John Jenkins (1728 - 1784)

Born 6 Feb 1728 in East Greenwich, Kent, Rhode Island [uncertain]

Ancestors

Husband of Lydia (Gardner) Jenkins — married 1 Aug 1751 in Colchester, Hartford, Connecticut Colony

Descendants

Died 22 Nov 1784 at age 56 in Wallkill, Orange, New York, United States

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John Jenkins was a Connecticuter.

Biography

This profile is part of the Jenkins Name Study.

John Jenkins is sometimes referred to as Judge John Jenkins. Birth records from the town of East Greenwich, Kent, Rhode Island, note: "The second son of John Jenkins and Lidia his wife was born February 6th 1727/28 on the third day of the week at nine in the morning."^[1] Other Rhode Island vital records collections specify the date as 6 Feb 1728 but without a location.^[2][3]

During King George's War, John joined the troops of Sir William Pepperrell, a merchant, enslaver and soldier, on their 1745 march through Maine. He would have been about 17. During the capture of Fort Louisbourg from the French, John was shot in the leg and continued to limp the rest of his life.

John moved to Colchester, Connecticut about 1750, where he worked as a teacher. He married Lydia Gardiner on 1 Aug 1751 according to Colchester town records.^[4] The wedding reportedly took place at Gardiner's Lake, where Lydia's family ran an inn.^[5]

On October 1, 1753, he became a member of the Susquehanna Company of Hartford, which was formed to extend Connecticut settlements into the Wyoming Valley. That area became the town of Westmoreland in Litchfield County, Connecticut, and then the County of Westmoreland, but is now Luzerne County, Pennsylvania.

John was also a surveyor and that year he made his first excursion to the Wyoming Valley to explore the area, establish a relationship with local Native Americans and determine the feasibility of settlement. His charge, according to Hendrick Wright in Historical Sketches of Plymouth, Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, was "to repair to the said place in order to review said tract of land, and to survey, lay out, and receive proper deeds or conveyances of said land and for said company."^[6]

In 1754, he was involved in the Albany, New York, negotiations with Iroquois to purchase land in the area, and was a signatory to the resulting deed, signed 11 July 1754, between the Susquehanna Company and the Iroquois.^[7]These negotiations may have been a result, at least in part, of his report on his expedition.

He returned to Wyoming in 1755 with "a corps of surveyors," according to Wright. He determined the latitude of Wilkes-Barre and laid out and assigned the 40 lots in the First Division of Kingston. He was part of an effort to settle the area in 1762, but not all the tribal leaders in the area had agreed to the land sale worked out in Albany, and the colonizers were driven off on 15 Oct 1763.^[8]

John was part of a second, more successful attempt at establishing a settlement in 1769. He settled in Kingston, drawing House Lot No. 14 as well as other lands, but later sold his holdings there and removed to Exeter Township. He became justice of the peace, and president-judge of the first county court at Wyoming in May 1777.

Wright describes him as:

[T]he leading man on immigration, and Provisional Judge of the new settlement up to the time the town of Westmoreland was established by the State of Connecticut and made a part of the county of Litchfield, and a long period subsequently; also a prominent person among the pioneers: president of that town meeting of the people of Westmoreland, held on the first of August, 1775, approving of the acts of Congress that preceded the Declaration of Independence, and also the meeting held on the eighth of August following, when the feeble colony endorsed the members of Congress "in opposing y^e late measures adopted by Parliament to enslave America;" in 1776 a member of the Colonial Assembly from Westmoreland; at the meeting of the people, over which Colonel Zebulon Butler presided, convened at Wilkes-Barre on the twenty-fourth of August, 1776, when it was resolved to proceed at once to the erection of forts for the common defense, "without fee or reward from ye town," and immediately after this meeting joined with his neighbors, in the erection of Fort Jenkins in the upper end of the valley.^[9]

He returned to the Wyoming Valley after fleeing the Battle of Wyoming, and he played a role in the Pennamite War.

According to Blair's The Michael Shoemaker Book, "In May, 1784, when several hundred Yankees were expelled from Wyoming by the Pennamites, Judge Jenkins and his family, were among those who were thus outraged and they fled to Goshen, Orange Co., N. Y. Colonel John Franklin, referring, in his diary to this expulsion, says : 'Two aged gentlemen, John Jenkins, Esq., and a Mr. Gardner (see Family No. 14— Gardner), who were cripples, were obliged to hobble through the dismal road with crutches."

According to Appleton's Cyclopedia, this journey contributed to John's death later that year. "Driven out by the Pennamites in May, 1784, in a cold rain, he took a severe cold, which, joining with the rheumatism and settling in a wound in his knee from a ball at the taking of Louisbourg in 1745, resulted in his death in November, 1784."^[10]

How to Be a Revolutionary War Soldier, states that he died 22 Nov 1784 at "Walkill, Orange, Goshen, New York, 'Drowned Lands' in the town of Florida, Orange County, New York."^[11] Blair says that he "died at Scotch Town in the town of Walkill, Orange Co., N. Y., and was buried there."

Children

1. John Jenkins, b. 27 Nov 1751, d. 19 Mar 1827^[12]
2. Stephen Jenkins, b. 22 Feb 1753, d. 20 Sep 1808^[13]
3. Benjamin Jenkins, b. 18 Jul 1754, d. Mar 1787, m. Affa Baldwin^[14]
4. Amy Jenkins, b. 12 Jan 1757, d. 24 Mar 1834, m. (1) Rufus Williams and (2) Asahel Atherton^[15]
5. Thomas Jenkins, b. 19 Jan 1761, d. 22 Apr 1812^[16]
6. William Jenkins, b. 30 Oct 1764, d. 01 Nov 1846^[17]
7. Weekes Jenkins, b. 18 Jul 1767, d. 01 Apr 1838

Research Notes

• The date and place of John's birth are reported inconsistently. His place of birth is given as either Kingston or East Greenwich, Rhode Island, with East Greenwich being the prevailing view. Harris Genealogy reports that he was born in Kingston on 6 Feb 1728.^[18] Vital records for Rhode Island show the birth of John Jenkins on 6 Feb 1728, but without specifying a town.^[19][20] The Gardiners of Narrangansett, ref GN382, indicates this John was born in East Greenwich, Rhode Island, 26/1727-8. The Columbia Encyclopedia states he was born in 1728, "probably in Connecticut."^[21] The East Greenwich record is indexed on FamilySearch as 4 Feb 1727.
• The father of this John Jenkins was also named John and his wife, this John's mother, was also named Lydia. Moreover her last name may have been Gardner as well (she and her daughter-in-law may have been cousins). Care should be taken not to conflate these couples.
• This John's son, also named John, was a major figure in the Wyoming Valley. He fought in the Revolutionary War, was captured by the British and escaped. Care should be taken not to conflate father and son.
• Note 241,page 264 of The Gardiners of Narrangansett states that "John Jenkins was the fourth child (second son) of John and Lydia Jenkins, of East Greenwich. The statement that his eldest son, John, was born Nov. 27, 1752, OS., is a singular one, New Style having been established Sept 2, 1752. The date of John's birth was probably 1751."
• The Gardiners of Narrangansett, page 36, ref GN 92, shows parents of Lydia. Page 36 ref GN 382 shows her marriage to John of East Greenwich b. 2/6/1727, the son of JOHN and LYDIA.
• Columbia Encyclopedia (2005) makes no mention of him returning to the Wyoming Valley and gives a year of death of 1785.
• The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Ancestral File (R), Copyright (c) 1987, June 1998, data as of 5 January 1998. Individual Record FamilySearch® Ancestral File™ v4.19 Benjamin JENKINS (AFN: FPTT-L1) Submitter(s):

SHERILYN B. NAYLOR Microfilm: NONE 182 W. HAVEN AVE Submission: AF90-100360 SALT LAKE CITY UT USA 84115-2619

LINDA STOWE MILLER Microfilm: NONE RD 2 BOX 2252 Submission: AF96-112518 VERGENNES VT USA 05491

FRED T. GRANT Microfilm: NONE 830 JUANITA RAEL Submission: AF95-106268 WINTER PARK FL USA 32789-1431

ROBERT LOWELL FOTHERINGHAM Microfilm: NONE 1525 SOUTH 400 EAST #67 Submission: AF96-110445 USA 84663

Sources

1. ↑ "Rhode Island, Town Clerk, Vital and Town Records, 1630-1945," database with images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:DXM2-BVPZ : 9 November 2020), John Jenkins, 4 Feb 1727; citing Birth, East Greenwich, Kent, Rhode Island, United States, various city archives, Rhode Island; FHL microfilm 926,802.
2. ↑ Ancestry.com. Rhode Island, U.S., Birth Index, 1636-1930 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2000.
3. ↑ Ancestry.com. Rhode Island, U.S., Vital Extracts, 1636-1899 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2014. Page 126. Original data: Arnold, James Newell. Rhode Island Vital Extracts, 1636–1850. 21 volumes. Providence, R.I.: Narragansett Historical Publishing Company, 1891–1912. Digitized images from New England Historic Genealogical Society, Boston, Massachusetts.
4. ↑ Connecticut, Town Marriage Records, pre-1870 (Barbour Collection): Colchester Vital Records 1699-1850, Page124.
5. ↑ Blair. Page 458.
6. ↑ Wright, Hendrick Bradley. Historical sketches of Plymouth, Luzerne Co., Penna.: with twenty-five photographs of some of the early settlers and present residents of the town of Plymouth, old landmarks, family residences and places of special note. Philadelphia, PA: T.B. Peterson and Brothers, 1873. Page 73. Accessed at https://www.familysearch.org/library/books/records/item/425971-historical-sketches-of-plymouth-luzerne-co-penna-with-twenty-five-photographs-of-some-of-the-early-settlers-and-present-residents-of-the-town-of-plymouth-old-landmarks-family-residences-and-places-of-special-note?offset=458533.
7. ↑ Iroquois Land Deed. 1754. https://digital.library.pitt.edu/islandora/object/pitt%3A31735060225830#page/1/mode/1up.
8. ↑ Wright. Pages 75-78.
9. ↑ Wright, Pages 82-83.
10. ↑ Appleton. Page 427
11. ↑ How to Be a Revolutionary War Soldier. National Geographic Society, 2006.
12. ↑ "Connecticut Births and Christenings, 1649-1906", database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:F74S-Q2S : 7 January 2020), John Jenkins in entry for John Jenkins, 1751.
13. ↑ "Connecticut Births and Christenings, 1649-1906", database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:F74S-QLH : 7 January 2020), John Jenkins in entry for Stephen Jenkins, 1753.
14. ↑ "Connecticut Births and Christenings, 1649-1906", database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:F74S-QLX : 7 January 2020), John Jenkins in entry for Benjamin Jenkins, 1754.
15. ↑ "Connecticut Births and Christenings, 1649-1906", database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:F772-G65 : 7 January 2020), John Jenkins in entry for Amy Jenkins, 1757.
16. ↑ "Connecticut Births and Christenings, 1649-1906", database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:F74S-QL7 : 7 January 2020), John Jenkins in entry for Thomas Jenkins, 1761.
17. ↑ "Connecticut Births and Christenings, 1649-1906", database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:F74S-QLS : 7 January 2020), John Jenkins in entry for William Jenkins, 1764.
18. ↑ Harris. Page 43.
19. ↑ Ancestry.com. Rhode Island, U.S., Birth Index, 1636-1930 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2000.
20. ↑ Ancestry.com. Rhode Island, U.S., Vital Extracts, 1636-1899 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2014. Page 126. Original data: Arnold, James Newell. Rhode Island Vital Extracts, 1636–1850. 21 volumes. Providence, R.I.: Narragansett Historical Publishing Company, 1891–1912. Digitized images from New England Historic Genealogical Society, Boston, Massachusetts.
21. ↑ Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition, 2005.

Acknowledgements

• WikiTree profile Jenkins-2124 created through the import of Lynn_s Roots Heiden-Tucker Gen.ged on Aug 7, 2012 by Lynn Thornton. See the Changes page for the details of edits by Lynn and others.
• Narrative biography originally contributed by Craig McLaughlin on Nov. 5, 2021.