Ann Matthews

Ann Matthews, daughter of Walter Matthews and Mary (…), was born 10 October 1738.¹ She died at Highland Co., Ohio, 26 September 1822,² and was buried at Falls Creek Friends Burying Ground, Highland Co., Ohio.²

Ann married (1) John Floyd, whose ancestry is unknown (or not traced here), before 1759;^3,4 she married (2), as his 3rd wife, Thomas Jessop, whose parents are unknown (or untraced), at Guilford Co., North Carolina, 1 January 1766.⁵

Ann was made a minister in the Society of Friends, 28 September 1765 at New Garden Monthly Meeting:

"New Garden preparative meeting informs this meeting of their unity and concurrence with Ann Floyd as a minister and they think it conveniant she should be recommended as such to the Quaker meeting of ministers and elders with the further advice and consent of this meeting. We appoint Jeams Mendenhall and William Oxburn to make a generall inquery into the unity Friends have with her and if they found nothing to obstruct provide a certificate to recommend her and bring to next meeting."

She traveled throughout the colonies, ministering to Quaker communities. One listener recalled that she "had a very musical voice, and her preaching was often a lofty style of blank verse, entertaining and interesting, holding an audience spellbound."^2,1

29 March 1766, Ann Matthews and her daughter Elizabeth Floyd were granted a certificate to Cain Green Monthly Meeting.⁵

In 1770 Thomas Jessop purchased 192 acres in Guilford County, with Walter Matthews, probably his father-in-law, as one of the witnesses.

The farm was the site of the Battle of Guilford Court House in the Revolution. One witness reported that "after the battle, Ann Jessop cared for a number of the wounded soldiers; she was truly an angel of mercy." Jonathan Jessop, ten years old at the time, recounted how the wounded were brought to the house to be cared for. He later documented the battle with a map showing the locations of the British and American camps, the residents along the road between Salisbury and Guilford Court House, and the part of his father's farm where the most severe fighting occurred.

For more information on the Battle of Guilford Courthouse, see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Guilford_Court_House.^6,2

In 1785 Ann took her family to York, Pennsylvania and while there she apprenticed her son Jonathan to a cousin, Elisha Kirk, married off daughter Hannah, and suffered the loss of her daughter Ann. She returned to North Carolina before the start of her journey to Great Britain.²

She made a missionary journey to England, Scotland, and Wales in 1790, also visiting her step-daughter, Sarah, who had incurred the disapproval of her father, Thomas Jessop, by running off with a British Officer during the Revolution.

During her stay in Britain, "...she was much impressed by the quality of seeds, bulbs and cuttings. Near her home about a mile North of New Garden was a neigbor, Abijah Pinson, who was an expert in grafting fruit trees. Ann Jessup employed him to develop an orchard and plant farm, the frist in Piedmont Carolina. Later Pinson moved to the Westfield Quaker community, where he developed a large nursery. From these fruit trees were sent all over the courntyside and into Western states, especially to Indiana, Ohio, and Illinois. Many people never knew how much they were indebted to a Quaker minister, Ann Jessup."²

In later years she lived with her daughter Hannah and joined the Quaker exodus from slave-holding states to the Midwest. By certificate, she transferred to various meetings in Highland Co., Ohio:
     29 November 1817, Fairfield Monthly Meeting
     17 Dec 1817, Lee's Creek Monthly Meeting
     18 August 1821, Falls Creek Monthly Meeting.²