Morgan County Penn Township is very familiar to me: both my parents, Howard Wilson and Ada Mae Williams were born there as were Grandmother Alice Kinsey, whose line descends through John Frank(lin) Kinsey from the Livezey 1682 immigrant, Thomas Livezey, into Philadelphia. My maternal line descends through John Charles Williams and Hattie Riley, who lived in Belmont before relocating to Penn Township. I remember visiting the area often and all my grandparents and great-grandparents and also my parents are buried in Penn Township. My mother often said she wondered how anyone found this out of the way location. jj in Osprey ----- Original Message ----- From: "Daniel W Treadway" <treadway@netins.net> To: <paberks@rootsweb.com>; <quaker-roots@rootsweb.com> Cc: <ohmorgan@rootsweb.com> Sent: Saturday, May 05, 2012 7:47 PM Subject: [Q-R] Benjamin Worrall and Hannah (Worrall) Clendenon > In the fall of 1832, eighty-eight year old Benjamin Worrall made his > way to a courtroom in McConnellsville, Morgan County, Ohio. He was > there to tell of his years in the Continental Army. When he had > enlisted, he had been living in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, which summer > he could no longer remember. His company commander was Captain Jacob > Weaver in the 10th regiment of the Pennsylvania Line. They had spent > the next cold winter with Washington at Valley Forge, and afterwards > had marched as far away as Stony Point, on the Hudson River between > New York and West Point. His testimony was to establish that he was > eligible for a pension based on his service over half a century > before. > > Subtracting, we see that Benjamin was born in 1744. He was the ninth > and youngest child of John and Hannah (Taylor) Worrall who lived in > Marple Township, Chester (now Delaware) County, Pennsylvania. He was > by birth a member of Chester (now Media) Meeting of the Religious > Society of Friends (Quakers). His father died in 1762 without a will, > so perhaps the death was sudden. Minutes of Chester Monthly Meeting > for 1st Month 1767 record that Benjamin was reported for "marrying by > a priest to one not a member, drinking to excess and neglecting > meetings." A committee was appointed to meet with him and try to get > him to return to Quaker ways, but their report was not positive, and > he was removed from membership. The next fact we have of his life is > his enlistment in the summer of 1777. We know his whereabouts from > then until his discharge in the spring of 1781. In 1792, he wrote a > letter to Chester Monthly Meeting acknowledging his transgressions and > "hoping Friends would pass it by" and reinstate his membership. This > was granted. By the beginning of the next year, he had requested > transfer of his membership to Robeson Meeting, Berks County, > Pennsylvania. He had quite possibly been living not far away for many > years, near his oldest brother Jonathan. > > Because Benjamin was not a member during the years his children were > born, their births are not recorded in Quaker records. Among the sons > were Jonathan, listed in the 1850 census as age 78, George, born > between 1772 and 1779, Thomas, born 1786, possibly Isaac; there was at > least one daughter, but her identity is uncertain. In 1794, Jonathan > requested membership at Robeson Meeting but was turned down. Perhaps > the committee suspected his reason for joining was so he could marry > of of their members, Eleanor Gerrad. Such suspicions might have been > right, for the two were married outside of meeting on 30 Sep 1794, and > afterwards Eleanor had to make apologies and convince the meeting they > were sincere in order to retain her membership. > > Not many years after that, members of the family began leaving Berks > County for points further west. Benjamin's membership was transferred > from Robeson to Redstone Meeting in Fayette County, Pennsylvania, in > 1797, and in 1804 to Short Creek Meeting in Jefferson County, Ohio. > Daughter-in-law Eleanor got a certificate of transfer from Robeson > Meeting in 1798, which she carried first to Redstone, then in 1801 to > Westland Meeting in Washington County, Pennsylvania, and fianlly in > the spring of 1803 to Concord Meeting in Belmont County, Ohio. At > Concord that same spring, Jonathan applied again for membership and > was this time accepted, along with children Sarah, Benjamin, and > Nathaniel. When Short Creek Meeting was formed in 1804, Jonathan and > Eleanor were among its original members. > > Benjamin and Jonathan took up land about two miles apart in Jefferson > County. Jonathan and his family moved to Salem in Columbiana County, > Ohio, in 1807, but returned to their homestead in 1811. That same > year, Benjamin sold some land to Jonathan, and the courthouse record > of that transaction reveals that Benjamin's wife at that time was > named Elizabeth. In 1813 when Harrison County was formed, Jonathan's > land was included but Benjamin's remained in Jefferson County. In > 1812, Benjamin's son Thomas Worrall and his wife and three children > were accepted into membership at Short Creek Meeting; Thomas died in > 1824 at age 38, and was buried at West Grove, about a mile from land > he purchased from Jonathan in 1815. > > In the 1820s, the family was on the move again, this time to Morgan > County, Ohio. In 1826, a Benjamin Worrall purchased federal land in > Morgan County; it is not clear whether this is Jonathan's father, or > his son. In 1828 both Benjamin, Sr., and Jonathan and his family > transferred membership to Deerfield Meeting in Morgan County, and > Thomas' widow Esther and her children followed the next year. > > In the 1830 census, we find Benjamin in Penn Township, Morgan County, > listed between Isaac Clendenon and Thomas Worrell. In 1832 Benjamin > applied for his pension, and must have been alive in June of 1833, > when he was once again read out of Quaker meeting--the peace-loving > Quakers could not allow one of their members to profit from making > war. This is the last record we have of his life. > > ********** > > Information passed down in my family says that Isaac and Hannah > (Worrall) Clendenon are my 4-greats grandparents, that Isaac was born > 6-11-1768, that Hannah was born 9-3-1767, and that they were married > 12-21-1792. Records of Rebeson Meeting show that Hannah Worrall was > witness to the marriage of Joseph Jackson and Mary Bonsall on > 4-28-1971, and that on 3-5-1793, Isaac and Hannah Clendenon signed > together as witnesses to the marriage of Ellis Hughes and Elizabeth > Bonsall. Another witness to the Hughes marriage was Benjamin Worrall. > > Isaac lost his Quaker membership soon after he married Hannah--she was > not a member. By 1808, they were living in Belmont County, Ohio, and > Isaac wrote back to Robeson Meeting apologizing and asking that he be > reinstated. That same year Hannah taken into membership at Stillwater > Meeting in Belmont County, Isaac's membership was transferred there > from Robeson, and their six children added to the rolls as well. In > 1827, Isaac and Hannah transferred membership to Deerfield Meeting in > Morgan County, where Isaac died in 1834, and Hannah in 1857. > > ********** > > I am all but certain that Benjamin Worrall who married out of meeting > in 1767, and Hannah (Worrall) Clendenon, who was born in 1768, were > father and daughter. From that time until Benjamin's death in the > 1830s they never lived more than a score of miles apart for long, > making two major moves in parallel. > > I will be grateful to anyone who can add facts to this account, and > especially to anyone who can provide information that links them for > certain. I hope to travel this summer to Pennsylvania and Ohio to > gather more information myself, and would be glad for any tips on > where I should search. > > Thanks to all who have read this to the end. > > -- > Dan Treadway > P. O. Box 72 Gilbert IA 50105 > treadway@netins.net > http://showcase.netins.net/web/treadway/ > > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > QUAKER-ROOTS-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the > quotes in the subject and the body of the message >