Robert Henry Hodgson

Robert Hodgson b. 1618 d. 1696 [note these are alternate dates]

Robert Hodgson was called "An ancient Friend and Traveler for God's Truth". He died in 1696, aged 78 years, leaving three children - Alice, Mary and Robert. Alice married Phineas Pemberton. Nothing is known of Mary. Robert II married Sarah Bordens and had a family of at least eleven children. The only one we have a record of is Phineas, apparently named for his uncle Phineas Pemberton.

Robert of Warwick England, married Rachel, daughter of Samson Shatton, and had Alice, Mary, and Robert. He was gone, says "Thompson's On Long Island" in June 1657 over the ocean, and two months later appeared first at Amsterdam New York, where he was cruelly beaten and chained as a Quaker, under the government of Stuyvesant. Birthplace of Robert Hodgson b. 1618 was Warwick, northwest of London near the Cotswold Hills. (England). From Revolutionary Soldiers of Ohio - Page 179. Joseph Hodgson, 14 Ohio Co. "O" born 1760, son of Captain Jonathan and Francinda (Bassett) Hodgson in Hamilton County, Ohio. Grandparents were Robert Hodgson Sr. and Alice Shatten Hodgson. This Robert was an immigrant arriving in America in 1657. The wife of Robert Hodgson Sr. was apparently Rachel Alice Shatten as one reference calls her Rachel and another calls her Alice. She also had a daughter named Alice, who married Phineas Pemberton.

Robert Hodgson was a quiet, moderate English Quaker who was strong in his beliefs and willing to suffer in defense of them He moved south to settle along the Delaware River at Chester, Pennsylvania. On December 14, 1714, Robert Hodgson patented a tract of 2000 acres and on the next day in connection with James Hendricks, one of 1500 acres. Both tracts were on the Conestoga Creek, and the patents were issued by the Penns.

In 1715 a tract of 250 acres located in East Nottingham Township called Hodgson' s Choice was patented. In 1728 another patent was granted by Maryland for 660 acres, called "Pleasant Garden." The traditions of the Hodgson family are that Robert settled on the Conestoga land after leaving Chester Pa., but on account of trouble with the Indians left that place and tried "Bohemia Manor" in Maryland. In confirmation of this the records show that Ephiram Aug. Herman leased to Robert Hodgson during his life, as also that of his sons Joseph and John, 400 acres of land at the junction of Little and Great Bohemia Rivers for 1 bushel of hard winter wheat annually, but his tract was also abandoned on account of the malaria of the section. He then moved to "Pleasant Garden," and from that day to this, part or all of the said tract has been in his possession or that of his descentants. "Pleasant Garden" being a Maryland patent was held to be in Cecil County, hence the will of robert Hodgson, of Cecil County, being very sick, is dated 1732, and proven Nov. 28, 1733. It mentions his wife Sarah and children, Joseph, John, David, Richard, Phineas, Matthew, Rachel Scott, Sarah Hodgson, Jonathan, and Robert. To his son, Phineas he gave 200 acres on the south side of Pleasant Garden, and the remainder not disposed of to his son Joseph. Joseph conveyed his interest to Phineas on Dec. 9, 1745. Phineas died intestate, and having left three sons, the property descended by law to Robert, he being the oldest. Robert and John went south. The residence of the descendents of John, if any there be, is at present unknown. Robert settled in Frederick County, Virginia about 1745. In 1771 he gave 130 acres of Pleasant Garden to his brother John, who in 1772 sold the same to William Shearer. In 1771 Robert, in connection with both his wife and mother, Deborah, deeded another 130 acres of Pleasant Garden to his youngest brother Abel. Two years later, Abel Hodgson purchased of Jonathan Hodgson of Phildelphia, his cousin and a grandson of Robert of Cecil, the 250 acres known as Hodgson's Choice.

At the Fort Wayne Library was found in vol. I - From Revolutionary Soldiers of Ohio - page 179. Ref. Md. Archives, Vol. 18 - page 427 - Joseph Hodgson - in Hamilton county, Ohio. Grandparents were Robert Hodgson Sr. and Alice Shatten Hodgson. This Robert was an immigrant arriving in America in 1657. The wife of Robert Hodgson Sr. was apparently Rachel Alice Shatten as one reference calls her Rachel and another calls her Alice. She also had a daughter named Alice, who married Phineas Pemberton.

Note: Excerpted from "History of the Hodgson Family 1665-1892" - to which this author has a copy.

Robert Hodgson, Persecuted Quaker Minister

Courtesy of Jim Pearsall

It was in August, 1657, over two centuries ago, that an English ship, with eleven Quaker preachers, first reached the New Netherlands, then under the governorship of Peter Stuyvesant. They came with the avowed purpose of disseminating their principles in the city of New Amsterdam and on Long Island. It was on a Saturday that they landed, and the very next day, Sunday, two of their number paid a religious visit to the Governor, to acquaint him with the object of their mission. They found him "moderate both in words and actions." The next day, Monday, two women-preachers, under a feeling of religious duty, went into the streets of the city and publicly exhorted the people to turn from the error of their ways and listen to the strange doctrines of the new missionaries. The scene was odd and startling to the Dutch citizens; and the magistrates arrested the disturbers of the public peace without hesitation, and committed them to prison. What further proceedings took place we know not, except that after eight days' detention they were taken from prison, their hands pinioned behind them, (as was the custom of those days), and escorted to a vessel at the dock, which soon set sail for Rhode Island, then the hot-bed of toleration.

In the meantime the other Quaker missionaries were not idle. ROBERT HODGSON, with two fellow-laborers in the ministry, proceeded to visit the English settlements of Long Island, who were represented as having among them "many sincere seekers after Heavenly riches, and were prepared to appreciate those Spiritual views of religion which these Gospel messengers had to declare." They proceeded first to Gravesend, where "their testimony was well received: "for the early settlers of this town were of English origin, mostly from Massachusetts, and of Quaker proclivities. Thence they passed to Jamaica, another Puritan settlement, where the way was already open for these preachers of new Gospel. We need not wonder that they were here "received with gladness." So far all went well with our sturdy reformers. They next went on eastward, to the village of Hempstead, where they also met with settlers who welcomed them to their homes, and as Hodgson expressed it, "rejoiced in the spread of those living truths which were preached among them." His two compainions here left him and proceeded on toward the east end of Long Island. He was now alone, and on the "First Day," or Sunday, after his arrival, for want of a suitable building, he appointed a meeting to be held in an orchard, to which he invited the inhabitants. Now Hempstead had been settled about 16 years before by a New England colony. The town had an organized magistracy, and a regularly-establish church and minister.

The authorities had no notion of having their Sabbath worship interfered with in this way. There lived in the village Richard Gildersleeve, a justice of the peace, with Stuyvesant's commission in his pocket. He had, perhaps, been notified to be on the alert and put a stop to such irregularities. Be that as it may, as soon as he was aware of the intended meeting, he issued a warrant to a constable to arrest the preacher. The officer arrived on the ground a little before the hour for meeting, and finding Hodgson "pacing the orchard alone, in quiet meditation," he laid hold of him at once, and hauled him to the magistrate, who left him a prisoner in his own private house, while he (the justice) went to the Presbyterian church (Mr. Denton's) for morning worship. But the wily Quaker outwitted the magistrate; for during his absence the prisoner, by his loud voice and energetic action, (probably in preaching from a window), had collected a large crowd of listeners, "who staid and heard the truth declared." Mr. Gildersleeve was so annoyed, on his return home from worship, to find that his dwelling had answered all the purposes of a chapel, that his prisoner had had so favorable an opportunity for spreading his doctrines, and that he could not stop his mouth, that he instantly wrote a mittimus for his removal to another house; for Hempstead did not then boast of a lockup or house of detention. The change of place did not, however, prevent the people from visiting Hodgson, during the latter part of the day; so fond were they of novelty and excitement. "In the afternoon," says Hodgson, "many came to me, and even those that had been mine enemies, after they had heard truth, confessed to it." The probable cause of Hodgson's favorable reception at Hempstead was that the church and its support was part and parcel of the town expenses. The church-goers were divided in sentiment: some were Independents or Brownists, and some Presbyterians. The tax was burdensome to the free-thinkers and the lukewarm Christians; hence, any attack on the established Church was welcome. Beside these there were always those who are fond of any "new doctrine." Hodgson says there was another magistrate in Hempstead, (Capt. John Seaman), who disapproved of Gildersleeve's course of action, and he insists that the most respectable inhabitants of the town concurred that opinion, but that the persecuting justice, taking counsel of the ruder sort, as soon as he had committed the stranger to prison, set off on horseback to New Amsterdam, to bear the good news in person to Stryvesant, who congratulated him on his efforts to suppress the "Quaker heresy," and forthwith dispatched to Hempstead the sheriff and gaoler with a guard of twelve musketeers, to bring Hodgson and those who had entertained him in their houses to the Fort in the city.

As soon as the escort arrived in Hempstead they searched Hodgson and took from him his little pocket-Bible,* pocket-knife, papers and some other articles. He was then pinioned with cords, as was the custom at that time, and remanded to prison for the night. (*The Quaker preachers always had a Bible at hand, which they referred to and quoted in support of their doctrines.) During the interval the officers of the law were busy searching "for those two women who had entertained the stranger." Thus passed the night. Next morning all was bustle in making preparation for conveying the prisoners to the Governor. A cart was procured, in which were seated the two women, (one of whom had a child at the breast), and Hodgson was to trot on behind, his arms being pinioned, and he fastened to the hinder part of the cart. In this manner, under military escort, they travelled to the city, about twenty miles, over open fields and through the woods; for the country was yet new, mostly unsettled, and no roads had yet been made. As part of the journey was performed in the darkness of night, need we wonder that it was painful to the prisoners, and that Hodgson's arms were chafed by the cords and his legs much bruised and torn by the briers and brambles that infested his path? On their arrival at the Fort, the women were put in prison, but soon after allowed to return to their families. Hodgson, the chief offender, being loosed from the cart-tail, was led by the gaoler to a "dungeon, full of vermin, and so odious for wet and dirt, as he never saw before."

Next day he was examined. He understood not a word of Dutch, but availed himself of Capt. Willet as an interpreter. We have no record of the proceedings of the Court, but Hodgson was no doubt refractory and defiant. Hence he was sentenced to pay a fine of 600 guilders ($240), failing or refusing to do which, he was to serve two years at a wheel-barrow, locked with a chain. Hodgson wished to argue the matter with the Court, but was put off. On his refusal to work he was severely and repeatedly scourged. Hodgson concludes his narrative by saying: "But after I had wrought one week, I had liberty to speak to many that did resort unto me." About the middle of September, at the intercession of some friends, he was released from prison and put on board a vessel for Rhode Island. Thus ended the first Quaker persecution.