Betty Peirce

Betty Peirce and the Quakers of Chester County

Betty Peirce was born on 18 November 1680 at Winscombe, Somerset, the daughter of George Peirce and Ann Gayner. Her father is said to have brought the family to Pennsylvania around 1684, and by 1715 he was living in Thornbury Township, Chester County, later moving to East Marlborough.

About 1700 a young man named Vincent Caldwell arrived from Derbyshire with a certificate from the Monyash Quaker meeting, unmarried. In 1703 he married Betty. When he made his will in 1715 he named his wife and five daughters and asked his father-in-law, George Peirce of Thornbury, to be an executor. It was proved in February 1720.

George's own will, made on 19 January 1733/4 and proved that August, names his wife Ann, his sons Joshua, Caleb and Gaynor, and daughters including 'Betty Caldwell'. Betty died at Kennett on 27 October 1757, aged 77, and was buried in the Friends' burial ground there.

Her daughter Betty Caldwell and Joel Baily made their intention to marry known at the Kennett Quaker meeting in October 1724. Their children included our ancestor Betty Baily, born in 1728, and her brother Joel Baily, born on 16 February 1733 and remembered as a surveyor and astronomer, who died on 29 October 1797.

How we know

• Quaker marriage, birth and burial records: Winscombe and Kennett Monthly Meetings
• Wills of Vincent Caldwell (1715) and George Peirce (1733/4), Chester County, Pennsylvania
• Quaker certificate of removal from Monyash Monthly Meeting, Derbyshire
• Quaker marriage records of Joel Baily and Betty Caldwell, 1724

Confidence: proven for Betty Peirce and her parents; probable (about nine chances in ten) for the 1724 marriage of her daughter

Timeline

1. 1680Born in Winscombe, Somerset, England
2. 1757Died
3. 1757Buried in Kennett, Chester, Pennsylvania