William Freeborn (1694-1670)

William was my maternal 11^th great grandfather and was born in Maldon, Maldon District, Essex, England. At this time, his parents and siblings are not known. If 1594 is the correct date of birth, he was 31 when he married Mary Wilson, unless he was married prior and the record has not been found. He married Mary Wilson in n Maldon on July 25, 1625, at St. Mary’s Church. Mary was seven years younger than William. Mary is my maternal 11^th great grandmother. Mary’s parent’s and siblings are unknown. In 1627, daughter Mary was born in Maldon and daughter Sarah was born in 1632 also in Maldon.

William was the owner of the manor of Batisfords, in the County of Essex, in the middle of town on the right side of the road.. This manor was a grant from the hour of Grafton free socage of all rets and service. A "manor" was a large estate, typically encompassing a village and its surrounging lands. On December 20, 1633, William “Freebourne” sold the manor to Dr. George Boseville.

William, Mary, and two daughters were part of the Great Migration to the Massachusetts Bay Colony-1620-1640. The “migration” was also known as “The Puritan Migration to New England”. 1620 was the date the Mayflower arrived in Plymouth, Massachusetts. The Puritans left England mainly due to religious persecution. England was in religious turbulence in the early 17th century, the religious climate was aggressive and frightening, mainly towards religious nonconformists like the puritans. A nonconformist at the time meant that they were against the Church of England, they felt that they church was corrupt.

On April 30, 1634, William and his family left England for New England on the ship Francis of Ipswich. The ship’s log shows “William “Freeborne”, age 40 years, Mary his wife aged 33 yrs; and their children: Mary aged 7 yrs. And Sarah aged 2 yrs., and John Aldburgh age 14 yrs. (Founders of New Egland, P. 53 & 54). William and family settled in Roxbury, Massachusetts.

On September 20, 1637, “by sentence of the Court, William Freeborn and others “because the opinions and revelations of Mr. Wheelwright and Mrs. Hutchinson, have seduced and led into dangerous errors many of the people of New England were ordered to deliver up all guns, pistols, swords, powder, shot, etc. and were excluded and driven out of Massachusetts by the Act of the Assembly of March 12, 1638.

Wheelwright's sermon and his association with the Antinomian views, mainly centered around the question of salvation and the role of human effort versus divine grace. Anne Hutchinson went to trial in 1637 for heresy. However, the real issue was her defiance of the gender roles at this time in history. She presumed authority over men in her preaching. At a time when men ruled and women were to remain silent, Anne Hutchinson declared her right to preach, which her husband avidly supported.

On March 7,1638, William and 18 other planters, (growers of cash crops) signed the following compact, which marked the foundation of the Colony of Portsmouth Rhode Island.

“We whose names are unwritten do here solemnly in the presence of Jehovah, incorporate ourselves into a “Bodie Politck” and as shall help, will submit our persons, lives, and estates unto our Lord Jesus Christ, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords and to all those perfect and most absolute laws of his, given us in his holy word of truth, to be guided and judged thereby.”

The above states that there were 18 planters who signed the Compact, the document actually has 23 signers:

• William Coddington
• John Clarke
• William Hutchinson (husband of Anne Hutchinson)
• John Coggeshall
• William Aspinwall
• Samuel Wilbore
• John Porter
• John Sanford
• Edward Hutchinson, Jr.
• Thomas Savage
• William Dyre (husband of Mary Dyer)
• William Freeborn
• Phillip Shearman
• John Walker
• Richard Carder
• William Baulston
• Edward Hutchinson, Sr.
• Henry Bull X his marke
• Randall Holden
• Thomas Clarke (brother of John)
• John Johnson
• William Hall
• John Brightman

Besides William Freeborn, Randall Holden (husband of one of maternal 9^th great aunts is listed above.

On December 10, 1639, William Freeborn received a grant of 140 acres in Portsmouth, conditioned only that he must build a house within a year.

On March 16,1641, William Freeborn and Jeremy Clarke, husband of one of my 10t^h maternal great grandmothers, were elected Freemen.

On December 1, 1641, at the session held at Portsmouth, William and Jeremy were members of the Grand Jury.

In the year 1642, William Freeborn served as Constable of Portsmouth, and on May 19, 1657, he was elected as a member of the General Court of Commissioners.

William’s daughter, Mary, one of maternal 10^th grandmothers died on March 6, 1664, at age 37. There was a smallpox epidemic in Rhode Island this year.

Wiiliam’s daughter, Sarah died on April 23, 1670, at age 38 the year of another epidemic which was thought to be the flu.

William died on April 28, 1670, at age 76 and his wife died on May 3, 1670, at age 69. There was an epidemic in Rhode Island in 1670, people were experiencing pain in head, stomach, and side which followed a fever and people were dying within 3-4 days.

 

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Freeborn_(settler)

https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=njp.32101060072418&seq=93&q1=%22william+freeborn%22   Ancestry of Jeremy Clarke of Rhode Island and Dungan genealogy, comp. by Alfred Rudulph Justice.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Wheelwright#:~:text=After%20his%20arrival%20in%20New,him%20as%20an%20orthodox%20minister

https://www.nps.gov/sapa/planyourvisit/anne-hutchinson-in-massachusetts-bay.htm#:~:text=Hutchinson's%20views%20and%20her%20growing,officials%2C%20notably%20Governor%20John%20Winthrop

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Portsmouth_Compact_Original_Document_Image.jpg

https://www.americanantiquarian.org/proceedings/44807204.pdf

 

Clement Weaver Jr (1625-1683) 

Clement Weaver Jr was one of my 10^th great maternal grandfathers and he was born in September 1625 in Glastonbury, Somerset, England to Clement Weaver Sr and Rebecca Holbrook.

Clement Jr, his parents and sister Eleanor were part of the Great Migration to the Massachusetts Bay Colony-1620-1640. The “migration” was also known as “The Puritan Migration to New England”. 1620 was the date the Mayflower arrived in Plymouth, Massachusetts. The Puritans left England mainly due to religious persecution. England was in religious turbulence in the early 17th century, the religious climate was aggressive and frightening, mainly towards religious nonconformists like the puritans. A nonconformist at the time meant that they were against the Church of England, they felt that the church was corrupt.

In the book “History and Genealogy Of A Branch Of The Weaver Family” by Lucius E Weaver, it is stated that Clement Jr and family were in Boston, Massachusetts in 1640, in Weymouth, Massachusetts in 1643 living next to his maternal uncle, Thomas Holbrook, one of my maternal 11^th great granduncles. In 1645, the family was in Rhode Island, Clement Jr married Mary Freeborn, one my maternal 19^th grandmothers who was born in Maldon, Maldon District, Essex, England and came to Massachusetts in 1634 and moved to Portsmouth, Newport, Rhode after her and her family were driven out of Massachusetts on 7 Mar 1638.

The Pilgrims left England to escape religious intolerance, but sadly they brought the spirit of intolerance with them. If any religious views did not measure up to their standards, the people were expelled from the colony and either had to go back to England or go live in the wilderness. This intolerance led to the settlement of Rhode Island. In the book entitled “Family Records of the Descendants of Thomas Wait of Portsmouth, R,I” by John Cassa Wait, it is written “when Roger Williams landed in Boston, he found the territory in possession of two distinct colonies, the colony of Plymouth founded in 1620 by the followers of John Robinson of Leyden, and known as the colony of Separatists, men who separated from the Church of England, but were willing to grant to others the same freedom of opinion which they claimed for themselves; and the colony of Massachusetts Bay, founded ten years later by a band of intelligent Puritans, many of them men of position and fortune, who, alarmed by the variety of new opinions and doctrines which seemed to menace a total subversion of what they regard a religion, had resolved to establish a new dwelling place in a new world, with the Old and New Testaments for statue books and constitutions.” In 1635, Roger Williams was sentenced to banishment, his friends made sure that the sentence was not carried out. The following winter, Williams fled into exile and was received by Massasoit and Canonicus, chiefs of Indian tribes who gave him a tract of land on the Seekouk River. The governor of Plymouth claimed jurisdiction over that part of the River. Williams and five friends in the summer of 1636, went down the River and up the Providence River and started a new settlement which they called “Providence” which is probably why Clement Sr and family eventually went to Rhode Island.

March 5, 1651, it is documented “Clement Weaver “Juneor of Nuport” bought of Joshua Coggeshall of Portsmouth for a valuable consideration a “parsell” of land lying in a “Tyrangle forme” butted and bounded as followeth: on the Southeast by the “Comon” sixty pole from thence on a straight line to a great white oake marked on “boath” sides and from that white oake a lot the line between this “Parsell” of land ad land formerly and still is in the possession of Clement “Weavor” aforesaid”.

The earliest known list of Freemen for the Colony was made in 1655; Clement Sr and Clement Jr became a Freemen which is a person who possesses & enjoys all the civil & political rights belonging to the people under a free government. A member of a city or borough who possesses full civic rights.  

On July 4, 1659, Clement Jr sold 30 acres of land to Joshua Coggeshall of Portsmouth. On March 6, 1664, Clement Jr became in possession of land in Westerly. On October 31.1677, Clement Weaver Jr was one of the fifty people to be granted 5000 acres near the sea in East Greenwich. On August 28. 1680, Clement Jr of Newport deeded “my farm in East Greenwich of 90 acres to my son Clement Weaver of East Greenwich for life” then to his son William. In 1681 and 1682 Benedict Arnold, who was my maternal 4^th cousin 7 times removed stirred up trouble by charging Clement Jr with trespassing.

Bmwtx, CC BY-SA 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

Clement Jr died November 24, 1683 in Newport as was buried in the same area.

 

History and Genealogy Of A Branch Of The Weaver Family by Lucius E Weaver

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clement_Weaver

 

Clement Weaver Sr (1591-1683)

Clement Weaver Sr, one of my maternal 11^th great grandfathers was born in Glastonbury, Somersetshire, England  in 1591 to Thomas Weaver and Margaret Adams who were both from Presteigne, Radnorshire, Powys, Wales. While Thomas and Margaret were in their 20s, they moved to Glastonbury. I have not found documentation for any other children of Thomas and Margaret.

On May 19, 1617, in Glastonbury, Clement married one of my maternal 11^th great grandmothers, Rebecca Holbrook of Glastonbury. The  parish Register of the St. John’s Church in Glastonbury states “1617 Menso May Clementus Weaver duxit in uxorem Rebecca Holbrook 19 Maij p’dict.” Clement and Rebecca had one daughter, Eleanor, and one son who was named Clement Jr, both born in Glastonbury.

Clement and his family were part of the Great Migration to the Massachusetts Bay Colony-1620-1640. The “migration” was also known as “The Puritan Migration to New England”. 1620 was the date the Mayflower arrived in Plymouth, Massachusetts. The Puritans left England mainly due to religious persecution. England was in religious turbulence in the early 17th century, the religious climate was aggressive and frightening, mainly towards religious nonconformists like the puritans. A nonconformist at the time meant that they were against the Church of England, they felt that they church was corrupt.

In the book “History and Genealogy Of A Branch Of The Weaver Family” by Lucius E Weaver, it is stated that Clement Sr and family were in Boston, Massachusetts in 1640, in Weymouth, Massachusetts in 1643 living next to his brother-in-law, Thomas Holbrook, one of my maternal 11^th great granduncles, and then moving to “the Island of Rhodes” (Rhode Island) in 1650 which Clement felt was a more religious tolerant colony. Clement’s occupation was a “was a builder”

The Pilgrims left England to escape religious intolerance, but sadly they brought the spirit of intolerance with them. If any religious views did not measure up to their standards, they persons were expelled from the colony and either had to go back to England or go live in the wilderness. This intolerance led to the settlement of Rhode Island. In the book entitled “Family Records of the Descendants of Thomas Wait of Portsmouth, R,I” by John Cassa Wait, it is written “when Roger Williams landed in Boston, he found the territory in possession of two distinct colonies, the colony of Plymouth founded in 1620 by the followers of John Robinson of Leyden, and known as the colony of Separatists, men who separated from the Church of England, but were willing to grant to others the same freedom of opinion which they claimed for themselves; and the colony of Massachusetts Bay, founded ten years later by a band of intelligent Puritans, many of them men of position and fortune, who, alarmed by the variety of new opinions and doctrines which seemed to menace a total subversion of what they regard a religion, had resolved to establish a new dwelling place in a new world, with the Old and New Testaments for statue books and constitutions.” In 1635, Roger Williams was sentenced to banishment, his friends made sure that the sentence was not carried out. The following winter, Williams fled into exile and was received by Massasoit and Canonicus, chiefs of Indian tribes who gave him a tract of land on the Seekouk River. The governor of Plymouth claimed jurisdiction over that part of the River. Williams and five friends in the summer of 1636, went down the River and up the Providence River and started a new settlement which they called “Providence” which is probably why Clement Sr and family eventually went to Rhode Island.

In about 1655, Clement became a Freeman which is a person who possesses & enjoys all the civil & political rights belonging to the people under a free government. A member of a city or borough who possesses full civic rights.  In 1633, shortly after the English settled Monmouth County, New Jersey, Clement Sr purchased lands, which he sold in 1674.

In 1677, Clement Sr was one of the patentees named in the charter of East Greenwich and in 1678, he was elected a deputy to the General Assembly and re-elected in 1681. Clement Sr was one of the fifty people granted land in the township of East Greenwich on October 31, 1677. 

SalSauco, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

Clement Sr died on October 10, 1683, in Newport, Newport County Rhode Island and was buried in the same area. His Will may not be existence now because when the British occupied Newport in the Revolutionary War, they seized the records of the town and they were sunk in Hell Gate, the vessel in which they were stored. The ship was raised ad efforts have been made to restore some of the records.

 

 

 

https://www.the-curates-line.com/resources/Weaver%20family.pdf

https://www.americanancestors.org/new-englands-great-migration

History and Genealogy Of A Branch Of The Weaver Family by Lucius E Weaver

https://historyofmassachusetts.org/the-great-puritan-migration/

https://preservation.ri.gov/sites/g/files/xkgbur406/files/pdfs_zips_downloads/survey_pdfs/east_greenwich.pdf

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_early_settlers_of_Rhode_Island

Thomas Dungan I (1635-1687)

 

One of my maternal 8^th great grandfather, Thomas, was born on February 13, 1635, in London, England. His parents were  William Dungan and Frances Latham both of England. William Dungan died at age 30 on September 18, 1637, when Thomas was one year old.

Thomas, his mother, and Thomas’s four siblings came to America in 1637 and took up residence in  the colony of Rhode Island. Thomas was a young child when his family came to Rhode Island. The following year, Thomas’s mother, Frances, one of my maternal 10^th great grandparents, married Jeremiah Clarke, a Quaker Governor of Rhode Island. Thomas’s mother and stepfather went on to have seven children. Frances became known as “the mother of American Governors” as she is said to have 24 Governors/Lt. Governors as descendants.

When Thomas was age 16, his stepfather Jeremiah died. There is no documentation for the next five years of Thomas’s life until his mother remarries. Thomas’s new stepfather is William Vaughn, Pastor of the First Baptist Church of Newport. It is through his stepfather; a Baptist Pastor that Thomas learns Theology. Many of my other Rhode Island ancestors were members of the First Baptist Church of Newport.

The prominent positions that Thomas’ family held would lead to the assumption that the family had great educational opportunities in Rhode Island. Thomas entered the ministry of the Baptist religion. In 1656, around age 21, Thomas was admitted as a Freeman (a person who could enjoy personal, civil or political liberty in Colonial America).

In 1663, in Rhode Island, Thomas married one of my maternal 9^th great grandmothers, Elizabeth Weaver who was born in Newport County Rhode Island. Thomas and Elizabeth had nine children between 1664 and 1678.

In 1664, after the settlement of Monmouth County, New Jersey by the English, Thomas purchased land. In 1671, Thomas became a juryman in Rhode Island. In 1674, Thomas sold the land in New Jersey.

On October 31, 1677, the town of East Greenwich, Rhode Island became incorporated and Thomas is named as one of the patentees in the charter and at the first general election in the town, Thomas was chosen as one of the two representatives to the Rhode Island General Assembly, his brother in-law, Sargeant Clement Weaver, one of my maternal 9^th great uncles was the other representative. Sometime prior to 1677, Thomas was a Sargeant in the Newport Militia. Thomas was reelected to the Assembly in 1681.

In 1681, the grant of the Charter for Pennsylvania to William Penn, and the settlement of Pennsylvania attracted a lot of attention throughout the American colonies. Thomas was one of those who was attracted. The majority of the first Pennsylvania settlers were Quakers, but also the Baptist were interested in Pennsylvania. Admiral Penn, (my maternal 10^th great uncle) father of William Penn (the Founder), who is my maternal 1^st cousin 11 X removed was a Baptist. Even though William Penn, the Founder was a Quaker, he still held strong Baptist sentiments. When William Penn enacted the laws for Pennsylvania, William Penn recognized the rights of the Baptists.

In 1682, Thomas sent his eldest son, William, to visit Pennsylvania and report back to him. William was so impressed that he purchased 200 acres of land in what is now Bristol Township which was granted under warrant by William Markham. Thomas was now prepared to follow his son William to Pennsylvania. On June 28, 1682, he sold his 100 acres in East Greenwich to Thomas Weaver of Newport, which is probably one of my maternal 9^th great grand uncles. In the same year, on September 25^th, Thomas Dungan sold his home and 50 acres in Newport and moved his family to Cold Springs, Bucks County, Pennsylvania on 200 acres by the Delaware River. He founded the first Baptist Church in Pennsylvania called the Church of Cold Springs.

https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-philadelphia-inquirer-cold-spring-ba/131524362/

Thomas died in Cold Springs on November 24,1687, age 53; however, his church and congregation held together until 1702 and then joined with Pennepack Church. Thomas Dungan’s Will, which was probated on November 29, 1687, is one of the oldest Wills on record in Bucks County, Pennsylvania,.

 

 

 

https://buckscountyhistory.com/surnames/dunganfamily.html

https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=lKc-AAAAYAAJ&pg=GBS.PA274&hl=en&q=dungan

https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=lKc-AAAAYAAJ&pg=GBS.PA274&hl=en

https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=lKc-AAAAYAAJ&pg=GBS.PA442&hl=en

https://www.pennepackbaptist.org/history.html

https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=lKc-AAAAYAAJ&pg=GBS.PA276&hl=en

https://www.pennepackbaptist.org/history.html

Samuel Gilbert Sr (Abt 1621-Abt 1721)

 

One of my maternal 8^th great grandfathers, Samuel Gilbert Sr, was probably born in Liskeard, Cornwall, England. Samuel wife’s name was “Joanne” and they had two sons, Nicholas, who was thought to be named after Samuel’s father and Samuel Jr.  Samuel’s son Nicholas was born in Liskeard and came to America as a very young child Samuel Jr was born in Pennsylvania. Samuel Sr as well as a few other Gilbert men left England and settled in Warminster Township, Byberry Township, and Buckingham Township, Bucks County, Pennsylvania.

About 1686, it is documented that Samuel Gilbert desires  a grant of about 200 acres next to John Jones in Warminster Township. Samuel’s occupation was listed as a yeoman ( a freeholder, one who owned and cultivated his own land). Samuel continued to purchase land in Warminster and Byberry Townships throughout his life.

Preservation Maryland, CC BY-SA 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

Samuel’s date of death has not been proven, it is said to be around or before 1721 as this is the year that Samuel’s son Nicholas patented (granted to the named party and their heirs and assigns forever ) his father’s land. "Whereas Samuel Gilbert for the natural love...to his son Nicholas Gilbert and the consideration therein mentioned...granted to his son Nicholas all the aforesaid lands and premises.”

Y-DNA testing shows descendants of the Warminster Gilberts match the descendants of John Gilbert of Byberry and Joseph Gilbert of Buckingham, Bucks County. This means the patriarchs of the three lines were all from the same Gilbert line.

 

 

https://hsmcpa.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/1943vol3no4.pdf

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Gilbert-9167#Matches

https://www.google.com/books/edition/Encyclopedia_of_Pennsylvania_Biography/5dvDezviibgC?q=The+Gilbert+family+were+among+the+1st+settlers+in+Wrightstown&gbpv=1&bsq=GILBERT#f=false

https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Descendants_of_James_Carrell_and_Sar/b1wZAQAAMAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=samuel+gilbert+warminster+pa&pg=PA38&printsec=frontcover

Silas Bradshaw Crispin (1655-1711)

 

Silas Bradshaw Crispin (1655-1711)

One of my maternal 8^th great grandfathers, Silas, was born in 1655 in Kingston on Hull, Yorkshire, England to William Crispin and Rebecca Penn Bradshaw. Silas had two brothers and two sisters.

In about 1681, William Crispin, Silas’s father was appointed to a Commission by Founder William Penn to come to America to establish the Colony and carry out Penn’s plans for the great city of Philadelphia. William Penn also appointed William Crispin as Chief Justice of the new Colony and Surveyor General of the Providence of Pennsylvania. It is said that William Crispin sailed on the ship “Amity” when the ship got close to the Delaware, it was blow off course to the West Indies and put into Barbados where it is said that William Crispin died.

Silas arrived in Pennsylvania in 1682 sailing with Thomas Holme and his family after his father’s death.  On the ship was Thomas’s daughter, Hester, Silas and Hester got to know each other on the long voyage. In 1683, Silas married Hester Holme, one of my maternal 8^th  great grandmothers and they settled on a 500-acre track on Pennypack Creek near Philadelphia that was given to Silas by William Penn. It is said that Silas and Hester had their first child in an Indian wigwam belonging to the Chief of the Tammany Tribe.

Between the age of 23 and 35, Hester gave birth to eight children, the last baby, Susanne, was born on April 14, 1696. Hester died on April 16, 1696; baby Susanne died the same year, not sure of the exact day.

Silas Crispin, Gentleman of Dublin Township, Pennsylvania was a member of the Free Society of Traders, a joint stock company founded by a small group of English Quakers in 1681.

Silas’s spent most if his time caring for his large estate and being the Executor of his father in laws Will in 1695. One year after Hester’s death, Silas married his second wife Mary who was a widow and mother of two young sons, Mary was 14 years younger than Silas. The couple had six children.

Graham Horn / Plantation of young oaks

Silas died May 31, 1711, in Dublin at age 56 and was buried in the Old Crispin Cemetery  also known as the Holme-Crispin Cemetery.

 

https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=imtFAAAAMAAJ&pg=GBS.RA1-PA62&printsec=frontcover&output=reader&hl=en

William Crispin III (1627-1681)

 

William Crispin was my maternal 9^th great grandfather. He was born in 1627 in Kingston-on Hull, East Riding of Yorkshire England. Very little is known of William Crispin's childhood. Throughout his adult life, William was a merchant, ship owner, international trader, ship purser, a Guard Captain in the Army under Cromwell, he served in the British Navy, and he was a commander of a ship.

Thomas Gent (illustrations may not be by Gent), Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

In 1645, William III's father died. William III was only 18 when his father died. He was only left one shilling by his father. I have not found and explanation for why only one shilling was left of William III.

William was married two times and had 10 children. In recognition, Oliver Cromwell gave William a forfeited estate in Ireland. In 1653, William was awarded a Gold Medal by the English Parliament for commanding the ship “Assistance” with 180 men and 40 guns in battle against the Dutch which he defeated.

At the time of the Restoration, 1660, William was living in the important English occupied port of Kinsdale, Ireland. Sometime before 1881, William Crispin was appointed by William Penn, the Founder, to be one of the members of the Commission to come to Pennsylvania and help to establish Penn’s colony. William Crispin was one of the first purchasers of land in Pennsylvania, he purchased 5000 acres.

In about 1681, William Crispin was appointed to a Commission by Founder William Penn to come to America to establish the Colony and carry out Penn’s plans for the great city of Philadelphia. William Penn also appointed William Crispin as Chief Justice of the new Colony and Surveyor General of the Providence of Pennsylvania. It is said that William Crispin sailed on the ship “Amity” when the ship got close to the Delaware, it was blow off course to the West Indies and put into Barbados where it is said that William Crispin died.

There are documents that show that William Crispin and William Penn were related. Silas Bradshaw Crispin, a son of William Crispin was also a first purchaser of land in Pennsylvania.

https://nephillyhistory.net/HistoricSites/2024Holme400Booklet.pdf

https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=imtFAAAAMAAJ&pg=GBS.PP10&printsec=frontcover&output=reader&hl=en

 https://genpa.org/wp-content/uploads/publications/pennsylvania-genealogical-magazine/Vol.X_No.2-Pages-105-132.pdf

 

Thomas Holme (1624-1695)

 

Thomas Holme, my maternal  9^th great grandfather was also William Penn’s, (Founder of Pennsylvania) First Surveyor General, a captain in Cromwell’s army, a Quaker minister, an author, an administrator, landholder, and a merchant.

Thomas was most likely born in England, but spent a lot of time in Ireland, Thomas married in 1649 and soon after enlisted in the British Army under the leadership of Oliver Cromwell where he earned the rank of Captain. While in Ireland in 1659  he was  a member of the Society of Friends, also known as a Quakers. Thomas was an important man among the Friends in Ireland, he traveled over the central and southern part of Ireland attending meetings of the Friends. Thomas was persecuted for being a Friend. In 1655, in Thomas' home in Limerick, he was meeting with others peacefully, when his home was seizured by a Guard of Soldiers and banished from the city and Thomas was committed to prision by the order of Colonel Ingoldsby.

Thomas first came to Pennsylvania on April 18,1682 when he was appointed Surveyor-General of the Providence by William Penn. On April 23, 1682, Thomas, his family, and Silas Crispin (son of William Crispin, who was the actual first Surveyor-General of the Providence) but died on the way in 1681) left Waterford, Ireland for Pennsylvania on the ship “Amity”  Thomas was on the list of “First Purchasers” and a member of the Free Society of Traders,” one of the Society’s Committee of twelve to live in Pennsylvania. Thomas and his family made their home in Shackamaxon, now known as Fishtown.

Thomas’ first task was to lay out the City of Philadelphia which was not an easy task. William Penn wanted the City to be near the Delaware River so large ships could be close to the bank of the Delaware and be high, dry, and healthy and to have ten thousand acres for the City. When William Penn arrived the following October, he changed his idea to 1280 acres for the City.

When the plan of Philadelphia and the assignment of lots was completed, Thomas drew a map of the Providence. The map included the counties of Philadelphia, Chester, and Bucks’. The Commissioners who were settling the colony  also could have also purchased land from the Indians. Thomas Holme was present for most of the Treaties with the Indians and played an important part in some of the Treaties.

                                               Thomas Holme, surveyor, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Thomas's Will was written on December 10, 1694, Thomas died at Wellspring, his estate in Bucks County's Dublin Township, in March 1695. Thomas was buried shortly afterwards in thre Old Crispin Cemetary in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

 

 

 

https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/20085658.pdf

https://www.pennpress.org/9780871692009/thomas-holme-surveyor-general-of-pennsylvania

https://explorepahistory.com/hmarker.php?markerId=1-A-2A

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Holme

https://archive.org/details/immigrationofiri00myer_0/page/248/mode/2up?q=holme

 

William Penn (1644-1718)

 

My first Pennsylvania Quaker Ancestor that I would like to mention is William Penn (1644-1718)-Founder of Pennsylvania. It is said that there are no male descendants of William living today as the Penn male line ended in the late 1860’s. I am a first cousin 11X removed  to William through his Aunt Rachel Penn who is a maternal 10^th great grandmother of mine.

William became a Quaker at age 22 while in Ireland where he listened to Thomas Loe, a traveling Quaker speak. William’s father passed away in 1670 when William was age 35 at which time King Charles II granted William a land charter as a debt repayment. William became the largest non-royal owner of land totaling around 45,000 square miles. He named the lands “Penns Woods” after his father. Today, these lands are known as Pennsylvania and Delaware.

                                                 Peter Lely, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

To get other Quakers through out Europe to buy land in Penns Woods, William promised them Religious freedom. He also stated that his new government would be very different then the law under the Crown. There would be two houses to keep things in check and only two crimes that could result in the death penalty, those being murder and treason. In six months, William distributed about 300,000 acres to more than 250 families.

William arrived in America October 27, 1682, at New Castle, Delaware and would make his way to  Philadelphia also known as the “City of Brotherly Love” to lay out the City that he envisioned.

After living in and near Philadelphia for several years, with his second wife Hannah and some of their nine children, William left the colonies and never returned. The last several years of his life was filled with financial problems such as land debt due to poor management. William twice tried to sell Pennsylvania back to the Crown, but the sale was denied. William spent some time in debtors jail until some Quakers raised the money to pay off his debts and get him released from jail.

William had a stroke in 1712 which took away his ability  to speak and take care of himself. William died August 10, 1718, in Ruscombe, Berkshire, England. His wife, Hannah took over the role of Overseer of the Providence of Pennsylvania until her death eight years later.

Many of my other Ancestors were Quakers and also land purchasers of William Penn's lands and came to America as the same time period as William Penn. In the followig Blogs, I will write about them.

https://billypenn.com/2017/09/04/no-youre-not-a-descendant-of-william-penn/#:~:text=Penn%20had%2014%20children%20during,'re%20not%20inheriting%20Pennsylvania.%E2%80%9D

https://www.nps.gov/people/william-penn.htm