USA > Pennsylvania > Bucks County > History of Bucks county, Pennsylvania, from the discovery of the Delaware to the present time, Vol. I > Part 53
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HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
destitute condition ere she could get a passage to Philadelphia. The father returned to Ireland, but whether he died there we are not informed. Two hundred acres of the Jamison estate lately remained in the family, the same the progenitor bought of Langhorne in 1728. Robert Jamison, born in 1698, son of Henry, was the father of John Jamison, a captain in the Continental army, who married Martha, sister of the Reverend James Grier, of Deep Kun, of Robert, who was a soldier in the Revolution, and long an elder in Neshaminy church, and also of Henry Jamison who kept the tavern at Centreville, called Jamison's in 1767, and the father of the first wife of the Reverend Nathaniel Irwin. Henry, a son of Captain John Jamison, drew a $50,000 prize in a lot- tery. At his death, in 1816, at the age of 35, he left $500 to Neshaminy church, and, with the remainder, enriched his relatives. James Jamison, Buck- ingham, who was killed by an explosion in his lime-quarry, in 1837, at the age of 58, was a son of deacon Robert. Members of this family have immigrated to other parts, and the name is now found in various sections of this State and country. Henry Jamison went to Florida as early as 1765, where he died.
The Baxters were carly settlers in Bucks county, some say about 1682, but we have not met with the evidence. In 1762, Margaret Baxter mortgaged her real estate, and afterward paid it off, dying about 1785. William Baxter, silversmith, was in Warwick, 1772, and Robert Baxter, 1813. The name "Baxter" originally "Bakestre" means a female baker and was spelled Baxter, Beckster and Bexter. In 1631 several families of the name immigrated from Shropshire, England to Salem, Mass., with John Tlirockmorton and others. Excommunicated, they went to Rhode Island where one family remained. Two other Baxter families settled on Throgg's Neck, West Chester county, New York, where Thomas Baxter died 1715. He was there as early as 1685 and had served as Aklerman. Justice of the Peace, church vestryman and cap- tain. The third family of this name is the one that settled in Bucks county. Colonel Baxter who commanded a Pennsylvania regiment in the Revolution, was probably a descendant of one of these families. He was killed at Fort Washington and his remains buried at Tenth avenue and 182d street, New York City. An unlettered stone marks the spot.
RUINS OF OLD CLOTH MIL IN'NESHAMINY, WARWICK
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HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
The unorganized territory lying between Warminster, and erected into Warrington, in 1734, Northampton, Buckingham, and New Britain, was called "Middlebury" for several years, and as such elected overseers of the poor and of roads. The 13th of February, 1733, twenty of the inhabitants of this region, namely: Robert Jamison, Benjamin Walton, William Ramsey, Alexander Breckenridge, Thomas Howell, Ilngh Houston, Samuel Martin, William Miller, jr., Valentine Santee, James Polk, Robert Sibbett, John McCollock, AArthur Bleakley, Alexander Jamison, Henry Jamison, Andrew Long, Joseph Walton, and Joseph Roberts, petitioned the court of quarter ses- sions to organize it into a township to be called Warwick, "to extend no further in breadth than from ye north-west line, or Bristol road, to Bucking- ham and in length from Northampton to New Britain." The draft, which ac- companied the petition, makes Middlebury, or Warwick, of the same size and shape as Warminster and Warrington. The petition was allowed the next day after it was received, and there can be no doubt that the township was organ- ized under it. As to what time the true name Middlebury was dropped, and the township took the name it now bears, with the boundaries that covered the unorganized territory, the records are silent. It was called Warwick in 1736. The Dyer's mill road. Row Doylestown and Willow Grove turnpike, was opened in 1733 by Robert Jamison "overseer of the roads of Middlebury." The same year Benjamin Walton was appointed constable for Middlebury and Robert Jamison supervisor of highways. At the October sessions, 1727, William Miller was appointed overseer of the York road between the two branches of the Neshaminy, from the bridge above Hartsville to Bridge Valley. The petitioners for the organization of the township belonged to the first generation of actual settlers, or their immediate descendants, and the names remain in this anl neighboring townships. The population at that time can not be given, but at the first enumeration of taxables that we have seen, 1759, when the township embraced a much larger area than at present, they num- bered 138. Before it lost any of its territory it contained eleven thousand eight hundred and eighty-three acres. Its present area is ten thousand seven hun- dred and thirty-one acres. Since Doylestown township was organized there has been one or two immaterial changes in its territorial limits.
Shortly after the organization of the township those who were dissatis- fied with its boundaries addressed the following petition to the court asking a redress of grievances. It is a literal transcript of the original document :
"To the Honorable court held at Newtown the thirteenth day of De- cember. 1733.
"The Humbel petition of the inhabetance of Middlebury, Humbly shew : "That by a warant from Thomas Canby, esq., Deriected to Robert Jami- son, Overseer of the Rodes of the said township, requiring your petitioners to open a Rode formly Led out from Dyer's mill to the County Line which is the breth of tow townships to wit. Northampton and Warminster as they appear by ve underneath Travits: Now your petitioners repaired York Rode and appen the si Rode from New Britten to ve Northwest Line whis is Bristol Rode and Divids apart of the sd township from Warminster, and is in Bredth near four miles and in length six miles or ther abouts ; now there is a consid- trable number of families Leving on ajasent Lands Laying betwist ve North- west Line and ye County Line Fquale in Breath with Warminster as the sd township, is equal in Breath with Northampton.
"May it therefor please the Honorable court to consider the primises and Grant your petitioners Relive by ordering the sd townships to extend as
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HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
furder in Breth than from ye sd Northwest Line or Bristol Rode to Bucking- ham, and in Length from Northampton to New Britain, or outher ways as the Ilonnorable court shall see meett, and your petitioners in duty bound will pray. May it please the court that sd township's name may be Warwick."
The Warwick Ramseys are descended from William Ramsey, a staunch Scotch-Irish Presbyterian, who was born in Ireland in 1698, and came to America in 1741. He purchased the undivided third part of six hundred and thirty-eight acres in the south corner of the township, of Richard Ashfield, on which he settled, and afterward bought one hundred acres adjoining, on the Bristol road, in Warminster. The Warwick tract comprised the farms now or recently owned by George Small, C. Carr, Joseph Carrell, Andrew Scott, J. M. Yerkes and Hugh Thompson. The Birds and Bradys, relatives of Ramsey, came into the township about the same time, and to whom he sold part of his land. William Ramsey married Jane Brady, probably one of his Scotch-Irish cousins, and by her had a family of seven children, Patrick. Hugh, John, William, Jennet, Jean and Robert, and died in 1787, at the age of eighty-nine. His wife died in 1761, aged fifty-eight years. Patrick, Hugh and Jennet died without issue. John, born March, 1731, married Eleanor Hender- son, had five children. William, John, Jane, Elizabeth and Robert ; was an elder in the Neshaminy church, and died in 1813. at the age of eighty-two; William was twice married. and died in 1814, at seventy-nine, without children, leaving his real estate to his nephews; Jean married John Blair, had children, Nancy Jane and William R., and died in 1825, at eighty-two; Robert moved with his family to western Pennsylvania. John, the son of John and Eleanor Ramsey, born 1769, married Mary Santman, and died on his farm in Warminster, where his son John lived, in 18.19, at the age of eighty. Robert Ramsey, the son of John and Eleanor Ramsey, and grandson of William, the first progenitor, was born February 15, 1780, married Mary Blair, and had children, Eleanor, John P., Jane, Ann, George, Charles, Robert Henderson, William and another that died in infancy. Four of these children were living in recent years. Robert Ramsey lived on the farm in Warwick inherited from his father, where he died in 1849, at the age of sixty-nine. He was a man of considerable influence and note in his day. and prominent in politics: was five times elected to the Assembly, and was four years a member of the House of Representatives of the United States.
The McMicken family was in Warwick at an early day, but probably not prior to 1740. It. too, was Scotch-Irish. We find that on the 7th of Oc- tober. 1763, William Rodman and wife conveyed to Andrew and Charles McMicken, jr., of Warwick, one hundred and forty acres in the township. lying along Neshaminy, on both sides of the York road, for the considera- tion of £817. This was part of the two thousand five hundred acres William and John Stephenson conveyed to John Rodman and Thomas Richardson, in 1703, and, in 1726 Richardson conveyed his interest to Rodman. The late Charles MeMicken, of Cincinnati, was a member of this family. and born in Warwick. in 1;82. He was probably a son of Andrew." His carly advantages of education were few, but he was trained to habits of industry and self-reliance. At the age of twenty- one he left his father's house and went to Cincinnati, then an inconsiderable frontier village, and. when he arrived there, his entire fortune consisting of his horse, saddle and bridle. There he.made his future home. He engaged in trade on the Ohio, and by economy, integrity and close attention to business. amassed a fortune of a million, and died March 30, 1855. at the age of seven-
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HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
ty-five. He never married. He was a philanthropist in the broadest sense of the word. After providing moderately for his relatives in his will, he left his entire fortune to found two colleges, one for male's and the other for females. In his will he says :
"Having long cherished the desire to found an institution where white boys and girls might be taught, not only the knowledge of their duties to their Creator and their fellow men, but also receive the benefit of a sound, thorough, and practical English education, such as might fit them for the active duties of life, as well as instruction in all the higher branches of knowledge, except denominational theology, to the extent that the same are now, or may hereafter, be taught in any of the secular colleges or universities of the highest grade in the country, I feel gratified to God that through his kind Providence I have been sufficiently favored to gratify the wish of my heart." Among his charities during his lifetime were a gift of $5,000 to the American Coloniza- tion Society, and another of $10,000 to endow a professorship of agricultural chemistry in the Farmers' college, of Ohio.
Joseph Carr, an immigrant from the North of Ireland, came to Warwick. township, 1743. He first settied on a hundred acre tract he rented for a. shilling an acre, part of 1,200 acres William Penn granted to Henry Bailey,. Yorkshire, England, 1685, but Carr subsequently purchased it for £175 ... Joseph Carr was born in 1707-8, died in 1767, and his will, exe -- cuted February 18, 1756, was admitted to probate March 2, 1767. Ilis executors were William and Andrew Long. Four sons and
three daughters are mentioned in the will; John, born 1746, died March 29, IS12; William, Joseph, born 1728, died May 22, 1780. His wife's name was Mary and the inventory of his estate amounted to £goo. As Joseph Carr was. born fifteen years prior to his father settling in Warwick, it is conclusive evi- dence he was married before leaving Ireland, and Joseph was probably the. eldest child. Joseph Carr, son of the first Joseph, left four children, Andrew, Margaret, Issub, and Mary.
John Carr, son of Joseph, the elder, as already stated, was born three years after his father's arrival. John Carr's wife was Jane Wallace, daughter of James and Isabel ( Mille:) Wallace. They had three sons and five daugh- ters-James, Joseph, William, Elizabeth, Marie, Jane, Isabella and Priscilla. At the breaking out of the Revolution John Carr enrolled himself with the Warwick "Associators," the last of August, 1775. and doubtless turned ont with the company wherever its services were required. Of the sons of John C'arr. James the elder read medicine, graduated, began practice and died young. Joseph died. 1839. William Carr, the youngest son of John Carr, the second, became quite prominent in county affairs. He was appointed clerk of the Orphan's Court in the thirties, serving a full term and was afterward deputy in other county offices. He resided at Doylestown, until in the sixties, where he died. 1872. at the age of seventy-two. He never married. William Carr took a deep interest in Masonry and stood high in the order. He super- intended the erection of the Masonic Temple, built on Chestnut street in the fifties, but taken down several years ago. Mr. Carr was a man of intelligence and somewhat given to historic research. The will of John Carr the second is dated March 25, 1812. the executors being William Carr and Samuel Ilart, but we have not been able to find the settlement. On the death of Joseph Carr, Sr .. his children. October 13. 1700, released to their brother John their interest in the farms their father died seized of, as follows: "William Carr and Mary his wife. of Warwick : Thomas MeCune, and Margaret, his wife; John Ander-
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HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
son, of Baltimore Co., Md., and Isabella his wife, the said William, Mary, Margaret and Isabella being children of Joseph Carr, late of Warwick, de- ceased, release and quit claim to John Carr of Warwick, deceased, a plantation of fifty-two acres, lying on the Bristol road ; also another plantation contiguous. containing 100 acres." The Recorder's office, Doylestown, shows a number of conveyances to John Carr and some to his brother Joseph, evidence there was considerable real estate in the family. The Carrs were all Presbyterians, and have remained of this faith. Down to 1876, there had been thirty-one inter- ments of persons of this name, twenty males and eleven females, in the Neshaminy graveyard.
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NESHAMINY CHURCH, WARWICK.
The Neshaminy church of Warwick, on the north bank of that stream, half a mile from Hartsville, is one of the oldest Presbyterian churches in the county. Just when the congregation was organized is not known, but it dates back to the first quarter of the eighteenth century. The first known pastor was the Reverend William Tennent, who was called from Bensalem, in 1726, and was the founder of the Log college. The original church stood in the graveyard, and the site of the present building is said to have been an Indian burying-ground. On the north-west end is a marble stone with the inscrip- tion : "Founded 1710, erected 1743, enlarged 1775, repaired 1842." The date of its foundation is an error, which arose from the early chroniclers confounding its history with that of the Dutch Reformed church of North and Southamp- ton. which, at its founding in 1710, and many years after, was called "Nesham- iny church." The Warwick church never had the Reverend Paulus Van Vleck for pastor, who officiated at the Bensalem and North and Southampton churches, and who was in no wise connected with the former. There is not the least evidence that the Warwick church was in being when Van Vle. preached in the county, and morewer, he was Dutch Reformed, while this
HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
W. 31.1 W. G. 1727. 403
church is, and always has been, Presbyterian. On a stone in the wall of the graveyard are the letters and figures :
the year the first wall was built. It was re-built some years ago, and on the gate-post is cut the date, 1852. A number of distinguished clergymen have been pastors at Neshaminy, the Reverends Messrs. Tennent, Blair, Irwin, Bel- ville, Wilson, etc., whose prominence in the church has given it and them his- torical importance. Whitefield preached in the graveyard, where the church then stood, while in America a century and a half ago.
About this period William Rogers, also a Scotch-Irish Presbyterian, set- tled in Warwick. Whether he came with a family is not known; or if he married after his arrival, the name of his wife and the time of their marriage, are also unknown. He died in Hanover township, then Lancaster county, now Dauphin. 1771, whither he had removed some years before. Among his children were two sons, Robert and Andrew Rogers, but we are .ignorant of the date of their birth. Robert, the elder, married Isabella Carr, daughter of John and Jane Carr, and his brother Andrew married Jane Henderson, daugh- for of Margaret and Robert Henderson. Both the sons settled in Hanover town- ship. Lancaster county : we do not know whether before or after their father. but probabb about the same time. There George W. Rogers, a great-grandson of the immigrant, was born August 23, 1819, and went west with father's fam- ily, 1836. They settled at Springfield. Ohio, whence the son George was sent to Dayton. to school. but subsequently married and settled there, and died .August 11, 1899. within twelve days of eighty years of age. The widow and family still reside at Dayton. William J1. Rogers was the son of Robert and Isabella Carr and grandson of Andrew who married Jane Henderson.
About 1728 two new Scotch-Irish settlers located in Warwick, Matthew and Elizabeth Archibald. with their daughter, Margaret, and her husband Robert Henderson. On April 4. 1739. John Thomas and Richard Penn con- veved to Elizabeth Archibald four hundred and eighty-nine aeres in Buck- ingham, on the north-west side of the York road, extending from Spring Val- ley to the Bushington toll gate, which she devised hy her will, dated January 16, 1748, to her daughter Margaret, wife of Robert Henderson. Margaret Henderson died intestate. 1793, leaving eight daughters; Elizabeth married David Denny, Chester county. Margaret married John Kerr. Warwick. Jane David Ferguson, Hanover township. Dauphin county ; Agnes, Moses Dunlap, Plumstead; Mary, Elijah Stinson. Warwick ; Eleanor, James Polk Warwick; Martha Henderson, who died unmarried, and Rachel married James Darrah. In 1761, Robert Henderson purchased land of Henry Johnson as "Robert Henderson, of Buckingham," and consequently must have lived there at that time. The executors of Elizabeth Archibald were Charles Beatty and Robert Henderson. Elijah Stinson owned the Moland plantation at the foot of Carr's hill, near Neshaminy bridge. Warwick, where Washington had his headquarters August, 1777 .- There is some uncertainty in tracing the Ilen-
I These initials doubtless stand for William Miller, an carly settler in the township. and a Presbyterian, who donated the land for the church in 1726.
? The inflowing were the dates of high of the children of Robert Henderson and Margaret Archibald: Elizabeth, born March 10, 1750. no children; Margaret, May 2,
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HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
dersons, by reason of a line that does not seem to connect with that of Robert Henderson and Elizabeth Archibald. Letters of administration were granted, November 5. 1782, to his brother Samuel Henderson, on the estate of "John Henderson, late or Warminster, deceased." In the administrator's account is the item of physician's attendance in sickness and funeral expenses in North Carolina, £13. 15:6. in Pennsylvania money £12, 18:3. Balance of estate £218.19/2. Samuel Henderson then lived in Northampton township and died there, 1821. His wife was named Elizabeth, and his will mentions a brother, "Thomas Henderson of Doylestown, Taylor, nephews William, son of brother Thomas, and William Pennell, son of sister Margaret. There are also men- tioned, in the records, a Jane Henderson, who died in Wrightstown, 1796, whose estate was distributed to two heirs, Margaret Montanye, late HIender- sou, and Jane Vanpelt, wife of Isaac, late Henderson. These different llen- dersons were doubtless relatives, but we are not able to connect them. Robert Henderson died in Warminster on the farm owned by John M. Darrah. Ilen- derson bought it April 5. 1772, of the executors of Charles Beatty. Dying in- testate, the farm was bought by James Darrah, grandfather of John M., the present owner, May 2. 1793. It has been in the family one hundred and twenty-nine years, and owned by the Darrahs one hundred and seven, pass- ing from father to son.
A walk in the old graveward donated to the church by William Miller, Sr., and confirmed by his will, in which the original church building stood. exhibits to the visitor the resting places of four generations of the congrega- tion, but there are no tombstones with inscriptions carlier than 1730. The following are among the oldest : Cornelius MeCawney, who died November 29, 1731, aged forty years. Isabel Davis, August 30, 1737, aged seventy-eight years, William Walker, October, 1738, aged sixty-six years, Andrew Long. November 16. 1738, aged forty-seven years, probably the first settler of the name in that vicinity, John Davis, August 6, 1748, aged sixty-three years, and John Baird. February ye 20, 1748, aged seventy-three years. Among others is a stone to the memory of the "Reverend and learned Mr. Alexander Gellat- ley, minister of the gospel in Middle Octoraro, who came from Perth, in Scotland, to Pennsylvania in 1753, and departed this life March 12th, 1761. in his forty-second year." It is not probable any of these early inhabitants of Neshaminy graveyard were born in the county, and the birth of some was years before the English settlers landed on the Delaware. Among the stones is one to the memory of Colonel William Ilart, one of the captors of the Doanes, and after whom Hartsville was named, who died June 2, 1831. aged eighty-four years. On the tomb of Mr. Tennent is the following: "Here Lyeth the Body of the Revd. William Tennent, senr., who departed this Life. May the 6th. Anno Dom. 17446, annos natus 73."
Among the pastors of Neshaminy church, during the past century, the Reverend Robert B. Belville was one of the most distinguished, who offi- ciated for the congregation twenty-six years. He was a descendant of Hugue- not ancestors, who came to America soon after the revocation of the edict of Nantes, and was a relative of Nicholas Belville, the famous French physician who came to this country with Count Pulaski and settled at Trenton. New
1751, no children : Jane, D.c. 22. 1752. first husband. Rogers, no children, second, Fergu son, several children : Agnes. April 2, 1754. Moses Dunlap, one son ; Mary, April 14. 1751. no children ; Jane. Dec. 22, 1752. first husband. Rogers, no children, second Fergu. Martha, 1700, one son and two daughters; Rachel, July, 1762, two sons.
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Jersey. Mr. Belville was born at New Castle, Delaware, in 1790, educated at Pennsylvania University, studied divinity with Doctor Smith, Princeton, was called to Neshaminy in 1812, and remained until 1838. When he took charge of the church it had but thirty-three members, but he left it at his resig- nation with three hundred. During his pastorate the church experienced two memorable revivals, 1822 and 1832, the latter adding to it one hundred and forty communicants. He married soon after his settlement at Neshaminy. In 1816 Mr. Belville opened a classical school in a small building on his own premises, which he kept for nine years. From this grew other schools which were of incalculable value to that region for many years. He removed from Neshaminy the spring of 1839, lived four years in Lancaster, and 1843 pur- chased a farm in Delaware, his native State. He died at Dayton, Ohio, 1845, while on a visit to his brothers and sisters. and was buried in the cemetery there. Mr. Belville was an able minister, and his work proves him to have been a successful pastor. One who understood his character well says of him : "He had the courage of a lion, and the tenderness of a babe ; he was quick as lightning, and true as the sun, and all who knew him either loved him well, or at least thoroughly respected him." He was the father of the Reverend Jacob Belville, formerly of Pottsville, but retired some years ago, and since deceased.
Another able minister of this church was Reverend Henry Rowan Wil- son, son of a Revolutionary officer, and born near Gettysburg the 7th of Au- gust, 1780. He was educated at Dickinson college, and licensed to preach in 1801. After laboring some months in Virginia he removed to Bellefonte, in this State, where he organized a church, and also one at Lick Run, twelve miles distant and was installed pastor 1801. In 1806 he was appointed pro- fessor of languages in Dickinson college, where he continued until 1816. Ile was subsequently in charge of the Presbyterian church, at Shippensburg, gen- eral-agent of the Board of Publication, and called to the Presbyterian church of Warminster at Hartsville. 1842, where he officiated until 1848 when he resigned because of age and disability. He was made doctor of divinity in 1845 by Lafayette college, and died at Philadelphia, March 22, 1849.
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