James Nixon and Thomas Milhous

James Nixon and Thomas Milhous RAYMOND M. BELL, F.A.S.G. and FRANK R. BAIRD T WO of Richard Milhous Nixon's great-great-grearireat-grandfathers lived within nine miles of each other for a number of years- Both men were coopers (barrel-makers). JAMES NIXON first appears in Brandywine Hundred, New Castle County, now in the State of Delaware, on 3 April 1731, when he bought a one hundred acre farm three miles north of the present city of Wilmington. The deed lists him as a cooper) He probably was a native of Ireland and probably a Presbyterian. He may have attended the Lower Brandywine Presbyterian Church, founded in 1720. THOMAS MILHOUS first appears in New Garden Township, Chester County, Pennsylvania, on 28 12m (February) 1729/30, when he presented his Irish certificate of removal to the New Garden Monthly Meeting of Friends) He had come from Timahoe, County Kildare, and, along with his wife and children, brought with him a servant girl, Ann Cunningham, aged sixteen.' Thomas Milhous settled on a two hundred acre farm in Steyning Manor, three miles south of Kennett Square, and eleven miles northwest of the site of Wilmington, just inside the Pennsylvania Le. His deed for the farm, dated 21 October 1738, lists him as a cooper.' Thomas Milhous moved to Pikeland Township, Chester County, in 1744 and died there in 1770. His will, written 25 February 1765, and probated 12 May 1770, devised to his three eldest sons. John, James, and Thomas, 2 Nixon's purchase of land in 1731 from Joseph and Mary Cox is recited in New Castle County Deed Book LEI, 49: 2 April 1803, George Nixon to William Young. 2 Abstracts of Records of New Garden Monthly Meeting, 1718-1768, I, 146, in Collections of the Genealogical Society of Pennsylvania (GSP). See also Albert Cook Myers, Immigration of the Irish Quakers into Pennsylvania 1602-1750. ... (Baltimore, Md., 1969), 355. The certificate from Dublin Monthly Meeting was dated 29 5m (July) 17292 Ann Cunningham's certificate, included in that of her aunt of the same name, and dated the same day as Thomas Milhous's, was received at Philadelphia Monthly Meeting 26 10m (December) 1729. See Myers, Irish Quakers, 293, cited in Note 2. Chester County Deed Book S. 315: 21 October 1738, William Penn [brother and heir of Springett Penn) who was a grandson of William Penn, the Founded and James Logan to Thomas Millhouse. 5 He received a certificate of removal to Goshen Monthly Meeting 28 5m (July) 1744. See Abstracts of New Garden Monthly Meeting, I, 295, cited in Note 2. 39 James Nixon and Thomas Milhouse 31 "five shillings each they having received their shares heretofore: . His wife Sarah was to have "my best feather bed and furniture thereunto belonging as also her saddle and bridle and bay mare called Jennie," and "a riding chair with harness also one third of my estate." To his son Robert and daughter Sarah Parker he left "one third of my estate to be divided equally." To his youngest son William he left "the remaining third part of my estate." This youngest son William went to eastern Ohio in 1805! James Nixon died in Brandywine Hundred in 1775. His will, written 16 May 1773, and probated 26 June 1775, devised to his wife Mary sixty pounds in cash "besides the third of the benefit of the place where I now live and bed and bedding and furniture for one room." To his three married daughters he left 45; to his daughter Jean £.60 in cash "now in the hands of the Revd. Mr. Smith of Pequea, besides a horse and saddle and bed." To his eldest son George he left "the plantation where John Reily formerly lived," 106 acres, and £.70 in cash To his son James, Jr., he devised "the plantation whereon I now live containing one hundred acres," and his Negro man Ned and Negro woman Nance. The oldest son George Nixon moved to western Pennsylvania in 1803." William Milhous's grandson, Joshua V. Milhous, went to eastern Indiana in 1854; George Nixon's grandson, George Nixon III, went to central Ohio in 1853. Frank Nixon, the latter's grandson, went to California in 1907, where he met and married Joshua Milhous's granddaughter, Hannah Milhous, who had gone to California in 1897. Their son, Richard Milhous Nixon, was born in California in 1913. Did the two coopers, Thomas Milhous and James Nixon, ever meet? Abstracts of Chester County Wills, 1758-1777, II, 365, will of Thomas Milhous, GSP. William Wade Hinshaw, Encyclopedia of American Quaker Genealogy Ohio (Ann Arbon Mich.. 1946), IV, 154. His certificate from Uwchlan Meeting, Chester County. to Concord Meeting, Belmont County, Ohio, was dated 5 9m (September) 1805, and was received 24 12m (December) 1805. 9 Washington County Deed Book 1-S, 214: 18 October 1803, Henry Woods to George Nixon.