USA > Pennsylvania > Bucks County > History of Bucks county, Pennsylvania, from the discovery of the Delaware to the present time, Vol. I > Part 13
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1 Names of original settlers: Thomas Holme, John Spencer, John Boyden, Samuel Allen, John Swart. Jacob Pelisson, Richard Noble. Ann Clark, Samuel Clift. Wilham Dungan. Mordecai Bowden. John Tully, Thomas Dungan. Clement Dungan. Richard Lundy. Thomas Bowman. Thomas Rudeyard. William Hauge, Christopher Taylor. Francis Richardson. Griffith Jones and Edward Benne :.
1 !: The Rev. Thomas Dungan was born in London, England. about 1632, and m 1637 came with his mother and step-father. Jeremiah Clarck, to New England. settling at Newport, R. L., where young Dungan doubtless spent his boyhood and youth. He probably
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HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
buried in this old graveyard, the Reverend Samuel Jones, who died December 10. 1722, and Joseph Wood, September 15, 1747.
The Reverend Elias Keach, the first pastor at Pennypack, was ordained by Mr. Dungan. The history of this able minister of the gospel is full of in- terest. He came from London. 1086, representing himself as a minister and was asked to preach at Pennypack. Many flocked to hear the young London divine. In the midst of his sermon he suddenly stopped as if attacked by sick- ness, burst into tears and confessed that he was an impostor. He dated his conversion from that moment. He now retired to Cold Spring to seek counsel and advice of Mr. Dungan, where he remained a considerable time. He prob- ably studied divinity with Mr. Dungan, who baptised him. He became the pas- tor at Pennypack, 1687, but returned to England, 1692. where he preached with success until his death, 1699. He married a daughter of Judge More, after whom Moreland township was named. His only daughter, Hannah, married Revitt Harrison, of England, whose son, John Elias Keach Harrison, came to America about 1734, settled at the Crooked Billet, now Hatboro, and was a member of the Southampton Baptist church. The Reverend Thomas Dungan left five sons and three daughters, but divided his real estate between Thomas. Jeremiah and John. after the death of their mother, they paying their sisters, Mary, Rebecca and Sarah. five pounds each. The sons and daughters married into the families of Wing. Drake. West, Richards. Doyle and Car- rell .? William, the eldest son, married in Rhode Island, probably before he emigrated to Pennsylvania. We have the authority of Morgan Edwards for saying that by 1770 the descendants of Reverend Thomas Dungan numbered between six and seven hundred. The end of April. 1698. Clement. Thomas, Jeremiah and John Dungan conveyed two hundred acres. above Bristol near the Delaware, to Walter Plumpluey. They probably left Bristol at that time, and removed to Northampton township, where the descendants of the family still reside. In March, 1774. the Cold Spring farm was sold at public sale by Thomas Stanaland. Samuel Clift . was an "old renter,". of whom more in another place.
Samuel Carpenter, born in Surry. England. who came to the province from the island of Barbadoes, in 1683. and now a wealthy shipping merchant of Philadelphia, was the largest land-holder in Bristol township at the close of
received part of his education at Roger Williams' celebrated school. He became a freeman of the colony, 1656. Having embraced the Baptist faith, he entered the ministry. and, shortly after Monmouth county, New Jersey, was settled by the English, Mr. Dungan took up land there, but sold it, 1674. After Penn received the grant of Pennsylvania he removed to the Delaware and settled at Cold Spring, founded the first Baptist church in the colony and died. 1688. Penn granted 400 acres to Thomas Dungan and son Clement. The Rev. Thomas Dungan married Elizabeth Weaver, of Rhode Island, and she died. 1690. They had issue: William, born about 1658, married Deborah Wing, died 1713; Clement, died in Northampton township, 1732; Elizabeth, married Nathaniel West. New- port, Rhode Island; Thomas, born about 1670, married Mary Drake, died June 23. 1759; Rebecca, married Edward Doyle ; he died 1703. and, in his will, names wife, Rebecca, and sons Clement and Edward, both of New Britain; Jeremiah. born about 1673, married Deborah Drake, died April 6, 1761 ; Mary, married a Richards, and had issue: John, died unmarried and without issue, and Sarah married James Carrell and had issue.
2 The Doyle and Carrell the Dungan daughters married. were members of the families of the same name living in Warminster and Doylestown, respectively.
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the century. He purchased some two thousand acres contiguous to Briste: including the site of the borough. Among the tracts he bought were those of John Otter, Samuel Clift, Edward Bennet and Griffith Jones, running down the Delaware nearly to the mouth of Neshaminy, and afterward that of Thomas Holme, running back almost to the Middletown line, about one thousand four hundred acres. He likewise owned two islands in the river. He probab !. built the Bristol mills which stood on what is now Mill creek, a quarter of :: mile from the river, and up to whose doors small vessels came to load and unload freight. The saw-mill was seventy feet long by thirty-two wide, and able to cut about fifteen-hundred feet in twelve hours, while the flour-miil had four run of stone with an undershot wheel. We do not know at what time Mr. Carpenter built the mills, but. in 1705. he speakes of them as being "newly built." They earned a clear profit of f400 a year. The mill-pond then covered between 200 and 300 acres. The pine timber sawed at the mill was brought from Timber creek, New Jersey, and the oak cut from his own land near by. At that day the mills had about fifteen feet head and fall, and there was water enough to run about eight months in the year. About 1710-12. Mr. Carpenter removed to Bristol, making his summer residence on Burlington island, his dwelling standing as late as 1828. He was the richest man in the province, 1701, but lost heavily by the French and Indian war of 1703; and, 1705, he offered to sell his Bristol property to his friend Jonathan Dickin- son, island of Jamaica.3 Ile married Hannah Hardman, an immigrant from Wales, 1684, and died at Philadelphia, 1714. His wife died, 1728. His son Samuel married a daughter of Samuel Preston, and granddaughter of Thomas Lloyd. Samuel Carpenter was largely interested in public affairs ; was a mem- ber of the Council and Assembly, and Treasurer of the Province. He is spoken of in high terms by all his contemporaries.+ The Ellets, who dis- tinguished themselves in the late Civil war. were descendants of Samuel Carpen- ter through the intermarriage of the youngest daughter of his son Samuel with Charles Ellet.
The Bristol island meadows, on the Delaware below Bristol, forming a tract of rich meadow land, were patented to \Samuel Carpenter. They were then called Burden's island, said to contain eight hundred and fifteen and a quarter acres, and were described as lying between Mill creek and Hog run. In 1716 Hannah Carpenter and sons conveyed the island to a purchaser. In 1774 an island near this, containing about forty acres, called Lesser island, was conveyed by John Clark to John Kidd. In 1807 Bela Badger bought the Fairview and Belle meadow farms, lying south of Bristol, and afterward Bristol
3 At one time Mr. Carpenter offered to sell his Bristol mills to his friend William Penn.
4 Samuel Carpenter had a brother. Joshua, who probably came to America with him. His wife's name was Elizabeth, and their first child was Samuel, born August 14. 1686. and married Mary Yates, who was born at Che-ter. 1700. daughter of Jasper Yates. Their children were: Joshua, born February 12. 1720; Elizabeth, born November 15, 1725; Samuel, born May 16. 1728 (on Carpenter's Island) ; Mary, born April 2, 1730; Catharine, born July 10. 1732 (on Carpenter's I-land) : Jasper, born October 14. 1734. married and had one daughter, Elizabeth, born August 27, 1703, who married Abraham Cook. Jannary. 1700; Joshua Carpenter, first born of Joshua and Elizabeth, marned and had one child. born July 22. 1753. and married Mary Roan .- Letter from Jasper Carpenter Cook, Phila- .delphia, May 24. 1877
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island, then called Yonkin's and subsequently Badger's island. The tide ebbed and flowed between the island and mainland. Mr. Badger, at great expense, banked in about three hundred and fifty acres of the meadow, making one of the most productive islands in the Delaware. The portion not banked in is covered with water at every high tide. A small part of the meadow adjoining Bristol was wharfed in to form the basin of the Delaware Division Canal." Be- fore the Revolution, Captain John Clark, of the British army, came to America for his health, and lived on the Fairview farm, where Badger died. When a party of British horse came from Philadelphia to Bristol, 1778, to burn the grist-mill. word was sent to Captain Clark, who rode into the village and for- bade the distruction of property, on the ground that he was a British officer and part owner. The mill was not burned. and he soon afterward resigned his com- mission. He was the worshipful-master of the Bristol lodge of Masons, and remained a member to his death.
A ferry across the Delaware, from Bristol to Burlington, was first estab- lished by the Provincial Council, 1709. A petition from the county-magis- trates was presented by John Sotcher, who then owned the land on this side of the river, and on which the landing was to be. In 1714, an act of similar import was passed by the New Jersey assembly, which fixed the rate for ferrying over, and prohibited all but the licensed ferryman acting, under a fine of twenty shillings. Of course people crossed the river between these two points many years before it was a recognized ferry. It is not known that the landing of the original ferry was on the spot of the present one. About 1729 Samson Carey petitioned to be granted the ferry from Burlington to Bristol.
Christopher Taylor, mentioned elsewhere- one of the early pioneer set- tlers of Bristol township, is supposed to have been born near Skipton, York- shire, England. There he officiated as a Puritan preacher until he joined the Quakers, 1652. He taught a classical school at various places ; came to America, 1682, and obtained the grant of 5,000 acres in this county. He represented Bristol in the first Assembly :- was a member of the first Execut- ive Council, after Penn's arrival, and was also Register-General of the Province. At one time he taught a classical school at Philadelphia. Ilis son Israel was sheriff of Bucks county, and his daughter married Jona Sander- lands, Chester county, 1693. At the time of his death he was a resident of Tinecum island in the Delaware, and practiced surgery. He died 1696.
An act of Assembly was passed in 1771, to improve the navigation of Neshaminy creek, which bounds Bristol township on the southwest. The stream was declared a public highway as far up as Barnsley's ford, now Newportville, but the navigation was not much improved. At certain stages of the water vessels of light draught can come up to that point. In olden times there was a floating bridge and rope ferry across Neshaminy about a hundred yards above the turnpike bridge at Schenck's station. the foundation of which can still be seen. They were owned by Charles Bessonett," who then
5 Possibly these island meadows are the same as Aldricks' island of two centuries and a half ago. Next to William Penn. Samuel Carpenter was the richest man in the Province. He owned the "Slate Roof House." Philadelphia, in which Penn resided, 1700. Watson says Samuel Carpenter was the Stephen Girard of his period, in wealth.
6 The Bessonetts were in Bensalem as early as 1720, and on January 6. that year, John Rodman made a conveyance to John Bessonett. His will was executed March 4.
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ran a line of stages from Philadelphia to New York, and kept tavern in Bristol. In 1785 he and Gersham Johnson were authorized to lay out a road, from the sixteenth mile-stone. on what is now the Philadelphia and Frenton turnpike, through the lands of J. Vandegrift and William Allen, to and across Neshan :- iny ; thence through land of John Edgar and Joseph Tomlinson, and on to the nineteenth mile-stone, and to build a bridge and establish a ferry. These were the floating bridge and rope ferry. As early as 1700 the Grand Jury pre- sented the necessity of a bridge over this stream, and William Moore was appointed to view and select a site, the expense to the county was not to exceed f80. Whether it was built, and if so, where, the author is not informed. An early act of Assembly sought to open lock navigation from tide-water to Bridgetown, but nothing came of it. The bill provided for the incorporation of the "Nashaminy Lock & Navigation Company."
On the bank of the Delaware, three miles below Bristol, stands what is known as "China Retreat" and Bristol College." About 1787 the farm be- longed to one Benger, an Irish sporting gentleman, who imported the famous horse "Messenger," he purchased of a brother of the Duke of York. It was then called "Benger's Mount." lle sold it to one Andre Everade Van Braam Houckgeest, governor of an East India island, who retired to this county, and erected an elegant mansion, calling it "China Retreat." The mar- ble used in its construction was brought up the river by Samuel Hibbs. Ben- salem, in a shallop. He sold the property, 1798, 361 acres and 3 perches, to Captain Walter Sims, for £10,706, whose son-in-law, Capt. Jolin Green, was the first sea captain to carry our flag to China. He made the round trip in about a year, going through the Straits of Sunda. He was the first to import a full set of China-ware direct from China into the colonies 1772, and Shanghai chickens from a cross which makes our celebrated "Bucks County chickens." Captain Green died September 24, 1796, at the age of 60, and was buried in St. James church yard, Bristol.
Andre Everade Van Braam Houckgeest, builder of China Retreat. has an interesting history. He was born in Holland. 1739, and after serving in the Dutch Navy, in which two of his brothers were Admirals, he took service in the Dutch East India Company, in China. Amassing a fortune, he came to America and settled near Charleston, S. C., bought a nice plantation and he- came naturalized. Losing four of his five children and much of his fortune he again accepted service in the Dutch East India Company, and returned to Canton as Chief Director. He gained the confidence and esteem of the Emperor, and, by study and travel, became a recognized authority on Chinese manners and customs. He wrote an interesting book. dedicating it to Wash- ington. He returned to America at the end of nine years, and to his surviving daughter, who, meanwhile, had married Major Richard Brooke Roberts, U. S.
1774, and proved October 26. 1778. His children were: Daniel. John, Charles, Catharine. Anne. Martha and Elizabeth. Charles, who lived and died in Bristol, was deputy post- master. 1776. A settlement of his estate was filed, October 27. 1807, but was not finally settled until 1812. Charles Bessonett, probably the innkeeper at Bristol, was the son of Charles.
7 Prior to this, the property belonged to Thomas Clifford. and was known as "Rocky Point," from the reef of rock in the river still visible at low tide. After Clifford's death it passed to the descendants of his daughter, Smith, and then to the Phillips family. Authority of Israel Pemberton; see also "Miss Eves' Journal," Penna. Magazine, 1881.
CHINA RETREAT, 1790.
.A., upon landing at Philadelphia, April 24, 1796; bringing with him a great col- lection of Chinese curiosities, including a Chinese coachman and footman. He now bought the "Benger Mound" farm near Bristol on which he erected a princely dwelling, in the prevailing colonial style, surmounted by a pagoda frota which were suspended silver bells. The rooms were large and elegantly furu- ished ; the music room for his daughter was the width of the house, with vaulted roof, gilded and frescoed, and was noted for its. fine acoustic qualities. Here Van Braam dispensed a generous hospitality, numbering among his distin- guished guests Washington, Lafayette and Prince Tallyrand, then in exile, the latter spending much of his time at China Retreat. On a festive occasion. it is said, Washington and Lafayette planted the two pine trees that stand in front of the house. Being a man of education and scientific attainments, he became a member of the Philadelphia Philosophical Society, and of the leading societies of Europe. His wife was a daughter of Baron Van Reede Van Oudtshorn, Governor of the Cape of Good Hope. His daughter on the death of Major Roberts, her first husband, married Capt. Staats Morris, son of Lewis Morris, signer of the Declaration of Independence. The oldest son of Major Roberts was named Lucius Quintius Cincinnatus, after the Society of the Cincinnati, of which his father was an original member. After the death of Major Roberts, and the death of his widow. Van Braam sold China Retreat and returned to Holland, his fine collection of Chinese curiosities being lost at sea. The family of the distinguished Hollander keeps up its connection with Bucks county by the great grandson, Erasmus Roberts, marrying, 1892. Helen Chambers, daughter of Major Thomas Chambers, Newtown, and grand- daughter of the late John Barnsley.
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HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
China Retreat was next occupied as a seat of learning under the name of "Bristol College," in charge of the "Episcopal Education Society of Pennsy- vania." The leaders in the enterprise were Rev. G. W. Ridgeway and Dr -. Twyng and Bedell. The farm of 380 acres, with improvements, was purchased in March, 1833. for $20,000, and $15.000 additional were raised by subser- tion, the subscribers contributing $75 a year per scholarship as a loan to students. The buildings were only sufficient to accommodate 15 or 20 stud- ents, but the College was opened 1834, the Rev. Chauncey Colton, D. D., the first and only president the institution had, delivering an address. The motto on the seal was "Pray ye the Lord of the harvest to send forth laborers int the harvest." The board of trustees was composed of the Rev. James Milner, D. D., N. Y., Rev. Dr. Smith, afterward Bishop of Kentucky, Dr. Henshaw, later Bishop of R. 1 .. Rev. Levi Bull, Chester Co., Pa., Francis S. Key, author of the Star Spangled Banner, Rev. S. H. Twyng, Jr., D. D., Philadelphia. Rer. John S. Stone. D. D., Rev. James May. John C. Pechin and John Farr, Esq. Lambert Day was Secretary, Edward C. Thurston, Actuary and Superintend- .ent of Manual Labor, and Jacob Lex. Treasurer. The President of the board was Dr. Bedell.
As China Retreat (or Hall ) did not furnish proper accommodations, a brick building was erected facing the Delaware, four stories, with two wings. at a cost of $80.000. The main building was called White Hall, in honor of Bishop White, and the two wings Pennsylvania and Clifton Halls, respectively. Its capacity was from 100 to 125 students, and, in the near future, there were about 100 in the college and preparatory schools from various parts of the country, all boarding in the building. There were only a few day scholars. The faculty' was composed. in part, of the following: Dr. A. R. Packard, Professor of Chemistry and Natural History : Dr. G. S. Pattison, lecturer and teacher of Languages : William S. Serell and T. Alexander Todd. assistants, and Robert Rose. Alexander F. Dobb and James Hulme, tutors. The Rev. C. S. Henry was on the staff in some capacity. For the support of the institut- tion a system of private subscription was organized and considerable money raised. The Bible was the text, and labor in the shop, garden and on the farm the key note of the curriculum. In 1834. Francis S. Key delivered an address
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BRISTOL COLLEGE, IST.
BATH SPRING NEAR BRISTOL.
before the Philogean Society on the "Power of Literature." The attendance fluctuated ; one catalogue contained the names of 120 students, another 156, including preparatory pupils. The names of several clergymen are on the catalogue. The students established Sunday School at several points, includ- ing Eddington and Hulmeville, the latter being the germ of Grace Episcopal church at the place. Bristol College came to the end of its career. 1839, many of the students going to Trinity College, Hartford. The president was after- ward a professor at Gambier Theological Seminary, Ohio. After the college closed, tutor Alex. F. Dobb, who had formerly conducted a school at Lang- horne, opened a boarding school there the same year. calling it "St. James HIall." The farm was cut up and sold by the sheriff.
In 1843 Captain Alden Partridge, a graduate and one of the earliest Super- intendents of West Point, opened a military school in the China Retreat build- ing. At a meeting at the Tremont House, Philadelphia. May 23. 1843. the pro- priety of establishing a "Literary. Scientific Military Institute" there, was fully considered and favorably acted upon and a committee, of which General John Davis was chairman, was appointed to see the wishes of the meeting carried out. The school was put in charge of Prof. Henry Villiers Morr's, a graduate of Norwich University, and a professor there. He was a civil engineer by profession, and subsequently assisted in laying out and buikEng some of the leading railroads of the west. He was an officer in the Civil War, and breveted for meritorious services. He was born at Amherst county. Virginia. April 7, ISto, and died at St. Louis, May, 1898. The school was closed in three years and removed to Harrisburg. The buiklings were used for a hospital during the Civil War, and subsequently for a state school for the education of chil- dren of colored soldiers.'
The Bath Springs, known from the carliest settlement of the county. and for years a fashionable watering place, are situated on the edge of the borough of Bristol. The waters are chalybeate and had celebrity as early as 1720. when they were a summer resort. In 1773 the distinguished Doctor Rush read a
S The author is indebted to the Rev. S. F. Hotchkin for information relative to Bristol College.
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paper on the mineral waters of Bristol before the Philadelphia Philosophic ..! Society and the following year a Philadelphia newspaper says, "the Brist : baths and chalybeate wells are completed in the most commodious manner." Before buildings were erected the visitors boarded in Bristol, most of the tam- ilies taking boarders, and walked out to drink the waters. General Mifflin and. family were among those who frequented the springs, and visitors even came from Europe. The present buikdlings were erected in 1810 by Doctor Minnick.": who laid out a race-course on the western part of the tract. More fashional'e and attractive summer resorts have turned the tide of visitors in other di- rections. >44
There were. originally, three swamps in Bristol township, covering more than a thousand acres of her territory. The most considerable of these .. "Pigeon" swamp, probably named after Joseph Pidgeon, Falls, who died. 1728. extending from the head of Mill pond to within two miles of Morrisville. 1: is three hundred yards wide, and contains about eight hundred acres. A> it cannot be drained and made productive, without heavy outlay of money, it is kept in bushes and used as a pasture ground. It is crossed by several country roads. In 1772 the Legislature chartered "The Pigeon Swamp Company." when some effort was made to drain it. Hugh Hartshorne and Joseph Hall. Bristol, were appointed to view and stirvey the swamp, and Christian Minnick. Aaron Wright and William Bidgood, managers for the owners. At this time it appears that one hundred and fifty-two acres and one hundred and eight perches were divided among the owners of contiguous lands, of which Thomas Middleton received forty-six acres, Benjamin Swain, seventeen acres, William Bidgood. thirty-two acres and seventy-two perches, Aaron Wright. sixteen aeres and twenty-seven perches. Christian Minnick, thirteen acres and one hundred and thirty perches, Thomas Stanaland, four acres and sixty-one perches. Israel Pemberton, sixteen acres and fifty-nine perches, and William Bidgood. Jr., six acres and seventy-three perches. The other two swamps were Biding's? two miles northwest of Bristol, and Green's, three miles south- west, which have been drained and cleared, and are now good farm land. In 1809 a road was opened across Pigeon swamp, and as early as 1723 a road was laid out from Green's swamp to Bristol. On the edge of Pigeon swamp. near the Mill pond. is what is known as the "Mystic well." whose discovery, it is claimed, was brought about by spiritual influence. It is related that Danic B. Taylor. Lower Makefield, was directed by the spirits to purchase a farm owned by Malachi White, on which he would find a spring of wonderiu! medicinal properties, by digging down at a certain spot. just one hundred and one feet six inches. The farmi was bought, some obstructions cleared away. the digging commenced in September and completed the following December They dug sixty feet through loam, gravel and sand, and bored forty-one fett nine inches through a hard blue rock, when water, chalybeate in character, was reached. The well was tubed with an eight-inch iron pipe to the rock. Mr.
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