MRS. KATHERINE ROBERTS. MERION, MONTGOMERY COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.
Katherine was the widow of JOHN AP THOMAS, of Llaithgwm, "Gentleman," will dated 9th February, 1682 and proved at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1688; died 3rd March 1683, in Wales; married KATHERINE ROBERT, d. 18th November 1697, who with her sons, daughter and servants, numbering in all twenty persons, came to America on the ship "Morning Star", of Chester, Thomas Hayes, Master, July 1685.Children :
THOMAS AP JOHN d. 6th September 1727 m. Anne daughter of GRIFFIN JOHN.
ROBERT JOHN OR JONES b. 5th March 1670 d. 1746; was Justice of the Peace and a member of the Provincial Assembly.
EVAN JOHN OR JONES b. 1668 d. December 1697 unmarried
KATHERINE m. ROBERT ROBERTS, son of HUGH ROBERTS
CADWALADER b. 1679 d. 1704 engaged in shipping (probably wrong death date KP)
SIDNEY d. at sea 29th July 1683 unmarried
ELIZABETH m. REED EVANS
Colonial Families of the United States.
MRS. KATHERINE ROBERTS. MERION, MONTGOMERY COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.
KATHERINE ROBERTS (Katherine Thomas), widow of Llaithgwm, Merionethshire, "a plaene woman," brought a certificate for herself and children dated 18 5m 1683. Radnor Transcripts, Del15F, 11.Widow of Edward Jones' partner, John ap Thomas, who had died the previous May, she brought with her, 7 children, two of whom, SYDNEY and MARY, died at sea. Ibid., 491. The other children were EVAN, CATHERINE, THOMAS, ROBERT and CADWALADER, for an account of whom see Browning, Welsh Settlement, 120-123.
Her party is said to have numbered twenty, twelve of whom were servants.
Passengers and Ships Prior to 1684.
MRS. KATHERINE ROBERTS. MERION, MONTGOMERY COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.
In 1681 John ap Thomas and Edward Jones secured rights to 5,000 acres of Penn's American land, after themselves subscribing for over 1,500 acres, they conveyed the balance among fifteen neighbors in Penllyn tp., the majority of whom removed to their purchases.It was undoubtedly the intention of John Thomas also to remove with his family to his American land, as he was greatly interested in the plan for a refuge for the persecuted Welsh Quakers, and was a shareholder in the Society of Free Traders of Pensylvania, but a little time before the date, in July, 1682, set for the first departure of Welsh Friends, his partner and relative. Dr. Jones, and companions, he became too ill to travel, and never recovered.
About four months after her husband's decease, Katherine Robert, his relict, with her children, sailed from Chester, in the ship "Morning Star," for Philadelphia, with the parties of Hugh Roberts and John Bevan, and arrived 16th November, 1683, "and found one-half of the purchase taken up in the place since called Merion, and some small improvement made on the same where we then settled," as her son, Robert Jones, wrote to William Penn.
Many of the Welsh Friends, bound for Merion, came over on this voyage of the "Morning Star." Katharine's immediate party, her children and servants, numbered twenty. It was a long voyage, even at that time, and only the strongest survived it. Two of Katharine's children died and were buried at sea, namely, daughters Sydney, on 29th 7month and Mary, on 18th 8mo, as recorded in the Bible of Thomas Jones, one of Katharine's sons.
As "some provision against" Katharine's coming had been made on her husband's land, her son records they went there at once, after landing, the place being called, he says, "Geilli yr Cochiaid," or "Grove of Red Partridges." The "provision" was only a log cabin, and here the family resided till a small stone house was erected on another property she bought.
Her property here, as surveyed in 1684, was 612 acres of timber land, and was the furtherest located up the Schuylkill of the purchases through her husband and Dr. Jones, and extended back to north of the present village of Narberth. Adjoining her was her old friend, Hugh Roberts, who, with his family, had also, as said, come over in this voyage of the "Morning Star."
We can imagine Katharine Thomas to have been of good business acumen, as after getting her 612 acres here into working order, and made crop-yielding, she purchased the following summer 150 acres on the river, between the lands of Barnabas Wilcox and Joseph Harrison, adjoining her husband's land, on which there was "a dwelling house lately erected." On 10 Dec. 1689, took title for a tract of 500 acres north of her first land, on the river, called "Glanrafon," from Joseph Wood, (son of William Wood, the first grantee, 30. 7mo. 1684), and adjoining the 500 acre tract, next above on the river of William Sharlow, called "Mount Ararat."
Besides these lands on the river, Katharine also had a tract in Goshen tp., on Chester Creek, being the balance of her husband's purchase for £25, and lots in the "city" and a questionable share of the "liberty land" which went with the original purchase.