Husband Andrew Ellicott 1
Born: 1754 - Bucks Co, PA 1
Christened:
Died: 1820 - ? Maryland 2
Buried:
Father: [Father] Ellicott ( - )
Mother:
Marriage: 1775 3
Wife Sarah Brown 1
Born:
Christened:
Died:
Buried:
Children
1 F Jane Judith Ellicott 2
Born: 25 Jun 1778 - Baltimore, MD 2
Christened:
Died: 27 Nov 1845 - Meadville, Crawford Co, PA 4
Buried:
Spouse: Dr. Thomas Ruston Kennedy (1763-1813) 5 6
Spouse: John Reynolds, Esq. (1782-1871) 7 8 9
Marr: 1814 4
2 F Sarah "Sally" Ellicott 10 11
Born:
Christened:
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Spouse: Hon. Henry Baldwin ( -1844) 10 11
Marr: 11 Jun 1805 10
General Notes: Husband - Andrew Ellicott
He was born of English ancestry, in Bucks County, Pennsylvania; he married and they made their home in Maryland. He was captain and major in the Maryland militia of the Revolutionary period. He became an expert civil engineer and a famed astronomer, and in these capacities was long years in prominent public service. In 1784 he ran the boundary line between Pennsylvania and Virginia, and in his Journal of November 16 he writes: "Fixed the Southwest Corner of Pennsylvania." In 1785 he was one of three commissioners to locate the state's western boundary; in 1786 he was made a state commissioner to act with Governor Clinton and another citizen of New York in locating a part of the north boundary of the state; in 1787, with W. W. Morris of New York, he located the remainder of the north boundary line; in 1789 he was commissioned by President Washington to ascertain and define the western boundary of New York, and in this duty his assistants and brothers, Joseph and Benjamin Ellicott, made the first accurate measurements of the length of Niagara river, its fall from Lake Erie to Lake Ontario, the height of the "Great Fall" and of the Rapids. In 1790 he was called as an expert by Robert Morris to determine "the true eastern line" of the Phelps and Gorman purchase. In 1791, after the French engineer, who drew the first plans of the contemplated city of Washington, had abstracted them from the Government's custody, Major Ellicott was appointed by President Washington a commissioner to locate the bounds of the District of Columbia and to lay out the city. He was the chief surveyor of this work, himself using the transit to secure perfect accuracy in the lines and in laying out the avenues and streets. He also surveyed and determined the site of the capitol, the White House and the department buildings. The plan he drew of this work was used to produce the first engraved map of the city.
In 1794 Major Ellicott was one of two commissioners appointed to lay out a state road from Reading, Pennsylvania, to Lake Erie, and while on this service, on June 29, 1794, made a report in which he advised the erection of three block houses "on the Venango Path," of which one should be at "Mead's Settlement" (Meadville). The same year he platted the township of Waterford, in Erie County (then Fort LeBoeuf and part of an Indian reservation), and under his supervision were established towns and defenses at Erie, Warren and Franklin.
From 1796 to 1800 he was in a most important service as commissioner on the part of the United States to arrange with the Spanish officials of Florida and Louisiana the boundary of the two nations. His Journal was published as a work of rare erudition and a valuable reference authority. It is replete with incidents of danger, which show that the Spaniards of a century ago possessed the same untruthful, treacherous and barbarous traits of character so strongly manifested in the Spanish-American war, but found their superior in Major Ellicott, both in diplomacy and in courage.
From 1802 to 1808 he was secretary of the Pennsylvania land office. In 1808, in recognition of his abilities as an astronomer, he was elected a member of the National Institute of Paris, France. In 1811 he ran the north boundary of the state of Georgia. In 1813 he was appointed professor of mathematics at West Point, where he made his home, and held this office until his death.
He was the father of ten children.