Barclay-Gurney Bible Record

Barclay-Gurney Bible Record Contributed by WINIFRED LOVERING HOLMAN, * F.A.S.G. A communication by Mrs. Olive Cook of The Selkirk, Ipswich, Suffolk, England, appeared in the July 1965 issue of the East Anglian Magazine (Volume 24, Number 9), concerning an old Bible in her possession. The Bible, printed in London in 1767, by Mark Baskett, and formerly owned by Robert and Rachel Barclay, contains the record of their family, beginning with his birth in Philadelphia in 1751. His wife Rachel Gurney was the aunt of Elizabeth Fry (1780 - 1845), celebrated Quakeress, sister of Joseph John Gurney and daughter of John Gurney, the brother of Rachel (Gurney) Barclay. Alexander Barclay (c. 1711 - 1771), father of Robert Barclay of the Bible record, was a son of David Barclay of London, founder of the banking house of David Barclay & Sons, and was a grandson of the noted Quaker Apologist, Robert Barclay of Urie. Reported to have come to Philadelphia about 1747, 1 in 1749 Alexander Barclay was appointed Comptroller of His Majesty's Customs at Philadelphia, 2 a position he held until his death. He married Anne, daughter of Robert and Patience Hickman, who, according to one account, had been visiting her uncle John Hyatt (d. 18 September 1747), Sheriff of Philadelphia City and County from 1741 to 1744! " Mrs. Frank Riley Dodge of Exeter, N. H., also a Fellow of the San Antonio, Texas, Genealogical and Historical Society, is an honorary member of the Newport Historical Society, and has been a member of the Council of the New England Historic Genealogical Society- She has been a frequent contributor to that society's Register as well as to other similar publications. 0 R. Burnham Moffatt, The Barclays of New York (New York, 1904), 3460. See aho Gregory B. Keen, 11The Descendants of Joran Kyn, the Founder of Upland," The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography (PMHB), V (18111 ), 97n. Neither of these notices give the children of Robert Barclay, son of Alexander. Pennsylvania Archives, 3rd Series, VIII, 667. No date for the marriage of Anne Hickman and Alexander Barclay is given in the comprehensive work of Lt. Col. Hubert F. Barclay and Alice Wilson-Fox, compilers of A History of the Barclay Family with Pedigrees from 1067 to 1935 (London, 1934), Part III, 279, nor does their marriage appear in the records of Philadelphia churches. The deaths of John Hyatt and his wife Tuey (d. 1743), are both entered in Christ Church rccords. For his election as sheriff see Minutes of the Provincial Council of Pennsylvania . • • (Harrisburg, Pa., 1851), IV, 500, 601, 669. He was not re-elected sheriff in 1744. 185 186 The Pennsylvania Genealogical Magazine By Anne Hickman, who was buried in Christ Church Cemetery in Philadelphia 28 June 1753, Alexander Barclay also had a daughter Patience, born about 1752, who married first in 1772, Joseph Worrell, secondly in 1780, Reynold Keen, and died 4 January 1781, in her twentyninth year without issue.' She is buried in St. Peter's Episcopal Churchyard beside her father and step-mother, Rebecca (Evans) Robertson Barclay, who had married Alexander Barclay at Christ Church 8 February 1759. ° Through the courtesy of Mrs. Cook, a transcript of the Bible record of the family of Alexander Barclay's son Robert and the latter's wife Rachel Gurney is here presented: Robert Barclay son of Alexander 86 Ann Barclay of Philadelphia —born there 15. May 1751 & married 2 Oct 1775 Rachel Gurney daughter of John & Elizabeth Gurney of Norwich born 26 March 1755 —by whom he had I. Elizabeth b. 10 July 1776; d. June 1778 2. Agatha b. 12 Nov: 1777; d. 265° Nov 1777 3. Agatha b. 8 Nov: 1778 8 4. Anna b. 21 Dec 1779; d. 26. May 1810 5. Charles b. 26 Dec 1780 6. Rachel b. 13 Mar 1782; d. 30 Dec: 1823 7. Lucy b. 24 April 1783 8. Elizabeth [twin] b. 24 April 1783; d. 4 Dec 1824 9. David b. 29 Sept 1784 10. Maria b. 11 Dec 1785 11. Gurney b. 20 Dec 1786; d. 10°` Sep 1820 12. Martha b. 9 Jan: 1788; d. 24. May 1788 13. Martha b. 8 Dec 1789 14. Alexander b. 21 Feb: 1791; d. 65° Sept 1812 15. Alfred b. 21 Dec 1793; d. June 1795 Rachel Barclay wife to Robert Barclay died on the 2nd Jan: 1794 PMHB, V, 97. In the Keen article, cited above, Barclays second wife is given as Rebecca Robinson, a statement corrected in PMHB, VI (1882), 256, 493, wherein her antecedents are also mentioned. Although he was baptized at Christ Church 12 June 1751, no record of his sines Patience's birth or baptism is entered in the church register. According to the History, 273, cited in Note 3 above, us 1763 Robert Barclay was sent to his uncle David Barclay of Walthamstow, England, and was educated at Wandsworth. Fie then entered the Cheapside business of his grandfather David Barclay. He returned to America upon his father's deth in 1771, to setle the estate, remaining only about two years. The Bible record states du births of the children numbered 1 through 6, were registered at Grace Street Meeting (London). The births of children 7 through II were registered at Wandsvrorth (Surrey). 8Th, record note that the children numbered 3 through 11, and 11 through 15, all bad "Smallpox, Measles, Hooping Cough?. Robert Barclay married 2nd, late in life, Margaret Hodgson, who died 17 Jan. 8837, aged 73. He died in 1530 at Bury Hill. See History, 277 A Gurney Note 187 Mrs. Charles Barclay 15 married Aug 14th 1804 Died March 15. 1840 M. Arthur Barclay Born 20. June 1806 /A' Robert Barclay Born 10. Aug: 1808 Caroline Barclay Born Jan 23`° 1814 Juliana Barclay Born 27. July 1816 Mr George Barclay Born July 1819 u• " She was Anna Maria, eldest daughter of Thomas Bat of Seedling. Tim date of her mmriage, as given erroneously in the History, 278, is 1 Aug. 1804. 11 In addition to these children of Charles and Anna Maria Barclay, there were two others: Charles, b. 1810; d. 1823, and Anna Maria, who d. young. Caroline Barclay of the Bible record, eo in 1807, John Gurney Hoare, and Rachel Juliana so. in 5047, Joseph Hoare. See the History, 280-282. A Gurney Note After the death of Francis Gurney, Esq., on 25 May 1815, in the 76th year of his age, an extended obituary appeared in Poulson's American Daily Advertiser, issue of 8 September 1815. According to this notice, "Francis Gurney was the second in descent trans his European ancestors who emigrated from England with William Penn. . • • He was born in Bucks County in the Province of Pennsylvania about the year 1738. . . ." Although Francis Gurney's antecedents were not identified in this notice, recently a possible clue has been uncovered. The duplicate of a Poor Tax, levied in 1742 on the inhabitants of Middletown Township, Bucks County, filed with Quarter Sessions Court petitions of that county in Doylestown, includes the name of one Thomas Gurney whose estate was rated at £12, on which the tax was 21. This Thomas Gurney was deceased by 14 December 1750. On that date Sopranos Robinson, executor of the will of John Parrot, late of Bucks County, in the Court of Common Pleas held at Newtown, recovered a debt of £9 150. against the administrators of the estate of Thomas "Goarney," James Yocum and Bethsheba, his wife. Gurney had died intestate siezed of a messuage and tract of ten acres in Middletown. This property was trued in execution of the debt and sold by Joseph Hart, Sheriff, to John Woolston 13 June 1751, according to the deed poll entered in Bucks County Deed Book 160, page 602, and recorded in 1872. No estate papers for Thomas Gurney have been found of record in Doylestown, however Was he Francis Gurney's father?