of Thomas and Mary.14 “Most of the Waltons about Horsham are of this family.”15 They lived in Byberry, and raised a family of ten children. Elizabeth died in 1775.16 Children: William, Thomas, Rachel, Jeremiah, Jacob, James, Mary, Sarah, Elizabeth, Phebe. The children married into Quaker families such as Duncan, Kirk and Jeanes.

Jacob, b. 3rd month 1697, probably died young. He was not named in the wills of his parents.

Sarah, b. 1st month 1699, d. 1767, married 1724 Benjamin Albertson, son of William and Hannah. They were cleared to proceed in marriage by Abington meeting on 8th month 1724.  Children: William, Jacob, Josiah, Benjamin, Chalkley, Sarah. The children were alive in 1749 when Sarah’s mother made her will.17

William, b. 2nd month 1701, d. 10th month 1740, unmarried. Letters for his estate were granted to his brother Isaac.18

Abel, b. 10th month 1703, d. 1771, married 1731 Rebecca Walmsley, daughter of Henry and Mary. They were married under the auspices of Abington Meeting between 8th month and 10th month 1731. They lived in Moreland and had four known children. Abel died in 1771; Rebecca died in 1775.19

Job, b. 3rd month 1706, d. 1784, m. 1) Agnes Walmsley, dau. of Thomas and Mary, 2) 1757 Catherine McVaugh.20 He lived in Byberry. According to tradition he was a preacher at Byberry Meeting in 1752, but Abington meeting complained that he preached while drunk. He was finally disowned in 1755 for drinking to excess. He and Catherine were married at Swedes Church; she died 1800.21  Children of Job and Agnes: Isaac, Sarah, Job, Isaiah, Thomas, Mary, William, Elijah.22

Hannah, b. 2nd month 1708, d. 1741, m. 1) Thomas Walmsley, Jr., 2) Thomas Mardon. Hannah’s first husband, Thomas Walmsley, was the son of Thomas Walmsley and Mary Paxson. The younger Thomas died a few months after his marriage to Hannah by falling off a horse. About 1730 she married Thomas Mardon, a tailor, and bought out the time of his indenture.23 They lived in Byberry, where Hannah died in 1741 and Thomas in 1762. Children: Rachel, Mary, Jacob and Sarah.

Mary, b. 7th month 1710, d. 1732, m. in 1729 William Homer, son of William Homer and Elizabeth Walmsley. They were cleared by Abington to proceed in marriage in 2nd month 1729. Mary died a year or so later, and in 1732 William married Mary’s first cousin, also named Mary Walton, a daughter of Daniel and Mary Walton. William had two children with the first Mary and eight more with his second wife. Children: Elizabeth, William.24

  1. Profile of William Walton, The Friend, vol. 29, p. 380. These profiles were written years after the fact but sometimes contain useful information.
  2. They were cleared to proceed in 4th month 1689. Online on Ancestry, US Quaker Meeting Records 1681-1935, Pennsylvania, Montgomery County, Abington Monthly Meeting, Minutes 1682-1746, image 9. All Quaker records cited in this account can be found on Ancestry.
  3. Clarence V. Roberts, Early Friends Families of Upper Bucks, 1975, p. 574.
  4. Norman W. Swayne, Byberry Waltons, 1958, p. 13. Swayne’s book is the best reference source for the family. He amassed much information for each of the early generations, particularly of their land dealings, although he did not give sources for each fact. Also see Clemmer, Abram, “Nicholas More and the Manor of Moreland”, Old York Road Historical Society Bulletin, vol. XXII, 1961.
  5. Byberry Waltons, p. 12.
  6. W. W. H. Davis, History of Bucks County, 1876, chap. 12. This is obviously a quote, yet I cannot find it in the Penn-Logan Correspondence, vol. 2, online at HathiTrust.
  7. Oddly enough, only William of the four brothers is known to have named a son William, at a time when naming a son for his grandfather was common.
  8. Henry Tomlinson’s book of deaths, at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. He kept a detailed record of deaths in the vicinity of Byberry and Bensalem, which was apparently borrowed at some point by the clerk of Byberry Friends, since it is included in their records, for example on Ancestry, US Quaker Meeting Records.
  9. Names and dates of birth from the Abington Meeting records and from Byberry Waltons, pp. 23-28, which has a biography of each of them.
  10. Byberry Waltons, p. 23.
  11. Byberry Waltons, p. 23.
  12. Byberry Waltons, p. 24-25. Swayne has quite a bit of material on Isaac’s life, his land dealings, and the financial struggles of his third wife after his death.
  13. Byberry Waltons, p. 24.
  14. Abington minutes of 30 1st month 1719 reported that they were married.
  15. Joseph Martindale, History of Byberry and Moreland, revised edition, 1705, p. 373.
  16. Byberry Waltons, p. 26.
  17. Byberry Waltons, p. 27.
  18. Byberry Waltons, p. 27.
  19. Byberry Waltons, p. 27.
  20. Catherine may have been the widow of John McVaugh, son of the immigrants Edmond McVaugh and Alice Dickinson. A John McVaugh, possibly her son, was a witness for Job’s will in 1784.
  21. Byberry Waltons, pp. 27-28.
  22. Byberry Waltons, p. 28.
  23. Byberry Waltons, p. 28.
  24. Byberry Waltons, p. 28.