The
Orchards and Jays
Here are two
families in the lines leading to the Vestals, the Orchards and the Jays, with three
types of information: none at all, very confusing information that varies with
almost every source, and the third type is that they appear on almost every
tree from DNA matches to us in the Vestal lines. I’m going to give you my best
effort at sorting them out, but let’s grab for the pencil again.
At one time I
was willing, as were a lot of other family history researchers on various
online trees, to confuse John Joy with John Jay and track back to Richard
Warren, a Mayflower passenger. When you
apply to the Mayflower Society, you submit what you believe your line is to one
of the passengers. This is a very preliminary step, and I think it costs only
$20 for them to tell you if that line has already been traced (Jackpot!) or if
they want to see proof up to the people listed in the Silver Books about the
first five Mayflower generations (like
our Dorothy Lippington and Thomas South). If you submit this James Joy /James
Jay to them, they will instantly shoot back that these men were two entirely
different men who are NOT to be confused EVER. But researching the Jays and
Orchards, I see that there are many who did not spend the $20 to get the
message. I did.
Ann
Orchard (1674-1742) 6xggm
Ann was born in
Boston in the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1674. She married John Jay there in
1701. She had at least five children. The family moved to Alloways Creek, Salem County,
New Jersey sometime before Ann’s death in 1742. You can find a lot of other
confusing information on Ann, but the marriage record is on record in Massachusetts, Marriages, 1633-1850 available
on Ancestry.com. There is an AGBI record
of her birth.
We
have 20 DNA matches with Ann Orchard and John Jay as the common ancestors
between the matches’ trees and our charted group of South cousins’ trees.
John Jay
(1672-1724) 6xggf
John Jay,
sometimes spelled Guy [but never Joy!] was born in Boston in the Massachusetts
Bay Colony in 1672, as recorded in Massachusetts
Town Records, 1620-1988. His marriage to Ann Orchard in 1701 is also in
Massachusetts Records. The Jay Family Association, one of those well-organized groups
that shares research and does extensive DNA testing places this John as the John
Jay who moved to Alloways Creek in Salem County, New Jersey, around 1708 when
there are two records on file for him, one as witness to a deed and the other
registering his cattle mark, just as our Thomas South did in 1707 in Middlesex
County, New Jersey. There are more mentions of him in Salem County, New Jersey,
in 1711 and 1715, but no record of land that he owned there. He and his wife Ann
had four sons and then a daughter, Mary Jay. John died in Alloways Creek, New Jersey,
in 1724.
Mary
Jay (?-1771) 5xggm
Mary’s birth is
not known. She married in Chatham County North Carolina most likely in 1751 to
James Mercer Vestal, known as James Vestal Sr. They had ten children, including
one named John Jay Vestal, making the Jay ties stronger. She must not have been
a Quaker since James was called out for marrying out of meeting (and for strong
drink).
We
have forty-six DNA matches with common ancestors Mary Jay and James Mercer
Vestal.
A
Bit About Alloway Creek and Salem County, New Jersey
The map above
shows the division line (which moved on a fairly regular basis) between East
and West New Jersey. Our South ancestors were from East Jersey towns like
Woodbridge, Bonhamtowon, Piscataway, and Perth. The Jays moved to Alloways
Creek which, if shown on this map, would lie between Salem and Cohansey in West Jersey on the Delaware River.
The Jays lived in Salem County. For future reference, take
note of Cape May County.
Alloways Creek
is the river or creek just where the dotted line bisecting Delaware Bay ends on
its northern end. One town located on Alloways Creek is Hancocks Bridge.
Salem Oak where Fenwick purchased from
the Lenni Lenape Indians for his settlement
Salem County
was the site of the first English speaking settlement on the Delaware River. It
was preceded by the Dutch, and later the Swedes and Finns who established New
Sweden, of which Salem County was a part. An English Quaker, John Fenwick,
arrived in the area in 1675. The Quakers were always insistent on good
relations with the Indians, so Fenwick made a treaty beneath the famous “Salem
Oak,” still a famous landmark in Salem City. The Quaker settlement predated
Penn’s arrival and Philadelphia. It should be recognized, however, that not all
the original settlers were Quakers, and as time passed, the settlers had a
variety of religions. There was a Friends Meeting at Alloways Creek near
Thompson’s Bridge community. The Oakford family, important to us because John
Jay is mentioned in at least two documents about the Oakfords, were Quakers.
Both George Fox, one of the Friends’ founders, and George Keith, who caused the
Friends to split over baptism, visited in Salem County. Allowaystown was the
site of the first successful colonial glass-works, Wistarburg Glassworks, established in
1739 by a German, Caspar Wisar, who originally settled in Philadelphia but came
to Alloways because it had all the things necessary for a glass works: white
sand, clay, wood, and accessible waterways like Alloways Creek (River). Salem
County is also known for colonial pattern brick homes which
used bricks in waves or other patterns rather than in level horizontal courses.
Resources
http://genealogytrails.com/njer/salem/will_calendar4.html
Salem County records that mention John Jay.
http://www.jayfamily.org/docs/research/ResearchDoc8.pdf
Research by the Jay Family Association that relates to John Jay of Salem
County, New Jersey.
https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=https://www.google.com/&httpsredir=1&article=2227&context=gradschool_disstheses
An interesting thesis that I used mainly for background about Salem County New Jersey.
Great maps.
https://visitsalemcountynj.com/about-salem-county/our-history/
Salem County, NJ, history.
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