Person:Joseph Carson (15)

Watchers
  • F.  Carson (add)
m.
  1. William Carson1728 - 1786
  2. Joseph Carson1738 - Bef 1791
  3. Mary Carson
  4. Andrew CarsonBef 1739 -
  • HJoseph Carson1738 - Bef 1791
  • WMary Correy1743 - 1785
m. 2 Apr 1765
  1. Joseph CarsonAbt 1766 -
  2. Mary CarsonAbt 1768 -
  3. Susan CarsonAbt 1770 -
  4. Catherine CarsonAbt 1772 -
  5. Elizabeth CarsonAbt 1774 -
  6. Ann CarsonAbt 1776 -
Facts and Events
Name Joseph Carson
Gender Male
Birth[1] 1738 County Antrim, Northern Ireland
Marriage 2 Apr 1765 Pennsylvaniato Mary Correy
Will[1] 1 May 1791 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States
Death[1] Bef 6 May 1791 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States[probate]
Burial[1] Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United StatesSecond Presbyterian Church
Probate[1] 6 May 1791 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States
References
  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 Family Recorded, in Leach, Frank Willing, and North American (Newspaper : Philadelphia). Old Philadelphia families: a series of articles contributed to the Philadelphia North American. (Salt Lake City, Utah: Genealogical Society of Utah, 1965, 1967).

    Old Philadelphia Families LXVII-CARSON
    Philadelphia North American
    Date: Sunday 13 SEP 1908

    ... As stated at the beginning of this article, of the three CARSON brothers who emigrated from Ireland about 1750, two remained in Philadelphia. The eldest was William CARSON, whose descendants have just been presented. The other brother who remained in the Quaker City was Joseph CARSON from whom alone are there descendants now surviving who bear the CARSON name.

    Joseph CARSON was born in County Antrim, Ireland, in 1738, and was scarcely more than a lad when he accompanied his older brother, William CARSON to America. At an early period of his life, he engaged in mercantile pursuits, and his entire career in Philadelphia was as a successful merchant, accompanied by the performance of the higher duties of citizenship, usually falling to the lot of the progressive man of affairs.

    Among the first signatures which we find attached to the historic Non-Importation Agreement of October 25, 1765 is that of the firm of CARSON, BARCLAY, and MITCHELL. Though not entirely positive on this point, the present writer is inclined to the belief that it was Joseph CARSON who was the senior partner in the firm. However the contemporaneous records of the years which follow show that he was in business by himself, and that he was one of the prominent factors in the commercial world.

    In a list of local merchants engaged in business January 1, 1770, published in Scharf and Westcott's History of Philadelphia, is that of Joseph CARSON who conducted an extensive establishment on Second Street, which street, by the way, was then the real center of the city, which scarcely extended beyond Fourth Street. At the time of his death, in 1791, he was located at 9 North Water Street.

    When the fires of revolution began to spread throughout the colonies, early in the seventies, Joseph CARSON was one of the first to catch the spirit of protest and revolt. When therefore, the day arrived for action, he was ready to declare his position, which he did unequivocally. The minutes of Council of Safety, December 2, 1776, contain the following:

    "Resolved, that Joseph CARSON be appointed Paymaster to the Second Battalion of Associators of this city."

    But it was not alone in a military capacity that he manifested his patriotism and interest in passing events. In the summer of 1778, after the evacuation of Philadelphia by the British, an organization was effected of patriotic citizens "... to support each other in disclosing and bringing to justice all Tories within their knowledge." Joseph CARSON was one of the organizers of this association.

    In 1779, during the condition of panic and distress superinduced by the scarcity of money, CARSON was named a member of the committee appointed "to regulate the price of provisions and to prevent engrossing, forestalling, secreting supplies." Later in the year, however, September 2, 1779, he was a signer of the "Memorial of Merchants" in which the regulations of the committee were attacked as being an invasion of the laws of property, etc.

    In the following year, with practically no improvement in local conditions, owing to the money stringency, which had impoverished all classes of citizens, an agreement was signed by the public officials, leading lawyers and principal merchants to accept the paper money issued by this State , under the Act of March 1780, as equivalent to gold and silver. Joseph CARSON was one of those subscribing his signature to this important paper, whose object, obviously, was to popularize the new currency and allay the panicky conditions then prevailing.

    Later in the same year, when the prospects and hopes of the colonial traders were at the lowest possible ebb, and Washington was crying out for relief for his starving, miserably clad army, which was on the verge of mutiny, the most notable act of the Revolution took place - the organization of the Bank of Pennsylvania to finance the tottering continental government and furnish supplies to the ragged, exhausted troops. Toward this patriotic enterprise whose projectors were solely Philadelphians, Joseph CARSON contributed the sum of £4000.

    One of the last contemporaneous references to Joseph CARSON, prior to his death, we find in the ever absorbing diary of Jacob HILTZHEIMER, February 28, 1789: "Had to breakfast with me Dr. CHAPMAN, Gerardus WYNKOOP and son from Bucks County; Alexander LOWRY, General NEVILLE, and Joseph CARSON."

    Joseph CARSON married April 2, 1765, Mary CORREY, daughter of George CORREY of New London Township, Chester County, a prominent citizen of that section of the Province of Pennsylvania. She was born in 1743 and died in the latter part of May 1785, the records of the Second Presbyterian Church, showing her burial May 28 of that year. Her husband died six years later and was buried May 6, 1791. The Pennsylvania Gazette of June 7, 1791 - the newspaper of that day were often slow in publishing news items - contained this notice: "Died on Saturday last, Joseph CARSON, merchant of Water Street, aged 53 years. On Sunday evening his remains were deposited on the burying ground of the Second Presbyterian Church, attended by a numerous collection of respectable citizens."

    In his will, dated May 1 and proved May 6 1791 he mentions the following children: Mary, Joseph, Susan, Catherine, Elizabeth, and Ann. ...