A SKETCH OF WALTER WALL AND SOME OF HIS DESCENDANTS BY:
J. SUTTON WALL OF HARRISBURG, PENNSYLVANIA,
MARCH 31, 1905
Walter Wall was born near London, England, in 1619, and on September 2, 1635, he and older brother Theobold embarked on a vessel called “William and John” commanded by Rowland Langram bound for St. Christopher’s one of the British West India Islands, where they seem to have arrived in due time.
But owing to the unstable condition of governmental affairs in that region, and the constant danger from violent windstorms Walter and a number of his English friends resolved to leave the island and seek a more tranquil abiding place on the main land of our then new continent.
Accordingly we next find him with a small English Colony located on the eastern shore of Manhattan Island in 1640 at a place called Drutil Bay, now within the city of New York where they made a settlement and called it “Hopton”.
An Indian war breaking out in 1643 this little band of settlers fled from their new made homes to the protecting shelter of the walls of the Dutch fort at NewAmsterdam, now within the city of New York, where they were found by the celebrated lady Deborah Moody and a small colony of her personal friends who arrived there that year from Lynn, Massachusetts.
Lady Moody and her friends having left Massachusetts by reason of the religious intolerance and persecution then being enforced by the rulers of that New England Colony. It is said that Lady Moody was highly delighted at finding the little colony of her own countrymen in that then remote region.
The two parties united and by invitation of Director General Kieft the Dutch Governor of New Amsterdam, they selected a place near the southwestern sore of Long Island for their future homes, which they called “gravesend”, a name no doubt selected in remembrance of their English place of embarkation nearly ten years before. Here they enjoyed a large measure of freedom from the obnoxious religious restraint of rulers and the murderous designs of the red men of the forest.
The first patent was granted to this little English colony by Governor Kieft in 1643 and a subsequent patent was granted to them by the same Dutch governor in 1645 for a larger tract of land at the same place. The last named patent guaranteed to the settlers “Liberty of conscience and freedom of worship”.
On a part of this land they laid out the town of Gravesend in 1645 in the form of a square, covering sixteen acres in area, with two main streets called “Hyewyes” crossing each other at right angles in the center of the town. The whole town area was enclosed with a high palisade fence for protection against Indians and wild animals. The town plan consisted of forty rectangular lots, and forty farms radiated therefrom.
Lady moody became quite a ruling spirit in the colony and wielded great influence for their success and advancement in many ways. She was a lady of considerable means, highly accomplished, of strong, commanding force of character, and enjoyed the confidence and respect of Governor Stuyvesant, as well as of her English associates to the close of her eventfu life in 1659.
A regular town organization was formed by the election of town officers in 1646. The old town records show that Walter Wall was granted a “Planters Lot” on August 10, 1645, the same year that the town was laid out and that on August 22, 1653, he bought lands and buildings of Lawrence Johnson.
On September 11, 1654, he purchased Plantation Lot #14 Enum Benum and on November 9, 1658, he bought Plantation Lot #1 from William Smith. He married Ann…………at Gravesend, about 1646, but her maiden name does not seem to be known. They had children: Rutgert (Roger), John, Maria (Mary) and Garrett.
In the baptismal records of New Amsterdam two of these children are mentioned under dat of July 25, 1651, namely Rurgert aged 4 years, and Maria 3/4 of a year.
Thomas Applegate and family were also members of the Gravesend colony at that time, whose descendants subsequently married some of the descendants of Walter Wall in New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Early in 1665 Walter Wall with a number of friends of Gravesend and a small colony from Rhode Island removed to “East Jersey”, now New Jersey, where they obtained a patent from Governor Nichols under date of April 8, 1665, for a large body of land covering the resent county of Monmouth and part of Middlesex. This led to the establishment of the town of Middletown and Shrewsbury.
Walter Wall being one of the original settlers in the first named town. In the first division of town lots in Middletown on December 1, 1667, he was awarded Lot #4, and in division of outlands called “Poplar Fields” he was awarded Lot #32.
In July 1670 a settlement was made with the original settlers for purchase money to pay off the Indians for the land, all of which all of which had been fairly and honorably purchased from them.
Walter Wall and John Wall are named as paying their proportions of the purchase money as required, and each was awarded a share of land. Walter Wall is also in the same year awarded fourth choice of “Meadow Lands” being Meadow Lot #33.
He also owned a large tract of outlying land near Middletown, a portion of which was formerly known by the name of “Wall’s Mill” where his great grandson, General Garrett D. Wall was born, who was a member of the United States Senate, Judge of the Court of Errors and Appeals, and was nominated for Governor of New Jersey, but declined the honor in favor of his son-in-law, Governor Peter D. Vroom, who was elected in his stead.
Governor Vroom was the father of Judge Garrett Dorset Wall Vroom, now of Trenton, New Jersey. Walter Wall’s son Garrett is also named in the records of Monmouth County as a man of prominence in public affairs in that county.
On May 22, 1676 his name appears as a witness to a deed from Indian Chiefs to Richard Hartschorn for land at the Highlands of Nevisink, near Sandy Hook. He served as Town Treasurer of Middletown in 1697 and 1698, and in 1700 was one of the leading citizens who resisted the unjust demands of the English Proprietaries.
On December 17, 1705, he and Obadiah Bowne deeded four and one half acres of land to the Middletown Baptist Church, of which he and his wife wre members. This is said to have been the first church of that denomination established south of Rhode Island.
He married Pauline Masters, a daughter of Clement and Pauline Masters, of Shrewsbury, by whom he had children:
John, Humphrey, Walter, Garrett, Mary, Anne, Deborah and Lydia.
He died in 1711 and his wife died April 12, 1732. They are buried in the old Wall Graveyard, located on his farm, about two miles west of Middletown on the crest of a high hill, overlooking the Shrewsbury River and the lower Bay of New York, even to the coast of Long Island where he was born.
The old graveyard is well preserved and contains the remains of several generations of the Wall family.
JAMES WALL, grandson of the emigrant Walter Wall married Hannah Storey or Storer by whom he had children: Martha, Rebecca, Abigail, Naomi, Walter and James. He died in June 1759.
Walter Wall married Elsy Applegate, a sister of Benjamin, William and Thomas Applegate.
Rebecca Wall married Benjamin Applegate, above named.
James Wall married Catherine Vaneman.
The Wall family remained together in New Jersey until 1766, when the above named Walter and James Wall, together with Benjamin, William and Thomas Applegate, and others, emigrated to Western Pennsylvania and settled on lands in the so called “Jersey Settlement” of Westmoreland County, now Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, which they subsequently purchased from the State, and where they raised their families and died, leaving behind them an honorable pioneer record and numerous descendants.
Captain John Wall, another great-grandson of the emigrant Walter Wall, emigrated from New jersey to Washington County, Pennsylvania, in 1775 and subsequently to Kentucky, where he died, leaving numerous descendants who are now residents of many of our Western States.
Dr. A. H. Wall of Maysville, Kentucky, is a grandson of Captain John Wall, and Ex-Juege Garrett S. Wall of same city is a great grandson.
James Wall, son of James Wall, married Catherine Vaneman and died on his farm in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, may 7, 1811, and his wife died on the same farm, now owned by Ebenezer Caldwell, January 18, 1822. They had the following named children:
1----NAOMI WALL, born in 1768, married her cousin James Wall, son of Walter Wall, in 1793, and died September 22, 1846. He was born in New Jersey in 1762, and died September 6, 1855. Both are buried in the Wall graveyard, located on a high ridge on the division line between the two farms.
They had children: Stephen, Walter, Garrett, Anthony Wayne, Benjamin Franklin, Alice, James C., Catherine and Hannah, all now dead.
2----MARY WALL, born_____, married her cousin James Applegate, son of Benjamin Applegate, in 1788, and settled in Trumbell County, Ohio, where he died in 1820.
They had children: Joseph, Amy, Uriah, Andrew, Adams, Rebecca, Benjamin, Catherine, James and Calvin.
3----WALTER WALL, born in 1772, maried Elizabeth Applegate, daughter of Daniel Applegate, and emigrated to what is now Brown County, Ohio, in 1797 where he purchased one thousand acres of land from Hervey Heth for himself and the chldren of his brother, William Wall, then deceased. He built a residence n the southern half of this tract where he raised his family and died July 3, 18 51. His wife was born in the Jersey settlement of Pennsylvania in 1773, and died January 25, 1856. They are both buried in the graveyard located on his farm.
They had children: Hester, Susan, Abigail, Naomi, James, Asenath, Daniel A., Mary, John A., Elizabeth, William, Indiana and Marshall.
Note: His grandson, Captain Walter James Wall, now resides near Ripley, Brown County, Ohio, and another grandson, Bailey C. Wall near Amelia, Ohio.
4----WILLIAM WALL, born-------------______, married_______Alice Applegate, daughter of William and Catherine (Wiggins) Applegate, They had children: Richard, James, and (Major) William Wall. He died about 1796 or 1797, and she re-married John T. Parker, by whom she had other children:
Stephen, Thomas, Charles, john, Walter, Hannah, Amy, Lydia and Rebecca.
Note: The above named Richard, James and William Wall are the three brothers for whom their Uncle Walter Wall purchased one-half of the one thousand acre tract of land in Brown County Ohio, before mentioned.
5_____GARRETT WALL, born July 13, 1778, married February 16, 1800, Mary Sparks, daughter of Colonel Richard Sparks, by whom he had children: Richard Sparks, William, Jesse S., Milton, Salome, Joseph, Gideon, Charity Ellen, and Brisben, my father. His wife, Mary Sparks, died November 10, 1821, and he re-married Mary Watson, daughter of John and Elizabeth (Hair) Watson, March 16, 1824, by whom he had other children:
Sidney Mountain, Mary, Caroline, Elizabeth C., Cinthelia, Amanda and Milo, all now dead except Cinthelia who married A. M. Mills and resides at Ridge Farm, Illinois.
Garrett Wall died January 12, 1848, and his wife, Mary ( Watson) Wall, died August 15, 1881. He lived and died on the homestead of his father-in-law, Colonel Richard Sparks, in the Jersey settlement in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania.
6_____ANDREW WALL, born May 24, 1781, married May 22, 1804, Rachel Ferree, and died January 27, 1830, on the “Homestead Farm” of his father, where he was born. She was born May 29, 1794, and died March 11, 1830.
They had children: Jacob Ferree, James, Jane Rosanna, Joel, Harvey H., Maria Levina and Garrett Milton.
7_____NICHOLAS WALL, born November 19, 1786, married December 21, 1807, Rebecca Ketcham, daughter of Stephen Ketcham, and died in Vermillion County, Illinis, September 12, 1864. She was born October 12, 1786, and died April 25, 1872.
They had children: Hannah, James S., Walter K., Stephen D., O. H. Perry, Garrett Vaneman, Andrew and Livy Marion, all dead.
8_____HANNAH WALL, born____, married Isaac Ferree, and died in 1821 at Baton rouge, Louisiana. He died in 1819 at same place.
They had children: Jacob, James, Joel, Thornton, George Spencer, Andrew H. and Julia, all dead.
The above information courtesy of: Shelia Beck.
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FAMILY AND DESCENDANTS OF
WILLIAM AND ALICE (APPLEGATE) WALL