Nathaniel Walton
Sex: M
Individual Information
Birth Date: Apx 1690 - Byberry Twp, Philadelphia Co., Pa Christening: Death: 1747-1756 Burial: Cause of Death:
Parents
Father: Nathaniel Walton (Abt 1656-1733) Mother: Martha Bowling (Abt 1663-1741)
Notes
General:
The following, slightly reformatted to improve readability, is from Byberry Waltons (Norman Walton Swayne, 1958), pg 15:
8 NATHANIEL WALTON (3), son of 2 Nathaniel Walton & Martha Bownall of Byberry Twp, Philadelphia Co., Pa, was alive when the wills of his father and mother were drawn in 1732 and 1736 and was an executor of each. December 11 and 12, 1734 he and his brother Malachi, executors, deeded 150 acres of their father's property in Byberry Twp on Poquessing Creek to their brother Joseph and February 27, 1734 an equal acreage to their brother Benjamin.
Nathaniel seems to have been a schoolmaster many years, probably all his working life. The History of Byberry and Moreland says Nathaniel, son of Nathaniel, was a schoolmaster as early as 1727 and died in Moreland, back of Edge Hill in 1784 aged about 80. Two things seems to show this statement confuses two Nathaniels: 1st, a Nathaniel who died 1784 shows clearly by his 1777 will that he was grandson of 3 Thomas; 2nd, 8 Nathaniel must have been born some years earlier than 1704 to have read to a congregation in 1718, as below. Indeed, his being executor seems to mean he was one of the older sons of the 1685 marriage. The Pennsylvania Magazine, Vol. XXVII, quotes a letter from Peter Taylor and James Morgan, wardens of Trinity Oxford Church, dated June 5, 1718: "We . . . having no minister on a Sunday, except by chance, agree among ourselves to meet at the house of God every Sunday, where one Nathaniel Walton, our School Master . . . takes due pains . . . to read unto us the Holy Scriptures . . . also the Prayers and Psalms in their order and course, and a Homily or Sermon he reads every Sunday." The Mervine Collection states the list of the congregation sent to England by these two wardens in 1718, which resulted in a preacher being sent to this church from England, included Nathaniel Walton Jr as a member. In this minister's report in 1728 he says "There are two schools in my parish, one in Frankford, a small and compact village in the township of Oxen, about three miles distant from the church. The house of our meeting in Frankford is kept by Mr. Walton, schoolmaster, a man of sober life and conversation, and of good abilities for that employment." Though Nathaniel was no Friend, Friends of the neighborhood sent children to his school, as is shown by two letters from Thomas Chalkley concerning his children. The Pennsylvania Gazette shows that in 1745 Walton & Hetherington were in partnership as teachers, and in 1756 mentions the School-house, in Arch Street, near the George Tavern, where Nathaniel Walton lately taught.
November 21, 1747 Benjamin Franklin called on the young men of Philadelphia to meet in Walton's School Room for the purpose of volunteering to defend the city against French and Spanish pirates who were then sailing up the Delaware after plunder. Franklin says "The house was pretty full; I had prepared a number of printed copies, and provided ink and pens dispersed all over the room. I harangued them a little on the subject, read the paper, explained it, and then distributed the copies which were eagerly signed." This was the beginning of the Associators, later the 111th Infantry, still in existence more than 200 years later. Since 1200 signatures were obtained at the meeting, Walton's School Room evidently was large.
Records of marriage or children of Nathaniel have not been found.
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