Honour Browne

Unattributed basic information on Honour Clayton:

Honour Clayton Honour Clayton, born 18 Mar 1661/62 in Rumboldswyke, Sussex, England; died in Chester County, PA.

She was the daughter of William Clayton and Prudence Mickel.

She married James Browne, 08 Aug 1679 in Marcus Hook, Delaware County, PA. (born 27 Mar 1656 in Boarsworth, Wellingsboro, Northampton, England; died Bet. 1715 - 1716 in Nottingham Twp., Chester County, PA. He was the son of Richard Browne and Mary Master.

More About Honour Clayton:

Alternate Dates: 29 Nov 1662, May be date of birth

More About James Browne:

Burial: Bet. 1715 - 1716, East Nottingham Twp., Chester County, PA

More About James Browne and Honour Clayton:

Alternate dates: 08 Jun 1679, May be date of marriage

Marriage: 08 Aug 1679, Marcus Hook, Delaware County, PA

Because of the intermarriage of Quakers, James and Honour are the 8th great-grandparents three times over for Frances' generation and 9th great-grandparents twice over.

Joan Case's research into her family tree (November 10, 2002):

http://members.tripod.com/JoanCase/browne.htm

The Browne family England orginally spelled the name Browne but in coming to America and joining the Society of Friends dropped the "e" for simplicity and have since written the name as Brown.

James Brown, as he came to spell the name, was born in the parish of Sywell, Northamptonshire, England, March 27, 1656 and died at Nottingham, Pennsylvania in 1716.

James Brown came to America in the ship "Kent" which arrived from London August 16, 1677, at New Castle on the Delaware. He settled first at Burlington, New Jersey, but remained only a short time there removing to Chichester of Marcus Hook in 1678. He obtained a patent, dated Dec 20, 1683 for 115 acres of land on the Chichester Creek, which he named "Podington" undoubtedly for his old home "Puddington" in England. With his brother, William he purchased nine hundred acres of the land William Penn granted to the Friends in Nottingham and they became known as the Browns of Nottingham and from these early ancestors are desscended many well known men. In 1681 there were but eleven heads of Quaker families in the country before the arrival of William Penn, and among them was James Brown.

James Brown married at the Burlington Meetinghouse June 8, 1679 Honour Clayton, daughter of Hon. William Clayton. They had six children; James, William, Jeremiah, Margery, Daniel and Mary.

According to Bill Putman's Clayton Family History:

www.billputman.com/Clayton.pdf

William Clayton sailed for America on the ship Kent which left London in March of 1677 and arrived in New York in August of that year. His family was not listed on the register of the Kent, so they probably joined him later once he had established both the area and a home.

During the next four years some 1,400 new arrivals came to Burlington and most of these were Quakers.

The Clayton family probably arrived in the period around 1689 to 1680.

In 1681, William Clayton moved his family to Chester County, just across the Delaware River in Pennsylvania onto 500 acres of land he had patented.

5. HONOUR CLAYTON (Ben notes: the British English spelling is more appropriate in this case) was born January 18, 1662 in Sussex. She came to America and married James Brown on June 9, 1679 in East Nolling Township of Chester County, Pennsylvania. She remained in Chester County and died there sometime around 1715. The Browns were members of the Nottingham Monthly Meeting. It was this marriage between Honor Clayton and James Brown that descended to the PIGGOTT line.

According to Bill Putnam's Brown Family History:

www.billputman.com/Brown.pdf

James Brown(e) was born in Northampton, England on May 27, 1658. As a young man, he and his brother William came to America.

The first Quaker settlement in America was in what is now Salem County, New Jersey. William Penn and others purchased lands from John Fenwick and settled and established a Quaker meeting house in 1677.

William Clayton was one of the original member that came on board the ship Kent in 1677. The Browne brothers must have come shortly thereafter and settled in what was then called the Burlington Monthly Meeting, part of the Philadelphia Yearly Meeting of Friends.

I have a feeling that the Brownes arrived via the port of Wilmington, then a part of Pennsylvania. He then moved just north to the area of Marcus Hook on the west bank of the Delaware. He was living here in 1679. The family of William Clayton had moved there as well. At the Monthly Meeting in Burlington we find notice of his marriage. The following is from the Historical Society of Philadelphia:

"James Brown of Markers Hook and Honor Clayton of Burlington were married at the Burlington Meeting 8th 6th Month 1679."

This marriage on August 8, 1679 probably took place at Marcus Hook and then was recorded in the church minutes at the next meeting. Honor is a daughter of William Clayton and Prudence Lanckford. She was born January 18, 1662 in Sussex, England.

William Clayton and his family had moved to Marcus Hook in 1678.

James Brown died in Nottingham on June 2, 1716 and is buried there. Honor Clayton Brown died later.

They had seven children, the following is what I know of them.

1. JAMES BROWN JR. was born January 17, 1681 at Marcus Hook, Pennsylvania.

2. WILLIAM BROWN was born January 13, 1682. He married Esther Yeardley out of the faith and was disowned. He died in 1716.

3. CLAYTON BROWN was born August 1, 1685. Nothing more is known, he may have died young.

4. JEREMIAH BROWN was born in 1689. He died on March 7, 1767 at age eighty, so hence the birth year. Jeremiah took over the family homestead after his father died. He was married in 1710 to Mary (Royal) Cole, a widow. He later married Mary Winter on May 20, 1749.

5. MARJORY BROWN was born in 1691 in Chester County. She married John Piggott on January 18, 1713.

6. DANIEL BROWN married Elizabeth Kirk in 1717.

MARY BROWN married John Butterworth on February 9, 1731.

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According to Duncan Rea Williams III's "Cyber Niche":

http://www.drwilliams.org/genealogy/11371.htm

Honour Clayton

Born: 18 Mar 1662, Rumboldswyke Parish, Sussex, England

Marriage: James Brown on 8 Jun 1679 in Marcus Hook, Delaware, Pennsylvania, USA

Died: 8 Aug 1687, Chester, Pennsylvania, USA at age 25

Honour married James Brown on 8 Jun 1679 in Marcus Hook, Delaware, Pennsylvania, USA.

(James Brown was born on 27 Mar 1656 in Northampton, England and died in 1715 in Nottingham MM, Chester, Pennsylvania.)

----------------------------

Information on the ship Kent, which may be the ship she crossed the Atlantic aboard, from Duncan Rea Williams III in his "Cyber Niche":

http://www.drwilliams.org/genealogy/3919.htm

THE KENT

The Kent carried colonists to West New Jersey with Gregory Marlow as master and loaded in London for New Jersey 19 March to 31 March, 1677. There followed loadings for other ports, but she sailed before May.

The Kent sailed first to New York, arriving either the 4th, 12th or 16th August. Then after a short stay, the Kent sailed across the bay to Perth Amboy, after which she headed south to the Delaware, landing first at the mouth of Raccoon Creek where she is said to have disembarked some 230 passengers of a total of 270. She then moved on to Chygoes Island, now Burlington.

Other histories state that she landed at Raccoon Creek after an early June halt at New Castle, then to Burlington on 23 June. However, the arrival time in New York is known from the minutes of the New York government, with which the Commissioners (aboard the Kent) met during their stay there.

The Yorkshire purchasers settled the 1st tenth, from Assinpink to Rancocas. The London purchasers settled the 2nd tenth, from Rancocas to Timber Creek.

From "Martha's Extended Family" family tree page on Honour Clayton:

http://martisgenes.info/p119.htm#i1387

Honour Clayton[1],[2],[3],[4]

F, b. 18 March 1662

Father* William Clayton b. 8 Dec 1632, d. 1688

Mother* Prudence Lanckford b. 1631

Birth* Honour was born on 18 March 1662 in Rumboldsweeke, Sussex, England.[1] She was the daughter of William Clayton and Prudence Lanckford.

Marriage* She married James Brown on 8 August 1679 in Burlington, Burlington County, New Jersey.[5],[6],[7]

Will* In Elizabeth Bezer's will, Honour was named by Elizabeth to handle her estate 31 December 1737 in Chichester, Chester County, Pennsylvania. Will proved 19 Aug 1738.[8]

Family James Brown b. 27 Mar 1656, d. 1715

Children

◦James Brown b. 17 Mar 1681

◦William Brown+ b. 13 Mar 1682, d. 1716

◦Clayton Brown b. 1 Oct 1685

◦Jeremiah Brown+ b. c 1687, d. 7 May 1767

◦Margery Brown+ b. c 1691, d. 24 Feb 1738

◦Daniel Brown+ b. s 1695

◦Mary Brown b. s 1701

Citations:

1.[S185] James E. Bellarts, The Quaker Yeoman, A Quarterly Newsletter of Quaker and Related Genealogy, Vol. 2, No. 4, p. 7.

2.[S184] James E. Bellarts, The Quaker Yeoman, A Genealogy of Clayton,m Reynolds, Beals, Brown and Descended and Related Lines, p. 31, 42.

3.[S180] William Wade Hinshaw, Encyclopedia of American Quaker Genealogy, p. 200.

4.[S187] Warren E Pickett, John Piggott Sr. (1680 ?- 1738) of Susquehannah Hundred in Cecil County MD. Together with some account of the Browne and Clayton families from whom his wife Margarey Brown Piggott descended, p. 15.

5.[S184] James E. Bellarts, The Quaker Yeoman, A Genealogy of Clayton,m Reynolds, Beals, Brown and Descended and Related Lines.

6.[S180] William Wade Hinshaw, Encyclopedia of American Quaker Genealogy.

7.[S187] Warren E Pickett, John Piggott Sr. (1680 ?- 1738) of Susquehannah Hundred in Cecil County MD. Together with some account of the Browne and Clayton families from whom his wife Margarey Brown Piggott descended.

8.[S2952] Pennsylvania Chester County, Wills 1713-1825.

From Sussex OPC: Whyke Rumboldswyke Portsfield Parish History, covering Honour Clayton's time in the Parish:

http://www.sussex-opc.org/ParishDetails/WestSussex/Chichester/Whyke...

1661 Joshua Peytoe MA. Upon the restoration of the Monarchy (under King Charles II, following Oliver Cromwell's death and the collapse of the Commonwealth) Joshua Peytoe [or Peito] was presented as Rector by the Dean and Chapter. This was done on the basis that the benefice was void by the cession of Robert Randall. They refused to recognise those rectors admitted during the Commonwealth period. He died in September 1661 having held office for only 5 months.

In 1662 the Act of Settlement and Removal affected the ‘poor’ that is persons with property valued at less than 10 pounds or nine tenths of the population. Under this law they were not allowed to move from one parish to another without a certificate from their home parish agreeing to meet the cost of their upkeep if thy fell upon hard times. In practice such certificates were rarely given

1662 Edward Cotton, a vicar choral Cotton was appointed in May 1663, he died in November 1669 and was buried in the Subdeanery churchyard. A sequestrator was appointed on his death.

1670 Roger Collins, another vicar choral, Collins was appointed as rector ‘to preach and expound in Rumboldsweeke’ he was simultaneously the incumbent of St Olave’s in Chichester where he served for 45 years from 1673 to 1693. He had married Wilmot Duffield at Tangmere in 1665, they were the grandparents of William Collins the Chichester poet. He resigned in 1693 and died in 1707 and there is a memorial plaque to him on the wall of St Olave’s [now the SPCK bookshop].

The church registers of St Mary’s before 1670 are lost, possibly destroyed during the Commonwealth. It may be that the churchwardens were reluctant to purchase a new book until certain that the earlier books would not be found. It appears that Father Collins kept details on scraps of paper until a new book was obtained in 1678. As a result the earliest entries are not in chronological order, being written up as the notes were found.

During the period from when St Pancras Church was destroyed in 1642 until it’s rebuilding in 1751, many marriages and baptisms from that parish took place at St Mary’s.

From an entry in the register we learn that in 1678, William Cooper, a resident of the parish, was brought before the diocesan consistory court by the churchwardens of Rumboldswyke for allowing a Quaker meeting in his house. (Honour's family, also Quakers, left a year before this event.)

Ben M. Angel notes: From the 1875 map shown on this page, St. Rumbold's Church, formerly St. Mary's Church, the center of Rumboldswyke, is located at: 50°49'48.05"N, 0°45'58.73"W.

Other historical information about Rumboldswyke and its church from the same page:

The Romans founded Chichester; it was a walled town and the centre of local trade and administration. When the Romans left Britain in 410 the town was neglected and buildings fell into disrepair, Selsey became the more important local community. Sussex, the kingdom of the South Saxons was one of the last regions of the country to embrace Christianity, and it was to Selsey in 680 that Wilfrid, later to become Saint Wilfrid, brought the faith. He became the first of a line of Bishops overseeing Sussex.

The little hamlet of Rumboldswyke was sited alongside the road that ran from the East gate of Chichester to Selsey, and it is tempting to believe that Wilfrid regularly passed through our parish on his travels. The name of Rumboldswyke is of Anglo-Saxon origin, it derives from the Old English ‘Rumbold’s Wik’ a ‘wik’ being a farm, It seems probable therefore, that the earliest habitation could have been a pre-conquest settlement around property owned by Rumbold, a farmer whose name has been perpetuated locally for over 1,000 years.

Architectural evidence indicates that St Mary’s Church was built in the late Saxon period about the turn of the first millennium. It is of the characteristic two cell design favoured in Anglo-Saxon churches with a chancel at the east end for the priest and containing the altar, with a larger nave to the west for the worshippers. A chancel arch joins these two spaces, which at St. Mary’s is of 11th century Norman construction.

After the 1066 conquest the Normans removed the Bishopric of Selsey to Chichester where the new cathedral was built. The manor of ‘Wicke’ is mentioned in Doomsday Book where it notes that in 1086 it was held under Earl Roger de Montgomery, who also owned much property locally including the City of Chichester. He sublet it to ‘five men as five manors’.

Information about her birthplace from British History Online: 'Rumboldswyke', A History of the County of Sussex: Volume 4: The Rape of Chichester (1953), pp. 171-174:

http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=41733

RUMBOLDSWYKE

This small parish of 652 acres has since 1893 been included within the bounds of the city of Chichester, on the south-eastern edge of which it lies, its western boundary being the road running south towards Selsey. The place was originally, and frequently in later times, designated simply Wyke, and it is not known who was the Rumbold by whose name it was usually distinguished from about 1225 onwards.

...

Sir William Bowyer settled Rumboldswyke manor on his second son Henry on his marriage with Anne, daughter of Nicholas Salter, in 1609. (fn. 43) Henry's son William seems to have sold it to William Cawley of Chichester in 1634, (fn. 44) and he was holding it in 1652. (fn. 45) His son William Cawley apparently recovered his father's forfeited property, as he and Elizabeth his wife sold the manor of Rumboldswyke in 1689 to Sir Charles Littleton, (fn. 46) who conveyed it in 1691 to John Braman. (fn. 47)

...

In 1632 the manor of Rumboldswick, parcel of the bailliwick of Poling, then leased to John Baker, was granted to William Collins and others. (fn. 53) It was subsequently held with the main manor, the conveyances by Cawley to Littleton and by Littleton to Braman, in 1687 and 1691 respectively (see above), being of 'the manors of Weeke alias Rumboldsweeke and SAINT JOHN OF JERUSALEM'.

References:

43. Chan. Inq. p.m. (Ser. 2), cxlv, 38.

44. Ibid. ccclxiii, 210.

45. Recov. R. Mich. 9 Chas. I, ro. 16.

46. Suss. Rec. Soc. xx, 376. The manor was forfeited at the Restoration and given to James, Duke of York, whose trustees sold it to Viscount Brouncker: Close R. 15 Chas. II, pt. 17.

47. Suss. Rec. Soc. xx, 376.

53. Add. MS. 5690, fol. 78.

http://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Clayton-149

Honour (aka Honor) Clayton was born on January 18, 1662, in Rumboldswyke Parish, Chichester, Sussex, England.[1] Her parents were William Clayton (known as "William of Chichester") and Prudence (Lanckford) Clayton. The Claytons were an old landowning gentry family with branches in Sussex and Lancashire, England. They claimed descent from Robert de Clayton, a Norman knight, who had crossed the Channel with William the Conqueror in 1066. The Lanckford's were independent yeomen landowners from Sussex. Honour's mother may have been a widow when she married William Clayton in 1653 (some genealogies refer to her as Prudence Mickles).

Honour was the fourth of William and Prudence Clayton's eight children. Either shortly before her birth or in her early childhood, her parents had become "convicted" of the truth of George Fox's radical re-interpretation of Christianity and they had joined the "Society of Friends," more commonly called Quakers, movement. Early Quakers were very strict in their religious practices, eschewing all military service and even refusing to "swear" any oath of allegiance. Of course they also refused to attend services at or financially support the Church of England, the land's official church. Quickly persecuted as unbelievers and near-traitors, they met quasi-secretly in members' homes and practiced daily quiet meditations instead of church services.

William Clayton was a carpenter and he must have been well literate because by the early 1670s he had been selected to be a Commissioner for young Quaker aristocrat, William Penn, and to travel to the first Quaker settlement in America, near present-day Burlington, New Jersey. The Commissioners' task was to clear any Indian titles to the land that Penn had acquired there, before he obtained his royal charter for what would become the colony of Pennsylvania (on the opposite bank of the "South River," today's Delaware River, then occupied by Dutch, Finns and Swedes).

William Clayton sailed for America on HMS "Kent," which left London in March 1677, arriving in New York, newly won from the Dutch, in August. His family were not listed as passengers so it's likely they joined him in Burlington, New Jersey, after he had made arrangements for their arrival. Over the next four years about 1,400 English colonists emigrated to Burlington and most of these were Quakers. The Clayton family no doubt arrived between 1678-79. We know they were there well before August 1679 because that is when William's daughter, Honour Clayton, married Rev. James Brown at the Burlington Quaker Meeting.[2]

In 1681, after William Penn's charter for Pennsylvania was granted, William Clayton moved his family to newly-founded Chester County, colony of Pennsylvania, just across the Delaware River from Burlington, onto 500 acres of land he had patented there.

On September 13, 1681 William Clayton presided over Chester (aka Upland) County's first English court. He became one of the first two judges for the City of Philadelphia. He presided over William Penn's governing council between 1682 and 1684. He also served as acting Governor of Pennsylvania in 1684 and 1685.[3]

Rev. James and Honour (Clayton) Brown had 8 children together. Seven lived to adulthood:[4]

JAMES BROWN JR. was born January 17, 1681 at Marcus Hook, Upland (became Pennsylvania in March 1681). This land was later located in Delaware County, PA. He married Rachel Froud on Feb. 27, 1716, in Philadelphia, "out of unity"[5] and was disowned in 1720; he died March 4, 1772, in Wilmington DE. WILLIAM BROWN was born March 13, 1682; he married Esther Baker (Yardley) on Oct. 4, 1704. He died in 1716 in Chester Co., PA. CLAYTON BROWN was born August 1, 1685. He died as a child. ANN BROWN was born ABT 1687 in Marcus Hook, Chester Co PA; she married Robert McKay in 1704 and died in 1726 in Cecil Co., MD. JEREMIAH BROWN was born in 1689. Jeremiah took over the family homestead after his father died. He was married (1) to Mary (Royal) Cole, a widow, in 1710. He married (2) Mary Winter on May 20, 1749. He died March 7, 1767, at 80, thus giving his birth year. MARJORY BROWN was born in Feb. 1692 in Chester County. She married John Piggott, January 18, 1713. She died 24 December 1737 in Susquehanna Hundred, Cecil Co. MD. DANIEL BROWN was born in 1693; he married Elizabeth Kirk in 1717; he died in 1771 in Chester Co., PA. MARY BROWN was born ABT 1696; she married John Butterfield on February 9, 1731. Death date: Unknown. Honour (Clayton) Brown did not long survive the birth of her final daughter, Mary Brown. Complications following childbirth were the leading cause of death among young women at that time. Honour died on August 8, 1697, at her home in Nottingham Twp., Chester County, Pennsylvania, at just 35 years old. Her husband survived her by some 20 years, dying in June 1716 at their family farm/homestead.