Identifying Sarah Potts, Second Wife of James Dilworth

IDENTIFYING SARAH POTTS 2 SECOND WIFE OF JAMES DILWORTH by Henry B. Hoff, CG, FASG * Dilworth, youngest son of James and Anne (Waln) Dilworth, James married second in September or October 1729 Sarah Potts, according 2 1 to the minutes of the Abington Monthly Meeting.1 She is identified in several works as Sarah (Shoemaker) Potts, widow of Daniel Potts.2 This identification turns out to be correct–although the minutes of the Abington Monthly Meeting do not indicate that she was a widow when recording her impending marriage to James Dilworth, although this was often done, especially if there were children by the first marriage. Published sources state that by her first husband, Daniel2 Potts (David1), Sarah had three children: Samuel, Daniel, and Rebecca.3 In his will dated 13 November 1730, David1 Potts, of Bristol Township, Philadelphia County, left twenty shillings to each of his seven oldest children, noting that each had already received his or her portion “in my life time” (the two youngest children received their portions elsewhere in the will). He also left to “the children of my son Daniel the sum of twenty shillings to be divided between them in two years after my decease he the said Daniel having received his portion in his life time.”4 The change in word* Henry B. Hoff is the editor of the New England Historical and Genealogical Register and author of “The Jobson Family of Philadelphia and Bermondsey, Surrey,” Pennsylvania Genealogical Magazine [called Publications of the Genealogical Society of Pennsylvania before 1948, both hereafter cited as PGM] 42(2001): 101—14. He is a descendant of Sarah (Shoemaker) Potts Dilworth. 1 Stewart Baldwin, “Ancestry of Nicholas Waln and Anne (Waln) Dilworth Sibthorp,” PGM 43(2003): 7—17, at 17. 2 George E. McCracken, The Welcome Claimants, Proved, Disproved and Doubtful, with an Account of Some of Their Descendants, Publications of the Welcome Society of Pennsylvania, No. 2 (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1970), 523 [hereafter cited as McCracken, Welcome Claimants]; Virginia W. Bushman, Genealogy of the Dilworth Families in America (Salt Lake City: Dilworth Descendants, 1970), 17; Thomas Maxwell Potts, Historical Collections Relating to the Potts Family (Canonsburg, Pa.: the author, 1901), 454 [hereafter cited as Potts, Historical Collections]; Thomas Maxwell Potts, Our Family Ancestors (Canonsburg, Pa.: the author, 1895), 12, 36 [hereafter cited as Potts, Our Family Ancestors]. 3 Potts, Historical Collections, 454; Potts, Our Family Ancestors, 12. 4 Will of David Potts, proved 26 November 1730, Philadelphia County Wills, E:142 [will #171], from the original will book at City Hall, Philadelphia, courtesy of Sandra M. 1 Hewlett, CGRS. There are accounts of David Potts in McCracken, Welcome Claimants, 151—52, and Craig R. Horle et al., Lawmaking and Legislators in Pennsylvania: A Pennsylvania Genealogical Magazine Vol. 43 (2004) Final copy 26 March 2005 330 2004 Sarah Potts, Second Wife of James2 Dilworth 331 ing from “my life time” to “his life time” and the bequest to the children implies that son Daniel was dead by the date of the will. The will of Peter2 Shoemaker (Peter1) of Germantown, Philadelphia County, dated 21 12th month 1740/1, mentions his oldest daughter “Sarah Delawrth” and her two sons Samuel and Daniel Potts. Elsewhere in the will he mentions granddaughter Rebecca as if she were a child of Sarah as well.5 The will of James2 Dilworth (as “James Dillworth Senr” of Bristol Township, Philadelphia County), dated 17 June 1765, mentions wife Sarah; “our” three sons Jonathan, Nicholas, and James Dillworth; grandchildren James, Samuel, William, and Joseph Dillworth, children of eldest son William Dillworth, deceased; late father James Dillworth, deceased; daughter Elizabeth, wife of Joseph Paul; daughter “Margaret Dillworth”; and “son-in-law” Daniel Potts.6 Since daughter Margaret is called by her maiden name, she was not the wife of Daniel Potts, and no other daughter is named who could have been his wife. Thus, the term “son-in-law” is used in its old meaning of “stepson,” consistent with Daniel Potts being Sarah’s son by an earlier marriage–a conclusion that agrees with Peter Shoemaker’s will. ARTICLES OF PENNSYLVANIA INTEREST IN NON-PENNSYLVANIA JOURNALS T his feature provides brief mentions of recent articles of interest to Pennsylvania researchers who might not otherwise find them easily, since they were published in non-Pennsylvania journals and have not yet appeared in the Periodical Source Index (PERSI). Eleanor Mayfarth, Clarence Lee, Ann Veazey Davis, and Seth Warner, “The Umstead Descendants of William1 Evans of Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania,” The Genealogist 18 (2004): 131—58. Robert E. Hoagland, “Identifying John Tapper, a German Immigrant Laborer in Early Nineteenth Century Philadelphia, through the Records of His Children,” National Genealogical Society Quarterly 92(2004): 165—77. “Two German-American Bibles: Felix Light Bible Record, Samuel Ulrich Bible Record,” National Genealogical Society Quarterly 92(2004): 218—20. Kathryn Chambers Torpey, “Assembling and Correlating Indirect Evidence to Identify the Father of Susan Kennedy (1815—59) of Philadelphia,” National Genealogical Society Quarterly 92(2004): 256—68. Biographical Dictionary, 2 vols. to date (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1 1991, 1997), 2:860—61 (and James Dilworth is at 1:319). 5 Will of Peter Shoemaker, proved 4 March 1740/1, Philadelphia County Wills, F:201. This and the next will were consulted on microfilm at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. The will of David Potts, cited in the preceding note, was mostly illegible on this microfilm. 6 Will of James Dilworth, proved 19 October 1765, Philadelphia County Wills, N:427. Final copy 26 March 2005