Ancestor Charts,
1880 Sketch of the Mendenhall Family
Mendenhall,Ancestor Chart-Lydia Mendenhall
"The southeastern section of Chester County (Pennsylvania) was almost exclusively settled by England and Welsh Friends, as the southwestern part was by North Irishmen, and the Northern part by Germans. The settlers in Concord, Birmingham, and Pennsbury on the Brandywine were of the first-named class, who arrived with William Penn, or soon after, and the leading families were the Mendenhalls, Harveys, Bilpins, Sharpless, Darlingtons, Harlans, Pierces, Ways, Brintons and other familiar names.
"The origin and pedigree of the Mendenhall family has been hunted up in England by Edward Mendenhall, bookseller, from Cincinnati, Ohio, who is himself English born, and from a volume issued by him in 1868, I condense the following history, as also from facts otherwise known to the writer:
"Rev. J. Ward, Vicar of Great Bedwin, near Marlborough in the County of Wilts, England, quoted from ‘Britton’s Wiltshire’ the name whom he supposed to have been the first known progenitor thus: ‘A. D. 1301, Sir John de Mildenhale, Knight, presented a clerk to the Rectory of Mildenhale, near Marlborough. From this place the family doubtless took its name. In 1313, Geffry de Mildenhale, John de Mildenhale Ferour, and others, accompanied the king to foreign parts.’ (to the wars) in 1339, there is another record of Thomas and John de Mildenhale being sent abroad on some foreign employment. Several other legal warrants are quoted, or different, down to 1599, in which the name is mentioned as belonging to Wiltshire.
"Of the emigration to this country, the records and traditions agree that Moses, Benjamin, and John Mendenhall (often for short pronounced Men’all) with an unmarried sister Mary, came over with Friends from Wiltshire, and settled first in Concord (now), Delaware County. Mary married Nathaniel Newlin, whose descendants are numerous; Moses, purchased (in England probably) September 1685 of Roger Euen (who had his grant from Pennsylvania) for the sum of fifteen pounds 500 acres of land in Concord. Tradition and the records justify the conclusion that this Moses returned to England, leaving his brother (possibly his son) Benjamin, on the land, and never returned again to America, but soon after died. By said deed, the purchaser, Moses ‘Mildenhall’ is recorded a resident of ‘Marriage Hill,’ a village a little northeast of the market town of Marlborough, in Wiltshire, England.
From these two, Benjamin and John, it is believed all the American Mendenhalls are descended. Benjamin, being a Friend, donated the land on which the meeting-house is located. Benjamin (the emigrant’s) second son, Joseph, was married in 1690, to Ruth Gilpin, and had seven children, Isaac, Joseph, Benjamin, Hannah, Ann, Stephen, and Jesse”
Philadelphia Bulletin 1953 - newspaper clipping taken from an old book with a lovely old brass lock called "Correspondence relating to Benjamin Mendenhall’s line,” written by Isaac Mendenhall, Oakdale, Pennsylvania, 1853, in Chester County Museum, Westchester, Pennsylvania.
"I have an ancient meat platter with a picture marked ‘Mendenhall Ferry.’ This was an ancient ferry on the upper Schuylkill River about 2 miles below the falls of the Schuylkill. Before the Revolution, it was known as the Galrigue’s Ferry, but after 1880 (this should probably be 1780) was kept by Mendenhall who ran the ferry-tavern on the west shore, and served catfish. Family histories say John and Benjamin Mendenhall, who came from Mildenhall (the original name) Wiltshire, England, arrived with William Penn in 1682, but they were not on the ship called ‘Welcome,’ and perhaps immigrated a few years later. They settled in Concord township, Chester County. They lived at the Ford between which is now North and South Laurel Hill Cemetery leading up to the ridge road. ”
"The Mendenhalls came from the County of Wiltshire, England, where the ancestors of the American branches apparently lived in or near Marridge Hill, near the borough of Mildenhall, which was the earlier name of the family. In the late 1800's Mildenhall was a county place of ten to a dozen thatched roofed houses.
"During the contests of The House of York and Lancaster, that deluged England with blood, the inhabitants of Wiltshire were conspicuously on Henrie's side and a great number of them were slain at the battle of Towkesburg fought in AD 1471. Ten yrs. prior AD 1461 the battle of Towton in Yorkshire was fought, where the Lancastrians were defeated and by order of Edward IV slain. Thirty-eight thousand people died and the lives of eighty princes of the blood and nearly all the ancient nobility were blotted out of existence. Much of the nobility resided in Wiltshire.
"No one knows what the Wiltshire Mildenhalls went through. Perhaps the manor of Mildenhall was confiscated, the principles slain and the minor branches and their descendants left. The estate at Marridge Hill might have been a remnant of the ancient family holdings. For some centuries there have been families of the name of Mildenhall residing in the towns and villages of Wiltshire, chiefly tradesmen, farmers and innkeepers and which it is presumed were descendants of the ancient stock.
"We visited Marridge Hill in May 1995 and stayed in a bed and breakfast at the top of the T intersection. Mrs Judy Davies who owned the bed and breakfast thought the 1600s residence of the Mildenhalls was just a little ways down the T, near where the x is.”
"A Genealogy of the Descendants of Elijah Mendenhall of the Fifth Generation in America” by Marmaduke J. Stafford 1939.
Mendenhall/Mildenhall/Minal History or some facts:
"Twelfth of Edward III, A. D. 1339: Edward invaded France this year with letters of protection given by the King to many gentlemen, among the rest to Thomas de Mildenhale and John de Mildenhale, who were about to go in company with Phillippa, Queen of England, into foreign parts beyond the son”
"Twentieth of Edward III. A. D. 1347: ‘The King issues a warrant for the delivery of two hundred bows and four hundred arrows, to Robert de Mildenhalle, Nestro delecte Clerico, for the service of the French War” Nestro delecto clerico would seem to be chaplain to the King
"Twenty-first of Edward III, A. D. 1348: "The came Robert, our beloved clerk, appears as Keeper of the Jewels in the Tower and is directed by the King to deliver two chests of ornaments to be taken to Calais for the service of the chapel on the feast of Easter”
"Twenty-fourth of Edward III, A. D. 1351: "Another warrant to deliver nineteen hundred and forty quivers of arrows to Robert de Mildenhale at the Tower”
"Twenty-eighth of Edward III, A. D. 1355: " A warrant directed to Richard Mildenhale and others, to make inquiry respecting the standard measures.'
"Sir John Mildenhall was sent to make a treaty with the Emperor of Delhi”
"In 1599 the Dutch, who held control of the whole of the East India trade, raised the price of Pepper in this country from 3s to 6s and 8s. The direct result of this action was a combination of London merchants who formed themselves the venture and dispatched Sir John Mildenhall as her ambassador to the Emperor of Delhi to obtain trading facilities and privileges. Thus was laid the first stone of our Indian Empire”
Thomas was a farmer and owned a two story, two bedroom home. He was not a Quaker since their movement was only just beginning.
Thomas married about 1630 to Anne. Anne was born about 1600, and died after 1662.
Thomas died in 1656 in Marridge Hill, Ramsbury, Wiltshire, England. At the time of his death he was mostly retired and his sons had taken over the responsibility for his farm. An inventory of his estate following his death showed that his household goods, crops and stock were worth £41, 15s and 6p.
Children:
He was married 12 August 1649, in Aldbourne, Wiltshire, to Joanne Stroud, was born about 1636, also in Marridge Hill, the daughter of William Stroud (Stroude) and Jeanne Barnard (See Stroud Family, Part III)
Thomas was reported to the authorities in 1662 and 1664 as a recusant, one refusing to take communion in the Church of England. He is not listed in Quaker records as having been imprisoned and therefore may have conformed as far as paying tithes to the Church, which was the subject of Quaker passive resistance.
In his later years, he was a member of the Ramsbury Church and just before he died he gave a special gift to the church alms-house. ?In 1676, the 7th Earl of Pembroke, a heavy gambler, sold the Manor of Ramsbury, Wiltshire, England to Henry Powle, Thomas Whitley and Christopher Cratford for £30,155 to pay his debts. Henry Powle and his consortium then sold parts to the tenant yeoman farmers and others. One of the tenant farmers was Thomas Mildenhall. The part that Thomas purchased included a cottage.
He left a will dated 30 June 1682, at Somerset House, London, in November 1682. He appointed his brother Benjamin Stroads and son Thomas Mildenhall, overseers, and wife Joan, executor. His son Aaron was not mentioned, he probably was already deceased. Joanne Stroud did not have a brother Benjamin, so the "brother” Benjamin Stroads mentioned, may be the husband of his sister.
Thomas Mendenhall was buried 5 May 1682, at Little Beduin, Wiltshire. The confusion in dates is due to the earlier style of dating found in the Quaker records. Joanne died in 1682.
Many of the families had become Quakers. In England, records are found in the Reading and Marboro Meetings. All their children were born in Wiltshire, England, birth order uncertain.
Children:
John Mendenhall, Sr., the son of Thomas Mendenhall and Joanne Stroud, was born 30 October 1659, Wiltshire, England.
John bought 300 acres from William Penn on 14 September 1681 while still in England, costing £6 per 500 acres. On 6 February 1683, Penn requested a survey for this land, which was laid out in Concord Township, John being the first recorded purchaser of land in Concord. His patent is dated 27 June 1684. ?It was probably in the autumn of 1682 that John made the voyage to Pennsylvania. There seems to be no record of the ship on which he made passage.
It is likely that it sailed from the port of Bristol. It is probable that he was accompanied by his sister, Mary, and his younger brother, Benjamin. He came to Concord Township in what was then Chester County, Pennsylvania.
The Chester County court was held at the town of Chester on 17 April 1683. The court records indicate that John Mynall was a juror and at the same court, John Mendinhall was appointed constable for Concord, Liberty township.
He settled in Chester County, Pennsylvania, being one of the earliest settlers of Concord, where he was an original shareholder in Concord Mill.
A record of a somewhat later court session of the Chester County court indicates that John Mendenhall and John Harding were accused of selling whiskey to the Indians. It is possible that these young men might have done this as a means of ensuring that the Indians would not steal their hogs.
John placed the remainder of this tract in a trust for his three young sons on 8 March 1692. John continued to enjoy the use of the property until the sons reached their majority and did not prevent him from donating land for the new Concord Meeting House, stables and graveyard on 13 December 1697.
John bought 250 acres in Concord Township from John Harding (who bought the land from William Penn in England in September 1681, which was surveyed to Harding on 13 February 1683. John's patent is dated 26 June 1684. John assigned these 250 acres to his brother, Benjamin, in June 1686.
He was married 13 July 1685, in Darby, Chester County, Pennsylvania, to Elizabeth Maris, who was born 3d 2mo 1665, Inkborough, Worcestershire, Inkborough Parish, England, the daughter of George Maris and Alice Willsmith, who had migrated to America in 1683. (See Maris Family, Part III)
In 1697, John and Elizabeth gave the land to the Society of Friends for the Concord Meeting House and Burying Ground. She died in 1691, in Chester County, Pennsylvania.
John was married/2 on 9m 8d 1708, in Concord Meeting, to Esther Maddock, widow of Peter Dix (Dicks). John died 19 August 1743, in Springfield, Pennsylvania, and was buried in Concord, Chester County, Pennsylvania.
Children:
John Mendenhall, Jr., the son of John Mendenhall, Sr. and Elizabeth Maris, was born 3 June 1688, in Concord, Chester County, Pennsylvania, which later became Cecil County, Maryland.
He was married 10 December 1709 to Susannah Pierson, who was born 26 June 1691, in East Caln, Chester County, Pennsylvania, the daughter of Thomas Pierson and Rose Dixon. (See Pierson Family, Part III)
They had been married in Concord Monthly Meeting, now in Delaware County, Pennsylvania in 1709 and by 1715 they had moved about two miles north of Downingtown in present-day Chester County, Pennsylvania.
In 1731 they moved to Earl Township near the Susquehanna River in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania and were members of Leacock Friends Meeting, a Preparative Meeting of Sadsbury Monthly Meeting, and in 1747 to Hopewell Monthly Meeting, Frederick County, Virginia.
He died in 1758, in Concord, and was buried there.
After John's death, Susannah was married/2 to Edward Hunter, son of John and Margaret Hunter, and died in Virginia. She died 30 April 1765, in Frederick County, Virginia, and was buried in the 1758, Old Montezuma Cemetery on Route 90.
Children:
In 1742 there is a notation in Sadsbury Monthly Meeting minutes indicating that Mary (Mendenhall) Matthews has been disowned for marriage out of unity with Friends. Researchers are agreed that the marriage might have taken place several years earlier, and the news had not filtered back to Sadsbury for some time. It is possible that Mary set out on a journey from Lancaster County to visit friends and relatives on the frontier and never returned.
About 1851 the Mordecai Mendenhall family, who had been living in Berkeley County (now West Virginia) and other Quaker families in the area were moving south to the Piedmont area of North Carolina, and probably the Walter Matthews family made the journey at about the same time. Walter Matthews May have applied for membership in the Cane Creek Monthly Meeting of Friends in North Carolina in 1752 or 1753. However, I do not think he settled at Cane Creek near present-day Snow Camp, North Carolina, but rather in Guilford County, where New Garden Monthly Meeting was set off from Camp Creek Monthly Meeting in 1754.
Ann Matthews married John Floyd in 1758 and they had one child, Elizabeth Floyd, b. 6 April 1759. Elizabeth Floyd married Isaiah Hunt on August 2, 1775 and they had eleven children. John Floyd seems to have died within a few years of his marriage to Ann. Ann Matthews Floyd married (2) 1 January 1766 in North Carolina, Thomas Jessop, Jr. He was born 10 July 1715 in Yorkshire, England and had come to North Carolina as a boy with his father, Thomas Jessop, Sr. He had been married twice prior to his marriage to Ann and had a number of children by his first marriage who settled near his farm in Guilford County, North Carolina., in the area where the Battle of Guilford Couirt House was fought toward the end of the Revolutionary War.
Thomas Jessop, Jr. died 13 December 1783 at New Garden, Guilford County, North Carolina, leaving Ann with three surviving children: Hannah Jessop, Jonathan Jessop, and Ann Jessop. In 1784 Ann Matthews Floyd Jessop moved with her children to York, Pennsylvania, for a time and apprenticed her son to her cousin, Elisha Kirk, a clockmaker at York. Eventually Ann returned to Guilford County, North Carolina.
In 1817 Ann moved to Highland County, Ohio with the family of her daughter, Hannah (Jessop) Willis. It is believed that Ann Jessop died 26 September 1822 and was buried in the Fall Creek Cemetery, Highland County, Ohio.
It appears that Lydia (Pegg) Cook was a daughter of Valentine Pegg (1744-1828) and his first wife, Mary (probably not a Quaker) whom he had married, perhaps in Maryland. Valentine Pegg was born a member of the Nicholites, a sect originating on the Delmarva Penninsula and merging with the Quakers about 1800. Valentine Pegg married (2) Mary (Mills) Cook, daughter of John and Sarah Mills. Mary was a widow of Thomas Cook, son of Thomas and Mary (Underwood) Cook. Lydia Pegg married Zimri Cook, who, from my vantage point, appears to have been her step-brother, son of Thomas Cook and Mary Mills.
It is my understanding that the Peggs and Cooks lived in Guilford County, North Carolina.
The Thomas Cook family lived at Deep River, which is only a few miles from the New Garden Meeting on the Guilford College campus, where the Jessop family once lived. Lydia (Pegg) Cook, probably as a young woman had opportunity to hear the vocal ministry of Ann Jessop and to be impressed by it, but I do not know of any special connections between the Peggs and Cooks and the Jessops.
Mordecai Mendenhall, son of John Mendenhall, Jr. and Susannah Pierson, was born in March 1713 in East Caln, Concord Meeting, then in Chester County, now in Delaware County, Pennsylvania.
His first marriage was to Louisa Thornberry, who was born about 1710, dying before 1735.
He was married/2 on 21 May 1735, at Leacock Monthly Meeting, Chester County, Pennsylvania, to Charity Grubb Beeson, who was born 1709, in Chester County, Pennsylvania, the daughter of Richard Beeson and Charity Grubb (See Beeson and Grubb Families Family, Part III)
From New Garden Monthly Meeting, Chester County, Pennsylvania, on 27 November 1736, they moved their membership to Hopewell Meeting, Frederick County, Virginia, where some of their children were born. Then, 6 May 1751, they moved to Guilford County, North Carolina, to Cane Creek Monthly Meeting.
Mordecai and his sons always adhered to his Quaker faith, and during the Revolutionary war, did not see battle, but he and Charity furnished quarters, food and horses for the American army, and their home was used as a temporary hospital for the wounded. They were living at New Garden, now Guilford College, at the time of the battle of Guilford Courthouse in March 1781. A large number of descendants have gone into the Daughters of the American Revolution, and the sons of the American Revolution on the public service of Mordecai and Charity Mendenhall.
Later they moved to Deep River, and finally to Springfield meeting, High Point, North Carolina, where they were one of the original families of the Springfield Community. Mordecai died 3 November 1803, and Charity died 20 September 1809, both in Springfield, Guilford County, North Carolina, buried in the New Garden Cemetery.
Mordecai left the following will:
"I, Mordecai Mendenhall, of Guilford County and state of North Carolina being in sound in mind and memory do make this my last will and testament in the manner and form following:
I lend unto my loving wife Charity Mendenhall the plantation that I now live on during her life also my personal estate except what I hereafter order otherwise.
I give unto my son Richard Mendenhall heirs five shillings. I give unto my son, Thomas Mendenhall, heirs five shillings. I give unto my son, Aaron Mendenhall, heirs five shillings. I give unto my daughter, Charity Mills, five shillings. I give unto my son, Isaac Mendenhall, the plantation that I now live on containing three hundred and thirty two acres at the decease of my wife to him, his heirs and assigns forever. I give unto my son, Isaac, my smith tools. I give my money and notes of hand unto my four sons Moses, Stephen, Mordecai and Isaac Mendenhall and at the decease of their mother all the remainder of my personal estate to be equally divided amongst them.
I do hereby appoint my sons, Stephen and Isaac Mendenhall, executors to this my last will and testament. Ratifying this to be my last will and testament in witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand and seal this ninth day of the first month in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred ninty six.
In 1838, Trinity College, then at Trinity in Randolph County, North Carolina, was built on Mendenhall land. Trinity was the beginning of Duke University, now at Durham. In August of 1977, at a Springfield Meeting of the Friends, in High Point, North Carolina, a marker was dedicated to Mordecai Mendenhall and his wife, Charity Beeson. The Mendenhalls were always against slavery, and before the Civil War, their children were caught up in the great Quaker movement into Ohio, and later other western states.
Children:
Aaron Mendenhall, the son of Mordecai Mendenhall Sr, and Charity Beeson, was born 23 December 1751, in Cane Creek Monthly Meeting, North Carolina.
He was married 17 January 1776 at Center Monthly Meeting, Guilford County, North Carolina, to Miriam Rich, who was born 7 September 1757, in East Nottingham Monthly Meeting, Pennsylvania, the daughter of John Rich and Sarah Frazier (See Rich and Frazier Families Family, Part III)
They then became members of New Garden Meeting, the children were all recorded at the New Garden Meeting, Guilford County, North Carolina.
Aaron died 26 December 1793, his will was recorded in Guilford. He was killed by the fall of a coal shed, in a coal pit in North Carolina.
Miriam was later married 8 May 1811, at New Garden, to Obediah Harris, Sr. Miriam and Obediah then removed to White Water, by certificate dated 5 August 1811, at Deep River Meeting.
She died in May 1846, in Wayne County, Indiana
Children:
Moses Mendenhall, son of Aaron Mendenhall and Miriam Rich, born 13 October 1778;
He was married/1 on 16 November 1802, Guilford County, North Carolina, to Millicent Gray, out of unity (to a non-Quaker) and disowned at New Garden, 26 May 1804, reinstated 28 June 1806;
He was married/2 in December 1806, in Guilford County, to Mary Clayton Benbow, daughter of Benjamin Benbow (Generation 2.) and Lydia Reynolds, (See Benbow Family, Part VIII) and condemned his outgoing at New Garden on 28 June 1806; Mary was born before 1790, in Guilford County, North Carolina; Mary died 27 December 1822 in Guilford County.
He was married/3 on 1 July 1824 to Ann Benbow, her sister, at Hopewell Monthly Meeting, North Carolina; (See "Quaker Kin” p. 156.)
Moses died 26 May 1847, in Guilford County, North Carolina.
Children:
Bibliography
In the Manner of Friends, by Betty Ruth Foster, 1981
The Mendenhalls, by Henry Hart Beeson
Researching England, by Prof. A. M. Elliott
History and Pedigree of Mendenhall Family” by Pat Howard
Ency. of American Quaker Genealogy, Vol 1, pp 153, 509, 561 by W. W. Hinshaw
History of Mendenhall Family, page 56
Maris Family, page 11
Futhew and Cope History of Chester County, Pennsylvania page 635
DAR Magazine Vol 60
Compendium of American Genealogy, page 220
Boston Transcript, Vol 5
History of Mendenhall Family
by William Mendenhall of Bath, England
Moore, Westach and Baldwin Printers, Cincinnati
1865, page 25
History and Pedigrees of the Mendenhalls of England and the U. S, published 1912, by Thomas A. Mendenhall
Tri State Trader, 7 January 1978
A Genealogy, by Henry Hart Beeson, 1969