Colonial families of Philadelphia, Volume II, Part 27

Author: Jordan, John Woolf, 1840-1921, ed
Publication date: 1911
Publisher: New York : Lewis Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 978

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Issue of Ebeneser and Elisabeth W. (Jones) Levick:

Joseph Wetherill, d. in infancy;

Richard d. in infancy;

SAMUEL J., b. Aug. 30, 1819, d. April 19, 1885; m. (first) Ellen Foulke; (second) Sus- anna Morris Mather; of whom presently ;

William M., b. 1821, d. June 10, 1874: was a member of the Phila. Bar; he confined him- self to that branch of the law, having to do with real estate and the administration of estates, and says a biographer, not of his faith or family, "wielded an influence, and was in control and had the direction of interests to an extent totally unknown nor dreamed of by the members who met with him as the quiet unobtrusive business man." He m. Oct. 5, 1845, Hannah Moore, daughter of Richard and Sarah Moore, of

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Quakertown. Both were for many years active and consistent members of Green Street Friends Meeting. They were much given to hospitality, entertaining number- less country Friends. His widow and two daughters survived him;

Dr. James J. Levick, b. July 28, 1824, d. June 25, 1893; was one of Phila.'s most promi- nent physicians; he was educated at Haverford Coll., and received his medical degree at the Univ. of Penna. in 1847, and built up and retained an extensive and lucrative practice; was resident physician of Penna. Hospital, 1849-1851; and a member of the medical staff of that institution from 1856 to 1869; elected Fellow of the College of Physicians, April 1851; forty-one years physician to Magdalen Asylum; physician to Will's Eye Hospital, 1853-1865; member of the Am. Med. Assn. from 1864 to his death; member of Academy of Natural Sciences, of Phila., from 1865; of Philadelphia Co. Med. Society from 1853; of Hist. Society of Penna. from 1855, and was an authority on historical subjects, especially in reference to the early settlement of Penna .; prepared a paper on the early physicians of Phila., for the Association of the ex-Resident Physicians of the Pennsylvania Hospital, which was exhaustive, and instructive. He was early identified with the Welsh Society, and was the author of "The Early Welsh Quakers and Their Emigration to Pennsylvania," and a number of other historical works. He was also a frequent contributor to medical and other scientific journals, and a man of considerable literary and poetic talent. He was un- married. He was a member of Twelfth Meeting of Friends.

SAMUEL J. LEVICK, in the autumn of 1840, made an extensive trip with his father through what was then our western states. Leaving Philadelphia in Au- gust by stage-coach to Quakertown, thence to Easton, they spent a few days at his father's Monroe county tanneries, and then took stage to Bound Brooke, New Jersey, from which point they proceeded in cars to Elizabeth Point, and from there by steamboat to New York, by the same conveyance up the Hudson to Kingston, where they stopped to visit extensive tanneries, then proceeded to Albany, thence via Utica, Syracuse, Rochester, Niagara Falls, to Buffalo, where they took a steamer to Cleveland, Ohio, and spent some weeks in visiting friends and relatives in different parts of Ohio, and returned by way of Richmond, Indi- ana, through Cincinnati, to Pittsburg.

A journal of this trip was faithfully kept by him and records many novel ex- periences in the primitive mode of travel of that day.

From Pittsburg, he drove home with his own horse and buggy, purchased in Ohio, reaching Philadelphia, October 22, 1840.

Samuel J. Levick, began to address Week-day and First-day Meetings, of Friends for worship, about the middle of the year 1840, and became a recorded minister of the Society in 1842. On his return from his Western trip in October, 1840, he spent the greater part of the winter months in Philadelphia, and being about to marry, he and his father arranged for the purchase of a farm near Moorestown, New Jersey, but before the coming of spring, and his marriage to Ellen Foulke, at Richland Meeting, on March 4, 1841, the seller had declined to part with his farm, and his father, on March 31, 1841, purchased for him a farm of eighty-five acres in Richland township, near his father-in-law, Caleb Foulke, about one mile from Quakertown, Bucks county, where the newly married couple took up their residence on April 8, 1841. Here his daughter, Jane, was born, and the mother died on August 13, 1842. Taking his orphaned daughter to his parents in Philadelphia, he continued to conduct the farm with Keziah Foulke as a house- keeper, until his second marriage, on November 17, 1844, to Susanna Morris Mather, of "Wood Lawn," Penllym, Montgomery county, Pennsylvania. He took his second wife to "Spring Lawn," as he had named his Richland farm, and resided there until 1848, when he returned to Philadelphia, and engaged in the mercantile business with his brother, William M. Levick. During the prevalence

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of the cholera epidemic in Philadelphia, he removed his family to "Wood Lawn," the home of his wife's parents, for the summer of 1849; himself remaining in the city, except over "First Day." He again took up his residence in Philadelphia, in 1850, and resided there until 1857, when he removed to Quakertown, Bucks county, returning to Philadelphia, October 20, 1874, where he continued to reside until his death at his home in West Philadelphia, April 19, 1885. The family, however, spent most of their summers in Quakertown. During his whole active life, after attaining manhood he continued actively in the ministry of the Society of Friends, and travelled extensively in that service.

During the Civil War, Samuel J. Levick manifested an active interest in the struggle for the preservation of the Union. He loved his country and abhorred slavery, so he felt that the one should be preserved and the other destroyed, though as a Friend and advocate of peace he deplored the means employed. Near the beginning of the war, whilst visiting at the house of a friend in New York, he made the statement, that at the breaking out of the war he felt that it was the beginning of the end of slavery. This was a year before the promulgation of the Emancipation Proclamation. He was frequently in Washington and had personal interviews with every President from Lincoln to Arthur. For Lincoln he had the greatest admiration and esteem, and between them there was the utmost freedom of intercourse. He had several interviews with Lincoln and Secretary Stanton, in reference to the attitude of the Society of Friends toward the administration and their peculiar position in reference to the war and slavery.

On his return to Philadelphia, in 1874, he was elected a member of the board of managers of the Pennsylvania Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Ani- mals, and in the following year was made its Secretary, a position he filled during the remainder of his life, giving much attention to the work of the society in his own city, and taking an active part in the work elsewhere. In 1877 he was one of the two delegates from Pennsylvania to the convention called by the Humane Society of Illinois, which resulted in the formation of the International Humane Society, of which he was made treasurer, and a member of the Advisory Com- mittee and the Committee on Legislation, and as such attended the next six annual meetings of the Society, held in the various States of the Union. He was a charter member of the Pennsylvania Society for the Protection of Cruelty to Children, incorporated March 10, 1877, and was a member of the Board of Man- agers for the remainder of his life. His voice was always raised for the pro- tection of all living creatures from cruelty and suffering. He took an active inter- est in the movement that led up to the celebration of the Bi-Centennial of the founding of Pennsylvania, in 1881, and was a member of the Executive Com- mittee of the Association having it in charge. He took a lively interest in the public schools, and in the proper rearing of youth. He was always sure of an appreciative audience at the Fourth-day Meetings at Race Street Meeting, when several hundred school children were present, and he had a happy faculty of being able to interest the children to whom on such occasions he invariably directed the greater part of his remarks. He died very suddenly at his home in West Phila- delphia, April 19, 1885, without having been confined to his bed, though he had been ailing slightly for about a week. He was buried at Merion Meeting grave- yard, where a number of his Welsh ancestors lay buried.

Samuel J. Levick married, first, at Richland Meeting, Bucks county, Pennsyl-

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vania, March 4, 1841, Eleanor Foulke, born in Richland township, March 12, 1816, daughter of Caleb Foulke, born in Richland, August 28, 1781, died there Feb- ruary 22, 1852; by his wife, Jane Green, born in Richland, February 8, 1785, died March 3, 1835 ; daughter of Benjamin and Jane ( Roberts) Green, granddaughter of Joseph and Catharine (Thomas) Green, of Springfield township, Bucks county.

Caleb Foulke, was the eldest son and third child of Everard Foulke, born in Richland, September 8, 1755, died there, September 5, 1827; many years a Justice of the Peace, and one of the Assessors of the House Tax, attacked by the insur- rectionists, in Upper Bucks county, under John Fries, during the "Fries Re- bellion" in 1798. Everard Foulke married Ann Dehaven, of Dutch ancestry, a descendant of Everhart In de Hoffen, one of the early settlers of Germantown, and they were the parents of nine children.

Everard Foulke was the eldest son of Thomas Foulke, of Richland, born March 14, 1724-25, died March 31, 1786; by his wife, Jane Roberts, daughter of Ed- ward Roberts, of Richland, a native of Merionethshire, Wales, an esteemed min- ister of the Society of Friends, by his wife, Mary Bolton, born in Cheltenham township, Philadelphia county, November 4, 1687, daughter of Everard and Elizabeth Bolton, who came from Ross, Hertfordshire, England, in 1682, and settled in Cheltenham, where Everard Bolton was a very prominent man in Colo- nial times.

Thomas Foulke was a son of Hugh Foulke of Richland, by his wife, Ann Williams, and grandson of Edward Foulke, of Gwynedd, who with his wife, Eleanor, and nine children, came from Wales, in the "Robert and Elizabeth," in 1698, and settled in Gwynedd, Philadelphia, now Montgomery county ; an account of whom and some of his descendants is given elsewhere in these volumes.

Benjamin G. Foulke, a brother of Eleanor (Foulke) Levick, and a prominent resident of Richland, Bucks county, married Jane Mather, a sister to Susanna, the second wife of Samuel J. Levick, and was therefore, doubly a brother-in-law of Samuel J. Levick. Job Roberts Foulke, of Philadelphia, for many years Trust Officer of the Provident Life and Trust Company, of Philadelphia, is a son of Benjamin G. and Jane (Mather) Foulke.

Eleanor (Foulke) Levick, survived her marriage less than a year and a half, dying at "Spring Lawn," the Richland home of Samuel J. Levick, August 13, 1842. Her only child, Jane Foulke Levick, born in Richland, March 10, 1841, married Edwin A. Jackson, of New York City, where they thereafter resided ; and are the parents of two children, Jane J. Jackson, and Edwin L. Jackson.

Samuel J. Levick married, second, on November 17, 1844, Susanna Morris Mather, born August 2, 1819, at "Wood Lawn Farm," the home of her maternal ancestors for many generations, in Whitpain township, Montgomery county. She was the daughter of Charles Mather, by his wife, Jane Roberts, daughter of Job and Mary (Naylor) Roberts, granddaughter of Isaac and Mary (Morris) Mather, of Cheltenham; great-granddaughter of Richard and Sarah (Penrose) Mather, and great-great-granddaughter of Joseph Mather, the American progen- itor of the family, by his wife, Elizabeth Russell.

John Russell, the father of Elizabeth (Russell) Mather, purchased of William Penn, in 1683, a large tract of land in Cheltenham, Philadelphia, now Mont- gomery county, and it descended to his only daughter, Elizabeth, the wife of Joseph Mather, who about 1727, conveyed the land inherited from her father to

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her son, Richard Mather, who married Sarah Penrose, daughter of Captain Bar- tholomew Penrose, of Philadelphia, shipwright and mariner, by his wife, Esther Leech, born 1682, died 1713; daughter of Toby Leech, who came from Chelten- ham, county of Gloucester, England, in 1682, with his wife Esther Ashmead, and settled in what was named Cheltenham township (Philadelphia county), after his old home in England. Toby Leech became a large landed proprietor in Chelten- ham and elsewhere and was one of the most prominent men of his time, serving as a member of the Provincial Assembly, 1713-1720, and filling many other posi- tions of honor and trust. Richard Mather, in 1746, joined with his sister-in-law, Dorothy (Penrose) Shoemaker, in the erection of the old Shoemaker mill, in Cheltenham, still in active operation at Ogontz. Richard and Sarah (Penrose) Mather, had several sons, among whom the Cheltenham plantation was divided, and a portion of it, set apart to Isaac Mather, lying along the line of Abington township, at Chelten Hills, is still owned and occupied by his grandson, Isaac Mather, now in his one hundredth year.

Mary Morris, the wife of Isaac Mather, of Chelten Hills, was the daughter of Joshua Morris, and granddaughter of Morris Morris, one of the earliest land- owners in Richland township, who had come from Wales with his father Evan Morris, born in Grikhoth, Caernarvonshire, Wales, in 1654, died in Abington township, Philadelphia county, Pennsylvania. Morris Morris and Joshua Morris were members of the Assembly.

An account of the convincement of Evan Morris, of the faith of Friends, while a resident of Wales, written by his son, Morris Morris, is, in the original hand- writing, in possession of his descendant, Eleanor Foulke, of Quakertown, daugh- ter of Benjamin G. Foulke, before mentioned.

Morris Morris married Susanna Heath, daughter of Richard Heath, of Phila- delphia, one of the earliest Quaker emigrants to Pennsylvania. She was for forty years an eminent minister of the Society of Friends and travelled extensively in that service, both in America and Europe, having visited Great Britain three times after she was forty years of age ; and before her first trip abroad, having travelled through the Carolinas, Virginia and Maryland; and later in New England, New Jersey, and other parts of the Colonies. On her first trip to Great Britain she was absent nearly three years, ministering to Meetings in England and Ireland. Her second visit, in her sixty-second year, occupied nearly two years and her last visit at the age of seventy years, occupied a year and a half. During the early part of their married life, Morris and Susanna (Heath) Morris, resided on a farm in Abington township, Philadelphia, now Montgomery county, from whence they removed to Richland, where he had purchased one thousand acres of land, cover- ing a large portion of the present borough of Quakertown, about 1723; Richland Meeting House was erected on land donated by him. Morris Morris died at Richland, June 2, 1764, in his eighty-seventh year, and his wife Susanna, on April 28, 1755, in her seventy-third year.

Charles Mather, the son of Isaac and Mary (Morris) Mather, of Cheltenham was the father of Susanna Morris (Mather) Levick, who was named for her distinguished ancestress Susanna (Heath) Morris. Charles Mather married in 1807, Jane Roberts, daughter and only surviving child of Job Roberts, widely known as "The Pennsylvania Farmer," from the title of a valuable book publish-

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ed by him in 1804. He was born on his "Wood Lawn Farm," in Whitpain town- ship, Philadelphia, now Montgomery county, in 1756, in the house in which he died August 20, 1851, erected by his grandfather, John Roberts, in 1715. He was a son of John Roberts and his wife, Jane Hank, whose grandfather, Cadwalader Evans, of Gwynedd, traced his ancestors back to the grantees of their "Magna Charter." and grandson of John Roberts, by his wife, Elizabeth Edward ; great-grandson of Robert Cadwalader, who came from Wales, in 1697, and settled at Gwynedd.

Job Roberts was probably the most progressive and successful farmer of his time, originating many important improvements in agriculture of a practical nature. Early in life he displayed unusual mechanical and agricultural enterprise. In 1780 he drove to Gwynedd Meeting in a carriage of his own manufacture, said to have been the only carriage, then or for twenty-five years thereafter, seen at that Meeting. "Altogether, his learning, his enterprise and his fine character, made him a notable figure of his time," says Howard M. Jenkins in his "Historical Collections of Gwynedd." He did much to improve the methods of farming ; was with Judge Peters, a pioneer in the use of gypsum, or land plaster, as a ferti- lizer ; introduced the feeding of green fodder to cattle, instead of grazing, and was one of the first to introduce and breed Merino sheep in Pennsylvania. In 1804, he published "The Pennsylvania Farmer," in which he explains the improved methods by which he was able to raise three hundred and sixty bushels of wheat on a lot of six acres, practically double what his neighbors were able to produce.

On the marriage of Jane Roberts to Charles Mather, her father erected for them a fine and spacious stone house, on his "Wood Lawn Farm," which has since been known as "Wood Lawn," in which Samuel J. Levick was married in 1844, to Susanna Morris Mather, and which has been at intervals the summer home of their children and grandchildren, making the eighth generation to reside at the old homestead. Charles Mather died in 1830, and his widow, Jane, survived him seventeen years, but was for many years a helpless invalid from rheumatism; the wedding of her daughter being permitted to be held in her house, by Gwynedd Meeting, instead of at the Meeting House, because she was not able to go to the Meeting House. Charles and Jane (Roberts) Mather were the parents of six daughters, and two sons. Job Roberts Mather, who occupied the old home; Jane ( Mather ) Foulke, of Quakertown and Susanna Mather Levick, of Philadelphia, were the last of the eight to survive.

Susanna Morris (Mather) Levick survived her husband nineteen years. She died suddenly on April 4, 1904, at the age of eighty-five years. She retained all her faculties to the last and was remarkably active for one of her years, and took a lively interest in the events of the day. While residing with her son, Charles J. Levick, in Denver, Colorado, she felt it her duty to exercise the right of suffrage afforded to her sex by the laws of that state. She crossed the continent twice after she was seventy-eight years of age, and enjoyed travelling exceedingly. being a keen observer of both people and places. She was possessed of a sweet disposition, combined with a strong character inherited from a long line of Welsh ancestors. She was a lifelong member of the Society of Friends as had been all her forbears for many generations, and for many years filled the position of elder in the Society. She was a firm believer in the principles advocated by that relig- ious society, and was possessed of an unbounded Christian faith.

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Issue of Samuel J. and Susanna M. ( Mather) Levick:

Lewis Jones Levick, of Phila., b. Richland, Bucks co., Pa., Oct. 15, 1845: now an active business man of Phila .; m. Sept. 6, 1876, Mary D'Invilliers ;

Charles M. Levick, b. Richland, Bucks co., Pa., Sept. 23, 1847, now residing in Denver, Col .; m. Henrietta (Wilson) Levick, widow of his brother, William E. Levick;

Samuel J. Levick, Jr., b. Feb. 17, 1849, d. at Quakertown, Bucks co., Pa., in 1880; m. June 13, 1872, Annie E. Bullock; they had issue :

Anna Lucile Levick ; Florence M. Levick: Elizabeth W. Levick.

William E. Levick, b. in Phila., Jan. 30, 1853, d. there 1890; m. Henrietta Wilson ;

James Morris Levick, b. Quakertown, Bucks co., Pa., Aug. 28, 1858. d. there Aug. 16, 1864.

ASHTON FAMILY.

The Ashton family of Philadelphia descends from the Assheton family of Ash- ton-under-Lyne, founded by Ormeus Fitz Ailward, to whom Albertus de Greslet, third Baron of Manchester, gave one carucate of land in Eston, besides a knight's fee in Walton, Parbold and Wrightington, as marriage portion with his daughter, Emma, who became the wife of the said Ormeus. Through her the Asshetons trace their ancestry back to the first barons of the city of Manchester, and were, by the same connection, undoubtedly of Norman extraction.

Roger Fitz Orme de Assheton, in accordance with the feudal custom of the day, received from his uncle, Albertus de Greslet, Jr., a confirmation of the grant of land made to his father, and also a grant in fee of all Eston (Assheton), and thus became the first Lord of Assheton-under-Lyne.

Sir Thomas de Assheton, the son of Roger Fitz-Orme de Assheton, is regarded as the first Knight of the line.

Sir John de Assheton, his son, was summoned to Parliament in the seventeenth year of the reign of Edward II, and August 27, 1335, was awarded a charter to have a "free warren" in his demesne of Assheton.

Sir Robert de Assheton was returned to Parliament in 1324; May 15, 1359, he was appointed to the governorship of Guynes, near Calais, and in 1363 was made Lord Treasurer of England. In 1368 he obtained a grant of the castle of Land- gate, near Calais, and in 1369 was made Admiral of the Narrow Seas. In 1373 he was Treasurer of the Exchequer, and the year following Vice-Chamberlain to the King. In 1381 he was appointed Constable of Dover Castle and Warden of the Cinque Ports for life.

In 1346, while the King was absent in France, the Scots made an inroad into England, and Thomas de Assheton, fighting under the Queen in defense of Eng- land, distinguished himself by capturing the royal standard of Scotland and was knighted for his heroism on the occasion.

Sir John de Assheton was Knight of the Shire for the county of Lancaster in the sixth, twelfth and thirteenth years of the reign of Richard II.

Sir John de Assheton, grandson of the above named Sir John, was summoned by Henry, Duke of Lancaster, to receive the honor of Knighthood of the Bath on the eve of his Coronation as Henry IV .. October 13, 1399. He was returned to Parlia- ment in 1413, and was one of the influential nobles of his time, succeeding in ren- dering the subordination of the Asshetons to their superior lord merely nominal. In 1413 he was chosen Knight of the Shire, and in 1417 was appointed Senseschal of Bayeux. In 1419 he was appointed Governor of Hadupais, and the same year became Constable of Constance. He caused a detailed and accurate survey of his possessions to be made, resulting in a "Custom Roll and Rental," which has be- come one of the most valuable documents in the north of England, as it illustrates the customs of those days, and shows the relation which existed at that time be- tween the lord of the manor and his serfs.

Sir John de Assheton left several sons, among whom were Thomas, who suc- ceeded to his estates ; and Ralph, who married the daughter and heiress of Rich-

IN DOMINO CONFIDO

ASHTON ARMS.

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ard Barton, of Middleton, and thus became the progenitor of the Asshetons of Middleton. Ralph Assheton was knighted, and on account of his alleged tyranny, has been generally accepted as the "Black Knight," and thus giving rise to the custom known as "riding the Black Knight," which as recently as 1884 was popular in the borough of Ashton-under-Lyne. The demonstration took place annually on Easter Sunday, and the town was visited by crowds of people from the surrounding towns and villages.

Sir Thomas Assheton, son of Sir John, above mentioned, left issue: Sir John, eldest son and successor ; Edmund, who became seated at Chadderton, in Oldham, through his marriage with Johanna, daughter of Richard Radcliff, and thus be- came the progenitor of the Asshetons of Chadderton; Geoffrey, who married the daughter and heiress of Thomas Manners, of Shepley, and became the progenitor of the Asshetons of Shepley; Nicholas, Sergeant at Law 1443, Justice of the King's Bench 1445, married Mary, daughter of Lord Brook.

Sir John Assheton, eldest son of Sir Thomas, fought by the side of his sovereign in the battle of Northampton, July 10, 1460, where, previous to the engagement, he received the honor of knighthood.

Sir Thomas Assheton, son and heir of Sir John, last mentioned, was knighted at Ripon in 1401. He died in 1516, and was the last survivor of the elder male line of the senior branch of the family of Assheton; the line being continued by the Asshetons of Middleton, Chadderton and Shepley, above mentioned.

Margaret, daughter of Sir Thomas Assheton, married Sir William Booth, and thus became the ancestress of the Earls of Stamford and Warrington, by whom the manor and chief part of the hereditaments of the Assheton family of Ashton- under-Lyne were inherited.

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Colonial families of Philadelphia, Volume II, Part 27

Author: Jordan, John Woolf, 1840-1921, ed Publication date: 1911 Publisher: New York : Lewis Pub. Co. Number of Pages: 978

Author: Jordan, John Woolf, 1840-1921, ed
Publication date: 1911
Publisher: New York : Lewis Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 978