Hesket-EdgComb-Spakman, Philadelphia and England

HESKET-EDGCOMB-SPAKEMAN PHILADELPHIA AND ENGLAND Patricia Law Hatcher, CG, FASG * As discussed in preceding article, the Miscellaneous Papers of the Philadelphia Monthly Meeting contained two documents related to a London burial. William ?Heskett Died in the parrish of Alhallows the Greate at ye signe of ye White Hart upon Dougate Hill [Dowgate Hill] and was buried the third day of May 1699 at the buriall ground in old Beadlam [Bedlam] by more fields [Moorfields] . . . These are to certifie whome it may concern that William Heskett of ye p[ar]ish of All Hallows ye greate dyed of a feavor & was buried in Bethlem Burying Ground on the fourth day of May in ye year 1699 as doth appear by our Registers. Witness my hand this tenth of June 1700 Benj. ?Wheton keeper of ye Lord buring ground 1 There was no reference in the minutes to the documents. Sandra Hewlett was intrigued with the twin questions of “Why are these documents here?” and “Who was William?” One trait of a true genealogist is overwhelming curiosity and the inability to let go of certain puzzles that catch our fancy. This affliction is contagious and not easily quarantined, thus leading me to join the quest for this man to whom neither of us are related. Both documents are darkened around the end of the surname, and the first vowel could be either an “e” or an “o.” Database searches eliminated several combinations because they did not appear to be real surnames, while pointing to Heskett/Haskett/Hesketh/Hasketh as the surname. William Heskett. No record was found in Pennsylvania of William Heskett (or variants), nor was his burial recorded in the Digest of the London Quarterly Meeting. No Heskett births or marriages were in the Digests.2 * Patricia Law Hatcher, CG, FASG, is editor of the Pennsylvania Genealogical Magazine. 1 PMM Miscellaneous Papers 1682—1739, page 44, 45. 2 London Quarterly Meeting, “Transcripts of the Digest Copy of the Registers of Births, Marriages, and Burials, 1635—1838,” Friends House Library, Religious Society of Friends (London: World Microfilms, 1989), rolls 3—5 [hereafter cited as London Quarterly Digests]. 224 Final copy 31 January, 2010 Pennsylvania Genealogical Magazine Vol. 43 (2004) 2004] Hesket-Edgcomb-Spakeman 225 Ann Hasketh. A search for the surname found that Ann Hasketh witnessed wills in Philadelphia in 1697 and 1699 in which the testatrix left money to the Monthly Meeting.3 It is more likely that the witness was a married woman than a young, single girl, and, as no other Heskett records were found, this suggests that she was William’s wife. Ann Heskett declared intentions to marry Nathaniel Edgcombe at Philadelphia Monthly Meeting in 1700/1 and 1701. There is no indication of parents or of widowhood in the entries.4 Nathaniel’s wife had died in 1699, preceded in death by four of their children. Ann and Nathaniel had sons Nathaniel and Joseph in 1701/2 and 1703.5 This chronology indicates that Nathaniel was likely in his mid-to-late thirties and that Ann was born between the mid 1660s and early 1680s. The burial certificates were likely necessary to prove Ann’s clearness to marry. The minutes of the Women’s Meeting for Philadelphia Monthly Meeting, which also survive and are on microfilm, were examined to see if they noted this, but unfortunately they did not.6 Nathaniel died in 1727.7 He did not mention wife Ann or son Joseph in his will.8 Nathaniel the son married in 1729 at Christ Church, Philadelphia, Susannah Skinner,9 served as a witness on several wills,10 and died in 1742.11 Joseph, son of Nathaniel, was buried at Christ Church in 1741, but it is unclear if this was the son of the elder or the younger Nathaniel.12 No surviving children have been identified. Randall Spakeman. In his 1725 will, Randal Spakeman, tobacconist of Philadelphia, mentioned his grandsons Nathaniel and Joseph Edgcombe and their father Nathaniel.13 The registers of Philadelphia Monthly Meeting list three of his marriages–in 1697, 1700, and 1717 to Mary Cocking, Grace Smith, and Ann Nicholson–along with the burials of those spouses in 1699, 1716, and 1724. 14 3 “Abstracts of Wills Proved at Philadelphia,” PGM 2(1900): 32, 3:(1906): 35. 4 PMM Minutes, PGM 6(1915): 74, 75. Philadelphia Monthly Meeting did not routinely note widowhood. 5 Hinshaw, 2:357. 6 Women’s Minutes, Philadelphia Monthly Meeting, Haverford College. 7 Hinshaw, 2:357. 8 Philadelphia Wills E:70. 9 “Pennsylvania Marriages Prior to 1810,” John B. Linn and William H. Egle, editors, Pennsylvania Archives, 2nd series, 8(1896): 80. 10 Philadelphia Wills E:88, 306, 522; F:67. 11 Edith Samuel “Index to the Deaths Mentioned in The American Weekly Mercury, 1742—1746,” Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography [hereafter cited as PMHB], 58(1934): 45. The death of the elder Nathaniel was noticed in the same paper. 12 Charles R. Hildeburn, “Records of Christ Church, Philadelphia, Burials 1709— 1760,” Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, vol. 3 (1879): 105. 13 Philadelphia Wills D:427. 14 Hinshaw, 2:422, 657. Final copy 31 January, 2010 226 Pennsylvania Genealogical Magazine [Vol. 43 Randall (also Randal, Randolph, and Ralph) Spakeman (also Spackman, Spikeman, and Speakman) appeared in Philadelphia as early as 1688, when he was a brickmaker.15 In 1701, when he took over the administration of the estate of Daniel Smith (whose widow he had married), he was a tobacconist.16 His name is found in Philadelphia as a witness on wills or as an administrator,17 in land records,18 and in the minutes of Philadelphia Monthly Meeting.19 Hannah Benner Roach, FASG, editor of this journal for many years, remarked: He seems to have had a varied career, if he is identical with the Randall Speakman of Stepney who, as a weaver, married Anna Ward at Horslydown on 8 1m 1669/70 . . .20 The marriage of Randall Speakman, of the parish of Stepney, Co. of Middlesex is recorded twice. He was a weaver in both entries, Anna Ward was of Saviour’s Parish in one entry, of Southwark in the other. Both records are from Southwark Monthly Meeting. There are no other Speakman marriages.21 The burial registers, however, show that this was not Randall’s first marriage. Died 23 2nd month [April] 1669. Elizabeth Spikeman of Pople, wife of Randolph, weaver, of Ratcliff & Reading Monthly Meeting, buried at Ratcliff. 22 The Digests also record the deaths of two children of Ann of Southwark Monthly Meeting: 13-month-old Randall “died of teeth” in 1676 and 2¾-year-old Joseph died the next year. Randall apparently came to Philadelphia without his family, because he was already in Philadelphia when the following entry was made in the London Digests. Died 20 8th month [October] 1690. Ann Speakman, age 40, Parish of Mary Magdalen, Bermondsey, Southwark Monthly Meeting buried at Southwark. 23 There were no Speakman births in the Digests, so we cannot firmly place Ann Heskett as Randall’s daughter. However, the IGI [International Genealogical Index] has only two entries for the name Randall Speakman in seventeenth-century England under any variant, both in Lancashire– Randall Spakeman, born in 1604, the son of William, and Rondoll Spakeman, born in 1640, the son of Richard.24 The 1640 entry is a good fit chronologically for the man in London and Philadelphia. The uncommon name and the Quaker connection suggest this is the same man. 15 Hannah Benner Roach, “Philadelphia Business Directory,” PGM 23:111. See also PMHB 53(1929): 14—15. 16 PGM, 2:275. 17 PGM, 1:88; 3:22, 150; 19:259. 18 PGM, 6: 277, 283, 284. 19 PMM Minutes, PGM, 4:221, 222; 6:69, 70, 76, 91, 93; 7:82, 187, 251, 258. 20 Roach, “Philadelphia Business Directory,” PGM 23:111, footnote 76. 21 London Quarterly Digests, roll 4. 22 London Quarterly Digests, roll 5. 23 London Quarterly Digests, roll 5. 24 IGI controlled-extraction batches P007971 and P005531. Final copy 31 January, 2010 2004] Hesket-Edgcomb-Spakeman 227 Richard Speckman. Several Speckman burials were found. The plague had arrived in London in 1665, with burials beginning in the 6th month [August] and ending in the 8th month [October]. Died 25 7th month [September] 1665. Richard Speckman, a Prisoner in Newgate for the testimony of truth, died of the plague, buried Checker Ally. Died 29 7th month [September] 1665. Henry, John, and Mary Speckman, children of Richard and Richard Speckman, son of Mary, of Marke Lane, buried Checker Ally.25 Besse’s Sufferings describes the plague, persecution, and the prisoners’ providential deaths. As this destructive Pestilence was a sore and heavy Judgment on a wicked, profane, and persecuting Generation, who long sported themselves with oppressing the innocent, so was it a merciful Visitation to the faithful and conscientious Prisoners, in releasing many of them from a Life worse than Death in the nasty Holes of Newgate, where two and fifty of them died, namely, . . . [Two lists follow, the first of twenty men and two women, “all of which lay under Sentence of Banishment,” the second unidentified, but which includes Richard Sparkman].26 Additional deaths appear in the register. Died 11th month [January] 1665/6. Hester, daughter of Mary Speckman died of a fever, buried Checker Ally. Died 6th month [August] 1670. Elizabeth Speakman, servant, of Saviour’s Parish, Southwark Monthly Meeting. Died 15 6th month [August] 1682. Mary Spackman, widow, of Mark Lane, London, died of fever. 27 Between 1646 and 1656, Elizabeth, John, Alice, Henry, and Hester, children of Richard and Mary Spackman were baptized at All Hallows Staining, London.28 No marriage for Richard and Mary was found. Richard, father of Rondoll in Lancashire, had children Jane, William, and Roger between 1629 and 1642, who are not mentioned in the London or Lancashire Digests, so we can say only that Richard of London could possibly be Richard of Lancashire and thereby Randoll’s father. Who was William Heskett? He was likely the first husband of Ann, daughter of Randall Spakeman, a man who had three occupations and buried five wives. They were possibly related to Richard Spakeman, who died as a result of his religious beliefs, a reminder to us that Quakers were not merely keepers of good records, but persons who were persecuted for their beliefs and suffered beatings, banishment, and even death. 25 London Quarterly Digests, roll 5. 26 Joseph Besse, A Collection of the Sufferings of the People Called Quakers, for the Testimony of a Good Conscience, 2 vols. (London: Luke Hine, 1753), 1:407. 27 London Quarterly Digests, roll 5. 28 IGI controlled extraction batch C040361. Final copy 31 January, 2010