By the way, the name Quaker was one of the names various dissenting religious groups got tagged with by the English in the 17th century; others were Diggers, Seekers and Ranters.
The family hailed from the village of Hornton in Oxfordshire, England, probably living there for centuries. But the direct ancestor of my American Rushes was Captain John "Old Trooper" Rush (1620–1699). He married when he was 28, a typical age for middle-class Englishmen in those days. He served as a commander in Oliver Cromwell's army during the English Civil War, and converted to Quakerism in 1660. He and his family followed the William Penn colonists to America in 1683. They settled along the Poquessing Creek in Byberry, Pennsylvania.
I found it interesting that he is the ancestor of Dr. Benjamin Rush, surgeon, abolitionist, professor of chemestry, Christian Universalist and a signer of the Declaration of Independence.
Anyway, my John Rush was a member of the Sons of Liberty. He fought at Brandywine, Germantown, White Marsh, Red Bank and the Siege of Ft. Mifflin, where he was badly wounded, having his leg and arm amputated. He was just sixteen years old. He had earlier survived the brutal Paoli Massacre, where the Brits showed no mercy, refusing to accept the surrender of wounded Americans and bayoneting them. If Rush had been killed in that massacre would I exist today? I guess not.
Another of my ancestors, William Hebb, also fought at Brandywine and Germantown. I wonder if they knew each other. Hebb also survived a brutal assault by the Brits, the Baylor Massacre, when again the redcoats refused to accept the surrender of wounded Americans and bayoneted them. The behavior of the British against us in the Revolution was so monstrous that even a century later John Hay could tell Rudyard Kipling that the only thing that held the United States together was hatred of Britain.
One of the many oddities of history is that in the 20th century we fought with Britain, our old arch foe, and they formed what they called "the special relationship" with us.
