The following contribution to Lancaster genealogy by Tony and Carol Murphy concerns a Lancaster family well-known for its role in Quaker history. Unfortunately the paper trail very difficult to make secure but several key figures are:

This is a contribution passed to Andrew Lancaster for posting, as part of the efforts of the group of Lancaster genealogists associated with the Lancaster Surname DNA project. Links:

Main Lancaster research page index.

Contact Andrew Lancaster.




THE LANCASTERS – MY THOUGHTS

by Tony and Carol Murphy

James Lancaster was a yeoman who lived in North Scale, in the northern part of Walney Island and died in 1699. We think he was the son of one of two brothers, Laurence, who had a son called James in 1618 and Thomas, who had a son called James in 1621. When Fox started the Quaker religion in 1652 James was one of the first to be “convinced”. He became a prominent Quaker missionary and was a member of the Valiant Sixty.

James Lancaster was married to Margaret (b 1631, IGI) It has been well documented, including IGI, that they were married in 1652 but we have been unable to find confirmation of this due to lack of records. They had at least four children, Ishmael (1653), Dinah (1656), Deborah (1660) and Elisha (1664) the latter three of which are confirmed in the Quaker records. Deborah married John Marshall, son of Nicholas Marshall of Biggar, Walney Island at Swarthmore in 1689, and Dinah married John Nicholson in 1678 at Pardshaw Cumberland, both Quakers, and according to notes in the Quaker archives setting up “generations of Quakers.” We have no further details of Ishmael.

According to independent sources on IGI Elisha married Elisabeth (b 1678 d 1724 Warwick) in Warwick in 1699 and they had three children, Mary (1700), Thomas (1702) and an unnamed male (1704) all born in Warwick. However, we looked at the Quaker records for Births, Marriages and Deaths that were available in Warwickshire Public Records Office but there was no mention of any Lancasters apart from the deaths of John Lancaster (shown as a non-member and no age or date of death) and his wife Elizabeth (died 1767 aged 68, a Minister for 16 years).  Whilst there we went through the parish records for both churches in Warwick, St. Mary’s and St. Nicholas, and the parish records of several villages nearby, but we could find no mention of a single Lancaster, not unusual as they were Quakers.

There are several reasons why we thought Elisha had moved to Warwick. Firstly, there are entries on IGI for Elisha Lancaster and other Lancasters showing Warwick, although the information comes from independent sources not parish records making it difficult to check. Secondly, in biographies written about Joseph Lancaster (see below) they mention that his father came from a Warwick Quaker family. Thirdly, in a note in the Brunel University there is mention of “Joseph’s Warwick cousins”.

We have discovered that there were two main Quaker groups, North Warwickshire and Mid Warwickshire, which met in Warwick but covered many areas. It is therefore quite possible that, whilst the Lancasters are mentioned as coming from Warwick, this meant the Quaker Society and that they actually came from an area that came under the umbrella of one of the sections such as Coventry.

In the minutes of the Mid Warwickshire Quaker monthly meeting we found a mention of Widow Elizabeth Lancaster and her two children Mary and Thomas referring to an American Quaker Ann Chapman (who we believe became Parsons), the daughter of John Chapman who emigrated to America from Yorkshire in 1684 and married Jane Sadler in 1670. We also come across the wedding of John Lancaster to Sarah Tyler in 1733.

It appears that Thomas and Mary went to America with Ann Chapman in 1711. Thomas married Phoebe Wardell (born Wales 1705, daughter of John Wardell) in 1725, and had thirteen children. 

We have obtained a copy of a book called, “The Lancaster Family, a History of Thomas and Phoebe Lancaster of Pennsylvania 1711-1902” written by Harry Fred Lancaster. It contains a list of all the descendants of Thomas and Phoebe up to 1902, giving as much information as was available on them at the time.

In the notes it mentions that during a visit by Joseph Lancaster to America in 1818 he visited the home of David and Ann Stokes bringing letters written by Thomas Lancaster to his grandfather and great aunt who were Thomas’s brother and sister. Whilst the book doesn’t give details of Thomas’s life before 1711 it mentions that he is thought to be descended from James Lancaster of Ulverston and mentions that either Ishmael or Elisha is his father. It also mentions that the tradition is that “Widow Elizabeth Lancaster with several children to support consented to the emigration knowing that he would receive better care and attention than she could bestow.” It also mentions the minutes of a Warwickshire meeting making reference to “Widow Lancaster’s children who went beyond the sea.”

According to biographies on his son, Joseph, Richard Lancaster was born in Warwick about 1742 and whilst he came from a Quaker background he was not a Quaker. His father was a splint maker and probably the unnamed male born in 1704. Our assumption is that this is possibly John and the fact that he was no longer a Quaker made it easier for Richard to follow a career in the Army. According to notes in the Quaker archives, Richard was thought to be a direct descendant of James Lancaster of Ulverston and Thomas Lancaster of Pennsylvania was his uncle.

Richard married Sarah Foulkes (d 7/1811). We have come across a Sarah Foulkes who was born in Castle Bromwich, which is not far from Warwick (Warwickshire), on 9 June 1748. Unfortunately we are unable to confirm the wedding in the parish records. Castle Bromwich was a “church at ease” and following legislation in 1754 was stopped from holding weddings until 1854. We have looked at the records of Aston, where many of the weddings took place but had no success. Whether this is the correct Sarah Foulkes we do not know.

James Lancaster, my grandfather x 4 was a son of Richard and Sarah, born in 1771, and Joseph was his younger brother, born in 1778 in Kent Street, Southwark. Joseph was being schooled for a religious career within the church but changed direction and became a Quaker. According to Mora Dickson in her book “Teacher Extraordinary” when Joseph told his father he was to be a Quaker his father said that “he (Richard), his father, and his grandfather had all been born Friends”.  He married Elizabeth Bonner (daughter of Henry (Harry) and Abigail Bonner (neé Grinth) on 5/6/1804. They had one daughter, Elizabeth (known as Betsy) on 8/9/1805, christened at St George the Martyr (known as the “Little Dorritt” church). However, after the birth, his wife Elizabeth was diagnosed as “insane” and “pronounced incurably and institutionally deranged”. For the remainder of her life she was classified as “frail” and there were no more children.

His wife died in 1820 and he was remarried in 1827 to Mary Robinson. He died in 1838 in poverty in New York after being knocked down by a horse.  There is a section dedicated to Joseph Lancaster at Brunel University, who held an exhibition about him in 1998.

The Lancaster family is a vast jigsaw puzzle with many pieces missing. We have to make assumptions on what it looks like from the pieces we have and sometimes we disagree. As more information emerges sometimes that picture changes. Remember we are trying to trace the movement of people and documentation going back over 400 years and transcending fires, desecration, flood, civil wars and great wars. Even if they survive many documents are damaged and unreadable, some written in old English and some in Latin. Hopefully, as more information emerges the picture will become clearer.

Tony and Carol Murphy