Jacob Sheets (also Sheats and Sheetze) was born about 1779 in possibly Salem County, New Jersey. He was reared a Quaker. Not much else is known about his childhood at the present time, except that his family presumably had money.

Jacob married Mary Kelty, daughter of Jacob Kelty and a Quaker herself. She was born about 1825 in possibly New Jersey. They would have sixteen children, though only ten are known at the present time, a daughter with the first initial H., Elouisa, Deborah, Susannah, Frances, Joseph, Jacob J., Jacob S., Helen, and Lewis. They would move to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Jacob was a sea captain who enlisted in the militia during the War of 1812. He fought with Captain Freas' company and Lt. Col. Howell's regiment in the New Jersey Detailed Militia from September to December 1814.

A handful of stories abound about him. Though both Jacob and his wife came from families with money, he gambled away everything he had, so much so that he had to give away his four youngest children to friends because he could not afford to care for them. A story passed down through the family was that he gambled away land he owned in the West. Jacob also owned a pet monkey and a pet grapevine, both of which he loved, and both of which no one else was allowed to touch. As the story goes, one day the monkey ate some grapes from the grapevine, and Jacob pulled out his gun and shot the monkey to death. He also could not bear to see any woman in her bare feet, and would spit upon the feet of women if they were bare.

Jacob was "read out" of (or excommunicated from) the Society of Friends. Though the reason was never given, speculation suggests that it was for one of two reasons; because he fought in the War of 1812 or because he was an excessive gambler and the Quakers could not deal with it after awhile.

Jacob Sheets died of apoplexy on 25 November 1847 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and was buried in Mutual of Kensington Cemetery, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Sources:
1.Dicky Kane's Letter to Her Nephew Edward, (Sept 13, 1965)
2.New Jersey Office of Adjunct General, Records of Officers and Men of New Jersey in Wars 1791-1815, (Baltimore; Genealogical Publishing Company. 1970), 120.
3.Robert Young's Notes and Family Record Sheets on the Sheets and Miller families.
4.Obituary, Public Ledger - Philadelphia, Saturday, November 27, 1847 Vol 24, no. 55

Written by Kelley Wood, 2004.