USA > Pennsylvania > Bucks County > History of Bucks county, Pennsylvania, from the discovery of the Delaware to the present time, Vol. I > Part 60
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"My worthy friend, suppress thy constant sighs, Nor pam the breast with unavailing grief, Stop the soft s rows of the aged oyes, They can not give thy wounded heart relief "
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HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
strong that he died there. At that time, and down to 1713. Bucks county wills were admitted to probate in Philadelphia, and this was the case with that of Matthias Harveye, the elder. It was dated April 5. 1699, and probated at l'hil- adelphia November 23. 1706. the inference being that he died shortly prior to the latter date. Hle devised his large landed estate to his three sons, as follows : to Matthias his dwelling house and 400 acres : Thomas, three hundred acres and to Benjamin three hundred acres, the remaining fifty acres not being con- ered by and included in the bequests. It may have been sold prior to his death or otherwise disposed of. On the death of the sons of Matthias Har- veye, the elder, they devised their real and personal property to their children.
In the last century the Harveye family have become much scattered. few of them remaining in Upper Makefield, although many are to be found in this and other counties and States. Enoch Harvey, a son of Joseph and great- grandson of Matthias, the elder. removed to Doylestown, near the close of the eighteenth century, and purchased what is now the "Fountain House," one of the most popular inns of the county seat of the past and present centuries. Here he spent his life, dying in 1831. His wife was Sarah Stewart, daughter of Charles Stewart, Warwick township, to whom he was married March 20, 1792, the ceremony taking place in the Neshaminy Presbyterian church. Let- ters of more recent years speak of Mrs. Harvey, nec Stewart, in the highest terms, as a woman of great refinement. intelligence and dignity of manners.
The Stewarts were among the earliest Scotch-Irish settlers in Bucks county. Charles Stewart being probably a son of John Stewart who Erst ap- pears in Northampton, 1720, and subsequently in Plumstead. Enoch Harvey had a family of several children, among them the late Joseph Harvey, and Dr. George T. Harvey. Doylestown. A daughter married William II. Powell. Norristown, who was proprietor and editor of the Doylestown Democrat, a couple of years or more. 1832-3. The Harveys have always been a patriotic family, six ot the name from this county serving in the armies of the Revolu- tion, one in Captain Darrah's company, 1777. Dr. George T. enrolled his name in a company for the Mexican war. but the quota being full from this State his military aspirations were nipped in the bud. When the Civil war. 1861-65. broke out he was one of the first in the county to enroll, serving as a lieutenant in the Doylestown Guards in the three months' campaign in the Shenandoah Valley, and subsequently three years in the south Pennsylvania regiment. Charles Stewart, probably the father of Enoch Harvey's wife. was an ensign in the first company, 4th Battalion, Bucks County Militia. 1776, his commission bearing date May 6. Ex-Judge Edward Harvey, Allentown, a distinguished lawyer, is a grandson of Enoch Harvey and son of Dr. George T. Harvey.
The "London company" became extensive land-owners in Upper Make- field many years before it was organized into a township. This was composed of Tobias Collett. Daniel Quere and Henry Gokley, of London, who, before 1700, purchased five thousand acres of the manor lands, which were surveyed to them Angust 6. 1700. When the company's land was broken up, years after- ward. it was sold to various purchasers, and among them five hundred and fifty-two acres to Sammuel Baker, of Makefield. in 1,22, lying on the south line of the manor and running to the river. two hundred of which he sold to Philip Warder, jr .. 1724, which came into the possession of the widow of John Knowles, 1730. As late as April 6. 1762. William Cox. Philadelphia. pur- chased one hundred and eighteen agres and ninety-five perches of the com- pany's land. in Upper Makefield. When the company's land was surveyed,
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HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
1709, Thomas Kirle, John Pidcock and Gilbert Wheeler were land-owners in the manor. on the north side of that tract. In August, 1705. James Logan wrote to William Penn that the London company must have five thousand acres more laid off to them in the manor of Highlands, but we do not know that it was done. That spring Penn wrote to Logan complaining that a great part of the manor was taken up by "encroachers." In 1738 Thomas Pen owned twenty-five hundred acres in the township. probably the re- mainder of the seventy-five hundred of the manor lands not purchased by the London company, and which he valued at fSo the one hundred acres.
William Smith, son of William Smith who settled in Wrightstown. in JOS4, purchased two hundred and one acres in Upper Makefiekl, in 1708. The surveyor was instructed to lay out the land "at a place called Windy bush in Pen's mayor of Highlands, near Wrightstown." The deed was executed April 28. 1709. and the purchase money, £50 Pennsylvania eur- rency, jaid. His son Thomas lived several years in a cave in the woods, and, when he moved into a new log house. the Indians occupied the cave. The late Josiah B. Smith, of Newtown, was the sixth in descent from William, the pioneer. William was owner to his death, of part of the ancestral acres. AAmong others who were settlers on the manor lands. outside the London company's, were Thomas Ross, ancestor of the family of this name in the county, Jeffrey Burges, R. Norton, John Pidcock and William Blackfan.
The Lees were carly settlers in Upper Makefield. William Lee, the im- migrant arriving prior to 1725. He bought a tract near Buckmanville, late the farm of Joshua Corson, a great-great-grandson of the pioneer, and now owned by Thomas W. White. Doylestown. William Lee, jr., son of the immigrant. first appears at Wrightstown meeting. August 19. 1725, as a witness to the first marriage recorded there, and in March, 1737, he signed the petition to the court of Quarter Sessions that resulted in the organization of the township. There is some doubt when he was married, but none as to the name of the young woman he took to wife, to enjoy his joys and sorrows. Her name was Ilannah Smith. daughter of William and Mary Croasdale Smith, Wrightstown. They are known to have been the parents of four sons, and family tradition credits them with
one daughter. William, the ellest son, married Hannah Saunders shortly after February 5, 1746. and was the father of nine children, seven sons and two daughters. They spent their life on the ancestral farm, where he died March 23, 1Sit and was buried at Wrightstown. Among his sons was Ralph Lee, born April 28, 1763. who died October 23. 1834, on his Northampton township farm, and was also buried at Wrightstown. His wife was Amy Martin. He subs ribed the oath of allegiance October 11. 1785, before John Chapman, and the certificate and family bible are both in possession of the family. The third son of William Lec. the elder, was Ralph Lee. who married first a daughter of John Atkinson, and second Sibella - -, lived in Buckingham, died prior to March 6. 1748-9 and was likewise buried at Wrightstown. They had two sons. David and William. The former, born Into. removed to Maryland, about 1770. built the Jerusalem mill on the Little Gunpowder river. 1772. died 1815 and was buried at Little Gunpowder meeting, leaving a number of descendants in that vicinity. William Les. second son of Ralph and Sibella, removed to Maryland about the time of his brother David, and lived near him, and, at his death. Kit reveral cron. Samuel Lee, fourth son of William Lee, the ubler, removed from Wrightstown to Gunpowder meeting, 1973. but returned 178 ;. His will, dated January 1. 1700, is said to have been recorded at Belor, Maryland.
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HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
Ralph Lee, the son of Ralph, who was the son of William, who was the son of William the immigrant, became Dr. Ralph Lee of Newtown, the most prominent representative of the family. He was born November 27, 1792, married Rebecca Richardson Story, daughter of David Story, Newtown, May 20. 1821, the ceremony being performed by Mayor Joseph Watson, l'hiladel- phia. first cousin of his wife. He died at Newtown, April 25, 1855, and was buried at Wrightstown. He read medicine and graduated from the Pennsyl- vania University, 1816. He subsequently made a voyage to China as physician and surgeon to the ship, and upon his return, setttled in practice at Newtown, where he spent his professional life. He was widely known in his profes- sion, and a useful citizen in every walk. He was active in organizing the Bucks County Medical Society, 1848, and was its first president, elected No- vember 20. 1850. lle was a delegate to the State Medical Society of Penn- sylvania. 1853, and to the American Medical Association. 1855. He possessed popular manners. Dr. Lee had two children, a son and daughter : Dr. Rich- ard Henry Lee. the elder, born May 15. 1827. graduated in medicine and set- tled in Philadelphia, where he was a well-known practitioner, married Sarah Eliza Lathrop, of Providence, Rhode Island, and died March 21, 1881. He left a son. Edward Clinton Lee, Philadelphia. The daughter of Dr. Ralph Lcc. Rachel Caroline, born May, 1825, grew up to be a beautiful and attractive woman and was the toast of the young men of her generation. She married William F. Bartlett, Jr .. Baltimore, and died January 27. 1847. The family line of the Bucks county Lees may be traced down in six generations in direct descent without a break: William, William, Ralph. Dr. Ralph, Dr. Richard, Henry and Edward Clinton.
The two Makefields were under one mimicipal jurisdiction for many years. As the settlers increased in the manor of Highlands the constables and assessors of Makefield were given jurisdiction over it, and continued to 1737. when the population had become so numerous as to make it incon- venient for the oficers to discharge their duties. A division of the township was now asked for which led to the organization of Upper Makefield.
At the March term. 1737, a petition, signed by twenty of the inhabitants. viz: John Palmer. Daniel Palmer, William Russell, Alexander Rickey, William 1.ce, Eleazer Doane. Rickard Hough, Ilward Bailey, Thomas Sirith, Richard Parsons. John Atkinson, John Osmond. John Trego. Joseph Tomlinson. Charles Reeder. James Tomlinson, John Brown, Jolm Wall, John Caill and John Whiteacre, was presented to the court of quarter sessions. The peti- tioners represented themselves as living on that part of the manor of High- lands called "Gobiney's and company's land," i. c. the London company, that the township is so large containing twenty-two thousand acres, and the lands referred to have beenne so thickly settled the township officers cannot lischarge their duties toward all the inhabitants, that the constable does not know the bounds of the township, and frequently returns the names of persons taxed with the inhabitants of Wrightstown. For these reasons the petitioners ask to have the said company's lands attached to Wrightstown. ur to be erected into a township by itself. This appears to have been the earliest action toward the organization of what is now Upper Makefeld, and let to such result, although we have not been all to find the record of it. In 1753 John Beamront William Keith. Benjamin Taylor, with others, living on the London company's trice, petitioned the court to be either erected into a towr ship by themselves er added to Uiver Make field. This Etter request was erglied with, and it was ordered that "the upper line of Jim Duer's
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HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
tract be the partition between the two townships." This line no doubt is the present southern boundary. The part organized into Upper Makefield! con- tains an area of eleven thousand six hundred and twenty-eight acres and the boundaries have undergone little, if any, change from 1753 to the present time.
The Burley's were early settlers in Upper Makefield township, probably about 1725-30, and John Burley was the owner of considerable real estate. Ile held his first tract under a patent from Thomas Penn, but its date is not known. Ile was the owner, in all. of two hundred and fifty-four acres of which two hundred were purchased of Samuel Bunting. Burley is an ancient name in both England and Ireland, and spelled in various ways, but Burleigh- is the modern way of spelling it. The first of the name, to settle in America. was Giles Berdly, or Burley, who was living at Ipswich, Mass .. 1648, and his will dated July, 1668. John Burley, Sr., died in Makefield, 1748, and his will pro- bated April 5. 1740. Ile left five children, John. Joshua, Sarah, Elizabeth and Mary. The will provides, that in case his widow shall marry "a careful frugal man," she and her husband may enjoy the income from the real estate until the youngest child is fourteen years of age. As the widow found a new husband in one John Simmons, we may presume he "filled the bill." John Burley Jr .. the chlest son and child of John Burley, Sr .. died in 1799 or 1800. leaving three sons and eight daughters. After 1800 the name of Burley drops out of the county records, but the descendants in the female line are numerous.
Of the children of John Burley, Sr .. the eldest daughter, Sarah, married William Davis, also an early settler in Upper Makefield and grandfather of the late General John Davis, deceased. of Davisville. about 1756-57. They were the parents of seven children : Jemima, born December 25. 1758 ; John. September 6. 1700: Sarah, October 1, 1763; William, September 9, 1700: Joshua, July 6. 1709: Mary, October 3. 177 and Joseph, March 1, 1774. The eldest son was named after the grandfather on the mother's side. One of Sarah Burley's sisters married James Torbert, and the Burleys were con- nected, by marriage, with the Slacks and MeNairs, all well known Bucks county families. Of William Davis, the husband of Sarah Burley, we know but little, in fact nothing except that he spent his life in Solebury, and died there, married Sarah Burley and was the father of a family of children. The widow of William Davis survived him until May 10, 1819. dying at the age of eighty-four, which places her birth in 1735. Of the children of William Davis anl Sarah Burley. Jemima. the oldest married John Pitner, son of Henry and Deborah, about 1780. He was born in Denn's Manor. August IN. 1755. and married. in early life, a daughter of a Captain Thompson of fear Newtown. Six daughters and two sons were born to Jemima and John Vitner; Strah, May 21. 1787, died September 9. ISay, of yellow fever ; James Neely. September 20. 1788, died about 1842: Deborah. June 19, 1790. die April 5. 1879: Mary. May 30. 1792, and has been dead over half a century : Anna, January 11. 179%. died December 14. 1836; John, October 19. 1800. died October 15. 1823 : William, October 20. 1798, died April 10, 1833. and Eliza N. born July 12. 1802. living, 1885, at Wilmington. Del. Several of these children left bage families. John Pitner lived at Newtown several years after his second marriage and died at New Castle. Delaware, after 1211. Among those who settled in Upper Makefield early in the eighteenth
? In Burke's Berge vinsteen diferent coat of arms are given as borne by the various English famil - fe' nante
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HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
century were the families of Trego, Reeder, McNair.212 Keith, Fell. Magill. Stewart, and others. The Tregos are descended from French Huguenot ancestry. In 1688 three brothers immigrated to England, and. two years afterward, Peter came to America and settled in Middletown, then Chester, now Delaware, county, where he lived until 1722. Our Bucks county Tregos are descended from his eklest son. Jacob, who married Mary Cartledge, Darby, 1709, and died 1720, leaving two children, John and Rachel. His widow mar- ried John Laycock. Wrightstown, 1722, where she and her two children came to reside. The son John. married Hannah Lester, Richland, and in 1736 bought a tract of land in the western part of Upper Makefiehl where he erected buildings and lived. and died about 1792, at the age of sixty-six. They had two sons, William and Jacob and several daughters. Jacob died
unmarried. William married Rebecca Hibbs, Byberry. 1768, and died, 1827, from whose six sons and three daughters have descended a numerous pos- lerity, living in many sections of the Union. The Trego family produced two artists of merit. Jonathan K. a portrait painter, son of William Trego and Rachel Taylor, and his son William, a military painter. The former was born in Upper Makefield, 1817, began the study of art with Samuel F. Du- Bois, Doylestown, and finished at the Academy, Philadelphia. He followed his profession at Detroit several years, and then settled at North Wales. Montgomery county, Pa., where he died February, igot. He painted the portraits of many prominent people, his pictures were noted for being true to nature. His son William, studied with the distinguished military painter of France, is still living and an artist of national reputation. One of his latest pieces is the "Rescue of the Colors," painted for Bucks county and the gift of Hon. John Wanamaker.
The Reeders were among the early settlers in the township, but we do not know the date of their settlement. In 1746 Charles Reeder bought two hun- dred acres of Samuel Carey ; his will was executed June 16, 1800, and admitted to probate September 8. 1804. This plantation was sold by his executor to John Chapman. in 1856. He had ten children, of whom the late Merrick Reeder was the chlest son. There were Merricks in Middletown, where John Merrick bought a farm, 1759. and died in 1765, leaving six children.
The Balderstons were first known in England about the time of the inva- sion of the Prince of Orange. 1638. when John Balderston was settled at Norwich with a family of children. He may have been one of the invading host. for tradition says the family originally came from Norway, thence to Holland and then to England. It is said the name was devised from that of the Norwegian god "Balder." The eldest son of the family, John, was the only one mentioned for generations, a custom that enrtails family informa- tion. The second John Balderston married twice at Norwich and died there. and it was his son. John, the third. born 1702, who came to America, but there is some uncertainty as to the time. Ile settled in Upper Makefield and mar- ried Hannah, daughter of Jonathan and Sarah Cooper, but subsequently re- moved to Solebury. They had a family of eleven children: John, Jonathan. Bartholomew. Timothy, Jacob, Hannah, Isaiah. Sarah, Mordecai, Lydia and Sarah. They all married and left children except Hannah.
John Balderston. the fourth, born 3 mo. 15. 17440, married Deborah. daugh- ter of Mark and Any Watson, whose mother was a daughter of John Sotcher.
21. James S. MeNair. a descendant of the immigrant, bern March 14. 1Sos, died in Upper Makefield, July 6, 1897.
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HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
settled on a farm in Solebury and had a family of eight children. His wife. born, 3 mio., 1744. died 4. 17, 1794, and he then married Elizabeth Langdale. Mark Balderston, sncf John and Deborah, born 5. 1. 1770 and died 9. 3. 1823. married Ann Brown, born 7, 10. 1778, daughter of John and Martha Brown, 3 mo. 18, 1801. and died 8. 25, 1802, from the effects of lightning that struct. the house. They lived on a farm in Falls near Trenton. They had our son, John B. Ballerston. After the death of the first wife, Mark Baller- 1 married Elizabeth Lloyd and had several children, one being Lloyd Baldersten. Cecil comity, Md., who married Catharine Canby. John B. Balderston, the sixth, married Letitia, daughter of Cyrus Cadwallader, Falls township and had five children, one dying young. Mary married David Heston. Elizabeth. James H. Moon : Edward. Elizabeth P. Brown : and William. Sarah W. Brown. the two latter daughters of George W. Brown and descendants of the original George Brown, who settled in Falls, 1679. as was also An Brown, who mar- ried Mark Balderston. All of John B. Balderston's sons and daughters have families of children.
The MeNairs are Scotch-Irish. Samuel, the son of James who was driven from Scotland to Ireland, was born in county Donegal, in 1699. Ile married Anna Murdock, and with his family and father-in-law. then eighty years of age, came to Amercia, 1732, landing at Bristol in this county. They passed the first winter in an old school-house around which the wolves howled at night, and the next spring settled in Upper Makefield, where the family lived for five generations. They were members of the Newtown Presby- terian church, and there their remains lie Samuel, the progenitor, dying 1761. They had five children, James, born February 6, 1733. Samuel, September 25. 1739. Solomon, 1,44, Rebecca, 1747, and one other. The ellest son, James. purchased a farm in Upper Makefield, 1763, which was the homestead for three generations ant only passed out of the family in 1873. He married Martha Keith, had nine children and died. ISo7. From this couple descend our Bucks county MeNairs, an 1 their children married into the well-known families of Torbert, MeMaster, Wynkoop. Vanhorne. Bennet, Slack and Robinson, an! left numerous descendants. The late James M. McNair, clerk of orphans court. justice of the peace, officer of volunteers and church ckler, was a grandson of James the elder. From Samuel, who married Mary Mann. of Horsham, and had seven children, have descended the Montgomery county MeNairs, ant his children married into the families of Mann, Craven, Var artsdalen. Long and Kirk. The late John McNair, member of Congress fr Montgomery county, was a grandson of Samuel and son of John, of Soul- ampton. Solomon Me Vair, son of Sammel the elder, married and had the children, was a merchant of Philadelphia, where he died May 15. 1812. : ' the age of sixt-right. The descendants of James and Sammel are found in many parts of the Union, the eldest member of the family living being Sam"." MeNair, of Dansla New York They are found in the various walk- of life, several are jeristers of the gospel, a few members of the other learn professions. Let the gren nanority follow the occupation of their first ance in America, la madre. . They have retained most of the characteristics of it's races from which the spring, have generally internmarried into families of a common origin. ... I cing with tenacity to the Scoth Presbyterian faith.
3 Late of North .... : wikip. Bucks county, son of John McNair, of South : ! lid Jamdry 3. 1878
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HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
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William Keith was in the township prior to 1750, and came about the time of the other Search-Irish Presbyterians. We find that Mr. Keith bought two hundred and thirty acres of the London company, the 3d of December. 1761. His wife, Mary, ched in 1772, at the age of fifty-one, and he. 1781. aged sixty- seven, and both were buried in the Presbyterian yard at Newtown. A Samuel Keith, brother of William, died in 1741. at the age of twenty-seven. Isaac Stockton Keith, son of William and Mary, became a distinguished di- vine. He was born in Upper Makefield, January 20. 1755, graduated at Prince- ton, 1775, taught a Latin school at Elizabeth. New Jersey, then studied divinity and was licensed to preach by the Philadelphia Presbytery, in 1778. In 1,80 he was called to the Presbyterian church. Alexandria, Virginia, and to the
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KEITH HOUSH. UPPER MAKEFIELD. Washington's Headquarters. December 14. 95. 1775
church at Donegal. 1788, with a salary of two hundred guineas. He shortly afterward married a daughter of Doctor Sproat. of Philadelphia. He became the pastor of the Independent or Congregational church at Charleston, South Carolina, the 16th of September, 1788. The honor of L.l. D. was conferred upon Mr. Keith, but we do not know when or by what institution. Charles Stewart, father-in-law of John Harris, Newtown, spent his life in Upper Makcheld, where he died. 1794. Through his daughter, the wife of Harris. he became the ancestor of some of the most distinguished families of Ken- tucky. At his death Mr. Stewart owned land "in the county called Kantuckce, in the State of Virginia." The Magills of this township, and numbers elsewhere. are descended from an Irish-Quaker ancestor, William Magill, who immigrated from the North of Ireland about 1730, and settled on a farm half a mile from where Watson 1'. Magill lived in Solebury. The original home- stead now lies within the limits of the borough of New Hope. Edward II. Magill. late president of Swarthmore college, is a native of Solebury
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HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
and a descendant of the Irish-Quaker ancestor. The McConkeys, after whom the ferry at Taylorsville was named, were in the township early, also Scotch- Irish Presbyterians. We find that Charity MeConkey died September 2, 1771. at the age of fifty-three years, and was buried at Newtown. The main sup- port of that church probably came from Upper Makefield.
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