The Gen Project

Since I’ve been updating a bunch of my New Jersey lines, it occurs to me, not the first time, that I really should add a site for some of the New Jersey counties in order to have a place to store some of the interesting documents I have found during the course of my own reserach. In the meantime, I’m adding the sources into Family Files as I find them.

Among the odds and ends are some notes from another researcher about the Wells (Wills) family of Burlington county, started by Daniel Wills. Though the family roots in this country started in the late part of the 1600’s, I was most interested in their history during the Revolutionary War. In an earlier post, I mentioned Noah Wills, the husband of Mary Harrison - it is their sons , Harrison, Daniel and William, who caught my attention when reading this articele from the New Jersey Archives:

November 30, 1778

At an Inferior Court of Common Pleas held for the county of Gloucester, on the 13th instant, were returned inquisitions (for joining the army of the King of great Britain, and other offences against the form of their allegiance) were found against Andrew Jones, John Kelly, John Inglish, Jonathan Fisher, jun, Joseph Pratt, Joseph Clark, William Devanport, Harrison Wells, Jonathan Fisher, Thomas Nightngale, Job Thomas, Jacob Clement, jun, William Ingland, jun, William Watson, Daniel Wells, Jonathan Chew, Isaac Lord, David Chew, David Suran, John Franklin, Silas Long, Joseph Long, William Bocock, John Rodrow, William Fusman, Jacob Hewit, James Hanesy, Alexander Bartram, Pater Johnson, George Avis, William Wells, Gabriel DeVeher, jun, Edward Eglinton, Asa Lord, Conrad Bowman, Robert Whitacre, William Pinyard, Joseph Biddle, John Cox, Philip Stout, Daniel Couzens, John Gruff, Gabriel DeVeher, John O’Bryant, John Hinchman, Jeremiah Prosser, John Robison, George Swanton, John Hatton, Northup Marpole, John Inglish, jun, Benjamin Duffil, James Duffil, Isaac Justice; proclamation was made in open Court, and information given, that if they or any on their behalf, or any person interested would traverse, a trial should be awarded, and an opportunity of preventing forfeitures given; no traverses were offered; Therefore notice is hereby given, that if neither they nor any on their behalf, notr an person interested shall traverse at the next Court, to be held for the county of gloucester, on the second Tuesday n December next, the inquisitions will be taken to be true, and final judgement entered thereon in favor of the state, and their personal estates will then be forfeited to the use of the State, and their lands taken into the hands of the Commissioners until the State shall further order them therein respecting their lands.

John Sparks
Joseph Hugg, Commissioners

Though I am not sure what, if anything, happened to Daniel Wells legally, both of his brothers were tried and found guilty of high treason and sentenced to death. Apparently, however, Harrison was pardoned and survived another few years, but William was supposedly hanged for his crimes. As Harrison Wells is one of my direct ancestors, I would love to know more about just what happened to him and his brothers during the course of the war.

While working on updating sources for some of my lines, I came across an entry that looked promising for my Eayres line. In 1719, my ancestor Margaret Eayres (or Ayrs or Eayre) married Daniel Wills in Burlington County, NJ. Her father was Richard Eayres, but I had never seen any evidence as to her mother’s name, so I was interested to see entries in World Connect for a wife for Richard, one Elizabeth Rowden Brock. After some further research, though, I realized that this was just another case of sloppiness on some one’s part as Elizabeth was the mother of my ancestor and her brothers. Actually, she should have been listed as Elizabeth Rowden, as Mr. Brock was her first husband, by whom she had several children. She married Richard Eayres in 1704, and the entries in World Connect play fast and loose with the birth dates of Richard’s children in order to make this connection appear to work, but the fact remains that Margaret, Thomas and Richard were all the children of Richard Eayres’ first wife, whose name may have been Margaret.

One of the World Connect databases, hereinafter referred to as TRIP, that shows Elizabeth as Margaret’s mother also has some entries further down the that are rather questionable. Margaret and Daniel Wills had a son, Noah, born about 1721, who was married 4/17/1746 at Christ Church in Philadelphia to Mary Harrison, daughter of William Harrison and Ann Hugg. The TRIP database however, lists Noah’s wife as Mary Ogborn, with a marriage date of 4/17/1747. Hardly likely as Mary Harrison and Noah Wills (or Wells as the name more often appears) had six children before 1756. One of these children was Harrison Wells, who was left land by his aunt, Priscilla Harrison, to provide a home for his mother, Mary Wells, in her widowhood, as Noah had died in 1758. Mary is also named in her father’s will of 1762.

When looking at a database like TRIP, it is actually easy to see why mistakes happen - the only source listed for the records in question is a genealogy of the Haines family, yet another reminder why primary sources are significantly better than others.