| Notes |
- Year of birth estimated between 1712 and 1716; died probably 1805, aged about 89-90 years.
The following is quoted directly from "The Newlin Family: Ancestors and Descendants of John and Mary Pyle Newlin" (1965) by Dr. Algie I. Newlin (1895-1985), with the collaboration of Harvey Newlin (1888-1970), pages 35-43:
John Newlin
Most of the life story of John and Mary Pyle Newlin has been swallowed by obscurity as has been the great preponderance of all human history. John Newlin's ancestry can be definitely traced for less than one hundred years; but more in known about John's great-grandfather Nicholas, the first to stand out clearly above tradition, than is known about John, who migrated to North Carolina. The few and meager bits of information about him suggest that he must have been an independent, strong-willed and rather adventurous man.
Moving from place to place is one of the noticeable characteristics of settlers who followed in the trail of the frontiersmen. Many of them moved their residence several times from one place to another. It is known that John Newlin changed his residence at least three times; the last time to start life anew in a community nearly five hundred miles away. It is important to remember, however, that this restlessness was during a time when eastern Pennsylvania and the surrounding colonies were in a tremendous ferment of interest in the rapidly developing great interior, the hill country from eastern Pennsylvania all the way to Georgia. This developed into the greatest migration to the interior in the whole colonial period. Pennsylvania was the starting point for the stream of emigrants who headed for the southern Piedmont. A great number of Quakers helped to swell the stream. In the half century preceding the outbreak of the War for Independence, Quakers set up their meetings in more than forty communities between Pennsylvania and Georgia. John and Mary Pyle Newlin and their children were in this great shift of population which settled the whole hinterland of the Middle and South Atlantic seaboard.
It seems quite obvious that John Newlin was not disposed to submit to the rather strict regulations which the Friends meetings tried to impose on their members. The minutes of the local meetings are interspersed with accounts of infractions of these regulations, with the "laboring" of committees and with numerous disownments of strong willed persons who would not make "acknowledgement" (express regret) for their nonconformity. John Newlin was such a nonconformist. While living a few miles from Concord, and while a member of Bradford Meeting, he was called to account for infractions of Quaker regulations. For negligence in obligations to a neighbor he readily made amends but as for regular attendance of meetings of worship he would make no promise. A few years later Bradford Meeting granted him a certificate for the transfer of his membership back to Concord Meeting, the meeting of his birthright. This would never have been granted if he had not been considered a member "in good standing" in the eyes of Bradford Friends.
In 1765 Quaker discipline caught up with him again. The Concord Meeting appointed a committee to "labor" with him. After the Meeting and its committee worked for four months in a futile effort to get this strong willed man to agree to conform, the Meeting decided on the action of last resort, and (in the fifth monthly session) the disownment was completed. His name was removed from the membership roll for three reasons: "...drinking to excess, going away without a certificate, and neglecting to attend religious meetings."
It is possible that the cumulative force of these brought the final action. There are many instances of migration without a certificate with no action by the meetings. One can hardly imagine that all who failed to attend meetings for worship regularly were disowned, though the Quaker records contain numerous instances of endeavors to deal with this act of negligence. One of the members of the committee appointed to notify John of his disownment had been called to account for failure to attend meetings for worship, and only the month before had made his "acknowledgement," which the meeting promptly accepted. At that time drinking alcoholic beverages was not condemned by Friends, but drinking to excess was.
It is possible that John Newlin felt that these were matters that should be left to the individual and he must have resented what appeared to him to be a straight-jacket of Quaker rules of discipline. Though he lived for forty years after being removed from membership in the Society of Friends there is no intimation that he ever asked to be reinstated.
There is a saying among Newlins in Illinois that "Newlins have big feet and are stubborn." The size of John's feet is unknown but it seems quite possible that he was an obstinate man, possibly to the point of personal pride, when faced with conventions and regulations with which he did not agree. When Concord Meeting complained of some of his actions the meeting's appointed committee reported that "... he agreed to the truth of the complaints but doth not incline to make acknowledgements for the same." He had the stamina to admit the truth of the charges but was not willing to express regret. In spite of the evidence of infractions of Quaker discipline the available light on his life and character enables one to believe that he was a man of integrity whose honorable and commendable life was a constructive influence in his family and in his community.
Mary Pyle Newlin
Mary (Pyle) Newlin's ancestry has been traced back to 1594, to the birth of her great-great-grandfather, John Pyle, in Wiltshire, England. In 1620 he married Mary Withers. Their son, Nicholas N. Pyle (born 13-III-1625, d 24-VIII-1691) married Edith Musprat, 22-IX-1656. They had nine children. Three of them-John, Robert, and Nicholas emigrated to Pennsylvania in 1683. This Nicholas, Mary's grandfather, was born in 1666. In September 1688 he married Abigail Bushell, daughter of Joseph Bushell. Mary's grandfather Pyle emigrated from Wiltshire, England, to Pennsylvania, in the same year that her husband's grandfather and great-grandparents went from Ireland to the same locality in Pennsylvania.
Nicholas and Abigail had seven children. Nicholas, their third child, (and the third in succession by that name, in Mary's line of ancestors) was born 26-II-1697. He married Sarah Worrilow. They were Mary Pyle Newlin's parents. Sarah Worrilow was the daughter of John and Ann (Maris) Worrilow. The parents of Ann Maris were George and Alice Maris of Worcestershire, England.
Edith Pyle, who married Nicholas Newlin, was Mary's aunt; and Nicholas Newlin was the uncle of her husband, John. Mary's uncle, Dr. Samuel Pyle, had gone to England for his medical training. He and his wife, Sarah Pyle, had nine children; the second, John Pyle, became the most famous. He, too, was a physician. He married Sarah Baldwin, daughter of John and Hannah B. Baldwin. The stream of emigrants from Pennsylvania carried them to the Cane Creek community where they acquired land and built a home overlooking Cane Creek, just opposite Lindley's Mill. Dr. Pyle's home was about three miles from that of his cousin, Mary Pyle Newlin. During the Regulator Movement (1768-1771) his sympathies were with the aggrieved citizens and he is known to have helped some of them save their property from confiscation by unscrupulous tax collectors.
During the War for Independence, like many of the leading citizens of the colonies, Dr. Pyle opposed the drive for separation from Great Britain. As a colonel in the loyalist army he was seriously wounded in February, 1791 (sic 1781), when the three hundred men under his command were cut to pieces by Colonel "Lighthorse Harry" Lee's cavalry, whom the Loyalists persisted in believing to be the expected British Cavalry they had never seen. Colonel Pyle was later captured and paroled. At the Battle of Lindley's Mill, fought within sight of his home, he cared for the wounded of both armies, Whigs and Loyalists alike. The fact that the Government of North Carolina did not confiscate his land indicates that he was held in high esteem for few of the Loyalists who held large tracts of land escaped this vindictive measure.
The exact date of the arrival of the members of the Newlin family to begin life in the virgin woodland overlooking Haw River is unknown. Most of the history of the settlement of any frontier is buried in the oblivion which soon absorbed its adventures and hard daily grind. Tradition has had the family of eight trudging together over the long woodland road to the South, in the year 1768. Enough evidence has been found to shake this tradition, to lead one to doubt that they blazed the Newlin trail together as a family, and to give rise to the belief that John and Mary and their first five children were all settled there before 1768. The records of Concord Meeting in Pennsylvania give what pertinent data has been brought to light by recent research.
A few years after John Newlin and his family moved from Bradford back to Concord Township he was called to account, as already noted. It seems necessary to quote the minute again, for the date and one of the complaints start a chain of events which may throw some light on the time the members of the family first reached North Carolina.
Concord Monthly Meeting held 9th of 10th Month, 1765 says: "...Concord Preparative Meeting brings a complaint against John Newlin, for drinking to excess, going away without a Certificate and neglecting to attend religious meetings. John Brinton and Nathan Yarnall are to treat with him on the occasion and report to our next meeting." One of the three complaints- "...going away without a Certificate..." may be pertinent to the date of John's first move to North Carolina. Where did he go "without a Certificate"? It must have been for a somewhat extended sojourn.
The Minute of Concord Meeting telling of the first report of the committee, appointed to "treat with John Newlin," indicates that he must have been back in Concord at that time. This Minute of "6th of 11th Month, 1765..." reports: "...the Friends appointed to treat with John Newlin report that they have done accordingly and that he agreed to the truth of the complaints but doth not incline to make acknowledgement for the same; Richard Park and John Trimble are to prepare a testimony against him and bring to our next meeting and acquaint him therewith."
One month later, on "...4th of 12th Month, 1765..." the following minute was made: "The testimony against John Newlin is produced approved and signed. Nathan Yarnall is to proceed therein as our discipline directs and report to the next meeting." This would include notifying John Newlin. The Minutes of "...8th of 1st Month, 1766..." record the following: "The Friend appointed on John Newlin affair report that he had proceeded as ordered except the reading which is to be done and reported at next meeting." This minute indicated that John Newlin had been informed of the action of the Meeting and that the "testimony" against him would be read at the close of a future meeting for worship. The Minutes for "...5th of 2nd Month, 1766..." indicate that, "...the testimony against John Newlin is read and returned as ordered."
These five monthly sessions in which John Newlin's case was considered were in late fall and winter months. It is quite obvious that John Newlin could have spent much of the year 1765 in North Carolina, then returned to Pennsylvania for the winter months. He could have gone back to the farm on Haw River at the end of winter.
The Women's Meeting of Concord Monthly Meeting for "...8th of 6th Mo., 1768..." reports the following: "A Certificate was requested for Mary Newlin and her children to Cane Creek Monthly Meeting in North Carolina..."
This phraseology may reasonably be interpreted to mean that Mary and the children had already gone to North Carolina, and someone was presenting this request for her. If she had been in her Concord home she would have made the request herself. The Minutes of one month later remove any doubt about her location: "From our Monthly Meeting of Friends held at Concord the 6th day of 7th Month, 1768...To Friends of Cain Creek Monthly Meeting in North Carolina...Dear Friends: Application hath been made to us for a few lines by way of certificate for Mary Newlin the wife of John Newlin and her children who is removed and settled with her husband John Newlin within the verge of your meeting. Now these may certifie on her behalf, that after the needful Enquiry made we do not find but that her life and conversation have been in good degree orderly and at times frequented our religious meeting for worship and discipline her children being young and under the tuition of their parents we think it is not needful to say much concerning them only that they have had their Birthright amongst us and as such we recommend her together with her three children To Wit, John Eli and Mary to Divine protection and your Christian Care and oversight. And remain your friends Brethren and Sisters
Signed on behalf of our Meeting
by Caleb Pierce, (sic) Jun Clk."
The certificate removes any doubt as to where John and Mary Pyle Newlin migrated. The exact location of their home is known but the exact date of either from Pennsylvania is still not known. The first question is for the date John Newlin established at least "squatters claim" to the tract of land on which he and his family would make their future home. Documents in the Land Grant Office, in Raleigh, North Carolina, give important information about the survey, the area of the tract, and the official grant of the land. The earliest of these, the order for the survey, gives implications which have a bearing on the question at issue. This order, given in 1779, is as follows:
"John Butler Entry Officer of Claims for land in the County of Orange, To the Surveyor of the said County, greetings. You are hereby required as soon as may be to lay off and survey for John Newland a tract or parcel of land containing two hundred and seventy acres lying in the county aforesaid on the south side of Haw River adjoining the land of Robert Woody, including the Improvements where John Newland now lives observing the direction of the act of assembly in such case made and provided for running out land, two just and fair plans of such survey with a proper certificate annexed to each, you are to transmit with this warrant to the secretary's office without delay. Given under my hand at Mount Pleasant the Eighteenth day of October
Anno Dom. 1779
John Butler"
This document calls attention to an act of the colonial Assembly of North Carolina which enabled John as a settler, to establish rights of pre-emption (squatters rights) which would protect his claim to the land and to the improvements which he might make, until a patent (deed) could be secured. Sometimes two or more decades were allowed to elapse between these two acts. The order for the survey also indicates that improvements had been made, that "John Newland" was living on the land and that a previous survey had been made, since the exact acreage had been give. The survey, with the plat drawn to scale, is dated "...the 15th of February 1787." Though it was to be made "as soon as may be," more than seven years elapsed before it was completed.
One year and five months later the grant was made in the following words:
"State of North Carolina.
No 863. Know Ye that we have granted unto John Newland a tract of Land containing Two hundred and seventy acres lying in our County of Orange Lying on the waters of Haw River adjoining his own land John Carter and Mary Woody Beginning at a white cherry tree on the side of Haw River running thence South twenty nine chains to a hicory (sic) then West twenty six and one half chains to a white oak then South thirty eight chains to a post oak then East forty two chains to a post oak aline for Sheredon then forty-five degrees East thirty six chains to a beach on Haw River then down the meanders thereof to the first station to hold to the said John Newland His Heirs and Assigns forever dated the tenth day of July 1788.
Sam Johnson
J. Glasgow Secretary
Certainly John Newlin held this land for as much as two decades and possibly for twenty-three years under right of preemption, before receiving a deed which finally gave him complete ownership. Though this time was unusually long it was not unique.
Though fully aware of the possibility of error there is enough available evidence to enocourage indulgence in the conjecture about the time members of this family settled in their Haw River home. It seems quite possible that John Newlin spent much if not all of the summer of 1765 in North Carolina, "spying out the land," and making necessary preparation for the coming of the other members of his family a couple of summers later. At that time he could be spared from his home and farm in Pennsylvania since James, the oldest of the children, was eighteen years of age, and it seems safe to assume that Mary Pyle Newlin was a very capable person. In those days a high percentage of the men who planned to take their families out to new country, on the edge of the frontier, would go out ahead of the other members of the family, acquire desirable land, build the necessary houses, perhaps clear some land for cultivation and even plant a crop before the arrival of the wife and children. There is no reason for thinking that John Newlin was not equally solicitous of the comfort and welfare of his wife and children.
John can be pictured as leaving home in the spring of 1765 when Mary, the youngest child, was no more than eighteen months old. It is quite possible that he returned in the late fall to spend the winter with the family. At this time Concord Meeting could have become aware of his long sojourn in North Carolina and of his intention to settle there. It was during this winter that he was disowned, after the Committee had "labored" with him during four of the winter months. It is quite likely that he was back on his Haw River claim during much of the year 1766 and then in the spring, or early summer, of 1767, Mary and the children began a new chapter in the life of the family in their new home. Nathaniel, their youngest child, was born on May 11, 1768, in the Newlin home in the Haw River valley, seven weeks before Concord Friends issued the certificates for Mary Pyle Newlin and the three children known to them.
Two hundred and seventy acres of good farm land was more than enough to enable a family to live comfortably, according to the standards of that day but it seemed very small when compared with the holdings of many of his Newlin ancestors in America. His father inherited more than a thousand acres of land; his grandfather Nathaniel acquired by inheritance and purchase more than eight thousand acres; and it is possible that his great-grandfather Nicholas bought more than twelve hundred acres in Chester County, Pennsylvania. John's eldest son, James, got back into the running by acquiring more than nine hundred acres in the Cane Creek valley. It seems that James' son, John, exceeded all previous records in North Carolina by getting possession of large tracts of land in Alamance and Orange counties.
When Concord Meeting granted a certificate of membership for Mary Pyle Newlin, the three youngest were included, while a separate certificate was granted to each of the two oldest. At that time James was approaching twenty-one, Hannah was just ninenteen, John was fifteen and a half, Eli was thirteen, Mary was nearly five, and Nathaniel, born in North Carolina less than seven weeks before, was unknown to Concord Friends.
As far as available information goes, the children of John and Mary followed the precepts of their religious faith and were held in esteem by their neighbors. Records show that every one of them was married "after the manner of Friends." Some of them took a prominent part in the life of their meeting. Nathaniel, an elder, with the approval of his meeting, made an extended religious visit to Friends and Friends meetings in Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois. No evidence has been found that the conduct of any of the children was ever called in question by their meeting. This may be in part the result of parental influence. In Pennsylvania and in North Carolina, Mary was rather obviously a strong and stable influence in the family. It is quite possible that John, in the last half of his life, showed greater moral stamina than is to be inferred from references to him in Pennsylvania Quaker records.
In his "Last Will and Testament," made in 1799 and probated in August, 1805, John left his "plantation" of "two hundred and seventy acres" to Nathaniel, his youngest child. There was the provision that he should pay his living brothers and sisters "the sum of thirty pounds each," and the five children of Eli (deceased) were to receive 5 each. It is regrettable that no inventory was made of "the residue" of his personal estate which was to be "sold and divided" among his "living children equally." If through his will he had divided his personal property item by item it would have preserved a better picture of his home.
The specific dates of the birth and death of John and Mary have not been found. What relative data there is indicates that Mary died in early 1790 at the age of 66. She is not mentioned in the Census of 1790.
John Newlin's will was proved in August, 1805 and it is assumed that he died in that year, fifteen years after the death of Mary Pyle Newlin. Taking 1716 as the most probable of the three suggested dates of his birth would give him a lifespan of eighty-nine years.
John and Mary Pyle Newlin were buried in the cemetery of Spring Friends Meeting in the southern part of what is now Alamance County. There is the tradition that their graves were dug near a large cedar tree, which still stands green and tall and healthy 174 years after Mary's burial (1964). In 1930 some of their descendants placed at the head of their graves a huge stone slab, sculpted by nature, and attached to it a bronze plaque bearing the inscription
In Memory
of
John Newlin and Mary Pyle
as a lasting memorial to these founders of a great branch of the Newlin family.
The "Western Fever" took such a heavy toll of the North Carolina Newlins that possibly three-fourths of the descendants of John and Mary (Pyle) Newlin of the present day can now see their ancestors in the great westward migration of the first half of the nineteenth century "when the old America seemed to be breaking up and moving westward." In one decade, that of the 1820's, the inhabitants of the trans-Appalachian West increased by nearly 1,500,000 to raise the population of that area to one fourth that of the whole United States. This surge to the West caught four of the six children of John and Mary (Pyle) Newlin; three of them born in Pennsylvania. They were: Hannah (Newlin) Holladay, John, Mary (Newlin) Hadley and Nathaniel Newlin. Eli Newlin and James died in North Carolina but Deborah (Lindley) Newlin, the widow of James Newlin was among those who moved to Indiana, where three of their five sons made their home. At least four of the ten children of Hannah (Newlin) and Robert Holladay moved to the Middle West with their parents. All of the ten children of John and Sarah (Holladay) Newlin and all five of the children of Eli and Sarah (Hadley) Newlin sought new homes in Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois. Mary (Newlin) and Thomas Hadley saw at least four of their ten children migrate to the Mississippi valley. Only one of the ten children of Nathaniel and Catherine (Hadley) Newlin remained and watched all other members of his family leave for the West.
From this nineteenth century dispersion, Newlins and Newlin descendants have scattered to nearly all, if not all of the states to the west of the Appalachians,including Hawaii and Alaska. But of this area the greatest concentration of Newlins must have been Crawford County, Illinois. There is a saying in that county that "At one time there was nothing but Newlins and Johnson grass in Crawford County; we got rid of the Johnson grass."
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1715 - 1805 (90 years)
