Herb Masenthin News Collection - ACPL Genealogy Center

Anthony and Mary (Penrose) Wayne Family Bible

The Christian's New and Complete Family Bible (London: C. Forster, 1788)

The Allen County Public Library Genealogy Center has an artifact of major historical and genealogical significance in the Anthony and Mary (Penrose) Wayne Family Bible. General Anthony Wayne (1745-1796) was a staff officer of George Washington during the Revolutionary War and later took charge of the American army in the 1790s. His military victory at the Battle of Fallen Timbers helped to establish American control of the Old Northwest Territory. The artifact complements a manuscript letter of General Wayne, which the library acquired in 1994.

Published in 1788, the Wayne family Bible was presented by Wayne's wife Mary to their son Isaac Wayne, a Philadelphia attorney, probably soon after the book was published and contains what appears to be her inscription to him. Perhaps it was Isaac Wayne who carefully recorded the deaths of both of his parents on the Bible's flyleaves, as well as his own marriage and the births and deaths of his children. Later, the Bible passed to Isaac's niece, Mary Wayne (Atlee) Evans, daughter of William Richardson Atlee and Margaretta (Wayne) and wife of Issachar Evans, who continued the tradition of recording family events in its pages.

More than sixty years of family information is recorded, and the result is a virtual manuscript genealogy of vital events, representing possibly the most significant primary source for the study of Anthony Wayne's descendants. A variety of genealogical documents accompany the Bible, including two family Bible fragments for the ancestors of Issachar Evans: the Robert and Margaret Towers Bible, published in London in 1756; and the Jonathan and Mary Gostilowe - Robert T. and Eliza (Ridgway) Evans Bible, published at Oxford, England in 1762. Among the other documents is a typescript description of the Anthony Wayne birthplace at Waynesborough, Pennsylvania.

Images:
1788 Bible
1756 Bible
1762 Bible
Waynesborough Facts
Letter to Ede
Newspaper Clipping