Thomas
Sturgeon
(August
7, 1731 —
About 1813)
Margaret
Corbett
(May
1735 —
September 28, 1818)
Thomas
Sturgeon
was born on August 7, 1731
in Donegal
Township, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.
Lancaster
County
was formed only two years earlier. His
future wife, Margaret Corbett was born five years later in May 1735.
They married in Paxtang
Township
in Lancaster
County
(later Dauphin
County), Colony of Pennsylvania on
July 16, 1750.
Thomas
and Margaret lived in this region of Pennsylvania
at a time of some local upheaval. History
books tell us that the Irish settlers were involved in a number of local
disturbances. Consequently, the
Governor of the colony of Pennsylvania gave orders that his agents could not sell any more land in
Donegal
Township
and two other predominately Irish townships to the Irish.
Later, when Cumberland
County
was separated from the western part of Lancaster
County
in 1750, he made advantageous offers for them to move to those new counties.
Thomas
and Margaret had fourteen children, all of them born in Paxtang
Township,
Dauphin County,
Pennsylvania.
|
Name
|
Birth
date
|
|
William
Sturgeon
|
August 17, 1751
|
|
“Unknown”
Sturgeon
|
July 13, 1752
|
|
Sarah
Sturgeon
|
August 2, 1753
|
|
Peter
Sturgeon
|
December 15, 1756
|
|
Samuel
Sturgeon
|
February
18, 1758
|
|
Eliza
Jane Sturgeon
|
August 23, 1760
|
|
Thomas
Sturgeon
|
September 15,
1762
|
|
John
Sturgeon
|
December 25, 1766
|
|
Jacob
Sturgeon
|
April 17, 1768
|
|
Margaret
Corbett Sturgeon
|
September 17,
1770
|
|
Simpson
Sturgeon
|
July 18, 1772
|
|
Robert
G. Sturgeon
|
January 29, 1774
|
|
Moses
Sturgeon
|
March 11, 1778
|
|
Elizabeth
Sturgeon
|
January 31, 1781
|
|
Thomas
Sturgeon was shown on several assessment lists in the period from 1750 to 1779
in and around Paxtang. He was taxed
on 100 acres on the north end of Paxtang in 1750, on the west side of Paxtang in
1751, for 150 acres in Paxtang in 1756, in Paxtang in 1758 and in
Upper Paxtang
in 1779.
Thomas
and Margaret moved to Mifflin County,
Pennsylvania
in 1793, where Thomas bought a mill and a farm. He
had also owned a mill in Dauphin
County
and made milling his business. At least three of his sons, Peter, John and
Moses, accompanied him to this new
location.
Thomas
Sturgeon bought 200 acres of land in Cumberland County,
Pennsylvania
on
June 28, 1793
from Hugh Sharron. Sharron later
married Thomas' daughter, Jane.
Thomas was the first Sturgeon to purchase land in Lancaster
County.
Thomas
died in about 1813. Margaret died on September 28, 1818. Both are buried at Mifflin County
Presbyterian Church, Miffin County, Pennsylvania where
their gravestone says,
| Here lieth deposited
the earthly parts of Thomas Sturgeon, who departed this life May 18 A.D.
1813, aged 81 years and 5 months" and also Margaret Sturgeon wife
of said Thomas, who departed this life Sept 28, 1818 aged 83 years and 5
months. |
