USA > Pennsylvania > Colonial and revolutionary families of Pennsylvania; genealogical and personal memoirs, Vol. I > Part 64
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Both Phineas Roberts and his wife, Ann Wynne, were members of Merion Friends Meeting, and were dealt with for their marriage, "out of Unity," but making suitable acknowledgments were retained in membership.
Phineas Roberts was a member of the Fishing Club of St. David's, 1763. Issue of Phineas and Ann (Wynne) Roberts:
Esther Roberts, m. Dec. 26, 1770, Jonathan Palmer;
SIDNEY ROBERTS, b. Sept. 6, 1756; d. Sept. 7, 1812; m. John Jones; of whom presently; Isaac Roberts, d. before his father, leaving four children;
Hannah Roberts, m. Streaper, and d. before her father, leaving five children; Titus Roberts.
In the possession of Miss Sydney E. Jones, formerly of Germantown, is a book published in Philadelphia in 1728, entitled, "The History of the Rise, Increase and
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Progress of the Christian People called Quakers," translated into English from Low Dutch by William Sewell, Third Edition; "Printed and Sold in Second Street by Samuel Keimer." On the title page are the following inscriptions : "The Gift of Robert Roberts to his son Phineas Roberts, July 14, 1764"-"The Gift of Phineas Roberts to his Daughter Sidney Jones, 1800"-"The Gift of Sidney Jones to her son, Isaac R. Jones"-"The Gift of Isaac R. Jones to his brother Joseph W. Jones, March -"-"The Gift of Joseph W. Jones to his Daughter Sidney E. Jones, on his 75th. Birthday, February 18, 1875." On blank pages in the front of the book are records of the birth of the children of Robert and Sidney Roberts, the dates of death of the parents, as well as of the grandparents, John and Gainor Roberts; the record of the birth and death of Phineas Roberts and his wife, Ann Wynne, and of Sidney (Roberts) Jones, her husband, John Jones, and his parents, Evan and Ann (Evans) Jones. The later entries were doubtless made by Isaac R. Jones.
SIDNEY ROBERTS, daughter of Phineas and Ann (Wynne) Roberts, born "near the Falls of Schuylkill, Lower Merion, September 6, 1756, departed this life September 7, 1812, at 10 o'clock in the Morning." She married, October 12, 1780, John Jones, born in Cumru township, now Montgomery county, June 10, 1748, "Departed this life April 24, 1821." Both he and his wife were buried at Friends Burying-Ground, Lower Merion.
Evan Jones, father of John Jones, was born in what is now Montgomery county, March 13, 1723-4, died January 26, 1775. He married, in 1745, Ann Evans, born at Great Valley, Chester county, June 10, 1727, died May 20, 1778. Both were of Welsh parentage.
John Jones was a Quartermaster of Militia during the Revolutionary War. He and his wife, Sidney Roberts, lived during the latter part of their lives at Darby, where he died April 24, 1821, and she September 7, 1812.
Issue of John and Sidney (Roberts) Jones:
Ann Jones, b. July 10, 1781 ; d. Aug., 1781 ;
Thomas Wynne Jones, b. May 7, 1782; Richard Roberts Jones, b. Sept. 5, 1784; d. Nov. 29, 1821;
ISAAC ROBERTS JONES, b. July 12, 1786; d. March 23, 1850; m. Maria Mercer; of whom presently;
William Jones, b. June 10, 1788; d. June 12, 1788;
John Jones, Jr., b. July 11, 1789; d. Oct. 20, 1789;
Sydney Jones, b. Sept. 6, 1790; d. Sept. 27, 1790;
Hester Jones, b. Jan. 10, 1792; d. Jan. 21, 1793;
John Jones, b. Feb. 7, 1794; d. Feb. 22, 1797;
Phineas Evans Jones, b. Jan. 6, 1797; d. unm., 1834;
Joseph Washington Jones, b. Feb. 18, 1800; d. 1881; Mary Ann Jones, b. Sept. 23, 1802; d. Sept. 18, 1859.
ISAAC ROBERTS JONES, fourth child of John and Sidney (Roberts) Jones, born July 12, 1786, married, October 3, 1811, Maria Mercer, of New Jersey, said to have been of the same family as Gen. Hugh Mercer.
Issue of Isaac R. and Maria (Mercer) Jones:
John Sidney Jones, b. Aug. 27, 1812; Maria Sydney Jones, b. April 12, 1814: Isaac Roberts Jones, b. July 18, 1816; d. June 14, 1817;
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Isaac Roberts Jones, b. Jan. 1, 1818;
Eleanor Moss Jones, b. June 1, 1819; d. 1890; Mercer Jones, b. Jan. 22, 1821 ;
Elias Hicks Jones, b. Aug. 23, 1823;
Charlotte Frelinghuysen Jones, b. Oct. 21, 1825; d. Sept. 1, 1826;
Charlotte Frelinghuysen Jones, b. Dec. 18, 1827;
ELIZABETH MERCER JONES, b. Sept. 8, 1830; d. April 26, 1898; m. William MacLean; of whom presently.
ELIZABETH MERCER JONES, youngest child of Isaac R. and Maria (Mercer) Jones, born September 8, 1830; married at First Presbyterian Church of Philadel- phia, July 27, 1858, William MacLean, second son of William and Ann ( Porteus) MacLean, born July 18, 1828, in Stranraer, a maritime port on Loch Ryan, county Wigtown, southern extremity of Scotland. William Maclean came to Philadelphia at the age of twenty-five years, and has since resided in that city, where he has been for many years one of the most prominent conveyancers. He became a member of St. Andrew's Society in 1855, and is now its oldest member. He has also been a trustee of First Presbyterian Church of Philadelphia for many years.
Issue of William and Elisabeth Mercer (Jones) MacLean:
Anne Porteus MacLean, b. May 5, 1859; d. Dec. 29, 1861 ; Maria Mercer MacLean, b. Aug. 25, 1861 ; d. March 31, 1864; Charlotte Frelinghuysen MacLean, b. Aug. 31, 1863; unm .; WILLIAM MACLEAN, JR., b. Aug. 31, 1865; of whom presently;
Hew Brydon MacLean, b. Jan. 9, 1867; d. Dec. 1, 1903; unm .; Sarah Jones MacLean, b. Dec. 28, 1871; unm.
WILLIAM MACLEAN JR., Esq., eldest son of William and Elizabeth Mercer (Jones) Maclean, born in the city of Philadelphia, August 31, 1865, studied law in the office of George Harrison Fisher in that city and was admitted to the Phila- delphia bar, March 1, 1895, and was later admitted to practice in the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania and the United States Supreme Court. During the earlier years of his practice he was a member of the firm of Jones, Carson & Beeber, and since the dissolution of that firm, in 1902, has practiced alone, with offices at 812-815 South Penn Square. He was President of the Law Academy of Philadel- phia in 1899; is a member of the Law Association of Philadelphia; Pennsylvania State Bar Association; Lawyers Club of Philadelphia, etc. He is also a member of the Colonial Society of Pennsylvania, Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Genealogical Society of Pennsylvania, and the Academy of Social and Political Science ; and is a director of various financial and business corporations.
CUTHBERT FAMILY.
The following is a copy of the "Contracts and Testimonials, under the hand and seal of Lord Lyon, King of Arms in Scotland, of the illustrious Extraction and Descent of the Honorable family of Castlehill," made for "James Cuthbert, of Berly, great-grandchild of the last John Cuthbert, of Castlehill except one."
"A Chronological Account of the Origin, Settlement, Armorial Bearing, and Surname, of the Illustrious family of Cuthbert, of Castlehill, in the County of Inverness, Scotland. The aforesaid name vulgarly called Cubbert and Colbert, and in the Erse Language, Quibert. "This Illustrious family came originally to Scotland from the country of the North- umbrians in the north of England, where it was, about the year of Christ 700. Alfred Reigned then in that Country which made one of the Kingdoms of the Heptarchy and had lately embraced Christianity by the Bishop of Landisfarn (afterward called Holy Land) ; he was of the same stock and family from which is descended the family of Castlehill as is sufficiently proved from the antient protection granted on that account by the Kings of Scotland to that Illustrious family; from the surname and Armorial Bearing, and has been acknowledged by an Act of Parliament of Scotland in the year 1087. The Picts, a nation in the neighborhood of the Northumbrians, and who inhabited the South of Scotland, were as yet, at that period (670), for the most part Pagans and always at war with the Albanicks who inhabited the West hills of Scotland, the latter had then embraced Christianity for some time.
"Alfred, a man of Letters, as well as zealous for the propogation of the belief and law wherein he had been newly instructed and truly animated with the spirit of Charity, laid himself out ardently in procuring and cementing peace between these two nations, his neighbors, and the more that he had conceived a particular esteem for the King of the Al- banicks, Eugene the Fifth, his contemporary, who was likewise a man of letters and a Chris- tian.
"Alfred gave commission to the Bishop of Lindisfarn, his subject and Instructor in Christianity, to negotiate this peace betwixt them; he hoped thereby to see the religion which he had newly embraced himself more easily established among the Picts as appears from the History of Scotland by Buchanan and others.
The Holy Bishop laid himself out with the greatest wisdom and impartiality to bring this about and succeeded; he brought both nations to agree that they should never thereafter attack each other with their whole forces, and that the King of the Picts should give his daughter in marriage to the King of Albanick's eldest son; which was accordingly executed. By this alliance it happened that soon thereafter the rights to the Crown of the Albanicks and the Picts were united together in the person of Eugene, the Eleventh and King of the Albanicks, descended from this marriage; although these rights were not made effectual until King Kenneth's time in the year 854, however, the Albanicks and the Picts became after- wards one and the same nation and were known by the name of Scots as appears from all Scottish Historians. But Alfred, while he charitably procured peace between the nations, his neighbors, he could not cover himself from those Revolutions to which all Crowns were more particularly subjected in those times of ignorance and confusion, he was chased out of his Kingdom and obliged to take refuge with the King of the Picts, who endeavored in vain to restore him to his Throne; by this revolution, this unsuccessful assistance of the King of the Picts and by the death of the Bishop of Lindisfarn, the kindred of this worthy prelate were obliged to quit his native country and to seek refuge abroad.
"Abercromby, a modern Scottish Historian says this Bishop in after times was honour- ed, as a Saint. He left his family to go and preach the Gospel to the Northumbrians. Bede, a contemporary with the Bishop, imagines him to be of the Country of the Northumbrians, the Bishop's kindred who were distinguished in those antient times by no other name but that of George, which one of the family had received in baptism or on his embracing Chris- tianity; they came to ask protection and refuge from the King of the Albanicks, whose resi- dence was frequently at Inverness; who full of gratitude for the peace which the Bishop of Lindisfarn had negotiated with so much dexterity and uprightness betwixt his Grandfather and the King of the Picts, received them with kindness until such time as he could give them employment in his service or otherwise provide for them. These marks of his royal goodness, though not yet accompanied with a solid establishment, having acquired to them the highest consideration in the Town of Inverness, they did from that time fix their abode there in order to be near to offer their service and show their attachment to the King. They had the good fortune to distinguish themselves in those early times in the troops which the town of Inverness was bound to send to the field for the King's service; as a recompense for their valor and signalized exploits in that station he obtained them, together with the free-
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dom of being Burgesses, the rights of the Lands of Droggie or Drakies in vassalage, or fee holding thereof which they still possess, their influence in the King's Court and in the town of Inverness engaged thereafter the Baron of Dacier in the neighborhood to give them in vassalage the Lands of Muckovy to be held of him which they likewise still possess.
"It was not till long thereafter that they obtained from the King in recompense of their constant and distinguished services, the lands that compose the Barony of Castlehill, which they got as a Royal Holding or fee with a fortified Castle under the burthen of, or subject to Military service. These events which regard their first settlement at Inverness are pre- sumed, from the proofs of the high antiquity of this family, to have happened about the year 950 A. D., a short time after King Kenneth by his birthright as well as by conquest had united the Kingdom of the Picts to that of the Albanicks, such is the tradition in the family of Castlehill about the origin of its first illustration, and its settlement in Scotland, the prin- cipal facts of which are set down by the best historians such as Bede, Fordum, Boce, Bu- chanan, &c. The dates of the first concession of the Lands of Drakies and Muckovy as well as of the Lands of Castlehill are now unknown, the primitive titles having been destroyed during the invasion of Scotland by King Edward the First of England, and in the wars of the great families in the Country amongst themselves. The use of the publick register in order to supply copies of this kind was introduced in very late ages. This Royal fee in all the charters both antient and modern is designed auld, otherwise Old Castlehill, the Castle upon it was most probably the antient habitation of the King of the Albanicks at Inverness, but since the union of the Kingdom of the Albanicks and Picts, King Duncan as it is sayed caused to be built a new Castle on a rising ground in the middle of the Town; which com- mands it and is likewise called Castlehill but is now in ruins, it had been repaired and forti- fied about the year 1730, but Prince Charles Edward (the Pretender's son) in the year 1746 blew up the Castle with the fortifications. This illustrious family in possession through a great many ages of the Lands of Castlehill, as likewise of that of Muckovy, holding of the Barony of Dacies and of the Lands of Drakies, holding of the town of Inverness, near which is their residence, was known and distinguished in those antient times and in the newest or earliest of Christianity in that country, only by the usual name of Baptism of the head of the family, which was George upon that account the head of this family like the chieftans of the other illustrious families in the Highlands of Scotland, who have their particular patronymic baptismal names continues always to be known and distinguished in the High- land Scottish language which is still at this day vulgar in all the Country of Inverness, where the Barony of Castlehill is situated, by the patronymic surname of M'George without any other denomination, such surnames being the only ones used in the Highlands till the Eleventh Century.
"Patronymic surnames as they were the first given so they were commonly the most dur- able in the great Highland families, others given on account of some quality of the mind, of the heart or body, as well as those drawn from the place of their residence, they were more subject to being altered as being personal.
"The family of Castlehill has surnames of all these different kinds, excepting from the qualities of the body and it is the antient possession and transmission of the different sur- names according to the different ages wherein they shone and distinguished themselves, wherein the national customs likewise underwent changes, and it was usual to get surnames of these different kinds that constitute the surest proof of their illustrious existence having been destroyed by the invasion of Edward the first and in the intestine wars of the Kingdom which it may be said is the case with most other illustrious Highland families; it was rela- tively to the primitive illustration of this family that at the same time of the introduction of Armorial Bearings amongst the gentry of Europe, they took for theirs a quevie in pate azure, armed Gules in a field or, as being the most expressive symbol of their wisdom and uprightness in the negotiation of the peace which acquired to them, this their first and great illustrion, they took for crest a Naked Hand holding a branch of Olive, and for the Motto, Perit et Veste.
"In consequence of this same Illustration and of the above Armorial Bearing; when surnames other than patronymic were introduced and became fixed in the Twelfth Century, this family got in the Highland Scottish Language the vulgar name about Inverness where they had long before settled, the surname of Quivert or Quibert, besides that of M'George, which the Chief carried ever since the family became Christians, in so much that at this very day all the descendants of this family is not called otherwise than Quivert in the Highland or Erse Language, either from the corruption of the word Quevre, which in Heraldry signi- fies Serpent, which they had taken for their arms or from the word Cou which in the Erse signifies word, wisdom which signifies holy, virtues, and Bart or Vart which signifies rich, that is to say rich or holy wisdom to perpetuate the remembrance and tradition of their origin and settlement. It was after the union of the Highland and Albanicks and the Picts under the same King and under the common name of Scots, and after the Picts language had prevailed over the Albanicks and become the language of the Court and the Assembly of the States and of the Parliament, that this family got in the Picts language the surname of Cuthbert or Cudbert, which as Camden explains it in his work called "Brittanious or the Antiquities of Britain" (wrote about the year 1600 under Queen Elizabeth), signifies Illus- trious for Skill, which happens equally as Quivert in the Erse Language to be relative to the
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primitive of Castlehill, and to the Armorial Bearing was granted to them to perpetuate the erudition therefrom.
"The word Cuth signifies skill, and Bert illustrious, which name the Bishop of Lindis- farn got in the same language probably on that account. In those distant times, it was very common to translate surnames from one language into another and even more recently, especially when they were significant, and the language original, otherwise when no surname had any signification, or when it was not attended to by the vulgar as is often the case. People did commonly add or cut off a letter at the end of a name, transfer or substitute one letter for another in the middle, as in Stuart, Douglass, Sinclair, etc., without going further; in Cuthbert itself given to this family in the Pictish Language, for although it was their insignificant or relative to the first illustration and written according to the etymology, yet it ever was in speaking the public language pronounced at Inverness Cobbert, because of the difficulty or harshness which the natives of that town find in the articulating the different consonants that compose it, and the natives of Edinburgh for the like reason as likewise the French who anciently resorted thither, softened it yet more and pronounced it as if written Colbert or Cubbert, which the Armorial Bearing of the family (in Latin Coluber ) led them yet more easily to do especially about the beginning of the Thirteenth Century, when arms had become fixed, and the Latin was universally familiar over Europe, hence it happened that the descendants of this family that are antiently settled about Edin- burgh and Trauent as well as those who went over to France have allowed their names to be written according to this last pronunciation and continue still to do so, which the ances- tors of their respective branches were at first in all probability led to do, from their not knowing in these times either to read or write though of Illustrious extraction.
"From these various circumstances, it has happened that the stock itself of the family though constantly designed in all their charters by the Pictish denomination of Cuthbert only, has ever continued to be known and called in the vulgar pronunciation by several different surnames above mentioned which do always vary to this day, the language and idiom which at the same time these different denominations have never ceased to be looked on as synonymous, and the same as equally and only belonging to this family and have been acknowledged and declared as such by an Act of Parliament of Scotland in the year 1687, asserting the descent of John Baptist Colbert, Marquis of Decinely, from this illustrious family by Edward Colbert son thereof, who went over to France with Mary Lindsay of Edget, his spouse about the year 1280, accompanying Christiana as Baliol, niece of King Alexander the Third, when this Princess went there to marry Eugert de Guines, Lord of Coney, where having lived some time and left issue the said Edward died at Rheims and was buried there. This identity of the various surnames has been likewise certified at that time by the testimonial of the Magistrates of Inverness and has again been certified by the present Magistrates 4th of November 1769 in favour of Lacklan Alexander and Deicinely Colbert called in the Erse or Albanick language Quivert, and in the Pictish language Cuthbert.
"All the younger children of this illustrious family immediately descended from the same Baron of Castlehill, and now settled these several years past in France. The Barony of Castlehill is contiguous to the town of Inverness insomuch that some houses built upon the Demesnes do form a suburb of the town, where the Baron of Castlehill had his Baili- wick to administer justice. This Barony is bounded on the North by the town of Inverness and the sea, and extends with Drakies and Muckovy, the other lands of the family, to the East and South as far as the lands of the Earl of Murray on the river Naium and to the Estate of Culloden, famous for the battle fought there in the year 1746.
"The family of Cuthbert while possessed from male to male of the land of Drakies, Muckovy and Castlehill from remote ages, did at the time fill the most distinguished offices in the state, much as that of High Sheriff of the Counties of Inverness and Ross, whereof they did always acquit themselves with honour and the strictest faithfulness, as likewise of the Trust of Knight of the shire, they had likewise been founders of a Chapel in Inverness which they dedicated to Saint Cuthbert but was destroyed at the introduction of Calvinism, the family has always preserved its right of burying on the ground whereon the Chapel was built.
"The foundation of this Church appears by the family from Doctor George M'Kenzie on the life of Saint Cuthbert, Vol. Ist, page 367. It was in consideration of the great valour and high exploits which the head of this family showed at the Battle of Harlaw in the year 14II in support of James the second against M'Donald, Lord of the Isles, whose standard he took at this battle, when as Chief Vassal of the Town of Inverness, by his Lands of Draky, he led into the field the Troops of that Town, the King then granted to George Cuthbert, Chief of the name, as a recompense for his signalized services and a particular mark of distinction, a Fess Gules in a Field or additional to the quivre Azure, the former Armorial Bearing of the family which they afterwards bore in chief and that this Prince ordered him to take for a Crest, a hand in gauntlet holding an arrow, and for Motto, "Nee ininus fortitur."
"There is likewise added to the above achievement two wild horses for supporters, whereof the Vouchers are in the Archives of the College of Heralds in Scotland. The family of Cuthberts after the destruction of their more ancient charters by the English under Edward the First, and afterwards by other accidents was in the habit, as other families in
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that Country, of making a resignation of their fees into the hands of the King and of their other superiors in order to obtain new charters, confirmative of their possessions; but their ancient charters even of this kind, particularly of their lands of Drakies and Muckovy whereof no public records were made as holding only of particular superiors, more lately taken from them or destroyed during the hostilities betwixt the great families of the Coun- try, but, chiefly by the McDonalds when the Lord of the Isles rose in arms to maintain the right to the County of Ross. This Lord treated in the same manner the Town of Inverness and the most of the great families about it, by destroying their charters, registers, writings, and by laying waste all the country.
"The reformers of religion sometime thereafter destroyed with the Churches all the Church writings that could any ways have supplied losses so that the most antient Charters that the family now possesses are that of the lands of Auld Castlehill granted to William Cuthbert by King James 3d. in the year 1478 and that of Queen Mary for the same lands in the year 1548, granted to George Cuthbert nephew and heir apparent of John Cuthbert of auld Castlehill, and to his heirs male. They have likewise other titles at different periods after these Charters and since the erection of the Barony of King James 6th which consists chiefly in a Charter of confirmation from King Charles Ist, dated August Ist. 1625, and in the consecutive enfiefments of the said lands.
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