SectionSources

Manuscript — church

1. Vestry book and pew accounts, St Martin’s Church, Marcus Hook, 1724–c.1824Historical Society of Pennsylvania microfilm; read in full for 1724–1803. Establishes: the clerkship of James Rigby, 9 June 1760 to 26 April 1791; the naming of the church; the four pew ratings 1790–1794; the burial-fee rule and its change on 18 April 1797. Used on St Martin’s and James Rigby.
2. Registers, vestry minutes and accounts, St Paul’s Church, ChesterSame collection. Establishes: that no baptism, marriage or burial was entered between 1745 and 1800 — including leaves ruled and headed “Marriages for ye year 1740” and “Burials for ye year 1738” and left blank. Also the Rev. R. U. Morgan’s note of 11 February 1831 attesting a separate St Martin’s registry, not located.
3. Marriage register, First Presbyterian Church, Philadelphia, 1790Establishes: Seth Rigby m. Hannah Clark, 4 September 1790, Dr. John Ewing officiating.

Manuscript — Quaker

1. Concord Monthly Meeting, men’s minutes pp. 14–20 and women’s minutes pp. 52–59, 1758–59Establishes: the disciplinary case against Hannah Rigby, formerly Brown, for marrying out of unity; her acknowledgment; its acceptance and public reading at Chichester; the case closed in the first month of 1759. ⚠ Calendared from headings and sequence — not yet transcribed word for word. Used on Hannah Brown.
2. Concord Monthly Meeting births-and-burials register, p. 8Establishes: Hannah Rigby, died in her 88th year, 1824, buried at Chichester. Also a negative: the index for letter R carries no other Rigby in the volume, so no James, Eli or Elizabeth.
3. Friends Historical Library surname card index, Swarthmore CollegeTyped cards. Establishes: Hannah as “dau of Daniel”; the dates of the 1758 disownment and acknowledgment.
4. Chester Monthly Meeting women’s minutes, 1829Establishes: the complaint against Lydia (John) Rigby for marriage by a magistrate — the third generation of the pattern.
5. Women’s minutes, Bradford or London Grove Monthly Meeting, 1796–97NOT YET OBTAINED. Would confirm or kill the suspected disownment of Elizabeth Harlan. ⚠ Beware a second Elizabeth Harlan at Nottingham Meeting the same year.

Probate

1. Will of Daniel Brown of Upper Chichester, Chester County Will Book D–E pp. 40–41, proved 12 December 1767Establishes: “Hannah, wife of James Rigby” — her parentage, and the earliest document naming the couple together. ⚠ Only the operative phrase read against the original.
2. Will of Eli Rigby Sr., Delaware County Will Book pp. 573–578, dated 29 July 1858, proved 1859Page images and a full transcription held. Establishes: the estate divided into eighths; seven shares named; three grandchildren taking their father James E.’s share. ⚠ The eighth-share clause has not been re-read at the images.
3. Estate papers of Daniel Brown, Chester County estate filesOriginal manuscript will and packet identified on film; not yet pulled in full.

Tax, census and military

1. Chester County tax and exoneration records, 1768–1801Rates for Concord, Upper and Lower Chichester, Aston and Marple. Establishes: the “Inmates” listing; two schoolmaster charges; “James Rigby, Clk” in 1781; the tenancies. ⚠ Four of these sheets are undated and the volumes still need dating from their browse breadcrumbs.
2. Pennsylvania septennial censuses, 1793 and 1800Establishes: James Rigby, schoolmaster, Aston, taken 1 June 1793 by Joseph Pennell; and “James Rigbey” among 128 taxable inhabitants of Marple in 1800 — the sheet that proves two men of the name.
3. U.S. censuses, 1790 and 1800Establishes: Middletown township 1790, four in the household; Aston 1800. These are the only two federal censuses of his lifetime, so the coverage is complete.
4. U.S. Direct Tax, 1798, Delaware CountyEstablishes: 5 acres 80 perches in Aston, $66, no dwelling. ⚠ The Newtown entry — stone house, 100 acres of Samuel Black’s — is now attributed to the second James Rigby.
5. Chester County Lieutenancy militia records, 1777–1782Four abstract cards. Establishes: enrolment April 1777; “to be rass’d out” on appeal, 22 August 1777; “POOR,” authority Appeal Book, 7 June 1779; a class return of 25 November 1782.
6. The Chester County appeal book itselfNOT YET OBTAINED. Chester County Archives, West Chester. The cards above are twentieth-century abstracts of it; the book may carry the plea in the clerk’s words.
7. Chester County indentured servants and apprentices, packet 105NOT YET OBTAINED. Indexed as “James, son of Rigby,” Lower Chichester, court 29 August 1775, servant, broken contract. No son named James is known.

Printed

1. Henry Graham Ashmead, History of Delaware County, Pennsylvania (1884), pp. 296–302Establishes: Thomas Dutton’s recollection of 11 September 1777; the 1802 deed for the octagon school-house; the Seven Stars tavern. ⚠ Gives Dutton’s age as nine; he was eight.
2. Gilbert Cope, Genealogy of the Sharpless Family (1901; Smedley entry p. 139, and 1887 edition p. 726)Compiled from family informants. Establishes: Eli’s trade; Seth and Lydia’s children and burial. ⚠ Cope also copied the Dutton memorandum book in 1872, so Cope and that book are one witness, not two.
3. Alpheus H. Harlan, History and Genealogy of the Harlan Family (1914), entry 472Establishes: Eli and Elizabeth’s dates, her parentage, their burial at Chichester, and the dated list of eight children — including George W., the share the will does not distribute. ⚠ Its “James and Elizabeth” is a compositor’s slip for “Eli and Elizabeth.”
4. “Dutton Records of Deaths, Marriages, Etc. 1770–1870,” Pennsylvania Genealogical Magazine vol. 4 no. 1A private family memorandum book kept in the Dutton household, copied by Gilbert Cope in 1872. Establishes: James’s death, 9 March 1801, and Hannah’s, 1824. Only two Rigby entries in seventy-eight pages.
5. Newspaper feature on the Seven Stars tavern, 25 July 1899Transcription held; publication not yet identified. The fullest account of the Brandywine morning — the fog, the guns after ten o’clock. Gives Dutton’s age as eight, correctly.

Photographs

1. Chichester Friends Meeting House and burying ground; Grace Church, Talleyville; Elam United Methodist; St Martin’s churchyardPhotographed by Samuel Rigby, 2026. Establishes: the Smith monument inscriptions; Enoch Harlan Rigby’s military marker. ⚠ Over half the stones at Chichester were illegible on the visit.