Thomas ROWLAND

Abt 1661 - 1708  (~ 47 years)

• Name	Thomas ROWLAND
  Birth	Abt 1661	Cheshire, England
  Gender	Male
  AFN	HF1V-18
  Death	1708	Chester County, PA
  Notes	(1) In Sheppard, Walter Lee, Jr., Passengers and Ships Prior to 1684, Baltimore, MD: Genealogical Publishing Company, 1970, there are several references to John ROWLAND of Billinghurst, Sussex, England; John's wife, the former Priscilla SHEPHERD; and John's brother, Thomas ROWLAND. The ROWLANDs were farmers in Sussex, members of Shipley Meeting, and neighbors and friends of the the PENNs. According to Stubbs, Charles H., Historic-Genealogy of the Kirk Family, Lancaster, PA: Wylie & Griest, 1872, pp. 3-4, the Thomas ROWLAND who married Mary MASON "probably came from Cheshire, England." The compiler knows of no relationship between the Sussex ROWLANDs and the Thomas ROWLAND who married Mary MASON. (2) Sheppard, Walter Lee, Jr., Passengers and Ships Prior to 1684, Baltimore, MD: Genealogical Publishing Company, 1970, pp. 195-197, 206: THE FIRST PURCHASERS OF PENNSYLVANIA by Hannah Benner Roach On the fourth day of March, 1681, William Penn, Founder and first Proprietor of Pennsylvania, received his charter for the province from Charles the Second. Within a month Penn's initial plans for settling the land were in print in Some Account of the Province of Pennsylvania . . . for the Information of such as are or may be disposed to Transport themselves or Servants into those Parts. In this first promotional tract, he proposed offering for sale shares of 5000 acres at ??100 per share, and for those unable to buy, the opportunity to take up land upon a nominal quitrent. In consultation with prospective buyers during the next three months, these initial offers were refined and outlined in greater detail, and incorporated as Certain Conditions or Concessions agreed upon by William Penn, Proprietary and Governor of the Province of Pennsylvania, and those who are the Adventurers and Purchasers in the same Province. As an attraction toward investment in the province, these included a provision which entitled each of those who bought the first 100 shares for a total of 500,000 acres, to a lot, proportionate to the size of each individual purchase, in the first settlement to be laid out in the province. The first sales were consummated in mid-July, 1681, and by the following October, sixty-four of the one hundred shares had been sold. The names of these first purchasers and the acreage each had bought were entered in a "catalogue" as purchaser-groups numbered from one to thirty-two, inclusive. Apparently in order to simplify the computation of the amount of land sold, the acreage of each purchaser-group in the catalogue was intended to total 10,000 acres, or two shares. The acreage of several, however, was either over or under that amount. In view of the alacrity with which some sixty percent of the land reserved for the first purchasers had been purchased in less than three months, Penn decided not to wait until all 500,000 acres had been sold, but to send off this first catalogue of purchasers with the first shipload of settlers to set out for the new land. Appointing commissioners to supervise their settlement, he entrusted them with the catalogue. They sailed from Bristol in October on the Bristol Factor, and reached New Castle on the Delaware December 15,1681. Between October, 1681, and the end of April, 1682, all of the 500,000 acres were sold, and Penn closed his list of first purchasers the end of the month. Eighteen new purchaser-groups were entered in a second catalogue, were numbered from 33 to 50, inclusive. This second catalogue, probably sent on the Samuel which left London toward the end of May or early in June, 1682, reached Philadelphia by mid-September. The names in it and in the first catalogue represented all of the original purchasers who were entitled to proportionate lots in the first settlement. But during the summer and up to the end of August, 1682, when Penn himself sailed, he found that some of those on the first and second lists had changed their minds or failed to complete their bargain with him. There were also several large purchasers in Ireland and elsewhere whose money was not received in time to have their names entered on the second catalogue. To compensate for the deficiencies of his original purchasers, and to satisfy those who had bought under the impression they would be considered first purchasers, their names appear to have been included on a third list, compiled at an unknown later date. Neither the original of the second or third list appear to have ever been recorded, and if extant, their present whereabouts are unknown. The first list, on two skins of parchment, however, was extant in 1763, when it was copied into and recorded in the books of the Land Office, now in Harrisburg. The following "Accompt of the Land in Pennsylvania Granted . . . to several Purchasors within the Kingdom of England," is transcribed from photostats of that copy, and here published for the first time. It is not to be confused with what have purported to be lists of first purchasers which have appeared in print from time to time. The earliest of these was published by John Reed in 1774 as part of his An Explanation of the Map of the City and Liberties. He apparently used the original or the 1763 recorded list as a basis, but arranged the names on his list alphabetically, and added to it subsequent purchasers. That alphabetical list was again published in 1894 in The Pennsylvania Archives, Third Series, III, 327-344. Reed also included on his Map of the City and Liberties of Philadelphia, appended to the Explanation, the names listed in the first catalogue or "Accompt" and their acreage, but omitted the places of residence and occupations. To this list he added the names in the "Second Catalogue" of purchaser-groups thirty-three to fifty, and a third but undated alphabetical list of names. The latter, on examination, appear to be a medley of under-purchasers (those who bought from original purchasers and so acquired proportionate rights in the city and liberties), later purchasers, and first purchasers who bought additional land. In 1850, Samuel Hazard, in his Annals of Pennsylvania from the Discovery of the Delaware, 1609-1682, 637-642, published a "List of Purchasers" taken from a list he said was then in the Land Office in Harrisburg, and which he believed was the second list. But this list, subsequently reprinted in 1852 in Volume I of The Pennsylvania Archives [First Series], 40-46, contained fifty-seven purchaser-groups, and obviously could not have been the second catalogue. It may have been the third catalogue, revised to eliminate those who had failed to complete their sales and to include the new sales made during the summer of 1682. In it, names of some original purchasers found on the first two lists have been shuffled from their original group to a different group, and the number of acres assigned to several purchasers has been altered. Significantly, it was headed "An Account of the lands in Pennsylvania granted by William Penn, Esq. chief proprietary and governor of that province, to several purchasers within the kingdom of England, Ireland and Scotland, &c." Its present whereabouts has not been located. The names of purchasers in the "Second Catalogue," printed hereinafter, are taken from the list appearing on John Reed's Map of the City and Liberties of Philadelphia, inserted at the end of Volume IV of The Pennsylvania Archives, Third Series. In group XXXIV of this list, the Christian names Mathew, Thomas and Thomas appear with no last names indicated, and no acreage entered. These names have been omitted in the present transcript. In the same group, below the 125 acres of Philip Alford (Oxford), an additional 1000 acres is listed, with no name assigned. As no evidence has been found that Alford acquired additional acreage so early, this, too, has been omitted. Otherwise the list is as Reed presented it, with the addition, wherever possible, of place of residence and occupation and, as occasion indicated, a corrected version of the purchaser's name, all inserted within brackets. The sources for such information are varied. Some come from original deeds of lease and release in the collections of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, or from data supplied by Dr. Gary B. Nash, who examined the original deeds now deposited in the Wynne Collection, Penn Papers, Bedfordshire County Record Office, England. An examination of the recorded grants in the Land Office in Harrisburg, and of the exemplification of others in the Department of Records, City Hall, Philadelphia, revealed further information. The Philadelphia and Bucks County registers of arrivals, transcripts of which are included in this present work, were consulted. The digested copies of English Friends' Records in the collections of the Genealogical Society of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, were examined. George Smith's History of Delaware County, Pennsylvania (1862); W. W.H. Davis's History of Bucks County . . . , (1876); and Futhey and Cope's History of Chester County . . . , (1881), each supplied information on places of residence and occupations not found elsewhere. The most useful source was the "Minutes of the Board of Property," in The Pennsylvania Archives, Second Series, XIX, and Third Series, I. An Accompt of the Land in Pennsylvania Granted by William Penn Esqr Sole Proprietary & Governour of that Province To several Purchasors within the Kingdom of England, Vizt To . . . XXXVIII Thomas Rowland [of Acton, Cheshire] . . . 1000 acres (3) Futhey, J. Smith & Cope, Gilbert, History of Chester County, Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA: Louis H. Everts, 1881, p. 711: RICHARDS . . . Nathaniel, a blacksmith, married Mary, daughter of Richard Mason, and died in Aston in 1700, leaving children, - William, Nathaniel, Elizabeth, and Mary. Some time after this the widow married Thomas Rowland and removed to the Toughkenamon Valley, in New Garden, where they settled on a large tract (700 acres) of land, called Marberry. Thomas died in 1708, and the deed for the land was made to the widow October 2d in that year. She was married a third time, 8, 30, 1713, to Evan Powell, of Nottingham, who came to live on her property. Her children: William and Mary Richards probably died young, Elizabeth married Roger Kirk, and Nathaniel married Margaret, daughter of Allen Wiley. To him Evan Powell and wife conveyed 300 acres of the land in 1717, and 110 more in 1718. He died in 1730, leaving three sons, - William, Nathaniel and Isaac. Margaret, his widow, married William Carpenter prior to 1735, and in 1748 was again left a widow. She died in West Bradford, 12, 5, 1796, aged ninety years, and leaving 113 descendants. The land of Nathaniel Richards was divided among his sons, William, the eldest, receiving 215 acres, Nathaniel 128, and Isaac 114 acres. William married, 4, 13, 1751, Joanna Jenkins, and 5, 10, 1759, Jane Miller. (4) Stubbs, Charles H., Historic-Genealogy of the Kirk Family, Lancaster, PA: Wylie & Griest, 1872, pp. 3-4: Nathaniel Richards was a blacksmith, and settled in Aston township, where he died in the year 1700, leaving a wife, Mary, and four children: William, Nathaniel, Elizabeth and Mary. From the will of Richard Mason, of Aston, who died in 1715, it would appear that Nathaniel's wife was his sister, and if so, she was the daughter of Richard Mason, who died in 1714, leaving a wife, Abigail, and children, Thomas, Joseph, Benjamin, Abraham, Richard, Mary, Sarah, Hannah, Elizabeth and Susanna. [Note by compiler: Nathaniel's wife, Mary MASON, was the sister of Richard MASON of Aston, who died in 1715, but was not the daughter of Richard MASON, who died in 1714, leaving a wife, Abigail, and children, Thomas, Joseph, Benjamin, Abraham, Richard, Mary, Sarah, Hannah, Elizabeth and Susanna. See the information relating to the latter Richard MASON elsewhere in this database.] After a time Mary Richards married again to one Thomas Rowland, of Aston, who probably came from Cheshire, England. Being Friends, but the marriage not being celebrated in the usual manner, they afterward made an acknowledgment for having acted contrary to the advice of the meeting. About the year 1707 they removed westward, to William Penn's Manor, now New Garden township, and settled in a beautiful valley, on a tract of 700 acres, which they called " Marberry." This land extended from the present village of Toughkennamon, eastward to the line of Kennett township. Thomas Rowland died in 1708, and without having obtained a deed for the land, which was, however, confirmed to the widow within the same year. In 1712 she purchased 438 acres of adjoining land to the eastward. The Philadelphia and Baltimore Central Railroad now passes through both of these tracts. In 1713 Mary was married to a third husband, Evan Powell, a widower of Nottingham, who came to live with her on her property in New Garden. William and Mary Richards, the children of her first husband, probably died young, while Nathaniel and Elizabeth, the other two, accompanied their mother in her removal from Aston. . . . Mary Powell . . . died on the 17th of 3d month (March) [May], 1731-2, and her husband about the year 1736. [Note by compiler: See the following discussion of "Quaker dates" in Berry, Ellen Thomas and Berry, David Allen, Our Quaker Ancestors: Finding Them in Quaker Records, Baltimore, MD: Genealogical Publishing Co., Inc., 1987, p. 67: Quakers . . . did not use names for days of the week or months of the year since most of these names were derived from the names of pagan gods. A date such as August 19, 1748 will never be found. Rather it would be written "19th da 6th mo 1748." Sometimes this will be written as 6mo 19da 1748. Why 6th month since August is the 8th month? The Quakers, along with everyone else in the American Colonies and England, did not begin using the Gregorian calendar until 1752. Under the Julian calendar the year began on March 25th; March was the first month and February the twelfth month. This is something of a problem when an event occurred in the months of January, February or up to March 25th, for then the date is given as 1748/1749.] (5) Cope, Gilbert, Historic Homes and Institutions and Genealogical and Personal Memoirs of Chester and Delaware Counties, Pennsylvania, Vol. I, New York, NY and Chicago, IL: Lewis Publishing Company, 1904, p. 292: Nathaniel Richards married Mary Mason, daughter of Richard Mason, and lived in Aston. His will, dated 12 mo., 6, 1699-70, proven October 10, 1700, shows that he was a blacksmith; mentions his father, Joseph Richards, wife Mary and four children, William, Nathaniel, Elizabeth and Mary. His widow married Thomas Rowland, and they made an acknowledgment to Concord Monthly Meeting, 12 mo., 10, 1706, for their outgoing in marriage against the advice of Friends. They settled in the Toughkenamon Valley, where Thomas died in 1708, and Mary married again, 8 mo., 30, 1813, Evan Powell, of Nottingham. By her second husband she had children, Ruth, Mary and Rachel Rowland, and by the third had Sarah Powell.
  Person ID	I18962	Frost, Gilchrist and Related Families
  Last Modified	17 Apr 2024

  
  

  Family	Mary MASON,   b. Abt 1665   d. 17 Mar 1731, Chester County, PA (Age ~ 66 years)
  Marriage	Bef 10 Mar 1707	Chester County, PA
  Family ID	F8472	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
  Last Modified	17 Apr 2024