Hester (Baker) Hough (1680 - 1715)

Born 28 Aug 1680 in West Derby, Lancashire, England

Ancestors

Wife of Thomas Yardley — married 6 Nov 1700 (to 5 Feb 1703) in Bucks County, Pennsylvania

Wife of William Brown — married after 9 Aug 1704 (to Dec 1711) in Falls Township, Bucks, Pennsylvania

Wife of Richard Hough — married 2 Apr 1712 in Bucks County, Pennsylvania

Descendants

Died Apr 1715 at age 34 in Buckingham, Bucks Co., Pennsylvania

Problems/Questions Profile managers: Chet Snow [send private message], Billy Huff [send private message], and Kitty Carr [send private message]

Hester (Baker) Hough was born in England.

Biography

Hester was a Friend (Quaker)

Hester Baker was born in West Derby Hundred (Liverpool), Lancashire, England, in 1680. She was the daughter of Henry Baker and his wife, Margaret (Hardman) Baker. The family were members of the Society of Friends (Quakers). As such, they chose to emigrate from England, where Quakers were routinely persecuted for their beliefs, to William Penn's newly-founded Quaker-led colony of Pennsylvania. They arrived in Philadelphia on the ship "Vine" on September 17, 1684, and made their home in nearby Bucks County, just north-east of Philadelphia. Her father was a miller and he became an important landowner and political figure in early Pennsylvania, serving five terms in the Pennsylvania colonial Assembly.

Hester (aka Esther) Baker first married fellow Quaker, Thomas Yardley in 1700 in a Quaker ceremony in Falls MM, Bucks County. They had 2 children who sadly died in infancy.^[1]:

1. William YARDLEY b: 14 AUG 1701, bur. 14 Mar 1702, in Bucks Co., Pennsylvania.^[2]
2. Hester YARDLEY b: 18 SEP 1702, bur. 11 Nov 1702, in Bucks Co., Pennsylvania.^[3]

Thomas Yardley died on 5 Feb 1703 in Bristol, Bucks, Pennsylvania. The next year, on October 4, 1704, she married a Quaker weaver, William Brown (aka Browne), son of Rev. James Brown & Honour Clayton. They moved to the Nottingham lots Quaker community in Chester County, on the (contested) border with Cecil Co., Maryland; later establishing an estate, called "Puddington," also in Chester County.

The known children of William Brown and Hester Baker were:^[4]

1. Rev. William Brown was born 1705; he married Susanna Churchman, daughter of Rev. John Churchman and Hannah Cerie, 2mo 11 1728; he died 29 May 1786. He resided in Nottingham, Chester Co., PA [land was judged to be in Cecil Co., MD in 1767 - Mason-Dixon Line]. He resided in Harford Co., MD. He resided in Philadelphia, PA.
2. Margaret Brown was born 1mo 13 [March 13, 1707]; she married John Churchman, son of Rev. John Churchman and Hannah Cerie, 11mo 27 [Feb. 27, 1729]; she died 28 July 1770; she was buried 30 July 1770 at East Nottingham, Chester Co., PA.
3. Rev. Daniel Brown was born August 1708 in Pennsylvania; he married Susanna Oldham 9mo 11 [Nov. 11, 1736]; 1st wife; he married Susanna Elgar, daughter of Joseph Elgar and Mary, 3 May 1753; 2nd wife; he died 26 Dec 1791 in Virginia.
4. Samuel Brown was born circa 1710.
5. John Brown, born circa 1711.
6. James Brown, born circa 1712; married 1st: Miriam Churchman; married 2d: Elizabeth Elgar.

Although William Brown did not die until 1716, he and Hester separated in 1711. Some say that William Brown returned to England at that time and in his absence, thinking him dead, Hester married again. She married Richard Hough Jr., b. 1687 in NJ, at Falls Meeting, Bucks Co., Pennsylvania, even though some sources indicate she was pregnant with James Brown, b. April 15, 1712.^[5] This would have been very unusual but so many genealogies and historical accounts (notably Falls Meeting House records) concur that it would be remiss not to mention this marriage here.

On April 2, 1712, at the Falls Meeting House (Quaker), Richard Hough Jr (b: ca. 1687 in Morrisville, Bucks Co., PA - d: April 1751) married Esther (Baker, Yardley, Brown), b: Aug. 28, 1680 - ca. 1715; daughter of Henry and Margaret (Hardman) Baker, and widow of Thomas Yardley and William Brown. Their child was named Richard Hough III.

Finally, apparently just before she died in April 1715, Hester married a 4th husband, Samuel Taylor, in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. They had no children. This marriage is not universally recognized, for, unlike her other marriages, it was not recorded in the minutes of the Falls Meeting House (Quaker) in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. Consequently, until proof of this marriage is found, Hester's "Current last name" is "Hough" and Taylor is one of her "Other last names".

From Rootsweb.com:

ID: I13488

Name: Hester BAKER

Sex: F

Alternate Name: Esther BAKER

Birth: 28 AUG 1680 in West Derby [Hundred, a suburb of Liverpool], Lancashire, England

Father: Henry BAKER b: 1 MAR 1633/34 in Newtown, Lancashire, England

Mother: Margaret HARDMAN

Marriage (1): Thomas YARDLEY

Married: 6 SEP 1700 in Falls Meeting House, Bucks Co., Pennsylvania

Children:

1. William YARDLEY b: 14 AUG 1701 in Bucks Co., Pennsylvania
2. Hester YARDLEY b: 18 SEP 1702 in Bucks Co., Pennsylvania

Marriage (2): William BROWN(E) b: 13 JAN 1682 in Marcus Hook, Delaware Co., Pennsylvania ^[6]

Married: 4 OCT 1704 in Chester, Delaware Co., Pennsylvania

Six Children:

1. William Brown b: 1705 in Nottingham, Chester Co., Pennsylvania,
2. Margaret Brown b: 13 Mar 1707 in Puddington, Chester Co., Pennsylvania
3. (Rev.) Daniel Brown b: 1708 in Puddington, Chester, Pennsylvania
4. Samuel Brown b: 1710
5. John Brown b: 1711 in Chicester, Chester, Pennsylvania
6. James Brown b: 15 Apr 1712

Marriage (3) Richard HOUGH

Married: ABT 1711 [Feb 2, 1712]

Children:

1. Richard HOUGH III b: 20 FEB 1713

Marriage (4) Samuel TAYLOR

Married ca. 1715

Sources

1. ↑ Genealogy of the Yardley Family, 1402-1881
2. ↑ * Death: "U.S., Quaker Meeting Records, 1681-1935"
   Swarthmore College; Swarthmore, Pennsylvania
   Ancestry Sharing Link - Ancestry au Record 2189 #2657395 (accessed 17 February 2022)
   William Yeardley death 19 Mar 1703.
3. ↑ * Death: "U.S., Quaker Meeting Records, 1681-1935"
   Swarthmore College; Swarthmore, Pennsylvania
   Ancestry Sharing Link - Ancestry au Record 2189 #2657402 (accessed 17 February 2022)
   Hester Yeardley death 11 Nov 1702 in Berks, Pennsylvania.
4. ↑ The Brown Family - Generation Four - William Brown
5. ↑ The real father may have been Richard Hough Jr., although the baby was always raised as "James Brown".
6. ↑ Ancestry.com; Family Data Collection - Individual Records; Edmund West, compiler; - Provo, UT, USA: 2000. Birth date: 13 March 1682; Birth place: Marcus Hook, Delaware, PA; Death date: 1715; Death place: Marriage date: 4 September 1704; Marriage place: Marcus Hook, Delaware, PA. Note: http://search.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/sse.dll?db=genepool&h=344074&ti=0&indiv=try&gss=pt Cited on: Jeffrey Stewart Tree - Hester Baker

See also:

• Orville Louis Hough, "Hough of Bucks County, Pennsylvania 1683-1850," 1975; copy available Denver Public Library, Denver, CO.

• U.S., Quaker Meeting Records, 1681-1935
• England & Wales, Quaker Birth, Marriage, and Death Registers, 1578-1837
• England, Select Births and Christenings, 1538-1975
• Max Huff, "RICHARD AND MARGERY HOUGH OF ENGLAND AND PA," unpublished report, dated 9 March 1995.
• Oliver Hough papers at the Bucks County Historical Society, Doylestown, PA.
• Lodholm, Godfrey, Axtell, Hickcox, Steese, Brown, Wheeler, Stanford Family Tree - Hester Baker
• Esther Taylor on Geni.com. Cites several sources.

Acknowledgements

• WikiTree profile Baker-12361 was created by Chet Snow based on personal knowledge and research on Feb. 22, 2014.

• WikiTree profile Baker-13375 was created by Kitty Chandler through the import of fugitbelfield.ged on May 12, 2014.

• Chet Snow merged these two profiles: (Baker-1236 & Baker-13375), and edited the biographical sketch and sources sections on October 28, 2015.