Esther (Harris) Plunket (1722 - 1768)

Born 1722 in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania

Ancestors

Descendants

Biography

ESTHER HARRIS, the second daughter of the elder John Harris, born about 1724, died in 1768. She married Dr. William Plunket, a native of Ireland. At that time he was practicing medicine in Carlisle. He was an officer in the Provincial service; subsequently located at Sunbury, where he became the leader in the so-called Pennamite War - efforts made by the government of Pennsylvania to drive off the Connecticut intruders upon the Wyoming lands. During the war of the Revolution he was suspected of disloyalty, and was once placed under arrest. Sabine, in his loyalists of America, tells some fabulous stories of Colonel Plunket. We doubt if he was ever a loyalist. As in the recent civil conflict, however, it may be that as he was not for, he certainly must be against. All of his friends and family connections were ardent for independence - and he would have entered heartily into the struggle, but with the other officers of the French and Indian war, they found themselves supplanted by inexperienced men as officers, and this rankled in their bosoms and they stood aloof. At this distance from that era it is difficult to inquire into the causes why old and well- tried officers were totally ignored in the organization of the Pennsylvania Line, and the chief places given to men who knew not the "art of war." Plunket and his fellow officers of the Provincial war, at the outset of the Revolution, hurriedly organized the militia of the counties, but when the continental Line was formed they were left out in the organization. And so the old hero quietly retired to domestic life, only annoyed by repeated charges of disloyalty to the cause of liberty. He died at Sunbury in the month of April, 1791, and is there buried. The children of Esther Harris and William Plunket were: i. Elizabeth, who married Samuel Maclay, brother of William Maclay, a member of the Senate of Pennsylvania, speaker of that body, and afterwards United States senator; an influential man in public affairs, and whose descendants have occupied and do occupy honorable and prominent positions in Pennsylvania. ii. Isabella, who married William Bell, of Elizabethtown, N. J. She was a remarkable woman, was principal of a young ladies' seminary many years, and died on the 10th of March 1843, at the good old age of eighty-three years. iii. Margaret, married Isaac Richardson. A descendant was recently a representative in the United States Congress from one of the New York districts. iv. Esther-Harris, married her cousin, Col. Richard Baxter, of the British

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service. She died young, leaving a daughter, Margaret, who became the wife of Dr. Samuel Maclay, of Mifflin county, Pa. Dr. Plunket had besides the foregoing, five other children, all sons, who died in early life.

Sources

• HISTORY: Commemorative Biographical Encyclopedia, Chapter 7, John Harris, Dauphin County, PA

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Copyright 2007. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/dauphin/ http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/dauphin/runk/runk-bios.htm

Commemorative Biographical Encyclopedia of Dauphin County, Containing Sketches of Representative Citizens, and Many of the Early Scotch-Irish and German Settlers. Chambersburg, Pa.: J. M. Runk & Company, 1896, pages 77-85.