Disputations – Jennings of Haddonfield

December 5, 2020December 20, 2020

Excerpts from William Henry Jennings 1899, Chapter IX

The 1967 Jennings of Haddonfield features a small clip of the correspondence between William Henry Jennings 1899 and Dr. William S. Long of Haddonfield.

The expanded excerpt provides greater insight to Dr. William S. Long’s mindset and bias.

Excerpt from William Henry Jennings, Jennings Family of England and America, 1899 Columbus Ohio

CHAPTER IX. “Of whom it -was said, That in Isaac shall thy seed be called.”—Heb. XI: 18.

The history of the family- of Henry Jennings is especially to be noticed, because it -was through this branch of the Jennings name, the great effort of the

” Isaac Jennings Association ” was directed toward the establishing of the rights of its members as claimants to the estate of “William of Acton”

It is with the belief that it is the best commentary upon the work of the “Association” and its expectations, that the compiler is glad to present the statement made in a letter from Dr. W.S. Long:

Haddonfield, N.J, 1 Apr., 1899

W.H. Jennings Esq:

My Dear Sir — Your favor of 19 Mar. in regard to History of the Jennings family was received and I take pleasure in forwarding the following notes on the Isaac Jennings branch = principally in located in West New Jersey.

At various times and in the past ten year, papers, letter, pamphlets and pedigrees, etc. relating to the Jennings family have been submitted to me for examination. Without entering into a discussion of the justice of the claim of persons who are descended from Isaac Jennings of Gloucester Co. N.J., to a fortune reputed to exist in England, I will only say that in the pedigrees, the connecting links between Isaac Jennings and the famous “William the Intestate” of Acton, Eng. so far as my knowledge goes are exceedingly unreliable, being constructed on a basis of surmise, totally devoid of support of official or bible family records or documentary evidence and have but even tradition with its ofttimes flimsy evidence to fall back upon.

One pamphlet purporting to be a History of the “Jennens” Estate, presenting the pedigrees of the West Jersey claimants and bearing the name of one their attorneys as compiler, is so full of palpable errors that the veriest type in Genealogy would be able to distinguish them. It is not creditable to the discretion , wisdom or business aptitude of the ruling element among these claimants, that they should have entrusted the conduct of a claim so important in the hands of agents who had shown in their gross ignorance of the construction of the family pedigree. It would seem very essential that the pedigree should prove by good and reasonable evidence, the connection of each generation with the preceding, and finally, the relationship of the first in America.

Nothing of this nature was done. Without attempting apparently to prove the links of connection in this country, and, so far as I can learn, without attempting a thorough search in the office of the Secretary of State at Trenton, N. J., for wills, deeds, etc., they rushed off to England to present a claim to untold millions for which they could not show a shadow of title other than the possession of a surname. They could not show conclusively the relationship of Isaac Jennings of Old Gloucester County and Henry of Salem and Philadelphia through whom they claimed heirship, and until this is done and reasonable evidence is given that Henry of Salem is heir-at-law or next of kin to “William of Acton” it is folly for the West Jersey claimants to pursue ignis fatuus further in an English Court of Law. The agents of these claimants succeeded in amusing and deceiving a large number of respectable but to credulous people who paid their assessments with becoming regularity, and in turn were regaled with glowing description of great iron bound and triple-locked chests in the vaults of the Bank of England, filled with coin and plate, all of which were to speedily pass into their possession.

Whether Isaac of Gloucester and Henry of Philadelphia were related, as son to father, or indeed in any way, is a problem difficult of solution. The compiler has treated them as father and son, but is pleased to present adverse testimony in the form of a recent letter from W.S. Long:

Haddonfield, N.J. 7 Aug. 1899.

W.J. Jennings Esq.”

My Dear Sir – The subject of the relationship of Henry Jennings of Philadelphia and Isaac of Gloucester has been the object of a thorough search in Philadelphia, Trenton and Woodbury, where the ancient deeds and wills bearing on the subject are to be found. The result of my labor is as follows:

The family descended from Isaac Jennings of Gloucester County, did not trace their origin farther back until after the voyage of the Argonauts for the golden prize in England. Their agents soon found it necessary to discover an ancestor, and it but little research to find the wills of Henry and Margaret Jennings at Trenton. There was not discoverable tradition of Henry bearing any relationship to Isaac. he does not mention children in his will. He leaves a farm which he bought of *Thomas Graves to Isaac Jennings, and the house he lived to “my cousin Margaret Jennings” daughter of Isaac of London. No mention is made of Sara Jennings and surely a daughter would take precedence over a niece.

About 1715, our Isaac Jennings appeared and bought land in New Jersey, about eight miles from Philadelphia where Henry died ten year before and where several families of the surname lived whose relationship if any, does not appear. No record either in Pennsylvania or New Jersey shows that he had ever inherited land from Henry or Margaret Jennings of Philadelphia.

Note: If Dr. William S. Long did review Margaret’s will, he failed to acknowledge the following, ” -all the rest unto Isaac and Sarah reputed son and daughter of my deceased husband Henry Jennings to be equally divided between them”

Outside of common baptismal name in connection with a surname of frequent occurrence, there was no reason for associating Henry and Isaac as father and son until the stern necessity arose of finding the missing link to a great treasure-trove. The ingenuity of Genealogist was taxed to bring Isaac of Gloucester one generation nearer the goal (or gold) of their hopes and – and behold a pedigree!

It was calculated to keep the purses of the agents and attorneys were well filled – their constituents were buoyed up with hope which would have no weight even in the lowest courts of law in any civilized country.

There is no evidence which would be accepted in our courts that Henry of Salem and Philadelphia was the father of Isaac whose descendants are here given.

*Thomas Graves was a resident of Philadelphia. In 1685, when he bought 200 acres in Philadelphia County and in 1712, when he sold 200 acres. In 1700 he sold 3 acres to the corporation or agents of Trinity P. E. Church at Oxford, near Frankford, Pa. His name is not found in the Trenton indexes.

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November 30, 2020January 10, 2021

Jacob versus Jacob Mark

Fact Checking the following article from the Gloucester County Historical Society.

There is no evidence that Jacob Jennings is the nephew of Samuel Jennings. Henry Jennings and Samuel Jennings do not share a direct line.
There is no evidence that Jacob Jennings was named Jacob Mark
Jacob and Ann Albertson Hopkins had three sons, Joseph, Mark, and Job.
Jacob and Mary Norris Smith had six children: Isaac, John, Judith, Jacob, Samuel, and James
Jacob did not have a daughter named Sarah. Jacob did, however, have a sister named Sarah who married George Flannigan.
Jacob’s son Jacob never married. Jacob’s son Mark married Mary Fleetwood.
Mark and Mary Fleetwood had twelve children. The oldest son was named Jacob. He died at the age of six years. The third child and second son was named Mark. Mark lived to be seven years. The seventh child and fifth son was named Jacob Mark.
Jacob Mark was the first time the combined name is documented.
Jacob Mark and Emma Sickler named one son Jacob Mark
Jacob Mark and Fannie Lynch named one son Jacob Mark III
Jacob Mark and Ethel Sachleben named one son Jacob Mark IV

Gloucester County Historical Society

From Gloucester County Historical Society, Vol. 5, No. 6, Dec. 1956. Jacob Mark Jennings, the eldest of the family settling in Chestnut Ridge, was descended from Henry Jennings, reputed nephew of Samuel Jennings, ??? one of the early colonial governors of West New Jersey. (More likely cousin. Ed.) Jacob M. Jennings (first) purchased 312 acres of the tract later belonging to Randall Nicholson from John Jennings, May 8, 1797. the chain of title from John Jennings, who purchased the same April 19,1794, of Joseph Reeve, who obtained it by deed of Sheriff Thomas Denny, January 21, 1785, ran back through William Buzby, and his father Isaac Buxby, who had purchased the same in a larger tract conveyed by John

Stacy’s executors. Jacob M. Jennings owned the 102 acres comprising the later John Young place. It was then known as “Price’s farm”.

Jacob M. Jennings also owned the Peter Cheesman tract, which was later the James Robb place, and then his son Job Jennings, lived a few years later than 1800. Job emigrated to Ohio, and his dismissal from Woodbury Friends Meeting dated August 8, 1816, was “to Miamie MO. Meeting, in the state of Ohio”.

Jacob M. Jennings, who had married Ann Hopkins, widow of Ebenezer Hopkins, junior, in 1783, had two sons and one daughter, by his second marriage–Jacob Mark Jennings, (second), Job Jennings and Judith

Jennings. (Judith was from first marriage, Joseph from second. F.d.)

The first son remained on the old place at, Chestnut Ridge; the second emigrated to Ohio, and the daughter married and went to Bristol, Pennsylvania.

By his first wife, Mary Smith, whom he married in 1761, Jacob M. Jennings (first) had four sons, Joseph? Samuel, John and James, who emigrated to the west; another son, Isaac, who became a schoolteacher

in Philadelphia; and a daughter, Sarah, who married Patrick Flanagan. The father died in 1813, at Chestnut Ridge, where he made his home with his son Jacob. He devised the homestead here to his son Jacob, the later Robb place to his son Job.

The son Jacob married Mary Fleetwood, daughter of Richard L. and Catherine Flock Fleetwood, who had settled about a mile below Chestnut Ridge, on the western side of Scotland branch, in 1791, where the daughter Mary was born in 1793. Not liking the Chestnut Ridge farm, which he inherited

from his father, Jacob Mark Jennings (second) disposed of the place, removed to a point near Woodbury, and there continued farming until his decease, in 1833. His son, Jacob Mark Jennings (third) was then ten years of age. His widow, Mary Fleetwood Jennings, did not remarry but brought up her large family and was living until the latter part of 1856.

Jacob Mark Jennings, (3rd) made a “run-away match” when he was twenty years old his young bride, Emma C. Sickler, being sixteen years of age. She was a grand daughter of John Sickler, pioneer of Sicklerville. The young couple settled near Sicklerville and became the parents of a large family of children.

The Woodbury? Friends meeting minutes, under date of July 27, 1847, records that he was disowned for marrying outside of the denomination. Among their children is a son named Jacob ? Mark Jennings (fourth) who had a son Jacob Mark Jennings (fifth).

November 29, 2020December 21, 2020

Genealogical descent through the Families of Jennings, Chew, Smith and Leonard in South New Jersey

“GENEALOGICAL DESCENT THROUGH THE FAMILIES OF JENNINGS, CHEW, SMITH AND LEONARD IN SOUTH NEW JERSEY : Copied from Rev. Caleb E. Smith’s Notes Wenham Mass. 1939

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 and 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.

Rev Smith makes a few assumptions and proposals including:

That Isaac was afforded a fine education as “the sons of wealth”

That Isaac was reared by his Mother’s family on money from her estate

That Sarah’s marriage displeased her parents and therefore Isaac was cut off from his entitlement.

Facts:

Isaac was the son of Anne Godwin and Henry Jennings

No records indicate education

Isaac was a Justice of the Peace for two year

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).

Isaac had three daughters: Sarah, Deborah and Elizabeth. There are no Ann Jennings records.
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.