The Hanks family, of England, Ireland and llinois

Wanborough

Francis Davis Hanks (b. 11.10. 1798-) Irish born Quaker, the Hanks family, in Ireland, were Elizabethan planters the Quaker branch are recorded in the Society of Friends Historical Library, Dublin, (1660s) as from the village of Bradwell, Stowe-on-the Wold, Gloucestershire. Francis, of Wanborough, was the eldest son of Quakers, Joseph Hanks* of Birr, Kildare and later Dublin, and Elizabeth Davis of Forest county Wexford, daughter of Francis and Elizabeth Davis nee Woodcock.

Francis Davis Hanks, who lived in Wanborough was the eldest of seven sons and one daughter of Joseph Hanks and his second wife, Elizabeth (Woodcock) Davis, the family, (with the exception of Elizabeth,who apparently died on the way west) all resided for a time at Wanborough, Edwards county Illinois. Francis married Prudence (Pru) Birkbeck (1800-1832) sister of Eliza(beth) Birkbeck Pell both daughters of Morris Birkbeck. Jnr. Co-Founder with George Flower, of the English settlement of Wanborough Illinois. Francis Hanks siblings were:

William Hanks, b. 24.6.1800, later with his half brother Jeremiah Hanks,son of Joseph Hanks first marriage to Elizabeth Boardman Hanks, daughter of Joseph and Hannah (Jackson) Boardman. Operated, William and Jeremiah Hanks and Co. , Eden Quay Dublin, agents and shareholders in the Dublin to Liverpool Steampacket Company, both, later of the Dublin Ballast Office and the Dublin Port Authority. The company was purchased and developed by the Malcolmson Brothers of Waterford, (cousins, see marriage of Mary Hanks(Hunks) to John Greer, 1717), and the marriage of Rachel Greer to Maclolmson. As an officer of Dublin Port and no longer a Quaker, William married Maria Teresa Hoey, daughter an heir of Bridget Burke Hoey, of Elm Hall, county Tipperary.

Joseph Hanks, jnr. b. 23.6.1802,

Henry Hanks, b. 30.1.1805,

Edward Hanks, b. 20.11.1807,

Frederick Hanks, b. 1.9.1809

Francis Burdett Hanks, 7.12.1811, believed to be Burdett Hanks, farmer who lived in Albany,N.Y. he and recorded in the 1897 N.Y. state census as aged 80 and from Ireland, he may have been part of the Shaker community of that area

Anna Eliza Hanks, 7.12.1814, Anna Eliza (Wm. Faux, "one motherless daughter") returned to Ireland with her father, Anna Eliza applied to rejoin the Dublin Meeting, 1.1831, and later removed within the compass of the Limerick Meeting [Portf.53a] Anna Eliza removed 7.4.1840, from Limerick to Wexford [MM IX K1 Page 316] and married, 16.6.1841, Samuel Hill of Limerick, at Enniscorthy, county Wexford. [book 0.page 89] they later removed to Rathmines, Dublin, where she died 1900. The children of Samuel and Anna Eliza Hanks, appear in various Hanks family documents and the Irish census of 1901 and 1911.

Joseph Hanks snr. resigned from the Religious Society of Friends, 1802 [He no longer wishes to be considered a member] MM. V F2 p17. he had a spat with while in Illinois with Morris Birkbecks, whose father also Morris Birkbeck snr son of William and Sarah, married 22.8.1776. in Ballitore, county Kildare, (Shakelton School was attended by Francis Hanks, ref Mary Leadbeater papers) Sarah Hall, late of Skipton,Yorkshire,England, both the Halls and Birkbecks had a family presence in Ireland (Mary Birkbeck, married into the Irish Quaker community, 1744) the Birkbecks were related to the Irish Shackelton and Chandlee families and to Joseph Hanks snr. whose disagreement with Morris Birkbeck, as reported in William Vaux, Travels in America, had to do with with the availability of water to drive a mill.

The Hanks family were, among other things, millers. Josephs elder brother Jeremiah Hanks of Sally Mills Rathangan county Kildare, married, 4.11.1794, Sarah (Sally) Lapham. their grand daughter, Isabella Beatrice Hanks, 1841-1912.

Isabella Hanks, married in Ireland, Robert Charles Maunsell, she later lived in Chicarge, Cook County Illinois, (her brother, Richard, settled for a time in northern Illinois) Isabella divorced Robert Charles Maunsell, and was later wife of abolitionist, Col. Richard Josiah Hinton (1830-1901), Hinton was Abraham Lincolns first pre election biographer (Thayer and Eldridge Boston 1860) Both Hinton and Isabella visited Ireland 1901, his views on Lincolns maternal ancestry are interesting. [Albert Cook Myers[i], author of, Immigration of Irish Quakers, into Pennsylvania, 1682-1750, explores the Racial Origin of the Friends of Ireland[ii]; Myers notes that converts to Quakerism in Ireland were drawn almost exclusively from English, and Scottish Protestants , to this we can add Welsh[iii], that had lived but a few years in Ireland, it is especially interesting to note that so many of these early Irish Friends had been officers and soldiers in Cromwell’s New Model Army[iv] ] Converts to Quakerism in Ireland include the surnames, Berry, Hanks, Sparrow, Harlan, and significantly Coppock, all early Irish Quakers of English or Welsh orogin.

[i] Myers, Albert Cook, Immigration of Irish Quakers into Pennsylvania, With Their Early History in Ireland 1682-1750, Swarthmore Pennsylvania, 1902

[ii] ch. IV, ibid.

[iii] Foley, John. Electing Lincoln, Irish Quakers Radicals, (Private) Dublin, 2013

[iv] New Model Army also Round Heads, terms for the forces of Parliament during the English Civil War 1642-1651

Francis Hanks

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