My Quaker Ancestors, or why can't we all just be Friends?

(Posted by Mark Todd)

I've been reading Pulitzer-prize winning journalist Alan Taylor's American Colonies, a socio-political  and economic account of the English colonies in the New World. Mainly I was prompted by wanting to know more about the forces that drove my seventeenth- and eighteenth-century ancestors to emigrate to and then often relocate within various colonies and colonial provinces in subsequent generations.

Some of my New England ancestors were protestants and separatists seeking religious freedom, and largely Puritans, Baptists, Anglicans, or Presbyterians. (For the record, they usually sought religious freedom for their own beliefs but rarely for the freedom of others who didn't conform to their own narrow-band convictions.) 

Other ancestors were more southerly merchants and entrepreneurs motivated by opportunity and the promise of financial independence -- and usually at the expense of the pre-Columbian indigenous inhabitants as well as by the exploitation of imported slave labor. (These ancestral scruples deserve its own blog posting, but I'm still coming to terms with this dismaying heritage.)

But a number of my ancestors were also Quakers--in fact, some thirty or more (so far as I've been able to identify).

I'd like to share a few specific stories about selected Quaker ancestors, who fall within both my paternal and maternal lines, respectively, from Colonial Virginia, Colonial Maryland, and the colonial Province of West Jersey. 

A bit of context

Quakers, or more properly the Religious Society of Friends of God, began in the mid-seventeenth century and largely founded by George Fox in Yorkshire, England, where a number of my ancestral branches originate.

Quakers tended to be pacifists who wouldn't bear arms, take oaths or swear allegiance to earthly authority, and they promoted gender equality, religious tolerance, the abolition of slavery, and true democratic principles within their communities. But such notions were not popular ideas--and certainly not ideals--during the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries for both England and its American colonies, where Quakers were often persecuted.

My Paternal Quakers

My paternal line has revealed at least eight Quakers.

If you've read my three previous blogs, you know over the past year I've discovered through Y-DNA and autosomal DNA results that my genealogically documented third great-great grandfather Thomas Todd was the product of a liaison between a son of immigrant William Goforth and his wife Anne Skipwith and a daughter of immigrant Capt. Thomas Todd and his wife Anne Lovelace Gorsuch. Ironically, both of these grandmothers were daughters of Quaker converts, and both due to tragic circumstances.

Anne Skipwith's mother was Honora Saunders (1620-1679) of Yorkshire. Her husband Willoughby 

York Castle's Clifford Tower Prison  in the 17th Century

Skipwith, a Yorkshire lord, died in 1658 during the English Civil War. He'd backed the wrong horse and when the Stuarts were restored, his lands were confiscated. Honora petitioned and was granted the return of her estate. Four years later, she converted to the Friends in 1662. She must have been fervent in her new faith because, according to Quaker meeting records of Yorkshire, she died "a Prisoner for Truth" in York Castle prison on 15 April 1679, a prison known for housing political prisoners including such a prominent Quaker as George Fox himself for a time. Her daughter Anne and son-in-law William Goforth Sr would be early colonists in the Province of West Jersey, and their son, William Jr (who is the likely father of my own ancestor Thomas Todd) would later be denounced in a Quaker monthly meeting at Falls, New Jersey, in 1682 because of his alleged activities in connection with privateering.

Another Quaker ancestor is Anne Gorsuch's mother Anne Lovelace Gorsuch (1639-1752). Her husband Rev. John Gorsuch was a staunch English Loyalist and at odds with Oliver Cromwell, who had him falsely accused and charged among hundreds of other ministers. But shortly after Rev. John was "ejected" from prison, according to the Visitation of London, he was soon found "smothered in a Haymow" in 1642. His widow Anne immigrated to Lancaster County, Virginia in 1651 with her brothers and several of her children. Her sons, Richard, Charles, Robert, and Lovelace, joined the Society of Friends there and were with the group of Quakers driven out of Lancaster County, Virginia by Gov. Berkeley in 1660. When they moved to Baltimore, Maryland, so did Anne, and also to Baltimore, where her daughter Anne Gorsuch was already married to Capt. Thomas Todd (one of whose daughters is the likely mother to my own Thomas Todd). 

My Maternal Quakers

My maternal grandmother's grandmother Lydia Hanna Jane Youngblood also descends from a line of at least sixteen Quakers on her great-great-grandfather's maternal line, also dating back to the 1600s origins of the Society of Friends.

William Coale Jr (1633-1678), was born in Jamestown, Colonial Virginia, and son of Quaker immigrant William Coale Sr, a famous Quaker preacher in the Colonies. William Jr also became an important Quaker minister. According to his WikiTree page biography, "He was instrumental in setting up the first Quaker meetings on the Western Shore of the [Chesapeake] Bay, at his home, West River Hundred in Anne Arundel County. In 1658 William refused to bear arms in the militia and was subjected to land penalties. In 1659, he and several other Friends challenged the provincial court by refusing to swear oaths to administer a Quaker orphan's estate. They lost their challenge, and the court stripped them of the estate to make an example of them.  In 1660 William moved his family to the West River in Ann Arundal County, MD. West River is 30 miles south of Baltimore on the western shore of the Chesapeake Bay. He owned 150 acres called 'GreatBonnerston.' During the 1660's, William traveled throughout Virginia as an itinerant missionary with several other Friends. He was imprisoned for his efforts and one of his companions died in jail." 

Thomas Thurston (1622-1693), born in Gloucestershire, England, emigrated to Colonial America, and was a well-known early Quaker missionary. According to his WikiTree biography, "While persecuted in several colonies[, he] was well-treated by the Native Americans who visited him while he was imprisoned in Virginia." According to the Maryland Historical Society, "[Thomas] was banished from Boston before his travel through Maryland ... in 1658" and "made a prisoner in Anne Arundel County for his efforts to seduce the people, and the Governor and Council of Maryland issued orders directing Justices of the Peace to seize any Quakers that might come into their districts, and to whip them from Constable to Constable until they should reach the bounds of the province. Anyone helping him would also be in trouble."

Thomas's daughter Elizabeth (born about 1650 in Dedham, Suffolk, Massachusetts Bay Colony) would marry George Skipwith (1629-1683), a Quaker from Leistershire, England, who emigrated to Colonial Maryland probably in the late 1650s, but the life for Quakers in this colony were much improved by the 1670s: George was prosperous, and he and his wife established a plantation called Silverstone in the Herring Creek Hundred, where records describe him as "George Skipwith, Anne Arundel County, merchant," according to a deed of 7 April 1679. And a Third Haven Monthly Meeting of Friends refers to a meeting to be held at his home on 7 June 1679. 

Clearly, true religious freedom was a hard-fought battle in the early days throughout the American colonies. One of the personal ironies is how many of my other ancestors--Puritans, Anglicans, Baptists, and Presbyterians--stood against the "heresies" of my Quaker ancestors. What would they have thought to know so many of these opposing bloodlines would later merge into the likes of me! 

(Click here for the next post, which explores the French Huguenot immigration experience through ancestors on my maternal line by focusing on immigrants Mark Hardin and his wife Marie de la Chaumette.)

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Here are links to the WikiTree profiles for the key ancestors I discuss above, which includes additional documentation and sources.

Paternal Quakers 
Honora Saunders (1620-1679) 
Anne Lovelace Gorsuch (1639-1702)

Maternal Quakers
William Coale Jr (1633-1678) 
Thomas Thurston (1622-1693) 
George Skipwith (1629-1683)

Josiah Todd (1778-1853), and his elusive ancestors, pt 3

(The third and final in a three-part blog series.)

In the previous posting, I reported my research establishing and identifying Thomas Todd's mother, either Frances Todd or else Averilla Todd, both daughters of Maryland planter and merchant Thomas Todd Sr and his wife Anne Lovelace Gorsuch, based on a combination of genealogical records and DNA matches with 15 living, direct descendants of this Todd+Gorsuch line.

The next step was to determine the father, which follows.

Thomas Todd’s father, my 4GGgrandfather and the great-grandfather to Josiah Todd

Y-DNA suggests my 3xGGgrandfather Thomas Todd’s patrilineal heritage comes from the Goforth line rather than the Todd line. My test results confirm that I have substantial Y-DNA matches with members of the Goforth family, as do the two other Josiah Todd descendants who have also taken the FamilyTreeDNA Y-DNA test, and they also show these same Goforth matches.

We even know the specific family, William Goforth and Anne Skipwith, arriving in West New Jersey in 1677 as part of the Quaker movement in the New World, with their six sons: George Goforth (1663-1732), William Goforth (1665-1748), John Goforth (1667-1750), Miles Goforth (1673 to before 1734), Zachariah Goforth (1675-1736), and Thomas Goforth (dates of birth and death unknown, but presumably died quite young).

William Goforth Sr died in 1778, within months of arriving in the New World, but his sons lived their entire lives during the window of time that would have made a liaison between one of them and a daughter of Thomas Todd Sr and Anne Lovelace Gorsuch feasible. (See the previous blog post for those findings, and my high confidence that this daughter is Frances Todd.) 

The following brief quoted excerpts and highlighted summaries for each of William Goforth Sr and Anne Skipwith's sons all come from Goforth family historian and genealogist George Tuttle Goforth’s (GTG) excellent and well documented manuscript The Goforth Genealogy: A History of the Descendants of George Goforth of Knedlington, England, 2001:

1. George Goforth (1663-1732)
   Born 1663 in Yorkshire, England; died 1732 [about 10 miles from Trenton] in Burlington, New Jersey; eldest son; married JANE ROBINSON; “called himself a ‘Mariner,’ having been a Captain of a boat on the Delaware River, he owned a farm for many years. In 1681, George Goforth was apprenticed to George Hutchinson, and in 1682 he carried dispatches to New York City from the Acting Governor Markham of PA., protesting the action of Lord Baltimore” (GTG p. 8). Spent his whole life in New Jersey farming. “He named in his will his wife, Jane, and son, William as his heirs, but as neither was then ‘in the province [New Jersey],’ the condition was set forth in the will that unless they returned to claim the property within 5 years, it was to pass into the possession of his brothers, John  and William” (GTG p.8). 
   
   George is not a strong candidate for the father of our GGgrandfather Thomas. Despite George’s self-designation as a “mariner,” his work was clearly farming in Delaware, and both his lifestyle and activity do not reveal a likely proximity to or affiliation with the Maryland Todds.
   
   
2. William Goforth (1665-1748)
   Born 1665 in Yorkshire, England; died 1748 in Talbot County, Maryland; married 1694 to Sarah Preston, daughter of John and Joan Preston of Talbot County, Maryland, [near St. Michaels and Oxford, Maryland.] “[E]ngaged in seafaring (possibly privateering, to some extent).  He was denounced in a Quaker monthly meeting at Falls, New Jersey in 1682 because of his alleged activities in connection with privateering.  In his sailing trips he must have visited often the ports on the Chesapeake Bay, for in 1694, he married Sarah Preston, who lived near old Oxford, some 30 miles across the bay from Annapolis, on the Eastern shore of Maryland (GTG p. 8). 
   
   William is a strong candidate for fathering our GGgrandfather Thomas (see further rationale below).
   
   
3. John Goforth (1667-1750) 
   
         Born 1667 in Yorkshire, England; died 1750 in Newcastle, Delaware. Lived most of his life in Philadelphia and Red Lyon, New Jersey (GTG p. 9). Further, GTG’s account of John relates a lengthy record of his dealings as a farmer. Married twice—first to a “Hannah” and after her death to a “Lydia.”
   
   John is not a strong candidate for the father of our GGgrandfather Thomas. No believable proximity for association with the Maryland Todds.
   
   
4. Miles Goforth (1673 to before 1734) 
   Born in Yorkshire, England, and died in Kent County, on the eastern shore of Delaware (on the Dover Bay). “Miles Goforth was living in Philadelphia in 1704 [where he operated a transfer business, arranging for passengers and freight].  He removed into what became Delaware sometime later in life, as he was in Kent County [Dover] during and before 1734” (GTG p. 10). Of note, his first wife was named Frances, but not Thomas Todd Sr's daughter Frances, who died prior to 1706 and Miles's wife Frances died prior to 1734.
   
   Miles is not a strong candidate for the father of our GGgrandfather Thomas. No believable proximity for association with the Maryland Todds.
   
   
5.  Zachariah Goforth (1675-1736)
   Born 1675 in Yorkshire, England; died 1736 in Kent County, Delaware. “Lived in Philadelphia when a youth…. Zachariah was living in New Castle Hundred, Delaware in 1696. [Early Delaware Census, 1665‑1697]  About 1700, or somewhere around that time, Zachariah bought a tract of land in Dorchester County, Maryland adjoining Talbot County, on the Eastern shore, where his brother William had settled.  About 1707, Zachariah moved to Kent County in what is now Delaware, where he became a land owner and prominent citizen” (GTG p. 10).
   
   Zachariah’s association by locality with his brother William places him closer to the Maryland Todds, but by then both Frances and Averilla had likely died, so Zachariah is not a candidate.
   
   
6. Thomas Goforth (dates of birth and death unknown)
   Presumably died quite young, so not a candidate for the father of my GGgrandfather Thomas.

Of these six sons, William seems the best candidate for a number of reasons:

*  By 1682, William Goforth was engaged in seafaring and “[i]n his sailing trips he must have visited often the ports on the Chesapeake Bay, for in 1694, he married Sarah Preston, who lived near old Oxford, some 30 miles across the bay from Annapolis, on the Eastern shore of Maryland,” (GTG p. 8). These facts suggest that William was affable or credible enough to win approval for marriage from a reputable family—or even visiting rights in the Maryland Todd household.

*   Frances Todd’s father Thomas Todd Sr was a planter and merchant, holding a share in the ship Augustine, and the family lived in Baltimore, which has a major harbor opening onto the Chesapeake Bay (Biographical Dictionary at Archives of Maryland online). In fact, Thomas Sr died at sea in 1677 during a voyage to England to sell tobacco from his plantation (see letter attached to his 1677 will). These facts suggest a not unreasonable opportunity for William to have become acquainted with the Todds of Baltimore.

*   The Goforths were Quakers, and the family of Frances and Averilla Todd’s mother, Anne Lovelace Gorsuch, became converts to Quakerism by 1652, only five years before Anne married Thomas Todd Sr, again providing an opportunity by religious affiliation for William Goforth to have become acquainted with the Todd family since he was also likely to have frequented major ports such as Baltimore on the Chesapeake Bay.

*     According to George Tuttle Goforth, William “was denounced in a Quaker monthly meeting at Falls, New Jersey in 1682 because of his alleged activities in connection with privateering” (p.8). That William Goforth received this rebuke reveals a moral latitude for the time that could account for his ungentlemanly relationship with either Frances or Averilla. 

*   Biographical facts for William’s other brothers do not reveal any details that suggest they had ever visited Baltimore nor would their occupations or business engagements have taken them to places other than Delaware or Pennsylvania.

Since Y-DNA evidence suggests these brothers represent the family and generation that would have fathered our 3GGgrandfather Thomas Todd, William Goforth Jr seems the most likely candidate for our Goforth 4GGgrandfather, and paternal great-grandfather to Josiah Todd.

In conclusion, genetic genealogy suggests the parents of Thomas Todd, and the paternal great-grandparents of Josiah Todd, were William Goforth Jr, son of William Goforth Sr and Anne Skipwith, and either Frances or Averilla Todd, sibling daughters of Thomas Todd Sr and Anne Lovelace Gorsuch.

The next post explores selected Quaker ancestors and their experiences during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries in Colonial America, including the ancestors of my third great-great grandfather Thomas Todd discussed above.

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Here are links to the WikiTree profiles for the key ancestors I discuss above, which includes additional documentation and sources.

• Josiah Todd
  (my great-great-grandfather)
  
  Josiah's parents:
• Thomas Todd -- if born before 1706 (my 3xGGgrandfather)
• Charity Hardy (my 3xGGgrandmother)

       Thomas Todd's rerouted patrilineal line, per DNA and genealogical findings:

• William Goforth Jr, Thomas's proposed father (my 4xGGgrandfather)
  
  
• William Goforth Sr, Thomas's paternal grandfather (my 5xGGgrandfather)
• Anne Skipwith Thomas's paternal grandmother
  (my 5xGGgrandmother)

Josiah Todd (1778-1853) and his elusive ancestors, pt 2

(This is part two of a three-part blog series. Click here to see part one.) 

Kym and I are real fans of Skip Gates's PBS series Finding Your Roots. We never miss an episode.

And we've become fascinated by his genealogy crew, who often use a combination of paper trail and DNA evidence to confirm or point the way when their research into program guests hits a brick wall in the search for a previous generation.

The availability of online records has provided a real boom for the present-day genealogy research, but the explosion of available DNA data has opened up tools and avenues of exploration by amateurs like us, helping us break through our own bricks.

My own search for the grandparents of Josiah Todd (1778-1853), is a case in point. 

I've used a combination of painstaking research into genealogical records to narrow the field, but DNA matches have provided leads in some instances, while in other instances DNA data has confirmed hunches--even to the point of helping me to build a strong case for the identity of my mysterious ancestors: the parents of Josiah's father, Thomas Todd, my 3xGGgrandfather. 

In this blog, I'll walk through what the DNA evidence leads tell me, and then I'll narrow the field even further by revealing what the genealogical records reveal about who Thomas Todd's mother, my 4xGGgrandmother, may well be.

(In the following blog, I'll do the same for the identity of Thomas Todd's father, my 4xGGgrandfather.)

DNA Evidence for the family of my 4xGGgrandmother, Thomas Todd’s mother

My DNA research, all autosomal since Y-DNA doesn’t track matrilineal lines, produces a convincing number of shared identical DNA segments with uploaded DNA kits on GEDmatch.com from descendants of Capt. Thomas Todd Sr (1619-1675) and Anne Lovelace Gorsuch (1638-1694). These shared segments  are with 15 living, confirmed descendants from Todd+Gorsuch sons Thomas Todd Jr (eight living descendants with shared identical segments totaling 220.5 cM) and William Todd (seven identified living descendants with shared identical segments totaling 215 cM), for a total 435.5 cM. (To be clear, this number represents the aggregate of ALL matching segments with me from all 15 descendants. But subtracting the 57.9 cM overlapping shared segments still produces 377.6 cM of unique matches with me by living Todd+Gorsuch descendants.)

Here’s the breakdown of identical segments with the living descendants of the two Todd+Gorsuch sons, revealing two identical triangulated segments in five instances with two varying descendants: one pair matching mine on my Chromosome 2, one matching pair on my Chromosome 12, one pair on my Chromosome 21, two matching pairs on my Chromosome 22. To clarify, these identical segments on each chromosome recur for three living descendants, including me.

I also share three identical “triangulated” segments in six instances with varying living descendants of Todd+Gorsuch sons: one triple match to a segment on my Chromosome 1, a triple match on Chromosome 2, a triple match on my Chromosome 10, a triple match on my Chromosome 15, a triple match on my Chromosome 17, and a triple match on my Chromosome 20. To clarify, these identical segments on each chromosome recur for four  living descendants, including me.

Among these matches, I share a total of 53.4 cM with a 9^th great-granddaughter of Thomas Todd Jr (son of Todd+Gorsuch) and a total of 41.6 cM with a 10^th great-granddaughter of Thomas Todd Jr. I also share a total of 46.5 cM with an 8^th GGranddaughter of William Todd (another son of Todd+Gorsuch), a total of 42.2 cM with a 9^th GGranddaughter descending on a different line of descendants of William Todd, and a total of 38.8 cM with another 8^th GGranddaughter of William Todd.

Tracing the family trees for the six above higher-shared matches with descendants reveals no other recognized divergent surnames other than the Todd+Gorsuch line. (I did the same for all the other descendants as well and with the same results: no other recognized divergent surnames other than the Todd+Gorsuch line.) 

Additionally, I share identical segments on Chromosomes 2, 5, 10, 11, 15, 19, and 20 with three living descendants through a separate Gorsuch line descending directly from Anne Lovelace Gorsuch’s parents John Gorsuch and Anne Lovelace. This line is via great-granddaughter Elizabeth (Gorsuch) Howard. Eight of the identified 15 living descendants of the Todd+Gorsuch sons included in my pool also share these same identical segments.

All the shared segments with living descendants of the Todd+Gorsuch sons for whom I have documentation suggest my 4xGGgrandmother, the grandmother of Josiah Todd, is an unidentified daughter of Thomas Todd Sr and Anne Lovelace Gorsuch, one who has no officially recorded offspring that I can find in official records.

But which daughter? According to the paper trail, the Todd+Gorsuch couple had eight children, including the following four (maybe five? See below) daughters:

1. Ann Todd (1658 to sometime between 1684 and 1694). Born and died in Baltimore MD; documented as living at home in 1669, when her father Capt. Thomas and family officially emigrated to MD; still lived at home in 1677; married Miles Gibson in 1677. 
   
   
   My 3xGGgrandfather Thomas Todd has a presumed birthdate between 1710 and 1715, so Ann is only a candidate if our Thomas was born much earlier: if Ann died between age 26 (1684) and age 36 (1694), then she could have been the mother in or before that window.
   
   
2.           Frances Todd (1669 to possibly as early as 1697, per findings in VA Mag 25.1: 85-86). Born in Gloucester VA; died in Baltimore, MD. Included under head of household Thomas Todd Sr in 1677 when the family officially emigrated to MD. (He already had land holdings in both VA and MD.) Frances appears in Thomas’s will of 1677 in MD and again in stepfather David Jones’s will of 1686 for 230 acres from his “dwelling plantation.” However, Frances's inherited land belongs to Baltimore merchant Richard Cromwell , according to the Baltimore County Rent Roll for 1700. Although no document records that land transfer, none would be required if Frances married Cromwell. However, since Cromwell married Ann Besson on 26 Oct 1697, Frances would have died before that date if she indeed married Cromwell.
   
   If my 3xGGgrandfather Thomas Todd were born a few years earlier than supposed, Frances would have been at most 28 at the time of her death if born in or before 1697.
   
   So Frances may be a candidate for my 4GGgrandmother if  my 3x GGgrandfather Thomas was born prior to 1697.  
            
3.    .  Johanna Todd (1669-1686). Came to VA in 1669 with father Thomas Sr and in his will of 1677 in MD. Died at age 17. So not a candidate unless the range of dates for my 3xGGfather Thomas are very much in error.
   
   
4.       Averilla Todd (birth date before 1669 and died prior to 1700). Came with father Thomas Sr to VA in 1669. She appears in her father’s will of 1677 in MD. In stepfather David Jones’s will of 1686, she received 250 acres from his “dwelling plantation.” Died before 1700 when recorded rent from this inherite tract goes to her brother James alone. Approximate age at death was likely no more than 30. 
   
   Averilla may be a candidate for my 4GGgrandmother if my 3xGGgrandfather Thomas was born prior to 1700.
   
   
5.        ??? Elizabeth Todd Kennedy (1670-1743?). Born in Baltimore, MD; died in Augusta, VA. 
   This presumed daughter is problematic. No records reference or mention this presumed “daughter” of Thomas Todd Sr and Anne Lovelace Gorsuch among any primary Todd documents. And the reported death date of 1743 only appears on one WikiTree profile and one Ancestry.com profile—both managed by the same researcher. The 1743 death date pertains to an Elizabeth Todd buried in Scotland only two days after supposedly dying in Virginia. So we have no certain end date for this presumed daughter. However, the nine discovered living descendants of this line nonetheless share many DNA segments with me and with the other descendants of Thomas Todd Jr and William Todd, both confirmed sons of Todd+Gorsuch.
   
   I have discounted this person as a candidate because of the lack of historical documentation connecting her to Thomas Todd Sr and Anne Lovelace Gorsuch..

Both sibling sisters Frances Todd and Averilla seem the most likely candidates as for mother of my 3xGGgrandfather Thomas Todd, and paternal great-grandmother of Josiah Todd.

(Click here, to see the final part of this three-part blog series.)

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Here are links to the WikiTree profiles for the key ancestors I discuss above, including documentation and sources.

• Josiah Todd
  (my great-great-grandfather)
  
  Josiah's parents:
• Thomas Todd -- if born before 1706 (my 3xGGgrandfather)
• Charity Hardy (my 3xGGgrandmother)

       Thomas Todd's rerouted matrilineal line, per DNA and genealogical findings:

• Frances Todd, one proposed candidate for Thomas's mother (my 4xGGgrandmother)
• Averilla Todd, a second proposed candidate for Thomas's mother (my 4xGGgrandmother)
• Thomas Todd Sr, Thomas's maternal grandfather
  (my 5xGGgranfather)
• Anne Lovelace Gorsuch, Thomas's maternal grandmother
  (my 5xxGGgrandmother)