BIOGRAPHICAL AND GENEALOGICAL - 525 nor Geary as captain of Reeves Rifle Company, and in 1871, by same, as major-general of the Third Division National Guard of Pennsylvania, and bore a conspicuous part in the dedication of the soldiers' monument in Phoenixville. In 1873 was reappointed postmaster, and the next year resigned his position in the iron-works to perform the duties of this office, and was again succeeded in the former by his brother. In 1876 he was reappointed by Governor Hartranft major-general of the Tenth Division National Guard of Pennsylvania. In 1877 he was reappointed postmaster, which position he yet occupies. In 1877, at the outbreak of the riot in Pittsburgh, by order of the Governor, he assembled his division at Malvern Station, on the Pennsylvania Railroad, and moved with Governor Hartranft to Pittsburgh. After a week's stay in Pittsburgh, the Tenth Division was relieved from further duty and returned home. In 1878, by act of the Legislature, the National Guard of Pennsylvania was reorganized by consolidating the existing ten divisions into one division, thus terminating the commissions of field- and staff-officers. He most bravely and loyally aided the government in the war in defense of the Union and for the suppression of the Rebellion.. DOWNING, THOMAS, born in Bradninch, in Devonshire, England, Dec. 14, 1691, married, first, Ellen _____, and, second, Thomazine ______ , who was perhaps the mother of all the children, two of whom were born in England. He was a taxable in Concord township from 1718 to 1732. At Concord Monthly Meeting, 6, 3, 1730, " Thomas Downing & his wife made application to this meeting to com under the care of friends ; they having produced papers from under severall friends hands of their sober and orderly conversations where they have Lived, this meeting receiveth them." In 1733 they removed to Sadsbury, but in two or three years after settled at the place since known as Downingtown. Thomas married a third wife, Jane Albin, widow of James, and daughter of John and Mary Edge, 12, 15, 1756. She was a minister, and died 1, 23, 1759. He died 1, 15, 1772. There is reason to think that while in Concord he operated a mill belonging to Nathaniel Newlin, and he and his descendants continued to be mill-owners at Downingtown for several generations. The children of Thomas Downing were,-1. Thomazine, b. 10, 6, 1715 ; died young. 2. Thomas, b. 3, 27, 1717 ; d. 11, 19, 1736-7. 3. Richard, b. 2, 27, 1719 ; d. 7, 8, 1804 ; m. Mary Edge. 4. John, b. 10, 18, 1720 ; d. ____ ; m. Elizabeth Hunt. 5. William, b. 3, 24, 1722 ; d. _____ ; m. Ellen John. 6. Jane, b. 10, 6, 1723 ; d. 10; 29, 1795.; m. John Roberts. 7. Sarah, b. 8, 13, 1725 ; d. 7, 16, 1745 ; m. Joshua Baldwin. 8. Thomazine, b. 8, 15, 1727 ; d. ; m. Samuel Bond. 9. Samuel, b. 6, 11, 1729 ; died young. 10. Joseph, b. 10, 12, 1731 ; died young. 11. Joseph, b. 4, 30, 1734 ; d. 10, 7, 1804; m. Mary Trimble. Richard Downing (3) married, 3, 21, 1741, at Uwchlan Meeting, Mary Edge, born 7, 2, 1721, died 12, 13, 1795, daughter of John and Mary, of Providence. In 1787 he was assessed with a grist-mill, fulling-mill, two saw-mills, and a malt-house in East Caln, and his son Richard with a merchant-mill. An old saw-mill, which has been in the family for generations, has just been torn down. Richard's children were as follows : 1. Hannah, b. 1, 19, 1741-2 ; d. 4, 5, 1752. 2. Thomas, b. 10, 13, 1743 ; d. 4, 12, 1752. 3. Jane, b. 11, 1, 1745 ; d. 4, 20, 1752. 4. John, b. 12, 17, 1747-8 ; d. 1748. 5. Richard, b. 5, 4, 1750 ; d. 1, 5, 1820 ; m. Elizabeth Rees. 6. Mary, b. 7, 31, 1752 ; d. 1, 30, 1779 ; m. Daniel Trimble, 6, 20, 1776. 7. Thomazine, b. 8, 26, 1754 ; d. 5, 4, 1817 ; m. Richard Thomas. 8. Jacob, b. 10, 25, 1756 ; d. 10, 2, 1823 ; m. Sarah Drinker. 9. William, b. 1, 29, 1759 ; d.12, 24, 1759. 10. George, b.11, 8, 1760 ; d. 8, 10, 1765 ; drowned in the race. 11. Samuel, b. 2, 4, 1763 ; d. 10, 3, 1819; m. Jane Ashbridge. 12. Joseph R., b. 6, 19, 1765 ; d. 1, 17, 1855 ; m. Ann Worrall. John Downing (4) married, March 5, 1747, before Thomas Cummings, Esq., Elizabeth, daughter of Roger and Esther Hunt, of East Caln. He became a tavern-keeper about 1760, and after several years was succeeded by Richard Cheyney at the sign of the " King in Arms," where the Revolutionary county committee met in 1776. His children were,- 1. Esther, b. 12, 22, 1748 ; died young. 2. Mary, b. 11, 17, 1750 ; m. Israel Whelen. 3. Thomas, b. 1, 4, 1753 ; m. Sarah Jacobs. 4. Esther, b. 6, 30, 1755. 5. Hunt, b. 1, 12, 1757 ; d. 2, 15, 1834 ; in. Deborah Miller. 6. John, d. 10th mo., 1822 ; unmarried. 7. Samuel, m. Elizabeth Templin. 8. Elizabeth, m. Richard Templin. William Downing (5) married, 10, 10, 1741, at Uwchlan Meeting, Ellen John, born 2, 26, 1718, daughter of Samuel and Margaret John, of Uwchlan, in which township he was living at that time. He and his wife received a certificate, 4, 20, 1748, to New Garden Monthly Meeting, and settled in Bart, Lancaster Co. He married, 12, 19, 1765, at New Garden Meeting, Margaret Miller, widow of Samuel. Some of the family removed to Centre County. William's children were,-1. John, b. 6, 3, 1744. 2. Samuel, b. 8, 2, 1746. 3. Sarah, b. 1, 3, 1749 ; m. John Moore, 5, 1, 1765. 4. Mary, b. 7, 12, 1751 ; m. William Marsh, 10, 10, 1770. 5. Jane, b. 2, 25, 1753 ; m. Andrew Moore, 4, 30, 1777. 6. Hannah, b. 11, 24, 1754. 7. Ruth, b. 11, 12, 1756. 8. Thomas, b. 3, 25, 1759 ; m. Rebecca Starr, 4, 24, 1781. 9. William, m. Phebe Bicket, 12, 20, 1781. Joseph Downing (6) married, 10, 9, 1755, at Bradford Meeting, Mary Trimble, born 8, 8, 1736, died 7, 4, 1807, daughter of James and Mary (Palmer) Trimble, of West Bradford. Joseph was born in Sadsbury, Lancaster Co., and upon his marriage settled in the valley east of Downingtown, on property since owned successively by his son Joseph, and grandson, Richard I. Downing. His children were,- 1. Thomas, b. 10, 14, 1758 ; d. 10, 31, 1829 ; m. Sarah Smith. 2. Jane, b. 7, 27, 1761 ; d. 6, 20,1813 ; m. John Gordon. 3. Mary, b. 10, 14, 1763 ; d. 6, 20, 1813 ; m. Dennis Whelen. 4. Thomazin, b. 3, 31, 1765 ; m. Samuel Kennedy. 5. Joseph, b. 4, 9, 1769 ; d. 12, 28, 1.841 ; m. Elizabeth Webster. 6. James, b. 4, 11, 1771 ; d. 7, 31, 1831; unmarried. 7. Sarah, b. 8, 1, 1773 ; d. 1857 ; in. Samuel Webster. 8. Richard, b. 6, 26, 1775 ; d. 7, 2, 1807 ; unmarried. 9. Ann, b. 3, 1, 1778 ; m. William A. Todd, M.D. 526 - HISTORY OF CHESTER COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. Richard and Elizabeth (Rees) Downing had children,-Thomas, David, Mary, Richard, William, Elizabeth, m. to John R. Thomas, and Phebe, m. to Jesse Meredith. Jacob and Sarah (Drinker) Downing had children,-Henry, Elizabeth, m. to Robert Sharpless ; Mary, m. to George Valentine ; Sarah, m. to Reuben Valentine ; Henry ; Sandwith, b. in Philadelphia, 10, 24, 1799, d. 4, 4, 1847, m. Lydia Smedley, daughter of Peter and Phebe, of Uwchlan. They were the parents of Samuel R. Downing, now of East Goshen. Joseph R. and Ann (Worrall) Downing were the parents of William W., b. 12, 29, 1791, d. 2, 13, 1873, m. Mary P. Mason ; Samuel J., b. 12, 9, 1794, d. 8, 16, 1876, m. Debby Ann Downing, daughter of the third Richard ; Charles, b. 10, 16, 1798, d. 5, 3, 1863, m. Ann Trimble. William W. was much interested in the family history, and collected many facts relative thereto, now in possession of his daughter, Anneliza Scott. Charles had children,-Mary, Sarah, Daniel T., Charles, Joseph R. (now cashier of Downington Bank), and Edward. Hunt Downing's wife Deborah, born 2, 28, 1760, died 12, 27, 1833, was the daughter of Patrick and Patience Miller, and their children were Joseph M., Isaac, and Israel W. Joseph M. married Grace Stalker, and was the father of Thomas S. Downing, of East Caln. Israel W. Downing, born 10, 22, 1793, died 11, 10, 1831, married Lydia A. Thomas, 5, 5, 1824. After his death she married David Townsend, of West Chester. DUNLAP, REV. JAMES, D.D., was born in Chester Co., Pa., in 1744. He received his early education at the school of Samuel Blair, at Fagg's Manor, and graduated at Princeton College in 1773. He was a tutor in the college from 1775 to 1777. He was ordained by the Presbytery of New Castle, at Fagg's Manor, in 1781, and shortly thereafter removed to 'Western Pennsylvania. He was pastor of the congregations of Laurel Hill and Dunlap's Creek, in Fayette County, until 1803, when he was chosen president .of Jefferson College, at Canonsburg, in Washington County, which station he held with great respect until 1812. In 1806 the title of Doctor of Divinity was conferred on him by the college over which he presided. He was eminent for his minute and accurate attainments in classical literature, with which it is said he was so familiar as to have the ancient classics in his memory to recite, or hear and correct the recital of others. Even in his old age it was his delight to devote a part of each day to his favorite Latin and Greek authors. His influence in the college was very great, and he contributed much to its upbuilding. He died Nov. 22, 1818. DUTTON, JOHN, of Overton, in Cheshire, England, whose wife, Mary, appears to have been a sister of Job Darlington, of Darnhall, purchased 500 acres of land in Pennsylvania by deed of May 22, 1682, and arrived in the province in the same year. He located his land in Aston, extending across the township, and the upper line touching on the western branch of the creek. He was buried 5, 4, 1693, and his widow soon after married John Neild, of Aston. The children of John and Mary Dutton were,-1. John, b. 10, 29, 1675, at Marbray (?), in Cheshire ; m. in 1704, Eliza beth Kingsman, daughter of John and Hannah, b. 9, 6, 1685. 2. Edward, b. 1, 18, 1676-7, at Overton ; m. in 1701, Gwin Williams, and settled in Bethel. 3. Thomas, b. 3, 3, 1679, at Overton ; d. with smallpox, 10th mo., 1731 ; m. 1701, Lucy Barnard, daughter of Richard and Frances, of Aston, and settled on a part of his father's land. 4. Elizabeth, b. 11, 27, 1681 ; d. in Pennsylvania, 10, 23, 1682. 5. Robert, b. in Pennsylvania ; m. 9, 13, 1707, at the house of her father, to Ann, daughter of William and Ann Brown, of Nottingham, where he settled. He afterwards engaged in trading to the West Indies, and there are reasons to think that as the master of a vessel he went to sea about 1725, and was never heard of again. Thomas and Lucy Dutton had children,-Thomas, Rebecca, Richard, David, Lydia, Jonathan, John, Mary, and Sarah. Of these, Richard married Mary Martin, daughter of Thomas and Mary, of Middletown, and had children,-Thomas, Hannah, Joseph, Rebecca, Mary, Jonathan, and Richard. Thomas, son of Richard, married Hannah, daughter of Francis and Sarah Routh, and was the father of the late Thomas Dutton, of Aston, who died 9, 12,1869, aged 100 years, 7 months, and 10 days. A genealogy of this family was published in 1871. EACHUS, ROBERT, was a resident in Goshen as early as 1715. He became the owner of 400 acres of land in or near what is now the northeast quarter of West Chester, which by his will passed to his sons John and William. He died in 1727, leaving a widow, Elizabeth, daughter of Hugh and Elizabeth (Brinton) Harry, who married again, 1, 13, 1728-9, at Goshen Meeting, John Gleave, of Springfield, and died in Marlborough, 3, 8, 1758 ; buried at Kennet. The children of Robert and Elizabeth were,-1. John, m. 9, 22, 1734, to Hannah, daughter of Isaac Haines, of Goshen. He died Jan. 19, 1779. 2. William, m. 3, 25, 1749, to Sarah Peirce, of Goshen, widow. Probably left no children. 3. Robert, m. Mary , and had children,- Mary, William, and Robert. 4. Enoch, m. Esther Evans, and had children,-Sarah, William, Elizabeth, and others. William, m. Rebecca Townsend, and was the father of Townsend Eachus, senior. 5. Daniel visited North Carolina in 1762, returning the next year. 6. Elizabeth, perhaps died unmarried. 7. Ann, m. 2, 22, 1736, to James Wickersham, of Marlborough. 8. Alice, m. 9, 20, 1746, to David Ogden, of Springfield. John and Hannah Eachus were the parents of Phinehas Eachus, the first landlord of the Turk's Head tavern. Phinehas was married, 11, 23, 1757, at Goshen Meeting, to Sarah Trego, daughter of William and Margret Trego, of Goshen. The family tradition is that a Masonic lodge held meetings at his house, and that lie became responsible for the debts of some of them, which brought about his financial ruin. The sheriff seized his property, and the most of the land passed' into the possession of Isaiah Matlack, the tavern being purchased by John Hoopes. He must have had a taste for the classics, as he named two of his sons Virgil and Paris. Virgil Eachus married Bathsheba Webb, and resided for several years in Middletown, Delaware Co. In 1808 he married his second wife, Mary Starr, and after a few years re- BIOGRAPHICAL AND GENEALOGICAL - 527 moved to Maryland, but returned about 1825. His children by the first wife were Homer (born 7, 15, 1792), Joseph, Obed, Hiram, Edna, Betsy, Mahala, Abner, Preston ; by the second, Vanleer, Bathsheba, Minshall, Sarah, and Virgil Trego Eachus. EAVENSON, THOMAS, purchased a tract of 120 acres of land in Thornbury from John Simcock, 1, 6, 1687, and in or about July, 1688, married Elizabeth Woodward. Nov. 16, 1702, he purchased 317 acres, also in Thornbury. Elizabeth Eavenson was living in 1717, but Thomas in his will mentions a wife Margaret. He died in Thornbury about the month of November, 1726, leaving five children, all by his first wife, viz. : 1. Richard, m. 10, 4, 1712, at Concord Meeting, to Jemima Newlin, daughter of Nathaniel and Mary, of Concord. They resided in Thornbury, where his father conveyed to him 133 acres of land, Sept. 29, 1711. Richard died in 1739, leaving a wife and three children. 2. Ralph, m. 1710, to Grace, daughter of Richard and Sarah Arnold, of Thornbury, and settled in Concord, where he died in 1744, leaving children,-Jacob, Joseph, Hannah, and Phebe. His widow died about the close of 1746. He was an active member of Concord Meeting, though his parents do not appear to have been Friends. 3. Hannah, m. 10, 30, 1714, to Thomas Arnold, and about 1720 removed with him to West Bradford. 4. Joseph, m. 2, 10, 1717, to Catharine George, of Radnor Monthly Meeting, daughter of Richard George, of Llangyrig, in Montgomeryshire, Wales. To him his father conveyed 292 acres of land in Thornbury, 8, 12, 1717. 5. Sarah, m. first John Buffington, of West Bradford, who died in 1736, leaving four children,-John, Thomas, Mary, and Sarah. She married again, 9, 30, 1737, Anthony Arnold, by whom she had a daughter,-Hannah. The children of Richard and Jemima Eavenson were,- 6. Richard, b. 3, 3, 1718, m. 2, 11, 1739, to Alice Gilpin, daughter of Joseph and Hannah, of Birmingham. Their children were Esther, Enoch, Hannah, Thomas, and Isaac. 7. Nathaniel, b. 1, 28, 1720, m. 3, 20, 1746, to Elizabeth, daughter of John and Martha Palmer, of Concord, b. 3, 24, 1724. He became the owner of near 500 acres in Thornbury and Westtown townships, near the present Street Road Station. After his death his widow married William Hawley in 1769. 8. Mary, b. 11, 2, 1721, m. 1747, to Richard Barrett (?) George Eavenson, son of Joseph and Catharine, married Mary Williams. He flied in Thornbury, 4, 30, 1816, aged 89 years, 3 months, and 11 days, and his widow 7, 7, 1828, aged over one hundred years. Their children were,-9. Catharine, b. 3, 1, 1756, m. Levi Massey ; 10. Joseph, b. 6, 28, 1758, m. Ann Yearsley ; 11. Eli, b. 1, 12, 1761, m. Rachel Seal.; 12. Jesse, b. 10, 19, 1766 ; 13. Richard, b. 12, 26, 1770, m. 3, 24, 1803, Lydia, daughter of Benjamin and Rebecca (Eavenson) Jones, of Westtown. Their children were Jones, Mary, Benjamin, George R., and Humphrey, of whom Jones is the head of the Quaker City Soap-Works, in Philadelphia. The children of Nathaniel and Elizabeth Eavenson were Martha, m. to Benjamin Johnson about 1769 ; Hannah, m. 12, 10, 1766, to Moses Cock, of Thornbury ; Richard, d. 1, 11, 1771 ; Rebecca, b. 2, 1, 1754, d.. 9, 23, 1829, m. Benjamin Jones ; Jemima, m. 1782, to Benjamin Kirgan ; Elizabeth, b. 8, 15, 1759, m. 12, 4, 1784, to Anthony Morris. EDWARDS, WILLIAM, an early settler in Middletown, is thought to have come from Wales about the year 1682. There is no mention of a wife coming with him, but a son, John, accompanied him. In 1688, William married Jane Atkinson, a native of Yorkshire, he being then about sixty and she about thirty years of age. He died in 1717, and his widow about 1736. It is supposed there were other children than John by the first wife, while by the second there was a daughter, Sarah, who married Joseph Pratt in 1717. John Edwards, born, according to tradition, about 1671, inherited his father's land in Middletown. He married, early in 1700, Mary Ingram, of Burlington, N. J., and had children as follows : 1. John, b. 1701, m. in 1743, and had a son, William, who settled in West Marlborough, but later in life moved up the Susquehanna River. 2. Mary, b. 1703 ; m. Aaron Baker. 3. Elizabeth, b. about 1705 ; m. John Lawrence, of Springfield. 4. Nathan, b. 1708 ; married and settled in Middletown, where he kept the Black Horse tavern. His children were Susanna, Mary, Sarah, Hannah, John, and Elizabeth. 5. Hannah, b. about 1710 ; m. Job Harvey, Jr., in 1739. 6. Moses, b. 2, 2, 1721 ; removed to West Marlborough 1741, and in 1743 m. Esther Plummer, daughter of Robert and Elinor. 7. Phebe, b. 1724 ; m. in 1743, Benjamin Worrall. 8. Joseph, b. Dec. 10, 1717 ; m. Elizabeth, daughter of Jacob Malin, 1745, and in 1761, Hannah, widow of John Regester. Joseph Edwards, of Middletown, who died in 1858, was a grandson of this second marriage. He collected considerable of the family history, and began the preparation of the history of Delaware County, the completion of which was prevented by his death. 9. Amos, b. 1729 ; m. in 1761, Rachel, and had children,-Thomas, John, and Mary. The last, b. May 22, 1762, d. Nov. 27, 1816, m. Thomas Beatty, and their sons, John, William, and Robert, became distinguished cutlers. John Edwards, son of Nathan, m. Hannah Baker, widow, formerly Pennock, and had children,-Pennock, b. 6, 26, 1782 ; Nathan, b. 2, 6, 1784 ; John, b. 7, 15, 1786 ; Sarah, b. 2, 27, 1788, m. Joseph Leonard. John Edwards, Jr., in. Hannah Gibbons, daughter of Dr. James Gibbons. He was proprietor of iron-works at Glen Mills, was for several years a member of Congress from the district composed of Delaware, Chester, and Lancaster Counties, and was buried at Middletown Meeting 10, 5, 1825. The children of Moses and Esther Edwards were Sarah, b. 12, 17, 1743 ; Esther, b. 5, 11, 1745 ; Joshua, b. 9, 4, 1746 ; Caleb, b. 9, 7, 1748 ; Hannah, b. 7, 13, 1750 ; Moses, b. 3, 10, 1752 ; Mary, b. 5, 15, 1755 ; John, b. 12, 12, 1757 ; Thomas, b. 3, 20, 1760 ; Phebe, b. 6, 15, 1763 ; Nathan, b. 2, 24, 1766. EDGE, JOHN, with his wife Jane and family, emigrated from St. Andrew's, Holborne, in the county of Middlesex, England, and settled in Nether Providence about the year 1685. He was an earnest member of the Society of Friends, and the Monthly Meeting was sometimes held at his house. He had been subjected to heavy fines and im- 528 - HISTORY OF CHESTER COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. prisonment in his native country for refusing to act contrary to his conscientious scruples, and on one occasion was subjected to a public trial. He died 5, 10, 1711, aged about, sixty-five years. His children were as follows: 1. Sarah, m. 1686, to Thomas Bowater, and d. 2, 26, 1692. 2. Mary, m. 1, 3, 1697-8, to James Sharpies, and d. 2, 17, 1698. 3. Abigail, m. 3, 24, 1705, to Edward Woodward, and d. 9, 27, 1716. 4. Joseph, probably unmarried. 5, John, b. about the beginning of. the 5th month, 1685 ; m. 8th mo., 1709, to Mary Smedley, daughter of George and Sarah, of Middletown. He died about 1734, in Upper Providence, and his widow m. 9, 7, 1739, John Yarnall, and died 1781. 6. Jacob, b. 3, 8, 1690 ; d. 2, 7, 1720 ; m. 1712, Sarah, daughter of Rees and Hannah Jones. She married again, 11, 10, 1721, Caleb Cowpland, Esq. Of the foregoing, Sarah and Joseph are believed, but not positively known, to have been children of John and Jane. The children of John and Mary were,-7. George, m. 9, 19, 1741, to Ann, daughter of William Pennell, of Middletown, b. 11, 26, 1721 ; he died as early as 1752, and his widow m. 1, 11, 1759, James Worrall. 8. Sarah, m. 2, 5, 1739, to Lawrence Cox, and, second, to David Reece. 9. Jane, m. first, to James Albin, who died in West Marlborough, Sept. 29, 1750, and she married, second, Thomas Downing, of East Caln. 10. Jacob, m. in 1746, Margaret Paul, of Abington, and removed thither. 11. Mary, b. 7, 2, 1721 ; d. 12, 13, 1795 ; m. Richard Downing. 12. Rachel, b. 6, 29, 1725 ; d. 1, 31, 1779; in. Robert Valentine. The children of Jacob and Sarah Edge were,-13. Hannah, b. 6, 18, 1713 ; d. 12, 24, 1750; m. 9, 18, 1736, to John .Lea. 14. Jane, b. 9, 3, 1715; d. 3, 28, 1784 ; in. 2, 26, 1739, Thomas Parke, and 8, 10, 1763, James Webb. 15. Abigail, b. 8, 28, 1717 ; d. unmarried at Lancaster, 1781. 16. Sarah, b. 9, 19, 1719 ; d. 7, 23, 1728. The children of George and Ann Edge were,-17. Mary, b...11, 18, 1742-3 ; m. William Baldwin, of Downingtown. 18. John, of whom hereafter. 19. Sarah, b. 8, 24, 1746. 20. Ann, b. 12, 26, 1748 ; m. first, Robert Parke, second, Benjamin Taylor, and, third, William Trimble, by each of whom she had children. John Edge, son of George and Ann, born in Upper Providence, 10th mo., 1744, learned the milling business with his uncle, Richard Downing, at what is now Downingtown, and while doing business at the " high mill," now of Jacob Edge, was married, 8, 1, 1768, at East Cain Meeting, to Anne Pim, daughter of Thomas and Frances Pim, of East Cain. He afterwards owned the Hibernia Mill, on the west branch of the Brandywine, and about 1790 built the " Half-way House," opposite the much-frequented mill of his cousin, Richard Downing. He here acted the host and kept store with his eldest son for some years, and was succeeded by his daughter, Sarah Reese (afterwards Hannum), on retiring to the " Ship" farm. In 1792 he purchased from Dr. Thomas Parke the "Ship" property, enlarged the mansion to double its former size, and on the western half built for his son George the house now owned by John G. Edge, and established his son Thomas on the tract lying in the borough east of the present Hunt tract, and south of the Lancaster road, ex tending to the Brandywine. On this they had built the large mansion now owned by the estate of Charles Wells, deceased, and here Thomas kept store for a number of years. The house now (1876) owned by the Misses Reese, near the bridge, was one of the family enterprises, and he may be said to have been the pioneer in improving the southwestern section of the borough, as by him were sold the building-sites on which the older houses were placed. To his youngest son, John, he gave the Ship" property, 116 acres, now owned by Dr. Eshleman. He is represented as having possessed a great force of character and an active, enterprising temper, and was fortunate in business; a keen observer, he was given to sallies of humor or wisdom for the benefit of his neighbors, many of which were current long after his death, which occurred 9, 14, 1816. The children of John and Ann Edge were Sarah, b. 10, 10, 1769, in. ____ Reese, and, second, James Hannum Jane, b. 10, 18, 1771, d. 2, 14, 1857 ; Thomas, b. 1, 29, 1774, m. 10, 15, 1806, Edith Pusey, daughter of Joshua and Hannah, of Londongrove; Ann, b. 7, 8, 1776, m. Thomas A. Parke ; Fanny, b. 1, 29, 1779 ; George, b. 6, 30, 1782, d. 12, 31, 1831, m. 3, 19, 1806, Sarah, daughter of John and Jane Hoopes, b. 3, 29, 1784, d. 7, 30, 1832 ; John, b. 3, 3, 1785, d. 9, 11, 1832, m. 12, 18, 1811, at Londongrove Meeting, to Ruth, daughter of Francis and Hannah Wilkinson, of Londongrove, b. 12, 26, 1789, d. 5, 10, 1872 ; Mary, b. 10, 7, 1787, m. 11, 11, 1806, to Lea Pusey ; Pim, b. 1, 9, 1792, d. 7, 5, 1795. The children of Thomas and Edith Edge were Joshua P., b. 10, 11, 1807, m. 5, 3, 1837, to Sarah Ann Hewes, of Concord, both now deceased ; Jacob, b. 11, 21, 1808, in. Anna, daughter of Robert and Elizabeth Valentine, and resides on Beaver Creek, in Cain township. He is president of the Downingtown Bank. Ann, b. 4, 21, 1811 ; Hannah, b. 8, 7, 1814, m. 10, 23, 1839, to Alfred Cope, ship-owner and merchant, of Philadelphia. She was the mother of Professor Edward D. Cope, of Philadelphia. Thomas, b. 3, 3, 1818 ; Susan, b. 12, 11, 1819 ; Jane, b. 4, 1, 1822 ; Jonas, b. 1, 21, 1824; Frances, b. 9, 16, 1826 ; Lydia E., b. 12, 4, 1830. Thomas J. Edge, son of Joshua and Sarah Ann, while residing with his father on a farm in New Garden township, became interested in improved methods of agriculture, and was a contributor to agricultural journals. His labors in this field led to his being appointed secretary of the Pennsylvania Board of Agriculture, of which he has proved a very efficient officer. The children of George and Sarah Edge were Mary, m. to Richard Pim, Jane P., John G., Joseph, Benjamin, Sarah Ann, Lydia P., and Priscilla. Of these, John G. and Joseph own fine farms in Caln township. The children of John and Ruth Edge were Elizabeth, b. 10, 28, 1813 ; Fanny, b. 10, 11, 1815; Ruthanna, b. 10, 25, 1817, m. to Nathan J. Sharpless, now of Penn township ; William, b. 9, 4, 1819, was for some time president of the Downingtown Bank, now a member of the Stock Board in Philadelphia, with residence at Downingtown ; John P., b. 6, 22, 1822, a physician and unmarried. Dr. John P. Edge was born in the old " Ship" tavern- BIOGRAPHICAL AND GENEALOGICAL - 529 house, in East Caln, now Caln township, June 22, 1822, and was a farm-boy until eighteen years of age, and attended the neighborhood schools, except three years which were spent at Westtown Friends' Boarding-School. He then taught private and public schools, read medicine, and graduated M.D. at Jefferson Medical College in 1846, and entered upon the practice of his profession in Downingtown, which he pursued with success for thirty years. He was a member of the House of Representatives of Pennsylvania from Chester County during the sessions of 1875, 1876, 1877., and 1878. His nomination was entirely. spontaneous and unsolicited, and was an instance in which the office sought the man, and not the man the office. He served as chairman of the committee on Geologic Survey, and was also a member of the committees on Education, Agriculture, and Constitutional Reform. He originated and had passed the bill establishing the Board of Agriculture, which promises more of benefit to the farming interests than all else that has been done in that direction in this State. C-. H. Morgan, in his "Legislative Sketch-Book," in speaking of Dr. Edge, says, " That his interest is especially centred in three questions that relate to the moral, industrial, and sanitary welfare of the masses was shown in the active part he took at the last session (1875) in his efforts to secure more enlarged accommodation for the poor of the State, and especially for the separate treatment of insane criminals, and by the fact that he presented more petitions, etc., to the House from the farming interest, and on questions of moral reform, than any other member." He has been a member of the Chester County Medical Society from its revival, and has frequently represented it in the State and National Associations, and always endeavored to maintain the honor of the profession. At the organization of the Board of Agriculture, in January, 1877, he was nominated by Governor Hartranft as a member for the State at large, and was, against his expressed wish, reappointed by Governor Hoyt. On July 4, 1876, he made an address to the people of Downingtown, giving the history of the town and surrounding neighborhood, which is replete with interesting and instructive information. EDMISTON, JAMES, of West Nottingham, died about 1757. The name of his wife was Margaret, and his children mentioned in his will were William, Elizabeth, and John. He had a brother Hugh, and was probably related to the following. DR. SAMUEL EDMISTON graduated at Princeton College, and married a daughter of Rev. Samuel Blair, of Fagg's Manor. He was appointed by Benjamin Rush, Surgeon-General, May 16, 1777, as second surgeon in the military hospitals under his (Rush's) direction. Although he wrote his name Edmiston, in his correspondence, yet in official documents it is Edmondson. Having taken the oath of allegiance to the new government on the 8th of October, 1781, he received a commission dated the next day as U. S. surgeon, of which the following is a copy : " The United States of America in Congress Assembled "To SAMUEL EDMONDSON ESQR, , Greeting. We Reposing especial trust and confidence in your Patriotism Prudence and fidelity do by these presents appoint you To be Physician and Surgeon of the Hos- - 67 - pitals of the United States, from the Twentieth Day of September, 1781. You are Therefore faithfully and diligently to discharge the duty of Physician and Surgeon "By doing and performing all manner of things thereunto Belonging, and you are to observe and follow such orders and directions from time to time as you shall Receive from this or a future Congress of the United States, or Committee of Congress for that Purpose appointed, a Committee of the States, or Commander in Chief for the time being of the Army of the United States, or any other your superior officer, according to the Rules and Discipline of War, in pursuance of the trust Reposed in you. This Commission to continue in force untill Revoked, by this or a future Congress, the Committee of Congress before Mentioned, or a Committee of the States. "Witness His Excellency Thomas McKean Esqr President of the Congress of the United States of America, at Philadelphia The Ninth day of October 1781, and in the Sixth year of our Independence, "THOS. McKEAN " Entered in the War Office and examined by the Board Attest "Jos CARLETON Secretary of the Board of War." Dr. Edmiston's daughter Margaret married Joseph Turner, whose descendants reside in Upper Oxford. EHRENZELLER, Dr. JACOB, was the son of Jacob Ehrenzeller, a native of Switzerland, who migrated to this country and engaged in the business of tavern-keeping in Fourth Street, Philadelphia, where the subject of' this notice was born, about Sept. 1, 1757. He studied medicine in Philadelphia, but under whose guidance is not known. It is known, however, that he was a classical scholar. From 1773 to 1778 he was a medical apprentice in the Pennsylvania Hospital, where he acquired a considerable amount of practical knowledge. He never obtained a degree either of Bachelor or Doctor of Medicine, but received a certificate of qualification to practice medicine from Drs. Kuhn and Shippen, by which he was enabled to procure the commission of assistant surgeon, and entered the American army during the Revolutionary war. He was present, on duty, at the battle of Monmouth and some other engagements, in which he always conducted himself with great propriety. Towards the close of the war he left the army and settled in the township of Goshen, Chester Co., where, for a number of years, he sedulously attended to the duties of his profession. Subsequently he removed into the borough of West Chester, and continued his professional labors until within a few years of his death, which occurred from apoplexy, July 18, 1838, in his eighty-first year. He married his cousin, Elizabeth Hankee, and had two daughters, both of whom were imbecile and died in early life, thus adding to the many sad evidences of the injurious results of consanguineous unions. For many years Dr. Ehrenzeller enjoyed a lucrative practice, and commanded in a great degree the confidence of the community. He held the office of chief magistrate of the borough as often and as long as he would consent to serve. A good portrait of him was painted by Miss Strode, an accomplished lady artist of the vicinity, and presented by her to the Chester County Cabinet, where it is carefully preserved. As a physician, Dr. Ehrenzeller was eminently practical, and gave general satisfaction by the fidelity with which he devoted himself to his duties. In manners he was rather austere, and sometimes abrupt, with a dash of caustic sarcasm when improperly interfered with, but he possessed a. 530 - HISTORY OF CHESTER COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. kind heart, and was ever ready .with his best efforts to relieve the sufferings of the afflicted. He had but little patience with the absurd credulity of the ignorant in medical matters ; disdaining to argue them out of superstitious notions, he would occasionally remark to his brother-practitioners, "Si vulgus mat decipi, decipiatur 1" Few men evinced a more ardent patriotism than Dr. Ehrenzeller ; and in the latter years of his life he delighted to talk of the Revolution, and of the men who conducted that struggle to its glorious termination. He always had a cutting remark for those of his contemporaries who had opposed the noble cause of freedom and independence. ELDRIDGE, THOMAS, and Mary, his wife, produced a certificate from Friends in Philadelphia, 4, 10, 1717, having already settled in Cain township. He was by occupation a shoemaker, and a certificate given to Isaac Williams, who had been his apprentice for six years, is dated " Cain the 22d Day of the first month, 1716-7." He died prior to March 8, 1739, leaving children,-James, Joseph, and Mary. The latter married John Starr, of Charlestown, and her brothers also married. James and Sarah, his wife, went to Wilmington, and were perhaps the parents of Jesse Eldridge, who owned a farm on the Brandywine at or near the circular line. Their daughter Martha married at Uwchlan Meeting, 4, 14, 1763, John Whelen, and was the mother of the founder of the Village Record. JONATHAN ELDRIDGE, said to have been a twin brother of David Eldridge, of New Jersey, settled in Goshen township. His death resulted from falling into the wheel-pit, or being caught in some of the machinery, at what is known as McCall's mill, in Goshen. It is said that he had a brother William and some sisters, but was the only one of the family who came to this county. The records of Goshen Meeting show that his father's name was Thomas. His first wife was Mary, daughter of Joseph Garrett., by whom he had children,-Hannah, b. 10, 2, 1763, d. 2, 22, 1764 ; Joseph, b. 10, 11, 1765, d. 2, 17, 1845. He married, 10, 3, 1771, Sarah, daughter of Ellis and Lydia Davis, of Goshen, by whom he had a daughter, Lydia. His widow married, 12, 1, 1779, William Allen, of Londongrove. Joseph Eldridge married Lydia Griffith., born 10, 18,. 1763, died 7, 10, 1817, daughter of Nathan and Rachel, of Willistown, and had the following children : Jonathan, b. 7, 6, 1789, d. 6, 15, 1791 ; Nathan, b. 11, 12, 1790, d. 5, 19, 1791 ; Joseph, b. 3, 16, 1792, and still living in East Goshen ; James, b. 11, 19, 1793, d. 9, 27, 1794 ; Enos, b. 9, 13, 1795, d. 12, 29, 1868 ; John, b. 11, 29, 1796, deceased ; Lydia, b. 10, 18, 1798, m. Isaac G. Hoopes ; Reuben, b. 8, 13, 1801, now residing in West Chester ; Mary, b. 6, 25, 1803, d. 8, 3, 1807 ; Abner, b. 6, 26, 1806, m. Amy (Hoopes) Davidson, now resides near Muscatine, Iowa. Joseph Eldridge, Sr., built a fulling-mill on his farm, in East Goshen, next to the line of Willistown, in 1813, and his son Joseph, when married to Abigail Garrett, 6, 9, 1814, settled there, occupying a part of the mill as a house, and carrying on the business. He afterwards enlarged the mill upwards and outwards, beside erecting a substantial stone house a few yards westward and other buildings. The old homestead buildings became the property of his brother-in-law, Isaac G. Hoopes. The children of Joseph and Abigail were Mary, Lydia (married to Caleb S. Cope), Garrett, David, William Penn, Jonathan, and Pennell, of whom only Mary, Lydia, and David are living. The children of Enos and Susanna were Harriett (married to Richard J. Thatcher), Rachel, Joseph G., Lydia Ann (married to Joseph Liddon Pennock), Anna Maria, Issachar, Jane M., and Margaret G., the last two being the proprietors of a school at Malvern. ELWYN, DR. A. L.-Thomas Elwyn was born in Canterbury, England ; graduated at Oxford in 1794, and came in 1795 to America. He came of a family old and honorable in British history, and married in Portsmouth, N. H., July 16, 1797, Elizabeth Langdon, born December, 1777. She was the daughter of Hon. John Langdon, born December, 1739, on the Piscataqua. She was a descendant of the famous Sherburne-Wentworth families, which, with that of Langdon, dates far back into England's brightest annals. John Langdon's mother, Mary Hall, was a great-granddaughter of Ralph Hall, a signer of the Exeter " Combination" of 1639. John Langdon married, Feb. 3, 1777, Elizabeth, only daughter and second child of John, son of Henry and Dorothy (Wentworth) Sherburne, intermarried with a daughter of John Moffat, a wealthy merchant of Portsmouth, N. H. John Langdon, in 1775, was a delegate in the Continental Congress at Philadelphia ; was Speaker of the House of Representatives of New Hampshire ; was Governor of that State ; was a United States Senator, and the first presiding officer of the United States Senate, and when Washington was first inaugurated President, in April, 1789. He was a great man and distinguished patriot. He died Sept. 20, 1819, at Portsmouth, N. II., leaving but one child, Elizabeth, married to Thomas Elwyn. The latter died many years before his wife, who deceased at Philadelphia, Aug. 8, 1860, having had nine children,-Catharine Cecilia, Elinor Elizabeth, John Langdon, Emily Sophia, Alfred L. (subject of this sketch), Charles Henry, Emma Matilda, Thomas Octavius, and William Octavius. Alfred L. was born July 9, 1804, in Portsmouth, N. H., where he went to school under the noted Deacon Tappan. In 1816 he went to Exeter Academy, and there remained three years. In 1819 he entered Harvard University, from which he was graduated in 1823. He read medicine in Boston with the celebrated Dr. Gorham. He went to England, and to Edinburgh in October, 1826, and back to London in April, 1827. Then passed one year in Paris, and in summer of 1829 returned to America, having in the course of his sojourn abroad visited his father's relatives in England and kept up a continuous course of study. In 1831 he graduated at the University of Pennsylvania, and received his diploma as M.D. He was married, Jan. 31, 1832, to Mary Middleton, daughter of Dr. James Mease, and granddaughter of Hon. Pierce Butler, of South Carolina, by whom he has one living child, Rev. Alfred Elwyn. His daughter, Mary Middleton Elwyn, married Dr. G. W. Mitchell, and died in 1861, leaving two sons, both living. In 1845, Dr. Elwyn, who has always resided in Philadelphia but has never practiced medicine, purchased property in East Bradford township, where he has had a sum- BIOGRAPHICAL AND GENEALOGICAL - 531 mer residence ever since. He was one of the founders of the State Agricultural Society in 1850, and has been largely identified with its progress. He was connected with the establishment of the Institution for the Blind of Philadelphia, and was the originator of the training-school for feeble-minded children, located at Elwyn, and fostered and built by the State. He has ever taken the greatest interest in all the philanthropic institutions, and aided in the creation of many of them. He is now the oldest living member of the American Association of Science. He belongs to the Academy of Natural Sciences ; was a director for many years in Girard College, and long time an officer in the Historical Society. He served as president of the Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, and was president of the old Agricultural Society of Philadelphia. He was one of the Philadelphia board of three for licensing taverns under a special act of the Legislature, in which he acquitted himself with honor and to the credit of the city. His farm in East Bradford originally belonged to Philip Price. The first guano put on lands in the county was by Dr. Elwyn on his farm in 1846. He has given much attention to the natural sciences, philosophical inquiry, and political economy, and contributed largely to the press, reviews, and magazines with his able pen. His varied learning and versatile genius has made him one of the most pointed and incisive of our educated men. He still pursues his studies with the ardor of his youth unabated, and is a zealous worker in the cause of humanity. EMBREE,* JAMES.—The family of James Embree have heretofore traced his name and ancestry to Moses Embree, of Egg Harbor, N. J., and through a membership with Friends. I have always supposed that he had not come there from Europe direct, and that his name was not of English origin. Years ago I had written to Robert C. Embree, counselor-at-law, in New York, for the genealogy of his family, but he had not then traced it. When the request came to write this sketch for the " History of Chester County" I renewed the correspondence. He had then, with the aid of Charles B. Moore, counselor-at-law, of that city, of antiquarian tastes, completed the chain back to John Embree, of Flushing, L. I. ; and in a census of the towns of that island, taken by authority of law in 1698, the name of John Embree appears in the list for Flushing, and in the list for Hempstead, eleven miles farther east and twenty-one from New York, appear the names of Moses Embery and Mary Embery. The French Huguenots, terribly persecuted in France under Louis XIV., had before that date numerously settled in the city of New York, at New Rochelle, twenty miles northeast of that city, on the north side of Long Island Sound, and at the above villages, on the south side of the Sound, and at the west end of the island, where Brooklyn now stands. The transition by water from thence was natural and easy down the coast of New Jersey to Egg Harbor. The lapse of time would conform with the known longevity of the family if this Moses were taken to be the father of Samuel, the father of James, born in 1748, and would hardly admit of another link in the chain. * By Eli K. Price. The name seems more French than English, and the spelling is thus derived : R. C. Embree writes me that Mr. " Milhun, French druggist on Broadway, and very much of a gentleman and scholar, told me years ago that he knew the name well in Normandy, but there spelled Embree." Our double ee at the end is to preserve the same sound as the accented é in French. Constitutional characteristics in the Embree posterity in Pennsylvania strongly attested the inherited effects of the religious persecutions in France and Ireland by a religious sadness that alternated with the natural vivacity of the French and of the Celtic blood of the Kirks of Ulster. Their emotions vibrated between the heights and depths of religious experiences and a constitutional cheerfulness. The inquiry has been pursued backwards and forwards. From the " Annals of Hempstead," page 51, under date of May 24, 1682, it is shown that Moses Emory and others contributed to the support of Jeremy Hobart, minister there. April 1, 1687, Samuel Emory is made constable. July 3, 1691 (page 56), Moses Emory is assessed £124 13s. 4d. We next find traces of Moses and Mary Embro, or Embree, in New Jersey. The minutes of the Monthly Meeting of Little Egg Harbor, N. J., show that Moses and Mary Embro, his wife, were there—then Friends in that " Quaker Settlement"—from 1711 to 1725, this being the meeting record of the births of their children : Abigail, b. 18th of 12th mo., 1711 ; Martha, the 13th of 12th mo., 1712 ; Sarah, 11th of 3d mo , 1715 ; Samuel, 15th of 8th mo., 1717 ; Moses, 26th of 11th mo., 1714 ; John, 12th of 11th mo., 1721 : Elizabeth, 12th of 6th mo., 1724. On the 14th of 9th month, 1717, Thomas Ridgway and Moses Emmory were present, and made report of having attended the Quarterly Meeting as its representatives ; Moses Emmory gave in the certificate to the Monthly Meeting. On the 10th of 4th month, 1725, Richard Osborne and Thom is Ridgway made report that, in pursuance of their appointment, " they had made inquiry after Moses Emmory's life and conversation, and find nothing but that it had been very orderly ;" and at a Women's Meeting, held 13th of 3d month, 1725, a request was made for a certificate for Mary Embro, for her removal into Pennsylvania with her husband ; and it was granted at next meeting, the committee having reported " her conduct orderly, and diligent in attending meeting," etc. Abington Monthly Meeting, in Pennsylvania, contains the following: 26th of 5th month, 1725, " A certificate was produced by Moses Embree and wife from Little Egg Harbor, in order to settle within the verge. of this Monthly Meeting." Minute, 30th of 1st month, 1731: " Oxford Friends having made application for some relief for Moses. Embree, this Meeting orders each Particular Meeting to raise a collection for that purpose." Minute, 28th of 4th month, 1731: " Paid to Moses Embree for the relief of his family in the smallpox, the sum of £1 10s." Let us bless the memory of Jenner that we are nearly exempt from the scourge ; and all who have the blood of Friends in their veins be thankful for the uniform human. ity in their ancestors, of whom this act was characteristic. " At Haverford Monthly Meeting of Friends, held 13th 532 - HISTORY OF CHESTER COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. of 5th month, 1732, a certificate was received from Abington Monthly Meeting of 29th 3d month, 1732, for Moses Embree and wife and daughter Martha, and the rest of the children ;" and 8th of 11th month, 1735, one was received there from Abington for Sarah. Embree. The 13th of 10th month, 1736, Thomas Thomas and Martha Embry pass meeting a second time, " and are left to their liberty," and two Friends are appointed and " ordered to see them married, safely -united, and bring an account to the next Monthly Meeting." The 13th of 10th month, 1739, certificate was granted for Moses Embree and wife to Oley Monthly Meeting (in Berks County). Oley Monthly Meeting records, at Maiden Creek, show that Moses Embree produced certificate from Haverford Monthly Meeting, 5th month 31, 1740, wife and son Samuel ; and at same date Mary Embree produced in the Women's Meeting a certificate from Haverford. Moses Embree, Junior, came from Abington 4th month 27, 1745, and married Margaret Eleman in 1752. Samuel Embree, son of Moses (senior), of Robeson township, Lancaster Co., and married Rachel, daughter of James Lewis, of Comm township, Berks Co.* March 10, 1761, Samuel bought of Jona. Stephens a tract of 53 acres 119 perches in Comru, and on May 18, 1769, bought of William Thomas a tract of 191 acres 40 perches in Comru township. Samuel devised his lands to his sons, James and Moses ; and in 1786 James conveys 160 acres in Comru to Moses. Samuel died 2d month 24, 1777, leaving issue but those two sons. † Of other children of Moses and Mary Embree, it may be added that Abigail, the eldest, married Charles Townsend, of Philadelphia ; Sarah married John Hughes, of Merion, and (secondly) Owen Humphrey ; Moses, Jr., went to North Carolina, and probably to Georgia ; John was living near Wrightsborough, Ga., in 1800. JAMES EMBREE, son of Samuel Embree, of Comru township, Berks Co., and Phebe Starr, daughter of Merrick Starr, of Maiden Creek, were married. 5th month 15, 1771, at Maiden Creek. Their children were Samuel, b. 3d mo. 7, 1772 ; Merrick, b. 9th mo. 7, 1774 ; James, b. 7th mo. 5, 1776 ; Phebe, b. 2d mo. 1, 1778. Their mother died 2d mo. 15, 1778. JAMES EMBREE, son of Samuel, married, 12th mo. 11, 1782, Rebecca Kirk, daughter of William Kirk, of East Nantmeal, at Nantmeal Meeting. Their children were William, b. 9th mo. 16, 1783, d. 1st mo. 25, 1865 ; Rachel, b. * Robeson township was next southeast of Comru, and is now in Berks. † The pursuit to the early source of the Embrees in America has had the interest of a chase after game, or for new plants or minerals, with a zest even more emotional than science or mining profits, for it enlisted a human sympathy for those whose blood is yet young and fresh in the veins of my children and grandchildren, whose ancestry came through the persecutions the Huguenots and Quakers endured, and the trials of successive settlements in new frontiers in the wilderness. The names of those to whom I owe thanks for aid in this genealogical pursuit are Charles B. Moore, Robert C. Embree, John Jordan, Archelaus R. Tharo, Leah Blackman, Isaac Mather, Dr. James Levick, Joseph W. George, Tyson Embree, John S. Pearson, J. Willis Martin, Charles R. Miller, and, as to later events, Pearson and Anna Embree, William J. Jenks, Charles Stokes, and his granddaughter, Anna Albertson. 8th mo. 15, 1785, d. 2d ma. 14, 1813 ; Davis, b. 6th mo. 9, 1787 ; Hannah, b. 9th mo. 19, 1788, d. 1st mo. 15, 1867 ; Jesse, b. 1st mo. 2, 1790, d. 8th mo. 9, 1823 ; Daniel, b. 7th mo. 25, 1791 ; Sibbilla, b. 4th mo. 1, 1793, d. 1793 ; Sibilla, b. 4th mo. 12, 1794, d. 4th mo. 30,1873 ; Rebecca, b. 1st mo. 31, 1796, d. 9th mo. 27, 1877 ; Elisha, b. 4th mo. 25, 1797 ; Anna, b. 5th mo. 22, 1799, d. 6th 'no. 4, 1862. James Embree purchased the place in West Bradford where Israel Lamborn now lives, about two miles westward of Marshallton, in 3d month, and moved to it 4th mo. 1, 1791. He brought a certificate from Exeter to Bradford Monthly Meeting in the same spring, for himself, wife, and all his children to Jesse inclusive. James Embree farmed his place during the residue of his life, and also malted barley. He and Isis wife Rebecca both became elders of Bradford Monthly Meeting. They were faithful to their duties and careful to take their children to meetings, and to give them all the education that the schools and their means could afford, and the schoolhouse on the road running south from the Strasburg road to the poor-house was the place of their schooling, and where several of them commenced to teach. Phebe, Sibbilla, Rebecca, and Anna had the advantage of a Westtown School education. James Embree, born 6th mo. 3, 1748, died 8th mo. 5, 1815 ; Phebe, his wife, born 8th mo. 8, 1750, died 2d mo. 15, 1778 ; Rebecca, his wife, born 2d mo. 3, 1858, died 9th mo. 7, 1808. Now what more can I say of James Embree? Not a scrap of his writing is found, except the Bible entries of the births and deaths of his children. I have a memory of him, and can say of him that he was a dignified, serious, and earnest man. He was intelligent in business and in mechanical inventions. He was well informed and faithfully practical in the affairs of religious society. The weight of these and the responsibility of providing for fifteen children was a constant pressure upon him. If all men had to bear the weight he bore, life would be too anxious for human happiness ; but in his religion and his family he had great consolation. Well, James Ebree did this, the best thing a man can do, if he has the courage, health, and energy to do it : he chose wisely his wives ; he raised fourteen children to manhood and womanhood, all in good reputation, and all well fitted for usefulness in society. That is more creditable than even first-rate farming. Shall I not then speak briefly of these, and of how they struggled with life when cast upon their own resources? It is more interesting to observe this strife than that of the children of the rich, who have all they need provided for them, which the prudent save and grow richer, and the improvident waste and grow worse and poor. The history of the Embree children has its lessons and deep pathos. The children of the first wife were constitutionally grave and correct. Samuel went to Ohio, was a farmer, and has left a worthy posterity. Merrick was a farmer, and kept a nursery at the south end of the Embree farm, on the Strasburg road. His worthy descendants are in and about Marshallton. James was a farmer and store-keeper, and is represented in West Chester by his son Pearson and family, BIOGRAPHICAL AND GENEALOGICAL - 533 where the mechanical tendency of his grandfather has well cropped out. Phebe died unmarried. The children of the second wife had another element, and it is interesting to study the law of heredity in the two sets. Something is indicated when it is said Rebecca's grandfather was an Irishman, and more when it is stated that he was of the vigorous race of the province of Ulster, in the north of Ireland, peopled centuries back by adventurous Scotchmen. But I forbear to speak of these until I have spoken of their mother, Rebecca Kirk, whose father, William Kirk, was son of Alphonsus Kirk, who left Lurgan, Ireland, in 1688, with the approval of his meeting and his parents, Roger and Elizabeth Kirk, and reached New Castle County, near the lower border of this State, old Chester County, and settled on the east side of the Brandywine in 1689. He married Abigail, daughter of Adam Sharpley, 12th month, 1692-3. The subjoined letter of Rebecca is copied here for good reasons, for she was the faithful helpmeet of James Embree during all her married life; it shows her own mind, feelings, and characteristics, and inferentially those of Rachel, the beloved daughter addressed, who during the next year was to replace her mother in the care of her many children, and to become the comforter of her father in his old age and great bereavement. It shows her familiarity with the Scriptures when these were more read than now, and there was a keener relish for their religious truths and poetical beauties: "WEST BRADFORD, 5th Mo. 18th, 1807. " DEAR CHILD,-I don't know that I have much to tell thee that will be likely to produce much satisfaction, or feel very interesting to thee, as it seems as if I had to pass of late through a winter season; a season wherein the beauties of creation lay obscured, and the voice of the turtle is not heard, though nature is wearing her brightest garment, the fields spreading forth their most beautiful foliage, and the gardens displaying their liveliest colors, the little birds uttering their sweet notes on almost every branch ; yet to me it is like a winter season. "I don't mention these things to cast a gloom over thy tender mind. I know thee has enough to bear, and I am sometimes afraid too much. I feel concerned lest thee should suffer thy situation to impress thy mind too seriously. I want thee to be as cheerful as is becoming, and what thee can't help try to think but little about it. I have been under the necessity to do so, and have been helped thus far to my admiration ; and although it has been with me as above described, yet I am thankful that it is not worse than it is. . . . "We have had the company of dear Mary Wichell, of Frankford, and dear Ruth Richardson, of Philadelphia, at our Quarterly Meeting, and at Bradford Meeting, and at our house. I told R. Richardson I had a daughter in town and where thee lived. She said she would be glad to know thee, etc. .. . " I remain thy ever affectionate mother, " REBECCA EMBREE." This is the only letter I have found written by James Embree, or Rebecca his wife. It shows the tender maternal spirit of her mind in loving sympathy with her beloved daughter, as first entering upon the trials of life. It shows that the " seed" of life were yet living in the Society of Friends here in America, and here in Chester County, as George Fox had foreseen them in ascendency on his deathbed in 1690, when his last words were, " All is well, and the seed of God reigns over all, and over death itself; and though I am weak in body, the power of the Lord is over all, and over all disorderly spirits." In making the ex- tracts I feel as one who has exhumed a sacred seed that has laid under ground for three-fourths of a century, to take a new growth in the light and warmth of the sun, in " good ground." May it fructify in good fruits. The letter shows that she waited for the Lord to be gracious, as was the wont of faithful Friends in all times ; to watch observantly the guidance of God, with sincere solicitude to follow the intimations given, and if for a season it pleased Him to withhold the evidence of his gracious presence, patiently to wait his reappearance, in the faith that He would never desert his faithful children. It is plain she was then under the preparing Hand for her immortal life. In the following year she died. Rachel then, or soon after, had her severe trial, and bore it as women often do, silently, though knowing the grief was hastening her to the grave. He who had proffered his love was worthy ; but her parents thought they saw that her happiness would not be secured by leaving their home. Her few remaining years were beautifully holy and instructive. I speak of what I saw. She died 2d month 14,1813. Rebecca Embree, wife of James, as all her sisters, had an education that fitted her well for all household duties, and for those of a wife and mother whose husband was not rich and whose children were many ; for they were four by a first wife and eleven by the second. For these she provided clothing ; kept them in condition to go respectably to school, to meeting, and into society ; she trained them well in intellect, manners, and morals ; was their nurse and largely their physician ; she was a sympathizing visitor to the sick and poor ; and as an elder was a mother in the Church of the Society of Friends. In the administration of their discipline she was humane and merciful. She ever remembered that " Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him ; for He knoweth our frame." She remembered that we are all his children, and that we are all liable to err. I have heard her daughter Hannah repeat that as a child she heard when sitting in the Women's Meeting of business. A member was under treatment for marrying "out of meeting," whom Rebecca, as one of a committee, had visited, and knew her tender condition of mind and her desire to remain in membership with Friends. Finding a disposition to disown the offender she said, " I would have Friends seriously to consider the step they are about to take. Here is a contrite woman, of tender spirit, asking to be kept in membership with us, and to share our sisterly sympathy and religious fellowship and cares. If we drive her from us she will go out with feelings hardened towards us ; she will be the more exposed to temptation because we have thus done, and because she will not have our loving care. On our action may depend her safety, and on us may rest the responsibility of the loss of an immortal soul !" The appeal was availing. Truly it requires more than human wisdom to know when the higher duty is, to clear the religious society of the reproach of unworthy members, or to forbear to disown, to continue to labor, and to try to save. It may not be forgotten that the door of Christ's mercy is never closed to those who will repent and live. No touch of selfishness may inhere in the performance of hallowed duties. I will speak of the ten children of James and Rebecca 531 - HISTORY OF CHESTER COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. Embree who grew up, in the order of their deaths. Rachel was the first to go. Her brother Jesse, in a letter to his friend, Charles Stokes, of Rancocas, N. J., dated 3d month 24, 1813, speaks of being at home before the death of his 'C worthy sister," and much " in her edifying society." He describes the scene as very affecting, to see the aged father take final leave of his beloved daughter, who had acted the part of a mother to the younger children, who was his implicit confidant, who had soothed him in sickness, and was his greatest comfort in declining years. He also speaks of the impressive solemnity of the meeting held at her funeral, wherein Jesse Kersey drew very forcibly the contrasted feelings of the parent who loses a virtuous with those of one who buries a vicious child. I remember her in her years of decay as one sweetly devout in her religion, affectionate, kind ; whose spirit longed for a more perfect existence ; whose countenance already bore a heavenly sweetness and angelic beauty. Jesse Embree was the next of these children to pass out of this life. Before 1812 he had been keeping school at oorestown, N. J., and there formed an intimate acquaint-rice with Charles Stokes, of Rancocas, now in his ninetieth year, who has kindly furnished me with copies of eleven of his letters, written from 1st month, 1812, to 8th month, 1816 ; the dates from Baltimore being from 12th month 3, 1812, to 5th month 21, 1813, where he taught school, and from 2d month, 1814, they came from Cincinnati, Ohio. In his last letter from Baltimore he said his father had given his consent to his going Westward, apprehending that his health would no longer stand the confinement of teaching. Jesse exclaimed, " He is a dear, good old man, and is very tender of his son." I have read all Jesse's side of the correspondence, written in the freedom of the most intimate and confiding friendship. It details the trials of a teacher, also the trials of one constitutionally nervous ; of one refined by nature and culture when brought into contact with the rough customers of a brewery and of a Western steamboat captain. But every line of his letters shows him to have been true to his parental and social training, in morals and religion, and his own refining culture, and not a trace of the modern scepticism is to be seen. His brother Davis and himself were brewers in Cincinnati, and were occupied in the effort to extend their business by sending their ale down the rivers at the date of the last letter from Cincinnati. I remember to have met Davis when their business included the buying and selling of real estate, in which they thought they were prospering. But they as well as others were, while floating on a paper currency at high flood-tide, unconscious how high the nominal values were above the real prices when to be paid in specie, when sheriffs' sales should close their transactions. From this height paper inflation prices were declining after 1816 until Aug. 17, 1822, and hence the lines in the letter of Jesse of that date, written at St. Louis, to the widow of his deceased friend : " Nominally possessed of an estate at home, I labored under the most mortifying and persecuting financial embarrassment." The letter was to Eliza W. Hindman, of Philadelphia. He endeavored to afford consolation to her, when he sadly needed it himself. " ST. Louis, August 17, 1822. " DEAR ELIZA,-A long train of painful and adverse events has sent me a melancholy and almost hopeless wanderer through the limitless and perilous regions of the Mississippi; my mind a wreck of misfortune; my heart the victim of separation, and my person the subject of disease. Nominally possessed of an estate at home, (I) labored under the most mortifying and persecuting financial embarrassments ; and possessed of all that is amiable, affectionate, and soothing and kind in the conjugal state, I am doomed to consume nine-tenths of my time at an almost unmeasureable distance from my family, and generally without the reach of their correspondence. But callous and apathetic as the unmeasureable weight of woe is calculated to render my feelings, and much as these feelings, while their sensibility remains, might be exercised selfishly upon my own calamities, yet I found this morning, and I rejoiced in the discovery, that my nature can be moved, and my indurate feelings of sympathy awakened by the afflictions of my friends. Some indisposition, extreme debility, and an unusual depression of spirits have made me for the last week the guest of a young relative and friend of this village, who was raised in your city, and from some unknown cause I was daily impressing upon him the peculiar nature and the almost unexampled strength of my attachment to thy late amiable and worthy consort. I told him that we loved each other in our youth, and that our affection was strongly corroborated by his memorable visit to my little family in Cincinnati. My Mary ranked him highest in the list of may Eastern friends, and always spoke of him in the most affectionate terms. Judge then of may emotions when transiently perusing the newspaper I met the annunciation of his death. "His innocent, useful, and charitable life, and his smooth and happy passage to a world of spirits and the world of bliss,' first filled my imagination ; but a melancholy train of memories, a bereaved and disconsolate widow, a helpless family of orphans, and a weeping circle of friends succeeded, awakened all the tender emotions of my earlier years, and moistened those eyes, (to) which the sullenness of grief has recently refused that consoling tribute. May thy fortitude, oh my afflicted and mourning friend, be strengthened by the Guardian who watched over your conjugal felicity, and who will keep a charitable register of thy widowed woes. And may I never more murmur at my afflicted destiny while the cords of my connubial love are unbroken, and the wife of my choice, the consort of my life, remains. But let us under the mantle of grief, no less than in the sunshine of joy, render Him the tribute of gratitude in the room of disaffection, and praise in the room of complaint. "Thy sincere and sympathetic friend, "JESSE EMBREE." This is the last letter from Jesse Embree that I have seen. He was commanding the steamboat the brothers owned, and which he was commanding at the time of his death, and which Davis commanded in 10th month, 1823, when he obtained the information of his last hours from M. C. Comstock, of Whom Davis wrote, " We all owe him the greatest debt of gratitude for leaving his business and going on shore in the wilderness country to wait upon him, which he did, never leaving his bedside till his death." This is Mr. Comstock's statement : "ARKANSAS TERRITORY, PHILLIPS COUNTY, WALNUT BEND. "Arrived here on the 6th of August, 1823, at 10 'o'clock P.M., in the Steam Boat Cincinnati,' went on shore with Captain Embree, who was dangerously ill with a remittent fever, and took lodgings at the house of William Dunn, Esquire, where I waited on Captain Embree during his sickness, which terminated on the 9th instant, at 4 P.M., and on the following day at 12 meridian (Sabbath) buried him in a Christian like manner. Of Captain Jesse Embree it might truly be said, he did hide the faults he saw in others, and always felt another's woe. M. C. C." This is a terse and telling eulogy, which no tombstone recorded ; but, better, it will go on a page in the " History of Chester County," whose people he ever loved, the imagery of whose beautiful scenery faded not from his mind while BIOGRAPHICAL AND GENEALOGICAL - 535 he lived. His poetic sensibilities there had their birth, but the fruits of his poetic culture have disappeared. Daniel took the parental homestead and malt-house and carried on his father's business ; but working on the ebbing tide of the inflated currency towards a specie basis, while debts must be paid at their face amount, he came to insolvency. He removed to Washington, D. C., and after a time to Dayton, Ohio, where he left children and grandchildren. Elisha took the degree of Doctor of Medicine, went West and Southwest, married and had a son ; was in the drug business, and failing to have success, entered the quiet community of Shaking Quakers, in Indiana, where he and his son carried their intelligence and received the requital of a livelihood. There we see in our country the extreme of celibacy, that, if general, would bring the race to an end ; while in Utah we have the other extreme, where the sanctity of the Christian family of one wife and one mother is lost, and the race suffers deterioration. Anna married Eli K. Price. She died 6th mo. 4, 1862, leaving to survive a son, John Sergeant Price, and a daughter, Sibyl, married to Rev. Starr II. Nichols, and four grandchildren. Her husband has paid his tribute of affection to her memory in the memoir of their beloved daughter Rebecca, privately printed in 1862. William died 1st mo. 23, 1865. He, as had his brothers, had a hard struggle with life. He was a brewer, maltster, and store-keeper. He founded Embreeville ; took an active part in the meetings of Friends ; was clerk in them ; as a young man was their agent among the Indians under their care. He was treasurer of Chester County ; came to live at West Chester, and there died, leaving a son, Norris, and daughter, Rebecca, and grand and great-grandchildren. The daughter married James House, who came to live at West Chester, and there died, after having been miller and farmer on the Pocopson, and a useful member in civil and religious society ; a man of intelligence, right feelings, and excellent judgment. William Embree's greatest loss came by the failure of his principal customer for malted barley. Hannah Embree was a teacher of children in country schools, and during many of her later years in West Chester. She had a love for the occupation, and the children loved their teacher. Many worthy citizens, of various ages, remember with affection her cheerful and useful teachings and good life. Davis Embree was a brewer in Cincinnati at the beginning of 1814, when his brother Jesse joined him. Their affairs were connected from that time to the death of the latter, with what result and from what cause we have seen. In the latter period of their partnership they owned for several years a steamboat, which at first Jesse commanded, but afterwards Davis was her commander, and thereby became familiar with steam navigation on the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers. Explosions of boilers, running into sawyers or snags and upon shifting shoals, and racing of boats were so common as to make the, navigation of those rivers the most dangerous that could be made. The public were treated to pictures of those explosions in a way that was horribly amusing. The vessel and its varied cargo were blown up, the fragments flying in all directions, with human bodies in all states of mutilation and disjointed parts rising and falling in the air, with a few left entire to complete the joke by implying such familiarity with the practice as to coolly salute each other in the air. Davis well understood the causes of these perils and the best remedies to be applied. By one of these the " Cincinnati" was wrecked, some time before May, 1825, when I was in Cincinnati. Davis Embree was the most efficient advocate for an act of Congress to repress the dangers of all steam navigation. To this he devoted several years of his time and the energies of an intelligent and vigorous mind. The act of Congress of 30th August, 1852, was the result, and is the basis of the system of inspection and supervision of steamboats and their boilers, with supply of life-preservers, in force to the present time. It was due to him and his fitness and skill that he should receive the appointment of inspector for the Mississippi River district, and he continued to hold office under the act with general approval for some years ; but his independent Ulster blood was too much for his safety. He would not for office concede his freedom of speech, and a successor of other party politics was appointed to his place under the administration of Mr. Buchanan. Though there are many disasters yet occurring, by reason of the neglect of duty by officials, owners, and captains, the savings under the act, if they could be counted, would be of lives numbered in thousands, and of property numbered in millions, in the past and through all future times. Seldom, indeed, has one man exercised so much power for good as this son of Chester County. Sibbilla was the veteran teacher of the family. From the small home school-house she went to the palatial one of Westtown to teach in 1813, and, as every good teacher is, was there further self-taught, as well as taught by others. There she remained some years. Her sister Anna, after some years spent in teaching in Wilmington, joined Sibbilla in teaching in Philadelphia. In the three places they moved under the benign auspices and protective care of Friends, as Jesse did in New Jersey and in Baltimore. This is an advantage that is of inestimable value to those who leave the parental roof to procure a livelihood. At the same time it afforded to these young women a most intelligent and agreeable social circle. Here they were. employed together for several years. When Philip Price established his boarding-school for girls, soon after 1830, Sibbilla went to her uncle as a teacher, and remained with him until his death in 1837, and afterwards with his daughter, Hannah P. Davis, until she sold the school building in 1852. She extended her studies into the French language, drawing, and natural history. Rebecca went, in 1816, to live with Sally Norris Dickinson, daughter of Governor John Dickinson, author of the " Farmer's Letters" before, and president of the Supreme Executive Council after, the Revolution, and lived in close friendship with her until her death, a period of more than forty years. There she read with her history, travels, biography, and general literature. The opportunities for improvement there afforded her were most ample and made available. In that attractive and plain but 536 - HISTORY OF CHESTER COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. elegant home she met socially many members of the Society of Friends and others, women and men of superior culture and intelligence, and of high moral and religious excellence. This society was very refining to Rebecca, and .her previous training and her kindred qualities made her fully susceptible to the influences that surrounded her. No better example of the dignity and refinement of a perfect lady could be seen than was Sally Norris Dickinson. It may here be truly said of all the daughters of James Embree that they were cultivated and refined ladies ; of all his sons that they were gentlemen in the sense of the better qualities of a true gentleman, though generally they were as plain in dress and address as required by the strictest observance of the rules of Friends' discipline. There is something to be observed of the children of James and Rebecca Embree that was distinctive. They were of nervous constitution, and sanguine temperament as well, with little of the ballast of the phlegmatic. While the sanguine made them hopeful and enterprising, the nervous left them depressed when exhausted or disappointed. They had a quick perception of the humorous, witty, and ridiculous that readily caused cheerfulness and laughter and made them brightly social ; but this vivacity again was met by the seriousness of a profound religious feeling, so that the alternations were plainly visible and often of quick recurrence. The blood of the persecuted French Huguenot and of the Ulster Irish ancestor were both manifest. Am I here asked why I thus commemorate persons who had so little success in life, for never one of them grew rich? There are some things in life better to be done than the getting of riches, which has frequently a hardening tendency. The life of every daughter, so long as she lived, she lived independently and happily, and died leaving more loving and beloved friends than is commonly the lot of women. The failures of sons to grow rich was from overruling causes, but without reproach, and their lives convey lessons valuable as cautions to others ; and some of them were wise enough not to covet or strive for wealth. They all, sons and daughters, of both mothers, had an affection for each other more than is common ; that never failed, and made them helpful of each other according to ability. Rebecca, by the liberality of her devoutly-beloved and ever-lamented friend, Sally Norris Dickinson, was enabled during life and at death to be helpful to her nearest relatives, whose tender and affectionate care and attentions she perfectly enjoyed. The conclusion is that James Embree and Phebe and Rebecca, his wives, while they lived, and through their children after them, were benefactors of society, and the world will long be the better because they had lived. Have I seemed to occupy more than a due share of space in this local history with the sketches of the lives of Philip and Rachel Price, and of James and Rebecca Embree ? In writing them I have had this feeling: that my memory reaches further into the past than any who will write for this Chester County volume. I look back to a period when Friends there constituted a larger proportion of the community than now, and exercised a greater relative influence than now for the general good. Other religious persuasions now more abound, and with increase of religious earnestness. We yet look upon many Friends there true in faith and practice, and such as I knew them in my youth ; yet I have not been able to divest my mind of the feeling that " the society" is slowly waning, and the thought fills me with sorrow that in time it will verge to extinction there, where their good work and example have been conspicuously beneficent. In this possible event it has seemed good that our local history should carry into future time the true conception of what we have seen and known to be true. It is a precious part of the good history of our humanity, so sparse in this world. And in contemplating a possible future so sad I have this assured satisfaction : that besides the works of humanity they have done,-works great - indeed compared with their relatively small numbers,-they have leavened the world with a leaven that will leaven it through indefinite time ; have made its Christianity more spiritual and real ; the inspirations of the Holy Spirit more assured among men ; made mankind more humane; borne testimonies of righteousness that the world can never forget ; given to it conceptions of divine truth that must at once stand the test of the most enlightened understanding and the divinest teachings of the Gospel. The history of the Friends for over two hundred years, while it awfully reflects upon a persecuting and wicked world, is that which the good of mankind will in all the future look back upon with the highest approbation. They bore their persecutions heroically, they endured and died in the spirit of martyrs, but they never retaliated by injury for injury ; yet they owed it to humanity and to God to bear their testimony against all wrong, and to cry aloud against all oppression and iniquity, and this they did as fearlessly as they suffered bravely. Though seeming so serious a people, so unromantic to the young and worldly, their history is truly the brightest and most beautiful, in contrast with which the records of chivalry and the Crusades fade into folly and wickedness. It is but the light of the good and the true that will be seen across the darkness of the centuries. EMLEN, GEORGE, of Philadelphia, vintner, and Hannah Garrett, of the same place, daughter of William Garrett, of Chester County, were married 4, 5, 1694, and had the following children : 1. George, b. 5, 7, 1695 ; m. Mary, daughter of Robert and Susanna Heath, in 1716. 2. Samuel, b. 2, 15, 1697 ; m. Rachel Hudson, 10, 2, 1731. 3. Caleb, b. 4, 9, 1699. 4. Joshua, b. 2, 14, 1701. 5. Hannah, b. 12, 3, 1703-4. 6. Ann, b. 3, 19, 1705 ; m. William Miller, of New Garden, Chester Co. 7. Mary, b. 11, 1, 1707-8 ; m. John Armitt. 8. Sarah, b. 1, 19, 1709-10 ; d. 8, 2, 1752 ; m. 3, 25, 1738, James Cresson. Hannah Emlen, widow of George, married William Tidmarsh, of Chester, in 1716. George and Mary Emlen had children,-George, b. 6, 21, 1718 ; Hannah, b. 4, 1, 1722 ; and Joseph, b. 5, 1, 1728. Joseph died young, Hannah married William-Logan, and George married Ann Reckless, daughter of Joseph and Margaret, of New Jersey. Their children were George, b. 2, 25, 1741 ; Caleb, b. 9, 15, 1744 ; Mary, b. 10, 19, 1746 ; Joseph, b. 10, 28, 1748 ; Margaret, b. 2, 15, 1750 ; Anne, b. 4, 30, 1755 ; Samuel, b. 8, 28, 1756 ; James, b. 6, 26, 1760. BIOGRAPHICAL AND GENEALOGICAL - 537 Of these, Samuel was remarkable both for learning and piety. As a minister he seemed to have a wonderful insight of the spiritual condition of his hearers. James Emlen, his brother, was well educated, and it was designed that he should travel in Europe for his further accomplishment, but he declined the proposal and retired to the country, where he sojourned a considerable time with his relative, Hannah, widow of William Miller, of New Garden, afterwards wife of Jacob Lindley. He assumed the management of her mill without an assistant and declined compensation, stipulating only that he might grind for some of the poorer customers without taking toll. In this, however, he was careful not to let the left hand know what the right hand did. In 1782 he removed to Middletown township, and was married, 4, 23, 1783, at Concord Meeting, to Phebe Peirce, daughter of Caleb and Ann, of Thornbury. The next year he purchased from Joseph Talbot 102 acres of land, together with a grist-mill and 29 acres adjoining in 1785. His wife, born 11, 11, 1758, died with the yellow fever 10, 25, 1793, and he died from the same epidemic 10, 3, 1798. While he lived here he was an elder in the meeting, and very serviceable as clerk, recorder, etc. The children of James and Phebe Emlen were as follows : Anne, b. 6, 9, 1784, m. Judge Walter Franklin, of Lancaster ; Joshua, b. 12, 22, 1785, m. Abby Smith, of Philadelphia ; Mary, b. 8, 13, 1787, m. George Newbold, of New York ; Samuel (M.D.), b. 3, 6, 1789, m. Beulah Valentine, of Philadelphia; Phebe, b. 8, 30, 1790 ; James, b. 6, 17, 1792. This youngest child became the owner of the property, by releases from the other heirs, in 1818, and sold the mill and 100 acres to Nathan Yearsley in 1823. Upon the remaining tract was a house, built in 1794, for the miller, to which he made additions for school purposes. This is now owned by Samuel Markley. On the property and by the road leading to Middletown Meeting is a frame tenant-house, in part of which it is said that James Emlen taught school at one time, and to which an addition was made to accommodate the meeting for a time after the division in the society, until the new stone structure was erected. He was married 1, 11, 1816, to Sarah F., daughter of Cadwallader and Phebe Foulke, of Ohio Co., Va., she being then a teacher at Westtown Boarding-School. In 1835 he became a teacher at this institution, and resided with his family on the property for about thirteen years. Removing thence to West Chester, his wife died 7, 27, 1849. She was a minister, and paid religious visits to distant parts, including Great Britain. James was a highly-esteemed elder in the meeting, but of quiet and unobtrusive deportment. He died 10, 23, 1866. His children were James, who died young, Mary, Phebe, Sarah C., Anne, Susan, and Samuel, the last being now a resident of Germantown. The following sketch of his brother, Samuel Emlen, is taken from a memoir prepared by his friend, Dr. Charles D. Meigs : DR. SAMUEL EMLEN was born in Chester County, March 6, 1789. As springing from one of the oldest and most respectable families of the Society of Friends, he received, - 68 - of course, in his early education, all the advantages which their strict example and sedulous inculcation of good morals could bestow. His education was chiefly English, but, as it was carefully superintended, he laid in it a solid foundation of knowledge on which he afterwards erected a considerable structure of various and available information. Dr. Emlen's acquirements were more solid than specious, and produced in him those excellent fruits which have caused his death to be so much regretted. In the year 1808, having resolved to devote himself to the profession of medicine, he placed himself, as a house-pupil, with Dr. Parrish, of Philadelphia, and under his roof, and with his example constantly before him, made rapid progress in his studies, to which, by the testimony of his teacher, he absolutely devoted himself. Under the roof of Dr. Parrish, as a member of his family, Dr. Emlen passed four years, during which, having attended the lectures delivered in the university by Profs. Rush, Wistar, Barton, Physick, James, and Coxe, he graduated M.D., and in June, 1812, embarked at New York for England. Arrived at London in July, he placed himself in the vicinity of one of the great hospitals, where he sedulously endeavored to acquire the greatest amount of practical and surgical knowledge. Attendance on hospital practice, or lectures by the celebrated individuals whose reputation had attracted him thither, conversation with celebrated men, to the houses of many of whom he had free and familiar access, and visits to objects which interest the man of science or the philanthropist, kept his mind on the stretch ; and he accumulated a large stock of information, of which he noted down the heads in his journal, a perusal of which affords satisfactory evidence of the diligence with which he employed himself even at that period. The declaration of war by the United States against Great Britain, which reached London soon after his arrival, placed no obstacles in the way of his studies while in the metropolis. The detention it occasioned him gave him an opportunity, however, of making an extensive tour through England, Ireland, and Scotland, the history of which is detailed with considerable naivete in his journal. At length the obstacles to his visit to Paris were removed, and, after a residence of fourteen months in the island, he reached that city about the time of the emperor's return from Leipzic. His stay in London, and his frequent access to the society of the most eminent physicians, surgeons, and lecturers, had increased his stock of knowledge, while the elegant society in which he moved, although it never abolished the gravity of his carriage or the serious and sententious style of his conversation, imparted, nevertheless, to his manners that urbane cast which is far more estimable and trustworthy than the false and heartless elegance of more fashionable intercourse. They were marked by the gentleness, self-possession, and confidence which belong to the gentleman. In Paris, though daily attracted by the extraordinary events of that eventful period of history, Dr. Emlen continued to attend mainly to the objects of his visit. The battles fought in the vicinity filled the hospitals with soldiers suffering every species of military accidents, which he carefully studied. After the surrender of the French capital he returned to London in June, from whence he 538 - HISTORY OF CHESTER COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. ceeded to Holland, and came home in the corvette " John Adams," as bearer of dispatches for the government, after an absence of nearly two years and a half. Soon after his arrival he commenced the practice of physic, and was elected one of the physicians of the Philadelphia Dispensary, an excellent school of practice, through which most of the eminent practitioners here have passed. In 1819 he resigned this station in consequence of increasing occupations, soon after which he was elected to be one of the managers, and finally, after the death of his revered friend, Dr. Griffiths, became secretary to that charity. During the year 1819, when the yellow fever prevailed along the water margin of Philadelphia, he was secretary of the Board of Health, and made those observations of which the fruit is to be found in his valuable paper on yellow fever. As a member of the Board of the Guardians of the Poor, as physician to the Magdalen Asylum, the Orphan Asylum, and the Friends' Asylum for the Insane, he established broadly and deeply the foundations of a reputation which tended daily to raise him in the public esteem. Tie succeeded Dr. Griffiths as secretary to the College of Physicians, and to his zeal is undoubtedly owing much of the renewed activity and efficiency which mark the present course of that institution. In 1825 he was elected one of the physicians to the Pennsylvania Hospital, an office to which he was annually re-elected,-a sufficient proof of the assiduity and ability with which he discharged the functions of that honorable and responsible situation. This excellent man sat not down contented with the discharge of merely his professional duties. He had acquired very solemn impressions of the magnitude of the evils which the vice of drunkenness has brought on the country, and few persons, although much attention had been given to it by some of the foremost men of the time, had accumulated more of the statistic knowledge on the point than himself. In the organization of the " Pennsylvania Society for Discouraging the Use of Ardent Spirits," as well as in its administration as manager, he took a very active and discreet part. Dr. Emlen's private business occupied a very large share of his time. It had augmented rapidly during the last few years of his life, so that, with his public and private affairs, he had little leisure for visits of ceremony, or for any waste of that time. Which, in his eyes, was so valuable. In 1819 he married Beulah Valentine, like himself a member of the Friends' society. In the tender relations which this union produced he found the purest sources of happiness. To his children he bore an affection that might be called passionate, and the fire of parental love glowed in his breast with redoubled intenseness, perhaps because of the habitual restraint under which he was accustomed to hold his passions. How lamentable must have seemed the stroke which divided him in this world from that care and watchfulness over his children which appeared to be, for him, the best part of existence ! Nevertheless, in committing his family, as he did on his death-bed, to the providential care of his Maker, he seemed to have acquired a calmness and submission that permitted no murmuring word to escape his lips, nor allowed of one sign of impatience or willfulness to express his unwillingness to meet that fate for which he was prepared by a blameless life. He was daily rising in solid reputation and in the general estimation of his fellow-citizens, when he fell a victim to an attack of remittent fever, on April 17, 1828, in the thirty-ninth year of his age. ENGLAND, JOSEPH, son of John and Love England, was born at Burton-upon-Trent, in Staffordshire, England, 7, 2, 1680. His profession was that of a millwright. Having charge of the Water-works at London Bridge, in Deal, he, in 1705, obtained from Prince George, of Denmark, a protection against impressment. He is described therein as a " tall, slender man, with dark brown hair, and fresh coloured." About the year 1710 he married Margaret Orbell, daughter of Samuel and Joanna Orbell, of Deal, in Kent, where he remained a few years, and went thence to his native place. In 1723 they came to Pennsylvania and settled at Nottingham. Joseph spent most of his time for the next four years at iron-works some distance from his family. In 1730 he became a minister among Friends, and died 10, 23, 1748, his latter residence being in New Castle County. His wife was born 6, 3, 1685, at Deal, and died 2, 7, 1741 ; both buried at the " Brick" Meeting. Their children were as follows : 1. John, b. 7, 19, 1737 ; d. 8, 8, 1748 ; m. about 1736, Elizabeth , who afterwards became the wife of Joshua Johnson, of New Garden. 2. Samuel, b. 4, 18, 1717 ; d. 7, 27, 1791 ; m. 9, 11, 1740, Sarah Slater, and had several children. 3. Joanna, b. 7, 29, 1721 ; m. John Townsend, of East Bradford. 4. Joseph, b. 9, 2, 1723, at Springfield, in Nottingham. 5. Lydia, b. 12, 24, 1730-1 ; d. 1, 24, 1733-4. WILLIAM ENGLAND, of Willistown, married Sarah Pennock, and died leaving a son, William. His widow married, 12, 7, 1749, Amos Boake, and they settled in Caln. William England, Jr., married, 1, 16, 1771, Susanna Hall, of Willistown, and removed to West Bradford, at or near Marshallton, where he had a smith-shop. Their children were Mary, b. 12, 3, 1771, d. 12, 17, 1771 ; Sarah, b. 3, 2, 1773, d. 10, 23, 1773 ; Thomas, b. 11, 17, 1774, m. 2, 24, 1803, Mary Clemson ; William, b. 8, 31, 1776 ; David, b. 6, 22, 1778. Susanna, the mother, died 7, 29, 1778, and William married second, 5, 22, 1783, Hannah Wood, who died 11, 2, 1822, at the supposed age of ninety-one. William died 10, 19, 1813, aged seventy-two. The children of Thomas and Mary were Hannah, Emily, Lewis, James, Rachel, Lindley M., William, Thomas, Mary Ann, and Sidney. EVANS, of London Britain.-An old manuscript in possession of this family says that John Evans, a native of Wales, landed in Philadelphia with a family of seven persons,-viz. : his father, mother, wife, daughter, brother, and sister,-and after a short sojourn with the Welsh on the west side of the Schuylkill, he purchased 200 acres in the Welsh Tract, New Castle County, to which he removed in 1696. His brother being a carpenter was of much assistance to him in making improvements. His daughter died soon after the settlement was made, but a son, John, was born in 1700, who in course of time married a neighbor's daughter, and in turn had a son, John. The wife and son died, however, soon after. Before this time the first-named John BIOGRAPHICAL AND GENEALOGICAL - 539 bought 400 acres of land on White Clay Creek, whereon he erected a mill as early as 1715. In 1718, Reynold Howell, a native of Wales, arrived in Philadelphia with his family of six children,—Jane, Lewis, Mary, George, Margaret, and William,—and the next year settled on a farm near the river, below the mouth of Christina Creek. This place proving unhealthy, he was induced to remove to the Welsh Tract, where he purchased a farm joining the present town of Newark. John Evans, Jr., married Jane Howell, the eldest daughter, and settled at the mill in London Britain in 1722. He died April 14, 1738, and his father, now " being ancient," about the year 1740. In 1734, John Evans, Jr., purchased from John Evans, Esq., of Denbigh, in Wales, 1000 acres in what was then New Garden township, and adjoining the tract whereon he was settled. This was doubtless the reason that part of New Garden was afterwards joined to London Britain. John Evans, of Denbigh, had bought from William Penn, Jr., all the unsold land in New Garden, and we suspect he was the former Governor of Pennsylvania, with whom the younger Penn was known to be intimate. By his will John Evans, Jr., gave to his son John the homestead of 500 acres and the grist-mill thereon. To his son Evan he gave 400 acres, part of the 1000, with fulling-mills, tenter-yards, etc., and to his sons George and Peter the remaining 600 acres. The children of John and Jane Evans were,-1. Mary, b. 1724 ; m. Evan Rice ; d. Jan. 20, 1752. 2. Lydia, b. 1726. 3. John, b. 1728. 4. Evan, b. 1732 ; d. Oct. 22, 1794. 5. George, b. 1734. 6. Peter, b. 1736. John Evans (3) was appointed by the Supreme Executive Council " Third Judge of the Supreme Court of the Commonwealth," Aug. 16, 1777, and in October, 1783, he and Anthony Wayne were elected to the Council of Censors. His death occurred prior to Dec. 9, 1783, and on Feb. 26, 1784, Jacob Rush was appointed judge in his stead. James Moore succeeded him as censor, Dec. 13, 1783. March 3, 1784, " An order was drawn on the Treasurer in favor of the executors of John Evans, Esquire, deceased, for twenty-six pounds, five pounds specie, in full for his wages as a member of the Council of Censors, to be .paid according to resolution of Assembly of the twenty-fourth of November, 1783." Judge Evans married Mary, daughter of Rees and Rachel Jones, and had children, who all died before him except Mary, and she did not survive him many years. His lands, 719 acres, in London. Britain descended to his brothers, Evan, George, and Peter. His daughter Mary also inherited 467 acres in Pencader and White Clay Creek Hundreds, which she devised to her uncles. Evan Evans married Margaret, daughter of William Nivin, and had ten children. He took an active part in the Revolution, and was a justice of. the peace. George Evans joined the army in Philadelphia as surgeon, and was bayoneted through the body near New York, in a surprise attack by night, and taken prisoner. In 1789 he was living in Pencader Hundred, but afterwards went South, where one of his daughters became the wife of Governor Miller, of North Carolina. Peter Evans married Rachel Evans, a native of Wales, and settled for a time in Montgomery County, where he practiced medicine. He had children,—John, Lydia, Peter, David, Septimus, born Feb. 1, 1771, and Sarah. Septimus Evans was twice married, and by the first wife, Mary Morgan, had a daughter, Matilda, who married Dr. Andrews Murphy. By the second wife, Ann Whitting, he had a daughter, Sarah Ann, who married the late David B. Nivin, of London Britain, and their children were Anna M., Septimus E., Ella M., Myra B., Clara T. (deceased), and J. Wilkin Nivin. They held a part of the land purchased by John Evans in 1734, which is now in possession of Septimus E. Nivin. Evan and Margaret Evans had a son Samuel, b. July 14, 1758, who was an ensign in the Revolution, member of Assembly, and was commissioned associate judge in 1793, but owing to his removal to Lancaster County in that year he resigned the office. He married Fanny, youngest daughter of Col. Alexander Lowrey, of Donegal, and left several children. His son Alexander, born March 22, 1799, was the father of Samuel Evans, Esq., of Columbia, a gentleman much interested in the history of Lancaster County. Jane, daughter of Evan and Margaret Evans, married Thomas Henderson, Esq., of New London. EVAN EVANS, of the parish of Treeglws, in Montgomeryshire, Wales, came to this country in 1722, and on November 17th of that year purchased 250 acres of land adjoining Uwchlan Friends' meeting-house. In the deed he is styled " feltmaker." His parents, whose names have not been ascertained, were said to be living at the time of his death, in 1731. His widow, Margaret, married Charles Gatlive, of Uwchlan, July 21, 1735. The children of Evan and Margaret were,-1. Martha, who m. Stephen Hoopes ; 2. Mary, m. to William Clayton and Isaac Marshall ; 3. Margaret, m. to John Tod-hunter ; 4. Evan, unmarried ; 5. Susanna, m. to Isaac Serrill and Robert Carter ; 6. Thomas ; 7. Ann ; 8. Edward ; and 9. Richard. Ann and Edward probably died young. Evan, Jr., took the real estate after he became of age, but dying in 1748, he bequeathed all except forty acres to his brother Thomas, and the remainder to Richard. Thomas Evans married, Aug. 17, 1748, Eleanor, daughter of James Reese, of Uwchlan, and remained on the homestead until his death, about the year 1807. Richard Evans married Phebe, daughter of Dennis Whelen, about 1763, and probably through her influence became a member of Uwchlan Meeting, 12, 4, 1777, together with their children, Thomas, Sarah, Margaret, Mary, and Catharine. They removed to Hopewell, Va. The children of Thomas and Eleanor Evans were Evan, Ezekiel, Jesse, Isaac, Thomas, and Eleanor. The latter married Henry Lewis, of Uwchlan. Jesse was the father of Thomas, born 1778, who was the father of Rev. Joseph S. Evans, now of West Chester. Jesse died near Pittsburgh in 1839, and his son Thomas at Lionville, March 31, 1838. Jesse Bateman Evans, son of the latter, born in West Chester, March 17, 1808, died at Helena, Montana, March 14, 1868. His son, Jonathan H. Evans, of Platteville, Wis., is now or late president of the Board of Regents of the Wisconsin State Normal Schools. 540 - HISTORY OF CHESTER COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. Evan Evans, son of Thomas and Eleanor, born September, 1749, married, Feb. 16, 1780, to Jane Owen, daughter of William and Rebecca Owen, of Uwchlan, born March 19, 1762, died Aug. 5, 1841. He was twice a member of Assembly, and died July 16, 1823. Issue.-1. Rebecca, m. to John. 2. Owen, with a family, went to Illinois. 3. Elinor, died young. 4. Thomas, died 1823, leaving son. Boon. 5. Sarah, m. to William Dunwoody. 6. Ezekiel, b. 6, 24, 1791 ; d. 5, 29, 1870 ; was a justice of the peace for several years. 7. Margaret, m. to Benjamin Harley. 8. William, died young. 9. Richard, b. 6, 15, 1798 ; d. 9, 5, 1856. 10. Hannah, m. to David Beitler. 11. Jane, m. to Lewis Hurford. Ezekiel Evans and Eleanor Beitler were married about the year 1818, and had children,—Thomas B., Hannah, John B., Jane E., Mary Ann, Evan B., Lewis H., Rebecca, J. Anna, and D. Webster. Of these, Lewis H. was an officer in the late civil war, and was since elected to the office of register of wills for this county. HENRY S. EVANS was born in Doylestown, Pa., April 1, 1813. His father died when Henry was quite young, leaving a widow with eight small children to battle with the world almost without means. At the early age of thirteen Henry was apprenticed to Hon. Charles Miner, who then published the Village Record at West Chester, to learn the printing trade. Mr. Miner was one of the leading public men of the State at that time, had served in Congress, and was a most polished man,—a master calculated to awaken all the ambition of the youthful Evans and fit him for a public career. The life of an apprentice fifty years ago was very different from that of to-day, and a boy was expected to perform any task his master set. Newspaper publishers then delivered their papers to their country subscribers, and three days in the week, winter and summer, found young Evans astride the saddle-bags " riding post" over the county. Evenings found him poring over books, and he soon began to contribute to the Record articles which won the favorable criticism of so polished a writer as Mr. Miner. Newspaper writing in those days was modeled after the style of essays, hence we find the Village Record fifty years ago quite different from the newsy paper that it afterwards became under its whilom apprentice. Young Evans' apprenticeship ended when he was nineteen, and May 11, 1833, he started forth to battle with the world with little money, but much courage. Six pages of diary kept by him at that time give so well the story of his experiences that we will quote his own words. After some weeks spent in visiting his relatives, he says,— "Went to Philadelphia and obtained work at Howe's type-foundry, and remained three weeks and three days, when the business of the office began to fail. Being now obliged to stand' or change situation, I took the latter alternative, and took my passage for New York at 6 A.M. Friday, June 22, 1833. Took my lodgings in New York at Tammany Hall; the terms were $2 per week for a room and bed; board of course was not included. The rain caused me to add a new article of expense, —this was an umbrella, for which I paid $3.50, a pretty heavy sum in these times. Having frequently felt the want of such an article, I determined to avoid the inconvenience in the future; but even these reflections were not sufficient, after I had purchased it, to reconcile my mind until I resorted to the old saying, I think of Pope, that what is, is right;' this idea has more than once poured comfort into my tortured mind. Business dull in New York. Called at several printing-offices but found no work. Remained three days, and resolved to return to Philadelphia. Found myself without money to return ; steamboat fare was $3. Was obliged to sell my umbrella at the place where I bought it. The merchant would only allow $2. Heavy loss. No work in Philadelphia. Returned to West Chester ; saw an advertisement in Telegraph, Germantown, for jour. Set off on foot for that place; engaged it at $6 per week. Found employment five or six weeks with Mr. Freas. Despairing of journey-work, issued a prospectus for Waynesburg Press, in Chester County. Set out for Waynesburg on foot; made known my intentions to the people, and went around and solicited subscribers. Obtained 500 and started the Press." The diary ends here never to be resumed, for the leisure time of the writer was at an end. The new paper required hard work, and the income was so small that often two meals a day had to suffice the young publisher, because there were no means to buy the third. In 1834, Mr. Miner, who wished to retire from business, offered the Village Record to Mr. Evans, which was gladly accepted, and moving to West Chester, he assumed control. Under his charge the paper grew in circulation and influence, until it became an institution in the county, and the leading country paper of the State. In political and public matters Mr. Evans took an active and influential part, and soon was recognized as a leader. In 1846 the Whigs elected him to represent Chester County in the House of Representatives of Pennsylvania, and re-elected him in 1847 and 1848. His abilities and energy soon made him one of the leading members of the House, and he exerted much influence on legislation. In the session of 1849 he was the Whig candidate for Speaker, the Democratic candidate being William F. Packer, of Lycoming County, afterwards Governor. The House was composed of 47 Whigs, 50 Democrats, and 3 " Native Americans." Mr. Evans polled the solid Whig and " Native" vote for twenty-one ballots, the result of each ballot being a tie. On the twenty-second ballot the three " Natives" cast their ballots for Mr. Packer and elected him. In 1851, Mr. Evans was elected State Senator from the district composed of Chester and Delaware Counties, and served with so much credit and satisfaction that he was renominated by the Whigs of Chester County at the expiration of his term, but apprehending that unless the " claims" of Delaware County were yielded to his party might lose the district, he withdrew. In 1854, Mr. Evans was a prominent candidate for the Whig nomination for Governor. Mr. Evans' name was withdrawn, as it afterwards proved, unadvisedly, as the Philadelphia delegation had resolved to cast its vote solidly for him on the next ballot, which would have nominated him. Governor Pollock selected Andrew G. Curtin, afterwards Governor, as his Secretary of the Commonwealth, intimating to Mr. Evans that if Mr. Curtin declined he should offer him the place. While serving in- the House and Senate, Mr. Evans distinguished himself as a most painstaking, industrious member. He was a member of several of the most important committees of both Houses, and was chairman of the House Committee on Printing and Education. While in this latter position he originated and framed the act that was passed by both Houses for the regulation of common schools in Pennsylvania. In the legislation for the sale of the public works he took a very prominent part. At the close of his Senatorial term he resumed his BIOGRAPHICAL AND GENEALOGICAL - 541 editorial work with his usual ardor, but his health, never very robust, began to fail, and in 1869 he took a trip to Europe. Returning much invigorated, he was again elected, in 1870, to the State Senate, this time from the district composed of Chester, Delaware, and Montgomery Counties. Before his term was half over he was taken sick, and died Feb. a, 1872. Henry S. Evans was one of those remarkable men who are the products of American civilization. Like Horace Greeley and other well-known men, he began life a poor boy, gifted with only a slight public-school education, and by his own efforts raised himself to a prominent place as a journalist and as a public man. Like those gifted countrymen who had risen so high by their own exertions, he fell a victim to the demon overwork, dying at an age when English public men have hardly reached their prime. Remembering his own early struggles, Mr. Evans was ever ready to lend a helping hand to young people just starting in life, and a tale of suffering or trouble was sure to attract his sympathy and aid. As a citizen he took a prominent part in every public enterprise, and was called to fill numerous places of minor public trust: chief burgess of West Chester in 1861, guardian, trustee, etc. The high estimation in which he was held by the public made places in his office much sought after by the best class of young men, and he was very proud of his boys.* In 1841, Mr. Evans married Jane, daughter of Dr. William Darlington, the celebrated botanist, by whom he had seven children, five of whom survived him. His death came like a sudden blow, and the high regard in which he was held by his neighbors was attested by the universal expressions of sorrow at the news of his departure. No finger of suspicion was ever pointed at any public act of his, and his private life was equally without stain. COLUMBUS PENN EVANS, son of Septimus and Catharine (Haupt) Evans, was born in Montgomery Co., Pa., Sept. 6, 1824. His father was of the Celtic race of ancient Britons, his mother of a respectable German family, and his training, from boyhood, among the Anglo-Saxons of Chester County. When about nine years old he lost his father, and while in his eleventh year his widowed mother, with several children, removed to West Chester, where, by her maternal care and excellent management, she raised and educated her younger children. At an early age Columbus was apprenticed to his brother, Henry S. Evans, to learn the printing business in the office of the Village Record, where he had for his associates such hopeful specimens of Young America as Bayard Taylor, Enos Prizer, of the Bucks County Intelligencer ; George W. Vernon, of the Delaware Republican; Charles Cook, of the Danville Democrat; Hiram Brower, of the Fairfax (Va.) News; and Frederick E. Foster, of the Pittsburgh Chronicle. In January, 1844, young Evans, then in his twentieth year, aspired to the editorial position, and removed to Wilmington, Del., where, with his friend, G. W. Vernon, as a partner, he took charge of the Republican newspaper. After a residence of two or three years he was recognized * See sketch of the Village Record, in the department of "Educational and Literary," in this work, for names of prominent men who were connected with the office. as worthy to be grouped with the famous " Blue Hen's Chickens" of the war of independence, and accordingly, in the contest with Mexico, he was commissioned a second lieutenant in the spring of 1847, was promoted to a first lieutenantcy in February, 1848, and in the same year received the brevet of captain, to rank from Aug. 20, 1847, " for gallant and meritorious conduct in the battles of Contreras and Cherubusco." He served in the 11th Regiment of U. S. Infantry, in Gen. Cadwallader's brigade. At Molino Del Rey, where the Mexicans were defeated by one-fourth their number of Americans, Lieut. Evans was in the front rank. When the storming-party rushed in to take possession of that dearly-earned position, where so many of his comrades had fallen, he was the second man to enter the work, and received the sword of a Mexican officer. At Chapultepec he led his own and another company, and again received the commendation of his commander. He also held the responsible position of quartermaster of the regiment after the surrender of the city of the Montezumas, and returned, in charge of his company, to New York in August, 1848. He quietly returned to his printing-office in Wilmington, and resumed his editorial employments. Capt. Evans, on Feb. 20, 1849, was presented by the Legislature of his adopted State with a handsome sword, accompanied by a letter from Governor Tharp,—honorable testimonies of his services in the war with Mexico. In 1851 he was elected mayor of the city of Wilmington but in 1852 he declined a re-election, preferring the quiet of private life to the annoyances of official station. In the winter of 1853-54 he was attacked by pulmonary consumption, and died at the residence of his sisters, in West Chester, Feb. 19, 1854, in the thirtieth year of his age. February 22d he was buried with military honors by the National Guards of Chester County. His remains repose in Oaklands Cemetery, near West Chester, where an appropriate memorial, in the form of a pyramidal column, has been erected by his devoted family. JOSHUA EVANS, JR., is descended from William Evans, who emigrated from Merionethshire, Wales, and purchased, in 1719, a tract of five hundred acres in Tredyffrin township of this county. William's son, Joshua, was born in the second week of January, 1732, and married Mary Malin, born 2d mo. (April) 19, 1744. William, the emigrant, was one of forty-two first cousins who came over in the same ship and settled principally in the townships of Limerick and Gwynedd, in Montgomery County. Joshua Evans, Jr., son of Joshua and Mary (Malin) Evans, was born Jan. 20, 1777, and married Lydia Davis, born Feb. 2, 1778. She was the daughter of Dr. John and Mary (Evans) Davis.* Joshua Evans died April 25, 1817, and his wife, Mary (Malin), in August, 1787. * Dr. John Davis, a native of Tredyffrin township, received the appointment of surgeon-in-chief of the Pennsylvania battalions, organized in 1776, and was captured at the battle of Long Island, and held on the British prison-ships at New York. He was born Dec. 30, 1744, and his wife, Ann Evans,—not of the immediate branch of the Evans family, but of the Society of Friends,—was born Feb. 2, 1752. He died Feb. 13, 1816; his wife died Jan. 20, 1816. The Evans family originally was of the Episcopal Church, but afterwards belonged to the Friends. 542 - HISTORY OF CHESTER COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. Joshua Evans, Jr., was one of the most prominent of the many noted men in Chester County. He was a man of singular good sense and judgment, of clear intellect, wonderful nerve, and exercised great power in the county and State. He was elected in 1820 to the House of the Pennsylvania Legislature, and represented from 1829 to 1833 in Congress the district then composed of the counties of Chester, Lancaster, and Delaware. He was many years brigadier-general of State militia. An uncompromising Democrat of the Jefferson and Jackson school, for many years the impress of his life was largely felt and seen in the county. He died Oct. 2, 1846, and his wife, Lydia, Nov. 20, 1818. To them (married Feb. 29, 1808) were born six children,—Edward Farris, Mary Malin, married to John Parker Bailey, engineer, and later associate judge of Chester County ; Sarah Davis, John D., William Henry, and Joshua Lewis. Of these, Sarah and William Henry died young, and the only one of the family now living is John D. Evans, of Paoli, unmarried. LEWIS EVANS, with Sarah, his wife, and children, came from Caernarvonshire, Wales, and settled in Vincent township, near what is known as the " Tilt-Mills." Here Lewis worked at his trade of a shoemaker until his death, May 19, 1762, in the forty-sixth year of his age. He was buried at Charlestown Presbyterian church. His widow survived until March 11, 1805, when she had reached her ninety-third year, and was buried by her husband. Daniel Evans, their son, was born in Caernarvonshire, Nov. 27, 1743, and married Esther Benner, who was born in Leipsic, Germany, 1759. Daniel died Oct. 1, 1820, and his widow Aug. 10, 1840. The other children of Lewis and Sarah were John, Barbara, Jeremiah, Sarah, and Abel, the last being born on the voyage to this country. After the death of the father the family removed to Uwchlan and settled on 621- acres of land, whereon they built a house in 1766, which was enlarged in 1801, and is still standing. The farm was also increased until it contained 350 acres, of which 333 acres are now owned by Newton Evans. The house is said to have been for a time the headquarters of Gen. Wayne, while his forces were encamped on the farm. The children of Daniel and Esther Evans were Lewis, m. to Sarah Evans ; Isaac ; Elizabeth, m. to Joshua Evans ; Sarah, m. to Samuel Nailor ; Ezra, m. to Eliza King ; Mary, m. to Robert McClure ; Jesse ; Daniel ; Abel ; and Henry T., m. to Eliza Thatcher. None of these are now living except Abel and Mary. ABEL EVANS, son of Daniel and Esther, was born in Uwchlan township, April 23, 1801. He was raised on his father's farm, and attended the subscription schools in his neighborhood, receiving the ordinary advantages then afforded in the country. He taught school about one year, and then went into a store, clerking for his brother Isaac. After this he farmed six years, and then was engaged nine years in merchandising. He now purchased a farm in West Vincent, on which he resided until 1865, when he removed to Norristown, where he lived until 1871. He then returned to his farm, on which he remained until November, 1879, when he went to Philadelphia, where he is now living. He was married July 31, 1822, to Ann, BIOGRAPHICAL AND GENEALOGICAL - 543 daughter of James and Hannah Wilson, to whom seven children have been born,—Isaac Benner, James Wilson (deceased), Daniel, Mary Esther, married to William T. Shafer ; Elizabeth Ellen, married to Isaac L. Anderson, of Philadelphia ; Abel (deceased), and Henry Thomas Benton. He has served ten years as justice of the peace. He is a member of the Baptist Church, which with his family he attends, and to which he freely contributes. He is a Republican, having left the Democratic party at the time of the Kansas-Lecompton imbroglio, in 1857-58. The Evans family is very numerous in the county, and has always been distinguished for its thrift, public spirit, and devotion to its adopted country. Daniel, the father of Abel, went to school with Gen. Anthony Wayne, with whom he maintained to the latter's death an intimate friendship. JOHN EVANS, of Uwchlan, son of Lewis and Sarah, was born in Wales in 1745, died November, 1783. He was married, August (license dated 26th), 1772, to Agnes Barnard, widow of Thomas, and daughter of Abraham and Lydia Carter, of Chester township. He was a farmer and hotel-keeper. Agnes survived her husband many years, and during the last years of her life lived with her son Elam in Uwchlan. The children of John and Agnes Evans were Daniel, b. Aug. 10, 1773, m. Sarah Clinger ; Mary, b. Dec. 14, 1776 ; Sarah, b. 1778, m. Samuel Barber ; Silas, b. 1780 Elam, b. 1782, m. Phebe Smith. DANIEL EVANS and REES EVANS, brothers of Lewis Evans, came from Wales about. 1755. Rees went to Loudon County,Va., where he raised a family. Daniel settled on farm in West Whiteland, now owned by William E. Lockwood, where he died September, 1775, leaving no descendants. He was buried at the Vincent Baptist Church, of which he was member, but his wife, Sarah, was a member of the Episcopal Church. He devised his farm in 160 acres to his wife for life, and at her death the rents and profits were to be divided,—two-thirds to the Vincent Baptist Church and one-third to St. Peter's Episcopal Church, for the support of the ministers. Finding they could not well manage the farm, the two churches, after the widow's death, applied to the State Legislature for authority to sell, which was granted by act of Assembly, approved Feb. 10, 1807 (see pamphlet laws, p. 24). By this act two trustees from each church were appointed to sell the property and put the money at interest, and in .case the churches ceased to exist the money was to revert to the heirs as provided by the will. In pursuance of this statute, the Baptist Church of Vincent township appointed Josiah Phillips, of Uwchlan township, and James John and John Ralston (afterwards Judge Ralston, of West Vincent), and John Hall were appointed on the part of St. Peter's Protestant Episcopal Church to sell. The sale took place Dec. 23, 1809, and was purchased by John Malin for the sum of £2473 5s. 3d., or, in United States money, $6595.371. The property to go to the Baptist Church was $4396.91, and St. Peter's Protestant Episcopal Church, $2198.46. WILLIAM EVANS, of Tredyffrin, died in 1734, leaving wife, Eleanor, and children, William, Richard, David, 544 - HISTORY OF CHESTER COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. Thomas, Joel, Joshua, Rachel, Magdalen (m. Samuel Morgan), Mary, Sarah (m. John Wayne), and Hannah. He appears to have been a member of St. David's Church. WILLIAM EVANS, of Vincent, was an active patriot in the days of the Revolution, being commissioned a justice of the peace. We find in the Colonial Records, under date of Sept. 12, 1777, it was " ordered that the Justices of the County of Chester immediately send in as many Waggons as can be procured, and that Colo. Will"' Evans be employed in the County of Chester, & that a Press Warrant be given him accordingly." He was married, May 14, 1761, by Rev. William Currie, to Sarah Smith, and his death occurred in the summer of 1783. His children were Mary (m. to William Rogers), Sarah, Jesse, John, and William. In his will he also mentions his brother David, of Vincent, and James, and sister Eleanor, wife of John Dodson, in Frederick County, Md. ABNER EVANS, from Wales, settled in East Nantmeal about 1755, and purchased a large tract of land. " Abner's Hill" derives its name from him. He was the father of George Evans, and the grandfather of Jesse, James and Evan Evans, the latter at one time a county commissioner. The late Abner G. Evans, who died Feb. 23, 1881, in East. Nantmeal, was also a descendant. EVERHART, WILLIAM.—James Everhart, of German descent, was a volunteer in the Revolutionary war, and a native of West Vincent township, Chester Co., as were his three sons, whom he educated and started in business. Of these, James was proprietor of a furnace in Schuylkill County, and was a member of the Legislature in 1826. William, the eldest, and the subject of this notice, was born May 17, 1785, and acquired under the instruction of William Peters, brother of Judge Peters, sufficient knowledge of geometry, mensuration, surveying, and navigation to teach those branches satisfactorily before his eighteenth year. For some time he practiced surveying, and about the time of his majority commenced mercantile business in Tredyffrin township, and afterwards moved to Pughtown. He next purchased a farm in West Whiteland, adjoining the " Boot" farm, and erected thereon a dwelling- and store-house. On March 8, 1814, he married the granddaughter of Isaiah Matlack, who owned most of the land in the north end of West Chester, and who built the Green Tree and Eagle Hotels. He had by his wife eight children, of whom Mary died young, Isaiah F. was accidentally killed in his sixteenth year while trying to stop a team running away, and Elizabeth died since the decease of her father. The five living children are Benjamin M., James, Bowen, John R., Thomazine, and Mary. In the war of 1812, William Everhart raised a rifle company of eighty picked men, and offered their services to the government. They were directed to hold themselves in readiness, but were not called into the field. He had been previously appointed by the Governor a justice of the peace, and in that capacity amicably settled every civil and assault and battery case that came before him.. It is also due to history to say that for most of the time in which he acted as magistrate he took no fees, except in cases of marriage. In 1822, Mr. Everhart sailed for England in the packet-ship " Albion," which was wrecked on the coast of Ireland, and he was the only cabin passenger saved. He lost, however, nearly ten thousand dollars in gold, which he had taken with him to buy merchandise. Gold was subsequently found in the wreck, which was tendered to him, and which he could have received had he been willing to swear to its identity, but he could not conscientiously do that, as it was not sufficiently marked, and he declined it. He was, however, so well remembered by friends whom he had previously met abroad that he was enabled to purchase as largely as he desired. In 1824 he purchased a property in Gay Street, West Chester, and moved there. In 1829 he bought the Wollerton farm, which reached from near the Wilmington road to Cedar Hill. This property he divided into lots, extended Market and Church Streets west and south from the Chester County Hotel, now called the Mansion House, which he built, and he named the streets which he laid out after his friends, Isaac Wayne, Gen. Barnard, Charles Miner, and Dr. William Darlington. He realized largely from the purchase of this farm, and this laid the foundation of his subsequent princely fortune. From 1830 to 1862 he erected, perhaps, a hundred brick buildings in the borough. In 1852 he was elected to the Thirty-third Congress of the United States, running considerably ahead of the rest of the ticket. He declined a unanimous renomination, considering it merely a complimentary approval of his course. He delivered a most able, forcible, and comprehensive speech in Congress on May 19, 1854, on the Kansas and Nebraska bill of Senator Douglas repealing the Missouri Compromise, which speech showed with prophetic eye the dire results that would follow its passage, and that its authors would reap a tornado. In the fall of 1867, Mr. Everhart retired from mercantile business, after an uninterrupted application to it of over sixty years, with a credit unimpaired in the commercial circles of the leading cities of this country and England. It may be said that he was comprehensive and long-sighted in his views, and yet not indifferent to details. His judgment was rapid, and without being intractable, he had much self-reliance and acted promptly on his own convictions. His extensive intercourse and experience gave him such practical knowledge that he appreciated characters and transactions, values and events, with remarkable facility and correctness. Although but little devoted to literary composition, he could express himself forcibly on paper, and without being an extempore speaker, was seldom unprepared with an answer or suggestion. His presence of mind scarcely ever forsook him in any emergency of difficulty or peril. His habits, his morals, his integrity, were beyond reproach. He had genuine charity, giving to the poor and deserving without ostentation never forgetting a favor nor failing to forgive an injury, nor disparaging merit on account of prejudice or interest, nor in any way countenancing persecution or intolerance. He stood guard over an Abolitionists' meeting in his own house when they could procure no other room, and when they were followed by mobs all through the North. His faith in religion was from early life, and unfaltering to its close, and though a member of church for half a century, he had a catholic regard for all sects, revered all good men, and entertained with equal hospitality clergy- J. B. EVANS Daniel Evans was born in Caernarvonshire, Wales, i n 1743, and came to America in 1752 with his father, Lewis, who settled in Vincent township. Daniel was a schoolmate of Gen. Anthony Wayne, and on the latter's retreat from Paoli to Warwick Furnace he encamped one night on Daniel's farm. Daniel, who died in 1820, married Esther Benner, and their third son and fourth child was Ezra, who married Eliza King, of German extraction, to whom were born two children,—Jesse Benner and Newton. Of these, Jesse Benner Evans was born Oct. 3, 1824, and was raised on a farm, receiving the education the public schools afforded. He was married July 16, 1850, to Sarah S.Wagonseller, daughter of Jacob Wagonseller, of Union County, by whom he has had six children : Franklin ; Eliza, married to Clark Pierson, editor of Lambertville (N. J.) Record; Lewis Wilmer ; Martha K.; Abigail ; and Gertrude. In early life he studied dentistry, and practiced his profession at Phoenixville until 1855, when he removed to the farm of ninety-seven acres he now owns, and where he has since resided. He has served seven years as school director, and one term as justice of the peace, and is now on his second one as magistrate. He is a member of the Windsor Baptist Church, with his family, and to which he liberally contributes. He was originally a Democrat, but on the repeal of the Missouri Compromise," in 1854, attached himself to the Republican party. Belongs to the Patrons of Husbandry, and has been Master of Grange Lodge, No. 53. In 1853 he joined Phoenix Lodge, No. 75, A. and Y. M., and was afterwards a charter member of Williamson Lodge, No. 309, of Downingtown, of which he was its second Worshipful Master. He subsequently as a charter member aided in the organization of Mount Pickering Lodge, No. 446, of which he was the first Worshipful Master, and to which he yet belongs. His farm lies on the State road from West Chester to Pottstown, midway between them, and his post-office is Uwchlan. He is a gentleman of deserved high standing in the community, as is well attested by the many responsible positions to which he has been chosen. RESIDENCE AND FARM OF J. B. EVANS, UPPER UWCHLAN. BIOGRAPHICAL AND GENEALOGICAL - 545 men of every denomination. Mr. Everhart did more to contribute to the wealth and prosperity of West Chester than any other one of its citizens, and his death, on Oct. 30, 1868, was as deeply regretted as his memory is fondly cherished by all who knew him. Of his three sons, Benjamin M. is well known for his proficiency in natural history, and especially in all branches of botany. James B. studied law in West Chester and at the Cambridge (Mass.) Law-School, and successfully practiced his profession in West Chester for a time ; was captain and major in the two " emergencies" of the late Rebellion ; and is at present (1881) State senator, to which office he was elected in 1876, and again in 1880. He is also the author of two volumes of poetry and one of miscellanies of travel. John R. is a physician, who attended lectures in Philadelphia and Paris, performed one of the most successful operations for cataract in the county, and was surgeon during the late war and was promoted for efficiency. FAIRLAMB, NICHOLAS, from Stockton, in the county of Durham, England, came to Pennsylvania in 1700, and settled at first in Philadelphia. In 1703 he married Katharine, daughter of Richard Crosby, of Middletown, to which place he removed, afterwards residing in Chester. His children were Mary, b. 7, 19, 1705, m. John. Tomlinson ; Samuel, b. 10, 20, 1707, died young ; Katharine, b. 4, 8, 1709, in. Joseph Tomlinson ; Hannah, b. 8, 19, 1711, m. John Hurford ; John, m. 11, 13, 1742-3, to Susanna Engle; Eleanor, m. 4, 23, 1743, to Caleb Harrison. John was a member of Assembly, sheriff, justice of the courts, etc., and died in 1766, leaving children,-Nicholas, Frederick, Samuel, John, Catharine, Anne, Susanna, Eleanor, and Mary. John, Jr., married Susanna Ashbridge, of Goshen, in 1784. Catharine married, 4, 3, 1773, Peter Hill, of Middletown, who built what was known as "Hillsdale Factory," on the Brandywine, in East Bradford, now a paper-mill. FETTERS, GEORGE, was born in Philadelphia about 1760. His parents died when he was quite young, and he lived with relatives in Germantown until the Revolutionary war, in which he served for some time. In 1784 he married Margaret, daughter of John and Sarah Smith,* who emigrated from Germany about 1745, and settled first at Germantown, later near Skippack, (now) Montgomery Co. About the year 1800, George Fetters settled in Charlestown township, and afterwards in East Whiteland. Their children were twelve in number, of whom eight married and raised families, viz. : Mary, m. James Pennypacker ; Margaret, m. Peter Hartman ; Susan, m. Matthias Penny-packer ; Sarah, m. Henry Hartzell ; John, m. Mary Sloyer ; Abraham and Samuel ; George, m. Catharine Laubaugh. The sons were all six feet high. George, Sr., and wife finally owned a farm in Pikeland. He died Dec. 25, 1836, and she February, 1847 ; both buried at Pikeland church. George Fetters' son Samuel married Mary, daughter of * John Smith, with three of his sons, served in the Revolutionary war in the patriot army. Smith was a miller, and by detecting adulterations in the flour that was furnished the American army while at Valley Forge he was appointed to the position of flour inspector. His son Isaiah witnessed the execution of Major Andre, and served until the close of the war. - 69 - John and Catharine Acker, by whom he had children,-John, Abraham, Isaac, Mary, Elizabeth, and Samuel. ABRAHAM FETTERS, son of Samuel and Mary (Acker) Fetters, was born in Uwchlan township, Sept. 17, 1828, and when four years of age went to live with his grandfather, John Acker, in East Whiteland, with whom he remained until he was sixteen. His early education was received in the public school of Valley Creek, in East Whiteland, where he made good progress in his studies, particularly in mathematics. He was fond of reading, and devoted his first earnings, saved from gathering nuts, etc., to the purchase of books, historical and biographical being his favorites. After he was sixteen he returned to his father's, and soon after went one term to Prospect Hill Academy, in East Bradford, kept by Benjamin Price, Jr. In the fall of 1846, at the age of eighteen, he began teaching at Hopewell public school, in Charlestown township. Though the manners of the times and place were rude and the boys large, he had about him a personal dignity, backed by good strong health, a six-foot stature, and plenty of muscle, that enabled him to secure and maintain good discipline and a good reputation as a teacher from the very start. He taught afterwards in the public schools,-three sessions at Hopewell ; nine at White School, in Uwchlan ; three at Franklin Hall, West Pikeland ; and three at School No. 1, Birmingham. He was also in charge of the primary department of the West Chester Academy for two years, under Prof. Wyers as principal. Twelve hundred pupils in all have been under his charge, and it is safe to say no teacher in the county has exerted a wider or more healthful influence over the rising generation. Always enthusiastic in his profession, he has labored in the cause thirty-four years with an amount of energy and a success of which any man may well feel proud. At White School, in 1856, he established the first public-school library in the county, and he was the first, as far as is known, who had vocal music in his school. His success in all these enterprises is attested by the large number of well-educated and well-doing men and women who owe their early training to him. One particular case is worthy of mention. A poor bound boy who came to his school and read the books in the library at White School, Uwchlan, is now a celebrated newspaper writer of Cincinnati, 0. He told Mr. Fetters that it was the impulse his training and the reading of the books in the above library gave him that raised him to his present position. Mr. Fetters married Rebecca K., youngest daughter of John and Hannah Brownback, of Upper Uwchlan, on Christmas Day, 1866, and moved in the following spring to his present residence, having resigned his position as a teacher in the West Chester Academy, and intending to devote his time and energies to farming. His farm is one of the finest in the county, but the old school-teacher impulse was too strong to allow him to devote his whole time to farming, and in the fall of 1868, having the previous winter taught the public school at Prospect Hill, Upper Uwchlan, he opened a day- and boarding-school at his residence. This he named " Edgefield Institute," and it has been in successful operation ever since, with an average attendance of twenty-five pupils of both sexes. The reputation of his school is deservedly high, and his farm and 546 - HISTORY OF CHESTER COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. farm buildings are models of neatness, thrift, and elegance. During the Rebellion he was captain of Co. G, 12th Regiment P. V. M., in fall of 1862, and in 1863 was first sergeant of Co. A, 43d Regiment P. V. M. He is one of the jury commissioners for the county. On the whole, he may well feel a satisfaction in his work, and few men have done more or better. He is, moreover, even now reaping the substantial fruits of a successful life. He is possessed of an ample competency, and as a specimen of physical manhood few men equal him. Strictly temperate and pure in his life, honest, industrious, and useful in the highest degree, he is a credit to the name and an honor to his native county. ABRAHAM FETTERS, son of George and Margaret, was a soldier in the war of 1812, and one of the most successful farmers of his time. He married Elizabeth, daughter of John and Catharine Acker, whose ancestors were thrifty land-owners in Uwchlan before the Revolution. LEVI FETTERS, the first son and second child of Abraham and Elizabeth (Acker) Fetters, was born Nov. 3, 1831. He had a fair chance for a common-school education, hav- ing attended two years the school of Miss Elizabeth Jones, daughter of the late Judge Thomas Jones, a most estimable lady, and an accomplished teacher. He also spent two winters at the Howard Academy, Rockville, under the charge of Prof. James McClune. He taught school from 1854 to the breaking out of the war, in the winters. In 1859 he visited Europe on a tour of six months, and contributed a series of letters to the Chester County Times, then owned by Samuel Downing and published in West Chester. They were read with great favor and largely copied by other papers. During the war he was first lieutenant in the 21st Pennsylvania Militia, and captain of Co. C, 175th P. V. He served in Virginia and North Carolina until his regiment was mustered out. His reputation as an officer was such that on one occasion his company was selected from the whole brigade for a special service. He taught infantry tactics in the Free Military School, 1210 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, for six months during the war. This school was established and paid for by the Union League of Philadelphia for instructing officers for colored troops. It was a most successful institution, and sent over four hundred well-qualified young officers to the front and field. As an evidence of the appreciation the Union League had of his services the following resolution is appended : " HEADQUARTERS SUPERVISORY COMMITTEE FOR RECRUITING COLORED TROOPS, "1210 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, Sept. 26, 1864. "LEVI FETTERS, ESQ. : "Dear Sir,—At a meeting of the committee last evening the following resolution was unanimously adopted : "` Resolved, That the thanks of this committee are due and are hereby tendered to Levi Fetters, late captain 175th P. V., assistant preceptor of the Free Military School for applicants for command of colored troops, for his able and unremitting services in the discharge of his duties.' Respectfully, " CADWALADER BIDDLE, Sec'y." In 1869 he married Mary, daughter of Isaac King, of East Whiteland, and has now two sons, Arthur II. and Lawrence K. He now resides at Barneston, West Nantmeal township, where he is ticket and freight agent of the Pennsylvania Railroad at that station. He is also agent of Adams Express Company, and a director in the Phoenixville Fire Insurance Company. He has been postmaster there since 1872. He is also engaged in the mercantile and warehouse business. He was a candidate in the last County Republican Convention for the nomination for the Legislature, and received forty-four votes, being next to the one nominated. All his ancestors were of German or Swiss extraction, and all honest and successful farmers. His grandfather, George Fetters, and others of his ancestors, were soldiers in the patriot army in the Revolution. His father, Abraham, when a young man, walked, in 1817, to Cincinnati, Ohio, and back to his farm in this county, and was many years a commissioned officer in a military company commanded by the late John G. Wersler, of Charlestown. Levi Fetters has acted as school director. Has been for twenty-six years a member of the I. O. O. F. In 1866 he was in Florida in the cotton culture, and in 1872 embarked at Barneston in the mercantile business, where he has been most successful. FINCHER, FRANCIS, from Worcester, England, was an early settler in Pennsylvania. His son John married Martha, daughter of Robert Taylor, of Springfield, and in 1699 was living in Newtown. After this he resided in Uwchlan,' but his final settlement was in Londongrove, where he died about 1747. In 1714 he married the widow Elinor Cook, but his children were probably by his first wife. They were Elizabeth, m. 9, 2, 1722, to Thomas Cox ; Rebecca, b. 9, 6, 1708, m. Joseph Bennett ; Jonathan, m. 4, 29, 1726, to Deborah Dicks ; Sarah, m. 2, 25, 1728, to Edward Swayne ; Mary, m. 2, 17, 1729, to Nathaniel Newlin, owner of Newlin township ; Francis, m. 4, 30, 1731, to Hannah Shewin ; John, m. to Jane McNab. FINLEY, REV. SAMUEL, D.D., was born in Armagh, province of Ulster, Ireland, in 1715. He emigrated to BIOGRAPHICAL AND GENEALOGICAL - 547 America in September, 1734 ; is supposed to have studied at the " Log College" of William Tennent, at Neshaminy, Bucks Co., and was licensed to preach by the Presbytery of New Brunswick, Aug. 4, 1740. After preaching in various places he became, in 1744, pastor of the Nottingham Church, adjacent to the line between Chester Co., Pa., and Cecil Co., Md., having a congregation resident in both counties. In this place he instituted an academy, which was conducted with admirable wisdom and success, and acquired a higher reputation than any other in the middle colonies, so that students from a great distance were attracted to it. Some of the ablest and best men in the country laid the foundation of their education, eminence, and usefulness in this academy; among whom may be mentioned Dr. Benjamin Rush and his brother, Judge Jacob Rush, sons of a sister of Mrs. Finley ; Governor Martin, of North Carolina ; Ebenezer Hazard, Esq. ; Dr. McWhorter, of New Jersey ; Col. John Bayard ; Governor Henry, of Maryland ; Dr. William M. Tennent, Dr. James Power, and James Waddell, D.D., the blind preacher, whose eloquence has been so highly eulogized by William Wirt in his " British Spy." Dr. Finley was a man of sound and vigorous mind, an accomplished scholar and skillful teacher, and there were no better classical scholar's formed anywhere than in his school. In 1761 he became president of the College of New Jersey, and removed to Princeton. He performed the duties of this position with distinguished wisdom and efficiency, and the college prospered greatly during his administration. He was remarkable for sweetness of temper and politeness of behavior ; given to hospitality, and exemplary in the discharge of all his duties. The degree of Doctor of Divinity was conferred upon him by the University of Glasgow in 1763, an honor not conferred in those days, especially by a foreign university, except when well merited. This was the second instance in which that university had conferred this degree upon a Presbyterian minister on this side of the Atlantic. It had conferred the title upon Francis Alison in 1758. Dr. Finley died July 16, 1766. Among his descendants is Samuel Finley Breese Morse, inventor of the magnetic telegraph. FINNEY, ROBERT, born in Ireland about 1668, came to America with his wife, Dorothea, and children as early as 1720, and settled in New London township. He purchased from Michael Harlan, in 1722, the " Thunder Hill" tract of 900 acres, for which a patent was afterwards granted him, dated Aug. 4, 1733. Tradition states that he was one of the defenders of Londonderry, and in the battle of the Boyne, 1690, he was wounded and left upon the field as dead. Regaining consciousness in the night, and finding a horse grazing near, he mounted and rode away. It is also said that at the burial of some one years after his sepulture, his skull was discovered with a hole in it, showing where the wound had been. Another oft-repeated tradition is to the effect that before leaving Ireland he dreamed that he had emigrated and purchased land in America, and when he actually came he recognized in "Thunder Hill" the home of his dream. Upon a corner of this tract he and his wife were buried, and the spot was reserved for a family burying-ground. He died in March, 1755, and his wife in May, 1752. Their children were, so far as known,-1. John, who settled at New Castle, physician, died 1774 ; was the father of David Finney, judge of the Supreme Court of Delaware. 2. Robert, physician, of Thunder Hill, who died about 1782, probably unmarried. 3. Lazarus, m. Catharine Simonton, was the first tavern-keeper at New London Crossroads ; died about 1740, leaving children,—Robert, John, Dorothy, and Catharine. The widow married John Frew, who continued the tavern-keeping business at the old stand. 4. Letitia, m. William McKean, was the mother of Governor Thomas McKean. 5. William, m. Jane Stephenson ; died about 1751, leaving children,—Robert, John, Walter (judge), Elizabeth (m. to Andrew Henderson), and Jane (m. to a Mr. Hunter, and lived in Pittsburgh). 6. Thomas, m. to Mary ; died in New London about 1767, leaving children,—Robert, Dorothea, and Ann. 7. Ann, m. to John McClenachan, of New London. Rev. Spencer L. Finney, of Rye, N. Y., is descended from Lazarus Finney through Robert, Lazarus, and Robert, he being of the sixth generation. He has in his possession the old deed and patent for Thunder Hill, with other family papers. Walter Finney, born in New London, 1748, purchased the farm on which his father had lived, and, with the exception of. the time spent in the service of his country, passed his days in the cultivation thereof. He joined the American army, with the rank of lieutenant, at the commencement of the Revolutionary war, serving throughout that memorable contest, and also through the Indian wars at the conclusion of the Revolution. During his service he attained to the rank of captain, and was brevetted a major Aug. 10, 1776 ; among other engagements, was in the battle of Brandywine ; on one occasion was wounded in the head by a grape-shot ; experienced captivity in a New York prison-ship, where he was nearly starved to death before he was exchanged ; and although clearly entitled to a pension, he never applied for it. While a young and enthusiastic lieutenant, Mr. Finney manifested his patriotic zeal by fitting out at his own expense two of his servants who had entered the provincial service in Col. Atlee's battalion. At the conclusion of his military career, Capt. Finney became a member of the State Society of the Cincinnati, and was soon after appointed a justice of the County Court ; under the constitution of 1790 he was an associate judge of the court, in which office he was continued until his decease, Sept. 20, 1820. He had presided over the courts for several years when they were held by the justices of the peace ; and after the appointment of judges he usually presided in the absence of the president judge, and it is said conducted the business with great satisfaction. Walter Finney was one of the fairest specimens of a Pennsylvania patriot. Honest and faithful, a good citizen and a pious man, he was always ready to do his duty to the republic. He married Mary O'Hara, who died Aug. 10, 1823, and both are buried at Thunder Hill. 548 - HISTORY OF CHESTER COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. FITZPATRICK, JAMES,* .commonly known in those days as Capt. Fitz or Fitch, was the son of an Irishman, and when a boy was bound by his father to John Passmore, a worthy citizen of Doe Run, who resided on the farm now owned by Benjamin Seal, in whose family he was brought up, and from whom he learned his trade, that of a blacksmith. He appears to have behaved well during his apprenticeship, and to have served his master faithfully. He is said in his boyhood to have manifested great superiority in athletic exercises, at which he practiced a great deal. Upon attaining his majority lie worked for others at his trade for a period. The Revolutionary war, however, breaking out about this time, he joined a militia company, and afterwards entered the Flying Camp, and went with it to New York. He soon deserted, swam the Hudson, and returned to Chester County, where he was recognized, arrested, and lodged in Walnut Street prison in Philadelphia as a deserter. Recruits for the army being much needed, the offer was made to deserters of release and indemnity for the past on condition they would return to the service. Fitzpatrick availed himself of the offer, and again entered the Continental army. He appears to have done so, however, simply for the purpose of regaining his liberty, as in a very short time he. again deserted, and reappeared in Chester County. How long he was at liberty after this second desertion we have no means of knowing, but in the summer of 1777, while mowing with others in a field on the property of his former master, John Passmore, in 'West Marlborough township, he was arrested by two soldiers, who had been sent from Wilmington for that purpose, his whereabouts having become known. He was not aware of the presence of the soldiers, and was taken before resistance could be made. He was determined, however, not to again lose his liberty so easily, but being unarmed and in the hands of armed men, it was necessary to resort to strategy to effect his release. His captors, at his request, accompanied him to his mother's, who resided in a tenant-house on Mr. Passmore's property, in order that he might procure some additional clothing. On entering the house Fitzpatrick preceded them, seized his rifle, which stood behind the door, turned on his captors and compelled them by his threats to leave him. He is said to have returned to his labor, and to have pursued it as if nothing had taken place to disturb his composure. Soon after this Gen. Howe landed at the Head of Elk, and was joined by Fitzpatrick, either because he desired to be revenged on the Whigs for having arrested and imprisoned him for desertion, or because he was at heart a Tory. He was with the British army on its march through Chester County, was present at the battle of Brandywine, and afterwards accompanied the army to Philadelphia, and was doubtless very serviceable to the British commander, from his familiar knowledge of the country through which * The readers of Bayard Taylor's " Story of Kennett" will remember the personages who figure therein under the names of Sandy Flash and Dougherty. These characters appear to be based upon those of two celebrated bandits who flourished in Chester County during the years 1777 and 1778, bearing the names of James Fitzpatrick and Mordecai Dougherty, and who were for a considerable time the terror of the Whig citizens of the county. they passed. While the army occupied Philadelphia he remained with them, making excursions into his native county from time to time, plundering the Whigs, and carrying off their horses and other property to Philadelphia. Sometimes he captured the good Whigs themselves and took them within the British lines. In this petty warfare he was assisted by one Mordecai Dougherty, who had been brought up in the family of Nathan Hayes, near Doe Run, and with whom Fitzpatrick had doubtless been acquainted from boyhood. When the British army evacuated Philadelphia, in the spring of 1778, Fitzpatrick, who was then absent on a marauding expedition, stayed behind, and resolved to carry on the war on his own account, making Chester County the theatre of his operations. His headquarters were for a time at what was then known as Hand's Pass, on the North Valley Hill, a short distance west of the present town of Coatesville, near where the Philadelphia and Lancaster turnpike leaves the valley. He also frequented various secluded points along the Brandywine, particularly in Newlin and West Bradford townships, one of which was on the high hill on the west side of the creek, near the 'present Marshall's Station on the Wilmington and Reading Railroad. From these retreats Fitzpatrick, aided by his friend Dougherty, whom he styled his lieutenant, made his depredations upon the Whigs, and by a series of the most daring robberies became the terror of the people of the whole county. The Tories—who for the truth of history, it must be confessed, were somewhat numerous in parts of Chester County—were never molested; but the Whigs, and especially the collectors of public moneys, he considered as lawful prey, and he plundered them whenever opportunity offered, often maltreating them in a rude and merciless manner, sometimes tying them and flogging them severely. He was often pursued and searched for in all his haunts, sometimes by large bodies of men banded together to effect his capture, and ambushed on every side, but he always eluded their vigilance, plundering on one day in one part of the county, and setting the whole neighborhood in commotion, and appearing the next day in an entirely different section and pursuing the same course, escaping from the fleetest, and disarming and robbing those who were armed for his capture. Many incidents are related of his hairbreadth escapes, and of his reckless daring in presenting himself to those who were seeking for him, walking through companies of men armed for his capture, daunting them by his intrepidity and escaping unharmed. The limits of this sketch, however, will not admit of their minute relation. He was not, however, a covetous man ; was never known to wrong the weak and helpless, and frequently gave to the poor what he took from the rich. On one occasion, while lurking in the neighborhood of Caln Friends' meeting-house, he fell in with an old woman who followed the business of a trader, on her way to Philadelphia with her little stock of money to purchase goods. She was not acquainted with the person of the robber, and made known to him her apprehension that, as Capt. Fitz was in the neighborhood, she might fall into his clutches and be robbed of her money. BIOGRAPHICAL AND GENEALOGICAL - 549 He told her that he was the man she so much dreaded, but. that she might dismiss her fears, for he would not wrong a poor and defenseless woman, and presenting her with a quantity of gold, wished her a pleasant journey, and left her. The authorities were not idle while this predatory warfare was being carried on. On June 6, 1778, Col. Andrew Boyd, lieutenant of the county of Chester, a resident of Sadsbury, wrote from Newlin township to the Council at Philadelphia that Joseph Luckey and Peter Burgandine had been taken out of their houses by Fitzpatrick, Dougherty, and others; that he had made the most diligent search after these daring marauders and their accomplices, but without success, and that they were secreted and supported with provisions by the inhabitants of Newlin and neighboring townships, who were ill-affected towards the cause of American liberty. On July 13th the Executive Council, by an order, after reciting that James Fitzpatrick had for some time past infested the highway leading from Philadelphia to Lancaster, robbing the people passing thereon, offered a reward of one thousand dollars for his capture. At length the career of this bold, bad man, who had baffled so long the efforts made to arrest him, was brought to a close. On August 22d he called at the house of William McAffee or McFee, situate in Edgmont township, near Crum Creek, and not far from the highway leading from West Chester to Philadelphia, near what is known as Castle Rock, and after making himself known, said he was going about levying contributions from the Whigs, and demanded one hundred and fifty pounds. He ordered the family, consisting of Mr. McAffee and his wife, a son, Capt. Robert McAffee, a woman named Rachel Walker, and a boy, all up-stairs, and proceeded to plunder the house. He had taken from Capt. McAffee a pair of shoes, and laying his sword and pistol on a bed in a room where the family were, raised a foot on the bedstead, in order to put on one of the shoes. Rachel Walker gave a signal to Capt. McAffee (who was a strong, athletic man) to seize him, and he, contemplating the same thing, instantly grappled him round the body and arms, and Rachel grasped the pistols (one of which Fitzpatrick had retained in his hand) almost at the same moment, and after an effort secured them. Capt. McAffee succeeded in throwing him down, and his servant, David Cunningham, entering at the moment, ropes were procured and he was securely bound. Cunningham was then sent to inform the Whigs of his capture, and to procure assistance to guard the prisoner. As McAffee's nearest neighbors were mainly inimical to the American cause, the messenger had to go some distance before he could procure the needed aid. During the night a gun was fired at one of the windows,—it was supposed by Dougherty. Search was made, but the villain had fled, leaving a sword which Fitz had formerly taken from an officer. The next morning a guard arrived from the American camp, and the prisoner was conveyed to jail at Chester. On Sept. 15th he was convicted of burglary and robbery and sentenced to be hung, and the 26th of the same month was fixed upon by the Council as the time for his execution. Before the day arrived he made violent efforts to effect his escape, and very nearly succeeded in doing so, having filed off his irons and got out of his dungeon. The Council had him removed to Philadelphia for safe-keeping, and while in jail there he broke his handcuffs twice in one night, but being closely guarded, his attempts to escape were frustrated. On the day before his execution he was taken back to the jail at Chester, and executed in pursuance of the warrant. A dispute afterwards arose with reference to the distribution of the reward of one thousand dollars which had been offered by the Executive Council for the capture of Fitzpatrick. The woman, Rachel Walker, claimed the whole of it, alleging that she had first suggested the seizure, and it was claimed by Capt. McAffee, on the ground that the capture was actually made by him ; but the Council, after hearing the parties, deeming their claims both meritorious, divided the reward equally between them. She, however, availing herself of the favorable impression which her conduct produced, went about the country and received considerable sums of money from the Whigs as a reward for her courage. About two weeks after the execution of Fitzpatrick, some miscreants maimed the horses and burned the oats and haystacks of Wm. McAffee. In a return made by him of property destroyed by the British and their adherents during the Revolutionary war, in pursuance of an act of Assembly passed in 1783, he sets down his losses as follows : Oct. 9, 1778, two large stacks of Oats - £1 .00 To a large quantity of hay and other damage to the amount of - 100 £200 Fitzpatrick is described by tradition as having been an uncommonly fine-looking man, of tall and commanding appearance, very strong and athletic, and swift of foot. His hair was red and his complexion florid. He was undoubtedly a remarkable man, and possessed abilities which, had he pursued an honorable career, might have won for him a distinguished name in the annals of his country. After Fitzpatrick met his reward, Mordecai Dougherty, his accomplice, disappeared, and his fate is unknown. FLEMING, WILLIAM, the earliest member of this family in Chester County, was a native of Greenock, Scotland. It is related that he had an uncle who, in the latter part of the seventeenth century, sailed a ship from Greenock to the Eastern Shore of Maryland for tobacco and wheat. Once while in port at Greenock he persuaded his nephew, William Fleming, to make a voyage with him to America. He consented, and arriving in the Chesapeake in the harvest-time, went ashore at the instance of his uncle to help the farmers, as it would be some time before the ship would be ready to make the return voyage. While thus engaged' the ship sailed without him, and he then learned that his uncle had bound him as a servant. He took the matter philosophically, served the farmer faithfully for the time agreed upon, and then made his way to the settlements on the Delaware. Here he resided with an Englishman, Richard Moore, in Concord township, (now) Delaware Co., and married Mary, one of his daughters. In 1714 he removed with his family and settled in East Caln township, Chester Co. The family possessions were at first on the east side of the west branch of the Brandywine, at and near the present Coatesville. Here he erected a