Colonial families of Philadelphia, Volume II, Part 78

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


USA > Pennsylvania > Philadelphia County > Philadelphia > Colonial families of Philadelphia, Volume II > Part 78


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Aside from his business interests, he was, for more than two-score years, actively identified with the financial affairs of Philadelphia, as a manager of the Commercial Exchange, a director of the First National Bank, and of the Philadel- phia and Reading Railroad, in which latter corporation he was at one time reputed to be the largest individual stockholder.


Mr. Sinnott was a member of Roman Catholic Church, as were his ancestors for centuries, and as a manager of St. Charles Borromeo Theological Seminary, St. John's Orphan Asylum. St. Francis Industrial Home and Catholic Protectory. and as one of the Board of Trustees of the Philadelphia Theological Seminary,


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he strove to further the advancement of the Church, and its work in Philadelphia. He was also deeply interested in the general welfare of his adopted city, and was associated with many of its public institutions-the Historical Society of Penn- sylvania, the Genealogical Society of Pennsylvania, the American Catholic His- torical Society, the Pennsylvania Society of New York, the Archaelogical Insti- tute of America, the Archaelogical Society of Pennsylvania, the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, the Academy of Natural Sciences .of Philadelphia, the Friendly Sons of St. Patrick, the Fairmount Park Art Association, the Union League of Philadelphia, and the Penn, Art, Merion Cricket, and Radnor Hunt clubs. In some of these his interest was perpetuated after his useful life closed, since his will provided that fifty thousand dollars should be apportioned among various of the charities or philanthrophies with which he had been allied. It likewise provided that ten thousand dollars should be set aside for a room in the University of Pennsylvania Hospital for the free use of such as had followed the journalistic profession.


He married, at Philadelphia, April 8, 1863, Annie Eliza, daughter of Clayton Brown Rogers, by his wife Eliza Coffin, born at Mount Holly, New Jersey, August 22, 1842, and educated at Friends' School, Philadelphia. By this marriage there were nine children, all, except the eldest, born at Philadelphia, of whom, see hereafter.


Paternally, Mrs. Sinnott represents colonial Pennsylvania and New Jersey, and maternally, colonial Massachusetts and New York. She is a member of the Pennsylvania Society of Colonial Dames of America ; the Philadelphia Chapter of Daughters of the American Revolution, and of various civic and charitable organizations, and for some years has been treasurer of the Associate Committee of Women to the Board of Trustees of the Pennsylvania Museum and School of Industrial Art.


Clayton Brown Rogers, father of Mrs. Sinnott, was born at Hainesport, New Jersey, August 22, 1810, died at Philadelphia, December 16, 1885. He was grad- uated at the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy, and engaged in the drug business for some years. In 1848 he removed to Philadelphia, and there established a seed and agricultural warehouse, of which he remained proprietor until his death. He also operated iron foundries at Mount Holly and Camden, New Jersey, and was the inventor and manufacturer of the cast steel extending-point surface and sub- soil ploughs. Born in an agricultural district, his attention was directed to blooded cattle and to the possibilities of a higher grade of dairy stock, and he published. in 1853, a manual on the subject, entitled "A Method of Increasing the Yield of the Milch-Cow by selecting the Proper Animals for the Dairy, according to Guenon's Discovery." He had a birthright membership in the Society of Friends, held no public office, but served many years in the directorate of the Corn Ex- change Association of Philadelphia, now the Commercial Exchange, so acceptably that he was tendered its presidency. He was fifth in descent from Lieutenant William Rogers, the founder of one branch of the Rogers family in Burlington county, New Jersey, who was of that county prior to February 4, 1705, at which time he received from Governor Cornbury a commission as lieutenant in the New Jersey Militia. He died in Burlington county in 1736, having been possessed of a considerable landed estate there, and of a lot in High street, Philadelphia. He was married twice, and had issue by both wives. His eldest son, William Rogers,


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1705-1771, followed the pursuit of husbandry, and much increased his patrimony, becoming a man of position and one of the Chosen Freeholders of Burlington county. His wife, Elizabeth, was a daughter of Thomas Branson, who, in 1703, was of Burlington county, and may have been earlier of Virginia, where he owned large tracts of land on the Shenandoah River. Thomas Branson died in Novem- ber, 1744, survived by his wife, Elizabeth, daughter of John Day, of Ashwell, Hertfordshire, England, who presented a certificate from Friends' Meeting in that place to the Philadelphia Meeting, dated March 12, 1682, and in that year had a survey of one hundred acres in Burlington county, to which many additions were subsequently made. John Day was doubtless the son of John Day, of Ashwell, who had from William Penn, on August 18 and 19, 1681, a grant of twelve hun- dred acres, and who was one of the committee to arrange for the erection of the first Friends' Meeting House in Philadelphia. He died in that city in 1692. The younger Day died in June, 1724, having been one of the Council of the West New Jersey Proprietors, and later, one of the Rangers for Burlington county.


William Rogers, 1732-1796, third of the name in direct line, though family tradition describes him as the fifth, resided in Burlington county, where he was an extensive landowner, a successful farmer and miller, building in 1768 a grist mill and distillery, a short distance from Mount Holly, which was attacked and much damaged by the Hessian troops during the occupation by the British of the Mount Holly Meeting House, in 1777, as commissary-headquarters. Mr. Rogers was in membership with the Society of Friends, but his association therewith was not as strong as his patriotism, and in the Revolutionary struggle he served as light horseman, and otherwise aided the Patriot cause. Such conduct being a violation of the discipline of Friends, the Mount Holly Meeting disowned him from that body April 4, 1781. He subsequently appealed to the Quarterly Meeting and was finally restored to membership. He had, by his wife, Martha, eleven children, of whom, the seventh, Samuel Rogers, born at Mount Holly, January 18, 1766, died there, November, 1825, married March 27, 1796, Abigail Reeves, born March 2, 1770, buried February 24, 1849, eldest daughter of Henry and Rachel (Jess) Reeves, and became the father of Clayton B. Rogers, and grandfather of Mrs. Sinnott.


Henry Reeves, of Mount Holly, born December 21, 1742, died April 2, 1809, father of Mrs. Samuel Rogers, belonged to the well-known Reeves family of South Jersey and Philadelphia, being fourth in descent from its founder, Walter Reeves, who, possibly from Southold, Long Island, settled in Burlington county sometime prior to 1682, and, having prospered in his worldly affairs, died there in 1712, survived by a second wife, Anne Howell, and eight children. The eldest of these, John Reeves, who died in 1748, child of the first wife, was father of Henry Reeves, Sr., who married under license of February 26, 1728, Abigail, daughter of James Shinn and Abigail Lippincott, and grandfather of Henry Reeves before named, who married Rachel Jess in March, 1765. This marriage with Rachel Jess, eldest daughter of David and Ruth (Silver) Jess, and grand- daughter of Zachariah Jess and Rachel Lippincott, introduced a second alliance with the Lippincott family, such alliances between the Reeves and Lippincott families being subsequently of frequent occurrence.


Zachariah Jess, the first of his surname in New Jersey, was a minister among Friends, and "travelled" so reads the testimony of the Quarterly Meeting after


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his death, "in the Service of Truth through the Eastern Provinces to good satis- factuon, and was respected at home, and died in unity with Friends, in the Sixth month, 1724." On January II, 1713, he married Rachel, daughter of Restore Lippincott, Esq., who was also the father of Abigail, wife of James Shinn. Of Mr. Lippincott, Thomas Chalkley, the noted Quaker Minister, made this note in his Journal : "On fourth day, the 22d July, 1741, I was at Mount Holly, at the burial of our ancient friend, Restore Lippincott, nearly one hundred years of age, and had upwards of two hundred children, grandchildren, and great-grand- children, many of whom were at the funeral." He was not as "ancient" as Mr. Chalkley understood, for, born at Plymouth, Devonshire, England, July 3, 1652- 53, his ninetieth year was but approaching. His long life had, however, been an active one, and had brought to him large wealth and the honors which came from legislative service, for, like his father, Richard Lippincott, the founder of the Lippincott family in America, Restore Lippincott had taken a prominent part in public affairs. Among the first settlers of Shrewsbury, New Jersey, Richard Lip- pincott was an influential member of the Meeting of Friends there established, and of the third legislative body to meet in New Jersey-the Assembly of 1669. Nearly thirty years preceding this, he had left Devonshire, the home of his ancestors for some centuries, and sailed away to New England, locating first at Dorchester, and afterwards at Boston, Massachusetts. His residence there was not of long duration. He differed from the religious doctrines of the Puritan Church, and was excluded from its communion, and returned to England, where he may have hoped to find a larger degree of religious liberty than he had enjoyed among his fellow-adventurers of the Old Bay Colony. In this he was disap- pointed, for sympathizing with the principles of George Fox, the great apostle of the Society of Friends, he was made to share in some of the persecutions which fell to his followers, and after imprisonment near Exeter and at Plymouth, he again journeyed to America, in 1661 or 1662, this time settling in Rhode Island, where he remained until the purchase of the celebrated Monmouth Patent of April 8, 1665, when, with his family, he removed to Shrewsbury, becoming by reason of his substantial subscription to the purchase fund, an extensive propri- etor. On August 9, 1676, he bought of John Fenwick one thousand acres in his Colony in West Jersey, which he later conveyed to his sons. He died at Shrews- bury, November 25, 1683, survived by a widow, Abigail, and six of their eight children.


Through her father, Mrs. Sinnott is likewise a descendant of John Pancoast, founder of the American family of his surname, who came from Northampton- shire, England, in 1680, by the ship "Paradise," settled in Burlington county, New Jersey, and was elected a member of the West Jersey Assembly in 1685. The late eminent Philadelphia surgeons, Dr. Joseph Pancoast and Dr. William H. Pan- coast, were of this family. And she likewise is a descendant of Mrs. Ellen Cow- gill, a passenger with William Penn in the "Welcome," on the historic voyage to Pennsylvania in 1682.


Maternally, Mrs. Sinnott descends from many of the substantial pioneers of New England, the Quaker settlers of East and West Jersey and the Huguenots of New York, among whom may be cited: The Rev. Stephen Bachiler, 1561- 1660, graduate of Oxford, a "gentleman of Learning and Ingenuity," vicar of


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Holy Cross and St. Peter at Wherwell, county Hants, pastor of the Company of the Plough, London, 1631, of Lynn, and Sandwich, Massachusetts, and of Hamp- ton, New Hampshire; John Wing, 1613-1699, of Yarmouth, Massachusetts, son of the Rev. John Wing, a graduate of Oxford, chaplain to the Merchant Adven- turers of England, resident at Hamburg in 1627, during which year he was re- moved to the Hague, being the first settled English pastor at that place; three of his sons besides the first named John Wing, accompanying their mother, Deborah (Bachiler) Wing, and their grandfather, Rev. Stephen Bachiler, to Lynn and Sandwich, at which latter town a tablet, erected in 1903, memorialized their com- ing ; Hon. Thomas Mayhew, 1593-1682, of the armorial Mayow family of Dinton, some few miles from Tisbury and Chilmark, in Wiltshire, who, coming to Water- town, Massachusetts, about 1631, was later the noted missionary to the Indians, and Governor of the Elizabeth Isles and Martha's Vineyard, where he erected Tisbury Manor, the only manor in New England; Hon. Tristram Coffin, "Com- missioner of Salisbury," Massachusetts, and afterwards Governor of Nantucket, baptized in Brixton Parish, Devonshire, England, March 11, 1610, died at Nan- tucket, December 2, 1681, and was honored by a distinguished posterity ; John Vincent, a founder of Sandwich, Massachusetts, many years deputy to the Gen- eral Court of Plymouth colony; Captain Benjamin Hammond, 1673-1747, of Hammondtown, in Rochester, Massachusetts, who married Elizabeth, daughter of Captain Richard Hunnewell, the noted Indian fighter of Maine; Kenelm Wins- low, Esq., of Marshfield, second brother of Hon. Edward Winslow, three times Governor of Plymouth colony ; George Corlies, 1653-1715, Overseer of Meeting of Friends, at Shrewsbury, New Jersey, 1680; Thomas Farnsworth, founder of Bordentown, New Jersey, first known as Farnsworth's Landing; and Jean Bo- dine, who is supposed to have removed from Cambray, in France, where the family Bodine had flourished from the twelfth century, to Medis, in the province of Saintonge, and from thence to Holland and England, settling finally on Staten Island, New York, where he died in 1694, becoming, through his son of the same Christian name, the ancestor of the Bodines of New York, New Jersey, and Philadelphia.


Issue of Joseph Francis and Annie Eliza (Rogers) Sinnott:


Joseph Edward Sinnott, b. at Roxbury, Mass., April 13, 1864; d. at Rosemont, Pa., July 21, 1892; was graduated at Harvard Univ. in 1886; entering the Law Dept. of the Univ. of Pa., and the law office of the Hon. Wayne MacVeigh the following year. Abandoning law for the more congenial profession of journalism, he became asso- ciated with the editorial staff of the Philadelphia Times, and rapidly rose to the posi- tion of assistant city editor. Forced to give up the latter on account of ill health. he later entered the service of the Philadelphia and Reading R. R. Co., as assistant to the general agent, and continued there until his death;


Mary Elizabeth Sinnott, b. March 26, 1866. Miss Sinnott is a member of the Pennsyl- vania Society of Colonial Dames of America, the Philadelphia Chapter of the Society of Daughters of the American Revolution, the Historical and Genealogical Societies of Pennsylvania, and of many charitable and social organizations ;


Henry Gibson Sinnott, b. Nov. 3, 1867; d. at Pasadena, Cal., Feb. 14, 1899; prepared for the Univ. of Pa., but was prevented by ill health from pursuing his studies. He was a member of the Art, Radnor Hunt and Rose Tree Hunt clubs, and of the Colonial Society of Pennsylvania;


Annie Leonora Sinnott, b. Dec. 7, 1869; m., April 19, 1897, Dr. John Ryan Devereux, b. at Lawrence, Kan., Dec. 16, 1868, son of Hon. Pierre Devereux, by his wife, Margaret J. Ryan. Dr. Devereux was graduated at Manhattan College, New York, in 1889, and entered the Medical Dept. of the Univ. of Pa., from which he was graduated in 1892. After service in various hospitals in Pa. and Washington, D. C., he became lecturer in osteology and demonstrator of surgery in the Medical Dept. of the Georgetown Univ.,


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which position he resigned at the outbreak of the Spanish-American War, to enter the American Army, as acting Assistant Surgeon, in June, 1898. On June 29, 1901, he was commissioned First Lieutenant in the Regular Army of the United States. Issue :


Joseph Francis Sinnott Devereux;


Margaret Mary Devereux ;


John Ryan Devereux; James Patrick Sinnott Devereux ;


Anne Leonora Sinnott Devereux ;


Julian Ashton Devereux ;


Edward Winslow Coffin Devereux; Mary Frederica Devereux.


Clinton Rogers Sinnott, b. July 12, 1872; m., Aug. 22, 1891, Grace Hamilton. He is con- nected with the New York branch of the Gibson Distilling Co .;


James Frederick Sinnott, b. Dec. 14, 1873; d. May 7, 1908; m., Feb. 18, 1886, Edith Hyn- son Howell, dau. of the late Darius Howell, of Phila., by his wife Mary Carson. Issue :


James Frederick Sinnott :


Annie Eliza Sinnott ;


Mary Howell Sinnott.


John Sinnott, b. Dec. 13, 1875; m. at San Diego, Cal., Sept. 28, 1904, Mary Henrietta, dau. of Hon. Moses A. Luce, by his wife, Rhoda Adalaide Mantania. He matriculated at the universities of Cornell and Pennsylvania, and became associated with his father in the firm of Moore & Sinnott, and is now president of the Gibson Distilling Co. He is a member of the Colonial Society of Pennsylvania, and the Art, Merion, Cricket and St. David's Cricket clubs. Issue :


Joseph Francis Sinnott; Edgar Luce Sinnott.


Clarence Coffin Sinnott, b. Oct. 6, 1878;


Eliza Lorea Sinnott, b. Nov. 21, 1880; d. at Phila., June 1, 1882.


SEARCH FAMILY.


THEODORE CORSON SEARCH, who for nearly half century past has been asso- ciated with the manufacturing and business interests of Philadelphia, comes of a family that during Colonial times was resident in the county of Bucks, and ad- joining parts of Philadelphia county.


On the paternal side he is descended from William Search, who is said to have come from England in the first half of the eighteenth century, and settled in Bucks county, where his two sons, Lott and Christopher Search, were born. Lott Search married Sarah, daughter of William and Sarah (Burley) Davis, and lived for many years near Davisville, Warminster township, Bucks county, but removed with his family to Avon, Western New York, about 1830, being then a man of at least three score.


CHRISTOPHER SEARCH was born in Bucks county, Pennsylvania, 1764, and dur- ing his early manhood was a resident of Northampton township, that county. In 1797 he purchased the old Banes homestead in Southampton township, and resided thereon until 1838, when he retired to a lot in or near the village of Southampton- ville, where he died in 1842. He was a prominent man in the community in which he lived and filled a number of local official positions. During the visit of the Marquis de Lafayette to America, 1824, he was a member of the reception com- mittee who escorted the distinguished French Patriot through Bucks county, and participated in the reception tendered him in Independence Hall, Philadelphia.


Christopher Search married (first) Amelia, daughter of James and Hannah ( Burley) Torbert, of Upper Makefield, Bucks county, and granddaughter of Sam- uel and Elizabeth (Lamb) Torbert, who about 1726 came from Carrick-fergus, Ireland, and located at Newtown, Bucks county. Her mother, Hannah Burley, was a sister to the mother of Sarah (Davis) Search, wife of Lott Search. Their father, John Burley, also came from the north of Ireland, and settled in Upper Makefield, Bucks county. Amelia (Torbert) Search died about 1803, and Christo- pher married (second) 1805, Ann ( Miles) Banes, widow of William Banes, and daughter of Joseph and Anne (Nasmyth) Miles, of East Pennypack, Moreland township, Philadelphia, now Montgomery county, Pennsylvania. She was a de- scendant of Griffith Miles, who was born in Wales, 1670, and who accompanied his brothers, Richard and Samuel Miles, to this country about 1682, and settled in Radnor township, where the brothers, Richard and Samuel, took up land under the Welsh purchase in 1684, and Griffith purchased 200 acres of David Powell, May 17, 1690. Griffith Miles married at Radnor Friends' Meeting, October 20. 1692, Bridget, daughter of Alexander and Catharine Edwards, and had issue :


Esther Miles, b. Sept. 28, 1693; Martha, b. Oct. 12, 1695; Margaret, b. April, 1698; Griffith, b. Dec. 3, 1700; Samuel, b. Sept., 1703 John, b. April 8, 1709.


Griffith and Bridget (Edwards) Miles became involved in the schism of George


Jacob M. Search


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Keith, soon after their marriage, and with him were carried by it out of the Society of Friends, and eventually became Baptists, both being baptized as mem- bers of Pennepack Baptist Church, Griffith, July 3, 1697, and Bridget on the ninth of the same month. Griffith died in January, 1719.


GRIFFITH MILES, son of Griffith and Bridget, born December 3, 1700, married Sarah -, and had children: Joseph, Ann and Martha.


JOSEPH MILES, only son of Griffith and Sarah Miles, born September 17, 1722, located in East Pennypack, Moreland township, Philadelphia, now Montgomery county, where his children were born. He married at Gloria Dei Church, Phila- delphia, December 3, 1750, Anne Nasmyth, born May 18, 1732. Joseph Miles died November 27, 1800.


Issue of Joseph and Anne (Nasmyth) Miles:


Lucy, d. inf .; Lydia, b. Oct. 7, 1752; d. Aug. 28, 1841; Griffith, b. Oct. 4, 1754; d. Dec. 8, 1835; Margaret, b. Aug. 20, 1756; d. April 3, 1826; Joseph, b. Dec. 5. 1758; d. Jan. 18, 1826;


John, b. Feb. 6, 1761 ; Thomas, b. Jan. 2, 1762; d. 1861;


Dorcas, b. Dec. 30, 1764, d. inf .; Samuel, b. Oct. 30, 1766; d. Sept. 6, 1849: Jacob, b. Dec. 19, 1768; d. Aug. 23, 1822;


William Miles, b. March 7, 1771; d. May 29, 1855;


Ann Miles, b. Aug. 4, 1776; d. Dec. 23, 1865; m. (first) William Banes, b. Aug. 24, 1770, d. Jan. 1, 1803, son of Thomas and Mary Beans (as the name was then spelled), of Southampton, Bucks co., Pa .; (second), 1805, Christopher Search, above mentioned; she had by her first husband, William Banes, four sons-Charles, Joseph, Thomas and William Banes; of these Thomas Banes, b. Sept. 26, 1801, m. Sarah Bitting, and they were the parents of Col. Charles H. Banes, of Phila., for some years president of the Market Street National Bank.


Issue of Christopher and Amelia (Torbert ) Search:


Hannah Torbert Search, b. Feb. 14, 1788;


William Search, b. Jan. 7, 1790;


James Torbert Search, b. Nov. 4, 1791 ; Charles Search, b. June 5. 1793; Samuel Torbert Search, b. Dec. 25, 1794: John Torbert Search, b. Nov. 1, 1796; Sarah Torbert Search, b. Sept. 7, 1798: m. William H. Spencer; Elias Search, b. March 18, 1800.


Issue of Christopher and Ann ( Miles-Banes) Search:


Miles Search, b. July 5, 1807; d. in childhood; George W. Search, b. March 20, 1809; d. in Newtown, Bucks co., Pa .;


JACOB MILES SEARCH, b. Dec. 2, 1810; d. Oct. 11, 1893; m. Nancy Marple Corson; of whom presently;


Margaret Miles Search, b. Sept. 22, 1811; m. Elias D. Lefferts:


Anthony Torbert Search, b. Aug. 18, 1814; m. Eliza Mckibben;


Christopher Search, Jr., b. Feb. 3, 1816; m. Margaret Fetter;


Ann Miles Search, b. March 22, 1818; m. Casper G. Fetter;


Griffith Miles Search, b. April 2, 1822; m. Louisa Fetter.


JACOB MILES SEARCH. second surviving child of Christopher Search by his sec-


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ond wife, Ann ( Miles) Banes, born in Southampton township, Bucks county, De- cember 2, 1810, and lived in Southamptonville until his death, October 11, 1893. He was actively interested in church and educational matters; was for many years a trustee of Southampton Baptist Church, and several years a member of the Southampton School Board. He married, 1837, Nancy Marple, born September 29, 1818, third child of Richard Corson, by his second wife, Elizabeth Bennett, a descendant of William Bennett, an Englishman, who while a youth settled in Hol- land, and about 1635 emigrated to the Dutch Colony of New Netherlands, pur- chasing in that year a large tract of land at Gowanus, Long Island, where he mar- ried, 1636, Maria Badye, supposed to be of Holland origin, and had six children, descendants of whom settled in Bucks county, about 1720 to 1725, where they be- came very numerous, as well as in New Jersey, and were prominent in the affairs of both provinces in Colonial times.


While tradition relates that the Corson family was of French (Huguenot) origin, there is no real proof of this fact. A careful examination of the records of the Dutch Colonies on Long Island and Staten Island show that the name orig- inated with the children of Cors or Cornelis Pietersen by his wife, Trintje Hend- ricks, who as sons of Cors, according to the Dutch custom, came to be known as "Corssen." Cornelis Corssen, eldest of these children, baptized at New Amster- dam, April 23, 1645, married there, March 11, 1666, Marietje Van der Grift, (a sister to the Van der Grift brothers who settled in Bucks county, 1697), baptized at New Amsterdam, August 29, 1649. Some time after his marriage, Cornelis Corssen removed to Staten Island, where he was a prominent man and a large landholder. He died in 1693. Benjamin Corson, son of Cornelis and Marietje (Van der Grift) Corssen, in 1726 came to Bucks county, with his wife Neeltje, and two sons, Benjamin and Cornelius, and purchased a farm in Northampton township.


Benjamin Corson, son of Benjamin and Neeltje, born in Staten Island, 1718, accompanied his parents to Bucks county in 1726, and January 2, 1741-42, married at the Dutch Reformed Church of Southampton, Maria Suydam, and their eldest child Benjamin, born March 6, 1743, married, 1761, Sarah, daughter of Joseph and Mary (Ohl) Dungan, great-granddaughter of Rev. Thomas Dungan, founder of the Baptist Church at Cold Spring, Bucks county, the first of that denomination in Pennsylvania.




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