Mary Mendenhall

• Mary Mendenhall was the daughter of Thomas Mendenhall and wife Joane Strode. She came to America in 1683 the same year that her husband arrived from Ireland. Both settled in Concord, PA and were married two years later, on April 17, 1685. This marriage occurred in Concordville, Chester Co., PA (then known as Deleware Co.)
• William Penn had patented to Nicholas Newlin 500 acres of land situated in Chester Co., PA, and in 1703, this land was resurveyed to his son, Nathaniel. In 1704, Nathaniel and Mary built a grist mill and a dam on their land which contained the headwaters of the west branch of Chester Creek in Concord Township. The mill was operational through several changes of owners and under various name until, as the Concord Flour Mill, it ground commercially for the last time in 1941.
• Find A Grave Memorial

Married

• Married: Nathaniel Newlin, Sr. Son of Nicholas Newlin and Elizabeth Piggott . Whereas Nathaniel Newlin, yeoman, and Mary Mendenhall, spinster, both of the township of Concord in the county of Chester in the province of Pennsylvania having declared their intentions of taking each other as husband and wife before several public meetings of the people of God called Quakers according to the good order used amongst them, those proceedings therein after deliberate consideration thereof and consent of parties and relations concerned being approved by the said meetings. Now these are to certify all whom it may concern that for the full determination of their said intentions this seventeenth day of the secondmonth called April in the year one thousand six hundred eighty five they the said Nathaniel Newlin and Mary Mendenhall appeared in a publicand solemn assembly set together for that end and purpose at the house of Nicholas Newlin in Concord aforesaid according to the example of the holymen of God recorded in the scripture of truth, he the said Nathaniel Newlin, taking the said The couple had declared their marriage intentions at the two previous sessions of Chichester Monthly Meeting.

Children

• JEMIMA NEWLIN was born on 09 Dec 1685 in Concord, Chester, Pennsylvania. She died in 1723 in Thornbury Township, Chester, Pennsylvania. She married Richard Eavenson on 04 Dec 1712 in Concord, Chester, Pennsylvania. He was born on 22 Apr 1684 in Concord, Chester, Pennsylvania. He died in Nov 1739 in Thornbury Township, Chester,Pennsylvania.
• ELIZABETH NEWLIN was born on 19 Feb 1686 in London Grove Township, Chester, Pennsylvania. She died in 1723 in Thornbury Township, Chester, Pennsylvania. She married Ellis Lewis on 08 Jun 1713. He was born in 1680. He died on 22 Oct 1753 in Upper Dublin Township, Montgomery, Pennsylvania.
• NICHOLAS NEWLIN was born on 19 May 1689 in Concord, Chester, Pennsylvania. He died in 1768 in Concord, Chester, Pennsylvania. He married (1) Edith Pyle on 14 Sep 1715 in Chester County, Pennsylvania. She was born on 20 Jan 1695 in Bethel Township, Delaware, Pennsylvania. She died in 1745 in Concord, Butler, Pennsylvania. He married (2) Ann Speakman on 29 Aug 1746 in Concord Township, Delaware, Pennsylvania. She was born on 13 Oct 1719 in London Grove Township, Chester, Pennsylvania. She died on 08 May 1808 in London Grove Township, Chester, Pennsylvania.
• NATHANIEL NEWLIN was born on 19 Mar 1690 in Concord, Chester, Pennsylvania. He died on 02 Feb 1732 in Concord, Chester, Pennsylvania. He married Jane Woodward in 1711 in Concordville, Concord Township, Delaware, Pennsylvania. She was born on 13 Apr 1687 in Thornbury Township, Chester, Pennsylvania. She died in Feb 1737 in Middletown Township, Chester actually Delaware, Pennsylvania.
• JOHN NEWLIN was born on 28 Dec 1691 in Chester County, Pennsylvania. He died on 10 Feb 1753 in Concord, Chester, Pennsylvania. He married Mary Woodward in Apr 1710 in Concordville, Concord Township, Delaware, Pennsylvania. She was born on 09 Mar 1690 in Thornbury Township, Chester, Pennsylvania. She died on 24 Nov 1790 in Concord, Chester, Pennsylvania.
• DEBORAH NEWLIN was born in 1692 in Concord, Chester, Pennsylvania. She died in 1779 in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania.
• KEZIA NEWLIN was born on 22 Dec 1695 in Concord, Chester, Pennsylvania. She married William Bailey in 1719 in Concord, Chester, Pennsylvania. He was born in 1690 in Kennett Square, Chester,Pennsylvania. He died in 1729.
• MARY NEWLIN was born on 02 Feb 1699 in Concord, Chester, Pennsylvania. She died in 1790 in Kennett Township, Chester, Pennsylvania. She married Richard Clayton on 07 Apr 1729 in Concordville, Concord Township, Delaware, Pennsylvania. He was born in 1698 in Freehold, Monmouth, New Jersey. He died in 1742 in Monmouth County, NewJersey.

History

In 1957, after stints as a book shop and an antique store, the Newlin Grist Mill was purchased by E. Mortimer Newlin, ninth generation descendant of Nicholas Newlin. He created the Nicholas Newlin Foundation for the purpose of restoring and maintaining the mill as a museum. The mill's great wooden cogs, gears and pinions were all in place but had rotted into disuse. During 1992, the trustees and staff of the Foundation undertook reconstruction of the grist mill. The task was to dismantle the old inner structure for purposes of rebuilding it, and to gain some knowledge of the original building so that a model maker could reproduce the first mill to scale. An eighteenth-century mill typically consists of two parts: the waterworks and the building. The building can be envisioned as three fundamental entities, each of which may be referred to properly as a "mill." First, the building itself, in this case a freestanding heavy timber frame and stone structure, banked into a natural east-west ridge,houses the industrialparts. Second, the inner structure is also heavy timber framed and is also virtually freestanding within the proective walls of the building. Third, there is the cleaning, grinding and sifting machinery which is housed in, and supported by, the inner structure. Aside from the mill itself, the mill race, pond, and dam constitute the most visible remains. Like the mill, they are visible clues to time past, but they present mysteries as well.The incomplete historical record provides no clue as to whether these shortages represent a recurring problem in the Chester Creek watershed, whether this is a phenomenon of our time, or whether there might be another explanation altogether.

It seemed reasonable to attempt to solve the immediate problem using the most direct approach possible; assume for the time that nothing has changed since 1704; how could the water system be made to work? Four projects provided the answer: 1. making level and patching the dam; 2. dredging portions of the millpond; 3. dredging the millrace; 4. rebuilding the locks and spillways along the race. The millrace now provides an ample supply of water, and in fact, provides enough to power the much more extensive machinery of the mill of the late nineteenth century even at the worst of the most severe drought we have experienced to date. Our tempory assumption that nothing had changed since 1704 was simply a convenience. The dam and millpond area that exist now differ radically from the situation of 1704. Silting of the old millpond has claimed several acres; construction of the Octorara Railroad line and of South Cheyney Road through the property have certainly altered the course of the millrace. The heavy timber inner structure rests on the ground or on stone foundations separate from the walls of the outer building. Thus, vibration and other stresses caused by the operation of the mill machinery is transferred to the inner structure, it's foundations, and ultimately to the ground, rather than to the outer shell of the mill building. Contact between the inner structure and the building is almost incidental; therefore, operation of the mill caused almost no damage to the mill building, but wear and tear to the supporting inner portions is continuous and cumulative.

Reconstruction of the inner frame involved: 1. fixing several tons of milling machinery in place by means of jacks, scaffolding and other temporary devices; 2. removing and replacing most of the existing structure, mainly materials from the ca. 1960 restoration project. This work uncovered some previously hidden and unexpected details of the original building which would alter the historical interpretation of the building. Removal of the timber frame exposed the inner surface of the north wall (which was in 1704 an original outer wall), revealing two previously unnoticed (or un-noted) features: First, a six feet plus high archway on the wall, only inches from the corner at the banked end; Second, a rectangular recess in the same wall, aligned with a stone pier on the south wall opposite it. Discovery of these features compounded questions about other unexplained formations in that original room of the mill, and lead to considerable rethinking about plans for the model. Archaeologists and persons familiar with other early mills viewed and discussed the sometimes elusive possibilities contained in the remaining structures before restoration was undertaken.

After much study, work and time the mill has, for thirty years, with occasional predicable repair and maintenance, served as intended. (Source: Bulletin of the Delaware County Historical Society, Vol 44, No 2, May 1993, H. Dabbs Woofin).

Nicholas Newlin Foundation, The Newlin Grist Mill and the surrounding 160-acre park is a place for exploration of both history and the environment.

Newlin Grist Mill History

In the winter 1682/83, Nicholas Newlin and his family landed in Upland (adjacent to Chester, PA), newly arrived from Ireland and seeking religious and economic opportunities. The family settled in Concord Township and began building a new life for themselves. In 1704, Nicholas’ son Nathaniel constructed a grist mill now known as the Newlin Grist Mill. The mill served its community as a source for grinding grains and strengthened the economy by exporting products to international markets around the world.

Until 1941, the mill continued to grind grains and sell flour products under several different owners (Newlin, Trimble, Sharpless, and Hill). Each generation of owner also updated machinery and expanded the building to meet the needs of the time. These changes can be seen in the construction and landscape of the Newlin Grist Mill.

Nicholas Newlin Foundation

In the mid-20th century, a ninth-generation descendent of Nicholas Newlin visited the mill looking for his family’s origins and became captivated by its character and traditions. E. Mortimer and Elizabeth Newlin purchased the mill in 1956 and immediately began restoring the building and equipment. Mr. and Mrs. Newlin established the Nicholas Newlin Foundation in 1960 giving it a mission that remains relevant today.

The purpose of the Nicholas Newlin Foundation is to preserve its land and its historic buildings for the pleasure and education of the public.

In an area of urban growth, the Foundation maintains open land as a refuge for plants, animals, and birds, and for the people who come to enjoy them. In an era of high technology, it offers visitors insights into the vanished life of the rural eighteenth century. This two-fold objective of environmental and historical concerns is combined in a single theme wherever possible.

Following the ideals of its founder, E. Mortimer Newlin, the Foundation will strive to enhance its service to the public, while securing its future by managing its finances wisely.

For more than fifty years, the Nicholas Newlin Foundation has served its community through the preservation of history and open space, conservation of plants, animals, and waterways, and as a place for both education and recreation. Today, the Nicholas Newlin Foundation continues to maintain the Newlin Grist Mill and Park along with its twelve historic structure

The following is taken from "Mendenhall-Newlin Alliance" (1989) by Russell Newlin Abel, page 164:

In a letter from JWM Newlin, dated Dec. 24th 1865, occurs the following which was sent to him "by Mary Newlin of Waterville." "Died on ye 24th of this Instant Mary Newlin of Concord in the one hundredth and second year of her age (she was born in the township of Thornbury in ye County of Chester in Pennsylvania, about 26 miles from Philadelphia, which was at that time the western frontier of the then Province.) She was a woman of hale constitution, affable and courteous to her friends, Hospitable and kind to strangers and to the poor. Industrious and temperate she retained her memory and sight to the last of her life. She spun and knit till within nine weeks of her death. Idleness and sloth were her greatest bane. She was buried in friends burying ground at Concord, attended by a large concourse of relations and friends, 11mo 26th 1790. She told me about 16 months past that she remembered when her father and others deadened the timber and burned the leaves and hoed in their wheat by hand, there being few houses and scarcely a plough in the settlement. That the natives were very kind to them in supplying them with their bear's meat, venison, wild fowl and eggs in plenty, and thought the white people conferred an obligation on them by receiving them."

Biography

MARY MILDENHALL was born on 21 Mar 1663 in Marridge Hill, Wiltshire, England. She died on 04 Oct 1728 in East Caln, Chester, Pennsylvania. She married Nathaniel Newlin, son of Nicholas Newlin and Elizabeth Paggott, on 17 Apr 1685 in Concord, Chester, Pennsylvania (Concord Meeting) as recorded in the Philadelphia Yearly Meeting and Byberry Monthly Meeting<ref>Marriages, 1698-1783. Swarthmore College; Swarthmore, Pennsylvania; Quaker Meeting Records; Call Number: MR-PH 83.</ref>. He was born on 18 Dec 1665 in Mountmellick, Leix, Ireland (Mountmellick Meeting). He died on 17 Apr 1729 in Concord, Chester, Pennsylvania. There is no record of death for Mary though we know it was prior to Nathaniel's marriage to Mary Fincher.

<div style="height:10em; overflow:auto; border: 2px solid #B18904">Nathaniel Newlin and Mary Mildenhall had the following children:<ref>The Mendenhalls, II. First generation in America, page 3. Beeson, Henry Hart.. The Mendenhalls : a genealogy. Houston, Tex.: unknown, 1991.</ref>

Following is a transcription of the marriage certificate of Nathaniel and Mary: <div style="height:10em; overflow:auto; border: 2px solid #B18904">

Mary Mendenhall by the hand did openly declare as followeth viz: I, Nathaniel Newlin, do in the presence of God and you, his people, take Mary Mendenhall to be my wife, promising to be to her a faithful husband until death separate us and then and there in the said assembly the saidMary Mendenhall did in like manner declare as followeth, viz: I, Mary Mendenhall, in the presence of God and you, his people, take Nathaniel Newlin to be my husband promising to be to him a faithful wife until death separate us and the said Nathaniel Newlin and Mary Mendenhall as a further confirmation thereof did then and there to these presents set their hands.

Nathaniel Newlin (signed) Mary Newlin (signed). </div>
size=200 Mary Mildenhall came over unmarried <ref>History of Chester County, Pennsylvania, with Genealogical and Biographical Sketches (Google eBook)John Smith Futhey, Gilbert Cope,L. H. Everts, 1881 - Chester County (Pa.) - 782 pages.</ref> with her brothers John and Benjamin. Mary's brother Moses who came over with her sister Margery and her husband and family in 1685 returned to England and conveyed his lands equally among his sibling that remained in America. "By deed of September 5, 1685, John Ewen of Drayott, Wiltshire, England, conveyed to Moses Mendenhall of Marritch Hill in the Parish of Ramsbury 500 acres of land in Pennsylvania, not then located. By another deed, August 6, 1688, and in the "fowerth [4th] year of the raigne of our Soveraigne Lord James II, by Grace of God, of England, Scotland, France, and Ireland, king, defender of the faith &c, between Moses Mildenhall of Marritch Hill in the Parish of Ramsbury, Wiltshire, Yeoman of the one part and John Mildenhall, one of the the brothers of the said Moses, Benjamin Mildenhall, another brother of the said Moses and Margery Martin, Wife of Thomas Martin, and one of the sisters of the said Moses, and Mary Newland, wife of Nathaniel Newland, one other of thesisters of the said Moses, conveyed to his brothers and sisters the above land.". From the Compendium of American Genealogy, Vol. III, and other sources..

Submitted by Jane Osborne Jones.
size=200 In 1699, Nathaniel built for his family a large brick dwelling house on the land that he inherited. It was located about 1/4 mile west of his father's home. This house was used for over 150 years before being demolished. In 1701 he expanded his land holdings by 600 acres in an area known asRockland Manor which later became part of the Concord township. This is one of the tracts in Concord which his father had bought as a five hundred acre tract on which he built his home and in 1696 built a saw mill. Nathaniel later built a grist mill and dam on the west branch of Chester Creek. digital image [https://archive.org/stream/biographicalhist00garn#page/130/mode/2up[Link]]<ref>Garner, Winfield Scott,. Biographical and historical cyclopedia of Delaware County, Pennsylvania : comprising a historical sketch of the county. Richmond, Ind.|||New York: Gresham Pub. Co., 1894.</ref>Carved on a stone in the wall of the mill is, "Nathan and Mary Newlin 1704." In 1739, Nathaniel built a stonehouse for the miller, beside the mill. The original house consisted of two rooms upstairs and two rooms downstairs with a fireplace in each, with a beehive oven outside the kitchen fireplace. About 1810, a third story was added. The mill was in operation through several changes of owners and under various names until, as the Concord Flour Mill, it ground commerciallyfor the last time in 1941. In 1957, after stints as a book shop and an antique store, it was purchased, along with the miller's house and the surrounding land, by E. Mortimer Newlin, eighth generation descendant of Nathaniel. The mill's great wooden cogs, gears and pinions were all in place but had rotted from disuse. The grist mill was reconstructed and now is part of a park and is open to visitors. The Mill is nowNewlin Mill Complex [http://www.newlingristmill.org/#![OrganizationLink]] [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newlin_Mill_Complex[Wikipedia Link]]
size=200 : Burial: Concord Friends Cemetery:: Place: Concordville, Delaware County, Pennsylvania, USA<ref>http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=8970796</ref>

Links

• http://www.mendenhall.org/

Sources

IMPORTANT==The use of the surname Mendenhall came about by the immigration of Thomas children John and Benjamin Mildenhall to the United States. From that point the spelling of Mendenhall was used for John and Benjamin and their descendants.*G2G LNAB should be Mildenhall

• G2G Mendenhall corrections needed
• Sprague Project (http://www.sprague-database.org/) (14 Feb 10)