Gail Parker Benson's Page

Hi Gail,

I checked Hinshaw and found no Nicholas Parker as a Quaker in North Carolina.  There is just one Nicholas Parker in the index, who turns out to be the apparently non-Quaker husband of a woman named Martha.  Martha was a Quaker in Bucks County, PA, and was accepted back into the meeting despite her marriage, in part on account of her Quaker Heritage.  She married in 1733, according to the Quaker records.  In 1749 they moved to Loudoun County, VA.  They had one son Joseph, who came under the care of the Fairfax Monthly Meeting, and married a Quaker woman, but perhaps other children who did not?  From Ancestry.com and without verifying source documents, appears that Martha was a Janney and that Nicholas died in 1855 in VA.  So not much help in the Quaker records, that I can see.

Just to clarify, Thomas Parker and his wife Anna Peele Parker didn't die in 1814, they just left Richmond County in 1814.  From Abstracts of the Records of the Society of Friend in Indiana vol 1 page 119, there is an entry that dovetails beautifully with the information you shared:  Thomas and son Jesse received on certificate from Piney Grove Monthly Meeting SC [jp note this was just across the border in Marlboro County, SC]; Anna and daughters Celia and Sarah received on certificate from Piney Grove, MM, SC -- these are dated 25 Jun 1814, and are from the minutes of the White Water Monthly Meeting in Wayne County, Indiana.

Similarly, I don't believe that brother Nathan died in 1802, I think that he just  went back to Wayne County, NC with his parents in 1804.  Perhaps Thomas and Anna had another child, Nathan, who died in 1802? 

I do thank you again for this information, as there are some interesting clues here for me.

Jan

Hello Gail,

Thank you for contacting me!  The records you have shared are certainly about the younger sons of my Elisha Parker, and I appreciate your kindness. 

I looked at your first post and none of the family names you mention connect with mine, but my thinking right now is that Elisha was very possibly a convert to the Quakerism, rather than a birthright Quaker.  I'm very interested in the fact that as the family moves south through North Carolina down there are often non-Quaker Parkers in exactly the same area.  Are they connected or not?

I have been having my first real success on familysearch.org with on line records in North Carolina.  It takes some time and patience but I am finding some very helpful things among the microfilmed probate and estate records.

There are clearly some non-Quaker Parkers in Richmond County at the same time as my folks. (And in Marlboro County, SC.) 

I would  like to keep in touch with you and learn more about your Parkers!

Jan