Ruth Gordon married neighbor Abraham Anderson in 1763 after the death of 1st husband, John Gordon.

d/o Samuel & Elizabeth Emerson Andrews.

On Find A Grave.

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Birth: unknown
Virginia, USA
Death: 1778

Ruth Gordon married neighbor Abraham Anderson in 1763 after the death of 1st husband, John Gordon.

Family links:
Spouse:
John Gordon (1710 - 1756)

Children:
Thomas Gordon (1733 - 1808)*
John Gordon (1736 - 1772)*
Benjamin Gordon (1738 - ____)*
Ruth Gordon Brown (1740 - 1810)*
William Gordon (1742 - 1782)*
Govin Gordon (1747 - 1814)*
George Gordon (1752 - 1832)*

*Calculated relationship

Burial:
Gordon
Maybinton
Newberry County
South Carolina, USA

Created by: Robert Abney
Record added: Sep 22, 2014
Find A Grave Memorial# 136249028

On Ancestry from kkeeshan.

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John & Ruth Gordon move to SC from VA in 1749, receiving a Royal Land Grant from King
George Il of 460 ac. on the Collins/Enoree River at Avery's Ford in Newberry & Union Counties.

They brought a family of six sons and one daughter:
1)Thomas, 2)John, 3) Benjamin, 4) Ruth, 5) William, 6) Govin, 7) George. All six sons were in the
Rev. War. Thomas a Major. Three were in the Cherokee War under Col. John Chevillette.

Builders of the Gordon Fort on the Union Co. side of the Enoree River at the current day
county line @old Avery's Ford. this was adjacent to the Gordon Cemetery location.

http://www.northamericanforts.com/East/sc-north.html#new

Also builders of the bridge over the Tyger River that is still named Gordon's Bridge, CR
36/Tuckertown Rd.

Almost all of the descendants of John & Ruth Gordon connected via Find-a-Grave were taken
from "Gordon's of the Deep South" book by Ermimie Northcutt Marshall and her many
contacts. Robert

From Find A Grave on Ancestry by scuppy1.

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John & Ruth Gordon move to SC from VA in 1749, receiving a Royal Land Grant from King George Il of 460 ac. on the Collins/Enoree River at Avery's Ford in Newberry & Union Counties.

They brought a family of six sons and one daughter:
1)Thomas, 2)John, 3) Benjamin, 4) Ruth, 5) William, 6) Govin, 7) George. All six sons were in the Rev. War. Thomas a Major. Three were in the Cherokee War under Col. John Chevillette.

Builders of the Gordon Fort on the Union Co. side of the Enoree River at the current day county line @old Avery's Ford. this was adjacent to the Gordon Cemetery location.

http://www.northamericanforts.com/East/sc-north.html#new

Also builders of the bridge over the Tyger River that is still named Gordon's Bridge, CR 36/Tuckertown Rd.

Almost all of the descendants of John & Ruth Gordon connected via Find-a-Grave were taken from "Gordon's of the Deep South" book by Ermimie Northcutt Marshall and her many contacts. Robert

From Find A Grave on Ancestry by scuppy1.

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His First wife was Susannah Burger, she is also buried here.
2nd Husband of Ruth Andrews Gordon. Buried beside her in a sunken unmarked grave. His daughter by his 1st wife is Elizabeth Anderson Gordon. She is the wife of Thomas Gordon. They are also buried in this Cemetery.
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Abraham Anderson was of a g-grandparent Friesland, Netherlands heritage, but his grandparents Andries & Celitje had migrated from Amsterdam to Pearl St., Manhattan, (New Amsterdam Colony/NYC) it's thought around 1650, or possibly just a little earlier. Abraham's parents had come to the New Jersey Territory originally under the English control of the Duke of York King Charles II of England, who gifted the Jersies to his brother King James II the Scottish Duke of Alba, hence the area was titled for a while as "Albania' before later Proprietors relabeled the territory East & West Jersey.

Abraham's parents had begun residency in Elizabethtown, NJ, where it's believed Abraham was born. He learned the trade of blacksmith as his occupation. And he likely married perhaps in Elizabethtown, Essex County, NJ, or in Hopewell / Maidenhead, Hunterdon County, NJ (West Jersey) where his parents & grandparents had initially lived. Although no record has been found of his marriage, nor is it known of any fact toward his first wife's name. It is gathered he was believed to possibly have been associating with a local Quaker Congregation of Friends in Hopewell,--- although his Uncle Enoch Andriesz / Anderson had established The First Presbyterian Church in Hopewell. It is known that some of Abraham's 1st cousins were marrying Quaker women who at times seemed to be patroning the Presbyterian congregations due to lack of Quaker meeting houses available in the area. Since it appears in Hopewell, Abraham identified on one occasion as being a Quaker himself, this designation may have been due to him having married a Quaker female. But that is merely assumption and is totally unknown as any fact. There are clues from his family's earlier neighbors that the mysterious wife's patronymic may have been: Thomson/Thompson, Hendricksen, Hunt, or Briant/Bryant. In trying to research the facts, Abraham's marriage may have been recorded in some of the now lost Quaker Meeting Minutes of the area, or alternatively it may also be amid long lost or burned Presbyterian Church records either in Hopewell, or in nearby (Bucks County) Whitemarsh, Pennsylvania. In Whitemarsh was a Quarterly Quaker Meeting site, where some of the Anderson family members were known to be traveling frequently for religious reasons, while others were traveling to the Presbyterian Churches there. Eventually Enoch Anderson's grandchildren did move to that Whitemarsh, PA (son of Enoch Jr.--Willem Anderson) area to reside before they moved later to Tennessee. Enoch's sibling Cornelis's grand-children --Cornelis Anderson III, and Enoch's kinsmen (via his bro. Joshua as being Abraham Anderson's group) ended up in the Carolinas, but later also resided in Tennessee.

Abraham's occupation in blacksmithing in Trenton and Hopewell/Hunterdon Co., New Jersey..... in itself does weld a colorful history. He had one focal involvement event of historical interest that was related in a New Jersey Historical Research Article first distributed by its author in 1975. Some of other additional research details worth digesting are also given amid this a different account written in 2018 by Robert J. Pipes regarding his own relative-John Pipes' involvement titled as: "Counterfeiting in Morris County, New Jersey".

Here is an excerpt from the 2018 info.:
The counterfeiting story in colonial America has been told in various places. This subject appears in several local history books and at least one book has been published devoted entirely to the subject. Much of the counterfeiting activity was reported in the New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania Colonies from 1730 to 1770, although it occurred in almost all of the colonies at one time or another before the Revolution.

Most of the written accounts focus on the general political situation at the time and the feeble attempts of the Colonial government to control or stop the perpetrators. Counterfeiting was a rampant criminal activity during those years, so what were the motives of the people involved? We try to explain why anything as serious as this was allowed to continue and why men of high regard in the community were involved. In general, the English King's government and the men who held positions of authority in the Colonies for the King regarded counterfeiting as a serious crime, and the penalty proscribed in the law was death. However, there seems to have been no match between the law and the punishments meted out. The Colonists themselves seem to have regarded the crime as less than serious, which may not seem so strange when you consider the times. The people appointed to manage the Justice System seem to have been very sensitive to taking actions that might further antagonize the citizens to even higher levels of dislike for the English King's rule.

Most citizens at that time conducted their business with others using the Barter System, as the goods and excess produce they were able to secure from their farms were their only source of income. Working for pay was not the usual way of providing income. In addition, the King of England's Government prohibited the Colonies from producing their own money at a time when the English currency in circulation in the Colonies was in very short supply. This supply problem led to the eventual wide spread use of coins supplied by the Spanish government and produced in South America, which came to be know as "Pieces of Eight" or "Spanish Dollars". The early issues of the coins used in the colonies were of generally poor quality and were manufactured in a manner which was easy to reproduce for anyone familiar with metal working. It required a metal slug or molten metal, a hand made die or mold, a hammer and a little larceny in the heart. The persons making the phony coins were sometimes referred to as "Coiners" or "Coyners" in the Olde English spelling observed on the Court records.

All of these circumstances led many Colonists to view the money as "not worth much anyway", "not reliable" and with much disregard. To make matters worse, many Colonies started producing their own paper script which supposedly represented the metal coins used as backing or collateral, similar to our early use of "greenbacks" backed by gold and silver. These paper scripts were often not honored outside of the colony which produced them, nor even honored by every person or place of business in that same colony, leading to their lack of portability and exchange and to a general lack of regard for them. Another factor was the general lack of attention to fiscal matters by the government appointees, who often looked to England for direction and when it was not forthcoming, they elected to do nothing. Combining this lack of action with the general attitude of rancor between the appointed governors and the local elected assemblies and you end up with a situation that seemed to foster the lack of regard for local authority. The scripts also added a new twist because more people could acquire paper, ink and the plates needed to facilitate printing and copying and it didn't even require the ability to read or write. The crime of counterfeiting was usually committed by two different levels of society. The most skillful and persistent perpetrators were small "gangs" of men who moved about and had only a limited ability to produce copies of the paper scripts, but a persistence which made it profitable enough to take the risks involved. They seemed to be the type of men who typically committed petty crimes and misdemeanors and were usually in and out of the clutches of the local Sheriffs and Constables for one thing or another anyway. They probably regarded this crime as another "easy mark". They moved about and were very fluid and crafty in their ability to recruit locals to get involved and would strike quickly and then move on.

The second group of perpetrators for whom we hold focus are harder to understand as they were typically the type of men who were arrested with John Pipes Sr. These were men of some substance; family men, landowners, church members and small business owners, all of them upstanding members of the community. Some writers and family historians have tried to write this activity off as somehow being simply rebellion against the King and activity that typically led to the rebellion. But there may have been other factors involved . Whatever the motives were, it is for certain that John Pipes Sr., Abraham Hathaway, Job Allen and several others were involved in counterfeiting in the mid to late 1740's. They were discovered, indicted and arrested in 1748.

The Sheriff at the time, a man named Caleb Fairchild, allowed these men to escape, perhaps with a "wink". They were later tried before a King's Court, given somewhat lenient sentences and released. They were later indicted again and made to appear for the escape from jail and made to post bonds and forfeit small fines. These second indictments and court appearances were held as late as 1752 and were apparently driven by Judge Robert Hunter Morris who had vowed to bring a halt to the counterfeiting.

It is from the information of this Pipes research that we were led to learn of Abraham Anderson's involvement. From the initial article "Colonial & Revolutionary Morris County" by Dr. Theodore Thayer Pub. by: The Morris County Heritage Commission - 1975, Printed by: Compton Press Inc., Morristown, New Jersey.

The excerpt:
"When counterfeiting was rampant in Morris County, New Jersey it was difficult to convict the perpetrators. Many of the counterfeiters were popular young men with many influential relatives and friends. Furthermore, many of the inhabitants did not look upon the crime as inimical to their interests; rather, they viewed the actions of the counterfeiters as clever and smart. In fact, to perhaps the great majority, the counterfeiters were popular heroes. They did not perceive the great harm which this form of lawbreaking could cause to a community. As early as 1744, there were several indictments against counterfeiters for altering paper money, but no arrests appear to have been made. Then in 1747, a whole ring of counterfeiters and passers of counterfeit bills were arrested and jailed. The number and good station in life of most of the men reveal the prevailing disposition toward counterfeiting. The names of the arrested were: Timothy Conner, Seth Hall, Jonathan Hathaway, John Pipes, Job Allen, Andrew Morrison, Abraham Southerd, Samuel Blackford, Sylvanus Totten, and David Brant (neighbor of Abraham's father-Judge Joshua Anderson), all of Morristown, New Jersey. In addition there were Abraham Hathaway, Jacobus Vanetta, "John McNeal", Joshua Robins, "Abraham Anderson" , Robert Livingston, Court Timery, and Isaac Woortman. Through the laxity of Sheriff Caleb Fairchild, all the prisoners "broke jail" due the aid in the middle of the night by an angry mob of friends--- and thus all these men escaped to the homes of friends and relatives.
(later one of Abraham's daughters in South Carolina would marry the son of John McNeal/O'Neil).

Governor Jonathan Belcher and his Council agreed that counterfeiters could not be convicted in Morris County and proposed that henceforth they be removed from the county for trial. The Assembly, however, disagreed, and the proposal was dropped. Chief Justice Robert Hunter Morris wanted Sheriff Fairchild prosecuted for allowing the prisoners to escape but no action was taken. It was not until the Court of Oyer and Terminer was established in Morris County in 1750, with Chief Justice Nevill presiding, that some of the counterfeiters were again arrested and brought to trial. David Brant was found guilty, fined £25, jailed for three months, and put on good behavior for seven years. Ebenezer David was fined £5, ordered to stand in the pillory one hour, jailed for six months, and put on good behavior for nine years. Jeremiah Wright received a fine of £10 for assisting the counterfeiters and was put on good behavior for seven years. Finally, Peter Salter was fined twenty shillings and put on good behavior for two years for counterfeiting pieces of eight. These sentences were light; after all, the law prescribed the death penalty for counterfeiters. It was not until 1752 that the county had another session of the Oyer and Terminer Court. This time nine persons were charged with assisting counterfeiters. The culprits, almost all of whom had been indicted in 1747, were Abraham Hathaway, Jonathan Hathaway, Job Allen, Andrew Morrison, John Pipes, Timothy Comer, Sylvanus Totten, Seth Hall, and Samuel Blackford. The Court, perhaps for lack of evidence, decided not to try the men at the time. They were all released in their own recognizance and ordered to appear at the next court. When it met again in September 1753, the men simply were given small fines on charges of misdemeanor and dismissed. Although the punishments handed down by the Court in 1750 and 1753 were light, the actions of the Court were such that counterfeiting did not again appear in Morris County for nearly twenty years."

It is expressed that one Abraham's family's marital kinsman, Hezekiah Bonham Jr., turned him into the authorities to collect a reward, but no proof has been found to support that tale.

You will notice our Abraham Anderson was not mentioned again after the jail break. It was because he'd fled the State with his wife and children (at least 6 sons) to go live with his 1st cousin and Quaker Bartholomew Anderson and wife Phoebe Chapman Anderson at a Quaker Settlement on Opequon Creek in Old Frederick County, Virginia.

Here in this settlement, Abraham's Unknown wife seems to have died perhaps in childbirth of the youngest son Jacob. To his woeful chagrin, Abraham fell upon hard times in trying both to earn a living and to care for his large household of children without a wife. An Old Frederick Co. Court record reveals what next happened. A local Presby. Church Parish was asked to aid in finding apprenticeships for Abraham's sons with tradesmen in the county to learn a trade. But it was not long afterward somewhere around 1750, Abraham gathered together his sons back to his arms and the brood of them along with other of their kinsmen and Quakers all moved with a large wagon train to Salisbury, Rowan Co., North Carolina and later to move further to what was known as the Jersey Settlement where Joshua Anderson Sr's brother Cornelis Anderson had son Bartholomew and with Bartholomew's nephew Cornelis Anderson III recorded there in the Rowan Co. Jersey Settlement. From there it is seen, Abraham Anderson soon went even further across the border to South Carolina with some of his kinsman, as that state at that time was granting free land grants. Abraham arrived to a place titled Indian Creek, Old 96 District. He applied for a land grant on March 29, 1754 for 600 acres where he got 100 acres for himself as Head of Household, and then allowed 50 acres for each member of his household. His known ch. names are: Joshua, Dr. Abel, Levi, Gabriel Sr., Abraham Jr., Henry, Jacob, & Rebecca. There may be two missing daughters.

In Old 96 District, Berkley County, South Carolina, Abraham was initially in charge as Commander of Fort Henry in the wilderness where the settlement families had to go for a while for protection from Native American attacks. The Fort period is when Abraham married his next wife---Ruth Gordon, the widow of Rev. John Gordon. Abraham was known in the area as a back woods country Doctor and also a Tax Collector in "Old 96 District" that became Newberry County. He died in 1764, and his passing was registered in the St. Philips Parish Register likely by his Presby. wife Ruth Gordon
and he would have been interred in the Gordon family's cemetery
although today no grave stone exists.

On Find A Grave.

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Home called “Stead Place” in his will.

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