Cowgill History

I found this information while doing some of my family research

The Cowgill's in America are descended from Ellen Cowgill, a widow from Yorkshire, England, who came to America in 1682.  Ellen's oldest son came a few months earlier on The Friends Adventure as an indentured servant to Cuthbert, Hayhurst. Many books placed Ellen and her other children on the Welcome with William Penn. Smallpox killed two thirds of the passengers on the Welcome, making it one of the deadliest voyages to the colonies.  Currently many believe Ellen came on the Lamb, because it left from the Yorkshire area. William Penn financed dozens of ships to his colony. He gave up on religious freedom being granted to the "dissenters" in England. As the Quakers settled in they were supposed to pay the founder "quick rents." Ellen came with her other four children, John, Jennet, Jane, and Edmund. There is no record of her in the New World. She left a legacy of many descendants in America.

      "Woodburn", now the Governor's House, is believed by many to be a stopping point also on the trek north. From 1825 to 1882 a Quaker family named Cowgill lived in this home. Daniel Cowgill, being a Quaker and having been convinced of the wrong, freed all his slaves and allowed them to meet in the great hall at Woodburn. The Georgian-style mansion was built by Charles Hillyard around 1790 and it would appear that the Cowgill's dug a secret underground tunnel that was used as a passage to escort slaves to the St. Jones River which runs directly behind. Boats would then carry slaves across the Delaware River to New Jersey, a free state or slaves would start to travel north towards Smyrna, Odessa and Middletown.