The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1878-07-06


In 1923, some of the influential citizens
of the county petitioned for a road from
Head of Elk to New Castle and Christine
bridge and state in their petition that ''the
road to those places not having been laid
out by order of court was 50 stopped up &
turned that carts were forced to go by the |
New Munster road, (which probably then
ran near where Newark now stands and |
that strange travellers often went by
Frenchtown, instead of the Head of Elk |
river, the Welsh having cleared and mark
cd road as far as their supposed bounds"
The petition, which was signed by Stephen |
Onion, Richard Dobson ard eighteen other
citizens of the county, was granted, and |
William Bristow, overseer of Bohemia |
hundred, and Thomas Jacobs, the proprie-
tor of the mill, were ordered to make the |
road.
The Henry Hollingsworth, who bought
the land from John Smith came to Penn
sylvania as did also his brothers. Valentine
aud Thomas, in the ship Welcome, with
William Penn, in 1882 Their father, Val
entine Hollingsworth, married the daugh-
ter Of Henry Cornish, who was one of the
Sherii1s Of London Iondon then had two
Sherifs with coequal power, in the trou-
blesome times of James IL, and who was
executed, in 1855, for alleged completely
with Monmouth in his efforts to usurp the
royal authority. Cornish was believed to
have been entirely innocent of the charges
against him, and although he was exc
cuted 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 it's power
to atone for the wrong that its enactments
brought upon an innocent family. Nalen-
tine Hollngsworth represented New Castle
county in the Legislature of Pennsylvania
for several years. He was the contemporary
of George Talbot.
Henry, who was named after his mater
nal grandfather, was a man of much dis
tinction and assisted Thomas Holmes in
laying out the city of Philadelphia, being
at that time about eighteen years of age.
After the death of Cornish, his SON. law,
Valentine Holingsworth, removed to Ire
land, where his son Henry made the ac-
quaintance of Lydia Atl nson, whom he
married in 1858, having in that year re-
turned to Ireland for that purpose.
He represented New Castle county in
the Assembly, in 1895, and was also Sheriff
OF Chester county the same year; was
Deputy Master of the Rolls, in 1900, and
Coroner of the last named county, in 1906
He removed to Elkton about 1712, in which
year he was appointed Surveyor of Cecil
county by Lord Baltimore. He was the
founder of the Hollingsworth family in
this county, and the grandfather of Col.
Henry Hollingsworth, who was so init
mately identified with the cause of the
colonies. during their struggle for indie
peudence. lie died in Elktou, in 1921, aud
probably was buried in the old burying
ground on the river bank, near which his |
house stood. Valentine IIolingsworth was
a Quaker, and his son Henry is believed to
have been brought up in that faith, but
afterwards joined the Episcopal Church.
His life gave evidence that he never forgot
the pacific principles of the faith in which |
he had been educated, for he would not
suffer the life of any animal to be sacrificed
for food, and lived for some years wholly
upon vegetable diet. Once, when return
ing from fair at New Castle, he saw
ratticsnake coiled up by log not far from
his house, but passed on without killing it.
Next day a peddler was found near the
same spot, stiff and dead from the bite of
a snake. This gave Henry great pain and
he afterwards thought it right to kill
snakes.
The Hollingsworth family We're noted
for their enterprise and industry and many
of them were largely engaged in the man
ufacture Of flour, they being the owners of
a number of mills on both branches of the
Elk. Zebulon Hollingsworth, the father
of Henry, Of Revolutionary fame, was
presiding Justice of the court of this coun-
ty, and one of the Commissioners appoint
ed to lay out Charlestown, in 1142. lie
was q prominent member of St. Mary
AIMS Church. at North East, and is be
lieved to have been one of the vestrymen
in 1913, when the present church was built
for his initials are upon the corner stone
He died in 1863, aged g. years, and is
buried in the old graveyard, on the bank
of the Elk, southwest Of the Episcopal
Church in Elkton, and near the house in
Ia Of, oh
standing. lie was the great grandfather
of Mrs. DR.. Mackall, Mrs. DR.. lamar, Mr..
John Partridge and his sister, and Mrs.
Pnkney Whyte, the wife of ex Governor
Whyte. His son Jacob kept hotel in the
house now occupied by Col. George r.
Howard, when the British were here, in
TIT. And very early in life his son Henry
built the venerable old mansion now oc-
cupied by the Partridge family, and in
which he resided at the same time. 1t is
worthy of remark i'll this connection that
the British carried away the theodolte
which Henry lIollingsworth used for sur
veying when they left here previous to the
battle of Brandywine.
The Gllpln family. some members OF
which intermarried with the Holdings
worths and who, like them, were origi-
nally Quakers, are the descendants of
Richard de Guylpin, to whom the Baron
of Kendall gave the Manor of kentme re,
for his achievements in Staying wild boar
that infested the forests of Westmoreland
and Cumberland, in England, in 1906.
Many of his descendants of the twentieth
generation now reside in Elktou and vicin-
ity, they being the descendants in the fifth
generation of Joseph Gilpin, who, in 1895,
settled in Birmingham, Delaware county,
Pa. The country was wilderness at that
time, and he constructed cave, in which
he continued to reside for many years, for
it is well authenticated fact that thirteen
of his family of fifteen children were bonn
there. The Cecil branch of the family are
A. 40, &c l. -L,NI