USA > Pennsylvania > Colonial and revolutionary families of Pennsylvania; genealogical and personal memoirs, Vol. III > Part 22
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RICHARD BONSALL, eldest son of Benjamin and Martha (Fisher) Bonsall, born at Kingsessing, Philadelphia, July 12, 1714, survived his father scarcely two years, dying in January, 1754. He married, September 14, 1737, Sarah, daughter of Edward and Elizabeth (Serase) Horne, the latter his stepmother. Sarah Horne was born in Sussex, England, and accompanied her parents to Pennsylvania in 1724.
EDWARD BONSALL, son of Richard and Sarah (Horne) Bonsall, born March 14, 1738-39, is mentioned as a legatee in the will of his grandfather, Benjamin Bonsall, of forty acres of the homestead in Kingsessing, and a small sum of money, which was to come into his possession when he arrived at the age of twenty-one years. His father dying when Edward was but little over thirteen years of age, left no estate, and it became necessary for the son to be bound out to a trade, the usual custom with orphans at that day, even among families of considerable estate. He learned the trade of a carpenter and removed to Philadelphia, where he acquired some means and eminence as a builder, but later engaged in the real estate and conveyancing business, maintaining in 1774, in partnership with Matthew Clarkson, "Offices for the Sale of Real Estate". On June 25, 1774, he was appointed one of the surveyors for the City and County of Philadelphia, David Rittenhouse being one of his colleagues in that office. In 1785 he erected three dwellings on the east side of Eighth street above Locust, two of which are still standing, in one of which he resided until 1804, when he erected a fine house on the southwest corner of Sixth and Spruce streets (Joseph Jefferson, the actor, was born in this house in 1829) in which he resided to the time of his decease. He had also a country seat on the south side of the road leading from Frankford to the Pint-no-Point Road, in the District of Northern Liberties. He died at his residence at Sixth and Spruce streets, January 22, 1826. The late Eli K. Price, a descendant of his aunt, Hannah (Bonsall) Price, writing of him in 1863, says, "I remember him in his old age as an active compactly built man, long well known as a con- veyancer in Philadelphia, where he has a son yet living and grandsons energet- ically pursuing the same business".
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Edward Bonsall married (first), February 17, 1763, Hannah Gleave, by whom he had fourteen children. She died January 23, 1796, and he married (second), March 29, 1797, Hannah Gibbons, by whom he had eight children.
Hannah (Gleave) Bonsall was a great-granddaughter of George Gleave, who came from England and settled in Springfield township, Chester, now Dela- ware county, Pennsylvania. He married Esther Powell in 1687, and died No- vember 25, 1688. His son, John Gleave, who died April 25, 1720, married, September II, 1712, Elizabeth Miller, born 1681, died October II, 1727. Their son, Isaac Gleave, the father of Hannah (Gleave) Bonsall, born October 8, 1719, married, January 14, 1746, Mary, daughter of James Hunt (2), born April 14, 1691, died September 10, 1743, who married, July 9, 1712, Rebecca Faucit, (born March 24, 1696, died December 26, 1770) and granddaughter of James Hunt, from Kent, England, who settled in Kingsessing, Philadelphia, in 1684, by his second wife, Elizabeth Bonsall, eldest child of Richard and Mary Bonsall, above mentioned. Walter Faucit, the father of Rebecca (Faucit) Hunt, came to Pennsylvania from Haverah Park, West Riding of Yorkshire, about 1682, and settled Ridley creek, now Delaware county, where he died March 29, 1704-05; and his wife was Rebecca (Fearne) Faucit, who came from Derbyshire, England, in 1682, in the "Welcome", with her widowed moth- er, Elizabeth Fearne, brother Joshua, and sisters, Elizabeth and Sarah.
ISAAC BONSALL, son of Edward and Hannah (Gleave) Bonsall, was born in Philadelphia, October 31, 1765, died in Richmond, Indiana, October 3, 1831. He married, September 14, 1786, Mercy Milhous, born August 28, 1768, died October 1, 1805, daughter of William Milhous, born August 12, 1738, died January 24, 1826, granddaughter of Thomas Milhous, son of John and Sarah Milhous, of Ireland. Thomas Milhous, born in Ireland in 1699, married there, about 1721, Sarah, daughter of James and Catharine (Lightfoot) Miller, and in 1729 came to Pennsylvania and settled within the limits of New Garden Monthly Meeting, Chester county, of which they became members. James Mil- ler with his wife, Catharine (Lightfoot) Miller, who he had married in 1700, and their children, including Sarah, and her husband, Thomas Milhous, came to Pennsylvania from Timahoe, county Kildare, Ireland, in the ship "Sizargh," arriving at Philadelphia, November 10, 1729, bringing certificates from the Friends Meeting at Timahoe. His wife who was a minister of the Society, died in Philadelphia, December 17, 1729, and he settled in New Garden town- ship, Chester county, with his children. He married a second time in 1734, Ruth Seaton, and removed to Leacock township, Lancaster county, where he died in 1749. Thomas Lightfoot, the father of Catharine (Lightfoot) Miller, was born in Cambridgeshire, England, in or about the year 1645. He was a highly esteemed minister of the Society of Friends, who in 1692 was living near Lisburn Meeting in county Antrim, Ireland. In 1694 he removed to Moate, county West Meath, from whence in 1716 he emigrated to Pennsylvania and located at Darby, where he died November 4, 1725, "greatly beloved" as chronicled by his intimate friend, Thomas Calkley, the noted traveling Friend and Minister. The certificate of Thomas Milhous and his wife is dated at Dub- lin, Ireland, 5mo. (July) 29, 1729, and was received at New Garden Meeting, Chester county, 12mo. (February), 1729-30. They doubtless accompanied his wife's family in the "Sizargh", of Whitehaven, which arrived in Philadelphia
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in November, and removed at once to New Garden where he purchased two hundred acres of land near the line of New Castle county. He removed to Pikeland township in 1744. He was probably a native of Ireland, as a John Milhous and Sarah Miller declared intentions of marriage at Ulster Province Meeting, 12mo. 1, 1695-96. His oldest child, John Milhous, was born at Tima- hoe, county Kildare, March 8, 1722-23, and the youngest, William, father of Mercy (Milhous) Bonsall, was born at New Garden, now Delaware county, Pennsylvania, August 12, 1738. He married, October 22, 1767, Hannah Bald- win, born January 4, 1748-49, died October 30, 1825, daughter of Joshua and Mercy (Brown) Baldwin, and great-granddaughter of John Baldwin, one of the earliest settlers in Ashton township, now Delaware county, who married Katharine, widow of Edward Turner, in 1689. He was a carpenter, and later a merchant in Chester, where he died in 1731, leaving a considerable estate.
John Baldwin, son of John and Katharine Baldwin, born June 10, 1697, mar- ried, June II, 1719, Hannah, daughter of Joshua Johnson, and lived for a time in Middletown township, later in Chester. He was a saddler and merchant. He died in Chester in 1728, leaving sons, John and Joshua.
Joshua Baldwin, born in Chester, Pennsylvania, January 3, 1721-22, died in East Caln township, Chester county, May 13, 1800. He married (first) in 1744, Sarah Downing, of East Caln, who died September 16, 1745; and (sec- ond) at Falls Monthly Meeting, Bucks county, September 17, 1747, Mercy Brown, born in Falls, January 12, 1752, died January 22, 1784, daughter of Samuel Brown, born November II, 1694, died October 3, 1767, (great-grand- father of General Jacob Brown) and his wife Ann Clark; and great-grand- daughter of George Brown, born in Leicestershire, England, 1644, died in Falls township, Bucks county, Pennsylvania, 1726. George Brown and Mercy his wife landed at New Castle in 1679, and at once settled in Falls township, Bucks county, on the upper line of what became Penn's Manor of Pennsbury, where land was surveyed to him under authority of the Duke of York. He was commissioned a justice for "Upland and its Dependencies", May 24, 1680, being the first Englishman commissioned in Pennsylvania. Joshua Baldwin married (third) Ann Milhous, widow of Robert, and daughter of John and Grace Meredith. Hannah (Baldwin) Milhous, the mother of Mercy ( Milhous) Bonsall, was the eldest child of the second marriage with Mercy Brown.
Isaac Bonsall located after his marriage in Caernarvon township, Berks county, Pennsylvania, where he was residing in 1793, when he is named as one of the trustees in a lease of a tract of land, on which he in conjunction with his neighbors had erected a school house, for the benefit of the children of the neighborhood, the original lease being in possession of the subject of this sketch. He was later a resident of Robeson township, in the same county, where also resided his brother Edward in 1803. He joined with others in 1803 in the purchase of a slave, the son of a free negro, residing in Berks county, for the purpose of giving him his freedom, and the indenture of the purchased negro, by which he was bound during his minority to Edward Bon- sall Jr., is also in posession of William Martin Bonsall.
By his first wife, Mercy Milhous, who died October 1, 1805, he had eight children. He married (second), November 5, 1807, Mary (Hoskins) Newbold, widow of Samuel Newbold, and daughter of John and Mary Hoskins, by whom
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he had one child, Samuel Newbold Bonsall. He married (third), June 15, 1816, Ann, daughter of Jacob and Mary Paul.
In the year 1855 Mr. Bonsall went abroad and made an extensive tour of England, Scotland and Ireland, and also on the continent of Europe.
At a quarterly meeting of the Society for Alleviating the Miseries of Pub- lic Prisons, of which Mr. Bonsall was one of the oldest and most active and influential members, held April 24, 1879, a memorial and resolutions commem- orative of his worth, presented by Joseph R. Chandler, the vice-president, were adopted, which so well illustrate the strong points in the character of Edward H. Bonsall, and their appreciation by persons with whom he was closely as- sociated, that we cannot refrain from quoting here some brief extracts there- from. Referring to Mr. Bonsall's services in the founding of the Philadel- phia, Germantown, Manayunk and Norristown Railroad, and other civic bet- terments, the memorialist says,
"It is not necessary in Philadelphia to inform men of enlarged general intercourse of the character and usefulness, of the good works and pure intentions of Edward H. Bonsall. Remarkably quiet and unobtrusive in his habits, he was yet found aiding to project one of the most important means of intercourse between our city and its suburbs. And when the plan was accepted he took upon himself the main direction of a work now deemed of the highest civic necessity.
"To the power of designing and producing physical good Mr. Bonsall added the literary accomplishments that make his description or defense worthy the object to which they were devoted.
"Mr. Bonsall's active mind led him to much travel in our country and in foreign nations. His was the faculty to profit by such means of knowledge, and to make his intercourse more gratifying by conversation enriched by careful observation".
After referring to Mr. Bonsall's conscientious, conservative and practical philanthropic work in the Society, and his influence in moulding its policies, and securing for it the respect and commendation of the public at large, the memorialist continues,
"Mr. Bonsall was not regarded, or rather did not wish to be considered eloquent of speech. And yet how all his colleagues saw and confessed the marked influence of his efforts to persuade or dissuade. He 'spake right on' when the subject was one that regarded the interest or objects of our Society; and with a quiet earnestness he spake unfalteringly, cor- rectly and feelingly, and the simplicity of his language enforced the truth which it conveyed.
* * Truth from his lips prevailed with double sway.
"Mr. Bonsall was constant in his works of usefulness, and, without ostentation, he made his knowledge of business subservient to interests that might have lost their value but for his interference. His example was most beneficially operative, he invited and encouraged others to be good in their own way, by doing good to them in his own way. * * * *
* * *
"Whoever it may be that shall come to occupy the seat and undertake the office of our departed member, the chastened zeal, the candid language, and the welcome presence of Edward H. Bonsall will not be forgotten. His memory will be embalmed with our grateful recollections of his services and in our constant recognition of the honor reflected upon our Society by his social worth abroad and by the advantage resulting to us his associates by his constant efforts for good in our midst".
The two leading resolutions were as follows :
"Resolved that the Society cherishes the memory of its late active member, not alone for the value of his services in the prescribed functions of his place, but especially for the beautiful example of his life, and his prudent, affectionate council and the good spirit in which his works were undertaken and accomplished".
"Resolved that in paying this tribute to the services of one of its oldest and most efficient members, bearing in mind the beautiful simplicity of his language, the disinterested- ness of his services, and his retiring delicacy when his own work enforced attention, the
GitBomalle €2
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Society limits the expression of its estimate of Edward H. Bonsall's work to language which suggests but does not fully express the affection of its members for the man living, nor their regret for the death of so useful a colleague".
EDWARD HORNE BONSALL, son of Isaac and Mercy (Milhous) Bonsall, born in Berks county, Pennsylvania, May 25, 1794, located in Philadelphia at an early age, and like his grandfather was an eminent conveyancer, and was inter- ested in many business enterprises in the city and vicinity. He was one of the. founders and for many years president of the Germantown and Norristown Railroad. He was for many years identified with various philanthropic enter- prises and associations ; a member of the Society for alleviating the Miseries of Public Prisons in Philadelphia and elsewhere, and filled the position of prison agent, under the auspices of this society for many years. He was a man of scholarly attainments and literary tastes, was the author of a num- ber of poems of considerable merit, written principally for social occasions, and of a History of the Germantown Railroad, published in the Pennsylvania Magazine of Biography and Genealogy, which he read before the Historical Society in 1874, as well as other ms. writings, a number of which are preserved in a volume in the Collections of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, at Thirteenth and Locust streets, Philadelphia. He died in Philadelphia, April 14, 1879, near the close of his eighty-fifth year. An obituary notice of him in the Evening Bulletin, of May 18, 1879, written by the late Dr. James J. Levick, gives us a pleasant picture of his serene old age ; it is in part as follows :
"The late Edward H. Bonsall, who died on the 14th ultimo, aged nearly eighty-five years, was a remarkable illustration of the fact that the Winter of life, which is often regarded as necessarily a dreary season, may, notwithstanding physical infirmities, be yet a bright and happy one. For nearly twenty years a sufferer from attacks of angina pectoris, a very painful malady, he permitted it to interfere neither with his public duties, nor his social en- gagements. With a mind of much native force, improved by careful observation at home, and by travel abroad; with great powers of conversation, and with a kind heart, he was in his old age, a most delightful, genial companion; one whom the few left of his own years gladly welcomed to their homes, and whom the younger sought as an intelligent, loving friend and associate".
Edward H. Bonsall married (first), December 6, 1815, Lydia McIlvain, born October 4, 1795, died December 8, 1854, and (second), March 25, 1857, Mary (Underhill) Hutchin, a widow.
James McIlvain, the great-grandfather of Lydia (McIlvain) Bonsall, came from the north of Ireland and settled in Chester county, Pennsylvania, about 1740. He was a descendant of the McIlvaines who were for many generations Lairds of Grimmet, in county Ayr, Scotland, the first of whom, Alan Mac Ilvaine, received a charter for the lands and manors of Grimmet and Attyquyne from James V of Scotland, October 16, 1529. Several generations later a cadet of the family located in county Antrim, Ireland, where Richard McIlvain, thought to have been the father of James above mentioned, was born in 1688. . James McIlvain married, in county Antrim, in 1720, Jane, daughter of Hugh and Margaret Heaney, who accompanied their daughter and son-in-law, James McIlvain and wife, to Pennsylvania and settled in West Fallowfield township, Chester county, where Hugh Heaney died early in 1764.
John McIlvain, second son of James and Jane (Heaney) McIlvain, born in county Antrim, Ireland, in 1726, came with his parents and grandparents to
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Pennsylvania, when a boy. Soon after his arrival he apprenticed himself to Jacob Roman, proprietor of a mill on Crum creek, in Ridley township, to learn the milling trade. He later married (first) Mary Roman, daughter of his pre- ceptor, and at the death of the latter in 1748, became the proprietor of the mill, and lived there until his death, April 19, 1779. It was at this house of John McIlvain that Washington rested after midnight of the day of the battle of Brandywine, in 1777. John McIlvain became a member of the Society of Friends on or prior to his first marriage. He married (second), September 9, 1760, Lydia Barnard, born 1729, died 1811, a cousin of his first wife, and was dealt with for marriage "out of unity" but making suitable acknowledgment retained membership in the Society, to which most of his descendants belong. The marriage was, however, solemnized by Friends ceremony, before "Thom- as Worth, Justice", and the certificate is in possession of their descendants. Both the wives of John McIlvain were granddaughters of Richard Barnard, who, with wife Frances, came from Sheffield, England, at about the time of the first landing of William Penn. He owned land near Chester as early as 1683; was a grand juror in 1686, and died intestate about 1698. His daughter, Mary Barnard, married Jacob Roman, in 1712, and was the mother of Mary (Ro- man) McIlvain. His son, Richard Barnard, born 1684, died 1767, married, December 7, 1715, Ann Taylor, daughter of Abiah Taylor, of Dedcott, Berk- shire, England, who married, at Farrington Monthly Meeting of Friends, in Berkshire, April 18, 1694, Deborah, daughter of John Gearing, and in 1702 came to Pennsylvania and settled in East Bradford township, Chester county, where he erected a mill, and a house still standing. Abiah Taylor was a son of another Abiah Taylor, of Dedcott, Berkshire.
Jeremiah McIlvain, born June 29, 1767, fourth child of John McIlvain by his second marriage with Lydia Barnard, was the father of Lydia (McIl- vain) Bonsall, above mentioned. He inherited a part of the homestead on Crum creek in Ridley township, and operated for many years a saw-mill and tannery, as well as a farm on the east bank of Crum creek. He afterwards engaged extensively in the lumber business, laying the foundation for the extensive lumber business later established by his younger brother, Hugh, in West Phil- adelphia, which has been continued by the latter's descendants to the present day. Jeremiah McIlvain died at Ridley, February 19, 1827. He married, No- vember 1, 1792, Elizabeth Spencer, born September 30, 1770, died March 12, 1842, daughter of John and Elizabeth (Kirk) Spencer.
John Spencer, of London, tailor, purchased land of William Penn, by lease and release, dated October 10 and II, 1681, and it was laid out to him in the neighborhood of Horsham, then Philadelphia county, but over the line in Bucks county. He and his wife lost their lives "in an inundation of the River Ne- shaminy, December 22, 1683". They left two children, James, born January 27, 1670-71, and Samuel, born January 1, 1672-73. It is thought that John Spencer came to Pennsylvania by the way of Barbadoes, "John Spencer, wife and two children, and three hired servants" appearing on the Parish registry of St. Michael's, Barbadoes, in 1680.
John Spencer assigned his Bucks county land to Henry Jones, of Barbadoes, October 16, 1683.
Samuel Spencer, son of John Spencer, born January I, 1672-73, in his will
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dated November 26, 1705, styles himself as "late of Barbadoes, but now of the County of Philadelphia, Merchant". Family tradition makes him a sea captain, but he was probably a trader in West Indian products, between Bar- badoes and Philadelphia, and prior to the date of his will had established him- self in the mercantile business, as the nature of the goods inventoried as his personal estate would indicate. He died shortly after the date of his will, which was proved December 26, 1705. It directed that his son Samuel should be sent to "relatives in Barbadoes", and named another son William. Thomas Maddox, of Upper Dublin township, Philadelphia county, was named as re- siduary legatee and executor. Samuel Spencer married, about 1698, Elizabeth Whitton, born in Yorkshire, England, September 27, 1676, died in Philadelphia county, Pennsylvania, August 8, 1702, daughter of Robert Whitton, of Srape, county of York, England, who purchased five hundred acres of land in Up- per Dublin township, Philadelphia, and located thereon.
Samuel Spencer, son of Samuel and Elizabeth (Whitton) Spencer, was born in October, 1699, supposedly in Philadelphia county. As before stated his father's will directed that he be sent to relatives in Barbadoes, but this was not done, and he was probably reared in the family of his maternal grandfather, Robert Whitton, in Upper Dublin. He married, at Plymouth Meeting, June 18, 1723, Mary, born November 22, 1701, died April 16, 1776, daughter Abra- ham Dawes, then of White Marsh, but one of the early settlers in Plymouth township, and one of the original trustees of Plymouth Meeting in 1704, and his wife, Edith. Abraham Dawes died in White Marsh about 1729.
Samuel Spencer's residence is given in his marriage certificate as Horsham township. He, however, purchased in that year two hundred and fifty acres of land adjoining the Whittons in Upper Dublin, where he resided until his death, August 30, 1777. He was a prominent minister of the Society of Friends and traveled extensively "in the service of Truth" in Maryland, Virginia, New England, Long Island and elsewhere. His son William settled in Bucks coun- ty, where the family is quite numerous.
John Spencer, third son of Samuel and Mary (Dawes) Spencer, born in Upper Dublin township, Philadelphia county, November 1, 1731, inherited one- half of his father's estate there and lived there all his life, purchasing other land and becoming a prominent man of the community. He died February 6, 1812. He married, November 21, 1752, Elizabeth Kirk, born September 25, 1730, died January 10, 1820, daughter of John and Sarah (Tyson) Kirk, and granddaughter of John Kirk and Reynier Tyson.
John Kirk, last named, came from Alfreeton, Derbyshire, England, to Not- tingham, Pennsylvania, in 1687, and married there Joan, daughter of Peter Elliott. His son John, born January 29, 1692, purchased, in 1720, two hundred acres of land in Abington township on the Upper Dublin line, where the old Kirk Mansion erected by him in 1735 still stands. He was a mason by trade and built many of the old houses in that vicinity, including Graeme Hall, the historic residence of Governor Sir William Keith, in Horsham, near the Bucks county line. He married, September 13, 1722, Sarah Tyson, born February 19, 1698-99, daughter of Reynier Tyson, one of the thirty-three Germans who came to Philadelphia in the "Concord", (which arrived there October 3, 1683) and founded Germantown, the first German settlement in Pennsylvania. He
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was related to most of the other Colonists and purchasers in the Frankfort Company. He was named in the first charter from William Penn, August 12, 1689, as one of the burgesses of Germantown, and filled that office until 1701, when he purchased a large tract of land in Abington township and removed there. He was born in Germany about 1659, and became a member of the Society of Friends before his emigration. He was for twenty years an elder of Abington Meeting prior to his death in 1745, and prominent in public af- fairs, religious and secular.
SPENCER BONSALL, son of Edward H. and Lydia (McIlvain) Bonsall, was born in the city of Philadelphia, November 30, 1816, and resided there prac- tically all his life. Early in life he learned the drug business with Samuel C. . Sheppard, on Ninth street below Walnut, with whom he was associated until 1840. At about that time, with a number of companions, one of whom was the late admiralty lawyer, William G. Smith, Mr. Bonsall started on a voyage around the world. On reaching India, however, Mr. Bonsall left his compan- ions, and accepted a position as superintendent of a tea plantation at Assam, and remained there eight years. Returning to Philadelphia he was appointed in 1850, assistant, and in 1853 principal surveyor of the city of Philadelphia, filling these respective positions until May 29, 1855, when, as a result of the consolidation of the city, the department was re-organized, and he was elected in the same year city surveyor for the Sixth District, which position he filled for five years.
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