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techteach
06-22-2005, 12:59 PM
In my family, we have the saying that the Sinkeys brought in the Indian. My gggrandmother whose mother was a Sinkey certainly looks Indian while her uncle really reminds me of the last known Tutelo. So we had a DNA study done on a direct Sinkey/Sankey (these names are found on genforum as interchangeable and in fact, my William is listed as the only one of 4 brothers to take the Sinkey spelling) ancestor and found that there was no NA (so it came in via the female line because it is certainly there). In fact, the results indicated an English origin which matched the research done by genealogists on the Sankeys. Anyway, this led me back to looking at Rev. Richard Sankey and his father-in-law, Reverend John Thomson. Their backgrounds matched the results of the DNA test, leading one to suspect a connection between our Richard Sinkey who appears in central PA after Rev. Richard Sankey leaves with several members of his church.
Anyway, I thought I would post this information on Rev. John Thomson:

"John Thompson who was born in Northern Ireland about 1690 entered the University of Glasgow 1 March 1706 from which he later received the degree of Master of Arts. He was ordained to the Presbyterian ministry in 1713 by the Presbytery of Armagh, and was licensed by the Ulster Synod, meeting at Antrim on June 23, 1713

Two years later he arrived in this Country. He did not come (with his wife, young daughter Esther, and his sister Esther) as a stranger; but had relatives and friends in Virginia. There were Thompsons living in York County long before Reverend John Thompson and his family came in 1713 or 1714. In fact a John Thompson lived in York County as early as 1646. After his arrival he taught school in Virginia and across the Bay in Maryland.

Teo years after his arrival in this country, Reverend Thompson was called to the church at Lewes, Sussex County, Delaware, where he remained until the latter part of 1729. After being pastor in Lewes, he went to various other places, among them Middle Octarara and Chestnut Level in Pennsylvania and Centre Church in Delaware. It is not known how many times he visited the "back parts" of Virginia between 1733 and 1744, but it is recorded that he supplied in the neighborhood of Winchester and Staunton in 1739, and preached in the Opechon neighborhood, at Rockfish Gap, at Cub Creek in Lunenburg County, at Buffalo and Walkers in Amelia County, and at Hat Creek and Concord in what became Campbell County. From 1744 to 1750 he lived in Spring Creek on a tract of 386 acres, which he purchased for twenty-four pounds from Samuel Cobb. In Mar. 1750 the Philadelphia Synod of the Presbyterian Church received a petition from the people of North Carolina requesting the appointment of a minister. Reverend Thompson was selected and in late 1752 he left his Amelia County, Va. home and established residence in North Carolina. He was granted 627 acres between Davison Creek and the Catawba River. This grant contained the clause that within three years three acres for every one hundred acres must be cleared and in cultivation. Rev. Thompson was the first licensed preacher to make a home west of the Yadkin River. Rev. Thompson in 1758 had "The Holy Bible" printed for himself and Abraham Small at Philadelphia before he left for the "back country.""

If you follow Rev. Thomson's locations, they are all interesting locations. The first town, Lewes, is only 22 miles from Dagsboro or Blackfoot Town. Lancaster is the location of one group of my people and several other people on this forum. Opequon is the location of another of my groups and one or two other members of this forum. He lives near Rev. Richard for a while and in Lunenburg county and finally, ends up in Mecklenburg County, NC. Here is an account of his descendents : http://genforum.genealogy.com/thomson/messages/1202.html

Anyway interesting..

Techteach

Linda
07-04-2005, 06:20 PM
This is very interesting. It's making me think more seriously about the information I got from a distant, elderly cousin who is a Hudson, the Hudsons who came out of Fredericksburg, MD. Her family had been missionaries to the Indians for generations. She herself was born on the Rosebud reservation. Here's the thread where I talked about that line:

http://www.saponitown.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=331&highlight=ezra+hudson

Can we find out more about your Sankey's church?

techteach
07-05-2005, 04:01 AM
We are not certain how/if this Sankey is related, but Richard was minister of a church near Lancaster not far from the Sankeys who we think were ours. There were supposedly 4 brothers and William went to Licking County and was the only one who changed the spelling to Sinkey. (We are not sure if they were related at all - supposedly our Sankeys were from Warrington, England while Rev Richard was from northern Ireland, although descendents of the Sinkeys claimed to be Irish and Indian. We can't establish definitive connections. This weekend, I found a notation from a Quaker monthly meeting of the arrival in Philadelphia of a William Sankey in the 1600s and information that it was a common religion in Warrington. That being said, I also found that Quakers and Presbyterians were close in the colonies.)
Richard left the area for Virginia in 1757, reportedly because of Indian uprisings, but I believe that is was because of a split in the Presbyterian church between the Old Side and the New Light. Thomson, Sankey's father-in-law, was a leader of the Old Siders and the Philadelphia leaders became New Light, I think, if I remember correctly. I think both families went south to be more comfortable. Congregations that leaned one way would often stop paying ministers who leaned the other. When they left, often families left also, as was the case with Richard. Several families from Lancaster went to the Prince Edward area with him.
As for Thomson, he continued further south and continuted preaching on the frontier. He served in Lewes, Delaware first, then the Lancaster church, then Virginia, and finally, North Carolina, and, in between, also stopped at the Martinsburg churches of my Greens. His family was related to David Crockett and Patrick Henry. See http://www.rootsweb.com/~paslchs/middleopreshis.html ,http://www.peterwallace.org/thomson.txt , and http://www.cmstory.org/history/hornets/begin.htm . Sankey stayed in Virginia and served on the board of Hampton and Sydney College, helping to establish the college.
Like I said, though, I do not know the connection, if any, between my Sinkey/Sankeys and these men other than location and Presbyterianism.

Techteach