Levin Clark (abt. 1751 - 1834)

Descendants

Contents 1 Biography 1.1 Taxes 1.2 There is Always a War 1.3 Service With Daniel Morgan's Sharpshooters 1.4 Home at Last 2 Sources

Biography

Levin Clark b about 1751

EVENTS

Birth Date of 1751 estimated from records and life events
On 1769 Cedar Creek/Slaughter Neck, Sussex Co DE Tax List
Military March 1775; Recruited for 15th VA Regiment led by Gen. Daniel Morgan
Marriage in Baltimore 100 Sussex Co DE to Esther Aydelott by 1 Jan 1777
Birth of 1st child Levin Clark II b 15 SEP 1777
Birth of 2nd child William Aydelott Clark b 1778
Birth of 3rd child John Clark b 14 JUL 1783
In Orphans Court, petitioning for division of land 3 Aug 1784
Witnessed Will of William Roberts written 20 Dec 1784
Residence 1790 Tax List Baltimore Hundred Sussex County, Delaware
Birth of 4th child Elizabeth Clark b 1793
Birth of 5th child James Clark b 1794
Birth of 6th child Nathaniel Clark 22 DEC 1796
Census 1800 Baltimore Hundred, Sussex, Delaware
Death of Wife 1806 Esther Aydelott, Baltimore Hundred, Sussex Co
Census 1810 Baltimore Hundred, Sussex County, Delaware
Census 7 AUG 1820, Baltimore Hundred, Sussex, Delaware
Census 1830, Baltimore Hundred, Sussex County, Delaware
Death 1834, Baltimore Hundred, Sussex County, Delaware

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Taxes

^[1]We can't escape them. There is no record of his birth. We do not know the exact date of his marriage or the exact date of his death, but we know he paid taxes in 1769!
1769 Tax Roll for Cedar Creek Hundred (Sussex County, Delaware)
Levin Clark, Rate 12; owed 14 schillings

^[2] Before 1775 Baltimore Hundred was claimed as part of Worcester County, Maryland.

^[3] https://pubs.usgs.gov/bul/1245/report.pdf In 1769 Levin lived in that part of Sussex County called Cedar Creek Hundred. This part of Delaware was called "Old Sussex" by early settlers. Before 1683 the part of the hundred lying North of Cedar Creek formed part of Saint Jones County, which became today's Kent County. When the Mispillion River was made the Northern boundary of Sussex County, the Creek Creek Hundred was consolidated into its present boundaries.

Map of the Southerly Delaware Hundreds

There is Always a War

Levin Clark enlisted in the newly formed American Army in March of 1775. From his March-April 1778 payroll slip it appears he answered Captain Daniel Morgan's March 1775 call for men with almost supernatural shooting ability to form his 1st unit, Company Number 10. The American's long flintlock rifles could devastate battlefield chains of command, picking off officers from beyond the range of British muskets.

Flintlock Rifle like those used by Morgan's Sharpshooters.

Morgan's Riflemen (nicknamed "Morgan's Sharpshooters") soon earned a reputation for lethal accuracy and attracted the attention of George Washington himself.

^[4]We've asked ourselves many times over the years why Levin Clark didn't serve in Delaware's Military? Levin lived in Sussex County where it's been estimated that from half to four-fifths of the people were loyalists, so, if not absolutely committed to the King and the idea of Monarchy at least were cool to the idea of an armed revolt. Looking at the number of broken friendships and even family quarrels that have happened in our own lives in the past 10 years due to political differences, try to put yourself in the shoes of a family who believed that Monarchy provided the safest path forward in 1775. Both you and your neighbour are in a constant state of anxiety. All around you your neighbours' anger at the King's demands has reached the boiling point. The heavy burden of taxation is a millstone around every neck, and the fear that the King's soldiers might burst in and ransack your home, or arrest and imprison you without cause, causes a state of constant anxiety. For the people of Sussex County, it was a time of confusion and fear. 

^[5]In June of 1775 the people of western Sussex County met to discuss the possibility of forming a fourth County at Broad Creek, Head of the Indian River. The new County would have been formed from land belonging to the Penn family. A committee sent a copy of the proceedings to a Pennsylvania newspaper and explained that Delaware hadn't raised a militia for the War effort was not due to a lack of patriotism but because they needed to settle some boundary difficulties first. Now that the boundary dispute was settled they would be raising a Militia to join the War effort. Delaware did get a regiment  together, at the request of Congress, in January 1776.

^[6]

Service With Daniel Morgan's Sharpshooters

Levin Clark enlisted in the newly formed American Army in March of 1775. From his March-April 1778 payroll slip it appears he answered Captain Daniel Morgan's March 1775 call for men with almost supernatural shooting ability to form his 1st unit, Company Number 10. The American's long flintlock rifles could devastate battlefield chains of command, picking off officers from beyond the range of British muskets.

Flintlock Rifle like those used by Morgan's Sharpshooters.

Morgan's Riflemen (nicknamed "Morgan's Sharpshooters") soon earned a reputation for lethal accuracy and attracted the attention of George Washington himself.

During the Battle of Quebec, launched on December 31, 1775, Morgan and his men were trapped inside the City and taken prisoner. Daniel Morgan refused to surrender his weapon to a British soldier, finally handing it instead to a Catholic priest. Along with nearly 400 others, Morgan was taken prisoner, languishing in captivity before finally being freed in an exchange in January 1777.

In spite of missing more than a year of the war, Daniel Morgan re-entered the conflict without even breaking stride. He created a new regiment, the 11th Virginia. Losing no time, the energetic Morgan swiftly recruited 400 men. Each new rifleman was supposedly tested by being asked to fire at a picture of a British officer from 100 yards; if he hit the picture with his first shot, Morgan signed him up.

Winter at Valley Forge

Our first surviving military records of Levin Clark are pay slips from the notorious winter of 1778 at Valley Forge that Morgan's unit spent with Washington's Troupes, when he was sick and at time in the Valley Forge Hospital.

Levin Clark Revolutionary Records -
^[7]The first roster we have for him is dated November 12, 1777. Private Levin Clark can be found in the first row, listed as number 10. He is noted as enrolled for the duration of the war. What was Morgan's 11th Regiment was folded into the 15th Regiment, on the 20th of July. Levin's 1st surviving payslip for the 15th Virginia Regiment is dated July-August 7, 1777.

^[8]

I also have copies of both the monthly muster rolls and payslips which show Levin as a private enlisted for the duration of the war.
Comments on Levin Clark's Payslips include:

Jan 1778 - On guard, pay rate L 6 2/3;
Feb 1778 - Camp Valley Forge
March 1778 - Valley Forge Sick
March 7 - April 7 1778 - Valley Forge Sick - Has been enlisted for three years.
April - May 7 - Valley Forge Sick
May - June 7 - Valley Forge Sick
June - July 13 - (Camp Paramis) Sick - Yellow Springs Hospital [Valley Forge hospital]
Aug 1 - Sept 1 White Plains (NY)
Sept - Oct 28 - Newark
Oct - Nov 6 - Pompton Plains
Nov - Dec 1 - Middle Brook
Dec 2 - Jan 13 - Middle Brook, on furlough
Jan - Feb 3 1779 - Middle Brook, on furlough
March 1779 - April - Middle Brook
April - May 5 Middle Brook - on guard
May - June 11 - Camp Smith's
June - July 1
July - Aug 3 - Ranapough on com (?)
Sept - Oct 1 Ramapough
Oct - Nov - Haverstraw
Dec 1779 - Camp near Morristown (New Jersey)

^[9]

Sept 1777 Muster Roll Capt Samuel Booker's Co, Gen Daniel Morgan Commander

History of 11th Virginia Regiment:

^[10] The 11th Virginia Regiment was a Continental Army regiment that fought in the American Revolutionary War. Authorized by the Second Continental Congress on 16 September 1776, it was organized on 3 February 1777 and consisted of four companies from the Virginia counties of Loudoun, Frederick, Prince William, and Amelia; Captain Daniel Morgan's Independent Rifle Company from Fauquier County; and five companies from the state's portion of the Maryland and Virginia Rifle Regiment. (Sussex County had only legally been separated from Somerset County in 1775 and was still often considered part of Maryland.)

The regiment saw action at the Battle of Brandywine, Battle of Germantown, and the Battle of Monmouth. The unit was reassigned to the 2nd Virginia Brigade on 22 July 1778, and it was reorganized to nine companies and redesignated as the 7th Virginia Regiment on 12 May 1779. It was relieved from the 2nd Virginia Brigade on 4 December 1779 and assigned to the Southern Department. The unit was captured on 12 May 1780 at the Siege of Charleston and subsequently disbanded on 1 January 1781.

Home at Last

^[11] Home in 1800 Baltimore Hundred, Sussex, Delaware
Name: Levin Clark
FWM - Under 10: 1
FWM -10 thru 15: 1
FWM - 16 thru 25: 2
FWM - 26 thru 44: 1 - i.e. born between 1756 and 1774
FWF - Under 10: 1
FWF - 26 thru 44: 1 i.e. born between 1756 and 1774

Esther Aydelott Clark died in 1806, leaving her husband Levin Clark, sons Nathaniel, (age 10), Levin Jr (29), William Aydelott (28) John (23) James (12) and daughter Elizabeth (age 13)

^[12] Name: Levin Clark
Residence Date: 6 Aug 1810
Residence Place: Indian River, Sussex, Delaware
FWM - 16 thru 25: 1 - born between 1785 and 1794
FWM - 45 and over: 1 - born since 1765
FWF - 26 thru 44: 1- born between 1766 and 1784

^[13] Home in 1820: Baltimore Hundred, Sussex, Delaware
Enumeration Date: August 7, 1820
Name: Levin Clark
FWM - Under 10: 1
FWM - 16 thru 25: 1 - born between 1795 and 1804
FWM - 45 and over: 1 - born since 1775
FWF - Under 10: 1
FWF - 16 thru 25: 1 - born between 1795 and 1804
FWF - 26 thru 44: 1 - born between 1776 and 1794

Looking at the 1830 census for Levin's HH we see that he is the male 70-79. This places his birth between 1751 and 1760, almost certainly toward the earlier date, as he paid taxes in 1769 and married in 1775.

^[14] Home in 1830: Baltimore, Sussex, Delaware
Name: Levin Clark
FWM - 30 thru 39: 1
FWM - 70 thru 79: 1
FWF - 10 thru 14: 1
FWF - 20 thru 29: 1
FWF - 30 thru 39: 1

Levin Clark married Esther Aydelott about 1775 in the Baltimore 100, Sussex Co. Delaware. Esther was the daughter of William Aydelott and Ann Mary Melson. William died intestate, which has left us with a file of juicy documents outlining the Clark and Aydelott family relationships.

Orphans Court, Sussex Co.
Book D, p 334, Aug 3, 1784 See Book F pg 1
Petition for division of land of William Aydelott, deceased, by Levin Clark

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William Aydelott, deceased, Report on dower and division of his land, Orphans Court, Lewes
Come into Court, Levin Clark and preferred a petition setting forth that a certain William Aydelott, late of the county aforesaid was in his lifetime seized of certain lands and tenements, situate in Baltimore Hundred in the county aforesaid and being so seized after died intestate, leaving Ann Mary Aydelott, his widow, and issue four children namely, ( Mary- crossed through), Esther, your petitioners wife, Mary, Susy (Susannah) and Elizabeth, to whom the said lands descended and came. 
Therefore the petitioner prayed the court to appoint five Freeholders to enter on the said lands and lay of the widow her right of dower and make petition of the remaining two thirds among the heirs and legal representatives of the said deceased, if it will admit of the same pursuant to law.
Levin Derickson, Esq. Israel Holland, William Lockwood, Nehemiah Howard and Scarborough Tunnel, were appointed. 
To the Worshipful Court of Orphans held at Lewes, be it remembered that the subscriber, by the advice of his associates mentioned within the recited order of Court, has aforesaid draught of a tract of land out of the large tract called "Joined Meadows"  263 acres on the south side of Indian River in Baltimore Hundred, late the property of William Aydelott, deceased of the county of Sussex Del which parcel or tract of land was left to the said Wm. Aydelott by his father John Aydelott,..... follows description... to a line dividing between the said William Aydelott and his brother John Aydelott..

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  Orphans Court, Book D pg 1                                                           Page 2
Petition for divistion (sic)
of William Aydelott's land, continued
  thence running south................ description ............. being the dividing line, between aforesaid Aydelott and George Howard, two hundred fifty poles, etc....... follows full description of all the divisions of land, but contains no additional information about family lines.....
------------------ The will of John Aydelott, father of the aforesaid William Aydelott, deceased, mentioned giving to his son William Aydelott 258 acres, but given the lines, their courses and distances, contains 265 acres, according to this division ( a plot was drawn on the same page). 

Widow's dower, 71 acres, with one third of house and orchard
C. Esther's lot, now intermarried with Levin Clark, 50 acres.
M. Mary's lot, now intermarried with Lazurus Mattox, 52 acres.
D. Elizabeth's lot, 41 acres
S. Susannah's lot, 56 acres
  Signed
Levin Derickson
Israel Holland
Nehemiah Howard
Scarborough Tunnell
William Lockwood

Source via Nancy Lockwood Merrill,
FHL #1033908 Aydelott Family Records 

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Wm Aydelott - Sussex Co DE Orphan's Court
Sx Co Orphans Court Vol D & E 
  Vol. D, p. 120
Came into court George Mitchell and made known that William Aydelott did not in his life dispose of the guardianship of his daughter Susannah a minor under age fourteen....George Mitchell appointed her Guardian.
 Vol. D, p. 247
Came into court George Mitchell and made known that William Aydelott did not in his life dispose of the guardianship of his daughter Elizabeth Dagworthy Aydelott a minor under fourteen years of age.....Appointed said George Mitchell as Guardian.

 Vol. D, p. 335
3 Aug 1784 The Petition of Levin Clark of the County afs.d Humbly sheweth that William Aydelott late of the county afs.d Yeoman was in his lifetime seized and possessed of certain Lands & Tenements situate in Baltimore Hundred in the county afs.d and being so seized and possessed afterwards died intestate leaving Ann Mary his widow and issue four daughters, namely Esther (your petitioner wife) Mary, Susy & Elizabeth to whom the said Lands descended and came.....
  Vol. E, pp. 1, 2 
11 Oct 1784
Report of the Division of Land for William Aydelott's heirs. Describes the acres as it is divided to the girls and mentions that John (Aydelott) willed to son William 258 ac and it actually worked out to be 263 ac. after the survey. 

Courtesy Nancy Lockwood Merrill 
Thanks Nancy! 

In 1980, the late Wanda Lee Clark, (->Henry Calvin Clark Jr b 1895- > Henry Calvin Sr. b 1860 -> Levin Larkin Clark b 1811 ->Levin Clark II b 1777 ->Levin Clark b 1750 of Clarksville Delaware) found a family history (written on lined school paper in pencil) among her late father's effects in the attic. Not in Henry Calvin Clark Jr's handwriting, or in Henry Calvin Clark Sr's. hand, it appears to have been copied out of the family Bible by Henry Calvin Clark's brother Chauncy Levin Clark, eldest son of Levin Larkin. A panel of paper experts at a genealogical conference in Seattle in 1994 said it was school paper from 1910-1920. It could be that Uncle Chauncy copied the births and deaths from the family Bible for Henry after their mother Martha Jeanette Kast Clark's death in 1915. It reads:

"Levin Clark was born and raised in England. He and his three brothers, wife and six children settled in Clarksville, Delaware (named for him). He and one of his sons were soldiers under General George Washington. Levin II was born in Clarksville, Delaware September 15, 1777. He was a soldier under General Harrison. Levin L. Clark was born May 4, 1811. He was a soldier under General Scott and was held captive in the City of Mexico. H.C. Clark was born September 7, 1860 in Sherman, Grayson County Texas."

Research has shown that "Patriot" Levin Clark b circa 1750 was born in Colonial America. There is no evidence of the three brothers, and his wife's family (the Aydelotts) had been in the Colonies since the 1680s. All of their children were born in Baltimore 100, Sussex Co Delaware. Clarksville Delaware did not exist until the 1890s, though the Clarks lived near Millsboro, a short distance of where Clarksville would eventually be established, and there is a close family tie between the Nanticoke Indian Charlie Clark who established Clarksville Delaware and our Levin Clark.

So far we have not found any Clark Y-DNA matches, but we do have exact 37 marker matches with two individuals, one a Norwegian who emigrated to the USA in the 1960s and a second Norwegian who emigated to the USA in the early 1900s. Autosomal testing of about a dozen direct descendants of Levin Sr. indicates he had Norwegian and Native American ancestry. This leads us to believe there may be a genetic link to an early Sanders Clark who served as a crewman for two voyages of the Kalmar Nyckle, which brought the earliest Scandanavian colonists to Delaware in 1638 and 1640. Sanders Clark died in Delaware in 1640 leaving a widow in Stockholm, but perhaps he contributed to the population of the New World before he died.

Clark descendants also share genetic matches with descendants of the Swedish, Finnish and Norwegian settlers brought to the Colony of New Sweden in the 1630s and 1640s.

From wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalmar_Nyckel
The Kalmar Nyckel was constructed in about 1625 and was of a design called a pinnace. When Sweden decided to establish a trading colony in the New World under the direction of Peter Minuit, the Kalmar Nyckel was chosen for the voyage. A smaller vessel, the Fogel Grip (Griffin Bird), accompanied her. The ships sailed from Gothenburg in December 1637, commanded by Jan Hindriksen van der Water, but encountered a severe storm in the North Sea and had to divert to the Netherlands for repairs. They departed on New Year's Day 1638, arriving in North America in March 1638. A second voyage, which departed on February 7, 1640, and arrived at Fort Christina on April 17, brought additional settlers for New Sweden. One of them was Reorus Torkillus, the first Lutheran clergyman in New Sweden. The Kalmar Nyckel made four successive round trips from Sweden, a record unchallenged by any other colonial vessel.

Sources

1. ↑ Levy Court, Sussex country, Proceedings/Minutes/Annual Tax Lists 1769 – 1793 roll #1 RG4200.007
2. ↑ Baltimore Hundred: political subdivision, Sussex County; 38°30' N, 75°08' W. (map 55).
3. ↑ Delaware Place Names, United States Department of the Interior Geological Survey, Geological Survey 1245; by LW Heck, AJ Wraight, DJ Orth, JR Carter, LG Van Winkle and Janet Hazen; US Government Printing Office Washington: 1966; US Dept of the Interior Stewart L Udall, Secretary; Geological Survey William T Pecora, Director
4. ↑ Carter, Dick; (1976) The History of Sussex County; Delaware Coast Press;
5. ↑ Hancock, Harold. B. (1976): The History of Sussex County, Delaware
6. ↑ Records of the Revolutionary War: containing the military and financial correspondence of distinguished officers; names of the officers and privates of regiments, companies, and corps, with the dates of their commissions and enlistments; general orders of Washington, Lee, and Greene, at Germantown and Valley Forge; with a list of distinguished prisoners of war; the time of their capture, exchange, etc. To which is added the half-pay acts of the Continental congress; the revolutionary pension laws; and a list of the officers of the Continental army who acquired the right to half-pay, commutation, and lands.
   Author: Saffell, W. T. R. (William Thomas Roberts), 1820-1891
   Author: Greene, Nathanael, 1742-1786
   Author: Lee, Charles, 1731-1782
   Author: Washington, George, 1732-1799
   Author: United States. Continental Congress
   Note: New York, Pudney & Russell, 1858
7. ↑ Levin Clark Revolutionary Records; Source: US Revolutionary War Rolls 1775-1783 110-Virginia (Jacket 282-302) page 87-120 "United States Revolutionary War Rolls, 1775-1783," Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1980).
8. ↑ Officers and Privates of the Revolutionary War, Records of the Revolutionary War; by William Thomas Saffrell; page 265: 11th and 15th Virginia Regiments Under Colonel Daniel Morgan. Company No 10 as it stood November 30, 1778.
9. ↑ George Washington and the American Revolution by Burke Davis; 497 pages; Random House Inc (T); 1st ed edition (November 1975) ISBN: 0394463889
10. ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/11th_Virginia_Regiment
11. ↑ 1800 Census: Baltimore Hundred, Sussex, Delaware; Series: M32; Roll: 4; Page: 393; Image: 209; FHL Film# 6413
12. ↑ 1810; Census: Baltimore, Dagsboro, Indian River, Lewis, Rehoboth, and Broadkill, Sussex, Delaware; Roll: 4; Page: 449; Image: 00238; FHL Film# 0224381
13. ↑ 1820 U S Census; Census Place: Baltimore Hundred, Sussex, Delaware; Page: 270; NARA Roll: M33_4; Image: 247
14. ↑ 1830 Federal Census: Baltimore, Sussex, Delaware; Series: M19; Roll: 13; Page: 67; FHL Film# 0006415

Acknowledgements:
Many thanks to Tina Fleming and sister Lisa who visited Sussex Co. Delaware Archives and recorded many Clark sources first-hand.