John Beals and Mary Clayton
Husband John Beals [4685]
Born: 27 May 1650 - Rumboldswyke, Sussex, England 1 Christened: Died: 17 Dec 1726 - Chester, Pennsylvania, United States Buried: - East Nottingham Friends Burial Ground, Chester Co, PA FamilySearch ID: LY3M-W4F
Father: Thomas Beals [4710] (1625-After 1683) Mother: Sarah Edge [4711] (1642-1692)
Marriage: 1 Jan 1683 - Chester, Pennsylvania, United StatesEvents
• He signed a will John Beals on 17 Dec 1726 in Chester, Pennsylvania, United States. The Last Will & Testament of John Beals
Chester Co., PA Will Book A, p. 206
Will of ----|
John Beals--|
I John Beals of Nottingham in ye County of Chester being sick and we ak of Body but of a sound and well disposing mind & memory do make th is as my Last Will & Testament revoking all other wills that have heretofo re been made or Done by me first my will is that my Just Debts & funera ll Charges be Defrayed as soon as possiable after my Decease & also th at my Body be Decently buried Secondly I give and bequeath unt my eldest s on John Beals my Bed and all the furniture thereunto belong and five pou nd he paying to Each of his five Children Sarah, John, Thomas, Ann & Phe be to Each of them Ten shillings when they come of age. Thirdly I give un to my son William Beals Eight pound he paying to Each of his Three Childr en Lydia Mary & Ruth Ten Shillings when of aged Fourthly I give unto my Da ughter Mary Harrold Eight pounds she paying to each of her Children Elizab eth, Rachil, Jonathan & Richard Ten Shillings when they come of age Fifth ly I give unto my son Jacob Beals Twelve pounds he paying to his four Chil dren John, Jacob, Mary & William to each of them Ten Shillings when of ag e. Sixthly I give unto my Daughter Patience Jone ye Eight pounds fifteen S hillings that is due from her husband by Bond and five pound more to be pa id by my Exer willing she or her husband to pay unto their four Children J udith Mary Sarah & Charity to Each Ten Shillings. All ye aforesaid Legac ys to be paid unto ye sd Grand Children where they are Deemed by L aw to be of age. Seventhly I give unto my Daughter Mary Harrold & Patien ce Jones my warming pan & spice Box also I give unto James Wright forty Sh illings. Eightly I give unto my Kinswoman Mary Davis of Philadelphia Twen ty Shillings, also my will is that my son William Shall be paid his Lega cy first my Daughter Mary Harrold next and Patience her five pound ne xt as ye moony that is out upon bond becomes Due. Lastly I ordain & Consti tute my two sons John & Jacob Beals Sole Exer of this my Last Will & Testa ment. Witness my hand & seal Dated in Notingham Afs ye 11th of ye 8th mon th 1726.
his
John IB Beals (SEAL)
mark
Sealed & Delivered in the presence of,
James McMullins,
William House
Chester, December the 17. 1726 then personally James McMullan & Wm House t he witnesses to the above written will who on their respective qualificati ons did Declare they were present & saw the Testator therein mentioned si gn seal publish pronounce & Declare ye said writing to be his last Wi ll & Testament & that at ye Doing thereof he was of sound mind and memo ry to the best of their understanding.
Coram Jo Parker D. Regr
Be it Rembered that ye Seventeenth day of December Anno Domini 1726 the La st Will & Testament of John Beals late of Notingham in the said County Dec eased was proved in due form of Law and probate & Letters of Admon was gra nted to his son's John & Jacob Beals sole Executors therein named being fi rst attested well and truly to Administer and to bring in an Invento ry of the said Deced.. Estate into the Regr office for the said Coun ty of Chester on or before the seventeenth day of January next to Exhib it & to render a Just Acct of your Adminstration on or before the Seventee nth day of December which will be in the year of our Lord 1727. Given und er the seal of the said office.
P. Jo. Parker D. Regr
Abstract:
BEALS, John Nottingham
8/11/1726 17 Dec 1726
To eldest son John, bed and furniture and £5, he paying to his 5 childre n; viz Sarah, John, Thomas, Ann and Phebe, 10 shillings when of age. To da ughter Mary HARROLD 8, she paying to each of heir children, viz Elizabet h, Rachel, Jonathan and Richard 10 shillings each when of age. To son Jac ob £12, he paying to each of his 4 children, viz John, Jacob, Mary and Wil liam 10 shillings when of age. To daughter Patience Jones the £8-15 th at is due of bond of her husband and £5 more paying to their 4 children, v iz Judith, Mary, Sarah and Charity 10 shillings each, when of age. To Jam es Wright 40 shillings. To kinswoman Mary Davis of Philadelphia 20 shillin gs. Executors: sons John and Jacob.
Witnesses: James McMullin, Wm. House.• He worked as a Yeoman on an unknown date.
• Immigrated: John was a Quaker who came from Englan to Salem Co. NJ on ship Griffen in 1675, He was in Chester Co. PA by 1679. He was first in Ashton Twp, then in Nottingham. At various times he was a member of Chester, Concord and Nottingham Mtgs.,
.
Wife Mary Clayton [4686]
Born: 29 Aug 1665 - Rumboldswyke, Sussex, England Christened: Died: 1725 - Chester, Pennsylvania, United States Buried: FamilySearch ID: G4BS-CDJ
Father: William Clayton III [4687] (1632-1725) Mother: Prudence Michelle Lanckford [4688] (1631-1689) 2
Events
• She had marriage banns published on 1 Jan 1682 in Chester, Pennsylvania, United States. Between Mary Clayton and John Beals.
Children
1 M Jacob Beals [4683]
Born: 28 Jul 1689 - Chester, Pennsylvania, United States Christened: Died: 11 May 1763 - York, Pennsylvania, British Colonial America 3 Buried: FamilySearch ID: G8PK-T8MSpouse: Mary Brooks(by) [4684] (Cir 1695-1763) Marr: 20 Apr 1714 - Nottingham Meeting Place, Chester Co, PA
2 M John Beals II [4705]
Born: 20 Jan 1684 - Chester, Pennsylvania, United States Christened: Died: 1746 - Cold Springs, Frederick Co, MD Buried: FamilySearch ID: LYDP-9SK
3 M William Beals [4706]
Born: 1 Feb 1686 - Nottingham, Chester, Pennsylvania, United States Christened: Died: 2 Jan 1741 - New Market, Frederick, Maryland, United States Buried: FamilySearch ID: LZ6Z-C67
4 F Mary Ann Beals [4707]
Born: 24 Mar 1692 - Chester, Pennsylvania, British Colonial America 4 Christened: Died: 1740 4 Buried: - Cane Creek Baptist Church Cemetery, Bingham Township, Orange, North Carolina, United States 4 FamilySearch ID: LYWM-K5CSpouse: Richard Harrold Jr. 4 [17491] (1680-1730) Marr: 1 Apr 1710 - Concord MM, Delaware, Pennsylvania, United States 4
5 F Patience Beals [4708]
Born: 16 Mar 1694 - Chester, Pennsylvania, United States Christened: Died: 17 Sep 1777 - Deercreek, Harford, Maryland, United States 5 Buried: Sep 1777 - Deer Creek Friends Meeting Cemetery Darlington, Harford County, Maryland, USA 5 FamilySearch ID: LJPK-63G
6 F Grace Beals [4709]
Born: 16 Apr 1697 - Nottingham, West Nottingham Township, Chester, Pennsylvania, British Colonial America 6 Christened: Died: 1698 - Nottingham, Chester, Pennsylvania, United States 6 Buried: FamilySearch ID: G6YB-BNP
General Notes: Husband - John Beals
Came to America in 1675 on board the ship "Griffin".
John was the first of the Beals to come to America. He came on the ship the "Griffin" in 1675. He and his wife Mary were devout Quakers.
General Notes: Wife - Mary Clayton
According to Jack A. Money, Rootsweb.com genealogy [jacamoney@charter.net], Mary's lineage goes back 33 generations to Charlemagne.
HOWEVER,
Beware of Erroneous Clayton Research!
The line tracing a William Clayton back to Charlemagne was first published in: The Clayton family by Henry F. Hepburn. Wilmington : The Historical Society of Delaware, 1904 (Wilmington, Del.: The J.M. Rogers Press). I have also seen this attributed to a Major Frank Beals but I do not have the full title of his work. However, it doesn't really matter since the William Clayton that Hepburn traced back is =not= our William Clayton! Unfortunately, back in the 1970s , the late Jim Bellarts who was publishing the "Quaker Yeoman" got hold of this and he also published it as our William's ancestry and since then it's been hard to keep it from spreading around as the gospel truth!
I fell for it too and for many years had my database cluttered with a long line of "de Claytons" etc. I even paid $50 for Bellarts' book thinking he was somewhat of an authority on the Claytons. Far from it!
Louis E. Jones, in 1982, went to England and uncovered the will of a William Clayton dated ca.1658 in Chichester [England] Miscellaneous Wills 1653-1658, Vol. 21B, p. 59, Consistory Court Will Register in the West Sussex Record Office, Chichester. I have a copy of this will which is extremely difficult to decipher, but I am able to determine that this William identifies himself as a timberman residing in the Parish of Pancras without the East Gate of Chichester, Sussex. It lists his sons William, Richard (not yet 21 years of age), Thomas (not yet 21 years of age); daughter Elizabeth and youngest daughter Mary; and *grandchildren William and Prudence Clayton, children of his son William.* (See above link to full transcript of this will deciphered by Marilyn Winton.)
This William married 30 Oct 1631 Boxgrove Parish to Joan SMITH who was buried 27 Apr 1644. Their children baptized at Boxgrove, Sussex were: William 9 Dec 1632 (our William); Elizabeth 11 Feb 1637; Richard 13 Sep 1640; and Thomas 26 Feb 1642. Daughter Mary is from a second marriage after 1644 to Elizabeth SIMMONS whose death was recorded 6 Oct 1660 in the Lewes & Chichester Monthly Meeting records.
William Clayton (our William), son of William & Joan Smith, married 7 Nov 1653 St. Pancras Parish, Chichester to Prudence Lanckford of St. Peters the Less, daughter of William Lanckford of Broughton Parish, Hampshire. This marriage was copied again by Louis E. Jones in 1982 from the St. Pancras Parish, Chichester, Sussex Parish Register Calendar by V. London, 1945.
This new information was published, oddly enough, by Bellarts in the Quaker Yeoman in Jan. 1985. Long after I decided not to subscribe to it any longer. I do have a photocopy of that issue and I'd have to say that Bellarts much to my dismay continued to hang on to the hope that at least some of the material he previously published might be true!
Apparently there is a will for a Thomas Clayton dated 10 Sep 1630 and proved 28 Apr 1631 (Consistory Court of Chichester) which names a wife Margaret, sons Walter, William, Mathew, Richard and Thomas, daughters Mary wife of Richard Martin and Elizabeth. Bellarts felt this might be the grandfather of our William which is definitely a possibility but I haven't added him to my tree yet without seeing some supportive evidence. Bellarts took it one more step and speculated that this Thomas was POSSIBLY the son of a John b. ca. 1530 who was the son of a Thomas born ca 1500 who made his will in Rudgwick parish 4 Jul 1557.
Personally, I think we are on pretty thin ice when birthdates start appearing as "about" at 30 year intervals! The English clergy kept very thorough records and there should be more definitive dates in the early parish registers so one shouldn't have to resort to "ca." dates.
Bellarts does say that the will of William circa 1658 proves conclusively that William of Chichester was not the "son of a London lawyer" but never admits that he led us up the wrong tree! AND he goes right on to say that Thomas Clayton MAY have been the grandson of Thomas De Clayton b. ca. 1440, eldest son of John de Clayton & Mary Mainwaring who was disinherited by his parents and it is likely having been disinherited Thomas would have left Lancashire perhaps settling in London or Sussex, a days journey south of London at that time...and he goes on! Nice effort on his part to salvage some useless data but I personally think he was incorporating more wishful thinking than hard evidence.
[See transcription of William Clayton's will provided by Marilyn L. Winton, Feb., 1997.]
1 The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, "FamilySearch Family Tree," database, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org : accessed 5 Nov 2025), entry for John Beals, person ID LY3M-W4F.
2 The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, "FamilySearch Family Tree," database, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org : accessed 26 Nov 2025), entry for Prudence Lanckford, person ID 9ST1-RVF.
3 The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, "FamilySearch Family Tree," database, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org : accessed 5 Nov 2025), entry for Jacob Beals, person ID G8PK-T8M.
4 The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, "FamilySearch Family Tree," database, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org : accessed 5 Nov 2025), entry for Mary Ann Beals, person ID LYWM-K5C.
5 The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, "FamilySearch Family Tree," database, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org : accessed 5 Nov 2025), entry for Patience Beals, person ID LJPK-63G.
6
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, "FamilySearch Family Tree," database, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org : accessed 5 Nov 2025), entry for Grace Beals, person ID G6YB-BNP.
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