Cuthbert

The Odgen and Cuthbert families joined when Anthony Cuthbert (1751-1832) married Mary Ogden (1770-1862) in 1799. Both families had strong connections to the rivers of Philadelphia.

Anthony Cuthbert's father, Thomas Cuthbert (1713-1781) came to Philadelphia from Scotland at the age of two. He was described as “a man of prominence, and was successively vestryman and warden of Christ Church [from 1776 to 1777] and on the committee to revise the book of common prayer in 1776,” (Bulloch, page 95). He married Ann Wilkinson in 1741 and was the father of four sons, Thomas Jr. (1745-1823), Allen (1747-1773), Anthony (1751-1832) and Samuel (1758-1839). He died in Philadelphia on January 11, 1781.

Samuel Cuthbert (1758-1839), son of Thomas and brother of Anthony, married Hannah Ogden in 1810, who was related to Mary Ogden. She is the daughter of William “a man of exceptionally strong character and of high social position [who] served in the Continental Army and was for this reason disowned by the Society of Friends, but was subsequently reinstated,” (Ogden, p. 61) and Marie Pinniard Ogden. His occupation was listed as “gentleman.”

Anthony Cuthbert (1751-1832), born on March 4, 1751 in Philadelphia, was a prominent business man of Philadelphia, a mastmaker and according to John W. Jordon, one of Philadelphia’s early shipbuilders. During the Revolutionary War, he served as Captain of the Sixth Company, Artillery Battalion of Philadelphia. He saw action at the Battle of Princeton and was promoted for bravery at Amboy. It is written that he was with Washington when he crossed the Delaware (Johnston, page 884). Following the Revolutionary War, he served for thirty years as member of City Council, and superintended the construction of the Market Street Bridge over the Schuylkill in 1801. He first married Sarah Dixon and fathered nine children: Sarah (1775-1850), Mary (1778-1799), Thomas (1780-1796), Anthony, Jr. (1782-1805), Peter (1783-1797), Joseph (1784-1788), Ann (1786-1792), Robert (1788-1898) and Elizabeth (1791-1972). Sarah Dixon Cuthbert died in 1792 and in 1799, Anthony married Mary Ogden (1770-1862), the daughter of Joseph and Jemima Hewes Ogden. Together they had six children: Joseph Ogden Cuthbert (1800-1887), Elizabeth (1802-1891), Allen (1804-1884), Mary (1806-1876), Samuel (1808-1875), and Lydia (1811-1896). Anthony died on November 14, 1832 in Philadelphia.

Mary Ogden’s father, Joseph Ogden (1725-1805), worked at various times as a merchant, a tavern keeper and a ferryman in Philadelphia. His father, David Ogden came to Philadelphia with William Penn and was a member of the Society of Friends. During the 1750s and 1760s, Joseph Ogden had a shop on Chestnut Street, between Strawberry Alley and Second Street, and imported dry good from Great Britain and the West Indies. He was issued a license to keep a public house in Philadelphia in 1767 by John Penn and from 1767 to 1771, he managed the One Tun Tavern at Third and Chestnut Streets. He later owned the Middle Ferry on the Schuylkill River.

During the Revolutionary War, he was “imprisoned by the British for putting impediments in their way at the ferry … [and] was detained in the Walnut Street Prison during their stay in Philadelphia, in 1777, for aiding citizens west of the Schuylkill in escaping from a brutal soldiery,” (Odgen, page 54). In March 1784, the family’s home and all their property was swept away during flooding, however, no member of the family was harmed during the incident. His activities included serving as a member of the Philadelphia Society for Promoting Agriculture in 1788, as a charter member of the Diligent Fire Company, as a clerk of the Market and Regulator of Weights and Measures. Joseph Ogden married Jemima Hewes in 1751 and they were the parents of Sarah, Joseph Ogden, Jr., Ann, Catherine, John, George, and Lydia. Mary was the youngest of their children. Joseph Ogden died in 1805 at age of 81 and Jemima died on in 1817 at age of 89.

Mary (1770-1862) was born in Philadelphia, 5th month, 1st day 1770. She was described in a newspaper clipping, at the age of 90, “in possession of an excellent memory, vigorous intellect, and exceedingly happy disposition,” (Ogden, page 66).

Joseph Ogden Cuthbert (1800-1887), son of Anthony and Mary Ogden Cuthbert, was born on September 23, 1800 in Philadelphia. His occupation was listed as agriculturist and he served as Senior Warden of Grace Church from 1851 to 1887 and was a subscriber to the Philadelphia Library from 1814 to 1887. He married Elizabeth Sharp Coles and was the father of eight children: Mary, Lydia, Anthony, Sarah, Joseph Ogden, Jr., Allen, Henry Clay and Thomas. He died in 1887 in New Jersey.

Allen Cuthbert (1804-1884), son of Anthony and Mary Ogden Cuthbert and brother of Joseph Ogden Cuthbert, was born in Philadelphia on February 25, 1804. He worked as a wholesale grocer on Delaware Avenue and later, worked as an importer of Chinese goods. He was a member of the Franklin Institute and the Pennsylvania Historical Society. He married Anna H. Morrison in 1833; and after her death in 1835, he married Rebecca T. Watherman in 1852. He died in Germantown on June 29, 1884.

George Cuthbert (1814-1886), son of Anthony and Mary Ogden Cuthbert and brother of Joseph Ogden and Allen Cuthbert, was born in 1814. He lived in Philadelphia and worked as a druggist and manufacturer of white lead. He died in 1886.

Henry Clay Cuthbert, son of Joseph Ogden and Elizabeth Sharp Coles Cuthbert was born on March 12, 1841 in Philadelphia. He served in the Civil War in Starr’s Battery, 32nd Regiment of the Pennsylvania Volunteers. He married Catherine Blair on September 17, 1867. His occupation was listed as agriculturalist.

Bibliography:

Bulloch, Joseph Gaston Baillie. The Cuthberts: Barons of Castle Hill, and their descendents in South Carolina and George . Washington, D.C., 1908.

Campbell, John Hugh. History of the Friendly Sons of St. Patrick and the Hibernian Society . Philadelphia: Hibernian Society, 1892. (p. 387)

Johnston, Elizabeth Bryant. Lineage Book of the National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution, Volume II . Washington, D.C., 1896(page 884)

Jordan, John W. Colonial and Revolutionary Families of Pennsylvania . Baltimore, MD: Genealogical Publishing Co., Inc., 1978.

Historical Society of Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography . Volume 13, Number 1, April 1889.

National Society of the Colonial Dames. Third Record Book of the National Society of Colonial Dames in the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations . Providence: Snow & Farnham Co., Printers, 1908. (page 335)

From the guide to the Ogden and Cuthbert family papers, Bulk, 1760-1830, 1750-1906, (Independence Seaport Museum, J. Welles Henderson Archives and Library)