revolutionary War Soldier from New Jersey
Society of Friends
William Stockham is believed to have come to America in 1777. He settled in Trenton, New Jersey. He married Susannah Paine in 1778 in Burlington CO, NJ, at St. Marys Episcopal Church. Susannah is the sister of the revolutionary patriot Thomas Paine.
In the seventeen nineties, desirous of investing in land, he came westward through Pennsylvania to Kentucky and Ohio. They traveled to Kentucky where their names appear on a 1790 tax list for that state. He journeyed, with his family, overland to Pittsburgh, thence down the Ohio River on flatboats to the mouth of the Scioto River. All of Ohio was then a dense wilderness, the happy hunting ground of the Indians. Landing on the present site of Portsmouth, he settled a building spot. The place was later called the W A Marsh farm, Judge Bannon farm, and most recently Carl Schisler farm. The log cabin, which he erected in the forest, was the first home of the Stockham family in Ohio. It was one of the very first log houses in the county. The land at that time was very fertile, but the drainage was extremely poor.
In 1803, the year Ohio became a state, William moved the family to Madison Township Ohio, there he persued farming until his death in 1815. William is burried in Squires Cem. also known as Kallner Cem., located .5 miles north of Minford near Madison Twp, Scioto Co, OH.
William was baptized at St. Woolas, Newport Wales 4-12-1752, this is on micro fiche card 1G1 Scioto Co. OH History.
It is widely believed that Susannah was the sister or niece of the Revolutionary Patriot Thomas Paine. Biographies of Thomas Paine do not support this belief.