An American Family History

"[L]iberty must at all hazards be supported.
We have a right to it, derived from our Maker.
But if we had not, our fathers have earned and bought it for us,
at the expense of their ease, their estates, their pleasure, and their blood."

Herman Yerkes was born on January 18, 1720 in the Manor of Moreland. His parents were Herman Yerkes and Elizabeth Watts. He was a farmer, a miller and a large land owner.  

His first wife was Mary Stroud. They declared their intention to marry at the Goshen Monthly Meeting in Chester County, Pennsylvania on January 30, 1750. They married on March 22, 1751 at Plymouth Meeting House. Mary was born about 1722 in Whitemarsh. She was the daughter of Edward Stroud. While married to Mary, he became a member of the Society of Friends.

Herman and Mary's children included:
William Yerkes (1752, died in infancy),
Elizabeth Yerkes Hufty (1753, married her cousin John Hufty),
Catherine Yerkes Howell (1755, married Reading Howell),
Edward Yerkes (1757)
Sarah Yerkes (1759),
Stephen Yerkes (1762, married Alice Watson),
Mary Yerkes (1765),
Harman Yerkes (1767, married Margaret Long), and
William Yerkes (1769, married Letitia Esther Long). 

Mary Stroud Yerkes died about 1771. After her death, Herman became affiliated with the Southampton Baptist Church.

He married Mary Houghton, the widow of Richard Clayton, in the same year as the Boston Tea Party on September 30, 1773 at the Southampton Baptist Church by the Reverend Jonathan Blackwood. 

The family were actively involved in the American Revolution. Harman enrolled in the Warminster Company of Associators. Their home was near the battles and one time Mary's house was searched for an American Soldier who she had hidden in a haystack. Their daughter Catherine's husband, Major Reading Howell, was a quartermaster of the Second Regiment, Hunterdon County militia in the early days of the Revolution. On April 5, 1780 he was commissioned deputy quartermaster-general of the Continental army.

In 1780 Harman Yerkes (probably Jr.) was in the 3rd Company, First Battalion of the Philadelphia County Militia.

Mary died in 1785.

He married Elizabeth Ball, the widow of John Tompkins. They married on March 28, 1788 at the First Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia. After they married they moved to his Elizabeth's home, on the Old York Road where she had kept an inn and store.

In 1790 the Harman Yerkes family was in the Manor of Moreland, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania.

He died on November 29, 1804 in Moreland and was buried in the Southampton Baptist Church Burial Grounds. Elizabeth died in 1819.

Children of Herman Yerkes & Elizabeth Watts: Anthony Yerkes John Yerkes Sarah Yerkes Hufty Josiah Yerkes Herman Yerkes Silas Yerkes Elizabeth Yerkes Howell Stephen Yerkes Elias Yerkes Titus Yerkes

The Manor of Moreland was composed of a tract of ten thousand acres, and was created, in 1682, by a grant from William Penn to Dr. Nicholas More. Most of the Manor was in Philadelphia County, but is now Moreland Township, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania.