USA > Pennsylvania > Bucks County > History of Bucks County, Pennsylvania: From the Discovery of the Delaware to the Present Time (Volume 1 and 2) > Part 18
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three officers, one thousand stand of arms and several cannon. The army, with the prisoners, recrossed the river that afternoon, and the next day the' captured Hessians were at Newtown, the officers quartered at the taverns, and the soldiers confined in the church and jail. There is a difference of opinion. as to where the prisoners crossed the river, the accepted account stating that it was at McKonkey's ferry, while an equally reliable authority tells us they recrossed at Johnson's ferry lower down, the officers remaining in the small ferry-house until morning. when Colonel Weedon conducted them to New- town." We can hardly believe that Washington would risk his prisoners in a flank march of nine miles when it was so evidently his policy to put the river between them and the enemy as quickly as possible. No doubt he crossed them at the nearest ferry where there were boats to carry them over. The officers signed their parole at Newtown on the 30th, and were conducted to Philadelphia, meanwhile visiting Lord Sterling, whom some of them had met while a prisoner on Long Island and calling to pay their respects to Washing- ton with whom four were invited to dine." The rank and file were taken to. Lancaster. Among the prisoners were a Hessian surgeon of middle age and a young English officer, who quartered at Doctor Jonathan Ingham's near New Hope. The latter died of pleurisy from a cold, but his body was after -. ward disinterred and taken to England. Washington came direct from Tren- ton to Newtown, arriving the evening of the 26th or the morning of the 27th, and took quarters in the house of John Harris, west of the creek, torn down some years ago by Alexander German, while the troops doubtless returned to their former camps and quarters. Washington remained at Newtown until the 29th, when he re-crossed the river with the same troops he had with him on. the 26th, and inaugurated the brilliant campaign that nearly relieved New Jersey of the enemy. The morning of his departure from Newtown he pre- sented to Mrs. Harris a silver tea-pot, which was kept in the family many years, but finally made into spoons. Lord Sterling was left in command at Newtown, the exposure in the recent attack on Trenton having aggravated his- rheumatism and rendered him unfit for active duty. We have met with many traditions in connection with these operations, but few of them, on investiga- tion, bear the light. Lossing tells, as sober history, that Mercer, whose head- quarters he fixes at Keith's, related to Mrs. Keith, the day he left for Trenton,. a remarkable dream he had the night before of being overpowered by a great black bear, and, as he was shortly afterward killed at Princeton, it was taken. as a warning of his death, but, as Mrs. Keith died in 1772, we are justified. in saying that Lossing's story is a myth. During these trying events the militia of Bucks county were frequently called into service, but they did not always respond as cheerfully as the good cause demanded. At the close of December, 1776, when ordered to turn out, forty-nine men of Captain John.
6 Johnson's ferry was below Yardley, about half way to Trenton, and little, if any, used at the present time.
7 December 27, 1776-"Here we are back in our camp with the prisoners. and trophies. Washington is keeping his promise; the soldiers (Hessians) are in the Newtown meeting-house and other buildings. He has just given directions for to- morrow's dinner. All the captured Hessian officers are to dine with him. He bears the Hessians no malice, but says they have been sold by their Grand Duke to King George and sent to America, when if they could have their own way they would be peaceably living in their own country." From Diary of an officer on Washington's staff.
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Jamison's company, of Warwick, refused to march, twenty-two of Thomas Wier's, of Warrington, sixty-seven of William McCalla's of Plumstead, thirty-nine of Robert Sample's of Buckingham and twenty-two of Captain Lott's company, Solebury. General Putnam states that after the battle of Princeton, some militia companies deserted bodily, and he mentions one case in which the whole company ran away except "a lieutenant and a lame man."
In 1778, while the Continental army lay at Valley Forge and the British occupied Philadelphia, a conference was held at Newtown to arrange a cartel for the exchange of prisoners of war. Washington and Sir William Howe each appointed a commission for the purpose; the former consisting of Colonel William Grayson, Lieutenant Colonel Robert H. Harrison, Alexander Ham- ilton and Elias Boudinot, the latter, Colonel Charles O. Harra, Colonel Humphrey Stephens and Captain Richard Fitzpatrick. They first met at Ger- mantown, March 31, but adjourned to Newtown April 4, and assembled there on the 6th, but failed to come to an agreement. In a letter, written by Colonel Boudinot, after the conference was over he says of the British commissioners : "We were very sociable, but had previously obtained the character of our op- ponents, and were convinced they depended much on out-drinking us. We knew that Colonel Grayson was a match for them and therefore left all that part of the business to him. * *
* They sat down often while we were preparing to go, till they could scarcely sit upright. Just before sundown they were put on their horses and went for the city.' The commissioners met to transact business at "Strickland's." He probably kept what is now the Brick hotel. It was then called the "Red Lion," and owned by Amos Strick- land to his death, 1779. He built it about 1748, when he took a lease on the ground for twenty years.
The active scenes of warfare were now removed from our county for a period. When the state government was put into operation under the con- stitution of 1776, the Legislature took steps to strengthen the hands of the civil authorities. The 13th of June, 1777, an act was passed compelling every inhabitant to subscribe an oath of allegiance which met with general com- pliance. Three thousand two hundred and fifty took the oath in all, of which two thousand eight hundred and seventy-four subscribed it while the war was in progress. The first oath was taken by William Folwell, of Southampton, before Joseph Hart, a justice of Warminster, and before whom six hundred and ninety subscribed. Among the subscribers we find the well-known names of Hart, Cornell, Bennet, Krosen, Vanhorne, Dungan, Davis, Thompson, Shaw, Morris, James, Chapman, Foulke, Kulp, Overpeck, Transue, Fulmer, Beans, Jamison, Dyer, Hogeland, Ingham, Applebach, Harvey, and of many others, whose names are now prominent in the county. The oath of alle- giance was followed by the test-oath, with pains and penalties, and the refusal to subscribe it disabled persons following certain pursuits, among others that of teaching school. The violent opposition of the Friends caused its repeal. The county courts met the first time September 9, 1777, when Henry Wyn- koop, of Newtown, the presiding justice, delivered an able charge to the grand jury appropriate to the new order of things. When spring opened it was thought the Delaware would again become the scene of conflict, in the attempt of the enemy to reach Philadelphia. General Arnold was put in command of the river the 14th of June, and all the fords and crossings were placed in a state of security. At the request of Washington, President Wharton of this State caused accurate drafts of the river and its approaches to be made; and boats were collected at New Hope and above for the passage of the army.
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During the spring and summer several calls were made upon the Bucks county militia. In April it furnished five hundred men for the camp of instruction at Bristol, and in July, the battalions of Colonel John Gill and Lieutenant- Colonel McMaster were ordered to Billingsport, New Jersey, and received the thanks of the authorities for their good conduct. In September every able-bodied man was ordered to turn out, and those who had not arms were to take axes, spades and every kind of entrenching tools. The county frequently furnished wagons and at one time her farmers supplied the Continental army with four thousand bushels of grain for horse feed. An old court record shows that a draft was made on Bucks county for fifty wagons, but the ab- sence of the date prevents us knowing when. It might possibly have been in some of the previous Indian disturbances. The warrants issued were as follows: Bristol township, 2; Buckingham, 3; Bensalem, 2; Bedminster, 2; Falls, 2; Middletown, 3; Lower Makefield, 2; Milford, 2; Upper Makefield, 2; Hilltown, 2; Newtown, 2; New Britain, 2; Northampton, 2; Nockamixon, 2; Durham. 2; Plumstead, 2; Richland, 2: Rockhill, 2; Southampton, 2; Springfield and Haycock, 2: Tinicum, 2; Warminster, 1; Warrington, I; Warwick, 2, and Wrightstown, 2. This was no new thing in colonial times.
When the British sailed south from New York, in July, 1777, the Contin- ental army again crossed the Delaware into Bucks county, Washington, with Greene's division, reaching Coryell's ferry the night of the 29th, and one ·brigade crossed before morning. General Stephen, with two divisions, crossed at Howell's ferry, four miles above, and Lord Sterling at Trenton. The troops which crossed at Coryell's and Howell's ferries, composing the bulk of the army, were put in march down the York road the morning of the 31st, Wash- ington setting out for Philadelphia at the same time, where we find him on August 3, whence he joined the army at Germantown, before the 6th. On the supposition that the enemy had returned to New York, the army retraced its steps and we find it at the Neshaminy, on the York road just above the pres- ent Hartsville, then the Cross Roads, on Sunday evening. August 10. Here it was halted by order of Congress. It remained encamped in the Neshaminy hills for thirteen days, and until it was known the enemy was about to land at the head of Elk.
While the Continental army lay at Neshaminy its strength was about eleven thousand, composed of four divisions, Greene's, Sterling's, Stephen's and Lincoln's, divided into eight brigades, Maxwell, Scott, Weedon, Muhlen- burg, Wayne, Woodford, Nash and Conway. The main body was encamped on the slopes of Carr's hill facing southwest, the rest occupying the Jamison and Ramsey farms a mile down the Bristol road, and here the cattle were slaughtered. The Neshaminy church was probably used for an hospital. The location made an admirable camping ground, surrounded by a fertile and healthy country and peopled by a loyal Scotch-Irish population. The officers on duty here were the elite of the Continental army. While Lafayette had witnessed previously a review of the army near Germantown, there is no evi- dence he reported for duty prior to the Neshaminy encampment. Here he first sat at the council board and took an active part in military duty. Wash- ington had his headquarters in what was then the "Moland" house, a stone dwelling, still standing on the east side of the York road one hundred yards north of the bridge over Neshaminy. On the opposite side of the road was the whipping post. At that time the "Cross Roads" had three or four dwell- ings, and a tavern on the northwest corner, opposite the present one, and the general landmarks were the same as at present.
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The army was again put in motion down the York road, on the morning of the 23d, and the next day marched through Philadelphia and across the Schuylkill to meet the enemy on the disastrous field of Brandywine. The ap- proach of the British army caused great adarm in this section of country,. which Washington's defeat and the fall of Philadelphia greatly increased .. Lafayette, who was wounded at Brandywine, was taken to Chester and thence conveyed up the Delaware to Bristol, en route for Bethlehem. He stayed over night at Bristol at the public house of Simon Betz, and was waited on by his. niece, Mrs. Charles Bessonette. From Bristol, Lafayette traveled up the Dur- ham road in an easy carriage to his destination, stopping on his way at Four Lanes End, Newtown, Stoffel Wagner's tavern, built, 1752, a mile above Hel- lertown, and other points. At Bethlehem he occupied the house owned in. recent years by Ambrose Rauch, on Main street west of the Sun Inn, and torn down, 1872.
During the British occupancy of Philadelphia the country between the- Schuylkill and Delaware was debatable ground, and traversed by armed parties. of both armies. The enemy made frequent incursions into Bucks. On the night of February 18, 1777, the cavalry companies of Hovenden and Thomas, both. Bucks county tories, made a raid on Newtown, where they captured a con- siderable quantity of cloth being made up for the Continental army, and made prisoners of Major Murray, three other officers, and twenty-six soldiers of the guard, besides killing and wounding nine. On another occasion, hearing of a drove of cattle en route for the hungry Continentals at Valley Forge, the enemy's horse pounced upon them and captured the whole herd, and in April a party of horse went up to Bristol and captured Colonel Penrose and several other officers. They made frequent excursions in armed barges up the Dela- ware to plunder. In one of these they threw a six-pound shot into the house of Peter Williamson, father of the late Mahlon Will- iamson, Philadelphia, which stood on the site of Beverly, New Jersey. It passed just over the cradle of the infant Mahlon and rolled harmlessly on the floor. On another occasion they came up the river and burnt the handsome mansion of Col- onel Joseph Kirkbride, of Falls, a warm friend of the colonies. This debatable ground was entrusted to the command of General John Lacey, but he never had sufficient force to protect it from the in- cursions of the enemy, or to prevent the disaf- fected going into the city. The high price paid by the enemy for all kinds of produce appealed strongly to the cupidity of the tories, who crossed the lines with their wallets filled with butter, eggs. etc., at every opportunity. Many were caught in this disreputable and illegal traffic. and among them. is mentioned one Tyson. Bedminster, whose horse and marketing were confiscated. while he was tied to a tree, still standing near Branchtown. COL. JOSEPH KIRKBRIDE. and battered with his own eggs.
General Lacey frequently had his headquarters at Doylestown, and this was his depot of stores. We find him there the 19th of March. 1778, and copy the following from his order-book: "Parole, Salem: countersign, Wil- mington ; officer of the day to-morrow, Major Mitchel; detail. three captains,
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three sergeants, four corporals and forty-eight privates. Officers of all grades are cautioned not to quarter out of camp." Lacey and his men did not want for the good things of life while soldiering in Bucks county. The receipts of the purchasing commissary cover payments for veal, beef, flour, mutton, whiskey, not a rifled article, turkeys and fowls. His troops while encamped at the Crooked Billet, now Hatboro, were surprised by the British at daylight May 1, 1778, and it was only by boldness and good management that he was able to prevent the capture of his entire force. Spies, well-acquainted with the situation, had given General Howe full information, who sent out strong detachments of cavalry and infantry. They took possession of all the roads, and, closing in upon Lacey, his camp was almost surrounded before their presence was known. Extricating his command he retreated across Warmin- ster toward the Neshaminy. When it became evident the enemy intended evac- uating Philadelphia, Washington requested the militia of Bucks to hang upon his flanks, in his march through New Jersey, and General Lacey" ordered the battalions of Colonels Keller, Roberts, Toms and McIlvain to turn out for this service. Colonel Joseph McIlvain died February 17, 1787, and was buried in St. James's yard, Bristol.
In the spring of 1858, the late Safety Maghec, of Northampton township, then ninety-three years old, related to the author what he had seen in connec- tion with the battle of the Crooked Billet, when a boy of thirteen. He said : "In 1778 I was living with my uncle, Thomas Folwell, Southampton, in the house where Cornell Hobensack lives, on the road from Davisville to Southampton church. On the morning of the battle I heard the firing very distinctly and a blackman named Harry and myself concluded we would go and see what was going on. We started from the house and went directly toward where the firing was. When we came near where Johnsville now stands, we heard a heavy volley which brought us to a halt. The firing was in the woods. The British were in pursuit of our militia and chased them along the road that leads from Johnsville to the Bristol road, and also through the fields from the Street road to the Bristol road. They overtook the militia in the woods at the corner of the Street road and the one that leads across to the Bristol road. When the firing had ceased, we continued on to the woods, where we found three wounded militiamen near the road. They appeared to have been wounded by the sword, and were much cut and hacked. When we got to them they were groaning greatly. They died in a little while and I understood were buried on the spot. They appeared to be Germans. We then passed on and in a field near by we saw two horses lying dead. They were British. One of them was shot in the head and the gun had been put so near the hair was scorched. While we were on the field. Harry picked up a car- touch box that had been dropped or torn off the wearer. Shortly after we met
8 Sally Wister has the following to say, in connection with General Lacey, in her "Journal" of June, 1778: "No new occurrence to relate. Almost adventureless, except General Lacey's riding by and his fierce horse disdaining to go without showing his airs, in expectation of drawing the attention of the mill girls, in order to glad his master's eyes. Ha! ha! ha! One would have imagined that vanity would have been buried with the shades of North Wales. Lacey is tolerable, but, as ill luck would order it, I had been busy and my auburn ringlets were much dishevelled, therefore I did not glad his eyes, and can not set down on the list of honors received, that of a bow from Brigadier-General Lacey." As Lacey was a young and handsome man, and single, doubtless the young ladies were pleased to have a bow from him.
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the militia returning and when they saw the black fellow with the cartouch box they became very indignant; charged him with robbing the dead, and took it away from him. These dead horses were on the farm of Colonel Joseph Hart. Soon after this we returned home. The last man was killed on the British road at the end of the road that comes across from Johnsville. A British officer, who was badly wounded at the battle of the Billet, was taken to the house of Samuel Irvin, who lived nearby. His wounds were dressed there and he afterward returned with the troop to Philadelphia."
Washington put the Continental army in march from Valley Forge, after a six months' residence upon its bleak hills, the 18th of June, to pursue the enemy in his retreat toward New York. General Lee, with six brigades, led the advance, via Doylestown to New Hope, where he crossed the night of the 20th, and Washington encamped at Doylestown the same evening with the main body. The weather was very stormy, and the army remained here until the next afternoon, occupying three encampments; on the south side of State street, west of Main, on the ridge east of the Presbyterian church, and along the New Hope pike east of the borough mill. Washington pitched his tent near the dwelling of Jonathan Fell," late Frank G. Mann's farm house, and Gen- eral Lafayette quartered at the house of Thomas Jones, New Britain, whose best bed was a little too short for the tall young Frenchman. The army was accompanied by some warriors of the Seneca nation, seeking the release of a captured chief, and attended by some friendly Oneidas and Tuscaroras. The army resumed its march for the Delaware the afternoon of the 21st, and crossed at New Hope the next day. While passing Paxson's corner a soldier shot the button from the top of a young pine, and the wound was seen until the tree blew down a few years ago.
From this time forward the stirring and active scenes of the war were removed to distant parts of the country. General Lacey was still in command in this county, keeping a watchful eye on the disaffected, now and then making an important arrest. In the summer, 1780, Bucks county sent her quota of militia to the camp at Trenton, in view of an attack upon New York, and the following year, when Philadelphia was again threatened, there was a concen- tration of troops at Newtown, under General James Irvine. In September, 1781, the French and American armies, in march to meet Cornwallis in Vir- ginia, passed through the lower end of the county. They crossed the Dela- ware at Trenton and the neighboring ferries on the morning of the Ist, and, the same afternoon, passed the Neshaminy at the rope ferry, encamping at the Red Lion, in Bensalem, that evening, and the next day marched through Phila- delphia.
The robbery of the county treasury at Newtown, by the Doanes and their confederates, in the fall of 1781, was one of the exciting events of the day. John Hart, then treasurer, lived in the house that lately belonged to
9. While Washington quartered at Jonathan Fell's, he regulated the movements of the troops by the tall clock that stood in the hall or adjoining room. This clock has fortunately come down to the present generation, and keeps the same accurate time as an hundred and twenty-five years ago. It is owned by William Jenks Fell, great-grand- son of Jonathan ; has always been in the family, and now stands in the hall of his resi- dence at Faulkland. Delaware. The clock was presented by Dr. John Watson, son of Thomas Watson, the original settler, to his daughter Elizabeth on her marriage to John Fell, 8 mo. 1738, and. by her will, bequeathed to her son, Jonathan Fell, the owner when Washington was his guest, 1778.
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Abraham Bond in the lower part of the village. Early in the evening Moses Doane rode through the town to see if the situation was favorable, and about ten o'clock the house of the treasurer was surrounded, and Mr. Hart made prisoner. While sentinels kept watch outside, and over the treasurer, others of the gang ransacked the house. Then, obtaining the keys of the treasurer's office, and one of them putting on Mr. Hart's hat and carrying his lighted lantern, as was his wont, the robbers went to the office, where they stole all the public money to be found. They got, in all, £735. 17s. 197/2d. in specie, and £1,307 in paper. That night they divided the spoils at the Wrightstown school-house.
The story of the Doanes is both romantic and tragic. They were the sons of respectable Quaker parents, of Plumstead, and, during the war, became celebrated for their evil deeds. These five brothers were men of remarkable physical development, tall, strong, athletic, and all fine horsemen. Before the war they were men of good reputation, and it is said proposed to remain neutral. Living in a Scotch-Irish settlement, faithful to a man to the cause of Independence, the young Doanes were not allowed to take a middle course, and soon they espoused the cause of the crown, which engendered a bitter feeling between them and their Whig neighbors. They began their career by robbing and plundering in the neighborhood, gradually extending their field of operations in this and neighboring counties. They finally became outlaws with a price upon their heads. They were the terror of the country, and occu- pied themselves in stealing horses, plundering houses, etc., but we believe the crime of murder was never imputed to them. They had many narrow escapes, and now and then some one of them fell into the hands of the authorities, but generally managed to escape. Joseph broke jail while awaiting trial at New- town, and escaped to New Jersey, and after teaching school awhile, fled to Canada. Near the close of the war Abraham and Mahlon were apprehended in Chester county and hanged at Philadelphia. Moses, the leader of the outlaw brothers, met a more tragic end. In the latter part of the summer of 1783, the Doanes went to the house of one Halsey, living in a cabin on Geddes run, Plumstead, and asked for something to eat, and Halsey sent his son to a neigh- boring mill to get flour. On the miller hesitating, the boy said the Doanes were at his father's house and they would pay. The miller sent word to a vendue in the neighborhood, that the Doanes were at Halsey's, when a party of fourteen armed and mounted men, led by William and Saumel Hart and Major Kennedy, started to capture them. The cabin was surrounded. The two Harts, Kennedy, and a Grier were selected to enter it, and on approaching, saw through the chinks of the logs the Doanes eating at a table, with their guns standing near. William Hart opened the door, commanded them to surrender, when they seized their arms and fired. One of their bullets knocked a splinter from Grier's gun which struck Kennedy in the back, giving him a mortal wound. Hart seized Moses Doane, threw him down and secured him, when Robert Gibson rushed into the cabin and shot Doane in the breast, killing him instantly. The other two brothers escaped. Colonel Hart carried the body of the dead outlaw to his residence, and laid it on the kitchen-floor until morning. when he sent it to his unhappy father. Joseph Doane spent the bal- ance of his life in Canada, where he died at an advanced age. Sixty years ago he returned to the county to claim a small inheritance, when he met and became reconciled with the Shaws and other families who had felt the wrath of him- self and brothers during the troublous days of the Revolution.
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