User:Ben mendoza

ZEPHANIAH KINGSLEY AN INCOMPLETE BIOGRAPHY

Sir William Johnstone and Lady Catherine Melville were the maternal grandparents of Zephaniah Kingsley.

About 1285, Sir John de Johnston bestowed on the monastery of Solbray "The if not the advowson" of the Church of Johnstone and confirmed his father's, Hugo de Johnst, "ounce gift of lands in Haddington," Scotland. Like other Norman-French families settled inn Scotland, The Johnstones had also obtained Estates in other parts of the country. The first baron in the family was Sir John de Johnstone who swore fealty to Edward the First, in 1296. The Johnstones supported the crown for generations and in 1633, Sir James Johnstone was named Lord Johnstone by Charles the First. Ten years later he was named Earl of Hartfell.

Zephaniah's grandfather. Sir William Johnstone, was "Marquis of Annandale, Earl of Hartfell and Chief of His Clan." Sir William's younger brother, George Johnstone was Royal Governor of West Florida under England from 1763 to 1767. George died in Bristol, England in 1787.

Sir William had no male heir, nor did his eldest daughter, who married Charles Hope of Hopeton, so the line is not extinct.

Zephaniah's grandmother, Lady Catherine, also came from an old and prominent Scottish family. The Melvilles date back to the early days of Border fighting in East Lothian. "Their fortunes with the Johnstones being implicated with the Stuarts." The first Viscount of Melville was Henry Dundas, Lord Advocate in government. Questions concerning Dundas' handling of government monies ultimately led to Pitt's political downfall.

Lady Catherine Melville and Sir William Johnstone were married at Annandale Castle, Pertshire, Scotland.

Their daughter, Isabella Johnstone, married Zephaniah Kingsley, an Englishman from Westmoreland. a county in the southwest border of Scotland. Isabella and Kingsley were married at the Church of St. Mary Le Bow (Bow Church). Cheapside, London, n September 29, 1763, by the Curate, Brook Heckshall. Their witnesses were William Johnson and Mary Mallot. Zephaniah was recorded in the marriage register as a Bachelor of the Parish of All Hallows-Bread Street and Isabella, a spinster of the Parish of St. Mary Le Bow.

The Kingsley's first six children were born in England and Scotland. Their second child and first son Zephaniah, the subject of this research, was born in Scotland on December 4, 1764.

In 1773, the Kingsleys with their 8 year old son, Zephaniah, settled in Charleston, South Carolina after a visit there to Isabella's uncle Charles Johnstone.

The other five children appear to have lived at least the greater part of their lives in England and possibly in Scotland. Of them, Mary, the Eldest, married a Captain Charlton of the Royal Navy, or as elsewhere noted, a man named Moir. Katherine married an Englishman named Burden. George, "an official in the British Navy," was lost at sea. The fate of the children, Johnstone and Elizabeth is not known.

The Kingsleys had two more daughters after their migration to North America. Isabella was born in Charleston in 1774 and Martha, in New Jersey in 1775.

The family prospered in north Carolina. Kingsley, a Quaker was a merchant in the East India trade and he quickly acquired property near Charleston.

In August of 1773 he obtained a Royal Grant of 300 acres of land in Granville County, Prince William Parish, bounded on two sides by the property of Henry Slade and Bartlett Brown. in March 1775, he acquired 1,514 acres, and in May another 300 acres in Craven and Berkley Counties, these included:

200 acres in Fair Forrest, a branch of the Tygar river; bounded by the properties of Edward Musgrove and Charles Jones. (Craven County)

200 acres also on the Fair Forrest; bounded by the properties of Anthony Parks, Joseph Tutts, and Samuel Clouney. (Craven County)

287 acres on the Cabin Branch of the Congaree-Santee rivers and Cedar Creek; bounded by the properties of a Mr. Ferguson, Mr. McMichaels, John Wilson, and Elias Dart. (Craven County)

627 acres on the drains of Cattle Creek, waters of Edistoe river; bounded by the properties of Jacob Carner and Alexander Kenedy (sic) (Berkley County)

200 acres on Isaac's branch of Duncan's creek; bounded by the properties of John Smith, John Howard and Stevens' Land. (Berkley County)

300 acres in Cheraw District, on the Rockey Creek branch of Great Lynches creek; bounded by properties of Simon Daniel, Richard Holly. (Craven County)

The long standing loyalty of Isabella's family to the Crown may have contributed to the Kingsleys' early acquisition of over 2,000 acres of South Carolina lands. An event in 1774, however, presaged what was ultimately to be rather short-lived success of the senor Kingsley in North America.

Charleston, in the era of the Kingsley's residence, was the most prosperous, sophisticated and cosmopolitan city in the North American continent, and one of its most active ports, but the Carolinas also had a long standing history of truculence and defiance towards the Lords Proprietor of the Colony. Charleston was quick to sympathize with the resistance of Massachusetts toward the Port Bill which closed Boston Harbor in June 1774.

On November 21, 1774, the ship Brittania under Captain Samuel Ball arrived at Charleston from London, having on board seven cases of tea, subject to tax. Three of these were consigned to Kingsley. "the Committee of Observation summoned Capt. Ball who readily attended and satisfied the committee that the objectionable part of the cargo was loaded without his knowledge. On Thursday, (The South Carolina Gazette) reports an 'oblation was made to Neptune. Each consignee having emptied into the river the contents of the chests intended for him."

As subsequent events bear out, the senior Kingsley was at heart a loyalist but he appears to have made no protest against the "Charleston Tea Party" nor to have defied the temporary Gov't established when the Royal Gov't of South Carolina collapsed and the Governor, Lord William Campbell fled. In 1776, the temporary government required all citizens over 16 to pledge allegiance to the state and vow to defend it against the armies of George the Third. Those refusing were banished and their property subject to confiscation. Many prominent Carolinians, loyal to the Crown, were transported to St Augustine, Florida. Other fled elsewhere. But the Kingsleys were not among them. The Kingsleys were in Charleston when the city was captured by the British in 1780. It was then Kingsley's Tory loyalty became apparent. He was appointed by the occupying government to a committee to draw up a table of depreciation giving the relative value of paper currency to gold and silver for monthly intervals from 1777 to 1780. His business interests alone may well have suggested him for this appointment and it probably would not, in the long run, have jeopardized his position in Charleston, but he made the fatal mistake of also offering himself to be armed as a member of the Loyal Militia. In 1782 when the North American forces had regained Charleston, the reprisals against Crown sympathizers were all embracing and harsh. In 1782 the Act for Confiscation of Estates and "For banishing certain persons" was passed. The list included, of these Banished and their property confiscated, among others "Addressors to Sir Henry Clinton" "Conratulators of Lord Cornwallis" "Obnoxious Persons" and, of course, those who had offered themselves as armed militia.

Kingsley, as did many loyalist, went to Canada to attempt to obtain compensation from the Crown. The family however appears to have had a number of close friends who, whatever their basic political loyalty, had, at least, not been so indiscreet as to avow it publicly. Isabella and her daughters remained in the United States with family friends while Kingsley pressed his claim in /Canada and apparently died there. Isabella journeyed to England and Scotland to visit her family but she died in 1814 at the age of 77 in New York City., where she was buried at the Quaker cemetery in Houston St.

The American-born daughters of the senior Kingsleys were educated in England, a common practice of wealthy Charlestonians prior to the American Revolution. The girls were, however, in Wilmington, North Carolina around the turn of the 18th century. Isabella married George Gibbs III there, in 1798. The Gibbs subsequently moved to Florida for the sake of Isabella's health. In Florida they were associated with the Junior Zephaniah Kingsley.

Martha married Dr. Daniel McNeill in Wilmington about 1827. An unidentified letter in the papers of General Jonathan Gardiner Swift, a family friend and the first graduate of West Point, comments, "Daniel McNeill is an intimate friend of mine. His wife, the beautiful Martha Kingsley, is one of the most interesting persons in Wilmington, North Carolina." The McNeill moved to Brooklyn Heights, N.Y., and their daughter, Ana, married George Washington Whistler. Whistler was a railroad designer and notable for his work in Russia, where he died at a relatively early age. Anna was the subject of the Whistler's famous pointer son - James Abbott McNeil Whistler's painting "Arrangement in Grey and Black, No. 1" or "Whistler's Mother" as it is more commonly known.

It can be assumed that the young Zephaniah Kingsley was educated in England if his sisters were. Apparently he too married in the traditional Anglo-Saxon fashion but "he lost hi wife during one of his voyages as navigator to the cost of Africa."

It was probably on a subsequent visit to Africa that he married Anna Madgigene Jai, an African woman. In several documents, Zephaniah states that they were married in a traditional African ceremony.

The name N'jai is that of a ruling lineage of the Wolof in Senegal. Anna Madgigene is a given name that is still commonly used in the Senegambia region of Africa. Later commentators have described her as an "African Princess” which is probably relatively accurate but some have attributed her origin to Madagascar. All present evidence, however, indicates the Senegambia area as her homeland.