THE SHINN FAMILY

Pages 131-133

When Nathan Gaskill married Hannah Owen in 1797, he was taking as his wife his third cousin, although it is doubtful if he was aware of the fact, or if it would have interested him in the slightest had he been. Third cousins are the grandchildren of first cousins, therefore Nathan and Hannah had an identical ancestor five generations back. This is the only intance where two lines have run together in this entire history, and the position of this identical ancestor is to that extent unique.

Aside from this, however, the life of John Shinn differs little from that of dozens of other emigrant ancestors whom we have found among the pioneer settlers of Pennsylvania and New Jersey. The earliest authentic history of New Jersey, Smith's "History of Nova Caesarea; or New Jersey," mentions him, and places his arrival in America between the years 1678 and 1680. John Shinn arrived in America with a wife, Jane, and a large family of children. He had been a Quaker for many years in England, and had suffered persecution there, as related by Besse "Sufferings," 11, p. 205:

"Hertfordshire. At the Quarter Sessions on the 12th of the 11th Month 1662, John Shin of Albury and Jeremiah Deane of Hartford were committed to Prison on a Process against them for Absence from their Parish and for not paying the Court fees."

The Shinn family was widely dispersed throughout England in the six-teenth century, but the History of the Shinn Family attempts to trace the ancestry of John Shinn to Freckenham parish in Suffolk. John Shinn appears in America in company with a Clement Shinn, and Clement being an unusual Christian name, it is assumed that there was a close connection between a Clement Shinn found in Freckenham, and the Shinn family in America. The assumption is the best that can be made, but like the assumptions on which other lines have been traced back into England, it ??acks the elements (such as the documentary references found to connect Jonathan Heacock with the Slindon family) which would establish it as historical fact. On the basis of the assumption, the Shinn line is as follows:

1) Francis Sheene, born 1525, lived in Freckenham Parish.

2) John Sheene, married Anne who died 1617.

3) Clement Sheene, baptized 11 mo. 24, 1593, married Grace ..... at Soham Parish, Suffolk.

4) John, son of Clement, born 1632, married Jane ..... and emigrated to New Jersey.

The name is said to be of Anglo-Saxon origin, and to be found in England at the time of William the Conqueror. 1680. Both John and Clement Sheen were freeholders in New Jersey that year, and John was a grand juror. John also signed his name to a letter from the New Jersey Friends to the London Yearly Meeting under the date of 12 mo. 7, 1680. Six days later (September 18, 1680) he purchased one fifteenth of one of the original 100 shares of West Jersey, which made him one of the earliest and one of the most substantial landholders (about 2000 acres, undivided). He settled in Springfield township, near the site of the future city of Mount Holly, and became one of the most prominent and respected citizens of the neighborhood. Besides farming, he appears to have had various occupations. A deed to his son dated July 17, 1697, referred to him as a wheelwright, his will mentioned his ownership of a boulting mill, while some of the items appearing in the inventory of his personal estate suggest the money lender: "to his purse and apparrel 16 1., 10 s.; to money upon bond 132 1.; to one box Iron and money skails 6 s.; to more money, upon bond 105 1...."

John Shinn was also prominent in religious affairs. The Friends meeting was held in his home prior to the building of a meeting house in Springfield township in 1698-9. He served as delegate to the Quarterly meeting in 1688, and was overseer of the Springfield meeting for a period of years. In 1687 a certain Daniel Leeds had published an almanac, which had offended Friends because of some of its "superfluities." John Shinn was named by the meeting to notify Leeds to bring in his paper to the Burlington meeting before sending it to Philadelphia. The Quakers were sensitive to criticism and merciless in their supression of dissent; Leeds was forced to recant: " . . . whereas, I do understand yt something in my Almanac hath given offense to ffriends of truth--therefore I did look uppon myself as bound for satisfaction and vindication of ye blessed to condemn them as wrong and proceeding from a ground yt was out of truth, I being at a loss as to my incondition at ye time of writing thereof..."

John Shinn died near the end of the year 1711. His will, dated 11 mo. 14, 1711, was probated 12 mo. 30, 1711. He and his wife Jane had nine children, all of them born in England:

John Jr., married Ellen Stacy 3 mo. 3, 1686, m. (2) Mary 7 mo. 1, 1707.

George, married Mary Thompson 5 mo. 6, 1691.

Mary, married John Crosby and (2) Richard Fennimore.

James, married Abigail Lippencott 3 mo. 3, 1697.

Thomas, married Sarah Shawthorne and (2) Mary Stockton.

Sarah born 1669, married Thomas Atkinson.

Esther.

Frances.

Martha, married Joshua Owen 1 mo. 1, 1697-8, m. (2) Restore Lippencott in 1729.

The Martha Shinn who married Daniel Gaskill in 1735 was a granddaughter of John Shinn, and a niece of the Martha, who married Joshua Owen. The History of the Shinn Family identifies her with a Martha Shinn, daughter of George Shinn and Mary Thompson, who was shown as 14 years old by the census of Northampton township in 1709. This would make her about forty years old at the time of her marriage, which seems somewhat unlikely in an age when both men and women married young, for economic reasons. Furthermore, her future husband, Daniel Gaskill does not appear in the 1709 census, which he should, unless he was over 14 years younger than his bride. It is therefore quite possible that the Shinn history is in error, that both Daniel and Martha were born after the 1709 census, and that Martha was the daughter of one of the other sons of John Shinn. Descendants of others of the children of John Shinn are known to have intermarried with the Gaskill family: Jane, daughter of John Jr. married Jonathan Gaskill, son of Josiah, and Samuel Shinn, grandson of John Jr. married Provided Gaskill.