My Barton ancestors are on my paternal Armstrong/Lyons lines. Armstrong-Lyons-Barton. My third great-grandmother is Catherine Ann Barton. She was born on 11 November 1795 in Bristol, Bucks County, Pennsylvania, as the daughter of Thomas Barton and Rebecca Ann Cooper. She died 11 May 1852 in Miami County, Ohio. She married John W. Lyons, Sr. on a Tuesday, 11 February 1817 in Newtown, Bucks County, Pennsylvania. The marriage was listed in the “Pennsylvania Correspondent and Farmers Advertiser.” They were married by Isaac Hicks, Esq. Her mother, Rebecca Ann Cooper, was descended on her paternal side from Pennsylvania Quakers with roots in England and on her maternal side from English Quakers and early German and Dutch settlers in New York.

The ancestry of her father, Thomas Barton, was more in question.

In the past, mostly based on a U.S. Sons of the American Revolution Membership Application from the 1960s, her father, Thomas Barton, is listed as a son of Edward Barton and Elizabeth Middleton. Edward Barton and his wife Elizabeth were a Quaker family of Camden, New Jersey.

Sons and Daughters of the U.S. American Revolution membership applications can contain useful and helpful information for genealogical research, they also can contain errors and are based on research done up to that date, in this case 1967.

Almost all the family trees that list Thomas as their son do so based on that membership application. It is true that Thomas lived for a time in Camden, New Jersey, and was living there in 1783, by that year he had become a Quaker. He did name his first son Edward. But there is no proof he was the son of Edward Barton and Elizabeth. Also, there is no proof Elizabeth’s maiden name was Middleton.

Sometimes, Thomas is instead listed as a son of Thomas Barton and Mary. Some give Mary’s maiden name as Kimber, but this is unproven. This Thomas Barton, who married Mary, was the son of Joseph Barton and Elizabeth Kimber. He passed on his mother’s maiden name of Kimber by giving one of his children it as a first name. The reason for linking our Thomas up with Thomas Barton and his wife Mary, is because they lived in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, which is the location where our Thomas ended up living.

He was not the son of Edward Barton and Elizabeth, nor the son of Thomas Barton and Mary. There is no DNA connection to the Edward Barton family. There is only a very slight DNA connection to the family of Thomas Barton of Bucks County, Pennsylvania, and looking closer at those few connections, it became apparent they shared Barrett ancestors with me and had no connection to my Barton family. As well as the fact that the children of Thomas Barton and Mary were Joseph, John, Sarah, Parthenia, Kimber, Deborah, Levi, James, Elizabeth, Stephen, and Eli. He did not have a son named Thomas.

Because his parentage was somewhat of a mystery, I turned to DNA to see if there was a strong link to any Barton families of Bucks County, Pennsylvania, or anywhere in Pennsylvania, or of New Jersey. It became clear that he was not related to any Barton families of Bucks County, Pennsylvania or Pennsylvania in general, nor was he of a Barton family with roots in New Jersey.

People made a few assumptions about him. One, that he was of a Quaker family. They neglected to consider that he could be a convert to the faith as an adult. Also, he did fight in the American Revolutionary War. He could have been a Quaker who decided to join the war effort. There were those within the religion that did, although most were disowned. More likely he was not yet a Quaker when he fought in the war.

Looking at my DNA matches, it kept coming back to him being of a Barton family of Colonial Maryland. Specifically, him being a grandchild of Thomas Barton and Abigail of Joppa, Maryland. I have several DNA matches to the descendants of this couple, that also match to my known Barton kin.

The parentage of Thomas Barton of Joppa, Maryland is unknown. He was born about 1685 in either England or Colonial Maryland. He died on 22 May 1730 in Gunpowder Hundred, Baltimore, Maryland.

I have seen Abigail’s maiden name listed in family trees as Blinn, White, and Jordan. Her maiden name is unproven.

Joppa is a former colonial town. Joppa was founded as a British settlement on the Gunpowder River in 1707 and designated as the third county seat of Baltimore County in 1712. The original boundaries of Baltimore County were defined in 1659 and contained all of modern-day Baltimore County, Baltimore City, Harford and Cecil counties and parts of Howard, Carroll, Anne Arundel and Kent counties. The settlement was named for the Biblical town of Jaffa in the ancient Holy Land of modern-day Israel. Joppa’s harbor began to silt in due to clear-cutting and farming upriver and coupled with multiple outbreaks of diseases such as smallpox and malaria, the county seat was moved to the growing, deep water port of Baltimore in 1768. Joppa’s population would decline rapidly thereafter, and businesses left for more prosperous environments in the new Baltimore Town. (1 & 2)

Thomas Barton and Abigail of Joppa, Maryland had the following children:

1. Thomas Barton II was born in Joppa, Maryland, and died after 1745. He married Elizabeth Ward.
2. James Barton was born 27 June 1710 in Gunpowder Hundred, Baltimore County, Maryland, and he died on 9 February 1734 in Gunpowder Hundred, Baltimore County, Maryland. He married Temperance Rollo (Rollow) on 8 September 1730. Based on his will, he had two children: Phillis Anna (Philis-Zana) Barton Norris, and James Barton.
3. John Barton was born 28 June 1715 in Joppa, Maryland, and died 4 January 1773 in Harford, Maryland. He married Ann Hitchcock on 23 May 1738 in Baltimore, Maryland. Based on his will he had the following children: Jemima, Keziah, William Hitchcock, James, and Samantha Ann “Nancy” Barton.
4. Elizabeth “Eliza” Barton was born 28 Jan 1717 in Gunpowder Hundred, Baltimore, Maryland. She married William Wright when she was about sixteen. Her husband died before 1740. Before his death, they had the following children: William Jr., Abraham, and Isaac Wright. She married James Greer on 25 May 1741 in Maryland; he died fourteen months later. They had one child, a son, James Greer. She married third to Heathcote Pickett on 26 January 1743 in Baltimore, Maryland. They had three children: Mary, Elizabeth, and Heathcote Pickett, Jr.
5. William Barton was born on 15 December 1718 in Joppa, Maryland, and died in 1729 in Baltimore County, Maryland.
6. Ann Barton was born 28 October 1720 in Joppa, Maryland. She married Charles Billingsley on 2 Oct 1760 in Joppa, Maryland. They had the following children: Ann, James, Moses, Thomas, Elizabeth, Nancy, John, William, and Prudence Billingsley.

There is some confusion regarding the son Thomas Barton II. Some try to merge him with his brother James and give them the same date of birth. I did not find a DNA connection to the Ward family of Thomas Barton II’s wife.

Regarding James Barton, I did not find a DNA connection to his wife’s Rollo/Rollow family. James Barton also died some years before our Thomas was born.

William Barton died as a child.

When considering John Barton was our Thomas’ father, it seemed to fit. I have a DNA connection to his wife’s Hitchcock family. I also have numerous DNA matches to the descendants of the children of John Barton and Ann Hitchcock. Although John does not list a son named Thomas in his will, it was not uncommon for a child to receive their share prior to a will being written. Especially considering the fact that our Thomas migrated to Pennsylvania and New Jersey some years prior.

Ann Hitchcock was the daughter of William Hitchcock II and Anne Jones, and the granddaughter of William Hitchcock I and Mary Gerves.

William Hitchcock I was born in Kent, England. He died in Colonial Maryland. His parentage is unknown.

Mary Gerves was born in England as the daughter of Robert Gervise and Amelia ____. She came with her parents to Colonial Maryland. The parentage of her father is unknown, other than knowing his roots were in England.

The parentage of Anne Jones is unproven.

Our Thomas Barton was born about 1740 in Maryland, and died in 1813 in Bristol, Bucks County, Pennsylvania. He married Patience Eldridge on 19 May 1766 in Pennsylvania. Her parentage is unknown.

Our Thomas is shown in the census as living in Greenwich Township, Gloucester County, New Jersey in 1774. On August 28, 1780, Sergeant George Hudson was ordered by Charles West, Ensign of Captain Wood’s Company of Gloucester County Militia, to warn the following men to appear at Haddonfield, Friday, September 1st, prepared to march on their tour of duty. Among the names of the men told to appear was Thomas Barton.

The exact year that Thomas Barton converted to Quakerism is unknown. What is known is that he struggled to adhere to the rules of the faith and was disciplined several times.

He and his wife and children are found in Quaker records on 9 June 1783 in Camden, Camden, New Jersey, when the Barton family was approved to leave Camden, New Jersey, Quaker fellowship and join the Falls Meeting (Fallsington MM), in Bucks County, Pennsylvania.

On 6 August 1783 in Bristol, Bucks, Pennsylvania, he and his family are found in the Falls MM (Quaker/Society of Friends) records. The meeting house for those living in Bristol was Fallsington (aka Falls). He is found in the same records of Quaker Meetings in Fallsington MM in 1785 through April 1787. Patience Eldridge Barton died before 1789.

Based on Quaker records, he and his wife Patience had the following children: Edward, William, Sarah, Elizabeth, Thomas, Mary, and Patience. Since we do not know the parentage of Patience Eldridge, they may have named their first-born son Edward after her father or other Eldridge kin.

Edward Barton married Mary Lodge. I am a DNA match to numerous descendants of this couple. Thomas Barton married, but the name of his wife is unknown, he had at least one child. Patience died as a child. What happened to William, Sarah, Elizabeth, and Mary Barton is unknown. Did they die before reaching adulthood? Did they marry? I locate no records about them after the 1780s, nor did I find any DNA matches or descendants for these other children. There is a daughter listed aged 16 thru 25 in the 1800 census living with him in Bristol, Bucks, Pennsylvania, with his second wife and children from his second marriage. This may be one of the daughters from his marriage to Patience Eldridge.

Thomas Barton marries second to Rebecca Ann Cooper Winner (widow of Amos Winner) in 1789. It is at this point after being brought under discipline several times that he was finally disowned by the Quakers in 1789, after his marriage to Rebecca Cooper. She had been raised in a Quaker family, and her first husband, Amos Winner, who also fought in the American Revolutionary War, was raised a Quaker as well.

On 23 May 1788, Rebecca Cooper is listed as Rebecca Winner in the will of her father Joseph Cooper, a Quaker, living in Bensalem, Bucks, County, Pennsylvania. Also listed in the will are her mother Elizabeth (Severns) and her brothers Benjamin and Joseph Cooper, and sisters, Catherine (Searl), Mary (Booz), Charity (Wright), and Leticia Cooper. So, we know she married Thomas Barton after this date. Their first child was born about 1790.

Rebecca Cooper married Amos Winner in New Jersey on 1 May 1779. There was one child born to this marriage, a son, Joseph Winner. He was born about 1780 and died on 18 March 1805 in Bristol, Bucks, Pennsylvania. 

Children of Thomas Barton and Rebecca Cooper:

1. Amos Barton was born about 1790 in Bristol, Bucks, Pennsylvania, and died 11 April 1872 in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. He is buried in the Emilie UMC (Methodist) Cemetery in Levittown, Bucks, Pennsylvania. He married Christina LaRue. He was named after his mother’s first husband Amos Winner.
2. Benjamin Barton was born about 1791 in Bristol, Bucks, Pennsylvania. He married Elizabeth Johnson. He was named after his maternal uncle, Benjamin Cooper.
3. Letitia Barton was born in 1793 in Bristol, Bucks, Pennsylvania, and died 10 September 1859 in Philadelphia, Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania. She married Samuel Boyer. She was named after her maternal aunt, Letitia Cooper Van Sant.
4. Catherine Ann Barton was born on 11 November 1795 in Bristol, Bucks, Pennsylvania, and died on 11 May 1852 in Miami County, Ohio. She married James W. Lyons, Sr. on 11 February 1817 in Newtown, Bucks, Pennsylvania. She was named after her maternal grandmother, Catherine Van Sant Severns, and her maternal aunt, Catherine Severns Benezet. (They are my direct ancestors).
5. Margaret Barton was born about 1798 in Bristol, Bucks, Pennsylvania. Nothing more is known about her.
6. Frances “Fanny” Barton was born in June 1800 in Bristol, Bucks, Pennsylvania, and died 20 August 1881 in Chesterfield, Burlington, New Jersey. She married Jesse Brown on 18 November 1819 in Bristol, Bucks, Pennsylvania.

My direct line:

1. Thomas Barton and Abigail ____.
2. John Barton and Ann Hitchcock.
3. Thomas Barton and Rebecca Ann Cooper.
4. Catherine Ann Barton and James W. Lyons, Sr.
5. Martha Ann K. Lyons and Bradford Carroll Armstrong.
6. George Pendleton Armstrong and Alice Elizabeth Nutick. (My great-grandparents).

References:

1. Joppa, Maryland. wikipedia.org
2. The Origin of Certain Place Names in the United States, Gannett, Henry (1905).

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