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Facts and Events
Information on John Wilkins
- From "A Brief History of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania", by Israel Smith Clare, pg. 33:
- John Wilkins
- John Wilkins, another son of Robert, took up several hundred acres of land adjoining Gordon Howard's, now in Mount Joy township, on which Nissley's mill is located. He was one of the first persons who went with the sheriff's posse to arrest Colonel Thomas Cresap, but was himself afterward arrested by Cresap, who took him to Annapolis, in Maryland, where he was imprisoned. He traded with the Indians along the Ohio, and died in 1741, leaving two children, Rachel and John, the latter of whom was born in Donegal, in 1733. John was also an Indian trader, and removed to Carlisle in 1763, where he opened a store in the Indian trade. He was appointed county lieutenant for Cumberland county during the War of the Revolution. In 1788 he removed to Pittsburg, where he died in 1810.
- From "Papers Read Before the Lancaster County Historical Society", Volumes 18-19, by Lancaster County Historical Society:
- John Wilkins, the third son of Robert, was an Indian trader who owned several hundred acres adjoining Gordon Howard's tract. He was the first man to take an aggressive stand against the Marylanders during the boundary difliculties1 He was wounded several times. The Governor of Maryland offered $50 for his arrest. John Hendricks, who had turned traitor to the Penns, led him into an ambush prepared by Cresap, where he was captured and imprisoned in a filthy cell for many months in the Annapolis jail. He died in 1741, survived by his wife, Rachael, and five children. In 1742 his widow married John Ramsey,an uncle of David Ramsey, the noted historian, and a distinguished General in the Revolution. John Ramsey died in 1746, and in 1751 his widow was again married to Gordon Howard by a Lutheran minister in Lancaster. in 1755 her third husband died, after which she lived with her stepson, Jos. Howard, until she died.
References
- Bolton, Charles Knowles. Scotch Irish Pioneers: In Ulster and America. (Boston, Suffolk, Massachusetts, United States: Bacon and Brown, 1910)
Page 271.
IMMIGRATION: 1719-1722 PENNSYLVANIA, Chester County, Donegal Township. 1719 immigration to Chester County, Pennsylvania. On record in 1722 in Donegal Township: Robert McFarland and sons Robert and James (Presbyterian). Also
families recorded were: Robert Wilkins and his sons Thomas, William, Peter, and
John; Gordon Howard and his sons Thomas and Joseph; Hugh, Henry and Moses White.
Came from lands west of River Foyle (Tyrone County?), Ireland.
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