Adams on Pennsylvania Frontier from 1681 – 1820

This page is a timeline of people with the surname of Adams and their allied relations during the western expansion of the State of Pennsylvanian from 1720 to 1800. I’ve mapped out every Adams Land Warrant in the online index from The Bureau of Archives and History – Pennsylvania State Archives. I’ve tried to note where people are know connections to Families in the Adams Family Group A033 to which this website is dedicated.

The next step would be to overlay other data points like census records or notations in historical literature related to Adams in these areas. I’ve included references to Benjamin Chambers only because that family was key in the development of Chambersburg where many of our Adams lived in or around and it is a good point of reference. I’ve also included county maps to make it easier to understand the migration from east to west.

Pennsulvania from 1681 to 1720

1681-1740 Pennsylvania and Deleware

 

Pennsylvania 1720

Pensylvania - Lancaster Created from Chester- 1729
Pensylvania – Lancaster Created from Chester- 1729

 

Pennsylvania 1730

Pennsylvania 1740

Pennsylvania Counties in 1749 and 1750
Pennsylvania Counties in 1749 and 1750

 

1749-1756 Map of Pennsylvania
A MAP OF THE PROVINCE OF PENSILVANIA DRAWN FROM THE BEFT AUTHORITIES, by T. Kitchin Gr., printed for R. Baldwin in Pater Noster Row 1756. This map appeared in the December issue of London Magazine 1756. It is based upon the 1749 Evans map and incorporates the 1732 boundary agreement between Lord Baltimore and the Penns, which set the boundary at essentially its present position. The boundary with New York is placed at about 42d 30m and called undefined. The western boundary is a mirror image of the eastern and is placed just west of “F. du Quesne.” Kitchin apparently read accounts of western Pennsylvania as Ohiopyle Falls on the Youghiogheney River are identified. This is the first map of all the state of Pennsylvania itself, rather than the Philadelphia or Mid-Atlantic regions. It pre-dates the larger and better known 1759 Scull map of Pennsylvania by three years. Phillips page 673. Longitude from Philadelphia at top, London at bottom. Blank verso. Scale: 1 inch = 43 miles. Size: 7 x 9 inches.

Pennsylvania 1750

Pennsylvania 1760

People seem to really start pouring back in in 1765/66 based on the volume of land warrants I have seen in searching these files – there are a bunch of caruthers and culbertsons – so many I didn’t take time to list them below. Some Crockett too (note for ds)

Pennsylvania 1770

1770 Map of Pennsylvania
1770 Map of Pennsylvania – To the Honorable Thomas Penn and Richard Penn, Esquires, true and absolute Proprietaries and Governors of the Province of Pennsylvania and the Territories thereunto belonging and to the Honorable John Penn, Esquire, Lieutenant-Governor of the same, THIS MAP. OF THE PROVINCE OF PENNSYLVANIA. Is humbly dedicated, by their most obedient humble servt: W. Scull. Henry Dawkins, sculpt. Philadelphia, Printed by James Nevil, for the author, April 4st, 1770. The map is reproduced in Fite & Freeman#57, Ristow, and Schwartz & Ehrenberg, and elsewhere. William used information about western Pennsylvania gained during the French and Indian War to update his grandfather Nicholas Scull’s 1759 map. Thus, the locations of Braddock’s defeat and Bouquet’s victory are shown near Pittsburgh. This map shows considerably more of the state than the 1759 map, but not all. It extends north only to about 41d 45m and west only to the Beaver River. The southern boundary was fixed by the 1768 Mason-Dixon survey only as far as the Maryland boundary extends. The western boundary with Virginia was left undefined. The most common versions of this map are the 1775 Sayer & Bennett which appeared in Faden’s North American Atlas of 1777, shown here from the Library of Congress, and the 1778 French copy by Le Rouge. The Le Rouge version can be seen at the Darlington Library, where it is dated circa 1777. Sellers & van Ee #1295, Phillips page 674, Wheat & Brun #425.

 

Pennsylvania Counties in 1771
Pennsylvania Counties in 1771
  • 1773 – Westmoreland created from Bedford County and part of PA West Augusta District (WAD) Virginia
PA - 1773 Westmoreland added and West Augusta District of Virginia
PA – 1773 Westmoreland added and West Augusta District of Virginia

Pennsylvania 1780

  • 1781 – Washington County created from Westmoreland
  • 1783 – Fayette County created from Westmoreland
Pennsylvania in 1781 & 1783 - Washington and Fayette Created
Pennsylvania in 1781 & 1783 – Washington and Fayette Created

 

Pennsylvania in 1784 - Franklin created from CUmberland
Pennsylvania in 1784 – Franklin created from Cumberland. This means all those folks in Chambersburg are now in Franklin County instead of Cumberland

 

Pennsylvania Counties in 1788 - Alleghney created from Westmoreland, Washington and Northumberland
Pennsylvania Counties in 1788 – Alleghney created from Westmoreland, Washington and Northumberland

 

Pennsylvania 1790

(The land issued to Adams in Bedford from 1793-1795 is almost always 400 acres which makes me think this was for Military Service in the Revolutionary War. There are also a BUNCH of Capp people – makes me wonder if A033 isn’t related to the Capp instead of a Copp – they are in Cumberland and Lancaster too – a perfect migration path. There are also a ton of Capp in 1794 in Westmoreland)

Pennsylvania 1800

Pennsylvania Counties in 1800
Pennsylvania Counties in 1800

 

 

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