Isaac Peirce

Quick Facts

Significance:

Landowner and Builder of Mill

Place of Birth:

Chester County, Pennsylvania

Date of Birth:

April 4, 1756

Place of Death:

Washington, DC

Date of Death:

December 16, 1841

Place of Burial:

Washington, DC

Early years and childhood

Isaac Peirce was born in Chester County, Pennsylvania, on April 4, 1756. His parents were Joshua Peirce (1725-1811) and Ann Bailey (1723-1769). The family lived in East Marlborough (part of Chester County, Pennsylvania) through much of the 1700s. This is traceable through census data as well as through transcripts for the U.S. Quaker Meeting Records for the Kennett Monthly Meeting of the Society of Friends. From this data we can assume Isaac was brought up as a Quaker and held many of their beliefs. 

Married life and the move to Maryland

Isaac married Elizabeth Cloud sometime close to 1778. There is some indication that the Cloud family had been removed from the Quaker faith after their participation in the American Revolution. Isaac’s marriage to Elizabeth barred him from meetings as well. Isaac Peirce left Pennsylvania and purchased land in Maryland (which would later become part of the District of Columbia) around 1790. 
Isaac and Elizabeth had several children:               

Anna (1780-1851)   
Job (1781-1804)   
Hannah (1783-1872)  
Abner (1785-1851)   
Abigail (1791- ?)   
Mary (1791-1791)   
Elizabeth (1792-1846)   
Joshua (1795-1869)

Isaac’s land came with several buildings on it already, including a sawmill. He developed this land and added buildings to create a prosperous estate. Several of his children married and moved away but returned when their spouses died young. 

In 1823, Isaac gifted a portion of land to his youngest son, Joshua. Joshua developed this land into a separate, thriving estate over the course of the next forty years. The home he built on the land is now called Klingle Mansion and is where the Rock Creek Park headquarters are located.

In 1829, Isaac and his 44-year-old son Abner built the current structure known as Peirce Mill. 

Enslaved people on the Peirce estate

Quakers generally did not believe in the practice of slavery. Isaac appears to have held to those beliefs for at least the first decade he lived in Maryland. The 1800 census records show 13 people living with Isaac, all of them free white persons younger than 10 to older than 45 years of age.

By the 1820 census, 11 enslaved persons are listed as being owned by Isaac Peirce. Only their ages are recorded, not their names.

In the 1830 census there are 14 enslaved persons and one "Free Colored Person" living on the property. This person was a male between the ages of 10 and 23. Again, no names were recorded. The 1840 census also indicates 14 enslaved persons on the property but no longer lists the "free colored person."

Death and Isaac's estate

Isaac died on December 16, 1841. His death is mentioned in a Baltimore, Maryland newspaper and states "in the 88th year of his age, Mr. Isaac Pierce, a native of Pennsylvania, and for 53 years a resident of the District" died. His will is fairly straightforward and helps us to build a timeline and search for the remainder of his family.

Joshua Peirce received "the sum of fifty dollars, to be paid him within one year after my death, by my executor. Having made provision for him by deed of gift, in land, I cannot in justice to my other children leave him more by will than the above named sum."

Hannah was unmarried at the time he wrote his will. He leaves her a sum of $3,000 to be paid over a course of several years. He also willed her "her choice of any one of my servants, male or female, or if she prefers it, the value of any one she may choose in money at the value of four hundred and fifty dollars." She also received one feather bed, bedstead, and furniture for the bed. Hannah married Hayes Speakman after her father's death and they relocated to Ohio.

Elizabeth Peirce also received a monetary sum of $3,000 to be paid to her in the same manner as Hannah received. She was also bequeathed a bed, bedstead and "necessary bed furniture." 

Abigail Peirce Shoemaker received a sum of $400. Her sons, Peirce and Abner, received $250 each, which wasn't to be paid to them until they reached the age of 21. Their sister Caroline received $100 which she would receive upon her marriage or the age of 19, whichever came first.

Isaac's grand-daughter Elizabeth Ould, only child of his eldest son Job, was given $300 to be paid three years after Isaac's death.

Abner C. Peirce inherited the remainder of his father's property and real estate and was named the executor of Isaac's will. 

One of the final paragraphs of Isaac's will reads:
 

"It is my most earnest desire and wish, that so long as my children that are now with me, remain single, that they will live together, and each mutually endeavor to keep up and promote towards each other the greatest possible harmony and peace and brotherly and sisterly love and affection towards each other: and that they may do so, I beg, that they may often remind themselves, that it is among the last and greatest desires that a fond and affectionate Father leaves, and if complyed with, in his mind will be the best legacy he leaves them. The terms upon which they may so live together, he wishes not to express any opinion or desire about, but that they may mutually agree among themselves as to the terms and conditions, as he leaves each one free to act as their own discretion and judgement may dictate, nevertheless it is to be understood that I leave my son Abner the whole and entire right to all my property which may remain after the payment or satisfaction of the several herein before specified legacies, to do with as he may think fit, therefore the desire I have expressed above, that they should live together, is not to be understood as giving any right in the property or house, to any one or more, except my son Abner, to whom I leave the sovereign control and right to."