Shane's Castle, Waterford

Don Catts

Don Catts

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Aug 5, 2012
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Hey RednekF350, are you familiar with a 1700's log cabin that once stood along Clark Branch in Waterford called Shane's Castle. A neighbor of yours thinks it may have been on his property on Pastletown Road. I am familiar with the history of Shane's Castle but don't know the location. Do you have any info for me to go on?



Thanks, Don
 
Don:

It is not my intention to inject myself into the exchange between yourself and Scott. Most people who know anything about Shane’s Castle, however, obtained the story from John Clement in George R. Prowell’s History of Camden County (1886) or some subsequent tertiary source. Clement made some fundamental temporal errors in recounting the story to Prowell and only additional research can ferret out the correct facts.

Best regards,
Jerseyman
 
Actually, I was hoping you would jump into the mix Jerseyman !
What I know is based on discussions you and I had 10 years ago along with George when you were assisting him with his research.
Let me see if I can get this at least half right. At a minimum I'll shoot for very half-assed.

Clark's Branch, especially in its upper reaches is shown as Woas or Woos Branch on some maps and occasionally as Nield's Branch. The waterway was named after Mary Nield (sometimes Neal) who owned a large piece on the westerly side of Pestletown Road in the late 1800's. I don't have the old 1885 map of Waterford in front of me or the old Larry Hoppe Waterford tax maps but I seem to recall Nield's Branch on them.

My recollection is that the accounts of the existence of Shane's Castle placed it near the stream crossing beneath Pestletown Road
Branch because of references to the nearby cemetery in some (whose I do not know) accounts of Shane's Castle.
Here is a general reference to the cemetery or "Woos burial place":
https://sites.google.com/site/camdencountynjgenweb/history/old-grave-yards


I searched Ben's site and found my old post from 2004:
http://forums.njpinebarrens.com/threads/hidden-cemetery-near-atsion.645/page-2

As I said in that post, I have never found any remnants of anything at the stream crossing and I have been through the area on my hands and knees several times starting beagles on the rabbits that inhabited the once thick undergrowth.
Two years ago the stream crossing was upgraded and a lot of clearing and earthwork was done. The undergrowth is not as bad as it once was.

How'd I do Jerseyman ?
Do I qualify for the HAHA ?
:)
 
Jerseyman and RednekF350, thanks for the information.



Jerseyman I read Clements and the History of Camden County. This is all I have to go on so any errors would throw me off. I did find a little genealogy on Sabastian Woos as follows:

Sabastian Woos (d. Bef. 15 Jun 1801)​


Sabastian Woos was born in Germany1056, and died Bef. 15 Jun 1801 in Waterford Twp., Gloucester Co., (now Camden County) NJ1057. He married (1) Clotilda Weiss on Bef. 1759 in New Jersey1058.
Notes for Sabastian Woos:
Came to America from Germany in the mid 1700's with 2 brothers to escape
conscription in the Germany Army. He was 22, Brother Ignatius 20, and
Xavier 18.They were orphans. They landed in Philadelphia, PA, crossed
the Delaware river into NJ and built a house one mile south of Waterford
(later called Shane's Castle). Sebastian sent for Clotilda Weiss to come
from Germany to America at which time he married her. Sabastian and
Clotilda had 3 daughters and a son. The eldest daugter was named
Catherine who later married Harmon Myrose from Amsterdam. The second
daughter married Eli Neild from Shanes Castle, Ireland. The third
daughter married Samuel Crowley.
Above information comes from the Gloucester County Historical Society. We are unsure at this time whether there was one wife or two and which one
it would be, also unsure of which kids would belong to which couple.
More About Sabastian Woos and Clotilda Weiss:
Marriage: Bef. 1759, New Jersey.1058
More About Sabastian Woos and <Unnamed>:
Marriage: 17 Apr 1759, Philadelphia, PA Old St. Joseph RC Church.1059
Children of Sabastian Woos and Clotilda Weiss are:

  1. i. +Catherine Woos, b., Waterford Twp., Gloucester Co., New Jersey1060, d., Waterford Twp., Gloucester Co., New Jersey.
  2. ii. Children of Sabastian Woos are:
i. +Catherine Woos, b., Waterford Twp., Gloucester Co., New Jersey1060, d., Waterford Twp., Gloucester Co., New Jersey.

I am not sure how much of this is correct

Scott,
on the 1885 Raleigh map of waterford I see a couple of houses on Mary Neild's property. Is it possible that one is Shane's Castle or is the map to late for it to be the original log cabin. Another daughter built on the land also, could the other one be hers?

Thanks again for you interest, Don
 
On the the attached scan of the 1885 map I pointed out two structures near the stream crossing on Pestletown Road.
The one on the west side was demo'd in the 1980's after I moved to Waterford. It can be seen in multiple years on Historic Aerials.
The structure on the east side is a home and it still exists today. It is the second house north of the stream.
From my foggy recollections of discussions 10 years ago with Jerseyman and Largo from this site, I felt that Shane's Castle was on the east side of the road and very close to the stream. The 1885 map does not show a structure at that location.
 

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Scott,

this is good info, it clears up a lot. I guess 1885 is well after Woos's log cabin was gone. My friend lives in the first house north of the stream on the east side of Pestletown Road between the still existing house and the stream. So if I am reading everything correctly, maybe Shane's castle was on his lot?

Thanks again, all your help is well appreciated. Don
 
Don Catts said:
Scott,

this is good info, it clears up a lot. I guess 1885 is well after Woos's log cabin was gone. My friend lives in the first house north of the stream on the east side of Pestletown Road between the still existing house and the stream. So if I am reading everything correctly, maybe Shane's castle was on his lot?

Thanks again, all your help is well appreciated. Don
Click to expand...
My thoughts were that it may have been on or near Hal's lot or on the southerly side of the stream and still on the east side of the road.
 
This is beyond crazy.
I have not been on the site for months and go on and first thread I see that peaks my interest is this one.
I would call this somewhat... Serendipitous.
kinda crazy reading some of this stuff, drudging up old memories and notes.
and yes Scott the Memorable Day spent in the Jerseyman den was awesome.
It is also fun to run behind the scenes and play a role in the goings on of Pestletown as I have had the good fortune to! :ninja:
 
A cemetary on Pestletown road.
Thank goodness there's only one or it would be a little bit more work to validate some of the theories.
 
Many years ago Budd Wilson's father reviewed the Wharton Ledgers and I was graciously mailed a copy of his review by a member of this site. Since I have more time after having this information for many years, I was able to sit down today and look it over. In volume 42 page 264 and 274 Shanes Castle is mentioned.


Shanes Castle.jpg
 
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I have not done any research in the Wharton Ledgers so must admit I’m not very familiar with them as a source. Presumably they are business/account ledgers of the Wharton family who once owned the land that now comprises Wharton State Forest. In any case, I believe what is referred to in the two entries posted above are a pair of warrants for land deeded to Eli Neild by the West Jersey Proprietors. The 1805 warrant (see West Jersey Surveys CC:19) describes the parcel of land as beginning “on the Easterly side of a Road leading from the Cedar Swamp to Shaines Castle it being the Beginning corner of Seventy acres and a half of land surveyed to Xaverius and Ignacious Woas.” The 1807 warrant (see West Jersey Surveys CC:52) describes the parcel of land as beginning “on the Southwardly side of an Old Road leading from Shaines Castle to an old Causeway at the Forks of Prices and Briants branches.” I have complete copies of both documents.

As I noted in my 23 July 2024 post in the “Origins of Pestletown” thread, the earliest reference I can find to Shane’s Castle is found in one of the four warrants for a total of 300 acres of land deeded to Xaverius and Ignacious Woos by the West Jersey Proprietors in the early 1760s (in the post I attached a copy of one of those original surveys, from April 1761, which depicts and labels “Shains Castle”). As I also noted, Xaverius and Ignacious were not brothers of Sebastian Woos, as is claimed in numerous sources, but his young sons. Sebastian obtained the land in their names since he was a German-Catholic immigrant who could not legally own land in New Jersey under British colonial law (the sons were born in New Jersey and so were considered naturalized subjects of the British Crown who could own land even as children). For more on this see the evidence presented in my article "Corrections to the Family of Sebastian Woos of Waterford Township, Old Gloucester County, New Jersey" in the May 2023 volume of the Genealogical Magazine of New Jersey (I’m happy to email a copy to anyone interested). That article also presents evidence that a lot of the biographical information about Sebastian Woos published in numerous places since first appearing in Prowell’s 1886 History of Camden County is simply wrong or at best questionable (we can probably blame John Clement for that since he appears to be the original source, but other authors have added fanciful embellishments along the way). In that regard, some of the Sebastian Woos bio in the 26 Apr 2014 post above is also inaccurate or suspect since it appears to be derived from the largely dubious article “Shane’s Castle” attributed to John H. Myrose from a 1966 Gloucester County Historical Society Bulletin. I say “attributed to” Myrose since he had been deceased for nearly a decade when that article was published. The article was most likely written by the GCHS Bulletin editor who excerpted the material from a much longer essay by Myrose that can still be found in the Woos Family File at GCHS. Among the few things that are accurate in that article are that Sebastian Woos did build and live in a homestead called “Shane’s Castle” from about 1760, and three of his daughters did marry Harmon Myrose, Eli Neild, and Samuel Crowley (the original settler of Crowleytown)

Since Eli Neild is mentioned more than once in this post, it is worth correcting some longstanding misinformation about him: he was not from Ireland and Shane’s Castle was not named for the area in Ireland that he came from as is claimed in various sources, including John Myrose in “Shane’s Castle” above and John Kelly in the 1984 Camden County Historical Society book The Irish in Camden County. First, Eli Neild did not marry Sebastian Woos’ daughter Martha Nancy until about 1810 (he was her third husband, as she had been twice widowed before marrying Neild). Since Neild did not marry into the Woos family until about 50 years after we find Shane’s Castle mentioned in a 1761 survey, the place certainly was not named for him. Not only that, but extensive evidence I’ve found in my research of the Woos family suggests that Eli Neild was not from Ireland but was a Pennsylvania-born Quaker from Bucks County who migrated to Gloucester County, New Jersey with his father Eli Neild, Sr., about 1798. He was admitted to the Upper Evesham Meeting in September 1798 and purchased land in Gloucester Township in October 1798 (in an area that is now in Winslow Township). In 1805 he began purchasing land in the area that is now Pestletown, eventually becoming the owner of 200 acres of former Woos land as well as several other tracts that made him one of the larger landowners in the area (by the 1830s he owned a significant portion of the land between Clarks and Prices branches). His daughter Mary Neild inherited most of this land and some of it remained in the family of Mary’s daughter Hannah Ann (Neild) String until the early 20th century.
 
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Since some of the discussion on this thread back in 2014 included suppositions about the location of Shane's Castle I will address that as well, to include an attachment with surveys/maps that back up my estimate of where it was located. The evidence presented in these surveys point to the site of Shane's Castle as being just north of Clark Branch about 500 yards west of where Pestletown Road crosses that branch. The attached graphic consists of a side-by-side comparison of two historical surveys and a modern GIS map as follows:

1) the 1761 West Jersey Proprietors survey for 100 acres of land conveyed to Xaverius and Ignatious Woos, young sons of Sebastian (they sold this land to their father in 1781 when they became of legal age). The survey shows "Shains Castle" standing near the southwest corner of the parcel. A copy of this survey is also posted in my 23 July 2024 post in the “Origins of Pestletown” thread if you want to review it separately from the attached graphic.
2) an excerpt from an 1833 survey of land owned by Sebastian Woos' son-in-law Eli Neild. It only shows the westernmost parcels of Neild's land, including the 100 acre tract conveyed to the Woos above. It also shows two other tracts to the west of the Woos parcel, one of which is particularly useful to include for comparative purposes since its unique arrow shape and dimensions align perfectly with an existing, modern parcel. A full copy of this survey can be found at the West Jersey History website on page 65 of this link: http://www.westjerseyhistory.org/surveys/Clement/M&D4.pdf
3) an excerpt from a modern New Jersey ArcGIS map of the Pestletown area showing current lots boundaries. Among the present lots is the distinctive arrow shaped parcel seen in the 1833 survey described above. Not only do the parcels match in shape, but use of the ArcGIS measuring tool confirms that the boundary dimensions match in length to the chain measurements given in the 1833 survey. This GIS map is from: https://njdep.maps.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=02251e521d97454aabadfd8cf168e44d (search for Pestletown and then zoom in until you can see the lot boundaries).

Using the arrow shaped tract as a reference to align the three surveys/maps and then using measuring tools at the ArcGIS site, the 100 acre Woos tract would have been located north of Clark Branch, with 2/3 of it lying to the west of Pestletown Road and 1/3 to the east. This alignment of the three surveys/maps also allows you to estimate the location of Shane's Castle on the modern map, very likely somewhere within the red circle I have superimposed on that map. That places its former location on the western end of Lot 10 of Block 7201.

I wonder if the current owner would give someone permission to the comb the area with a metal detector to see if it gets any hits. The area is close to the existing, modern home however, so they probably would not be amenable to any digging! It would be a very cool summer archaeology project for some college students though.
 

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That corner has a Wharton monument and I have that on my list of places to go. I will post here when I visit it.
 
We visited the SE property corner near where the castle was this morning and could not find the Wharton monument. With the snow it is not a good time to look. There is a bunch of old trash and even an old car there. Plus, the state ran a plow line around the property and may have taken the monument out. It was 13 degrees when we got there so we did not stay long. With the rubber boots I was wearing my feet were frozen by the time we got back to the car.
 
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Teegate said:
We visited the SE property corner near where the castle was this morning and could not find the Wharton monument. With the snow it is not a good time to look. There is a bunch of old trash and even an old car there. Plus, the state ran a plow line around the property and may have taken the monument out. It was 13 degrees when we got there so we did not stay long. With the rubber boots I was wearing my feet were frozen by the time we got back to the car.
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