USA > Pennsylvania > Colonial and revolutionary families of Pennsylvania; genealogical and personal memoirs, Vol. III > Part 6
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The success and magnitude of the commercial enterprise built up by John Barker Ellison was largely due to his inflexible industry, eminent business abil- ity and unblemished integrity. He was also identified with many other institu- tions of high standing, financial and industrial, as well as with a number of edu- cational, philanthropic and charitable projects and enterprises. He became deep- ly interested in the work of the Society for the Establishment and Support of Charity Schools, to which he was a large contributor. He was treasurer from 1841 to 1860, and from the latter date to his death in 1865, chairman of the board of managers of which he had been a member from January 6, 1829. While taking no part in political affairs in its abstract sense, he was a staunch supporter of the principles of the Whig party until the formation of the Re- publican party, when he ardently espoused its principles, and during the Civil War, 1861-65, was active and liberal in his support of the Union cause. He died in Philadelphia, April 7, 1865,
John B. Ellison married, February 3, 1824, Hannah Moore, born September 22, 1796, died July 14, 1880, daughter of John and Hannah ( Price) Moore, and a descendant of Rev. John Moore, of Newtown, Long Island, an account of whom and his numerous Pennsylvania and New Jersey descendants has been recently published, by Professor J. W. Moore, of Lafayette College, from which we abstract the following in reference to the direct ancestry of Mrs. El- lison.
Rev. John Moore, born in England about the year 1620, was in Lynn, Massa- chusetts, in 1641, in which year he joined with others in the purchase of land at Southampton, Long Island, having married, at about that date Margaret, daughter of Edward Howell, of Lynn, the leader of the Long Island coloniza- tion scheme. He was pastor of the church at Newtown, Long Island, and died there, September 17, 1657. His widow married the Rev. Francis Doughty, be- fore referred to as ancestor of the Ellisons.
Captain Samuel Moore, the second child of Rev. John and Margaret (How- ell) Moore, born in 1645, died suddenly at Newtown, Long Island, July 25, 1717, after a long life of public activity. He was constable of Newtown in 1675- 76; overseer 1677-83; commissioner of the town courts 1684-89: captain of provincial forces on Long Island; and a justice of the courts as late as 1710. He married Mary Reed, born 1651, died May 14, 1738.
Nathaniel Moore, son of Captain Samuel and Mary (Reed) Moore, born at Newtown, Long Island, 1687, died September 6, 1759, in Hopewell township, Hunterdon county, New Jersey, whither he had removed from Newtown, in 1708. He was lieutenant of the Third Company, in a regiment of New Jersey
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troops, in 1715, and was made a justice of Hunterdon county in 1725. He had mills and an extensive plantation six miles above Trenton. He married Joanna, daughter of Rev. John Prudden, who was born in Milford, Connecticut, Novem- ber 9, 1645, died at Newark, New Jersey, December II, 1725, a graduate of Harvard, in 1668, teacher of a grammar school at Roxbury, Massachusetts, until 1670, when he was called to the pastorate of the church at Jamaica, Long Island, and later to Newark, New Jersey, where he died. He was a son of Rev. Peter Prudden, born in Yorkshire, England, in 1601, who came to Milford, Connecti- cut, in 1637, bringing his congregation with him, and died there July 6, 1656.
Captain John Moore, son of Nathaniel and Joanna (Prudden) Moore, was born in Hopewell, New Jersey, March 8, 1715, died there September 3, 1768. He was enrolled as a private in Colonel Samuel Hunt's regiment, in the colonel's own company, March 26, 1762, and served in the French and Indian War, reaching the rank of captain. He married (first) Keziah Phillips, born in 1717, daughter of Theophilus Phillips, of Maidenhead, New Jersey, many years judge of the Common Pleas Court, and his wife, Elizabeth (Betts) Phillips, daughter of Richard Betts, Jr., and granddaughter of Captain Richard Betts, a native of Hertfordshire, who was many years one of the principal men of the Eng- lish colony on Long Island; deputy to the Provincial Assembly; sheriff ; judge of the Court of Assizes, etc., and who died at Newtown, November 18, 1713, aged one hundred years.
Theophilus Phillips, grandfather of Keziah (Phillips) Moore, born May 15, 1673, died at Maidenhead, New Jersey, in 1709. He was, in 1698, one of the founders of Lawrenceville Presbyterian Church. His father, also Theophilus, died at Newtown, Long Island, January 26, 1689, had been made a freeman there in 1673, and filled various municipal offices. He was a son of Zerubabel Phillips, born in Watertown, Massachusetts, April 6, 1632, moved to South- ampton, Long Island, prior to 1657, and died there 1687. Rev. George Phillips, father of Zerubabel, and the founder of the family in America, was born in Rainham, county Norfolk, England, in 1593, received his degree of B. A. at Cambridge in 1613, that of A. M. in 1617, and sailed for New England with Governor Winthrop in the "Arabella", April 12, 1630, and arrived at Salem, Massachusetts, June 12, 1630. He became the first pastor of the Watertown Church in July, 1630, and was virtually the founder of the first Congregational Church in America. He was a member of Governor's Council, and one of the first to bring about a representative form of government. From him have de- scended many distinguished men, in the several walks of life, among them the founders of Phillips Academies at Exeter and Andover; the distinguished ora- tor, Wendell Phillips, the Right Rev. Phillips Brooks, Bishop of the Episcopal Church, etc.
Nathaniel Moore, eldest son of Captain John and Keziah ( Phillips) Moore, born in New Jersey in 1735, was the grandfather of Hannah ( Moore) Ellison. He was a soldier in the Revolutionary War, serving as sergeant of Captain Hoppock's company in the Third New Jersey Regiment, of Hunterdon County Militia. He lived, prior to the Revolution, about six miles north of Trenton, and two miles from the village of Pennington, and received compensation from the government in February, 1777, for wheat and hay taken for the use of the American army at a somewhat earlier date. He had removed to Trenton, prior
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to the capture of the Hessians by Washington and his army on the morning of December 26, 1776, and a number of the prisoners were quartered at his house on Calhoun Street, prior to their removal to Pennsylvania. A tobacco box giv- en to him by one of the Hessian prisoners at that time was recently presented to the Historical Society of Pennsylvania by his granddaughter, Mrs. Beasely. He owned and operated Beatty's Ferry over the Delaware at Lamberton, and fer- ried President Washington and his suite over the river when he was on the way to New York to be inaugurated in 1789, and took a prominent part in the reception given to him in Trenton on that occasion. He died at Trenton, New Jersey, November 4, 1798. His wife was Eleanor Van Brunt, of a prominent family of Holland descent.
John Moore, father of Hannah ( Moore) Ellison, born near Pennington, New Jersey, August 4, 1767, came to Philadelphia when a young man and was many years engaged in the mercantile business there, in partnership with Timothy Caldwell. He served as a member of the City Council and was otherwise prom- inent in public affairs. A biographer has written of him, "He died without shad- ow or spot of blemish on his name, and his descendants may well be proud of having such an ancestor". He was first a member of the Protestant Episcopal Church, and was married at Gloria Dei Church, March 6, 1791, to Hannalı, daughter of Joseph Price, of Harbourtown, New Jersey. Both later became members of the Second Presbyterian Church, of which he was a ruling elder, and both are buried in the burying ground of that church, on Arch Street. He died February 12, 1834, and she in 1835. Their place of residence was 279 Race Street.
John Barker and Hannah ( Moore) Ellison had four children. The eldest, Elizabeth Moore Ellison, born June 6, 1825, married, November 29, 1845, Sam- uel Richards. She had in her possession an excellent portrait of her maternal grandfather, Joseph Moore. She died at her residence, 2115 Pine Street, Phil- adelphia, July 19, 1903.
William P. Ellison, and Rodman Barker Ellison, the two sons, became mem- bers of the firm of John B. Ellison & Sons, and continued their connection with the business founded by their father throughout their lives. Rodman B. Elli- son was born March 16, 1832, died January 3, 1907. He married, October 13, 1853, Hannah N. Miller, and Margaret Ellison, the youngest child, born Decem- ber 31, 1840, married, December 17, 1863, Dr. George W. Ellis, of Philadel- phia.
WILLIAM P. ELLISON, the eldest son of John B. and Hannah ( Moore) Elli- son, born in Philadelphia, May 8, 1828, died there March 10, 1906. He mar- ried, October 27, 1852, Ellen Frances Walker, born February 10, 1833, still liv- ing at 1526 Walnut Street, Philadelphia. She is a daughter of William W. Walker, of Philadelphia, and his wife, Sarah Margaret (Oat) Walker, and a granddaughter of John Walker, of Northampton county, Pennsylvania, and his wife, Mary (Darrah) Walker, daughter of Thomas Darrah, of Bedminster town- ship, Bucks county, Pennsylvania, and his wife, Agnes (Thompson) Darrah, and great-granddaughter of Thomas Darrah, a native of the north of Ireland, who with his wife Mary settled in Horsham township, Philadelphia, now Mont- gomery county, with wife Mary about 1739, and ten years later removed to Bed- minster township, Bucks county, where he died in March, 1750.
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The Walker family to which Mrs. Ellison belongs formed an important part of two of the earliest settlements of Scotch-Irish emigrants in Pennsylvania, that on the Neshaminy in Warrington and Warwick, Bucks county, and "Craig's" or the "Irish Settlement" at Bath in the same county at the time of its founding, but in what became Northampton county in 1752.
The founders of these two settlements, about 1725, were all more or less connected by ties of consanguinity, who had come from the Providence of Ul- ster at the same time, and settled together on the banks of the Neshaminy, and founded Neshaminy Presbyterian Church of Warwick in 1725, some of them re- moving within a few years to the Craig settlement, in Northampton, and others still later to Bedminster, Plumstead and Tinicum, and founding Deep Run con- gregation, on a stream of that name, a tributary of the Tohickon. Among the latter was Thomas Darrah, before mentioned, a further account of whom will be given later.
Among the Ulster Scots who settled on the Neshaminy in Warrington town- ship, Bucks county, between 1720 and 1725, was William Walker, and Ann, his wife, their sons, John, Robert, and Richard; and daughters, Christiana, with her husband, John McNair; and Mary Ann, with her husband, James King. Of these, John Walker, John McNair, and James King, and their respective families, accompanied by Thomas Craig the elder, (whose two brothers re- mained in Warrington), with a number of others, almost immediately removed to Bath, now Northampton county, and founded Craig's settlement there.
William Walker, the elder, died in Warrington, Bucks county, in 1738, aged sixty-six years, and his wife Ann died there, in 1750, aged seventy years, and both are buried at Neshaminy churchyard. Robert Walker, one of the sons, settled in Northampton township, Bucks county, a short distance southeast of Neshaminy Church, and died there in 1758, evidently unmarried, at least with- out issue, as after leaving a substantial legacy toward the support of Neshaminy Church he devises the residue of his estate to his brothers, John and Richard, and his sisters Christiana McNair and Mary Ann King, and their children. Richard Walker, another son, was the most prominent man of the Scotch-Irish settlement in Bucks county ; was elected to the Provincial Assembly in 1747, and served continuously in that body until 1759, and was a justice of the peace from 1740 until his death in 1791. He was also a captain in the Provincial ser- vice in 1758, and during the Revolutionary War was one of the ac- tive members of the Committee of Safety. He died April 11, 1791, aged eighty- nine years, having been for nearly three-quarters of a century an elder of Ne- shaminy Church, and the representative and chief adviser of the community in which he lived, in all public matters. His wife, Sarah (Craig) Walker, who was a sister to the founder of Craig's Settlement and of Daniel and John Craig, of the Neshaminy Settlement, died April 24, 1784, aged seventy-eight years.
John Walker, youngest son of William and Ann Walker, born in Ireland about the year 1717, came to Bucks county, Pennsylvania, with his parents about 1724, and on arriving at mature years removed with his brothers-in-law, John McNair and James King, to the Irish Settlement, in what became Northampton county, Pennsylvania, in 1752. He married Mary Ann Blackburn, born in 1717, probably of the same family as Jean Blackburn, who married Robert Jamison, one of the prominent Scotch-Irish settlers on the Neshaminy (there were no
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males of the name of Blackburn in the settlement). John Walker was promi- nent in the affairs of the Northampton county settlement during Colonial times, a soldier in the Provincial forces during the French and Indian wars, and was an associator at the outbreak of the Revolution. A John Walker was a mem- ber of the company of Captain Robert Hays, who paid his company "in the City of Philadelphia their Monthly wages, December 27, 1776", but this may have been John Walker, the son of John. John Walker Sr. was a contributor of grain for the use of the army from Allen township, in 1776. John Walker, Sr., died June 7, 1777. His wife died April 14, 1773. They had five children: Wil- liam (1746-1804), who inherited the land of his uncle, Richard Walker, in Bucks county, under the intestate laws, "being eldest son of the eldest brother of the said intestate", and located in Bucks county, at the death of Richard in 1791 ; Jane Walker, who married, August 13, 1771, Captain John Hays, whose first wife was her cousin, Barbara King, daughter of James and Mary Ann (Walker) King; Ann Walker, (1750-1826) who married Colonel Joseph Grier, of Bucks county ; Mary Ann, who married Robert Lattimore; and John Walker, Jr.
John Walker, Jr., second son of John and Mary Ann ( Blackburn) Walker, of Northampton county, Pennsylvania, was a soldier throughout the Revolution in the militia of his native county. It was probably he and not his father, who as a member of Captain Robert Hays' company entered the Continental service, January 6, 1776, and who was paid his monthly wages at Philadelphia, Decem- ber 27, 1776. He later served as a private in the Third Battalion, Northampton County Militia, in the company commanded by Captain John Ralston, who had married his cousin, Christiana King, and later commanded by Captain Adam Clendenin, under whom he was serving on June 4, 1781, when, under the Mili- tia Act of the State of Pennsylvania, his brother-in-law, Captain John Hays, as lieutenant of Northampton county, selected six persons from each battalion of the county militia to form a Company of Light Horse, and was one of those selected from the third battalion, and entered the service in this company of Light Horse under Lieutenant John Brisban, his name appearing on the subse- quent rolls of this company. John Walker, Jr., married Mary Darrah, born 1761, died June 15, 1783, daughter of Thomas Darrah Jr., before mentioned, and his wife, Agnes (Thompson) Darrah.
Thomas Darrah, Sr., as before stated, came from Londonderry, Ireland, about 1725, and settled in Horsham township, Philadelphia now Montgomery county, along the line of Warrington township, Bucks county, Pennsylvania, and was one of the original members of Neshaminy Presbyterian Church of Warwick. In 1740 he purchased a tract of six hundred acres on the Swamp Road in the southwestern part of Bedminster township, and removed thereon. He was one of the thirty-five petitioners to the Presbytery of Philadelphia in 1741, for the organization of Deep Run Presbyterian Church, and the church building was erected on a tract of land adjoining his plantation on the northwest, do- nated for the purpose by Chief Justice Allen, to encourage the settlement of his seven thousand acre tract of land adjoining. From this time Thomas Darrah was one of the prominent members and an elder of the Deep Run congregation until his death, early in 1750. He and his wife Mary had five sons, all of whom were soldiers in the Revolution. Robert, Thomas, William and James were
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members of Captain Robert Robinson's company of associators of Bedminster township, in 1775, of which William was first lieutenant, and all were members of the later organizations of Bucks County Militia. William, who married Re- becca Thompson, sister to the wife of his brother, Thomas, was the grand- father of Hon. William Darrah Kelly, many years a member of Congress from Philadelphia, and known as the "Father of the House" by reason of his long service. Henry Darrah, the other son of Thomas and Mary Darrah, had mar- ried and removed to New Britain township, prior to the Revolution, and was a member of the New Britain Company of Associators, in 1775. On July 10, 1776, he was appointed by the Bucks County Committee of Safety, first lieutenant of Captain William Roberts' company, in the Bucks County Battalion of the "Fly- ing Camp", under Colonel Joseph Hart, and served in the New Jersey and Long Island campaign of 1776. On his return to Bucks county, Roberts having been promoted to the rank of colonel, Lieutenant Darrah was commissioned as cap- tain, and he was almost constantly in the service until his death in the spring of 1782.
Thomas Darrah Jr., second son of Thomas and Mary Darrah, received by deed of gift from his father a portion of the plantation in Bedminster, and lived there all his mature life, dying there, August, 1799. As before stated he was a member of Captain Robinson's Bedminster Company of Associators, Au- gust 19, 1775. He was selected December 15, 1774, as one of the original Com- mittee of Safety for Bucks county, and re-elected December, 1775; was present at nearly all of the meetings of the committee and took an active part in the measures adopted by that body, for two years the absolute legislative and gov- erning body for the respective counties, and through the State Committee to which it sent its representatives of the state itself.
Thomas Darrah married Agnes, daughter of Robert and Mary Thompson, of Jeffersonville, Norriton township, now Montgomery county, Pennsylvania, about one mile north of the present site of Norristown, where Robert Thompson pur- chased land in 1737. He was the eldest son of Archibald Thompson, who set- tled at the same place five years after his son Robert had located there, and died September 17, 1746, in his sixty-eighth year. Rebecca Thompson, the wife of Archibald and mother of Robert, died November 17, 1748, aged sixty- three years. Robert Thompson died August 6, 1747, in his fortieth year leaving six small children, of whom the eldest was Colonel Archibald Thompson, a mem- ber of the Committee of Safety of Philadelphia county for Norriton township from December, 1775; captain in the Flying Camp in 1776; sub-lieutenant for Philadelphia county, 1777 ; selected lieutenant-colonel of Fifth Battalion, Penn- sylvania Militia, April 22, 1777; and elected to the General Assembly, October 12, 1779, but died November 19, 1779, before taking his seat.
Beside Colonel Archibald, Robert and Mary Thompson had two other sons, James and Mark, who were soldiers in the Revolution; and three daughters, Martha, wife of James Sheppard, of Plymouth; Agnes, wife of Thomas Dar- rah, of Bedminster ; and Rebecca, wife of Captain William Darrah, of Bedmin- ster, brother of Thomas. Mary Thompson, the mother, married (second) in 1761, Robert Curry, whom she also survived. She died April 9, 1804, aged ninety-seven years.
Thomas and Agnes (Thompson) Darrah had two sons, Thomas and Mark,
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and daughters, Nancy, Mary ( wife of John Walker ), Martha, Rebecca, Susan- na and Elizabeth.
William W. Walker, son of John and Mary (Darrah) Walker, located in Philadelphia and married Sarah Margaret Oat, of that city, and their daughter, Ellen Frances Walker, became the wife of William P. Ellison.
HENRY HOWARD ELLISON, son of William P. and Ellen Frances (Walker ) El- lison, born in Philadelphia, July 31, 1853, is one of the present members of the firm of John B. Ellison's Sons. He married (first) December 7, 1876, Elizabeth Morris Ogden, born May 19, 1856, died October 31, 1880, daughter of Edward H. and Sarah Morris (Perot) Ogden, and (second) November 28, 1883, Mary Elizabeth McCarty, born November 13, 1858, daughter of Edward and Mary Elizabeth (Hause) McCarty, of Philadelphia. Mrs. H. H. Ellison is a direct descendant of Elder William Brewster, of the "Mayflower".
Elizabeth Morris Ogden, the first wife of Henry Howard Ellison, was a daughter of the late Edward H. Ogden and his wife, Sarah Morris ( Perot) Ogden. On the paternal side Mrs. Ellison was a descendant of David Ogden, born in county Surrey, near London, in 1655, who came to Pennsylvania in the "Welcome", with William Penn, in October, 1682, and married, February 12, 1686-87, Martha Hulstein, and settled in Delaware county, where he died in 1705. On the maternal side she is descended from James Perot, born at New Rochelle, New York, in 1710, whose ancestors were Huguenots from Rochelle, France, who came to New Rochelle on the revocation of the Edict of Nantes. James Perot went to the Bermudas in early life and married there Frances Mallory, and both died there in 1780, leaving eight children.
Ellison Perot, son of James and Frances ( Mallory) Perot, was sent to New York, at the age of seven years to be educated under the care of his uncle, Robert Ellison, and spent five years at school at New Rochelle. The death of his uncle caused his return to Bermuda, where he remained until of age, when he returned to New York and engaged in the shipping business with West In- dia ports. In 1772 he went to the Island of Dominica and engaged in trade there with his brother, John Perot, until 1778, when they removed to St. Eusta- tius. The capture of the latter island by the British fleet and the confiscation of their property in 1781 broke up the firm, and after a trip to England in a vain endeavor to secure redress, the brothers located in Philadelphia and resumed their trading business.
Ellison Perot became identified with a number of internal improvements in and around Philadelphia ; was president of the Lancaster turnpike; a manager of the Pennsylvania Hospital for seventeen years; a director of the Philadel- phia Insurance Company from 1816, and manager of the Philadelphia Dispen- sary until his death at Germantown, November 28, 1834. He married, in 1787, Sarah Sansom, of Philadelphia, born 1764, died August 22, 1808.
Francis Perot, third child of Ellison and Sarah (Sansom) Perot, born in Phil- adelphia, August 23, 1796, died there, March 24, 1885. He was one of the prominent business men of his day in Philadelphia. He married, June 17, 1823, Elizabeth Marshall Morris, daughter of Thomas Morris ( 1774-1841), and his wife, Sarah (Marshall) Morris, daughter of Charles Marshall and his wife, Patience (Parrish) Marshall, granddaughter of Thomas Morris (1746-1809) and his wife, Mary (Saunders) Morris, great-granddaughter of Anthony Mor-
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ris the fourth, (1705-80) and his wife, Sarah (Powell) Morris, great-great- granddaughter of Anthony Morris, the third, ( 1681-1735) and his wife, Phebe (Guest) Morris, great-great-great-granddaughter of Anthony Morris, one of the earliest merchants of Philadelphia, who and his descendants for many gen- erations were among the most prominent business men of Philadelphia, and during the Colonial and Revolutionary period the chief office-holding family of the city and state, several of his great-grandsons being soldiers and officers in the Revolutionary War. An elaborate and authentic history of the family, in six volumes, has been prepared by Dr. Robert C. Moon, a descendant, and no particulars need be given here. Anthony Morris, the first of the family in Amer- ica, born 1654, was judge of the Common Pleas Court of Philadelphia, and of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania; member of Provincial Council, and of the Colonial Assembly for many years, etc., etc .; he was a son of Anthony Morris, of London, England, ( 1630-56) a mariner, ship owner, etc.
Francis Perot became identified with the business enterprises in which the Morris family had been engaged for several generations, and was closely asso- ciated with them during a long and useful life. His daughter, Sarah Morris Perot, born December 6, 1831, married, December 1, 1853, Edward H. Ogden and their daughter, Elizabeth Morris Ogden, married Henry Howard Ellison, as before stated.
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