PACHESTE-L Archives

From: "Vincent E. Summers" <>
Subject: [PACHESTE] Old Philadelphia Families - RALSTON Part 1
Date: Mon, 18 Aug 2003 14:56:07 -0400

Here is the first of several parts... I am tired of typing for today!
Only the first part or so is going to PACHESTE-L, inasmuch as the
article enters at first into Chester County genealogy, but quickly
deviates to only the portion that meandered into Philadelphia. I type
only what I see, and am not evaluating the material or claiming to
agree with statements made herein!

Vince Summers

Old Philadelphia Families
by Frank Willing Leach
The North American [Newspaper],
Philadelphia,
Sunday, July 7, 1912

THE lure of the cities was as strong a century and more ago as it is
at the present time. The trend toward urban life, on the part of the
suburbanite, is no modern custom. Thus, as in many similar instances,
the Ralstons originally came to Philadelphia from Chester County.
This was early in the Revolutionary period.
The first of the name to settle in the county in question was John
Ralston, who, it is said, was a native of the north of Ireland, and
had, when a young man, according to tradition, been a participant in
the battle of the Boyne, July 12, 1690. Originally the family was of
Scottish origin.
It was in the year of 1728, in the month of August, to be more
precise, that Ralston established himself in Pikeland (afterwards West
Pikeland) township, Chester County, according to local chroniclers.
As a matter of fact, however, in the list of taxables in Chester
County we find the name of John Ralston as then, 1730, of East Caln
township, his tax being £1. The record is the same for 1732, but, in
1737, we find him taxed in Vincent township. In the tax-list for 1739
and 1740 is found the name of John Ralston as paying taxes in both
Vincent and Concord townships. His name appears for the last time in
the tax list of Vincent township for 1749, and it is to be presumed
that his death occurred shortly after that.
The name of his wife is unknown to us, nor is it clear how many
children he had. It is altogether safe to conclude that he had a
number of sons, and possibly one or more daughters. He was certainly
the father of Robert and John Ralston, and very likely of William
Ralston, the latter the father of Robert Ralston, the eminent
Philadelphia merchant, founder of the family in the Quaker City.
John Ralston was probably the eldest son of John Ralston, the
emigrant ancestor, and accompanied his father to America when a youth.
We first encounter his name in the Chester taxables in 1749, when
John Ralston, "single freeman," paid a tax of £9. He was then living
in Vincent township, where he continued to reside until his death,
which occurred between July 29, 1771, and August 26, 1771,
respectively the dates of execution and probate of his will.
In this instrument he mentions his brother, Robert Ralston; the
latter's wife, Elizabeth, to whom the sum of £30 is bequeathed; his
sister, Margaret Fitzsimmons, and two nephews, John and James
Ralston, sons of his brother Robert. The latter is appointed one of
the executors and Aaron Watkin is named as another.
Watkin had probably married a sister of Ralston. Certain
it is he was a brother-in-law of Robert Ralston, as in his will, dated
August 24, 1769, and proved October 1, 1774, Watkin so designated him,
and named him as executor, John Ralston being one of the subscribing
witnesses.
Robert Ralston, the other son of John Ralston, the emigrant ancestor,
was born in the north of Ireland, October 2, 1722, and was a mere lad
when he accompanied his father to America. His name as a Chester
county freeholder appears for the first time in the list of taxables of
Vincent township in 1750, which is about the time of his father's
death. His tax was £4.6.
He seems to have been a prosperous farmer and to have acquired quite
a fortune. He was, moreover, a leading man in his section of
Pennsylvania, one to whom his neighbors frequently went for advice, in
such matters as developed from time to time in the colonial period. He
was evidently a man of affairs, and possessed of business acumen
unusual at that time.
An evidence of his standing in the community is gained from an
examination of the books of the Register of Wills of Chester County,
which show his selection as Executor, etc., in quite a number of
instances. He was a witness to the will of John Evan, alias Jenkin,
July 16, 1760; one of the guardians and assistants in the will of Roger
Martin, June 1, 1770; was executor of Aaron Watkin's will, August 24,
1769; of the will of William Morgan, January 24, 1775; of the will of
William Evans, in 1783; of that of Love Hancock, in 1784; was named as
guardian in the will of Lettice Evans, in 1786, etc., etc.
In those days, when lawyers were practically unknown, the duties of
scrivener and general adviser for the neighborhood generally fell upon
some popular layman possessing unusual common sense, and a readiness
in the use of the pen. This role fell largely to the lot of Robert
Ralston, and after him, to his son, John Ralston.

AIDED THE COLONISTS

During the Revolution, Ralston's sympathies and energies were given
to the popular cause. His position is evidence in the Pennsylvania
Archives and other publications. One instance is illustrative: On
August 13, 1776, he was named by the Chester County Committee as a
member of a Committee "to provide for the distressed families of
Associators when they are in actual service."
He was also appointed a Justice of the Peace, but refused to accept
the post, as we learn from a letter of May 28, 1779, written by Caleb
Davis, to Timothy Matlack, Secretary of the Supreme Executive Council
in Philadelphia.
A further evidence of Robert Ralston's prominence is shown in his
selection, in 1784, as a member of the Assembly. Altogether he served
four terms, having been re-elected in 1785, 1786 and 1787.
His death occurred February 19, 1814, he being then aged ninety-one
years, four months and five days. His wife, Elizabeth, had predeceased
him, dying in December, 1797, aged seventy-five years, two months and
nine days. Both were buried in the burial-ground of St. Peter's
Church, Great Valley, East Whiteland, Chester County.
Robert and Elizabeth Ralston were the parents of John Ralston, who
was born November 4, 1744. Like his father, he was a leader among his
neighbors, and was consulted by them frequently in the adjustment of
their business affairs, particularly in the disposal of their estates.
An early mention of him in this connection is as a witness to the will
of his uncle, Aaron Watkin, August 24, 1769. We find him, later,
executor of the wills of Paul Bernard, in 1778; of John Young, in
1781; of Morris Evans, in 1783; of Love Hancock, in 1784; of Lettice
Evans, in 1786; of Sarah Thomas, 1795, etc.
The above citations demonstrate Ralston's capacity for business
affairs, and also show the confidence entertained by his neighbors
concerning his integrity in the handling of financial matters.
Concerning his activity in this direction a local historian has
written: "All the law transactions of his neighborhood passed in a
manner through his hands."
He was commissioned a Justice of the Peace October 1, 1784, and was
re-commissioned August 26, 1791, under the new law conferring the
power of appointment upon the Governor. He held this post until his
selection, April 7, 1802, by Governor McKean, as an Associate Judge
of the Chester County Court. Judge Ralston continued to occupy his
seat on the bench until his death, September 1, 1825.
At that time he had discharged the functions of the judicial office
for a period of forty-one years, sitting, for the last twenty-three
years of that period, as an Associate Judge.
During the Revolution Judge Ralston had been an active participant
in the struggle for independence. In 1776, when the Associators were
organized in the various counties of Pennsylvania, John Ralston was
commissioned one of the eight captains of the Second Battalion,
commanded by Colonel Thomas Hockley. In the following year, May 17,
1777, he was commissioned Lieutenant Colonel of the Fourth Battalion,
of which William Evans was Colonel. This post, he held throughout
the war.
Futhey and Cope's History of Chester County has this to say of John
Ralston:
When Gen. Washington was about removing his headquarters from
the Yellow Springs to Reading, he sent for Capt. Ralston,
who was then at home on a furlough, putting in his crops, and
engaged him to pilot him part of the way. This Capt. Ralston
did, escorting him as far as the falls of French Creek, when
another guide was pressed into the service, and he returned
home. On one occasion his dwelling was burned by English
Scouts, and he thrice secreted himself in a barn to prevent
being arrested by the enemy.
John Ralston was married -October 31, 1775, was the date of the
license-to Catharine Miller, daughter of John Adam Miller, of Chester
County. Her death occurred March 25, 1816, aged sixty-five years and
thirteen days, she having been born March 12, 1751. Both she and her
husband were buried at St. Peter's, in Chester Valley.
They had five sons, Robert, William, John, James and George, and two
daughters, one of whom, Catharine, became the wife of Samson Davis,
while the other, Mary, married, first, John Bingham, and secondly,
Henry Rimby.
All the sons of Judge Ralston were prominent men, but never having
been identified with Philadelphia, this line will not be carried down
further. It may be stated, however, that one of the sons, Robert
Ralston, was commissioned, a Captain, May 5, 1813, in the
ninety-seventh Regiment, emergency men, during the War of 1812-1814,
while his brother, James Ralston, is suggested, by Futhey and Cope's
History, to have been the first resident of Chester County who
offered his services during the early stages of that war.
Located not far from Philadelphia, in the 18th century, was ???
another well-known Ralston family, but how intimately related to the
Chester County and Philadelphia Ralstons is not known. James Ralston
born in 1699, married Mary McCummuck in Ireland, and came to America
in 1736. They had five children, Mary, John, Samuel, Jean and Lettice.
John Ralston, the elder of the two sons, was an active figure in
Revolutionary history, he having been a delegate from Northampton
County to the Convention of 1776, presided over by Benjamin Franklin.
He married Christianna King, who died December 2, 1826, in the 82nd
year of her age, and, was buried at Brandywine Manor Presbyterian
Church, Chester County.
They had a number of children, Robert, James, Samuel and John; the
last-named a student in Theology, who died October 5, 1804. James
Ralston married Frances Grier, and John Ralston, West Chester, and
Mrs. Edwin P. Baugh, nee Ralston, "Rylstone," Overbrook, are
grandchildren of theirs. Samuel Ralston, another son of John and
Christianna (nee King) Ralston, married Nancy Hay Grier. These were
the parents of the Reverend James Grier Ralston, D.D., LL. D., an
eminent Presbyterian Clergyman, who was born in Nantmeal township,
Chester County, December 28, 1815.
The latter graduated from Washington College in 1838, and from the
Princeton Theological Seminary in 1841. In 1845 he established the
Oakland Female Institute, Norristown, which became one of the most
celebrated of the lesser institutions of learning in America. The
degree of LL. D. was conferred upon him by Lafayette College in
1865, and that of D. D. by Washington and Jefferson College in 1868.
Dr. Ralston died November 10, 1880.
As set forth at the beginning of this article, it is not entirely
clear how many children John Ralston, first of the name in America,
had. John and Robert were certainly his sons, and it may be that
William Ralston was a son of his, also.
As has been shown above, John Ralston's name is found on the list
of taxables for East Caln township in 1730, or two years after his
arrival from the old world. The name of William Ralston first
appears on this list in 1750, as a "single freeman" residing in
East Caln township, the amount of his tax being £9. Seven years
later we also find Robert Ralston on the list of taxables for East
Caln. In other years, however, both previously and subsequently,
Robert Ralston appears as a tax-payer in Vincent township; the
latter having been the father of Captain John Ralston of the
Revolution.

End of Part One (my division).

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• [PACHESTE] Old Philadelphia Families - RALSTON Part 1 by "Vincent E. Summers" <>