USA > Pennsylvania > Colonial and revolutionary families of Pennsylvania; genealogical and personal memoirs, Vol. I > Part 46
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JOSEPH MICKLE Fox (Samuel M., Joseph, Justinian), born Philadelphia, Octo- ber 25, 1789; died February 12, 1845 ; married, April 6, 1820, Hannah, born Phil- adelphia, February 6, 1790; died November 1I, 1869; daughter of George and Sarah (Fishbourne) Emlen.
Joseph M. Fox was admitted to Philadelphia Bar September 7, 1812. At the time of his marriage he was practicing his profession in Bellefonte, Centre county, Pennsylvania, but shortly thereafter removed to Meadville, Pennsylvania. He purchased from the trustees under his father's will, twelve tracts, comprising thir- teen thousand acres of land in western part of the state. In 1827, with his wife and son, he settled in the wild, sparsely settled country on one of these tracts, at the junction of the Allegheny and Clarion rivers, where a house was erected and improvement of the land was begun. An attempt was made to plant a town there, which was not then successful, but the name of Foxburg clung to the spot until the town grew, years afterwards. At that time Shippensburg, sixteen miles away, was the nearest post office. Joseph M. Fox was elected state senator in 1829, and nominated but not elected in 1830 and 1843.
The only child of Joseph Mickle and Hannah ( Emlen) Fox, was :-
SAMUEL MICKLE Fox, b. Phila., June 29, 1821; d. Dec. 25, 1869; m. Mary Rodman Fisher.
GEORGE Fox, M. D. (Samuel M., Joseph, Justinian), born Philadelphia, May 8, 1806; died there December 27, 1882 ; married in Friends' Meeting at Bellefonte, Pennsylvania, September 25, 1850, Sarah Downing Valentine, born Bellefonte, February 20, 1825, died February 9, 1888; daughter of George and Mary (Down- ing) Valentine.
George Fox was a birthright member of Society of Friends, and during his residence in Philadelphia of nearly half a century, he was a constant attendant at meetings of the Society. When sixteen years old he entered University of Pennsylvania, and graduated in 1825, dividing the class honors with his lifelong friend and comrade, Adolph E. Borie, who was at one time a member of Presi- dent Grant's cabinet. Upon his graduation from the university, George Fox began the study of medicine and took his degree in 1828. He at once became resident physician of the Pennsylvania Hospital, where he devised an apparatus for treat- ment of a fractured clavicle, which has since come into general use, being described and recommended in the best text books on surgery.
In 1831 Dr. Fox was elected a fellow of the College of Physicians. He was an active member of its Building Committee and took part in the selection and pur- chase of the present site of the college and in the erection of the building.
At the time of the formation of the American Medical Association, and for several years afterwards, Dr. Fox was prominent in advancing its interests and furthering its objects. On the organization of the Wills Hospital he was elected
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one of its surgeons, and later became a manager of that institution. He was also appointed one of the visiting surgeons of the Pennsylvania Hospital, and was sur- geon of St. Joseph's Female Asylum, 1838-54.
Dr. Fox contributed largely to various medical journals, his first paper appear- ing in North American Journal of Medicine and Surgery, 1831. One of the most notable of the articles from his pen was a biographical notice of Dr. Joseph Parish, which was read before the College of Physicians in 1846.
Dr. Fox took a very active part in the successful management of the vast tracts of wild, wooded lands left by his father, and for years was trustee of all the parties in interest, which position he held up to the time of his death. In 1854 he relinquished his professional work. A couple of years later he purchased a tract of land in Bensalem township, Bucks county, on the Delaware River. The river front was divided into two parts, known respectively as "Chestnutwood" and "Traveskan." On Chestnutwood he built in 1856-7, the large stone house where he lived up to the time of his death, and at the same time his sisters built a similar house on Traveskan. These properties are still in possession of the family.
Issue of Dr. George and Sarah D. (Valentine) Fox :-
Samuel Mickle Fox, b. Phila., July 18, 1851; d. at Chestnutwood, March 19, 1905; m. Sept. 25, 1890, Elizabeth Richards, b. Jan. 9, 1866, dau. of Walter and Rebecca Say ( Rich- ards) Newbold. Samuel M. Fox graduated from college 1869. He was admitted to Phila. Bar Dec. 13, 1873, and devoted himself to management of estates. He was a conservative and successful investor and estates increased in value rapidly under his management. He soon became known as most trustworthy and successful and his services were continually in demand. He was an expert photographer, and a mem- ber of Photographic Society of Phila. He had natural mechanical ability and was a lover and collector of antiques, coins and stamps; issue :
Samuel Mickle Fox, b. Jan. 26, 1893;
Elizabeth Newbold Fox, b. Dec. 19, 1897;
GEORGE Fox, of Torresdale, born in Philadelphia, April 28, 1852; married October 20, 1875, Margaret Loper, born January 13, 1855; daughter of William M. and Susan (Cooper) Baird. Issue :
Marguerite Baird Fox, b. Phila. Dec. 15, 1876; m. Dec. 4, 1901, William, b. Jan. 1I, 1876, son of George Harrison and Lucy Carter (Wickham) Byrd, of Virginia, descendant of Byrds of Westover; issue:
Lucy Carter Byrd, b. Aug. 16, 1902;
William Byrd, b. Jan. 7, 1904.
Frances Fox, b. Phila. March I, 1879; m. Oct. 25, 1905, Arthur Howell Brockie, b. Jan. 17, 1875;
George Fox, b. Phila. July 28, 1881;
Sarah Valentine Fox, b. Traveskan, Aug. 8, 1883;
Mary Valentine Fox, b. Traveskan, June 1, 1886;
Emily Burrows Fox, b. Traveskan June 17, 1889;
Joseph Mickle Fox, b. Traveskan March 2, 1892 ;
William Baird Fox, b. Traveskan Oct. II, 1894; d. inf.
JOSEPH MICKLE Fox, born Paoli, Chester county, Pennsylvania, July 16, 1855; married, October 4, 1893, at Leesburg, Virginia, Jean (Beverly) Chichester, of Leesburg ; born February 1, 1870, daughter of Arthur Mason and Mary (Beverly) Chichester. Joseph Mickle Fox entered Medical Department of University of Pennsylvania, and graduated with degree of M. D. in 1877. He practiced his
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profession for several years, residing at Torresdale, Philadelphia, and later at Leesburg, Virginia. He was surgeon of Out-Patient Department of Pennsylvania Hospital, the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, and the University Hospital ; he has been a frequent contributor to medical and scientific journals. His skill as a surgeon is evinced by the fact that he performed the first successful case of abdominal section for a gunshot wound, in Philadelphia. A number of other noted operations performed by him are on record. Issue :-
Mary Beverly Fox, b. April 15, 1895; Jean Fox, b. April 1, 1898; Sarah Fox, b. Feb. 6, 1901; Joseph Mickle Fox, b. June 25, 1903.
CHARLES PEMBERTON Fox, born Chestnutwood, January 9, 1858; married, May 19, 1906, Mary, daughter of John and Sarah Mead Large. Entered University of Pennsylvania, autumn of 1874;
MARY VALENTINE Fox, born Chestnutwood, December 22, 1859; died March 19, 1894; married at St. James Church, Philadelphia, April 23, 1883, William, born August 27, 1855, son of William and Hannah (Zook) Wayne ; issue :-
William Wayne, b. Feb. 29, 1884; Edith Wayne, b. Nov. 12, 1889.
SARAH Fox, born at Chestnutwood, March 10, 1863; married, June 10, 1891, at Chestnutwood, George Washington, son of Joseph Parker and Mary Elizabeth (Gareache) Norris.
SAMUEL MICKLE Fox (Joseph M., Samuel M., Joseph, Justinian), born Phila- delphia, June 29, 1821 ; died Foxburg, December 25, 1869; married, June 28, 1849, Mary Rodman Fisher, born at "Wakefield," Germantown, Philadelphia, February II, 1822; died May 26, 1903, daughter of William Logan and Sarah (Lindley) Fisher.
Samuel M. Fox graduated from University of Pennsylvania 1841, was admitted to Philadelphia Bar on June II, 1844, and was entering upon the practice of his profession which he relinquished when his father's death brought to him other duties in the management of his mother's affairs. He was a man of scholarly instincts and great culture, of a retiring and contemplative disposition ; he had no desire for the notoriety of public life, and was devoid of political ambition, although during the Civil War his pronounced views made him in his district a leader and a strong advocate for the cause of the Union. In 1861 he was Repub- lican candidate for state senator from twenty-eighth district, composed of Jeffer- son, Forrest, Elk and Clarion counties, and although running far ahead of the rest of the party ticket, was defeated, his district being heavily Democratic.
When, in 1865, petroleum was discovered on the Allegheny River, near Oil City, wells were drilled at and near Foxburg and oil was found in paying quan- tities. Foxburg later became a prominent oil point, and the town of Foxburg, sit- uated a mile and a half from the Fox residence, had its origin. No land was then, nor has been since sold from the estate, but all settlers build on leased ground, the owners holding absolute control.
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Issue of Samuel Mickle and Mary Rodman (Fisher) Fox :-
Joseph Mickle Fox, b. March 6, 1850; d. Jan. 26, 1853;
WILLIAM LOGAN Fox, b. Sept. 27, 1851; d. April 29, 1880; m. Feb. 25, 1879, Rebecca Clif- ford, b. Nov. 13, 1856, dau. of Samuel L. Hollingsworth, M. D., and Anna Clifford Pemberton, his wife.
William Logan Fox, at the time of his father's death, was at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, at Troy, N. Y., from which he graduated as civil engineer. He then spent a year in Europe, and on his return with, the assistance of the trustees under his father's will, took up the management of the business at Foxburg. He built and was president of the Foxburg, St. Petersburg, and Clarion Railway, now part of the system of the Pittsburg and Western Railroad. He took a deep interest in politics and in support of his party started a weekly newspaper at Foxburg. Was a member of the Electoral College of Pennsylvania which voted for Garfield in 1880, but died before it met. At the time of his death he was Chairman of Clarion County Republican Committee; JOSEPH MICKLE Fox, b. Feb. 4, 1853; m. in Charleston, South Carolina, May 10, 1883, Emily A., dau. of Benjamin Huger and Julia (Middleton) Read. He graduated from Haverford College in class of 1873; studied law in office of George W. Biddle, Esq., and was admitted to Phila. Bar; issue:
Mary Lindley Fox, b. Dec. 25, 1884;
Emily Read Fox, b. June 7, 1887; Eliza Middleton Fox, b. Feb. 23, 1890; William Logan Fox, b. Nov. 15, 1892.
Sarah Lindley Fox, b. March 27 1855; d. June 20, 1882; unm .;
Hannah Fox, b. May II, 1858.
HOLME.
THOMAS HOLME was born in the year 1624; although a great part of his life was spent in Ireland, there is little doubt that his birthplace was in England, most likely in Yorkshire. His parents, whose names are now unknown, appear to have been of good position and family, and Thomas Holme was styled "gentleman" by right of birth. Several facts lead to the supposition that his father belonged to a younger branch of the family of Holme of Huntington, in the county of York. Thomas Holme used an armorial seal on his official papers, corresponding with the arms of this family, which are described in Burke's General Armory as: "Argent, a chevron azure, between three chaplets gules." The shield on Thomas Holme's seal is the same surrounded by a bordure with ten roundels, the bordure being used to distinguish the branch of the family.
While Thomas Holme was quite a young man, the Civil War between the King and Parliament broke out ; he took the side of the latter and became a captain in its army. He is said to have taken part in the Hispaniola expedition under Admiral Penn in 1654, either as one of the naval officers, who were largely taken from the army, or as an officer in the land forces under General Venables; his intimacy with the Penns and Crispins in after years might have had its beginning here, and gives a coloring of truth to the statement. He was in Ireland in 1659. and was then a member of the Society of Friends. It is reasonably presumed that he obtained lands in Ireland during the settlement of Cromwell's soldiers there in 1655. There was a Captain Holmes (Holme?) in Sir Hardress Waller's regi- ment, whose company was given lands in the Barony of Shilmalier, county Wex- ford, in which county Thomas Holme afterwards resided, at least temporarily. In 1656 many of the parliamentary officers in Ireland joined the Society of Friends. The name of Thomas Holme occurs in the grants under the Acts of Settlement and Explanation passed after the Restoration.
Thomas Holme became an important man among the Friends in Ireland, and traveled extensively over the central and southern parts of that country, attending meetings of the Society. In many places he encountered the opposition of the authorities to his religion, and received abuse and hard treatment from those that had formerly been his companions in arms. In 1659 a number of prominent Friends in Ireland published an address to the English Parliament, reciting their persecutions. It is entitled, "To the Parliament of England, who are in place to do Justice, and to break the Bonds of the Oppressed. A Narrative of the Cruel, and Unjust Sufferings of the People of God in the Nation of Ireland, Called Quakers." London, Printed for Thomas Simmons at the Bull and Mouth near Aldersgate, 1659. It is signed by Thomas Holme and fifty-two others, among them Samuel Clarridge and Robert Turner, both afterwards First Purchasers in Pennsylvania, William Edmondson, the well-known preacher, and some former officers under Cromwell, most of them sufferers mentioned in the narrative. This address tells that "Thomas Holme (late a Captain in the Army), Charles Collins, and several of the Lord's people, being in a peaceable meeting at Wexford, had their meeting forcibly broken, and many of them violently haled and turned out of the Town,
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by order from Edward Withers, Mayor then." "Thomas Loe, Thomas Holme, William Blanch, and John Wren, being in Cashell on their Journey, were appre- hended by Colo. Lehunt's order, and brought before him, and he commanded the Sould. (violently) to turne them out of the town, and to cut their pates, three of them were not suffered to go into the town again for their horses." Thomas Phelps of Limerick, besides other losses, "had his house broken open and rifled with a Guard of Sould. from the Governour (Col. Ingoldesby) which Guard by the same Order rifled the houses of Richard Piercy and Thomas Holme, and took away what books and papers they pleased." In Besse's "Sufferings" it is stated that in 1660 the meetings of Friends in Dublin were frequently molested; a num- ber of persons, of whom Thomas Holme was one, were taken from them and com- mitted to Newgate by order of Robert Dee, then Mayor of the City; Samuel Clar- ridge and Robert Turner were also of this number. In 1661, Thomas Holme, Robert Turner and others were taken from a meeting in Dublin and committed to Newgate, by order of Hubert Adrian, Mayor. In an address of Friends in Ire- land to the Lord Lieutenant and Council, in 1673, (quoted by Charles Evans, M. D. in "Friends in 17th Century") occurs the following: "In the county of Wexford, Thomas Holme, having about £200 due to him from one Captain Thorn- hill, for which judgement was obtained against him in common law, was sub- poenaed into Chancery by Thornhill, where he well knew Thomas could not answer on oath; and so this Friend lost his debt." In 1672, Thomas Holme and Abraham Fuller of Ireland, published "A Brief Relation of some part of the Suf- fering of the True Christians, the People of God (called in scorn Quakers) in IRELAND for these last II years, viz. from 1660 until 1671. Collected by T. H. and A. F." In 1731 there was published a work called "A Compendious VIEW of Some Extraordinary SUFFERINGS of the People called QUAKERS both in Person and Substance, in the Kingdom of Ireland from the year 1655 to the End of the Reign of King George the First. In 3 parts. Dublin, Printed by and for Samuel Fuller, at the Globe, in Meath-street." Part I, according to Smith's Catalogue, "Contains the true Grounds and Reasons of their Conscientious Dis- sent from other Religious Denominations in Sundry Particulars," and was by Fuller and Holme; they were both deceased at the time of this publication, and it was probably the same as their work of 1672. The second part consisted of examples of sufferings, and the third was a synopsis of the number of religious prisoners. These two books are very rare.
Thomas Holme's first appearance in Pennsylvania history is on April 18, 1682, when William Penn appointed him Surveyor-General of the Province. In his com- mission he is styled "Captain Thomas Holme of the City of Water ford in the King- dom of Ireland." He sailed for Pennsylvania in the "Amity," which left the Downs, April 23, 1682, bringing with him his family, and also Silas Crispin (son of Cap- tain William Crispin, who is said to have been the first Surveyor-General appointed by Penn, but died on his way to Pennsylvania in 1681), and John Claypoole, son of James Claypoole ; the latter wrote from London (to his brother Norton in the country) in this month: "I have been at Gravesend with my son John, who has gone per the Amity, Richard Dimond, Master, for Pennsylvania, to be assistant to the general surveyor, whose name is Thomas Holmes, a very honest, ingenious, worthy Man." The historians, Proud, Gordon and Clarkson, say the "Amity" was one of the three ships that sailed in 1681, and that she was delayed by contrary
22
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winds and did not arrive until spring of the following year ; other historians dis- pute this statement on the ground of her sailing in April, 1682. But the former were no doubt partially right, as to the "Amity" being one of the ships that sailed in the summer of 1681, and being delayed by contrary winds. It is likely that this is the vessel in which Captain William Crispin sailed for Pennsylvania, which, when in sight of the capes of Delaware, was blown off and put into Barbadoes, where Capt. Crispin died; it is quite possible that then, instead of continuing to Pennsylvania, she returned to England, carrying the news of Crispin's death, and then again sailed for Pennsylvania in April, 1682, bringing Holme, who had mean- while been appointed Surveyor-General, and Silas Crispin, having probably been with his father and returned to England with the vessel, going out again in her. The "London Gazette," Monday, April 24, to Thursday, April 27, 1682, has : "Deal, April 23. This Morning the Ships in the Downs, outward bound, Sailed; among them were five bound for the East-Indies, and one for Pennsylvania."
Thomas Holme was one of the First Purchasers, and he was a member of the Free Society of Traders, and one of that society's committee of twelve to reside in Pennsylvania, appointed at their meeting in London on May 29, 1682. On his arrival in Pennsylvania, he and his family took up their residence at Shackamaxon, where there was a settlement of English Friends, who had come out in the preced- ing year. At first they stayed at the house of Thomas Fairman, who in this year sent a bill of charges to Wm. Penn, for lodging Capt. Holme and his two sons and two daughters. Holme brought a letter from Penn to the Indians, which said in regard to himself : "The man which brings this to you is my especial ffriend- sober, wise, and loving-you may believe him." He endorsed on the letter, "I read this to the Indians by Interpriter 6th mo. 1682. T. Holme." This letter without the endorsement is printed in Janney's Life of William Penn ; there is a fac-simile in the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. The original was exhibited in the Penn Parlor, at the Sanitary Fair, Logan Square, Philadelphia, 1864. He was present at the first court held by Penn at New Castle, November 2, 1682, and also at the Great Treaty at Shackamaxon.
It has been stated that Holme was appointed one of the Commissioners for Settling the Colony, in place of William Crispin, deceased, and while no commis- sion to him as such is extant to prove the statement, the fact remains that he acted with the other Commissioners in forwarding the settlement. The instructions to these Commissioners, dated September 30, 1681 (the original is in possession of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania), have often been printed and need not be repeated here. They were directed to William Crispin, Nathaniel Allen and John Bezar. Their commission is dated October 25, 1681, and names a fourth Com- missioner, William Haigue. They were all, except the deceased Crispin, whose place Holme took, in Pennsylvania at the time of Holme's arrival. Their first duty was to choose a spot where navigation was best and large ships might lie close to the bank, the land being at the same time dry, high and healthy, and to lay out there ten thousand acres for the site of a great city. This proved to be a very difficult task, as no place could be found answering the requirements which would bear a city of such size. The Commissioners explored the country and Holme made a survey of the west bank of the Delaware, and they chose the site at the mouth of Dock Creek.
On Penn's arrival in the following October, he changed his ideas as embodied
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in the instructions, and had about two square miles, or 1280 acres, laid out for the city, which is the original part of the present city of Philadelphia. When the city of ten thousand acres was laid out, the Commissioners were to give every pur- chaser of 5000 acres a lot of one hundred acres in this town land, in accordance with the conditions and concessions to first purchasers issued by the Proprietary, July II, 1681. When Penn changed his plan, a tract was surveyed adjoining the city proper, which was called the "liberties," and out of which the first purchasers were to have their two per cent., while in the city itself, they were to have only small lots. Josiah W. Smith, in the large foot-note on land tenure in his "Laws of Pennsylvania," says, "Not a single memorial can be found of this plan, nor any record of the alteration, or any written evidence of the consent of the inhabitants to the new arrangement ; but a regular series of uniform facts, upon the books of the Land-Office, establish it beyond a doubt." The method of apportioning the liberty lands and city lots is fully described in the same foot-note. Reed, in the explanation to his map of the "liberties," 1774, quotes part of a letter from Holme, stating that Penn had instructed him not to give over 80 acres in the "liberties" on the east side of the Schuylkill to purchasers entitled to 100 acres. This direction Holme carried out. It was given because the lands east of the Schuylkill were considered more valuable; any purchaser who took his liberty land on the west side got his full proportion.
After Penn's decision was made, Holme, as Surveyor-General, laid out the city, extending from Cedar (now South) street to Vine street, and from the Delaware to the Schuylkill river, and, as appears by the plan, also including three squares beyond the latter, although no city lots were assigned on the west side of the Schuylkill. The lots were then apportioned to the purchasers, being drawn before William Markham, Thomas Holme, William Haigue and Griffith Jones, 7th mo. 9, 1682, they certifying to that effect on the list of lots and owners. Holme drew up a map or plan of the city which he called "A Portraiture of the City of Philadel- phia ;" this was printed in London in 1683 as part of a book entitled, "A Letter from William Penn, Proprietary and Governour of Pennsylvania, In America, to the Committee of the Free Society of Traders of that Province, residing in Lon- don Containing" etc. "To which is Added, An Account of the City of Philadel- phia Newly laid out. Its Scituation between two Navigable Rivers, Delaware and Schuylkill with a Portraiture or Plat-form thereof, Wherein the purchasers lots are distinguished by certain numbers inserted, together with the Surveyor Gen- eral's advertisement concerning the situation and extent thereof. Printed and sold by Andrew Sowle, at the Crooked-Billet, in Halloway-Lane, in Shoreditch, and at several stationers in London, 1683." This book contained : a letter from Penn describing the country and its inhabitants, native and foreign ; Holme's plan of the city, divided into lots, which were numbered; an account of the city, being principally a list of the purchasers with the numbers of their lots on the plan; and Holme's description of the city, called "A short advertisement upon the situation and extent of the city of Philadelphia and the Ensuing platform thereof, by the Surveyor General." The plan, list of purchasers, part of Penn's letter, and the "short advertisement" were printed in the appendix of John C. Lowber's "Ordi- nances of the Corporation of the City of Philadelphia," Philadelphia, 1812, the plan being printed from the original plate, then in possession of Dr. George Logan, of Stenton. Philip Ford, one of the Free Society of Traders, wrote from London,
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