William Willford who wrote "History and Genealogy of the Willford Family in America", and others after him have identified York County as the place of Joseph Willford the immigrant's marriage and of his and Mary Campbell's residence until some time between 1777 and 1779. Having searched in vain for Joseph Willford and his family in York County or its environs, I decided to try a search for Joseph Willford and Mary Campbell's family in other parts of Pennsylvania.

Since both our family tradition and William Willford's "History and Genealogy..." place Joseph in Cumberland Co., PA before his marriage (although our tradition says that he first was in Bucks Co. for a short time), I decided to look in Cumberland Co. for the Campbells with whom he was associated. The National Archives of England stipulate that Joseph's death sentence for stealing a horse was commuted to seven years' servitude in the colonies. Because of that, I figured he wouldn't show up by name on any official records until about seven years after his transportation to America which was in 1766.

One of my searches was for the man after whom Joseph Willford's and Mary Campbell's fourth child, Dougal Campbell Willford, was named. I picked Dougal Campbell because his name is not as common as that of Mary's father who our family tradition recalls as William Campbell. I found a Dougal Campbell in Lack (now Tuscarora) Township, Cumberland Co., PA on a tax assessment for 1763 (http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~milliken/alguss/lac...). The report of the tax assessment is set up so that, after the initial mention of the person, it does not mention his name again. I wondered if I had found the Dougal Campbell which appears on the 1790 census of Washington (Greene) County, PA, together with other individuals later associated with the Willfords.

According to our family tradition, Mary Campbell's father was named William, and she had two brothers named William and Daniel. As I looked further into the same document that mentioned Dougal Campbell I found a William Campbell, a Daniel Campbell added to the roles in 1769, and a William Campbell Jr. added in 1775. All of these were living in the same township of Lack in the Tuscarora Valley. Then, by changing the spelling of Joseph Willford's surname to Wilford, I found him just where he might be expected, appearing on the roles for the first time in 1774. We know he was transported in 1766, he served seven years until about july or august of 1773 and appeared as a freeman on the 1774 tax roles.

I believe this information definitely shows that Joseph Willford and Mary Campbell did not live from 1770 to to 1778 (or so) in York County, but in Cumberland County, in Lack Township. And their children born up to at least 1882 should probably be shown as born in Lack, Cumberland. Also in question is whether their marriage was in York County.

Additional information on Lack Township and the Willfords' and Campbells' time there is available from the Pennsylvania Archives, Third Series, William Henry Egle ed., Harrisburg 1897 which is available from http://books.google.com. (The specific URL is too long to copy here.) Also see http://www.rootsweb.com/~pajuniat/taxes63.htm and http://www.ben-net/~macillus/Mifflin%20Co%20Files/MIFdeed4.h...