John Eckley is the first of the Eckley family able to be traced to the New World.  The time he came makes him one of the very early colonialists in America.  Information about him suggests he was a farmer of substantial wealth and was learned in the law.  He served in the first Provincial Court of Pennsylvania.  He left a will suggesting his wealth which is included in the following.  His family seems to date back to the 1300's in Herferdshire. There is also suggestion that the family may have come from Germany, leaving as Quakers to avoid Catholic persecution.  John Eckley was born in England, immigrated to America with William Penn.  He returned to England once and also lived for a period in Barbados.  He was a Quaker. See the following (THE ECKLEYS OF CREDENHILL PARK).  What follows are various documents verifying John Eckley's background:

AN ACCOUNT OF PUBLIC FRIENDS Deseased In Pensilvania, West and East Jerseys. [Editor's note: this is a verbatim copy of a manuscript found at Devonshire House, London, in Portfolio 8: 89. The account was originally published by Quaker History: The Bulletin of the Friends Historical Association, Swarthmore, Pennsylvania, Volume 4, (1913). Lewis D.- Cook, a Fellow of this Society, suggested that it might be unknown to many of our subscribers, and obtained permission from the Friends Historical Association to reprint it here. The term "Public Friend" refers to those Friends who spoke in Meeting. Those acceptable to the Meeting were recorded by the ministers and elders, and formally named ministers. The practice began in 1679 and continued in some Meetings, until the twentieth century.]

Francis Fincher came from Worcester in the year 1683. He was drowned going over a ferry ye beginning of ye 6mo 1684 & was buried limo 1684.

James Claypoole came from London in the year 1683 & was buried ye 7-6mo- 1687.

Christo. Taylor came from Edmonton near London with his wife Frances in ye year 1683. His wife was buried in ye year 1685. He was buried in ye year 1686.

Jno. Songhurst came out of the County of Sussex in ye year 1682. He deced. in West Jersey and was brought over to Philada. and was buried ye 25-111mo-1688.

John Eckley came from ye Lea in Herefordshire in ye year 1683 & returned into England again and arrived in ye year 1687. He recd. a public Testimony after he first arrived & was buried ye 15th 4mo. 1688/9.

37

Printed from Family Tree Maker, Pennsylvania Vital Records, Volume I. Catalogue of Eighty-Seven Public Friends yt have died in Pennsylvania since ye First Settlement ..., ©  Broderland software, Inc., Banner Blue Division, February 10, 1998

WILLIAM  PENN, Propietary,. .                                                                 1681-  1698

 William Markham, Deputy Governor, . . . . . . . . . . .     April 20,1681    Oct.. --,1682
 William Penn, Proprietary and Governor, .. . . . . . . . .   Oct. 27, 1682    Sept 18,1681
 The Council, (Thomas Lloyd, President, . . . . . . . . . .    Sept 18, 1684    Feb. 9, 1688

 1. Thomas Lloyd, }
 2. Robert Turner, }        Five Commis-     }
 3. Arthur Gook,   }        sioners ap-          }                     Feb. 9,   1688    Dec 18, 1688
 4. John Simcock, }           pointed by         }
 5. John Eckley,    }        Wm.Penn           }

 Capt. John Blackwell, Deputy Governor, . . . . . . . . . .  Dec. 18, 1688    Jan  2,  1680
 The Council, (Thomas Lloyd, President) . . . . . .           Jan. 2,    1690    Mar -,  1691
 Thomas Lloyd, Deputy Governor of Province}
 William Markham, Deputy Governor    of      }             Mar. -,    1691  April 26, 1698
 Lower Counties,                                           }
 

CROWN Of ENGLAND, . . . . . .                                                        1693--Nov. 24, 1691

 Benjamin Fletcher, Governor of
             New York, Governor, . . . .                                 April 26, 1698   Mar. 20, 1686
 William Markham, Lieutenant  Governor, . . . . . . . . .       April 28,1691    Mar. 28, 1690

WILLIAM PENN, PROPRIETARY.                                         Nov. 24, 1694    July 30,  1718

 William Markham, Governor. .                                         Mar. 26.1695     Sept. 8.  1688
 Samuel Carpenter, Deputies,                                            Nov. 24,1694     Sept. 8,  1698
 John Goodson,
 William Markham, Lieutenant
 Governor, . . . . . . . . . .                                                    Sept. 8, 1698       Dec 21, 1699

For many years it has been known that the Eckleys' came from Wales, the first to come having been John Eckley, a Quaker who arrived in Philadelphia, Pa. about 290 years ago, accompanying William Penn to the new Colony. He served as a Justice and died there in 1689-1690.

Through the years additional material had been gathered about John Eckley, but it wasn't until 1960 that Clarence M. Phillips of Palestine, I1. came up with a copy of John Eckley's will. It said he was of the Lea, Parish of Kimbolton, county of Hereford, England and of the town and county of Haverford West, in Pennsylvania.

In planning a trip to England in June, 1969, Ralph B. Eckley of Monmouth was able to find that there was a Kimbolton in Hereford, close to the larger town of Leominster and this was included as a place to visit.

The real break came only a few weeks before the trip began, for it was when the Warren County Library obtained a reprint of a book on crests that better information was secured.

This told that the crest of the Eckley family of Credenhill Park, Hereford, England is a leopard's head erased gu. The family motto is" Gesta Praevenient Verbis" - which translated means -"Deeds will surpass words." This was taken from Fairbairn's "Book of Crests", first published in 1859, The direct quote is from a reprint of the Fourth Edition, London, in 1905, of the Heraldic Book Co., Baltimore, Md. 1968.

After a visit to Blackford, in Somerset, home of the Eckleys grandparents on the maternal side, Ralph B. Eckley, Mrs. Eckley and Mrs. Scott (Isa) Eckley Shrode, went via Monmouth to Hereford, then drove to the nearby village of Credenhill. There they were directed to Park Cottage, Credenhill, Hereford, the home of Mr. and Mrs. W. F. Ecroyd.

Greeting them was a Miss Hilda Hollingsworth, a companion of the family, who explained that Mr. Ecroyd was out to some of the farms. As she spoke, however, Mr. Ecroyd dropped up in a Land Rover, and promptly invited the three from the U.S.A. Into the home.

Then Miss Hollingsworth prepared tea and Mrs. Ecroyd joined the group in a discussion of the Old Eckley home nearby. During the conversation it was learned that Miss Hollingsworth was an author of children books and both Mrs. Eckley and Mrs. Shrode received autographed copies of "Cobwebbie." published in 1961 by Arthur H. Stockwell Limited, Elms Court, Ifracombe, Devon.

In the meantime, Mr. Ecroyd came up with some written material about various branches of the Eckley Family which was found to include John Eckley, the Quaker lawyer who came to Philadelphia 290 years ago. His son was John Eckley, his grandson Thomas Eckley, and his great-grandson Peter Eckley, was the great-great-Grandfather of Ralph B. Eckley and Mrs. Shrode. It closed in the previous nebulous link in the family chain. Thomas Eckley, the grandson was born in Wales and Peter Eckley was the first to be born in Pennsylvania.

It developed that the Ecroyds were living in what had been the bailiff's house on the Eckley estate, after having been dispossessed in 1939 when the British government took much of the land for the Credenhill Royal Air Force Base. The family home was turned over to the Polish government in exile and is still occupied by Poles who didn't want to return to Russia for some obvious reasons.

Mr. Ecroyd came up with a book of photographs, taken more than 40 years ago, which were made when he decided an 82 room house was to large for his small family, and he converted it into apartments. However, when it was taken over, he moved to the smaller house on the property. He explained that he was "in spinning."

These are excerpts from the more detailed account of the Eckleys in Mr. Ecrcyd's possession:

• James Eckley Gent. Grove House Bromsborrow, owned land in the Dilwyn, Wormsley, Redmarkley and Bromsberrow. There were many in Hereford, judging by the Registers in All Saints church.

• The most distinguished John Eckley belonged to a family settled at the Lea, Kimbolton. He joined the Quakers and went with Penn to his new colony. He was appointed one of the five provincial Judges, and later when the executive was reduced to five commissioners of state, John Eckley was one of these. He died about 1690, leaving a son John whose descendants, if any, have not been traced. (This was the link that was needed to complete the chain of Relationship.)

• Sir Samuel Eckley, Kt. was mayor in Gloucester in 1702. The Eckleys owned Kynaston in Herefordshire and Whitmaston and Whaddon in Gloucestershire. The register of S. Botolph in London, I am told, contains entries of the family 1667 and recorded in the Oxford University Register.

• Another link with America was brought to light in an 1841 newspaper, sent to Elizabeth Bradran, about David Eckley of Boston, Mass, USA. He had gone to London, volunteered for the Scottish rebellion in 1745, returned to Hereford and then went to America in 1767. His father Joseph, married Miss Sarah Jeffries, a descendant of "The Judge." and became a minister of the Old South Church, Boston, USA.)

• Edmond Eckley, the first of the family apparently to reside at Credenhill, married Elizabeth, the daughter of Joseph Powell of Kynaston. The acreage of the Manor must have been small at the time, as it was added to subsequently by purchase. An ancient house, the back of which still stood in 1880 was built of wattle and daub, with a very deep brown tile roof reaching almost to the ground on the east side. Under this, inside, it was impossible to stand upright in a hall and in an apartment known as "the mans room." The servant quarters on the top floor consisted of four attics opening with one another, two small ones without any windows at all but doubtless used as a sleeping apartment.
•  Tradition has it that the front of the old house, replaced in Georgian times by a red brick structure, has a long room where Edmund Eckley's five daughters, who were noted spinsters, sat at the spinning wheels.

• The bailiffs house and farm buildings crowded up to join the Manor House between it and the Church. These were afterward removed to what is now known as "The Court Fan."

• The hill was bare except for the ancient oaks and the yews still standing and was ploughed inside the camp.

• The Park was planted by Rev. John Eckley in the early part of the 19th century.

• The eldest son of Edmund Eckley apparently never married. His sister, Eleanor, buried closest to the alter rail, lived in the old Manor House.

• Edmund's second son, Richard, was educated at Balliol, Oxon. He had two sons, John of Credenhill is buried in the family vault. The younger son Edmund, of Tillington Court, was rector of Credenhill until 1835.

• In the early days, when the Eckleys first started farming in the 13th century, much of the land was held by members of the Nobility and the Roman Catholic Church and farmers were virtually vassals on these farms. However, there were always some independent farmers who farmed well and profitably and sometimes accumulated considerable amounts of land. During the early centuries of Eckley ownership, the land was used for grazing of sheep and the spinning of wool, at first on the farm and later in factories.

• The central part of the house, containing 82 rooms dated from the middle of the 17th century. The two wings (Pictured) are much newer. As Mr. Ecroyd stated, they were built only 250 years ago.

******************************************************************************
Taken from the records of Ralph B. Eckley of Monmouth, I1.

Ralph B. Eckley is the grandson of Levi Eckley and son of George Calvin Eckley. He resided in Monmouth, I1. He was editor and later feature writer for the Monmouth Review Atlas Newspaper. Sallie Flanagan visited him in the 1970's and he shared with her some of the Eckley genealogy the he had worked on for many years.
 
 
 
 
 
 

 JOHN ECKLEY

John Eckley   Sarah Burge, widow
Born - England or Wales  of John Burge
Died 12-1689

Two known children are;

John Eckley of Herefordshire, England.

Sarah Eckley of Philadelphia, Pa.
 married Daniel Coxe.

*****************************************************************
Quoted from "Quaker Biographical
Sketches of Ministers and Elders."
Edited by Willard Heiss - 1972

"Of the birthplace of  John Eckley,  I have found no account, nor of the time of his convincement and entrance into the ministry. He appears to have settled in Philadelphia, towards the close of the year 1684, and was one much used in civil and religious Society. Early in 1685, he took a certificate of removal out of the province of Pennsylvania; and from some indications it would appear to have been to Barbados. He returned before the middle of 1687, and resided in Philadelphia to the time of his death. His services in the meetings of which he was a member were great, and he appears to have been a willing laborer in whatever appointments his Friends placed upon him. Such services as demanded active exertion, a clear business head, and religious discrimination, were heaped upon him; and he appears to have been increasing in usefulness until released from earthly toil to receive the reward of faithful dedication to his heavenly father's will, and earnest love for the brethren.

The estimate placed upon him by the public authorities, and the citizens generally, coincided with that of his own religious Society. On the 17th of Sixth month, 1687, he was put in "commission of the peace for the county of Philadelphia," and on the 18th was appointed Register-General, in the room of James Claypoole, deceased. This last office he declined accepting, and his friend and fellow minister of the gospel, Thomas Ellis, was appointed in his place. In the Twelfth month of that same year, Governor. Penn's (William Penn) "commission under the broad seal" was received, constituting Thomas Lloyd, Robert Turner, Arthur Cook, John Symcock and John Eckley, "his deputy or lieutenant." John Eckley paid to this appointment the same faithful attention which he did to his religious ones. During the ten months he held the post, he was not once absent from its frequent sittings.

Some difficulty had arisen about the line between the counties of Philadelphia and Chester, near the Welsh tract, and Holme's map added the portion to Chester. Some of the Welsh preferred remaining attached in Philadelphia and some of them said that William Penn had promised them a county Palatine for themselves. Whilst those discussions were going on, John Eckley was elected in the First month, 1680, a representative of the Provincial Council for the county of Philadelphia. At his election some of the inhabitants of Haverford and Readnor having voted for him, Governor Blackwell refused to let him serve, although there does not appear to have been any opposing candidates. This resolution of the governor being made known through the sheriff, a public aeeting of the inhabitants was held, and John Eckley was chosen by acclamation. Still the governor was not satisfied, and did not permit John Eckley to sit, until he was himself superceded by William Penn, who conferred on the Provincial Council the powers of a deputy governor. John Eckley once more took his seat on the board, but did not long survive dying of small pox in December 1689."

A memorial to John Eckley, written by Samuel Jennings follows. His will, dated July 17, 1688, in the county of Hereford, England, mentions his "now" wife Sarah of Pennsylvania and a son, John of Herefordshire, England. John and Sarah Eckley had one child Sarah, born in America. She eloped with Daniel Coxe and was married between 2 and 3 AM on the New Jersey side, under a tree by firelight, May 8, 1707.

*****************************************************************
 Ref:  Biographical Sketches of Ministers and Elders, and Other Concerned Members of the Yearly meeting of Philadelphia 1682-1800. Edited by Willard Heiss -1972.
 Collection of New Jersey, Historical Society. Vol. 9 - page 82.
 Will of John Eckley.
 Early Pennsylvania Land Records (Egle) Minutes Book "G" page 459.

(Source of this material is from: Descendants of Peter & Esther Ralph Eckley, compiled by Myrna J Madsen and Sallie J. Flanagan, October, 1994)
 
 

From:  Pennsylvania Gleanings in England

John Eckley of the Lea, parish of Kimbelton, county Hereford, and now of Town and county of Haverford West, merchant.

Will 17 July 1686: proved 1 February 1698:9.

To brother in law John Vaston of Doclop,  Herefordshire, yeoman,  5 to be guardian over my son John Eckley.

To said son, John Eckley  50 lent to George Phillips of Lawton parish of Kingsland, deceased, mortgage, and all goods at the Lee at 21, he to combine lease to John Bowles of Rowdenham county Hereford, or else  50 to executor and all goods to mother in law Mary Pritchard of Almely.

To brother in law Sampson Lloyd of the Lee  5.

To poore of Kimbelton  5 to be distributed by said brother in law John Vaston and Sampson Lloyd.

To faithful friend William Bach of Town of Leominster, county Haverford, Gent, one Guinea.

To the poor of Philadelphia is Pennsylvania  10 of that country's money.

To now wife Sarah Eckley  messuage where I dwell and also messuage wherein Morgan  Cornock and Thomas Williams dwell on West side of Bridgestreet in Haverford West

And all my lot of  land on front of Scolkill river in Philadelphia, aforesaid together with the dwelling homes thereupon and erected built.

And all my  Lott of Land wth thapprutenances in the Second Street in Philadelphia together with the homes thereon erected and built and my plantation adjoining township of Radnor in Pennsylvania,

And also  "Great Fernocks" in Rudbaxton, county Pembroke , in possession of Richard Sparkes.

Also to wife  50 lent on mortgage to  Jonathan Rawlings of Broadwood, county Hereford, and  10 payable from Jos Vaston, late of Worcester  Tanner,

And the rest of the estate in Haversford West, Pennsylvania, &c.

Witnesses:
     Roger Prichard,
     John Hardyman,
Thos. Evans.

 1 February 1690

Administration to Jacob Lewis, Peregrin Muagrave, and Richard Stafford, junior, for Sara Eckley, deceased, while living relict, executrix, and residuary legatee named inthe will of John Eckley late of  Philadelphia in the Province of Pennsilvania, deceased, &c.
 Pett,22
 

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