John Donaldson (abt. 1652 - 1706)

Born about 1652 in Galloway, Scotland

Husband of Elizabeth Rodenburgh — married 24 Mar 1692 in New York

Descendants

Died 20 Mar 1706 at about age 54 in Delaware

Biography

John Donaldson aka John Danginson

ASSEMBLY: New Castle Co. 1690, 1692, 1694, 1701

PROVINCIAL COUNCIL: New Castle Co. 1695, 1696, 1698, 1700a

John Donaldson was born at Galloway, Scotland; he arrived in 1688; died ca. March 1702; married 1692, Elizabeth Rodenburg (Herman); children: Katharine; Mary, (m. George Yeates, son of Jasper Yeates.) Cousin: William Howston. Offices: Lower Cos.: provincial justice, 1692; New Castle Co.: Justice of Peace, 1693, 1695, 1696, 1697, 1699 and 1700; register of wills, 1695; tax assessor, 1696; receiver of quit rents, 1700.

John Donaldson, a Scottish tobacco merchant who settled in New Castle, Delaware, served in both the Pennsylvania Assembly and Provincial Council and filled various local civil and military posts. He was joined with Richard Halliwell, Jasper Yeates, and Robert French in the drive to separate the Lower Counties from the Pennsylvania legislature but died before the separation was completed.

Donaldson was born in Galloway, Scotland. He had arrived in New Castle by late 1688, when, in partnership with Alexander Creker, he granted a mortgage to William Guest in exchange for a loan. A year later Donaldson purchased his first property in New Castle, when he bought a lot from James Walliam and John Darby. Donaldson's marriage to Elizabeth Rodenburg, widow of Ephraim Herrman and sister-in-law of Casparus Augustine Herrman, brought him 2600 acres and three New Castle town lots (two of them valuable waterfront properties). Subsequently Donaldson sold all of his wife's land except for 400 acres, which he combined with 200 acres bought from John Moll and patented in 1701. Donaldson also bought 400 acres at St. Georges Creek from Edward Gibbs, 440 acres at Red Lion Creek, and another 66 acres in various small properties in and about New Castle.

Donaldson also joined with Richard Halliwell and Robert French to buy a tract of marsh at the north end of New Castle. Donaldson may have acted in partnership with Halliwell and French on other occasions as well, for early in 1697 Governor William Markham denied their joint request to take tobacco overland from Delaware to ships loading in Maryland on the grounds that their request violated the Navigation Acts. Donaldson was also the target of complaint by Surveyor-general Edward Randolph for flouting the Navigation Acts by shipping tobacco from New Castle directly to Scotland. Donaldson's business interests also included part ownership of a mill on Naaman's Creek, bought from Jasper Yeates in 1698. Approximately four months before his death, Donaldson sold to Robert French for £1400 his share in the mill, the two waterfront lots in New Castle (on one of which stood Donaldson's dwelling), the machinery of a bolting mill, and a new clock with a case.

In the reverse of the usual sequence of events, Donaldson's legislative career began apparently before he held any local office. Although surviving New Castle County records are intermittent, they indicate that Donaldson did not become a justice of the peace for that county until 1693, when he was commissioned by the royal governor, Benjamin Fletcher. The previous year, during the temporary administrative separation of the Lower Counties from Pennsylvania, Donaldson had served as a provincial justice for the Delaware counties. Instructions to the provincial justices had styled Donaldson "Capt.," evidence that some type of military organization had been created in the Lower Counties by William Markham, who governed the Delaware territories during the separation. Subsequently, during his own tenure as governor, Fletcher placed Donaldson in command of the seven-gun fort at New Castle with the rank of major. Donaldson continued to serve, at least periodically and possibly continuously, as a justice, and he also held office as county register of wills (1695), tax assessor (1696), and receiver of quitrents (1700).

Meanwhile, Donaldson had first entered the Assembly in 1690 (also Richard Halliwell's first term). His name only appears in the minutes in a notation of his absence on 15 May. He performed his first committee work during his second term, in 1692, when he, John White, Edward Blake, Caleb Pusey, William Salway, and Nicholas Waln were ordered to assist the clerk of the Assembly in organizing the minutes. He also delivered two messages for the House before being given permission to go home two days before the Assembly ended.

Donaldson was returned to the Assembly for a third term in 1694. He and Richard Halliwell were two of eight members appointed to the grievance committee. Donaldson was also one of six Lower Counties delegates, again including Halliwell, appointed to confer with the Council about amendments to two bills, one of which dealt with packing tobacco hogsheads, a bill presumably of great personal interest to Donaldson the tobacco merchant. At the end of the legislative session, Donaldson and Edward Blake, for the Lower Counties, with William Biles and Samuel Carpenter for the province, were selected to carry to the governor a remonstrance insisting that the tax voted the year before had effectively answered the continuing royal demands for military aid for New York.

During 1695 Donaldson was both an appointed and elected provincial councilor. On 5 February he was sworn a member of Governor Fletcher's Council, the last member to be appointed. On 26 March William Markham, Fletcher's lieutenant governor, dismissed the appointed councilors after receiving notice that William Penn's right to govern the colony had been restored. Subsequently, when Markham attempted to reconstitute the legislature according to the 1683 Frame of Government, Donaldson was elected to a three-year term as a councilor for New Castle County. He was present and participated in the May deliberations of the committee of the whole Council that presented Markham with a bill for "the new modelling the government," and he concurred in the committee's recommendation to summon the Assembly in September after the harvest. During the legislative session Donaldson and Halliwell participated in the conferences with the House about aid for New York's war effort and a new consititution for the colony. In all, Donaldson's attendance rate of 90 percent (19 out of 21 meetings) in the Council was exemplary. Markham, however, dissolved the legislature, consequently ending Donaldson's term, when the Assembly refused to vote money unless he granted a new constitution.

Apparently Donaldson enjoyed Markham's respect and confidence, as he was one of the "most Eminent near at hand" with whom Markham consulted in June 1696 when hostile Indians threatened those Indians friendly to the province. Perhaps more significantly, Donaldson was appointed in September 1696 by Markham to a new Council. Before Donaldson was able to take his seat, however, he was called upon to quell a comic-opera invasion of New Castle by 60 armed troops. The soldiers had been sent by Governor Francis Nicholson of Maryland to arrest John Day and his men, alleged pirates whom Markham had actually commissioned to cruise Delaware Bay for protection from French privateers. Afterwards, Donaldson and Peter Alrichs reported to Markham that the Marylanders had arrested everyone in sight, including Donaldson himself. Upon gaining his freedom, Donaldson managed to restore order and prevent bloodshed. After demanding to see the soldiers' commission, he put a guard on Day's brigantine to prevent it from being taken to Maryland.

Donaldson took the oath as a member of Council on 26 October 1696. Two days later he was reported "sick at philad[elphia]." Thereafter he did not attend for the remainder of the session, which ended, on 7 November, with passage of a new Frame of Government for the colony. He did not hold elective office in 1697, but he was again elected to the Council in 1698, along with Halliwell; Donaldson, however, missed virtually all of the 1698 legislative session, as he did not appear until 26 May. The next day he signed as a witness when Markham took the oath to enforce the Navigation Acts. Donaldson and Halliwell were recorded absent on 30 May, but both their names appear on the address from the legislature to William III, issued under that date, vindicating the colony against charges of trading illegally and sheltering pirates.

Donaldson's erratic attendance in 1698 may have reflected a personal agenda, for as early as February 1697 Markham had written to Penn to report a rumor that Donaldson had combined with "some others," including Governor Nicholson of Maryland, to "Subvert" Penn's government. Markham himself did not believe the rumor and attributed it to jealousy over Donaldson's fortune in marrying a rich widow. In the long run, however, Markham's confidence in Donaldson's loyalty to the established order in Pennsylvania was ill-founded. In 1699 Donaldson was called before the Assembly to answer for letters that the House felt discouraged elections and thereby tended "to the Subversion and Overthrow" of the constitution. The genesis of the letters lay in the unsettled political climate in New Castle County, for twice that spring the voters of the county had refused to elect representatives for the Council and Assembly. On one such occasion, Sheriff Joseph Wood submitted a blank election return while Donaldson wrote twice to Markham, on 18 and 26 April, to discuss the situation. Markham publicized the letters (which have not been found), and a joint legislative committee found them "a great Indignity, and high Misdemeanour against the government. Called before the committee to explain himself, Donaldson was nettled that Markham had made confidential correspondence public. Indignantly he claimed that "hee intended no reflection or ill to the governm[en]t th[e]r[e]by, & did assure that he ever had been & was then verie affectionate both to the proprietor and his governm[en]t," and that "it was known that he never acted any Thing against the Proprietary nor Governor." He was dismissed without comment.

Whether Donaldson's defense in May 1699 was sincere or disingenuous, he consistently acted through the next two years with those in the Lower Counties who sought a legislative separation from Pennsylvania. Clearly stung and embarrassed over the publication of his letters, he was probably further alienated when the Council, in August 1699, denied a petition from the New Castle inhabitants, headed by Donaldson, Halliwell, and Robert French, requesting some provision for defense. Although William Penn, by a letter written to those three men in January 1700, ratified Donaldson's status as one of the most important inhabitants of New Castle, the damage was done. When Donaldson was next elected to office, to the Council in the spring election of 1700, he was firmly linked with the leaders in the drive toward separation.

The New Castle County delegation to the Council that spring consisted of Donaldson, Halliwell, and Jasper Yeates, while the Assembly delegation included French, Halliwell's stepson Richard Cantwell, and Donaldson's cousin William Howston. Donaldson, at this critical juncture, attended 97 percent (30 out of 31) of the Council meetings from 1 April to 7 June, and 90 percent (9 out of 10) when the Assembly was concurrently in session. During the Assembly, after the House had submitted a proposed Frame of Government to Penn, who countered with a constitution that he felt he could grant, the proprietor appointed Donaldson, Halliwell, Joseph Growdon, and Samuel Carpenter to discuss the proposed frame with the House. Constitutional revision proved elusive, however, when the delegates from the province and Lower Counties failed to agree on several clauses of the proposed document, including the number of representatives. The legislative session ended with the surrender of the 1683 Frame of Government to Penn.

Out of the legislature for over a year afterward, Donaldson missed the debates in the fall 1700 Assembly over the continued existence of the 1682 Act of Union that bound the province and the Lower Counties. In the fall of 1701, however, Donaldson was present as part of the elected New Castle County delegation that included Halliwell and Yeates when a separation of the Lower Counties from Pennsylvania was nearly accomplished. When the Assembly voted to pass a bill to confirm the laws that had been enacted at New Castle the previous year, Donaldson and the other New Castle County delegates, with the Kent County representatives and Luke Watson* (d. 1708) of Sussex County, walked out of the House. Realizing that the bill threatened the equality with the province guaranteed to the Lower Counties in the Act of Union, Donaldson and the others immediately protested to Penn, threatening to go home.

Donaldson and his compatriots elaborated on their objections to the bill at a conference moderated by Penn. When they described themselves as "great sufferers" by the Act of Union, Penn incautiously replied that "they were free to break off, and might act Distinctly by themselves." The dissidents accepted that offer with alacrity, but their attempt to decisively end the union at this time failed when the House was unable to agree on Penn's intentions. After the Delaware members then proposed that they in effect be given a veto over the province, Penn hastily arranged for another conference, in which he convinced the dissidents to resume their seats in the Assembly. Although they voted against the bill, it nevertheless passed. Legislative separation would not be accomplished until 1704, however, after Donaldson's death. In October 1701 Donaldson had also joined with seven other Lower Counties representatives, including Halliwell and Yeates, in complaining to the Board of Trade about Penn's failure to provide for the defense of the colony.

Unlike his political activities, Donaldson's religious life is unclear. He may well have been a Presbyterian like his cousin William Howston. His wife, Elizabeth, known for her piety, had been a member of the Dutch Reformed Church in New York, where Donaldson's marriage and the baptism of his daughter Mary took place.

Donaldson described himself as sick and weak when he made his will on 12 February 1702; it was probated the following 8 April. A widower, he bequeathed a tenant-occupied plantation to his daughter Katharine, while his daughter Mary received his properties in and about New Castle. He left £50 to his brother William, "if alive," and £10 to Dorcas Hogg, the wife of George Hogg*; he also provided for the return of £50 that Dorcas Hogg had invested with him. He instructed his executors, including Halliwell and Robert French, to sell two of his plantations to pay outstanding debts and to divide the remainder of the estate between his daughters. No inventory of the estate has been located, but Donaldson's estate had been rated in 1693 and 1696 among the four highest for his region.

Birth

John Donaldson was born

Marrriage

John Danginson [Donaldson], married Elizabeth Rodenburg on Mar 23, 1692. Marriage was recorded at the Reformed Dutch Church of New York, NY. ^[1] New York Supplementary Marriage License issued: 1692 23 Mar; John Donaldson; Elizabeth Harmon.

The Donaldsons had the following known children:

• Catharine Donaldson was born ca. 1693, at New Castle County, Delaware

• Maria Donaldson was born ca. 1694, at New Castle County, Delaware. She was bp on Jul 01, 1696. Baptism was recorded at the Reformed Dutch Church of New York, NY.^[2]

Death

John Donaldson died between 12 February 1702 and 8 April 1703.

Donaldson described himself as sick and weak when he made his will on 12 February 1702; it was probated the following 8 April.

Sources

• John Donaldson (d. c. March 1702, New Castle, DE)

• Samuel S. Purple's 'Records of the Reformed Dutch Church in New Amsterdam and New York, Marriages from 11 December 1639 to 26 August 1801.' Note: The beginning records show the date the Banns were registered, NOT the date of marriage. Starting on 9/20/1673 marriage dates are given.

1. ↑ NYRDC Marriage Record: 1692 23 Mar; John Donaldson, jm van Galleway; Elisabeth Rodenburg, wid Ephraim Hermans, d'Eerste woonende aan de Zuy trivier, en twede alhier
2. ↑ NYRDC Bapt Record: 1696 Jul 01; John Danginson [Donaldson], Elisabeth Rodenburg; Maria; Johannes Van Brug, Andries Grevenraedt & wife Anna Van Brug

Acknowledgements

• Donaldson-19 was created on 14 September 2010 through the import of 124-DeCoursey.ged.
• Donaldson-19 was adopted by Tom Quick, Quick-803 00:04, 7 January 2015 (EST).