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| Kennett Monthly Meeting, Pennsylvania, record of baptism of George Harlan Click to make bigger. |
George Harland, my 9th great grandfather, was the
second son of James Harland, a yeoman* and a member of the Episcopal Church in
Bishoprick, nigh Durham, England. James was born around 1625, and lived his
entire life in that area of England. While he was likely married, I have no
idea who his wife was as only James is listed in the baptism record of his
three sons, Thomas, George, and Michael -- I don’t know if there were any other
children in the family. Thomas was born about 1649 (m (1). Katharine Bullock
[?-1690], April 7, 1680 (7, 2 mo, 1680) by ceremony of Friends at Sego, Armagh,
Ireland; m. (2) Alice Foster [?-1702], Armagh, Ireland, dd. ?). George was the second
son, born in approximately 1650 and baptized on March 11, 1650 ** (11 First
1650) in the Episcopal Church; And Michael born about 1653 (m. Dina Dixson in
Pennsylvania, dd. 1728). All three brothers were baptized in at the Episcopal
Church at Monkwearmoth, Durham, England.
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| St. Peters Church & Monkwearmouth Monastery, built 675 AD. Public Domain. Click to make bigger. |
George lived with his parents in Bishoprick, nigh Durham,
England until he reached adulthood. When he reached adulthood, he and his
brothers moved, with some others, to County Down, Ireland. I have been unable
to find anything that says definitively whether he converted to Quakerism while
in England or after he moved to Ireland. I know that he was a member of the
Quaker meeting in Ireland. However, the move to Ireland would make sense if
they had converted to Quakerism while in England.
The Religious Society of Friends (commonly known as the Quakers),
was founded by George Fox around the time that George Harland was born. By
1660, it is estimated there were 50,000 Quakers in England. Among the new and
radical spiritual beliefs held by the Quakers were that a direct experience
with God was available to all people without mediation through hired clergy;
that God could move anyone to speak and that all Christians could and should be
ministers, including women, but they had no official pastors or priest; and
that the sacraments were purely spiritual and they did not take physical
communion with wine and bread or baptize with water. These views were not
popular with either Catholic or Protestant clergy. The Friends also annoyed
civil authorities and the upper classes with their belief in the equality of
all. The Quakers lived this belief by refusing to use honorifics in addressing
others (addressing all simply by their name), refusing to salute others, and
refusing to remove their hats before a social superior among other things. They
also refused to take oaths, because they believed people should always tell the
truth, which left the King doubting their loyalty since they refused to swear
fealty to him. Additionally, the Quakers refused to pay tithes to the established
church, which were required of all people.
The century before the establishment of the Quakers was a
time of religious conflict between Catholics and Protestants, starting with
Henry VIII’s creation of the Church of England and split from the Catholic
Church, because he wanted to get divorced, and followed by alternating
Protestant and Catholic monarchs who, supported by the Church of England (also known
as the Anglican Church), encouraged persecution of religions other than their
own, and culminating in the Thirty Years War and the English Civil War both of
which were rooted in religious differences. It was not a time of religious tolerance.
Between 1661 and 1664, Parliament passed a series of laws which basically made it
illegal to be a practicing Quaker. For the next two decades Quakers were
heavily persecuted, while they persevered in practicing their faith. Fox stated that there were seldom less than a
thousand Quakers imprisoned during these years (total imprisoned 13,562, plus
338 deaths and 200 deported as slaves to the West Indies); Fox himself spent
five years in jail.
Quakers had been moving to Ireland since the
1650s, trying to escape the persecution by the Anglican church and Parliament,
with a second wave occurring in the 1670’s. The first Quaker meeting in Ireland
was held in Lurgan, in County Armagh, in 1655. It’s quite possible that George
Harlan and his brothers chose to move to the Lurgan area because they knew of
the number of Quakers already in the area. They moved to County Down, probably to the Parish
of Donaghcloney, which immediately abuts
the neighboring parishes of Shankill and Seagoe in County Armagh in northern
Ireland (at that point Ireland was unified, northern is just a geographical
description). While I don’t know exactly when George moved to Ireland, I know
he was there by 1678.
While living in County Down, George Harlan met
Elizabeth Duck, of Lurgan, who was 10 years younger than him having been born
in 1660. Elizabeth and George married, by ceremony of Friends, on November 27,
1678 (twenty seventh day of ninth month, 1678), in the house of Marke Wright,
in the parish of Shankill, County of Armagh. Present among the witnesses was
George’s brother Thomas.
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| Quaker Marriage Record for Geoge Harland & Elizabeth Duck (Nov 27, 1678) Click to make Bigger |
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| Part 1 -Transcription of Quaker Marriage Record for Geoge Harland & Elizabeth Duck (Nov 27, 1678) Click to make bigger |
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| Part 2 -Transcription of Quaker Marriage Record for Geoge Harland & Elizabeth Duck (Nov 27, 1678), witnesses. Click to make bigger |
George and Elizabeth had nine children, the first four of
which were born in Ireland: Ezekiel [b. August 16, 1679 (6, 16, 1679); d. June 15,
1731 (4, 15, 1731); m. Mary Bezer and Ruth Buffington]; Hannah [b. April 4,
1681 (2, 4, 1681); d. ?; m. Samuel Hollingsworth]; Moses [b. February 20, 1683,
(12, 20, 1683); d. 1747; m. Margaret Ray]; Aaron [b. December 24, 1685 (10, 24,
1685); d. November 1732 (9 mo. 1732); m. Sarah Heald].
In
moving to Ireland, George did not escape the official persecution of Quakers
which also spread to Ireland. Many Quakers in the area had their goods and
crops confiscated, or were imprisoned, for nonpayment of tithes to the Church
of Ireland or other “failures to conform”. We know that George refused to pay
the required tithe to the Church. The “tithe”, was essentially a church tax and
was to be a tenth of one’s income; it was the main source of income for the
official Church. Quakers objected to the tithe on two levels, believing in
their own practices that spiritual guidance and worship should be free, and,
believing that as non-Anglicans they should not have to support the Anglican
Church. Because George refused to pay the required tithe, the government
forcibly seized what they determined to be an equivalent amount of his crops in
lieu of payment. Noted in A Great Cry of
Oppression by William Stockdale, in 1680, “George Harland, of County Down had
taken from him in Tithe, by Daniel MacConnell, twelve stooks and a half of
oats, three stooks and a half of barley, and five loads of hay, all worth ten
shillings and ten pence." At
FindMyPast(.)com I found the original Quaker Meeting record of that
confiscation. I also found that George was subject to nearly yearly
confiscations. In 1682, George Harland “had taken from him for a tithe by
Thomas Usher & Donald McConnol four loads of hay, sixteen stooks and a half
of wheat & twenty-four stooks of oats, all worth one pound thirteen
shillings six pence.” In 1683, he “had taken from him for tithe by Donnoll Mark
Connoll and Johns Spont, fishmongers, two loads of hay out of his hay fields,
worth two shillings.” In 1684, George “had taken from him by Hugh MacConnoll
for the said priest, one stook, two sheafs of [?], eighteen stooks, nine sheafs
of oats, two stooks and a half of barley, and two loads of hay. All worth 15
shillings, four pence. All on account of tithe which for conscience’s sake they
could not pay.” I’ve no reason to believe the tithe confiscations ceased in
1684 but these are the records that remain. It had to be aggravating to lose so
much of his farming labor’s product every year to a support religion of which
he was not a member. I don’t know whether he was ever imprisoned for his refusal
but if he had been it could explain why there are no more confiscation records
for the next two years.
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| Wheat sheaves near King's Somborne, England arranged into a stook.- Trish Steel [CC BY-SA ] |
About
this time George would have heard about William Penn’s new colony,
Pennsylvania, in the New World. In 1681, King Charles II gave over 45,000
square miles of his American land holdings to Penn to pay the debts the king
owed to Penn's deceased father, and in 1682 Penn obtained from the Duke of York
both a 10,000 year lease and an absolute deed of Feoffment (sale of real
property) for the town of New Castle and a 12-mile circle around it, and a
10,000 year lease and an absolute deed of Feoffment for all of the land south
of the twelve mile circle down to Cape Henlopen. This land included the
present-day states of Pennsylvania and Delaware. Penn planned to found a colony
based on Quaker principles, a "Holy Experiment" as he called it, and implementing
a new form of more egalitarian government. The colonial government, established
in 1682 by Penn's Frame of Government, consisted of an appointed governor, the
proprietor (William Penn), a 72-member Provincial Council, and a larger
representative Provincial Assembly. Starting in 1681 broadsheets promoting the
venture were distributed widely at Quaker meetings in Ireland. Quakers began
moving to the colony. As more people
moved to the Colony, letters from the pioneers were sent home to Ireland, describing
their life in America, were passed around at Quaker Meetings. The idea of a new
start in a friendly land led George and Michael Harlan to think that their
future lay across the ocean in the New World.
Some
Irish Quakers went out to Penn’s Colony as indentured servants, selling
themselves into temporary servitude usually for about four years in order to
pay the costs of their transportation to Pennsylvania. Some, known as redemptioners,
made agreements with the shipmaster to be sold after their arrival. The
redemptioners could not be sold out of Pennsylvania without their free consent
given before a judge. At the end of their service, if their behavior had been
good, they received a suit of clothes, a set of tools for the field in which
they were engaged, and a sum of money. Those that came over with the first
purchasers of land in the colony were allowed by Penn to receive fifty acres of
land at a rent, paid to Penn, of a half-penny per acre per year. Due to harsh
treatment and dissatisfaction with the conditions of servitude, the
redemptioners often ran away, and newspapers of the time were full of
advertisements of rewards for the return of their indented servants, and much
of the business of the provincial courts was hearing complaints of masters and
servants. Unlike the redemptioners, the Harland brothers had enough money to
purchase land in Penn’s colony before they left Ireland, but there are
indications that George employed indented servants in his household in the New
World.
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| Province of PA - No machine-readable author provided. Kmusser assumed (based on copyright claims). [CC BY-SA] |
In
early 1687, George Harland, his wife, his four eldest children, and his brother
Michael left from Belfast on a ship for Pennsylvania (his brother Thomas
remained in Ireland). In 1686, George had bought lands in the southeastern
corner of Pennsylvania, known as the Lower Three Counties, in an area now
belonging to New Castle, Delaware. Other land in the area was bought at that
time in the name of his father James, and brother Thomas, although neither ever
moved to America. They settled on the west side of the Brandywine Creek in the
Christiana Hundred section of Newcastle county, near the current town of
Centerville. After moving to Pennsylvania, George and his brother dropped the D
from their last name. Here, George and Elizabeth had five more children:
Rebecca [b. October 17, 1688 (8, 17, 1688); d. October 17, 1775 (8, 17, 1775);
m. William Webb]; Deborah [b. October 28, 1690 (8, 28, 1690); d. ??; m. Joshua
Calvert]; James [b. October 19, 1692 (8, 19, 1692); d. ??; m. Elizabeth ??]; Joshua [b. January 15, 1696 (11,
15, 1696); d. July 1744 (5 Mo. 1744); m. Mary Heald].
Initially, they belonged to and, in the Summer, attended
the Newark Meeting in the Lower Three Counties. However, George and his family were
too far from the Newark Meeting for regular and punctual attendance, especially
in the winter, given the dangerousness of fording the river and made a request
on behalf of his neighbors and himself for a Meeting beyond the Brandywine to
be established for that reason; the formation of the Centre Meeting was granted
in what is now Centerville, New Castle county, Delaware but was then the
southeastern corner of Pennsylvania. For several years they held a meeting in homes
in their community, often at George Harlan’s home. George was put on a committee with Thomas
Hollingsworth, Alphonsus Kirk, and Samuel Groves “to take the oversight of the
building of ye Centre Meeting House requesting ye with all convenient speed to
let out ye work to some workmen in order it may be more speedily done and
return an acctt to ye next meeting how they proceed.” However, the Meeting
House was not built until 1711.
In 1695, George Harlan was elected to the Provincial
Assembly from New Castle County. Provincial Assembly elections were held
annually in colonial Pennsylvania, and Assembly representatives were elected to
serve a one year term. When William Penn formed the colony’s government, he
created the Frame of 1682, which described a parliament consisting of two
houses. The upper house, or the Provincial Council, consisted of 72 members who
were the first fifty purchasers of 5,000 acres or more in the colony and had
the exclusive power to propose legislation. They were also authorized to
nominate all officers in church and state and supervise financial and military
affairs through committees. The lower house, or the Provincial Assembly,
consisted of smaller landowners. It had no power to initiate legislation but
could accept or reject the council's legislative proposal only. However, in the
first meeting of the Assembly the Frame of 1682 was voted down. When the Assembly
convened in 1682, the Assembly sought to enlarge its role and insisted that it
be granted to power to initiate legislation, as it demanded when it rejected
the Frame of 1682. A compromise frame of government, called the Frame of 1683,
was eventually approved by the Assembly. It provided that all laws should be
passed "by the Governor and the freemen in Council and Assembly met",
and granted the governor a right to approve or veto. This 1683 Frame of
Government was still in effect when George served his term as the
representative from Newcastle county in 1695.
In about 1698, George bought 470 acres of land further up
the Brandywine Creek, and moved his family and settled in Kennett Square,
Chester County, Pennsylvania (the area is now in Pennsbury Township, Chester
County, Pennsylvania). While living there, George’s neighbors were a settlement
of Native Americans who lived across the river in the “Great Bend” of the
Brandywine River. After the Native Americans abandoned their settlement, he obtained,
in 1701, a grant of 200 additional acres of land in the Bend, which was given
to him for the “charge great trouble and cost he had born” in fencing and
maintaining the fence for the Native Americans while living there.
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| Map of Chester County Quaker Meeting Houses Click to make bigger |
In 1712 George was again elected to the Provincial Assembly,
this time from Chester County. This time the Assembly was more powerful than it
had been during his last term. A new Frame of Government called the Charter of Privileges was granted in 1701. It permitted Assembly members certain privileges,
liberties, or powers, never before granted by Penn, most particularly, the
power to enact legislation. Penn had been called back to England and was afraid
of the possibility of a takeover of his proprietary colony by the Crown, and reasoned
that his colony could defend itself with this new power. Another provision
elevated much of the Assembly’s power to that of the governor and judiciary,
creating a tripartite government. The governor’s role was reduced to management
status, but still retained veto power while the Provincial Council was reduced
to an advisory body to the governor. Additionally, as of 1704, the Lower
Counties of Pennsylvania had withdrawn from the state and formed their own
state of Delaware.
On the first day of March 1713 (1, 1, 1713), George Harlan
deeded 203 acres to his son-in-law, William Webb, husband of daughter Rebecca,
for a consideration of 30 pounds. On the ninth day of the same month, for
“consideration of the natural affection and fatherly love which he hath” and
“for divers other good causes and valuable considerations” he deeded 200 acres
each to his sons James and Joshua. George died in July 1714 (Fifth Month 1714).
The date of death of his wife, Elizabeth, is not known, but I know she died
before he did, because in his will he requested that he be buried beside his
“deare wife in the new burying grounds.”
George left a will, dated April 20, 1714 (twentieth day of
the second month called Aprill in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred
& ffourteen) and an inventory was done of his property prior to
distribution according to its terms. These documents give a good insight into
the living conditions of a prominent Quaker family of the time. The will is how
I learned that he had an indented servant. In it, he says that he “give[s] unto
my servant woman named Mary Matthews at the expiration of her time one
cow & calf & one young mare not less than three years old.” That’s a
generous bequest that would help her set up her own household when the time
came that her term of indenture was complete.
Transcription of Will of George Harlan
I George Harlan of Brandywine Creek and in the Township of Kennett
and the County of Chester in the province of Pennsylvania, Yeoman. Being weak
at this time in body but of sound and disposing mind and memory & calling
to mind the certainty of Death & the uncertainty of the time thereof doe
make & ordain this my last will & Testament in manner & form
following, that is to say, first I yield my soul into the hands of Almighty God
as unto a faithful Creator hoping through the merits sufferings resurrection
& mediation of my blessed Savior Jesus Christ to find mercy &
forgiveness with complete salvation & my body to be buried by my dear wife
in the new bearing place on Alphonsus Kirk’s land at the discretion of my
executors hereinafter named. Also my will is that all my just debts and funeral
expenses be fully paid and discharged. Also I give unto my son Aaron my clock
& my great brass cattle. Also I give unto my brother Michael Harlan the
young Susquehanna mare. Also I give unto my servant woman named Mary Matthews
at the expiration of her time one cow & calf & one young mare not less
than three years old. And lastly I make nominate & appoint my sons Ezekiel
& Erin Harlan executors of this my last will & testament & also
appoint my brother Michael Harlan aforementioned & my son Samuel Hollingsworth
trustees & assistance to my executors aforementioned in the performance
& accomplishment of this my last will & testament. Also my will is that
after my debts legacies bequests & expenses of words that are fully paid
and satisfied that what shall then remain of my movable & personal estate
if any so there be then it shall be equally divided between all my children
sons & daughters share & share alike. In witness thereof I have two
this my set will set my hand & seal this one & 20th day of
the second month called April in the year of our Lord 1714 George Harlan (seal)
signed sealed & published & declared by the testator George
Harlan to be his last Will & Testament in the presence of us who have
subscribed our names as witnesses here unto his presence. Daniel McFarson, Nathan
Maddock, Thomas Pierson [proven 8 Mo. 2, 1714]
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| The transcribed inventory of George Harlan's estate, from History and Genealogy of the Harland Family in America, and particularly of the descendants of George and Michael Harlan, who settled in Chester County PA, 1687, compiled by Alpheus Harlan (The Lord Baltimore Press 1914) Click to make bigger |
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* In 17th & 18th century England,
a yeoman was a free man who lived in the country and owned his own land and
farmed but was not gentry – sort of equivalent to the middle class today). In 18th
& 19th century America a yeoman was a non-slaveholding, small
landowning, independent, family farmer.
** I’ve seen a lot of trees on Ancestry(.)com referring to
George’s baptism date as January 11, 1650, relying on the same record I do, a
Quaker record from later in his life from the Philadelphia Meeting, in which
his baptism is noted as 11 First 1650. As I explained in the last post (Dating Induced Headaches for the Family Historian: Julian, Gregorian, and Quaker Calendars), before 1752 in England, the Julian Calendar was in use,
not the Gregorian Calendar which is currently used today nearly everywhere, and
in the Julian Calendar, the first day of the year was March 25. Further, while
the Quakers followed the calendar commonly used in the British Isles, the
Quaker Calendar had its own quirks. For the Quakers, who designated months by
numbers, First month (or 1st mo.) was March. In writing dates, I’ll
state what it would be in today’s calendar and then, in parentheses, I’ll
include the date as I found it in the source used.
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I apologize for the spacing changes. Every time I tried to fix it it got worse. I gave up.
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Jo. So nice to see you blogging again. I have a link to William Penn as well. William Kent Frampton purchased property from William Penn. seems they ran in the same circles.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Diane! Are your Frampton's Quakers too?
DeleteI just started my family tree on the Harland family. Very cool to learn all the background.
ReplyDeleteHey, I'm glad it helped you! I'm happy you found my blog. I'll be doing some more posts coming down from George on my line. His oldest son, Ezekial is next. Check back in if this is your line too. Only thing is, I'm slow on getting posts out. But if you're just starting. If you haven't found it yet, you need a copy of History and Genealogy of the Harland Family in America, and particularly of the descendants of George and Michael Harlan, who settled in Chester County PA, 1687, compiled by Alpheus Harlan (The Lord Baltimore Press 1914). It's available as a Kindle ebook from Amazon for $1.99 : https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00H87ZQHA/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1. Also there's a Harland/Harlan family website I tripped over: http://www.harlanfamily.org/index.htm . I've not joined it but it has a lot of interesting info.
DeleteI love Harlan stuff!
DeleteThen I'm happy you found your way here!
DeleteI love learning more about my ancestors. My father's mother was Ruth Ann Harlan, whose father was Joseph Marshall Harlan, son of Thomas Walton Harlan, son of Enoch Webb Harlan, son of Enoch Harlan, son of George Harlan, son of William Harlan, son of Ezekiel Harlan, son of George Harlan and Elizabeth Duck.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing your line! I'm happy you found this page.
DeleteHi Jo! I just came across your blog while researching George and Ezekiel Harlan, and I plan to swing through Chester on my way to New Jersey so that I can visit some of the areas where these ancestors lived. I really appreciate all the details you provided beyond those I was able to find online! Thanks so much for sharing the fruits of your labors!
ReplyDeleteI hope you had a good trip! I'm happy you found my blog helpful!
DeleteI have a gg grand father who’s name was Samuel Harlan Dix.He brought his family here to Oregon from Ohio in 1867.I have reason to believe that he is a Harlan,Harland descendant.I have a cousin going to Pennsylvania in September to do research.Will be interesting to find out!
ReplyDeleteI know there were Harlans that went to Ohio, I wouldn't be surprised if you were a descendent. I hope your cousin had a productive and fun trip.
Delete