John Mayberry Of Sussex County, New Jersey

John Mayberry was born about 1757, place unknown. His wife was Charity Young, daughter of Tunis & Christiana Young. John died 19 January 1829 "in his 72nd year". Charity died 5 March 1836, also in her 72nd year. Both are buried in the cemetery of the Knowlton Presbyterian Church, near Columbia in Warren County, New Jersey, along with their children, Christiana, Jacob, Richard and Samuel. Warren County was part of Sussex County until 1824. It is also adjacent to Hunterdon County, where some of Mayburys of Bucks County, Pennsylvania worked.

John Mayberry's son, Richard, was living in Boone County, Illinois, at the time of the 1880 census. Richard gave his age as 72 and his birthplace as New Jersey. He also stated that his father and mother were both born in New Jersey. If this is true, John Mayberry could be a descendant of the Pennsylvania Mayburys -- or it could be that his father or grandfather emigrated from England or Ireland sometime before 1757.

Descendants believe that John Mayberry served as a soldier in the American Revolutionary War, possibly in the German speaking company of Captain Jacob Ten Eyck's First Battalion from Somerset, New Jersey. The name of John Maybeck (sic) appears on that muster roll. Additional evidence for a German origin was found by a professional researcher who concluded that John Mayberry's wife, Charity Young, was the daughter of Tunis Jung and Christiana Winter, both of whom immigrated from Germany. In addition, the Knowlton Presbyterian Church was organized about 1775/76 in a community settled by German immigrants and is said to have been composed of Presbyterians, Anglicans and German Reformed (Calvinist) families.

However, we have tested a DNA sample from one of John Mayberry's descendants and found that it clearly matches the DNA signature of the English Mayburys. This would seem to add to our theory that John Mayberry grew up in the Philadelphia area and met his wife among the many German immigrants who were neighbors of the Mayburys in the same area. If so, John was likely descended from one of the Bucks County Mayburys.

Don Collins

September 2014