Old Philadelphia Families LXVII-CARSON
Philadelphia North American
Date: Sunday 13 SEP 1908
Conducted by Frank-Willing Leach
It was somewhere about the middle of the eighteenth century, certainly between 1750 and the beginning of the Revolution, that three brothers William, Joseph and Andrew CARSON, accompanied by at least one sister, Mary, and possibly others, children of Andrew CARSON, came to Philadelphia from County Antrim, Ireland, to secure a larger liberty and better opportunity to make fortunes for themselves and incidentally, a wider horizon for their posterity. That they chose wisely subsequent events certainly demonstrated.
One of the brothers, the youngest, Andrew CARSON, having married, March 1, 1769 Jane HALL, removed to that section of Pennsylvania now known as Northumberland County, then a wild, almost uninhabited country, except so far as the Indians roamed through the region, upon their predatory expeditions, which were at that time, not infrequently attended by disastrous results to the few white settlers who had ventured so far from the settlements on or near the Delaware. Of the progeny of Andrew CARSON we have no record.
But William and Joseph CARSON remained in Philadelphia, established themselves in business, became active factors in the developments of the day, married, had issue and passed from the scene of their endeavors with the unbounded pronounced and unqualified esteem of their contemporaries. It is with William and Joseph CARSON, and certain of their offspring that this article will have to do.
William CARSON the eldest member of the family so far as our information indicates was born in Ireland March 25, 1728. While his brother, Joseph CARSON, ten years his junior, became a leading merchant, William CARSON engaged in business as an innkeeper, becoming the proprietor of the Harp and Crown, at the corner of Third Street and Elbowlane; and this famous hostelry he conducted for many years.
When the controversy between the colonies and the mother country began, William CARSON did not hesitate for a moment in allying himself with the radical patriots who protested against the coercive policy of the parent government, and when the time arrived to pass from verbal protest to concrete rebellion, CARSON was at the forefront of the malcontents who took up arms to carry out their purposes. We find him, at first a member of Captain R. SMITH's company of the First Pennsylvania Battalion, Continental Line; later in the Third Battalion, subsequently in the Fourth Battalion.
When, toward the close of the summer of 1777, the advance of the British upon Philadelphia seemed imminent, and the arrest of all disaffected persons was suggested, the Supreme Executive Council appointed a committee of citizens, with Colonel William BRADFORD at their head, to supervise the arrest and imprisonment of those specified. Of this committee William CARSON was made a member, with Charles Willson PEALE, Sharp DELANEY and certain other well known Philadelphians of that day.
Shortly before that the council had July 11, 1777 appointed him a member of the committee entrusted with power to remove cattle whenever the approach of the enemy made it necessary to do so.
Throughout the struggle for independence William CARSON was indefatigable in his efforts to promote the cause of the colonists and advance the principle for which the war had been undertaken.
He early identified himself with the Second Presbyterian Church of Philadelphia and in the charter obtained for the congregation from Lieutenant Governor Richard PENN, August 4, 1772, William CARSON appears as one of the trustees.
He was married about 1751, his wife's first name was Mary, but her surname we do not know. It is quite probable they were married before they left Ireland, though the younger brothers found wives after reaching America. Mrs. CARSON who was born in 1729, died April 29, 1802, sixteen years after her husband, whose death occurred March 13, 1786. Both were buried in the burial ground of the church indicated on the north side of Arch Street, west of Fifth Street, but over half a century afterward, their remains were removed to Mount Vernon Cemetery.
Six children were born to this couple as follows, John, Elizabeth, James, Joseph, William, and Mary. So far as the writer is aware, three of these died unmarried -- James, Joseph, and William.
...
