New Jersey Tapscotts, Revisited

An earlier blog (8 Sep 2014) briefly discussed the Tapscotts of New Jersey. Because of a possible, but only possible, relationship to William Tapscott the Rebel (blog of 22 Mar 2016), we need to take a closer look at this New Jersey group.

A major concern about the history of the New Jersey Tapscotts is the enormous number of on-line trees that include this line (122 public trees in Ancestry.com to date) and the miniscule number of sources provided for those trees. In fact, in some sort of Möbius-strip-like, circular logic, nearly all citations are to other trees. What follows, however, is from original, contemporary, or well-documented secondary sources, not, unless stated otherwise, from on-line trees. (Contact me for sources.)

Upper Freehold Baptist Church
(Old Yellow Meeting House). Wikipedia.

The Tapscotts of New Jersey first appear in rural Monmouth County (which may or may not have been named for the Duke of Monmouth), a county peopled by English, Dutch, Scotch, and Quaker immigrants. In that county is the Upper Freehold Baptist Church, constructed in 1737 following the burning of an earlier 1720 church. No longer regularly used for religious services, the Old Yellow Meeting House, as the structure is now called, is the oldest Baptist church in New Jersey.

In the adjoining cemetery stands a marker for one James Tapscott, though, for some reason (probably because it is badly eroded), the marker appears in almost no cemetery surveys. Even Find a Grave doesn’t list it as being in the cemetery. James, who died 13 Mar 1750, aged “about 60” (corresponding to a birth year of 1690), is the earliest known Tapscott of New Jersey. His 6 Mar 1750 will names a wife, “Margaret,” and two sons, William and James.

William was highly active in the Upper Freehold Baptist Church. In 1766 he was one of forty-one parishioners who requested separation from the Middletown Baptist Church, of which Upper Freehold was a branch. Permission was granted. On 13 May 1766, William was one of those subscribing to the covenant for the new church, and two years later, on 7 Apr 1768 he was ordained a ruling elder. According a church book, over the years, William was involved in a “misunderstanding” with one Elizabeth Mason (“amicably Settled,” but the details were never revealed, though Elizabeth was quite sharp-tongued), shingling of the church roof, reprimand of Brother Caleb Carman who was “unsound in ye Doctrines of Grace” (William’s investigation revealed that the charge was unjust), and a £30 bond for the church.

Marker for William Tapscott. Find A Grave.

When he passed away 8 Mar 1786, William was laid to rest in a plot immediately behind his father’s stone in the Old Yellow Meeting House cemetery. His marker is inscribed “In Memory of WILLIAM TAPSCOTT Esq who Departed this Life 8th March 1786 Aged 68 Years and 16 Days,” an age yielding the birth date 21 Feb 1718. To the right of William’s cemetery marker is a badly-scaled stone (also missing from Find a Grave) for an Anne Tapscott, who died 17 Oct 1760, aged 38 years 1 month 25 days, corresponding to a birth date of 22 Aug 1722. (Neither of these birthdate calculations take into account the change from the Julian to the Gregorian calendar.) Anne may be Anne Bretton, who is claimed to have been William’s wife in 122 online trees, not a single one with a reliable source for the assertion.

William’s will, written after Anne’s death, names four children: William Jr., born 8 Sep 1747, operated a paper mill near Allentown, New Jersey, and died about Apr 1819, leaving at least two children, Catherine and Elizabeth. James Sr., born 1750, married Sarah Baird, had eight children, moved to Ohio, and appears in our next posting. Lucy, born in 1743 or 1744, married John Longstreet (license 28 Jan 1769), and died 21 Oct 1836, leaving five children (according to secondary sources). Lydia, born about 1855, married James Gaston 20 Apr 1773 (a marriage yielding one child), then married David Baird (yielding six children), and died 15 Feb 1791.

James Tapscott Jr., the other son of James and Margaret, is a most interesting individual. Possibly never having left England, he was a physician in Hinckley, Leicestershire, England, dying in that county around Jan 1799, apparently without descendants. We know he was William’s brother because his will specifically names as legatees “Nephews and Niece namely William Tapscott James Tapscott and Lucy Longstreet who are all natives of and reside in America,” noting that William resided “at Monmouth in North America.” Lydia, his other niece, was dead by 1799 and, thus, not mentioned in James’s will.

And what were the origins of the first James, husband of Margaret? “Danny” (Joseph Daniel) Tapscott, a descendant of Capt. Henry Tapscott of Virginia and a Tapscott genealogy pioneer, a giant on whose shoulders Tapscott researchers stand, claimed that William the Rebel founded the New Jersey (and, therefore, the Ohio) Tapscotts. But Danny died an early death and his research records stored in the Northumberland County Historical Society contain no indication of how he came to this conclusion. If James were the son of William the Rebel, how did he come to be in New Jersey? Did the Rebel go to New Jersey from Jamaica? If so, how did one of his sons end up in England? A number of people have published trees claiming that the father of the first James Tapscott of Monmouth County, New Jersey, was John William Tapscott born 22 Nov 1667, and living in Culmstock, Devon, England. The name is certainly suggestive, the location is correct, and the birth date is acceptable for John William to be William the Rebel. He would have been seventeen at the time of the Monmouth Rebellion, old enough to be a rebel, particularly in those days, though a little young to be designated a “sergeweaver.” A major problem, however, is that only on-line trees have been cited as sources for John William Tapscott, another case of trees citing trees. Has no one learned of evidence? sources? facts? documentation?

The New Jersey Tapscotts were fascinating. Many family members were involved in the Revolutionary War, which was particularly vicious in Monmouth County. And with some dedicated research, a true, or at least reliable, family history is probably attainable. But I am not a descendant of the New Jersey Tapscotts and have other fish to fry, or, at least, other dramas to divulge. In the next posting, we will move into Ohio with James Sr., son of William and (presumably) Anne.