John Linville (1677 - 1733)

Born 24 May 1677 in Sussex, England

Ancestors

Husband of Ann (Hendricks) Linville — married about 1705 in Chester County, Pennsylvania

Descendants

Died 1733 at about age 55 in Conestoga, Lancaster, Pennsylvania

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Biography

John Linvill was born on 24 May 1677 at Sussex County, England. He witnessed a deed from Francis and Mary Worley to Caleb Pusey on 6 June 1699 at Chester. As a resident of Chester, PA John Linvill sold his copyhold right to North Northlands along with his mother and step-father, Mary and Thomas Baldwin, and younger brother, Thomas on 12 December 1699. He appeared in court as witness for Joseph Richards, plaintiff, along with James and Tobias Hendricks. 11th day of 1st month 1700 at Chester, Chester County, PA. James Swafer delievered a deed to John Linvill in open court on 10th day, 4th month 1701 for 58 acres of land in Chichester. John Linvill probably first married before 1703 at Chester County, PA. There is no record, yet, of the name of John's first wife, if she was NOT the Ann who is mentioned in the deed chain for his Conestoga land in 1733. When he first bought land in 1701 and sold it in 1704, no wife was involved. Neither is there a wife when he buys his next land in 1709 which he sold by 1715. But three sons apaprently were born between 1701-1714. All the original extant marriage records for Chester, Philadelphia and New Castle (Delaware) have been searched without finding a marriage record for him.The records for either one or two marriages for John might have been lost when the Chichester Friends Meeting records were burned during the Revolution. However, there is no other indication that he was involved with Quaker religious life.There is also the possibility that his was an unrecorded marriage during the time when St. Paul's Church in Chester did not have resident minister, however since John was conspicuously missing from the baptism records of that church, this seems less likely. On 22 May 1704, John, as a husbandman, sold to James Whitaker for 35 pds. the same 58+ acres he had acquired from James Swafer. The land was described as bounded by Chichester Creek, land late of Henry Hastings and land of James Whitaker. Philip Roman and Walter Martin witnessed the deed. He is next cited 23 June 1708 as a neighbor of Francis Worley, William Pusey and Isaac Few in Chester, although no deed is recorded indicating how and when John acquired that land. On 5 April 1709, John Linvill acquired three tracts of land totaling 54 acres on Chester Creek from John Churchman for 26 pds. The lots were bounded by other land of John Linvill's and John Churchman. Joseph Cobourn, John Simcock and George Woodeur witnessed the deed. A few days later, John Linvill was listed as an abutter on a deed with Joseph Cobourn, William Cobourn and widow Fishbourne on Chester Creek. He second (or third) married Ann (?) circa 1712 probably at Chester, Chester County, PA; Second wife of John Linvill. John was definitely married to a woman named Ann by 1733 as evidenced by Lancaster County land records. However, it is not clear when he married her and which of his children were also hers. It is possible that she is the Ann Linville who died in South Carolina in 1785. Consequently, it is unlikely she would have been his first wife since a first wife would have been about 100 in 1785. Regardless, Ann seems likely to have been the mother of at least some of his children, perhaps daughter Ann and later and son John, Jr., as well, since it is his descendants who moved to South Carolina. John Linvill appears on the 1715 tax list for Chester Township, Chester County, PA. Although no deed of sale was recorded, John Linvill indentured his 54 acres on Chester Creek he bought from John Churchman to his step-uncle, John Baldwin 15 Nov 1715 in preparation for the Linvills move to the Pennsylvania frontier in Conestoga. The sale is only recorded in a deed chain articulated when Baldwin, a merchant of Chester, sold the land to James Hinds. Indeed, John Linvill was in the process of moving to west to Conestoga Creek. The Taylor brothers, surveyors of William Penn's sons, laid out the boundaries of James Hendrick's 1100 acres of land on Conestoga Creek in Oct 1716 and apportioned 200 acres each to John Linvill, Thomas Baldwin (John's half-brother), John Hendricks (Thomas Baldwin's brother-in-law) and Thomas Gale. He next appears on the 1718-1727 tax lists for Conestoga, Chester (now Lancaster) County, PA. John moved out to Conestoga Creek -- the outer reaches of Penn's Colony settlement where the creek flows into the Susquehanna River -- with his half-brother, Thomas Baldwin, and Baldwin's father-in-law, James Hendericks. There has been some evidence that John Linvill also married a Hendricks daughter, but research on the Hendricks family has not supported that hypothesis. He was summond to appear in court 13 August 1718 in Chester when Joseph Coburn asked the sheriff to issue a warrant for a case involving a debt. The original debt was borrowed 1 Jan 1714 for 22 pds. Coburn had asked several times that the debt be repaid and since it was not he was claiming damages as well. According to the warrant, John was "late of Chester, in the said county, yoman [sic], Otherwise Called John Linvel of the township of Astown" in Chester County. There are two related entries in the Chester County Court of Common Pleas for the year 1716, the final one dated Nov 1716 stating "N.E.I." or non est inventus, meaning that he "is not found" in the jurisdiction. Apparently, the outer reaches of the settlement did not fall in the jurisdiction of the court at that time. The only year in which he is missing from the Conestoga tax lists is 1724-5 when the list is alphabetical by first name and there are nine "J" entries torn on the originals. One of these entries has the same tax rate as John's the previous year, suggesting he is one of the torn names, especially since his likely son Thomas appears for the first time on the tax list that year. John Linwell (sic) and Stephen Atkinson posted a bond of 10 pds each for John Harris (father of the founder of Harrisburg) to operate a favern and sell liquor in Paxtang township. The bond was acknowledged by Tobias Hendricks, son of Albertus. Tobias recently moved to Conestoga from Chester, served as magistrate - probable father-in-in-law of John Linvill's daughter Ann. John Linvill signed a petition to the colonial assembly for the creation of Lancaster County on 6 February 1728/29 at Conestoga Creek. At the first meeting of the new Lancaster County Court of Quarter Sessions, John Linvill was chosen the highway supervisor for Conestoga township. Both the Quarter Sessions and Common Pleas met on the same days at the same place -- John Postlewait's house -- neighbors to the Linvilles and Baldwins. Both Thomas Baldwin and John Postlethwait (various spellings) were married to Hendricks's. In addition, David Jones, one potential father-in-law for John Linvill's oldest son, Thomas, was overseer of the poor and Albertus Hendricks, brother of James, was the first constable. John himself appeared in court as a member of the Grand Jury on 5 May 1730 at Court of Quarter Sessions, Lancaster County, PA, Also serving on the jury were John and James Hendricks. John appeared in court to pay for his appearance and that of Mary Hendricks, second wife of James Hendricks, Sr. on 4 August 1730 at Court of Quarter Sessions, Lancaster County, PA. William Hughes (another potential father-in-law for son Thomas Linvill) joined in the surety. The case apparently involved a claim of assault and battery upon John Cammel. Linville was fined two pounds and costs and asked to appear in the next court (Nov 1730). This case is possibly a beginning of the famous PA/MD border dispute which erupted full force three years later and in which the Linvilles, along with Hendricks relatives, played a central role. John appeared in Common Pleas court to prosecute a case on 4 May 1731 at Lancaster Couny, PA, against Jacob Overholtzer who confessed judgment and paid 17 pds, 3 shillings. He next appeared in court to answer a complaint by Thomas Perrin on 7 November 1732 at Court of Common Pleas, Lancaster County, PA. John's 200 acres were finally certified by John Taylor (Penn's Surveyors) on 7 August 1733. Additional information on the survey, apparently added by Samuel Blunston who was in charge of the land office for Penn's government, provides some insight as to what happened to the 200 acres since no deed transactions of Linvill's are recorded to provide that direct evidence. The copy of Isaac Taylor's 1716 survey at Historical Society of Pennsylvania does not have these notations. Only the copy at the Pennsylvania Land Office in Harrisburg does. The first notation, undated, on Isaac Taylor's original survey reads, "126 a part hereof patented to John Postlewait another part to G Gray who sells to Michl Shank." Consequently, we know that at some point the 200 acres were divided and sold to neighbors John Postlethwait and George Gray. It is the certification by John Taylor done more than sixteen years after the Linvills settled on the 200 acres, and the deed chain of later land owners which add the dates the land was divided and sold to others. By 1739, John Linville did not own any of the 200 acres. In that year, Blunston noticed an error in the survey and re-entered the survey, indicating that John Postlethwait had 123 1/2 acres and Michael Shank had 75 1/2. He added, "Thomas (sic) Linvell sold one part of the...Tract to John Postlethwait which was bounded by the Road the other part Linvell sold to George Gray who sells to Michael Shank. And Samuel Blunston being employed to measure the several parts or posts as by his Draught appears." It definitely wasn't Thomas Linvill who had sold the land to Postlethwait, but his father, John. On 15 Oct 1733, James and Mary Hendricks helped John Linvill perfect his patent by first selling to John and his then wife Ann the 200 acres that the Linvill family had owned and occupied for over 16 years. Three days later, the Linvills sold 126 of the 200 acres to John Postlethwait who later sold it to Patrick Carragan. It is Carragan's deed to John Bare in 1751 which cites and dates the deed chain of ownership. Apparently, John and Ann stayed on the remaining smaller piece for a few years and then sold out to George Gray, because in Gray's patent he cites the unrecorded deed from John Linvill conveying the smaller piece to Gray (who also owned adjoining land) on 16 Jan 1735. Linvill appeared in court on 5 February 1733/34 at Court of Common Pleas, Lancaster County, PA, when John Hendricks recorded an unpaid debt. It was continued to the November term for want of a plea. John Linvill last appears in Court of Common Pleas records in Lancaster County on 6 May 1735 when he entered a complaint against John Stone. The case was continued through the next three terms and was resolved May term 1736 when a jury was picked and found 10 pds plus costs in favor of Linvill. John Linvill probably died after 14 October 1739 at Conestoga, Lancaster County, PA, a date when his daughter Lydia (Linvill) Richey's husband wrote his will. The inventory for Richey's estate indicates that John Linvill owed the estate 1/3 of a debt (the other 2/3 owed to Richey's brothers and business partners). Therefore, it seems likely he was still alive at that date. While his three sons were already resettled south along the Appalachians in Virginia, John Linvill appears to have had at least three daughters living across the Susquehanna in what is now Adams/York County, PA at the time. Age 62 by this time, and a seasoned frontiersman, he likely died either in Conestoga or went to live with one of his daughters where he died. Wife Ann probably stayed with one of the daughers, too, and eventually moved to South Carolina where son John Linvill (Jr.) and a number of Hendricks relatives had settled.

Family 1 unknown (?)

Children
Thomas Linvill+ b. c 1703, d. c 1761
William Linvill+ b. c 1708, d. Jul 1766

Family 2
Ann (?) b. c 1698, d. b 29 Oct 1785

Children
John Linvill+ b. c 1714, d. c 1760
Ann Linvill b. c 1714, d. a 26 Nov 1766
Lydia Linvill+ b. c 1720, d. b 31 Aug 1762
Alyee Linvill+ b. c 1722, d. a 4 Mar 1805
Agnes Lindvil b. c 1730, d. bt 1802 - 1806
^[1]

Thomas and William Linville were sons of John and Ann Linville from the Chichester township, Chester County, Pennsylvania. John Linville was one of the first settlers on the Tyger River, South Carolina and by 1753, both sons had moved to Rowan County. Thomas purchased 206 acres on Belews Creek (near present-day Kernersville) and William Linville was the original owner of Tanglewood Park (near present-day Clemmons, North Carolina). Alyee Linville was likely (no definitive proof, just fascinating circumstantial evidence) the daughter of John Linville, who was also father of William (killed at Linville Falls, NC).^[2]

Sources

1. ↑ The Linville Family Geneaology - Dr. Alice Eichholz
2. ↑ The Jarvis Family and Other Relatives

• Paraloma Family Tree - John Linville

• Linville Family Research

• The Linville Family Genealogy Database

• Faye Jarvis Moran, The Jarvis Family & Other Relatives, web page, (http://www.erols.com/fmoran/linville.html, March 30, 1999), "Electronic."

Acknowledgements

• WikiTree profile Linville-5 was created through the import of Thomas Sheffield Descendants.ged on Dec 21, 2011 by Michael Sheffield & Erin Proctor.

• WikiTree profile Linville-48 created through the import of Amy Mason family tree.ged on Aug 11, 2011 by Amy Ellington.