2. REBECCA, b.· ; d. ; m. 1st, August 24, 1688, at Ifield Friends' Meeting, in Sussex, Edward Blackfan, son of John Blackfan, of Stenning, County of Sussex, England.' Her cousin, William Penn, Proprietary of Pennsylvania, and some of his family attended the wedding. Edward Blackfan was a member of the Society of Friends, and came in for a share of the ill treatment accorded that Society. In 1681 he was indicted, with others, at Horsham Assizes, for absence from the national worship, and in 1684 for being present at some Quaker meetings at Stenning, and according to Besse, he "was fined £7, 18s, which, at the Persuasion of some Justices and others, he paid in order to an Appeal, but when the Sessions came on, he found so little Encouragement in prosecuting the same, that he chose rather to lose his Money, than to be put to farther Charge." Edward Blackfan intended to go to Pennsylvania, but was prevented by death. He is spoken of in Penn's letters in 1689 as being about to take official documents to the Council, and was on the point of sailing when he died in 1690. His widow, with their son William, afterwards went to Penn- Edward and Rebecca (Crispin) Blackfan had one child: ; d. Meeting, 2d mo. 20, 1721, Eleanor Wood, of Philadelphia. Rebecca (Crispin) Blackfan m. 2d, in 1725, Nehemiah Allen, of 1 John Blackfan, of Stenning, father of Edward, appears to have been a man of some position in his locality. He early joined the Society of Friends, and suffered much persecution for his religion. Besse, in his "Sufferings," reports several instances. In 1659 John Blackfan was prosecuted in the Exchequer for twenty pounds for tithes of eight and a half acres, when all the corn that grew on his land was scarce worth half that amount. In 1662 he was committed to Horsham Gaol on a writ de excommunicato capiendo, after prosecution in the Ecclesiastical Court for refusing to pay towards the repairs to the Steeple House. In 1663 he and others were prosecuted in the Ecclesiastical Court for being absent from public worship, and he was excommunicated and some of the others imprisoned. father, Captain William Crispin, had been one). She is not known to have had any issue by Allen. 3. RALPH, b. -; d. -. He remained in Ireland, and may have continued to live at Kinsale, for in the assignment of his land in Pennsylvania, dated 1690, he is styled "Ralph Crispin of Cork in the Kingdom of Ireland, gentleman," which probably meant the County of Cork, and not the city. By patent of July 25, 1688, William Penn granted of his "free gift" to his "loving cousin Ralph Crispin," son of Captain William Crispin, late of the Kingdom of Ireland, deceased, five hundred acres of land in Pennsylvania. This was his share of his father's five thousand acres. Ralph Crispin assigned this patent to Ebenezer Pike, May 24, 1690, the land not having then been laid out. Nothing further is known of his life at present. -; d. -; m., 4. RACHEL, b. Thomas Armstrong. William Penn granted her one thousand acres of land in Pennsylvania; he re-granted this to her husband, by a deed dated 11th mo. 2, 1694, in which he acknowledged having some years before granted the same to Rachel Armstrong, by the name of Rachel Crispin "(which grant is mentioned to be lost in the Wars of Ireland)," and therefore repeated it to Thomas Armstrong; five hundred acres to be disposed of for the support of him, his wife Rachel, and their child born, or children to be born, and the other five hundred acres to Silas Crispin, Samuel Carpenter, and Lasse Cock, in trust for Rachel Armstrong, her child, etc. At the meeting of the Board of Property held 6th mo. 1, 1733, Samuel Mickle, of Philadelphia, requested a warrant for this one thousand acres, which was granted him, as it was shown that Rachel and her heirs had sold to Henricus Chapman, of London, who sold to Mickle.' 1 Thomas Armstrong and Rachel his wife, Robert Swiney and Jane his wife (one of the daughters of said Thomas and Rachel), by deed dated May 15, 1724, for forty pounds granted the said one thousand acres to Henricus Chapman, of London, who, together with George Armstrong, son and heir of Thomas and Rachel Armstrong, by deeds of lease and release dated July 6 and 7, 1731, granted the said one thousand acres to Samuel Mickle, of Philadelphia. At the meeting of the Board of Property held 4th mo. 15, 1736, a patent was signed to Samuel Mickle for two hundred and fifty acres on a branch of the "Parkeawining," in right of Rachel Armstrong, formerly Crispin. On 8th mo. 2, 1731, James Buckley requested a grant of about two hundred acres on the branches of the Octoraro, to build a mill. This was afterwards confirmed to him in right of Samuel Mickle's purchase, "made of the children of Capt. Crispin" the minutes of the Board have it, but Mickle's purchase was from only one child of Crispin's. Thomas and Rachel (Crispin) Armstrong had issue: Jane Armstrong, b. —; d. —; m. Robert Swiney (probably Sweeney). George Armstrong, "son and heir," b. ; d. Another child, or children (at least one daughter), name or names unknown. Captain William Crispin m. 2d, Jane. Nothing is known of her family. For at least seventeen years after Captain Crispin's death, however, his widow and younger children lived at Kinsale. William Penn granted of his "free gift" to James, Joseph, Benjamin, Jane, Ellinor, Elizabeth, and Amy Crispin, children of William Crispin by his second marriage, three thousand acres of land in Pennsylvania; as they were all minors at the date of this grant, August 8, 1687, he named Thomas Chudleigh, Martin Perse, and John Watts, of Kinsale, as trustees. One thousand five hundred acres of this were to be sold by the trustees for the children's education, support, and settlement in life; of the other one thousand five hundred acres the portion of any child dying under seventeen years of age was to return to the Proprietary. As no return of the laying out of this land was sent to the trustees, they did not sell any of it; and William Penn, by deed of November 22, 1698, in consideration of Jane Crispin, though left in poor circumstances by her husband, having paid for the education and support of her children (and, as stated in the deed, Ellinor and Joseph having died after reaching seventeen years, Jane, Elizabeth, and James having married very well, and Benjamin and Amy being capable of supporting themselves), granted to her, "Jane Crispin, of Kinsale, widow," half of the three thousand acres. This was afterwards inherited by her surviving children. William and Jane (-) Crispin had issue: 5. JAMES, b. ; d. -; m. (between 1687 and 1698) He removed from Kinsale to the island of St. Christopher in the West Indies. He appears to have eventually obtained the whole of the three thousand acres mentioned above; by the law VOL. XXII.-4 of Pennsylvania he was entitled as eldest brother to two shares of it, each of his brothers and sisters having one share. In an account of the disposition of this land among the Penn Papers in possession of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, it is stated that his surviving brother and sisters, Benjamin, Jane, Elizabeth, and Amy, by deed of May 10, 1702, sold their rights to James, who died intestate, seized of the three thousand acres, leaving issue. James Crispin's children were clearly considered the heirs to the whole three thousand acres, for about 1731 they all sold their shares, aggregating this amount, to persons living in Pennsylvania, and their right was unquestioned until 1752, when a controversy arose about one of these sales, during which Thomas Penn wrote that he had in his possession the deed of 1698, which had on the back a conveyance, dated July 30, 1702, from Benjamin, Jane, Elizabeth, and Amy to Captain Arthur Smith, and that this appeared to be the original conveyance, and they therefore had not conveyed to their brother James. But if, as is surmised, James Crispin had married a daughter (and possibly heiress) of Captain Arthur Smith, his possession of his brother's and sisters' rights would be thus explained.' James, b.; drowned off St. Christopher in a hurricane, 1731; died intestate, under twenty-one years, probably un adelphia in 1752. Michael, b. ; d. —; living in Kingston, Jamaica, in 1751. -; d. unmarried between 1687 and 1698, between 6. Joseph, b. the ages of seventeen and twenty-one years. 7. BENJAMIN, b. ; d. 8. JANE, b. Lucomb. ; m. (between 1698 and 1702) Alice ; d. -; m. (between 1687 and 1698) Greenslaid 1 The deed of November 22, 1698, with the conveyance of 1702 on the back, is now in possession of Mr. Daniel Sutter, of Mount Holly, New Jersey. A number of papers relating to this matter are in the Penn MSS., volume of land grants (1681-1806), pages 217, 218, 219, 221, 223, 227, and 231, in possession of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. 9. ELEANOR, b. ; d. unmarried between 1687 and 1698, aged between seventeen and twenty-one years. 10. ELIZABETH, b. SILAS, Son of Captain William and Anne (Jasper) Crispin, probably accompanied his father in the unfortunate voyage which ended at Barbadoes. He first arrived in Pennsylvania with Captain Thomas Holme, the Surveyor-General, in the ship "Amity," of London. On his arrival, he no doubt lived with Captain Holme's family at Shackamaxon; within a year he married the latter's daughter, Esther, and in 1684 they went to live on his plantation on the Pennepack Creek, in the upper part of Dublin Township. There is a tradition that their first child was born here in the wigwam of an Indian chief. He soon had a house built on the plantation, and lived there the rest of his life. In deeds, etc., he is styled "Silas Crispin of Dublin township, gentleman." He was a member of the Free Society of Traders in Pennsylvania. He was executor of the will of his fatherin-law, Captain Thomas Holme, and spent a great deal of time in caring for the large interest in lands left by the latter; obtaining warrants for laying out lands not taken up at Holme's death, selling some of the tracts, etc. Silas Crispin died May 31, 1711. By his will, dated May 5, 1711, he made his wife Mary executrix, left her his negroes, household goods, etc., and directed her to sell one hundred acres which he bought from Robert Grismall, adjoining the north end of his plantation, to pay debts and legacies. To his son Thomas he left a mare and colt and some small articles. To his granddaughter Sarah Loftus and his sister Rebecca Blackfan he left sums of money. His landed estate is not mentioned in his will, his own plantation 1 The witnesses were Margaret Ashton, William Blackfan, and Robert Ashton. Mary Crispin renounced her executorship July 5, 1711, and letters of administration cum testamento annexo were granted Thomas Crispin April 19, 1714. |