Coale, Mary (Royal)

1685 -

• Name	Coale, Mary (Royal)
  Birth	1685	Scotland
  Gender	Female
  Emigration	Abt 1697
  	When Mary Royal was 12 or 14 years old of age her mother with many others was forcibly taken to Pennsylvania. There she was sold as a servant to Caleb Pusey and served her time out. When freed she married William Cole and settled at Nottingham. As a widow she married in 1711 Jeremiah Browne. When she was 12 or 14, she was forcibly taken, carried on board a ship and brought to Pennsylvania. She was here sold as a servant to Caleb Pusey, near Chester, and served her time out. At a court held on 14 Sep 1697, in Pennsylvania, she was assigned to work for Caleb Pusey for 5 years (PA Archives). When free she married William Coles (Coale) and settled at Nottingham. She then later married Jeremiah Brown. Written by her son, Joshua 1. exh. from Hinshaw Vol I, prov by Cheska Wheatley 2. d date,marr from: "A Hadley Genealogy" Vol I, pub by the Hadley Genealogical Soc. of So. Calif.; 1974, page 21 of Chester Co. Pa. She was born in Scotland. When twelve or fourteen yrs of age she, with many others,was forceably taken, carried on board a ship, and taken to PA. There she was sold as a servant to Caleb Pusey and served her time out. When free, she married William Coles and settled in Nottingham. As a widow, she married 2nd mo, 1711, Jeremiah Brown. The story about Mary Royale is well-documented, I think. Her son Joshua Brown (1717-1798) left an autobiography in which he says: "My mother was born in Scotland. When twelve to fourteen years of age, she was, with many others, forcibly taken, carried on board a ship, and brought to Pennsylvania. She was here sold as a servant to Caleb Pusey, near Chester, and served her time out. . . . When free, she married William Coles, and settled at Nottingham . . . . Some time after my father married her." Joshua Brown's account is found in Willard Heiss, ed., QUAKER BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES (1972), p. 266. A friend of mine, who's doctoral dissertation was on Scottish indentured servants in North America, sent me the following information: "The stolen children of Scotland were children that were kidnapped in the late 17th century and sold into indentured servitude by Maurice Trent of Trent(on) family fame, or infamy as the case may be. I have a list of them somewhere. Most were sold to Quakers in Chester County, and several of the children attempted suicide, some successfully." Karen Mullian booboopies@aol.com Remember that conditions were very different from what they are today. Simple passage to the Americas cost much more in equivalent terms than air fare today. Then you had to provide your own food for six weeks or so. Then there was the matter of supporting yourself in the New World. Many, perhaps a majority, couldn't afford it, no matter what they were prepared to sacrifice. But they could indenture themselves, have food and passage provided, and a reasonably secure living for seven years while they got their feet under them. In consequence a substantial percentage, perhaps even a majority, of indenturements were voluntary, even taking judicial transportation into account. So buying in an indentured servant was nothing to weigh on the conscience, unlike slavery. As to slavery, the issue was debated for many years. In 1756 a Quaker ancestor of mine freed two slaves in his will. And in 1775 his son directed his oldest son to care for, and under no circumstances to sell, a slave who was too old and feeble to care for himself. The son so admonished had freed his own slaves by a few years before the passage of law which gradually emancipated all slaves in Pennsylvania, and _his_ son was a conductor on the underground railroad. Probably a fairly typical sequence. With regard to the particular case of Scottish children, the kidnappers were probably Scots, since the English were too busy kidnapping English children for the same purpose. Quite large numbers of children were kidnapped and indentured. Large numbers of orphans were indentured by court order, too. It was a profitable undertaking. And many felt that they were sending the children to a better life. In grim reality, those sent to plantation economies would probably have been better off as slaves, whose masters would have a permanent investment in them. But in the middle colonies and New England, by and large, they probably actually were better off. (The prospects of an indentured servant to better him/herself gradually decayed during the 18th century as it became more diffcult for a laborer to rise in status.) Let us now consider what a master was to do on discovering that his new indentured servant had been abducted. Send them back? Diffcult. There were no agencies to investigate such things. How to contact the parents? They were apt to be illiterate, and even if not, what was their address? Written communication was largely reserved for the middle and upper classes. There were no street numbers, or often even standardized street names, for a child to have memorized. In the 17th century and early 18th you addressed a letter to John Doe, Such-and-such Parish, Someshire and entrusted it to a carter or a traveler going that way. (The mail coaches came much later in the century.) If the addressee lived in an urban setting you addressed it to John Doe, So-and-so House, Somecity. The assumption was that the addressee would be middle class or above and well known in the neighborhood, nobody else got letters. It was not, in fact, at all practical to locate the child's parents. You might have managed it by taking them back to their place of origin yourself, at a cost few could have afforded. The odds would have been against success, even then, though. And even if you could, how would you recoup the expenses? The general society would have regarded it as meritorious to treat the child well and see them well established when their indenture ran out, which Pusey seems to have done. Will Dr. William L. Pratt, Curator of Invertebrates Marjorie Barrick Museum of Natural History University of Nevada, Las Vegas Box 4012 Las Vegas, NV 89154-4012 (702)895-1403, fax (702)895-3094 e-mail prattw@nevada.edu "In 1962, in conjunction with plans to restore [Caleb's] house, the Friends of the Caleb Pusey House asked the Archaeological Society of Delaware to excavate the site. For the next four and a half years, volunteers working on a part-time basis under the direction of Allen Schiek carried out a series of excavations both inside and outside the structure. Meanwhile, research into the history of the property was ongoing." p. 417
  Indentured	14 Sep 1697
  	When she was 12 or 14, she was forcibly taken, carried on board a ship and brought to Pennsylvania. She was here sold as a servant to Caleb Pusey, near Chester, and served her time out. At a court held on 14 Sep 1697, in Pennsylvania, she was assigned to work for Caleb Pusey for 5 years (PA Archives). When free she married William Coles (Coale) and settled at Nottingham. She then later married Jeremiah Brown. Written by her son, Joshua
  Name	Mary (Royal) Coles
  Name	1710
  	Mary (Royal) BROWNE
  Reference Number	2207
  _UID	48541CC25A4C4B8B847031574C2C41C6F120
  Death	Cecil
  Person ID	I2204	MARTINPRUITT
  Last Modified	31 Aug 2021

  
  

  Family 1	BROWNE, Jeremiah,   b. 1689, Marcus Hook, Chester, PA d. 7 Mar 1769, Chester, PA (Age 80 years)
  Marriage	13 Apr 1711  [1]
  Children	1. Brown, Patience,   b. 25 Jul 1712, Chester, Pa, USA d. 23 May 1783, Chatham, NC, USA (Age 70 years)   2. BROWNE, Jeremiah,   b. 2 Feb 1715   d. Jan 1763 (Age 47 years)   3. BROWNE, Joshua,   b. 5 May 1717   d. 1798 (Age 80 years)   4. BROWNE, Isaac,   b. 20 May 1720   d. 23 Mar 1781 (Age 60 years)
  Family ID	F387	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
  Last Modified	14 Sep 2021

  
  

  Family 2	Coles, William   d. Yes, date unknown
  Marriage	Abt 1703
  Family ID	F437	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
  Last Modified	14 Sep 2021

  
  

• Event Map

  Birth - 1685 - Scotland  = Link to Google Earth

  
  

• Photos

  Caleb Pusey Home This picture taken by Doug Martin in April of 2003. This home was originaly built in 1683. The "Friends of Caleb Pusey Home" have preserved and retored this home to be authentic as possible. This is the home that Mary Royal most likely served her time as a servent for Caleb Pusey from 1693 for about 5 years or more. William Penn was known to have visited this house on occasion and pent Christmas day in 1699. Caleb Pusey was a friend and business partner of William Penn.

  
  

• Sources

  [S63] Early Church Records Del co., 12th of 12th mo: ... Jeremiah Brown and Mary Coale, widow [of William Coale, who died testate], both of Nottingham - declared their intentions to marry [and they were subsequently married on 13th of 2nd month, 1711]. (Concord Monthly Meeting Minutes). 12th of 12th mo: ... Jeremiah Brown and Mary Coale, widow [of William Coale, who died testate], both of Nottingham - declared their intentions to marry [and they were subsequently married on 13th of 2nd month, 1711]. (Concord Monthly Meeting Minutes).