Todd Family of New Jersey

And Relationship to

Todd Family of Philadelphia/Montgomery County, Pennsylvania

May 2003; revised December 2004, May 2005; Mar 2006, November 2010 , May 2020, Oct 2022

This essay seeks to sort out the Todds of Somerset County NJ from the Todds related to Mary Todd Lincoln.

For 100 years, Todd family historians have accepted the assertions published in 1905 in the Kittochtinny Magazine of Chambersburg, PA concerning the early origins of the Todd ancestors of Mary Todd Lincoln in Ireland and colonial Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania. These traditions were those compiled by Mrs. Emilie Todd Helm, half-sister of Mary Todd Lincoln, with some changes introduced by Mrs. Helm’s publisher, George Seilhammer.

Also, for many decades there were traditions of Todd brothers that came to Somerset County New Jersey from Co Longford Ireland in 1749.

Recent research in records of PA and NJ along with DNA analysis of Todd descendants has added to, changed and clarified aspects of these traditions. It appears that there were three Todd families:

• one family of five brothers who were in Somerset Co (as early as 1735) which had three branches (Andrew d 1781, James d 1781, and William d 1760) who remained in Somerset Co, and two branches (Robert and John who appear to have left the county after 1739) 
• one family consisting of Robert Todd 1697-1775 who settled in Philadelphia Co PA by 1760 and his half-brother Andrew Todd d 1791 who settled across the county line in Chester Co PA in 1760. This family also included a close kinsman (brother, cousin?) William Todd who had children baptized in Philadelphia County 1723-1738 and then settled in Augusta County Virginia by 1750.
• a family that settled in Hunterdon County New Jersey in 1749 consisting of John Todd 1729-1802 and David Todd 1731-1809.

The first family bought goods on credit from the Janeway Store in Bound Brook, in southern Somerset Co as early as 1735 and in some cases early 1740s.

In February 1735, “John and William Todd” delivered goods to “their brother Andrew” (page 579) and in Mar 1735, James Todd also delivered goods to “his brother Andrew” (page 595).  In July 1739, William Todd delivered goods to “his brother Robert” (page 133);  In March 1737, John Todd delivered goods to his sister (page 763).  “William Todd of Papack” is listed on the account ledger from Oct 1738 to April 1 1742 and possibly October 1743 or 1744 (page 2);  “John Todd of Papack” is listed on the account ledger from Feb 1737 (i.e. 1737/1738) to April 1741. (p 29); “James Todd at Baskenridge” is on the account ledger  in June and August 1738 (p 77); “ Robert Todd,  brother to Wm of Papack” is listed on the account ledger from July and August 1739 (page 150) and in a journal entry for Feb 1735/36  (page 585).  Janeway Store Records, Rutgers University Library, New Brunswick, NJ.

This essay will discuss the family traditions, the records and the possible relationship of the two groups of families. A companion essay focuses on the DNA results and possible research to locate the residence of the Todds in New Jersey before their dispersal to PA and VA.

Published Tradition for the Mary Todd Lincoln group of Todds

The tradition for the Pennsylvania Todds written in 1833 by John McFarland was that Robert and Andrew Todd came to New York in 1737 with Robert moving immediately to Philadelphia County (the part of which later became Montgomery County), and with Andrew staying in New York, marrying there and later moving to Chester County.

Robert, William and Andrew had descendants that intermarried with each other despite the fact the William had moved to Augusta Co VA by 1750.  William's granddaughter Sarah Todd married John Todd, a grandson of Robert Todd 1697-1775.   So, this supports the theory that the McFarland letter was incomplete in that it didn't know about the kinship with William Todd. 

We have found no records of this family in New York, but we have found a William, John and Robert Todd in the New Jersey Supreme Court records that could possibly be the William and John of the early Abington church records of the 1720s and the Robert whose children were married in the same church in 1748 and 1749.  

The part of the tradition concerning Robert and Andrew’s coming to America in 1737, the New York sojourn and the settlement in Pennsylvania came to Emilie Todd Helm from a letter written in 1833 by John McFarland (1767-1835), a grandson of Robert Todd. This letter is considered to be a fairly reliable source since John McFarland would have known his grandfather as a young boy and his mother was born in Ireland and was old enough to have remembered their coming to America as a young girl. However, he wrote this as a man of 65 after his mother’s death; so there could be minor details that were not correct. The fact that no brothers and sisters of the immigrant brothers Robert and Andrew were mentioned, yet we know that William Todd was closely related due to the intermarriage between the two branches.  This suggests that the migrations of the various branches of the family resulted in the next generations never knowing the other branches.   

The published tradition differs from the materials assembled by Emilie Todd Helm with respect to the Irish origins. Mrs. Helm thought that Robert and Andrew were grandsons of a John Todd of Co. Down and claimed association with John's son James Todd who died in County Down in 1704. Her publisher, George Seilhammer, examined Irish wills and concluded that James Todd d 1704 did not have children that matched the family of Emily's ancestors.  Though the will of James d 1704 did mention children Robert, Andrew and James; it does not seem to have mentioned William or Samuel which Seilhammer listed as siblings to Robert and Andrew.  He found a will of  a John Todd d 1718 in Co. Armagh who had children: James (d 1757), Samuel, William, Robert, Andrew, Elizabeth and Esther and concluded that this was Emilie's ancestors, despite the fact that this John was Anglican and Emilie's family was Presbyterian.

Robert Todd (1697-1775) settled originally in Chester Co in 1756 and then by 1760 near the village of Trappe and is buried in the Providence church graveyard a few miles from Trappe. Robert’s daughter Elizabeth and son David were married at Abingdon Presbyterian Church in 1748 and 1749 which is the earliest documented occurrence of this branch of the family in that area. David’s sons, Levi, Robert and John Todd were Kentucky pioneers in 1775 and it is from David that Mary Todd Lincoln is descended.

The brother Andrew (d 1791) seems to have been much younger than Robert. Robert’s children by his second marriage were born beginning in the 1730s but Andrew’s children were born beginning in the 1747. Also interesting is that Andrew is reported to have married in New York to Mrs. Elizabeth McDowell. Nothing is known about his sojourn in New York but the McDowell connection could be clues in this regard since there were McDowells in Somerset County at an early date.

Relationship to the Augusta County Todds

Later family historians attempted to link the William and Samuel Todd of the 1905 Todd History article (Emilie Todd Helm manuscript) to the William and Samuel Todd who appear in Augusta County, Virginia in 1750 and 1761.

Recent research shows that William Todd of Augusta Co was the William Todd of Philadelphia County because his son Low Todd appears in the Philadelphia County baptismal register in 1723 and Low Todd and William Todd appear in the land records of Augusta Co, VA in 1750. Also, records in Botetourt Co Virginia in 1801 show that Samuel Todd was the son of William Todd, not his brother. Further, DNA research show an almost identical DNA pattern between the descendants of two of the sons of William Todd and a descendant of Robert Todd 1697-1775. This suggests a close family relationship between the two, possibly brothers.

Somerset County Todds

The five Todds who settled in Somerset County were identified as brothers.  It is possible that they came to America without their parents since there is no record of the parents.

Two of these lines settled on the Peapack Grant which lay between the Raritan and the Lamington River in Bedminster Township, Somerset County. By 1743, we have William Todd who lived on the west side of Middle Brook half-way between the two rivers and Andrew Todd who lived on the east side of Middle Brook. William died in 1760 without a will and Andrew Todd d 1781 with a will recorded.

The Journals of Andrew Johnston who was the agent for the proprietors of the Peapack Grant describe some interesting interactions between the agent and William Todd. Mr. Johnston surveyed the Peapack property in the spring of 1743. At that time, he found William Todd, the immigrant, just west of Middle Brook and Andrew Todd, just east of it. In the fall of 1753, the agent came with the sheriff and two constables to evict William Todd and his family from their home. The agent took pity on William’s wife because she had no place to house her children other than the house from which the agent sought to evict them. Presumably these were young children and therefore born in the 1750s. William resisted the eviction – even bringing in friends to threaten the use of force to prevent the eviction. In the end, he had to leave and his home was destroyed, but he seems to have returned almost immediately and his neighbors helped rebuild his home. By 1760, William had died and his son John carried a letter from his mother to negotiate with the agent.

In the Bernards Township area, James Todd appears on a Road List in 1749. It is possible that this James Todd was the James Todd who died in Bernard Township in 1781 and appeared on the Janeway Store records. James Todd of the Bernardsville area died 1781 and left five sons: James, Joseph, John, Robert, and David, and daughters Mary and Eleanor and one other. James’ wife Jemima dies in 1809 which suggests a birth year of 1730 if she were 79 or close to 1740 if she were 69. Unless this was a second wife, then James Todd must be of the second generation, not the immigrant noted in the Janeway Store records.

The John Todd 1739-1823 who married Sarah Ismay is most likely the son of William Todd d 1760. He is not the son of Andrew Todd d 1781 whose son John was born in 1756 and moved to Washington Co NY in the 1780s. He is not the son of James Todd d1781 who son John appeared to marry Sarah Kirkpatrick based on land records.