SHERRILL Tax Listings 1718-1726/27 Chester & Lancaster, PA
William SHERRILL (or SHERWILL), commonly known as the “Conestoga Fur Trader William Sherrill”, lived in the Pequea Creek area of Conestoga Township, Chester County, Pennsylvania from approximately 1710 until possibly into the 1740’s (after 1729 Conestoga Township became part of Lancaster County) .The early (1718 to 1726/27) tax records of this area fortunately still exist.Apparently, the original Tax Lists reside in the Chester County Archives and copies of them were made, long ago, for Lancaster County, when it was formed. Thus, two copies of these tax records are available for review.
These records were first partially transcribed in 1883 by Ellis and Evans in their “History of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania ….” book (pages 20 & 21); and fully transcribed in the Lancaster County Historical Journal article (“Assessment Lists and Other Manuscript Documents of Lancaster County Prior to 1729”, Volume 20, pp 155-194).An alphabetized transcription of these records, using the Chester County, Pennsylvania Tax List, has also been published in Volume 4 of “A New Index Lancaster County, Pennsylvania …” book by Hawbaker and Groff. Another alphabetized transcription of these records can be found on the Chester County Archives and Record Services’ webpage, http://www.chesco.org/archives/site/default.asphttp://www.chesco.org/archives/site/default.asp (look under online indexes; followed by Tax and Census Records; Tax Indexes, 1715-1799; 1715-1740 A-Z (“S” for SHERRILL).
All of these references have an Adam and a William “SHERRILL” (various surname spellings) in these tax lists.In addition, the Lancaster County Journal article and the Hawbaker and Groff book list a “Samuel” (in 1721) and a “Rudil” SHERRILL (in 1719).To my knowledge no other reference, in this time period, exists for a “Rudil” or a “Samuel” SHERRILL.Furthermore, it is also my understanding, that this “Rudil SHERRILL” reference has been the basis for many SHERRILL genealogists’ speculation that William the fur trader’s wife’s maiden surname was RUDIL (or RUDISIL or various other similar spellings).The Chester County Archive’s does not have either a Samuel or a Rudil SHERRILL in their transcription of these Tax Lists.
The 1719/20 “Rudil Sherrill” transcription in the Lancaster Journal article and the Hawbaker and Groff book appears to me to be in error.The Chester County Archives transcription of this name is “Rudell FURRILL”.A similar name, “Rydall FURRILL” (along with an adjacent “John FURRILL”) is present in the Chester County Archives 1724/25 Tax List transcription.The Lancaster County article has this name (for 1724/25) transcribed as “Rudall FURRELL” (the adjacent name is “John FURRILL”).
The 1721 Tax List transcription for Samuel SHERRELL is also subject to uncertainty.The copy of this Tax Listing page that I received from the Chester County Archives shows that the original reference has a dark spot on top of the given names for the two adjacent “SHERRILL” (very clear) surname listings (page 14, lines 20 and 21).Comparing the previous 1720/21 and the following 1722 listings for William and Adam SHERRILL names (along with their similar Valuations and Tax Rates), I believe that these unclear given names are “William” and “Adam” SHERRILL (not “Samuel”).I attempted to “clean up” this area using Adobe Photoshop to clarify the image of these names; but, I was unsuccessful.Faint images of these given names can be seen through the dark spot on top of them. The first given name, while unclear, is of appropriate length to be “William” (line 20).This SHERRILL surname Tax Listing also has the same Tax Rate as William did in the preceding year’s tax record.
The faint image under the dark spot (line 21) that I suspected as being an “Adam” given name is too short to be a “Samuel” given name.On this page (page 14), the tax clerk fully spelled out all of the other visible given names.Hence, it is very unlikely that just one person’s name (Samuel) would be abbreviated (to Sam’l) to a short given name.The Chester County Archives transcription has these given names listed as William and Adam.
While examining the copy of these Tax Records that I obtained From the Chester County Archives, I also found that the tax listings from the Lancaster County Journal article and Hawbaker and Groff book were missing those of Adam SHERRILL in 1725 and 1726/27. My transcription for the 1718-1726/27 Chester County Tax Listings follows:
1718
Township: Conestogoe (listed under English Inhabitants)
Person: William Sherrel
Page/Line*: 19/6 LHC
Valuation: 10
Tax Rate (pound/shilling/pence): 0/2/6
1719/20
Township: Conestogoe
Person: William Sherrill
Page/Line: 10/10 RHC
Valuation: 30
Tax Rate (pound/shilling/pence): 0/10/0
1720/21
Township: Conestogoe
Person: Wm Sherrill
Page/Line: 24 /1 RHC
Valuation: 19
Tax Rate (pound/shilling/pence): 0/3/9
1721 (listed under English at Conestogoe)
Township: Conestogoe
Person: - - - Sherrill**
Page/Line: 14 /20 LHC
Valuation: 15
Tax Rate (pound/shilling/pence): 0/3/9
Township: Conestogoe
Person: - - - Sherrill**
Page/Line: 14 /21 LHC
Valuation: 12
Tax Rate (pound/shilling/pence): 0/3/0
1722
Township: West Conestogoe
Person: Wm Sherrill
Page/Line: 1 /57 LHC
Valuation: 16
Tax Rate (pound/shilling/pence): 0/4/0
Township: West Conestogoe
Person: Adam Sherill
Page/Line: 1 /58 LHC
Valuation: 10(?)
Tax Rate (pound/shilling/pence): 0/9/3
1724/25
Township: Conestogoe
Person: Wm Sherrill
Page/Line: 35 /1 LHC
Valuation: Not listed this year
Tax Rate (pound/shilling/pence): -/4/-
Township: Conestogoe
Person: Adm Sherrill
Page/Line: 35 /2 LHC
Valuation: Not listed this year
Tax Rate (pound/shilling/pence): -/3/-
1725
Township: Conestogoe
Person: Adm Sherrill
Page/Line: 5 (I do not have this page.)
Valuation: I do not have this page.
Tax Rate (pound/shilling/pence): I do not have this page.
Township: Conestogoe
Person: Wm Sherril
Page/Line: 7 /15 RHC
Valuation: Not listed this year
Tax Rate (pound/shilling/pence): -/3/3
1726/27
Township: Conestogoe
Person: Wm Sherral
Page/Line: 6 /19 RHC
Valuation: Not listed this year.
Tax Rate (pound/shilling/pence): -/2/4
Township: Conestogoe
Person: Adam Sherral
Page/Line: 6/20 RHC
Valuation: Not listed this year
Tax Rate (pound/shilling/pence): -/2/4
*LHC - Left Hand Column; RHC – Right Hand Column
** Dark spot over given names, “William” suspected for line 20 & “Adam” for line 21
As a consequence of this work, I am now changing the listing in my SHERRILL genealogy database for “Rudil” and “Samuel” from listing them as questionable children of William SHERRILL (the Conestoga Fur Trader William) to totally removing them.In the next few months, I plan on examining the original, similar Tax Lists in the Lancaster County records.
I would appreciate comments and other opinions from other SHERRILL genealogists who have examined these original Chester and Lancaster County, Pennsylvania Tax List records.