USA > Pennsylvania > Bucks County > History of Bucks county, Pennsylvania, from the discovery of the Delaware to the present time, Vol. I > Part 31
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The Wilkinsons of Wrightstown are descended from Lawrence Wilkin- son. of Lanchester, county Durham, England, a lieutenant in the army of Charles I, and taken prisoner at the surrender of New Castle, October 22, 1644. He settled at Providence, R. I., about 1652. John Wilkinson, second son of Samuel Lawrence, and a descendant of the immigrant, settled in Wrightstown, 1713, On 307 acres on Neshaminy, purchased May 27, near the present Rushland. It lay in the three townships of Wrightstown, Warwick and Buckingham. He was a judge of the court of common pleas for some years, and a large holder of real estate. His will is dated 1751, and proved April 23. Ichabod Wilkinson, an- other son of Samuel Lawrence and also a descendant of the immigrant, settled in Solebury. 1742, and married Sarah Chapman, 1743. John and Mary Wilkin- son had seven children, Mary born July, 1708. married Joseph Chapman, Au- gust, 1730: Kissiah married Thomas Ross, and was the mother of Judge John Ross: John married Mary Lacey, daughter of John Lacey and sister of Gen- eral Lacey, May 27. 1740, and Joseph moved to Chester county, 1761. The second wife of John Wilkinson was Hannah Hughes, daughter of Matthew Hughes. John Wilkinson became a prominent man and was much in public life. He was a member of Assembly, Judge of the Court of Common Pleas ; member of the Provincial Conference. July 15, 1774. Lient. Col. 3d regiment, Bucks county Associators: member of the Committee of Safety and of the Committee of Correspondence : member of the Constitutional convention. 1776. and held other public trusts. He died May 31. 1782. the Pennsylvania Gazette of June o. paying a high tribute to his personal worth and patriotic service in
8. Ilolme's map contains the names of the following real estate owners in Wrights- town. 1084: Christopher Harford. Henry Baker, Thomas Dickerson, Randall Blackshaw, James Harrison. Jamie- Radcliff, and Herbert Springet.
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HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
the Revolution. He was the father of nine children, who intermarried with the Twinings, Chapmans, Hughes, Smiths and other well-known families. Elisha Wilkinson, youngest child of Colonel John Wilkinson, was the most prominent member of the family the past century. He was born 1774, and died at Philadelphia, 1846. He developed a fondness for military affairs in early life. In 1807 he was Lieutenant Colonel of the 31st regiment of militia, and Assistant Quartermaster in the campaign on the Lower Delaware, 1814. He was also prominent in civil life, being sheriff of the county for two terms. He was popu- lar and widely known : a great sportsman, fond of good stock and did much to improve it. In 1814 he purchased the tavern property at Centerville, and kept it several years. Here he was visited by many of the leading men of the period. The late Ogden D. Wilkinson, and his brother-in-law, Crispin Blackfan, built the Delaware-Raritan canal between Trenton and New Brunswick, 1832. Colo- nel Elisha Wilkinson was twice married, his first wife being Ann Dungan, a descendant of Rev. Thomas Dungan, of Rhode Island, who settled at Cold Spring, Bristol township, 1683, and founded the first Baptist church in the Province. Walter Clark, half brother of Thomas Dungan, was governor of Rhode Island, 1696 to 1607.
We have not been able to find any record giving the date when Wrights- town was organized into a township, or by whom laid out. It was called by this name as early as 168; in the will of Thomas Dickerson, dated July 24th, wherein he bequeaths to his kinsman, Thomas Coaleman. "two hundred acres of land lying and being at a place called Writestown." In the deed of Penn's Commissioners to Phineas Pemberton, in 1692, it is called by its present name. The mile square laid out in it was called the "village" or "townstead" of Wrightstown. Land was surveyed in the township as early as 1685. It was hardly a recognized subdivision at these early dates, but the name was probably applied to the settlement, as we have seen was the case in other townships. It will be remembered that the first group of townships was not laid out until 1692. and Wrightstown was not one of them, and we are safe in saying it was not organized until some time after. We have placed the date 1703. because that was the time of the re-survey by John Cutler, and we know that it was then a recognized township.
When Wrightstown was laid out, a mile square townstead. about in the centre, was reserved by the Proprietary, whose intention is thought to have been to devote it to a public park for the use of the township. It was surveyed in 1695. At the end of thirteen years the inhabitants became dissatisfied with the reservation, and, on petition of the land-owners. the Proprietary allowed it to be divided among fifteen men who owned all the land in the township. This was according to the terms of a deed of partition executed in 1719. These fifteen land-owners were Smith, Penquite. Parsons. Lumley, Stuckbury. Van- sant. Johnson, Pemberton. Ambler, Trotter, Clark, John, Abraham and Joseph Chapman, and Nicholas Williams. James Logan agreed to the terms for the Penns and John Chapman surveyed the square, which was found to contain six hundred and fifty-eight acres, one-tenth of the area of the township. In 1835 Doctor C. W. Smith made a survey of the original boundaries of the square, which he found to be as follows: "Beginning at the east corner of the park at a hickory tree in the line between Benjamin Lacey's land and Isaac Chapman's land : thence south forty-three and a quarter degrees west along the said line-fence. to Edward Chapman's land : crossing said land and crossing the Durham road north of his house : crossing the farms of Charles Thompson
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HARUNST
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HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
and Garret D. Percy; following the line between the lands of Charles Hart and Mary Roberts to a stone, the corner of Mary Roberts' and Albert Thomp- son's land, this being the south corner of the park; thence north forty-six and three-quarters degrees west, along the line between Mary Roberts' and Charles Gain's land, crossing the Pineville and Richborough turnpike road about one- fourth of a mile below Pennville; crossing Charles Gain's land following the north-west line of the old graveyard lot; crossing Mahlon W. Smith's land, joining in with, and following, the public road in front of his house and cross- ing lands of Abner Reeder and John Everitt ; then following the public road leading to Carver's mill to an angle in said road, the corner of Sackett Weth- erill's and Jesse Worthington's land, this being the west corner of the park; thence north forty-three and a quarter degrees east, crossing lands of Jesse Worthington, Benjamin Lair and Edmund S. Atkinson, and following the line between Edmund S. Atkinson's and Thomas Martindale's land, crossing the land of William Smith north of his buildings, to a point between William Smith's and 'Thomas Warner's land, this being the north corner of the park : thence south forty-six and a quarter degrees east, across Thomas Warner's land, south of his buildings. across William Smith's land, crossing the Durham road near the Anchor tavern, following the line between George Buckman's and Thomas Smith's lands, thence crossing lands of Thomas Smith, Joseph Morris, and Benjamin Lacey, to the place of beginning."
At the time of the division of the townstead all the land in the township was located. but it was sparsely populated, and only a small portion had been brought under cultivation. One account gives the township proprietors at seventeen, but the names of only sixteen can be found, of which seven were non-residents. John, Abraham and Joseph Chapman received a park dividend of one hundred and forty acres. all the other residents one hundred and ninety- six acres, and the non-residents, who owned half the land in the township, three hunderd and twenty-two acres. At a later period the Chapmans owned about three-fourths of all the land in Wrightstown. Before 1789, Henry Lewis. of Westmoreland county, had come into possession of one acre and ninety seven perches of the park. through the Pembertons. Penquites, William Chapman and others, and which he sokl October 17th, that year, to Robert Sample, of Buck- ingham, for £30 Pennsylvania currency.
In 1720 an effort was made to enlarge the area of Wrightstown, by adding to it a portion of the manor of Highlands adjoining, in what is now Upper Makefield. The petitioners from Wrightstown were John Chapman. Joseph Chapman, James Harker, William Smith. William Smith, jr., Thomas Smith, Jolin Laycock, Launcelot Gibson. Abraham Chapman, John Wilkinson, Richard Mitchell. Nicholas Allen, Edward Milnor, Peter Johnson, Garrett Johnson, John Parsons, and John Johnson. John Atkinson and Dorothy Heston were the only two petitioners from the manor. The territory proposed to be added was about one-half as large as Wrightstown, and the reasons given for the annexa- tion were because a certain road through the manor was not kept in repair, and that the interests of the people to be annexed were more closely united with those of Wrightstown. The strip of land wanted was nine hundred and thirty perches long by four hundred and seventy-four wide.
In 1718. Richard Mitchell bought seventy acres of Joseph Wilkinson on the east side of Mill creek where he built a mill. long known as Mitchell's mill, which fell into disuse when the Elliotts built one lower down on the stream. Mitchell was a man of high standing, and died in 1759. For several
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HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
years this mill supplied the settlers of a large scope of country to the north with flour. In 1722 the inhabitants of Perkasie petitioned for a road to be laid out to this mill which also opened them the way to Bristol. The mill, and farm belonging, of two hundred and fifty acres, were purchased by Watson Welding, in 1793, and continued in the family near half a century. The mill is now owned by Hiram Reading, of Hatborough, Montgomery county. The Sacketts came into the township from Ilunterdon county, New Jersey, Joseph, the first comer, settling there about 1729 and purchasing two hundred and twenty acres of John Hilborn, a portion of the Pemberton tract. He kept store for several years. Part of the property is held by his descendants. John Lay- cock, a minister among Friends, purchased one hundred and twenty acres of John Chapman. in 1722, and died in 1750. Joseph Hampton, a Scotchman, settled in 1724 on two hundred and fifty acres he purchased of Zebulon Heston. It was on his land, still owned by his descendants, that stood the "corner white oak." near an Indian path that led to Playwicky mentioned in the Indian pur- chase of 1682. It is a singular fact that of all the original settlers in Wrights- town. the families of Chapman and Smith are the only ones of which any de- scendants are now living in the township.
About 1735 there was an influx of settlers from the East, a few families coming from New England, among whom were the Twinings, Lintons and others. The Warners were there ten years carlier. Joseph, born in 1701 and married Agnes Croasdale, of Middletown, in 1723, settled there in 1726, and afterward purchased one hundred and fifty acres of Abraham Chapman, part of the original Clark tract. The old mansion is still standing, one hundred and seventy-five years old. An addition was built to it, in 1769. He was grandsou of the first William who died at Blockley in 1706. The ancestral acres were in the family in recent years owned by Thomas Warner, the fifth in descent from Joseph Warner. It is thought one thousand seven hundred persons have descended from Thomas Warner, one of the first settlers in Wrightstown. They who came into the township at this period pur- chased land of the original settlers sometimes with the improvements. With few exceptions the early settlers were of English or Irish descent, although there were some from other European countries. In 1750 Joseph Kirkbride, of Falls, patented two hundred and five acres adjoining James Radcliff. and ex- tending from the park to Neshaminy, but we cannot learn that he was ever a resident of the township. Robert Hall. an early settler, came with his wife. Elizabeth and a son and daughter, but the time we do not know. John Thomp- son came early, acquired large property and became prominent and influential. He was elected Sheriff of the county and filled the office with great acceptance.
The first meeting of Friends was held at John Chapman's, in 1686.º and afterward at John Penquite's, an accepted minister. Meetings were held at private houses until 1721. These early Friends were members of Middletown monthly that met at Nicholas Walne's. In 1721 Falls Quarterly gave permis- sion to Wrightstown to build a meeting-house, which was erected on a four- acre lot the gift of John Chapman. The first graveyard was on the road from Wrightstown meeting-house to Rush valley, just beyond Penn's Park and was recently known as "the school-house lot." It is now owned by Charles Gain.
Q The first meeting for worship was to be held once a month, "to begin next First day, come week after 3d. 4th month, 1," but at the request of John Chapman. 1600. it was held every three weeks.
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and was soll to his father a quarter of a century ago. The lot was walled in, but fifty years ago Amos Doane used the stone to build a wall on his farm. This graveyard was on the Harker tract. purchased of William Trotter, and, at his death, Harker,1" gave it to the Wrightstown monthly meeting. There have not been any burials there within the memory of WRIGHTSTOWN MEETING HOUSE. the oldest inhabitants. The lot was reserved from cultivation, but the graves of the first settlers were mutilated by the plow years ago. In 1734 Wrightstown was allowed a monthly meeting. The first marriage recorded is that of Bezeleel Wiggins to Rachel Hayhurst, of Middletown, May, 1735. Down to the end of the century there were celebrated three hundred and thirty marriages, the names of the parties being those of families well-known at the present day in the middle and lower sections of the county. The meeting-house was enlarged, 1735, by an addi- tion of twenty feet square, and the Bucks Quarterly meeting was held there for the first time that fall. Afterward it rotated between Wrightstown. Falls, Mid- dletown and Buckingham. A wall was built around the graveyard, 1770, at a cost of $506.50, and, in 178; the present house, seventy by forty feet. was erected at an expense of $2,106. An addition was made to the graveyard to bury strangers in, 1791. In 1765. Friends adjourned Monthly meeting because it fell on the day of the general election. Wrightstown meeting has produced several ministers among Friends, some of whom became eminent. Of these may be mentioned Agnes Penquite, who died in 1758 aged upward of one hundred years, Ann Parsons, born 1685, died 1732, David Dawes, Ann Hamp- ton, Zebulon Heston and Thomas Ross. Doctor Smith says but one riding chair came to Wrightstown meeting, 1780. that of John Buckman. The women were good riders, and generally came on horseback but some of them came on foot several miles.
Zebulon Heston removed from New Jersey to Falls, where he remained until 1711, when he came up to Wrightstown with his wife and children. Of his seven children. Jacob was the only one born in the township. His son Zebulon became a noted preacher and in his seventieth year made a missionary visit to the Delaware Indians on the Muskingum river. Ohio, accompanied by his nephew John, afterward General Lacey. Mr. Heston died May 12, 1776. in his seventy-fourth year.11 The meeting-house of Orthodox Friends was
10. Harker was elected pound-keeper of the township. 1738, "the pound to be kept on his land near the highway." probably in the vicinity of Pennsville.
II. Mrs. Lonisai Heston Paxson, great-granddaughter of Zebulon Heston, and granddaughter of his son Edward, died at Hestonville, Philadelphia county, March 26. 1890. in her v8th year. Her father was prominent in the Revolution, and served in the Continental army, reaching the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel. He was subsequently a judge
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HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
torn down, 1870, when the few families which had worshiped in it joined the meeting at Buckingham. The burial-ground was enlarged in 1856 by adding a lot from George Warner, and the whole surrounded by a substantial stone wall. It is more than one-fourth of a mile in circumference. During the last thirty years nearly one thousand persons have been buried in the yard.1=
A spirit of improvement set in about 1720, which gradually put a new phase on the appearance of things. Down to this time the township was entirely cut off from the outside world by the want of roads. The opening of a portion of the Durham road down toward the lower Delaware, and the one now known as the Middle road, leading from Philadelphia to New Hope, which meets the former at the Anchor tavern, near the centre of the township. de- stroyed its isolated situation. A number of new settlers now came in. Those without money took improvement leases for a term of years, and were the means of gradually bringing large tracts of non-residents under cultivation. Some of the large tracts of the original holders were also passing to their children and being cut up into smaller farms. About this period was commenced that wretched system of farming which cultivated a single field until it was farmed to death, when it was turned out for exhausted nature to recuperate. This retarded the clearing of land and was almost the death of agricultural improve- ment. The opening of the road to Philadelphia was an invitation to the farmers of Wrightstown to take their produce there to sell, of which they grad- ually availed themselves. Instead of wallets slung on horses, simple carts now came into use to carry marketing, and the men began to go to market instead of the women. At this time the inhabitants lived on what their farms produced, with a small surplus to sell. The men dressed principally in tanned deer-skins, and the women in linsey and linen of their own manufacture.
About 1756 Croasdale Warner, son of Joseph, bought a tract of land ad- joining Joseph and Timothy Atkinson, on which he built a pottery and carried on the business for several years. It was accidentally burned down, 1812, and not rebuilt. This was probably the earliest pottery in central Bucks county, or possibly anywhere in the county. The inhabitants of Wrightstown took an interest in the cause of temperance at an early day and discountenanced the general use of intoxicating liquors. The 12th of June. 1746, thirty-one of her citizens petitioned the court to "suppress" all public houses in the township, because of the great harm they were doing to the inhabitants. To this peti- tion is signed the name of Thomas Ross, ancestor of the Rosses of this county.
Charles Smith, of Pineville, a descendant of Robert Smith, of Buckingham, was the first person to burn lime with hard coal. His experience in burning lime goes back to 1796, and he was engaged in it more or less all his life. His first attempt, and the first in the county, was in 1826 when he used coal on the top of the kiln, and continued it until 1835. The method of arching the kiln, and arranging the wood and coal so as to burn lime to the best advantage, was
on the Common Pleas bench, Philadelphia, and also a member of the State Senate. Mrs. Paxson was a real "Daughter of the Revolution," and a few years ago the National Society presented her a gold souvenir. .
12 In 1886 the Bucks County Historical Society erected a monument near the corner of the Wrightstown graveyard to mark the starting point of the "Walking Purchase." 1737 Martha Chapman give the ground, and the monument stands on the southeast correr of the road from Pean's Park marked with the Durham road, is the site of the chestunt tree mentioned in the "walk "
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HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
experimented upon several years. In 1835 he built a kiln to hold thirty-five hundred bushels, and burned in it twenty-five hundred and fifty-three bushels of Inne. In another he burned twenty-two hundred and four bushels with wood and coal, which cleared him one hundred dollars, and the same month, hie burned a third that yielded him twenty-three hundred and ninety-eight bushels. The same year he constructed a kiln at Paxson's corner in Solebury, to burn coal alone, and in May, 1830, he burned a kiln that yielded him twenty-eight hundred bushels, and another in October that produced three thousand and forty-one bushels. Contemporary with Charles Smith in experiments was James Jamison, a successful and intelligent farmer and lime-burner, Bucking- ham, and he and Mr. Smith frequently compared their plans and consulted together. Mr. Jamison was killed in his lime-stone quarry by a premature explosion.
In Wrightstown are three small villages, Pineville in the northern, Wrights- town in the southern, and Pennsville, more frequently called Penn's Park, the name given to the post-office, near the middle of the township. Pineville was known as "The Pines" a century ago, and was called by this name for many years, from a growth of thrifty pine trees at that point. One hundred years ago it was called "Pinetown." and consisted of a stone store-house adjoining a frame dwelling, kept by Thomas Betts, near the site of the late Jesse P. Carver's store. The dwelling house and tailor-shop of William Trego stood on the point between the Centreville turnpike and the Buckingham road. Jesse S. Heston kept store in the bar-room of the present tavern. Soon after that period Thomas Betts removed to Lahaska, where he kept store many years in the building recently occupied by R. R. Paxson. Heston went from Pineville to Newtown and formed a partnership with John Tucker, where they carried on for many years under the firm name of Heston & Tucker. Mr. Heston re- moved to Bristol, went out of business and died there. He was the father of Dr. George Heston. Newtown. Heston was succeeded at Pineville by Kinsey B. Tomlinson, who removed hence to Newtown, and for many years kept the store subsequently occupied by Evan Worthington. Tomlinson was president of the Newtown National Bank. Isaac Colton, a bound boy of Jesse Heston. grandfather of Jesse S. Heston, Newtown, was the last person to wear leather breeches in the vicinity of Pineville. This was about 1800-1810. When he wore them to school he was the butt of the other boys. Another dwelling and David Stogdale's farm house, with a school house near the present store, re- moved, 1842. completed the village at the period of which we write. It had neither smith shop. tavern nor wheelwright shop. The post-office was estab- lished after 1830, with Samuel Tomlinson postmaster, when the name was changed to Pineville. The first tavern, licensed 1835-36. was kept by Tomlin- son after having been a temperance house for several years. The village now contains 25 dwellings. John Thompson kept store at the Pines before the Revo- lution, and also owned a mill on the Neshaminy.
Pennsville, or Penn's Park. is built on land that James Harker bought of. William Trotter within. the park in .1752. It is situated in the southern part of the town ship. on the Pineville and Richborough turnpike, and within the original park of town-square laid out by direction of William Fenu. The popu- lotion is 150, with 35 dwellings, one church. Methodist Episcopal; store, post- ofice, established in 1862, and T. O. Atkinson appointed postmaster, and vari- ous mechanics' shops. Penn's Park was originally called "Logtown." Among
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EIGHT SQUARE SCHOOL HOUSE, PENN'S PARK. WRIGHTSTOWN. Now used as a dwelling.
the dwellings at Penn's Park is an old eight-square school house at the toll- gate on the Pineville and Richborough turnpike, but a school has not been kept in it for many years. The land was leased by the Bursons for a term of ninety- nine years for school purposes. This lease, having expired, places the building in the nineteenth century. We do not know when it was built, but the half- tone illustration will give the reader its present appearance. Wrightstown is only a small hamlet. with the meeting house, store and three or four dwellings, and takes its name from the township. It was built on the original tract of John Chapman, on the road to Newtown, originally the Durham road. The township has three taverns, at Pineville, Pennsville, and the Anchor, where the Middle and Durham road intersect. The township is traversed by these two highways and a number of roads that intersect. or lead into, them. The road from the river side at Beaumont's to the Durham road, near Wrightstown meeting-house, was opened 1763. Among the aged men who died in Wrights- town, possibly within the recollection of some of those now living, were Will- liam Chapman, grandson of the first settler, July 1, ISIa, aged 93, and An- drew Collins, February 28, 1817, aged 92 years.
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