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Judge John Test

(1780-1849)
By Glenn Test


Family Information

The family history of John Test indicates that he was born in New Jersey and moved to Philadelphia as a teenager after the death of his mother. There he met and married Lydia Duncan, an orphan who was raised by her aunt Ann Shoemaker, the wife of a silk merchant.

John never seemed to stay in one spot for very long and seemed to be drawn to remote areas to seek his fortune. Early in his marriage he lived in Wilmington, Delaware, Fayatte Co., Pa., Western Virginia, and in 1809 moved to Cincinnati, Ohio which at the time was a very small village. From there he moved to Brooksville, Franklin County, Indiana in 1810. He spent a number of years in Washington, D.C. and Mobile Alabama, before he returned to Indiana. Charles E. Test has compiled and edited a book titled "The Test Family In Indiana" which contains a great deal of interesting information on the life and family of John Test.

John and Lydia (Duncan) Test had eight children. Son Charles Henry Test was also a lawyer, judge, and secretary of state for Indiana. Daughter Esther French Test married David Wallace who became governor of Indiana. They had four sons--one of whom, Lewis Wallace, became a major general during the Civil War and after the war wrote the novel Ben Hur. Another son of John and Lydia was an attorney in Mobile, Alabama. Late in life, at about age 60, John married a Penelope Gay Sawkins and had three more children.

John was described as about five feet, ten and one half inches in height, well-made but not portly nor large but of ordinary size. He wore a queue.




A Research Note

Robert Test

The main concern of all genealogists is documentation. What exactly does the does the documentary evidence specifically say and what sort of inferences does this evidence support.

The documentation on Judge John Test’s family is causing me a problem. The most complete account of Judge John Test comes from Dr. Charles E. Test, in his book TEST Family in Indiana. Dr. Test refers to the lack of evidence: “the exact date of his birth is in question ...since ... the usual Quaker records of births and deaths are non-existent for this John Test.

Dr. Test indicates that his account of Judge Test is derived from writings of Judge Test’s first son, viz., Charles Henry Test and comments passed on from this son to #146;