WILDMAN ~ PEARSON connection ~ Bucks County
After Martin WILDMAN's first wife, Ann WARD, died, he married Sarah BURGESS PEARSON (Pierson/Peirson), the widow of Edward PIERSON (Pearson/Peirson).
Sarah was born in Styal, a village in Wilmslow Parish, Cheshire, and christened in the Church of England 9 June 1650.She was the daughter of Edward BURGESS.
Edward PIERSON was born in the same village of Styal about 1651, but there is no record in the parish register that he was christened.There is good reason to believe his family had already left the CofEngland and become very early followers of George Fox, who was soon to become founder of the Society of Friends or Quakers. Edward's father was Lawrence PEIRSON, which is the spelling he used in his 1673 will.
Two of Edward's brothers emigrated to Chester County in 1683, but Edward, who had married Sarah in a Quaker service, 6 March 1672, stayed in Cheshire and fathered several children there before going to Chester County PA in 1687.After about a year (and another child born) at Darby in Chester Co, they moved on to the Fallsington area in Bucks County, where several of Sarah's siblings were already established.Edward died there 3 June 1697.
Permission for Sarah and Martin WILDMAN to marry was granted by the Falls Monthly Meeting 2 November 1698, and they apparently married within a few days.Sarah PEARSON had become Sarah WILDMAN before Edward's estate was probated.
Martin WILDMAN was buried in Bucks County 26 September 1699, as a Quaker.I presume some of Martin's children became sufficiently attached to Sarah and her children that the PEARSON name was used occasionally by Wildmans.
Edward PEARSON was the brother of my 6-greats grandfather.
Paul C. Palmer