Thank all those of you who provided information about Abijah and Morris Stephens family just recently and a while back. Your suggestions have led me to a great deal of interesting and to me important information. The Wills and the URL for the Montgomery County genweb archive board are a treasure trove. I appreciate the challenge about the dates of Abijah and Morris’s grandfather, Griffith Evan(s), referred to as “deceased husband” in the listing of his wife Ellenor’s Will. I think it is very likely that he is also the Griffith Evans who is named as Executor in the Will of William Morgans, dated 29 Mar 1727 & proven 11 Oct 1727: “William Morgans. Tredyffrin, Co. of Chester Pennsylvania. Taylor….E.62. Babtize (sic) Church, Hugh David, Pastor. Friends: Henery (sic) David. Exec: Griffin Evans, David Jones. (Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania Wills, 1618-1819). Since I think it is virtually certain that Griffith Evan was not a Quaker, but a Baptist, I have been trying to read up on the early days of the Baptist Church – and to the cooperation and development of Quakers and Baptists in the Welsh Tract and throughout the 18th century. Can anyone identify for me the “Baptize Church” and “Hugh David, Pastor” referred to in William Morgans’s Will? And I would welcome any information anyone has about the Baptist Evans family. In addition, I wish to thank Sandra, not only for the information about the Stephans/Evans family, but also for posting all the tax rates for 1729. I’ve found them full of surprises and most helpful. Mary Arnett _________________________________________________________________ Add a Yahoo! contact to Windows Live Messenger for a chance to win a free trip! http://www.imagine-windowslive.com/minisites/yahoo/default.aspx?locale=en-us&hmtagline

>Since I think it is virtually certain that Griffith Evan was not a Quaker, >but a Baptist, I have been trying to read up on the early days of the >Baptist Church - and to the cooperation and development of Quakers and >Baptists in the Welsh Tract and throughout the 18th century. I would not assume that because one ancestor was known to have attended a certain church at a certain time that this defines the person or family as definitively of one faith or sect. I'd be especially careful making assumptions that certain Welsh settlers were not Quaker because they were Baptist and vice versa. Keep in mind that the area was founded in a time of religious conversions and that by 1700 few Quakers had been Quakers for more than even a generation or two. Later waves of religious conversion followed with Methodists, Rappists (Harmonists), the rise of the Presbyterian church in the US, the Swedenborg church movement. In some cases multiple congregations of different persuasions used the same meeting houses. Search for more info on the Keithian split from the Quakers circa 1690's to early 1700's and you'll find a lot of info connecting the congregations of Quaker and Baptist churches. The first Quaker schism resulted in Keithian separatists falling out of the Quakers and many became Baptists. Great Valley Baptist is one of at least two churches in the area said to be founded in part by ex-Quakers who embraced the Baptist faith. Some links below to more info on the early Keithian Quaker schism and the connections to the Baptists may offer some more insight on this topic of Baptists and Quakers. A short history of schism in the Friends in America http://www.strecorsoc.org/docs/fracture.html offers some insight on Keith and the Keithians. I've also added quotes from some of the other links to illustrate some of the relevance of the URLs below. <http://www.reformedreader.org/history/christian/ahob2/chapter05.htm> "Thus have we seen that the Keithian Quakers ended in a kind of transformation into Keithian Baptists; they were also called Quaker Baptists, because they still retained the language, dress and manners of Quakers. We have seen also, that the Keithian or Quaker Baptists ended in another kind of transformation into seventh-day Baptists, though some went among the first-day Baptists and other societies. However, these were the beginning of the Sabbatarians in Pennsylvania. " http://www.strecorsoc.org/docs/keith1.html "The greatest trend was towards the Baptists, but a number, after being immersed, were keepers of Saturday as the day of rest and worship, and joined the Seventh Day Baptists. ... and most of the other Keithians of Southampton sooner or later joined Pennypack Baptist Church. ... From the Welsh Tract Church, missions and perhaps emigrants founded several congregations, among them that of the Great Valley (in Tredyffrin Township, Chester Co.), instituted in 1711 with Rev. Hugh Davis, an ordained minister from Wales. The Pennypack Church died out, and the views and practices of the Welsh Tract people spread through the Baptist denominations of Penn's colony." http://www.strecorsoc.org/docs/keith1.html "This Upper Providence congregation split on the question of the Sabbath, and dissolved. However, those who favored keeping Sunday were gathered together about 1715 by Rev. Abel Morgan, and, in 1718, built a meeting-house in Birmingham Township, bearing the name of Brandywine Baptist Church. The Sabbatarians, on the other hand, united at Newtown. In 1717, a number took up considerable land between Brandywine and French Creek, and, reinforced by some seceders from the Great Valley Baptist Church, this congregation, called Nantmeal, became a strong one." <http://www.reformedreader.org/history/benedict/baptistdenomination/pennsylv ania.htm> ..."Pennepek, or Lower Dublin Church. -- This is now the oldest church in Pennsylvania, as the one gathered by Mr. Dungan was broken up in 1702. ... "Reverend Evan Morgan, who came to this country very early, and was a man of piety and parts. He broke off from the Quakers along with many others of Mr. Keith's party in 1691; was baptized in 1697, by one Thomas Butter, and the same year, renouncing the reliques of Quakerism, was received into the church. In 1702, he was called to the ministry, and ordained October 23, 1706, by Reverend Messrs. Thomas Griffith and Thomas Killingsworth. ... "The place where these people met, at first, was the corner of Second Street and Chesnut Street, known by the name of Barbadoes lot. The building was a storehouse; but when the Barbadoes company left the place, the Baptists held their meetings there. So also did the Presbyterians, when either a Baptist or Presbyterian minister happened to be in town; for as yet neither had any settled among them." http://www.yourbrotherkings.com/?m=200606 "Able Noble is claimed to have been the first Seventh-Day Baptist in Pennsylvania, and to have arrived in 1684. His name is among the forty-eight who signed the reasons for the Keithian separation. That he signed this paper is evidence that the had been a Friend, to which may be added his marriage at Darby Meeting, in 1692, to Mary Garrett, a member thereof." "John Hannum and eighteen others, on October 12th, 1697, incorporated and proceeded to choose a minister by lot, which fell to Thomas Martin, who the same day administered to them the Lord's Supper for the first time. From that day forth other Keithian Quakers were baptized." "George Keith afterwards became an Episcopal minister, and many of his followers adopted the same faith; among them were John Hannum and his wife Margery." "The building of St. Paul's Church at Chester, Pa., was completed in July, 1702, and on Sunday, January 24th, 1703 (new style), St. Paul's day, the ediface was opened to public worship, Rev. John Talbot preaching the first sermon. Rev. George Keith preached there on February 7th and August 3rd, 1703, and afterwards." In contrast to the Quaker -> Keithian -> Baptist movements most of the above discuss, here is an example offered of some of the Gwynedd Welsh (presumably Baptists) who were drawn in by the Quakers. http://ftp.rootsweb.com/pub/usgenweb/pa/philadelphia/areahistory/watson0204. txt GWYNEDD --- in MONTGOMERY COUNTY "The late venerable Jesse Foulke stated, in substance, the following facts concerning what he knew of the settlement of Gwynedd, to wit : -- In the year 1698, the township was purchased of William Penn, by William, John, and Thomas Evans, and distributed among original settlers, to wit : William, John, Thomas, Robert, Owen and Cadwallader Evans, Hugh Griffiths, Edward Foulke, Robert Jones, John Hughs, and John Humphreys. Only the two eldest were then Friends -- all were Welshmen; and all, except the two Friends were churchmen. These held their meetings at Robert Evans'; and there Cadwallader Evans was in the practice to read from the Bible to the people. But as Cadwallader Evans himself related, he was going as usual to his brother Robert's when, passing near to the road to Friends' meeting, held at John Hughs' and John Humphreys', it seemed as if he was impressed "to go down and see how the Quakers do". This he mentioned to his friends at the close of his own meeting, and they all agreed to go to the Friends the next time; and where they were all so well satisfied, that they never again met in their own worship." As an aside, I found an article that details the history of the early PA Welsh land and how this territory was split into two counties against the wishes of the Welsh. I recommend this article by Wayland F. Dunaway, "Early Welsh Settlers of Pennsylvania", to anyone interested the PA Welsh history. I've excerpted a quote below that seems particularly relevant to the Chester list. <http://cip.cornell.edu/Dienst/UI/1.0/Summarize/psu.ph/1129767104> "They were a peaceable folk, and what little civil authority was needed was exercised through their Quaker meetings. This system came to an end in 1690, not because the Welsh wished it but because out- side forces changed it. It had been the understanding of the Welsh that their barony would lie in one undivided tract, not subject to division into municipal districts; but in 1685 the provincial au- thorities ran a division line between Philadelphia and Chester Counties, thereby dividing the Welsh Tract. Furthermore, in 1690 the civil authority exercised by the Quaker meetings was abolished in the three townships of Haverford, Merion, and Radnor, and in its stead the regular township government was established; and, as the population increased, other townships were created within the barony with similar government. The Welsh contended that this was contrary to their understanding with Penn, and insisted that, if there were to be any townships at all, their barony should con- stitute only one municipal district, in which they should select their own officers from among themselves and should collect their own taxes. But this arrangement did not appear to the representatives of Penn to be feasible; hence the barony was divided into town- ships, as was customary elsewhere throughout the province. To the Welsh, however, who claimed that this was in violation of their agreement with the proprietary, the new arrangement was a real grievance against which they protested stoutly. They objected also to the placing of their tract partly in one county and partly in an- other, which was accomplished by the running of the division line between Philadelphia and Chester Counties, and the consequent transference of the townships of Haverford and Radnor from the former to the latter county. As other Welsh settlers came in, addi- tional townships were created in the barony, which was settled rapidly. The Welsh at first stood on what they conceived to be their rights, protesting against the division of their tract by county and township lines and refusing to recognize the validity of the municipal arrangements to which they were subjected. By 1690, however, they had discovered the hopelessness of their struggle against the provincial authorities, and submitted with as good a grace as possible to conditions which they were powerless to resist. "