USA > Pennsylvania > Colonial and revolutionary families of Pennsylvania; genealogical and personal memoirs, Vol. III > Part 5
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mended to Governor Lewis Morris, by the Assembly for a commission as jus- tice of the Court of Common Pleas of Hunterdon county, and April 18, 1749, was named by the governor as one of a commission to recruit men from that county for the proposed expedition against the Spanish West Indies. William Atlee returned to Philadelphia and died in the house of Caleb Ranstead, where he had resided on first coming to America, and was buried from there in the churchyard at St. Peter's Protestant Episcopal Church. His widow, Jane (Al- cock) Atlee, survived him, and about 1749 removed with her four children to Lancaster, Pennsylvania, where she died January 18, 1777.
Colonel Samuel John Atlee, second son of William and Jane (Alcock) Atlee, was born at Trenton, New Jersey, in 1739. He removed with his widowed mother to Lancaster, Pennsylvania, at the age of ten years, and received his ele- mentary education in that town. He began the study of law at an early age, but at the age of seventeen years, April 27, 1756, when the frontiers of Penn- sylvania were threatened by a serious Indian outbreak, he joined the Provincial forces and was commissioned ensign of Captain Thomas Lloyd's company, in the Augusta Regiment, Lieutenant Colonel Clapham, and marched with that command against the Indians at Shamokin, participated in the erection of Fort Augusta at Sunbury, under the immediate command of Major, later Col- onel James Burd. On December 7, 1757, Ensign Atlee was commissioned lieutenant of Captain Patrick Work's company in the same regiment, served under Colonel Burd in the Forbes campaign, participating in the battle of Loyal Hanna in October, 1758, and in the capture of Fort Duquesne. He was com- missioned a captain, March, 1759, and served until the close of the French and Indian War, when he returned to Lancaster county. On April 19, 1762, he married Sarah Richardson, daughter of a well-to-do farmer living about eigh- teen miles from Lancaster and located on an adjoining farm.
At the outbreak of the Revolution, Captain Atlee tendered his services in support of the patriot cause, and March 21, 1776, was commissioned colonel of a Musketry Battalion to act with Colonel Samuel Miles' rifle regiment. The joint command rendezvoused at Marcus Hook, and on July 2, 1776, was ordered to proceed to Philadelphia, and three days later took up its march for Trenton, New Jersey, and proceeded from there to Perth Amboy, where Colonel Atlee and his battalion arrived on July 21, and on August II, 1776, was ordered to New York. They did loyal service in the battle of Long Island, August 27, 1776, but, late in the day, Colonel Atlee and about forty of his men were cap- tured by the British, and he suffered imprisonment until his exchange on Oc- tober I, 1778, a period of twenty-five months, part of the time in the loath- some prison ships in New York.
During his captivity, Colonel Atlee was elected to represent Lancaster coun- ty in the Continental Congress in which he served until October 26, 1782. He was much chagrined that he had not been given a command in the army on be- ing exchanged, instead of a seat in Congress, as shown by his letter to Hon. John Bayard, which as well as a portion of his journal covering the battle of Long Island is published in the Pennsylvania Archives. On his retirement from Congress he was elected to the Pennsylvania Assembly, and after one year's service in that body, was in October, 1783, elected to the Supreme Exec- utive Council, the executive department of the state under the constitution of
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1776. In 1785, and again in 1786, he was returned as a member of the Assem- bly, and while attending its session in Philadelphia, was seized with a paroxysm of coughing, which ruptured a blood vessel, and he died November 25, 1786.
On February 20, 1784, while a member of the Supreme Executive Council, Colonel Atlee was appointed by that body to treat with the Indians on the Penn- sylvania frontier, and he held a conference with them at Fort McIntosh, now Beaver, and consummated a successful and satisfactory treaty. On January 21, 1785, he again attended a conference of Delawares, Chippewas and other Indian tribes at Ottawa, and while in attendance there contracted a severe cold from which he never fully recovered, and which was the ultimate cause of his death. He was recommended by the Council of Safety for promotion to the rank of brigadier-general of state troops, in recognition of his distinguished services and ability, but died before receiving his commission. He was buried in Christ Church.
Judge William Augustus Atlee, the elder brother of Colonel Atlee (1735-93) was also active in the patriot cause, serving as chairman of the Lancaster Coun- ty Committee of Safety, superintendent of the Arsenal Barracks, and com- missary of prisoners at Lancaster. He studied law under Judge Edward Ship- pen, was admitted to the Lancaster bar, August 3, 1763, became an eminent and successful lawyer, was appointed associate justice of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, August 16, 1777, and served two terms, fourteen years, was ap- pointed on the expiration of his second term, August 17, 1791, president judge of the First District of Pennsylvania, embracing the counties of Chester, Lan- caster, York and Dauphin, and died while holding court at York, September 9, 1793. He married, in 1763, Esther Bower Sayre, and had eleven children, eight of whom survived him, and have left numerous descendants.
Mary Ann Atlee, the great-great-grandmother of the subject of this sketch, was the third daughter of Colonel Samuel J. and Sarah (Richardson) Atlee, and was born in Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, April 2, 1775, and was bap- tised by the Rev. Mr. Barton, on May 8, 1775, Mary Hopkins acting as her sponsor as proxy for her aunt, Mary Bolton, of Abbot's Leigh, near Bristol, England. She married, February 20, 1794, John Sanderson Whitehill, of Chester county, Pennsylvania, born December 28, 1768, died July 19, 181I. She died at the residence of her son-in-law, John Barber, in West Chester, Pennsylvania, October 25, 1865.
John Sanderson Whitehill was a son of John Whitehill, of Salisbury town- ship, Lancaster county, a soldier in the Lancaster county militia during the Revolution and justice of the courts under the Constitution of 1776.
John Whitehill, Sr. was named as a member of the first Committee of In- spection and Observation of Lancaster county, at the election held December 15, 1774; was enrolled as a private in Captain William Bell's company, Colo- nel James Burd's Fourth Battalion, Lancaster County Militia ; was quartermas- ter of the Fifth Battalion, Colonel James Crawford, 1776-77; private in Cap- tain George McMillan's company, Tenth Battalion, Lancaster County Militia, Colonel Robert Elder, 1781; delegate to the Convention to select brigadier-gen- erals of Associated Battalions held at Lancaster, July 4, 1776, one of the Jus- tices before whom the Oath of Allegiance was taken in 1777; member of Gen- eral Assembly from Lancaster county, 1778-79, was commissioned a justice,
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November 3, 1779; named as one of the committee of three to inquire into the state of the Treasury of the State of Pennsylvania, February 9, 1780; was made a member of the State Council Censors, October 20, 1783 ; elected to the Supreme Executive Council, December 22, 1784, succeeding Colonel Samuel J. Atlee ; and was a member of the Board of Property, October 3, 1785. He died in Sal- isbury township, Lancaster county.
Samuel Atlee Whitehill, son of John Sanderson and Mary Ann (Atlee) Whitehill, was born June 4, 1795, being their eldest child. He died in Chester county, Pennsylvania, August 2, 1848. He married, June 23, 1815, Margaret Douglass Wilson, died December 13, 1875.
Margaret Eckert Whitehill, daughter of Samuel Atlee and Margaret Doug- lass (Wilson) Whitehill, was born September 29, 1822, in Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, died in Philadelphia, August 13, 1891. She married, December 23, 1845, Dr. William Sutton Latta.
Rev. James Latta, D. D., great-grandfather of Jane Sutton (Latta) Pinker- ton, was born in the North of Ireland in 1732, and came to America with his parents, James and Mary (Alison) Latta, who settled near Elkton, Cecil coun- ty, Maryland, about 1740. Dr. Latta entered the College of Philadelphia, now the University of Pennsylvania, in 1754, and graduated in the class, of 1757, having for classmates Jacob Duché, the distinguished divine, pas- tor of Christ Church, first chaplain of Continental Congress, etc., Francis Hop- kinson, Benjamin West, the artist, and others who achieved high eminence. James Latta was a tutor at the College of Philadelphia from 1756 to 1759, and during that period studied theology under Dr. Francis Allison, and in 1758 was licensed to preach by the Presbytery of Philadelphia. In 1759 he was or- dained and appointed to minister to the scattered and destitute settlement in Virginia and the Carolinas. In 1761 he became pastor of Deep Run Presbyter- ian Church, in the Scotch-Irish district of Upper Bucks county, where he re- mained until 1770, when he resigned to take charge of the church at Pleasant Level, Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, which charge he retained until his death, January 29, 1801. Soon after locating at Pleasant Level, he established a school which was acquiring considerable celebrity as an educational institution when its progress was arrested by the Revolutionary War. With the begin- ning of the struggle for national independence, Dr. Latta became one of the most ardent of patriots, urgently encouraging the cause in and out of the pul- pit, and himself entering the military service, first as a private, and later as chaplain of Colonel Thomas Cooch's battalion of Lancaster county militia, in 1776. He was the author of a book of "Psalmody" and various other published writings. He received the honorary degree of Doctor of Divinity in 1799, from the University of Pennsylvania. He married, in Bucks county, Pennsyl- vania, February 26, 1765, Mary, daughter of Captain William McCalla, of Plumstead, Bucks county, and reared a family of eight children. His four sons, Francis, William, John and James, were all ministers of the Presbyterian church.
Rev. James Latta, son of Rev. James Latta, D. D., and his wife, Mary (Mc- Calla) Latta, was born in Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, June 10, 1787. He graduated at the College of New Jersey, now Princeton University, at the age of twenty years, and prepared for the ministry at Princeton Theological Semi-
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nary, and under the tutorship of his elder brother, Rev. John Ewing Latta, then pastor of the Presbyterian churches at Newcastle and Christiana, and was licensed by the Presbytery of Newcastle, in 1809, and ordained by the same Presbytery, April 3, 18II, as pastor of Upper Octorara congregation, Chester county, Pennsylvania, which he served until 1850. He established a church at Penningtonville, now Atglen, in the same county, where he was installed No- vember II, 1852, and continued to serve until June 1, 1861. He died May 30, 1862. He was a man of great activity and energy, earnest in his service to the church and people, much given to hospitality ; a biographer of him gives a brief sketch of his life as follows: "He was a warm hearted minister. He loved his brethren, his Presbytery, his Church, his country and above all, he loved his Saviour." He married Jane Sutton, of a well-known Newcastle family, and had five children, two sons and three daughters.
William Sutton Latta, M. D., eldest son of Rev. James and Jane (Sutton ) Latta, born at Upper Octorara, Chester county, Pennsylvania, September 12, 1822, was a practicing physician for many years in Sadsbury township, Ches- ter county, and died there May 26, 1872. He married, at Philadelphia, Decem- ber 25, 1845, Margaret Eckert Whitehill, above mentioned.
Margaret Douglass (Wilson) Whitehill, the mother of Margaret Eckert (Whitehill) Latta, was a daughter of John Wilson, Jr., who was a private in Captain Joseph Sher's company, Fourth Battalion, Lancaster County Militia, Colonal James Burd, and was in active service during the Revolution. He married Margaret Eckert, of a prominent Lancaster county family.
John Wilson, Sr., the father of John Wilson, Jr., above mentioned, was a private in the same company with his son, in the Associators, of Lancaster county, March 25, 1776. He married Margaret (Douglas) Carrigan, a widow, maiden name Douglas, of noble Scotch ancestry.
Jane Sutton (Latta) Pinkerton, wife of James Crowell Pinkerton, was born September 16, 1846. They had issue seven children, viz: William Woods, the subject of this sketch, of whom presently. Frederick Orie, born February I, 1872, married October 28, 1903, Nellie Sherzer Evans; issue, one daughter, Eleanor, born October 12, 1905. James Crowell, Jr., born September 27, 1874, died November 30, 1874. Elizabeth Gardner Clarkson, born September 24, 1875, married, June 18, 1903, Henry Burchard Green; issue, three children, James Crowell Pinkerton Green, born May 13, 1904; David C. Green, born December 13, 1905; Jane Latta Green, born August 26, 1908. Samuel Latta, born June 18, 1877, married, April 9, 1907, Adele Louisa Petch. John, born Feb- ruary 14, 1879, married August 6, 1908, Anna Ellis Gillihan. James Crowell, Jr., born June 30, 1883, married, July 12, 1905, Edith Mitchell; issue, one son, Henry Burchard Green Pinkerton, born November 11, 1906.
WILLIAM WOODS PINKERTON, eldest son of James Crowell and Jane S. (Lat- ta) Pinkerton, was born in the city of Philadelphia, July 21, 1870. He was educated in public and private schools of his native city, and received practical mechanical training in the motive power department of the Pennsylvania Rail- road Company's shops at Altoona, Pennsylvania, prior to becoming a student in the department of mechanical engineering, at the University of Pennsylvania, in 1887, class of 1891. He was for some time employed as an expert account- ant, and subsequently as engineer for seven years, 1892-99, for Armstrong &
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Printzenhoff, of Philadelphia, during this period making most of the plans for the vast improvements along the Delaware and Schuylkill rivers, including large automatic coal handling plants, extensive warehouses, factory buildings, etc. In 1899 he organized the Pinkerton Construction Company, of which he has since been president. He was admitted a member of the Pennsylvania Society Sons of the Revolution, October 19, 1895, as a descendant of Colonel Samuel J. Atlee. He is a member of the General Alumni Association and the Athletic Association of the University of Pennsylvania, a member of the Pennsylvania Scotch-Irish Society, Merion Cricket Club, The Engineers Club of Philadelphia and New York Railroad Club. He married, April 24, 1900, Edith Sowers Weckerly, and they reside at St. Davids, Delaware county, Pennsylvania, and had two children: Frank Weckerly, born August 30, 1901, died June 26, 1902. William W., Jr., born July 29, 1905.
HENRY HOWARD ELLISON
The ancestry of the Philadelphia family of Ellison traces back through sev- eral lines to almost the first settlement of Pennsylvania by the followers of Penn, "the Great Founder", and on other lines to the early settlers in New Eng- land, New York and New Jersey.
On the paternal side, the earliest American ancestor of whom we have any record was Lawrence Ellison, one of the early English settlers on Long Isl- and, who died at Hempstead, in 1664, in which year, at least, letters of admin- istration were granted to his sons, Richard, Thomas and John. From the fact that we find on the parish records of Braintree, Massachusetts, the birth record of seven children of Richard Ellison, (the eldest of the three sons of Lawrence Ellison) and Thomazine, his wife, the eldest in 1642, and the young- est in 1660, it is naturally inferred that Lawrence Ellison was one of the party of New Englanders who formed the first English Colony that settled on Long Island before the middle of the seventeenth century.
Richard Ellison, eldest son of Lawrence Ellison, born in England in 1620, died in New York City, leaving a will dated February 14, 1680, probated June 13, 1683, which devises land to his two sons, John and Thomas, and other es- tate to his son Richard, his widow Thomazine and several sons-in-law.
THOMAS ELLISON, second son of Lawrence Ellison, born 1622, died at Jamai- ca, Long Island, in 1697. He married Martha Champion, and had children, Thomas, John, Grace, Mary, Elizabeth and Martha.
John Ellison, third son of Lawrence Ellison, born 1624, remained at Hemp- stead, Long Island, where he had settled in 1645, and died there in 1688, leav- a will dated November 8, 1684, which devises estate to his brother Thomas, ac- cording to the Long Island historians, though it is possible that the testator of 1684 was John, son of Richard and Thomazine Ellison, born at Braintree, Au- gust 20, 1650. Another New York historian makes John of Hempstead the ancestor of the Orange county, New York, family, through his son John, who purchased land at Manapo in 1719, and died at Haverstraw in 1754, and whose descendants generally spell the name Allison.
The history of the next two generations of the ancestors of the Philadelphia family of Ellison is shrouded in doubt and depends upon unverified tradition, though it is believed that they are descendants of Thomas, son of Lawrence.
THOMAS ELLISON, eldest son of Thomas and Martha (Champion) Ellison, of Jamaica, Long Island, married by New Jersey license dated July 4, 1690, Cor- nelia Johnson. He was living near Freehold, Monmouth county, New Jersey, in 1702, as was also a John Ellison, but whether either of these or a Richard Ellison, who died intestate in Monmouth county, in 1719, or any of these was the father of John Ellison, the known ancestor of the Philadelphia family, has not been definitely determined.
JOHN ELLISON, of near Freehold, Monmouth county, New Jersey, married there, Susanna, daughter of John and Susanna Boude, of Freehold, who had
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removed to Monmouth county, New Jersey, from Oyster Bay, Long Island, in 1700. In 1748 John Ellison, of Shrewsbury, Monmouth county, purchased land in and removed to Mansfield township, Burlington county, New Jersey, where he died in 1761. His widow Susanna married (second), June 4, 1764, John At- kinson, whom she also survived. Her will dated October 4, 1794, mentions the children of her deceased sons, James and John Ellison; living sons, Joseph and Ezekiel Ellison; and daughters, Elizabeth Ellison, Lydia English and Hannah Beck.
JOHN ELLISON, son of John and Susanna ( Boude) Ellison, married Eliza- beth Doughty, of a family long settled in New Jersey, founded on Long Isl- and, by the Rev. Francis Doughty prior to 1650. John Ellison died prior to the death of his mother, Susanna (Boude) Ellison-Atkinson, in 1794, leaving sons, James and John.
JAMES ELLISON, born in Burlington county, New Jersey, came to Philadel- phia when a young man and followed the business of a house-carpenter. He married, at Philadelphia, April 18, 1793, Margaret Barker, born January 23, 1773, daughter of John and Elizabeth (Rodman) Barker, and granddaughter of Joshua and Martha (Raper) Barker.
Joshua Barker, "a young man from Rhode Island", son of William and Mar- garet Barker, produced a certificate at Burlington Monthly Meeting of Friends, July 7, 1729, and on April 16, 1730, married Martha Raper, born October 22, 1704, daughter of Thomas Raper, who married, in 1690, Abigail Perkins, daughter of William and Mary Perkins, who had come from England and set- tled in Burlington county in 1676, William Perkins, one of the proprietors of West Jersey, dying there prior to October 22, 1677, when land purchased by him is confirmed to his widow Mary, and her children, Thomas, Mary and Abi- gail.
John Barker, son of Joshua and Martha (Raper) Barker, born October 2, 1743, died October 17, 1784. He married, April 3, 1772, Elizabeth Rodman, and they were the parents of Margaret Barker who married James Ellison in 1793.
Dr. John Rodman, the great-grandfather of Elizabeth (Rodman) Barker, was born in Barbadoes, in 1653, married there, in 1678, Mary Scammon, and in 1682 removed with his family to Rhode Island, becoming one of the proprie- tors of Block Island, where he resided until 1691, when he removed to Flushing, Long Island, where he died July 10, 1731.
Dr. John Rodman, third child of Dr. John and Mary (Scammon ) Rodman, born in Barbadoes, May 14, 1679, removed to Newport, Rhode Island, with his parents in 1682, and remained a resident of Block Island until 1712, when he removed to Flushing; and from there to Burlington, New Jersey, in 1726, where he died, July 13, 1756. He married (first ) Margaret Gross, and (second) Mary Willet.
Thomas Rodman, the father of Elizabeth (Rodman) Barker, and son of John and Margaret (Gross) Rodman, was born at Flushing, Long Island, in 1716, and came to Burlington, New Jersey, with his parents at the age of ten years. He, as had been his father and grandfather, was prominent in public affairs. He was many years a member of Provincial Assembly and a justice of the Common Pleas Court of Burlington county. He married, in 1739, Eliza-
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beth, daughter of Isaac Pearson, of Burlington, New Jersey, and his wife, Hannah (Gardner) Pearson. He died February 7, 1796.
The Gardner family were long settled in Warminster, county Wilts, Eng- land, where Richard Gardner, the great-great-grandfather of Hannah (Gard- ner ) Pearson, married as his second wife, January 20, 1579, Elizabeth Burdges. Thomas Gardner, the third child of a former marriage, baptized, February 2, 1572-73, died in Warminster in 1640, leaving issue two sons, John and Thomas. Of these Thomas Gardner, married (first), November 10, 1628, Dorothy Sta- ples, who died without issue, and married (second), August 22, 1631, Jane Bages. He was buried at the parish church of Warminster, county Wilts, July 22, 1676. His son, Thomas Gardner, born in 1633, by deed dated March II, 1678, purchased of Anthony Elton, of Yatesburg, county Wilts, a share of the lands of West Jersey, and soon after emigrated to that province with his wife Elizabeth, and son Thomas, and died there in 1694. His will dated No- vember 29, 1694, and proved December 15, 1694, mentions his wife Elizabeth and son Thomas.
Thomas Gardner, son of Thomas and Elizabeth Gardner, born in Warmin- ster, Wiltshire, England, about 1660, came to Burlington, New Jersey, with his parents in 1678, or 1679. He married, at Burlington Monthly Meeting of Friends, June 25, 1684, Hannah, only daughter and heiress of Thomas Ma- thews, late of Burlington county, New Jersey. On October 8, 1700, Thomas Gardner executed a deed of trust to Joshua Humphries, for certain lands in Burlington county, for the use of his eldest daughter, Hannah Gardner, when she should arrive at the age of twenty-one years or marry. He died intestate and on September 15, 1712, letters of administration were granted on the estate of "Thomas Gardner, late treasurer of Burlington county, to Isaac Pearson, he having married Hannah the eldest daughter of said intestate". Beside Han- nah, however, he left a son, Mathew Gardner, who in 1710 conveyed land originally granted to Thomas Gardner, Sr., and devised by him to his son, Thomas Gardner, who died intestate, leaving issue the said Mathew, "his son and heir".
The will of Isaac Pearson, of Burlington, dated September 12, 1748, and pro- bated February 14, 1748-49, gives legacies to his daughter Elizabeth, wife of Thomas Rodman, and their children, Isaac Pearson Rodman, John Rodman, and Elizabeth Rodman. The latter born in 1750, died 1782, was the wife of John Barker and mother of Margaret ( Barker ) Ellison, born January 25, 1773.
JOHN BARKER ELLISON, eldest son of James and Margaret ( Barker) Ellison, and the founder of the widely known firm of John B. Ellison & Sons, Philadel- phia, with branch offices in New York, Boston, Chicago, St. Louis, Cincinatti, Baltimore, London, and Montreal, was born in Philadelphia, February 5, 1794. He was the eldest of four children, the other three being, Elizabeth Ellison, a widely known minister of the Society of Friends; William C. Ellison and Mar- garet B. Ellison.
John Barker Ellison received an excellent academic education at Westtown Boarding School, under the care of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting, at Westtown, Chester county. At an early age he became confidential clerk to Benjamin War- ner, a prominent publisher and bookseller of Philadelphia, which continued un- til 1823, when he embarked in the woolen and cloth business at the southeast
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corner of Second and Market streets, founding a business that eventually de- veloped into the most extensive of the numerous large commercial enterprises of Philadelphia. As his sons, William P. and Rodman Barker Ellison, came to mature years, they became associated with their father in the business and the firm name of John B. Ellison & Sons was adopted, under which the present firm, comprising his grandsons, Henry Howard Ellison, William Rodman Ellison, a great-grandson, Henry Howard Ellison, Jr., still carry on the extensive business at 22, 24, and 26 South Sixth Street, and the branches in five most important cities of the United States, and in London, England, and Montreal, Canada, as above stated.
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