HOLLINGSWORTH.

THIS family is of Saxon descent. "The name was formerly Hollinsworthe, derived from Holly-tree, called in Cheshire, Hollyntree, and worth (a farm), with which the estates in England abounded. This estate was purchased A.D. 1022, and is situate in N. E. Cheshire; location, Mottram." "The church of the family and the Hall, both several centuries old, are (1884) now standing. The late owner Captain Robert Hollingsworth died in 1865. There are 625 acres of land, valued at £25,000, now owned by a Mr. Taylor of Manchester."

"Arms.-Az. on a Bend argent. Three holly leaves slipped Vert. "Crest.-A Stag Lodged ppr.

Valentine Hollingsworth, a member of the Society of Friends, was born in Cheshire, England, about 1630 to 1640. He married Catherine, daughter of Henry Cornish, High-Sheriff of London, who was executed (unjustly) during the reign of James II., October 23, 1685. Valentine H. came with his family to America in the year 1682; he came before William Penn in the bark "Welcome." He settled in New Castle County, (now) Delaware, and filled many very prominent positions in the colony. He was still living in the year 1710. No record of his death has ever been found. His first wife, Catherine Cornish, died before he came to America, between the dates 1665 and 1670; her father, Henry Cornish, was one of the sheriff's of London (London then had two sheriffs with co-equal power), and was executed in the troublous times of James II. for alleged complicity with Monmouth in his efforts to usurp the Royal authority. Cornish was believed to have been entirely innocent of the charge against him, and, although he was executed with all the barbarity of the times, Parliament, a few years afterwards, in the reign of William and Mary, reversed the Act of Attainder, and did all in its power to atone for the wrong that it had brought upon an innocent family. Valentine H. married a second time in Ireland, where he removed after Monmouth's Rebellion, Ann Calvert, a near relation of Cecil Calvert, Lord Baltimore. She died August 17,

1697, and was buried at New Ark (now Newark, Delaware) Monthly Meeting. From his family nearly all of the name in the United States have descended, and they are very numerous. He was buried in the Friends' Burying-Ground at New Ark Meeting, near his residence, east side of Brandywine Creek, on the half-acre of land given to the New Ark Monthly Meeting in 1687 for a buryingplace. The meetings were generally held at his house; from 1686 to 1710 he was the superintendent of the Monthly Meeting. In 1682 he obtained a patent for nine hundred and eighty-six acres of land in Brandywine Hundred, New Castle County, Delaware. It was surveyed December 27, 1683, by Thomas Pierson; he gave it the name of New Wark. He disposed of his property before his death, receiving from his sons an annuity until his death. He was a signer of Penn's Great Charter, a member of the Pro-provincial Council, a member of the Assembly of Pennsylvania in 1683, 1687, and 1695 from New Castle County, and a Justice of the Peace for the same county. His children by his first wife, Catherine Cornish, were Thomas, who died near Winchester, Virginia, in 1733; Catherine, born 1663, and died in 1746, and Mary ———. By his second wife, Ann Calvert, he had Samuel, born 1672, and died 1748; Ann, who married James Thompson in 1700; Valentine, Jr., who died in 1757 (married Elizabeth Heald in 1713); John, born in America in 1684, died in 1722, and was married to Catherine Tyler in 1706; Joseph, born in America in 1686; Enoch, first, died young in 1687; Enoch, second, died young in 1690.

Thomas Hollingsworth, eldest son of Valentine and Catherine Cornish, was born in England about the year 1660. He came to America with William Penn in the bark "Welcome," and settled in New Castle County, Delaware, west side of the Brandywine, in 1682, at a place called Rockland Manor. He married, first, Margaret (), who died August 1, 1687, and was buried at Newark, Delaware. By her he had one child, Abraham, born January 19, 1686. Thomas was married a second time on January 31, 1692, to Grace Cook, of Concord, Pennsylvania, by whom he had children as follows: Elizabeth, married Stroud in 1718; Hannah, married William Dixon in 1718; Thomas, married Judith Samply in 1723; Ann, born May 6, 1701, and died in 1708; Jacob, married Rachel Chandler in 1729; Sarah, married John Dixon in 1724; Joseph, born March 11, 1709, married Martha Houghton in 1730, and moved to Virginia; Grace

"Thomas Hollingsworth, when on a visit to his son Abraham, is said to have been killed by a buffalo calf near North Mountain,

eight or nine miles north of Winchester, having gone on a hunting expedition with some of the settlers." His home was always Rockland Manor, Pennsylvania. ("Kercheval's History of Valley of

Virginia.")

Henry Hollingsworth, second son of Valentine and Catherine Cornish, was born in England, 1664-65. He came to America August 14, 1683, in the "Lion of London;" he was named after his maternal grandfather, and was a man of distinction. He assisted Thomas Holmes to lay out the City of Philadelphia, being at that time about eighteen years of age. After the death of Henry Cornish, his son-in-law Valentine Hollingsworth removed to Ireland, where his son Henry made the acquaintance of Lydia Atkinson, whom he married August 22, 1688; her home was in the Parish of Sligo, County Armagh, Ireland. He returned to Ireland for the purpose of marrying this lady. He was a large land-owner in Chester County, Pennsylvania, and also in New Castle County, Delaware, and owned lots and built in Chester. He represented New Castle County in the Assembly in 1695, and was sheriff of Chester County the same year;' was deputy Master of the Rolls in 1700; was coroner of Chester County and clerk of the court from 1700 to 1708. He moved to the Head of Elk River, now Elkton, Cecil County, Maryland, in 1711, and was appointed surveyor of the county by Lord Baltimore, March 9, 1712. He was the founder of the Hollingsworth family of that county, and the grandfather of Colonel Henry Hollingsworth, of the American Revolution. "He was brought up in the Friends' faith, but afterwards joined the Episcopal Church. His life gave evidence that he never forgot the pacific principles of Friends' belief, for he would not suffer the life of any animal to be sacrificed for food, and lived for

1 Smith, in his history of Delaware County, Pennsylvania, says, “Henry Hollingsworth, when surveying, planted an apple-tree at the end of every mile, and wrote to a friend he had planted an orchard nine miles long." "He was appointed surveyor by warrant bearing date February 16, 1699."

Watson, in his Annals, Vol. I., page 14, says, "Henry Hollingsworth assisted Thomas Holmes to lay out Philadelphia. He kept a journal, which was taken and destroyed by the British at Elkton, 1777."

"In the correspondence between Penn and Logan, Penn writes James Logan "to write to Henry Hollingsworth to help a little the Sheriff to manage things for the proper reception of Governors Nicholson and Blackiston, the former Lieut.-Gov. of New England and New York, and the latter of Maryland, who are coming to visit Philadelphia." "Let twenty persons at least be ordered for each party, and let the magistrates of each place ride out to meet them."

some years wholly upon a vegetable diet. Once when returning from a fair at New Castle he saw a rattlesnake coiled by a log not far from his house, but passed on without killing it. Next day a pedler was found near the same spot stiff and dead from the bite of the snake. This gave Henry great pain, and he afterwards thought it right to kill snakes."

The Hollingsworth family was noted for their enterprise and industry, and many of them were largely engaged in the manufacture of flour, they being the owners of a number of mills on both branches of Elk Creek. Henry died in Elkton in 1721, where he was buried. His will was dated February 23, 1721, and was probated March 12, 1721. The children of Henry Hollingsworth and Lydia Atkinson were Ruth, born 1689, married George Simpson, December 24, 1706; Stephen, born 1690-91, married Anne (-); Zebulon, born 1696, died August 8, 1763; Catherine, married (—) Dawson, of Kent County, Maryland; Abigail, married Richard Dobson in 1720; and Mary.

Abraham Hollingsworth, son of Thomas Hollingsworth, of Rockland Manor, New Castle County, Delaware, by his first wife, Margaret -, was born at Rockland Manor, January 18, 1686, and March 13, 1710, he married Ann Robinson and moved to Cecil County, Maryland (Abraham Hollingsworth, of "ye County of New Castoll, and Manor of Rockland," to Ann Robinson1 "13th day of ye 3rd month in ye year 1710 at ye house of Valentine Hollingsworth, in ye above sd. County".) In 1732 he bought of Alexander Ross, under his patent from Governor Gooch, of Virginia, five hundred and eighty-two acres of land near Winchester, Virginia, and in 1733 he moved with his family and relatives to this grant. (He is said to have moved earlier than this and occupied his land as a squatter before he purchased.) After his death, Thomas Lord Fairfax disputed the title to this land. To prevent legal proceedings, Isaac, his son, then in the possession, again purchased it from Fairfax in 1754, and the same year built the large stone house now standing and still in the possession of his descendants.

Abraham had children as follows: George, born 1712, married Hannah McKay, 1734; Margaret, born 1715, married Benjamin Carter, of Virginia; Lydia, born 1718, married Lewis Neill, of

1 "Ann Robinson was a daughter of George Robinson, who was born in Ireland in 1666, and married Catherine Hollingsworth, November 2, 1688. They had children, Joseph Robinson, Ann Robinson (Hollingsworth), George Robinson, Valentine Robinson, Mary Robinson. They moved to Pennsylvania early in the eighteenth century, and then settled in the bounds of Chester County."