USA > Pennsylvania > Bucks County > History of Bucks county, Pennsylvania, from the discovery of the Delaware to the present time, Vol. I > Part 17
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The proximity of Bensalem to Philadelphia induced the British troops to make several incursions into the township while they held that city, 1777-78. and during the war the inhabitants suffered from the depredations of both armies.
Of the roads through the township, that from the Poquessing creek, crossing the Street road below the Trap tavern. the Neshaminy above Hulme- ville and thence to Bristol, was laid out by order of Council. 1607. John Baldwin was appointed to. keep the ferry over the Neshaminy on giving security. When the Hulmeville dam was built the ferry was discontinued, and a new road laid out, leaving the old one at right-angles near Trevose, and crossing the Neshaminy at Newportville. About the time this road was laid ont Bucks Prd Philadelphia conpties built a bridge over the Poquessing. prob- ably where the pike crosses. A second bridge was built there. 1757, and a third. 1701. The road from the Bristol pike at Scott's corner to Townsend's mill on the Bonessing, was opened, 1767, and from the pike to "White Sheet bay," 1,6g. As early as 1697 a petition was presented to the court to lay out a road from Growden's plantation to Dunk's ferry, but we do not know that it was granted. In 1700 a road was opened from Growden's to the King's
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HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
highway leading to the falls. This highway at that time was probably the road from Poquessing, crossing the Neshaminy about Hulmeville, and which. at one time. was a thoroughfare from the falls to Philadelphia. Galloway's ford is on Neshaminy above Hulmeville, and was destroyed when the dam was built, because it backed up the water so it could not be crossed. At April term, 1703, the court directed a jury to lay out a road "from the uppermost inhabitants adjacent to Southhampton to the landing commonly called John Gilbert's landing."=7
RED LION INN, BENSALEM.
The two oldest taverns in the township are the Red Lion, on the turnpike, at the crossing of the Poquessing, and the Trappe, on the Street road, a mile above where the old King's highway crosses it on its way to the falls. The former is of some historical interest, and will be mentioned in a future chapter. Across the Poquessing, Philadelphia county, is the old Byberry meeting grave yard, near the present one, and which the Keithians retained on the separation, 1690. In it are two marble gravestones, one "To the memory vi James Rush, who departed this life March ye 6. 1726-7, aged forty-eight years and ten months, grandfather of Dr. Benjamin Rush, the Signer"; the other to Crispin Collett, who died September 3. 1753. aged thirty-seven years. All the other stones in the yard are the common field stone. Daniel Long- streth. Warminster, who visited this grave yard, 1843. accompanied by his wife, remarked in his diary: "John Hart, the noted Quaker preacher, who joined George Keith at the time of the separation, lived where Caleb Knight now resides, the next farm but one above the grave yard. It was the son of John Hart, the preacher. that settled on the five hundred-aere tract to the north of my residence in Warminster. The family joined the Baptists in
27 Jolin Gilbert was one of the earliest settlers in Bensalem, but the place of his landing is not known to the present generation.
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Southampton meeting." Mr. Longstreth, on the same or a subsequent visit to Byberry, was told by Charles Walmsley that his uncle had a cart whose hubs were used in a vehicle that hattled baggage for Braddock's army in the French and Indian war, 1755-57. They were then in good condition and in use. The vehicle they belonged to, at the time, were pressed into service for the use of the army.
Mary Newman Brister, nee Fry, born at the Trappe, June 8, 1780, was liv- ing at Washington. Pa .. 18So, in good health, and had never been sick until the year previous. She was married to George Brister, in Philadelphia, who died in Washington, 1850. He was in the war with England, 1812, and fought at New Orleans. George Fry, Mrs. Brister's father, was born in Bucks county, 1730, and died, 1833. He served in the Braddock campaign, 1755; and, at the age of 103, walked from Philadelphia to Cincinnati, Ohio, but was never heard of afterward.
In 1892, the order of the "Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament," for Indians and colored people, established the "Mother House" in Bensalem, near Corn- well, on the line of the Pennsylvania railroad. The order is known as "St. Elizabeth's Convent and the Holy Providence Home." The sisterhood was founded under the auspices of Miss Catherine M. Drexel, who took the veil as a nun of the Roman Catholic church, under the name of Mother M. Kathrine. The organization was effected, 1891. In the chapter on "School and Education," the scope and purposes of this institution are set forth.
Bensalem is a rich and fertile township, with little waste land, and the surface has a gradual slope from its northwest boundary to the Delaware. It is bounded on three sides by water, the Delaware river. Neshaminy, and Poquessing, and it is well-watered by numerous tributaries. The nearness of this township to Philadelphia, and the facility with which it can be reached · by rail and boat, have induced many of her rich citizens to make their homes within its limits. In consequence numerous elegant dwellings line its main highways and the banks of the Delaware, and large wealth is found among the inhabitants. The Pennsylvania railroad, formerly Philadelphia and Trenton railroad, runs across the township a short distance from the river, with stations at a number of points, and passing trains take up and set down passengers every few minutes, while the through line of the North Pennsyl- vania railroad to New York crosses it near the Southampton line.
The township contains an area of eleven thousand six hundred and fifty- six acres, and its-boundaries have not been disturbed since its organization, 1692. In 1742, sixty years after its settlement by the English, it had but seventy-eight taxable inhabitants, and the highest valuation of any one person was £50. In 1744 the taxables had fallen off to seventy-two, but they had in- creased to ninety in 1755, and to ninety-eight in 1765. In 1784 the popula- tion of the township was 653 whites, 175 blacks, and 131 dwellings. In 1810 it was 1.434; 1820. 1.667; 1830. 1,811, and 345 taxables : 1840, 1.731: 1850. 2.239; 1860, 2.336; 1870. 2.353, of which 296 were foreign-born, and 169 black : 1880. 2.217: 1800, 2.385: 1900, 2,829. The township has two shad- fisheries, one known as Vandegriit's, the other as "Frogtown." and now the property of Doctor Markley. The fisheries we have mentioned in the river townships are all shore fisheries and have been long established. In former times the catch of shad and herring was much greater than of late years. The rent of these two fisheries, for a number of years, has not exceeded $500 a year. A post-office was established at Andalusia, 1816, and Thomas Morgan appointed postmaster.
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CHAPTER XI.
MIDDLETOWN.
1692.
Original name .- Nicholas Walne .- Richard Amor .- John Cutler, Thomas Stackhouse .- John Eastburn .- Thomas Janney .- Simon Gillam .- Great mixture of blood .- William Huddleston .- Abraham and Christopher Vanhorne .- John Richardson .- The Jenks family .- Middletown meeting .- Story of Lady Jenks .- Jeremiah Langhorne .-- The Mitchells .- Charles Plumley -Langhorne .- Four Lanes End .- Joshua Richardson .-- The High School .- The Hulme family .- The Cawleys .- Dr. White .- Hulmeville .- Memorial trees .- John Hulire .- Josiah Quincy .- Extract from daughter's memoirs .-- Mill built .- Industrial establishments .--- Oxford Valley .- Origin of name Eden .- Early mill -.- Trolley roads .- Early roads .- Peter Peterson Vanhorne .-- Taxables -- Popula- tion .- Death of Robert Skirm and wife .- Farley .- The inhabitant farmers .- Gallo- way's and Baldwin's fords .- Dr. Longshore.
Middletown is the last of the original townships. In the report of the jury that laid it out, it is designated "the middle township" of the group, but was frequently called "middle lots" down to 1703, and "middle township' as late as 1724. Gradually it came to be called by the name it bears.
A few of the original settlers came in the Welcome with William Penn, while others preceded or followed him. By 1684 the land was generally taken up. a good deal of it in large tracts, and some by non-residents.1 Some of these settlers purchased land of the Proprietary before leaving England. Nicholas Walne, Yorkshire, came in the Welcome, and took up a large tract between Langhorne and Neshaminy. He was a distinguished minister among friends, and held a leading part in the politics of the county, which he repre- sented several years in the Assembly. His son died, 1744. Nicholas Walne. his descendant, probably grandson, was born at Fair Hill, Philadelphia. 1742: studied law at the Temple. London, returned and practiced seven years in this county and elsewhere. Janney says that after he had been engaged in a real
I Land-owners in Middletown in 1684: Walter Bridgeman. Thomas Constable, Widow Croasdale. Robert Holdgate. Vexander Biles. Widow Bond. Robert Heaton, Thomas Stackhouse. Jr., Thomas Stackhouse. James Dilworth, Widow Hurst, Richard Thatcher, John Scarborow & Scarborough), Nicholas Walne. Jonathan Towne, Joshua Boar, Thomas Marle. Wilham Paxon. James Paxson, Jonathan Fleckne, William Brian, Robert Carter, Francis Dove. Henry Passon. William Wigem and Edward Samway.
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HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
estate case at Newtown, Mr. Walne was asked, by a Friend, on his return to tlw city, how it was decided. He replied: "I did the best I could for my client ; gained the case for him, and thereby defrauded an honest man of his dues." He then relinquished the law, on the ground that its practice is incon- sistent with the principles of Christianity, settled up his business, and returned the fees of unfinished cases. He now became a devout attendant on religious meeting, and afterward a minister among Friends.
Richard Amor." Berkshire, located two hundred and fifty acres on Neshaminy, below Hulmeville, but died a few months after his arrival. He brought with him a servant, Stephen Sands, who married Jane Cowgill, 1685, and left children. Henry Paxson, from Bycothouse, Oxfordshire, who located five hundred acres on the Neshaminy, above Hulmeville, lost his wife, two sons, and a brother at sea, by disease, and married the widow of Charles Plumley, Northampton, to84. He was a man of influence and a member of Assembly. James Dilworth, of Thornley, Lancashire, arrived with son William and a servant, October, 1682, and settled on a thousand acres on Neshaminy, below Attleborough, the present Langhorne. Richard Davis came from Wales, in November, 1683, with his son David, who married Margaret Evans, in March, to86, and died fifteen days after his arrival. He is supposed to have been the first surgeon in the county.3 The land taken up by John Scarborough in Middletown came to the possession of his son John, by his father returning to England to fetch his family, but failed to come back.+ Thomas Stackhouse and his son Thomas were the proprietors of a large tract in the lower part of the township. Richard Thatcher took up one thousand acres, and Ralph Ward and Ralph Alford one thousand and twenty-five acres each. Robert Hall, whose name is not on Holme's map, but was one of the carliest settlers, ow ned a tract that joined Bristol township. Robert Heaton, one of the earliest settlers and a land owner on Holme's map, but built the first mill in the township. Its exact situation is not known, but was probably on the Neshaminy, about . where Comfort's mill stands. He died, 1716.3 William Paxson's tract extended from near the present Langhorne, back of Oxford. He was a member of Assembly, 1701. Among others, who were original settlers and land owners, were George and John White, Francis Andrews and Alexander Giles. Thomas Constable owned a considerable tract in the upper part of the township, bordering on Newtown. John Atkinson embarked, 1699. with a certificate from Lancaster monthly meeting, but died at sea; also his wife. Susannah, leaving children, William, Mary and John. Thomas Atkinson was also an early settler, but probably not until after Holme's map was made. Before 1700, Thomas Musgrove owned five hundred acres in the township, patented to Hannah Price. and after came into possession of Thomas Jenks.
The Cutlers were early settlers in Bucks county, John and Edward. from Yorkshire, England, landing at Philadelphia from the Rebecka, James Skinner. master, 8th month, 31st, 1685. Jolin, who probably arrived single, 1703. married Margery, daughter of Cuthbert Hayhurst, Northampton, and had children,
2 His name is not on Holme's map.
3 There was a "barber." as surgeons were then called, on the Delaware as early as 1638, but it is not known that he lived in the county, or that his practice even extended into it.
4 A further account of John Scarborough will be found in another chapter.
5 He had one hundred and eighty-eight acres surveyed to him in Middletown.
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HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
Elizabeth, Mary and Benjamin. The two brothers brought with them inden- tured servants, Cornelius Nettlewood. Richard Mather, Ellen Wingreen, William Wardle, James Moliner, son of James Moliner, late of Liverpool. John Cutler settled in Middletown; was county surveyor, 1702-3, and made the resurvey of the county, laid out Bristol borough, 1713, was coroner, 1719. and died, 1720. Edmund Cutler, brother of John, was married before leaving England from the date of his children's birth, who were Elizabeth, born 14th. 7th month, 1680; Thomas, 16th, gth month, 1081, and William. born 16th, Ioth month, 1682. Edmund Cutler's wife, whose name is given both as Jane and Isabel, died 4th month, 1715. Edmund Cutler probably settled in South- ampton, and his son John was a school teacher in Middletown, 1705, and coroner of the county, 1718-19. Lawrence Cutler, a descendant of one of the brothers, married Naomi Brown, Penn's Manor, and another a Stackhouse. Both brothers were surveyors, and John is understood to have been in Penn's employ before leaving England. Edmund was a farmer.
Among the earliest settlers were Nicholas and Jane Walne, Thomas and Agnes Croasdale, who came with six children; Robert and Elizabeth Hall, two; James and Ann Dilworth, one; William and Mary Paxson. one; James and Jane Paxson, two; James and Mary Radcliff, four; Jonathan and Anne Scaife, two; Robert and Alice Heaton, five, and Martin and Anne Wildman, six. John Eastburn came from the parish of Bingley, county York, with a certificate from Bradley meeting, dated July 31, 1684. Johannes Searl was in Middletown prior to 1725, from whose house a road leading to Bristol was laid out that year. Before 1700. Thomas Musgrove owned five hundred acres in the township, patented to Hannah Price, and afterward came into the posses- sion of Thomas Jenks.
We are able to trace the descent of several of the present families of long standing in Middletown with considerable minuteness, but not as much so as we would desire. The Buntings were among the earliest settlers. In 1689, Job Bunting married Rachel Baker, and starting from this couple the descent is traced, in the male line, through Samuel, born 1692, and married Priscilla Burgess, 1716: Samuel. second, born 1718, married 1740; William, born, 1745, married Margery Woolston, 1771 ; William, married Mary W. Blakey. 1824. parents of Blakey Bunting. Jonathan Bunting, from a collateral branch, is the sixth in descent from the first Job Bunting. In the maternal line they descend from John Sotcher and Mary Lofty, maternal ancestor of the Taylors and Blakeys. Thomas Yardley, who married Susan Brown, 1785. had the Sotcher and Lofty blood from both lines, through the Kirkbrides and Stacy's in the paternal. and the Clarks, the Worrells and Browns in the ma- ternal.
One branch of the Croasdales are descended from Ezra and Ann ( Peacock ) Croasdale, who married, 168 ;. through Jeremiah. Robert and Robert second. on the paternal side, and on the maternal, from William, son of James and Jane Paxson : born 1633. came to America. 1682, and married Mary Packing- ham. Robert M. Croasdale, deceased. in the female line, was descended through the Watsons. Richardsons. Prestons, etc.
The maternal ancestors of Isaiah Watson trace their descent back to William and Margaret Cooper. Blakey, the family name of the maternal side. first appear in William Blakey about 1703: and about the same period the Watsons come upon the stage in the person of Thomas Watson, the progenitor of those who bear that name in Middletown.
Thomas Janney is the sixth in descent from the first Thomas and his wife.
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HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
Margaret, who came from Cheshire, England, 1683, through the families of Hough, Mitchell, Briggs, Penquite, Harding, Carr, Croasdale and Buckman. Simon Gillam, the great-grandson of Lucas Gillam ( who was a grandson of Anna Paxson, and descended from James and Jane Paxson), who married Ann Dungan, 1748. On the maternal side the male line runs back through five generations of Woolstons, to John, who married Hannah Cooper, 1681. Jonathan Woolston married Saralı Pearson, Burlington, New Jersey, 1712, and is thought to have been the first of the name who came to Middletown. Joshua Woolston, so well known in the lower and middle sections of the county, was the fifth in descent from John and Hannah. His mother, a Rich- ardson, married Joshua Woolston, in 1786, who could trace his descent back to William and Mary Paxson, the common progenitors of many families of this county."
In tracing the descent of families in the lower end of the county we find great commingling of blood. Several of them start from a common ancestor, on one side or the other and sometimes both, and, when one or two generations removed they commenced to intermarry and continued it. Thus we find John and Mary Sotcher, and William and Margaret Cooper, the common ancestors of the families of Bunting, Blakey, Taylor, Yardley, Croasdale, Knowles, Swain, Buzby, Watson, Knight, Wills, Dennis, Burton, Warner, Stapler, Gillam, Kirkbride, Palmer, Jenks, Woolston, Griscom, Satterthwaite, Guinmere, Pax- sun, and Deacon. These families have extensively intermarried, and Pierson Mitchell came of the blood of the Piersons, the Stackhouses, the Walnes and Hestons, and was the fifth in descent from Henry Mitchell.
William Huddleston was an early settler where Langhorne stands, his land extending north of the village. He was a shoemaker by trade and lived in a log house back from the road on the lot lately owned by Absalom Michener. The house was on the side of a hill near a spring. In moderate weather he worked with the south door open to give him light. as he had no glass in the windows, but bits of parchment instead. Doctor Huddleston, of Norristown. was his descendant. but the family has run out in this county .?
Abraham and Christian Vanhorne, Hollanders, took up land on the south side of the Buck road, part of it within the limits of Langhorne, but the time is not known, and lived in a small log house in the middle of their tract. It is told of one of the brothers, that, on one occasion, while he was gone to mill, his family went to bed leaving a candle burning upon the bureau, and, on his return, found his dwelling in flames. Gilbert Hicks came from Long Island, bought forty acres of land at Four Lanes End, and built the house owned by James Flowers, at the southeast corner of the cross-roads, 1763. He was a "loyalist" in the Revolution, and fled to the British army.9
Joseph Richardson, great-grandfather of the late Joshua Richardson. settled at Langhorne, 1730, and, six years later, bought the land of the Van- hornes. At his death he paid quit-rent to Penn's agent for over twelve
6 Among them are the families of Jenks, Croasdale, Palmer, Briggs, Knight, Will .. Stackhouse, and Carr, besides those already mentioned. Mahlon Stacy, the pioneer miller of West Jersey, was ancestor to the Bucks county families of Taylor, Yardley, Croasdale, Stapler. Eastburn and Warner.
7 Possibly he was the William Huddleston who married a daughter of William Cooper, of Buckingham, before 1700.
8 A further account of Gilbert Hicks will be found elsewhere.
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HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
hundred acres in Middletown, North and Southampton, only two hundre.1 of which remained in the family at the death of Joshua, the homestead tract at the former . Attleborough. He married a daughter of William Paxson, 1732, and had six children : Joshua, born November 22, 1733; Mary. July 25, 1735 ; William, October 3, 1737; Rachel, May 29, 1739; Rebecca, March 27, 1742, and Ruth, October 31, 1748.
MODO DOMINI
The Jenkses are Welsh, and the genealogy of the family can be traced from the year 900 down to 1669, when UDA it becomes obscure. The arms, which have long been in possession of the family at Wolverton, England, descend- ants of Sir George, to whom they were confirmed by Queen Elizabeth, 1582, are supposed to have been granted soon after the time of William the Conqueror, for bravery on the field of battle .? The first progenitor of the family in America was Thomas, son of Thomas Jenks. born in Wales, December or January, 1699. When a child he came to Pennsylvania with his mother, Susan Jenks, who married Benjamin Wiggins,10 Buckingham, by whom she had a son, born, 1709. She died while he was young, and was buried at Wrightstown meeting. Thomas Jenks, brought up a farmer, joined the Friends, 1723, married Mercy JENKS Wildman, Middletown, in 1731, and afterwards removed JENKS COAT OF ARMS. to that township, where lie spent his life. He bought six hundred acres southeast of Newtown, on which he erected his homestead. which he called Jenks' Hall, and built a fulling-mill on Core creek, running through the premises, several years before 1742. He led an active business life, lived respected, and died May 4, 1797, at the good old age of ninety-seven. He was small in stature, but sprightly, temperate in his habits and of great physical vigor. At the age of ninety he walked fifty miles in a week, and, at ninety-two, his eyesight and hearing were both remarkably good. He had lived to see the wilderness and haunts of wild beasts become the seats of polished life.
Thomas Jenks left three sons and three daughters: Mary. Elizabeth. Ann, John. Thomas and Joseph, who married into the families of Weir, Richardson, Pierson, Twining and Watson. His son Thomas, a man of ability and com- manding person, became prominent. He had a taste for polities, was a member of the Constitutional Convention. 1790. and afterward elected to the Senate, of which he was a member at his death. The descendants of Thomas Jenks, the elder, are very numerous and found in various parts, in and out of the state, although few of the name are now in Bucks county. We have not the space nor time to trace them, for they are very numerous. Among the families of the present and past generations, with which they have allied themselves by marriage. in addition to those already named, are Kennedy. New York. Story, Carlisle, Fell. Dixson, Watson, Trimble. Murray, Snyder (governor of Penn- sylvania ), Gillingham, Hutchinson. Justice. Collins, of New York, Kirkbride, Stockton, of New Jersey, Canby, Brown, Elsegood, Davis, Yardley, Newbold,
9 The confirmation in the patent describes them as "Argent, three Boars Heades Coupee, and Cheefe indented sables, with this crest or cognizance, a Lione rampant, with a Boar's Heade in his pawes." as copied from the records in the college of arms, London. 1832.
10 The Wigginses came from New England.
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HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
Morris, Earl, Handy, Robbins, Ramsey ( former governor of Minnesota), Martin, Randolph, etc. Doctor Phineas Jenks and Michael H. Jenks, Newtown, deceased, were descendants of Thomas the elder.
The story of "Lady Jenks," as written in Watson's Annals, has been too closely associated with the family of that name in Middletown to be passed in silence. The allegation of Watson is, that when Thomas Penn came to this country he was accompanied by "a person of show and display called Lady Jenks," who passed hier time in the then wilds of Bucks county ; that her beauty and accomplishments gave her notoriety ; that she rode with him at fox hunt- ing and at the famous "Indian walk" of 1737, and that it was well under- stood she was the mother of Thomas Jenks, Middletown. Watson gives "old Samuel Preston" as authority for this story, but adds that it was afterward confirmed by others. This piece of Watson's gossip and scandal must stand upon its own merits, if it stands at all. Let the voice of History be heard in the case. Susan Jenks, a widow, came to America with her young son, Thomas (born 1700). married Benjamin Wiggins, of Buckingham, 1708 or 1709. died a few years afterward and was buried at Wrightstown. Thomas Penn was born, 1703 or 1704, about the time Susan Jenks came to this country, which would make him three or four years younger than his reputed son. As Penn did not come to America until 1732, several years after Susan Jenks was dead, he could not have brought her with him ; and as he was not at the "Indian walk," 1737, she could not have accompanied him, living or dead. These simple facts, which are susceptible of proof from family and church records, are sufficient to disprove the romantic story of Watson. A story so idle is not worthy of investigation. "Lady Jenks" may be set down as an historic myth, made out of the whole cloth. The only foundation for a story of this kind is the alleged liaison of William Penn, Jr., with a young lady of Bucks county, when here, 1703. Of this James Logan writes: "'Tis a pity his wife came not with him, for her presence would have confined him within bounds he was not too regular in observing."
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