Andrew Mateer

Children

Notes

On 15 May 1818 Andrew Mateer, brother and one of the heirs of James Mateer, late of Allen Twp., deceased, came into Court to state that James had died intestate 'leaving one brother and three sisters of the whole blood surviving', namely Andrew Mateer, Alice wife of Nathaniel Wilson, Isabella widow of John Creigh deceased, Mary widow of Charles Pattison, 'and the issue of two brothers', namely, Samuel Mateer's five children, John, Andrew, James, Samuel and William, the last three of whom are minors; and John Mateer's four children, Mary Ann, Martha, John and Andrew, all minors. The principal assets of this estate were a two story brick house on the south side of Pomfret St. in Carlisle, and in Lisburn a brick house and several lots. On 18 Sept. 1821 the estate had a balance of $130,29 to be distributed, and arrangements were made to dispose of the real estate at public vendue. After several postponements for lack of buyers, all of these properties were sold on 16 Dec. 1825 to Isabella Creigh for $1066.50.

Buried in Silver Spring Cemetery.

Married at Big Spring Presbyterian Church.

Andrew Mateer was an early settler of Lisburn in Lower Allen Township, where he had property in a loop of Yellow Breeches Creek. Because he was engaged in many speculative real estate transactions, particularly with the buying and selling of tax escheated property, Andrew's name occurs frequently in the deed indexes of Perry and York as well as of Cumberland County. However, detailed information on these conveyance is omitted here as having little or no genealogical value.

In his younger days Andrew may have been a carpenter. A list of the members of the Carpenters' Society of Carlisle, drawn up about 1795 includes Andrew Metter, Charles Pattison, his brother-in-law, and James Minteer, his brother. Members of this Society agreed not to work under carpenters who were not fellow-members and thus earned for their organization the designation as the 'earliest Labor Union on record.'

In the record of his marriage, and elsewhere as administrator and witness, he is identified as Major Andrew Mateer; so he must have had some military connection in the local community. Later he was a Justice of the Peace, known as 'Squire Mateer.'

In the 1820 census of Allen Township, Cumberland County, Andrew Mateer's household was credited with four males, three 26-45 and one under five years; three females, one 26-45, one 16-26 and one under five years.

The will of Andrew Mateer of the town of Lisburn, Cumberland County, written 29 June 1838, probated 13 August 1839, begins with an explanation, 'in consequence of misfortunes some years since my own estate was sold by the Sherrif' but 'my sister the late Isabella Creigh by her will bequeathed to my children nearly all of her estate and appointed me guardian and executor.' Records on that property have all been accounted for in Orphans Court, and the testator now asks that another guardian be appointed for his youngest daughter, Margaret I. Mateer; he further requests that any property remaining in his estate be distributed according to intestate law. Executrices: the widow Ann Mateer and daughter Mary A. Mateer. A codicil dated 21 June 1839 'since daughter Mary Ann has since married Samuel Clerk' asks that he be appointed joint executor in her place. Witnesses to the will: George Anderson, William M. Mateer; to the codicil, Isaac Lloyd and George Anderson.

Source: McTeer - Mateer Families of Cumberland County Pennsylvania, Frances Davis McTeer, 1975, p 50. 'History of the Huston Families and their Descendants', E. Rankin Huston, 1912, p 211.