Elliott/Ellet family before the move to NC (c.1764)

Lauren, a fellow Elliott researcher reached out to me this past month because of information that she had read on this blog about our mutual Elliott family,  Two brothers, Jacob and Abraham, moved their families to what is now Randolph County, NC c, 1764.  I find three Abraham Elliots in the census of 1790 in Randolph County.  It took me years to sort them out.  I now call the oldest of these three Abraham Elliotts Abraham Sr,  He is the brother to Jacob,  Both Abraham Sr. and Jacob had sons named Abraham Elliott.  Thus accounting for all three of the Abraham Elliotts found there.  I descend from Abraham who is the son of Jacob,  Lauren descends from Israel who is also the son of Jacob.  And a third researcher who has done yDNA testing and falls into Haplogroup C descends from Jacob's son, Jacob Jr. who married Betty Beeson,

Lauren has sent me information that helps to solidify the connection of Jacob Elliott to parents John and Sarah Elliott,  Lauren did Quaker research that I had never thought to do.  She followed the widow, Sarah, of John who died relatively early.  Sarah married a man with surname Farmer who lived close by after John's death,  And there are Quaker records that show Sarah's connection to this family continue after her second marriage,

Apparently, John Ellet was living in New Jersey and was a part of the Burlington MM there,  There is a very good overview of Burlington MM at:

https://burlmhcc.org/history/

1677 Meeting for Worship under sails

“Burlington, as a Friends’ settlement, is older than Philadelphia, and second only to Salem, in this part of the country. It was the ship Kent which in the year 1677 carried two hundred and thirty Friends from England, where they were suffering persecution for conscience’ sake.

True to their religious character immediate provisions were made for gatherings for worship. The sail of the ship Kent provided the first shelter.”

I do not know at this time if the Elliott family was among those 230 Quakers.  Nor do I know when John Ellet's family first appear in Burlington.  You can see from the map above that Burlington is up river from Philadelphia.  What I have read said that the Friends moving there walked the final miles to the location of this land they had bought from the Lanape Indians,  So Burlington was not a port. 

Here is a screen shot of a part of the minutes of Burlington MM in which they record that John Ellet has made application for a move to Nottingham  MM in PA.  This is dated the 2nd month of 1722

At the Monthly Meeting held the 4th Month of 1722 John Ellet receives his certificate that he is in good standing to take with him for his move to Nottingham Monthly Meeting in Pennsylvania.

I have found it not as easy to follow John Ellet as he moves away from Burlington Monthly Meeting.  And I want to look at some records that Lauren sent me concerning Sarah Elliott ..but I'll come back and edit this more at a later date. 

And today is the day that I am going to work on the move from Burlington.  I am totally confused at this point.  The certificate given to John and Sarah is for Nottingham MM.  However the records found in Hinshaw's encyclopedia show John actually received at New Garden MM in the 8th month of 1722.  Where did he actually move?  I believe it likely that he and Sarah moved first to the Nottingham Lots that were then under the care of New Garden Monthly Meeting.  I have not done the land research to prove this assumption.

I have found a paper entitled 

The Nottingham Lots and the Early Quaker Families

A Paper Presented by
Robert Warwick Day, Ph.D.
Spartanburg, South Carolina

September 29, 2001
East Nottingham Monthly Meeting
Calvert, Cecil Co., Maryland

Robert Warwick say:

Lest we forget, this comer of Maryland was mostly part of southwestern Chester County, PA, one of William Penn's original counties after his founding of Pennsylvania in 1682. This area of the county represented the western frontier of Pennsylvania at that time, and the lands west of here were primarily tribal and unsettled by Europeans.

......

Subsequent to the establishment of the area, the Friends laid out a road through the center of the Nottingham Lots. This road was a continuation of the old road from Philadelphia to Darby, Chester, Kennett Square, New London, and then Nottingham. This was also the major road for Quaker migration from Philadelphia to the southwest, as a number of Quaker villages sprung up along this route in the late 1600's.

The Nottingham area at that time has been described as rich in natural resources, with heavily forested lands and trees that included hickory, chestnut, walnut, and oak. The land was fertile and the streams were said to be clear and vibrant. New economic opportunities were plentiful for new settlers to this area.

Nottingham was a frontier village for its first 30 years, while settlers cleared the land and built roads, shops, dwellings, and the Meetinghouse. The Lots were populated by "simple, frugal, and industrious people" who combined farming with one or more of the occupations of that time including milling, blacksmithing, carpentry, clock making, tanning. They raised extensive crops of wheat, corn, and vegetables. Tobacco was not grown here since the soil would not support it.

and here is the answer that I was looking for:

The religious and cultural heart of the Nottingham Lots was clearly the East Nottingham Monthly Meeting (or Brick Meetinghouse), which was part of William Penn's original plan. In either 1707 or 1709, a log cabin was built to serve as the first Nottingham Meetinghouse. In 1715, the East Nottingham Monthly Meeting was organizationally affiliated with the Newark Monthly Meeting. In 1718, Brick Meetinghouse was put under the care of New Garden Monthly Meeting after New Garden separated from Newark.

In 1724, the 2 1/2 story structure was built and in 1730, the East Nottingham Monthly Meeting (or Brick Meetinghouse) was organized as a separate Monthly Meeting. There were two separate sides, one of brick and one of stone, one side for the men and the other side for the women. It is thought to have been the largest Quaker meetinghouse south of Philadelphia, within the Philadelphia Yearly Meeting, for the next few decades.

However in 1722 (when John and Sarah Elliott made their move) The Meetinghouse at the Nottingham Lots would have been under the care of New Garden Monthly Meeting.  

http://www.churchman.org/Nottingham_hist.htm

There is an excellent bibliography at the end of the article.

Here are two maps giving an idea of to where John and Sarah Moved.  You can see that the Nottingham Lots were just west of New Garden MM.  

I will also copy here the names of the original settlers in The Nottingham Lots area.  There is not

an Elliott among these names,

The original purchasers of lots included the following individuals: Joel Baily, John Bales or Beals, Edward Beeson, James Brown, William Brown, John Churchman, James Cooper, Robert Dutton, Cornelious Empson, Ebeneser Empson, Randal Janney, Andrew Job, Samuel Littler, Henry Reynolds, and John Richardson.

Other prominent families that came very early were the families of Chandlee, Coppock, Gatchell, Haines, Hollingsworth, Kirk, Preston, Pugh, Sidwell, White, and Wright.

But perhaps as we do more research we will find friends and neighbors of the Elliott family among the list.

A tree on Ancestry shows man with name Edward Beeson as the great grandfather of Betty Beeson who married Jacob Elliott Jr. in Randolph County, NC.  Many of the other names are names I recognize from research on my Elliott family in NC and Ohio and Indiana.

As I looked for records for New Garden Monthly Meeting, I found a nice history of this area at:

https://www.newgarden.org/sites/g/files/vyhlif3531/f/uploads/the-story-of-new-garden-township-dr-jones.pdf

It seems that the original settlers at New Garden had been members of New Garden Monthly Meeting in County Carlow, Ireland.  Had John married Sarah before his move to New Garden?  Yes, I think so.  I found what I believe to be the answer to this in Hinshaw.  It seems that Sarah also took a certificate with her to Nottingham with her last name of Elliott.  I looked through all of Hinshaw's notes on Burlington and could not find a marriage nor birth for this couple.  If other researchers' dates are correct for John, the couple was quite young in 1722.  Perhaps they were moving to find land on which they could farm.  

It seems that the records for New Garden Monthly Meeting are held by Swarthmore College as well as Haverford College and have not been digitalized.  I need to double check this information,.  So perhaps the entry in Hinshaw is as good as we can get until it is possible to travel to the Philly area in person.  The minutes do start in 1718, so it is likely that one could access this entry.  I am updating this a few days later.  I have found records for New Garden on Ancestry but haven't finished looking at them

Lauren sent me a copy of taxes that confirms where John and Sarah were living and also the date of John's death.  She made a chart that shows John Elliott paying taxes in West Nottingham Township in 1724, 1725, and 1726/27 Then in Sadsbury in 173l and 1732.  In 1734 Widow Elliott is paying taxes in Sadsbury Township

The question is if the change in where they paid taxes is a move or is just a different jurisdiction for the same location.  Below is a map showing where in Pennsylvania Chester County is now located and where West Nottingham Township is located in Chester County.   

SADSBURY.

In old records this is sometimes written Sudbury, and it may have been named for Sudbury in the county of Suffolk, England. The name of Sadsbury occurs as early as June 1, 1708, in a deed for land therein, but the township was not organized till 1717. That part of the township lying in the Great Valley was taken up at an early date in right of purchases made in England, and that part north of the valley at a somewhat later period.

In 1718 the taxables were but nine in number,—William Grimson, James Hamer, Thomas Hayward, John Musgrave, William Smith, Moses Musgrave, William Marsh, John Whitesides, and John Moor. For several years after this Sadsbury and Fallowfield formed one assessment district. The first township officer mentioned
was William Mash (Marsh), who appeared at court Nov. 26, 1717, and was succeeded, 1718, by William Grimson ; 1719, by Moses Musgrove; 1720, by William Sith ; 1721, by Robert Stanford ; 1722, by John Musgrave; 1723, by Gainer Peirce ; 1724, by David Hastings ; 1725, by Simeon Woodrow ; 1726, by John Bowles ;
1727, by George Leonard ; 1728, by James Swaffer (E. S.) and John
Guy (W. S.) ; 1729, by Amos Williams (B. S.) and John
Matthews (W. S.) ; 1730, John Minshall.

The above is from From History of Chester County, Pennsylvania, with Genealogical and Biographical Sketches. by J. Smith Futhey and Gilbert Cope. (Philadelphia: Louis H. Everts, 1881. Press of J. B. Lippincott & Co., Philadelphia).

So it would seem that this was a move for John and Sarah from West Nottingham to Sadsbury.  Lauren's chart shows that John Farmer paid taxes in Sadsbury in 1734/35/36 and 1740.  This supports the theory that Sarah Elliott and John Farmer were neighbors when they married.

Below is a smaller version of the above:

Here is the reinstatement from the New Garden Minutes:

and below is Sarah's letter showing her desire to be taken back into the care of the Quaker community.

While looking for something else, I found the original document in which Phebe and Alexander Frazier appear for the first time at the Monthly Meeting.  I particularly like the end where the comment is made: The Young Man is expected to bring a few lines from his parents.

From Lauren is information about the wedding of Sarah's daughter, Phebe, just a few months later:

Isaac is likely Phebe's brother Isaac who was married at the time of Phebe's wedding but died just two years later at the young age of 24.  I believe Isaac Eliot to be another brother to Jacob, Abraham, Benjamin.  Later in September I heard from Donna that she had information about Isaac after he move to Ohio and that he is not the Isaac who died at such an early age.  I need to sort this out

Below is the original document for Phebe's marriage to Alexander Frazier.  You will have to manipulate it to see it in it's entirety.

This clearly states that Sarah Elliott Farmer was "of Manchester" at the time of Phebe's marriage.  Manchester was in Lancaster County at this date as York County was not formed until 1749.  Had she and John moved to Manchester from Nottingham Lots?  Or she and John Farmer had moved from Nottingham Lots to Manchester?  Or perhaps all of them had been living there for a while?  The earlier information indicates that Manchester would not have existed at the time of John and Sarah's first move as histories say that the land west of the Susquehanna had not been settled as early as 1722.

Here is a list of the children of Alexander Frazier and Phebe Elliott.  Note that Alexander's death left Phebe with very young children.  Alexander died in 1758.  That last column is deaths.

In November 2021 Lauren suggested the possibility that Sarah Elliot's maiden name was Garretson.  And I looked at that based on the wedding witnesses at the wedding of Phebe Elliott and Alexander Frazier.  Indeed there were more than a few Garretson family members at the wedding who signed as witnesses.

So I did some poking around.  And there are over 3000 trees (that doesn’t make the information correct….I realize that) that have information about Alexander Frazier’s family. And from what I am seeing on these trees, Phebe was Alexander’s second wife.  I started the looking thinking that James and Rebecca Frazier who are at the top of the right hand side of the witness list for the wedding of Alexander Frazier and Phebe Ellet must be parents of Alexander.  But it seems that they are not.  Instead they are Alexander’s brother, James Frazier and his wife Rebecca Cox Frazier.  Then I found the below.  You will have to manipulate to read....the smaller version is too hard to read.  I will skip to below and just put in the witnesses.

  This is the marriage of James and Rebecca….and it seems that either William Garretson is a relative of this couple or perhaps the home of William Garretson is being used for meetings in this time period?  They are married in his home.  There are no Elliot family members present.  While I do not rule out a relationship between the Garretson family and Sarah Elliot, I suspect that the relationship is between the Frazier and Garretson family instead.

In fall 2005 I viewed:

I made the following notes while viewing the article:

John Farmer’s land was next to the Elliott’s......  I had never seen info that Ann Wall was from Ireland.  Information was taken Meeting records, Land records, reseaerch of Mrs. Audrey Casari and personal research.  It might be noted there were more than a handful of Elliott’s in Kingsessing.  I have seen where John Ellot (c1691-c1734) was identified with his cousin (?) in Kingsessing in the glass-making business and possibly was listed in the Burlington MM in New Jersey, no date given.....

Lauren also sent screen copy of information from wedding of a second daughter, Sarah:

Again the witnesses include Benjamin Eliot and Jacob Elliot

In addition, Lauren has shown that at the same time that Jacob and Abraham moved to NC, their mother and her second husband also made the move:

Death of George McKinsey in Warren County, Ohio

 Bruce Locken sent me a newspaper screen shot from the Lebanon Newspaper showing information provided by Patrick McKinsey about the estate of George McKinsey.  Patrick was the youngest child of George and I believe Patrick continued to live on the farm that he had grown up on with his father and his father's second wife, Mary Moore Lacy.  

This Newspaper information adds a puzzle to when we believe it likely that George died.  I wrote a blog post about where George is buried on my Warren County Homecoming blog:

https://quakerhomecomingwarrencountyohio.blogspot.com/2013/09/miami-meeting-house-cemetery-elizabeth.html

In this blog post I used information from a Quaker list of burials in the Hicksite cemetery at Miami Monthly Meeting which uses date of  9/7/1841for what I had believed to be burial date for George.  But this makes no sense as this newspaper article clearly has George having died before August 1840.  This is a puzzle that I can not solve at the moment....too busy at my house with Mary and her boys visiting,

Here is the URL for the blog post about where George McKinsey is buried:

https://quakerhomecomingwarrencountyohio.blogspot.com/2013/09/miami-meeting-house-cemetery-elizabeth.html

Ellot/Elliott family before 1722

Lauren who is a cousin from my Elliott branch, has found some information about very early Elliott family line that is haplogroup C.  We have chatted about the fact that she has hopes that these are our very early ancestors that are found on a genealogy site with information about Peter Elliott:

http://freepages.rootsweb.com/~ellotclan/genealogy/pafg01.htm#1287

I am having trouble jumping into this information because I don't see a link between the men who have done yDNA testing for this line and our own Jacob Elliot.  So I am trying to do a bit of looking at the parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents of Jacob.   Other researchers suggest that Jacob's parents were John and Sarah Elliot and that they may have lived first in NJ and have been a part of Burlington MM.  

So I will start with Burlington Monthly Meeting.

On the Burlington MM 

https://burlmhcc.org/history/

I found information of great interest:

History of the Meeting House

The history of the Meeting House includes a sail across the Atlantic, purchase of land from the Lenape, rebuild for gender equality and renovation for re-purposing.

1676 Burlington purchased

In 1676, representatives of the West Jersey Proprietors bought from the Lenape Nation the land where Burlington City is now and roughly 15 miles of land along the river in each direction.

1677 Meeting for Worship under sails

“Burlington, as a Friends’ settlement, is older than Philadelphia, and second only to Salem, in this part of the country. It was the ship Kent which in the year 1677 carried two hundred and thirty Friends from England, where they were suffering persecution for conscience’ sake.

True to their religious character immediate provisions were made for gatherings for worship. The sail of the ship Kent provided the first shelter.”

(Bulletin of the Friends Historical Association, Volumes 4-6).

Burlington MM is located at the red marker just up the River from Philadelphia.  In 1677 when the Kent sailed to these shores, William Penn had not yet founded Pennsylvania.  William Penn did not come to America until 1682.....five years later.

I will begin this part of my Elliott research with a look at Burlington MM and if there is a record of the early members of the MM and those who sailed on the Kent.

Several of the Ancestry trees suggest that John Elliott was born in the Province of West New Jersey in 1690.  These same trees suggest that he married Sarah in 1715 in Burlington, NJ.

This morning in October 2021, I am looking on Ancestry for leads as to how John Elliott and his wife, Sarah, arrived in Burlington, NJ.  Were both born in this location?  Do they have parents in West Jersey. i am looking at:

The Burlington Court Book: a record of Quaker Jurisprudence in New Jersey, 1680-1709.

On page xiii, the author explains that the Duke of York made over West New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the Quaker families between 1680 and 1682.  Looking in the index after skimming the introduction show no Elliott/Ellot mentions in the book.

But the question is:  How did John and Sarah get to Burlington MM?  I am starting today with Hinshaw's Encyclopedia Volume II.  Volume II is the Philadelphia Yearly meeting, but it includes New Jersey MM's.  

The first entry is found on page 27 and is a part of the entries for Salem MM.  Salem MM was established much earlier than Burlington in 1676.  You can see on the map below it is a bit farther south than 

I could find no Ellet nor Smith in the right time frame for my ancestors at this MM when I look at Hinshaw's Encyclopedia.

Again, according to Hinshaw's Encyclopedia Burlington was next to be formed:

But no information discovered that might lead to parents of either John nor Sarah.

Perhaps they were not Quaker when they first moved to the area near New Jersey?  Who else settled in the area?

In October 2021 I am again looking at Burlington MM.  This time  am looking at the copies of original records found on Ancestry....and lo and behold I find a Thomas Ellit at Burlington MM in the 10th month of  1706.  He seems to be a witness to ....hmmmm not sure....perhaps condemnation of a sin committed?

I continued to read.  From a site called Quakers in the World, I found an article called Mission Work and settlement in Colonial New Jersey.  This article mentioned the below:

The only way to travel overland between north and south was the Indian trail (later the Burlington path) through the forest.  The earliest Quakers to pass this way were Josiah Cole (from Gloucester), and his companion Thomas Thurston, in 1658. Far from being threatened, as they might have feared, they were frequently fed, sheltered and guided by the Susquehanna Indians whose home it was. 

https://www.quakersintheworld.org/quakers-in-action/280/Mission-work-and-Quaker-settlement-in-colonial-New-Jersey

This led me to begin reading about the Quakers in Gloucester.  

https://www.bgas.org.uk/tbgas_bg/v125/bg125259.pdf

With the death of Charles II, circumstances changed again in London. The new king, James, wished to enforce a Catholic policy on the Church of England and tried to enable Roman Catholics to hold high office. Anglicans were outraged and James therefore resolved to find allies elsewhere by uniting the cause of Catholics and Dissenters.107 In March 1686, he issued a Declaration in which he expressed his wish that all his subjects might be Catholics, but for the sake of peace he would maintain the Church of England and suspend the laws against Dissenters.108 Among those released from prison were 1,200 Quakers.109

William Penn played an important part in these events. His father had been a friend of James, and although William had previously supported a campaign to exclude James, he now needed royal support to retain his charter for the colony of Pennsylvania. James, for his part, could see that Penn had useful influence among Quakers.110 It was Penn who led a deputation from the Friends’ Yearly Meeting to express thanks to James for his clemency.111 Similar deputations came from Baptists, Congregationalists and Presbyterians.112

And guess what I found?  The next paragraph talked about a John Elliott in Gloucester:  

As a result of the Declaration fifty-six Quakers were released from Gloucester county gaol and fifteen from the city gaol.113 The six Gloucester men and nine women had been imprisoned in December 1681 and had languished there for four years.114 Of the others imprisoned in 1681/2 one (Henry Riddall) had died in prison in 1685.115 John Elliott and his wife had been bailed out by relations, but at the next Assizes had been were returned to prison for refusing to be of good behaviour. After four or five weeks they had again been bailed out.116 John Elliott appears once more in the diocesan records in 1684 for refusing to pay a church rate for communion rails in his parish church.117 He was clearly undaunted by his trials. There is no recorded mention of the remaining seven prisoners.

Later in the article there is a list of the Quakers of Gloucester and John Elliott is listed as an upholsterer.

Is there a connection between this John Elliott and the John Elliott who is found in Gloucester?  And where is Gloucester?  

And then some pages later John Elliott is mentioned again: 

The severest persecution came in the period 1680–85. John Elliott and John Edmunds of Gloucester were requested to attend the Assizes in order to assist Friends278 and John Elliott and Nicholas Wastfield were charged to care for the prisoners in Gloucester, with the quarterly meeting paying any costs.279 In 1682 £8 10s. was given for the prisoners in the castle and £4 for those in the city’s north gate.280 In 1684 another 20s. was given for the prisoners in the north gate and 20s. for those from the nearby village of Westbury-on-Severn. A year later John Elliott and John Edmunds were allocated 33s. to pay for the ‘chamber rent of the poor friends in prison’ and £2 14s. for prisoners in the castle and the north gate.

Whilst the Quakers endured the persecution with courage, it was nevertheless their policy to challenge the legal correctness of the charges whenever this was possible. Petitions to judges and the king on behalf of the persecuted were frequent. The suffering of Friends was laid before the judges of Assize in Gloucester in 1677,281 and before the bishop of Gloucester in 1680. In the same year all monthly meetings were asked to write regarding the sufferings to the county’s members of parliament, and the sufferings were again laid before the judges in February 1684.282 Three months after that a petition was presented (via the yearly meeting) to both king and parliament. Following such efforts one can imagine that the quarterly meeting had considerable pleasure in drawing up an address to the king in August 1686 acknowledging his kindness ‘in stopping our persecution’.283

So this John Elliott is still in Gloucester in 1680-85.  Which would shoot my theory that he moved so early that he was already living in New Jersey when the Burlington MM was established in 1678....but in looking up this date, look what I found!  An entire list of meetings that are not indexed by Hinshaw! 

Listed below are the 10 earliest (1678-1750) Quaker Meeting Houses in Burlington County, New Jersey, in the order of their founding (sources: Joe Laufer and the Plone Foundation (in footnote))

1. Burlington MM - 1678 (#16 on map at right) - This is the only Burlington area monthly meeting records included in Hinshaw's encyclopedia, volume II. The first meetinghouse on this site was a hexagonal frame structure built in the 1600s. 
2. Rancocas MM - 1678 (#18)
3. Chesterfield MM - 1684 (#11) (subsequently named Crosswicks) - Still has a cannonball imbeded in one wall, a result of a Revolutionary War battle!
4. Moorestown MM - 1700 (#3)
5. Mount Holly MM - 1716 (#17)
6. Mount Laurel MM - 1717 (#4) - Associated with Moorestown Friends Meeting.
7. Upper Springfield MM - 1727 (#10)
8. Mansfield MM - 1731 (#14)
9. Bordentown MM - 1740 (#13)
10. Amey's Mount MM - 1743 (#9)

Again from the same source:

 Emigration

Mention needs to be made of emigration at this time. The number of Friends leaving Gloucester was not large, but the impact would have been significant since they were young and enterprising. At a time of persecution or hardship the prospect of a fresh start in the New World must have had its attractions, and for those who survived the perils of the sea,350 disease and hostile natives, there really was a land of opportunity. In the 1680s land in Pennsylvania could be purchased for 2s. 6d. per acre, and there were even better deals for larger purchases. The sum of £100 could secure 5,000 acres, and smaller parcels of land were offered at 250 acres for £5 and 500 acres for £10, albeit there was an annual ‘quit rent’ to pay.351 It is therefore no surprise that five hundred

Quaker families per year are reported to have emigrated to America between 1676 and 1700.352 ....Among them were some from Gloucester. In the sixth month of 1697 Elizabeth Webb, who became a Friend when she was nineteen, was sitting in the meeting in Gloucester when her spirit ‘was as if it had been dissolved with the love of God, and it flowed over the great ocean, and I was constrained to kneel down and pray for the seed of God in America, and the concern never went out of my mind day nor night, until I went to travel there’.3.....The proximity of Bristol made emigration easier, and it is of note that there were more emigrants to America from Bristol at this time than from any other area in England outside London.365

....It has been shown that the early Gloucester Friends were mainly tradespeople and artisans, with textile workers, as elsewhere, the largest single group.366 There were no wealthy merchants,

From the above it would seem likely that the John Elliott that I have been looking at did not emigrate?  Phooey.

When I woke up this morning I decided not to throw these ideas out.  What if this John Elliott did not emigrate to New Jersey, but he had a son also named John Elliott who did make the move?  Or even a grandson named John Elliott who did make the move?  Or a son of any name who made the move who had a son named John Elliott?  

Equally there is no mention in the extant records of any refusals to take oaths, although the issue was still important. In 1692 the Gloucestershire quarterly meeting wrote to members of parliament urging them to repeal the law requiring Friends to take oaths, and the next year letters of concern were sent to all the knights of the shire. The person entrusted to draft these letters was John Elliott of Gloucester.157

I do not have time to work on the next thoughts today, but I do not want to loose them.  Richard Guy arrived on the ship Griffin with his wife Bridget.  The ship landed 25 June 1675 at Salem on Oct 5 1675.  These passengers were traveling with John Fenwick.  I need to find out from where John Fenwick was before this trip.  There were members of a Guy family living at Bristol.  I do not know if the two families were related yet.  

Ok.,..,.another theory with holes shot in it.  John Fenwick was from Northumberland County in Great Britain which is a far north county in England....a long way from Glouster!.

Thomas Calvin Morrison

Ronald and I started chatting about Thomas Calvin Morrison last night at the Morrison h2 yDNA group zoom meeting.  We started brainstorming about what we know about Thomas Calvin Morrison and what we think possible in figuring him out.

So the next information is from Ronald and he says it is iffy,  It is possible that Thomas Calvin Morrison had father Samuel Douglas Morrison.  My first thought is that is an odd name for William and Rachel Witcher to have named a possible first born son.  Their children were born between 1780 and 1800.  Several of their sons were named after political heroes of the time.  However, I can not find a Samuel Douglas in the time period.  William would have been a more likely name....after Rachel's father and husband.  

Yes, Samuel Douglas first appeared in Hawkins County as a witness to a will. He later married in Grainger County and then eventually moved to Warren County. All of this lends to the idea that he could have been the oldest son of William & Rachel. 

When I asked Ronald if there was a document naming Samuel Douglas Morrison's wife he said: 

Yes, his second wife was Anna Bragg

But there does not seem to be information about a first wife which is what I would want.  

Spring Hill Cemetery

This blog post is written to have photos of the family members who are buried in Spring Hill Cemetery on the occasion of the Memorial Service for Sara Ann Sammons Hawkins.

Sara Ann Sammons Hawkins and Marshall Hawkins

Nora Beuhring Hawkins died at the age of 31 from complications from the birth of her second son,

Howard Burke Hawkins.  Almost certainly she died of infection that could now easily be treated with antibiotics as she did not die until July 15 and Pop Hawkins was born May 19.

Nora was called Bird.  

Jesse Marshall Hawkins

born 1866 in Louisa County, Virginia and died in 1939 in Huntington, WV

Below is photo of Jesse Marshall Hawkins with his daughter-in-law, Mary Ann McGregor Hawkins

Donald....I have nothing on Donald except stories.  When Bird died, Daisy took the baby, Howard in.  Her sister Mary Davis took Donald in.  Mary Beuhring Davis did not have an easy, happy life.  I would guess that Donald's life was not nearly so happy as that of Howard who was the baby in a happy home.

Mary Ann McGregor Hawkins

Howard Burke Hawkins 1899 -1980

Howard Burke Hawkins 

(1936-1992)

Blanche Poague Hawkins

(Second wife of Jesse Marshall Hawkins)

(1882-

We called her Nana.  Perhaps that is part of the reason that I chose that for my grandkids to call me Nana. 

She was such a really cute lady.  She was 16 years younger than Jesse Marshall Hawkins.  They married in 1907.  He would have been 41.   She would have been 25.  They never had children of their own. Marshall brought both of his sons back into his home when they married.  The boys were probably ...well Howard would have been about 8....I am not sure how old Donald was.  That must have been quite disruptive for everyone.  The story in the family was that Nana never learned how to boil water.  Blanche's parents moved the huge house that we knew and loved from fourth avenue to sit next door to their home.  Granddaddy Marshall always told fond stories about Nana and her parents.  I believe that he considered Blanche's parents to be grandparents to him.  Perhaps they taught him to play bridge?  Granny Mary called her Darling.  That perhaps tells you how the relationship was?  Why do I tell extra information for this lady who is not related by blood to us?  Well she does not have descendants to tell her story.

Luke McGregor Hawkins

Luke was a very special child.  Extremely brave!  We all loved him very much.

Henry Harrison Miller and Eliza Chapman Miller

H.H. Miller died in 1804 at the age of 90.  Eliza died in 1893, so she was already buried in this plot when her granddaughter, Bir

And this is the group that met at the cemetery to celebrate the lives of the people who came before

us and are buried in this plot of land: