Rash's Surname Index
Notes for William PLUMSTEAD
William Plumstead, eldest and only surviving child of Clement and Elizabeth (Palmer) Plumstead, born in Philadelphia, November 7, 1708, was given the best educational advantages that the city afforded, and at the age of sixteen years was taken to England by his father and given every facility to gain an insight into his father's large shipping trade and mercantile ventures. He became a partner with his father in 1741, and continued the business with success after his father's death. Like his father, he became prominent in municipal and provincial affairs early in life. He was elected to the Common Council of the city, October 2, 1739, and June 19, 1745, appointed Register General of the Province and held that office until his death, August 10, 1765. Three times he was elected Mayor of Philadelphia; October 2, 1750, again December 4, 1754, to fill the unexpired term of Charles Willing, deceased, and October 2, 1755. He was elected a Justice of the Peace, May 25, 1752, and was regularly recommissioned successively until his death, and served as a Justice of the County Courts for many years, and was one of the first two Justices, specially commissioned for the trial of negroes, October 28, 1762. He was a member of the Association Battery of Philadelphia, 1756, and was active in most of the social institutions of the day, being one of the original members of the Colony in Schuylkill, in 1732, and a contributor to the Dancing Assembly in 1748, having renounced his membership in the Society of Friends, and become a member of Christ Church. Being one of the largest contributors towards the building of St. Peter's Church in 1754, he was made trustee of the land on which it was erected and a member of the building committee, and became a vestryman in 1761, and the first accounting warden. He was one of twenty-four original Trustees of the Academy and College of Philadelphia, which ultimately became the University of Pennsylvania. On October 30, 1756, he was returned as a member of the Provincial Assembly from Northampton county, but the contest over his right to the seat, consumed the term for which he was elected, however, he was re-elected in 1757, and took his seat without opposition. A prominent Free Mason of his time, and member of St. John's Lodge since 1731, he was elected Provincial Grand Master for the term of 1737-38, and was the first Grand Treasurer of the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania in 1749. Interested in real estate in Philadelphia, Bucks, Northampton and Berks counties and in New Jersey, he left a large estate.
William Plumstead married (first) April 19, 1733, at Friends' Meeting, Rebecca, daughter of Philip and Rebecca (Britton) Kearney, of Philadelphia. Her father, Philip Kearney, was a native of Ireland and a representative of one of the oldest families in the Emerald Isle. He came to Philadelphia about 1700, with his brother Michael, and both married daughters of Lionel and Rebecca Britton, who came from Alny, county of Bucks, and arrived in the river Delaware, in the "Owners' Advice," 4mo., 1680; their daughter Elizabeth died on board the ship as they were coming up the bay and was buried at Burlington. They settled near the Falls, Bucks county, where Rebecca, who became the wife of Philip Kearney, was born 11mo. 19, 1683. Gen. Philip Kearney was a descendant of Michael and Elizabeth (Britton) Kearney, who settled in New Jersey. Lionel Britton and his family removed to Philadelphia in 1708, and he is said to have been the first American convert to Catholicism. Rebecca (Kearney) Plumstead died January 20, 1740-1, and William married (second) September 27, 1753, at Christ Church, Mary, daughter of George and Ann (Yeates) McCall, her father being one of the prominent merchants of Philadelphia, and member of the Council from October 3, 1722, to his death in 1740. Jasper Yeates, maternal grandfather of Mary (McCall) Plumstead, was a member of Provincial Council from New Castle, 1696, to his death in 1720. Mrs. Plumstead survived her husband many years, dying September 13, 1799.
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