Samuel Harris (abt. 1696 - 1773)

Ancestors

Descendants

Died 16 Jan 1773 at about age 76 in Hopewell Township, Cumberland County, New Jersey

Problems/Questions Profile manager: April Dauenhauer [send private message]

Disambiguation: Samuel Harris, son of Thomas Harris and Ruth James, was not the Samuel Harris who was born 5 March 1697, New London , Connecticut , as a third son of Samuel Harris and his wife Elizabeth Gibson.

Biography

Origins

Samuel Harris was the son of Thomas Harris and Ruth James, as proved by the Will and Inventory of Thomas Harris at Killingworth, June 11th, 1697, at Killingworth, Connecticut.^[1]

Samuel was born about November 1696, because the inventory of his father's estate shows he was eight months old Jun 11, 1697, the date of the inventory. ^[1] A probate paper, No. 4700 in the Connecticut State Library. shows Samuel's father, Thomas Harris, estate inventory was taken June 1697 in Killingworth, Connecticut, which is directly north of Shelter Island and East Hampton, Long Island. Research shows that while Thomas Harris died at Killingworth, he kept his flock of 23 sheep at East Hampton, Long Island, and did not own land at Killingworth. ^[2] The birth place of Samuel Harris and his siblings is unknown.

Samuel's siblings were also listed in his father's probate:^[1]

daughter Mary, age 13

son Thomas age 3 years

son Nathaniel, age 8 years

Removed to Cumberland County, New Jersey by 1715

Samuel Harris is named, with his brothers Nathaniel and Thomas, among the 64 private soldiers listed in the Muster Roll of Captain Joseph Seeley's Company of Militia of "ye south side of ye Cohansey [River]", Salem, New Jersey, dated 16 Nov 1715.^[3]

A motive for Samuel and his two elder brothers to immigrate to the (relatively new) colony of New Jersey might be found in a note on the reverse of the inventory of their father: "deced by his own hand".^[1]

Marriage to Sarah Johnson and Children

Samuel Harris married Sarah Johnson, daughter of Nicholas Johnson of Cohansey, before 1724.^[4] They had seven children, as follows:^[4]

Samuel, Jr.

Abraham

Benjamin

Jacob

Daniel

Hannah

Silas

Samuel Harris was a Weaver

Deacon in the Baptist Church

Samuel was made a Deacon in the Cohansey Baptist Church (New Jersey) in 1757.^[5]

Death

Death: 16 Jan. 1773, Hopewell, Cumberland, New Jersey ^[4]

The will of Samuel Harris, weaver, dated 4 Jan. 1773, was proved 30 Jan. 1773.^[4]

Note: Do not use the death date inscribed on his tombstone which was erected at a later time and says he died in 1775. Tombstones have been known to be in error, and this is one of them. Instead, refer to the date his will was proved - 1773. It's a court document which is a primary source, and which agrees with other evidence.

Research Notes

Note: Killingworth, Connecticut, (spelled with no "S") "was named after Kenilworth, England in honor of one of the first settlers, Edward Griswold.[3] Kenilworth's name was more similar to "Killingworth" during the American colonial period, and over time the pronunciation and spelling drifted towards the modern one."^[6]

This profile is a collaborative work-in-progress. Can you contribute information or sources?

Sources

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3} Inventory of Thomas Harris of Killingworth, Conn., TAG Vol 37, page 184
2. ↑ Silas Harris Jr. 1768-1846 compiled 1975 by Glenna Harris
3. ↑ Vol. 17, Part I Harris of Cumberland County, N.J., by Walter Lee Sheppard, Jr and Lewis D. Cook, page 79
4. ↑ ^{4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3} Vol. 17, Part III Samuel Harris, page 96-97, Harris of Cumberland County, N.J.
5. ↑ Historic Pennsylvania Church and Town Records; Reel: 832
6. ↑ Killingworth, Connecticut at Wikipedia.org

• The New York Genealogical and Biographical Record, The Origins of Thomas Harris of East Hampton, Long Island, and Killingworth, Connecticut, by Gale Ion Harris, Vol 128, page 24

• Calendar of New Jersey Wills, Administrations, Etc., database online at Archive.org, editor A. Van Doren Honeyman, (Trenton, New Jersey, 1931), "Documents relating to the colonial history of the state of New Jersey", Archives of the state of New Jersey XXXIV First series; v. 1-42, database online, Vol V, 1771 - 1780, page 231, Probate of Samuel Harris

• The American Genealogist. New Haven, CT: D. L. Jacobus, 1937-. (Online database. AmericanAncestors.org. New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2009 - .), Inventory of Thomas Harris of Killingworth, Conn., by Walter Lee Shepherd, Jr., M.S., F.A.S.G., TAG Vol. 37 (1961), page 184

• Pennsylvania Genealogical Magazine. Philadelphia, PA: Genealogical Society of Pennsylvania, 1895–. (Online database. AmericanAncestors.org. New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2011.) Part III - The Family of Samuel Harris of Hopewell, by Walter Lee Sheppard, Jr. and Lewis D. Cook, PGM Vol 17 (1950) , pp 96

• The New England Historical and Genealogical Register. Boston, MA: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 1847-. (Online database: AmericanAncestors.org, New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2001-2013.) Harris of Cumberland County, N.J., Walter L. Sheppard, Jr., M.S., TAG Vol. 105 (1951), pp 56

• Historical Society of Pennsylvania; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Collection Name: Historic Pennsylvania Church and Town Records; Reel: 832
• Repository: Ancestry.com. Pennsylvania and New Jersey, Church and Town Records, 1708-1985 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011.

• From Silas Harris Jr. 1768-1846, a genealogy collection compiled by Glenna Harris, 1975, as found on Ancestry.com.

• Killingworth, Connecticut, database online at Wikipedia.org, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License;