USA > Pennsylvania > Bucks County > The history of Bucks County, Pennsylvania : from the discovery of the Delaware to the present time > Part 16
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HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
his way to Washington to attend Congress, stopped over night at Hulmeville, and were entertained by Mr. Hulme. Mrs. Quincy made a flattering notice of Mr. Hulme in her journal, and afterward spoke of him as one of the most practical philosophers she had ever met, and that "his virtues proved him truly wise." Mr. Hulme rose from poverty to wealth and influence by the force of his own char- acter. He became one of the most respected men in the county, was several times elected to the legislature, was the first president . of the Farmers' bank of Bucks county, and held other positions of honor and trust. He died in 1817.
According to Holme's map the site of Hulmeville was covered by Penn's grant to Henry Paulin, Henry Paxson, and William Carter. The original name was Milford, derived from "mill-ford," the mill the ford across the Neshaminy, the first erected on that stream and by driven by its waters. The mill, of stone, built prior to 1725, stood just below the wing-wall of the present bridge. A plaster-inill was connected with it, and subsequently a woolen-mill. The erection of the dam across the stream prevented shad running up which greatly offended the Holland settlers of North and Southampton who made several attempts to tear it away. The town site was first laid out into building lots in 1799, and again in 1803. Its incorporation into a borough, in 1872, gave it an impetus forward, and since then the improvements have been quite rapid. Among the industrial establisments of Hulmeville are a cotton factory, erected in 1831, two years after the old woolen factory and grist and merchant-mills were burned, where one thousand pounds of cotton yarn are turned out daily, a grist-mill, and large weaving shop and coverlet factory, and the customary mechanics. In the village there are two churches, the Episcopal, founded in 1831, and Methodist, in 1844, a large public and a private school, lodges of Odd Fellows, Knights of Pythias, and Good Templars, Young Mens' Christian association, two Building associations, Fire Insurance company, organized in 1842, a manufacturing company, etc. Johnson's building contains a handsome hall that will seat three hundred and fifty persons, with stage, drop curtain, etc. The bridge across the Neshaminy, four hundred and twenty-five feet long, was re-built after the freshet of 1865, and is said to be highest bridge spanning the stream. Three stages connect with the Philadelphia and Trenton railroad, and the Philadelphia and Bound Brook railroad passes within a mile of the village. Beechwood cemetery, a handsomely laid out burial
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HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
place, is located on the brow of the hill on the south bank of the Neshaminy.
Grace Episcopal church, Hulmeville, was formerly a mission sta- tion of St. James' church, Bristol. A Sunday school was organized about 1826, and occasional service was held in the old school-house. A subscription to raise funds for "an Episcopal church edifice" was started July 18th, 1831, naming George Harrison, G. W. Rue, and William Johnson trustees. The principal subscribers were Reverend George W. Ridgeley, George Harrison, Elizabeth and Hannah Gill, and Esther Rodman, each one hundred dollars, besides many others of fifty dollars, and less. The building was commenced September 16th, 1831, and finished October 21st, same year, a plain stone structure sixty by forty feet. It was consecrated July 3d, 1837. In 1866 the church was remodeled and enlarged, and a two-story Sunday school-room erected in the rear. A tower was added to the church the following year. The cost of the improvements was about four thousand dollars. A post-office was established at Huline- ville in 1809, and Isaac Hulme appointed the first postmaster.
The third village of Middletown is Oxford Valley, a place of twenty- five families, situated at the intersection of the roads leading from Bristol to Dolington, and from Attleborough to Trenton, on the south side of Edge hill. It was originally settled by the Watsons, who owned a large tract of land around it, but all except one of the name have long disappeared and their broad acres have fallen into
other hands. The ancient name was Oxford, supposed to have been so called from a primitive-looking ox on the tavern sign, and a bad ford over the creek that runs through the place. When the post-office was established in 1844, the hamlet was called Oxford Valley. Of late years there has been considerable improvement, and a number of new buildings erected. Two of the old houses, one hundred and fifty years old, are still standing. Among the buildings there are a school-house, church, public hall and a mill. This locality, or near it, was probably " Honey hill," the original home of the Watsons.
The excellent water privileges along the Neshaminy led to the early erection of mills. There was a mill in the township as early as about 1703, but its location is unknown, although it is probable that the ruins of the mill on the farm of Moses Knight, a mile below Attleborough, are the remains of it. Heaton's was one of the earliest mills on this stream, and it is supposed to have stood on or about
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HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
the site of Vansant's mill. Timothy Roberts owned a flour mill on the Neshaminy some years before the middle of the last century, and in 1749 it belonged to Stephen Williams. Williams had a wharf and store-house at Margaret Johnson's landing on the creek, whither he hauled flour to be shipped in boats or flats. In dry times the people of Bristol hauled their corn to this mill to be ground. 15 Mitchell's mill, on the Neshaminy opposite Oregon, then called Com- fort's ford, was an early one, and re-built in 1795. William Rod- man re-built Growden's mill 16 in 1764. Jesse Comfort's mill at Bridgetown, between Newtown and Attleborough, ranks among the old mills in the lower end of the county, having been built about 1731 or 1732.
Middletown was well provided with local roads at an early day, which were increased according to the wants of her inhabitants. In 1712 a road was laid out from John Wildman's to the Durham road. The King's highway, from Attleborough to Scott's ford, on Po- quessing, was widened to fifty feet in 1753. There was a jury on it in December, 1748, probably to re-lay and straighten it. In 1795 the court was asked to straighten it from the falls to the Neshaminy via Attleborough. A road from Yardley's ferry, to the bridge over the Neshaminy, was laid out in 1767, but probably it was only the · re-laying and straightening of the road already running between these points. The old road from Philadelphia to New York via Kirkbride's ferry on the Delaware passed through Hulmeville, crossing the Neshaminy at Galloway's ford, and by Attleborough and Oxford Valley. In 1749 a road fifty feet wide and used as a stage road was laid out from the Chicken's-foot, half a mile above Fallsington, through Hulmeville and across Neshaminy to the Bristol pike at Andalusia. It shortened the road between Phila- delphia and New York about four miles. What is now Main street, Hulmeville, was laid out in 1799. The bridge across Neshaminy was built soon after the road was laid out from Chicken's-foot in 1794. Several roads concentrated at Hulmeville in early times. On the eastern edge of the borough, near the Methodist church, was a deposit of iron ore quite extensively worked a hundred years ago by a Philadelphia company, whither it was shipped and smelted.
Among the natives of this township, who gained prominence in
15 Neither the location of the mill, nor the wharf and landing, are known. Gal- loway's ford was between Oregon und Hulmeville. 16 On the Neshaminy.
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HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
the world, was Peter Peterson Vanhorne, a son of one of the two Hollanders of that name who settled near Attleborough. He be- came a noted Baptist minister. He was born August 24th, 1719, and bred and educated a Lutheran, but embraced the principles of the Baptists, and was baptised September 6th, 1741, ordained pastor at Pennypack June 18th, 1747, removed to Pemberton, New Jersey, in 1763, and to Cape May in 1770. He returned twice to Pennypack, and was pastor at Dividing Ridge and Salem in 1789. He married Margaret Marshall, and had eight children. His eldest son, William, was pastor at Southampton, and a chaplain in the Revolutionary army.
In 1825 Arnold Myers, a gentleman from London, bought the old Simon Gillam farm in Middletown and settled there. He was a cultivated and scholarly man. He was engaged in mercantile pur- suits at Naples and Trieste, where he was "agent for Lloyds" several years, married in Antwerp, and after residing there a considerable time came to the United States. His son Leonard Myers, several years member of Congress from Philadelphia, was born in Middle- town. Mardon Wilson, who was born in Byberry in 1789, and died near Wilmington, Delaware, in 1874, spent the greater part of his life in Middletown, carrying on milling at the Neshaminy crossing, on the road from Attleborough to the Buck tavern. He was a man of ability, integrity and energy, and an advocate of all the reforms of the day.
In 1742 there were about one hundred taxables in the township, of whom seventeen were single men. William Paxson and John Praul were overseers of the poor, the poor-rate being two pence per pound, and six shillings a head for single men. The amount of poor tax collected that year was £21. 2s. 6d. In 1760 the taxables had increased to one hundred and thirty-one, and there were one hun- dred and twenty-two in 1762, a slight falling off. In 1784 the population of Middletown was six hundred and ninety-eight whites and forty-three blacks, and one hundred and twenty-four dwellings. It was 1,663 in 1810; 1,891 in 1820; 2,178 in 1830, and 424 tax- ables ; 2,124 in 1840; 2,223 in 1850; 2,265 in 1860, and 2,360 in 1870, of whom 122 were foreign-born.
Among the accidents recorded in this township was that which happened to Robert Skirm and wife, in April, 1809, on their way to Philadelphia. In crossing Mitchell's bridge over the Neshaminy, the horse leaped over the railing, killing Mr. Skirm and badly in-
12
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HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
juring his wife. Among the deaths of aged persons in this century, in Middletown, was Sarah Carey, relict of Samuel Carey, June 7th, 1808, in her ninetieth year.
On rising ground near the Neshaminy, and on the farm formerly the property of Doctor Shippen, and now called Farley, is the old Williamson burying-ground, where lie many of the descendants of ancient Duncan Williamson, who settled in Bensalem years before William Penn landed on the Delaware.
Middletown, like the other townships of the group of 1692, is de- voted to agriculture, and her intelligent farmers live in independence on their well-cultivated farms. The Neshaminy and its tributaries water her fertile acres, which slope gradually to receive the warm rays of the southern sun.
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HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
CHAPTER XII.
WILLIAM PENN RETURNS TO PENNSYLVANIA AND LIVES IN BUCKS COUNTY .- RE-SURVEY.
1699 TO 1702.
Penn sails for Pennsylvania .- James Logan .- Penn and family live at Pennsbury .- Expenses moderate .- Butter from Rhode Island .- Ale, beer, wine .- Tea and coffee .- The Swedes furnish pork and shad .- Servants employed .- John Sotcher, Mary Lofty, Ralph, Nicholas, et al .- Method of traveling .- His barge .- Articles of dress .- Domestic life .- Marriages at Pennsbury .- Arrangements to return to England .- Great Indian council .- Indians explain their idea of God .- Penn and family sail for London .- Pennsbury left in charge of John Sotcher and wife .-- Their descendants .- Lord Cornbury .- William Penn, jr .- Pennsbury house .- Unhealthy years .- Cutler's re-surveys.
WILLIAM PENN, accompanied by his wife, his daughter Letitia, and James Logan, his private secretary, sailed from England, on his second visit to Pennsylvania, the 3d of September, 1699. The vessel arrived at Philadelphia the 10th of December, when, after tar- rying in the city a few days, Penn and his family proceeded to the manor house, not yet finished, in Falls township. There they made their home during their stay in Pennsylvania. Logan remained at Philadelphia to attend to public affairs and look after the interests of the Proprietary.
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HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
James Logan, who was destined to play an important part in the early history of the province, was the son of Patrick Logan, of Lur- gan, Ireland, and descended of Scotch ancestry. His father was educated for the church, but joining the Friends his son followed his footsteps. He was a good Latin, Greek and Hebrew scholar at thirteen, instructed himself in mathematics at sixteen, and at nine- teen he was familiar with French, Italian and Spanish. He was pre-eminent as a man of learning, and his leisure time was devoted to the sciences. He was a friend to the Indians, a true patriot, and a benefactor to Pennsylvania. He held several public offices, includ- ing chief-justice, and he managed the affairs of the province with great fidelity and good judgment. His gift of eight hundred acres of land in this county to the Loganian library company of Philadel- phia was more valuable at that day than Astor's to New York. He died at Stenton, near Germantown, October 31st, 1751, in his seventy-seventh year.
While the Proprietary and his family lived at Pennsbury, they were well supplied with the good things of life. There was good cheer at the manorial mansion for all comers. The steward bought flour by the ton, molasses by the hogshead, sherry and canary wines by the dozen, cranberries by the bushel, and cider and olives by the barrel. The candles came from Boston, and butter from Rhode Island. The cellar was stocked with several kinds of spirituous and malt liquors-beer, cider, sherry, Madeira, Canary and claret. In 1681, the year before his first visit to Pennsylvania, he wrote to James Harrison : "By East goes some wine and strong beer. Let the beer be sold ; of the wine, some may be kept for me, especially sack, or such like, which will be better for age." He bought a little brandy or rum for the Indians, on the occasion of a treaty or official visit. Small-beer was brewed at Pennsbury, and now and then a "runnel of ale" was fetched from Philadelphia. There was au orchard on the premises, and cider was made for family use. Penn was temperate in all his habits. He was the especial enemy of to- bacco, and we know of his expending but ten pence for the weed while at Pennsbury, probably for an Indian visitor. His expendi- tures were not extravagant for a gentleman of his rank, his whole expenses for the two years he lived there being but £2,049, Penn- sylvania currency. While he lived in elegance, he maintained his own maxim, that " extravagance destroys hospitality and wrongs the poor." He practiced a wise economy in all things.
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HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
Although tea and coffee were not in general use in the beginning of the last century, the family at the manor indulged in these luxu- ries, sometimes sending to New York to get them. The Swedes at Philadelphia supplied Penn with smoked venison, pork, shad, and beef, and the beef at Pennsbury was roasted in a "dog-wheel,"1 at least so wrote good Hannah Penn. August 6th, 1700, William Penn writes James Logan to send " a flitch of our bacon, chocolate, a cask of middling flour, and some coffee berries, four pounds. Some flat and deep earthen pans for milk and bacon, a cask of Indian meal. Search for an ordinary side saddle and pillion, and some coarse linen for towels." In September he again writes : "We want rum here, having not a quarter of a pint in the house among so many workmen ; best, in bottles sealed down, or it may be drawn and mixed." The great founder knew how to prevent interlopers poaching on the contents of his bottles. Hannah Penn wants "Betty Webb," who appears to have had charge of the town house, to send her "two mops to wash house with, four silver salts, and the two handle porringer," besides "the piece of dried beef." The leaden tank at the top of the house and the pipes gave great trouble, and Penn writes to Logan, "to send up Cornelius Empson's man speedily if he has tools to mend them, for the house suffers ir. great rains."
A number of servants were employed at Pennsbury to keep up the state the Proprietary found it necessary to maintain, but we have only been able to learn the names of some of them. James Harri- son was the chief steward, and trusted friend of Penn, from 1682 to his death, in 1687. At the close of 1684, Penn sent from England four servants, a gardener, and three carpenters, one of the latter probably being Henry Gibbs, who was buried at the "Point," No- vember 9th, 1685. Next in importance to Harrison was John Sotcher, who filled his place after his death, and Mary Lofty, the housekeeper. The gardener was Ralph, who died in' 1685, and was succeeded by Nicholas, but his place was afterward filled by another sent out from England, who received his passage and £30 in money, and sixty acres of land at the end of three years. He was to train a man and a boy. At the same time came out a Dutch joiner and a carpenter. Among the gardeners was a Scotchman, recommended as "a rare artist," and Hugh Sharp, who received thirty shillings a week while Penn was at Pennsbury. Penn directed that the Scotch-
1 A wheel in a box, turned by a dog.
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man should have three men under him, and that if he cannot agree with the old gardener, Ralph, he is to leave to the latter's charge the upper gardens and court yards, and to take charge of the lower grounds himself. In 1700 Penn's coachman was a negro, named John. Among other employés of the manor house were Ann Nich- ols, the cook, Robert Beekman, man-servant, Dorathy Mullers, a German maid, Dorcas, a negrine, Howman, a ranger, who in 1688 was complained of "for killing ye said Luke Watson's hogg's," James Reed, servant, Ellis Jones and wife Jane, with children Bar- bara, Dorathy, Mary and Jane, who came from Wales in 1682, and took up a tract of land near the present village of Bridgewater, Jack, a negro, probably a cook, whose wife, Parthena, was sold to Barba- does, because Hannah Penn doubts her honesty, otherwise she would have her up at Pennsbury "to help about washing." There was a "Captain Hans," with whom Penn had a difficulty, which had been "adjusted" and he "stays."
In the fall of 1701 Penn got a new hand, and writes Logan that he can "neither plow nor mow," is good-natured, but swears-a heinous offense with the great founder. Hugh was steward while John Sotcher was in England in 1702, and Peter was assistant gard- ener, at £30 per annum. Between Penn's first and second visits some negroes had been purchased for him, and placed at Pennsbury as laborers. "Old Sam" was a favorite negro, and "Sue" was prob- ably his wife. In April, 1703, Penn purchased two servants in England, of Randall Janney, one a carpenter, the other a husband- man, and sent them to Pennsbury. About the same time he sent over Yaff, "to be free after four years faithful service," and Joshua Cheeseman, an indentured apprentice, for two years. Penn loved him because he was "a sober, steady young man, and will not trifle away his time," and had he returned to Pennsylvania, Joshua was to have been made house steward. Logan was advised that he should "be kept close to Pennsbury." We learn that old Peter died in August, 1702, and Hugh was married that fall, and left as soon as his place could be filled, that one W. Goot left in the sum- mer, and Barnes "was good for nothing." The "distemper" pre- vailed that fall, and Logan writes Penn they were short of hands. One, named Charles, left before his time was up.2 Stephen Gould,
2 The Gentleman's Magazine, of a forgotten date, contains the following: "Died at Philadelphia in 1809, in her one hundred and ninth year, Susannah Warden, for- merly wife of Virgil Warden, one of the house servants of the great William Penn.
...
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whose mother was a Penn, was clerk to the governor, and is spoken of as "an ingenious lad, a good scholar, and something of a lawyer."
From the correspondence of James Logan with Hannah Penn we learn something of the history of William Penn's servants after his death. In a letter to her, dated May 11th, 1721, he says : "Sam died soon after your departure hence (1701), and his brother James very lately. Chevalier, by a written order from his master, had his liberty several years ago, so there are none left but Sue, whom Le- titia claims, or did claim as given to her when you went to England. She has several children. There are, besides, two old negroes quite worn out, the remainder of those which I recovered near eighteen years ago, of E. Gilbert's estate." He concludes his letter by ask- ing for some orders about the house, "which is very ruinous."
When William Penn and his family had occasion to go abroad, they traveled in a style befitting their station. He was a lover of good horses, and kept a number of them in his stables. He had a coach in the city, a cumbersome affair, but he probably never used it at Pennsbury, on account of the badness of the roads. He drove about the county, from one meeting to another, and to visit friends, in a calash, which a pamphlet of the times styles "a rattling leath- ern conveniency." In August, 1700, he writes James Logan to urge the justices to make the bridges at Pennepecka and Poquessin passable for carriages, or he cannot go to town. In his visits to the neighboring provinces, and among the Indians, he traveled on horse- back, and as three side-saddles are inventoried among the goods at Pennsbury, no doubt his wife and daughter accompanied him some- times. The cash-book tells us of the expense of himself and family going to fairs, and Indian canticoes, probably gotten up to amuse the Proprietary. His favorite mode of travel was by water, and at Pennsbury he kept a barge for his own use, boats for the use of the plantation, and smaller boats, used probably for hunting and fishing along the river. The barge was new in 1700; it had one
This aged woman was born in William Penn's house at Pennsbury manor, in March, 1701, and has of late been supported by the Penn family." We doubt the correctness of part of this statement. In 1733 Thomas Penn purchased, of J. Warder, of Bucks county, a negro, afterwards known as Virgil. He was then twenty years of age, hav- ing been born in 1713, and was very old when he died. He and his wife lived in the kitchen at Springettsbury. The death referred to, in the Gentleman's Magazine, was no doubt the wife of this old negro. Virgil could not have been a house servant of William Penn, for he was only five years old when the Proprietary died, in England. His wife may have been born at Pennsbury.
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mast and sail, and six oars, with officers and crew, among whom were George Markham, boatswain, and Michael Larzilere, cocks- wain. It had an awning to protect the passengers from the sun, and no doubt a pennant with the Penn arms, or some other device on it. After he returned to England it was preserved with great care, and Logan had a house built over it at the landing. It was only used once again before the arrival of William Penn, jr., in 1703.
William Penn generally made his trips between Pennsbury and Philadelphia in his barge, and he frequently stopped on the way to visit his friend Governor Jennings, at Burlington. It is related in Janney's life of Penn, that on one occasion Jennings and some of his friends were enjoying their pipes, a practice which Penn dis- liked. On hearing that Penn's barge was in sight, they put away their pipes that their friend might not be annoyed, and endeavored to conceal from him what they had been about. He came upon them, however, unawares, and pleasantly remarked that he was glad they had sufficient sense of propriety to be ashamed of the practice. Jennings, who was rarely at a loss for an answer, rejoined that they were not ashamed, but desired " to avoid hurting a weak brother."
It would be interesting to know how William Penn dressed while he resided at Pennsbury, a quiet citizen of Bucks county, but we have little light on this subject. The cash-book mentions but few articles purchased for the Proprietary's personal use, but among them are enumerated, "a pair of stockings," at eight shillings, and a pair of "gambodies," or leathern overalls, at £3. 2s. He incurred the expense of periwigs at four pounds each, and there is a charge " for dressing the governor's hat." The cut of his coat is not given, but we are warranted in saying that it was not "shad belly."
The heart and hand of William Penn were both open as the day, and he was noted for his deeds of charity. He distributed consider- able sums to those who were needy, and several poor persons were a constant charge on his generosity. At the manor he kept open house, and entertained much company. His guests were dis- tinguished strangers who visited Pennsylvania, the leading families of the province, and frequent delegations of Indian chiefs. In July, 1700, Penn was visited by the governors of Maryland and Virginia, whom he entertained with great hospitality. Logan was directed to prepare for their arrival, and to notify the sheriff's and other officers of the counties through which they would pass, to receive them in state. They were probably entertained both in the city and at
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