Thomas and Margaret Minshall, Identifying a Colonial Ship

THOMAS AND MARGARET MINSHALL IDENTIFYING A COLONIAL SHIP by Kay Haviland Freilich, CG, CGL* F or colonial immigrants who were British citizens, no statement of allegiance to a new ruler was required, nor did their departure merit mention in the church records of the home parish or the civil records of the local government, old or new. Even if the ship’s captain or owner created a list of passengers, there was no reason to preserve such papers. Yet placing an immigrant on a specific ship is often a goal of genealogists and a requirement for membership in some lineage societies.1 Thomas Minshall and his wife Margaret have long been recognized as probable passengers on the Friendship, one of twenty-two ships in the fleet that brought settlers to William Penn’s new colony of Pennsylvania between 15 December 1681 and 31 December 1682. Placing the couple on the Friendship would identify them as approved ancestors for The Welcome Society of Pennsylvania and make their descendants eligible for membership.2 Some ship owners or captains kept records of the goods they were paid to transport to the colonies. By inference those who shipped goods on a given vessel likely sailed with their goods. The Friendship loaded goods in May 16823 and arrived in Delaware on 14 August 1682.4 * Kay Haviland Freilich, CG, CGL, 395 Kerrwood Drive, Wayne, PA 19087, is President of the Board for Certification of Genealogists and former Book Review Editor of PGM. This research was conducted for Lucinda Hathaway, Longboard Key, Florida, and is published with her permission. 1 These include The General Society of Mayflower Descendants, The Society of the Ark and Dove, and The Welcome Society of Pennsylvania. 2 Membership in The Welcome Society is open to descendants of those who sailed on one of the ships in Penn’s fleet; the specific ship must be identified. See The Welcome Society of Pennsylvania Yearbook, 2001 (Philadelphia: The Society, 2001), 110, 118 [hereafter cited as Welcome Society Yearbook] and the Society’s web site, <www.welcomesociety.org>. One ship, the Bristol Factor, made two voyages within the specified dates. 3 Marion Balderston, “William Penn’s Twenty-Three Ships with Notes on Some of Their Passengers,” Pennsylvania Genealogical Magazine [called Publications of the Genealogical Society of Pennsylvania before 1948] 23(1963): 40; also reprinted in Walter Lee Sheppard, editor, Passengers and Ships Prior to 1684, Publications of the Welcome Society of Pennsylvania, No. 1 (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Company, 1970; reprint, Bowie, Md.: Heritage Books, 1994) [hereafter cited as Balderston, “Twenty-Three Ships”]. 4 Welcome Society Yearbook, 106. 18 Final copy 31 January, 2010 Pennsylvania Genealogical Magazine Vol. 43 (2003) 2003] Thomas and Margaret Minshall 19 Passengers placed on board a variety of goods: 250 pounds of woolen cloth, 20 dozen woolen stockings for men, 140 pounds of new shoes, 20 pounds of pewter, a barrel of soap, 10 pounds of gunpowder, nails, cheese, and a chest.5 Minshall, though, did not pay to ship goods. For centuries our ancestors have traveled in groups of neighbors, close kin, and more-distant relatives. Thomas Minshall’s sister Elinor was on board the Friendship with her husband Robert Vernon, an identified passenger. Robert’s brother Thomas Vernon and his wife Elizabeth were also on board.6 A third Vernon brother, Randle, was a passenger and shipped goods aboard the Friendship.7 But this does not prove that Thomas and Margaret Minshall were on that ship. Documents executed on board certainly prove passage on a particular vessel. The Mayflower Compact may be the most famous of such documents, but many passengers prepared a will en route–a will stating it was written at sea and witnessed by other passengers, thus placing both the testator and the witnesses on board. The earliest land records may, as part of the chain of title, mention arrival information. Again, nothing was found for Minshall. The earliest Pennsylvania records for Thomas and Margaret Minshall support the likelihood that they were on the Friendship, but offer no proof. Thomas was one of the “First Purchasers” from William Penn, securing his land prior to leaving England.8 The warrant to survey the land was dated 9 September 1682,9 shortly after the Friendship arrived in Penn’s colony. The couple settled in Nether Providence Township, Chester County (now Delaware County). There they raised their family and became members of Chester Monthly Meeting. One of the first deaths recorded by the Meeting was that of their daughter Rebecca who “departed this life att sea 4th of the 5th month [July] 1682,”10 a time when the Friendship was at sea, but the ship was not named. An extensive search provided the needed evidence–in a record created almost seventeen years after their immigration. Apparently Thomas and Margaret had been embroiled in a dispute with a fellow passenger that 5 Balderston, “Twenty-Three Ships,” 40; citing Liverpool port books E190/1344/1 and E 190/1345/11 at the Public Records Office [now the National Archives], England. 6 J. Smith Futhey and Gilbert Cope, History of Chester County, Pennsylvania (Philadelphia: Louis H. Everts, 1881), 775; Welcome Society Yearbook, 85. 7 Balderston, “Twenty-Three Ships,” 40. 8 The “First Purchasers” secured their land from Penn between July and October 1681; the list includes Thomas “Minchin” with a purchase of 500 acres. For more information on these early buyers, see Hannah Benner Roach, “The First Purchasers of Pennsylvania” in Walter Lee Sheppard, editor, Passengers and Ships Prior to 1684, Publications of the Welcome Society of Pennsylvania, No. 1 (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Company, 1970; reprint, Bowie, Md.: Heritage Books, 1994), 195—208. 9 Pennsylvania Land Records, Patent Book A-2:231—33, reviewed by Jonathan Stayer at the Pennsylvania State Archives. 10 Chester Monthly Meeting Births and Deaths 1677—1884. Microfilm MR-Ph-77 at Friends Historical Library, Swarthmore. Final copy 31 January, 2010 20 Pennsylvania Genealogical Magazine [Vol. 43 was related to their daughter’s shipboard death and that evidently was never completely settled. Many years later–on 29 3rd month [May] 1699–the old dispute resurfaced. Thomas Minshall made a complaint against Elizabeth Vernon, wife of Thomas, for accusing Margaret of smothering her child on shipboard. Noting that Elizabeth Vernon was “so far discomposed in her mind that no credit can be given to what she says,” the meeting nevertheless asked “those that were shipmates to the said Minshall and his wife to certify under their hands to the contrary.”11 Thomas and Margaret Minshall were on the same ship that carried Elizabeth and Thomas Vernon in 1682–the Friendship. Thus, although no record states explicitly that Thomas Minshall was aboard that ship, the controversy almost two decades later over his daughter’s death clearly establishes that he and Margaret were on the Friendship. They are now approved Welcome Society ancestors. ARTICLES OF PENNSYLVANIA INTEREST IN NON-PENNSYLVANIA JOURNALS T his feature provides brief mentions of recent articles of interest to Pennsylvania researchers who might not otherwise find them easily, since they were published in non-Pennsylvania journals and have not yet appeared in the Periodical Source Index (PERSI). Helen Hinchliff, Ph.D., CG, FASG, “A Misleading Bible Record Identifying David4 Mumper’s Mother,” National Genealogical Society Quarterly 90(2002): 289— 95. Clare A. Lyons, “Mapping an Atlantic Sexual Culture: Homoeroticism in Eighteenth-Century Philadelphia,” William and Mary Quarterly, 3rd series, 60(2003): 119—54. Marianne Wokeck, Ph.D., “Family and Servants: Critical Links in the EighteenthCentury Immigration Chain to the Delaware Valley,” Familia: Ulster Genealogical Review No. 18 (2002): 1—20. Billy G. Smith, “Walking Moraley’s Streets: Philadelphia,” Common-Place Vol. 3 No. 4 (July 2003), <www.common-place.org> [American Antiquarian Society, Early Cities of the Americas issue]. 11 Chester Monthly Meeting Minutes 1681—1721, 56. Microfilm MR-Ph-92 at Friends Historical Library, Swarthmore. There is no further mention of the complaint in the minutes of the next twelve months. Final copy 31 January, 2010