History of Bucks county, Pennsylvania, from the discovery of the Delaware to the present time, Vol. III, Part 12

Author: Davis, W. W. H. (William Watts Hart), 1820-1910; Ely, Warren S. (Warren Smedley), b. 1855; Jordan, John W. (John Woolf), 1840-1921
Publication date: 1905
Publisher: New York ; Chicago : The Lewis Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 1040

USA > Pennsylvania > Bucks County > History of Bucks county, Pennsylvania, from the discovery of the Delaware to the present time, Vol. III > Part 12

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John and Eleanor (Crispin) Hart were the parents of ten children, viz :-

I. John, born September 10, 1709, went to Virginia, where he was killed June II, 1743 by the accidental discharge of a gun.

2. Susanna, born April 20, 17II, mar- ried March 31, 1731, John Price, and died two years later, leaving an only child, Joseph Price.

William, born March 7, 1713, died October 7, 1714.

4. Joseph, born September 1, 1715, died February 25. 1788; see forward.

5. Silas, born May 5, 1718, removed in early life to Augusta county, Virginia. · At the organization of Rockingham county he became a resident of that county, filling the position of judge, sheriff, etc. He died without issue October 29, 1795.

6. Lucretia, born July 22, 1720, died December 15, 1760; was twice married, first, October 15, 1741, to William Gilbert, who died about 1750, and on March 5, 1752, to John Thomas; had three sons by first marriage, and a son and two daughters by the last.

7. Oliver Hart, born July 5, 1723, was for thirty years pastor of Baptist church at Charleston, South Carolina, 1749-80, and fifteen years at Hopewell, New Jersey ; died December 31, 1795. 00 Edith,

born 1727, married Isaac Hough ;- see Hough Family.

9. Seth, died at age of nine years. Olive, died in infancy.

Colonel Joseph Hart, fourth child and eldest living son of Jolin and Eleanor (Crispin) Hart at the death of his father, was born in the old family mansion in Warminster, September 1, 1715, and died there February 25, 1788. He was an active member of the Baptist church of South- ampton, and a deacon from its organiza- tion in 1746, and succeeded his father as clerk and trustee in 1763. He entered into public life at an early age; was sheriff of Bucks county 1749-51 ; justice of the county courts 1764 to the time of his death. He was ensign of Captain Henry Kroesen's company of Bucks County Associators in 1747, and captain in 1756 of a Bucks county company. His most valuable services were however rendered during the Revolutionary contest. during which period to write of him is to write the history of the struggle. in Bucks county, where he was in the fore-

IIISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.

front from the "protest" at Newtown, July 9, 1774, when he was appointed one of the committee from Bucks to meet the "Com- mittee from the respective counties of Penn- sylvania" at Philadelphia, July 15, 1774. until independence was established, almost always representing his county in the var- ious conferences and conventions, serving as chairman of the committee of safety, county lieutenant, etc. He was commis- sioned colonel of the first battalion raised by the committee of safety, and took it through the Jersey campaign of 1776. He was vice-president of the convention that met in Carpenter's Hall, June 18, 1776, and was twice chairman of the committee of the whole in that famous convention. In 1777 he was elected to the supreme exe- cutive council, and served until October, 1779, when he became lieutenant of Bucks county. He was register of wills and re- corder of deeds of Bucks county, 1777 to his death in 1788, being the first person com- missioned for these offices by the surpreme executive council. He was elected in 1782 to represent Bucks county on the "board of censors," and on June 7, 1784, was commissioned by council as judge of the courts of common pleas and quarter ses- sions. The records fully verify the truth of the lines inscribed on the tomb erected to the memory of him and his wife at South- ampton; "His long and useful life was almost wholly devoted to the public ser- vice of his country ; while the lives of both were eminent for piety and virtue."

He married October 8, 1740, his cousin Elizabeth Collett, daughter of John and Marie (Crispin) Collett, and granddaughter of Richard and Elizabeth (Rush) Collett. She was born in Byberry, May 14, 1714, and died February 19, 1788, six days be- fore her husband's death. They were the parents of six children, all sons, William, John, Silas, Josiah, Joseph, and another Joseph, the first having died in infancy. William, the eldest died in 1760, at the age of nineteen, unmarried.

John the second son of Colonel Joseph and Elizabeth Hart, born November 29, 1743, was treasurer of Bucks county during the revolution, and was filling that position when the treasury at Newtown was robbed by the Doans and their gang of outlaws, October 22, 1784. He died at Newtown June 5, 1786. He married, September 13, 1767, Rebecca Rees, daughter of David and Margaret Rees, of Hatboro, and they were the parents of five sons and two daughters, of whon three died in youth. His son William was a physician in Philadelphia ; John was a merchant at Jacksonville for many years, married Rachel Dungan and left numerous descendants; Elizabeth mar- ried Dr. Silas Hough, see Hough family ; Joseph died unmarried.

Silas, the third son of Joseph and Eliza- beth (Collett) Hart. born October 4, 1747, was a farmer and lived and died in War- minster ; married Mary Daniel, and had ten children :

Joseph, the sixth son of Colonel Joseph Hart, born July 17, 1749, is treated of in the sketch of General W. W. H. Davis, whose grandfather he was.

Joseps, the sixth son of Colonel Joseph and Elizabeth Hart, and the ancestor of B. F. Hart, was born in Warminster, December 7, 1758. He was a man of liberal education and extensive information on public affairs, in which he took a deep interest, and always enjoyed the confidence of his fellow-citi- zens. During the famous Whiskey Insur- rection he was paymaster of Colonel Han- na's brigade, and accompanied the army in its march to western Pennsylvania. He was a member of the state senate 1804- 1809, and as such in 1805 was chairman of the committee which reported favorably the bill for building an alms-house in Bucks county, and in 1808 introduced the first resolution in the senate for the removal of the county seat from Newtown to a more central part of Bucks county, and which resulted in the location at the pres- ent site, Doylestown, two years later. He enjoyed a wide acquaintance with the dis- tinguished men of his time in the state, as is evident by his correspondence. He mar- ried, December 25, 1783, Ann Folwell, of Warminster, whose family was one of the most respectable and influential in the county, and they were the parents of seven children, viz: Thomas, John, Charles, Lewis Folwell, Thomas, Eliza Ann, and Clarissa Maria. The first Thomas and Charles died in childhood. At the death of the father, on April 15, 1811, the home- stead buildings and part of the home farm became the property of Thomas, the fifth son, who died in 1838, the balance being divided between John and Lewis F., who erected buildings thereon. The mother, Ann, died March 11, 1843. Eliza Ann, the eldest daughter, born December 8, 1797, married December 2, 1817, David Marple; and Clarissa Maria, the other daughter, married Joseph Carver.

John Hart, the eldest son of Joseph and Ann (Folwell) Hart, born in Warminster, April 9, 1787, was a man of prominence in the county, and for many years had a considerable political influence. When the British threatened Philadelphia in 1814 he and his brothers, Thomas and Lewis, en- listed in Captain William Purdy's com- pany in Colonel Humphrey's regiment, and served in the field until December, when the danger having passed, they were mus- tered out of service. After the return of peace he took an active interest in the military of the county, serving at one time as colonel of militia. He served one ses- sion in the state legislature, 1832, and filled a number of local offices. He was a warm patron of Hatboro Library, founded in 1755 by his grandfather and others. He married, March 10, 1810, Mary Horner, daughter of John and Mary Horner, of Warminster, who was born May 3. 1790, and they were the parents of eight children as follows

WW. N. Davis.

frank Hart

HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.

JOSEPH, the oldest son of John and Mary (Horner) Hart, born January 21, 18II, receiving a liberal education and grad- uated at Jefferson College, Cannonsburg, Pennsylvania. He followed the profes- sion of teaching for many years, and was deeply interested in public affairs up to the time of his death in 1898. He married Jane, daughter of William and Ellen Vansant, and had four children,-George WV., Charles H., Mary E., and Ella S. George W. followed the vocation of a farmer, married Jennie Valentine, had one child, Charles Vincent, who received a public school education, then graduated from West Chester Normal school, re- ceiving a scholarship to Dartmouth, grad- uated from that institution and afterward from Jefferson University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and is now practicing in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Charles H. was also a teacher, and at the time of his death, in 1881, was principal of a school in the Twenty-third Ward, Philadelphia. He was also connected with several news- papers, and enjoyed the reputation of being a deep thinker. Mary E. died in infancy. Ella S. taught school in Horsham, Mont- gomery county, for a few years, then re- turned home to attend her father in his de- clining years. She now lives in Hatboro, Pennsylvania.

WILLIAM H., second son of John and Mary (Horner) Hart, was born April 23, 1813. In 1845 he married Rachel Ayers, of Moreland, Montgomery county. They had three children, all of whom died in infancy.

JAMES, the third son of John and Mary (Horner) Hart, born December 15, 1820, married Rachel, daughter of Isaac and Emilie Hobensack. With his family he moved to Maryland and located near Balti- more, where as a farmer he continued to reside until the beginning of the civil war. Owing to the hostile feeling entertained toward northerners he was obliged to sacrifice his property and return with his family to Bucks county. He then enlisted in the First New Jersey Cavalry Regiment, in the company commanded by his cousin, Captain John H. Shelmire. In recognition of his bravery and courage he was promoted to major of the regiment, and at the same time held the commission as major in the United States army. He was repeatedly wounded, and finally killed, after the evacuation of Richmond, at the battle of Five Forks, Virginia, April 1, 1865. His remains were brought home and in- terred in the Southampton Baptist burial ground, along with his kindred. He left a widow and six children, all of whom are living.

GEORGE, the fourth son of John and Mary (Horner) Hart, born April 18, 1823, re- ceived a good thorough home education, and afterwards graduated at Yale. In 1849 he went to California, returned to Phila- delphia, became a partner in the mercantile house of Shunway, Hart & Co., married

Louisa Webb, and had four children, one of whom is still living.

B. FRANK, the fifth son of John and Mary (Horner) Hart, and the subject of our sketch, born March 22, 1825, like- wise received a liberal education and taught different schools in his native county and also in Philadelphia. He then located in Philadelphia, and was for many years associated with John P. Veree's rolling mill in Kensington, then became exe- cutive officer and general manager of one of the city passengers railways. After many years of close attention to business he retired from active life, and now resides with his family at 2010 Wallace street, Philadelphia. He is member of the Bucks County Historical Society, and takes a lively interest in the affairs of the county with whose history his distinguished an- cestors were so closely identified. April 9, 1867, he married Anna H., daughter of Thomas Barnett, Philadelphia, and had five children. John Davis, born March 25, 1868, died in infancy ; Sarah, born May 23, 1869; Mabel, born November 10, 1870, died March 14, 1873; Walter, born October 5, 1874; and Lydia, born September II, 1876. Sara, daughter of B. Frank and Anna (Barnett) Hart, married Rev. Madi- son C. Peters, the distinguished preacher, author and lecturer of Philadelphia, and has three children, Dorothy, Anna and Frank H. Walter Horner, son of B. Frank and Anna (Barnett) Hart, gradu- ated from Colonel Hyatt's Military School and is now one of Philadelphia's rising business men. Lydia, daughter of B. Frank and Anna (Barnett) Hart, remains at home with her parents.

THOMPSON DARRAH, sixth son of John and Mary (Horner) Hart, born August 14, 1827, went to Philadelphia, where he engaged in business. He married Susan Snedecar, and had one child. At the be- ginning of the civil war he enlisted as first lieutenant in his cousin's (Colonel Alfred Marple's) company in Colonel W. W. H. Davis's 104th Regiment, Pennsyl- vania Volunteers, and was later commis- sioned as lieutenant-colonel and commanded a brigade at the siege of Charleston, South Carolina.

ANN ELIZA, daughter of John and Mary (Horner) Hart, born January 17, 1817, died June, 1900.

MARY DARRAH, daughter of John and Mary (Horner) Hart, born July 18, 1818, died.

GENERAL WILLIAM WATTS HART DAVIS. a veteran of two wars, author, journalist and historian, was born at Davisville, Southampton township, Bucks county, Pennsylvania, July 27, 1820, and comes of English, Welsh and Scotch-Irish ancestry, representing the commingling of the blood of these different nationalities to which we are indebted for many of the finest types of American citizenship.

On the paternal side, his great-grand-

HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.

father, William Davis, was. an early settler in Solebury or Upper Makefield township, Bucks county, and while tradition makes him of Welsh descent, his environment and associations indicate very strongly to the the writer of these lines that he was either a native of the north of Ireland, or a son of an Ulster Scot, who had made his way to Pennsylvania with the great army of Scotch Covenanters from the province of Ulster in the first quarter of the eighteenth century. He married, about 1756, Sarah Burleigh (or Burley ) daughter of John Burley, of Upper Makefield, an Ulster Scot, who had settled in Upper Makefield about 1735 with the Torberts, MeNairs and others with whom his family later intermarried. Little is known of the life of William Davis other than that he was a farmer in Solebury and Upper Makefield, and died in the latter part of the century. William and Sarah (Burley) Davis were the parents of seven children, viz: Jemima, born December 25. 1758, married John Pitner, and removed with him first to Maryland and later to New Castle, Delaware; John, the grand- father of General Davis, born September 6, 1760; Sarah, born October 1, 1763, married Lott Search. of Southampton, Bucks county; William, born September 9, 1766. became a sea captain and died at sea ; Joshua, born July 6, 1769, removed to Maryland about 1800: Mary, born October 3, 1771, and Joseph, born March 1, 1774, of whom we have no further record.

John Davis, second son of William and Sarah (Burley) Davis, the grandfather of the subject of this sketch, was born and reared in Solebury, and at the age of six- teen years became a member of William Hart's company in the Bucks county bat- talion of the Flying Camp, under Colonel Joseph Hart, and participated with it in the New Jersey and Long Island campaign of 1776. Returning with the battalion to Bucks county he participated with General Washington in the Christmas night attack on Trenton. In 1777 he enlisted in Captain Thomas Butler's company in the Third Pennsylvania Regiment, later becoming a part of the Second Pennsylvania Regi- ment ; then transferred to Captain Joseph McClelland's company, was at the storming of Stony Point, and wounded in the foot at Fort Lee on the Hudson. 1780. He was in the Ninth. under McClelland, at the time of revolt in New Jersey, proceeded from there to York in January. 1781, and from there the company was ordered south under Lafayette and participated in the battle of Yorktown, after which Davis was dis- charged on account of his disabled foot and returned to Bucks county. In 1782 he was commissioned ensign of Captain Neeley's company, Colonel John Keller's battalion, Bucks county militia, and was one of the ineinbers of that battalion to enter into active service for seven months. At the close of his military service John Davis married. June . 26, 1783. Ann Simpson, daughter of William and Ann (Hines)

Simpson, of Buckingham, and rented the Ellicott farm in Solebury, where he lived until 1795, when he removed with his fam- ily to Ellicott's Mills, Maryland, where they resided until 1816, when he removed to Franklin county, Ohio, where he died January 25, 1832, at the age of seventy-two years. His wife, Ann, survived him, dying June 6, 1851, in her eighty-seventh year. Her father, William Simpson, was born in Ireland in 1732, and is said to have come to Pennsylvania about 1740 with his widowed mother and a brother John, who was the great-grandfather of General U. S. Grant. William Simpson married Ann Hines, daughter of Mathew Hines, of New Britain, and lived for a time in that town- ship, removing later to Buckingham, where he died in 1816. The children of John and Ann (Simpson) Davis were: Sarah, born in Solebury. October 12, 1784; William born August 22, 1786; John, born August 7, 1788; Ann, born November 6, 1790; Samuel, born 1792, died in infancy ; Joshua, born in Maryland, June 27, 1796; Samuel S., born September, 1798; Joseph, born January 27, 1803, and Elizabeth, born November 18, 1805. Most of these children removed with their parents to the banks of the Scioto, where they became useful and active members of the community and en- gaged in different · branches of business and professions.

John Davis, the second son of John and Ann, born in Solebury, August 7. 1788, was the father of the subject of this sketch. He removed with his parents to Rock Creek, on the banks of the Potapsico, Maryland. at the age of seven years, and was reared' to the life of a farmer. At the age of sixteen years he began to drive his father's Cone- stoga wagon with produce to Baltimore, and before he was seventeen was sent with his father's team to remove the goods of a neighbor to Pittsburg, crossing the Alle- ghenies and passing through what was then a wilderness with scattering settlers; the trip occupying about sixty days. In 1808, at the age of twenty, he bought his time of his father and began farming for him- self. His opportunities for an education being limited. he supplemented what schol- astic knowledge he had gained in his boy- hood bv the reading of books and period- icals of the day in the midst of a life of business activity. He had a thirst for knowledge, and, possessing a retentive memory, became exceptionally well in- formed on history and the issues of Amer- ican politics of the day. On one of his visits to his uncle. Lott Search, in South- ampton township, he made the acquain- tance of his future wife, Amy Hart, daugh- ter of Josiah and Ann (Watts) Hart, who was living with her widowed mother on the old Watts homestead in Southampton, and from that time until March 13. 1813, the date of his marriage, was a frequent vis- itor at his uncle's house. .

Amy Hart was born June 30. 1784. and came of distinguished ancestry, her father,

HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.

Josiah Hart, being the fourth son of Colonel Joseph* and Elizabeth (Collet) Hart, born July 17, 1749, and died October 25, 1800. He was captain of one of the Bucks county companies of militia during the Revolutionary war, under his father, who was commissioned colonel of the first battalion organized in Bucks county, in 1776, for the Jersey campaign. Colonel Hart was one of the most prominent men of his day in Bucks county, serving as sheriff, 1747-1751; justice of the courts of Bucks county, 1764, to the time of his death in 1788, ensign of militia, 1747. In the Revolutionary struggle he was one of the leading spirits from the time he was ap- pointed on the committee of Bucks county, July 9, 1774, to attend "a meeting of the several committees of the respective coun- ties of Pennsylvania, to be held in Phila- delphia the 15th of July, instant," until independence was achieved. He was born September 1, 1715, and died February 25, 1788, and was a son of John and Eleanor ( Crispin) Hart, grandson of John Hart, who came from Witney, Oxfordshire, in 1682, and married Susanna Rush, of Byberry. On the maternal side Mrs. Davis was a granddaughter of Stephen, and great- granddaughter of Rev. John Watts, born at Leeds, England, 1661; came to Lower Dublin, Philadelphia county, 1686, and married Sarah Eaton. He become pastor of the Pennepack Baptist church, 1690, and died 1702. William Watts, brother of Mrs. Josiah Hart, was prothonotary, clerk of quarter sessions, and associate justice of Bucks county. Mrs. Hart, mother-in-law of John Davis, died in 1815, at Doylestown, of typhoid fever; also William W. Hart, a young member of the bar, her son, and Mrs. Miles, another daughter of Mrs. Hart, all dying in the George Brock house, Doylestown, within a few days, of the same fever.

Soon after his marriage John Davis settled on his mother-in-law's farm in Southampton, and, at her death, in 1815, it was adjudged to him in right of his wife, and he resided in that immediate neighbor- hood the remainder of his long and active life. He at once became active in the af- fairs of his native county, to which he re- turned while the second war with Great Britain was in progress. On news of the burning of Washington reaching Bucks county, a meeting was called at Hart's Cross Roads, now Hartsville, on Thursday, September 1, 1814, to raise volunteers to take the field. The list of the men enrolled is in the handwriting of William Watts Hart, brother of Mrs. John Davis, and John Davis's name heads the list. He became ensign of the company then formed, which, after two months' camp and drill at Bush Hill, Philadelphia, proceeded to Camp Dupont, in Delaware, where their three months' service was completed. Ensign Davis, soon after his discharge, entered

the volunteer militia of the county, became active therein, and was in constant commis- sion for thirty-four years, holding in suc- cession commissions as captain, brigade in- spector, major, lieutenant-colonel, colonel, and was three times elected major-general of the division composed of Bucks and Montgomery counties. General Davis was a natural politician, a Democrat from con- viction, and became a power in that party in Bucks county. Sturdy in the advocacy of what he conceived to be right and strong in the reasons and facts on which his con- clusions were founded, he became a strong and eloquent advocate and was "on the stump" in many of the political campaigns of his day. He was appointed by Governor Wolf, 1833, a member of the board of ap- praisers of public works and held the office three years. In 1838 he was elected to congress from the Bucks county district, and made a splendid record as a congress- man. His speech in favor of the passage of the Independent Treasury Bill, June 27, 1840, was commented on throughout the country as a masterly and able one. He served on many important committees and took an active interest in all that pertained to the best interest of his district and the country at large. On March 4, 1845, he was appointed surveyor of the port of Philadelphia, and filled that position for four years. During the forty years from 1820 to 1860, General John Davis's position in the political arena was a prominent one and he

was closely associated and in constant correspondence with the leading political lights of that time, A lifelong friend of James Buchanan, he used strenuous efforts to accomplish his election to the presidency. He, however, disapproved of Buchanan's Kansas and Nebraska policy, and refused to indorse it, and became estranged from many old-time comrades in the party.

During all these years General Davis remained a resident of Davisville, where he operated a farm and saw mill for many years. In 1829 he built a store building there, and conducted a general merchan- dise store for many years, and filled the position of postmaster. He was an ex- cellent business man, frank and straight- forward in his dealings, and of unswerving public and private integrity. He and his family were members of the Baptist church, and he took a deep interest in religious and educational matters. At the outbreak of the Civil war he was amongst the very first to raise his voice in favor of maintaining the Union and putting down the rebellion with a strong arm. Had his age permitted would have gone to the front, as did his only son, in defense of the government he loved and served.

Amy, the wife of General John Davis, died August 17, 1847, and he on April 8, 1876, and both are buried in the old grave- yard at Southampton Baptist church. Their children were: Ann, who married, Decem- ber 10, 1835, James Erwin, of Newtown,

* See preceding sketch.

HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.

whose only surviving child married Henry Mercur, of Towanda, Pennsylvania; Re- becca, who married, January 5, 1840, Alfred T. Duffield, who succeeded the General as storekeeper at Davisville, and died in September, 1871, and his wife in 1884, leav- ing three children: J. Davis Duffield, T. H. Benton Duffield, and Amy, wife of Judge Gustav A. Endlich of Reading; Sarah, who married Ulysses Mercur, of Towanda, later chief justice of the supreme court of Penn- sylvania; Amy, who married Holmes Sells, a practicing physician at Dublin, Ohio, later a prominent physician and druggist at Atlanta, Georgia, where they resided during the Civil war; Elizabeth, who never married, and resides at the old homestead at Davisville; and an only son, William Watts Hart Davis, the subject of this sketch, who was named for his mother's brother, William Watts Hart, a member of the Bucks county bar, who was clerk of the orphans' court of Bucks county in 1814, and resigned to go in defense of his country when Washington was burned, and was adjutant of Colonel Humphrey's Bucks county regiment. At the close of the war he returned to Doylestown and died in 1815 of typhus fever.

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History of Bucks county, Pennsylvania, from the discovery of the Delaware to the present time, Vol. III, Part 12

Author: Davis, W. W. H. (William Watts Hart), 1820-1910; Ely, Warren S. (Warren Smedley), b. 1855; Jordan, John W. (John Woolf), 1840-1921 Publication date: 1905 Publisher: New York ; Chicago : The Lewis Pub. Co. Number of Pages: 1040

Author: Davis, W. W. H. (William Watts Hart), 1820-1910; Ely, Warren S. (Warren Smedley), b. 1855; Jordan, John W. (John Woolf), 1840-1921
Publication date: 1905
Publisher: New York ; Chicago : The Lewis Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 1040