John Kelsall of Dolobran

John Kelsall of Dolobran, also known as John Kelsall the Diarist, was one of two sons of John Kelsall and Elizabeth Cragg described as part of the Quaker Families of Wyresdale. One of the sons Joseph was a farmer in Wyresdale who is the ancestor of many Kelsall families worldwide. His brother John had 10 known children but no known descendants today.

John Kelsall (1683-1743) was a Quaker teacher and diarist, well-known for the detailed Diaries which he kept from 1720 to 1743, which record his time as clerk at the Dolgun Blast Furnace, near Dolgellau, and at the Dolobran Forge, near Meifod.

John Kelsall has been researched authoritatively by George Adamson and his son Peter. This page is based on their work.

John Kelsall’s Family

by Peter Crew

George Adamson and his wife Mabel spent a considerable amount of time from 1992 onwards researching John Kelsall and his family, with visits to the Library at Friends House, the National Library of Wales, Manchester Central Library, and county archives in Chester and Lancaster, as well as extensive discussions with family members and other researchers. This has resulted in a substantial archive of material, filling 9 large lever-arch files, with thousands of pages of research and hundreds of Kelsall names, but these relate mainly to John’s brother, Joseph Kelsall of Wyresdale, and his descendants. George himself later commented, after more than twenty years of research, that he was surprised that no other direct descendants of John Kelsall have ever emerged.

Internal evidence in the Diaries and Journal allows the re-construction of John Kelsall’s immediate family. He married Susannah Davies in 1711 and they had 10 children between 1712 and 1733, one of whom died very young, and this has been the primary source for all the Kelsall trees on the various genealogy sites.
Ancestry.com has 347 family trees which relate to our John Kelsall. All of these except two give only the basic family tree as mentioned above. The two exceptions (the ‘Cork_Hill tree’ and ‘Gedcom for Lynn tree’) trace the family to the present day through 7 generations of Pimlotts and Corks, but the link to John Kelsall is demonstrably false due to an incorrect assumption about the Sarah Kelsall who married John Pimlott in 1755, who is not the daughter of John Kelsall. The ‘Kelsall One-Name Study’ has numerous family trees and a useful discussion forum, but the only indirectly relevant tree relates to John’s brother Joseph and his Wyresdale descendants. All this demonstrates the widespread interest in Kelsall genealogy and the corollary is that none of the many researchers have found any additional evidence for the direct descendants of John Kelsall.

Intensive research has revealed some additional evidence for John Kelsall’s children and grandchildren, which is summarised briefly below:-

  1. John KELSALL, b. 21 Apr 1712, Dolobran, North Wales; married Anne Starkey, mid-1736; son Edward, born mid-1736, baptised 26 Dec. 1737, age 1½ years (John also baptised at the same time); another son (no details traced); 1741 c. June, Anne Starkey died; the two sons kept by her relations (internal evidence from JK Diary).
  1. Amos KELSALL, b. 7 Feb 1714/1715, Dolobran, North Wales; d. 1756 in Birmingham, buried 6 Jan 1757 (C of E record – brother John mentioned as household member).
  1. Benjamin KELSALL, b. 19 May 1716, Dolgun; d. 30 July 1796, age 80, Stourbridge, and buried 3rd August (Qu. Meeting of Worcester record); 3 children mentioned in Timothy’s will 1783, but no mention of Benjamin’s wife.
  1. Samuel KELSALL, b. 4 May 1718, Dolgun; d. 20 May 1718, buried at Tyddyn y Garreg.
  1. Thomas KELSALL, b. 19 Apr 1719; sailed to Barbados 1741 as crew member of a slave ship, possibly returned to London 1742.
  1. Elizabeth KELSALL, b. 9 Jul 1721, Dolobran Forge, North Wales; lived with John Gilbert & his wife (Susannah’s sister) from 1724 (age 4); bequest in Timothy’s will, 1783.
  1. Mary KELSALL, b. 26 May 1724, Dolobran Forge; living in Boughton 1747, had a child but not married and disowned in 1748; bequest in Timothy’s will, 1783.
  1. Timothy KELSALL, b. 24 Nov 1726, Dolobran Forge; d. 4 Mar 1783, Newton Cheshire, (Age 56 years); BOND of 1775 for £50 for the upkeep of a bastard son William, born to Elizabeth Hatton (Chester Archives DCH/A/465/70); WILL of 1783, bequests to Benjamin and his three children, to his sisters Mary and Elizabeth (with residue on their deaths to the children of Elisha Nicholson), to Mrs Martoe Merrick and her children Roger and Charlotte. Occupation Furrier, lived at Eddisbury, left £300. (Chester Archives WS 1783).
  2. Susannah KELSALL, b. 5 Dec 1730, Dolgun; d. 19 April 1811, Liverpool; married out in 1753 and disowned; m. William Fryer 8 July 1753, Liverpool, who died in 1765; m. Elisha Nicholson 17 October 1765 (Hardshaw West Quaker record, Elizabeth & Timothy mentioned); children Mary b. 1766, d. 1777; Joseph b. 1768, wife Mary (1841 census), d. 1842; Sarah b. 1770. d. 1771; Mary b. 1771,?d. 1849 age 78; Susannah b. 1772, d. 1772; Elizabeth b. 1774,?d. 1847, Liverpool (Hardshaw West and Liverpool Quaker records); bequest in Timothy’s will 1783 ‘to the children of Elisha (three surviving at that date); Elisha d. 1826, Liverpool (Hardshaw West Quaker record).
  1. Sarah KELSALL, b. 3 Mar 1732/1733, Dolgun, North Wales; married out in 1760 and disowned (Hardshaw Quaker Record, Manchester Central Library); m. George Crone, 1760, at Liverpool, ‘both of this Parish’.

 

No further evidence been found for John Kelsall’s children, grandchildren or their descendants. If anyone has any other information about John Kelsall’s family, please let us know so that it can be included in an updated version of this file.

John Kelsall’s Diaries and Journal 1699-1743

 (edited by Peter Adamson and Peter Crew, 2020)

This volume is freely available as a pdf file from: https://www.academia.edu/42049360

or by e-mail from p_adamson@hotmail.com and crew.peter.susan@gmail.com

A limited edition is being prepared as a printed volume which will be available in April 2020.

The cost of the volume will be £20, including packing and postage to UK addresses.

If you would like to purchase a copy please send your e-mail and postal address.

A4, paperback, 36 pages Introduction, 400 pages text, 5 figures

John Kelsall (1683-1743) was a Quaker teacher and diarist, well-known for the detailed Diaries which he kept from 1720 to 1743, which record his time as clerk at the Dolgun Blast Furnace, near Dolgellau, and at the Dolobran Forge, near Meifod.

Kelsall was well-educated and his first post was as a teacher employed by Charles Lloyd at the Dolobran Quaker school from 1702 to 1713. In 1714 Abraham Darby appointed him as clerk to the furnace at Dolgun, which he managed until 1719. He then returned to Dolobran as clerk at the new forge built by Charles Lloyd, which he managed for the next 10 years, during which he also kept the accounts for the Bersham furnace. After Lloyd became bankrupt, Kelsall returned to Dolgun in 1729 to manage the furnace for the Payton family. He remained there until 1734, when the furnace closed, and he returned to teaching, spending his final years in Chester.

The original Diaries and Journal, transcripts by W. G. Norris and microfilm copies are in the Library of Friends House, London. They were transcribed and converted to digital files by George Adamson in 1993-1996 and have now been edited by his son Peter Adamson and Peter Crew. The Diaries and Journal contain a great deal of information relating to the social and economic history of the early 18th century and also record John’s work and life as a Quaker, during which he travelled frequently to Meetings in Wales, north-west England, London and Dublin.