David Reese

The published genealogy cited below is, unfortunately, untrustworthy, certainly as far as David Reese's ancestry goes. The later generations may be reliable, but the problems the text shows in the Welsh section calls the entire volume into question. See the discussion at https://www.geni.com/discussions/173481 for an explanation.

Reference " Genealogy of The Reese Family " by Mary E. Reese 1903

Sir David Ap Rees's son, Rev. David Ap Rees, was a Presbyterian pastor at Cardigan, Wales. He married Maud, daughter of Sir Meridith Owen, of South Wales.

This family of Rees, on coming to America in 1700, added a final "e" to the name, spelling it Reese. There were several brothers and two sisters, who landed at New Castle, Delaware. Here they separated. Rev David Reese and his two daughters, Ruth and Esther, went to

Pennsylvania. One brother, Charles, remained in Delaware, where, after a few years, he died, and his family emigrated to Pennsylvania, another brother, settled in Maryland, where he left a numerous progeny, but the writer has no information concerning them. Esther married aScotchman, Mackay, a descendant of General Mackay, who had command of the army of

Scotland at the battle of Killierankie. Ruth, the second daughter, never married, but studied medicine, and was considered a fine female doctor and nurse of that period. These sisters lived and died in Pennsylvania. At one time they visited their brother David, who had emigrated to

North Carolina. This is the only visit they ever made to North Carolina.

More About REV DAVID AP REES:

Reference-number: Reese

Children of DAVID AP REES and MAUD OWEN are:

3. i. REV. DAVID3 REESE, b. February 11, 1708, Brecknoc, Wales; d. February 5,

1787, Mecklenburg County, North Carolina.

4. ii. WILLIAM REESE, b. 1710, Wales; d. April 7, 1808, Iredell County, North

2

Carolina.

iii. ESTHER REESE, b. 1711, Wales; d. Unknown, Pennsylvania; m. ? MACKAY; b.

Unknown; d. Unknown.

iv. BYRAN REESE, b. 1712, Wales; d. 1757, North Carolina.

v. RUTH REESE, b. 1713, Wales; d. Unknown, Pennsylvania.

vi. THOMAS REESE, b. 1713, Wales; d. 1762, North Carolina; m. MARY

CRAWFORD; b. Unknown; d. Unknown.

vii. HUGH REESE, b. 1714, Wales; d. Unknown.

viii. CHARLES REESE, b. Abt. 1715, Wales; d. Unknown, Delaware.

ix. ROGER REESE, b. 1716, Wales; d. Unknown.

x. GEORGE REESE, b. 1717, Wales; d. Unknown, Maryland.

xi. DANIEL REESE, b. 1718, Wales; d. Unknown.

===========================

Notes from Pop's mother: "The original Reese in the U.S. was David Reese who came from Wales before the Revolutionary War." (Library reference book says he came from Southwark, (pronounced "Sutherk") Wales,to New Castle, Delaware, around 1700, then went to Pennsylvania, and then to Poplar Tent, N.C.) The Welsh who came here in those days often established their own little enclaves, especially in mining areas like Western PA.

Mamie continues: "He came here with two sisters, and first went to Pennsylvania, and then David settled in North Carolina in Mecklenburg County. His son David was a land grantor and a scribe: he was the scribe who wrote the Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence of 1775, and thus was known as 'David the Signer.' The date of that event was May 20 and I'll not forget that because it is also my Daddy's birthday. Well, then, this Mecklenburg Declaration antedated the great, much more famous Declaration that was signed in 1776. We get little credit for this Declaration from historians, as the bigger and better Declaration which was signed in Philadelpha outshone it, of course."

"He (Rev. David) married a Miss Jacks, and their nephew Captain John Jacks rode all the way to Philadelphia on horesback with the declaration mentioned above. He is mentioned in the Englis Fletcher books, whatever they are." Mamie said they had three sons, John, James, and Thomas," but no one seems sure which of these sons is the ancestor."

The son David was (1709-1787) of Charlotte, N.C. who married a Ruth Polk. The next known Reese ancestor in Pop's line given to us by Mamie was William Reese, born 8/7/1807, so we had lost a generation

2/10/95 UPDATE

Reading a heretofore unknown book written by a Reese woman "Genealogy of the Reese Family in Wales and America" and published in 1903 by Whittle and Shepperson, in Richmond, Va. -- I have discovered the following: The first David Reese out of Wales was a Presbyterian Reverend who had immigrated to Southwark, England from the Brecon area (Brecknock, or what was called Breconshire in the old days) of Wales. Somewhere in this county he had a congregation. We don't yet know why he left Wales, but since he was not Church of England, it well may have been religious. The first of what they called "nonconformist" churches was established around 1639 in Wales. Quakers, Baptists and

Independents established a foothold during the 1600's, and by the early 1700's, the methodists appeared.

Nothing in the histories mentions a Presbyterian Church in Wales at that time, so perhaps he was a Presbyterian after he came to America, and some other "new" denomination in Wales. (In the 1700s, when there finally ewas a presbyterian Church in Wales, it was actually called the Calvanistic Methodist Church.) So he very well may have been a religious rebel, and may have been forced to leave.

Anyway, fFor some reason, he and his siblings decided to immigrate to America. He and two sisters, Ruth and Esther, and two brothers, George, and Charles, landed at New Castle, Del. in 1700. Here they separated.

Reverend David with them and his sisters went on to Pennsylvana. (Brother Charles remained in Delaware and died relatively young; his family then went on to Pennsylvania as well. George went to Maryland, where he settled.) Here in Pennsylvania his two sisters remained; one, Esther, married a Scotchman named McKay, while Ruth remained unmarried and became a doctor.

Reverend David then went on to Mecklenburg County, N.C. ( probably to Charlotte where we know his son had a home with items in it that came from Wales, including his father's library,so we can assume his father lived in Charlotte too even it could have been elsewhere in Mecklenburg County) and raised his family. Here he married a Miss Jacks, first name and family history still unknown, and added to his family, having at least two sons. (There is a story that his two sisters decided to visit him, and came all the way from Pa. to N.C. with one

horse between them, one walking and one riding, and then they would switch. Ruth gathered herbs and

flowers on the way to use in her medical practice. This, remember would have been in the early 1700s, and that was a LONG trip. They arrived to discover David's sons very ill with the measles; Ruth doctored them back to health. It was said that his sisters were "fine-looking Welsh women, and were something of a curiosity to the North Carolina women," especially since one of them was a doctor.

One of the little boys with measles was also named David, and we will call him David, Jr. here. He is your next ancestor. For David Jr.'s history, please see notes on HIS family page. n Jan Morris' book on Wales, she writes: " The Welsh came here to escape high rents, enclosures, tithes, religious persecution and Englishmen. . .Once the Welsh immigrants had got over their homesickness, abandoned their language, and perhaps blurred the edges of their idealism, they generally became altogether American. They were seldon so assiduous as the Scots or the Irish in cherishing their ethnic image. . ."

Notes for Miss Jacks:

[Br%C3%B8derbund WFT Vol. 3, Ed. 1, Tree #1350, Date of Import: Jul 23, 1997]

The only Jacks I have been able to reference are a Thomas Jacks of Baltimore, MD, who married an

Elizabeth Walters in 1704. The first mention of the family in Maryland is in the wills of Richard and Thomas Jacks. Also, amn Elizabeth Powell married a Thomas Jacks, Sr.

---

The Reece family of Gilmer County, GA is descended from the family of Rhys, who migrated from Wales to England in 1599 and Changed the spelling of the name to Rees.The name, Rhys, dates back to the 10th century A.D. with the nobility of Wales.Our Reece family is descended from Rev.,David Rees, a pastor of the Presbyterian Church of Cardigan County in Southern Wales.David, along with his five sons and two daughters, landed at New Castle, DE in the 1700's. David Reese settled in the Sugar Creek Community of Mecklenburg County, NC.He was a minister like his father.He was one of the signers of the Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence on 20 May, 1775.He and his five sons were Patriots during the American Revolution.