We are researching several Quaker ancestors in New Jersey. Several of our ancestors had dealings with the Pancoast family in New Jersey. We have gathered these research notes seeking links to the Pancoast family in England. We have not yet found any.
The brotherhood of the four sibling sons, that we show here, is based on New Jersey will records as indicated in their notes. I have no primary documentation for this John Pancoast and his wives. The names and dates are taken, without verification, from secondary sources that we have found on the internet. The ancestry of John Pancoast has been reported as father Joseph and grand-father Samuel, both of Ashton, Northamptonshire, England.
Research Notes:
John Pancoast married Elizabeth, mother of their nine children. [1]
1676 On March 3, John Pancoast and other "proprieters, freeholders, and inhabitants of the said Province of West New Jersey", signed "In Testimony and Witness of our consent to and affirmation of these present laws, concessions and agreements" [for the government in New Jersey] [2] [3]
John Pancoast [Panckhurst] of Ashton got a certificate of removal from [B]ugbrooke Men's meeting in Northampton, England to emigrate to New Jersey. He was clear for marriage.
1680 Return of survey to John Pancoast for 100 acres on the north side of Assisunck creek.
1680 John Pancoast was a widower. [4]
1682 On 11 of month 7, At the men's meeting at Burlington at the house of Thomas Gardener, "John Pancoast and Ann Snoden proposed their intentions of marriage, ye 2nd time." [5] John Pancoast married Ann Snowden. [6] [7] [8]
168? John Chipman and Jane Curtis were married. John Chipman died.
1689 John Pancoast and widow Chipman intended to marry. They married before Jane had grieved for 5 months, contrary to practice.
1692 John Pancoast signed a letter with other Quakers at Burlington encouraging George Keith and Thomas Lloyd to resolve their differences. [9]
1692 John Pancoast joined the peacemakers in the Keithian agitation among the Quakers of America. [10]
1692 Dec. 31. Minutes of Court Proceedings: before Edw. Hunloke and Tho. Revell, sitting at the house of Richard Bassnett at Burlington: Thomas Potts vs. Elimilech Hudson for debt; Olliver Taylor witness for pltff. Before Tho: Revell and Tho. Lambert, Justices, at the former's house: John Browne vs. John Pancost; warrant served by John Curtis, Constable of Mansfield. [11]
1694 John Pancoast dated his will November 30 and named wife Jane [Curtis-Chipman-Pancoast]. [12]
1694 On 22 December, William Pancoast, of ye County of Burlington, yeoman, (Exec'r of ye Last will ... .of John Pancoast, late of ye County afores'd, his ffather, deced.), Then proved ye Last will of his sd father And also proved Inventory And also gave bond And thereupon, as Exec'r had L[ette]re of Admission & Admistracon to him granted which originall will & Inventory, with ye Bond, are in ve office. Probate made &c. & Lre of Admiftracon granted by Edward Hunloke, John Tatham & Tho Tho: Revell, Juftices, And alfo before Tho: Revell, as Reg'r. [13]
1740 Oct. 7. John Pancoast, of Mansfield, Burlington County died and named brothers William and Samuel, and late brother Joseph Pancoast [assumed here to be Joseph who wrote will 6 Aug 1749] in his will. [14]
A biosketch summarized the marriages of John Pancoast. [15]
See, also, [16]
A biosketch reported [17]:
John and Elizabeth Pancoast arrived from England in 1680. They located 162 acres at the mouth of the east branch of Assiscunck Creek adjoining Thomas Barton on April 5th, 1682. They apparently first settled on a 100 acre tract surveyed on October 24th, 1680 for John Pancas against Mattacopeny on the north side of Assiscunck Creek. These farms were located in the neighborhood of Jacksonville. They had two sons, Joseph and William, who married Thomasin and Hannah Scattergood, daughters of Thomas and Hannah Scattergood, who settled in Mansfield Township near Columbus at a very early date. The Pancoast families of Moorestown and vicinity are direct descendants of these brothers. John Pancoast, the pioneer, was one of the signers of the Concessions and Agreements and later served as a member of the West Jersey Assembly.
A biosketch reported [18]:
John Pancoast, a Quaker, was one of the early colonists of West Jersey, and the founder of the American family of his surname. From a manuscript written by his son Joseph Pancoast, it is ascertained that the father came to America from Northamptonshire, England, in October, 1680, in the ship " Paradise," William Evelyn, master, and settled in Burlington County, West Jersey. He was a signer of the noted "Concessions and Agreements", and owned proprietary rights in the province named. His homestead was in Mansfield Township. In 1681, he was appointed regulator of weights and measures for Burlington County; was chosen constable two years later, and in 1685 was elected a member of the Assembly of West Jersey. His will, dated 30 November, and proved 22 December, 1694, names wife Jane, and children Mary, Ann, William, Joseph, C Elizabeth, Sarah, Hannah, and Susanna. These children were by his first wife, who accompanied him to America, but whose name is unknown. He married (2), 2 August, 1682, Ann Snowden; (3) Jane -?-. The marriages of his children, so far as ascertained, are: Mary married, in 1682, Seth Smith; William married, in 1695, Hannah Scattergood; Joseph married, in 1696, Tomasin Scattergood; Sarah married Edward Boulton; and Susanna married Ralph Cowgill, as stated in the preceding note. The late eminent Philadelphia surgeons. Dr. Joseph Pancoast and his son, Dr. William H. Pancoast, were descendants of John Pancoast.
A summary of John Pancoast of New Jersey reported [19]:
On the 13th day of May in the year 1680, the record of the Men's Monthly Meeting at [B]ugbrook, Northampton, England provided the following document to: ye ffrds. And Brethren in New Jersey, in America, greetings. Whereas this friend John Panckhurst of Ashton having laid his intentions of transporting himself into New Jersey and desired a Certificate from this meeting. These many therefore let you understand that ye sd John Panckhurst hath lived soberly as becometh ye truth and yt he is clear from all women as to relative in marriage soe far as we understand. An that friends here have not anything against his transporting himself by reason yt we do not understand but that he hath left all things clear as to his debts: all we thought meet to signifie etc., in testimony thereunto we whose names are here written have set our hand by the direction of ye sd meeting I shall rest you ffrds and brethren. Signed by Thomas Poole and eight others.
Shortly after securing this Certificate of Removal, John Pancoast left his home at Ashton, five miles from Northampton in Northamptonshire, England, and with his family of eight children ( two sons and six daughters), came into America on the ship Paradise, William Evelyn, Master, landing at Burlington on the fourth of October, 1680. John Pancoast, as he came to be known in America, was the son of Joseph Panckhurst and the grandson of the Reverend Samuel Panckhurst of Ashton. It is believed that the Reverend Samuel Panckhurst, born in 1580, was a clergyman of the Church of England. Within three weeks of his landing, John's first survey was recorded for 100 acres of land in Burlington County on the north side of Assiscunk Creek against Mattacopenny Branch. Four days later, 18 October 1680, John Pancoast recorded a deed for 1/32 of a 10-90th share of the province of West Jersey.
Among the early Jersey Records, the name of John Pancoast is found in several places. As different surveys are made to him; as he signs as a Proprietor, business papers; and in the court of ear-marks for cattle made 8 August 1685, as follows: John Pancoast. Left ear slit, ye Right cur out. John also took an active part in civil affairs of the province. He served as regulator of weights and measures in 1681 and was a Constable of Yorkshire Tenth in 1692. He served as member of the Assembly of the Province of West New Jersey in 1685.
John Pancoast and his first wife, Elizabeth, had nine children who came to America, three sons and six daughters. However, Elizabeth died in England and John was a widower when he and eight children came over in 1680. One son, James, had preceded them, unknown to them at that time. It seems that James, who was a bound apprentice to a watchmaker in London, was kidnapped and brought to Maryland and sold by the Captain to some gentleman there. However, James worked out his time, bought a tract of land on the Potomac in 1687, acquired a nice estate, and became a leading citizen of Prince Georges County.
John Pancoast married as his second wife, Ann Snowden, the fall of 1682. Seven year later, in 1689, again a widower, he married his third wife, Jane Chapman. Jane, as the widow of Thomas Curtis, had married John Chapman, who died within a few months. When she married John Pancoast, less than five months later, they were reproved for their haste by the Burlington Meeting of Friends. John Pancoast died in December of 1694 and his widow later married her fourth husband, Thomas Crosse.
Shortly after arriving in New Jersey, John's daughter Ann Pancoast married Thomas Smith. Their marriage was recorded as having taken place the 14th of May 1681 and that Thomas Smith was of Cohansey in the Fenwick Colony. Thomas had bought 1000 acres from John Fenwick and located it in Shrowesburie Neck, south of the Cohansey. Of a later transaction is found this record of the land patent. Jan. 26, 1678/80 John Fenwick to Thomas Smith, late of Moseley, Parish of Chadleton, Co., of Stafford, now Shrowesburie Neck, Fenwick Colony, gentlemen, and William Johnson, for 500 acres at Shtowesburie Neck, here after to be called Moseleys Shield and Johnsons Cottage.
By 1684 Thomas Smith was a member of the General Assembly and one of the first to settle on a 16 acre town lot on Main Street, Greenwich, when it was laid out in 1681. Thomas and Ann Pancoast Smith were the progenitors of the Smith family who were early settlers of Frederick County, Virginia. It is through this line that the author of this article descends.
[1] Thelma Antrim Beck Ellis, Pancoast Family (4/2/1965), image 15, pagination unclear, [FHLBook].
[2] Aaron Leaming and Jacob Spicer, The Grants, Concessions, and original constitutions of the province of New Jersey (1881), 408, of 408-10, [HathiTrust], [InternetArchive].
[3] William A. Whitehead, Documents relating to the Colonial History of the State of New Jersey. Archives Vol. 1. (Administration 1631-1687) (1880), 270, right column, [HathiTrust], [GoogleBooks].
[4] Thelma Antrim Beck Ellis, Pancoast Family (4/2/1965), 6, [FHLBook].
[5] U.S., Quaker Meeting Records, 1681-1935, Burlington Monthly Meeting, Minutes, 1678-1737, 25, [AncestryRecord], [AncestryImage].
[6] U.S. Quaker Meeting Records, Marriages in Burlington Monthly Meeting (derived from other sources), [AncestryImage].
[7] Thelma Antrim Beck Ellis, Pancoast Family (4/2/1965), 6, [FHLBook].
[8] Amelia Mott Gummere, Friends in Burlington (Philadelphia: Collins, Printer, 1884), 82, [HathiTrust], [GoogleBooks].
[9] Robert Hannay, Benjamin Bealing, A True Account of the Proceedings, Sence, and Advice of the People Called Quakers (1694), 15-16, [GoogleBooks].
[10] Thelma Antrim Beck Ellis, Pancoast Family (4/2/1965), 4, [FHLBook].
[11] William Nelson, Documents relating to the Colonial History of the State of New Jersey. Archives Vol. 21. (Patents and Deeds, 1664-1703) (1899), 391, [HathiTrust], [GoogleBooks], [InternetArchive].
[12] John E. Stillwell, Historical and Genealogical Miscellany, Vol. 3 (1914), 200, [InternetArchive].
[13] John E. Stillwell, Historical and Genealogical Miscellany, Vol. 2 (1906), 23, [HathiTrust], [InternetArchive].
[14] A. Van Doren Honeyman, Documents relating to the Colonial History of the State of New Jersey. Archives Vol. 30. (Wills and Administrations 2, 1730-1750) (1918), 367, [GoogleBooks], [HathiTrust].
[15] Lewis D. Cook, "John Curtis (1635-1696) of Derbyshire, England, and Burlington County, New Jersey," National Genealogical Society Quarterly 61 (1973), 83-99, at 98, see footnote 31.
[16] George DeCou, Burlington: A Provincial Capital (1945), 202-203, [GoogleBooks].
[17] George Decou, Moorestown and Her Neighbors, Historical Sketches (1973), 138, [GoogleBooks].
[18] Mary Elizabeth Sinnott and Josiah Granville Leach, Annals of the Sinnott, Rogers, Coffin, Corlies, Reeves, Bodine and allied Families (Philadelphia: Lippincott, 1905), 139, footnote, [GoogleBooks].
[19] Michael Harrison Charles, "John Pancoast", Founders of New Jersey, Brief Biographies by Descendants (2011), 58, [GoogleBooks].