Bio-sketches U-Z

Bio-sketches U-Z

Bio-sketches U-Z

Genealogy Project -- A Work in Progress

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Wheeler, Moses (1598-1698) - CT - arrived by 1638

Moses Wheeler, a shipwright, was born in Kent County, England, 1598. In early days the surname was spelled Wheler and is sometimes still so spelled in England. He settled in New Haven, 1638, married Miriam [Hawley], sister of Joseph Hawley. They settled in Stratford, 1648. They were the parents of six children. He was an extensive land-holder and influential man. He established a ferry over the Housatonic by charter from General Court. The names Moses Wheeler and Joseph Hawley were among the "petitioners" of the Church of Christ at Stratford on May 14, 1669, to the Hon. Gen. Court assembled at Hartford. This court case attempted to resolve two factions who both wanted the use of the meeting house for their services under their preacher. The case dragged on for years. Finally, in 1672, one section left Stratford and removed to Pomperaug. Moses Wheeler died 15 January 1698 at the age of 100. JONES-THOMPSON family line.

WHITAKER -- also WHITACAR, WHITECER, WHITACRE, WHITCER, WHITEAKER, WHITKER, WHITTAKER,WHITTEAKER and still more similar spellings: It is thought that the group shown here were descendants of William Whitaker and Elizabeth Carleton, also described here. We show the members of that family who at some time during their lifetimes lived in Georgia because we are seeking confirmation of the parentage of Bob's NC/GA ancestor Joshua Whitaker Jr. (born 1783 or 1784 in NC and d. 1852 in Columbia Co., GA.)

Whitaker, Sr., Joshua (btw 1760 and 1770 - 1825) - ?, GA

Joshua Whitaker, Sr. is found first in Richmond County and then in adjoining Columbia County, Georgia, alongside a younger Joshua Whitaker, according to both census and land records. Georgia Land Lotteries indicate he served in the Revolutionary War. [The younger Joshua, perhaps his son or nephew, served in the Seminole War in 1818, and is referred to in several public records as Joshua Whitaker, Jr.] Joshua Whitaker Sr. was in the Richmond Co., GA tax lists in 1809, 1816, and 1818. JoshuaWhitaker Sr. appears in Richmond County census in 1820 in the category of male, 50-60, thus born between 1760 and 1770. In another household in Richmond County there appears a Joshua Whitaker 1 male 26-44 [Joshua Jr., b abt 1783, age abt 37]. In the 1820 Land Lottery, the senior JoshuaWhitaker acquired land in Early County, Georgia, "Palmers Military District, Land Lot 313, Section 8, Early county, Georgia." [In the same lottery, Joshua Whitteaker, Junr. is listed residing in Columbia County.] On Jan. 9, 1826, Letters of Administration were granted to William Whitaker on the estate of Joshua Whitaker, dec'd on his giving bond and security in the sum of $1800. Members of our branch of the family speculate that Joshua Whitaker Sr. was a brother to Samuel Whitaker, born 1753, which would mean they are both sons of Samuel Whitaker, (son of William Whitaker and Elizabeth Carleton), born between 1721 and 1731.

Whitaker, Mark (Marcus) (abt1727 - ?) - PA, NC, GA, SC

Mark was one of several sons of William Whitaker and Elizabeth Carleton. He was unmarried when he left Pennsylvania for North Carolina with his parents and younger brothers and sisters about 1751/52. He may have preceded them to scout out the area. Land records show that Mark and wife Tabitha of Abbott's Creek and Swearing Creek, Rowan Co., NC, werel ocated in that part of Rowan County which became Davidson County, of which Lexington is the county sea,. (first being Anson County.) Mark was a large landholder in McCulloch's Tract and was a Tory during the American Revolutionary War. Being a Tory sympathizer, Mark got into hot water with the Regulators during the late 1760's. The Regulators were constantly at odds with the British authorities over unjust laws and unfair taxes, but not all Regulators were patriots. In a Rowan Co, NC, deed of 18 May 1772, Mark and his wife Tabitha sold to Joshua Whitaker [a brother who remained in NC] for 50 pounds proc, 200 A on Swearing Crk, part of 523 A bought from H. E. McCulloh, 1 Dec 1762. They then left North Carolina and went to Wilkes County, Georgia, where Mark acquired ceded land 15 Oct 1773. That records shows that at that time he had a wife and 4 sons and 3 daughters, ranging in age from 16 years to 7 months. While living in Wilkes County, Georgia, in 1776, Mark, along with several other Tories, was arrested and charged with trafficking on the Savannah River with the British. This group of traitors was taken to Fort Charlotte. Although some were tried and hanged, Mark was allowed to return to his farm in Wilkes County. In 1783 he appears on a list of Loyalists there, with indications he was unwelcome in the area. It was probably soon after that when he left for South Carolina, where records showed he was residing in 1787. Earlier, in 1771 and 1772, Mark and Tabitha had sold off most of their NC land; their next NC record occurs in 1787 when as residents of South Carolina, their NC land sale of 1772 was re-recorded; that record was witnessed by Eldad Reed, a son-in-law of William Whitaker and brother-in-law of Mark. No record has been located to indicate whether Mark and Tabitha remained in South Carolina. In a Whitaker family historiy compiled 1872-1874, Henry Whitaker is quoted, "Marques went to South Carolina and Samuel went to Georgia." The names of Mark's children are unknown but would perhaps be located in Georgia and South Carolina.[Please note that some researchers are of the opinion that Mark, son of William and Elizabeth, remained in North Carolina, and married Catherine Boone, but that Mark was born in1750, probably a son of Mark of Maryland. Mark and Catherine were probably the parents of "Pegleg John" and his brother, another Mark Whitaker. Three wives names appear in North Carolina's court records in that area: Tabitha, Ann, and Abigail, with Abigail thought to be the wife of a younger Mark Jr. It appears that more than one Mark Whitaker lived in the same area, and it is difficult to distinguish between individuals with the same name who live close together. Various spellings of the surname don't seem to help as they aren't consistent, sometimes even in a single record. However, "Old Rowan County" land records show they lived in different locations within that region.

Whitaker, Samuel (abt 1731 - abt 1807) - PA, GA

Samuel Whitaker was one of several sons of William Whitaker and Elizabeth Carleton. His birthdates are shown by various researchers as 1721, 1724, 1727, 1728, 1730, or 1731. The book WHITAKERS , 1086-1990, in the LDS library, implies Samuel's birthdate as 1731 when the author says that Samuel was 22 when the rest of the family went to North Carolina in 1753. Samuel Whiteaker and Mark Whitaker of St. Paul Parish, GA. appear among lists of Loyalists in 1774. These two may be brothers, sons of William Whitaker and Elizabeth Carleton of Rowan Co. NC. Either Samuel or Mark could be the father of Richmond Co. GA's Joshua Whitaker, Sr. who was born about 1760. Mark went first to NC, then to GA, then to SC. No one knows much about Samuel, but HenryWhitaker, [Whitaker History, compiled 1872 and 1874] suggested that he stayed behind in Pennsylvania when most of the family left for North Carolina, but that he later went to Georgia. One might conjecture that when the family left, he was already established in Pennsylvania, perhaps married.

Whitaker, Samuel (1753-1802) - PA, NC, GA

In 1778, Samuel married Mary Graves, a dau of Revolutionary soldier James Graves and Mary Copeland, born in Virginia. There is a warrant in Richmond Co., GA, for Chas. Crawford Esq. 29 July 1787 to Samuel Whitaker for 200 a. land survey 4 July 1787 by Wm. Sims land, bounded by vacant land, Headstall Creek and Poley bridge. Samuel and Joshua Whitaker are in Columbia Co GA in 1793, but it is not known for sure which Samuel or which Joshua. One opinion is that they were brothers, sons of Samuel Whiteaker, Sr. [It is interesting to note that in the 1820 census for Richmond Co., GA, only one name, illegible, but not WHITAKER, separates Joshua Whitaker from S. Whitaker. Also in the 1820 Richmond County census are Wm. H. Whitaker and John H. Whitaker. Columns are crooked, making it hard to be sure of accuracy in placing the ages.] In1790, Samuel Whitacre served on a jury in Richmond Co., GA, and other Richmond Co. records exist, but it is impossible to separate them out for each of those bearing the same name. Beginning in 1798, the name appears in neighboring Franklin County,Georgia. Samuel died in Carnesville, Franklin Co., GA in 1802. The Inventory of the Estate of Samuel Whitaker appears in Franklin County records, February 18, 1805. The estate was administered by William, Andrew and John Williamson. Real estate consisted of a house and a 1/2 acre lot at the time of his death. Samuel's widow, Mary Graves Whitaker, moved to Wilkinson Co., Mississippi in 1808. She married second to John Thompson, on 2 July 1809, Amite County, Mississippi. The children of Samuel Whitaker and Mary Graves are listed in a DAR record, Roster of Revolutionary Soldiers in Georgia, Vol. 1 by McCall, pages 178-179:
1. Mark (1783-1852), mar. Feb. 8, 1808, Richmond Co., Ga., Mary Brooks
2. Joshua, b. 1779.
3. William, b. 1781.
4. John.
5. Joel
6. Sarah.
7. Elizabeth
[Note: Parts of this DAR record are questioned -- it shows Samuel to be the son rather than the grandson of William Whitaker and Elizabeth Carleton. It also credits him as being a Revolutionary soldier acquiring 287 1/2 acres of land, but this appears instead to be land granted to the Samuel Whitaker of Washington County, GA, a brother of Hudson, sons of John Whitaker and Olive Taylor. Note above that the only real estate owned by Samuel of Franklin County was his house and a 1/2 acre lot.]

Whitaker, William (1701- 18??) - England, PA, NC

William Whitaker, youngest son of Joshua and a grandson of Robert, was born in England in about 1701, probably in Lancashire, although some show the birthplace of William and his siblings as being Grindleton, West Riding, in Yorkshire, England. The historic village of Grindleton, in Yorkshire (now in Lancashire, England) is known today as the place where a religious sect known as Grindletonians developed in the early 1600s, and that many of them became Quakers.

The family moved to Timahoe, Ireland about 1716/1717 but stayed there only a short time before moving to Dublin. After his father's death, William submitted a request to the monthly meeting of the Quaker Society in Dublin for a Certificate of Removal to Pennsylvania. He was following his Whitaker uncles John and James who had come to Pennsylvania several years earlier. William arrived in Philadelphia in 1720. On October 2, 1721, William was received on certificate from the Dublin MM (Quakers) by the Newark MM, Chester Co., PA. It appears that William and his brother Peter came to America first, and their mother Jane and sister Katherine and brother Robert came two or three years later.

William Whitaker and Elizabeth Carleton married at the Quaker Meeting House in Chester Co., Pennsylvania on Dec. 13, 1722, having made their first announcement of their intention to wed on November 5, 1722, at the Monthly Meeting at Kennett Square. They lived in PA until 1752 or 1753. Bill Whitaker in WHITAKERS 1086-1990 shows the births of the following children: Lydia born 1724, Marcus (Mark) born 1727, Susannah born 1728, Samuel born 1731, Peter born 1733, William, Jr. born 1734, Joshua born 1735, Sarah born 1737, and Jane born 1738.

In 1734, William bought a hundred acres of land and moved west to Bradford Twp. near his Uncle James. William moved his Quaker Membership to the Bradford MM. In 1739/40, William was packed and ready to move back to Kennett Square, when he suffered a terrible fire, which destroyed all he owned except the family Bible, which was then 128 yrs old. This old Whitaker Bible, which still survives, is the "Britches Bible" Geneva version, which immediately preceded the King James version.

Sometime in 1751/52, William heard of cheap land on the Carolina frontier and decided to move to North Carolina. The Bradford MM gave him a certificate to remove on May 15, 1751, because William wanted to settle in a Quaker community. By the time William and Elizabeth were ready to leave PA in 1753, Lydia was already married and had left home, and their 22-year-old son Samuel had decided to remain in PA. The rest of the children went with their parents. Several researchers believe that Samuel and Mark later moved to Georgia and/or South Carolina.

In 1753, William and his family joined with others to travel from Pennsylvania for North Carolina. Heading south through the Shenandoah Valley in Virginia, they would have used the "Great Wagon Road," which ran from Philadelphia, PA, to Salisbury, NC, a distance of 435 miles. Due to Indian uprisings (the French & Indian War) they stayed for awhile in Augusta County Virginia for protection where they were joined by a wagon train of Baptists from Hopewell Twp., New Jersey. Perhaps this experience explains why the Whitakers, who had been Quakers for a hundred years, chose upon arrival in North Carolina to settle and worship among Baptists, when they could have easily presented their Quaker certificate to the nearby Carolina MM.