William Sheakley and Janet [Unk]

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Husband William Sheakley ^{1 2}

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           Born: 1720 3
     Christened: 
           Died: 1810 3
         Buried: 

       Marriage: 

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Wife Janet [Unk]

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           Born: 
     Christened: 
           Died: 
         Buried: 

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   Other Spouse: James Moore (      -      ) 3

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Children

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1 M John Sheakley ^{4 5 6}

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           Born: 29 Jan 1755 3 6
     Christened: 
           Died: 25 Sep 1816 - Mercer Co, PA 3 4 6
         Buried: 

         Spouse: Margaret Jenkins (      -      ) 5

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2 M George Sheakley ^{3 4 7}

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           Born: 1760 3
     Christened: 
           Died: 1813 3
         Buried: 

         Spouse: Margaret McCurdy (      -      ) 3 7

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3 F Margaret Sheakley ^{3 4}

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           Born: 
     Christened: 
           Died: 
         Buried: 

         Spouse: [Unk] Duff (      -      )

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General Notes: Husband - William Sheakley

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Among the Irish immigrants to the colony of Pennsylvania during the year 1751 were William Sheakley and wife, who settled in what is now Mount Pleasant Township, Adams County, Pennsylvania, then a portion of York County, close to the Maryland line. He was a man of industrious and frugal habits, and at his death, about 1799, had accumulated considerable property. About eight years prior to his death he sold his land, and removed into Franklin Township, four miles north of Gettysburg. During the last two years of his life he was entirely blind. [HMC 1888, 1101]

He was of Scotch-Irish descent and came to Pennsylvania with a colony of his people, mostly Presbyterian or Seceders. He came from the province of Ulster, Ireland, in 1740, and located in the fertile valley of the little Conawango in what became Mount Pleasant, Adams County, Pennsylvania, near the settlement made by the Calverts in Maryland, which became part of Pennsylvania by the running of the famous Mason and Dixon line. There were five hundred acres of land in this tract. In 1792 William Sheakley sold this land and removed to Franklin Township, four miles north of Gettysburg, where he built the house which was long known as the Sheakley homestead. Soon after the commencement of the Revolutionary war, November 3, 1775, he was elected one of the committee of safety of York County, his two sons, John and George Sheakley, serving in that conflict as ensigns.
The Sheakley homestead in York County, is of interest. This farm of one hundred and forty-one acres was sold to William Sheakley by Hon. John Penn, of Stoke Poges, county of Berks, England, (one of the proprietors of Pennsylvania) and Hon. Richard Penn of Queen Ann Street, parish St. Mary le Bone, county of Middlesex, England. The property was still owned by descendants of William Sheakley in 1909. It was upon this historic farm that the first blood of the battle of Gettysburg was shed, June 30, 1863, when Rhodes' Confederate division swept down from Carlisle and occupied the Sheakley farm for the night. On the morning of July 1 the Federal artillery near Gettysburg opened fire on them, a solid shot from the Union cannon killing several and wounding many. The wounded were brought to the barn, and a stable door, unhinged and nailed across a hogshead placed on the floor, was used as an amputation table. The cattle on the farm were guarded for the use of this improvised hospital, but Lee's defeat and hasty retreat saved the animals, while all of the neighbors' live-stock was driven off to Virginia. Several members of the Sheakley family lie buried on the hill in the Evergreen cemetery. [HMC 1909, 561]

1 —, History of Mercer County, Pennsylvania. Its Past and Present (Chicago, IL: Brown, Runk & Co., Publishers, 1888), Pg 1101.

2 J. G. White, A Twentieth Century History of Mercer County Pennsylvania (Chicago, IL: The Lewis Publishing Company, 1909), Pg 561.

3 J. G. White, A Twentieth Century History of Mercer County Pennsylvania (Chicago, IL: The Lewis Publishing Company, 1909), Pg 562.

4 —, History of Mercer County, Pennsylvania. Its Past and Present (Chicago, IL: Brown, Runk & Co., Publishers, 1888), Pg 1102.

5 J. G. White, A Twentieth Century History of Mercer County Pennsylvania (Chicago, IL: The Lewis Publishing Company, 1909), Pg 995.

6 John W. Jordan, LL.D., Colonial and Revolutionary Families of Pennsylvania (New York, Chicago: The Lewis Publishing Company, 1911), Pg 1512.

7 John W. Jordan, LL.D., Colonial and Revolutionary Families of Pennsylvania (New York, Chicago: The Lewis Publishing Company, 1911), Pg 1510.