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/