Dr. William Plunket and Esther Harris

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Husband Dr. William Plunket ^{1 2 3}

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           Born: Abt 1720 - Ireland
     Christened: 
           Died: Apr 1791 - Sunbury, PA 4
         Buried:  - Sunbury, PA

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         Father: Patrick Plunket (      -      ) 5
         Mother: Margaret Baxter (      -      ) 5

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       Marriage: 3 Jun 1748 - Harrisburg, Dauphin Co, PA 6

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Wife Esther Harris ^{3 7}

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           Born: Abt 1722-1724
     Christened: 
           Died: 1768 4
         Buried: 

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         Father: John Harris (Abt 1673-1748) 8 9 10
         Mother: Esther R. Say (      -1757) 8 9 10

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Children

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1 F Elizabeth Plunket ^{2 4 11 12 13}

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           Born: 1755 - Carlisle, Cumberland Co, PA 2
     Christened: 
           Died: 1823 2
         Buried: 

         Spouse: Samuel Maclay (1741-1811) 4 11 14 15
           Marr: 10 Nov 1773 2 16

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2 F Isabella Plunket ^{4 12}

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           Born: Jan 1760 - Carlisle, Cumberland Co, PA
     Christened: 
           Died: 10 Mar 1843 4
         Buried: 

         Spouse: William Bell, Esq. (      -      ) 4

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3 F Esther Harris Plunket ⁴

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           Born: 
     Christened: 
           Died: 
         Buried: 

         Spouse: Col. Richard Baxter (      -      ) 4

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4 F Margaret Baxter Plunket ^{3 4}

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           Born:  - Carlisle, Cumberland Co, PA
     Christened: 
           Died: 
         Buried: 

         Spouse: Isaac Richardson (      -      ) 3 4

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General Notes: Husband - Dr. William Plunket

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According to Irish genealogists the Plunkets are descended from Brian Boru. Dr. Plunket was allied to the noble families of Louth, Fingal and Dunsany.

After graduating at Trinity College, he studied medicine and then emigrated to Pennsylvania, landing in Philadelphia. During the Revolutionary War he served as colonel of the Third Battalion of Northumberland County, Pennsylvania Associators, under a commission dated March 13, 1776. He saw active service and his command was an unusually large one.

He practiced medicine in Carlisle, Pennsylvania.

He was an officer in the Provincial service; subsequently located at Sunbury, Pennsylvania, where he became the leader in the so-called Pennamite War-efforts made by the government of Pennsylvania to drive off the Connecticut intruders upon the Wyoming lands. During the war of the Revolution he was suspected of disloyalty, and was once placed under arrest. Sabine, in his Loyalists of America, tells some fabulous stories of Colonel Plunket. It seems doubtful, however, that he was ever a loyalist. All of his friends and family connections were ardent for independence-and he would have entered heartily into the struggle, but with the other officers of the French and Indian war, they found themselves supplanted by inexperienced men as officers, and this rankled in their bosoms and they stood aloof. At this distance from that era it is difficult to inquire into the causes why old and well-tried officers were totally ignored in the organization of the Pennsylvania Line, and the chief places given to men who knew not the "art of war." Plunket and his fellow officers of the Provincial war, at the outset of the Revolution, hurriedly organized the militia of the counties, but when the Continental Line was formed they were left out of the organization. And so the old hero quietly retired to domestic life, only annoyed by repeated charges of disloyalty to the cause of liberty.

He was the first presiding justice of Northumberland county.

He also had five other children, all sons, who died in early life.

Frequently called "Lord Plunket", he was a native of Ireland, born about 1720. Little is accurately known of his early life, save that he studied medicine, graduating from the university at Dublin, and emigrated to America. He first settled at Carlisle, where he practiced his profession until probably the breaking out of the French and Indian war, into which service he entered. He was commissioned lieutenant in Capt. John Hambright's company in Col. William Clapham's battalion, June 12, 1756. In the Bouquet campaign of 1764 he was surgeon of the Second battalion, commanded by Col. Arthur Clayton, his commission bearing date September 7, 1763. For this service he participated in the Provincial land grants on the West Branch, receiving from the Proprietaries six hundred acres of land in Buffalo Valley. About 1770 he removed to what was subsequently Northumberland County, locating a little above Chillisquaque creek, which he termed "The Soldier's Retreat," and became possessed of a large estate. He was one of the leaders in the so-called Pennatnite war at the outset of the Revolution. A brief account of his expedition to Wyoming is found in "Annals of Buffalo Valley," by Hon. John Blair Linn, pp. 87-8. At the beginning of the war for independence he entered heartily into the contest, and was commissioned colonel of the Second battalion of Northumberland county associators in March, 1776, but for some cause or another, possibly at the instigation of his Wyoming enemies, he was arrested as being inimical to the principles of the Revolution. He was afterwards released as nothing treasonable could be proved against him. Sabine, in his "American Loyalists," imputes crimes to Colonel Plunket which he had neither fact or foundation for. At the close of the war he removed to Sunbury, where he died in the early part of May, 1791.

1 —, Commemorative Biographical Encyclopedia of Dauphin County, Pennsylvania (Chambersburg, PA: J. M. Runk & Company, Publishers, 1896), Pg 78, 352.

2 —, Biographical Annals of Franklin County, Pennsylvania (Chicago, IL: The Genealogical Publishing Co., 1905), Pg 149.

3 John W. Jordan, LL.D., Colonial and Revolutionary Families of Pennsylvania (New York, Chicago: The Lewis Publishing Company, 1911), Pg 1473.

4 —, Commemorative Biographical Encyclopedia of Dauphin County, Pennsylvania (Chambersburg, PA: J. M. Runk & Company, Publishers, 1896), Pg 78.

5 John W. Jordan, LL.D., Colonial and Revolutionary Families of Pennsylvania (New York, Chicago: The Lewis Publishing Company, 1911), Pg 1472.

6 William Henry Egle, Historical Register: Notes and Queries, Historical and Genealogical (Harrisburg, PA: Harrisburg Publishing Company, 1894), Pg 161.

7 —, Commemorative Biographical Encyclopedia of Dauphin County, Pennsylvania (Chambersburg, PA: J. M. Runk & Company, Publishers, 1896), Pg 77, 352.

8 —, Commemorative Biographical Encyclopedia of Dauphin County, Pennsylvania (Chambersburg, PA: J. M. Runk & Company, Publishers, 1896), Pg 77.

9 —, Armstrong County, Pennsylvania, Her People Past and Present (Chicago, IL: J. H. Beers & Co., 1914), Pg 712.

10 George P. Donehoo, Pennsylvania - A History (SW) (New York, NY; Chicago, IL: Lewis Historical Publishing Company, Inc., 1926), Pg 77.

11 —, History of Franklin County, Pennsylvania (Chicago, IL: Warner, Beers & Co., 1887), Pg 822.

12 —, History of the Susquehanna and Juniata Valleys (Philadelphia, PA: Everts, Peck & Richards, 1886), Pg 1226.

13 John W. Jordan, LL.D., Colonial and Revolutionary Families of Pennsylvania (New York, Chicago: The Lewis Publishing Company, 1911), Pg 1470.

14 —, Biographical Annals of Franklin County, Pennsylvania (Chicago, IL: The Genealogical Publishing Co., 1905), Pg 148.

15 John W. Jordan, LL.D., Colonial and Revolutionary Families of Pennsylvania (New York, Chicago: The Lewis Publishing Company, 1911), Pg 1469.

16 William Henry Egle, Historical Register: Notes and Queries, Historical and Genealogical (Harrisburg, PA: Harrisburg Publishing Company, 1894), Pg 162.