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

• Biographical Note
• Provenance Note
• Scope and Content Note
• Related Collections
• Folder List
• Bellangee Family Tree

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:

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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