Mary Bearmore and her Father, Jonathan Bearmore

Jonathan Bearmore (Barmore)

Jonathan Bearmore (Barmore) came from Windsor, Middlesex County, New Jersey to Greene County Pennsylvania between 1793 and 1797. He died in 1798. He had at least 5 children: George, Mary, Lucretia, Samuel, and Joseph. His father was probably George Barmore of New Jersey, who late in life moved to Abbeville, South Carolina, where he died. A male patrilineal descendant of George Barmore has had a Y DNA test.

How this Family Connects to the Longs

There are several lines of evidence that indicate that Jonathan Bearmore was the father of James Long's wife. First, we know that James Long has a wife named Mary in land records in Guernsey County. Family histories and census records for them and their children show pretty consistently that James was born about 1779-1780 in Washington County (now Greene County) Pennsylvania, Mary was born about 1780-81 in New Jersey. Therefore, Mary's family would have had to have moved from New Jersey to Washington County for them to marry about 1798, before the birth of their first child, Lydia (dates supported by 1800 census record and family information for Lydia Long).

The death certificate for Garrison Long (thanks to C. Sandoval for providing a copy) identified his parents as James Long and Mary “Bellmore". However, there are no Bellmores listed in Greene County records during this period.

James Long shared a cabin on land rented from a wealthy landowner of Irish descent, Thomas Clare, in Greene County in the 1798 Tax list (for Dunkard) with George Bearmore, who has been consistely identified as a son of Jonathan Bearmore who died in 1798. The two young men likely are paying the rent on the land he was renting from Thomas Clare. Finally, we have the estate record for Jonathan Bearmore, who died without a will (he was apparently only about 38 years old). However, the sale of items from his estate was dominated by three adults: his widow Kezia, his son George, and James Long, whom I conclude was his very recent son-in-law. There is no document describing the distribution of the proceeds from the sale of his estate, other than a brief report by the administrator, Benjamin South indicating that he would follow the law.

Partial Transcript of Estate Record for Jonathan Bearmore (thanks to J. Burns for sharing the record)

Both George Bearmore and James Long are prominent buyers in the estate sale (the “Vendue”) of Jonathan Bearmore’s estate, along with the widow, Kezia. Here is what they acquired at the sale, which probably represents most of their distributions from the estate, which after creditors, was about 133 pounds.

Buyer	Item	Pounds	Shillings	Pence
James Long	1 tub		4
	1 large kettle	1	3
	bucket		8	5
	bucket		4	8
	1 keg		4	9
	1 big whele		15	6
	1 table		6
	1 small iron pot		12	2
	1 pid cow	4	5
	can't read	5	1	2
	sum flax	1	3
	sum hay in the stable		15
	2 pair of gears	1	16	1
	a pair of cards		5
	1 set of plow irons	1	12	3
	3 geese		9
	Total	13	122	36
	Total	19	2	0
Keziah Bearmore	1 barrel		4
	3 chairs		10
	1 table		3
	1 chest		3
	bed and bedding	7
	cups knives		4
	bake oven		7	6
	2 hogs	1	19
	mare	1	10
	5 plats [plates?]		3
	need?		7
	cow with a bell	4	5
	1 mare and colt	25
	cloathing	6	17
	buckwheat	1	6
	1 set of plowware	1	12	3
	1 sack of dry oats	3	2
	Total	49	112	9
	Total	54	12	9
George Bearmore	2 axes		14	7
	a set single trees		3	6
	crop of corn 140 bushels out for	7	10
	2 blin bridles	1	16	1
	1 pair of boots		16
	1 harrow	1	1	6
	saddle and bridle?	1	6
	1 small heifer	2		6
	Total	12	66	26
	Total	15	6	2