THE AREYS of TUCKAHOE

Jonathan and David Arey's Certificate from England was read in the meeting to the meetings satisfaction ~ Tuckahoe Quaker records

An American Beaver on Tuckahoe Creek ~ Photography by Bill Hubick

three brothers

In 1686, three brothers arrived in Maryland fresh from England. They were Jonathan (6U), David (6U) and Joseph Arey (6GGF). To introduce themselves to their new Friends at the Tuckahoe Quaker Meeting House, Jonathan and David came armed with a Certificate of Removal.

The early Quakers used Certificates of Removal as a way to correctly leave one Meeting House and present themselves to strangers at a new Meeting House. Evidently the Quakers required proof that the newcomers were "members in good standing, of good behavior, and for the unmarried, clear of marriage promises or entanglements."

The first entry in the Third Haven Meeting House book mentioning the Areys states that "Jonathan and David Arey's Certificate from England was read in the meeting to the meetings satisfaction."

At the time of their arrival, Jonathan was 23, David, 20 and our grandfather Joseph, just 11. They had come from the village of Shap in England. According to Wikipedia, "Shap is a linear village and civil parish located among fells and isolated dales in Eden district, Cumbria, in the historic county of Westmorland."

Shap lies in northern England just on the edge of the famous Lake District.

Shap Abbey

Monasticism in England began AD 597 when St. Augustine was sent to Great Britain by Pope Gregory. His mission was to Christianize King Etherberht and his kingdom. Shap Abbey was built in 1199 for monks of the Premonstratensian order. Like many other monasteries, Shap Abbey was the focal point of surrounding parish churches, almshouses, hospitals, farming estates and tenant villages. In 1483, one of the farmer tenants listed for Shap Abbey was a William Arey.

Note: I'm not able to trace a direct lineage from the Shap tenant farmer William Arey to our relatives that made their way to Maryland but am certain they must be related. William is very possibly a great-grandfather to Jonathan, David and Joseph.

King Henry VIII put an end to the brotherhood of monks with the Dissolution of the Monastaries, a legal process which disbanded all monasteries, priories and convents. Shap Abbey was closed in 1540. By the end of the 16th century most of the masonry had been taken from the monastery to build Shap Market Hall. Only ruins of the original Abbey remain.

Ruins of Shap Abbey

Shap Market Hall

roots

The William Arey who worked the lands of Shap Abbey in 1483 was probably our first Arey relative in Great Britain. According to Elizabeth Hirschman and Donald Yates who wrote Jews and Muslims in British Colonial America Arey/Aree is a markedly Arabic/Morisco surname: It means 'lion,' the symbol for the tribe of Judah." The name is also found in A History of the Jews in Christian Spain by Yitzhak Baer.

Moriscos and Conversos were names given to people of the Muslim and Jewish faiths who, after enduring harsh persecution during the Inquisition, had converted to Christianity. We know that William Arey was in Shap by 1483, only nine years before all Jews were expelled from Spain at which time large numbers of them emigrated to England. Our only record of William Arey is his tenancy at the Abbey so we have no way of knowing when or how he arrived in England. It's very possible, however, that he was amongst those fleeing persecution in Spain.

Early Quakers

The village of Shap, where our branch of the Arey family lived, lies in Westmorland County. While I found many baptismal records for Areys living in Shap as well as the neighboring villages of Kendall and Grayrigg, it's impossible to trace exact relationships. The earliest verifiable information comes from Westmorland Quaker records of marriages, births and burials.

Quakers in Westmorland began keeping their record book in 1649. This was extremely early days in the Quaker movement which wasn't cohesively formed until 1647 so the Areys had jumped on the Quaker bandwagon almost from the beginning.

The second marriage recorded in the Quaker record book took place in 1655. It just happens to be a record of our aunt Isabeth Arey (7A), daughter of William Arey (8GGF) of Shap. The record shows that Isabeth married Edward Guy of Appulby.

Two years and three entries later we find the marriage record of Isabeth's brother, our grandfather Richard Arey (7GGF). Richard andhis bride Mary Whitehead (7GGM) were wed on the tenth of March, 1657.

Note: The recorder made a mistake on this page, the only one I saw in the book. The top of this page should say "Marriages" but erroneously says "Births."

Thanks to these well-kept Quaker records I was able to find birth dates for all of Richard and Mary's seven children: Jacob (6U), Israel (6U), Jonathan (6U), David (6U), Anne (6A), Joseph (6GGF) and Deborah (6A). The three younger sons, Jonathan, David and Joseph would eventually leave Shap for their new home on the Tuckahoe River in Maryland.

Protestant Recusants

The Puritans left England in the 1630's to escape the iron fist of the Anglican Church. In the 1660's, that iron fist still held sway. Anyone who refused to attend government sanctioned churches was labeled "Recusant." Naturally, all Quakers fell into the Recusant category and Westmoreland County was a hotbed of Quaker activity. The Crown attempted to disperse them with fines and imprisonment. On 10 Aug 1663, the Deputy Lieutenant of Westmorland wrote to secretary of state Henry Bennet:

"...the Quakers and other Separatists are numerous in the district and that their weekly meetings are apprehended as dangerous. Although we have proceeded according to law against some of them, they abate nothing of their obstinacy."

On the list of "the people called Quakers who stand indicted for unlawfully assembling themselves under pretence of religious worship" we find our grandfather Richard Arey and Edward Guy, husband of our aunt Isabeth Arey. There were 25 people on the list and four of them had to pay the highest fine of 150 shillings. Richard Arey was one of those. He was, fortunately, not one of the seven who were imprisoned. The constables were instructed to "collect the said sums by distress and sale of their goods."

More fines were levied at the Easter sessions of 18 Apr 1664. Edward Guy was fined 120 shillings, our grandfather Richard Whitehead (8GGF), Richard Arey's father-in-law, was fined 66 shillings, our uncle John Arey (7U), 66 shillings and Lancelott Fallowfield, who married our aunt Dorothy Arey (7A), was also fine 66 shillings.

Note: Dorothy Arey Fallowfield died in 1674 and her son followed two years later. Shortly afterwards, Lancelot left for America. In Pennsylvania, he was one of the first in that colony to purchase land from William Penn and the town of Fallowfield, Pennsylvania is named after him.

The tree below shows the members of the Arey clan in Shap that I was able to find from Quaker records beginning with our grandfather William Arey (8GGF) and grandmother Anne Crackenthorpe (8GGM). Thomas Arey (8U) is Williams brother.

Note: In Shap the name was spelled Aray. The sons who left for Maryland changed the spelling to Arey. The name would evenutally anglicize to Airey.

a mystery

Quaker records show seven children born to Richard and Mary Arey, five sons and two daughters. While there are many records for births, marriages and deaths for other Arey cousins living in the region, there is absolutely no further trace of Richard and Mary's children in the Westmoreland Quaker books. Evidently, they did not marry nor did they die within that Quaker congreation. Richard's burial is recorded in 1683 and Mary's in 1715.

We know that Jonathan, David and Joseph left for the New World before they married which explains the lack of records for those three. I can only surmise that the four other children left Westmorland behind at an early age as well.

The death of Richard in 1683 may have had something to do with the flight of the children from Shap. The three Arey brothers arrived in Maryland in 1686, just three years after their father's burial.

The Areys in Quaker records

Jonathan, David and Joseph Arey arrived in Maryland in 1686 and were immediately welcomed into the Quaker fold. After recording their first introduction to the congregation on 24 Sep 1686, nothing more is heard of the Arey brothers until a marriage intention is recorded for David Arey and Hannah Jadwyn in 1695. After that, David became quite active in Quaker affairs. He is mentioned in the record book no less than thirty nine times and he, along with John Pitt, was a representative for many years from the Tuckhaoe Meeting for the much larger monthly Third Haven Meeting in Easton.

The oldest brother, Jonathan Arey, had a total of four mentions in the book. The first is, of course, concerning the Certificate announcing him to his new family of Quakers. Jonathan may have been something of a misfit in the Quaker realm. The next we hear of him is twelve years later, in 1698, and also concerns a Removal Certificate he has requested, probably for a move to another meeting house. Apparently, however, Jonathan didn't move out of the area because he shows up in the records again in 1702. This time he's somehow gone astray:

"This meeting is informed that Jonathan Arey concerned himself with things that he ought not and by that meanes has brought an Exercise upon friends who are concerned for the propriety of the blessed work and also that he does not keep duly meetings."

John Pitt and others were sent right over to set him straight. Jonathan obviously professed to seeing the error of his ways as the report reads:

"The friends appointed to visit Jonathan Arey give (unreadable)...accepts of friend: Love and acknowledges his shortness on not coming to meetings and hopes he shall not give the occation againe."

Whatever happened to Jonathan after this is another mystery as we can find no further record of him. He either died intestate shortly afterwards or took his Certificate of Removal and skedaddled.

Our grandfather Joseph Arey was not so active in Quaker affairs as his brother David. He is mentioned in the Quaker book only seven times, the first his intention to marry Mary Baynard (6GGM) in 1708. The others mentions are the usual, counseling others on their various transgressions and marriage advice.

David's will

Everything additional that we know about the Arey brothers we learn from David and Joseph's wills. David Arey's wife Hannah died in 1707 and David followed seven years later at age 48. From his will we learn that he had three children living at the time of his death, John (1C7X), Esther (1C7X) and Deborah (1C7X).

Our grandfather Joseph, 39 at the time of his brother's death, made out nicely:

"I give & bequeath to my loving Brother Joseph Arey all my rights & interest of the Land & Plantation wherein he now dwelleth a Land called Sinefield."

The rest of the estate, which included consiberable property, was to be divided amongst his three children. John, of age, inherited immediately. The two daughters were "to be brought up with my Brother Joseph Arey 'till they arrive at ye age of eighteen years..." A caveat to the guardianship, however, indicated a wee bit of doubt about David's trust in his brother. He added, "...but if my Brother or his wife their kin or asignees shall abuse or bring up my Daughters disorderly..." then the girls were to be taken from Joseph and raised elsewhere.

Joseph

In 1708, our grandfather Joseph Arey married Mary Baynard (6GGM) daughter of John (7GGF), also a member of the Tuckahoe Meeting House. Joseph and Mary had three children, Mary (5GGM), Jonathan (5U) and David (5U).

It appears that Grandpa Joseph never acquired any land in his own right. While he inherited and evidently lived on his brother's plantation, Sinefield, that land was not mentioned in his own will so it must have either been sold or reverted to David's children.

Grandma Mary Baynard Arey died in 1625, at only 39 years. Joseph almost immediately married widow Jane Clarke Parrott. She owned a dower's right to a plantation called "Sallop" which transferred to Joseph at their marriage. She also inherited from her deceased husband four African slaves, Thate, Alice Moreah and Rose which means that our grandfather Joseph became, in effect, the owner of these four Africans.

Note: In the last half of the 17th century, almost 42% of Maryland Quakers were slaveholders. Pennsylvania Quakers, however, were strongly abolitionist. By the 1750's all Quakers in the southern states had adopted an abolitionist stance.

two more wills

Joseph evidently did not "abuse or bring up disorderly" his two nieces. By 1728, the unmarried Esther had become a fairly prosperus landowner in her own right and Deborah had married into the wealthy Parratt family.

Note: Parratt is another Arabic/Morisco name. I found records of Parratts in the Shap Quaker Record Book but haven't been able to trace the relationship between the Shap Parratts and the Maryland Parratts.

1628 did not turn out to be a good year for the Arey's. Esther's will is dated the 3rd of November of that year when she was only 29. She must have died within days of signing it. Her bequests are as follows:

To bro-in-law Benjamin Parratt (her sister Deborah's husband) and hrs. (heirs), 500 A. (acres) "Parker's Park."

To cousin Jonathan (5U) and hrs., 300 A. "Morgan's Reserve."

To cousin David (5U) and hrs., 125 A. "David's Ridge"; sd. David dying without issue, or without disposing of sd. land, to pass to cousin Mary Arey (5GGM) and hrs.

Exs.: Uncle Joseph Arey and bro.-in-law Benjamine Parratt.

Note: Esther's brother John must have died before her death as she doesn't mention him in the will and no further records of him can be found.

Esther named her uncle Joseph as one of her executors of her will, but he did not live to carry out those duties. He died within days of Esther's death. He was 53 years of age and, apparently, the only land he owned was the plantation "Sallop," inherited by his wife from her first husband. Joseph did the right thing by his two stepsons, however, bequeathing the plantation "Sallop" to them after their mother's death.

With no land of his own leave to his children, Joseph bequeathed personality to his son Jonathan (5U). His daughter Mary (5GGM) and son David (5U) are not mentioned in the will.

an end and a beginning

So ends the saga of the Arey family. We can find nothing more for the Arey sons except a land transfer record for Jonathan in 1672: Jonathan Airey and Enoch Morgan...conveyed to John Jenkinson...three acres whereon the meeting house and graveyard came to be "for the use of the people called Quakers."

Our grandmother Mary Arey would marry John Covington (5GGF) in 1731. Their son William would move his family south and thus begin the Covington's North Carolina era, along with our Wall, Terry, Raiford and Thomas families.