The following information was assembled from numerous sources and cannot be used directly as proof of Qualifying Service or Lineage.
It is considered a research aid and is intended to assist in locating sources that can be used as proof.
State of Service: PA
Qualifying Service: Patriotic Service
Author: Robert John Gang III
Hannah Stewart was born 1741. She was a daughter of Charles and Sarah Stewart, of Upper Makefield Township, Bucks County Pennsylvania. Charles Stewart was born 1719, in Scotland. He was a man of good position and comfortable estate, and served some years as Captain of a company of “Associators” (as the military force of Pennsylvania, between 1748 and 1755, was called), and died September 16, 1794. Hannah married John Harris in August 1760.
John Harris was born in 1717 in Antrim Ireland and emigrated to America about 1750. He settled in Newtown, Bucks County, Pennsylvania, where he acquired considerable real estate and was a leading citizen. John died August 13, 1773.
The Harris house, known locally as the “Yellow House” was one of the best in the town. General Washington used the Yellow house as his headquarters for some days before and after the battle of Trenton. It was from the Yellow house that Washington wrote the letter to the Continental Congress notifying that austere body of his victory at Trenton. On his departure Washington presented Mrs. Harris with some table silver which is still treasured in her family.
In addition to her patriot service of hosting Washington’s headquarters at the time of the battle of Trenton, Hannah is on record for paying property taxes during the time of the Revolution. After the death of John Harris, Hannah, became the acting executor of his estate, and later of the estate of her father. Hannah also was the executor of her brother, William Stewart’s estate. William was a childhood friend of Daniel Boone and accompanied Boone in his travels in Kentucky in 1773. William was with Boone at the battle of Blue Licks, August 19, 1782 where he was killed by the Indians. In addition to her husband’s and father’s land in Pennsylvania, Hannah therewith acquired William’s valuable estate in Kentucky. In 1785, Hannah took up the work of caring for William’s estate, and went to Kentucky with her mother and her children. They traveled in a lumbering, old-fashioned wagon, the door handle of which is still treasured as an heirloom in the family. Hannah was a woman of more than ordinary ability, and made the long and tiresome journey backward and forward several times between Kentucky and Pennsylvania returning finally to Kentucky 1797, and died there 1803.
Hannah and John’s children married well; the eldest daughter, Ann, married Harry Innes, February, 1792, a Judge of the United States District Court, appointed 1787, and held that office till his death, September 20, 1816; and her fourth daughter, Elizabeth, married Thomas Todd, June 22, 1788. Thomas was a Judge of the United States Supreme Court, appointed by Thomas Jefferson February, 1807, till his death, February 7, 1826. The descendants of John Harris have long been of the best families of Kentucky.
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