USA > Pennsylvania > Bucks County > The history of Bucks County, Pennsylvania : from the discovery of the Delaware to the present time > Part 32
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31 Mr. Jones was born at Pembrokeshire, Wales, in 1721, eame to America in 1726, was ordained in 1761, and died December 26th, 1802.
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and a new one built on or near its site. The latter has been en- larged and improved within a few years, and is now one of the most comfortable church edifices in the county. The first school house stood until 1815, when a new one was built, which was enlarged in 1857. The graveyard was enlarged in 1846, by the purchase of additional ground of David Evans. The church was not incorpor- ated until 1786. The membership of the church has fluctuated at different periods in its history. At the end of the first thirty-four years there were three less than when constituted. There was an increase from 1788 to 1823, when there were one hundred and forty-eight members, then a falling off until 1848, when there were forty-three members less than a quarter of a century before. At the end of the first century the members numbered two hundred and fifty-two. The church is now in a very flourishing condition, and exercises a wide influence for good.
The names of the pastors at New Britain from the resignation of Mr. Jones are as follows: William White in 1795, called to the Second Baptist church, Philadelphia, Silas Hough, 1804, was stricken with palsy while preaching in the pulpit, and died in 1823, John C. Murphy, 1819, James McLaughlin, 1825, Eugenio Kinkaid, called for a year in January, 1830, but declined and went to India, where he became famous as a missionary, Samuel Aaron, in 1830, one of the most eloquent public speakers the county has ever produced, Joseph Mathias, 1833, and who frequently officiated as a stated sup- ply, Thomas T. Cutchen, 1835, Samuel Nightingale, 1838, Heman Lincoln, 1845, William Wilder, 1850, Levi G. Beck, 1855, A. C. Wheat, 1859, W. M. Whitehead, 1867, and Levi Munger, called in April, 1872, and is still the pastor.
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HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
CHAPTER XX.
BRISTOL BOROUGH.
- 1720.
One of the oldest towns in the state .- Its site .- Market town petitioned for .- Lot-owners .- Incorporated .- Fairs to be held .- Bristol in 1708 .- In 1756 .- Captain Graydon .- First county seat .- Friends' meeting .- Work-house .- Saint James' church .- The Burtons .- De Normandies .- Charles Bessonett .- The Wil- liamses .- British troops billeted .- Attacked by refugees .- James Thornton .- The Bristol of to-day .- Industrial establishments and churches .- Captain Webb. -Lodges and societies .- The bank .- Ground broken for canal .- Old grave .- Home for aged gentlewomen .- Major and Mrs. Lenox .- Its buildings .- Bath springs .- Thomas A. Cooper .- Taxables and population.
BRISTOL, the oldest town in the county, and one of the oldest in the state, occupies an eligible situation on the west bank of the Delaware, fronting nearly a mile on the river, with fifteen feet of water in the channel. A settlement at this point naturally followed the establishment of a ferry across the river to Burlington, and at an early day a road was laid out from the King's highway down to the landing.
The site of Bristol is on the grant of two hundred and forty acres by Sir Edmund Andros to Samuel Clift, in 1681, who sold fifty acres to Richard Dungworth, sixty to Walter Pomeroy, and one hundred to Morgan Drewitt. The remaining thirty acres Clif: left
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to his son-in-law, John Young, by his will dated November 29th, 1682, which his son conveyed to Thomas Brock and Anthony Burton, February 20th, 1695, for £20 currency. Upon this tract, which ex- tends northward from Mill creek, and also on a portion of John White's land adjoining, the town was laid out in 1697. It had the following metes and bounds : "Beginning at a post standing in the line of John White's land south forty-eight degrees east, eighteen rods to a corner post ; then south fifty-eight degrees west, to a cor- ner post standing by the creek called Mill creek ; then by the said creek to the river Delaware ; thence up the river Delaware ninety- four rods to a post ; thence north thirty-nine degrees west, fifty-one poles to a post ; thence west thirty-two degrees south, eighty-six poles to the place of beginning, being in Buckingham."1 It is thought that a portion of the Clift tract had been previously laid out into building-lots. The road that then led down to the ferry was the same as the present Mill street, and was one hundred and twenty perches long and three perches wide.
On the 10th of June, 1697, " the inhabitants and owners of land in the county of Bucks, but more especially in the township of Bucks," petitioned the provincial council, held at Phineas Pember- ton's, below the falls, to establish a market town " at the ferry against Burlington, with a weekly market, and the privilege of wharfing and building to a convenient distance into the river and creek," and that there "may be a street under the bank to the river and creek." The council ordered the town to be laid out, and Phi- neas Pemberton was directed to make the survey and draft, accord- ing to the plan submitted. The original lot-owners were Joseph Growden, Phineas Pemberton, John White, Robert Brown, John Smith, Thomas Musgrove, John Town, Samuel Carpenter, Thomas Brock, Henry Baker, Anthony Burton, Samuel Bown, probably Samuel Bowne, who married Mary Becket, William Croasdale, and Samuel Oldale, fourteen in all, who no doubt went into the invest- ment as a speculation. In 1790 Isaac Hicks was requested to draw a plan of the borough, and fix stones at each street corner, which was done. No doubt there was a house or two about the ferry before the town was granted, and after that the erection of buildings was probably accelerated. Bristol was incorporated into a borough by letters patent from the crown the 14th of November, 1720, on the petition of Anthony Burton, John Hall, William Watson, and
1 It was called New Bristol down to 1714.
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Joseph Bond, " and many other inhabitants of the town of Bristol, owners of a certain tract of land formerly called Buckingham." Joseph Bond and John Hall were the first burgesses, and Thomas Clifford the high-constable. As the charter came direct from the crown, instead of the provincial assembly, the independence of the colonies dissolved the corporation, which was restored by the legis- lature in 1785. The charter has been several times amended and enlarged, and the borough limits extended.
The charter of Bristol provided, among other things, for the holding of two annual fairs, two days in May and three in October, "in such place or places as the burgess from time to time may ap- point." These fairs were attended by all classes ; some went to make purchases, but the great majority for a frolic. Horse-racing, drinking, gambling, and stealing prevailed to an alarming extent. The young men generally went on horseback, in their shirt sleeves, with their sweet-hearts behind them, their coats tied up behind the saddle, with their thin-soled shoes, for dancing, wrapped up in them. They wore two pairs of stockings, the inner white, and the outer of colored yarn, the tops of the latter turned down to exhibit the inner pair and protect them from dirt. The negro slaves were allowed by their masters to attend the last day of each fair, when they flocked thither in large numbers and held their jubilee. After the fairs had continued three-quarters of a century, the people of Bristol and vicinity petitioned the legislature to abolish them, on the ground that they were "useless and unnecessary, and promote licentious- ness and immorality."2
We know but little of Bristol in its infancy, in fact it was only a feeble frontier river village, and has no history. The inhabitants may or may not have been threatened with fires, but in 1701 the assembly passed an act to prevent them.3 Oldmixon, who visited it in 1708, speaks of it as the capital of Bucks county, containing fifty houses. Graydon's memoirs, published in 1811, says of Bristol about 1756 : "Then, as now, the great road leading from Phila- delphia to New York, first skirting the inlet, at the head of which stand the mills, and then turning short to the left along the bank of the Delaware, formed the principal, and indeed the only street
2 Act of April 14th, 1796.
3 What is spoken of as a "great fire" broke out in 1724, but the value of the prop- erty destroyed is not known. The Friends at Abington raised money for the relief of the sufferers.
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HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
marked by anything like continuity of building. A few places for streets were opened from this main one, on which, here and there, stood an humble, solitary dwelling. At a corner of one of these lanes was a Quaker meeting-house, and on a still more retired spot stood a small Episcopal church, whose lonely graveyard, with its surrounding woody scenery, might have furnished an appropriate theme for such a muse as Gray's. These, together with an old brickyard, constituted all the public edifices of this, my native town." Captain Graydon, the author of this early sketch of Bristol, was the son of an Irishman who came to this country about 1730. His mother, the daughter of a Barbadoes merchant, was a native of Frankfort-on-the-Main, and he was born at Bristol the 10th of April, 1752. At his father's death his mother removed to Philadelphia and opened a boarding-house, the resort of the leading colonial worthies of the day. When the Revolution broke out young Gray- don espoused the cause of the colonies, and was appointed a captain in Colonel John Shee's Pennsylvania regiment, in January, 1776. He recruited for his company at Attleborough, Newtown and New Hope. He was made prisoner at Fort Washington, and exchanged at the end of two years, but did not re-enter the military service. After the war he was appointed Prothonotary of Dauphin county, and died there. He was a gentleman of culture and ability, and maintained a good position in society. At the time of which Cap- tain Graydon wrote all the inhabitants of Bristol were Friends, with the exception of the De Normandies and two or three other families.
Bristol was the first seat of justice of the county, where it was established in 1705. The same year the assembly authorized the erection of a court-house, a two-story brick that stood on Cedar street, nearly opposite the Masonic hall, with court room above, prison below, and a whipping-post attached to the outside wall. The lot was given by Samuel Carpenter. The building was used as a school-house after the courts were done with it, and forty years ago the house and lot were bought by William Kinsey. In 1722 a house of correction, with a whipping-post attached, was erected at the ex- pense of the county, which was replaced by a new one in 1745. The testimony about the workhouse is conflicting, one authority stating that it was removed in 1724 or 1725, two years after it was built. The building is still standing.+
4 The workhouse was authorized by act of assembly of February 22d, 1718, to be
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HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
The Friends' meeting at Bristol is one of the oldest in the county. For several years the Friends settled there attended meeting at Falls, Neshaminy, now Middletown, and sometimes crossed the river to Burlington. In 1704 the Falls meeting granted the Bristol Friends a meeting once a month, increased to twice a month in 1707, held at private houses. In 1706 complaint was made of the want of a meeting-house, and one was erected in 1710. The un- paid balance of the cost of building, £86, was assumed by Falls, Middletown and Buckingham. The lot was the gift of Samnel Car- penter, and the deed was executed to Joseph Kirkbride, Tobias Dimocke, Thomas Watson, Edward Mayrs and William Croasdale, in trust. The meeting-house was enlarged in 1763, the expense be- ing borne by the monthly meetings, and an addition purchased to the lot in 1814. The building being out of repair in 1728, George Clough and Thomas Clifford were appointed "to procure the same to be mended before the next quarterly meeting." It was used as an hospital during the Revolution. The Orthodox Friends have a small frame meeting-house, erected at the time of separation, in 1828. The Episcopalians were not long behind the Friends in planting a house for religious worship in Bristol, who built Saint James' church in 1711, which has had an eventful history, and yet gathers within its walls a large and flourishing congregation.
Of the present Bristol families the Burtons have been in that vi- cinity from the first settlement. Anthony, lately deceased, was the fourth in descent from the Anthony who married Susan Kean in 1725, and on the maternal side the great-grandson of Ann, daughter of John and Mary Sotcher. Charles Swain traces his paternal line back four generations to Benjamin Swain who married Eliza Rulon about 1743-5, and he is the seventh in descent from William and Margaret Cooper, through four generations of Woolstons. On the maternal side of the male line he is the sixth in descent, through the Briggses, and Croasdales from Ezra Croasdale who married Ann Peacock in 1687. The De Normandies, Bessonetts, and Williamses were among the early inhabitants, of Bristol, but the names of the first two families have become extinct.
built at the expense of the county within three years, to be managed by a president, treasurer, and assistants, and not more than £100 were to be raised yearly for its sup- port. As the house was not built within the three years specified, it must have been erected under a subsequent aet. By act of March 1st, 1745, the common couneil of Bristol was authorized to erect a workhouse in the town, which is probably the one now standing.
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HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
The De Normandies were a princely family of France, holding feudal tenures in Champagne from the earliest times, the heads of the house being the lords de la Motte. In 1460 Giulliaume De Normandie was made royal governor of Noyon in Picardy, and founded the chapel of St. Claire in the church of St. Martin. He married a De Roye, princess in her own right, and daughter of the lord of De Mailly D'Aisilly and Montescourt. From Giulliaume De Normandie descended Laurent De Normandie, the warm friend and supporter of Calvin, and the executor of his will, who fled to Geneva, and, as did his sons after him, filled some of the highest offices in that republic. From Laurent came Joan De Normandie, one of the deputies sent in 1603 to conclude a treaty of peace with the prince of Savoy, and from Jean came Joseph, named after his uncle and godfather, the celebrated Duc De La Trémouille. These were all counsellors of state and syndics of Geneva, as was Michael, the son of Joseph. From Michael came Andre De Normandie, the confidential agent and lieutenant of Frederick the Great at Neuf- chatel. In his old age this André De Normandie, born at Geneva in 1651, came to America in 1706, with his two sons, John Abram and John Anthony, and settled at Bristol, where he died in 1724. Of his sons, John Abram, in 1688, and John Anthony, in 1693, married Henrietta Elizabeth, and Mary, daughters of Doctor Francis Gandonet. The former died at Bristol in 1757, and the latter in 1748. The remains of father and sons repose in Saint James' church-yard. The children of the two sons married into the families of Bard, of Burlington, and Anderson, whose whereabouts is not known. Some of the De Normandies sided with England in the Revolutionary struggle and got into trouble, while with others Washington was on terms of warm friendship. The families were valuable citi- zens in the church and out of it. Some of them were physicians, and men of science and culture, and they owned considerable real estate in the county. Doctor James De Normandie, a physician with large practice in Penn's manor, was the last of the family to leave the county, and settled in Ohio about thirty-five years ago. His son James is now a clergyman of the Episcopal church at Ports- mouth, New Hampshire. The father married a sister of Samuel Yardley, formerly of Doylestown. Late in life Doctor John Abram went to Geneva to claim property left him and his cousin, by an old nobleman. He there met Voltaire, who was so pleased with his society that he made some preparation to return with him and lay
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HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
his bones here. The Doctor brought home a miniature given him by Voltaire, which is yet owned by the descendants of the family. Arthur Sands, of Trenton, is a descendant of the De Normandies.
Charles Bessonett, a son of John, a Huguenot refugee, who came to this country about 1731, was an active citizen of Bristol an hun- dred years ago, and was probably born there. He was a celebrated stage proprietor, and was the first to establish a regular line of stages between Philadelphia and New York ; the through trip was made in two days, at the low fare of four dollars. This line was kept up until it was succeeded by steam and rail. Believing the toll over the Neshaminy was too high, he purchased the right of way to the creek by a new route, and built a bridge over it ; but a heavy freshet came about the time it was finished, washed it away, and well-nigh ruined him. In 1785 he kept what is now known as Pratt's hotel. Before the Revolution it had the head of George II. for a sign, but when the American army was passing through on its way to York- town, the soldiers riddled his majesty's head with bullets. The name was then changed to The Fountain. The ancestors of the late Rob- ert Patterson were early residents of Bristol, and his grandfather, Robert, was an officer in the Revolutionary army.
The Williamses were there early in the last century, possibly members of old Duncan's family, the establisher of Dunk's ferry. Ennion, a thrifty cooper and baker, and a leader in Falls meeting, married Mary Hugg in 1725. It is related of him, that while he owned the property many years afterward known as the "Willis house," he set some men at work to dig the foundation for an ad- dition to the dwelling. Hearing the pick of one of them strike a hard substance that did not sound like a stone, he threw the laborers some change and told them to get something to drink. When they returned they saw the print of an iron pot in the earth. He said he had changed his mind about building, and discharged them. After this he rapidly grew wealthy. He subsequently built the front por- tion of the Willis house, putting in the west end the letters and figures, "E. W., 1735," in blue brick.6 This house was afterward in the Buckley family, and was used as an hospital during the Rev- olutionary war.
Bristol, lying on the great highway between the North and South,
5 In 1773.
6 Query : Was Major Ennion Williams, of the Pennsylvania line, a descendant of the Bristol Ennion ?
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HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
it was often traversed by bodies of troops, and on more than one oc- casion armies passed through it. On the 9th of November, 1757, two hundred men of the thirty-fifth British regiment were billeted in the town over night. The bill was presented to the county com- missioners, but as they refused to pay, the borough had to foot it. These troops were soon followed by a large body, en route for win- ter quarters. Bristol bore her share of the tribulations of the Rev- olutionary war. In December, 1776, General Cadwallader lay there with three thousand men, and in 1777 fifteen hundred were billeted on the inhabitants at one time. Armed boats guarded the river in front of the town to prevent the enemy passing. On one or more occasions the inhabitants felt the weight of the enemy's depreda- tions.
On Good Friday, 1777, Bristol was surprised by a party of refu- gee light-horse from Philadelphia, at daylight. Coming out of the city the evening before, they secreted themselves in the bushes about the ford at the Flushing mills. Then muffling their horses' feet and waiting for the sound of the morning gun, when they knew the sen- tinels would be drawn in, they dashed into the town. Placing guards at the doors of the principal citizens, they compelled them to come into the streets, where they afterward permitted them to put on their clothes. They did not tarry long, but returned to Philadelphia, with what little plunder they could gather, and some of the in- habitants, who were kept there prisoners several weeks before they were released. At the time of the attack, Bristol was garrisoned by a company of militia, but they made no defense. The royalists were anxious to capture their captain, but he showed his discretion by hiding in a friendly garret. In 1799 a portion of the troops which assisted to quell the "Fries rebellion" rendezvoused at Bristol before they marched.
James Thornton, a distinguished minister among Friends, passed several years of his life in Bristol. He was born at Stony-Stratford, in Buckinghamshire, England, in 1727, and landed in Philadelphia in 1760. He afterward married and settled in Byberry, where he spent the remainder of his life, and died there June 24th, 1794, in his sixty-seventh year. He was probably the ancestor of the Thorntons now living in Byberry.
The Bristol of to-day is a place of considerable wealth and busi- ness. Among the industrial establishments are, the Bristol rolling- mill, erected for a forge in 1851, but changed to its present uses a
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few years ago at a cost of $50,000, and employs sixty-five hands with a weekly pay-roll of $800, woolen-mill that cost $90,000, em- ploys two hundred and thirty hands, and pays $2,000 per week, felt- mill, cost $75,000, employs one hundred and sixty hands, and pays $2,900 weekly, Keystone forge, cost $65,000, and employs twenty- five hands when in operation, box and sash-factory that cost $15,000, employs eighteen hands, and pays $200 weekly. The last has turned out, in a single season, two hundred and fifty thousand packing and fruit boxes, besides a large amount of other work. Her citizens have in- vested largely in vessels and steamboats. They have built twenty- one schooners, sailing out of that port, ranging from two to six hundred tons burden each, at a cost of $260,000. Her steam and ferry boats, barges and tugs cost $153,000 more. Seven of her schooners have been lost at sea, involving a loss of $53,000 to the owners. The improvements on the river front consist of three pub- lic and six private wharves, built at a cost of $33,000. The borough has a board of trade. The flouring and saw-mills that Samuel Car- penter owned nearly two centuries ago are still in operation.
Besides the two Friends' meeting-houses and the Episcopalian church already mentioned, there are four other places of religious worship in Bristol-Methodist, Presbyterian, Catholic, and Baptist. The first named is the oldest of these four, and its foundation was probably laid by Captain Webb, one of the fathers of Methodism in America, who preached there before the Revolution under a chestnut tree on the spot where the church now stands. Bristol was one of the birth places of this denomination in this country. Captain Webb, a distinguished officer of the British army, who lost his right eye at the siege of Louisburg, and scaled the Heights of Abraham with General Wolfe, joined a Methodist society in Eng- land in 1765, and was preaching in Philadelphia between that time and 1769. John Adams said he was one of the most eloquent men he ever heard. He was authorized to preach by John Wesley, and when he retired from the army became an itinerant. He gathered the first congregation in Philadelphia, and laid the foundation of Saint George's chapel. He joined John Embury in New York, and worked zealously in the cause until the war broke out, when he returned to England. The earliest Methodist ministers in Phila- delphia, after Captain Webb, were Messrs. Pillmore and Boardman. The congregation of the former was joined by Mrs. Mary Thorne, a Miss Evans, of Bristol, who was the first female class-leader in
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HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
Philadelphia. The first Methodist church, outside of the city, was built at Montgomery Square, about 1770, by Mr. Supplee. Bristol was one of the earliest points where Captain Webb preached, and no doubt he formed the nucleus of the Methodist church there. Regular circuit preaching was established in this county by the Philadelphia conference in 1790, and the old court house was often used for that purpose. The first church building, a small brick, was erected in 1804, mainly through the efforts of Mary Connor, enlarged in 1827, and afterward rebuilt. It has a parsonage, and the congregation is large. The Catholic church, Saint Mark's, was built in 1845, at a cost of $2,500, burnt down and since re-built. There is a brick parsonage on the church lot, and a grave yard is enclosed with it. The Presbyterian church was built by subscrip- tion in 1844, and received into the second Philadelphia Presbytery, in 1846. The first pastor was the Reverend James M. Harlow, who resigned in 1850, and was followed in succession by the Rev- erends Franklin D. Harris, to 1861, Alfred Taylor to 1864, Henry J. Lee to 1867, Jacob Weidman to June 1st, 1873, who was suc- ceeded by the present pastor, Reverend James H. Mason Knox, D. D. From a feeble beginning this congregation has grown to be large and prosperous. The Baptist church was organized in 1848, with twelve members, and now numbers over one hundred and sixty, with a Sabbath school of two hundred scholars. It has had seven pastors in all, the Reverends Messrs. M. H. Watkinson, C. J. Page, W. H. Swinden, J. S. Miller, Taylor H. C. Bray, and John C. Hyde. During the pastorate of Mr. Page a new church edifice of brown stone, forty-four by eighty-four feet, was erected, at the cor- ner of Cedar and Walnut streets, which has been repaired under Mr. Hyde. The church property is valued at $22,000. The yearly con- tributions from all sources, have reached as high as $2,744.85. A small house for the society of Millerites among the Friends was erected in 1867.
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