The Legend of Isaac Skaggs of Salem County, New Jersey

There is a family legend amongst Skeggs that descend from Leonard of Frederick County, Maryland that Isaac Skaggs immigrated through the port of Salem, New Jersey from London, England sometime in the 1700s and settled in Salem County.  I never paid much attention to this legend since no evidence of Skaggs have been found to date from eighteenth-century New Jersey.  Until now.

There was a Scaggs family in Delaware in the 1800s that I always thought might be related to the Maryland Eastern Shore Scaggs.  John, William and Thomas Scaggs showed up in several Delaware census records in the 1800s and their descendants ended up migrating west to places like Ohio and Iowa.  Recently I found a 1802 deed in New Castle County, Delaware for 263.5 acres in Appoquinimink Hundred, New Castle County, Delaware from Thomas Rothwell of that county to John Scaggs of Salem County, New Jersey.

1802 Deed of Land to John Scaggs of Salem County, NJ

Yes, this John Scaggs, patriarch of the Delaware Scaggs, was from Salem County, New Jersey.  This deed and subsequent census records allow us to estimate the birth of this John Scaggs between 1776 and 1781.  If the Isaac Skaggs legend is true and Isaac was John's father, then we can estimate a birth date for Isaac around 1750-1760.  This legend is significant to our Y-DNA testing project since, if true, we possibly could find through our DNA testing a third unrelated group of Skaggs families in America in addition to our R1a and R1b Skaggs families. Of course it's also possible that this Scaggs family is also R1a or R1b, which, if true, could help us in finding a link in England between the Isle of Man Skeig family of the 1300s and the American Skaggs of the 1600s.

If the legend of Issac Skaggs is true, then their family tree looks something like this:

1 Isaac Skaggs
    2 John Scaggs (1778-1832)

    + Elizabeth Fisher

        3 John Scaggs (1811-1881)

        3 William Scaggs (1814-1891)

        + Mary Hawkins

            4 Sarah Scaggs (1847-1910)

            4 Martha Scaggs (1851-1922)

            4 George W Scaggs (1855-1928)

            + Margaret Sargent Maree

                5 George W Scaggs (1893-1940)

                + Dorothy

                5 Mary Alice Scaggs (1896-1962)

                5 Clara Scaggs (1899-1940)

                + Francis Joseph Lannon

                5 Norman R Skaggs (1902-1912)

                5 Catherine Scaggs (1906-1920)

            4 Andrew Scaggs (1855-1935)

        3 Thomas Scaggs (1815-1860)

        + Emalina Roberts

            4 John R Scaggs (1838-1891)

            + Martha Ann Barney

                5 Ella Ellsworth Scaggs (1863-1940)

                + James Bowers

            4 William Howe Scaggs (1841-1907)

            + Josephine Allison

                5 Birdie May Scaggs (1877-1940)

                + Richard Ray Robinson

                    6 Ray Allison Robinson (1901-1978)

                    + Bessie Mae McCammon

                    6 Harry Clyde Robinson (1908-1979)

                    + Sylvia Ione Starry

            4 Henry Price Scaggs (1843-1920)

            + Levenia Rollison

                5 Thomas Ludlow Scaggs (1869-1929)

                + Rosa May Van Horn

                    6 Willard Skeggs (1903-1966)

                    + Marie Huselton

                    6 Jerome Niles Scaggs (1912-1999)

                    + Hilda Seward

                        7 Catherine Rosetta Scaggs (1935-2019)

                        + Robert Lowery

                5 Eugene Scaggs (1870-1940)

                + Laura Ott

                5 William Mortimer Scaggs (1874-1930)

                + Anna Maude Allen

                5 Jessie Scaggs (1879-1915)

                5 Willard Newton Scaggs (1881-1970)

                + Mary Deardorff

                    6 Ruth Skeggs (1919-1992)

                    + Glenn Joseph Bateman

                    6 Robert Willard Skeggs (1922-2009)

                    + Rachel Schirk

                5 Olin Hollis Scaggs (1883-1960)

            4 Adaline Scaggs (1846-1910)

            + Joseph Morris

                5 Frank Thomas Morris (1871-1953)

                + Martha Boyd

                    6 Edward Samuel Morris (1924-1997)

                    + Ruby Frances Sheffield

If you are a male Scaggs from this family, we really need your participation in the Skaggs Y-DNA project.  If interested, you can contact the project administrator here.