Need help locating the specifics regarding a Phila Townsend, born 15 May 1751 and died 15 Jan 1820. Husband was Samuel Merritt. May have been of the Townsends in Chester, or Bucks County. THanks, everyone! Kim Townsend Spangrude

>Need help locating the specifics regarding a Phila Townsend, born 15 >May 1751 and died 15 Jan 1820. Husband was Samuel Merritt. May have >been of the Townsends in Chester, or Bucks County. Samuel Merritt seems to have been born and died in NY. Phila is buried in Old Town cemetary in New Burg, NY. I'm curious where the birth and death dates come from as there is a Phila Townsend who appears a possible fit but there are some things that don't match. Do you have specific reason to think there is a Chester County connection? The only clue I can find leading to PA other than the curious name is an entry for another NY family that looks like a good lead, sourced from a book found in Ancestry.com: 'A Hallock genealogy : an attempt to tabulate and set in order the numerous descendants of Peter Hallock who landed at Southold' "James Hallock, Preacher" married Elizabeth Townsend, born 1760 to Nicholas and Philadelphia Townsend of Cornwall NY. Per this reference Philadelphia Townsend was cited as having a maiden name of Doughty, who was "the granddaughter of Philadelphia Masters, the first white girl born in Philadelphia, PA." So it seems plausible that Phila Townsend was a sister of Elizabeth Townsend Hallock and that you're looking for Nicholas Townsend & Philadelphia Doughty of Cornwall, NY and more documentation on that family to prove the connection. Then again it seems very possible there is yet another Philadelphia Townsend in that era given some of the confusing and conflicting info I found. Before I get into this let me say that WorldConnect system I sourced links and info from below uses user submitted data that tends to be highly inaccurate and often doesn't cite sources. That said, it's a great place to look for leads and the powerful search engine lets you pair surnames to surnames, locations and dates to come up with good leads for siblings, parents and so on. But take any info found there as unconfirmed if sources aren't and if they are cited I'd suggest checking them anyway. These trees tend to spread mistakes like viruses and few have solid documentation. Here's a link that shows the line from Masters to Doughty: http://worldconnect.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=:2893127&id=I5367 Then to confuse things further there's a Merritt tree here that shows what appears to be your Samuel Merritt and lists a Phila Townsend married to his brother Humphrey: http://worldconnect.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=DESC&db=:a17882&id=I352 That conflicts with this version of the tree that shows a different wife for Humphrey: http://worldconnect.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=jch00&id=I09484 Here's a tree that shows Nicolas Townsend and the 2 generations of Townsends before him. That tree lists a daughter as Mary Philadelphia Townsend but shows her as married to a William Cock. http://worldconnect.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=420angel&id=I3561 39 There's a few trees that show Phildelphia Townsend as married to William Cock and her sister Hannah married to Jacob Cock. Some list Phila's date of birth as 23 SEP 1770, others as 30 JUL 1763. The ones that show marriages of Phila Townsend to the Merritt brothers estimate DOB as closer to their 1737/39 birth dates. There's also an 1830 death date listed for the one married to William Cock on one tree. There's also some suggestions that the Doughty/Townsend marriage didn't happen until 1762 or 1763. Note that there also seems to be some variants between children of Phildelphia Doughty as named Mary Philadelphia or just Phildelphia. So perhaps there could have been two sisters that people have confused. Then there's the possibility that there could be yet another Doughty or Masters descendant that married a Townsend and that there could be yet another Phila Townsend in that era. Looking back at the Doughty trees there is another tree that shows a cousin of Philadelphia Doughty who also married a Townsend that could have had a child in the same era that would also be a grand-daughter of Phildelphia Masters. There are fairly detailed children listed though and no Philadelphia in that line. I lost that link somehow but one of the descendant views I looked at from Hannah Williams or Philadelphia Masters and showed what looked like a first cousin of Phila Doughty married to a Dr. Townsend with children born in 1750's, but no Phila in that particularly line. I wouldn't rule out that there could be yet another undocumented marriage connecting Townsends to the descendants of Masters. This researcher has one of the better documented Townsend lines but sources are not clear: http://worldconnect.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=DESC&db=maitland-poole&i d=I5386 Navigate up a few generations and look at descendants and you see an overwhelming series of generations of Townsends with many more marriages to the Cock family also: http://worldconnect.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=DESC&db=maitland-poole&i d=I0642 I suspect somewhere in that Townsend family is your Phila but maybe not documented here or in Woldconnect. I'd try working down from the grandmother as she seems to be the source of the Philadelphia name and the best lead to find any other descendants that may have married into the Townsends. I also wouldn't rule out Phildelphia Doughty as the mother, even if she did marry someone else, and I'd make sure the date info you have for your Phila Townsend are really accurate and try to verify the dates for the daughter of Doughty or any possibility there is a missing child in that tree. At least at some point this was a Quaker family early on and so Quaker records down from the Masters and Williams may be your best bet for good documents. Here's one of the only ones that cites sources on Philadelphia Masters: http://worldconnect.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=tinzhaven&id=I196 54 # Name: Long Island Genealogies, COMPILED BY MARY POWELL BUNKER, Munsell's Historical Series no. 24., ALBANY, N. Y., JOEL MUNSELL'S SONS, PUBLISHERS. 1895. # Name: Early Friends Families of Upper Bucks Name: Clarence V. Roberts Name: Originally published Phila, PA 1925 Name: Reprinted Genealogical Publishing Co, Baltimore, MD 1975, 1995, 2000 Name: Library of Congress 75-4008 # Name: History of Bucks County, PA, Volume l & II, Bucks County Genealogies Name: originally prepared under the editorial supervision of Warren S. Ely and John W. Jordan and published as Volume III of "History of Bucks County Pennsylvania, second edition, New York & Chicago, 1905 Name: reprinted by Genealogical Publishing Co, Inc, Baltimore, MD, 1975, 1992, 1994, 1999 # Name: THE HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. Name: from the discovery of the Delaware to the present time by W. W. H. Davis, A.M., 1876 and 1905 editions Note that another tree here shows discusses conflicting sources for the date of marriage of Hannah Williams and Benjamine Doughty, see: http://worldconnect.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=:1240467&id=I5664 2481 I cc'd Karen McIntyre because she is referenced as also seeking info on Phila Townsend in pages at http://worldconnect.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=olney&id=I1275 that details more on the Samuel Merrit's family. Good Luck! One of the reasons I try to avoid citing the WorldConnect trees other than the poor documentation is that I get dizzy trying to compare the various trees.