Hope Shotwell Woodward was born near Rahway, New Jersey, lived in Fayette County, Pennsylvania where she married Joseph Woodward. Because he was not a Quaker, Hope was condemned by her religious organization (it is difficult to describe in well-known terms since they did not use contemporary terms such as "church".)
This is all that appears about her in a myriad of published genealogies, family group sheets and online trees.
Here, as they say, is the rest of her story.
Rahway is in the upper left. This image is of a Library of Congress map of 1776 near the beginning of the Revolutionary War. Hope was born in 1782 near the end. It is always horrifying for everyone in the war zone, but maybe especially for Quakers who, as pacifists, cared for both sides - tending to the wounded and burying the dead. They were reviled by both sides for not taking a side, and often fined by the then-current government and the revolutionaries although I am not clear how that worked.
Hope Shotwell was born near Rahway, New Jersey by most translations February 18, 1782. The Quakers, although using the same numbering conventions, did not use the same naming conventions for months and days of the weeks or months of the years as they are named after pagan gods.
Her father's name was Titus and her mother was Sarah Marsh who died shortly after the birth of Hope's brother Daniel. Three years later, Titus married Deborah whose last name seems to be in conflict, even with the astonishing awesome paper trail the Quakers are well-known for.
Two of the routes that could have been taken on their migration to Fayette County, Pennsylvania where Quakers were settling. The Pennsylvania Road which, half-way through the state,
incorporates Forbes Road heading west. The Woodwards took the more
southernly route, Braddock’s Road. They did not technically pick up
Braddock’s Road until they hit Cumberland, Maryland, and followed that to Uniontown. The route today can be done in about six hours; there are ways to figure by horse and wagon, or oxen and walking, but that would require computing the approximate miles via a contemporary map. Either way, it was brutal for a young family. Hope was 10 with four younger siblings. Base map: google maps.
We know when the migration occurred because to leave one congregation and join another included introduction paperwork. Thankfully, the Quaker college of Swarthmore holds an enormous amount of historical documents and have allowed the LDS (Latter Day Saints) to copy much of it, and ancestry.com allows for easy searching because one or the other indexed them. Here, then, is the migration period proof starting near the end of the first sentence with "Titus Shotwell":
I promise not to make Hope's story into a full-blown, multi-blog novel. Next I will examine her years leading up to grandparent-hood.
This is all that appears about her in a myriad of published genealogies, family group sheets and online trees.
Here, as they say, is the rest of her story.
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
I will try to be brief since this a blog, but most of my past editors have accused me of being overly wordy. It's just that there is so much to tell, and I love finding clues that tell the stories of our female ancestors :-)
Hope Shotwell was born near Rahway, New Jersey by most translations February 18, 1782. The Quakers, although using the same numbering conventions, did not use the same naming conventions for months and days of the weeks or months of the years as they are named after pagan gods.
Her father's name was Titus and her mother was Sarah Marsh who died shortly after the birth of Hope's brother Daniel. Three years later, Titus married Deborah whose last name seems to be in conflict, even with the astonishing awesome paper trail the Quakers are well-known for.
We know when the migration occurred because to leave one congregation and join another included introduction paperwork. Thankfully, the Quaker college of Swarthmore holds an enormous amount of historical documents and have allowed the LDS (Latter Day Saints) to copy much of it, and ancestry.com allows for easy searching because one or the other indexed them. Here, then, is the migration period proof starting near the end of the first sentence with "Titus Shotwell":
Quote: Titus Shotwell one from Rhaway dated the 20th of the 9th mo last for himself, Deborah his Wife, and five children viz. Daniel, Hope, Edward, Titus & Miriam, all of which were lead and recd. End Quote. This is dated "27 Tenth 1792" the ancestry.com index. Accessed October 2018.
Migrations rarely happened in a vacuum - people tended to migrate in groups: groups of family members, groups of neighbors, groups of church members. It would be very interesting to find the others in this migration and perhaps they left more details - a thesis or perhaps dissertation I'd like to read!
Hope was about 10 years old when they arrived in Fayette County in western Pennsylvania and I have not had the opportunity to check land records to see exactly where they settled or if they purchased property immediately.) She was affiliated in one way or another with the Redstone Meeting House so she lived somewhere in that vicinity. I could easily write a multi-blog explanation of the hierarchy of the Quaker meetings in that area, but it is not the scope of this one. I will, however, suggest a couple websites that can give you additional information if you desire:
Westland and Redstone Meeting Houses:
http://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/th/read/PAWASHIN/2009-11/1257606537
Quaker Chronicles with an emphasis on Redstone. Please notice on the right the link for Sandy Hill (not to be confused with the link for Sandy Creek. Sandy Hill is just a couple miles from the farm where she raised her children.
http://www.quaker-chronicle.info/meetings.php?meetingID=24
Historic Atlas for Ohio Monthly Meetings
www.hmdb.org/I promise not to make Hope's story into a full-blown, multi-blog novel. Next I will examine her years leading up to grandparent-hood.
To Be Continued...
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