James Iddings

1755 - 1811  (56 years)

• Name	James Iddings  [1, 2, 3, 4]
  Birth	3 Aug 1755	Robeson, Berks, Pennsylvania   [5]
  Gender	Male
  Alternate birth	Abt 1759	Chester County, Pennsylvania   [6, 7]
  Death	3 Aug 1811	Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania   [5, 7, 8]
  Person ID	I42872	Ancestry of PNH, TNH, and others
  Last Modified	9 Sep 2025

  
  

  Father	William Iddings,   b. 1725, Chester County, Pennsylvania d. 1 Dec 1800, Chester County, Pennsylvania (Age 75 years)
  Mother	Hannah Lewis,   b. 23 Aug 1728, Delaware County, Pennsylvania d. 1765 (Age 36 years)
  Marriage	1748  [5]
  Family ID	F25083	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

  Family	Mary Peirce,   b. 16 Apr 1760, Thornbury, Chester, Pennsylvania d. 1 Jul 1828, Thornbury, Chester, Pennsylvania (Age 68 years)
  Marriage	17 May 1780	Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania   [2, 9, 10, 11]
  Children	+ 1. Joseph Iddings,   b. 25 Nov 1785, Wilmington, New Castle, Delaware d. 26 Dec 1845, Lawrence County, Pennsylvania (Age 60 years)
  Family ID	F25068	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
  Last Modified	9 Sep 2025

  
  

• Notes

  Sometime after 1800 (date implied in The Iddings and Their Forebears, citation details below), James Iddings went to Smyrna, Delaware (Duck Creek) to be principal of a Quaker girl's school, where he wrote a geography textbook called The monitor's instructor, or, A system of practical geography, printed by William Black of Wilmington, Delaware in January 1804. A printed proposal for subscribers is viewable at the Library of Congress site, and a letter James Iddings wrote to Thomas Jefferson about his book can be read here at the National Archives. An newspaper advertisement for it can be seen here, although the link offers no clue as to the identity or date of the newspaper. Evidently parts of it are in verse: THE FOUR SEASONS VERSIFIED When the sun in Aries shall appear Tis then begins the springtime of the year And whilst the equinoctial he pursue From pole to pole shall equal light defuse Thus equal day and night be found In Europe, Africa, and all the world around But when the sun in Cancer shall begin 'Tis here our golden summer ushers in And now rage sun our longest day brings forth When he was greatest declination north Next Libra: when the unwearied sun is here Autumn begins, which crowns the laboring year The sun again the equinox shall bring And equal days and nights as in the spring When Capricorn's, last the sun shall gain Bleak winter now beings his gloomy reign Now are the longest nights and shortest days The sun obliquely shines feeble rays His longest declination south is here Of any period throughout all the year. According to Todd W. Iddings (citation details below), parts of James Iddings's textbook are surprisingly accurate, notably his descriptions of the rivers flowing to what is now the American west coast. A copy is apparently in the Library of Congress's rare book room.

  
  

• Sources

  [S8415] Delaware, Church Records, 1660-1940, on familysearch.org. [S1040] U.S., Quaker Meeting Records, 1681-1935, on ancestry.com. [S3776] Colonial Families of the United States of America ed. George Norbury Mackenzie and Nelson Osgood Rhoades. 1912. [S8421] Find a Grave page for Ann Mendenhall Peirce. [S8426] The Iddings and Their Forebears, volume 1, by Todd W. Iddings. Marion, Kentucky: Riverbend Publishing Co., 1993. [S5245] Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S., Death Certificates Index, 1803-1915, on ancestry.com., year only. [S3833] Find a Grave page for James Iddings. [S5245] Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S., Death Certificates Index, 1803-1915, on ancestry.com. [S3833] Find a Grave page for James Iddings., year only. [S8303] Find a Grave page for Mary Peirce Iddings., year only. [S8426] The Iddings and Their Forebears, volume 1, by Todd W. Iddings. Marion, Kentucky: Riverbend Publishing Co., 1993., says "June 17, 1780", at the Concord Monthly Meeting.