My family’s association with Pennsylvania began with my 9 x great grandparents John Bevan and Barbara Aubrey. This section of my website chronicles their story, and my Pennsylvanian ancestors’ stories.
Barbara was born c1637 in Pencoed, Glamorgan. John was born c1646 in Llantrisant, six miles from Pencoed. The couple married on 26 November 1667 in Llantrisant, probably shortly after John’s twenty-first birthday. The age difference – Barbara was nine years older – was unusual for the time, but not unique. John’s chronicles in later life affirm that this was a love match, and not a social status union – these people cared about each other.
Barbara is a Gateway Ancestor to the Magna Carta. Through several branches she could trace her ancestry back to the Surety Barons, including William de Mowbray.
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As a teenager, John inherited a “considerable estate”. However, his brothers were unprovided for. When he came of age, John portioned his land and gave his brothers “a helpful subsistence in this world”.
Pictured, Cowbridge, Glamorgan, 1835 a little after John and Barbara’s time, but I’m sure this landscape would have been familiar to them.
My 9 x great grandfather John Bevan, born c1646, was an educated man, a member of the landed gentry. He was also a religious man and devoted to his family. In the 1670s he became a Quaker. Initially, his wife Barbara Aubrey was reluctant to share his beliefs. However, she decided to join him in the Society of Friends.
This page from a Quaker Monthly Meeting Record of 1730 details how John Bevan was excommunicated for his Quaker beliefs and how John’s friends were arrested at his house and imprisoned for fourteen weeks for their beliefs. The record also states that Barbara “who sincerely loved her husband” gave the priest who excommunicated John a “piece of her mind”.
( 💪 What a woman. I love her 🙂).
John met William Penn and discussed his situation. Penn suggested that John and his family should accompany him, and create new lives for themselves in America. The year was 1681 and John told Penn that he would give the matter serious thought.
Because of his Quaker beliefs, my 9 x great grandfather John Bevan faced a dilemma: to remain in Wales and risk further persecution, or accompany William Penn on his voyage to America.
John mulled over this problem for two years. He wrote in his journal (extract below): “Sometime before the year 1683, we had heard that our esteemed friend, William Penn, had a patent from King Charles the Second for that Provence in America called Pencilvania, and my wife (Barbara Aubrey) had a great intention to go thither, and thought it might be a good place to train up children amongst sober people, and to prevent the corruption of them here.”
After prolonged discussions with William Penn (pictured), my 9 x great grandparents John Bevan and Barbara Aubrey decided to pack up their belongings and transport their “tender family” to America.
However, this wasn’t just one family on the move. William Penn persuaded John and Barbara to establish the Welsh Tract in Pennsylvania. To this end, they formed Company Number 3.
John received a deed for 2,000 acres on which he would establish the Welsh Tract. The people who accompanied John included his brother Charles, John Richard a tailor, Elizabeth and Katharine Prichard spinsters, and Matthew Jones a mercer. John and Charles secured 980 acres for themselves while the rest of the land was parcelled out to the other settlers. In time, John owned 1,453 acres of the Welsh Tract.
John, Barbara, their family and the other settlers set sail on the Morning Star. They arrived in Pennsylvania in November 1783 and set about establishing a colony.
Hannah Howe 