In the process of researching my Application for the Sons of the American Revolution I have come upon certain documents that seem to shed some new light on the early years of the life of Hill Freeburn and family.  It is my hope that by sharing these documents that this will stimulate even further research by someone with better access to and knowledge of the records of Philadelphia County, PA. 

I would be remiss to not first offer my acknowledgement to the wonderful work done by the other Freeburn researchers.  The standard work on the Freeburn family is "Footprints of the Freeburn Family in America."   This book has gone through a number of redrafts and provides much of the history of Hill and his family after the move to Dauphin County, Pennsylvania.

That early work concentrated heavily on the Dauphin County area of Pennsylvania where Hill and his wife Martha and family eventually settled, but it is equally important that we not overlook Philadelphia County and Oxford Twp.  Oxford Twp. is now part of modern Philadelphia but back at Hill's time it was one of several independent townships.  Those townships in 1852 were consolidated into the City of Philadelphia.  We first find Hill there in 1774 in the Tax Records and we find him there after the Revolutionary War.  He appears to have been there at least as late as 1783 when he appears on the tax rolls for Philadelphia County. 

An interesting possibility has cropped up which seems to indicate that there is at least a possibility that Hill Freeborn might trace his family history to Rhode Island and back to England.  It has always been the belief that he must have come to Philadelphia from Ireland (Scots-Irish) but there is now at least a strong case to be made for tracing his lineage back to William Freeborne and his wife Mary who arrived in American in 1634 from England.  Much work needs to be done on this before we can establish these theories as facts but the internet today has made research much easier and of greater scope.  As I said earlier, it has always been assumed that Hill Freeborn was Scotch-Irish.  This theory might contradict that assumption. 

Also, Steve Freeburne, has pointed out with regard to a letter (full text click here) we have from Hannah Crozier Freeburn, wife of Thomas Freeburn (son of Hill):

The piece of evidence that I have always put the most trust in is the letter from Hannah Crozier (wife of Thomas) where she is writing to her grandchildren and says "As for Glen's family, I heard your Grandpa Freeborn say that on his father's side, his Grandmothers maiden name was Martha Glen of Scotch descent. The Freeborns were of English descent."  This obviously shows that Hannah and probably Thomas believed his father (Hill) was of English descent and that the Glen's were from Scotland. 

NOTE:  FREEBORN, FREEBURN, FREBARN, FREEBORNE, FREEBOURNE??

As you begin researching the Freeburn family don't be put off by the spellings. They were often only as good as he skills of the clerk who recorded the name.  Hill Freeborn starts out in Philadelphia but is later Hill Freeburn in Dauphin County.  They are the same person, only the clerks spelling has changed. 

UPDATE - Earlier I had written that I believed that the evidence would show that Martha Glyn (Glen), Hill's wife, was in fact that child of Robert Glen and his Wife Katherine Kyn.  Katherine Kyn traces her history all the way back to Joran Kyn who accompanied some of the earliest Swedish Settlers to New Sweden area along the Delaware River.  To that end I have applied for Forefather Membership in the Swedish Colonial Society based on the service of Joran Kyn to the early Swedish settlers.  As of August 11th, 2007 I have received word that my application for Forefather Membership has been accepted and that I will hence forth be listed as a 12th Generational descendant in America of Joran Kyn.

Finally, welcome to this website.  It is just in the beginning stages and I hope that new research over the next few years will grow much of the Freeborn ancestry and I will hope to add my additional research into the Descendants of Hill Freeborn over the next few years.  Thanks for stopping by and if you would like to write to me I am at [email protected].  I would love to hear from you.

Before turn to Hill and his wife Martha I would first like to offer some theories on the possible roots and ancestors of Hill Freeburn.  Also, I have included additional information about the other Freeborns who were in Philadelphia during the same period as Hill and his wife.  Were they related?  Maybe time will give us some answers.  To begin you tour click next below.

At any time you can return to the Table of Contents for a listing of the various webpages.

William R. Johnson

Plymouth, Minnesota

August 2, 2007