USA > Pennsylvania > Bucks County > The history of Bucks County, Pennsylvania : from the discovery of the Delaware to the present time > Part 13
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7 Probably an error.
4
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HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
CHAPTER X.
BENSALEM.
-
1692.
Bensalem the fourth township .- Origin of name .- Bacon's fiction .- " Manor of Ben- salem."-Original land-owners .- " Tatham's House."-Growden's tract .- Joseph Growden .- Trevose .- Grace Growden .- Nathaniel Allen .- Samuel Allen .- The Vandygrifts .- Old graveyard .- The Vanhornes, Vansants, et al .- The Tomlin- sons .- The Rodmans .- Rodmanda .- Large tree .- Joseph Galloway .- Joined the British army .- Confiscation of estate, etc .- Richard Gibbs .- James Benezet .- The Willetts .- Richard Bache .- The Sickel family .- Nicholas Biddle .- Dunk's ferry .- Slave Alice .- Township tax .- Presbyterian church .- Methodist church. -Bridgewater .- Andalusia college .- Death of Doctor Chapman .- Roads .- Oldest taverns .- Population .- Fisheries.
BENSALEM, the fourth township of the group of 1692, and the last that bordered the Delaware, was to include " all the lands between Neshaminah and Poquessin, and so to the upper side of Joseph Growden's land." On three sides these boundaries have never been disturbed, and the line with Southampton is doubtless the same as when the township was erected.
The origin of the name this township bears has given rise to some discussion, but like such questions generally, it remains unsettled. Some profess to find the solution in Lord Bacon's ingenious fiction of the New Atlantis, wherein he calls an imaginative island in the
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HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
ocean by the name of "Bensalem," and the word itself is said to be a Hebrew compound. But there is no such Hebrew compound, and the Baconian origin of the name is, doubtless, without foundation. It will be remembered that the jury that laid it out said, in their report, the name of this township was " Salem," meaning peace, or peaceful. The word Bensalem is found in our county records as early as November 9th, 1686,1 six years before the township was laid off, and in 1688 the Growdens called their five thousand acres the "manor of Bensalem."2 From this it would appear that the name was first applied to the manor and not to the township, and that when the township was erected it was called " Salem" instead of Bensalem. We are therefore left much to conjecture as to the origin of the name, but there can be no question that the township bor- rowed it from the manor. Joseph Growden fixed the site of his homestead near the north-west line of his manor and the township, whence he could overlook a wide scope of wilderness country falling to the Delaware and Neshaminy. Being a Friend and prone to peace, the word Bensalem fitly expressed his thoughts and feelings. We believe the name 3 was first applied to the spot he had chosen for his residence-the Hill of Peace, or Peaceful Mount-and then to the manor; but that when, in the course of time, it was given to the township, he changed the name of his homestead to Trevose, which it bears to this day. It was an easy matter for this cultivated Friend, by the union of a Gaelic with a Hebrew word, to form a new word that conveyed to the mind the delightful tranquility he experienced at his new home in the wilderness along the Ne- shaminy. After all, this is only a theory, but it is quite as sensible as the one that borrows the name from Bacon's fiction, and invents a Hebrew compound.
There were thirteen original land-owners in the township accord- ing to the map of Thomas Holme, 1684,4 of whom one at least, Lawrence Growden, was never an inhabitant of the county. The Growdens owned nearly one-half the township, and Gray and
George Martin to Joseph Growden.
2 Deed of Joseph Growden to Stephen Noll, for two hundred and two acres, " part of the Manor of Bensalem," February 12, 1688.
3 The word is composed of Ben, Gaelic, meaning a head, a hill, and Salem, Hebrew, peace.
4 Lawrence and Joseph Growden, John Gilbert, Walter Forest, John Bowen, Na- thaniel Allen, Duncan Williamson, Nathaniel Hardin, Samuel Allen, Sa muel Walker Claus Jonson, John Gray, and Als Tatham.
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HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
Tatham were the next largest land-owners. On or near the Ne- shaminy, above Rodman's creek, then called Mill creek, was "Tath- am's house," probably the residence of Als Tatham, a dwelling of some pretension no doubt. He and John Gray owned a large tract together running from the Neshaminy back to the centre of the township. Walter Forest owned the point between the Poquessing and the Delaware, and John Bowen the point formed by the Ne- shaminy and the river. The Growden tract embraced all the upper part of the township to the Southampton boundary, above a line drawn across it from Newportville to the Poquessing. Joseph Growden also owned a considerable tract, extending across from the river to the Poquessing, above and adjoining Walter Forest.
Joseph Growden, a Friend, was not only the most influential man who settled in the township, but one of the first men in the county and province. He wielded a large influence, and filled several im- portant positions. Soon after his arrival he built himself a beautiful residence on the northern part of his manor in Bensalem, near the Neshaminy, and opposite Hulmeville, which he named Trevose, after the homestead, in England. It was rather baronial-looking for a country dwelling at that period. An engraving of 1687 represents a large two-story stone house, with attic, divided by a hall through the middle, portico at the front door, pointed stone, pitch roof, and nine windows and door in front. At either end was a wing that contained dining-room, kitchen, servants' quarters, office, etc. The lawn in front was adorned with a few trees of large growth, while the background appears to have been an unbroken forest. A small fire-proof office to the right contained the public records of the county for many years, and its iron door still bears the marks of British bullets fired by a plundering party in 1778. The walls of the main building remain, but it has been greatly changed by its present owner. The interior has been remodeled by removing the heavy banisters, wainscoting, corner-cupboards, etc., while the out- side has been covered with a coat of plaster, and a story added. The noble trees forming an avenue that led to the mansion have nearly all disappeared. Gabriel Thomas speaks of the Growden residence in 1696 as "a very noble and fine house, very pleasantly situated, and likewise a famous orchard, wherein are contained above a thousand apple trees." In 1708 Oldmixon bears testimony to the worth of Joseph Growden, and his great services in planting this county with English colonists. Dying in 1730 his son Lawrence
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HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
took his place. He was a man of ability and attainments ; was a member of assembly, and speaker, in 1739; and a commissioner, with Benjamin Eastburn and Richard Peters, to run the line be- tween Pennsylvania and Maryland. At his death in 1770, his real estate descended to his daughter Grace, the wife of Joseph Gallo- way.
Joseph Growden's 5 daughter Grace married David Lloyd, a Friend and leading man in the province. He was born in Wales in 1656, and came to Pennsylvania in 1686. He lost a promising little son, seven or eight years old, under painful circumstances. A relative, in whose care he was left, in the absence of his mother, put him into a closet in the cellar for a trivial offense, which frightened him into fits, of which he died. William Penn, who was in the province at the time, writes to a friend, "poor Grace has borne her affliction to admiration." She is spoken of as "a very fine woman, of great piety, good sense, excellent conduct, and engaging manners," a good endorsement of a Bucks county woman of the early day. Her hus- band died in 1731, but she survived him many years, and was buried beside him in Friends' graveyard, near Chester.6
Nathaniel Allen arrived from Bristol, England, in December, 1681, with wife Eleanor,' and children Nehemiah, Eleanor and Lydia, and landed at Robert Wade's, Chester creek. He was one of the three commissioners, whom Penn joined with Governor Mark- ham, to confer with the Indians about the purchase of land. He held the office of Crown-inspector of wooden measures, and had to attest their capacity as fixed by law, and affix a stamp before they could be sold. He took up a tract of land on the Neshaminy, ex- tending to the Delaware, and adjoining that of Joseph Growden, where he died in 1692. The blood of these early pioneers of Bucks county mingled in the fourth generation. In a previous chapter we have taken notice of Duncan Williamson, one of the pioneer settlers of Bensalem. Samuel Allen, also from near Bristol, England, with Mary, his wife, and children Priscilla, Martha, Ann, Sarah and Samuel, arrived at Chester in the Bristol Factor, December 11th, 1681. In the spring he took up a tract of land on the west bank of the Neshaminy, in Bensalem, where he died 20th of 9th month, 1702, and was buried on the homestead farm. The place was afterward used as a family burying-ground.
5 The elder.
6 The Growden homestead is now owned and occupied by C. W. Taylor.
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HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
The homestead is now occupied by Samuel Allen Stackhouse. The first Samuel Allen conveyed, in his lifetime, a considerable portion of his real estate to his children, his son Samuel getting the home- stead and two hundred and sixty acres, and two hundred acres additional near John Swift's mill on the Neshaminy. In 1696 three hundred acres on the east side of the Neshaminy were con- veyed to his son-in-law, John Baldwin. The following year he procured an act of assembly establishing a ferry over Neshaminy at what is now Schenck's station, which was called Baldwin's ferry. The second Samuel Allen died in 1735, leaving his land to his sons, Samuel and William, and legacies to his other children. The one hundred and sixty acres of Samuel lay on the north side of the "King's highway," and remained in the family through six gener- ations, and until 1871. Two generations of Pauls owned the tract. The homestead property is situated near Bridgewater.
Among those who settled in Bensalem, at a later day than the first English colonists, were the Vandygrifts,& Vansants, Vanhornes, Tomlinsons, Rodmans, Galloways, Gibbses, Benezets, Kingstones, Jameses, Willetts and others. Some of these names became promi- nent in public affairs, and were of the highest respectability, and some of the families still retain a leading position in the township.
In 1679 four brothers Vandygrift, Nicholas, Leonard, Johannes and Frederick came to Bucks county, and settled in Bensalem. The first of July they purchased of Joseph Growden, respectively, two hundred and fourteen, one hundred and thirty, one hundred and six and one hundred and six acres of land lying on the Neshaminy. Johannes died in March, 1745. On the Bristol turnpike, just above Andalusia college, is the Vandygrift graveyard, where rest the re- mains of many members of the family. The ground, half an acre, was given by Fulkard Vandygrift in 1775, and is part of the two hundred acres that Joseph Growden conveyed to Nicholas Vandy- grift in 1697. Among others are stones to the memory of Abraham Vandygrift, who died February 20th, 1781, aged eighty-three years, and his wife, Charity, July 6th, 1786, aged eighty-five years and six months, and John Vandygrift, the husband of Ann, who died Au- gust 27th, 1765, aged seventy-eight years. No doubt these were children of the first comers of the name, and John was born before the family settled in the county. Among other tenants of this old graveyard is Edward Peter Aublay, a name now extinct in the town-
& Abraham Vandygrift was constable in 1727.
10
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HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
ship, born June 8th, 1767, and died May 30th, 1796 The Van- sants came abont the same time as the Vandygrifts. February 12th, 1698, Joseph Growden conveyed one hundred and fifty acres to Garret, and the same quantity to Cornelius, Vansant, 9 lying on the Neshaminy. The will of Johannes Vansant, of Bensalem, is dated October 30th, 1714, and he probably died the following December. The Garret Vansant, who died in Wrightstown in 1746, and where he owned real estate, was probably son of the Bensalem Garret.10 The Vanhornes came into the township at a little later period, but not until they had already been settled in the county. April 20th, 1722, John Baker, of Bensalem, conveyed one hundred and seven acres and fifty-two perches in this township to Johannes Vanhorne, of Warminster, and on the 6th of May, same year, Ber- nard Christian, of Bergen, New Jersey, conveyed two hundred and nine acres to Abraham Vanhorne, and June 7th, one hundred and seventy-six acres to Isaac Vanhorne, both of this county, which land probably lay in Bensalem or Southampton. John Vanhorne died in Bensalem, February 15th, 1758, at the age of sixty-six years. These families came from Long Island, the great storehouse of Dutch immigrants in the early days of Pennsylvania.
The Tomlinsons were probably in the township the first quarter of the last century John died in Bensalem, where he had lived most of his life, in 1800, at the age of seventy-nine. He kept a journal for half a century, in which he recorded many common- place events, and a few of interest. Among other things, we learn there was a slight shock of an earthquake felt there October 30th, 17 63, and a very white frost the 11th of June, 1768. He had a good deal to say in his journal during the Revolutionary war, calls the Americans rebels, which does not speak well for his patriotism, heard the cannonading at Trenton, and mentions frequent depre- dations by both armies. The summer of 1780 was a remarkably dry one, and crops suffered greatly for want of rain. He records two shocks of an earthquake in Bensalem the 29th of November, the same year.
The first of the Rodmans, who owned land in this county, was Doctor John, the grandson of John who immigrated from England to Barbadoes, in the West Indies, and died there in 1686. Doctor John Rodman settled at Burlington, New Jersey, where he prac-
9 Then spelled Vansand and Van Zandt.
10 Harman Vansant died November 8th, 1815, aged eighty years.
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HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
ticed medicine, to his death, in 1756. He was an active Friend. He and Thomas Richardson owned a large tract of land in Warwick township as early as 1712. Doctor Rodman purchased land in Bensalem, on the Neshaminy, about the same time, on which a dwelling was erected in 1715. On this tract his son William, born on Long Island, May 5, 1720, and married Mary Reeve, of Bur- lington, subsequently settled. He inherited it from his father and resided there until his death, in 1794. The plantation was at first called Rodmanda, but changed to Flushing, u his birth-place. This is one of the most notable homesteads in the county, and the old dwelling, that had weathered the stormns of one hundred and forty- six years, was torn down in 1861, to make room for a more modern structure. One hundred and thirty-five years ago William Rodman stuck his buttonwood riding-switch into the ground by the side of a fine spring of water, near the house, and in all these years it has grown to be one of the largest trees east of the Rocky mountains. It measures thirty feet in circumference, and its roots have long since absorbed the waters of the spring. William Rodman held several places of public trust. In 1768 he was appointed one of five commissioners to treat with the Indians at fort Pitt, but declined on account of ill-health. He was in the assembly several years, and in 1774 was a member of the committee of correspondence. His son William, born in Bensalem, October 7th, 1757, and married to Esther West, in 1785, was a man of mark in his day. He was an earnest and active patriot in the Revolutionary struggle, voluntarily took the oath of allegiance in 1778, for which he was disowned by the Middletown meeting, and served under General Lacey, in the mi- litia, in 1781. He was a justice of the peace several years, member of the state senate, commanded a troop of horse in the "Fries rebellion" in 1799, and was elected to Congress in 1812. His children married into the families of Ruan, McIlvaine, Olden and Jones. All the Rodmans were friends of the struggling colonies, and Gilbert, father of the late Mrs. John Fox, of Doylestown, the elder brother of William, was disowned by meeting for serving as major in the second Bucks county battalion in the Amboy campaign of 1776. John Rodman owned nine hundred and sixty-seven acres in Amwell township, Hunterdon county, New Jersey, within three- fourths of a mile of the Delaware. By his will, dated June 3d, 1756,
11 It was owned for many years by A. Murray McIlvaine, a relative of the family, but was recently sold by him.
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HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
he left this tract to his son William ; and the latter, by his will, dated, December 1st, 1789, left it to his sons William and Gilbert. On a re-survey in 1751, the tract was found to contain an overplus of five hundred and fifty-five acres, which was secured to John Rodman, by virtue of the "rights of propriety," purchased by him. The land was originally conveyed to him by lease and re-lease, June 17th, and 18th, 1735.
The Galloways came from Maryland, where Joseph was born, of respectable parentage, about 1730. He removed to Philadelphia in early life and established himself in the practice of the law, but marrying Grace Growden he fixed his country-home at Trevose, in Bensalem. He was much in public life, and was many years mem- bers of the assembly, and speaker. He was active in all the colonial measures against the British crown, was a member of the first Ame- rican Congress, 1774, signed the "non-importation," "non-con- sumption," and "non-exportation " acts, and at that time no man in the province stood in greater favor. In 1776 he abandoned the Whig cause, joined the British army at New York, went to England in 1778, and was examined before a committee of Parliament in 1779. He now became very bitter toward his native country, and during the war he wrote much in defense of the crown. His estate, valued at £40,000, was confiscated, but, as it came through his wife, it was restored to his only daughter Elizabeth, a beautiful girl who was quite the toast, as "Betsy Galloway," a century ago. She married William Roberts, an Englishman, but the match was an unhappy one. They separate , and she gave her husband £2,000 for the privilege of retaining their only child Grace Ann, who was allowed to see her father in presence of a third person. The daughter married Ben- jamin Burton, of the British army, and died in England in 1837, leaving several children, her youngest son, Adolphus Desart Burton, taking the Durham estates under his mother's will. The real estate in this county, principally in Bensalem and Durham townships, was sold in 1848. That in Bensalem, containing one thousand two hundred and ninety-five acres, was divided into eight tracts : Tre- vose, the old family seat, east Trevose, south Trevose, Belmont, mentioned as early as 1700, west Belmont, Richelieu, south Riche- lieu, west Richelieu, and Richelieu forest. These tracts lay in the north-eastern part of the township, four of them bordering the Ne- shaminy. A ridge, called Belmont, crossed the estate, running from the Bristol road to the Neshaminy, and down that stream. After
.
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HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
Mr. Galloway had deserted to the British, his office at Trevose was broken open and the documents and records scattered about. The late Abraham Chapman bought a number of his law-books. Joseph Galloway died in England in 1803, at the age of seventy-three. He was a man of great talent, and a politician by nature. After his defection he became a mark for the shafts of wit and anger of the period, and Trumbull lampoons him in his McFingal. Just before his escape a trunk was sent to him, which, on being opened, con- tained only a halter to hang himself. His path in life was filled with troubles and vexations.
Richard Gibbs, sheriff of the county before the Revolution, and otherwise prominent in public affairs, lived and died in Bensalem. He was born in Wiltshire, England, in 1723, of a good family, and received a good education. Being a younger son he was destined for a maratime life, which he did not like ; and arriving at Phila- delphia about 1746, he left his ship. Falling in with Mr. Stevens, a farmer of Bensalem, he accompanied him home in his market wagon, on the promise of a school to teach. While teaching he be- came acquainted with Lawrence Growden, county-clerk, who gave him a clerkship in the office at Trevose, which he held several years. He was afterwards elected sheriff. In 1770 he purchased a farm on the Bristol turnpike, which he called Eddington, after a place of that name in his native county, in England. where Alfred the Great de- feated the Danes. He inherited a handsome estate by the decease of his elder brother. He was a warm friend of the colonies in the Revolutionary struggle, and showed his zeal in many ways, at one time loaning a large sum of money, which Congress was not able to refund. The British troops frequently visited his house, and he was obliged to seek refuge in the upper end of the connty while they occupied Philadelphia. He was married at Bristol, in 1753, to Miss Margery Harrison, of New York, and had several children. He resided at Eddington until his death, in 1798. Mr. Gibbs was the maternal grandfather of the late Mrs. John Fox, of Doylestown. There is a family burying-ground on the Eddington farm.
James Benezet was the eldest of the three sons of John Stephen Benezet, a protestant refugee from France, who came to Philadel- phia in 1731, and settled in Bensalem prior to the Revolution, where he died. He was prothonotary, and clerk of the quarter sessions, while the seat of justice was at Newtown. His son Samuel was a major in the Revolutionary army, and afterward a justice of the
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HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
peace and prothonotary of the county. Anthony, the youngest son of John Stephen Benezet, became a philanthropist of world-wide renown. Of the Kingstones, who were in the township early in the last century, Abel was a worthy minister among Friends, and died in 1749, leaving several daughters. George James, a tailor who followed his trade at the Kingstone homestead, married Sarah Townsend for his second wife, in 1738.
The Willetts, an old family in the township, are descended of Dutch ancestry from Long Island. The grandfather of Charles Willett, deceased, who owned the homestead, purchased part of the Growden tract in the northwest part of the township. His son, Augustin Willett, was a man of considerable note in his day. In 1778 he voluntarily took the oath of allegiance, and served his coun- try in the field during the Revolutionary struggle. He became prominent in military affairs afterward ; was lieutenant of the coun- ty in 1791; captain of the Bucks county light dragoons in 1793; was several years brigade-inspector ; brigade-major of General Mur- ray's brigade of Pennsylvania militia in the western expedition in 1798, and was commissioned brigadier-general in 1800. In 1797 he commanded the troops which received General Washington, on crossing the Delaware, on his return south, and escorted him to the Philadelphia county-line.
We do not know at what time the Sickel family came into the township, but they were residents there many years ago. They are also descendants of Holland ancestors who settled at New York while it was New Amsterdam, whence a portion of them went into New Jersey. At the Revolution they were found on the side of their country. Philip Sickel came into Pennsylvania and settled in Philadelphia before the middle of the last century, and his son John was born in Bensalem in 1753. His son John, grandson of Philip, whose date of birth we do not know, married Elizabeth Vandygrift. Their son Horatio G. Sickel, born in 1817, is the most prominent member of the family. In his early youth he learned the black- smith trade, and carried it on at Davisville and Quakertown, but he always had great fondness for military affairs, commanding one or more volunteer companies. The civil war found him engaged in business in Philadelphia. He raised a company to serve three years and joined the third Pennsylvania Reserves, of which he was elected and commissioned colonel. On the expiration of this term of ser- vice he raised the one hundred and ninety-eighth regiment, and
B
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HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
served with it to the close of the war. On all occasions he proved himself a courageous and reliable officer, and was breveted both brigadier, and major-general, for meritorious service. For several years he has filled the office of pension agent, Philadelphia. In 1842 Generel Sickel married Eliza Vansant, of Warminster town- ship, and is the father of several children.
In 1794 Richard Bache, the son-in-law of Doctor Franklin, bought a plantation in Bensalem of Bartholomy Corvaisier, containing two hundred and sixty-eight acres and seventy-eight perches, which he called Settle, after the town in Yorkshire, England, whence the family came. It lay along the Delaware about the third of a mile, nearly opposite Beverly, and extending back to the Bristol turnpike. It is said that the land was bought with money received from Robert Morris, the last he paid before his failure. At the death of Mr. Bache, in 1811, the plantation fell into the hands of his youngest son, Louis, who sold it to Charles Marquedant, and died at Bristol in 1819. The mansion, with a few acres, belongs to John Mathew Hummell, but the remainder of the tract is owned by Jonathan Thomas. Richard Bache, who carried Franklin's silver bull's-eye watch, mis- laid it in Philadelphia, and it turned up twenty years later in the possession of a Lewis Groff, of Lancaster county, who had obtained it by purchase.
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