| Notes |
- SAMUEL JACKSON was reportedly born in either Ireland or in Salem County, New Jersey, on July 27, 1749. The names of his parents and the exact place of his birth have not been determined to date. Little is known about SAMUEL JACKSON's family. It is said that one of his sisters married an Alfred Allison. Another, named Jane M., was said to have married a Major James Moore. Another sister reportedly lived in the Waxhaw Settlement in South Carolina, but then moved to Greene County, Georgia. Mrs. Suffrew, the married daughter of one of his brothers, came later.
It is known that as a young man SAMUEL explored the Pennsylvania frontier. In fact, on August 1, 1766, he applied for 300 acres of land west of the Susquehanna River in Cumberland County. It was described as being bounded on the east by Round Top Mountain, on the west by the Tuscarora Mountains and located six miles below Coulter's Mill on a run leading into the east side of Tuscarora Creek. Apparently, this land was never surveyed for him or patented by him.
Sometime later, while living in Manning Township of Salem County, New Jersey, south of Philadelphia, SAMUEL met and fell in love with MARGARETHA (MARGARET) KELCH (nee DROLLINGER). They were married on February 3, 1773, in Swedesboro in Gloucester County, New Jersey. She was the daughter of GABRIEL DROLLINGER and ANNA MARGARETHA LOTTHOLTZ, both of whom had been born in Ellmendingen, Karlsruhe, Baden, Germany. She had been born in Mannington Township of Salem County, New Jersey, on September 14, 1774, and was christened on April 20, 1745, in the Cohansey Lutheran Church in Salem County, New Jersey. MARGARET, as she became known, had been married before. She had become the bride of Philip Kelch on about November 23, 1764. But then he had died unexpectedly in 1771 at the age of only 27. Of interest is the fact that Philip had to post a 500 Pound bond with William Franklin, Esq., who was the Commanding General and Governor-in-Chief of his Majesty's Province of New Jersey, to secure a license to marry her. Two children were soon born to SAMUEL and MARGARET in New Jersey. They were Joseph, born on January 4, 1774, and Mary, born on April 14, 1775. However, like many other young married men, SAMUEL felt the call to serve his country as it struggled to throw off the yoke of England and gain its independence. However, not all of New Jersey's citizens wanted to rebel against the English crown, including William Franklin, Esq., the illegitimate son of Bejamin Franklin, who had been the King's governor of the province since 1762. But at the outbreak of the Revolutionary War, he and others were imprisoned as Loyalists. Commenting on this and other "Rebel" misdeeds, a Loyalist New York paper said in 1779: "Their brutal treatment of Governor Franklin and many other persons of distinction, whipping men almost to death because they will not take up arms, publicly whipping even women whose husbands would not join the militia . . . these things very ill agree with the character of humanity." Even so, SAMUEL JACKSON left his wife and two children behind to serve in the Revolutionary War in 1776 and 1777. The first Continental troops of "Jersey Line" were raised under a resolution of Congress adopted on October 9, 1775. It asked for two battalions of eight companies, each consisting of a captain, a lieutenant, an ensign, four sergeants, four corporals and 64 privates. The privates were to enlist for one year at $5 a month and were to be allowed, instead of a bounty, "a felt hat, a pair of yarn stockings and a pair of shoes." However, each man was expected to furnish his own arms and ammunition. After these two battalions of the so-called "First Establishment" had been formed and had gone into action, authority for the formation of an additional third battalion was then subsequently issued by the Congress on January 10, 1776. Colonel Elias Dayton was given command this third battallion of the New Jersey Militia. Four of its companies were first stationed on Staten Island, near New York City, and the other four were encamped at Perth Amboy, New Jersey. Later he would represent New Jersey in the Continental Congress from 1787 to 1788. SAMUEL JACKSON enlisted as a private on February 22, 1776, and was assigned to the Seventh Company under the command of Captain Joseph Bloomfield. His company was part of the Third Battalion, Ist Establishment of the New Jersey Continental Line. Later, Bloomfield was appointed a brigadier general in the United States Army by President Madison. Also, he later served as governor of New Jersey in 1801, and from 1805 to 1812. Still later he represented New Jersey in the U. S. House of Representatives from 1817 to 1821. Another officer of the Seventh was Second Lieutenant Ebenezer Elmer, who served as a surgeon's mate. Later, he would serve in the U. S. House of Representative from 1801 to 1807, participate in the War of 1812, serve as vice president of Burlington College, and become the last surviving Revolutionary War officer from New Jersey. The Seventh remained in camp in Cumberland County, New Jersey, for a while as it prepared itself for action. Then on March 27, 1776, it began a march northward toward its place of rendezvous with the other companies. An account of this march by Second Lieutenant Elmer, as recorded in The History of the Counties of Gloucester, Salem and Cumberland (New Jersey) by Cushing and Sheppard published in 1883, reads, in part: " Marched up to where Daniel Stretch abused us (Whig Lane in Salem County), for which we gave him a new coat of tar and feathers, made him give three hearty cheers and beg our pardon; then proceeded on to the Death of the Fox (inn) that night, very tired." The company went into barracks at Elizabethtown, New Jersey, on April 16th with three other companies. On April 28th, these four Third Battalion companies, together with the four that were stationed on Staten Island, proceeded to New York. There on May 2nd they were mustered in by the mustermaster general and General George Washington pronounced them to be "the flower of all North American forces." On May 3rd, the First and Third Battalions embarked on sloops for Albany, where they arrived on the morning of the 8th. It was intended that these battalions of New Jersey troops should form part of an expedition to Canada, but intelligence from Quebec caused a change of plans, and on June 1st the Third Battalion marched for Johnstown in the Mohawk Valley, where it arrived on the 4th. On the 6th, Captain Bloomfield's company, with others, was sent to German Flats, where an attack from the enemy was feared. On the 18th, the rest of the battalion marched for the same place. They arrived at Fort Herkimer on the 20th and received orders to fortify themselves there. On the 12th of July the battalion, except for two companies, one of which was Captain Bloomfield's, marched for Fort Stanwix. The Seventh's duties could be described as erecting fortifications, protecting the inhabitants and preventing the incursions of hostile Indians. On the 14th news was received of the Declaration of Independence by the Continental Congress, and on the 15th "an assembly was beaten for the men to parade in order to receive a treat and drink to the State's health, when having made a barrel of grog, the Declaration was read, and the following toast was given by Parson Caldwell: 'Harmony, Virtue, Honor, and all propriety to the free and independent United States of America. Wise
legislators, brave and victorious armies, both by sea and land, to the American States;' when three hearty cheers were given, and the grog flew round amain. The parole for the day was 'The Free and Independent States of America.'" Thus did SAMUEL JACKSON and his fellow patriots celebrate their first "Independence Day" on the banks of the Mohawk, and arouse with their cheers echoes from the forest-covered hillsides. On August 21, 1776, the fort on which the Seventh had labored at German Flats was completed and christened Fort Dayton. SAMUEL and the others celebrated the occasion by firing volleys from its portholes, by drinking, scouting around the fort, swinging their hats and goldbricking for about an hour. Then Captain Bloomfield had them assemble in the fort's square, where he said to them, "Friends, countrymen and fellow citizens, little did I think that I should address you today. But after making merry our hearts upon this occasion, I feel an impulse of mine to speak to you which I am not able to withstand. Many of you, my Cumberland lads, have traveled with me from your native homes, 500 miles, into this wilderness in this glorious cause of liberty." At that, a great cheer went up and drowned out most of the rest of his speech. In September, SAMUEL and the rest of his company joined their comrades at Fort Schuler. Then on October 19th, the Seventh was ordered to Lake Chaplain, where a battle was taking place between General Arnold's forces and the King's troops. Its march took it through swampy, uninhabited country until Schenectady was reached on October 25th. There SAMUEL was temporarily left behind because of illness. On November 1st, the Seventh reached Fort Ticonderoga, New York, where he rejoined it and answered its roll call on November 23, 1776. SAMUEL'S company remained at Fort Ticonderoga, engaged in regular garrison duty until December 20th, when it crossed over to a fortification known as Mount Independence. It remained there on garrison duty and it frequently paraded and drilled on the ice, which did his health little good. He was sent back south to Albany on January 11, 1777, because of a rather severe illness contracted during the bitter weather. He was discharged from the the Seventh Company of the Third Regiment of the New Jersey Continental Line on February 23, 1777, at Mount Independence, New York, by Deputy Mustermaster General Richard Varick, after serving in the Continental Army for a full year.
Relieved of his military duties at Morristown, New Jersey, on March 23, 1777, SAMUEL returned to his home in Salem, New Jersey. There, he and MARGARET had more children, including Samuel born on March 20 1778 and Jacob born in 1780. About this time, it said that SAMUEL and MARGARET moved to a farm in East Pennsboro Township of Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, as had many others from New Jersey. There, the records indicate that he served in the Eighth Class of the Eighth Company, First Battalion of the Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, Militia in 1780, under the command of Captain Charles Maclay. While living there, a daughter, Martha, was born to them in 1782. SAMUEL and MARGARET didn't tarry in Pennsylvania long and in about 1783 they moved to land in George's Creek Hundred area of Allegany County, Maryland. There they began to clear the land of trees and shrubs on the slopes of Dan's Mountain in order to make it tillable. A fine moutain stream ran through their land, which was later named Jackson Run. In J. Thomas Scharf's "History of Western Maryland, Volume II," Samuel Jackson is listed as one of the settlers living west of Fort Cumberland in 1788. During the early days of the Revolutionary War, the Maryland General Assembly approved an act offering a bounty of fifty acres to every able-bodied recruit who would serve three years in the American army, and one hundred acres to each recruiting officer who signed up twenty men. By a subsequent act in 1781, these lands were to be located west of Fort Cumberland. Then in 1787, the General Assembly appointed Colonel Francis Deakins to survey these lands. When he was finished, his report showed that forty one hundred and sixty-five lots of fifty acres each had been surveyed. However, it also noted that three hundred and twenty three families, including that of SAMUEL JACKSON, were already settled on six hundred and thirty six of these lots and they had already begun to improve and cultivate them. Obviously, not all of these were by Maryland veterans. As a result, by an act in 1788, these non-Maryland veteran settlers were allowed to purchase their land at prices varying from five to twenty shillings per acre, in equal payments over a three-year period. SAMUEL later received a patent to these lands, identified as Lots No. 3781 and 3782, and a large adjoining 136-acre tract of land known as "Timothy Level," on February 6, 1795, when he paid for them in full The last child of SAMUEL and MARGARET was born in the comfortable log cabin they had built on Dan's Mountain, facing George's Creek Valley, on May 27, 1783. Later, this daughter, named MARGARET, would marry GABRIEL JACOBS in George's Creek Valley on November 21, 1805. Meanwhile, in 1784 SAMUEL made applcation to purchase 240 acres of land laying partly in Manallin and partly in Washington Townships of Fayette County in Southwestern Pennsylvania. Warrant No. 1 was issued by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania to have this land surveyed. After it was completed on August 19, 1785, and SAMUEL received his patent to it on August 20, 1785. Interestingly, this land, called "Mill Dam," was situated on the east side of the Monongahela River below the mouth of Great Redstone Creek, and it abutted the land that his brother-in-law, WILLIAM JACOBS had initially settled on in 1761 and acquired a few years earlier, called "Martin's Folly." SAMUEL later acquired "Martin's Folly" and patented it on February 7, 1789. About the time SAMUEL patented "Mill Dam," he had Warrant No. 8 issued on August 18, 1785, to survey additional land in Manallin Township of Fayette County, Pennsylvania. The survey was completed on February 28, 1787, and he received his patent to it on March 1, 1787. He named this 232-3/4 acre tract "Fertility" and the creek, Row's Run, passed through it. Meanwhile, on June 24, 1786, SAMUEL had Warrant No. 16 issued to survey land in Tyrone (formerly Wharton) Township of Fayette County, Pennsylvania. The survey was completed on June 24, 1786. However, the 294-1/2 acre tract, called "Killington," was not patented by JACKSON until April 7, 1796, nearly ten years later. SAMUEL seemed to have a penchant for acquiring land in Fayette County, Pennsylvania. On March 2, 1787, he had Warrants No. 19 and 20 issued to survey two 100 acre tracts. These laid along the Youghiogheny River near the point where Laurel Run emptied into it. These lands apparently were never surveyed for SAMUEL or patented by him. On November 11, 1790, SAMUEL JACKSON had Warrant No. 134 issued to survey land in Greenwood Township of Cumberland County, Pennsylvania. This 58-acre tract adjoined the Juniata River. The survey was completed on July 30, 1790, but SAMUEL apparently never took possession or patented this land. Still searching for desirable state empty land, SAMUEL had Warrant No. 28 issued on December 7, 1792, to survey 250 acres on a ridge between Little Redstone Creek and Crabapple Run in Washington Township of Fayette County, Pennsylvania. The survey was completed on April 10, 1795, on the 217-acre tract, called "Aberdeen." SAMUEL apparently conveyed his rights to this land to a William Shipley on October 3, 1795, and it was subsequently patented to a Gideon John on December 6, 1808. The final tract of land that SAMUEL JACKSON patented was located in Manallin and Washington Townships of Fayette County, Pennsylvania. This was a 96-acre one named "Freedom." He had Warrant No. 74 issued on February 27, 1796, to survey it, and the survey was completed on March 31, 1796. It was located about four miles from the mouth of Redstone Creek and abutted land he already owned there. He received his patent to this land on February 26, 1798.
SAMUEL JACKSON died on May 27, 1833 at his farm in George's Creek Valley at the age of 83 years and 10 months. In his will, drawn on April 21, 1832, he said: "I bequeath unto my wife MARGARET JACKSON and my daughter Martha Jackson a sufficiency for their bodily support during the term term of life or so long as they both shall live and at their death and after financial charges are paid I then request that my land and goods shall be sold and that casual disrtibution shall be made of the proceeds and an equal division made amongst my five children, viz. Joseph Jackson, Samuel Jackson, Jacob Jackson, Mary Monroe, MARGARET JACOBS with this exception I bequeath unto my son Samuel Jackson thirty dollars extra to be paid at the time of dividing or imparting to each his share." He also named his son-in-law, GABRIEL JACOBS as the executor of his will and estate, which included 225-acre "Timothy Level" on Dan's Mountain. The will was witnessed by Uriah Duckworth of William, Samuel Ayers and Elizabeth Jacobs, the daughter of WILLIAM JACOBS. GABRIEL JACOBS made no attempt to sell this farm and he kept the estate intact during the lifetime of MARGARET JACKSON and her unmarried daughter, Martha. Instead, he rented it to one of SAMUEL JACKSON'S neighbors and distributed the income among MARGARET JACKSON and her children. A few years later, SAMUEL's son, Joseph, and his wife, Mary, sold their share in the estate to GABRIEL JACOBS for $225 on December 9, 1835. At the time, they were living in Vermillion County, Illinois. Then on March 31, 1836, GABRIEL bought the share of heir Jacob Jackson and his wife, Elizabeth, for $225. At the time, they were resiuding in Perry County, Ohio. This resulted in GABRIEL JACOBS and his wife, MARGARET, controlling three-fifths of SAMUEL JACKSON'S estate. However, the JACKSON farm had not been sold by the time of the death of GABRIEL JACOBS in 1848. At that time, an attorney, named Thomas J. McKaig, was appointed the executor of the estate and he sold the 225-acre farm to the Big Vein Coal Company for $71,000 in 1854. The phenomenal increase in land value came after tremendous deposits of excellent coal were discovered in the area. SAMUEL JACKSON was buried in the Green Cemetery at Lonaconing in Allegany County, Maryland. A year later, when his wife, MARGARET, died on July 28, 1834, she was buried beside him.
REFERENCES:
1. Records of Swedish Lutheran Church at Racoon and Pennsboro, New Jersey, 1713-1786; page 317-318.
2. Muster Roll; MS. NO. 2374, pg. 6; National Archives, Washington, D.C..
3. Stryker; "Jerseymen In The Revolutionary War"; page 219.
4. New Jersey Department of Defense Military Records, Revolutionary War; New Jersey Archives.
5. Pennsylvania Archives; Fifth Series; Vol. VI; page 149.
6. Thomas Cushing & Charles E. Sheppard; "History of the Counties of Gloucester, Salem, and Cumberland, New Jersey"; page 37; Everts & Peck; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; 1883.
7. Land Application No. 576, August 1, 1766; Samuel Jackson, Cumberland County, Pennsylvania.
8. Land Warrant No. 134, November 11, 1790; Survey A8-279 & D22-187; Samuel Jackson; Greenwood Township, Cumberland County, Pennsylvania.
9. J. Thomas Scharf; "History of Western Maryland, Vol. II"; Louis H.Everts; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; 1882.
10. James Thomas & J. C. Williams; "History of Allegany County, Maryland"; page 535.
11. Census of Allegany County, Maryland; 1810, 1820 and 1830.
12. Deeds to Samuel Jackson for Lots No. 3781 an 3782, and "Timothy Level"; 6 February 1795; Maryland State Archives.
13. Will of Samuel Jackson, April 21, 1832; Maryland State Archives.
14. Daughters of the American Revolution; Application of Ethel Frazee Purdon based on Samuel Jackson; National No. 625531; 1977.
15. Daughters of the American Revolution; Application of Jane Davis Leuthold based on Samuel Jackson; National No. 487614; 1987.
16. Mark R. Jacobs; Letters re Samuel Jackson and his family; 1991-1994.
James Wilbur Jacobs
"Will recorded in Will Book A - Cumberland, Allegheny Co., Maryland. Dated April 21, 1832."
SOURCE: Notes of Beatrix M. Davis
In the name of God, Amen. I Samuel Jackson of Allegany County in the State of Maryland being sensible of the Infirmities of Age, Considering the certainty of death and the uncertainty of the time thereof and being desirous to settle my worldly affairs, and thereby be the better prepared to leave this World when it shall please God to call me hence, do therefore make and publish this my last will and Testament in manner & form following, that is to say
First and principally I commit my Soul into the hands of Almighty God, and my body to the Earth to be decently buried at the discretion of my Executor herein after named, and after my Debts and funeral charges are paid, and wifes, and Daughter Martha's maintainance for the term of life, I devise and bequeath as follows--
I bequeath unto My wife Margaret Jackson and My daughter Martha Jackson a Sufficiency for their bodily Support during the term of life.--or so long as they both shall live, and at their death, and after their funeral charges are paid--I then request that my land & goods shall be Sold, and that Equal distribution Shall be made of the Proceeds, and an Equal Division made amongst my five Children, Viz Joseph Jackson, Samuel Jackson, Jacob Jackson, Mary Monroe, Margaret Jacobs--with this exception, I bequest unto my Son Saml Jackson Thirty Dollars Extra to be paid at the time of Dividing or imparting to Each his Share, And lastly, I do hereby Constitute and Appoint Gabriel Jacobs of the State & County before mentioned, to be sole executor of this my last Will and Testament Revoking and annuling all former wills by me heretofore made, ratifying and Confirming this & none other, to be my last will & Testament.
In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand & affixed my seal this Twenty first day of April in the year of Our Lord One thousand Eight hundred & Thirty-two
Samuel Jackson (Seal)
Signed, seald, published and declared; by Samuel Jackson the above named Testor, as and for his last will and Testament in the presence of us, who at his request in his presence & In the presence of Each other, have subscribed our names as witnesses hereto, Uriah Duckworth, Samuel Ayers (his mark), Elizabeth Jacobs (her Mark)
The last will of Samuel Jackson Filed Augt 10 and proven September 10, 1833. Test Charles Heck, Register. Recorded in Will book Liber A Folio 239 & 240 & Examined by Charles Heck, Register
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1749 - 1833 (83 years)
