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Subject: PROTHERO Family near London Grove?
Date: Mon, 01 Nov 2004 15:00:30 -0500


I discovered some interesting information while studying the 1914 book: "Two-Hundredth Anniversary, London Grove Meeting: 1714-1914" which I'm thinking relates to the PROTHERO family. This took a liitle sleuthing, and included digging into our list archives and other RootsWeb resources.
The book includes an article entitled "The Record of an Early Settler in America," by Emma Taylor Lamborn of Kennett Square. She tells a romantic story about her immigrant ancestors Robert Lamborn and Sarah Swayne, as related by their grandson, Robert Lamborn III in a document written in 1814. To make a long story short, RL3 reports that his grandfather, RL1, came to Pennsylvania in 1713 from England looking for Sarah, who had previously come with her parents. They married and settled a half mile west of London Grove meetinghouse. According to RL3, RL1 "knew" that he himself was the westernmost white inhabitant in America, with one exception [I guess he didn't know about the 1710 Pequea Settlement of Mennonites in what was to become Lancaster County]. The one exception that he allowed was about four miles west of his own land, where there lived a man by the name of PANTHRO, on the land since known and occupied by Joseph Pennock and son Levis.
I'm betting that PANTHRO was really PROTHRO (both are unusual, but PROTHRO can be found in the records, while PANTHRO cannot). In our list archives is the information that an Evan Prothero was on the tax list for Radnor in 1693, and that an Owen Prothoroo "witnessed a deed on 10 July 1690 in Newtown Township" [it's possible that this was really Evan].
Anyhow, another RootsWeb site, that for Lousiana, gives detailed information about Evan Prothero, who was originally from Wales, and originally known as "Evan Prydderch". See: http://ftp.rootsweb.com/pub/usgenweb/la/winn/history/pro601.txt. Here is a short quote from that posting:
"The Prothro family of St. Maurice [Louisiana] were descendants of the Great Lord of Blancuck of West South Wales. The Lord of Blancuck was known as Cadivor, who lived at the old seat of the Prothro family, Dolwilym Castle. There are accounts of several of the Prothro ancestral families living there later, especially the pedigree of James Prydderch, who is 1579 married Frances the Charming.
The last family to live in the castle before it was torn down was that of Evan Prydderch, who requested the name of Prydderch be changed to Protheroe. Thus, through the years, the name of Prothro has undergone many changes-Prytherch, Prydderch, Protheroe, and finally Prothro.
Evan Protheroe, Jr., professing to be a Quaker, was persecuted for his beliefs like other Quakers of that day in Wales and England, and to Evan, escape to America was the only relief.
Evan Protheroe and his wife, Elizabeth Morgan, along with their two sons, John and Lewis, left West South Wales in 1683 and settled in Pennsylvania. Following a yellow fever epidemic, John, the eldest son of Evan and Elizabeth,took his wife and two young children and planned to go back to Wales where they were born. But delayed in waiting for a boat, the family decided to settle permanently in America."
This all leads me to believe that the PANTHRO mentioned by RL1 as residing 4 miles west of London Grove was either Evan PROTHERO or his son John. Yellow fever was prevalent along the waterfront in Philadelphia, but I've never heard of it thriving out "in the country," so the experience with the disease may have prompted the migration to Chester County.
The LDS site has a pedigree of Evan Prydderch and his descendants, and has the added locational information that Dolwilym Castle was in Carmarthenshire, Wales.
I'd be interested in any comments...

Fred Kelso

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