Thomas Leiper - THE QUESTION OF IDENTITY

Started by Private User on Saturday, April 30, 2022
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According to a family monument in Laurel Hill Cemetery in Philadelphia, Thomas Leiper was born in Strathven (sic) on 15 December 1745. The date of birth cited identifies him as that son of Thomas Leiper, Innkeeper at Strathaven in Lanarkshire, who baptism was registered at Avondale on the same date, although this important fact is not mentioned in his Wikipedia Biography.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Leiper

The monument was evidently raised by his descendants (in or later than 1882), although, currently, his profile overview does not explain what it was that led them to believe that he was born in Strathaven on 15 December 1745. Did they commission research in Scotland, or was his date and place of birth recorded on one of his papers in the United States, or in a family Bible, perhaps?

Help in identifying surviving record evidence from the USA would be welcomed.

EVIDENCE FOR HIS PLACE OF BIRTH

According to the deceased Henry Simpson, Mr. Leiper came to Philadelphia from Virginia, but he was a native of Scotland, having left his home an orphan boy rather than submit to the dictation of an elder brother, who inherited the limited patrimonial estate of the family.

The lives of eminent Philadelphians: https://archive.org/details/liveseminentphi00simpgoog/page/648/mode...

EVIDENCE FOR HIS AGE AT DEATH

Henry Simpson had this to say about Thomas Leiper's death: The following notice of his death is the leading article of "The Aurora" for July 8th, 1825, at that time edited by Mr. John Nerval, afterwards United States Senator for Michigan. "With the deepest feelings of regret, we have this day to announce the death of Revolutionary soldier and patriot, the venerable Thomas Leiper, of this city, in the eightieth year of his age".

The lives of eminent Philadelphians
https://archive.org/details/liveseminentphi00simpgoog/page/649/mode...

According to Samuel Gordon Smyth, writing in a biographical account that was published in 1900: "This notable person (Thomas Leiper) came from Scotland in 1746, a youth of nineteen, and settled in Virginia. He was a younger son of Thomas Leiper, a Scottish patrician, and his wife who was Helen Hamilton (of the family of Kipe and Stane-House)."

https://ia902703.us.archive.org/34/items/thomasleiperlieu00smyt/tho...

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