Person:Andrew Job (1)

THE JOB FAMILY
Various spellings of the name Job and its derivitives found in old English records are Job, Jobe, Jobbe, Jobber, Joba, Jobb, Jobba, Joab, Jop, Jope, Jobson, Jobling, Juppe, and Chubb. Some Jobes were said to have come from Kent County, England. No one named Job was granted arms there. There as a family named Jobson granted arms in Essex County, which is just across the Thames River from Kent. Arms were granted to Job families in York and Lancaster Counties. Crests were granted to families with the name Job and Jope.

The characteristics of the Job family were: great longevity, indomitable will and persistency, self reliance and self asserting, dry wit and goodhumor, fondness of books and flowers, generally married late in life if at all. The traits, more or less, have cropped out in their descendantsdown to the present generation.

The Job name probably originated in the 13th century when the Mystery Plays made the biblical character popular. Tradition says the Job family of Pembrokeshire were descended from Flemish weavers that the English planted in the 11th and 12th centuries to build Britain's cloth trade.Some Job family members immigrated to Scotland and Germany and later settled in America.

There was a fanciful tale that said Andrew Job was descended from a noble Scots family, but was stolen when a child by a family of marauders and taken to England where he was adopted by the Job family. (Almost every family can claim that tale.)

1640-1649. Andrew Job and his brother David were in Scotland, probably serving in the King's army; afterward David sailed to America from Liverpool. Andrew and Elizabeth migrated to Kent and then to America. It is possible that during this time Andrew became a Quaker, a social movement that started in the 1640's.

1650. Andrew, wife and child arrived in Portsmouth, New England (probably Rhode Island, as Portsmouth, NH, was not yet in existence.) Being an early Quaker, it is possible that to avoid persecution, Andrew and wife fled to Rhode Island. They were probably well educated; there are references in early Pennsylvania history that their son, Andrew, Jr. was an educated man. There are also references to his friendship with William Penn. The following story is recounted by Richard and Eleanor Job in their booklet, "Another Book of Job and More". It is credited to the "Sharpless Family" by Gilbert Cope. In an Indian uprising in Connecticut, all members of a white colony were massacred except Andrew Job, who wore a leather jerkin, the feel of which indicated a special method of tanning. Andrew was allowed to live so as to teach the Indian show to prepare such leather. Eventually he escaped and went to Pennsylvania. 1680 or thereabouts. Andrew Job and family moved to Chester County, Pennsylvania.

1700. Andrew Job was buried in the Quaker Burial Ground (The Brick Meeting House) near Nottinham (sp?), Pennsylvania (present-day Cecil County, Maryland)

THE BRICK MEETING HOUSE
The still-standing monument is situated on the 40 acres William Penn selected and gave to the Quaker pioneers of EastNottingham, "for a Meeting House and Burial Yard, forever". The first meeting started in 1704 at the home of William Brown. In about 1709, a log house was built, and in 1724, that structure was replaced by a structure built with bricks brought from England. In 1751, a fire caused another rebuilding with a stone addition. During the American Revolution, it housed a hospital. In 1810, there was another fire, and the original bricks were used to rebuild it in its present form. Some of the original surnames were Bates, Beeson, Brown, Churchman, Cooper, Empson, Gatchell, Hanbey, Hollingsworth, Howell, Job, Kirks, MacKay, Pugh, Reynolds, Richardson, Sheppard, Sidwell, and Trimble. Many of those families intermarried and are found in the area today. Between 1763 and 1767, the disputed Pennsylvania-Maryland line was redrawn, leaving the Meeting House in Cecil County, Maryland.