Section 3 – Jennings of Haddonfield

Genealogical decent through the families of Jennings, Chew, Smith, and Leonard in South New Jersey

Copied from Rev. Caleb E. Smith’s Notes Wenham Mass. 1939

Arranged from data collected by, Rev. Edward Smith Paxton, Mass.1930

NOTE: On inner side of cover Is a picture of

“Samuel Jennings. An An oil portrait by Francis Coates 1726-1770. Size

30″ X 25″ Courtesy of the Newman Galleries. Gov. of N.J. from Burlington, of Burlington

Co. N.J. (See bottom of Page 9)

Samuel’s Dau. Mercy Mar. John Stevenson in 1706. Their Dau. Anne Mar. Daniel Doughty; and their Dau. Mary Doughty, Mar. William Lovett Smith (Excerpts from the narrative of Mary Smith, 1674 to 1739.

Genealogy of Jennings, Chew, Smith and Leonard families in “Old Gloucester County,” New Jersey
by Rev. Caleb Edward Smith (came to Wenham, Mass., in 1922. The 1st of July. )
Paxton, Massachusetts 1930.

(In 1837 and 1844 “Old Gloucester” was divided into the present three counties of ATLANTIC, GLOUCESTER, AND CAMDEN: and after the division strange as it may seem, Gloucester Township found itself in Camden County

Narrative of Mary Smith, 1674-1739.

At the age of four years, she came with her parents Robert and Ann Miflin from Nottingham, England/ In later life she wrote a narrative of their experiences–she married Daniel Smith. See page 37)

“Sometimes after it came into their minds to remove to West Jersey, my parents went into Hull, Eng., and bought provisions tor the voyage, such as flour, butter, cheese, & ect .. Then took passage in the good ship “Shields” of Stockton. And after about sixteen weeks sailing, arrived at Burlington, in 1678. They all landed and made such dwellings as they could for the present time, some in caves and some in palisade houses secured. The Indians were very numerous, but very civil. They brought venison and corn to the English, who never complained of their coarse way of living, such as pounding corn-meal one day for the next. And I never heard one say I would I had never come.” It seemed no other than the hand of God, so to send them to prepare a place for the future generations. I wish that they who come after, may consider these things, and not be like the children of Israel after they were settled in the land of Canaan, forgetting the God of their fathers and following their own vanities, for if they do, great will be their fall.”

—-In Watson’s Annals of Phila-
early editions.

The Jennings Family

William Jennings of Birmingham, England married Johanna Elliot. Their nine children were all baptized in St. Martin’s. But only two of their children this story springs from. They were John, the iron-monger (and William the 2nd).

John Jennings, baptised Apr. 8th,_1579, Lord of Tarsau. He had extensive iron-works at Birmingham.

His home was the manor of “Nether Whitacre. His first wife was his cousin, Mary Jennings, dau. of his Uncle James. Sucling (?), their son Ambrose, born 1610, had a son John of St. Albans, whose son (page 2) – (Wm. L’ s ancestor, of Mass. ) Richard, had three noted daughters: – Sarah, Duchess of Marlborough, Barbara Jennings and Frances

Jennings and Frances, Lady Hamilton.Through the latter’s influence with Queen Caroline, the ports of France were opened so that Lord Nelson could obtain food for his starving Army. The second marriage in 1622, the ironmonger, or iron manufacturer, was with Joyce Weamans in 1622, four of their children are named in his Will (made in 1651and probated March 1-1653.) as “tenants in common” of his vast estate which included “Nether ‘Whitacre,” and some 34 other properties, mostly in Warwickshire in and around Birmingham. His Will further stated that “at the death of the last of the four, the oldest male heir of either of them should inherit all. These four were: – Humphrey, Sarah, Joseph Daniel and Edward.

No heir was left by either {page 3) Joseph or Edward. Sarah, left a son and daughter (see page 5),but the estate passed to Humphrey’s son Robert, then on to his son, William L. Jennings of Acton, who was born in 1701.(Ref.-top of P. 250 in big book on Wm. L. Jennings.) He remained unmarried, and died in June 29th 1798, leaving only an unsigned Will to dispose of his estate, which has been the cause of great contention. Cosins on his mother’s side claimed his personal effects– Lord Beauchamp, the silver, and Lady Andover, the jewels, – so the story goes. But they didn’t take the two strong boxes of cold cash, several million strong, which tradition tells us were safe in the keeping of some good Bank in England. This alluring tale has caused many a good American dollar to slip from the hands of its credulous owner into the pockets of fraudulent agents who from time to time arise proclaiming they have “just found the documents that will locate the lost fortune. Like the “pot of gold at the rainbow’s end” it never yet has been found. But ”hope springs eternal in the human breast,” so the older generations nurse their burnt fingers and tell the younger generation “the fortune won’t come in my day, but it may come in yours. And so, the bubble floats on.

Real estate is no bubble, it can always be found, so all of that (money?) left by William of Acton, The Courts of England gave to one of the Curzon family — Lord Howe, as next heir in line. He was an adopted son of an illegitimate son, Penn Curzon of Robert’s brother Charles Jennings of Gopsal Hall, The “Jennings Association” in America in 1853 brought suit in the English Courts to regain the estates from the Lord Curzon of that day, but the Americans lost the suit and small wonder it is that they did, for they had gotten their genealogy so mixed and tangled as to think Henry {page 5) Jennings, born 1642 was the son of Humphrey (see page 2) born 1629. These dates of themselves would be enough to throw the case out of court without adding the weight of the Salem, N.J. records which says ”Henry was the son of William and Mary,” evidently William the second & brothers of John {page 1) who married Mary Messenger are the ones referred to The “Jarndyce vs Jarndyce case” in “Bleak House” by Charles Dickens, is said to be based on the Jennings case.

Coming nearer to the truth of the matter is the tradition backed by a few records, that indicate Sarah Jennings {page 2} born 1634 married her cousin Henry. She died of the plague in June 28th, 1665, leaving two children Isaac and Sarah. Henry’s second wife was Margaret Busse, whom he married in London in 1666. Henry and Margaret left Eng. and came to Salem, N.J., on the good ship “Kent” in 1677. While living in

London he worked as a tailor, and he did the same kind of work in Philadelphia, Pa., after coming to America. He was a member of the Society of Friends. He owned (some little of) land in Salem, N.J., Philadelphia, Pa., and near Haddonfield (Barrington), N.J. His will proved in 1706 left property to Isaac Jennings of London, where he was educated) and some little remembrance to Isaac’s little daughter Margaret whom Henry called by the nickname of “my cousin.”) Henry’s wife Margaret’s will proved in 1710, mentions Sarah and Isaac Jennings as children of her husband. 2nd wife had no children.

Isaac Jennings came to America after the death of his father and settled on or near the land Henry had owned around Haddonfield (Barrington), but voted in Gloucester Township, in the latter years of his life. All records of him show him to have been a man of fine education such as was only given in those days to the sons of wealth. Henry’s circumstances would hardly have afforded it. So it seems as safe a guess to say that Sarah Jennings young children were carefully raised by some one of their mother’s people, on the money from her rights in her father’s estate (See page 2)-and that may have been why Isaac and his sister did not come to American when Henry am Margaret came. Tradition has always been insistent that Isaac was the rightful Jennings heir through his mother’s rights, but because Sarah’s marriage had displeased her folks, her son was not permitted to come into his own. no further records are found of Isaac’s daughter Margaret). He died in 1758.

In New Jersey, Isaac Jennings married Judith Marden Bates, a young widow with one daughter Rebecca, who married Richard Price. The children of Isaac & Judith were Jacob, John, Ellis, Sarah and Ann. (Isaac Jennings’s children born in New Jersey were the following named five:-

Sarah Jennings daughter of Isaac, married George Flannigan (Or Flanningham) in 1736 and had children named:- Isaac, Patrick, Samuel, Ann (She married Jaggard, Perce and Fisher.) William, Deborah, Elizabeth, Priscilla and Sarah.
Ann Jennings, daughter of Isaac married John Chew 3rd, son of Richard Chew, Jr. (See page 28).
Deborah Jennings, daughter of Isaac, married Isaac Burrough and had issue:- Isaac, Priscilla and Hannah.
Elizabeth Jennings, daughter of Isaac, married Aaron Lippincott in 1746 .. Her children were Samuel and Judith.
Jacob Jennings, son of Isaac, married first wife, Mary Smith in 1761. descendants of this marriage are not known to the writer. Jacob Jennings second marriage in 1783 was to Ann Hopkins, widow of Ebenezer and daughter of Josiah and Ann Albertson. The children of the second marriage were:- Mark, Joseph, James, Isaac and Job and Jacob, John and Judith. The last two may have been of the first marriage.

Mark Jennings born 1786 married Mary Fleetwood. Of their children the names of only two are known to the writer.

Jacob Mark Jennings married Emma Sickler of Sicklerville.
Mary Jane Jennings born 1833 was married 1n 1851 or 1852, to John B. Sutton. Their son Joseph F Sutton married Ann Elizabeth Kane (or Cain). ( Cain’s Mill)

There is a record (a letter from him, dated 1810, to friends back home) showing there was a John Jennings of Gloucester County, N.J., who removed to Indiana prior to 1810. He evidently belongs somewhere in this line of the family.

Sarah Jennings, sister of Isaac (see page 6) some claim, married John Chew 2nd, son of Richard the 1st (see page 14) (see excerpts)

Samuel Jennings, first Governor of New Jersey (in 1681) came from England and settled in Burlington Co., N.J. His daughter Mercy married John Stevenson in 1706. daughter, Anne Stevenson married Daniel Doughty, and their daughter Mary Doughty, married William Lovett Smith (see 37). Gov. Jennings two other daughters Sarah and Anne, both married Stevenson all three brothers, Sarah having first married Edward Pennington, a half-brother of William Penn’s wife. Gov. Jennings was perhaps descended from another son of 1st William (see page 1) as may also Thomas Jennings of Burlington County have been.