| Notes |
- The 17th Century Mendenhalls in Concord, Pennsylvania
Source: Smith’s “History of Delware County, Pennsylvania”
Transcription & Minor Editions:: Chad G. Nichols
Benjamin Mendenhall came from England, probably in company with his brother, John. They came from Mildenhall, in Suffolk* that being the original family name. In 1689 he married Ann, the daughter of Robert Pennell, in Chichester Friends’ Meeting of which they were both members. Their children were Benjamin, Moses, Hannah, Samuel, Rebecca, Ann, Nathan, and Robert. By trade he was a wheelwright. He was a man held in good esteem both in his religious society and as a citizen. In 1714 he served as a member of the Provincial Assembly. He died in 1740 at an advanced age while his wife Ann was still living. Their son, Benjamin, married Lydia, the daughter of Owen Roberts of Gwynedd. Their son, Robert, married Phoebe, the daughter of Isaac Taylor of Thornbury. Hannah became the wife of Thomas Marshall, and Ann, the second wife of John Harthram, the Botanist.
Mildenhall, in Wiltshire, is only a country place of ten or a dozen houses; it lies off the great thoroughfare, and is not to be found on all maps. But Mildenhall, in Suffolk, is a market town of four or five thousand inhabitants, with a stream navigable for barges, and a good business town for its size. It may be found on almost any map; and this is probably why Smith supposed they came from the County of Suffolk.
(The Buckner Anderson family went to Mildenhall in Wiltshire in 1955. The town is near Marlborough. It is quaint and small and the very old church most interesting. Marridge Hill, the family estate, is no more but the old timers have heard of it.)
John Mendenhall was a brother of Benjamin and Moses, and doubtless came from the same place in England. He was one of the earliest settlers in Concord, Pennsylvania, and in 1685 was married to Elizabeth, the daughter of George Maris, of Springfield Township. He was a Friend, and was active and influential in the Society. In 1697 he granted the ground occupied by Concord Friends’ Meeting house and graveyard. In 1708 his wife, being deceased, he contracted a second marriage with Hester Dix. He was one of the original shareholders of the first Concord Mill. His children by his first wife were George, John, and Aaron. It is not known that he had any by his second wife.
Moses Mendenhall was a brother of Benjamin and John, and doubtless came from the same place in England. In 1686 he was a resident of Concord, and purchased land from his brother, Benjamin. It does not appear that he was a Friend. He returned to England.
Nathaniel Newlin, son of Nicholas Newlin, emigrated with his father from Mountmelick, county of Tyronne, Ireland, in 1683, and was of age at the time of his arrival here. In 1685 he married Mary Mendenhall, the sister of Benjamin and John Mendenhall. He was a man of good abilities and exercised considerable influence both in the meetings of the Friends and in the community at large. During seven years at different times he was a representative from Chester County in the Provincial Assembly and was frequently employed in other important trusts. He continued to reside in Concord as long as he lived, and held a large amount of real estate there as well as elsewhere. A brick dwelling house erected by him in 1699, upon the site of the present (1862) dwelling of John Sharpless, was standing till within a few years past. Their children were Jamima, Elizabeth, Nicholas, Nathaniel, John, Kezie, and Mary. He died in 1731.
Record of Concord Township:
This township was originally laid out in a rectangular form, but has now an irregular portion to the southwest appended. The name probably had its origin in the harmonious feeling of some of the first settlers.
The land for a Friends’ meeting at Concord and a graveyard was conveyed or rather leased to trustees by John Mendenhall in 1697, they paying “one peppercorn yearly for ever,” a meeting house was erected. This meeting house was destroyed by fire about the year 1787. In the apartment in which the congregation assembled for worship, there was no place for a fire; but before meeting assembled in cold weather those who desired to make themselves comfortable, assorted to fires made in open fireplaces in each end of the attic. From one of these fires the building took fire. The present large meeting house supplies the place of the one destroyed; and, since the division of the society, a second has been erected on the same lot.
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1659 - 1743 (83 years)