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About Daniel Williamson, Sr
Passengers on Wm. Penn's ketch "Endeavor": https://digitalcommons.ursinus.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1033.... Departed Liverpool July 11, 1683 arriving at New Castle, Deleware September 29, 1683.
Fascinating story: https://www.familysearch.org/tree/person/memories/LTC8-MR2
Present day use of ancestral home: https://garrettwilliamson.org/
Historical marker on roadway: https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=96011
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From Newtown Square Historical Society:
http://www.historicnewtownsquare.org/newtown-square-history/histori...
Part I: Newtown in the 17th and 18th Centuries (continued) Chapter IV: Earliest Settlers
1. DANIEL WILLIAMSON AND FAMILY
One of the most important of the earliest settlers in Newtown was Daniel Williamson. It was because of his birth in 1665 in Stretton in the Cheshire area of England that our SISTER-TOWN relationship between that town and Newtown Township was formed. (See page 318 for more details about the SISTER-TOWN relationship). Accounts of life in Williamson’s native Cheshire, where his family originated, reflect conditions and aspirations of the times leading to basic reasons for leaving and coming to Pennsylvania. Before Daniel was born and while he was growing up there, the “Friends” or Quakers in that area, some with the Williamson name, were suffering persecution. In 1663, Ellen Williamson and 3 others were imprisoned by “Writs of Ex-communication Capiendo” for Tithes. Twenty years later, the year Daniel left England, a Thomas Williamson was among those who were put in prison for attending a Quaker meeting at Newton in Cheshire.
The vivid description has been recorded as follows:
. . . On the 31st day of the month called January, Thomas Needham and Philip Egerton, Justices, came to a Meeting at Newton and finding a Person at Prayer, Justice Needham fell upon him, beat him on the Head and punched him on the Breast with his cane, pulled his Neck cloth in pieces and threw him down and kicked him. He also struck several others so that their Heads were swelled with the Blows. The other Justices desired him to forbear, saying, let us prosecute the Law upon them, but not abuse them. Thus checked, he forebore striking but continued railing, telling them they were Dogs and not Men, no more Christians than their Horses, etc. Then they took their Names, fined them and granted Warrents for Distress, by which was taken from John Williamson of Creewoodhall, a mare worth £8 1
Daniel Williamson may not have been related to the Williamsons mentioned in these two accounts but his family too was of the Quaker faith, his birth in 1665 is duly recorded in early Quaker records and there is no doubt that young Daniel, as a boy of 17, left Cheshire in 1683 and came to Pennsylvania because of the persecutions of the followers of this faith. 1A
It was on the ketch Endeavor that Williamson sailed, being listed as an “indentured servant” 2 to Robert Taylor, who appears to have been a relative. Other passengers on the Endeavor included Thomas Pearson, mason, and Margaret Smith Pearson, his wife, who became the maternal grandparents of Benjamin West, world-famous “Father of American Painting,” whose boyhood and youth would be spent in Newtown Township. 3 Also on the Ketch Endeavor in 1683 was Thomas Massey who was about 20 years old. Later, about 1696, he built the brick part of the “Massey House” which is still standing in nearby Marple Township. 4 In 1692, Massey married Phebe Taylor, who had been another passenger on this ship, 13 years old at the time. She was a daughter of Robert Taylor, to whom Daniel Williamson had been indentured.
Apparently Robert Taylor was a relative for in his will Williamson refers to Taylor’s daughter as “Cousin.” Daniel’s sister Ellen (also written Helen or Eleanor) married Bartholomew Coppack of High Leigh, England and another sister, Mary, became the wife of John Howell of Budworth, all in Cheshire, England. Howell and his wife and children also arrived in Pennsylvania in 168$ and settled in Marple Township. Coppack and his wife settled in adjacent Spring- field. According to an agreement with Robert Taylor, Daniel Williamson was to receive 50 acres of land for his services in addition to 50 granted by Penn to “servants.” The 100 acres were laid out in October, 1683, together with 300 acres to John Howell, all in Marple. 5
The 450 acres in Newtown with 50 acres in the Townstead owned by Thomas Rudyard passed in July, 1685 to Andrew Robeson of Philadelphia and from him to Daniel Williamson November 24, 1692. 6 However, Williamson appears to have settled in Newtown earlier and in 1685, intentions of marriage to Man7 Smith were recorded at the Chester Monthly Meeting. After settling in Newtown, Daniel erected a sawmill on the banks of Crum Creek, the first in the Township. The mill was of undershot construction, the force of the stream coming into the base. Ruins of this and subsequent mill buildings are visible today. 7
Williamson’s first home, like those of his fellow pioneers, must have been of logs as a temporary shelter before a more stable one could be built. Fortunately for posterity his dwelling house has survived in a complex of 3 buildings, joined together, the central one of vertical timbers, the other two of field- stone. All 3 exteriors are covered by white stucco7A The earliest part of this house, the stone structure on the right, is probably the oldest house still standing in our Township and is being placed upon a list of 17th-century extant houses in Delaware County for a Tercentenary Guidebook being published (in 1982) by the Colonial Society of Pennsylvania.
This stone cottage contains only two rooms, one over the other, and an attic. The down- stairs room has a huge walk-in fireplace for cooking, with small window facing north. The middle part of this house is built of vertical planks which were doubtlessly milled in Daniel’s own sawmill. Massive beams underpin the first floor of this timbered section over a half cellar, a huge cooking fireplace resting on the ground itself. The third and latest of the three houses was grafted onto the southern side of the timbered dwelling, all fused externally by a similar white coating. Three separate massive chimneys break the roof lines. Today the house surmounts an impressive slope on the Garrett-Williamson Estate on the western side of Bishop’s Hollow Road about a mile south of the West Chester Pike.
Williamson, in his mature years, was involved in county government and was a member of long standing in the Assembly representing Chester County, in fact was still a member the year he died, 1727 In his will, dated March 7,1725-6, proven March 8, 1727-8, his wife and all his children are listed8 It is interesting to reread this will and the estate inventory that followed it for their economic and family insights into the life and times of Williamson. Some excerpts from the will are as follows:
The seventh day of this mo. called March in the year of our Lord 1725/6, I Daniel Williamson of the Township of Edgmont in the County of Chester9 and Province of Pennsylvania Yeoman, Being weak in body, but of sound mind and memory . thanks be given to God therefore, Calling to mind the mortality of my body and knowing that it is Appointed for all men once to die Do make this my Last will and Testament: That is to say, Principally, the first of all 1 give and Recommend my Soul into the hands of God and for my Body, I recommend it to the Earth to be Buried in Christian- like and Decent mannor at the discretion of my Executors, hereinafter named. And as touching Such worldly estate where- with it hath pleased God to bless me with in this Life, I give, Devise and Dispose of this Same in the following mannor and form . . .
I give and Bequeath. . . to my well beloved wife, Mary Williamson my Plantation with all the Stock upon it and one cow that my son Robert hath of mine, with all my household goods During her natural Life and Likewise 60 pounds of Current money of the Province . . .
Item: I give unto my Son, Robert Williamson all the money Now Due to me from him; Item: I give unto my Son, Daniel Williamson, all the money now Due to me from him;
Item: I give unto my Son, John Williamson, my Cane that my cousin Mary Lewis gave me;
Item: I give unto my Son, Thomas Williamson, my other cane and the above said Plantation after his mother s Decease to him his Heirs and assigns forever Executors or administrators Paying or Causing to be paid at the Expiration of one full year after her Decease the Sum of 5 pounds Current mony to Each of my 2 Daughters (that is to say) Margaret Thompson and Abigail Yarnall Provided their Mother shall Live 4 years from the Day of the Date thereof.
Item: I give to my Daughter Mary and Son-in-law Mirick Davies 5 pounds current money the same to be paid by two of my Executors at the End of Expiration of one full year after the Mother’s Decease
Item: I give unto my daughter Margaret Thompson 5 pounds
Item: I give unto my son John Williamson 1 shilling …
signed (with a shaky hand)
Daniel Williamson
John Houston Eph. Jackson
Following are some excerpts from:
An inventory of all the Estate Both Real and Personal of Daniel Williamson of Edgmont in Chester County in the province of Pensilvania, Yeoman, Deceased … March 11, 1727-28.
Edith Jackson
John Houldston
ONLINE EDITOR’S NOTE: See hardcopy book for excerpts from Inventory 10
Carl Lindborg (+ Robert Mooney & A.L.)
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Daniel Williamson, Sr's Timeline
| 1665 |
July 8, 1665
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Stretton, Cheshire, England (United Kingdom)
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| 1686 |
October 3, 1686
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Chester Township, Delaware County, PA, United States
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| 1688 |
October 6, 1688
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Newtown Square, Delaware County, Pennsylvania, Colonial America
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| 1690 |
September 11, 1690
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Newtown Square, Delaware County, Pennsylvania, British America Colony
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| 1692 |
July 25, 1692
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Newton,Chester,Pennsylvania
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| 1694 |
December 10, 1694
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Newtown Square, Delaware County, Pennsylvania, Colonial America
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| 1697 |
February 25, 1697
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Chester, Pennsylvania, British Colonial America
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| 1698 |
December 12, 1698
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Newtown,Chester County,Pennsylvania
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| 1702 |
July 16, 1702
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Newtown, Chester, Delaware, PA, United States
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