John Gossett of Cumberland County, Pennsylvania
There is a great scarcity of records in America of the early Gossett families. Since the British publications name only Peter as the emigrant to America, it is most natural for the American branches to assume that all of the Gossetts in the United States were descended through Peter's sons, John and Matthew. John appears in the records as the ancestor of the Gossett branch in South Carolina, according to the references enumerated in the foregoing chapter.
It has been erroneously assumed that Matthew, the other son of Peter Gosset, was Matthias Gossett of Virginia who was the ancestor of the Gossett branch in Ohio. Definite ties worked out through land records have revealed that Matthew and Matthias were two different men. The investigation was made by an able genealogist, Mrs. M. C. Adams of Foxburg, Pennsylvania. She located relevant data of a very early settler, John Gosset of Cumberland Valley of Pennsylvania, and identified him as John Gosset from Jersey Island, the oldest brother of Peter. This John Gosset was the father of Matthias Gossett of Virginia.
The earliest Gossett in America was John Gosset who was settled by 1734 on the frontier in the Cumberland Valley of Pennsylvania, which included present Franklin and Cumberland Counties.
While Payne's Armorial of Jersey gives only the brief fact that John, the eldest son of John and Susan D'Allain Gosset of Jersey, was born in 1699, there can be little doubt that the lack of further details was due to his removal to America rather than to his death. Had he died in Great Britain, that fact would have been known and recorded. Had he remained in Great Britain, he would have been named his father's heir. Abraham was the heir and was the second son.
John Gosset must have deliberated before he decided to depart from his home in Jersey Island. It is obvious he had the assistance and advice of his elders. An ambitious, probably restless young man, while visiting at the home of his uncle, Matthew Gosset of Horton in London, John may have been advised by his uncle to embark on the voyage to the new world. John Gosset was educated in London. He was his father's heir in Jersey. Should he sacrifice his birthright? We can be assured that Matthew Gosset of London gave his nephew sound advice and guidance.
In Part I of this volume, records of Matthew Gosset of Horton, London, are presented. He had no children, and it is evident he had much to do about the careers of his nephews (brothers of John). Matthew Gosset was so closely associated with three of his nephews: Gideon, Jacob, and Isaac, that they are named incorrectly as Matthew's sons by Gyll in his History of the Parish of Wraysbury under "Pedigree of Gosset". Matthew and his nephew Isaac were famous in London as modelers of portraits in wax; nephews Gideon and Isaac are buried in Matthew Gosset's tomb in London; and, nephews Abraham and Peter named their children, undoubtedly, for Matthew and his wife, Jane Esther. (See "Pedigree of Gosset" from An Armorial of Jersey by J. B. Payne.)
In the early days, the purchaser of land in Pennsylvania was required to follow a specified course of procedure. In order to secure a full title to land in Pennsylvania, an applicant was first granted a warrant. This warrant, with the payment of a nominal sum, provided that the second step might be taken, namely, that the land be surveyed. After the survey was reported and the purchase price paid, a patent was granted and recorded.
Legal titles for land had been issued east of the Susquehanna River in Pennsylvania. In the early part of 1700, no warrants or patents had been issued by the Penns for land on the opposite or west side of the Susquehanna River, as the Indian title for that area had not yet been extinguished. But as early as 1720, many settlers had crossed the river and taken up lands and made improvements on what was still Indian land.
Negotiations for the purchase of these lands from the Indians were begun and before this purchase was completed, the Penn family authorized a surveyor, named Samuel Blunston, to survey the lands to be acquired and to issue licenses to those people already settled on the lands. This procedure protected the land titles of the whites until the titles were legally patented, and prevented further injustice to the Indians. The general location of the lands which were allotted by licenses is in present Cumberland and Franklin Counties; also, Adams and York.
The names of settlers who were granted lands under this plan were recorded by Blunston and the full list, compiled from old records, has been printed in Genealogical Society of Pennsylvania's Publications, vol. XI, no. 2, of March 1931.
Excerpts from Blunston's Licenses are as follows:
- A record of Licenses Granted to Sundry Persons to Settle and take up Land on the West Side of the Susquehanna River, By Virtue of a Commission from the Honorable Thomas Penn, Esq.., Bearing Date the 11th Day of January, 1733. To Samuel Blunston of Lancaster Court. Filed in the Land Record Bureau of Internal Affairs at Harrisburg, Pennsylvania., and designated as Blunston's Licenses.
- 1733 John Garner.
- 1734 Morgan Morgan: 200 acres on a spring running into Yellow Breeches Creek about 2 miles above Paxton's manor line.
- John Morgan: a large run, a branch of the Yellow Breeches Creek near the old Potomac Road, etc..
- June 13
- 1735 John Gosset: 300 acres. 200 acres where he is already settled on the southeast branch of Conegochege.
- 1735 John Gladell: 100 acres where he is already settled near John Gosset.
The location of the land granted to John Gosset on the Conegochege River or Creek is, in all probability, in present Franklin County, which was cut off from Cumberland County. Later on, this fact will be mentioned as proof of family connections.
A copy of the aforesaid reference book is in Carnegie Library, Pittsburgh. The original warrantee maps are filed in the Land Office at Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.
John Gosset, from the Island of Jersey, who was settled in Pennsylvania by 1734 was unmarried when he left home, otherwise his marriage would have been noted by Payne in An Armorial of Jersey. He was around thirty-five years of age when he was granted a license for land in present Franklin County, Pennsylvania. A fair conclusion, based on pioneer conditions, would indicate a mature man settled on a large tract of land and, in all probability, having a wife and young family. No other records for this earliest John have been brought to light. Although no actual trace remains of this first generation as a family group, there are factors which decidedly indicate that a second generation remained in the same neighborhood and that John Gosset had several children.
Mrs. Adams searched the records in the Franklin County court house at Chambersburg, in the Cumberland County Courthouse at Carlisle, and in the State Library and Land Office at Harrisburg. She reported the following pertinent facts:
Franklin County was erected from the southwestern part of Cumberland in 1784. The county seat was located at Chambersburg. A great scarcity of early deeds, wills, etc. exists in this courthouse, largely because of the burning of the town during the Civil War in July, 1864. Also, a destructive fire in the Cumberland County Courthouse at Carlisle burned a great number of the early records, especially wills and deeds. There are some abstracts of the early wills and administrations of the part of Cumberland County in which John Gosset lived available in printed form, but they do not include any mention of John Gosset. The name of his wife can not be determined.
The study of the early Gossett family has been difficult largely because few records of that part of Cumberland County where the Gossetts lived survived the burning of Chambersburg during the Civil War. The fire caused irreparable loss, as described by historians:
"In July 1864, General Jubal Early of the Confederate Army ordered General John McCausland to advance on Chambersburg and demand a tribute of $100,000 in gold or $500,000 in greenbacks, to be paid within half an hour.... As it was impossible for the citizens to comply with this demand, McCausland gave the order for the destruction of the place which was in ashes in some three hours...."
The following excerpt from McCauley's history of the county shows why so little has been preserved in the form of records. McCauley writes concerning the destruction of Chambersburg:
". . . The county was also a great sufferer... Our beautiful courthouse (built in 1843) was totally destroyed... But the greatest loss our people sustained was the destruction of the large mass of our public records which were burned with the courthouse. Their loss is irreparable. They can never be restored."
The research was continued to close the gap between John Gosset emigrating from the Isle of Jersey and later Gossett generations in America -- Records in the Pennsylvania Historical Society in Philadelphia were checked, and several published lists of early churches in the Cumberland Valley were examined, collateral lines for Bible and other family records were reviewed, etc..
This pioneer investigation produces decisive proof that the second generation did exist in the area where John Gosset lived, and authentic records do prove his children included, namely: Peter, John, Mary, William, and Matthias. These factors are supported by corroborating data and helpful documents.
