5-24 på Cannon. 1-9 do. do. 1240 Round Shot 18. to 6lb. 121-6 Inch Shells. 81 Carriage Trucks. 22 Copper Hoops. 1 Worm & 1 Ladle. Fort Montague Some old Copper & Lead. Am' of dry Goods, £355,8,,5 Sterling Extracts from a letter from Commander Hopkins of the American fleet to the President of Congress, dated on board the ship "Alfred," New London Harbor, April 9, 1776: "When I put to sea, on the 17th of February from Cape Henlopen, not thinking we were in a condition to keep on a cold coast, I appointed our rendezvous at Abacco, one of the Bahama islands. "I arrived at the rendezvous in order to wait for them fifteen days, agreeable to orders. I then formed an expedition against New Providence, which I put in execution the third of March, by landing two hundred Marines under the command of Capt. Nichols and fifty sailors under the command of Lieutenant Weaver of the Cabot, who was well acquainted there." ROBERT IBBETSON. BY ROBERT PATTERSON ROBINS, M.D. In my short sketch of Colonel James Coultas,1 the statement is made that Robert Ibbetson, the brother-in-law of Coultas, the father of the wife of George Gray, was British consul at Lisbon in 1766. By a curious coincidence, in the same number of the MAGAZINE, this same statement is repeated by Dr. Egle in his sketch of George Gray,' with the trifling difference that he makes Ibbetson's Christian name William instead of Robert. In making my notes on Ibbetson I followed the short biographical notice of George Gray in the "Pennsylvania Archives," and I think it probable that Dr. Egle's information came from the same source. The statement, however, has thus gained considerable currency, and having found it to be inaccurate, I desire to correct it as soon as may be. The records of the Friends' Monthly Meetings, and the copies of their Certificates preserved in the library of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, afford us some little information, and from them I have mainly drawn the facts which I am about to set down, although I must also acknowledge my indebtedness to the manuscript notes of my cousin, General Thomas L. Kane, whose researches upon all subjects relating to genealogy were painstaking and accurate. We know but little of the early life of Robert Ibbetson save that he was a Dissenter, born at Leeds, and presumably of the respectable family of which another branch is settled at Denton Park, Yorkshire. Family tradition has it that it was not until middle-life that he became a follower of George Fox, but the certificate of dismissal about to be 1 PENNA. MAG. OF HIST. AND BIOG., Vol. XI., No. 1, foot-note to p. 50. 'Ibid., p. 78. "Pennsylvania Archives," 2d S., Vol. I. p. 11. quoted shows that he became a member of the Society of Friends, removed to London, and in 1749 emigrated to Philadelphia. His brother-in-law, Colonel Coultas, had by this time built his house, Whitby Hall, near the Darby road, and this evidently determined Ibbetson in his choice of a residence, for the minutes of the Darby Meeting show that "Robert Ibyson, wife and children were received from Peel Meeting, London, 6. 2. 1749."1 After the marriage of his daughter, in 1752, he decided to remove to Philadelphia, and he was accordingly dismissed to the Philadelphia Monthly Meeting, 4, 4, 1753.2 The certificate of his dismissal has been preserved,3 and reads as follows: "From our Monthly Meeting held at Darby the 4th 4 mo. 1753. "To friends of Philadelphia Monthly Meeting "Dear friends Our friends Robert Ibeson and his wife request of us a few lines to you on behalf of themselves and son in order to be more immediately under your care we therefore inform you that some years since they came well recommended to us from London & may likewise on their behalf certifie you that on enquiry we do not find but that their conduct & conversation has been answerable thereto frequenters of our religious meetings as friends in unity with us for whose growth and increase in the knowledge of the Truth we have earnest desires we recommend them to your Christian care and oversight with their son a youth & an apprentice in your city & subscribe our selves your frd Brethren & Sisters in the Truth Signed in and on behalf of our said meeting by "Thomas Fell Enoch Bonsall Sarah Sellers Samuel Sellers Samuel Buntin Mary Smith Nath" Gibson Aron Hibbard &c. Eliza Fell & others." After a brief sojourn in Philadelphia, Robert Ibbetson died, was buried 2, 6, 1756, and his will was probated on the 23d of the same month. In this will he mentions his wife, Margaret, his children, William and Martha, his brother Richard, and the children of his deceased brother 1 Records of the Darby Monthly Meeting. 2 Ibid. Philadelphia Monthly Meetings,-Certificates of Removal, page 233. "Philadelphia Monthly Meetings,-Record of Births and Burials, page 348. Hugh and his deceased sister Ann. He had married, in England, Margaret Coultas, daughter of Henry and Margaret (Chapman) Coultas, of Whitby, Yorkshire, and sister of Colonel James Coultas, High Sheriff of Philadelphia, 1755– 1758, and by this marriage he had two children.1 (1) William, mentioned in the Darby Meeting certificate as an apprentice in Philadelphia, returned to England, and in 1768 was a merchant at Dartmouth.2 (2) Martha, who was married, November 25, 1752,3 to George Gray, of Gray's Ferry, "according to the rites and ceremonies of the Church of England," as the family Bible puts it. This departure from the customs of the Friends required explanation, which was given several years afterwards, as appears from the following certificate:* "From our Monthly Meeting held at Darby the 5th day of the 2d month 1755 "To Friends of Philadelphia Monthly meeting "Dear Friends "Martha Gray the bearer hereof desired a few lines to you as a certificate. We therefore inform you that She came recommended to us from London with her parents & almost ever since has lived within the verge of your meeting for which reason we can say little as to her conduct and conversation but refer to your better knowledge of her but so far we may acquaint you that at our last meeting She made satisfaction for her outgoing in marriage, as a member of our Meeting we recommend her to your Christian care & oversight, and as we are informed that in her very young yeares she received the Truth in the love of it our desires are that her fruit may be unto holiness the end thereof is everlasting life. With the Salutation of Love we conclude your friends Abraham Bonsall clerk, Sarah Sellers, Eliz" Fell Rebecca Davis, Ann Bonsall, Hanna Wood, and many more."' "Signed in & on behalf) of our said Meeting by George Gray died in 1800, his wife having predeceased him. They left issue. 1 General T. L. Kane's manuscript notes. 2 Ibid. 3 At Christ Church, Philadelphia. (See "Pennsylvania Marriages," Vol. I., page 105.) 4 * Philadelphia Monthly Meetings,-Certificates of Removal, page 240. There can be no doubt as to the identity of the Robert Ibbetson of the above certificates with the Robert Ibbetson whose daughter married George Gray, and as he undoubtedly was the same whose will was probated in 1756, it is manifestly impossible that he should have been British consul at Lisbon in 1766. But I think it highly probable that his son, William Ibbetson, who re-emigrated to England, and was settled at Dartmouth in 1768, was the English representative at Lisbon, and that it was from this fact that the confusion arose. Of this, however, I have no proof, and I am content to allow the matter to remain in abeyance. |