You can use vital records to find your ancestors, but it is in the court records that the past comes alive. That is where you find out who menaced their neighbors with a gun at midnight, who repeated slanderous gossip, who misbehaved sexually, who shot their neighbor’s pig and hid the bacon in the out house. ¹ You hear the voices of the people speaking in their own words, calling the jury sworn rogues or telling exactly what Nicholas Randall did to the wife of his master John Swift. ² You follow the coroner and his men as they track the footprints of a distinctive boot to the swamp where they found 14 stolen deer skins hidden in a hollow tree. When they measured the shoe-print and compared it to John Martin’s shoe, it was found to be the same. John Martin was startled when they took off his shoe to measure it, but could not deny his guilt. ³

The most famous case in early Pennsylvania was not tried in a court, but in the Council, acting as a court on 12th mo 1683. Before William Penn, the Council, and a grand jury, Margaret Mattson, a Swede and the wife of Neels Mattson, was accused of being a witch. Henry Drystreet testified that he had been told she was a witch and could bewitch cows. Charles Ashcom testified that Mattson’s daughter saw a vision or dream of an old woman and a great light. Annakey Coolin and her husband boiled the heart of a calf that they thought to have died of witchcraft; Margaret saw them and said “unseemly expressions”. None of this convinced the jury, who ruled that she was not guilty of being a witch, only of “having the common fame” of one. ⁴

The record of the courts of Chester County and Bucks County have been preserved. The records of Philadelphia County court are unfortunately lost, except for a few early cases. We also have the record of the Upland Court, the precursor to Chester County court, from 1676 to 1681, and of Burlington Court, across the river in West Jersey. These hundreds of pages tell many stories.

Where to find the early court records

There were four early Quaker meetings within the bounds of present-day Delaware County, plus one in Chester County. In the early years all this area was part of Chester County. ¹ The records of Radnor Monthly Meeting are included in Delaware County, along with Concord and Darby. The records of Chester Monthly Meeting are split on Ancestry, between Chester County and Delaware County.

The earliest vital records of the meetings are found on Ancestry, just like the vital records of the early meetings in Bucks and Philadelphia Counties. If you have a subscription you can view the images there.

There are four sources of vital records for Chester Monthly Meeting, one each for births, burials and marriages, plus an early record book with a mix of births, burials, subscriptions for collections, and other material. With its original handwriting it is an evocative glimpse into the life of the meeting. The records of births and burials are later copies, probably around 1884, since the records stop there.

The vital records of Concord are incomplete for the early years. The records of births and marriages start around 1693, with a few earlier births in another place, and there are no apparently no early deaths.

Darby Monthly Meeting handled its early marriage certificates in a distinctive way. Instead of being copied into a register of their own, they are written in with the minutes in the proper chronological sequence. Once in a while the recorder left a blank space for the certificate, but it was never brought in to be copied. The record of births and burials starts early.

The Radnor vital records come in two forms: early handwriting and the neat transcript made by Gilbert Cope in the 1800s. In comparison to Concord meeting, Radnor has good coverage of the early years.

Newark/Kennett meeting was originally called New Ark, later changed to Kennett. Don’t confuse it with the meeting in nearby Newark, Delaware. Ancestry lists its records for Kennett under Chester County, as they should be.

There are many sources for early Quaker vital records, sometimes overlapping, and some with more detail than others. Fortunately many of the best sources are available on Ancestry. This post will cover vital records to about 1700, but the principles will be the same even if you are searching for later records.

The vital records come in three varieties: images of pages, usually handwritten; manuscripts, and published books. There are arguments for using all of these.  It is much easier to read the typed or published copies. Someone else has already deciphered the early handwriting for you. But sometimes you want the scrawled originals —to see your ancestor’s signature or to get a more immediate feel for the event or because information there was not included in later copies.

In particular, for Quaker marriages you probably want to see the original certificate or a good abstract of it, because you want the list of people who witnessed the ceremony and signed the certificate.  The first witnesses to sign a marriage certificate were close family members, followed by friends and guests, so the list of witnesses can provide clues to family relationships. ¹ The list also shows many of the members of the meeting at the time. ²

The images of many records are now available on Ancestry if you have a subscription, in the collection called Quaker Meeting Records 1681-1935. In that collection they are organized by state, county, and meeting. Sometimes the Ancestry files are placed under the wrong county or meeting. If you can’t find a file by browsing, and you suspect it should exist, use a technique of searching instead. Choose someone that should be in a record, preferably with an uncommon name, and use the search boxes on the opening page of the Quaker Records. This will give you a list of hits. View the image and see whether you spot any misfiled files. For example for Falls Monthly Meeting, one early file is under Philadelphia County, Arch Street Meeting and another one is under Berks County, Exeter Meeting.

Where to find the vital records on Ancestry for Bucks and Philadelphia Counties

Falls Meeting had three early documents: one of intermingled births and burials, one of marriage certificates (with witnesses), and one of births recorded by the Quarterly Meeting. These are scattered around on Ancestry, along with a 1898 copy that included later records. The 1898 copy is easiest to read.

Middletown Meeting had one early document, a collection of minutes, marriages, births and burials. There are two copies on Ancestry, differing mainly in the births and burials. The “Record of Commery” has the births in different order, and only a few burials. The mysterious “Commery” is someone’s error in reading the title page; it should actually be “Records commencing 1683”. ³

At first the responsibility of recording births and burials fell to the Bucks Quarterly Meeting. Their records can be found on Ancestry, listed under Philadelphia County, Arch Street Meeting. This is the only Ancestry file to show the early deaths. It is a mix of Falls and Middletown people, since in the earliest few years Middletown had not yet been split off as a monthly meeting. For example, the first birth is Mary, daughter of Lyonell and Elizabeth Britton of Falls; one of the first deaths is Thomas Walmsley, who owned land in Middletown.

Philadelphia Monthly Meeting has two original documents, one for marriages and one for births and burials, plus a transcription of the births and burials made in 1876 by Gilbert Cope. The 1876 copy has an index and the records have been changed from chronological order to alphabetical. There is an identical copy of the 1876 transcript filed under Philadelphia Meeting Arch Street.

There are two early documents for Abington Monthly Meeting, one of marriages and one of births and deaths. They are handwritten copies made in the 1700’s, so the signatures on the marriage certificates are not original. Ancestry places records of Abington Meeting under Montgomery County, which split off from Philadelphia County in 1784.