The Emigres

North Carolina in the 1700s may have had lots of Quakers (see Robert Lamb), but it was hardly an ideal spot for Friends. North Carolina was a slave state, with increasingly severe pro-slavery laws. Around 1800 Quakers began leaving, often in large bands, on foot and by wagon. Indiana Territory, which included present-day Illinois and Indiana, was a favored destination. In 1800, that territory had been formed from Northwest Territory, whose ordinance stated “there shall be neither slavery nor involuntary servitude.” But then it was decided that this allowed slaves purchased outside the territory to be brought in and retained. Quakers anticipated that laws permitting the retaining of slaves would soon be overturned, and many were when abolitionists took control of the Indiana Territorial legislature in 1809. Four of Robert and Rachel’s children were among the territory’s Quaker settlers.

Daughters Deborah (d 1847) and Ann (c1773–1845), with their husbands, Moses Hoggatt (b 1757) and David Reynolds (c1771–1823), headed to Vigo Co, Indiana. There they helped establish the Honey Creek Friends, which had its first meeting on 9 Sep 1820. Moses and David were there on that date and were appointed to committees. The following year, Deborah Hoggatt and Ann Reynolds were made elders. And, in 1822, Moses was appointed one of the trustees to hold title to the property. But Honey Creek Friends Meeting did not last long. It was discontinued on 14 Feb 1829 and the exact location of the log meeting house is not even known.

Moses Hoggatt established a store at the Honey Creek settlement, and the area became known as “Hoggtt's Store.” It was located on the old Vincennes wagon road. Later, the name was changed to “Prairieton” when Moses and Deborah’s son Robert laid out the town in 1837.

John and Phebe’s marker (back, right)
 in Lamb Cemetery (Find A Grave).

Robert and Rachel’s son, John (1778–1853), and his wife Phebe Macy (1778–1850) traveled a little further than the others, going across the Wabash River to Vermilion Co, Illinois, where On 4 Oct 1828 they and their three daughters were accepted into the Vermilion Friends Meeting. The family had some conflict with the Vermilion Friends. In 1832, their son, Simeon (yes, another one), was chastised for having a “marriage contrary to discipline,” and in 1843 was “disowned” after joining a Methodist church. Their daughter Lydia had been earlier “disowned,” in 1833, following a report that she had a non-Quaker marriage. John and Phebe were buried in a Vermilion Co cemetery, now called “Lamb Cemetery, rather than in a Quaker burial ground. The Vermilion Friends Church is still active, after 200 years.

John went to Vermilion, Deborah & Ann, to Honey
Creek, Simeon to Blue River, all in Indiana
Territory. The map shows present-day states.

Robert and Rachel’s son Simeon and his wife Mary stopped their travels at Blue Water Friends, in a part of Clark Co, Indiana, that would soon become Washington Co. They were there by 1809, when Simeon was one of the signatories of a petition to president James Madison, disapproving of a possible reappointment of pro-slavery William Henry Harrison as territorial governor.

Simeon is the subject of our next blog. See you then.

Robert Lamb

 Verne Crabtree Summers’s grandmother Mary Ann Lamb was a descendant of Quakers, a blessing for family historians. The Society of Friends were notoriously diligent record keepers. And for that reason I find researching the Lambs, fascinating. The Summers family is the subject of this blog and the book I am attempting to finish. Nevertheless, I plan to use the next few blogs to review Mary Ann Lamb’s line. Be prepared.

Members of a movement begun in England by George Fox in the mid-1600s, Quakers were persecuted there because of their “radicalism”—equality of sexes, pacifism, refusal to pay tithes, opposition to the state church, among other things. Thus, when Pennsylvania was founded in 1681 by William Penn, a wealthy Quaker, thousands of Friends left England heading to the new colony. But as Pennsylvania grew, it became more difficult to acquire land. Many Quakers left the colony and moved southward to North Carolina, where land was still available for purchase or settlement. And soon North Carolina became a Quaker stronghold

Probably sometime around 1740, Robert Lamb, Mary Anne’s great grandfather, traveled from England to North Carolina. Many people have reported Robert as being born in North Carolina to a Henry and Elizabeth Lamb, but investigation has shown otherwise. Quoting from a book by Martin Styles on Henry and Elizabeth’s descendants:

Robert Lamb was not a son of Henry and Elizabeth. He was an emigrant from England. Haverford College has the journal and some letters of William Hunt (ca. 1733 – 1772), a minister from New Garden MM, NC. In 1772 he was traveling in the north of England, and in one of his letters home to his wife mentioned that he had seen Robert Lamb’s mother, and to tell Robert that she was well. Unfortunately, he’s not clear what her name was or even just where she lived.

A descendant claims that Robert was actually a Scot and arrived in America as a stowaway, and that is certainly possible. Quakerism began in Scotland with the Cromwellian occupation in the 1650s, though, owing to even greater persecution, it was more limited there than in England. William Hunt is known to have visited Scotland during his trip and could have met Robert’s mother in that country.

Robert Lamb lived near the present town of Randleman, about
10 miles south of New Garden Meeting House and Greensboro.

On 13 Nov 1756, Robert received a land grant of 429 acres in Rowan Co, North Carolina, on the “N fork of Deep River.” Now that seems strange. Deep River is nowhere near Rowan Co., today. But in 1753, Rowan Co was huge, and was later divided, several times. In 1770, eastern Rowan was combined with western Orange County to form Guilford County, where Robert Lamb ended up as did part of Deep River and Robert's land. And in 1787 he obtained an additional 150 acres on Polecat Creek, a Deep River tributary According to Guilford Co Genealogical Society maps, Robert lived a little north of the Deep River/Polecat fork, and that certainly agrees with his land acquisitions.

The third New Garden Meeting House, Guilford Co,
North Carolina (John Collins, 1869).

North of Robert’s property and a little west of Greensboro, the Society of Friends, in the early 1750s, established the New Garden Meetings, and a meeting house was constructed around 1757. It was at this new meeting house (which later burned, in 1784, and was replaced) that, on 2 Aug 1757, “Robert Lamb & Rachel Tayler apeared . . . & Declared thire intention of marrig with Each other.” And on 29 Sep 1757, at New Garden, Rachel Taylor and Robert Lamb did just that.  Rachel, daughter of Simeon Taylor, was from Opekan, Virginia. “Opekan” was the name originally given to what became known as the Hopewell Friends Meeting House, in Frederick Co, Virginia. What Rachel was doing in North Carolina is uncertain, for her parents did not move from Hopewell to New Garden until 1784.

Robert and Rachel lived out their lives in what became Guilford County. They were there on 15 Mar 1781, during the Revolutionary War’s Battle of Guilford Courthouse. Part of the action occurred at New Garden Meeting House, when British forces heading north from Deep River Meeting House encountered an American unit at New Garden. New Garden Quakers helped care for the wounded from that battle. Robert and Rachel were there when British America became The United States of America. And they were there when several of their descendants left North Carolina, seeking “free” states, but that is an upcoming story.

It is interesting that also in Guilford Co at the time were Joseph and Mary (Jackson) Summers Summers, whose great great grandson John William Summers Sr. would one day marry Robert and Rachel’s great great great granddaughter Verne Cumi Crabtree. (Do you suppose the Summers and Lambs met?)

On 4 Feb 1814 Robert signed with a mark his Guilford Co will, which acknowledged his wife, and named three sons—Samuel, Simeon, and John–and four daughters—Elizabeth, Ester (“Esther” in other documents), Deborah, and Ann. But, we know of two more daughters, Margaret and Rachel. Rachel, who died 26 Dec 1809, was not living when her father made his will. And it is likely that neither was Margaret, especially since Robert’s will names a single grandchild, possibly, “Margate Balden,” though the handwriting is difficult to read. “Margate” is likely “Margaret,” the daughter of a deceased Margaret Lamb, and “Balden” could be “Baldwin.” It is claimed by many that a Larkin Baldwin married Margaret the daughter of Robert and Rachel, but Larkin’s marriage was to a “Hetty” Lamb and occurred on 27 Nov 1815, almost two years after Robert had written his will.

A handwritten note with Robert's 1814 will states “Last Will & Testament of Robert Lamb Decd Feby Two 1815.” Robert had apparently died by that date. We don’t know when his wife, Rachel, passed, but Robert probably went first since a still-living Rachel is mentioned in Robert’s will.

And this brings us to Robert and Rachel’s son Simeon. Mary Anne Lamb’s grandfather and the subject of a future blog. But first we need to look at the Quaker migration from North Carolina, for Simeon and some of his siblings were among the emigres. Lambs on the lam is the subject of our next blog.

A Crab Tree

Timothy Franklin Crabtree of Kentucky was the grandfather of Verne Cumi Crabtree, wife of John William Summers Sr., one of the Wittenberg, Missouri, Summers Family. Few records exist for the early Kentucky Crabtrees, but with a lot of sleuthing, we can construct Timothy’s probable family tree. That’s right, a Crabtree tree, or, to avoid redundancy, a Crab Tree.

Some Crabtree connections and probable connections (with lots of spouses left out).

If you want the excruciatingly mind-numbing investigatory details (omitted here to keep from boring readers), contact me or better yet get an electronic copy of a few pages on this subject from a draft of A Summers Saga, The Wittenberg Summers. To get a free electronic copy of those pages just click on the link below. You don’t need the Dropbox app. If you get a "Log in or Sign Up" message just ignore it. Press the "Download" button at the top left of the web page. You will then get a small popup window saying “Log in or sign up” Do neither. At the bottom of the small window there is a bar that says “Or continue with the download only”. Press that bar. Message me if you have problems.

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Someday (I hope) you will be able to get a copy of the entire book, and really be bored with excruciating details.

James Summers of Delaware

In the late 1700s, James Summers, a free Black man living in Kent Co, Delaware, entered into a relationship with Judea (also “Jada), a woman enslaved by the Lowber family in Murderkill Hundred (see map at end). They are said by some to have been married; however, marriage by a slave was usually forbidden. Whether James Summers and Judea were legally married or not, Judea took the last name "Summers" and the relationship lasted throughout their lives.

Slaves were seldom shown with a last name, but Peter’s will stated “I give and Bequeath to
Catharine Duhadaway . . a Negro girl named ruth summers . . .”

In 1794 Peter Lowber died, and his will freed Judea. But the will did not free the two children of James and Judea, Ruth and Thomas, who were born into slavery because their mother was a slave. According to the will, 4-year-old Ruth was given to Peter's sister Catharine Duhadaway, to be enslaved until Ruth was 21 years old, at which time she should be freed. The will makes no mention of 2-year-old Thomas, who, needing a mother’s care, was probably given by Peter Lowber's heirs  to James and Judea Summers, but was not officially freed.

Manumission document, Delaware Public Archives

When Catharine Duhadaway died in Maryland, her possessions, including Ruth, became available for distribution. James must have purchased Ruth, by payment or labor, because on 14 October 1797, James signed with his mark a document to free both his children. John Lowber, Peter's grandson, signed the manumission document as a witness. The document states

I the said James Summers for divers Considerations me especially moving do Manumit, Liberate and set at full Liberty . . .my affectionate Children, namely Thomas Summers who is now age about five years, and Ruth Summers aged Seven years . . . that they the said Thomas Summers and Ruth Summers liberated as afores^d shall from and immediately after the date on these presents enjoy their Freedom as Other Free Citizens Can or ought to do.

Today there are over 300 descendants of James and Judea Summers (Photo from a Delaware Day 2020 film, Delaware Historic and Cultural Affairs).

In Delaware, Hundreds were essentially townships. “Murderkill” is believed
to have come from the Dutch “moeder kille,” meaning “mother creek.”

And who was James Summers? At the time he signed the manumission document, he was living in Murderkill Hundred, just north of Mispillion Hundred, where the descendants of Thomas Sr. and Rosanna Summers lived (see In The Beginning). And in 1800 James was actually living in Mispillion Hundred. Given his name, it is not unlikely that James Summers, who was probably born somewhere around 1760, was a child of one of Thomas Sr’s four sons—Thomas Jr, John, William, or Joseph. These, their spouses, and their children were the only Summerses (yes, that is the plural of Summers) living in all of Kent Co around this time. Born in 1749, Joseph would have probably been too young, but the other three sons, who are known to have been living in Mispillion Hundred in the 1750s and 1760s, could have fathered James with an enslaved woman, though admittedly the Summers were not known to own slaves. No records, however, exist showing this, and autosomal DNA evidence is very unlikely to provide proof. Thomas Summers’s known descendants living today are likely seven or more generations removed from any of Thomas’s children, and an autosomal DNA match probability would be well under 1 percent. yDNA could provide proof or disproof if DNA results become available for male-line descendants of both James and Thomas Sr. Are there volunteers out there?

The Delaware Summers Haplogroup

 

I wish to acknowledge a contribution to Summers family history made by my wife’s distant cousin Katharyne Jane (Silva) Belew. Katharyne has determined the likely yDNA haplogroup for at least a portion of the Summers line originated in 1700s Delaware by Thomas Summers Sr. And Katharyne did it without a drop of Summers yDNA in her genes, since only males can carry the y chromosome. A y haplogroup is a group of lineages defined by unique genetic markers present on the y-chromosome. Since only the males carry yDNA, this haplogroup follows the Summers name (in the absence of adoptions, name changes, etc.) back to the distant past. This haplogroup could even date from the time before surnames existed.

To determine the Delaware Summers haplogroup, Katharyne cleverly found six men with the surname "Summers" who had  autosomal DNA matches with her and who had a known y haplogroup. Five of the six had the I-S1954 haplogroup, and, thus, this is likely the haplogroup for the Delaware Summers. That the five individuals are 3rd or 4th cousins to each other, except two who are father and son, and are all descended from Thomas Summers of Franklin Co, Illinois (c1784-1864), indicates that Thomas of Illinois, grandson of Thomas of Delaware, had this haplogroup. (Thanks to Katharyne for pointing this out.) And if Thomas of Illinois had this haplogroup, his grandfather, Thomas of Delaware, could have also had it.

Haplogroup I-S1954, also known as Haplogroup I-M170 (Y Chromosome Consortium long-form label), appears be Germanic. “Germanic?” you may say. How can this be when Thomas Summers, the progenitor of the Delaware Summers, probably came from Britain? But you have to remember, the English are largely Germanic. The first people to be called “English” were the Anglo-Saxons, a group of closely related Germanic tribes.

Thus, while probably British in origin, the paternal Delaware Summers line is Germanic. Interesting, but not surprising.

Thomas’s Children

As many as twenty-nine children have been claimed for Thomas (born c1784) and Priscilla (born c1780) Summers, of Franklin Co, Illinois, in some of the numerous trees appearing on the internet (almost 1700 trees total on Ancestry alone). The problem is that not a single reliable record is provided for any of the named children, only other trees. Based on birthplace, birth year, association with other people, and residence, I have come up with thirteen reasonable candidates. All of these are commonly designated by others as Thomas’s children. And descendants of all of these show autosomal DNA matches with a known descendant of Thomas and Priscilla. Of course, since most or all of the 19^th-century Franklin Co Summerses were related, autosomal DNA provides rather poor evidence.

Reliable records (i.e., records other than trees) showing the names of children of Thomas and Priscilla are unknown except for a single item that has been ignored or overlooked—the Affidavit of Decease form in Thomas’s Franklin County probate file. That record names only William, Harper, Alexander, Thomas, and B. P. (Braxton Parrish) as his children. Perhaps James was omitted because he was the signatory. John’s name is struck out, as might be expected since he was likely deceased by the date of Thomas’s death. And there appears to have been a “Samuel,” who’s name is also struck out but about whom nothing is known. Missing are Robert, Noah, Nancy, Joseph, and Peter, all good candidates for being Thomas’s children, candidates who were still living at the time of his death. Are these five people (six if we include James) not Thomas’s children? A huge number of family historians believe otherwise. And the 1830 census indicates that Thomas had many more children (possibly twelve) than just the six (including crossed-out John) listed in the Affidavit of Death. But all may not have been his. He could have taken in children from deceased relatives. And, of course, many children may have died before being named in later records. As one Illinois historian has written, on the 19^th-century Illinois frontier

Death was a constant, if unwelcome, companion.

Affidavit of Decease with names of children for Thomas Summers. Missing are Robert, Noah, Nancy, Joseph, Peter, and James
(Patricia Terwilliger collection.)

Among the missing five, Joseph is the only one who served in the Civil War (despite erroneous claims made for others based on name only) and he has a National Archives pension file that has now been obtained in hopes that it would reveal his origins. It didn't. It did provide his date of death (28 Jan 1896 near Greenbrier, Arkansas), some highly variable dates of birth (c1818, calculated from ages in various documents), and details on his military service and married life, but it provided nothing about who his parents may have been.

We are stuck. Is the Affidavit of Death correct, and if so who were the parents of Robert, Noah, Nancy, Joseph, and Peter Summers? We even have doubts about James. And our doubts increase when we find that a pension application affidavit by James Summers states that Noah Summers, who fought in the Black Hawk War, was his brother. If Noah was not a son of Thomas, neither was James. But, on the other hand, why would someone other than a son, of which Thomas had many, be a signatory?

If any of you would like a free no-strings-attached copy of Joseph Summers's  National Archive file just click on the link below. You don’t need the Dropbox app. If you get a "Log in or Sign Up" message just ignore it. Press the download button at the top right of the web page. You will then get (another) "Log in or Sign Up" message. Just click "Or continue with dropdown only" at the bottom of that message. You need not log in or sign up. It is not necessary to be a Dropbox user. Leave a comment or send me an email if you have problems.

Pension File Download

Sleuthing Again

On 29 Dec 1869, Mary E. Summers married Ezra K. Gilchrist in Franklin Co, Illinois. Ezra, a Vermont (or possibly, New Hampshire)-born Civil War vet who kept a saloon in the village of Sneak Out, died soon afterward, on 18 Jan 1873 in Parrish, Illinois, quite likely as a result of medical problems incurred during his military service. On 9 May 1864 at the battle of Buzzard Roost in Whitfield County, Georgia, he had been wounded in the right foot, which caused serious deformity. He became increasingly lame until he was discharged. Possibly as a result of the injury, the treatment, or hospital stays, he developed chronic diarrhea, which resulted in his death. He and Mary had a single child, William Gilchrist, who appears to have died very young, possibly as an infant.

James and Mary Duckworth Family (Ancestry). Children from left to right:
Herbert, Orvil, Richard, James Lawrence, and Robert.

On 10 Aug 1873 in Franklin Co, the widowed Mary Gilchrist married James H. Duckworth, son of Moses Duckworth and Cassander A. Summers, and brother of John Wilson Duckworth, who achieve notoriety owing to his KKK connection (The Summers Clan Klan).

We know a lot about Mary’s husbands, Ezra and James, but we face a great mystery in Mary, herself. She was know to have been born around 1847, but three Mary E. Summers of Franklin Co, Illinois, all first cousins, fit that description: Mary E., daughter of Harper and Phebe (Swafford) Summers; Mary Elizabeth, daughter of William K. and Elizabeth (Whittington) Summers; and Mary E., daughter of John K. (often given the name “John Edward” with no evidence except other trees) and Elizabeth (Larken) Summers. Other possibilities can be ruled out by age or proven histories.

Family historians have made guesses over the years, mostly the daughter of Harper and Phebe, but none provide proof or even evidence other than the name. In an attempt to find proof I ordered the Civil War Pension file for Ezra Gilchrist in hopes that something could be found there. It looks like proof has been found. The massive file includes a 23 Mar 1897 deposition from a George W. Summers stating that he is the brother of Mary Summers Gilchrist Duckworth. George stated that he was 67 years old (born c1830) and that he lived in Macedonia, Illinois.

Only one of our candidates had a brother George born anywhere near 1830 and that was Mary E. Summers, daughter of John K. and Elizabeth (Larken) Summers, whose brother was George W., born c1832.

One little problem remains. Neither the 1880 census nor the 1900 census show a George Summers of the required age living in Hamilton or Franklin county even though in 1897 George gave Macedonia, which straddles both counties, as his address. But George could have moved there after 1880 and could have died by 1900. He was 67 years old at the time of the deposition and was not living in a healthy area. In an article in the Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society, Professor Ronald R. Stockton has stated

It is hard to imagine how profoundly difficult it was to survive on the nineteenth-century Illinois frontier. In many cases the soil was unbroken, the swamps were not drained, diseases were rampant, and medical care was scarce or non-existent. Death was a constant, if unwelcome, companion.

Would you like to get a copy of the entire Ezra Gilchrist file? You may find something I missed. To get a copy just click on the link below. You don’t need the Dropbox app. If you get a "Log in or Sign Up" message just ignore it. Press the download button at the top of the web page. You will then get (another) "Log in or Sign Up" message. Just click "Or continue with dropdown only" at the bottom of that message. You need not log in or sign up. It is not necessary to be a Dropbox user. Leave a comment or send me an email if you have problems. 

Ezra Gilchrist Narional Archive File, Download