Sourcing Gateway Ancestors: Generation 1, George Elkington (1650-1713)
05 Aug 2023
In 1733, twenty years after Elkington's death, the family hired a lawyer, John Gill, to look into some land claimed by George's descendants. So Gill asked around and eventually ended up recording the affidavit of John Wills, a witness of George's will and a close neighbour.
Wills' Affidavit (1733)[1]
According to Wills, Elkington was born in Mollington "in Warwickshire or Oxfordshire", the son of Joseph Elkinton, also of Mollington. At a "suitable age", probably around 14 (1664), Elkington was apprenticed to a man named Thomas Phipps, a blacksmith of "Shatwell or Satchwell". After completing his apprenticeship, George settled in the parish of Dallington in Northamptonshire to find work as a blacksmith.
In the year 1677, when George was 27 years old, he had heard that Daniel Wills, a notable physician in the area, wished to relocate and find opportunities in the new colony of America. George and some of his acquaintances offered themselves to Daniel as indentured servants, to work for his family for 4 years. Daniel and his family boarded on the ship "Kent" in the same year and landed at the River Delaware. They settled an area of land known as Northampton in Burlington County in the colony of New Jersey.
After his four years service were up, in 1681, Dr. Wills granted George Elkington 100 acres of land for his faithful servitude, and later an additional 30 acres. It is said that afterwards he married Mary Bingham, who died without issue. Next, he married Mary Core, a widow with whom he had the following children:
• Joseph Elkington, five daughters.
• George Elkington, one son and one daughter.
• Joshua Elkington, died without issue.
• Thomas Elkington, "aged about Thirty years", three children.
• Two daughters, "each of them divers children".
George Elkington Sr. died in Northampton "in or about the month of October" in 1713.
Believe it or not, we can verify a lot of information in this affidavit.
Early Years in England (1650 - 1677)
George Elkington was baptised in the village of Mollington, Oxfordshire on the 7th of December 1650.[2] He was the son of Joseph and Ann Elkinton.
Looking through the Mollington parish registers, we can find additional siblings:
• Joseph Elkington, baptised 3rd August 1647
• Elizabeth Elkington, baptised 3rd January 1653
• Mary Elkington, baptised 31st March 1660
• Richard Elkington, baptised 5th April 1663
It is possible that Elkington was apprenticed to a blacksmith named Thomas Phipps of Shatwell/Satchwell, but the records that would tell us this no longer survive. Saying this, however, there is a Thomas Phips baptised on 13th of July 1634 in the village of Shotwell in Warwickshire.[3] Could this be the same man?
This would mean that Elkington was apprenticed to a 30 year old Thomas Phipps, which does sound right for the time. We don't know if this Phipps was a blacksmith or not, but it is very likely.
George and his brothers also appear in their uncle William's will, written in 1666 but proved in 1674. William was a blacksmith of the parish of Mollington. He left his house and everything in it to his brother Joseph's son, Joseph. However, if Joseph happened to die without children, then it should go to Joseph's brother George, and to his heirs.[4] This is probably what instigated the family hiring John Gills in 1733 to settle the claim.
Among others listed in William Elkington's will are:
• "my brother Antony['s] sonnes William and Edward"
• "my cosen Thomas Woodhull and his wife" [could be the Thomas Woodhull born in 1606 to Edward Woodhull]
• "my brother Frances his daughter"
We can draw up a rough tree of the Elkington family from this will.
Settling in New Jersey (1677-1700)
Daniel Wills appears on the port register for the Kent in 1677, but his servants and his family are unnamed.[5] Unfortunately, the port registers are being treated for mold at the National Archives in London, so we have to rely on this transcript. It is almost definite that John Wills arrived in America on this ship, and thus George Elkington too.
The affidavit says that after four years of service to Daniel Wills, in 1681, he was granted 100 acres of land. Looking through the New Jersey State Archives, this does seem to be true. On 22 Dec 1681, a survey was done of 300 acres of land, which was divided between George Elkington with 100 acres and Daniel Wills Jr. with 200 acres.[6]
At the Quaker meeting at Burlington, held on 6 August 1683 at the house of Thomas Gardiner, George Elkington and Mary Bingham declared their intent to marry.[7]
Mary Bingham must have died some time before 1688, because on 6 August of the same year, at a Quaker meeting, George Elkington and Mary Core declared their intentions to marry.[8]
On the 28th of May 1698, Walter Humphries, alias Powell, wrote his final will. He appointed his son-in-law, George Elkington, and his daughter Mary, as joint Executor and Executrix.[9]
Walter gave land to his grandson, Enoch Core (through his daughter Mary's first marriage), and his only son Joshua Humphries. He also gave money to George Elkington's children to buy some cattle "in remembrance of their poor grandfather Walter Humphries..."
Later Life & Death (1700-1713)
The family can also be found in the 1709 Northampton Township Census.[10]
These children are the same children listed in the 1733 affidavit, so this is definitely the right family. We can get a rough appromixation of their birth years too:
- George Elkington, born c. 1648
- Mary Elkington, born c. 1661
- Joseph Elkington, born c. 1691
- Mary Elkington, born c. 1694
- Elizabeth Elkington, born c. 1696
- George Elkington, born c. 1698
- Joshua Elkington, born c. 1700
- Thomas Elkington, born c. 1704
George would eventually pass away in October 1713 at the age of 62, writing his will on the 15th.[11]
In his will, he gave 75 acres of land to his son Joseph, and the remaining land to his wife, Mary. To the rest of his sons, he gave them £5 which they would receive at 21 years of age, and to his daughters, he left 5 shillings each, "they having had their portions already".
The inventory taken by his executors after his death reveals that he had a blacksmith's shop, owning an anvil, a vice and some tools worth £15. He also had a farm and some farming equipment, with the cost of all of his animals and tools being over £50.
In her will written on Christmas Day of the same year, his widow, Mary Elkington, gave give her granddaughter, Mary Core, all the land that she had been bequeathed by her father, Walter Humphries.[12]
She also left her children money. To her sons, £37 and 10s, and to her daughters, Mary the wife of John Roberts and Elizabeth the wife of Thomas Ballinger, £3 and 15s.
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So what can we summise from these records? How do we know that the blacksmith of Colonial New Jersey was the same man who was born in a small Oxfordshire village in 1650? The only record that ties these two men together is the affidavit of John Wills, who we can see clearly knew George. He was an executor of George's will, and George was an indentured servant for his father, Daniel Wills. Ideally more research should be done at the New Jersey State Archives, but with primarily digital records being the main focus, I believe I have done all I can. The 1709 Census states George to be 61 years old, which gives him a rough birth year of 1648 as mentioned above. Could it be possible that he wasn't born in Mollington? Perhaps, but all the evidence adds up. Unless something is found that directly opposes the Mollington theory, we can safely assume that it's true. Additionally, George's uncle, William Elkington, who died in 1674 and who mentioned George in his will, was also a blacksmith.
Next up: Joseph Elkington (Gen 2)
Footnotes
[1] Arthur Adams, The Elkinton Family in England and America, being the Ancestry and Descendants of George Elkinton of Burlington County New Jersey (Hartford, 1945), page 19
[2] Oxfordshire Family History Society, "Oxfordshire, England, Church of England Baptism, Marriages, and Burials, 1538-1812," database and images, Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com/ : accessed 30 August 2023), entry for George Elkington, 7 December 1650 baptism, page 35, image 21; citing Mollington Parish Registers, 1561-1696, Oxfordshire History Centre
[3] "Parish registers for Shotswell", digital images, FamilySearch.org (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:S3HT-6LWG-X8?i=7&cc=1462403&cat=212685 : accessed 6 August 2023), baptism for Thomas Phipps, 13 July 1634.
[4] Oxfordshire Family History Society, "Oxfordshire Wills Index, 1516-1857", database and images, FindMyPast (https://www.findmypast.co.uk/transcript?id=GBOR%2FOR%2FOXFORDWILLS%2F00006324%2F1 : accessed 31 August 2023), entry for William Elkington, 1674 probate; citing Peculiar Court of Banbury.
[5] The Welcome Society of Pennsylvania, "Passengers and Ships Prior to 1684" (Baltimore : Genealogical Publishing Company, 1970), volume 1: page 140, [Film # 007942715 : img 396]. Digitised by The Genealogical Society of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints
[6] New Jersey State Archives, "Early Land Records, ca. 1650-1900s," index and images, State of New Jersey: Department of State (https://wwwnet-dos.state.nj.us/DOS_ArchivesDBPortal/EarlyLandRecords.aspx : accessed 7 August 2023), entry for George Elkinton (1681) in New Jersey proprietors, Revel's Book of Surveys, Book A, 1680-1704, fol. 19, survey of land of George Elkinton and Daniel Wills, Jr., 22 December 1681; series SSTSE023, Secretary of State, Deeds, Commissions, Surveys, ca. 1650-1856, New Jersey State Archives.
[7] “U.S., Quaker Meeting Records, 1681-1935,” database with images, Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com : accessed 8 Aug 2023) New Jersey > Burlington > Burlington and Rancocas Monthly Meeting > Minutes 1678-1737, page 34, image 48.
[8] "U.S., Quaker Meeting Records, 1681-1935," database with images, Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com : accessed 31 Aug 2023) New Jersey > Burlington > Burlington and Rancocas Monthly Meeting > Minutes 1678-1737, page 76, image 90.
[9] New Jersey Bureau of Archives and History, "Record of wills 1C-21920C, 1688-1900," database and images, FamilySearch ("https://www.familysearch.org/search/catalog/208498 : accessed 31 August 2023), entry for Walter Humphries (1698), record 10675C, film 459321, image group number 5646208, last will of Walter Humphries, 17 October 1698, New Jersey Bureau of Archives and History.
[10] New Jersey Historical Society, Proceedings of the New Jersey Historical Society, 1849-1850 (New York : Kraus Reprint Corporation, 1968), volume 4, page 34.
[11] New Jersey Bureau of Archives and History, "Record of wills 1C-21920C, 1688-1900," database and images, FamilySearch ("https://www.familysearch.org/search/catalog/208498 : accessed 31 August 2023), entry for George Elkington (1713), record 399C-401C, film 545443, image group number 5650706, last will of George Elkington, 15 October 1713, New Jersey Bureau of Archives and History.
[12] New Jersey Bureau of Archives and History, "Record of wills 1C-21920C, 1688-1900," database and images, FamilySearch ("https://www.familysearch.org/search/catalog/208498 : accessed 31 August 2023), entry for Mary Elkington (1713), record 501C, film 545443, image group number 5650706, last will of Mary Elkington, 25 December 1713, New Jersey Bureau of Archives and History.