Agnes Swanzey (1743-1826) widow of John Steele and John Jordan

Agnes Swansey was born on June 30, 1743, grew up on her parent’s farm in West Pennsborough Township, and in 1761 married John Steele a Carlisle tavernkeeper.¹ Her husband died sometime between 1769 and 1776 when she appeared on Carlisle tax lists as Agnes Steel, widow.

Agnes was left with four children to raise.² She did have relatives in Carlisle who likely helped support her family. Her sister Mary was married to Carlisle breeches maker John Jordan who was a kinsman of Carlisle shopkeeper John Kinkead, and merchant Ephraim Steele who was the brother of her deceased husband. Agnes and her sister Mary Jordan received a small monetary bequest from their Aunt, Ann Boles, in 1779,³ and Agnes received 25 pounds from the will of her father, John Swanzey, in 1781.⁴

Sometime after 1779, Agnes’ sister Mary died, and Agnes married her sister’s husband, John Jordan. Jordan had served in the Militia during the Revolutionary War as a Lieutenant, a Captain and as a Major. In 1783, he was elected a Justice of the Peace, and in 1790 he was appointed as one of the Associate Judges for the county. A Whig, he was elected twice as a County Commissioner.⁵

Carlisle tax assessments help to reveal how Agnes’ life changed as a result of her marriage to Jordan. His occupation as a breeches maker was no longer listed after 1783 when he became a Justice of the Peace. By the late 1780s they had a servant and were taxed for silver. Jordan was appointed an Associate Judge for the County in 1790, and their position in Carlisle society must have risen. Agnes and her husband might have belonged to St. John’s Episcopal Church, because  in 1792 when the church was raising money for improvements, Agnes gave seven shillings and six pence toward purchasing hangings in the pulpit and for painting and enlarging the church.⁶

In 1798, Agnes (not her husband) was listed as the occupant of a log house on Lot #148 on North Hanover Street. It was owned by William Waugh,⁷ son-in-law of John Kinkead who was a kinsman of John Jordan’s. Agnes’s husband died on December 5, 1799. Her son John, a Captain in the 3^rd Infantry Regiment of the United States, died in New York in 1800, and her son Joseph, a Carlisle silversmith, died suddenly in 1805.

Agnes did not file the inventory of her husband’s estate until April 20,1809, almost ten years after his death. She stated that at his death she found a parchment in his pocket containing papers. She took them out but never looked at them. She gave them to James Lamberton who opened them in the presence of her son Joseph (now deceased) and her. Lamberton told her they contained orders on the Treasurer of the county for several years pay as a Commissioner. All the remains of Jordan’s cash, bonds, and notes were in the custody of George Wise, a Carlisle innkeeper.

The following items were also included in the inventory that was filed:

“One feather bed, cotton tick almost new, blankets new bought from John Wray, cotton and linen sheets, other bed cloths, one trunk of shop goods containing razors, knives, buttons & hair, black and white silk hose, thimbles, scissors with a variety of other shop goods, one large case of drawers, one cherry tree tea table, one oval tea table, one large tea kettle, one desk, one case silver mounted pistols, plated spurs, one pair of large andirons, shovel and tongs, brace heads, one piece of linen bought from James Lamberton not a month before his death made into shirts, one walnut chest (that is the property of Captain John Steel deceased), one close stool (the property of the same), one second bottom bed stead complete, chairs, waiters, server, tea pots, cups, saucers, great coat and other body clothes, all the laws of the state of Pennsylvania which John Delancy, Esq. had in his possession and gave George Wise his receipt for and refused them to me; also a gold rimmed snuff box of stone and a pair of paste set silver shoe buckles of my own property.⁸ “

In 1823, Andrew Gregg was running for Governor, and the Federalists were procuring depositions to prove Gregg’s age. Agnes Jordan was 80 years old when she gave the following statement about Gregg's age as well as details about herself and several Carlisle events.

“That she was born on the 30^th day of June 1743, as appears by a record in her father’s bible; that she has a perfect and distinct recollection of Andrew Gregg, one of the present candidates for Governor, who, she says, went to a Latin school in the year 1762 or 1763 under the direction of the Rev. John Steel in the borough of Carlisle: that John Steel, son of the Rev. John Steel, was brought home from Newark (where he was at a Latin school) for the purpose of assisting his father in opposition to a Latin school then under the direction of the Rev. George Duffield, grandfather of the present George Duffield, pastor of the Presbyterian congregation of this place. She further states, that she perfectly recollects, that Stophel Stump and his servant man were imprisoned in the jail of Carlisle on a charge for killing six Indians and were rescued from the prison on the 28^th day of January 1768; the same day that her daughter Jane was born of which birth there is a record in the bible aforesaid. She further states that the said Andrew Gregg, when going to the Latin school aforesaid, appeared to be at least from 14 to 16 years of age or upwards.” Affirmed at Carlisle September 5, 1823.⁹

Agnes (Swanzey) Steele Jordan lived through the French and Indian War, the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812. She outlived two husbands and several children and died in Carlisle on January 22, 1826.¹⁰