George Edgington I (1707-1791) - The Immigrant - Part Two: The Young American

Last month we determined that George likely arrived in America as a stowaway at the age of 14.  So, what happened to him next?

Unfortunately, no one has found a shred of evidence (or, if they have, they haven’t shared it publicly) that would tell us anything about George’s early years in America.  The first evidence we find comes in 1743, 22 years after his arrival.  

MARRIAGE

Records from the First Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia show the marriage of George Edgerton and Margaret Broome on 30 July 1743.  

Pennsylvania, Marriage Records, 1700-1821, Page 9, Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011, Provo, UT, USA, http://www.Ancestry.com

George would have been 37 years old and Margaret, his bride, was 20.  Margaret was the daughter of Thomas Broome, deceased, and Elizabeth Coley Broome.  It’s likely that Margaret, her mother and any other unmarried siblings were then living with one of Margaret’s older siblings.  We have evidence to prove that their’s was eventually a marriage of love.  We don’t know however if that was the case when they first married.  Certainly at the time it was likely important for Margaret to marry in order to relieve the family of the financial burden of supporting her.

WESTWARD HO

We don’t know exactly when George and Margaret moved to Virginia.  We can look at some records however to see if they provide any help.

First of all, it’s important to understand that people in the 1700’s had no legal requirement to record birth and death events.  It was left to the church or to the family to document these important events.  

Thomas, the first child born to George and Margaret, reported that he was born in January 1744 in Hampshire County, Virginia. If this were true however it would mean that his mother was pregnant when she married George.  While certainly possible, I’m doubtful that they would have allowed George and Margaret to marry in the church if she were pregnant.  I’m more inclined to believe that Thomas was actually born in January 1745 after George and Margaret moved to Virginia.

  

Whether they left immediately following their marriage in July 1743 or in the following Spring of 1744, later records show that they were there by 1745.  

George and Margaret would travelled there by way of the “Great Philadelphia Wagon Road," which went west from Philadelphia where it then joined with the "Great Valley Road" which headed south through the northern Shenandoah Valley.  At Winchester, they would have left the "Great Valley Road" and turned westward via what came to be known as the "Old Northwestern Turnpike.”  

Their goal was a piece of land near Pearsall's Flats (now known as Romeny, West Virginia).  By the late 1740s, the Flats would count approximately 200 settlers among its residents.  Conflicts with local Indians were common.  Next, we'll explore these conflicts and how they impacted the Edgington's.

Part Three:  Indian Conflicts

How we’re related: 

George Edgington I & Margaret Broome

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George Edgington II & Mary Naylor

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George Edgington III & Betty Lindsey

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Brice Viers Edgington & Margaret Gutridge

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Thomas Edgington & Isabel Walker

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Margaret Annabel Edgington & James Horatio Bladen

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Gertrude Ethel Blayden & James Iver Creger

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Helen Pauline Creger & John Robert Nielsen

References:

1. During the mid to late 1800’s, Lymon C. Draper interviewed and corresponded with three grandsons of George:  George (son of Thomas), Jacob (son of Isaac) and Jesse (son of Jesse).  The information obtained was collected and included in the 500 volumes that now comprise what is known as the Draper Manuscripts. Draper Manuscript, MSS, Series S, Volume 16, Page 271.  
2. Edgington, Thomas Benton (1837-1929); Lawyer & Edgington family genealogist; son of Jesse Edgington (1792-1842), grandson of Jesse Edgington (1759-1821), great grandson of George Edgington (1707-1791).  It is thought that Thomas got some of his information from his grandmother, Margaret Parramore wife of Jesse Edgington, who lived with his parents from the time Thomas was born until he was 10 years old. 
3. Highland Pioneer Sketches and Family Genealogies, Elsie Johnson Ayres, H.K. Skinner & Son (1971).
4. Historical Collections of Adams County Ohio, Carl N. Thompson, Adams County Historical Society (1991)
5. Further Materials on Lewis Wetzel and the Upper Ohio Frontier, part of the Draper Manuscript, edited by Jared C. Lobell, published by Heritage Books, Inc. (1994)
6. Descendants of George Edgington and Margaret Broome, Volume I, Howard Edgington, Apple Valley, CA, self published (undated)
7. Pioneer Days: Early History of Jefferson County, Ohio, Mary Donaldson Sinclair, Shenandoah Publishing Co. (1962)