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Mary Kester

Female - Aft 1833


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  • Name Mary Kester 
    Gender Female 
    Died Aft 1833  Quaker Hill, Lycoming, New Jersey, United States Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Buried Quaker Hill Cemetery, Quaker Hill, Lycoming, New Jersey, United States Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Person ID I3041  Petersen-de Lanskoy
    Last Modified 27 May 2021 

    Family James Winner,   b. 1759, of Middletown Township, Bucks, Pennsylvania, United States Find all individuals with events at this location,   d. From 26 Jan 1828 to 21 Mar 1829, Hepburn Township, Lycoming, Pennsylvania, United States Find all individuals with events at this location  (Age 69 years) 
    Married Bef Aug 1801  , , New Jersey, United States Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Last Modified 28 May 2021 
    Family ID F1640  Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  • Notes 
    • RESEARCH_NOTES:
      1. FHL film 893700 "Four Lycoming Co., Pa. Families," by Miss Ernestine Siegel, Chairman, part of the "Genealogical Collection of the Desoto Chapter, D.A.R., Tampa Florida, Jan. 1972, vol. 2:
      A. "Winner Lineage. Miss Ernestine Siegel. [She is the great grandau. of William Collins Sr. and his first wife Mary Elizabeth Winner, who was the dau. of Jacob Winner and his first wife Mary Reeder, who was the son of James Winner and his first wife Mary Parker (widow of Randall Collins).]
      James Winner was the son of Isaac Winner Sr., died after 1779, Middletown Twp., Bucks Co., Pa., and Rebecca.
      James Winner was a private in the Bucks county, Pa. Associators Middletown Twonship 1775. He married 1. Mary Parker, 2. Mary Kester.
      Children: Abraham, m. Rachel Warner; Isaac, m. Elizabeth Carpenter; Rebecca, m. 1. Stacy Lundy, 2. Allen Harvey; Jacob, m. Mary Reeder; James, never married; and Sarah, never married.
      B. The author includes a transcript of a bible record of Jacob Winner (1790-1869) who was James son and a resident of Quaker Hill, Hepburn Twp., Lycoming Co., PA. Notes bible is presently owned by Mrs. Marion Rowe, Bodine's, PA. I quote only select parts as follows:
      "Inscriptions of fly-leaf:
      First line: "The property of Jacob Winner presented to him by his mother Mary Winner 11th month 2nd 1833." (Auther adds: "The woman living in 1833 was Mary Kester, James Winner's second wife and first cousin, whom he had married out of meeting in New Jersey before moving to Quaker Hill. Mary Kester Winner is buried beside James in Quaker Hill Cemetery.")
      Second line, in different handwriting: "My great grandmother was Mary Parker and married first to Randall Collins, after to James Winner, my great grandfather." (Author adds: This line was written by Anne McBride Collins, dau. of William Collins and Mary Winner, granddau. of Jacob Winner and Mary Reeder, gread granddau. of James Winner and his first wife Mary Parker, dau. of Humphrey Parker Jr. and wife Tamar Scott. Mary Parker had previously been married to Randle Collins, son of Jonathan and Ann Collins. Mary Parker Winner died in Oxford Twp., Sussex Co., N.J.).

      2. "The Ancestry & Descendants of James Winner of Sussex Co., N.J. & Lycoming Co., Pa.," first edition; Editor: Ernestine Siegel, 1906 Watrous Avenue, Tampa, Florida, 33606; 1969; revised 1970, pp. 16-58; privately printed with copy in my possession. Ms. Siegel was a member of DAR:
      "THE DESCENDANTS OF JAMES WINNER OF LYCOMING CO., PA:
      Last Will and Testament of James Winner: [KP note: Rather than transcribing the whole will, I abstract the pertinent parts.]: James Winner, of Hepburn Twp. in the County of Lycoming and the State of Pennsylvania. Mentions "wife"; sons Jacob, Isaac, and Abraham; daughters Rebecca and Lydia Lundy. In regards to land boundaries, he mentions neighbors Henry Slout and Samuel Casner. Names sons Isaac and Jacob as executors. Signed "26thday
      of the first month in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and twenty eight." Witnessed by Daniel Baily and Samuel Kougle.
      James Winner of Quaker Hill.
      The death of Quaker James Winner in 1829 in his two-story log home at Quaker Hill in Lycoming Co., Pa., with its white carved colonial door and fan-light above that he had made himself, coincided with the end of an era in Hepburn Township. For in the same year, the Quaker meetings at the stone Pine Grove Preparative Meeting-house nearby were discontinued. The split between the Hicksite and Orthodox Friends had proved too much for the little meeting that had opened its doors in 1797, and the supervising Muncy Monthly Meeting down river had closed it for lack of attendance.
      One wonders what James Winner thought of his past life during his closing year, a life begun when the Indian Wars were not yet over, continued through years of unrest leading up to the Revolutionary War and the later War of 1812, and one which spanned a cultural change from a British to an American way of life characterized by expansion into the interior forests of the continent.
      In its quiet way, his own Will is the best tribute to the man - quiet, thoughtful, conscientious, planning for a future he would not live to see, wise in the ways of human frailties, and somehow conveying an undertone of affection and gratefulness for the small boons that life had bestowed upon him. Characteristics that also can be said to belong to his neighbors and peers who had settled and also died at Quaker Hill...
      James Winner migrated to Quaker Hill about the spring of 1801 from Oxford Township, Sussex Co., N.J., with his second wife, Widow Mary Kester, and his six children by his first wife, Mary Parker, who had been the widow of Randle Collins. He took up a 500 acre plot of land, some 400 of which he still owned at his death in 1829. He was a farmer, a weaver, and a woodworker. He and his second wife ran into difficulties with their church, as they had married in New Jersey out of meeting. By Quaker reckoning at that time, they were first cousins.
      But Mary Kester was a woman of strong religious beliefs, much more so than Mary Parker had been, and the and her adopted children were not to be denied their church. By admitting their error and satisfying the elders' concern (including a substantial donation to the church by James), the Winner family was admitted into Pine Grove Meeting in good standing.
      Coming from a family that was only half Quaker, James Winner in his earlier years had several times found his beliefs running contrary to those of the Quaker church. Consequently, while serving apprenticeship as a teenage boy in Middletown Township, Bucks Co., Pa. in l775 - learning to become a weaver - James had served a term as soldier in the Bucks County Associators, although his brothers Isaac and Jacob, as Quakers, did not. (James' elder cousin, James, son of John of Lower Makefield, had already moved to Lower Makefield Township with his brother John Jr. and served as an associator there in the same year.) Again, during later years in New Jersey, James Winner married his first wife out of meeting, as well as his second wife. However, he always returned to the church and brought up his children to be Quakers...
      The Winner graves in the nearby burying ground beside the Meeting House (now known as Quaker Hill Cemetery) at first had no stones. Not as sophisticated as Philadelphia Quakers, this little group somehow felt gravemarkers were abstentatious. Later generations, however, showed a tendency to mark their ancestors' graves, and so were the Winner graves, with plain native stone slabs carved only with the individual's initials. There are still many unmarked graves in the cemetery...
      From Falls, James Winner moved across the river to Oxford Furnace in Sussex County and married Widow Mary Collins, probably in 1785. She was born Mary Parker, Jr., daughter of Humphrey Parker, Jr., a Welsh Quaker from Gwynned, Pa., and his wife, Tamar Scott, whom he had married at the First Prebyterian Church in Philadelphia in 1744. Tamar is believed to be the daughter of John and Hannah Scott of Bucks County. (A John and Henry Scott also had migrated to Northumberland County before tho Revolution, and are believed to he Tamar's brothers.) Mary Parker was born c. 1763 and had married in 1779 Randle Collins of the Kingwood MM, although they married out of meeting. Randle was the son of Jonathan and Ann Collins of Bucks Co., Pa. an Sussex Co., N.J. Randle Collins died quite young and it is not known if Mary had children by him. She evidently returned to her father's home in Oxford Township, and remarried about 1785 to James Winner, again out of meeting. Humphrey Parker Jr. died 1781, with his wife Tamer surviving...
      There are conflicts in various records, even the Quaker records, between Mary Parker and Mary Kester, and between Rebecca Winner and Rachel Winner. "The Lundy Family", by W. C. Armstrong, 1902 shows Rebecca as the girl born November 14th who married Stacy Lundy, yet states she was the daughter of Mary Kester. James Winner's will mentions the "family" of Mary Kester, proving that she did have offspring not fathered by himself, and legend in the family speaks of Rachel Winner who married a Kester, and refers to Rachel as the daughter of James. The identity of Mtry Parker is proven by the Bible of Jacob Winner, on the f1yleaf of which is written that the Bible was presented to him in 1833 by his "mother" Mary (who obviously was Mary Kester), but that he himself was the son of Mary Parker who had first been married to Randle Collins. It is possible that Mary Kester had a daughter Rachel who took the name Winner and later married a Kester. Quaker records indicate that Rebecca is the daughter of Mary Parker.
      Mary Parker died sometime after the birth of her daughter Sarah in August 1797 and before August 1801, after James had moved with his second wife to Quaker Hill. She was buried in New Jersey. Mary Kester died sometime after 1833 and was buried alongside James in Quaker Hill Cemetery.
      The Kester family of Northumberland and Lycoming Cos. are descended from Johannes Koster (Kester, Caster) and wife Elizabeth Cassell, who settled in Germantown, Pa., 1694. They were of Dutch descent, and some children went to New Jersey, and others stayed in Bucks Co. Although some branches were Quaker, the Kester family were traditionally soldiers, and quite a few of them were Revolutionary Soldiers in various states. The name is also spelled Kuster, Kister...
      BIBLIOGRAPHY: [Note that some of these sources relate exclusively to the descendants of James and Mary (Parker) Winner.]
      Manuscript of Harold Collins, Williamsport Pa. 1915
      Manuscript of Rev. Jackson Winner, Nov. 20, 1928
      Manuscript of Mabell Jeanette Winner Harrington, 1947
      Bible of Jacob Winner, published by Friends, 1831
      Bible of William Collins, pub. 1868
      Bible of Benejah Reeder, New Test. pub. Phila. 1834
      Publications of Genealogical Society of Pennsylvania
      New Jersey Historical Society Proceedings
      Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and National Archives
      Records of Society of Friends, Muncy Monthly Meeting, Pa.
      Records of Hardwick Monthly Meeting, N.J.
      Records of Kingwood Monthly Meeting, N.J.
      Records of Mt. Holly Monthly Meeting, N.J.
      Officers & Men of N.J. in the Rev. War, Stryker
      Pa. 1790 Census, 1850 Census of Lycoming and Bucks Co., Pa.
      The Kirk Family, Roberts, 1912
      The Lundy Family, Armstrong, 1002
      History of Bucks Co., Davis 1905
      The Mocking Bird, Claghorn 1937
      Bucks Co. Wills, Administrations and Orphans Court Proc.
      N.J. Marriage Record Books, H. Stanley Craig
      Pennsy1vania Magazine
      Hist. Gen. Miscellany, Stillwell, 1906
      Compendium of American Genealogy, Virkus
      National Enyclopedia of American Biography
      Early Pa. Births, Fisher, 1947
      Encyclopedia American Quaker Genealogy, Hinshaw
      History of Lycoming Co., Meginness, 1892
      Family of William J. Collins, Jr., Siegel, 1967."