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Chew and Wilcocks |
“Chew and Wilcocks”
are familiar names to many researchers of early Pennsylvania land ownership
records, and for good reason. Together,
Benjamin Chew Sr. and Alexander Wilcocks owned 43 tracts totaling nearly 12,000
acres in Somerset and Fayette Counties in the late 1700’s.
In 1837, the Wilcocks heirs sold one of their tracts to the owner of an adjacent farm, Jacob Minerd Jr., ancestor of the author.
As residents of Philadelphia, they were absentee owners. Chew (1722-1810) was active and influential in state politics and, in addition to once serving as Chief Justice of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, was the attorney for the Penn family. A silhouette portrait of Chew, at age 70, is seen here. Wilcocks (1741-1801) was Chew’s son-in-law, law partner judge, and recorder of deeds in Philadelphia.
Chew and Wilcocks jointly obtained their lands from the Penns through patents during the American Revolution, when the Penns’ ownership rights, granted by British royal charter, became null and void. Patents are legal instruments by which states grant public lands to individuals.
The partners may or may not have seen the properties prior to their purchase but did receive a detailed description of each tract in a document compiled by Henry Rhodes dated March 21, 1777.
They held their Somerset/Fayette tracts for about 14 years, until November 1790, when they divided their holdings, with Chew receiving 5,947 acres and Wilcocks 6,011 acres. Wilcocks died 11 years later, in 1801, and his land was inherited by his children: Benjamin, Elizabeth, Samuel, Ann (wife of attorney Charles J. Ingersoll). These parcels remained in the possession of the Wilcocks heirs for several decades.
Many of the tracts had fancy names, such as Death of the Fawn, White’s Little Mill Seat, and Hunting Lot, and were often rented to farmers for cultivation. Hunting Lot contained 318 acres and was located in what is now locally called Hexebarger in Upper Turkeyfoot Township, near the Old Bethel Church. Chew admired Hunting Lot and once wrote about its “excellent upland-meadow.” This is the tract that was sold to the Minerds.
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| The "excellent upland meadow" to the right of this road, known as Hunting Lot and sold by Chew and Wilcocks heirs to Jacob Minerd Jr. in 1837 |
Tax records suggest that Minerd may have rented Hunting Lot as early as 1829. The acquisition enlarged his farm to 500 acres, and it played an important role in the Minerd family’s growth and development. Four generations lived there between 1837 and 1867, when it was sold out of the family. Minerd and his wife Catherine Younkin raised nine children there, and four sons -- John, Henry, Jacob III and Charles -- bought portions after their father’s death. In 1851, at the heyday of the Minerds’ habitation of the farm, about 35 family members lived in various dwellings within its borders.
How Minerd, an unlettered farmer, came into contact with the faraway Wilcocks heirs is not known, though probably was done through an intermediary. As absentee owners, Chew and Wilcocks utilized agents to handle day-to-day administration of the properties. One of Chew’s agents was Abraham Morrison, a Somerset attorney called “the patriarch of the Somerset County bar.” Morrison lived across the street from the courthouse and in his career served as the first county commissioners’ clerk, county treasurer, prothonotary and clerk of courts, register of wills, and register of deeds.
Morrison kept in touch with Chew by writing letters containing details of developments and asking opinions of certain matters. Several of these letters survive in the collection of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, in Philadelphia.
Right:
title page from a 1932 biography of Chew, authored by Burton Alva Konkle,
published by the University of Pennsylvania Press.
The author reviewed these letters in 1987 while in Philadelphia researching Minerd property records.
One letter was penned from Somerset on Feb. 13, 1808, and contains nuggets of information of interest to genealogists, historical researchers, and archeologists. In it, Morrison summarizes leases with Jacob Streight, Peter Kendle, Mr. Shunk, Frederick Zufalt, Jacob Neffe, George Arnold, Joseph Mattick, John Lighty, and Daniel Miller. Morrison also mentions Shapthat Dwire, William Tissue, Mr. Ringer, Mr. Wood, Mr. Biggs, and Adam Faidley.
The letters describe specific terms and conditions of the leases, which required labor from the renters in return for low rates. For instance, Jacob Neffe rented a tract called “Turkey Bottom” for a three-year term, for the annual sum of one penny. In return, Neffe agreed to build a barn and stable measuring 20 by 24 feet, plant 30 apple trees, make all the outside fences “good and sufficient,” and pay all taxes.
Morrison may have been frustrated in trying to stay fully abreast of the status of all the properties. He writes to Chew: “As I have not had full power to sell your land. I have not informed myself of the value of the respective tracts, nor indeed is it easy to get such information without a personal examination of them.”
Among Chew’s land records in the Historical Society of Pennsylvania are:
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Lists of all properties, including the county, tract name, acreage, and renter;
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Hand-drawn survey maps of tracts;
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Letters from Morrison to Chew, naming prospective buyers and their offers;
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Lists of payments made over time by purchasers, including Nicholas Long, Christian Fike, Henry Painter, Simon Shunk, and George Setter;
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1810 letter from Chew’s son, Benjamin Jr., informing an unidentified agent about the death of Chew Sr., and asking the agent for a complete list of local land holdings;
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Original newspapers with published advertisements announcing that tracts from the Chew estate were for sale. These were published in Philadelphia (1826), Uniontown, Somerset (1848), and Baltimore (German language);
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Offer letters from prospective buyers who had seen the newspaper ads; and
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Letters from renters explaining extraordinary circumstances, such as house or barn fires, that rendered them unable to fulfill their payment obligations. Other renters’ letters asked for Chew Jr.’s help in evicting squatters
These documents show that Chew and Wilcocks played important roles in developing the largely uncultivated lands of Somerset and Fayette Counties. With the help of on-the-scene agents, these influential Philadelphians touched the lives of any common farming families.
Bibliography
Biographical Encyclopedia of Pennsylvania of the Nineteenth Century, Philadelphia: Galaxy Publishing Company, 1874.
Chew, Benjamin A. A Particular Description of the Situation, Quality and present Value of the Several Tracts of Land Taken Up and Patented in My Own and Alex. Wilcocks’ Names. March 21, 1777. Manuscript. Chew Family Papers, Box 277, Manuscripts and Archives Library, Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia.
Names and Quantities of Tracts. Nov. 11, 1790. Manuscript. Chew Family Papers, Box 277, Manuscripts and Archives Library, Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia.
Deed. Benjamin Wilcocks, et al. to Jacob Minerd and John Minerd, April 10, 1837. Book 44, Page 242, County of Somerset, Pa.
Jordan, John W., ed. Colonial and Revolutionary Families of Pennsylvania, Vol. I: Genealogical and Personal Memoirs, New York: The Lewis Publishing Co., 1911.
Morrison, Abraham, Letter to Benjamin Chew, Sr., Feb. 13 1808. Chew Family Papers, Box 277, Manuscripts and Archives Library, Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia.
Twentieth Century Bench and Bar of Pennsylvania, Vol. II. Chicago: H.C. Cooper, Jr., Bro. & Co. 1903.
U.S. Congress, House. Biographical Dictionary of American Congress, 1774-1927. 69th Cong., 2nd sess. H. Rept. 783. Washington, D.C.: United States Government Printing Office, 1928.
Copyright © 1992, 2010 Mark A. Miner