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Note: n "September" sometime at the end of the 18th century, worked for a time for John Whitten (family tradition they worked for Davis Whitten clearly confused, as latter was a child at the time), a farmer and justice of the peace (like Davis after him) in London Britain, PA. They had a baby, William, in Ireland or on the ship and he died on the voyage over. They landed at New Castle. They were employed by John Whitten/ Whitting, the father of Justice of teh Peace DAvis Whitten, who was also a justice of the peace, and owned a very large farm and was one of the few people in Chester County to own slaves. His farm was near and farms of his brothers bordered the land that John Smith bought (from another estate). In 1798 they bought a small, 29 acre farm near the present town hall in London Britain. John Smith is consistently listed as a weaver and paid taxes primarily on his loom; also taxed on his land and a horse and a cow. The Smiths arrived in Pennsylvania in the "closing days of September" with the clothes on their back, having lost their baby on the voyage, were "hired" off the docks, and acquired a piece of land often traditionally considered exactly the amount needed to support a family, in the "beginning days of October", it would have been four to seven years later. This is usually read as your cues they were indentured servants. The land was obtained with their freedom dues, a piece of land or the money to obtain a piece of land or other means sufficient to support a family. It was required by Pennsylvabnia colonial law, I don't know about in 1790, but John Whitten was known to be extremely scrupulous by his own standards, and it's hard to see how the Smiths acquired the land or a loom without it. The dead baby is also an important clue. It tells us they probably travelled in steerage, a special between decks place to transport poor immigrants and slaves; dark, with wooden bunks piled three high, little ventilation and little light, and the ceiling not high enough to fully stand up. Some of the ships were in fact slaving vessels. Conditions were terrible and the food skimpy and poor, and small children more often than not died on the voyage. In 1803 or therabouts he took out a mortgage on his farm, for which he originally paid cash, for $200, and in 1831 a judgement for the entire amount of the mortgage and interest forced him to sell the farm to George, one of his sons, and he sold it again in 1832. The mortgage was held by an individual in the village in London Britain township, and I've an idea it was called in when the mortgage passed to his son. It is pretty clear that John and Isabella Smith were well regarded by the townspeople. People cooperated to make a piece of land available to them, in an area in the southeastern corner of Pennsylvania on the Delaware and Maryland border near Philadelphia, which was thickly settled by prosperous farmers with much bigger pieces of land, and merchants. The mortgage holder carried them. John Smith was one of the signers of the petition for the license for Jesse Dehaven's tavern across the road from the Smith land; this tavern doubled as the town hall, and some years later William married the Dehavens' daughter. The land is located near the current London Britain town hall, and across the road from the house that was Jesse Dehaven's tavern, where a family currently lives. It was split from the larger property of Robert Roney when that land was sold. It is a very irregular piece of land. I sketched it from the deed with a ruler and compass. Its original boundaries are shown on the 1880 farm maps of Chester County. Yvan Kellar owned in the 1990s the property that was the Smith farm. The house that existed at that time was built around the log cabin the Smiths built, and another half of the house added on. They did some renovations, and in the process some excavating. A fireplace in the cellar of the original log cabin suggests that John and Isabella, who had a one year old child and a small baby, lived in the cellar of their uncompleted cabin the first winter. They really struggled. They must also have been quite independent without ties to other people they could have stayed with, or else they didn't feel they could ask. As servants, they would have had to keep their heads low, but, on the other hand, a number of people they must have impressed went to some trouble to create that parcel of land for them. This typically Scotch Irish independence, tending to neither help others nor ask for help, was handed down to my father. It is noteworthy that two sons certainly had enough money to pay off their parents' mortgage, and I think they probably had no idea it existed until it was foreclosed upon when the parents were past 60 years old. John and Isabella hadn't told their children they could use help, even though one of their children lived with them. My own father outright resented my brother or me visiting them, even when my brother had gone up there to help them around the house, the boundaries were that tightly drawn. I take it his grandfather was certainly the same way, and his parents really didn't have a whole lot to do with other people. My father's grandfather married a Quaker woman, the grand daughter of the most silent, intense, a-social Quaker who ever led the town of New Garden and the New Garden Meeting, and it must have been a marriage made in Heaven. A history of weaving, in addition to showing the large manual loom he would have used, says that just between 1830 and 1832, the first industrial textile mills started operation in the PHiladelphia/ southeastern Pennsylvania area, particularly around New Garden, and the price of textiles plummeted severely. Village/ cottage weavers like John Smith were unable to make a living, and many, like John Smith, were ruined. Past 60 years old, they could quite likely no longer support themselves. Second cousins told me they understood the Smiths came from Londonderry Ireland. I don't know if this has any basis in fact. It could have started as speculation and been passed around. Another clue to their origins is that John and Isabella were very loyal Presbyterians. Every Sunday they hitched the one horse to the one wagon that the tax records show they possessed, put their seven children in the wagon, and drove twelve miles to worship at a Presbyterian Church; the Baptist church at which their former masters the Whittens worshipped was much closer. Eventually two offshoot churches of teh New London Presbyterian Church were built in southern New London and London Britain (near the town line); both shared their quarters with Methodist congregations. Gradually, by the time John's and Isabella's son William was an adult and financially successful, the Presbyterians at those churches went over to being Methodists, and this included the Smiths. But in John's and Isabella's time, it was pretty clear that their origins lay in Scotland. George did not live in Chester County but plainly lived nearby as he not only was around to bail out his father but is buried with his wife in Flint Hill Cemetery. It is likely that he lived over the state line in Cecil County, MD, like many members and relatives of the Smith family. In fact, GEorge and William, two sons of John, for a time had an extremely prosperous farm machinery selling business in Maryland. John and Isabella may well have gone to live with him. The census would tell; I've had no chance to check. John and Isabella are believed according to family tradition to be buried at Flint Hill Cemetery in the same grave or under the same marker as William Smith and his wife Mary Dehaven, but their names are not on the marker, and noone can find their graves. The Smiths were all buried together in a common lot, with several children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren. Of course, John and Isabella would have been buried sooner than the others, and the church long ago burned down and the graveyard is neglected and overgrown . A family history written by William Henry Smith Sr refers to the place as "Wesley"; that church was at one point called Wesley Chapel, though not many remember that. And "Southside" which my great grandfather identifies as the location, means southern Chester County, which has an identity distinct from Northern Chester County. In the 1840 census, William Smith of White Clay Creek had a man age 60-70 and a woman aged 70-80 living with him. It was not the Dehavens. Family records suggest that both John and Isabella were born around 1769, which is consistent with both being around 70 in 1840. Yet another clue to the Smith's ultimately Scottish origins, was the manner by which the family climbed out of poverty. The story passed down below emphasizes the role of Smith thrift and industry in their ability to acquire a piece of land. Though they never climbed out of poverty themselves, organization and an emphasis on the education and training of their children allowed their children to succeed. The astounding success of their son William is typical of people who came directly from Scotland, and leaves one wondering how much time they spent in Ireland, though clearly they were born there. The great bulk of Scotch Irish seemed noted for ignorance and wildness. However, among them was a "better sort", who were devout, industrious, thrifty, and well organized. In backwoods communities, they were who had their cabins up, their property cleared and cleaned up, and the fences up, before others did, and they soon emerged as community leaders. Isabella is described below as intellectual of feature, and one can see her possibly teaching her children around the kitchen table. John and Isabella placed their son William in an apprenticeship with great care. It is likely that his master sent him to school, and as likely that his parents knew his master would send him to school. William emerged capable of not only going into business for himself as a stone mason, but taking on great public building contracts. In 1809, Pennsylvania, which had no public education, passed the Poor School Childrens' Act. If poor parents wished to send their children to school, and they were not obliged to, they could apply to the county officials, the children could attend private schools in their town, and the county paid the bills. Not William, who was already an apprentice at this time, but a number of the Smith children were sent to school and their bills paid under this law. Chester County's records are far from complete, so more Smith children than we know about could have been sent to school, or they could have attended for more years than we have a record of. Children were eligible to attend school from age 5 to age 12, and in that time when basic knowledge was stressed and children learned far more than they do now, and didn't learn the same thing multiple times, children emerged with a solid basic education at age 12. They could read, write, do arithmetic, and knew something of literature, poetry, and had a solid grounding in history and geography. Today's adults are hard put to pass a 5th grade exam of that time. Smith, Adam London Britain. school not named. 1810 NN4. Smith, Mary London Britain 1810 NN4 Smith, John London Britain Adam, John, Mary, Isabella 1810 Smith, John London Britain John (10), Mary (8), Isabella (6) 1811 From Biographical Encyclopedia of Delaware: His paternal grandfather, John Smith, a farmer and weaver, was born n Ireland in 1769, died in 1854; he married Isabella ____, born in Ireland, 1769, died in 1843. John Smith was a Presbyterian, and afterwards a member of the M. E. Church; he and his wife emigrated to America. In the latter part of last century, and the closing days of September, an emigrant ship sailed up the Delaware River and cast anchor at New Castle, then the "Castle Garden" of the country. The town beautiful for situation, on the western shore, nestled in the outskirts of the tehn widespread forest, was inhabited by a thrifty people, many of whom gathered at the landing to welcome the newly arrived, who, following the western instinct of emigration, had come to seek a new home on the American shore. Among them was a newly wedded pair, John and Isabella Smith, the grandarents of William H. Smith. The husband of brawny arm, steady step and honest face; the wife, slight in form, sprightly in movement and intellectual in feature. There were traces of sorrow in their anxious faces, for not only had they severed the ties of the fatherland, but also, during the tedious voyage, had committed to the sea their child, a bright baby boy, and now, friendless, homeless and bereaved, they went they knew not where. A kindly farmer and justice of the peace, Davis Whitten, who lived some twenty miles inland in Pennsylvania, offered them a home and employment, and being industrious and frugal, they became possessed of a small farm, on which they reared a numerous family, whose labor was divided between the loom and the plow. Prosperity smiled on the home, In the 1880 census, their daughter Eliza Jane, now named Dean and living in Iowa, told the census taker that both her parents were born in Ireland. Her husband was born in England. ============================= Tax Records for London Britain ancestors 1799 Weaver Jon Smith 2 J Do W Dollars $116. 1805 John Smith 29 acres 4 - 1.07 Buildings .50 Shorn or l horn .10 or loom? 2 cattle .20 Trade .20 Total value $207 Assessed value - $127 tax 0.32 1808 John Smith Buildings .50 Land 29 acres @ $4 ll6. Horses 1 @ 10 10 Cattle 2 @ 12 24 Weaver ----- 200 Total value 160 Assessed value $160 Tax 0. 64 1811 John Smith Buildings 40 29 acres @ 2 Boll 87 2 cattle @ 10 boll 20 Weaver 30 Total Value 177 Adjusted or assessed value 131 tax 0.65 1814 John Smith Buildings 80 29 acres @ 6 174 1 horse 24 2 cows 24 weaver 50 352 Adjusted value $1232 tax 0.98 1820 John Smith 30 acres @40 $1200 buildings 200 2 horses @45 90 1 cow @16 16 dog trade 40 1546 adjusted 695 tax 1.39 John Smith 1823 29 3/4 acres @25 $743.75 buildings @ 500 l horse @25 25. 3 cattle @ 10 30 Weaver 50. Total value 1348.75 Adjusted value 1186 tax 2.37 John Smith 1826 29 acres @ 20 580 Buildings 200 l horse 20 3 cattle @ 9 27 weaver 100 Total value 927 Adjusted value 927 tax 2.13 John Smith 1829 29 acres of land @ 20 580 Buildings 200 l horse @ 5 5 2 cattle & a doll? bull? 18 l dog 823 tax 2.05 John Smith 1831 29 acres @ 20 580 Build 200 1 Horses @ 40 40 2 Cattle @ 12 24 2 dog $844 tax $2.11 Benjamin Whitten 1799 170 acres 1960 l stone 2 storey " 20 by 25 300 1 stone kitchen ? ft square 100 l log barn 20 X 25 ft loft 100 3 horses @ 30, 3 cows @ 10 120 1980 Mary Whitting 1802 Buildings $300 300 land 170 acres @ ? 1360 Kattle 2 24 1684 Mary Whitting no longer on tax rolls in 1805. John Whitting 1802 Buldings $175 land 200 acres @ 10 2000 horses 3 @ 150 CAttle 5 95 2420 Davis Whitting 1845 58 Acres @ $36. $2088 Money 500 3 Horses @ 25 75 5 Cattle @ 14 70 Dog Carriage 10 $2733 tax $4.10, $8.30 1790 John Whitting census Whitting, John 1 3 7 2 2 two free servants, possibly John and Isabella Smith, and 2 slaves. He was nearly unique in London Britain township in owning slaves. Whitting, Benjamin 2 - 2 4 3 note confirmation of l girl l boy children John Smith does not appear as a head of household on the census until 1800. =========================================== Letter about John Smith's house from current owner of the property (see multimedia for photos and a scale map of the property.) Letter from: Yvan Keller 117 Good Hope Road Landenberg,PA 19350-9621 Dear Mrs. Smith: As promised a while ago I dug through my old slides and found a picture of the house my wife and myself bought at the end of 1968. The two pictures were taken at the end of 1968. The one picture shows the house as seen from the driveway. The other one is a close up. We can give you a few explanations about this house: The left part of the house i.e. the part of the house which is directly behind the covered porch was most probably the first house built on the property and it was a small log house. Later on the right part of the house was added and was made out of stones. When we bought it the stone part of the house had a wood floor laid directly on dirt. In the process of excavating to make a sitting pit we found a dry pit filled with rubbish which did not reveal anything of interest. This stone part was probably added ca. 1850 since we found some news papers of the 1850's which had been used to seal off the frame of the backdoor of the log house. The addition of the stone part seems to have been a major change since wood frame work was set on top of the log cabin to be able to join the two parts with a common level roof as you see in the picture. I should add that the log cabin part had a small basement which had in one corner a small sealed off fire place which was probably used during the first winter before the log cabin was completely finished. <i>[My note; the Smiths obtained their land in October 1798 when they had two babies. Picture them spending the first winter in the basement of their unfinished log cabin.] </i>The log part of the house has since been replaced. The stone part is still here. I believe that all the researach you mention in your letter is correct. The house on the picture is at the end of the triangular piece of land we bought in 1968. This land corresponds to the survey made in 1798 when your ancestor bought it. I hope I have filled in some of the questoins you had. That's all for now. Sincerely yours, Y. Keller
Note: John and Isabella were married in Ireland, landed at New Castle, DE, i
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