2A-H: Jane Guthrie
JANE GUTHRIE
Parents: John Guthrie 1708IRE – 1790PA and Ann Hill (or Emmons) 1715IRE – 1814PA
Birth: 1755
Birth Location: Chester County, Pennsylvania
Marriage: About 1787 to Samuel Martin
Martin Children: Sarah (1790), James (1792), Samuel (1794)
Death: 1787
Death Location: Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, USA
Burial: Unknown
SAMUEL MARTIN
Parents:
Birth: 1752
Birth Location: Armagh, County Antrim, Ireland
Occupation:
Military Service:
Death: 1824
Death Location: Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, USA
Burial:
NOTES:
Jane Guthrie married Samuel Martin. They lived in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania not far from the John Guthrie homestead.
Jane was omitted (presumably an oversight) in the list of children in her father’s will. However, she was named and included in the distribution of John Guthrie’s estate:
28 Sep 1791: To Samuel Martin in part of his wife’s legacy – 33 pounds, 6 shillings, 8 pence
21 Jun 1814: To Samuel Martin in right of his wife Jane – 48 pounds, 3 shillings, 6 pence
CHILDREN: 3
SARAH MARTIN
1790PA – 1875PA
Sarah Martin married William Mackey. They had six sons and three daughters. Four of the sons were Ministers of the Gospel. Their son Rev. James Mackey, was a missionary for sixteen years in Africa under the Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions. (LRG, p.168). They resided in Elk, Oxford Township, Chester County, Pennsylvania. William died on 4 Jun 1851 at 68 years of age. Sarah survived him by 24 years. She died on 29 May 1875 also in Chester County. They are both buried at the New London Presbyterian Church Cemetery.
CHILDREN:
1) Jane Ann Mackey 1815PA-1894MD m. John Thomas Kelson (Gentleman of Leisure). No children.
2) Samuel A Mackey 1817PA-1875PA (Farmer) m. Amanda Armstrong +children
3) James Love Mackey 1820PA-1867PA (Rev.) m1.1849 Elizabeth Jane Blair, m2.1852 Isabella Sweeney -No children
4) Richard Guthrie Mackey 1822-1888 (Rev.) m1. Emily Baldwin, m2.Sarah Elizabeth Armstrong +children
5) Elizabeth J Mackey 1824PA-1897PA m. Taylor Commons (Farmer) +children
6) Elkanah Dare Mackey 1826PA-1858MD (Rev.) m.1856 Sarah Elizabeth Armstrong +children
7) William Downing Mackey 1829PA-1886DE (Rev.) m. Laura W Pitts +children
8) Sarah Margaret Mackey 1832PA-1836PA died at 3 years of age.
9) Joseph Martin Mackey 1836PA-1837PA died in his infancy.
Y-DNA Project Participants: N/A – Descendant of a Female Guthrie
Autosomal DNA Participants: No
JAMES MARTIN
1792PA – 1857PA
James Martin was born 21 May 1792. He was a farmer and miller, a Presbyterian by faith, and politically a Republican and abolitionist. James married Eliza Morrison with whom he had twelve children. Eliza was 50 at the time of her death on 11 September 1852. Five years later, James died on 25 January 1857 at 64 years of age.
There may be some confusion about the burial location of daughter / daughters Harriet Newall Martin. The family history indicates 2 daughters of the same name. The first, born 25 Jun 1833, reportedly died young, likely prior to 1836. No exact DOD or burial info found. There is a Harriet Newell buried with daughters Isabella Martin and Annie Eliza (Martin) Murphy with a shared modern stone listing them as daughters of James and Eliza. The second Harriet Newall, born about 1836, married Rev. Robert Trimble. They lived in Cass, Michigan and later Toledo, OH. Presbyterian Church Records report Harriet N Trimble died in Toledo, OH on 19 March 1879 and was buried there 1879 at the Third Presbyterian Church where her spouse: W J Trimble was the pastor. Was the Harriet Newell burial at Strasburg Cemetery in Lancaster, PA actually the 1st daughter who died in infancy or early childhood rather than Trimble’s wife? Some research into the Cemetery Records is needed.
1) John Martin 1825PA-1885PA (Physician) m. Hannah McKissick +children
2) Josiah A Martin 1823PA – 1897PA (Dentist) m. Jane Dickson Black +children
3) Silas Martin 1824PA – 1894KS (Farmer) m. Sarah Elliott +children
4) Martha Jane, Martin 1828PA – 1907PA m. Isaac Walker (Dentist) +children
5) Sarah Martin 1827PA-1916PA m. Joseph McClure (Farmer) +children
6) Isabella Martin 1829PA – 1890PA – Unmarried
7) Samuel Martin 1830PA-183?PA – Died Young
8) Harriet-Newall Martin 1833PA-bef.1836PA
9) Alexander Morrison Martin 1835PA-1910PA (Farmer) m. Maggie Dean +children
10) Harriet Newel Martin 1836PA – 1879OH m. Rev. William John Trimble (Presbyterian Minister) +children.
11) Joseph Ritner Martin 1838PA – 1924PA (Physician) m. Abigail Jane Finley Smith +children
12) Ann Elizabeth ‘Annie Eliza’ Martin 1844PA – 1886PA m. Thomas J Murphy (Carpenter) +children
Y-DNA Project Participants: N/A – Descendant of a Female Guthrie
Autosomal DNA Participants: No
SAMUEL MARTIN JR
Samuel Martin Jr was born about 1794. He married Jane Rankin. They had four children. Samuel died on 19 April 1865 in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. Jane lived another nine years passing away on 17 Nov 1876. They are buried at the Andrews Bridge Mennonite Cemetery in Christiana, Lancaster, Pennsylvania.
CHILDREN:
1) James Rankin Martin 1817PA – 1851PA (Farmer) – Died at 21 years of age, unmarried.
2) William S Martin 1832PA – 1893PA (Farmer) m. Joanna Davis +children (Middle name Samuel vs Stewart?)
3) Elijah Parker Martin 1834PA – 1893PA (Farmer) m. Lydia J Thompson +children
4) Susannah Elizabeth Martin 1836PA – 1907PA m. John J Coulter (Farmer) +children
Y-DNA Project Participants: N/A – Descendant of a Female Guthrie
Autosomal DNA Participants: No
Primary Sources
(original records contemporary to or near the lifetimes of Jane Guthrie Martin [b. ~1755 Chester Co., PA; d. 1787 Lancaster Co., PA] and husband Samuel Martin [b. ~1752 Ireland; d. ~1824/1825 Lancaster Co., PA]) are extremely limited, as is typical for 18th-century rural Pennsylvania families of modest means without notable public roles. No birth/baptism, marriage, death, or burial records for Jane or Samuel have surfaced in digitized church, civil, or cemetery collections. Jane’s existence and marriage are proven solely through her father’s probate, which also establishes her death prior to 1791. Samuel’s post-1787 life appears in indirect records (census, tax lists via descendants’ lines), but no personal probate or land deeds directly naming Jane have been located in public indexes.
- Chester County, Pennsylvania, Probate Estate File #4075 – John Guthrie (Guthry) of Oxford Township
- Will dated 16 May 1787; proved 16 February 1790.
- Estate accountings and distributions: 28 September 1791 (“To Samuel Martin in part of his wife’s legacy – 33 pounds, 6 shillings, 8 pence”) and 21 June 1814 (“To Samuel Martin in right of his wife Jane – 48 pounds, 3 shillings, 6 pence”).
- Repository and access: Pennsylvania Probate Records, 1689-1994 (FamilySearch microfilm/images). Chester County section, “Estates 1789-1791, no. 4057-4158,” images 160–169 of 904. Originals at Chester County Archives, West Chester, PA.
- Nuances and implications: Jane is omitted from the will’s list of children (likely a scrivener’s oversight), but the accounting explicitly treats Samuel Martin as her widower/heir. This is the sole primary proof of the marriage (~1787) and Jane’s death in 1787 (before first child Sarah’s 1790 birth and before 1791 payment). The amounts align with equal shares among siblings. Edge case: Some abstracts mis-transcribe the township as “Lancaster” (Oxford Township straddles Chester/Lancaster lines historically), but the file confirms Chester County jurisdiction. This record anchors all secondary claims.
- 1820 United States Federal Census – Samuel Martin, Colerain Township, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania
- Household composition consistent with widower Samuel (post-1787) and surviving children.
- Repository: National Archives (NARA) microfilm; digitized on FamilySearch/Ancestry.
- Relevance: Confirms Samuel’s residence “not far from the John Guthrie homestead” (as noted in secondary sources). No direct mention of Jane (deceased), but places the family contextually. Later censuses and tax lists for sons James and Samuel Jr. corroborate Lancaster County continuity.
No additional primaries (deeds, tax lists naming Jane directly, church registers, or gravestones) appear in Chester/Lancaster indexes or digitized collections. Samuel apparently died intestate or without surviving probate file easily locatable online; no Lancaster County will index entries match 1824–1825 with a wife Jane (deceased decades earlier).
Secondary Sources
(published or compiled works that cite or synthesize primaries/tradition) form the bulk of biographical detail. All trace back to the 1933 Guthrie compilation and the Chester probate file above. Nuances: Dates vary slightly across sources (Samuel’s birth 1752 vs. 1756; death 1824 vs. 1825); children’s details expand via descendant lines but remain unverified beyond family tradition.
- Guthrie, Laurence R. American Guthrie and Allied Families: Lineal Representations of the Colonial Guthries of Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Maryland, Delaware, Virginia, North and South Carolina, Some Post-Revolutionary Emigrants and of Some Allied Families. Chambersburg, PA: Kerr Printing Co., 1933.
- Key pages: p. 160 (Jane’s marriage to Samuel Martin, Lancaster Co. residence); p. 168 (daughter Sarah Martin m. William Mackey; details on Mackey ministerial descendants and African missionary service); footnotes p. 693 (John Guthrie will abstract).
- Access: Digitized on Ancestry.com (2005 reprint); physical copies in major genealogy libraries (e.g., FamilySearch, Historical Society of Pennsylvania).
- Context and reliability: Foundational secondary source compiled from correspondence, probate abstracts, and family Bibles. LRG explicitly notes Jane’s estate inclusion despite will omission. Provides the only compiled timeline; later blogs/WikiTree derive directly from it. Implication: Without LRG, the Martin-Guthrie link relies solely on the raw probate file.
