Margaret (McGrew) Chamness (abt. 1721 - abt. 1795)

Born about 1721 in Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Ancestors

Wife of William Williams Sr. — married 16 Jun 1740 in Christ Church, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Descendants

Died about 1795 at about age 74 in Cane Creek MM, Snow Camp, Chatham Co., North Carolina, United States

Problems/Questions Profile managers: Chet Snow [send private message], Lee Bain [send private message], and Frank Gay [send private message]

Biography

Margaret was a Friend (Quaker)

In 1741, at Gwynedd Friends Meeting, William Williams offered an account for his marriage contrary to discipline. Margaret McGrew was not a member of the Society of Friends before her marriage to William Williams. ^[1]

Originally a member of Christ Church in Philadelphia, where she married William Williams, Sr., on June 16, 1740, Margaret (McGrew) Williams subsequently became a Quaker like her husband, whose family were leaders in the Quaker community.

Margaret had 11 children in 22 years with William Williams, Sr.:^[2]

1. Priscilla (1741-1794), b: Philadelphia, PA
2. Isaac (1742-1828), b: Philadelphia, PA
3. Owen (1744-1810), b: Fairfax MM, VA
4. Mary (1746-1766), b: Fairfax MM, VA
5. Richard (1749-1766), b: " "
6. Elizabeth (1750-1791), b: " "
7. Rachel (1753-1840), b: " "
8. Margaret (1755-1813), b: Fairfax MM, VA
9. Jean (1758-1766), b: " "
10. Daniel (1760-1811), b: " "
11. William, Jr. (1763-1824), b: Cane Creek MM, NC

Margaret and William Williams' first two children were born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1741 and 1742. The following year, after Margaret accepted the Quaker faith, the family moved south-west to help found Fairfax Quaker Meeting in Janney's Mill, Fairfax (in 1757 it became Loudoun) County, Virginia. They stayed in Fairfax/Loudoun county for about 18 years, where 8 of their children were born, then moved south again, helping set up the Cane Creek Quaker Meetinghouse in Snow Camp, Chatham (later Alamance) County, North Carolina. Their last child, William Williams Jr., was born there.

William Williams, Sr., died when his youngest son, William Jr., was only 10 years old. Margaret, who still had several young children to raise, remarried on May 9, 1776, to a Quaker widower, Anthony Chamness, in Cane Creek MM, North Carolina.^[3] Her daughter, Rachel Williams, married Anthony's son Joshua (by his first marriage) in 1776. After her 2nd husband died in 1777, Margaret lived with them. She died there in 1795 and is buried at Cane Creek Monthly Meeting Cemetery, Snow Camp, Chatham (Alamance in 1824) County, NC.^[4]

GENEALOGICAL NOTE: A William Williams married a Miss Margaret Evans, on September 11, 1743 after the first 3 children of the William Williams of this profile were born. This appears to be a different William Williams.^[5]

If this was the same couple, then the 1743 marriage record could have been a Quaker marriage as they did not always consider marriages "out of communion" to be valid. Many family genealogies state that Margaret Williams' last name at birth was Evans; others say it was McGrew. No definitive proof has been found to support either theory. It should also be noted that none of the Williams' children were named "Peter" or "John" (Margaret Evans' father & grand-father's names).

Sources

1. ↑ Record of Pennsylvania Marriages before 1800, Vol. 2, by Linn and Egle, p278. 16 Jun 1740 Christ Church, Phil. William Williams married Margaret McGrew
2. ↑ Find A Grave Memorial #87499317 - William Williams and William Bonine (b. 1809) Tree - William Williams
3. ↑ See preceding note
4. ↑ Find A Grave Memorial #92456469 - Margaret Evans
5. ↑ Margaret Evans was born in 1721 in Philadelphia, Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania. She was the daughter of Dr. Peter Evans and his wife, Mary (Moore) Evans. Her grandfather, (John) Lot Evans, was born ca. 1666 in Radnor Shire, Wales. Her mother's family were from Berkshire, England. The Evans family were Anglicans, not Quakers.

• http://rea-williams.com/getperson.php?personID=I1300&tree=tree1

• Find A Grave Memorial #87499317 - William Williams

• Find A Grave Memorial #92456469 - Margaret Evans

• Palmer, Crow, Woody, & Williams on Armchairgenealogist.com

• WILLIAMS families at Gwynedd Monthly Meeting (Pennsylvania) by James Quinn, Gwynedd Meeting Historian

• All Results for Peter Evans on Ancestry.com

• Source: S642 Abbreviation: WorldConnect Title: WorldConnect database at Rootsweb. <http://worldconnect.genealogy.rootsweb.com/> [This is the same file available from Ancestry.com Family Trees.] Repository: #R3

• Source: S939 Ben F. Dixon, The Adamson Source Book: a Genealogy of the Descendants of Rachel Williams Adamson (1776-1850) (San Diego, CA: Self-published, 1960) Online at Ancestry.com. Repository: #R6 Repository: R6

• Source S385 - Brøderbund Software, Inc.

- World Family Tree Vol. 1, Ed. 1- November 29, 1995; - Customer pedigree. Family Archive CD = Source: #S385 - Tree #0267; Name: Margaret /Williams/ Ancestry.com: https://www.ancestry.com/family-tree/person/tree/6676093/person/-1250177537/facts

Acknowledgements

• WikiTree profile UNKNOWN-85816 was created through the import of Adamson for Wiki.ged on Jul 8, 2011 by Kay Haden. See the Changes page for the details of edits by Kay and others.

• WikiTree profile Williams-2311 was created through the import of Weaver.ged on 03 January 2011.

• WikiTree profile Evans-8755 was created from first-hand information as remembered by Frank Gay, Sunday, June 15, 2014.

• Chet Snow merged profiles Evans-8755 and Evans-7505 on June 3, 2016.