Bio - Judah Foulke

FOULKE, Judah

Submitted and written by: Andy Gammill

Source:
Jenkins, Howard M. Historical Collections Relating to Gwynedd. Philadelphia, 1884.
History of Belmont and Jefferson Counties, Ohio.
Hinshaw, William Wade. Encyclopedia of American Quaker Genealogy. Baltimore, 1973.

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Biography of Judah Foulke
Written by Andy Gammill

Judah Foulke was born on January 18, 1763 in Richland Township, Bucks County, Pennsylvania. He was the eighth child of Samuel Foulke and Ann Greasely Foulke. His father, Samuel Foulke, was a statesman representing Bucks County in the Pennsylvania colonial assemblies of 1761-1768. He was brought up in the Richland Meeting where his father was originally the clerk. Judah seems to have kept his Quaker faith, although during the Revolutionary War, his father was disowned by the Society of Friends for being too sympathetic to the war effort, an act which went against the Quaker beliefs.

In 1791, Judah and his family were granted a certificate to Exeter, Pennsylvania. Sarah's parents, Thomas and Elizabeth (Lancaster) McCarty, went with them. Staying for a little more than a year, both families moved again to Muncy in Lycoming County, Pennsylvania. However, they returned to Bucks County in 1803.

However, Judah was an adventurous man and could not bear to stay in one place, so he relocated his family to Ohio in 1819. The church records indicate that the Plainfield Meeting in Ohio accepted Judah Foulke with wife Sarah and minor children, Amelia, Cadwallader, Jesse, Mercy, Grace, Silas, and John. His other son, Thomas, was accepted on the same day, May 5, 1819. The record indicates that they came from the Richland Meeting in Pennsylvania and had stopped for a while at the Miami Monthly Meeting in Ohio. They left children Samuel, Eleanor, Mary, and Ann behind in Pennsylvania.

In 1824, the family, without Thomas, Amelia, or Cadwallader, moved to the meeting at Somerset, Belmont County, Ohio. While at the Somerset Meeting, Judah was a schoolteacher. He taught at the Barnesville Village School. In 1828, Judah Foulke taught in the newly erected Mason's Hall of which the school was in the basement. However, in 1829, the masons decided to sell the hall, and the school went under. The Foulkes' stay in Belmont County was relatively peaceful as nothing relating to them was entered into church records until their departure on April 27, 1829.

At that point in time, they joined son Thomas at the Stillwater Monthly Meeting. Two years later, Judah's son Silas was disowned for "mcd," married contrary to discipline. Judah died and was buried on November 30, 1847 in Richland, Belmont County, Ohio.

For more information: http://php.indiana.edu/~agammill/foulke.html

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