USA > Pennsylvania > Bucks County > History of Bucks county, Pennsylvania, from the discovery of the Delaware to the present time, Vol. I > Part 50
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Among the residents of New Britain during the Revolutionary period, was a Colonel Rheidt, who lived on the farm formerly owned by the late Thomas MacReynolds, on the Neshaminy a mile from the county line. He took sides with the Colonies, hence the ill will of history neighbors. On a winter night, 1778. Abijah Wright, from the eastern corner of Hatfield township, Montgomery county, headed a party of tories to capture Rheidt, but himself and friends drove them off. Wright was wounded by a piece of the Colonel's sword. broken off in the encounter, falling 'on his foot. He was traced by his blood, caught and hanged from the limb of a white oak tree standing on
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HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
the Bethlehem road below Montgomery Square. One of Wright's confed- crates, a tory farmer of New Britain, named Mordecai Roberts, was saved from the gallows by his brother William, who was a patriot. This is a township tradition preserved by Edward Mathews, the historian, and is very likely to be true, for New Britain was infested by a nest of tories during the war for independence.
The surface of New Britain is broken in parts. A ridge runs through the township from Plumstead to the Montgomery line, north of the north branch of Neshaminy, which is called both Iron hill and Highlands. It sheds the water to the south, and from the summit, is obtained a fine view of the country in that direction. Prospect hill, in the south-western part of the township, on the upper state road leading to Norristown, is the shoulder. of a plateau rather than a hill, to which you ascend after crossing the Neshaminy, and which extends away to the south-west. From the brow is one of the most charming prospects in the county, whence the eye ranges over a delightful scope of cultivated country and follows the windings of the Neshaminy. The hill and the land across the creek to the north were long the property of the Kelso family, and in olden times, was called "Kelsey's hill." James Forsythe settled near Prospect hill, and his family intermarried with the Kelsoes, both Scotch-Irish. Thomas Forsythe, elected Canal-Com- missioner, 1853. was a descendant of this family.
One hundred years ago the crossing of Neshaminy at Godshalk's mill, at the upper state road, was called "Morgan's ford," and the crossing of the same stream at Castle valley. "Barton's ford." named from families in New Britain, long since extinct in the male line. Thomas Holcomb, son of Jacob. of Buckingham, erected the Pine Run mill in 1746, which was sold by his assignees to Owen Roberts in 1750, who conveyed to Smith Cornell in 1756. Jacob Stout purchased it in 1767, and it was many years the property of his son-in-law, Gabriel Swartzlander. Smith Cornell owned a mill there before 1759. Miller and Evans in 1793, and Fretz's mill in 1795, which year a road was laid out from it to the Bethlehem road "near the German Baptist meeting- house."
There are but few notable events to be mentioned in connection with .New Britain. In 1805 Benjamin Snodgrass,18 while proceeding with his wife, in a chaise, to visit their son, a minister of the gospel at Hanover, in Dauphin county, was upset from which he received wounds that shortly caused his death. As recently as 1821 a wiklcat, weighing eleven pounds, and mcasur- ing three feet, nine inches in length, was killed on the farm of the late Moses Aaron, four miles from Doylestown. Among the aged men of New Britain. whose death is recorded, was Colonel Jacob Reed, an officer of the Revolu- tion, who died November 2, 1820, in his ninety-first year, and Robin, a black man, 1805, at ninety-six.
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In 1784 New Britain contained a population of seven hundred and sixty- four ; dwellings, one hundred and forty-seven, outhouses, one hundred and thir- teen, and an area of fifteen thousand eight hundred and thirty acres. This in- cluded five thousand, three hundred and fifty acres put into Doylestown, when that township was laid out, 1818. The present area of New Britain is ten
IS James Snodgrass, a Scotch-Irish Presbyterian, gave a lot for a school at Chalfont, 1806; was called the Snodgrass school and put in charge of three trustees. It was main- tained for nearly three-quarters of a century when the building was sold after the town- ship's tardy adoption of the common school law, and a new school house erected nearby.
1
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HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
thousand, four hundred and eighty acres. The population in 1810 was one thousand, four hundred and seventy-four; 1820, after Doylestown had been laid out, one thousand, eighty-two, a loss of three hundred and ninety-two; 1830, one thousand, two hundred and one, and two hundred and seventy taxables ; 18440, one thousand, three hundred and four; 1850, one thousand. three hundred and one white and two colored; 1860, one thousand, six hundred and thirty-seven white and two colored: 1870, one thousand, six hundred and ninety-two white and fifteen colored, of which one thousand, five hundred and ninety-five were native-born, and one hundred and twelve of foreign birth ; 1880, one thousand, eight hundred and forty-four; 1890, one thousand, seven hundred and four: 1900, one thousand, six hundred and seventeen.
In 1752, the Godshalk mill, with one hundred acres of land, was owned by Samuel Martin, a millwright, who probably built it. John Davis was a justice of the peace, before whom the inhabitants of the township took and subscribed the oath of allegiance to the new state government. In New Britain, not far from the Lower State road, some four miles from Doyles- town, stands a noted dwelling. known throughout all the surrounding country, as "Brown's Folly." We do not know the name of the present owner, nor has it a regular occupant, but picnics, dances and other social gatherings are sometimes held there, and at times the owner and occupants take summer boarders. It was built about half a century ago by one William R. Brown,19 a resident of Doylestown.
19 William R. Brown, the son of wealthy parents of Philadelphia, with a proclivity for sowing wild cats, was sent up to the goodly village of Doylestown about 1850. Here he met Miss Caroline Lawson, an English girl, who, with her father and mother, made their home at what is now the Fountain House. The two young people fell in love and married. and the husband built "Brown's Folly" for their home, but did not occupy it long. The wife was a very fine horsewoman and galloped the country over. He entered the army during the Civil war, attained the rank of Captain and mustered out the 1044th regiment. The wife spent some of her latter years at Norristown. We believe both are dead.
CHAPTER XXIV.
PLUMSTEAD.
1725.
Location of Plumstead .- First Land-owner .- Henry Child .- Christopher Day .- Thomas Brown .- John Dyer .- Micheners .- First mill .- Easton road opened .- William Mich- ener .- The Shaws .- Old Draft .- Township organized .- The Child family .- The Doanes .- Friends' meeting .- The Votaws .- Remains of church .- Its history .- Philip Hinkle .- Dunlaps .- Griers .- Nash .- Old graveyard .- Mennonite meeting-house .- Charles Huston .- Indians .- Last wolf killed .- Roads opened .- Plumsteadville, Point Pleasant .- Oldest house .- "Poor Plumstead."-Immigration to Canada .- John Ellicott Carver .- Horse company .- Population .- Aged persons .- Morgan Hinchman .- Fretz's mill .- Postoffices.
Immediately north of Buckingham and Solebury lies a tract of country divided into valley and plain by Pine Run and the North Branch, that flows west into the Neshaminy, and by Hickory, Geddes, and Cabin runs that empty into the Delaware. In most parts the ground falls gradually away to the streams, and the contiguous slopes are joined by level stretches of farm land. This region, of valley, plain and winding creeks, is Plumstead township, now a little more than one hundred and seventy-five years old.
English Friends pushed their way up into the woods. of Plumstead. through Buckingham and Solebury at an early day, and were on the extreme limit of the tidal-wave of civilization that swept upward from the Delaware. Here, after a time, were encountered a new stream of immigration, and Penn's followers were arrested in their course by others contending for priority in settling the forest. The lower and middle sections of the township were mainly settled by Friends ; the upper sections by Scotch-Irish Presbyterians and later by Germans.
Francis Plumstead, one of the first to own land in the township, was an ironmonger of London, and received twenty-five hundred acres of Willian Pena in consideration of -£50, October 25, 1683. Of this grant one hundred acres were surveyed to Plumstead in the township which bears his name, by virtue of two warrants dated June 21 and 29, 1704, and a patent issued in January. This land joined that of the widow Musgrave, or Musgrove. Joseph Paul and Elizabeth Sands, who were already landowners and probably set- tlers. Plumstead's entire grant must have been located in the township for we lind from John Cutler's resurvey, 1703, that the whole twenty-five hundred
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HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
acres are returned to Francis Plumstead. He never came to America, but conveyed his land to Richard Hill, merchant, Philadelphia.
In 16SI William Penn granted five hundred acres to Henry Child, of Coleshill, parish of Rindisham, County Herford, which he located in Plum- stead, and it was confirmed to him, 1705. He settled in Maryland, and on the 7th day, 4th mo., 1715, conveyed the same to his son Cephas Child, then of Philadelphia, who removed to Plumstead the same year, taking with him a certificate to Middletown Monthly meeting. In 1716 he married Mary Atkin- son, the ceremony taking place at Middletown. Henry Child owned about one thousand acres in the township. Cephas Child became a prominent man ; was member of Assembly 1747-49, and the latter year, was member of the Provin- cial finance committee, and of the auditing committee. Cephas Child, Jr., married Priscilla, daughter of Joseph Naylor, at Gwynedd meeting. February 16, 1751, and died August 17, 1768. Cephas was married twice, his second wife being Agnes ( Grier ) Kennedy, widow of Major Kennedy, killed in the at- tack on the Doane outlaws, Sept. 1. 1783. She was a danghter of Mathew and Jane Caldwell Grier, immigrants from the North of Ireland, 1730. Cephas Child,1 Jr., died July 14, 1815. In 1686. Arthur Cooke,112 of Frankford, Phila- delphia county, received a patent for two thousand acres, which lay, in part, along the northwest line, what is now the Dublin road. At his death, 1699. his widow and executrix, Margaret Cooke and son John, conveyed one thou- sand acres to Clement and Thomas Dungan, settlers in the township, and descendants of Reverend Thomas Dungan, Cokl Spring. In 1708 they sold fifty acres to Christopher Day, who passed his life in Plumstead dying 1748. Day was a considerable landowner, and, 1723, sold one hundred and fifty acres to John Basset, Philadelphia, who conveyed seventy-five acres the same year to John Dyer."
One of the earliest settlers in the southeast corner of Plumstead, was Thomas Browne, an immigrant from Barking, county Essex, England. He was a son of George Browne, born 1666, and married Mary, daughter of Alexander Eyre, of Burrow. Lincoln, at Plaistow Friends meeting, 1694. They came to America the winter of 1700-01. and after living awhile in Philadelphia, removed to a two hundred and forty-five acre tract in the Manor of Moorland. In a few years Browne bought fifteen hundred acres in Phimstead and Bucking- ham, and located on it near the present Dyerstown. "Brownsville," now Gar- denville. is on this tract and was named after the family. Until the Friends were able to erect a meeting house Thomas Browne allowed them to hold
I Among the descendants of the family was Colonel Cephas Grier Child, Philadel- phia, born in Plumstead Sept. S. 1793, and died at the age of 78. He achieved high repu- tation as an engraver and for many years was proprietor and editor of the Commercial List and Price Current. He was a volunteer soldier in the war of 1812-15. and for many years took a deep interest in military matters. He visited Europe in 1831 in the interest of the engraver's art, carrying letters of introduction from President Jackson and other distinguished gentlemen. A Cephas Child died in Plumstead, 1815, at the age of go, prob- ably a son or grandson of the first settler of the family.
115 Hle probably gave the name to the stream now called Cook's Run.
2 Jolin Dyer first settled in the bounds of Abington meeting, producing a certificate from Nailsworth meeting, 6. 30, 1714. On 11, 27. 1718, he took a certificate to a "Bucks County Monthly," and removed to what became Plumstead, then Buckingham, no doubt, because the former had it in contemplation to form a monthly meeting at an early day. which was done before Plumstead was organized. 1725.
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HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
services in his house. This was about 1729-31. He and his two sons con- veyed fifteen acres to the meeting for a nominal sum. Thomas and Mary Iyre Browne had issue; George, married Sarah, daughter of John Shaw, Southampton ; Thomas, born 1696, married first Elizabeth, daughter of John Dawson, Solebury, second Magdalen Jones; Mary, married James, son of Julin Shaw212, Southampton; John; Ann; Alexander, married Esther, daugh- ter of John Dyer; Elizabeth, married Thomas Robinson; Joseph married Anne daughter of John Dawson, Solebury, and Esther, married Josialı, son of John Dyer. Thomas Browne spent his life in Plumstead and died there.
Among the descendants of Thomas and Mary Eyre Browne and connected by marriage, were a number of distinguished persons. His son Thomas became a prominent minister among Friends, and died at Philadelphia whither he removed August 21, 1757. His declaration of intention of marriage with Elizabeth Dawson, February 7, 1720, was the first made in Buckingham meet- ing. Alexander Brown's daughter Esther married Andrew Ellicott, Solebury, who was the first surveyor-general of the United States, assisted Major 1.'Enfant to lay out the city of Washington, was commissioner on the part of the United States to run the line between this country and Spain, 1800, and was Professor of mathematics at West Point. Major-General Harvey Brown. l'nited States Army, was a great-grandson and a graduate of West Point. One of the children of Andrew Ellicott married Henry Baldwin, justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, and another, Lieut-Col. Henry Douglas, United States Army. Other descendants married into the family of Carrol. of Maryland, Barringer, of North Carolina, and Wigton, New Britain. The late John S. Brown, a number of years publisher and editor of the Bucks County Intelligencer, and who filled several offices of financial trust, was a descendant of Thomas Browne, the immigrant.
The first to encroach upon the retirement of Thomas Browne was John Dyer, a minister among Friends, an immigrant from Gloucestershire, England. with his family, 1712. He first settled in Philadelphia, then came out to what was known as the "five-mile mill," on the York road and thence removed to the woods of Plumstead. On the 16th of June, 1718, he purchased one hun- dred and fifty-one acres of Cephas Child, including the Dyer property, Dyers- town. He is said to have likewise purchased the improvements of Thomas Brown, who removed farther back into the woods, about where the Plumstead meeting-house stands. The Dyer property only passed out of the family a few years ago, when Doctor John Dyer, a descendant, removed to Philadelphia. John Dyer was a useful man in Plumstead. He built the first mill in the township and one of the first in this section of the county, about where the present mill stands at Dyerstown. He was instrumental in having the Easton road laid out and opened from Governor Keith's place at the county line to his mill, and for many years it bore no other name than "Dyer's mill road." He died the 31st of the 11th month, 1738, and was buried at the Friends' meeting- house in Plumstead. He owned in all about six hundred acres. When John Dyer came into the township wild animals were so plenty the settlers took their guns with them to meeting, and the beavers built their dams across Pine run. The Indians were numerous, but friendly.
William Michener, ancestor of the greater number of those bearing the name in the county, was an English Friend, born to mo., 14, 1606, came to
212 One authority says James Shaw was born in Northampton township, another that he lived there when he married Maty Brown.
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HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
America, married Mary Custisse, Abington, 4 mo., 1720, removed to Plum- stead, '1723, and took up four hundred acres. They had ten children, John, Mordecai, Sarah, Mary, William, Joseph, Elizabeth, Meshack, Margaret and George. Upon the death of his first wife William Michener married Ann Schofield, a widow, 1761. Meshack, eighth child of William Michener, was the grandfather of the late Isaiah Michener, Buckingham. The ancestor of the Nash family, great-grandfather of the late Samuel Nash, came from England and was buried at Horsham. He was probably a Friend and settled in that township. His descendants have become Germanized and are Mennonites. His son Joseph, who removed from Bedminister to Tinicum, and died there, was an chler in the Deep Run Mennonite Meeting.
The Shaws, of Plumstead and Doylestown, were descendants of the Shaws of Southampton and Northampton, where they settled near at the close of the seventeenth century. The James Shaw, who married Mary, daughter of Thomas and Mary Browne, Plumstead, September 24, 1718, was the son of John Shaw, Northampton, and born there, January 9, 1694. At what time he came to Plumstead is not known. His wife died June 9, 1760. Thomas Browne, his father-in-law, on June 18, 1724, conveyed to James and Mary Shaw, nee Browne, two hundred acres in Plumstead. They had six children, among them, Janies, born January 27, 1724, who married Mary, daughter of Ephraim Fenton, the latter had seven children, the eldest, Josiah, who married Mary Pryor, the parents of seven children. This is the first appearance of the name "Josiah" among the Bucks county Shaws. In 1725, the names of James and Thomas Shaw appear among the petitioners asking for the organization of Plumstead township. John Shaw born in Plumstead, 1745, was a man of local prominence ; was a Whig in the Revolution, taking the oath of allegiance before Thomas Dyer, 1777. He was appointed a magistrate by Governor Mifflin, about 1790, and, at his death, was the oldest in commission in the county, but one. In 1802 he moved into New Britain on the Mercer farm, where he died, IS18. His wife, Agnes, died at eighty-nine. Josiah Y. Shaw, a son of John, born, 1770, spent the most of his life in Doylestown and was a man of prominence. He was one of the founders, and a trustee of the Union Academy, 1804, brigade inspector with rank of major, 1809, justice of the peace, several years and member of Assembly. Francis B. Shaw, a mem- ber of the bar and a journalist, was a brother of Josiah Y.
Richard Hill. merchant. Philadelphia. was an carly land owner in Plumstead, but never lived there. He was a man of wealth, owning houses in Philadelphia. It is stated elsewhere in this chapter that Frances Plumstead con- veyed his twenty-five hundred acres to Hill. He conveyed all this land, sub- ject to a ground rent : among the conveyances were the following: 1723. one hundred and fifty acres to James Hughes: two hundred and fifty. William Michener, three hundred. John Dyer : 1725. three hundred and seventy-five acres to John Britain : 1728, one hundred and fifty, John Earl, and one hundred and fifty to John McCarty, thirteen hundred and seventy-five in all. August 7. 1720. Mr. Hill made his will and devised these lands to his grand-nephew, Richard Hill. and his sister Hannah, wife of Samuel Preston Moore. In 1745 Dr. Richard Hill mortgaged these lands to Thomas White for f1500, and is de- seribed in the mortgage as a "Philadelphia merchant" residing in parts beyond set, which document stated that Richard Will and his sister. Hannah Moore, were the residuary legatees of Dr. Richard Hill, father of the sail Richard 11ill. Two hundred and fifty acres were conveyed to Abraham Hill, who, with his wife, Elizabeth, conveyed one hundred acres of the same land, bounded by
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HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
Matthew Grier and the Stump Road, Andrew Oliphant, Enoch Thomas and Divid Caldwell to their son Isaac, 1762, and Isaac dying, 1798, the owner of one hundred and five acres, he devised it to his son Isaac. He bit eleven children, Abraham, William, Richard, Margaret, Isaac, Sarah, Fhzabeth, Nancy, Mary, Lydia and Rebecca. Of these, Sarah was the grand- mother of John Ilarris, Rebecca, first wife of Richard Riale, Ann married Jonathan Hough, Mary married Benjamin Day, and Elizabeth, Nathan Riale; Lyha, who remained single, died in Plumstead, 1839, and Elizabeth, 1832.
William Ilill, son of Isaac, junior, married a daughter of David Evans the Universalist preacher, New Britain, and settled near Uniontown, Pennsyl- vania, where he died, his widow and children returning to Bucks county. Their children were Thomas, David, James, Susan Kerns, Elizabeth, Mary Ann, married Evan Evans, who went West, David married Cynthia Worth- ington and settled in Ohio, and James Evans Hill married Naomi Rodrock, and lived and died in New Britain. George E. Hill is his only surviving son. William Hill, son of the first Isaac, died in Plumstead, 1886, leaving three sons Ira, Moses and Charles. William Hill, Warrington, and his brother Harvey, New Britain, are surviving sons of Charles Hill. Amos Hill, son of Moses lived and died in Philadelphia, where his son Eugene H. still lives. Richard Hill, son of the first Isaac, died near New Galena, 1848, leaving a widow and seven children, Abraham, David, Elizabeth, wife of Michael Hofford, Par- melia, Sarah, Rebecca, Clymer and Margaret Ott.
On an old draft of Plumstead, drawn March 11, 1724, are marked the following land-owners, all located in the southwest part of the township. near the Buckingham line: Arthur Day, Henry Child, John Dyer, (two tracts), Richard Hill, fifteen hundred acres, Abrahamn Hayter, Silas MacCarty, William Michener," John Earl, James Shaw, James Brown, Henry Paul, Samuel Bar- ker. Thomas Brown, Jr., Richard Lundy, and H. Large. No doubt there were others, but, at this time the settlements did not extend far into the woods. Prob- ably some of those named were not inhabitants of the township, 1724. Among the early settlers of Plumstead were John and Rebecca Votaw, but we neither Know when they came into the township, where from, nor when they left it. Their son Isaac, born in Phuninstead, 2, 11, 1768, was married at Buckingham meeting, to Ann Smith, sister of Moses Smith, but we have not the date. The family removed to the west many years ago, and E. W. Votaw, a great-grand- son of Isaac, lives at Hawarden, Indiana. The name long since disappeared from the township, nor is it found in the county records. It is possible there are descendants in the female line.
An effort was made to organize a township about 1715, when the settlers north of Buckingham petitioned the court to lay it off. On June 17. a draft of the survey of a new township, which probably accompanied the report of the jury, was ordered to be filed. The territory asked to be laid off contained about fourteen thousand acres, and the township was to be called Plumstead. The court could not have approved the report of the jury if it reported in favor of the new township, for Plumstead was not laid out and organized until ten years later .. It is probable the prayer of the petitioners was not granted because of the lack of population. In March, 1725, twenty inhabitants of a district of country north of Buckingham, not yet organized into a township, tunely. Thomas Shaw, John Brown, Alexander Brown, Richard Lundy, John
3 Margaret Michener. reliet of William Michener, died in Plumstead, February 15, 1821, ased ninety-three years.
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HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
Lundy, Henry Large, Thomas Brown, Jr., Humphrey Roberts, John Earl, Thomas Earl, William Michener, William Woodcock, John Dyer, Samuel Dyer, Abraham Hayter, Herman Buster, Silas MacCarty, William Wilkinson, Christopher Day, and James Shaw, petitioned the court of quarter sessions to lay off "a certain quantity or parcel of land to be erected into the form of a township," the boundaries of which were to begin "at the uppermost corner of Buckingham at the corner of Richard Day's land." This embraced what is now Plumstead and Bedminster. The survey of the township was probably returned at the June term, but we have found no record of it. It was named after Francis Plumstead, ironmonger, London, one of the earliest land-owners in the township. The present area of Plumstead is twelve thousand eight hundred acres.
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