Manuscript Group 837, Bellangee Family (Little Egg Harbor, NJ) Papers, 1770 – 1881 (Bulk dates: 1810 – 1850)

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Manuscript Group 837, Bellangee Family (Little Egg Harbor, NJ)
Papers, 1770-1881 (Bulk dates: 1810-1850), 0.2 linear feet / ½ small manuscript box
Call Number: MG 837 + Folder number

Summary


Summary:

Correspondence, certificates, genealogy, and mostly religious verse of a South Jersey Quaker family.

Biographical Note:

The Bellangee family were French Huguenots who fled their native country after losing religious freedom there.  Evi (or Ives) Bellangee settled in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and at some point during his journey joined the Society of Friends, or Quakers.  He married Christian De La Plaine in a Quaker ceremony in Philadelphia in 1697, and they soon moved to Little Egg Harbor, New Jersey, where they farmed and raised a family.  Some of the Bellangee children stayed in Little Egg Harbor and New Jersey, while others relocated out west.  Many remained Quakers and married into other Quaker families, including the Willits, Cawley, and Ridgway families.

See Bellangee Family Tree.

Sources:

Blackman, Leah. History of Little Egg Harbor Township, N.J., from its First Settlement to the Present Time (Trenton Printing Company, Inc.: Trenton, NJ, 1963).

Provenance Note:

The collection was acquired in 1974. Two periodicals, four pamphlets, and The Banner from March 1957-March 1958 were separated at that time.  The source of the collection is unknown.

Scope and Content Note:

This collection is largely made up of the letters, poetry, and compositions of the Bellangee family, and includes a small amount of genealogical research.  The collection dates from 1770-1881, with bulk dates of 1810-1850, and the documents have been arranged by type (Correspondence, Literary Works, Genealogy documents, and Printed matter) and then, if applicable, by person.

The correspondence included in this collection is arranged by recipient and then by author. Hannah Bellangee Smith, Rebecca Cuskaden Brice, James Willits, and Jane F. Willits Cawley are all the recipients of a small number of letters. These letters discuss daily family matters such as health, recent visits, and weddings, and religious matters such as recent Quaker meetings and personal spiritual states.

The poetry in the collection is more extensive. The poems have been divided by author and than arranged by title. All unsigned or unlabeled poems have been filed together, as have all published poems.  Hannah Bellangee (Smith) wrote the majority of the signed poems in this collection, and probably many of the unsigned ones.  Other poets include Mary (Barton) Bellangee, Margery Bellangee Willits, and Eliza Jane Moore, and the poems cover such topics as religion, death, and feelings. This series also contains a folder of published poems that have been clipped from the newspaper.  These poems are written by such authors as Gabriel Romanovitch Derzhavin, E. H. Coggins, Alfred Tennyson, and Eliza Cook; they are largely undated.  The collection also contains three compositions that are undated and unsigned.

At some point, a member of the Bellangee family researched their family history extending back to Evi Bellangee, their immigrant ancestor from France. The collection contains the researcher?s notes and a 12-page summary of his/her findings.

Related Collections:

Manuscript Group 76, Bordentown Friends Preparative Meeting Minute book
Manuscript Group 1222, Edmund Willets (b. 1800) Diary

Folder List:

Folder Title Dates
Correspondence  
1 Correspondence to Hannah Bellangee Smith from:  
  – Aaron Bellangee 1823
  – Jane Foulke 1838
  – Margery (Bellangee) Willits 1831
1 Correspondence to Rebecca Cuskaden Brice from:  
  – William Brice 1849
  – George Cuskaden 1842
  – Oliver Hamilton 1843
  – S. H. C. Smith 1874
1 Miscellaneous Correspondence:  
  – Thomas Jay to Aaron Barton 1770
  – Mary ( ) to “Papa” 1811
  – ( ) to “Dear Brother” 1876 (?)
  – S. S. Superintendent to “My Dear Young Friend” n. d.
2 Correspondence to James Willits from:  
  – Aaron Bellangee 1844
  – Jane F. Willits 1846
2 Correspondence to Jane F. Willits Cawley from:  
  – William A. Bryan 1881
  – James Willits 1839
  – Margery (Bellangee) Willits 1843
  – Louisa (Willits Pharo) 1847
Literary Works  
3 Poetry by Hannah Bellangee (Smith):  
  “An Address to E. S. C. Shourds” 1810
  “Extract from a letter to C. M. Cumber” n. d.
  “Faith and Confidence in full Redemption” n. d.
  “The Goodness of God, in the Redemption of Man” n. d.
  “Gratitude” n. d.
  “Lines Composed while on a bed of sickness unable to set up or wright, got my mother to wright as I spake them” (sic) n. d.
  “On Religion” 1811
  “A Part of the Salms imitated” (sic) n. d.
4 Poetry by Mary Bellangee: n. d.
  “An Acrostic”  
  Untitled  
4 Poetry by Eliza Jane Moore: n. d.
  “Sacred to the Memory of the Dear Departed”  
4 Poetry by Margery Bellangee Willits: n. d.
  “Thoughts on the Life of the Patriarch Joseph in his youth”  
  Untitled  
5 Poetry by Unknown:  
  “For Isaac Bellangee and Family after the Death of his Daughter E. S. B. – Mourn not for me” 1850
  “For the Sedgwick Circle” n. d.
  “Hymn” 1860
  “Lines on the death of my Infant Cousin” 1862
  “My Departed first Born” n. d.
  No Sect in Heaven” (also published-see below) n. d.
  “A Simile for ?Rebecca?” n. d.
  “To Isaac Bellangee and Wife on the Death of their Daughter Elizabeth S. Bellangee” 1850
  Untitled n. d.
6 Poetry published by various authors:  
  “Address to the Deity” by Gabriel Romanovitch Derzhavin n. d.
  “The American Flag” n. d.
  “Death Warrant of Jesus Christ” n. d.
  “The First Twelve Numbers” n. d.
  “Hymn to the Flowers” ca. 1846
  “Lines by a Mother in her Son?s Bible n. d.
  “The May-Queen” by Alfred Tennyson n. d.
  “A Mother?s Wish” by F. H. H. n. d.
  “Niagara” by David Paul Brown n. d.
  “No Sect in Heaven” by C. (handwritten version in Poems by Unknown, Folder 5) n. d.
  “The Old Arm-Chair” by Eliza Cook n. d.
  “Old Grandpapa” n. d.
  “The Pic Nic” by E. H. Coggins n. d.
  “The Poor, God Help Them!” by Mrs. M. E. Hewitt n. d.
  “Some Love to Roam” by H. Russell n. d.
  “Song” by Richard Cox n. d.
  “The Storm at Barnegat” signed Lighthouse n. d.
  “A Story in Verse, Jenny?s First Love Letter” by Alexander Maclaggan n. d.
7 Compositions: n. d.
  “Extracted from the Convinsment of Frances Howgit”  
  “A Genuine Portrait of Columbus”  
   Untitled  
Genealogy documents  
8 Marriage Certificates:  
  – Ives Bellangee and Christian De La Plaine, copy of the certificate from 1697 1839
  – George Cuskaden and Elizabeth Long 1822
  – Samuel B. Cawley and Jane F. Willits 1846
  – William Brice and Rebecca A. Cuskaden 1847
9 Bellangee genealogy research n. d.
Printed matter  
10 Business card of John Bellanger, Illinois n.d.
  Etching of Jascher de La Pageris, niece of Empress Josephine of France n. d.
  Newspaper clipping ? Local Affairs: Burning of the Oxford Presbyterian Church 1879
  Newspaper clippings ? The Grand Inauguration Balls n. d.
  Newspaper puzzle ? Geographical Enigma, written by Frank H. Cawley n. d.
  Periodical clipping ? Portraits n. d.

Bellangee Family Tree:  Return to Biographical Note

Evi (or Ives) Bellangee = Christian De La Plaine
|
Elizabeth Bellangee (b. 1699) Evi (or Ives) Bellangee (b. 1701)
James Bellangee (1703-1790) = Margery Smith (d. 1790)
Nicholas Bellangee (b. 1705)
Michael Bellangee (b. 1708)
Isaac Bellangee
Samuel Bellangee

James Bellangee (1703-1790) = Margery Smith (d. 1790)
|
Judith Bellangee (b. 1729) = Gideon Scull
Phebe Bellangee (b. 1732) = John Ridgway
Christian Bellangee (b. 1734) = Daniel Shourds
Susanna Bellangee (b. 1737) = John Ridgway
Margery Bellangee (b. 1739) = Benjamin Haines
Ruth Bellangee (b. 1742) = Job Ridgway
James Bellangee (b. 1744) = Grace Engle

Thomas Bellangee (1744-1816) = Mary Barton (d. 1818)

Thomas Bellangee (1744-1816) = Mary Barton (d. 1818)
|
Margery Bellangee (b. 1776) = James Willits (1763-1847)
Aaron Bellangee (b. 1783) = Sarah Evans
Hannah Bellangee (b. 1786) = Evi Smith
James Bellangee (b. 1788) = Rebecca Leeds
Thomas Bellangee (b. 1790) = Ann Dudley
Isaac Bellangee (1791-1875) = Elizabeth Stokes

Margery Bellangee (b. 1776) = James Willits (1763-1847)
|
Samuel B. Cawley = Jane F. Willits
|
Samuel Cawley
Eugene Cawley

Processed by Kim Charlton, December 1999 as part of the “Farm to City” project funded by a grant from the National Historical Publications and Records Commission.

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