USA > Pennsylvania > Colonial and revolutionary families of Pennsylvania; genealogical and personal memoirs, Vol. III > Part 27
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By virtue of warrant of survey dated September 1, 1681, one-half of his purchase of land was laid out in what became Byberry township, Philadelphia county, lying along the Poquessing creek, the line between Philadelphia and Bucks counties. Here John Hart located and erected his residence on the banks of the Poquessing. He was a minister among Friends, and meetings of that society for worship were long held at his house, alternately with that of Giles Knight, before the erection of Byberry Meeting House; though the real suc- cessor to the meetings at John Hart's was the Oxford Meeting, in Oxford township, Philadelphia county, where he preached for many years, first as a Friend, and later, after following George Keith out of the society, as did many other members of Oxford Meeting, as a Baptist. He was also an assistant preacher at Pennypack Baptist Church, though apparently never regularly or- dained as a minister of the gospel by the Baptists.
John Hart was early called into public life, being a member of the first As- sembly of the Province of Pennsylvania, held at Philadelphia in 1682, and one of those, who signed the first charter of government, dated at Philadelphia, Feb- ruary 2, 1682-83. His estrangement from the Society of Friends and associa- tion with George Keith in 1691-2 in his famous schism, which engendered ex- treme bitterness not only in religious circles but among the Provincial officials, whom Keith also bitterly attacked, probably estranged John Hart somewhat from the prominent public men of his day for a time and account for his lack of activity in Provincial affairs during the remainder of the time he resided in Philadelphia county.
The balance of John Hart's purchase, of one thousand acres of land from Wil- liam Penn in 1681, was laid out by the surveyor-general, September 25, 1684, in Warminster township, Bucks county, and in 1697 he left Byberry and took up his residence thereon, and it was the property and residence of his descend- ants for nearly two centuries, the subject of this sketch being born thereon. John Hart sold his Byberry farm in 1697 to his wife's cousin, James Rush, and with the paternal estate of that family adjoining it remained in possession of the Rushes for several generations. John Hart died on his Warminster plantation in Bucks county, September, 1714, in his sixty-third year.
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In 1683 John Hart married Susanna, daughter of Captain John Rush, com- mander of a troop of horse in Cromwell's army, who in 1660 united with the Society of Friends and in 1682 settled with his family in Byberry on a tract adjoining that of John Hart. Captain John Rush, who was a son of William and Aurelia Rush, of Oxfordshire, married at Horton, Oxfordshire, June 8, 1648, Susan Lucas, by whom he had several sons and daughters; three of their grandsons, Thomas Rush, John Hart Jr., and John Collett, married daughters of Silas and Esther (Holme) Crispin, and granddaughters of Captain William Crispin and Captain Thomas Holme. The most distinguished and best known descendant of Captain John Rush was the celebrated Dr. Benjamin Rush, of Philadelphia. Susanna (Rush) Hart returned to her kindred in Byberry after the death of her husband and died there, February 27, 1725.
JOHN HART JR., eldest son of John and Susanna (Rush) Hart, was born in Byberry, Philadelphia county, July 16, 1684, inherited a large portion of the homestead in Warminster, Bucks county, and spent the remainder of his life there, dying March 22, 1763. Being but a child of eight years when his father's advocacy of the cause of George Keith and his doctrine of faith carried him out of the Society of Friends, he was reared a Baptist and was baptized at Penny- pack Church, November 15, 1706, and was thereafter one of the most active supporters of the Baptist church in Bucks county, being one of the petitioners in 1746 for a separation from Pennypack Church of the little congregation long worshipping in private houses in Warminster and Southampton, who had erect- ed a church at Southampton in 1730. This was the inception of Southampton Baptist Church as a separate organization, of which John Hart was clerk until 1762, when, bodily infirmities preventing his attendance, he resigned and was succeeded by his son Joseph. He was also the first deacon of the church and one of its trustees.
John Hart was one of the two persons recommended to the governor, in ac- cordance with the custom of the time, to be commissioned sheriff of Bucks county, in 1726-31-32-33-35-37, and in the last year was commissioned and served three consecutive years. He was again commissioned sheriff in 1743 and again served three years. He was also commissioned coroner in 1742 and again in 1748. He was for several years just prior to his death one of the jus- tices of the county court, was commissioned, June 9, 1752, and recommissioned in 1757, at which date the record of his taking the oath of office states that he "was old and impaired by apoplexy." He was succeeded by his son Joseph in 1761.
John Hart married, November 25, 1708, Eleanor Crispin, born September II, 1687, daughter of Silas and Esther (Holme) Crispin, and granddaughter of Captain William Crispin and his wife Anne Jasper, sister to the mother of Wil- liam Penn, the "Founder."
Captain William Crispin, the companion in arms and brother-in-law of Ad- miral Sir William Penn, was born in England about the year 1610. He, at an early age, "went down to the sea in ships", being master of the ship "Adven- ture", a merchant vessel, trading with the Netherland ports, as early as 1634. In 1652 he was commander of the ship "Hope" in the service of the common- wealth, and in May, 1653, Sir William Penn was vice-admiral in command of thirty-three ships, the "White Squadron", in the expedition against the Dutch,
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when twenty or thirty Dutch ships of war were destroyed and the balance of their ships pursued to their own harbors. The particular ship in this squadron commanded by Captain William Crispin was the "Assistance", which during the remainder of the year preyed upon the Dutch commerce, assisted at times, under orders of the Admiralty commissioners, by several other ships, subordi- nate to his command. In 1654 Admiral Penn was sent with a squadron of thir- ty-eight ships against the Spanish West Indies, and Captain William Crispin was in command of the "Laurel", one of the principal ships of the fleet, and took an active part in the capture of Jamaica, May 17, 1655, remaining at Ja- maica after Admiral Penn had returned to England, under the title of vice- admiral. The arrest and confinement in the Tower of Admiral Penn on his return to England and a realization of the injustice of the expedition to the Spanish possessions in a time of peace between the two countries induced Cap- tain Crispin to resign his position under Cromwell and join the "fifth monarchy men." He soon after retired to Kinsale, Ireland, where he continued to re- side until his distinguished nephew, William Penn, received the grant of Penn- sylvania, when he was named as one of the Founder's "Commissioners for the Settleing of the Present Collony this year Transported into ye said Province" as stated in the letter of instructions to them dated September 30, 1681. These commissioners, William Crispin, John Bezar and Nathaniel Allen, to whom was added a fourth later, William Haigue, sailed for Pennsylvania in different ships. Crispin sailed in the "Amity" in her first voyage, in 1681. This ship encount- ered severe storms and put into Barbadoes after being blown off the capes of Delaware, and William Crispin died there. He was succeeded as commissioner by Thomas Holme, the maternal grandfather of Eleanor (Crispin) Hart. A letter from William Penn to "cozen" William Markham, whom he had sent out as deputy-governor immediately on receiving his grant, dated "London, 18th of 6th Mo. 1681", states that he has "sent my Cosen William Crispin, to be thy Assistant, as by Commission will appear. His Skill, Experience, Industry and Integrity are well known to me, & particularly in court-keeping, &c .; so that it is my will & pleasure that he be Chief Justice, to keep the Seal, the Courts & Sessions, & he shall be accountable to me for it. The profits redounding are to his proper behoof. * Pray be very respectful to my Cosen Crispin. He is a man my Father had great confidence in and value for".
Captain William Crispin married Anne, daughter of John Jasper, of Belly- case, county Clare, Ireland, by his wife Marie. Her elder sister Margaret Jas- per, married, in 1643, Admiral William Penn, and at the date of the marriage of Captain Crispin was the mother of William Penn, the founder of Pennsyl- vania.
Silas Crispin, born about 1660, was the eldest son of Captain William Crsi- pin and Anne (Jasper) Crispin. He probably accompanied his father in the "Amity" and returned with that ship to England, and recrossed with Captain Holme in the same ship, in 1682. He married in the following year Hester or Esther Holme, daughter of Captain Holme, and they settled in that part of Dublin township later known as Upper Dublin, on the line of Abington town- ship. He was a member of the Free Society of Traders, and filled various po- sitions of public trust under appointment of the Provincial Council, but never held commissioned office so far as known. A part of the five thousand acres
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of land granted to his father was laid out to him and as acting executor of the will of his father-in-law he was much employed in caring for the interests of the large landed estate of Captain Holme, securing warrants for survey of lands, selling them, etc. He died May 5, 1711, leaving a widow, his second wife Mary (Stockton) Shinn, widow of Thomas Shinn, and daughter of Richard and Abigail Stockton, all of New Jersey; and eleven children, six by the first wife and five by the second. Esther (Holme) Crispin died April 17, 1696. Eleanor (Crispin) Hart was the fourth child of the first marriage.
Captain Thomas Holme, the father of Esther (Holme) Crispin, was born, presumably in England, in the year 1624, though the great part of his life was spent in Ireland. The arms used on his official papers, described by Burke as the arms of the Holme family, were "Argent, a chevron azure, between three chaplets gules." On his seal was a shield surrounded by a bordure of ten roundels, the bordure indicating his branch of the family. He is said to have been an officer in the expedition against the Spanish possessions under Admiral Penn in 1654. He was, however, a member of the Society of Friends, resid- ing in Ireland, when with fifty-two others he signed an address to the British Parliament, reciting the "unjust Sufferings of the People of God called Quakers, in the Nation of Ireland." As "Thomas Holme, late a Captain in the Army," he was one of those attending a meeting at Wexford when the meeting was broken up the participants "haled out of the Town" by order of the Mayor, as recited in the above-mentioned address, with other outrages committed on him and his copetitioners.
On April 18, 1682, William Penn appointed "Captain Thomas Holme, of the City of Waterford, Kingdom of Ireland", surveyor-general of the Province of Pennsylvania, and on April 23, 1682, he sailed with his family and Silas Crispin in the "Amity" for Philadelphia. He was one of the first purchasers of land of William Penn, and was a member of the Society of Free Traders, chartered by Penn with manorial rights. On his arrival in Pennsylvania he took up his residence in Shackamaxon. He brought a letter with him from William Penn, which he later endorsed as having read it to the Indians by an interpreter, in August, 1682. He was present at the first court held by Penn, at New Castle, November 2, 1682, and at the famous treaty with the Indians at Shackamaxon. He took the place of William Crispin, deceased, as one of Penn's Commissioners and helped to select the site for Penn's "great city" which he later laid out ; his plan, being called "A Portraiture of the City of Philadelphia", was printed in London, in 1683. When this was finished he turned his attention to a survey of the province and his map, entitled "A Map of the Improved Part of the Province of Pennsylvania, in America, Begun by William Penn, Pro- prietor and Governor Thereof, Anno, 1681", was also published in London and is familiar to all students of early Pennsylvania history. The map as now re- produced, however, shows the lines of tracts laid out long after the death of Captain Holme, proving that later editions must have been printed with later surveys filled in, since letters of Holme in 1686 and minutes of the Provincial Council in 1689 show that the map was then in existence.
Captain Thomas Holme was a member of the first Assembly of the Prov- ince, which began its session at Upland, December 4, 1682; was a member of the Provincial Council, 1683-84-85; a member of the joint committee in March,
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1683, to draw a new charter, or "Frame of Government"; was a member of the commissions appointed by Penn to treat with the governor and council of West Jersey, in 1683, and to "look into the actions of Lord Baltimore," etc., in 1684; and acted as president of council during the greater part of his member- ship therein. He was always the representative named by the council to treat with the Indians and was recommended for commission as Provincial Judge in 1686. He died in March or April, 1695.
Eleanor (Crispin) Hart died October 29, 1754, aged sixty-seven years, and is buried by the side of her husband John Hart Jr., in Southampton Baptist Churchyard. They were survived by three sons, Joseph, Oliver and Silas, and one daughter, Edith, wife of Isaac Hough; six other children pre-deceased them, three in childhood, and three at adult age, two of the latter, daughters, having married and left issue.
COLONEL JOSEPH HART, the ancestor of the subject of this sketch, was the fourth child of John and Eleanor (Crispin) Hart and was born in Warminster, Bucks county, Pennsylvania, September 1, 1715, and died there, February 25, 1788. He was a deacon of Southampton Baptist Church from its organization in 1746 and succeeded his father as clerk and trustee in 1763. He entered pub- lic life at an early age; was sheriff of Bucks county, 1749-1751; justice of the County Courts from 1764 to his death ; was ensign of Captain Henry Kroesen's company of Bucks County Associators in 1747; and captain of a Bucks county company in 1756. He was named as a delegate by the meeting held at New- town, July 9, 1774, to the first Continental Conference, held at Carpenter's Hall, Philadelphia, July 15, 1774, and from that time was in the forefront of the movement for national liberty or independence, almost always acting as the representative of his county in the conferences, conventions and special meet- ings of the Provincial Committee of Safety. He was chairman of the Com- mittee of Safety of Bucks County from its organization, and the minutes of that body in his handwriting are now in the library of the Bucks County Historical Society at Doylestown. He was commissioned colonel of the Bucks County Battalion of the "Flying Camp", in 1776; vice-president of the Provincial Con- vention held at Carpenter's Hall, June 18, 1776, and twice chairman of the com- mittee of the whole in that convention. In 1777 he was elected to the Supreme Executive Council, in which he served until October, 1779, when he became county lieutenant. He was commissioned by the Council Registrar of Wills and Recorder of Deeds for Bucks county, in 1777, and served until his death ; was made a member of the Board of Censors, in 1782; and on June 7, 1784, was commissioned judge of the Courts of Common Pleas and Orphans Court. On his tomb in Southampton Baptist Church is truthfully inscribed: "His long and useful life was almost wholly devoted to the public service of his country".
Colonel Joseph Hart was married, October 8, 1740, to his cousin Elizabeth Collett, daughter of John Collett by his wife Marie Crispin, a sister of Elea- nor (Crispin) Hart, the mother of the colonel. Mrs. Hart was also a distant cousin of her husband on the paternal side, her father John Collett being a son of Richard Collett by his wife Elizabeth Rush, a daughter of Captain John Rush, before mentioned. She was born in Byberry, Philadelphia county, May 14, 1714, and died in Warminster, Bucks county, six days before her husband,
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February 19, 1788. They were survived by four sons; John, Silas, Josiah and Joseph.
John Hart, second child and oldest surviving son of Colonel Joseph and Eliz- abeth (Collett) Hart, was born in Warminster township, Bucks county, Penn- sylvania, November 29, 1743, and died at Newtown, Bucks county, June 5, 1786. He was treasurer of Bucks county during the Revolution and was robbed by the Doans and their gang of Tory outlaws, October 22, 1784.
JOSEPH HART, youngest son of Colonel Joseph and Elizabeth (Collett) Hart, was born on the old Hart homestead in Warminster township, Bucks county, Pennsylvania, December 7, 1758, and died there, April 15, 1811. During the "Whiskey Insurrection' of 1796, he was paymaster of Colonel Hanna's brigade, which he accompanied in its march against the insurgents in Western Pennsyl- vania. He was a member of the State Senate, 1804 to 1809, and as such in 1808 introduced the bill for the removal of the county-seat of Bucks from New- town to Doylestown, its present location. He was a man of liberal education and extensive information on public affairs, as evidenced by his correspondence with the leading men of affairs in his day.
He married, December 25, 1783, Ann Folwell, of Warminster, of a promi- nent Colonial family, who long survived him, dying March 11, 1843. They had seven children, five of whom were: John; Thomas; Lewis Folwell; Eliza Ann, who married David Marple; and Clarissa Maria, who married Joseph Carver.
JOHN HART, eldest surviving son of Joseph and Ann (Folwell) Hart, born on the old homestead in Warminster, Bucks county, Pennsylvania, April 9, 1787, was active in local affairs in his native township and to some extent in county and state affairs. He was a member of Captain William Purdy's company in the War of 1812-14, and served with it at Camp Dupont, Marcus Hook, under Colonel Thomas Humphrey, until December, 1814. He later took an active in- terest in the militia organization, of which he was an officer for many years. He was a member of the General Assembly of Pennsylvania in 1832.
John Hart married, March 10, 1810, Mary Horner, born May 3, 1791, died August 30, 1858, daughter of John and Mary Horner, of Warminster. They had six sons: Joseph, William H., James, George, B. Frank, and Col. Thomp- son Darrah, and two daughters.
B. FRANK HART, the subject of this sketch, was the fifth son of John and Mary (Horner) Hart, and was born in Warminster township, Bucks county, Pennsylvania, March 22, 1825, and died at his residence, 2010 Wallace street, Philadelphia, July 18, 1907. He received a liberal education and taught school in his native county and in Philadelphia for a few years and then located per- manently in Philadelphia, where he was for many years associated with the John O. Veree Rolling Mills. He later became president and general manager of one of the large city passenger railways. He retired from active business several years prior to his death, though taking an active interest in the histori- cal, patriotic, charitable and philanthropic societies and enterprises with which he was long associated. He married, April 9, 1867, Anna H. Barnett, daughter of Thomas Barnett, of Philadelphia, and they had five children, two of whom died in childhood. Those who survive are: I. Sara Hart, born May 23, 1869; married Reverend Madison C. Peters, the distinguished preacher, author and
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lecturer, of Philadelphia, and has three children: Dorothy Hart Peters, born November 25, 1891; Anna Hart Peters, born June 1, 1893; Frank Hart Peters, born October 26, 1896. 2. Walter Horner Hart, born October 5, 1874, is an active business man of Philadelphia. 3. Lida Hart, born September 11, 1876.
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CHARLES WARREN MERRILL
The Merrill family was founded in America by Nathaniel Merrill, and his brother John, who came from Salisbury, county Wilts, England, in 1634, and settled in Newburyport, Massachusetts. The name is said to have originated in the French-speaking Cantons of Switzerland, several centuries ago. In its orig- inal form "Merle", still prevalent in Switzerland, it is said to have signified a blackbird. As a confirmation of this we find that on the arms of one Merrill family, which attained distinction in the early years of their sojourn in Eng- land, appears a picture of this bird.
NATHANIEL MERRILL, born in Salisbury, Wiltshire, England, about 1610, came to New England when a young man, and we find him and his brother John settled at Newburyport, the port of entry of Essex county, Massachusetts, in 1634. Nathaniel married there Susanna Willerton, and had a number of children. He died in Newburyport, March 16, 1654, having sons: John, Na- thaniel, Abraham, Daniel and Abel. Several of his sons were prominent in the Colonial history of Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Vermont; some of their descendants later migrating to the state of New York.
DANIEL MERRILL, one of the younger sons of Nathaniel and Susanna (Wil- lerton) Merrill, was born at Newburyport, August 20, 1642. He married Sar- ah Clough, born 1646, died 1706, daughter of John and Jane Clough, of Salis- bury, Massachusetts, who had come from England in 1635. John Clough was born in England in 1613, died in Salisbury, Massachusetts, in 1691. Daniel and Sarah (Clough) Merrill continued to live for some years in Newburyport, and there their seven children were born between the years 1674 and 1688. They later removed with their eldest son, John Merrill, to Salisbury, on the Merrimac river, near the line of New Hampshire, where Daniel Merrill died in 1718.
DANIEL MERRILL JR., second son of Daniel and Sarah (Clough) Merrill, born about the year 1676, married Esther Chase, and settled at Salisbury, Massa- chusetts, named for the place of nativity of his grandfather, Nathaniel Mer- rill, in Wiltshire. He probably removed later to New Hampshire, late in life, where we find his sons and grandsons residing before the middle of the eigh- teenth century, but little is known of his history.
JOSEPH MERRILL, son of Daniel and Esther (Chase) Merrill, born about the year 1700, in Salisbury, Essex county, Massachusetts, married Mary Palmer, and settled in Stratham, on the right bank of the Swanscott river, in Rocking- ham county, New Hampshire, about six miles southwest of Portsmouth, on the coast, the town or township in Pennsylvania nomenclature, extending from Exeter down the Swanscott river to the Great Bay.
JAMES MERRILL, son of Joseph and Mary (Palmer) Merrill, was born Sep- tember 18, 1729. At the dawn of the American Revolution he was living in the town of Stratham, Rockingham county, New Hampshire, and with other mem- bers of the Merrill family participated in the first action taken by the inhabitants of the town toward resisting the efforts of the British Ministry to tax the
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American Colonies. At a meeting held February 7, 1774, to consider what should be done in reference to the levying of the obnoxious taxes on tea, stren- uous resolutions were adopted. When England had sent her armies and fleets to enforce the submission of the Colonists to her unjust system of taxation, one hundred and thirty-one citizens of Stratham signed the following "Associa- tion Test"; "We, the subscribers, do hereby solemnly engage and promise that we will to the utmost of our power, at the risk of our lives and fortunes, with arms, oppose the hostile proceedings of the British fleets and armies, against the 'United American Colonies'". This test was signed by James Merrill, above mentioned; by his son, Ford Merrill, (1753-1826) ; and by Benjamin and Jo- seph Merrill. James Merrill died in Stratham, New Hampshire, March 2, 1784. He married Sarah Ford, and had several children.
REV. ELIPHALET MERRILL, son of James and Sarah (Ford) Merrill, was born in Stratham, Rockingham county, New Hampshire, April 7, 1765. He received a fair education, and was bred to the trade of a carpenter which he followed for several years. Of a deeply religious nature he early attracted the attention of the Rev. Samuel Shephard, a prominent minister of the Bap- tist Church, who was ordained in Stratham, New Hampshire, about 1771, and was for many years pastor of the Baptist Church in Brentwood, Rockingham county, and its several branches, including one at Northwood, in the northeast- ern part of Rockingham county near the Vermont line. He induced Eliphalet Merrill to take up the study of divinity under him, and the latter was for sev- eral years an elder and exhorter of the Baptist Church, prior to his ordination as a regular Baptist minister at Northwood, as a colleague or assistant to Mr. Shephard, in 1804. With characteristic energy, piety and earnestness, Mr. Merrill entered zealously upon his work as a minister of the gospel, and con- tinued to minister to the wants of that community for thirty years. During this period his journal shows that he preached about five thousand sermons includ- ing over one hundred and fifty funeral sermons, and baptized in his own church at Northwood one hundred and sixty persons. During the years 1806- 07-08-09, a great religious revival swept over that section and Elder Merrill, during these years, traveled over one thousand miles to preach the gospel, an exceedingly arduous and trying ordeal in that mountainous district without the aid of railroads, then unknown. He was an earnest and sympathetic speaker and won many converts; he was much beloved among the people to whom he ministered. He is described as a tall man of athletic build and commanding presence, and even in his old age was a man whose appearance commanded rev- erence and veneration. After thirty years arduous labors in his home town of Northwood and in the neighboring parishes of Deerfield, Nottingham, Brent- wood and Stafford, he retired from the active ministry and lived the remainder of his life near the Free-will Baptist Church at Northwood, where he regularly attended services on the Sabbath and used his good gift of exhortation with en- tire freedom. He died February 7, 1853, aged eighty-seven years and ten months, and was buried from the church where he had long ministered with so much fervour and piety.
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