Living Conditions Before and After the Revolution
By the end of the American Revolution, the known Margeson family members had dispersed from New York to New England, Nova Scotia, New Jersey, and eventually western New York, while evidence of their lives survives through church records, family traditions, and scattered historical references.
Published 9/14/2026
Report
Life for the colonists was controlled by political and economic customs and traditions. Government by Royal decree denied economic, social and religious "rights" which in our modern age have been taken for granted. Society was regimented into: 1 - Royalty, the royal court and wealthy landowners. 2 - Tradesmen, plantation owners, and the military. 3 - A middle core of workmen many of whom, lacking financial power, had become subject to the English Indenture System. Lowest in the social order was some 10% of the population, having little chance for freedom, either social or civic, in their limited "Pursuit of Happiness." Among this group were many exiles from England deported to the colony. This made the new settlements into a partial penal dumping ground. The latter class, most deprived, must have compared with the "hippies" of our own 1960-70 decade. Take the matter of employment, vocational training, the personal problem of "learning a trade." Employment under the indenture system involved all except the already wealthy and government leaders. The parents of Benjamin Franklin considered indenturing Benjamin at his early teen years. In any case, he learned the printer's trade. John Margeson, born in 1716, was contracted by his parents (assumed) and served until 1745 (he would then have been 29 years?). Completion of his contract made him a "Freedman." We do not know what trade John followed, but his son, Thomas, probably learned his trade of shoemaker under similar circumstances. Abolishment of the indenture system did not abolish slavery and the negroes bondage. In New York on the 1703 census, the number of slaves held by families were recorded as so many males and females. Black slavery, abolished as a result of our Civil War, still did not guarantee or secure many Civil Rights. Thus we have the revival of that old problem of human rights in the present decade 1960-70 and racial rebellion still continues. Thomas Margeson, born in 1761, would have been a youth of 16. By the end of hostilities in 1783, he would have been at the age of twenty-two. We do not know about his commitments to either side of the rebellion. Yet, from what we do now know, we find him outside the city, some 25 miles north at Fredersburg, a welcome suitor for the hand of Mary Brundage. In 1783 Thomas and Mary were married and had moved to Essex County, New Jersey. There they had their twelve children. The 18 years in the Town of Varnan, site of the modern-day city of Newark, in the year 1806 they migrated to Western New York. [image of bible page need to be inserted] From a two volume New York in the Revolution historical record of military personnel organizations known to have taken part in the war, we have a single clue of a Margeson. "Peter Margeson, a prisoner" Why include Peter's name among the American servicemen? Was he a "convert to the cause of freedom?" Or was he one of the British soldiers interned in one of the camps located in Connecticut? We have evidence that Peter accepted the new American Way of Life, settled down in New England, raised a family. Some of his descendants may still be found but, so far, we have no available genealogy by which to trace relationship from Peter's time to date. A casual inquiry at Dartmouth College brought the names: James P. Margeson, a graduate, Class of 1914 Richard T. Margeson, a graduate, Class of 1948 Correspondence with James Margeson, Box 214, West Hartwich, Mass., brought out the claim of descent from Peter Margeson, obviously(?) the same Peter of Revolutionary War days. Richard T., addressed at 453 Tilden Road, Egypt, Scituate, Mass., has so far brought no reply. These and other names should appear in a later account of Margesons in New England. Now for Gideon Margeson mentioned in the Trinity list as parents, Gideon and Mary, of a child baptised Mary, April 21, 1782. From a History of Annapolis, Nova Scotia, we have a Gideon Margeson and his wife, Lavinia Wilson Margeson. Reference: History of Annapolis County, Nova Scotia, page 542, gives a complete genealogy of this family. The editor's name was W. A. Calnek, Toronto, 1897. Were there two Gideons or was the reference to one individual? We do not know, though Gideon may have been one of thousands to exit from war-torn New York during the Loyalist Exodus of 1783. There will be time to present that episode later in our history. Interesting how the Margesons get "mixed up" in American history. Now for the Margeson ladies who have taken the name of Catherine. First we found "Catthren" Margeson, mother of John Margeson, born in 1716. Another, or perhaps two other Catherines, were married at Trinity. Two dates: Aug. 6, 1768 and Aug. 20, 1778, and the names of two different bridegrooms. Then by a "long way around" circumstance, we learned from a Mrs. Stark, of Stark Ave., Penn Yan, the name of a Catherine Margeson. This Catherine must have been a daughter of Richard Sackett, in New York, who married into the Margeson family. This far in our story (1783) we have brought our family across the "Wide Atlantic" to new homes in a new land. Travel had been very slow and dangerous. The Mayflower sailed only at the rate of a few miles each day and took sixty-three days for the passage. John and Catthren also came by slow sailing a few years later. The birth of their first-born in 1716 established the first Margeson family in New York. Trinity Church records list several additional Margeson names. The colonists were increasingly restless over the treatment they were receiving from their British overlords. Then came open rebellion and armed resistance. The colonists were ready to fight for their "Rights as Englishmen", but the time for reconciliation had already passed. It would take historians many years to write up the events of the Revolution. Our Margeson ancestors were only one family of thousands that have been classified as "common people", or rather just ordinary folks. It took an expression by our beloved President Lincoln to state their case: "God must have loved these commonplace people, He made so many of us." And the uncommon loyalty, willing to work hard, fear God, and serve their neighbors as good Americans. The year 1783 was "Moving Day". Every available ship of the British was required to take the British army, and thousands of English civilians, to friendly ports or back to England. As the British moved out, the Americans moved into the cities of New York, Philadelphia, and other seaports. We have no accurate information as to the war damage to the cities nor of the job of urban repairs and renewal. All of the Margesons, for whom we have knowledge, by now had left New York. Gideon for Nova Scotia, Peter for New England, and Thomas for northern New Jersey. Thomas and Mary Brundage were married at the Brundage home at Fredericstown and set up their home in Varnan Town, Essex County, N.J.
Method & sources consulted
Excerpt taken directly from 1970s Margeson family history book using OCR