USA > Pennsylvania > Encyclopedia of Pennsylvania biography : illustrated, Vol. X > Part 2
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Soon after the completion of the line from this city to Pittsburgh, the State narrowly escaped the stain of repudiation, and for some years it was a disputed question whether Penn- sylvania could maintain her credit with $40,000,- 000 of debt. Now, both the rude improvements of that day and the debt incurred in their con- struction belong to the past, and the men who
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were the bold pioneers in the improvements which now extend to every centre of population in the State, are almost forgotten in the grandeur of their perfected work.
Of the three Moorhead brothers who are so creditably identified with the early progress of the State, Joel B. has just passed away after a long residence in this city as a successful iron manufacturer. James K. was always more or less active in politics, and he entered Congress as one of Allegheny's representatives in 1858 and served with great usefulness for ten years, covering the entire period of the war. He and Joel B. both lived with the partners of their youth to celebrate their golden weddings. Wil- liam G. is best known to the people of to-day as the partner of Jay Cooke in his great banking- house, but he had been one of the foremost men of the state before that house was founded. He was the first president of the Philadelphia and Erie Railroad who could command the means and perfect the needed measures for the com- pletion of that long-delayed and important en- terprise, and he had represented our country abroad with eminent credit. It is rare, indeed, to find a family that has so indelibly and so creditably written its records in the best ad- vancement of a great Commonwealth as has the Moorhead family in Pennsylvania.
At the same time that the foregoing was written, the "Bulletin of the Ameri- can Iron and Steel Association," of Phil- adelphia, under date.of October 30, 1889, said :
Death of J. B. Moorhead .- We are again called upon to record the death of another of the old friends and executive officers of the American Iron and Steel Association. On Friday last, October 25, Mr. Joel Barlow Moorhead, presi- dent of the Merion Iron Company, died at the residence of his son-in-law, Mr. George C. Thomas, at Chestnut Hill, Philadelphia, in his seventy-seventh year. Our deceased friend was a man of firm convictions, great energy, excep- tional business sagacity, unswerving uprightness, simple, and gentle manners, and great kindness of heart. He had been a member of the execu- tive committee of the American Iron and Steel Association for about twenty years.
(Kennedy Lineage).
Elizabeth (Kennedy-Young) Moorhead, wife of William Moorhead, was descended
from the noble house of Cassilis, in Scot- land. Her father, James Kennedy, a native of Bucks county, Pennsylvania, was a son of William Kennedy, who was born in the North of Ireland in 1695. Her mother was Jane Maxwell, a daughter of John Maxwell, of New Jersey, and a sis- ter of General William Maxwell, of the Revolution. Her grandfather, William Kennedy, was a son of the Rev. Thomas Kennedy, who was moderator of the gen- eral synod of Ulster in 1696, and died in Ireland, January 20, 1716. The Rev. Thomas Kennedy was a son of Colonel Gilbert Kennedy, and was in Ireland with the Scotch troops in 1645 when he was only a captain, and was very active in helping the Scotch Presbyterians in Ire-
land. Colonel Gilbert Kennedy was a son of the Laird of Drumurchie, and a brother of John Kennedy, the sixth Earl of Cassilis. He was with Cromwell at the battle of Marston Moor. His niece, Margaret Kennedy, daughter of his elder brother, the sixth Earl of Cassilis, was the wife of Dr. Gilbert Burnett, Bishop of Salisbury.
The house of Cassilis was descended from Sir Gilbert de Carrick, who obtained a charter of the lands of Kennedy in Ayr- shire, Scotland. Sir John Kennedy, desig- nated son of Sir Gilbert de Carrick in many writs, obtained a confirmation charter of the lands of Castlys from King David II. His son, Sir Gilbert Kennedy, was one of the hostages to the English in 1357. This Gilbert Kennedy, by his first wife, Marian Sandilas, daughter of Sir James Sandilas, of Calder, was the father of Thomas Kennedy, of Bargany; by his second wife he was the father of Sir James Kennedy, who married Mary Stewart, a daughter of King Robert III. The eldest son of this younger son became the first Lord Kennedy, who was the grandfather
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of David Kennedy, the third Lord and first Earl of Cassilis.
The first Earl of Cassilis fell at the bat- tle of Flodden Field in 1513; the second Earl was killed in 1527, while trying to rescue King James V from the Earl of Arran; the third Earl died in Dieppe in 1558, while on a mission to France to assist at the marriage of Mary, Queen of Scots, with the dauphin, afterward King Francis II .; the fourth Earl died in 1576, and the fifth Earl, after a turbulent life, died in 1616, without issue. John Ken- nedy, fifth Earl of Cassilis, was succeeded by his nephew, John Kennedy, son of Gilbert Kennedy, Laird of Drumurchie.
Irish archæologists trace the origin of the Kennedy family to Donchuan, brother of Brian Boru, but some of the Scotch genealogists are content with one Ken- neth, and others find the beginning with Duncan de Carrick, who owned a consid- erable estate in Ayrshire at the beginning of the thirteenth century. The first of the name on record are Alexander Kennedy, canon of Glasgow, and Hurve Kennedy, chevalier of Lanarkshire, who swore fealty to King Edward I of England. These names appear on the "Ragman Roll" for 1296.
James Kennedy, son of William and Marion Henderson Kennedy, born in Bucks county, Pennsylvania, in 1730, mar- ried, in 1761, Jane Maxwell, daughter of John Maxwell, and a sister of General William Maxwell .* William Kennedy,
*General William Maxwell was the chairman of the Committee of Safety of Sussex county, New Jersey. He was brigadier-general in the army of Washington; a noble soldier and patriot; served in the French War, 1755-1759, as an officer of the Provincial troops; was with Braddock when that officer was defeated at Fort Duquesne, and fought with Wolfe in the attack upon Quebec. Upon the outbreak of the war between England and her American colo- nies he resigned his commission in the English army and marched on foot to Trenton, where he tendered his services to the Provincial Congress, accepting a colonel's command, but was soon promoted to brigadier-general. He served with distinction in the battles of Germantown and Monmouth.
son of James and Jane (Maxwell) Ken- nedy, born in 1766, died in Easton, Penn- sylvania, in 1850; married, January 28, 1798, Sarah Stewart Randall, then only fifteen years of age. He gave his services to the Continental forces as an aid to his uncle, General William Maxwell. Politi- cally a Democrat, he represented the coun- ties of Sussex and Warren in the Legis- lature of New Jersey several successive sessions and presided with honor and dignity over the upper house. In the same counties he served for many years as judge of the courts.
(The Gilpin Line).
This ancient and honorable race of Anglo-Norman origin has in the succes- sive generations given to the world many statesmen, warriors and divines, and has exercised no small influence in the ad- vancement of learning and art. Both in England and American annals the name is a prominent one, its original form of de Gylpyn having been gradually modernized by dropping the "de" and changing the "y" to "i." There is a tradition that the family was planted in England by Bert de Gylpyn, who went thither in the train of William the Conqueror, and whose crest was, as an old rhyme says,
The rebus of his name, A pineapple-a pine of gold.
Richard de Gylpyn was the first of the family of whom we have authentic knowledge. He displayed signal courage in slaying a wild boar which had com- mitted great devastation in Cumberland and Westmoreland, and as a reward was granted by the Baron of Kendal the estate of Kentmere, situated in the latter county. The Baron, like most of the nobles of that time, could neither read nor write, and therefore on going to Runny- mede to assist in wresting Magna Charta
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from King John, took Richard de Gylpyn with him as secretary. For this service, as well as for his other achievements, he was knighted, adopting the arms which have ever since been borne by his de- scendants :
Arms-Or a boar statant sable, langued and tusked gules.
Crest-A dexter arm embowed, in armor proper, the naked hand grasping a pine branch fesswise vert.
Motto-Dictis factisque simplex.
The estate was increased in the reign of Henry III. by the grant of Peter de Bruys of the Manor of Ulwithwaite to Richard, the grandson of the first of that name. This grant, written in Latin, is still preserved by the English head of the family. Kentmere remained in the family until the civil wars of the time of Charles I., when members of the family were fight- ing on both sides. About the same period another Richard Gilpin purchased Scaleby Castle, near Carlisle, which has been in the family ever since, although it is not now owned by a Gilpin, but has passed into the female branch.
Among the most distinguished of those who have shed lustre on the family name was Bernard Gilpin, often called "The Apostle of the North." Brought up a Ro- man Catholic, he was made rector of Houghton, but before the death of Queen Mary he became satisfied with the doc- trines of the Reformation, and until his death wielded an immense influence in ecclesiastical affairs. He was summoned to appear before Dr. Bonner, Bishop of London, to stand trial for heresy, and on the journey fell from his horse and broke his leg. Before he was able to appear before the judges, Queen Mary died, the reformers came into power, and he had nothing to fear. In those turbulent times Bernard, contrary to custom, went un- armed and fearless, and was noted for his
unflinching devotion to the people and to what he considered his duty. On one occasion, upon entering a church, he saw a gauntlet suspended in mid-air-a chal- lenge of some trooper in the building. Taking the glove with him. he said dur- ing the sermon, "I see there is one among you who has, even in this sacred place, hung up a glove in defiance." Then, dis- playing it, he added, "I challenge him to compete with me in acts of Christian charity," flinging it, as he spoke, upon the floor. Queen Elizabeth offered him the bishopric of Carlisle, which he declined, preferring to preach the Reformation and endow schools. He was a spiritual guide, beloved by old and young alike.
A brother of Bernard Gilpin was Wil- liam Gilpin, from whom the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, branch of the family is de- scended. He married Elizabeth Wash- ington, of Hall Heal, a collateral ances- tress of George Washington, first Presi- dent of the United States. William Gil- pin died and was buried at Kendal, Jen- uary 23, 1577.
(I) Thomas Gilpin, of Warborough, was a colonel in the Parliamentary army and fought at the battle of Worcester, September 3. 1651. He afterward joined the Society of Friends, and for forty years was a preacher.
(II) Joseph Gilpin, sixteen generations from Richard Gylpyn, son of Thomas Gilpin, was the founder of the American branch of the family. He was born in 1664, and like his father was a Friend. He emigrated in 1696 to the Province of Pennsylvania and settled in Chester county, his home in England having been in Dorchester, County Oxford. In the new land Joseph Gilpin, after the manner of Friends, lived in perfect harmony and friendship with his Indian neighbors. It has been believed and handed down that his philanthropy and patriotism were not
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surpassed by any in the country. Great numbers of emigrants, principally Friends, on coming over, were kindly received and entertained at his house week after week, and he cheerfully devoted a good portion of his time for several years in assisting them to find suitable situations and to get their lands properly cleared. Part of his house is still standing, and the last of the property passed out of the family less than fifty years ago. It was situated at Birmingham meeting-house, on the Brandywine, and the house is said to have been the headquarters of General Howe. Joseph Gilpin married, February 23, 1692, in Baghurst, Southampton, Eng- land, Hannah Glover, the maiden name of whose mother was Alice Lamboll; she died January 12, 1757. Of the fifteen chil- dren of this issue, one only died under sixty years of age, and at the time of Hannah Gilpin's death one hundred and twenty-three of her descendants were liv- ing. Among these children of Joseph and Hannah (Glover) Gilpin were two sons: Samuel, from whom was descended Wil- liam Gilpin, Governor of Colorado; Jo- seplı, mentioned below. Joseph Gilpin, the emigrant, died November 9, 1741.
(III) Joseph (2) Gilpin, son of Joseph (1) and Hannah (Glover) Gilpin, was born March 21, 1704, and in 1761 removed to Wilmington, Delaware. He married, December 17, 1729, Mary Caldwell, and they were the parents of twelve children, among them Hannah, who married John Grubb (see Grubb Line) and Vincent Gil- pin, the progenitor of the Philadelphia line. Joseph Gilpin, the father, died De- cember 31, 1792.
To this generation of the Gilpins be- longs a name illustrious in art, that of Benjamin West, who succeeded Sir Joshua Reynolds, as president of the Royal Acad- emy. John West, the father of Benja- min, was the son of Thomas and Ann
(Gilpin) West, the latter being sister of Thomas Gilpin, of Warborough, the Par- liamentary colonel. It is probable that to this generation belongs also George Gilpin, a descendant of Joseph Gilpin, the emigrant. George Gilpin settled in Alex- andria, Virginia, and was a friend of Washington. At the breaking out of the Revolutionary War he was made colonel of the Fairfax militia, and was present at the battle of Dorchester Heights. Af- ter the war he was interested with Wash- ington in some navigation experiments on the Potomac, and at the funeral of the first President, George Gilpin was one of the pallbearers.
(IV) Vincent Gilpin, son of Joseph (2) and Mary (Caldwell) Gilpin, was born December 8, 1732. He was a prominent citizen of Wilmington, Delaware, and was assistant burgess of that city in 1773. He married, December 6, 1758, Abigail Woodward, and died August 5, 1810. Of their eight children three were sons, who married and left issue : Edward; James ; and William.
(V) Edward Gilpin, eldest child of Vincent and Abigail (Woodward) Gilpin, was born April 27, 1760, and died April 15, 1844. He was assistant burgess of Wilmington in 1791, 1797 and 1799. He married, November 22, 1788, Lydia Grubb, daughter of Samuel Grubb, and was the father of nine children, several of whom moved to Philadelphia and established the Gilpin name a second time as an in- fluential and abiding factor in Quaker City life.
(VI) Ann Ferris Gilpin, born May 23, 1791, died March 21, 1871, eldest child of Edward and Lydia (Grubb) Gilpin, married John Hirons, September 1, 1812. John Hirons was son of John and Eliza- beth (Roberts) Hirons.
(VII) Elizabeth Hirons, eldest daugh- ter of John and Ann Ferris (Gilpin) Hi-
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rons, was born April 4, 1813, died Febru- ary 7, 1890; married, February 7, 1837, Joel Barlow Moorhead, born April 13, 1813, died October 25, 1889, one of the noted ironmasters of Pennsylvania. (See Moorhead line).
(VIII) Ada Elizabeth Moorhead, born December 10, 1843, daughter of Joel Bar- low and Elizabeth (Hirons) Moorhead, became the wife of George Clifford Thomas, of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. (See biography of George C. Thomas, in this work).
(The Grubb Line).
This family is a very old one in Eng- land, and the name, spelled in the early records either Grubbe or Grubb, appears in the ancient records of Kent, Cornwall, Hertfordshire, and other English coun- ties, as early as 1300, and in some in- stances still earlier. The English stock generally is of Danish derivation. The Royal Archives at Copenhagen show that the Grubbs have been since 1127 one of the oldest and at times most distinguished noble families of Denmark, and connected with many families of high rank in Ger- many and Austria.
(I) John Grubb, the most prominent of the family to settle in the New World, was born in Cornwall, England, in 1652, and came to the Delaware river in the ship "Kent," in 1677. He obtained a grant of land at Upland, now Chester, Pennsylvania, 1679, and at Grubb's Land- ing, New Castle county, now Delaware, in 1682, and subsequently elsewhere, in both the Lower counties, as Delaware was then known, and in Pennsylvania. John Grubb belonged to a county family of note in Wiltshire, England, which had settled in that country as early as 1550, and much earlier in Hertfordshire, where Henry Grubbe in 1506 married Joan, daughter of Sir Richard Radcliffe, who died in 1485, on Bosworth Field, in support of
King Richard III., and whose descendants are still prominent citizens of the neigh- boring counties in England. The ances- try of John Grubb, of Grubb's Landing, New Castle county, has been traced to Henry Grubbe, Esq., who was elected a member of Parliament for Devizes, Wilt- shire, in the fourteenth year of the reign of Queen Elizabeth (1571). He died in 1581, and was the ancestor of Walter Grubbe, member of Parliament, 1685 ; and of General John Heneage Hunt Grubbe. commander at Quebec ; of Major Thomas Hunt Grobbe, who was wounded in bat- tle under General Lord Packenham, at New Orleans, 1815; and of Admiral Sir Walter Hunt Grubbe, K. B., K. C. B., of the Royal Navy. England.
Thomas Grubbe, Esq. (eldest son of the said Henry Grubbe) of Potterne, Devizes, Wiltshire, died there February 2, 1617. His second son,
Thomas Grubbe, M. A., born at Pot- terne, Devizes, Wiltshire, 1581 ; graduated at Oxford University, and became rector of Cranfield, Bedfordshire.
John Grubb, Esq., second son of Thomas Grubbe, M. A., born in Bedford- shire, England, 1610, died at Potterne, Wiltshire, 1667, was a royalist and an adherent of the Church of England dur- ing the Civil War, and after the execution of Charles I. settled in Cornwall, where he married Helen Vivian, and was the father of John Grubb, the early settler on the Delaware, who was born in Corn- wall, 1652, and whose wife was Frances Vane, of Kent county, England.
This John Grubb, son of John and Helen (Vivian) Grubb, the pioneer set- tler, with William Penn, Richard Buf- fington, and others, signed the Plan of Government for the Province of West Jersey, bearing date March 3, 1676, and at the age of twenty-five years sought his fortune and a career in the New
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World. Whether he emigrated direct from Cornwall is not certainly known. As his father was buried in 1667 in the family churchyard at Potterne, Wilt- shire, it is possible that John may have lived in Wiltshire at about the time he came to America. This is not unlikely, inasmuch as John Buckley and Morgan Drewett, whose land immediately ad- joined his at Grubb's Landing, on the Delaware, as well as others among his friends and contemporaries who resided at Marcus Hook, Pennsylvania, and the neighboring townships, all emigrated from Wiltshire.
During his thirty years of rugged and arduous pioneer life on the Delaware, he proved himself to be a man of enterpris- ing, vigorous and sterling qualities, and of practical business ability. He was prominent and influential in his section, and successful in his career as legislator, magistrate, farmer and leather manufac- turer. He not only cleared and cultivated the various tracts of land he owned, but he also, in practical recognition of the needs of a pioneer people, erected a tan- nery near Grubb's Landing, and was one of the earliest manufacturers of leather in Penn's new province. He also, conform- ably to the provisions of Penn's very prac- tical law and the custom of the most prominent settlers, had each of his sons taught a practical trade, in order that they might be prepared for every contingency incident to those early times. He was commissioned a justice of New Castle county, May 2, 1693, and was elected a member of the Colonial Assembly, 1692- 98-1700. On June 3, 1698, Alice Gilpin, widow of Thomas Gilpin, conveyed to him one hundred and eight acres of land near Grubb's Landing, on the Dela- ware. In 1703-4, he purchased land at Marcus Hook, Chichester township, Ches- ter county, Pennsylvania, where he was
living at the time of making his will in which he is named as of the county of Chester. He died at Marcus Hook, March, 1708, in his fifty-sixth year, and was buried in St. Martin's churchyard. He was not a Quaker, but like his ances- tors, adhered to the Church of England. His will was proved, filed and recorded in the Register of Wills Office at Philadel- phia, March 26, 1708, but as he was a large landowner in New Castle county, a copy thereof was filed in the Wills Office at New Castle, Delaware. Frances (Vane) Grubb, of Grubb's Landing, married (second) Richard Buffiington, her first husband's friend and associate, as has been shown by deeds signed by them and by other circumstances, and there- after lived in Bradford township, Chester county, where she died prior to 1721. John and Frances (Vane) Grubb were the parents of the following children : Emanuel; John, see below; Charity, married Richard Beeson ; Phebe; Joseph ; Henry ; Samuel; Nathaniel ; Peter.
(II) John Grubb, second son of John and Frances (Vane) Grubb, born at Grubb's Landing, New Castle county, Delaware, November, 1684, was an ex- tensive landowner in New Castle county. In addition to several other tracts in Brandywine Hundred, he obtained fifty- six acres of Stockdale's plantation on the Delaware river, at Grubb's Land- ing, and two hundred acres of an ad- joining tract called "Mile End," on the division of lands in 1735, between himself, his elder brother, Emanuel, and his wife's brother, Adam Buckley. He also owned considerable land in Chichester township, Chester county. He married Rachel, born April 4, 1690, died December 15, 1752, daughter of John and Hannah (San- derson) Buckley, of Brandywine Hun- dred, New Castle county. He died March 15, 1758. In his will, dated March 10,
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1753, he devises his property to his sons and daughters, and provides for the eman- cipation of his negro slaves. He was bur- ied in the Friends' burying ground at Chichester, Pennsylvania. John Grubb was co-executor with his mother, Fran- ces, of his father's will.
(III) Samuel Grubb, fourth son of John and Rachel (Buckley) Grubb, born March 28, 1722, Brandywine Hundred, New Castle county, became a member of Chichester Meeting of Friends, August 4, 1746; married there, September 30, 1746, Rebecca, born January 30, 1727, died De- cember 6, 1760, daughter of William and Mary Hewes, of Chichester, and sister to his elder brother, William's wife; married (second), July 15, 1752, Lydia, born June 12, 1732, died September 23, 1782, daugh- ter of Joshua and Margery Baker, of Chi- chester; died in Pennsbury township, Chester county, January 21, 1769.
(IV) Lydia Grubb, daughter of Sam- uel Grubb, by his second wife, Lydia Baker, born July 21, 1766, died May 3, 1831; married, November 22, 1788, Ed- ward Gilpin, son of Vincent and Abigail (Woodward) Gilpin (see Gilpin line) and an uncle of Edward W. Gilpin, Chief Jus- tice of Delaware.
MORRISON, Thomas Anderson, Lawyer, Jurist.
The State of Pennsylvania has been especially honored in the character and careers of her active men and public offi- cers. In every section have been found men peculiarly proficient in their various vocations, men who have been conspicu- ous because of their superior intelligence, natural endowment and force of char- acter. It is always profitable to study such lives, weigh their motives, and hold up their achievements as incentives to greater activity and higher excellence on
the part of others. These reflections are suggested by the career of the late Judge Thomas A. Morrison, of Mckean county, Pennsylvania, who, by a strong inherent force and superior ability, stood for many years as one of the leading men of his section of the State.
Judge Thomas A. Morrison was a member of a distinguished Pennsylvania family, which had its origin in the North of Ireland, its members displaying in a marked degree the sturdy virtues and abilities which we associate with that region. His grandfather, Hugh Mor- rison, emigrated from the North of Ire- land to the United States, settling in Cen- ter county, Pennsylvania, and there his son, William Morrison, father of Judge Thomas A. Morrison, was born. Later he gave his attention to agricultural pur- suits and was one of the successful farm- ers of Pleasantville. Toward the latter part of his life, he moved to Derrick City, Pennsylvania, where his death occurred in 1885, when more than seventy years of age. He married Elizabeth McMaster, born in the State of Pennsylvania, in 1815, died at Forestville, New York, in 1869. They were the parents of the following children : 1. Mary, born in Pleasantville, Pennsylvania, 1838, became the wife of James Farrell, a successful oil producer, and died at Titusville, Pennsylvania, 19II. 2. Thomas Anderson, of whom further. 3. Isabella, born in Pleasant- ville, Pennsylvania, 1841, became the wife of Milton Hyde, a farmer of Forestville, New York, where she died in 1892. 4. William C., born in Pleasantville, Penn- sylvania, 1843, now a resident of Illinois, where he is engaged in the oil business. 5. Fidelia, born in Pleasantville, Pennsyl- vania, 1846, became the wife of Albert McQuiston, died December, 1913, whom she survives and now makes her home in Rexford, Pennsylvania. 6. Adelaide, born
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