Bersheba (Butler) McCowan (1740 - 1793)

Born 1740 in Chester, Pennsylvania

Ancestors

Wife of John McCowan — married 1759 in Chester, Pennsylvania

Descendants

Died 1793 at about age 53 in Wrightsboro, McDuffie, Georgia

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Biography

Name

Name: Bersheba /Butler/^[1]

Name: Bersheba or some records show Bathsheba

Birth

Birth:

Date: ABT 1740

Place: Chester, Pennsylvania^[2]

Death

Death:

Date: BEF 1793

Place: Wrightsboro, McDuffie, Georgia^[3]

Marriage

Husband: John McCowen

Wife: Bersheba Butler

Child: Daniel McCowen

Relationship to Father: Natural

Relationship to Mother: Natural

Marriage:

Date: 1759

Place: Chester, Pennsylvania^[4]

Sources

1. ↑ Source: #S604 Page: p. 58
2. ↑ Source: #S604 Page: p. 95-97
3. ↑ Source: #S604 Page: p. 95-97
4. ↑ Source: #S604 Page: p. 95-97

• Source: S604 Author: Butler Family Association Title: Noble Butler: (1704-1799) of Bristol, England, Philadelphia and Chester County, Pennsylvania, His Ancestors and Descendants Publication: Name: Butler Family Association; Date: 1982;

Notes

Note N11832The date of Bersheba Butler’s birth is unknown but judging by the known or surmised dates of birth of her brothers and by other circumstances she was born most likely either between 1735 and 1737 or about 1740 or shortly thereafter. She was named for her paternal grandmother Bersheba Noble.

The first record of Bersheba is her signature as a witness at the marriage of her brother Enoch Butler in 1755 at Cain Friends Meeting in Chester County. Four years late occurred Bersheba's marriage to John McCowen. Although raised as a Quaker her husband was not and Bersheba was duly complained of in Goshen Monthly Meeting, (Chester County) it being there recorded on 5th month, 18, 1759 that “Bathsheba McCown,” late Butler was married out of unity. Neither the birth nor death of John McCowen has been found of record. He was the son of Duncan McCowen who in 1761 was a resident of Shearman's Valley, Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, likely the same Duncan “McHaun” who was a taxable in Uwchlan Township in 1759.

Until recent years little was known of Bersheba and her family following marriage. Efforts to trace them by Amos Butler and other family researchers in the 1920s had found indications that they had removed to Shearmans Valley in Central Pennsylvania. Later it was determined from Quaker records that a certificate of removal was prepared in Goshen Monthly Meeting in December 1761, directed to Warrington Monthly Meeting including Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, an area then including Shearmans Valley. It was not until 1977 that a deed record was examined in Cumberland County confirming that Duncan McCowen had on April 10, 1761 conveyed to his son John McCowen 113 acres along the Juniata River in (now) Rye Township. For some reason Bersheba did not then remove as the Uwchlan Womens Minutes of April 5, 1764 recite that Warrington Meeting returned the certificate with the comment that Bersheba had never appeared before the Quakers there, although she had been present in the area, unforeseen difficulties preventing her from delivering the certificate or attending Meeting. A year later, on May 9, 1765 a removal certificate was again prepared in Uwchlan Meeting for Bersheba to remove to Warrington but with the comment that she did not expect to remove for some months. At last, on August 9, 1766 Bersheba presented her certificate to Warrington Meeting.

Indications that other members of the McCowen family removed to Cumberland County is contained in the publications of the Pennsylvania Archives wherein it appears that several McCowens bearing the same first names as Bersheba's children are listed as being located in that general area. Among them are William and Finley (or Finlaw), the former in Carlisle in 1781 and 1785 and the latter in Rye Township, formerly Cumberland now Perry County, between 1778 and 1782.

Only in recent years was it discovered that the McCowen family removed to Georgia, doing so at about the same time as Bersheba's brother Noble Butler, Jr. Thus it appears from the Warrington Monthly Meeting records that on May 8, 1779 “Bathsheba McCown” requested a certificate of removal to Wrightsboro, Georgia, and the certificate was granted on June 12, 1779. It was not until almost three years later, on April 6, 1782, however, that the certificate was received by Wrightsboro Monthly Meeting of Friends. Whether this renewed uncertainty in the McCowen movements was due to the difficulties of travel during the Revolutionary War or otherwise remains unknown.

Some mention of the interesting history of Wrightsboro Quaker Meeting is appropriate at this point. The Meeting was established in August of 1773 by Quakers who were a part of the general migration into the South, mostly from Pennsylvania. The Township of Wrightsboro, located in northeast Georgia covered an area which today includes McDuffie County, and parts of Warren and Columbia counties. An account entitled “The Story of Wrightsboro” was published in 1965 for the Wrightsboro Restoration Foundation of Thomson, Georgia. This account relates the founding of the Quaker Meeting and explains the reason for its failure to flourish and its early ending shortly after 1800.

Wrightsboro Friends Meeting was beset with difficulties from the beginning. First came the Revolution and with it a tug of war between Loyalists and Patriots, the Quakers as elsewhere determined to take no part in the hostilities. The result was that the Quakers were prey to the excesses of both sides determined to involve them. As far as the McCowens were concerned it would seem from later records that at least two of the sons may have joined the Rebel cause. As stated in the “Story of Wrightsboro:” “Some of the Wrightsboro Friends were ordered to serve with the army or provide a substitute. Failure to comply would mean confiscation of their lands. Some of these people did take part in the fighting, and after the war they received soldiers grants. Some were dismissed from the Quaker Meeting, and others remained in the faith, causing one to wonder where the line was drawn and who judged whether a man's participation was compulsory or voluntary.”

With the end of the War another problem for the Quakers becomes more acute. Slavery by then had become contrary to their beliefs. The use of slave labor in the expanding development of the cotton economy found the Quakers unable to compete. Thus the members of Wrightsboro Meeting began a gradual departure and a general migration to Ohio and Indiana. An account of this conflict and its results is contained in the book by Stephen B. Weeks entitled “Southern Quakers and Slavery,” referred to elsewhere in this work, it mentioning the Butlers as among those families leaving Georgia and removing to Indiana.

The McCowens, however, chose to remain in Georgia. Bersheba's record after her acceptance at Wrightsboro Meeting in 1782 is lacking. The next mention of her is in the will of her father Noble Butler written in 1793 and she is there mentioned as deceased. The records of Wrightsboro Meeting are largely missing and there is little likelihood that the date of her death will be established.

As for her husband John McCowen who apparently never joined Quaker Meeting, nothing definite is known of him in later years. Did he return to Pennsylvania and was he the John McCowen listed as a taxable in Uwchlan Township, Chester County, in the late 1790s, or was he the John McCowen on whose estate letters were taken out in Georgia in 1816, or was he neither?

How many children did John and Bersheba McCowen have? The will of Noble Butler left 30 pounds collectively to the children of his deceased daughter Bersheba. Such a bequest would seem to suggest either three or six and the various records indicate that the likely numbered of their children exceeded three. The names Duncan, Daniel, William, Noble, and Finley (or Finlaw) appear together in the same places and at the same times in several Georgia records. Duncan has descendants with Butler as a middle name, Daniel evidently married his first cousin, Mary Butler, and Noble's name speaks for itself.

Family correspondence confirms the relationship of Duncan McCowen (died about 1828) and Daniel McCowen (died 1816) as brothers. The link of this Duncan McCowen as the father of Duncan McCowen (1798-1880), the progenitor of the McCowens of Forsyth, Georgia, is supplied by a letter from Richard Fletcher McCowen, of Macon, Georgia, dated April 26, 1929, addressed to his cousin J. D. Myhand, great-grandson of Daniel McCowen, in which he states that Daniel McCowen and Duncan McCowen “were brothers,” and further that “There is no one by the McCowen name so far as I have been able to learn who did not spring from Duncan or Daniel McCowen.” This last statement is, of course, subject to challenge.

All indications from the research by the Butler Family Association have tended to confirm all but the last of the foregoing statements, as well as the conclusions concerning William McCowen, Noble McCowen, and Finley McCowen as brothers of Duncan McCowen and Daniel McCowen, and all as sons of John and Bersheba (Butler) McCowen.

An examination of the records of land lotteries in Georgia has divulged the names of Duncan, Daniel, William and Noble McCowen as taking part. The lotteries were held in connection with service in the Revolutionary War but whether the individuals named took part in the lottery as veterans or as “orphans” has not been determined.

The order of birth of the following is not confirmed except that Finley McCowen was born about 1775, according to census records.

- Noble Butler (1704-1799) of Bristol, England, Philadelphia and Chester County, Pennsylvania, His Ancestors and Descendants. 1982. p. 95-97.

Note N8763The date of Bersheba Butler’s birth is unknown but judging by the known or surmised dates of birth of her brothers and by other circumstances she was born most likely either between 1735 and 1737 or about 1740 or shortly thereafter. She was named for her paternal grandmother Bersheba Noble.

The first record of Bersheba is her signature as a witness at the marriage of her brother Enoch Butler in 1755 at Cain Friends Meeting in Chester County. Four years late occurred Bersheba's marriage to John McCowen. Although raised as a Quaker her husband was not and Bersheba was duly complained of in Goshen Monthly Meeting, (Chester County) it being there recorded on 5th month, 18, 1759 that “Bathsheba McCown,” late Butler was married out of unity. Neither the birth nor death of John McCowen has been found of record. He was the son of Duncan McCowen who in 1761 was a resident of Shearman's Valley, Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, likely the same Duncan “McHaun” who was a taxable in Uwchlan Township in 1759.

Until recent years little was known of Bersheba and her family following marriage. Efforts to trace them by Amos Butler and other family researchers in the 1920s had found indications that they had removed to Shearmans Valley in Central Pennsylvania. Later it was determined from Quaker records that a certificate of removal was prepared in Goshen Monthly Meeting in December 1761, directed to Warrington Monthly Meeting including Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, an area then including Shearmans Valley. It was not until 1977 that a deed record was examined in Cumberland County confirming that Duncan McCowen had on April 10, 1761 conveyed to his son John McCowen 113 acres along the Juniata River in (now) Rye Township. For some reason Bersheba did not then remove as the Uwchlan Womens Minutes of April 5, 1764 recite that Warrington Meeting returned the certificate with the comment that Bersheba had never appeared before the Quakers there, although she had been present in the area, unforeseen difficulties preventing her from delivering the certificate or attending Meeting. A year later, on May 9, 1765 a removal certificate was again prepared in Uwchlan Meeting for Bersheba to remove to Warrington but with the comment that she did not expect to remove for some months. At last, on August 9, 1766 Bersheba presented her certificate to Warrington Meeting.

Indications that other members of the McCowen family removed to Cumberland County is contained in the publications of the Pennsylvania Archives wherein it appears that several McCowens bearing the same first names as Bersheba's children are listed as being located in that general area. Among them are William and Finley (or Finlaw), the former in Carlisle in 1781 and 1785 and the latter in Rye Township, formerly Cumberland now Perry County, between 1778 and 1782.

Only in recent years was it discovered that the McCowen family removed to Georgia, doing so at about the same time as Bersheba's brother Noble Butler, Jr. Thus it appears from the Warrington Monthly Meeting records that on May 8, 1779 “Bathsheba McCown” requested a certificate of removal to Wrightsboro, Georgia, and the certificate was granted on June 12, 1779. It was not until almost three years later, on April 6, 1782, however, that the certificate was received by Wrightsboro Monthly Meeting of Friends. Whether this renewed uncertainty in the McCowen movements was due to the difficulties of travel during the Revolutionary War or otherwise remains unknown.

Some mention of the interesting history of Wrightsboro Quaker Meeting is appropriate at this point. The Meeting was established in August of 1773 by Quakers who were a part of the general migration into the South, mostly from Pennsylvania. The Township of Wrightsboro, located in northeast Georgia covered an area which today includes McDuffie County, and parts of Warren and Columbia counties. An account entitled “The Story of Wrightsboro” was published in 1965 for the Wrightsboro Restoration Foundation of Thomson, Georgia. This account relates the founding of the Quaker Meeting and explains the reason for its failure to flourish and its early ending shortly after 1800.

Wrightsboro Friends Meeting was beset with difficulties from the beginning. First came the Revolution and with it a tug of war between Loyalists and Patriots, the Quakers as elsewhere determined to take no part in the hostilities. The result was that the Quakers were prey to the excesses of both sides determined to involve them. As far as the McCowens were concerned it would seem from later records that at least two of the sons may have joined the Rebel cause. As stated in the “Story of Wrightsboro:” “Some of the Wrightsboro Friends were ordered to serve with the army or provide a substitute. Failure to comply would mean confiscation of their lands. Some of these people did take part in the fighting, and after the war they received soldiers grants. Some were dismissed from the Quaker Meeting, and others remained in the faith, causing one to wonder where the line was drawn and who judged whether a man's participation was compulsory or voluntary.”

With the end of the War another problem for the Quakers becomes more acute. Slavery by then had become contrary to their beliefs. The use of slave labor in the expanding development of the cotton economy found the Quakers unable to compete. Thus the members of Wrightsboro Meeting began a gradual departure and a general migration to Ohio and Indiana. An account of this conflict and its results is contained in the book by Stephen B. Weeks entitled “Southern Quakers and Slavery,” referred to elsewhere in this work, it mentioning the Butlers as among those families leaving Georgia and removing to Indiana.

The McCowens, however, chose to remain in Georgia. Bersheba's record after her acceptance at Wrightsboro Meeting in 1782 is lacking. The next mention of her is in the will of her father Noble Butler written in 1793 and she is there mentioned as deceased. The records of Wrightsboro Meeting are largely missing and there is little likelihood that the date of her death will be established.

As for her husband John McCowen who apparently never joined Quaker Meeting, nothing definite is known of him in later years. Did he return to Pennsylvania and was he the John McCowen listed as a taxable in Uwchlan Township, Chester County, in the late 1790s, or was he the John McCowen on whose estate letters were taken out in Georgia in 1816, or was he neither?

How many children did John and Bersheba McCowen have? The will of Noble Butler left 30 pounds collectively to the children of his deceased daughter Bersheba. Such a bequest would seem to suggest either three or six and the various records indicate that the likely numbered of their children exceeded three. The names Duncan, Daniel, William, Noble, and Finley (or Finlaw) appear together in the same places and at the same times in several Georgia records. Duncan has descendants with Butler as a middle name, Daniel evidently married his first cousin, Mary Butler, and Noble's name speaks for itself.

Family correspondence confirms the relationship of Duncan McCowen (died about 1828) and Daniel McCowen (died 1816) as brothers. The link of this Duncan McCowen as the father of Duncan McCowen (1798-1880), the progenitor of the McCowens of Forsyth, Georgia, is supplied by a letter from Richard Fletcher McCowen, of Macon, Georgia, dated April 26, 1929, addressed to his cousin J. D. Myhand, great-grandson of Daniel McCowen, in which he states that Daniel McCowen and Duncan McCowen “were brothers,” and further that “There is no one by the McCowen name so far as I have been able to learn who did not spring from Duncan or Daniel McCowen.” This last statement is, of course, subject to challenge.

All indications from the research by the Butler Family Association have tended to confirm all but the last of the foregoing statements, as well as the conclusions concerning William McCowen, Noble McCowen, and Finley McCowen as brothers of Duncan McCowen and Daniel McCowen, and all as sons of John and Bersheba (Butler) McCowen.

An examination of the records of land lotteries in Georgia has divulged the names of Duncan, Daniel, William and Noble McCowen as taking part. The lotteries were held in connection with service in the Revolutionary War but whether the individuals named took part in the lottery as veterans or as “orphans” has not been determined.

The order of birth of the following is not confirmed except that Finley McCowen was born about 1775, according to census records.

- Noble Butler (1704-1799) of Bristol, England, Philadelphia and Chester County, Pennsylvania, His Ancestors and Descendants. 1982. p. 95-97.