This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Surnames: Redstreake, Pledger, LeFevre, Manning, Roberts, Godwyn, Braithwait Classification: Query Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/an/oRB.2ACI/586.1.2 Message Board Post: Attn: JC Bozarth Dear JayCee: I tried to access "http://rs6.loc.gov/" to view the 4 data pages, 9 interior photos and 13 blueprint drawings of the PLEDGER house, but all I got was this message: "This U.S. government system is restricted by law to authorized, official use only." If there is any other way to access that material? Please advise. Please note: My great-, great-, great-, great-, great-, great-, great-grandfather John Pledger did not arrive in "West New Jersey" on the "Griffith/Griffen." According to old family bibles, he came over on a Dutch ship to negotiate with the Leni Lenapes, Susquehannocks, Dutch, Swedes and Finns for the land around an old Dutch whaling colony (now Salem, NJ). John Pledger and Elizabeth (Lefevre) Pledger John Pledger, born in England abt. 1645-1650? Ships carpenter. Arrived in "Nieuw Nederland" region of "West New Jersey" from Portsmouth, England, BEFORE 1674 on a DUTCH ship to arrange for the purchase of "Varkens Bloed" (Pigs' Blood), a Dutch whaling colony also called "Varkins Kill" on Hudson's South River (Delaware R), renamed Fenwick(e)'s Colony, now Salem, NJ. In June of 1986, Dr. Robert W. Harper, history professor at Glassboro State College, now Rohan University in Glassboro, NJ, confirmed my earlier "speculation" -- and the "speculation" of William Lambeer of The Pennsylvania Historical Society -- that John Pledger and his "cousin" (brother-in-law) Hypolyte (Hippolet) LeFevre arrived in Nieuw Nederland on "de Onrust" (the Restless) or "de Walvis" (the Whale) in advance of the colonists who founded the first permanent Quaker Colony in the New World. John Pledger's wife, Elizabeth Lefevre, a French Huguenot from St. Martins-in-the-Fields, Middlesex County, England, arrived at "Fort Elsborg" at the mouth of the Salem River, home of the new Quaker Colony on March 13, 1675, with son Joseph (age 2) on the "Joseph and Benjamin," Matthew Paine, ships master (captain). There are conflicting reports that she arrived on the "Griffen" with her two-year-old son. A passenger list for the Griffen lists the names of John Pledger, his wife Elizabeth, and their son Joseph in parentheses. (That website also states: The names in parentheses are doubtful.) John Pledger, Esq. (1680?-1743/44), one of the sons of Elizabeth Leferve Pledger, was the owner of New Nederland Farm, a vast plantation in what is now the Penns Neck region of South Jersey, when he and Hippolet Lefevre (his uncle) purchased an additional 6000-acre tract. Dorothy Roberts was the first wife of John Pledger, Esq. He married Hannah Champnes (2nd wife) in 1731. Articles of Agreement February 24, 1702: John Pledger of New Netherland Farm is to have Manning's Plantation (Mannington) of 544 acres unless Margret Braithwait has a child in the next 9 months. (The deceased Manning Braithwait was a "cousin" of John Pledger, Esq.). Will of Henry Roberts 1713: "... leaves all of estate, both moveable and immoveable to wife (Ann) for her natural lyfe, and after her decease to my beloved cousin John Pledger Junyor (sic) for him and his heirs and assigns forever." Petition 1735: On March 5, 1735, Jane Hart sent a petition "to the Governour of the Provinces of New York and New Jersey, requesting that John Pledger, Esq., be her guardian." John Pledger Jr. received title of Esquire for being the Justice of the Peace for Salem County in the years 1727, 1728, 1730, 1737 & 1740-1743. John Redstreak(e) and Elizabeth (Pledger) Redstreak Elizabeth Pledger, dtr. of John Pledger, Esq. and Dorothy Roberts married John Redstreake/ Redstrake in 1726. John Redstreake's grandfather, John Redstreak(e), also known as John-the-Finn, was born in Varkaus, Finland abt. 1620; he was a cooper (barrel- and cask-maker) and fur trader along Hudson's South River in "New Sweden" (1637-1655), "Nieuw Nederland" (1656-1664), then "West New Jersey" (1664-?) after the Dutch lost their South River. After his first wife died, John (-the-Finn) Redstreak's consort (wife) was Sarah Bright Star. Her Leni Lenape name was Walela (Hummingbird). She may be an ancestor -- if we aren't descended from John's first wife. Walela is also a Cherokee name that means hummingbird. Grandsons of John Pledger, Esq., mentioned in his will were: John Redstreake (1731-1768), Joseph Redstreake (1734/36?-1747) and Pledger Redstreake (1737/38?-1747). A fourth son of Elizabeth Pledger Redstreake (named Francis) died in 1735: Pennsylvania Gazette, Philadelphia, 7/24/1735, "We hear from Penn's Neck that John Redstrake's son of three years and Negro slave died after eating poisoned mushrooms. Their stomach(e)s swelled and continued to swell ..." A subsequent report in the Pennsylvania Gazette substituted the words "Negro work-man" for "Negro slave," perhaps to make the Quakers more comfortable. The son of John (-the-Finn) Redstreake, also named John, married a Flemish Walloon woman (name unknown) from "de Vereenigde Nederlants" (the United Netherlands), then married the twice-widowed Frances Go(o)dwyn in 1714. Re: Salem Monthly Meeting, 29th day, 1714: "Frances (Godwyn) Redstreak married contrary to discipline." Frances' 1st husband was Thomas Chandler, who died in Philadelphia in 1694. She then married Edward Goodwin/Godwyn in 1700 and had 4 sons. Edward Godwyn died in 1708, six years before Frances married our ancestor. John (-the-Finn) Redstreak(e), John Pledger (the ships carpenter) and Elizabeth (Leferve) Pledger are the great-, great-, great-, great-, great-, great-, great-, great-grandparents of my younger son, Thomas Pledger Redstreake (b. 1970), my daughter, Anne Redstreake French (b. 1960) and my older son, Edward Worthington Redstreake (b. 1958). One of my grandsons, Nicholas Redstreake, is a 12th generation North American with the name Redstreake. Other 10th, 11th and 12th generation Redstreakes live in Bucks County, PA (my brother Robert Theodore Redstreake, his sons and grandsons). Redstreakes in New Jersey now include 10th through 13th generation North Americans (the widow of my cousin Charles, his son Robert and Robert's son, and the two adopted sons of my deceased second-cousin Charles, and their sons.) In Florida, there are two Redstreakes (the widow of my older brother Edward Morton Redstreake, Jr. and his son, Edward III.). There should be a Redstreake or two in California (the adopted son of Douglas Redstreake, a very distant cousin, and/or a granddaughter -- Jill Redstreake -- daughter of Douglas' adopted son.) My version of the Redstreake-Redstrake-Readstreake-Redsteicke geneology is on file at the Salem County, NJ, Historical Society. If you would like to have a recently revised/updated copy, please contact me. Disclaimer: "History is not just a record of events; facts are elusive without access to people of the past. (It helps to have friends like Bill Lambeer and Bob Harper as well as access to old family bibles.) To reconstruct a possible past, one must exercise imagination and empathy, while striving to maintain truth." William N. (Bill) Redstreake, date: 1/26/02, rev. 12/11/02 tel 215.699.2997, email: [email protected]