| Birth: | 1690 in Tregaron, Cardiganshire, South Wales, England/Cardiganshire, Wales |
| Death: | 1751 in Maiden's Choice Plantation, In the center of Washington Co., MD |
| Sex: | M |
| Father: | Phillip Shelby\Selby b. About 1649 in St. Caron's Parish, Tregaron, Cardiganshire, Wales |
| Mother: | Margaretta Unknown b. About 1653 in Wales, England |
| Burial: Probably on the land at Maiden's Choice |
| Spouses & Children |
| Catherine Morgan (Wife) b. About 1694 in Wales, England | |
| Marriage: | 9 FEB 1716 in St. Caron's, Tregaron, Cardiganshire, South Wales, England |
| Children: | |
| |
| Notes |
Individual:
From Shelby Data link from Clan Pollock website:
A scion of the English Family of Shelby, lived near the market town of Tregaron in County Cardigan, Mid Wales. He was a farmer and a member of the Church of England. In 1735, Evan Shelby and his wife Catherine decided to emigrate to the British North American Colonies, coming first to the province of Pennsylvania, where Evan settled on a 300 acre farm called "Black Walnut Point" on Conococheagur Creek in the middle of what is now Franklin County. He remained here but four years however, then moved over onto a thousand acre plantation in western Maryland called "Maiden's Choice". This tract lies at the foot of a line of high hills known as North Mountain in what was then Prince George's County but is now the center of Washington County. He secured later from Lord Baltimore's government other tracts in the vicinity totalling 2,500 acres. Evan Shelby died on Maiden's Choice in the spring or summer of 1751, leaving a line of descendants of which he would be most proud.
From Don Dickenson's WorldConnect GEDCOM on 8 January 2000; e-mail DDickenson@aol.com:
Evan Shelby was born in Tregaron, Cardigan, Wales during William and Mary's reign, between 1690 and 1695. He may have been a farmer and sheep raiser in Wales as was a common occupation in the mountainous region. He could write his name, which is more than many of that period could do, and the little handwriting that remains is clear and distinct.
Some seven or eight years after George the Second had succeeded to the throne, Evan Shelby, then perhaps forty years old, emigrated with is family to America where he hoped to better his fortune. They landed probably at Philadelphia, the principal city of Penn's province, at that time then a little over fifty years old.
The "Blunstone License Book" of Lancaster County in the land office in the capitol at Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, shows that Evan Shelby was licensed on July 4, 1735, to take up three hundred acres in the then Indian owned territory west of the Susquehanna River. Here the Shelbys settled on a beautiful spot on the east bank of Conococheague Creek, naming their farm "Black Walnut Point". It is in the present township of Antrim, Franklin County, five miles north of the Maryland (Mason-Dixon) line. Two years later he was licensed to acquire an additional 200 hundred acres at Rocky Spring, somewhere near his first tract.
At the end of four years his home having been seized to satisfy a debt owed by him to one Richard Phillips, he removed to Maryland, having secured on June 7, 1739, through Lord Baltimore's land agent at Annapolis, two warrants for twelve hundred acres of land in Prince George's County, in that part which is now Washington County. One tract of his allotment called "Rich Lands", was then owned by Dr. Robert Stuart of Annapolis, but reassigned to Shelby on that date. It was somewhat to the northwest of the site of Hagerstown. The other, a 1,000 acre tract, which he named "Maiden's Choice", seems to have been his home plantation. It was a narrow and very irregular shaped strip, beginning at the Pennsylvania line and extending southward along the base of the North Mountain three and one half miles.
Evan Shelby's new house was situated at the south end, probably on the road now running from Clear Springs, Maryland, to Mercerburg, Pennsylvania. During the next 11 years he obtained other land warrants and secured patents on them until he was in possession of 2,500 acres. With the exception of Rich Lands and a 50 acre piece called "Hunt's Cabin", all of Shelby's land seems to have been located between Conococheague Creek and the east side of North Mountain, that is, about 10 or 12 miles west of the site of Hagerstown. He disposed of some of his land from time to time by sale and some of it was conveyed as gifts to his sons.
In the Testamentary Proceedings on file at Annapolis it is recorded that his wife, Catherine, and son, Evan Jr., filed a bond on July 19, 1750, as administrators of his estate; but, as he had over his personal signature conveyed a piece of land to his son John on May 19, his death must have occurred between those two dates, when he was between 55 and 60 years old.
- Debra Munn
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The below is from a Shelby Genealogical Mailing List which I am on:
Dear Judy,
Although I do not have my materials "out" right now, I was in Tregaron
several years ago. I visited both the sites you mentioned, and my impression then was that there were two Shelby farms near Tregaron. The Derlyn one is now a modern farm, and there was an older farmhouse that has been torn down. We drove to this place by passing the footpath and getting to a road that led up to the farm. The lady who owns the farm with her husband was most cordial, but didn't know the history of the farm. It is certainly Derlyn and still carries that name. The other place at the
meeting of the two rivers we could see, but did not have exact enough information to find the place. Derlyn is up on a hill looking down on the river, a beautiful setting and a prosperous farm. The other place lies in the valley, and there are quite a few houses in the area now. The man who owns Derlyn might be a good source of information about the farm if he was home -- I understood it had been in his family for some length of time. Nobody that we talked to had any recollection of the Shelbys. There is a bed and breadfast right near the turn off road that leads up to Derlyn Just past the bridge (which is old, but was nevertheless built after our family left Wales.) It turned out to be quite busy even in Tregaron in the summer time and also the fall. The area is remote and old fashioned. We heard quite a lot of Welsh spoken, and that was interesting.
Kay Kitzmiller