CAMPBELLs, LUGGs, & BLACKWELLs of Nelson, PA

1937 Letter from Joseph W. Buck to Mable SHIPMAN Shaw

Image of a letter from Joseph Wallace Buck to Mabel SHIPMAN Shaw, Oct. 18, 1937

[This 1937 letter is from Joseph Wallace Buck to his 2nd cousin, Mabel SHIPMAN Shaw. Mabel previously had written to Joe Buck, telling him about their distant cousin in England, the Rev. Cannon Edward Claude Essex. In his reply, Joe Buck describes to Mabel a 1867 letter from Peter Clinch Essex to Joseph D. Campbell. Mabel, Joe and I each met Rev. Cannon E. C. Essex a number of times and engaged in active correspondence with him. - wbt]

Oct 18, 1937

Dear Cousin Mabel:

I should have written you much sooner concerning the information you sent me about E.C. Essex, our distant cousin.1 I waited, however, as I wanted to look up some data which I knew I had.

I found a most interesting letter dated March 30, 1867 from Peter C. Essex to my grandfather. The correspondence had started by the fact that his mother, Mary Essex, had written to Ann Clinch Campbell shortly after she died asking about the family and stating that they had gotten the address from a letter written in 1818.2 In this letter [the 1867 one - wbt], Peter Clinch Essex, gave the following information concerning the children of his (Peter Essex) grandparents, John and Elizabeth Clinch

Ann July 15, 1775
Thomas father of Ann November 12, 1778
Sarah November 30, 1780
Elizabeth May 11, 1783
John February 24, 1785
Alexander April 8, 1790
Charles July 17, 1793
Mary -mother of Peter Essex April 15, 1799

Our Ann Clinch was born January 27, 1804. Her father was Thomas, who was born November 12, 1778. I do not know whether or not you know it, but I have a silhouette of Thomas Clinch.3 According to my information, he came over on the same ship as the Campbells.4 He settled somewhere in New Jersey, and while on a business trip to Philadelphia. he died in one of the yellow fever epidemics and was buried there in a common grave.5

Ann Clinch, his daughter, then lived with her stepmother6 at New Hope, New Jersey,7 and it was there that Joseph, having met her on the boat and having kept in correspondence with her, married her,8 bringing her home by pillion.

In this letter of March 30, 1867, Peter told my grandfather that at his request, he had secured a birth certificate of Ann Clinch. However, I have never been able to find that among the papers.9

Sincerely
Joseph W Buck

1. I have lots of correspondence from E.. C. Essex, news clips about him, and memories of him. I plan to make a new web page for info about him. E. C. Essex was a 2nd cousin twice removed of Joe & Mabel. I.e. he was a 2nd cousin of their grandfathers. (And a 2nd cousin 3 times removed from me.) He liked to be addressed as "Cousin Claude," but when talking about him, we often referred to him as "the Cannon."

2. Joe Buck doesn't say who the 1818 letter was written to, nor by whom, nor who's address it contained. Presumably it was written to Mary CLINCH Essex. But who did Mary write to in 1867? In Peter Clinch's 1867 don't make sense if as Peter says, Mary wrote to Ann CLINCH Campbell just before her death. But they do make sense is the person Mary wrote to was her former sister-in-law, Sarah LUGG Clinch Blackwell Campbell. Here's the chronology:
1818 -- 14 year old Ann Clinch is living in NJ with her foster parents, Joshua and Amelia Blackwell. Ann's mother, Sarah, moves to Nelson, PA and marries John Campbell;
1/21/1867 -- Sarah LUGG Clinch Blackwell Campbell dies.
3/301867 -- Peter Clinch Essex allegedly wrote to Jos. D. Campbell:
9/12/1867 -- Peter's mother, Mary CLINCH Essex, died 9/12/1867, almost 6 months after Peter wrote the 3/30 letter;
2/22/1872 -- Ann CLINCH Campbell died.5 years later.
If the address from the 1818 letter that Mary wrote to in 1867 had been Ann's NJ address. Jos. D. Campbell in Nelson, PA would never have received it -- it had to have been a Nelson address. But the only one living in Nelson in 1818 with a Clinch connection was Sarah. So, the 1818 letter to Mary must have either been from Sarah or from someone telling Mary about Sarah marrying and moving to Nelson. The dates only make sense if in 1867 Mary wrote to Mrs. Sarah Campbell, Nelson, PA (or to "Mrs. John Campbell"). There's no way to know for sure who the Nelson postmaster gave the letter from Mary Essex to, but most likely is was to one of Sarah's children living in Nelson, Mary BLACKWELL Campbell or Enoch Blackwell, Jr. Either one of them replied to Mary and suggested Jos. D. Campbell as the Clinch descendant most likely be interested -- or they gave Mary's letter to Jos. D. Campbell and he replied- wbt

3. Joe's daughter, Cornelia Buck Key sent me a copy of that silhouette. After the war, Cornelia lived for a while in England and met E. C. Essex & a number of his siblings, nieces & nephews. Cornelia told me that when Joe came to visit her in London, he hosted a dinner party at Brown's Hotel (then as now, one of London's finest) for about 30 of our Essex cousins.-wbt.

4. Thomas, Sarah & Ann came over in 1805, when Ann was one year old, on the same ship from Bristol to Philadelphia that Enoch Blackwell and his children & siblings sailed on.Ann's future husband, Jos. Campbell came over in 1810, sailing from Londonderry, N. Ireland to Perth Amboy, NJ.

5. Another account has Thomas' death and burial as being in NYC, but Joe may very well be right about it being Philadelphia.

6. Ann never had a stepmother. She was raised by foster parents -- one of the brothers of her step-father, Enoch Blackwell -- and that brother's wife. The late Stella MAUGERI Blackwell and I concluded that Ann was raised by foster parents Joshua and Amelia Hey Blackwell. There is no indication that she ever lived with Enoch.

7. Some of the time Ann lived in New Hope, Bucks Co., PA. And some of the time across the river, in or near, Lambertville, Hunterdon Co., NJ.

8. The part about riding pillion may be correct. But we know they were married in Nelson, PA. The part about meeting on the boat and corresponded thereafter is incorrect. As explained in footnote 3 above, Ann was one year old at the time of her crossing, which occurred in 1805. And according to a diary excerpt that Joe quoted in his CCC letter of 1925, Joseph Campbell made his voyage from Londonderry to Perth Amboy, NJ in 1810.

9. England didn't begin issuing birth certificates until 1837 -- long after Ann had left. Perhaps Peter Essex was referring to a baptismal certificate or a christening record.

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