William Horney, Private in American Revolution, Nicholite by faith

(Settlers and Migrants, Horney family)

* William HORNEY was born in ABT 1751 in Caroline, MD; died in 1829 in Bellbrook, Greene, OH; buried in Pioneer Cemetery, Bellbrook,Greene,OH.

William Horney married Harriet Hannah CHIPMAN in 1772 in MD. They had the following children: Margaret HORNEY (b. ABT 1773), James HORNEY (b. 1774), Paris HORNEY (b. 1776), Deborah HORNEY (b. 1778), Mary HORNEY (b. 6 Mar 1780), Lydia HORNEY (b. 5 Aug 1782), William HORNEY (b. 1784), Daniel HORNEY (b. 1786), Hannah HORNEY (b. 1788), John HORNEY (b. 1790), Chipman HORNEY (b. 23 Feb 1793), Sarah HORNEY (b. 1795), ♥ Jeffrey HORNEY (b. 7 Mar 1798).

MARRIAGE:
William Horney married Hannah Chipman in Maryland, his brother, John, married Hannah’s sister, Mary Chipman.

MILITARY:
“HORNEY Wm., b c. 1750/1, d 1829, m Hannah Chipman, rank Private, MD.”{D3}  William and his brother John served together in the War for Independence.  1778 William enlisted for 3 years service in  the Maryland 5th Regiment.{D4}
•  According to a military Roll Call, dated 8 Sep 1778, William Horney, was a Private in Captain Levin Handy’s Company of the 5th Maryland Regiment, commanded by Colonel W. Richardson.{D4}
•  1778-1780 Pvt. Wm. Horney in Captain William Riley’s Company, 5th Maryland Regiment.{D6}
•  7 Feb 1779 William reenlisted into the same unit.{D4}
•  Listed as Pvt. in muster roll of the 5th MD Regt., Capt. William Rie Cup’s Company on Aug 1780 and Jan 1781. The 4th and 5th Maryland Regiments fought in the Battle of the Cowpens.

24 Mar 1797 William was issued 100 acres of Bounty Land, Warrant Number #11302, as part of the pay incentive  for serving in the Continental Army.{D5}{D7}

RELIGION:
William was born into a Quaker (pacifist) family. Because William and his brother John served in the Colonial Militia during the American Revolution, their father, Jeffrey Horney Jr., left them only a comparative pinnace of £10 each in his Will. By the end of the Revolutionary War, the brothers William, John and James Horney had become Nicholites, a Quaker like religious group that formed in Delaware.{D11}

TRAVEL:
William, his wife Hannah and family, moved to Deep River area of Guilford County, NC in 1778. William’s brothers John and James and their families were also part of the small migration of Nichollites who removed to NC.{D11}

HOME:
In Guilford Co., NC, a “Nicholite Meeting House” was built. William’s home and farm was located about 0.66 mile north of the Meeting House. William’s father-in-law Perez Chipman Jr. lived 2.6 miles north of the meeting house.{D13}

EVENT:
During the 1790s, with the death of many of the original founding members, the Nicholites began merging with the Quakers. About 1801 or 1802, with the dissolution of the Nicholite religious group, William, brother John and their families moved toOhio.

HISTORICAL NOTE:
The first white settlement in the Ohio was in 1788, at Marietta. In the same year a settlement was also established at Cincinnati. During the next few years other villages sprang up, particularly in the south.

HOME:
William purchased 51 acres of land from Josiah Hunt and 11.5 acres from Edward Mercer in 1804.  He bought a 90 acre parcel from Richard Mendenhall in 1818. All of the land records refer to the lands as being “on the waters of Caesars Creek”, but no survey location was given on any of them. {D14}  “William and John Horney settled early on the farm now (the author wrote this in 1881) owned by Amos Williams. John devoted himself to hunting and shooting the game which was here in abundance.”{D2} In 1807 an enumeration of white males in Xenia Twp., Greene Co. OH above the age of 21 years was taken, among those recorded were the familiar names: James Anderson, William Anderson, John H. Anderson and William Horney…{D9, p.28-30}

LIVELIHOOD:
He was a planter and farmer.

WILL:
William made his Will on 6 April 1817. The disposition of his property is as follows:
Daniel was to receive 80 acres on Sugar Creek;  Chipman would get 120 acres on Sugar Creek also a bed and furniture;  Jeffrey, he Willed, “I give unto my son ♥ Jeffrey Horney my homeplace , one waggon &
gears One Dark bay mare, eight years old, and one cow and calf and the ballance of the bedding to be left to said Jeffry”; the balance of the estate to be divided amongst daughters Mary, Lydia, Hannah and Sarah.  Sarah, one horse and saddle, bed and furniture, cow and calf, spinning wheel.
Hannah, a bed and furniture. John, a bed and furniture. Margaret’s children $1.00; Paris’ children $1.00.  James $1.00; Deborah $1.00; Mary $1.00; Lydia $1.00; William $1.00.{D12}

BURIAL:
William was buried in the old Pioneer Cemetery, 1/4 mile north of Bellbrook’s modern cemetery. William and Harriet’s grave markers are not amongst those that have survived to the present. A grave stone for William was erected in the modern Bellbrook Cemetery noting William as a Patriot in the American Revolution. His monument sits directly in front of the cemetery flagpole.{D10}

DOCUMENTS:
1. Land Records: GreeneCounty Recorders Office, Greene County Courthouse, Xenia, OH.
Ask for copies of Volume #1, pages 103, 107 & 141; Vol. #6, page 88.
2. History of Fayette County by R.S. Dills, 1881,, Odell & Mayer Publishers, Dayton, OH., p. 642.
3. DAR Patriot Index, Washington, 1966.
4. Revolutionary War records of William Horney – Reference Services Branch, National Archives and Records Service, 8th and Pennsylvania Ave. NW, Washington DC 20408.
5. Maryland Revolutionary Records, by Newman.
6. Roster of Revolutionary Ancestors, Volume I, Indiana DAR.
7. Note: Information concerning the issuance of land warrants is found in “Land Warrants Issued Prior to 1800”, Vol. 2-4. Other records regarding applications for warrants were destroyed in the War Department fire of 9 Nov 1800. Information concerning warrants surrendered to the Federal Government may be found in General Land Office records at the National Archives.
8. William Horney estate papers. Greene County Court of Common Pleas, Vol. G, pages 223-224.
9. Robinsons History of Greene County Ohio, by George F. Robinson, 1902, reprinted 1973.
10. Soldiers of American Revolution Buried in Ohio, Cat. # 1-973344, H., Vol. 1, page 192, “HORNEY, WILLIAM Greene County,Ohio.”
11.  Joseph Nichols and the Nicholites: A Look at the ‘New Quakers’ of Maryland, Delaware, North and South Carolina by Kenneth Lane Carroll, 1962, published by The Easton Publishing Company, Easton,
Maryland.
12.  Document at: Greene County Court of Common Pleas, Vol. G, pages 223-224,Greene County, OH.
13. “18th Century Historical Documentation Map”, Guilford County,NC.
14. Green County Recorders Office, Greene County Courthouse, Xenia, OH ask for Land Records, Vol.1, Pages 103, 107; vol. 6, page 88 for copies of the originals.
Individual source: TITLE: Betebenner – Horney and Allied Families, 1981 by Evelyn Halkyard Vohland, Published by The Clipper Publishers, Shelton, NE, 297 pages, hardbound.

* Harriet Hannah CHIPMAN was born on 11 Nov 1753 in Caroline, MD (her family lived in Camden, DE); died AFT 1804 in Bellbrook, Greene, OH; buried in Pioneer Cemetery, Bellbrook, Greene, OH.

Individual source: TITLE: Betebenner – Horney and Allied Families, 1981 by Evelyn Halkyard Vohland, Published by The Clipper Publishers, Shelton, NE, 297 pages, hardbound.

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William Horney and the Nicholites
(also William Coffin, Paris (Perez) Chipman and their families)

“A very interesting sect which saw its rise in the rural area along the Delaware-Marylandboarder in the 1760s owed its existence to Joseph Nichols. A native of  Delaware, he was born near Dover about 1730 and engaged in husbandry in Kent county, Delaware. Nichols received very littleformal education but is said to have been “endowed with strong powers of mind and a remarkable flow of spirits”.

After 1764, Nichols bought 224 acres in Mispillion Hundred on the south side of Ivy Branch, in Kent County. “Joseph Nichols humor, vivacity and ability to amuse others made his company much sought after by the young people of his neighborhood so that Sundays he was frequently the center of a crowd. At these and other times, Nichols often entertained his friends with anecdotes and songs. During one such pleasant gathering,” where they met together for merriment such as dancing, etc, he was accompanied by a very particular and intimate friend, who was taken ill and died suddenly at that place.

As Joseph reflected on the circumstance, it was made the means of producing a radical reform in his life and conduct. Nichols became convinced that he and his friends should read a portion of the Scripture whenever they met. Out of the respect his neighbors had for him, they agreed. With the passage of time these gatherings were transformed from scenes of “mirth,’ to seasons of serious thoughtfulness.” Nichols genius in friendship enabled him to move many of his friends and acquaintances along with him on his religious pilgrimage – so that “as he became more circumspect’ in appearance, behavior and conversation, so did they.”
As the Nicholites ministry developed, Joseph Nichols was thusly described, “He appeared to me to be between thirty and forty years of age. In stature, he was about middle size, dressed very plainly, principally in undyed clothes.”

Observers were struck by the similarity between the Nicholites and the Quakers, when asked about this a Nicholite would say, “We Do profess and Confess the same principles that the Quakers Doth, but for Some reasons which we Could render if requested, we hither to have not thought it best to Joyn Membership with them.”
The basic beliefs of the Nicholites and Quaker religions were essentially the same: there was emphasis on the inner light, pacification, simplicity, plainness, and opposition to a “hireling ministry”. Joseph Nichols taught his followers that, just as in the case of the first century Christians and their own Quaker neighbors, they should avoid going to court to settle their difficulties.
The Nicholites came to oppose war and slavery, “believing that war came from the basic causes a slavery-luxury and desire for selfish.”

In April 1766, one of Nichols earliest and staunchest followers, James and Ann Anderson of Kent County, Delaware, freed a slave named, Jane. “Another manumission deed for the same county, dated 24 may 1766 shows Paris and Margaret Chipman freeing a Negro boy names, Thomas”. “A year later, on 12 August 1767, William Anderson freed five slaves: John, age 26; Lydia, 25; and her three children.”

“Some Nicholites carried their zeal even further. James Horney refused to eat with slaveholders or to use any goods either produced or procured through slave labor. Horney, like Nichols, knew that when one is content to benefit from the fruits of slavery, he enters to some degree into the position of being a slaveholder himself.

 Joseph Nichols work was cut short by his death in bed in December 1770, while still a young man. Though his religious career was a relatively short eight years, the work he accomplished was destined to continue long after the man ceased to be.

In 1774, four years after their leaders death, the Nicholites had become aware that they must organize themselves and set up some sort of church government so the life of the movement could be regulated. The decision was signed by James and Ann Anderson, James Horney, William Warren and thirteen others on behalf of the larger Nicholite Society. It was these fourteen men and three women, most of whom were living in Caroline County, Maryland who probably furnished most of the leadership and guidance received by the Nicholites following Joseph Nichols death.

About the time the Society was organizing in Maryland, a number of Nicholites left their homes and moved southward. Among the reasons for their movement were the unsettled conditions in the years after Joseph Nichols death, problems arising from the religious establishment, the availability of news and cheap southern land and other factors.

It is unknown exactly when the idea of starting a new life in another section of the country occurred, but it may have been ♥ Paris (Perez) Chipman of Kent County, Delaware, who provided the inspiration and guidance for this migration. Chipman was one of the first Nicholites to leave the Maryland-
Delaware are whereupon he and another settler bought 640 acres in Guilford County, North Carolina in 1775.

By 1778, the original Nicholite settlers in Guilford County had been joined by (brothers) John, James
and ♥ William Horney[1] and at least twelve other families including Nichols remarried wife and her
children. Several families had settled in the Deep River area in 1774-75 and a much larger group arrived in 1778. Other Nicholites from Delaware-Maryland area, such as Major Anderson arrived from time to time during the following years.

Almost all the land grants made to the Nicholites were located on Deep River, Wolf’s Island Creek, Reed Fork, Matrimony Creek and Haw River and had entered claims by the end of 1778.
[Map: Guilford County, NC, 1986 Deptartment of Transportation. The original source map for locating these ancestor home was a Guilford County, North Carolina 18th Century Historical Documentation Map. The 18th Century map (the 1700s) shows the home locations of settler/farmers over the entire county, streams, Colonial roads. printing on the colonial map was too small to read in this reduced blog space.] See also my Genealogy/William Coffin post, for additional details

“…the Quaker minister, Job Scott, visited the Nicholites of Deep River at their meeting house in October 1789. The date of the erection of this meeting house is not known, but approximate location can be determined from Guilford country deeds.

In November 1796, Isaac Odle sold 16-1/4 acres to the “Members of the Society of People called
Nicholites”…for benefit of Isaac Nichols and heirs forever”…”on the waters of Israel’s Creek, being part of a lot the said Odle lately bought of George Pope”. This land was on the south side of Israel’s Creek and joined the lands of James Caldwell and John Horney (Gfd Deed Bk. 6:237). Pope had purchased the land from Isaac Hiatt in December 1795. Hiatt had been granted the land as a part of a grant from the state of North Carolina n May 1787.

Israel’s Creek is now known as Hiatt’s Branch and flows east into Oak Hollow lake along the present northern city limits of High Point. One of the forks of this creek, which flows south through Oakview Estates subdivision, is now known as Horney’s Branch and is the “Israel’s Cree” referred to in the deed for the Nicholite land. The Nicholite Meeting House would then have been located on Horney’s Branch about 2000 feet upstream from it junction with Hiatt’s Branch.
[The drawing above was made of the New Garden Meeting House in 1859, and photocopied from The Pictoral Field Book of the Revolution, copr. 1859, by B.J. Lossing, Published in 2 volumes by Harper Brothers.

In the summer of 1778, the Nicholites wrote a petition to the North Carolina General Assembly seeking certain rights and privileges for their group. This petition was signed by nine male Nicholites, including Paris Chipman, John Horney[2] and William Horney.

Before the summer of 1778, the aforementioned Nicholite Meeting House was built near Deep River in Guilford County. See the Historical Documentation map associated with this article for its approximate location, as well as the homes of ancestors, William Horney, Paris (Perez) Chipman and William Coffin.

“In the 1790s, with the death of many of the original founding members, the Nicholites began to merge with the Quakers-Society of friends. An examination of the Wills for Caroline County, Maryland showed that James Horney died in 1794. Benjamin Chipman died in 1772, in Kent County Delaware. James Anderson died in 1791. In all, some twenty six of the older members died.”

On 25 October 1797, some eighty Nicholites petitioned to join the Society of friends, among these were James and wife, Celia Anderson. The petition was presented to members of the Marshy Creek Preparative Meeting near what is now Preston, Maryland.

 “The Nicholites had only a brief existence. The “New Quakers” became Quakers, so that few traces of the old movement remains. Knowledge of the Nicholite Society has become such a fading tradition in the areas where the Society once waxed strong, that many who were born and have grown up in these localities have never heard of this unusual sect which once flourished on the Delmarva Peninsula and which gave birth to the two smaller bodies in North and South Carolina.

Mant Probate records, wills and administration records,  as seen below, can be found in : Calendar of Kent County, Delaware, Probate Records, 1680-1800 (Dover 1944).

♥ Benjamin Chipman died 19 April 1772.
Will probate: 23 June 1772
Wife Mary; daughter Susanna; sons Stephan and Benjamin.
Witnesses: Patrick Crain, ♥ Perez Chipman and Reuben Shield.

Sources:
•  Joseph Nichols And the  Nicholites: A Look at the New Quakers of Maryland, Delaware and South Carolina, © 1962 by Kenneth Lane Carroll, published by The Easton Publishing Company, Easton, MD, abt. 110 pages.
•  The Nicholites of Jamestown and Deep River, by Jack L. Perdue
•  Guilford Count, North Carolina 18^th Century Historical Documentation Map
•  Guilford County, North Carolina, 1986, D.O.T.  map
This work compiled by Larry F. Pierce, May  1988.

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