John Allison (1670-1729) likely arrived early in the 1700s with the earliest wave of immigrants from Northern Ireland. He and his family came to Pennsylvania, William Penn's new colony. At the time Pennsylvania had only three counties; Philadelphia county at the head of the Chesapeake, Bucks county bordering on New Jersey and southern Chester county. John Allison is recorded in Chester County.
John Allison likely sailed with his family as did most settlers to the Americas bringing his wife, Jannet, and his sons and daughters. We find no record of their landing. People of this era coming from English colonies were not considered foreigners to America. Germans, French and everyone else was documented when they landed in the American colonies.
Many traveling to the new world came as indentured servants with a contract to fulfill, trading years of work for passage to the Americas. John appears to have arrived with resources, evidenced by his will which shows that when he dies 5-20 years later he is in possession of land, livestock, money and goods.
We think John settled with his family in Donegal Township on the eastern side of the Susquehanna river. Donegal Township was home to East Donegal Presbyterian church. The churches’ minister, Reverend James Anderson, is named in John 1’s will as a man John trusts to take care that his family’s “debates or differences be amicably taken away (by) the Rev Mr James Anderson, minister of the gospel in this place.”
It seems clear that John Allison migrated with his Presbyterian faith intact. Back in Ulster our John 1 may have been a ruling elder in the Presbyterian Church according to an entry in Authentic History of Donegal Presbyterian Church. John Allison (whom we believe to be John 1’s son) appears on the deed of the land-grant for site of the East Donegal Presbyterian Church in Pennsylvania.
New, American Presbyterian church congregations preferred hiring preachers schooled in Scotland according to Zeigler’s, Authentic History of Donegal Presbyterian Church Located in East Donegal Twonship, Lancaster Co PA. Imagine Rev Anderson preaching to his flock with a Scotch accent… while many of his congregation spoke the same English with an Ulster twang. Church was the unifying force in this community.
Whole congregations fled Ulster and Scotland to Penn’s colony. While established as a Quaker colony, William Penn kept an open door policy encouraging other religious refugees to settle in his colony. Germans and Scots came. William Penn purchased lands from the Indians and had the unusual history of never breaking a treaty with the native people. Settlements along the Susquehanna remained on the east side of the river until newly purchased lands opened the door to the west around 1768.
Our reading of his will tells us that John 1 was even handed, paternal and kind. On his deathbed he gives his beloved wife Jannet the care of his two sons. He also gives her his own riding horse and Shifle the cow which he wishes her to have. He metes out his best black suit, the plow and the tack. He assigns the horses to specific family members. He doesn't seem to play favorites and he distributes his things evenly and with care.
He also gives his sons a schedule for clearing the land, digging a well and building "a second dwelling house with floors and chimlie". As with all men of this era, he is ever the patriarch and he assigns his sons a plan and, no doubt, the expectation that they will perform according to his wishes.
John appears to have signed the his Last Testament and Will himself. Eerily, his handwriting is very similar to the signature of our father Lewis Allison. Could the genetics of handwriting be inherited? Sister Stella says, "its possible".
Somehow we Allison sisters have reached back in time 300 years and learned that our 5th great grandfather spoke his wife's Jannet's name with an irish accent, he prayed to a Presbyterian God, he treasured his black suit and owned a cow named "shishe."
From slivers of facts we have a pieced together a portrait of John Allison, yeoman. We are surprised at what is possible.
Authentic History of East Donegal Presbyterian Church
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