It’s a wonder that we do know who some of our immigrant ancestors are for there are many we don’t know their names or their stories. If they did happen to make a name for themselves in the new world, we still may not know for sure when or where they originated. Like Jesse Fearson, who suddenly appears during the American Revolution commanding privateers. DAR and SAR members state he is connected to the Charles County, Maryland Fearsons but I cannot find any evidence to support this theory. Below are some of the earliest to travel across the Atlantic to come to British America and whose descendants kept their names, births, marriages and deaths in bibles they passed down or fortunately published books about the immigrant and descendants that followed. Here is a brief list of our immigrants who left their own marks, staking claims to land and accomplishments that are recorded and set down in area histories.

William Stickney (?– bef. 25 Jan 1664/65) – I don’t know when or where William was born except that he was born in England. Traditionally most descendants state he was born in Frampton, Lincolnshire on 6 Sep 1592 but the records used to support this do not make sense to me, but that is another post. It is known that he was living in Cottingham, Yorkshire, England when he and his wife Elizabeth Dawson and three children immigrated to English America in 1638. He settled in Rowley, Massachusetts and that is where most of the people named Stickney in the United States generated from.

Elizabeth Dawson (bap. 22 Feb 1605/6- aft. 24 Sep 1678) – I do know that Elizabeth was born and raised in Cottingham, Yorkshire, England. Her parents Thomas and Elizabeth (Burrell) Dawson and their parents were from Cottingham as well. Paternal grandparents are John and Margaret (Thompson) Dawson, and her maternal grandmother is Marion Burrell.

Henry Flower (ca 1660 – 1736) came with his uncle, Enoch Flower (b. __-d. 1684) in 1683 into Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Enoch, a teacher by profession, was one of William Penn’s first purchasers. He headed a group of investors from the Corsham area of Wiltshire, England, which included his brother Seth (b. __-1702), Henry’s father. Enoch began right away locating lots in Philadelphia and was requested by the Provincial Council to establish a school, but unfortunately Enoch died the next year leaving Henry to carry on. Henry was in his early twenties and thrived in the new colony. He married twice and produced as many as eleven children, was a barber like his father, owned a prominent coffee house and was postmaster of Philadelphia.

1^st wife

Elizabeth Paschall (bap. 28 May 1671-19 Jul 1706) was born in Bristol, Gloucestershire, England to Thomas and Joanna (Sloper) Paschall and came to Philadelphia with them when she was eleven years old. Her father was a pewterer and purchased 500 acres of land in Pennsylvania. Henry and Elizabeth married before 1695 the year their first child was born.

Ann Biers married Henry sometime before their first child was born in 1708 but remains somewhat of a mystery and needs more investigation.

Anthony Morse (9 May 1606 – 12 Oct 1686) is our earliest immigrant into British America and another one from Wiltshire area of England. Anthony came in 1635 with his brother William, both were shoemakers from Marlborough. They sailed into New England on the James from England, arriving at Boston on 3 Jun 1635 and settled in Newbury, Massachusetts. Their parents were Anthony and Christian Morse. Anthony Jr. married Ann Cox (ca 1610 – 9 Mar 1679/80) at Saint Mary’s parish on 2 May 1629, and they had four children before embarking on their great move. There were other Morse immigrants to New England in the 1600s making it a difficult task to define the individual families as well the children from those families.

Francis (?-15 Oct 1688) and Rebecca (Hayward) (?-26 Apr 1705) Richardson came to New York after their marriage 20 Jan 1680/81 in London, England. Francis was a mariner from Ratcliffe, Middlesex, a small ship building area on the north side of the Thames east of London and Rebecca was from Uxbridge, Middlesex, the daughter of John Hayward a shoemaker. They were married at Devonshire House, London a Quaker meeting place which explains their desire to relocate to British America for religious freedom plus New York was now firmly in British control and offered Francis a great marketing opportunity. They had four children, but only two, Francis and Rebecca seem to have survived to adulthood. The father, Francis would not live to see his children grown for he died 15 Oct 1688. His wife Rebecca’s second marriage was to Edward Shippen a fellow Quaker from Boston and they merged their families in Philadelphia where both had recently acquired land in the new Quaker development.

John Young (12 Oct 1714 – 26 Jun 1790) represents an unusual immigrant that was born in Deptford, England, whose mother, Rebecca Richardson (1685-1752), the daughter shown above who was born in New York and grew up in Philadelphia. There she must have met and married his father, William Young, who lived in Deptford, another shipbuilding area southeast of London on the south side of the Thames. William Young (?- ca 1720) was captain of a large merchant ship trading from London to Philadelphia and was lost at sea when John was about 6 years old. John’s mother, Rebecca, knew what it was like to grow up without a father and moved back to Philadelphia to be near family. Her eldest brother, Francis Richardson II (25 Nov 1684 – 17 Aug 1729) was a merchant and silversmith in Philadelphia. John grew up to become a saddler and married Ann Boyte 9 Apr 1737.

I hope what I provide here is of interest to others, however I plan to bring more details about these immigrants, their families, their stories, and history in future posts. I am working on other families as well that I will share when I am happy the stories are confirmed and clear. There is always more to do in forensic genealogy which makes the decision when to do more research or when to stop and share so difficult. My goal is to share stories that are informative and interesting about my ancestors to further honor their existences.