John Newlin

• Son of Nathaniel Newlin, Sr. and Mary Mendenhall
• Birth: February 28, 1691 in Concord Township, Chester County, Pennsylvania
• Death: February 10, 1753 (61) in Concord Township, Chester County, Pennsylvania
• Place of Burial: Concord Friends Cemetery Concordville, Delaware County, Pennsylvania, USA
• John Newlin's wife is buried in this cemetery. I have not been able to document the location of John's remains, so I have placed his "memorial' here. Please contact me if you have information to confirm or dispute this as the correct location.
• Find A Grave Memorial

Married

• Married: Mary Woodward,

History

John Newlin was born in Chester County Pennsylvania on December 28 1691. He was the son of Nathaniel Newlin and Mary Mendenhall. Both of their parents had arrived in Ches- ter County, Pennsylvania from Ireland about the same time, 1682. They married three years later in 1685. John's father was a wealthy Quaker, who owned a very large tract of land that was later named Newlin township. When John's father died, he left John 940 acres of land in Newlin Township, in addition to the land he had already received in Concord township. John was the fifth of seven children. (see Nathan- iel Newlin story)

In 1711, John Newlin married Mary Woodward, daughter of Richard and Jane Woodward of Middletown. John's brother, Na- thaniel, married her sister, Jane Woodward, at about the same time. John and his wife Mary had seven children, all born in their home place in Concord, Chester County, Penn- sylvania. John's sons moved into Newlin Township and became farmers on land left by his father.1 There are not many records of John Newlin, as there is for his father and grandfather. However there was a peti- tion, drawn up and signed, in 1735, by many persons, includ- ing John Newlin.

The petition was addressed to the King of England requesting that they be treated the same way as their ancestors were treated by William Penn. When Pennsyl- vania was first formed by William Penn, being a proprietor, he was allowed to govern the colony as he wished. Penn had set up a democratic system of government. The system called for elected representatives from each county to pass and repeal all laws effecting them.

The Assembly, as the group of representatives were called, was Quaker controlled. Later the King of England decided that the colonies needed to be ruled from England like any other colony. They wanted to raise taxes and armies to fight the Indians and the France. The king also wanted all persons to swear their allegiance to the crown. The petition was the Quakers request to the king to remove these requirements. The Quakers lost on all issued except they were allowed to affirm allegiance to the crown instead of swearing allegiance.2 John Newlin was appointed overseer of Concord Meeting the March 3, 1731. John's wife, Mary Newlin was appointed over- seer of Concord on December 1, 1741.

John Newlin died in 1753, however, Mary Newlin lived to be over one hundred years old. Following was her obituary. "Died on 24th of this instant, Mary Newlin, of Concord, in the one hundred and second year of her age. She was born in the township of Thornbury in the county of Chester in Pennsylvania, about twenty-six miles from Philadelphia, which was at that time the western frontier on the then province. She was a woman of Hale constitution, affable and Cortious to her friends; Hospitable and kind to strangers and the poor, Industrious & temperate.

She retained her memory and sight to the last period of her life. She spun and knit till within nine weeks of her death. Idleness & Sloth were her greatest bane. She was buried in Friends burying ground at Concord, attended by a large concourse of relatives and friends, 11th month 26th, 1790.

She told me, about sixteen months past, that she remembered when her father and others deaded the timber, and burned the leaves, and hoed in their wheat by hand, there being few horses and scarce a plow in the settlement; that the natives were very kind to them, supplying them with bear's meat, venison, wild fowl, and eggs in plenty, and thought the white people conferred an obligation on them by receiving it."3 Notes 1. History of Chester County, by Futhey and Cope, page 669. 2. ibid, page 45. 3. The Genealogy of the Woodward Family of Chester County

Sources

• Email Received from DorothyJG Sept. 2010 "Probate court shows John Newlin, dec'd, resident of Concord. As he seems to have been in good standing with his meeting, it is logical to suppose he was buried in their cemetery."