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Searching for the Ancestors of Thomas Fisher of Chester County, Pennsylvania

Chapter VI. Neighboring Land Owners of Eastern Kennett

The Budd family came from Somerset in England, not far south of Bristol. Thomas Budd came by early 1682, and settled first on the east side of the Delaware River, in or near Burlington. The family were already in residence when William Penn arrived in 1682.

John Budd, brewer of Philadelphia was one of the earliest absentee landowners in and near Kennet, Chester County. He was never a resident in Kennet. However, there are several points of interest regarding the Budd family and their possible connections to Thomas Fisher of Kennet.

Thomas Fisher’s wife, Elizabeth Huntley Fisher, was a granddaughter of Francis Standfield of Marple, Chester County. Prior to 1699, the heirs of Francis Standfield began taking up land in Kennett and across the Brandywine in Birmingham township. By 1703, a large part of the east end of Kennet was claimed by James Standfield, William Huntley, Thomas and John Hope, and Isaac Few, all heirs of Francis Standfield.

In 1703 John Budd of Philadelphia invested in 500 acres having a corner boundary in common with William Huntley’s land. He also took up large holdings near the northeast end of Kennet, then called Bensalem, and a tract at the east end of Marlborough nearby. Other large holdings were in Nottingham Township on the Elk River.

The Standfield family and the Budd family were among those Quakers who joined the movement of George Keith, which separated for a number of years from the other Quakers. Many of them became Baptists, while others returned to the Church of England or to the Quakers. The Budd family joined the Baptists, and in 1697 Thomas Budd was baptized at the Birmingham Baptist Church or one of its predecessor locations. James Standfield, in his will of 1699, named John Budd Jr. as a trusted friend. The same will names James Poultiss (Poulter) as a renter of a Standfield house. James Poultess and James Standfield were both members of the Keithian separation.

James Standfield married Mary Hutchinson of Burlington Monthly Meeting. Thomas Robinson, joint applicant with Thomas Fisher in 1701 for land in Kennet, may have been the one who is said to have been married to Susannah Budd of Burlington before 1682.

Benjamin Chambers had land holdings north of Thomas Fisher, above the Harland tracts. He was never resident in Kennett. He came on the “Welcome” in 1682, was sheriff of Philadelphia in 1683, and was active in public affairs. He became president of the Free Society of Traders, and in 1688 he married Hannah Smith of Philadelphia. In the same year he received a warrant to survey 7100 acres in Chester County, which he later sold to Nathaniel Newlin and which became Newlin Township. He was granted a franchise for the ferry on the lower Schuylkill River near the Delaware, and lived there near John and Sarah Fisher at Kingsessing. Martha Fisher, daughter of John and Sarah, married Benjamin Bonsall and settled on part of the Kingsessing land with her husband. Benjamin Chambers also took up a large quantity of land on Pocopsin Creek in the northeast part of Kennet Township , and sold it to settlers. He sold part to Obadiah Bonsall. The land in this deed was in Bensalem, which became part of Bradford, now Pocopsin Township, and was about a mile north and northeast of Thomas Fisher’s 1701 land.

Peter Dix (Dicks) came from Chester, England in 1684. He lived in Birmingham Township on the east bank of the Brandywine. In 1701 he obtained a warrant for 554 acres on the west bank, forming a large wedge that abutted part of the north side of the land which would become the Huntley tract in 1703. Peter Dix died in 1704, and his widow married John Mendenhall in 1708.

Futhey & Cope, History of Chester County
Peter Dicks (Dix), of the city of Chester, England, flaxdresser, purchased 250 acres of land in Pennsylvania, Aug. 16, 1684, from James Dicks, who had bought the same from William Penn in 1681. Peter, with his wife Esther, arrived about 1686 and settled in Birmingham, where he died in 1704. In 1708 his widow married John Mendenhall.

The children of Peter were Hannah, m. to Jonathan Thatcher; Elizabeth, m. to Richard Tranter, 10,2,1714; Sarah, m. to Joseph Pyle, 4, 16, 1715; Esther, m. to Francis Swayne, 1724; Deborah, m. to Jonathan Fincher, 1726; Nathan, and Peter, who married in 1716 Sarah, widow of Thomas Powell, Jr., and daughter of Joseph Hayes, of Cheshire, England. He settled in Providence, and later in life became interested in iron works. He died about 1760, leaving a widow, Sarah, formerly wife of William Swaffer, to whom he was married in 1750. His children were Joseph, b. 3, 26, 1717; James, b. 6,18, 1718; Nathan, b. 11, 2, 1719; Sarah, b. 1, 19, 1720; Peter, b. 10, 23, 1722; Job; John; Abraham; Esther, m. to John Darlington; Jane, b. Nov. 4, 1751; m. to John Peirce, 11, 17, 1786; Roger, b. 7, 30, 1753, m. Rebecca Maris, 5, 25, 1797, d. 12, 29, 1808. He was an esteemed minister among Friends.

In 1701 John Evans, from Pembrokeshire in Wales, received a warrant for land in Merion Township (Welsh Tract). In 1703 he and his son obtained another warrant for land in Radnor Township (Welsh Tract). In 1713 a survey of 100 acres partly abutting the north side of the Robinson/Fisher tract in Kennett, was laid out for Edward Evans, son of John Evans. A warrant was granted in 1714. The tract was taken up and re-surveyed in 1733 by Daniel Few (cousin of Elizabeth Huntley Fisher) and his wife Esther (Howell). He was a son of Isaac Few. The Howells were from Pembrokeshire, Wales. Daniel Few sold this tract to Abraham Parker and moved to Wilmington, Delaware. The Few family were early immigrants from Wiltshire. Isaac Few married Hannah Standfield, sister of Mary Standfield Huntley, mother of Elizabeth Huntley who married Thomas Fisher of Kennett.

The Few family were relatives of Elizabeth (Huntley) Fisher, wife of Thomas Fisher of Kennet, Chester County. Hannah (Standfield) Few, wife of Isaac Few, was an aunt of Elizabeth Huntley, whose mother was Mary Standfield. The Few genealogy is summarized by Thomas Potts in his book “Our Family Ancestors” (1895). Richard and Jane Few of Wiltshire obtained land in Bucks County and at Chester. Isaac Few settled at the southeast end of Kennet Township (now Pennsbury). He bought the Huntley farm from Mary Huntley, widow of William, in 1709. James Few, son of Isaac and a cousin of Elizabeth (Huntley) Fisher, settled at the east end of the Huntley tract from 1723 to 1726, after which the farm was sold to William Harvey.

Richard Fletcher of Withington, southern Lancashire (now in Greater Manchester) probably came in 1684, about the same time as Thomas Fisher, servant to Henry Baker of Bucks County. Francis Fletcher, a suspected sister of Richard in Lancashire, married James Yates, servant to Henry Baker and a passenger on the “Vine” of Liverpool. In 1713 Richard became the father-in-law of Thomas Fisher of Chester County. Mary Standfield, a daughter of Francis Standfield of Marple in Chester County, married William Huntley in early 1692. In 1713 their daughter Elizabeth married Thomas Fisher in Concord Monthly Meeting, Chester County, and they settled in Kennett, Chester County. William Huntley died in 1708, and in the fall of 1713 his widow married Richard Fletcher, formerly of Bucks County and Lancashire. They settled on a farm adjoining the old Huntley farm in Kennett, which Mary had sold to her brother-in-law Isaac Few in 1709.

George Harland, son of James, was baptized in 1650 in the Church of England, at Monkwearmouth, in Durham, northeast England. The Harlands went to northern Ireland, and joined the Quakers of Lurgan Monthly Meeting. George married Elizabeth Duck of Lurgan in 1678, in the Parish of Shankell. They came to Pennsylvania about 1687, and it was the sons Ezekiel and Aaron who became neighbors of Thomas Fisher. The Harland residence was south of the Robinson/Fisher tract, but the family owned considerable acreage on the north side. A tract adjoining on most of the northern end of the Robinson/Fisher tract, was patented to Ezekiel Harland in 1718/19 by right of a warrant of 1714. Ezekiel Harland married first Mary Bezer, and second Ruth Buffington.

In 1735 Ruth Harland, widow of Ezekiel, sold a 15-acre triangle from the northern acreage, to Thomas Fisher, adjoining the Fisher land. About 1721 she sold 50 acres from the same tract, abutting Thomas Fisher, to Joseph Taylor Jr., grandson of Abiah Taylor of Bradford Township. Joseph Taylor married Catharine Baxter, a widow. The Taylors came from Didcott, Berkshire.

Samuel Heald received a warrant in 1715 for 180 acres adjoining the east side of the Robinson/Fisher tract and lying between John Hope’s land and Thomas Fisher.

In 1667 Jane Dunbabin of Great Sankey, on the Mersey River in lower Lancashire, married William Heald of Moberley, Cheshire, at Hardshaw Monthly Meeting near Liverpool. Samuel Heald, son of William and Jane, was born in 1668 at Moberley. He married Mary Bancroft, born in 1673 at Eccleston, Cheshire. Samuel and Mary immigrated in 1702 to Pennsylvania. In 1714 they moved onto land in Kennett, at the same time that Thomas Fisher and his wife Elizabeth Huntley Fisher moved onto the 1701 Robinson/Fisher tract there. The Heald tract adjoined on the entire east boundary of the Robinson/Fisher tract.

Thomas Heald, a cousin of Samuel Heald and brother-in-law of John Dunbabin of Over Walton in Cheshire, bought land in the township of Aston, in the forks of Chester Creek, in 1710. He settled in East Caln by 1728. The 1715 will of Thomas Heald reveals that he was also a cousin to John Crosby, son of Richard Crosby, and was a cousin of Katherine (Crosby) Fairlamb. It mentions land on Ridley Creek next to Thomas Taylor. Richard Crosby and Thomas Taylor were both trading partners of James Wallis, the earliest owner of land abutting Robinson and Fisher’s tract.

Sarah Heald, daughter of Samuel, married Aaron Harlan, son of George. He died and the widow Sarah Harlan is shown as owner of the tract in Gilbert Cope’s map of early landowners.

Thomas Hope was an uncle of Elizabeth (Huntley) Fisher, wife of Thomas Fisher of Chester County. He married Elizabeth Standfield, daughter of Frances and Grace, and settled in Marple Township.

This biographical sketch is given in “Bi-Centennial of Old Kennett Meeting House, 1710 - 1910”:

Thomas and John Hope, brothers, probably from Wiltshire, England, were passengers on the Unicorn, of Bristol, which arrived 16th of 10th Mo. 1685 (16 Dec 1685). Thomas Hope married early in 1697, Elizabeth Stanfield of Chester Monthly Meeting, and in 1703 requested a certificate from that meeting to Newark, which, however, was not produced at the latter until 1707. He died in Kennet in the spring of 1708, and having no children devised to his wife, Elizabeth, the plantation of 400 acres during life, and then to brother John Hope, who was to pay some legacies, including L5 to the use of Kennet Meeting. His widow married William Horn in the fall of 1709.
John Hope and Elizabeth Hobson were married in the fall of 1712, she having produced a certificate from Friends in Ireland dated 22d of 9th Mo. 1710.
The lands of John Hope were adjoining to the eastward of the Harlan tract on which the meeting-house had been built. The children of John and Elizabeth Hope were: --
Sarah, b. 6-22-1713; m. Stephen Hayes
Thomas, b. 9-7-1714; d. 1749; m. in 1737 Elizabeth Boone.
John, b. 12-18-1716/17
Elizabeth, b. 3-4-1719; m. George Harlan and David Logue.
Susanna, b. 7-25-1723; m. John Fred.
Amos, d. 1769; m. Anne – and left daughters Mary and Elizabeth.
Mary Boone, wife of Thomas Hope, was a near relative to Daniel Boone. They had children: -- Thomas, b. 2-19-1738; m. his cousin Sarah Harlan; Deborah, b. 1-23-1741; William, b. 9-28-1743; Elizabeth, b. 7-7-1745; Mary, b. 4-22-1749.-

**
In 1690 Nicholas Pyle of Bethel sold to Thomas Hope a tract at the north end of Concord Township. In 1696 James Standfield, uncle of Elizabeth (Huntley) Fisher, sold a tract in Marple to Thomas Hope. In 1702 Thomas Hope obtained 100 acres from a Benjamin Mendenhall & Joseph Pennel warrant of January 1703 (originally land of Isaac Few), and an adjoining 300 acres from a William Brown old rent tract of 1703. The combined 400 acres abutted the east end of the Huntley tract and wrapped around the bottom of the Oldham tract. When Thomas Hope died in 1708, he had no issue and left the property to his brother John Hope. John Hope also had a warrant, obtained in 1702, for 200 acres abutting on part of the north side of the Huntley tract and the west side of the Dix tract, part of an earlier claim abandoned by the heirs of Francis Standfield.

Elizabeth, wife of Thomas Fisher of Chester County, was a daughter of William Huntley and Mary Standfield.

William Huntley, father of Elizabeth Huntley Fisher may have been from the Huntley family of Barbados. William Huntley and his wife Elizabeth (Cowe) Huntley lived in the parish of St. Philips, Barbados. A younger William Huntley came to Chester County, Pennsylvania prior to 1691, and lived as a young man in Birmingham Township, near the present Chadds Ford village on the Brandywine. William belonged to the Birmingham Friends Meeting, and went before the Concord Monthly Meeting in 1692 to propose marriage to Mary. Shortly after the marriage, Mary’s father, Francis Standfield died and left William a 25-acre tract from the Standfield estate in Marple, at the intersection of the present Sproul Road and Lawrence Road. A log structure on the site was studied in the 1960’s but was dated a little later than the Huntley time. William also had a tract in Falls Township, Bucks County which appears in the tax list for 1693.

Just across the Marple Road from the Huntley/Standfield land in Marple was the estate of Ebeneazor Longshaw (Longford, Langford), who had come from Barbados or Antigua, perhaps bringing William Huntley to Pennsylvania. The Standfields later bought out all the Longshaw estate. In 1696, the orphan of Thomas Longshaw was placed in the care of Henry Hollingsworth of Chester (surveyor of the 1701 Robinson/Fisher tract in Kennett) until the court could find someone to take him. The orphan was then assigned to William Huntley pending the arrival of an expected immigrant, a pewterer. Any relationship between the Huntleys and Longshaws is unknown.

Thomas Longshaw owned land in Wilmington, in the constabulary of Newcastle Town, on the north side of Christina Creek, as early as 1685. James Standfield, uncle of Elizabeth Huntley Fisher, also owned land at the same location, along with his friends and trading associates including John Collet, Thomas Pierson (surveyor), James Read, and the merchant brothers James and Hercules Coutts. Thomas Green, also had property at the same place. It is not known if Thomas Green was a relative of Nicholas Green, who would marry the widow of the Sussex County Thomas Fisher (son of the immigrants John and Margaret Fisher.

In 1700, William Huntley sold his 25 acres in Marple to Peter Worrall, and returned to Birmingham with his family. No land record for the Birmingham tract has been found. He sold it by mortgage in February of 1703, to Jonathan Hayes, a former neighbor in Marple. William obtained a warrant and survey in the following September for 200 acres in Kennett, in the part that became Pennsbury. The tract lay along the north side of the present Hillendale Road, a mile or two west southwest of the Chads Ford crossing of the Brandywine. The homesite was at the east end, where Twin Turning Lane now lies. The Huntleys did not move their membership across the Brandywine, from Concord Monthly Meeting to Newark (Kennett), until April of 1705.

There is a likely reason that the deeds cannot be traced for the Huntley/Hayes tract in Birmingham. Jonathan Hayes was murdered in 1715 by Hugh Pugh, a former servant from Marple, and another assailant. Many of the deeds of the time were not recorded until much later.

1. Elizabeth, m. first Thomas Fisher, 1713. She married 2nd, John Cope, 1748.
2. Francis, d. June 1723, no known marriage.
3. Deborah, m. James Bruce, 1720. She married 2nd, Thomas Thornbury (Thornbrough), 1744 at Swede’s Church, Wilmington.
4. Mary, m. Peter Whitaker, 1724.
5. Sarah, m. John Stanton, 1727. (Married out of meeting, by a magistrate. John Stanton later became a Quaker.)

William Huntley died at Kennett in 1708, stipulating in his will that his minor children be sent to his wife’s married sisters in Thornbury and Birmingham. The widow Mary returned briefly to Marple and then to Birmingham in 1709, where she and daughter Elizabeth were members of Concord meeting until Thomas Fisher married Elizabeth there in 1713. In 1709 Elizabeth’s mother, the widow Mary Standfield Huntley, sold the Huntley tract to Isaac Few, husband of Mary’s sister Hannah (Standfield) Few. Mary remarried in the fall of 1713, to Richard Fletcher, and lived on the farm adjoining the south side of the old Huntley tract in Kennett, until at least 1736, when she attended the wedding of son James.

For more information concerning the Huntleys, see “The William Huntley Family of Colonial Pennsylvania” by this author.

When the Huntley tract was surveyed in 1703, the land on the south side was labeled “vacant,” but a note was added to the survey copy, “now Robert Oldham.” When Mary, widow of William Huntley sold the farm in 1709 to Isaac Few, the deed referred to the land on the south side as the land of Robert Oldham. Robert Oldham received a warrant for this tract in April of 1707. Thomas Oldham, probably his son, was married to Susannah Few, daughter of Isaac Few. The Few tract was on the south side of the Robert Oldham land. Susannah was a niece of Mary (Standfield) Huntley and cousin to Elizabeth Huntley Fisher. By 1723, when Isaac Few transferred part of the Huntley tract to his son James Few, the land on the south side belonged to Richard Fletcher, who married the widow Mary Huntley in 1713. When Richard and Mary Fletcher patented the tract in October of 1734, it was in right of Robert Oldham’s warrant of 10 April 1707.

George Pearce was a neighbor on the west side of William Webb, who bought 301 acres of the old Wallis tract which adjoined on the west of Robinson and Fisher’s land in Kennett. The Pearce land was on the Marlborough side of the Kennett boundary. George Pearce came from Winscom, Somerset. He married Ann Gainer of Thornbury, Glocester in 1679, and left from Bristol, England in 1684 for Pennsylvania, with three young children. They settled first in Thornbury Township, then moved to their Marlborough tract 1732. (See Futhey & Cope, History of Chester County.)

Thomas Robinson and Thomas Fisher received a joint grant in March of 1701 from William Penn, for 300 acres of land near Brandywine Creek in the Province of Pennsylvania. Several Robinson families had immigrated to Philadelphia and other settlements along the Delaware River by that time, and it is not known with certainty to which family Thomas Robinson (joint warrantee with Thomas Fisher) belonged.

The records suggest that this Thomas Robinson may have been related to one of the Robinsons who came from Ireland and settled around Brandywine Creek in Newcastle County and Chester County. Some of them were Quakers, and may have fled to Ireland from England due to persecution. Joseph, James and George Robinson lived in Birmingham, Concord and Kennett townships where Thomas Fisher and Elizabeth Huntley Fisher’s relatives were active.

Thomas Robinson could have been related to one of the Robinsons of Westmoreland who came to Chester County, or one of the New Jersey Robinsons from the north of England, as well as the English/Irish Robinsons

Robinson is one of the most common surnames in the British Isles and colonies, and there are many Thomas Robinsons in the records. This chapter is a summary of some of the records that were studied in searching for Thomas Robinson and Thomas Fisher of Chester County, Pennsylvania. The study revealed only one connection (besides the 1701 land record in Chester County) between between the Robinsons and Fishers, being found in southeast Dublin County, Ireland.

Some of the early Robinson immigrants to Pennsylvania can be traced to places in England and Ireland:

1677 Richard Robinson married Elinor Preston in 1678 at the Salem Friends meeting house in West New Jersey. A group of Quakers who came to New Jersey in 1677 embarked from Scarborough on the northeast coast of Yorkshire. He may be one of the brothers Richard and Robert Robinson who obtained land in 1685 in Newcastle County.

1682 Robert Robinson, originally of Newbie Stones (Newby), Westmoreland near Penrith in northwest England, bought land on Crum Creek in 1682 and Ridley Creek in 1683 in Chester County, while still in England. He or a son Robert bought land on Duck Creek in Kent County in 1684. Two brothers Robert and Richard bought land on the north side of Christina Creek in Newcastle County in 1685.

1683 John Robinson came from Gainsborough, Lincolnshire in northeast England. His grandfather was from the nearby village of Scrooby, Nottinghamshire but died in Leyden, Netherlands. He came first to Falls Township, Bucks County, Pennsylvania in 1683.

1683? Thomas Robinson came by 1689 and married Susannah Wilson in the Burlington, New Jersey Quaker meeting in 1690. He died in 1691 in New Jersey. He named “kin” John Robinson of Epworth, Lincolnshire, near Gainsborough, and is a suspected relative of the 1683 immigrant John.

1702 William Robinson came from Rainton, Thirsk Monthly Meeting, Yorkshire in the north of England. Note: A Francis Robinson was born near the same place, at Fairbee (sic Faceby) about 1613 but moved to the County of Armagh, Segoe Parish, North Ireland where he was host for the Lurgan Monthly Meeting. George Robinson was a member of the same meeting in Ireland before immigrating to Pennsylvania in 1687.

1718? James Robinson married in 1721, East Nottingham, Chester Co. He was a son of John Robinson of Cumberland, Parish of Dearham in northeast England. Dearham is near Pardshaw, origin of John Fisher of Bucks Co. who came in 1700. Not the same as James Robinson of Brandywine Creek, possible son of George.

1682 Francis Robinson was of Segoe Parish, County Armagh in north Ireland. He may not have immigrated but hosted several Pennsylvania immigrants at his house in Lisburn, a meeting place for Lurgan Monthly Meeting. He was born at Fairbee (Faceby), Yorkshire in north England, and may have been related to William Robinson from the same area.

1685 John & Catharine Robinson arrived on the “Bristol Comfort” in 1685 among mostly Irish passengers; servants to Thomas Webb (father of Daniel Webb). George Fisher, servant to Jaspar Farmer of Ireland, was a fellow passenger. George Fisher seems to have been of the same family as Joseph Fisher who came from Ireland in 1683 but was originally from Elton, on the Cheshire side of the Mersey River across from Liverpool.

1687 George Robinson came in 1687 from Ballyhagen, Parish of Kilmore, County Armagh, North Ireland; settled in Newcastle County southeast of the Brandywine near Shallpot Creek near the present town of Claymont, Delaware.

1688 Thomas Robinson was involved in an altercation with the Irish ship’s mate Samuel
Harrison aboard the “Tryall” in port at Philadelphia, and served on a Chester County jury
in the same year. Thomas Robinson of Carrickmaine, southeast Dublin County, Ireland
married Elizabeth Fisher there in 1672 and appears to have left Ireland by 1688.

1689? Patrick Robinson came from County Armagh, northern Ireland. He was Deputy Master of Rolls for Pennsylvania, in 1690.

1695 Thomas Robinson, about age 14, was indentured to Nathaniel Newlin of Concord
Township, immigrant in 1683 from Queens County, Ireland near Dublin. Possible
brothers George and John Robinson were also indentured at about that time in Chester County.

1724 William Robinson came from Ballycane Monthly Meeting, County Wicklow, Ireland, a Quaker.

1738 Thomas Robinson, a young man unmarried, from the Quaker meeting at Dublin, Ireland. May have been the same as Thomas who settled in Newcastle County near Naaman’s Creek, a boundary with Chester County. Lineage is not clear, but there seem to have been several generations named Thomas and Abraham, intermarried with the Penrose family of Naamans Creek. The revolutionary war officer Thomas Robinson was of this family.

1752 Elizabeth Robinson came from Ballycane Monthly Meeting, County Wicklow, Ireland. A Quaker.

1703 Richard Robinson came from Bull & Mouth Monthly Meeting in London. He had been a “prisoner of barbary” 4 years before coming to London. He was received by the Philadelphia Quakers. He went to Burlington, then returned and married Sarah Jeffries at Philadelphia in 1704.

1711 Edward Robinson came from Stafford Monthly Meeting, England. A Quaker.
1718 Ebeneazor Robinson came from London 6 Week Meeting. A Quaker.

Robert Robinson of Newby Stones (Newby) in Westmorland near Penrith, obtained a warrant from William Penn in 1682 for 300 acres of land in Chester County on Crum Creek, Providence Township. In 1683 he obtained another 250 acres by deed from William Penn, on Ridley Creek in Middletown Township. It may be that he never immigrated, the subsequent land transactions for the family being for sons. In 1684, Robert Robinson obtained 200 acres on Duck Creek in Kent County for his son Edward. In 1685, Robert Robinson and his brother Richard obtained land on the north side of Christina Creek in Newcastle County. Robert Robinson’s Chester County lots are both shown on Thomas Holmes’ original land map of Pennsylvania. The Ridley Creek lot went to John Robinson, son of Robert, then to Sarah Fallowfield. The Fallowfields were from the village of Great Strickland, a village in Westmoreland (now Cumbria) in the same neighborhood as Newby.

It was probably Robert Robinson Jr. who settled on the 1682 Crum Creek lot in Providence Township, Chester County. In June of 1683 he was on a grand jury at the provincial court of Chester. In June of 1688, he served on a “Petty Jury” at Chester. Robert Robinson (Jr.) is almost certainly “one of the seven sons of Robert Robinson” mentioned in Edward Robinson’s Newcastle County land record in 1718. Four of the sons are identified positively in the land records (John on Ridley Creek, Middletown in Chester County; Robert and Richard on Christina Creek in Newcastle County; and Edward at Duck Creek in Kent County).

Robert Robinson’s Providence tract was almost across Crum Creek from the Francis Standfield property. James Standfield, son of Francis, had property at the same place as Robert and Richard Robinson, on the north side of Christina Creek in Newcastle County. Francis Standfield was the maternal grandfather of Elizabeth Huntley Fisher of Chester County.

The Robert Robinson family of Westmoreland and Chester County, the George Robinson family of northern Ireland and Newcastle County, and the Richard Robinson family of Yorkshire and West Jersey may be of the same family. George Robinson came from Balyhagen in northern Ireland in 1687 among Quakers originally from England. Robert Robinson, possibly the one from Westmoreland, witnessed a will in the same village in Ireland, in 1688. Richard Robinson of New Jersey may be the brother (Richard) mentioned by Robert Robinson in 1685. If these links are correct, then Thomas Robinson of Chester County can almost certainly be traced through one of these branches to Ireland or northern England.

Thomas Robinson of Chester County may have been the seaman and merchant of that name who shipped between the colonies and the ports of Liverpool and Bristol, from 1704 to 1715. A Thomas Robinson sailed aboard the “Tryall” in 1664, bound from London to “New England,” at that time meaning anywhere in the New World colonies. (“Tryall” was a common spelling of “Trial.” ) It was probably the same or a relative of the same name who was in Pennsylvania aboard the same ship in 1688, and who in 1707 shipped from Liverpool to Philadelphia aboard the "Thomas and Elizabeth,” Mr. Joseph Clayton, Master. The port books of Liverpool and Bristol also show voyages to Virginia by the merchant Thomas Robinson, between 1704 and 1715.

In September of 1688, Thomas Robinson was charged in the provincial court in Chester, Chester County, Pennsylvania concerning an altercation aboard the “Tryall.” The record says “Thomas Robins (Robinson) and Thomas Woodmans (Woodmansee or Woodmanson) being convicted before John Bristow for drunkenness, breach of peace, breaking ye great cabin door and ye head of Samuel Harrison, mate on board of ye Ship Tryall was for ye same called to ye bar but upon their submission to ye Court was ordered to pay 5s/ with all court charges.”

In 1700 Samuel and Sarah Harrison were executors for Isaac Goodwin of Gloucester County, New Jersey. Samuel Harrison, mariner of Gloucester Township (across the river from Philadelphia), died in February of 1704. Samuel Harrison may have been related to Thomas Harrison, who came with the Lancashire passengers on the “Vine” in 1684, being a servant of the Hatton family. A fellow Lancashire passenger on that ship was Thomas Fisher, servant of the Baker family. Thomas Harrison lived in Chichester and Middletown townships, on Chester Creek across from the Neald family.

Thomas Woodmansee was probably related to William Woodmansee, who was at Upland as early as 1681 and had land where Caleb Pusey’s mill was located on Chester Creek, near Aston Road at Chester.

It is not known with certainty how all the Robinsons of the Delaware were related or how many generations of men named Thomas Robinson are represented in the records. The following records are of particular interest.

In June of 1688 Thomas Robinson was one of twelve who served on a petty jury at Chester. In the same year he was arrested for kicking in the cabin door aboard the “Tryall.” In June of 1691 Thomas Roberson (Robinson) witnessed a sale of land on Ridley Creek, by Joshua Hastings of Nether Providence, to John Sharples. Joshua Hastings was among 12 buyers of a small lot in Chester in 1688, and among those buyers were Richard Few and Mordacai Maddock. The Few family became connected to Thomas Fisher’s in-laws in Chester County. Mordacai Maddox (or a son of that name) later married into the John Fisher family of Bucks County.

In June of 1700 Thomas Robinson sued John Neald at a court of quarter sessions at Chester. John Neild had come on the “Endeavor” in 1683 as a servant to Thomas Janney (Janeway) of Cheshire, and was a fellow passenger with the Standfield family who would become in-laws to Thomas Fisher of Kennet. The Neild tract in Aston Township was a short distance from the Robert Robinson tract on Ridley Creek, which suggests that Thomas Robinson may have been living on that tract.

In March of 1701, Thomas Robinson and Thomas Fisher received a joint warrant from William Penn, for 300 acres near Brandywine Creek. The tract was surveyed by Henry Hollingsworth in December of 1701, but that survey is lost. The tract was re-surveyed in 1739 when Thomas Fisher applied for a patent. The acreage, in the part of Kennett Township that is now Pennsbury, was found in the re-survey to be 200 acres. The patent was granted to Thomas Fisher only, but did mention that the original warrant was for Thomas Robinson and Thomas Fisher.

Thomas Fisher paid 38 years arrears in quit-rent to the Penns in order to get the 1739 patent. The quit-rent terms were one shilling per 100 acres per year, which was originally the rate for purchased land. The original rate for servant and master headright land was more. By this time, however, the 1 shilling rate was being applied to most grants.

Thomas Robinson was listed in the Kennett tax rate for 1715. His tax (L0 S2 d09 ) was almost double that of Thomas Fisher in the same list (L0 S1 d10). This might imply that Thomas Robinson was the principal owner of improvements on the property at that time. No further record of him has been found in Kennet. It may be that he quit the property in favor of Thomas Fisher. It may have been the same Thomas Robinson, or others of that name, who appear in other Chester County tax lists: Marple, 1718; New Garden (Adjacent lands) poor, tax waived, 1719; Marple, 1720 poor, tax waived; Marple, 1721.

In 1727, a Thomas Robinson died intestate at Ridley in Chester County. Catharine Robinson was named administrator of his estate. She may have been his wife but also may have been Catharine (Howell) Robinson, wife of James Robinson, which would make her a probable sister-in-law of this Thomas Robinson. This may have been Thomas Robinson, formerly of Kennett.

George Robinson Sr. of Mill Creek in Newcastle County, immigrant from northern Ireland, may have been the father of three boys who were put into service in 1695 and 1696, as recorded in the County Court at Chester. George Robinson Sr. died before 1691, and his widow Ann married Benjamin Gill, who died in 1695, possibly the reason for these boys being put into service. The one named Thomas Robinson was too young to be Thomas Robinson of Kennet.

(1) In December of 1695, Nathaniel Newlin brought in a servant boy named Thomas Robinson. The court bound him to a term of eight years from the previous May 20, presumably to Nathaniel Newland but the record does not say. Nathaniel Newlin was the son of Nicholas Newlin, who came from Montmellick Parish, Queens County, Ireland in 1683. The Newlins settled in Concord Township. Nathaniel Newlin was in the Concord tax list in 1715. He married (1) Mary Mendenhall from Wiltshire, and (2) Mary Fincher (of the Worcester Finchers) in 1729. He died in 1729 at Concord. (Thomas Fisher was married at Concord Monthly Meeting in 1713, to Elizabeth Huntley.) This Thomas Robinson would have been still in service in 1701 but could have obtained a land warrant if he was of age by then.
(2) At the same court, Maurice Trent brought in a servant boy named John Robinson for bonding. The court assigned him to Thomas Cartwright, to serve seven and a half years from the court date. This may have been the same or a relative of John Robinson who was under bond to Thomas Rowland by 1705. Maurice Trent had land in Chichester on the Delaware River as early as 1696, near James Brown, William Flower and Jonas Sandelands. He was probably related to the Philadelphia merchant William Trent. By 1728 he or a son by that name had land in Willistown, Chester County, but was then of “Trent Town” in west New Jersey at the falls of the Delaware. Thomas Cartwright lived in the township of Aston, Chester County as early as 1696. He had land on Chester Creek. In 1708 William Lewis and Jane, widow of Thomas Cartwright late of Aston, deeded the Chester Creek property to George Robinson.
(3) In June of 1696, John Bennett brought a servant boy named George Robinson for bonding. Six months later John Bennett returned George Robinson to court and bound him to Richard Thatcher of Birmingham for five years from the time of the court. John Bennett was a brother of Edward Bennett of Thornbury Township, an uncle of Elizabeth (Huntley) Fisher. Richard Thatcher was from Uffington in Berkshire. John Bennett was son-in-law to William Brinton of Birmingham. John Bennett was in Birmingham taxables in 1715. John & Edward Bennett came from Overly, Worcestershire in 1684. George Robinson was in the Concord tax list in 1715. In 1699 Richard Thatcher sued William Huntley in the Quarter Session court in Bucks County. William Huntley became father-in-law to Thomas Fisher of Chester County in 1713. Zerobabel Thatcher, probable son of Richard Thatcher, settled next to Thomas Fisher in Kennett about 1729.

The brothers George, James and Joseph Robinson lived in the townships of Birmingham, Concord, and Kennet in close proximity to Thomas Fisher and his in-laws. Little is known of another brother, William Robinson. They may have been sons of John Robinson of Monkstown Parish, Dublin County, Ireland. James Robinson, son of John, was born in 1684 at Thomastown, Monkstown Parish.

Joseph Robinson lived at the lower end of Birmingham in a small area which was once part of the manor of Rocklands in Newcastle County. His land and mill was on a bend of the Brandywine across from the George Harland tract. Joseph married in 1713, Elizabeth Harland, daughter of George Harland. William Huntley, father-in-law of Thomas Fisher, lived in Birmingham as early as 1691. When Francis Huntley, son of William died in 1723, Joseph Robinson was named as an account owed. Children of Joseph and Elizabeth Robinson were George (1715), Ann (1717), Rebecca (1719), Rachel (1721), Mary (1723), and Martha (1725).

James Robinson married, prior to 1695 Catharine Howell, youngest daughter of Thomas and Catharine Howell. In 1695 the will of Catharine Howell of Philadelphia, widow of Thomas Howell of New Jersey, mentioned her daughter’s husband James Robinson. James Robinson had land near Mill Creek in Newcastle County in 1702. In 1713 he was named as a brother of George and Joseph Robinson near Brandywine. He or another of that name paid taxes in Kennett in 1732 and 1733.

George Robinson of Concord Township, Chester County left a will in 1717 naming wife Sarah and land in Aston. He was brother to James Robinson who married Catharine Howell, and to Joseph and William Robinson.

George Robinson was born about 1666, and in 1687 came to Pennsylvania from Ballyhagen in Kilmore Parish in County Armagh, northern Ireland. He settled near Shallpot Creek between the Brandywine and Naaman’s Creek near the present town of Claymont, Delaware in upper Newcastle County, where the Newark Quaker meeting was first established. He married 11-2-1688 Catharine Hollingsworth, daughter of Valentine. Valentine Hollingsworth was born in 1632 in England but came to Pennsylvania from Belleniskcrannell, Parish of Segoe in County Armagh, northern Ireland. Valentine Hollingsworth married Ann Ree (or Rae) of Tanderagee, County Armagh, who was born about 1628 and died 2 mo 1 1671. The Hollingsworths came to Pennsylvania in 1682.

Another George Robinson lived at Mill Creek, northwest of the Brandywine in Newcastle County, and is believed to have died before 1691. Some researchers believe he was the father of George of Shallpot Creek, and have speculated that some of the Robinsons of the area were his children.

Henry Hollingsworth came on the “Lion” of Liverpool in 1683, a fellow passenger being Joseph Fisher who brought a servant William “Robertson.” Henry Hollingsworth, who surveyed the Robinson/Fisher tract in Kennett in 1701, was a son of Valentine Hollingsworth.

Richard Robinson was one of the earliest settlers in West Jersey, being among John Fenwicke’s colonists. John Fenwick of Northumberland arrived aboard the “Griffin” in 1675 and established a colony of Quakers near the present town of Salem at the southern end of New Jersey. The “Kent” and the “Willing Mind” arrived with more settlers in 1677.

Richard Robinson was probably one of a group of Quakers who embarked from Scarborough on the east coast of Yorkshire, arriving on the east bank of the Delaware in 1677 aboard either the “Kent” or the “Willing Mind.” Richard Robinson married Elinor Preston at the Salem Quaker meeting in 1678. He was probably the Richard Robinson who was sometimes of Philadelphia but returned to Burlington Monthly Meeting in 1703. He may have been the same as Richard, “brother of Robert Robinson” from Westmoreland.

In May of 1690 Thomas Robinson & Susannah Wilson were married at the Burlington Quaker meeting “even though he had no certificate from England.” This Thomas Robinson died in the next year.

Elinor Robinson was a charter member of Duck Creek monthly meeting, not far from Salem but on the west side of the Delaware in Kent County, now part of Delaware. She or a relative may have been the cousin Eleanor of John Chads who was a relative of Elizabeth (Huntley) Fisher, wife of Thomas Fisher.

There were numerous Robinson families in Maryland, beginning as early as 1650. Some of them lived near various Fisher families there. The Robinsons of Cecil County, in northeast Maryland, were only a few miles from southeast Chester County, Pennsylvania. A Thomas Robinson there was a merchant and shipper. He was studied carefully but does not appear to be the same as Thomas Robinson of Chester County.

In 1697 Captain Thomas Robinson, merchant, ship commander and shipper of Cecil County in Maryland, former assembly man for Talbot County, married Sarah Frisby of Cecil County, daughter of the merchant James Frisby, formerly of London. Thomas and Sarah went to London for a number of years to conduct the company business, taking with them the younger Frisby children to be educated. Part of Sarah’s dowry was land in Cecil County which was assigned to Thomas Robinson by Peregrine Brown, merchant of London. The London Frisbys and Browns were located in the parish of St. Dunstan, Stepney. Their church was St. Dunstan’s West, on Fleet Street not far from Blackfriar bridge, a Christopher Wren building which remains intact.

Thomas Robinson, of Cecil County (Maryland) became a merchant shipper, and may have been the one who appears in the port books for Liverpool regarding trips between Liverpool, Maryland and Pennsylvania from 1704 to 1715.

The Barbados records contain several references to a Thomas Robinson. He and John Robinson and Benjamin Rawlins witnessed the will of Thomas Cason 10 Sep 1700, which named “friends Thomas Robinson and Christopher Webb.” This may have been the mariner/merchant Thomas Robinson, probably not resident in Barbados. Thomas Robinson witnessed the will of Thomas Locksmith 5 Sep 1701, and owed money to the estate of Sarah Lynley 10 Nov 1705. Benjamin Robinson’s will in 1715 mentioned relatives in Ireland. The account of David Robinson in 1715 mentioned brother Richard and sons of brother Joseph in New York.

Thomas and Joseph Robinson were among the first members of Pasquotank Monthly Meeting in North Carolina (later called Symons Creek Meeting), which started in 1698. Thomas married Mary Simons in 1711. The same or another Thomas died in 1719 and his wife Sarah died in 1717. They had children Joseph, Ann and John. There is no evidence that this family had anything to do with the Pennsylvania Robinsons, although it is possible that they did come from there.

In 1684, a Thomas Fisher arrived in Pennsylvania aboard the “Vine” of Liverpool, to serve 4 years as one of the servants to the Baker family. A search was made for possible links between this Thomas Fisher and any Robinsons around Liverpool. No links were found, but several Robinsons were found in the parish records. No Robinsons were found in the early Lancashire Quaker records.

Surname Name Place Relative Event Year Date Spouse Parish
Robinson Richard
of Penketh Marriage 1673 Feb 10 Ratcliffe of Hollin ford Mary
Farnworth
Robinson John
of Cuerdly Marriage 1674 Jul Robinson? Golinson? Ellena of Penketh Farnworth
Robinson Thomas
son of Edward Robinson of Penketh Burial 1688 Dec 13 Farnworth
Robinson Jane daughter of John Robinson of Penketh Baptism 1690 Feb 17 Farnworth
Robinson Peter
son of John Robinson of Penketh Burial 1693 Dec 12 Farnworth
Robinson Sarah
daughter of John Robinson of Penketh Baptism 1695 Dec 10 Farnworth
Robinson Mary
daughter of William Robinson of bold Birth/Baptism 1699 Feb22/25 Farnworth
Robinson Elizabeth
daughter of Thomas from Whitehaven, Cumberland near Pardshaw, Mariner Death/Burial 1711 Dec 27/Jan 1 Liverpool
Robinson Thomas
St. Nicholas Parish 1633
Robinson Thomas
Bootle 1681

Elizabeth Fisher, wife of Thomas of Chester County, was a grand-daughter of Francis Standfield. She was a daughter of William Huntley and Mary Standfield, daughter of Francis and Grace. The following is an update of portions of the books listed in the frontispiece.

Francis Standfield arrived at Philadelphia July 29, 1683, aboard the ketch “Endeavor” of Liverpool, George Thorpe, Master. The Endeavor was one of the ships that brought many of the original Quaker settlers to the Pennsylvania Province beginning in 1682. William Penn made at least one voyage on the Endeavor, when he returned to England in 1684. Francis and his wife, Grace, brought with them five children, James, Mary, Sarah, Elizabeth, Grace and Hannah; and eight servants, Daniel Browne, Thomas Massey (Marsey), Isa. Brookesby, Robert Sidbotham, John Smith, Robert Bryan, William Rudway and Thomas Sidbotham. A sixth child, Deborah, seems to have been born after the arrival in Pennsylvania.

Francis Standfield married Grace Achele (Achelly) at Worcester Monthly Meeting, about 1661. On June 3, 1678 Mary Achelly (almost certainly a sister of Grace) married Francis Fincher of the City of Worcester. This was a second marriage for Francis Fincher, who had married ( -- ). The Achelly family may have been related to Grace Ashall of Up Holland near Liverpool, where one of the Lancashire Fisher families lived.

The Standfields are usually described as Cheshire people, but they were among a group of Quaker families from around Worcester who came early to Pennsylvania and were associates in Chester County. In 1670, Francis Fincher had all his goods consficated at Grafton-Flyford near Worcester, for attending a Quaker meeting at the house of George Maris. George Maris spent a time in prison, and in 1683 came to Pennsylvania and settled in Springfield Township, Chester County. Francis Standfield had also been subjected to religious persecution in England, and was arrested in 1670 for attending a meeting at “Cartop” in Berkshire, which was almost certainly the village of Cutthorpe in the parish of Brampton near Chesterfield. (I mistakenly identified it as Carthorpe in Yorkshire in previous books.) Others who were arrested with Francis Standfield were from Brampton. Brampton is about 15 miles southeast of Marple (in Cheshire near Manchester), where Grace Standfield Jr. was born in 1673. In August of 1682 James Standfield, son of Francis and Grace, signed a certificate of removal for a group leaving the Congleton meeting in Cheshire with intent to emigrate to Falls Monthly Meeting in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. Brampton is a little over 20 miles east northeast of Congleton.

Francis Standfield, a Quaker, was listed as “husbandman” (farmer) when he arrived in Pennsylvania. The Standfields were listed as immigrants from “Garton in Cheshire,” although no village of that name has ever been listed. This may have referred to Gorton near Manchester (then Lancashire,) being very near the Cheshire line. It may be a mistake for Garston, a village on the Mersey River southwest of Manchester, at the lower end of Lancashire (now Merseyside). They had lived at Marthill and Marple, Cheshire, and possibly at Cutthorpe in Brampton Parish, Berkshire, as well as places in Worcester.

Francis Standfield may have been descended from the Yorkshire Stansfield family, who were early Quakers in and around Halifax Parish, in the West Riding of Yorkshire. The Stansfield manor house still stands, in the village of Stansfield near Halifax.

The Standfields were among the earliest settlers of the township of Marple, just west of Philadelphia between Darby Creek and Crum Creek. Their tract was not far from that of Francis Fincher of Springfield Township, presumed brother-in-law of Grace Standfield, and their friend George Maris from Cheshire. Thomas Achele, across the Delaware at Burlington, was a probable relative. Francis and son had numerous land holdings and were active in the community. Francis was an assemblyman for Chester County in 1685, and son James gained wealth and prominance until his untimely death in the 1699 yellow fever epidemic. Grace died in 1691 and Francis followed a year later.

James Standfield joined William Penn’s Free Society of Traders and began a career as a merchant trader. He had a two-masted brigantine, the “Betsy,” which his executor (brother-in-law Francis Chadsey) sold to John Hart, a Society member.

In 1693 Griffith Jones, a Philadelphia merchant, sold part of his Delaware bank lot in Philadelphia to James Standfield, also a merchant of Philadelphia. It was a narrow lot on Front Street and extending to the east into the river. It lay about 200 feet north of High Street, and was probably the berth for the Standfield brigantine, the “Betsy.” In 1697 he bought a similar frontage from William Jenner on the opposite side of Front Street, extending to the west instead of east. The lot is shown on the map made by Albert Cook Meyer’s committee in commemoration of the 250th anniversary of the first arrival of William Penn. The map is reproduced in “History of an Old Philadelphia Land Title.” It can be seen from the map that Joseph Fisher, immigrant from Ireland in 1683, had a Delaware lot only 200 feet north of the Standfield frontage.

In 1699 James Stanfield of Philadelphia, son of Francis and Grace (Achele) Standfield of Marple in Chester County, left a detailed will and estate accounting that mentioned business in Maryland and Boston, his brigantine two-master the “Betsy,” Jerimiah Collett and the names of various sea captains. His niece Elizabeth Huntley would later marry Thomas Fisher in Chester County, and Nathan Baker, immigrant on the “Vine” in 1684, would marry Sarah Collett, daughter of Jeremiah Collett.

Land records of Chester County reveal that during the 1690’s James Standfield laid out, for the heirs of Francis Standfield, a large tract of land in Kennett, Chester County. The tract was abandoned with no survey when James died in 1699. John Hope, brother-in law of his sister Elizabeth, acquired two parcels from this tract. The 1692 will of Francis Standfield, which was once recorded in Philadelphia Book D, is lost, and the names of heirs other than his children are not known.

Edward Bennett married Sarah Standfield, daughter of Francis and Grace. John Bennett, son of John Bennett of Oversey, County of Worcester, married Ann Brinton of Stourbridge 1684, 4m, 18, Worcester Monthly Meeting. Ann Brinton was the daughter of William Brinton of Nether Gornal in the parish of Sedgely, Staffordshire. The Brinton, Bennett, Fincher, Maris and Standfield families were all friends in Cheshire and Worcester and all came to Chester County.

A house and lot in Philadelphia was acquired from Thomas Wynne by John and Margaret Fisher when they arrived from Lancashire in 1682 or early 1683. The house was a cave-like structure built into the Delaware River bank, and was the residence of John and Margaret until they moved to Sussex County in 1685. The house was deeded to Samuel Atkins by John Fisher in 1683, probably on the occasion of Samuel Atkin’s marriage to Annie Fisher, daughter of John and Margaret Fisher. When the Standfield estates and trading company were liquidated after James Standfield’s death in 1699, one of the assets mentioned was a part interest in the house of Samuel Atkins. Samuel may have died at the same time as James Standfield, since no record of him can be found after 1699. Both apparently succumbed to the yellow fever epidemic of 1699. In the James Standfield estate settlement, there is a payment to the “surgeon in Samuel Atkins’ house.” The house was almost certainly the very same as the one in the Delaware River Bank, in effect a cave, where John and Margaret Fisher from Lancashire spent their first winter.

The Atkins house is one of several links between John and Margaret Fisher and the Standfields. The Fishers of Sussex County were in the process of buying a large tract of land there from James Standfield when James died. A bond of 150 pounds was due from William and Thomas Fisher of Sussex County, and court records mention a complaint that the Fishers should pay. These connections could be taken as a link with Thomas Fisher of Chester County, but do not make a strong case for a kinship.

It has been reported that Samuel Atkins took James Standfield as an apprentice to learn the shipping trade. (Source unknown.) He bought land near the original Standfield estate in Marple. Samuel divided his time between Sussex County and Philadelphia, and arranged leases of whaling vessels for companies such as that of John McGiver. Samuel’s business sometimes took him on return trips to England. In 1699, Samuel Atkins sold his land in Marple to John Worral, who was the Standfield’s neighbor to the north, where the present-day “Worral Estates” are located. James Standfield and Samuel Atkins may have died together at their shared house on the Philadelphia waterfront.

Other possible family ties: The Standfield (Stansfield) family seat in Halifax Parish, West Yorkshire, was only a few miles from Clitheroe in Lancashire, where John Fisher and the Hindles lived before their emigration. The Standfields brought a crate of window glass when they came, which would have been needed by the glazier John Fisher. The Standfields had an active trading company, and had large acreage in Sussex County where the John Fishers family lived. The ship-building supplies and artisans mentioned in the John Fisher family tradition could have been associated with the two-masted ship, the brigantine “Betsy,” owned by the trading company. A “carpenter’s shipyard” was located on one of the Fisher tracts in Sussex County.

The Holmes map of the Marple area shows the Francis Standfield estate house in the north-east end of the Standfield 600-acre tract. The site has been identified with two different homesites which can be located today. A house on Crum Creek Road near Marple Road has been discovered to have been built around a two-story log structure. Another residence, a two-story brick house on McClarie Street nearby is also sometimes considered to be on the site of a Standfield house.

For further details concerning the Standfields, see “The Francis Standfield Family of Colonial Pennsylvania” by this author, and “Marple Township, the First 100 Years.”

Our Family Ancestors, Thomas Maxwell Potts, 1895. LDS Film 962253.
At a Quarterly Meeting of Friends held 3 mo 3 1686 it was “Agreed yt a meeting be kept at John Bolters (Bowater’s) upon ye same first day it was used to be at Bartholomew Coppocks, for ye ease of such yt live westerly in ye woods and ye rest of friends living ye other way, upon yt same day, to meet at ffrancis Stanfields until further consideration.”
At a Quarterly Meeting held 6 mo 2 1683, it was “Agreed yt ye meeting at Francis Stanfields, upon fresh consideration be Removed to Bartholomew Coppock’s ye younger, to begin ye next first day and ye following 4th day untill friends se cause to remove it.”

Francis Stanfield was a member of the Pennsylvania Assembly from Chester County in 1685. He died in 1692. His wife died a year earlier.

Children of Francis and Grace (--) Stanfield (Note: She was Grace Achele, mar. Francis Standfield, Worcester MM)

1. James Stanfield, d. 1699; m. Mary Hutchinson, of Burlington, New Jersey, 1689.
2. Mary Stanfield, m. William Huntly, 1692 and had children, 1 Elizabeth, 2 Francis, 3 Deborah, 4 Mary, 5 Sarah. She married, 2nd, Richard Fletcher, 1713.
3. Sarah Stanfield, m. 1st, William Clows or Clews, of Bucks County. She m. 2d, Edward Bennett, of Thornbury, and had children, 1 Edward, 2 Sarah, 3 Joseph, 4 William, 5 Elizabeth.
4. Elizabeth Stanfield, m. 1st Thomas Hope, 1697. He died 1708. She married, 2d, William Horne, 1709. He died 1743. No children.
5. Grace Stanfield, m. 1st Francis Chads, 1695, and had children, 1 Sarah, 2 John, 3 Grace, 4 Betty, 5 Ann, 6 Francis. She m. 2d Guyon Stevenson, 7 mo 16, 1714. She died 1728.
6. Hannah Stanfield, m. Isaac Few, 1699.
7. Deborah Stanfield, m. Richard Woodward, Jr., 1701. She was the second wife of Richard Woodward, (who was four times married) and was the mother of most if not all his twelve children.

Joseph Taylor, son of Joseph Taylor and grandson of Abiah Taylor who came from Didcot in Berkshire, settled on Pocopsin Creek a little to the north of Thomas Fisher in 1724. At about that time he bought 50 acres further south, from Ruth Harland (widow of Ezekiel), which touched on part of the north side of Thomas Fisher’s land.

Joseph Taylor’s estate settlement of 1740 mentioned payments due from James Fisher (1 shilling threepence) and Thomas Fisher (1 shilling).

When Thomas Fisher obtained a patent on his land in Kennett in 1739, one of the neighbors on the northwest side of his land was Zerobable Thatcher. Zerobable was from the same family as Richard, Joseph and Jonathan Thatcher, early immigrants to Pennsylvania.

Jonathan Thatcher arrived in Pennsylvania in 1685 aboard the “Bristol Merchant.” Most of the passengers were from Ireland, but Jonathan Thatcher is believed to have been born about 1645 at Uffington, Berkshire in England. He died about 1722. George Fisher came on the same ship, as a servant to Jaspar Farmer, who settled in Philadelphia County. John and Katharine Robinson also came on the same ship, as servants to Thomas Webb and son Daniel.

Zerubabbel Thatcher settled next to Thomas Fisher about 1727, and is believed to be a son of Richard or Jonathan Thatcher of Thornbury and Birmingham, on the east side of the Brandywine. George Fisher came on the same ship, as a servant to Jaspar Farmer, who settled in Philadelphia County. Jaspar Farmer came from a village on the Cork harbor, in the south of Ireland, before emigrating, and had belonged to the Youghal Monthly Meeting. John and Katharine Robinson came on the same ship, as servants to Thomas Webb and son Daniel. It is not known if they were related to Thomas Robinson, the Kennett landowner.

Zerubabbel Thatcher died in 1749 and his wife Sarah died the following year. The will of Sarah Thatcher, wife of Zerubabbel, stated that Sarah was a cousin of Phebe Prichard. Phebe Prichard signed in the “relatives” column of the marriage certificate when Elizabeth Fisher, daughter of Thomas and Elizabeth of Chester County, married Joseph Wilkinson at Kennett Monthly Meeting in 1740.

The Thatcher tract went to Richard, son of Zerubabbel and Sarah. It was consficated in a sheriff’s sale in 1763, reason unknown. No record of any kind can be found showing how the Thatchers had acquired the 100 acres from the old Wallis tract. A warrant does exist granting them the upper 39 acres. It has been suggested that Sarah was a daughter of Richard Arnold. The land may have been an inheritance from Samuel Pyle in some way, without a deed or will.

A tract of 515 acres was surveyed in Kennett for James Wallis in March of 1701, only a few days after the Robinson/Fisher warrant was granted. The Wallis tract was on the west and south sides of the Robinson/Fisher tract. These two tracts were among the first to be surveyed in the neighborhood.

In 1700 James Wallis, merchant of Bristol, England obtained a warrant from William Penn for 500 acres in Kennett, in right of his purchase in England of 1000 acres in Pennsylvania. Thomas Withers of Chichester, formerly of Bristol, was agent for James Wallis. In 1702, Thomas Withers was authorized to sell the whole tract to John Smith, clock maker of Chester County. John Smith sold it to Nicholas Pyle in 1712. About 1729, Zerobabel Thatcher somehow obtained 100 acres from the Pyles at the north end of the tract, but no record has been found. In 1751, the heirs of Nicholas Pyle sold the lower 301 acres to William Webb. Zerobabel Thatcher obtained 39 more acres of the Wallis tract (on the north side of the 100 acres) by warrant, in 1736. The remaining 75 acres (of the 515), was lopped off in 1718, becoming part of Ezekiel Harlan’s 340-acre tract on the north side of the Wallis and Robinson/Fisher tracts.

James Wallis was the only adjoining property owner next to Thomas Fisher when the Penn grant was given to Thomas Fisher and Thomas Robinson in early 1701.

Abstracts of Chester County Pennsylvania Land Records v. 3 1745 - 1753.
Deed. On 30 May 1751 William Webb of Kennett, & Rebecca his wife, to William Webb, Jr. of Kennett, yeoman. Whereas the commissioners of William Penn by deed dated 12 Oct 1702 granted to James Wallace of Bristoll a tract in Kennett containing 515 acres, being part of 1000 acres which William Penn granted to James Wallace in the year 1681, recorded in Philadelphia, Book A, vol 2, Page 381. Whereas James Wallace by Letter of Attorney dated 22 Sep 1688, recorded in Philadelphia, Book D2, vol 5, Page 24, appointed Thomas Withers his attorney to sell said lands. Whereas Thomas Withers by deed dated 24 Nov 1702 granted to John Smith of Chester County, clock maker the said 515 acres. John Smith made his will dated 30 Dec 1706 & devised to his wife Mary, the said 515 acres. Whereas Mary has since married John Borough, yeoman, who by their deed dated 22 & 23 June 1712 granted the 515 acres to Nicholas Pyle. Nicholas Pyle made his will dated 6 Oct 1715 & amongst other things devised to his son Samuel a tract containing 257 ½ acres, located on the southern end of the said tract in Kennett, also giving Samuel L27 when he turns 21 years & devised to his other son Joseph, the other moiety of the said 515 acres, being 257 ½ acres & L27 when he turns 21 years. If either son shall die before the age of 21 the survivor shall have the whole 515 acres. The said Nickolas Pyle soon after died. Whereas Joseph Pyle died underage, and the whole estate came to Samuel Pyle. Whereas Samuel Pyle granted 301 acres of the 515 acres to William Webb. Now William Webb, Sr. & Rebecca his wife for the natural love they bear their son, grant to William Webb, Jr. a tract in Kennett bounded by land of William Harry, land of Zerobable Thatcher, other land of William Webb, Daniel Webb & Joshua Pierce, containing 246 acres. Signed William Webb & Rebecca Webb. Delivered in the presence of Daniel Webb, Jacob Tagart & Jeremiah Cloud. Recorded 6 Nov 1751. (H8:231).

James Wallis, a merchant of Bristol, married Mary Gouldney, daughter of Thomas Gouldney, 1678, 9 Mo 20, at Bristol Monthly Meeting (Quakers). The Gouldneys were the leading merchants of Bristol at the time. James Wallis was the son of William Wallis, late of Oxford. A son James was born 1679, 9 Mo 8, at Bristol. Daughter Mary was born 1681, 5 Mo 12 in Stephens Parish, Castle Green, Bristol. The first two children apparently died young, as James and Mary had another daughter Mary, born 1691, 4 Mo 18 at Castle Green and son James, born 1692, 9 Mo 20 at Castle Green, Bristol. A third son, Ezekiel, was born at Castle Green 1694, 8 Mo 22. Henry Gouldney came to Pennsylvania and was one of a trio of wealthy merchants who bailed out William Penn from a large debt. The entire province was thereby actually mortgaged to Henry Gouldney & company.

James Wallis became a shipper who chartered voyages to America and the West Indies from Bristol, Virginia being his usual destination. In 1685, he joined Francis Fisher of Bristol, master of the "Alexander," bound from Bristol to Virginia, at sea September 5-23. He was one of the shippers on the "James and Mary," at sea from Bristol to Virginia September 1-27, 1699. He joined with shippers in 1701 aboard the "James and Mary," Jeremiah Pearce, master, bound from Bristol to Pennsylvania and Virginia, asea May 15-26.

James Wallis formed a company consisting of himself, Richard Crosby, Charles Jones Jr. and Thomas Taylor. They bought up tracts of land in Pennsylvania and began selling parts. James Wallis obtained 1000 acres (two tracts) in Chester County, one of which was next to Thomas Fisher in Kennett Township.. The company together owned a plantation tract in Kent County called Whittwells Chance on the north side of Duck Creek.

In 1718, disaster befell the Bristol company. On February 10, 1718, the administration of estates for James Wallis, Richard Crosby, Charles Jones Jr. and Thomas Taylor was assigned to John Bradshaw of Kent County, all on the same day. It seems apparent that their ship must have been lost at sea.

The Way family lived about a mile southeast of Thomas Fisher in Kennett, and about a mile north of William Huntley. The Way family probably came from Marlborough in Wiltshire, before 1686. Robert Way settled on 150 acres in eastern Kennet Township, now Pennsbury, and died there in 1725. His wife was Hannah Hickman, daughter of Francis and Elizabeth Hickman from Marlborough in Wiltshire.

In 1700, William Withers of Chichester Township obtained a warrant for a tract of 100 acres abutting the west end of vacant land which would become the Huntley tract in 1703. This was about 1 ½ miles southeast of the Fisher tract. In 1712, the Withers tract went to Thomas, son of William Withers. It was then sold to John Packer.

Thomas Withers was agent for James Wallis of Bristol, who was the original grantee of the 515-acre tract on the west side of Robinson and Fisher in Kennett. Thomas Withers conducted both the buying and the selling of the Wallis tract, and James Wallis probably never lived in Pennsylvania.

Thomas Withers of Aust Coy, Glocestershire, son of William Withers of Cannings, married Jane Smith of Gredidge, at Olveston Monthly Meeting in 1661. William and Thomas Withers may have lived in Bristol prior to their immigration. They lived in Chichester Township in Chester County where they were members of Concord Monthly Meeting as early as 1687.