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EARLY SETTLERS OF SANGAMON COUNTY - 1876
By John Carroll Power

These biographies were submitted by a researcher and evidently abstracted from the 1876 History of Sangamon County, IL. Errors could occur, so one should always verify the correctness by obtaining copies of vitals and performing all necessary research to document what is contained herein.



ROYAL, THOMAS, was born about 1758, in Manchester, England. He came to America with a comrade about his own age, near the beginning of the war for Independence. They both volunteered in the army of the colonists, and his comrade at his side had his head blown completely off. About the same time Mr. Royal was severely wounded by a charge of buckshot entering his ankle, some of which he carried to his grave. After the Revolution he married a Miss Cooper, in Virginia, and raised a family. Mrs. Royal died, and he married Rebecca Matthews. They moved to Franklin county, Ohio, where Mrs. Rebecca Royal died, leaving one child. Mr. Royal married Mrs. Ellen Brunk. They had one child in Ohio, and moved to Sangamon county, Ill., in company with her sons, George and David Brunk, the Newcomer family, and others, numbering in all sixty-three persons, arriving in the fall of 1824, in what is now Ball township. Thomas Royal brought two children by his first wife--

WILLIAM, born in 1796, in Virginia, entered the ministry in connection with the M. E. church, in Ohio. He came to Sangamon county in 1826, and after the first three or four years his itinerant connection took him out of Sangamon county, but he remained in Illinois until 1853, when he went to Oregon. He died in Salem, Sept. 29, 1870, leaving a family there.

MARY, born in Virginia, and married in Ohio to Absolom Meredith. See his name.

By the second wife--

REBECCA, born July 30, 1812, in Ohio, married in Sangamon county to Jacob Boyd. See his name.

By the third marriage--

JOSEPH B., born Nov. 1, 1816, in Franklin county, near Columbus, Ohio, was married in Sangamon county, Aug. 19, 1841, to Louisa Downing. She died Jan. 8, 1853, in Vermont, Fulton county, Ill., leaving four children; two died young. THOMAS M. was married in Washington county, Ill., to Sarah M. Kelso, and lives in Chatsworth, Ill. ELEANOR E. married James M. Little, and lives in McDonough county, near Vermont, Fulton county, Ill. Joseph B. Royal was married Oct. 23, 1853, at Vermont, Ill., to Mrs. Elsey McHendry whose maiden name was Boyle. She had one child, SARAH C. McHENDRY, and Mr. and Mrs. Royal have three children, GEORGE A., MOLLIE M. and EUGENE D. The family live at Vermont, Fulton county, Ill. Joseph B. Royal is pastor of the Christian church there.

Thomas Royal died August, 1834, and his widow died September, 1844, both in Ball township, Sangamon county, Ill.



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