BIOGRAPHICAL AND GENEALOGICAL - 675


PARRY, JAMES, of Tredyffrin, in his will, dated Dec. 28, 1725, proven Oct. 1, 1726, directed the payment of one pound " unto ye Trustees of the Buildings of ye Presbeterian meeting house in Treduffrin aforesaid, within six months after my decease, towards paying the Charges & Debts of the sd Buildings." To his son David he gave £25, " as also one year's diet if he continues Teaching school in the place where now he is in this Township of Trydufferin." To eldest son, John, all the real estate. His wife's name was Ann, and his other children were Lettice (wife of Lewis William), Elizabeth (wife of James Davies), Margaret, Mary, and Hester Parry.


John Parry died without issue in 1747, and devised his land, purchased by his father in 1713, to his brother David; also mentions his cousin, Rowland Parry, of Haverford. He was a justice of the peace at the time of his death. Among the marriages recorded by the First Presbyterian Church, Philadelphia, are those of David Parry and Elizabeth Jones, March 6, 1727; John Parry and Martha Jones, Jan. 5, 1729 ; and Mary Parry and Malachi Jones, Jan. 27, 1729,-perhaps two brothers and a sister.


David Parry was married by Rev. Jedediah Andrews, and his wife was probably daughter of Rev. Malachi Jones, of Abington, who died prior to May 22, 1729, being the first minister at the Abington Church. The children of David Parry were baptized at that church by Rev. Michael Treat, as follows : Ann, Dec. 4, 1728 ; James, Nov. 4, 1731; James (2), July 8, 1733; Caleb, Feb. 9, 1734-5; Tabitha, March 3, 1736-7 ; Joshua, Jan. 28, 1738-9.


David Parry, of the Great Valley, died in February or March, 1747-8, leaving widow, Elizabeth, and children, Caleb, Tabitha, and Joshua, from which it appears the others died young. Caleb inherited the land, one-half when of age, and the rest at death of his mother. He, with his mother, conveyed to Joshua, who was a blacksmith, 5 acres 25 perches of the land, Feb. 9, 1761, and Joshua, with his wife, Ann, sold the same Aug. 21, 1762, to David Jones, of Tredyffriu. April 3, 1762, Caleb Parry purchased from James Martin and wife one-half of mills and two tracts in East Whiteland (now of Norris Hibberd), and afterwards became owner of the other half. March 27, 1769, he sold the same to Michael Wayne, Thomas Hall, and George Hoopes. In 1768 and 1769 he was keeping tavern at the " Admiral Warren," and at the breaking out of the war is said to have been at the "Leopard," in Easttown. His father had been an " Associator" in his day, and the son, inheriting the military spirit, was one of the first to take up arms. In March, 1776, he was commissioned lieutenant-colonel of Col. Samuel J. Atlee's regiment, and soon after marched with his command to the defense of New York. April 26, 1776, an order was drawn in his favor for £250 for the use of the Musket Battalion in the service. He was killed in the battle of Long Island, Aug. 27, 1776, and tradition says that his hat, through which the fatal ball had passed into his forehead, was brought home and kept for a considerable time. He married, Dec. 15, 1761, Elizabeth Jacobs, daughter of John and Mary (Hayes) Jacobs, by whom he had five children, -Rowland, m to Esther Carter, d. 1796 ; John Jacobs, m. July 28, 1804, to Margaret Palmer, and d. April 29, 1835, in Philadelphia; Esther, m. July 17, 1790, to Gwilliaem Aertsen, of Charleston, S. C., d. April 9, 1815, aged fifty years ; Hannah, m. June 17, 1794, to Thomas Mc-Ewen ; Mary, m. Aug. 16, 1795, to James Musgrave.


Col. Parry's widow and children received patents for nearly 2000 acres of land in Westmoreland Co., Pa., in consideration of his services in the Revolution.


ROWLAND PARRY, of Haverford, tanner, " having a resolution to go to sea, and thence to the Island of Barba-does," made his will Feb. 10, 1713-4 (proved Nov. 22, 1737), in which he mentions his daughter Anne, wife of Hugh Pugh, sons David and John, and daughter Emma Parry.


John Parry, of Haverford (son of Rowland), in addition to his homestead of 380 acres, purchased from William Allen, Esq., the manor of Bilton, containing near 3000 acres, now the southeastern part of the township of Charlestown. He was probably the sheriff of that name who " executed that office with great Integrity and a becoming Resolution in difficult times" (Col. Rec., iv. 309) ; was also for several years a member of Assembly and one of the justices of the Common Pleas. In his will, dated July 14 (proved Oct. 2), 1740, he mentions his wife Hannah, daughters Mary, wife of Jacob Hall, Susanna, Margaret, Hannah, Sarah, and Martha Parry. To his son Rowland he devised the homestead ; also mentions his brother, David Parry, and his two children, sister Ann Lewis' children, and sister Emma's children, appoints his kinsman, John Parry, one of his executors, and gives him his watch.


LEWELLYN PARRY was an early settler in Whiteland, near the line of Caln township. His wife was a daughter of Richard ap Thomas, of Whitford Garden, in Flintshire, Wales, by whom he had several children. (See Thomas.)


JOHN PARRY married, 11, 4, 1775, Hannah Dilworth, daughter of James and Lydia, of Birmingham. A son married Eleanor Gibbons, daughter of James, and was the father of Gibbons Parry, now or late of Florida, Ohio. This John may have been the son of John Parry, who married, 9, 16, 1737, Margaret Pusey, both of Marlborough.


PASSMORE, JOHN, from the parish of Husk, in Berkshire, England, with his wife, Mary, daughter of Humphrey Buxcey, settled in Kennet, now Pennsbury, as early as 1714, afterwards removing to West Marlborough, where he died about 1746. His brother, William Passmore, was a resident in Philadelphia, and appears to have been in good circumstances. The children of John, so far as known, were William, b. 11, 16, 1703, m. Mary Heald ; John, m. 3, 18, 1727, to Elizabeth Harris ; Eleanor, m. 4, 16, 1736, to George Kerson, or Carson ; Augustine, b. 7, 27, 1714, m. Judith Farlow and Hannah Howard ; George, b. 2, 23, 1719 ; Mary, m. William Pusey ; Samuel, m. Susan Butcher.


George Passmore married, 9, 10, 1742, Margaret, daughter of John and Magdalen Strode, of West Marlborough, and had children,-John, George, Margaret, Mary, Thomas, Elizabeth, Margery, and Ann. John, born 7, 2, 1743, married, 4, 24, 1765, Phebe, daughter of Joshua and Mary Pusey, of Londongrove, and had children,-Mary, Margaret, Susanna, Ellis, Margery, Hannah, Mary, Lydia, Phebe, Sarah, George, and Elizabeth.


676 - HISTORY OF CHESTER COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.


Ellis Passmore, born 3, 1, 1771, son of John and Phebe, married Ruth Moore, and was the father of Phebe, Ruth, Ellis P., Andrew M., John W. (father of Col. J. A. M. Passmore, of Pottsville), George B., Benjamin J. (late associate judge), and William Passmore.


George Passmore, born 7, 28, 1748, died 1, 17, 1834, son of George and Margaret, married, 4, 24, 1776, Mary Pennock, daughter of Levis and Ruth, of West Marlborough, and settled in Londongrove. Their children were Levis, Margaret, Abiah, John, William Pennock, Rachel, George Strode, Pennock, Joseph, Mary, Thomas, and Imlah, all now deceased.


PEARCE, COL. CROMWELL.-His ancestors for several generations resided in the town of Enniskillen, county Fermanagh, Ireland, a place celebrated for the martial spirit of its inhabitants. Col. Cromwell Pearce's great-grandfather (whose name is not preserved) was a member of the Church of England, a zealous supporter of the rights of man, and, with four of his sturdy brothers, served in the Enniskillen corps at the famous battle of the Boyne, July 1, 1690. His son Edward was born in Enniskillen, Aug. 6, 1701, and had several brothers, three of whom were named Cromwell, William, and Peter. Edward married Frances Brassington, of Dublin, of whose family it is only known that she had several brothers and sisters ; that three of the brothers were named Richard, John, and Marmaduke, the latter an eminent physician in Dublin, and that one of the sisters married a gentleman named Dillon. This side of' the family was also connected with the Established Church. Edward and Frances (Brassington) Pearce had three children born in Ireland, with which little family they sailed for America in May, 1737. Two of the children died of smallpox on the passage. They arrived in Philadelphia in August, having been thirteen weeks in crossing the ocean. Cromwell, the surviving child, was born in December, 1732, and was nearly five years old on his arrival in Pennsylvania. The family remained in Philadelphia until the spring of 1738, when they removed to the neighborhood of St. David's church, in Radnor township, Chester Co., where they continued to reside for some time and buried two children. Edward Pearce was by trade both mason and carpenter. In 1744 he built St. Peter's church, in the Great Valley ; also, in subsequent years, its gallery, stables, and the churchyard inclosure, and on April 15, 1745, he was chosen its first senior warden. Edward's brother Peter died in 1775, leaving several children, the only surviving one of whom, Margaret, married Alexander Trimble, and with her husband came to this country in 1783. In 1750, Edward Pearce purchased from George Aston the farm in Willistown where, twenty-seven years afterwards, the memorable " Paoli massacre" occurred, and on which the monument now stands. Upon this farm he spent the remainder of his days, and died March 6, 1777, in the seventy-sixth year of his age. He and his wife (who died March 26, 1783) were interred at St. David's church, Radnor, in one grave. Edward Pearce was a man of a stout, robust frame, six feet in height, of industrious and sober habits, and left to his descendants an unblemished reputation. Three children survived these worthy parents, viz. : Cromwell, before mentioned, and born in Ireland ; the other two in this country, viz., George, who migrated with the early settlers to Kentucky and left a large family of children, and Rachel, who married Richard Robinson, of Whiteland.


CROMWELL PEARCE, son of Edward, seems to have inherited something of the martial spirit for which the Enniskilliners have been so long celebrated, and to have transmitted the same to his son and namesake. It will be noticed also that this family have perseveringly manifested their estimate of royalty and political proclivities by keeping up the baptismal name of Cromwell. In the twenty-sixth year of his age Cromwell received a military commission, dated May 8, 1758, appointing him lieutenant in the battalion of Pennsylvania regiment of foot. Lieut. Pearce served under Gen. Forbes, the successor of Gen. Braddock. Among other services in the French and Indian war, the company to which he belonged built a fort at Shamokin, Pa. He married Margaret, daughter of John and Margaret Boggs, who owned a large tract of land in Willistown adjoining the Wayne estate. Her parents were members of the Presbyterian Church, and several of their sons served as soldiers in the war of the Revolution, in which also Cromwell Pearce was appointed (May 6, 1777) major, and May 20, 1779, colonel of the 5th Battalion of Chester County militia. The extent of his services is not known, beyond the fact that he went on a tour of duty to Amboy, N. J. May 1, 1781, he was commissioned major of the 2d Battalion of Chester County militia. After his father's death he became the owner of the farm in Willistown, whereon he passed the remainder of his days, and died Aug. 4, 1794, aged sixty-two years. He had nine sons-Richard, Edward, John, George, Cromwell, Marmaduke, and Joseph, and two whose names are not known-and one daughter, Frances, who was married to Isaac Weaver, of West Chester. His wife, Margaret (Boggs), died Dec. 28, 1818, aged seventy-eight years.


COL. CROMWELL PEARCE, grandson of Edward, and fifth son of Cromwell Pearce, was born in Willistown, Aug. 13, 1772, on the farm where, about five years afterwards, occurred the " Paoli massacre." He was brought up on the farm, and received no other education than the imperfect and defective kind generally afforded to the youth of agricultural districts at that period, when the energies and means of the people were actively employed in the contest for independence, or left paralyzed and exhausted by the eventful struggle. In the twenty-first year of his age (July 6, 1793) he was commissioned by Governor Mifflin captain of the third company of 1st Regiment of Chester County Brigade State militia. April 17, 1799, he was commissioned by President Adams first lieutenant in the 10th Regiment United States Light Infantry. In this service he continued until the regiment was disbanded, near the close of the year 1800. April 23, 1801, he married Isabella, daughter of Thomas and Sarah (Gronow) Bull, of Tredyffrin, and resided for about a year in Philadelphia, where his son and only child, Lewis Gronow Pearce, was born. In the spring of 1802 he removed to West Chester, and became the popular landlord of the " Washington Hotel." Soon after this he was commissioned by Governor McKean lieutenant of a light infantry company called the West Chester Volunteers. Sept. 25, 1802, he was ap-


BIOGRAPHICAL AND GENEALOGICAL - 677


pointed postmaster of the borough of West Chester, which was the date of the first mail establishment at the county-seat. On Aug. 18, 1806, he was commissioned lieutenant-colonel of the 85th Regiment State militia.


His wife died March 30, 1807, in her thirty-first year. He remained at the hotel for some time after her death, and Aug. 3, 1807, was elected brigadier-general of 1st Brigade, 3d Division of the militia. lie soon after removed to the Great Valley, where he engaged in mercantile pursuits. Aug. 3, 1811, he was commissioned major-general of the 3d Division of militia by Governor Snyder.


July 23, 1812, President Madison appointed him colonel of the 16th Regiment U. S. Infantry, and in the middle of September following he marched with his command from his encampment on the banks of the Schuylkill, near Gray's Ferry, for the Canada frontier.


Having passed the winter in that inclement region, an expedition was projected in the spring against the town of York, U. C. (now Toronto), led by the gallant Gen. Pike, with Col. Pearce second in command. During the attack, April 27th, Gen. Pike was mortally wounded. The command immediately devolved on Col. Pearce, who presently advanced with the troops and took possession of the place.* The enemy, losing all hope of a successful defense, set fire to their naval store-house, also to a ship on the stocks, and then made a final retreat.


It is not deemed necessary here to trace the career of Col. Pearce's regiment in all its movements, but it is due to the memory of that officer to note his bearing in the battle of Chrystler's Field, near Williamsburg, Nov. 11, 1813. During the engagement the brave Gen. Covington was mortally wounded, when the command devolved on the colonel of the 16th Regiment. Twice in his first campaign Col. Pearce became an acting brigadier on the field of battle. Gen. Boyd thus speaks in his official report of the action, " After the fall of Gen. Covington, Col. Pearce, on whom the command of the 3d Brigade devolved, conducted with his characteristic coolness and valor."


At the close of the war, when his regiment was disbanded, Col. Pearce retired to private life in his native county of Chester.


In 1816 he was elected sheriff, which office he filled with complete satisfaction to the public. At the dedication of the first Paoli monument, Sept. 20, 1817, he commanded the volunteers who paraded on that occasion. This was his last appearance in a military character, though he received the complimentary appointment of aide to Governor Findlay, with the rank of lieutenant-colonel, Oct. 22, 1818. At the expiration of his term as sheriff he removed to the Great Valley and engaged in farming.


April 13, 1821, he married his second wife, Mary, daughter of John Bartholomew, a descendant of one of the early settlers in the Great Valley. In 1824 he was chosen a Presidential elector of Pennsylvania, and was deputed to carry the vote of the State to Washington. Sept. 5, 1825, he was appointed by Governor Shulze an associate judge of the County Court, which position he held until 1839, when an impaired sense of hearing induced him to resign. Nov.


*Col. Pearce was here wounded in the shoulder.


1, 1842, Col. Pearce was deprived by death of his second wife, and on April 2, 1852, in his eightieth year, he died suddenly, with the enviable reputation of a good citizen, a brave soldier, and an honest, Christian man. His remains were interred in the churchyard of St. Peter's,-the same church which was built by his grandfather upwards of a century before,-and a monument, appropriately inscribed, erected to his memory.


Col. Pearce was an uncommonly stout man, six feet two inches in height, erect and well proportioned. He was endowed with great natural sagacity, and a sound and discriminating judgment. With remarkably unpretending manners, he was a close observer of men and things, and possessed, withal, a shrewd perception of real character. His only son and child,


LEWIS GRONOW PEARCE, was admitted to the Chester County bar May 2, 1825, and died Nov. 14, 1855, leaving two children, Walter Sloan Pearce and Lewis Anna Pearce, the latter of whom is now deceased.


GEORGE W. PEARCE, a son of Joseph Pearce, and a nephew of Col. Cromwell Pearce, was born in West White-land township, Jan. 15, 1814. In January, 1824, his father was appointed register of wills of Chester County by Governor Shulze, and removed with his family to West Chester, where the subject of this sketch ever after resided during his life. In 1840 he entered the office of John Hickman, Esq., as a student at law, and in 1842, after the usual course of study, was admitted to the bar. In 1849 he was elected county treasurer on the Democratic ticket, a high compliment, for the opposite party-the Whig-usually gave her candidates several hundred majority. This office he held for two years.


In 1853 he became editor and proprietor of the American Republican. He was a thoroughly educated man, of scholarly tastes, and a writer of much more than ordinary ability, and the position of editor was one for which, by reason of his talents and acquirements, he was peculiarly adapted. The paper was Democratic, and his political editorial labors were so earnestly and intelligently directed that the sturdy blows he gave were severely felt by the opposite party. He was a tower of strength in his advocacy of the election of James Buchanan to the Presidency in 1856. In the troubles in the party which arose during the administration of Mr. Buchanan, he opposed the President and affiliated with what was known as the Douglas wing, and subsequently cast in his fortunes with the rising party, at first called the National Union and subsequently the Republican party.


His literary ability enabled him to give to his paper an elevated tone, and the high character of his mind was apparent in all his editorials and selected matter. The most commonplace subject became in his hands invested with a romantic interest. He was also a poet of no mean pretensions, and wrote many poems and hymns well worthy of preservation, which are to be found scattered through magazines and newspapers. On one occasion he ready a poem, written by him, before the Chester County Cabinet of Natural Science, of which Dr. William Darlington, the well-known botanist, was the president. Its closing lines, addressed to Dr. Darlington, are here given :


678 - HISTORY OF CHESTER COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.


" On him who wisely governs this proud hall

The voice of praise most worthily may fall;

We hail the auspicious moment, passing now,

To bind the laurel on his honored brow ;

Flora's gay daughters all their off'rings bring,

And weave a garland for their worthy king."


Mr. Pearce was one of three gentlemen-John Hickman and Washington Townsend being the others-to whom Bayard Taylor read his poem " Ximena," in manuscript, with the view of ascertaining their opinion of its merits. They complimented him on the production and advised its publication, and thus encouraged the young poet to cultivate the muse.


Mr. Pearce was one of the founders of the Episcopal Church in West Chester, and by his sound judgment and constant care he greatly assisted in building it up and sustaining it. He was a Christian in the truest sense of the term, and his life gave ceaseless evidence of his faith and purity. He was a rare combination of intelligence, truthfulness, integrity, and devotion to just principles.


He died April 13, 1864, before the close of the war of the Rebellion, and while its results were uncertain, and among his last words, uttered with energy, were, " I love my country, and God grant her triumph in this great trial."


PEART, BRYAN, whitesmith, from Haurskip, in Yorkshire, England, died in 1706 at Duck Creek, Del., leaving widow, Jane, and several children. Their son Benjamin married Rachel, daughter of Richard and Elizabeth (Rush) Collett, and among other children had a son, Bryan, married in Gloria Dei church, Nov. 30, 1752, to Elizabeth Walton, of Byberry, by whom there were Benjamin, b. 2, 1, 1753; Rebecca, b. 12, 28, 1754 ; and Thomas, b. 9, 28, 1756. After the death of Bryan Peart, in 1757, his widow married (license Aug. 18, 1760) Benjamin Gilbert, the Indian captive, and in 1775 removed with him to the Mahoning Valley, Northampton Co. On April 25, 1780, Benjamin Gilbert and family, including his wife's sons, Benjamin and. Thomas Peart, were taken by the Indians, their dwellings burned, and they forced by weary marches to accompany their captors to the northwest part of New York. Benjamin Peart was then married to Elizabeth Jones, and their child, Elizabeth, aged nine months, was one of the captives. A narrative of their captivity has been published. Benjamin Peart, after their return in 1782, resided several years at Byberry, but about 1814 removed with his family to Salem, Ohio. Thomas Peart was adopted in an Indian family on the Genesee River, in place of a deceased member, but at length obtained his release through the interference of Col. Johnson, a British officer at Niagara. After his return lie married Mary Roberts, daughter of Lewis Roberts, of Abington, and about 1790 removed to a farm in Fallow-field, Chester Co. Subsequently he took a mill on Doe Run and made money ; but going thence to William Daniel's mill at Lampeter he was unfortunate, and had to sell his farm in Fallowfield to pay his debts. Farming next for Daniel Gibbons, he succeeded better, and in 1816 removed to a large farm near Columbia, where his hospitality was marked, and his house a common stopping place for persons from Chester County going thither to buy. lumber. After this he bought a good farm at Lampeter, where he ended his days. His first wife died near Colum bia, 7, 23, 1823, and he married, 4, 12, 1827, Sarah (Paxson) Cooper, widow of Calvin Cooper. He died 3, 19, 1831, in the seventy-fifth year of his age.


The children of Thomas and Mary Peart were Rebecca, b. 3, 19, 1789, m. Israel Cooper, of Columbia ; John, b. 10, 31, 1791 ; Benjamin, b. 4, 11, 179 6 ; Abner, b. 7, 25, 1798 ; Daniel, b. 4, 10, 1801 ; Mary Ann, b. 12, 12, 1803, m. John Cooper, of Columbia ; Thomas, b. 2, 22, 1806 ; Lewis, b. 9, 26, 1809, in. Abana Gilbert.


Lewis Peart resides in Schuylkill township, and is a farmer. He was one of the active agents of the Underground Railroad.


Mary Peart, daughter of Thomas Peart, Jr., married John S. Peart, from England. She is an artist of high reputation, and as the illustrator of the splendid work on butterflies by W. H. Edwards, she stands at the head of her profession. Her residence is now in Philadelphia.


PEIRCE, GEORGE (or Pearce, as the name appears to have been written by him), of the parish of Winscom, in the county of Somerset (England), and Ann Gainer, of Thornbury, in the county of Gloucester, were married the 1st day of 12th month, commonly called February, 1679. George, with his wife and three young children, emigrated from Bristol, the seaport nearest his residence, in 1684, and the same year had a tract of 490 acres of land surveyed to him in what is now Thornbury township. Thornbury being the name of a district of country from which he obtained his wife, and a desire on his part to keep up the old associations most dear to him, probably suggested the name of the township. He arrived at Philadelphia prior to 9th month 4, 1684, upon which day he presented two certificates to a meeting of Friends held " att the Governor's house." One of these certificates was from " the Monthly Meeting at ffrenshay, in the County of Gloucester." The other was from " Thornbury Meeting." He may have settled on his new purchase in 1685, but his name first appears as an active member of Chichester Friends' Meeting in 1686 ; shortly after which meetings were sometimes held at his house. Besides being strict in his attention to his religious duties, he gave a share of his time to civil affairs, and of his means to the improvement of the country. He represented Chester County in the Provincial Assembly in 1706, and was one of a company who erected " the Concord mill," the first mill erected in his neighborhood. He died in East Marlborough about 1734, having removed to that township two years before.


The children of George and Ann Pearce were Betty, b. 9, 18, 1680, m. Vincent Caldwell ; George, b. 2, 23, 1682 ; Joshua, b. 1, 5, 1684, d. 9, 15, 1752 , Ann, b. 3, 8, 1786, m. James Gibbons and William Pim ; Margaret, b. 4, 11, 1689 ; Mary, b. 10, 25, 1690, m. Joseph Brinton ; Caleb, b. 12, 21, 1692, d. 1, 22, 1679, m. Mary Walter; Gainer, b. 2, 1, 1695, m. Sarah Walter ; Hannah, b. 2, 21, 1696, m. Edward Brinton ; John, b. 2, 15,1704, d. before 1720.


Joshua Peirce married first, 8, 28, 1713, Ann Mercer, daughter of Thomas and Mary, of Westtown ; second marriage, 9, 15, 1722, to Rachel, daughter of Joseph and Hannah Gilpin, of Birmingham. He settled in the eastern part of East Marlborough. The children by the first wife


BIOGRAPHICAL AND GENEALOGICAL - 679


were George, b. 5, 5, 1714, d. 10, 2, 1775, m. Lydia Roberts ; Mary, b. 3, 3, 1717, in. William Cloud ; Ann, b. 10, 20, 1718, m. Caleb Mendenhall and Adam Redd ; by second wife, Joshua, b. 1, 22, 1724, m. Ann Baily ; Joseph, b. 10, 16, 1725, d. 3, 9, 1811, a physician ; Caleb, b. 12, 2, 1727, d. 10, 12, 1815 ; Isaac, m. to Hannah Sellers.   From these have descended hundreds, if not

thousands, of our citizens. In some branches the name is written Pierce, and by others Peirce, which is thought to be the orthography of the early generations succeeding the immigrant.


MOSES PIERCE, son of Caleb and Hannah Pierce, was born in Chester County, June 18, 1782. His mother was a sister of Dr. Moses Marshall, and a niece of Humphry Marshall, the botanist. He studied medicine with his brother-in-law, Dr. James Gibbons, of West Chester, attended a course of lectures in the University of Pennsylvania, and without graduating commenced the practice of physic in West Chester as the successor of Dr. Gibbons, whose residence he purchased in March, 1805.


Dr. Pierce was soon disabled from practice by pulmonary consumption. He died June 18, 1808. He was never married. He was a man of great energy of character and the most stoical fortitude. He contemplated his approaching dissolution with singular calmness, and in the spring of 1808 calculated the number of weeks which he thought he could live with surprising accuracy.


PENNELL, ROBERT, with Hannah, his wife, from Balderton, in Nottinghamshire, settled in Middletown as early as 1686, and the next year he was appointed constable for that township. They were both active members of the meeting. Hannah died 12, 4, 1711, aged seventy-one years, and Robert about the year 1728. Their children were Ann, m. 2, 17, 1689, Benjamin Mendenhall ; Elizabeth, m. in 1690, Josiah Taylor ; 'Hannah, b. 7, 23, 1673, m. 9, 23, 1692, John Sharpies ; Joseph, b. 10, 12, 1674 ; James, b. 9, 11, 1676 ; Jane, b. 5, 13, 1678, m. Samuel Garrett ; William, b. 8, 11, 1681, m. 8, 26, 1710, Mary Mercer, daughter of Thomas and Mary.


Joseph Pennell married, in 1701, Alice, daughter of William Garrett, of Darby, and settled in Edgmont. His children were Hannah, b. 11, 4, 1702, m. Joseph Jackson ; Robert, b. 6, 20, 1704; Joseph, b. 6. 3, 1706 ; Alice, b. 8, 2, 1709 ; Ann, b. 8, 2, 1711, m. Cadwalader Evans.


The children of William and Mary Pennell, of Middletown, were Thomas, b. 9, 3, 1712, d. 2, 14, 1745 ; Hannah, b. 7, 9, 1714, m. Thomas Holcomb ; James, b. 6, 21, 1717, m. Jemima Matlack ; Phebe, b. 6, 7, 1719 ; Ann, b. 11, 26, 1721 ; Robert, b. 9, 16, 1723 ; William, b. 11, 27, 1725-6, d. 9, 5, 1783.


JOHN PENNELL was in the country as early as 1689 ; was probably then quite a young man, and resided in the neighborhood of Darby. In 1703 he married Mary Morgan, of Dublin Monthly Meeting, and settled in Aston township. But little is known of John, but Mary became eminent as a minister among Friends. She was born in Radnorshire, Wales, and was educated in the Church of England, but at the early age of thirteen years was convinced of the truth of the doctrines of Quakerism. When sixteen she emigrated to Pennsylvania, and united herself with Friends, and in 1722 became a minister, and subsequently traveled much in the exercise of her calling. She visited the New England colonies, and on one occasion Great Britain and Ireland.


John's mother, Mary Pennell, a widow, was married, in 1690, to Edward Walter, and again, in 1699, to Robert Fletcher. Isabell Pennell, who married, 2, 28, 1709, James King, of Concord, was probably a daughter. She and her husband removed to West Nottingham, and afterwards to Little Britain, Lancaster Co. Of the children of John and Mary Pennell, Caleb married, 8, 26, 1727, Sarah Whitaker, and removed to the Susquehanna, near the Maryland line ; Joshua removed to Newtown, and married Hannah Lewis, 2, 20, 1726 ; Mary married, 11, 9, 1727, Daniel Pyle, and 7, 29, 1742, to Samuel Jackson ; Hannah married Phinehas Lewis, 8, 22, 1730 ; John married, 4, 12, 1740, Martha Martin.


In 1759, John Pennell and wife, Mary, removed to East Cain with their granddaughter, Mary Jackson. Mary Pennell died 5, 10, 1764, and her husband not long before.


PENNINGTON, M.D., ISAAC, was born in September, 1789, in Londongrove township, Chester Co., Pa. At the age of twelve years he was placed at school in Philadelphia, where he remained five years, at the end of which time he commenced the study of medicine under the instruction of Dr. Roberts, of Londongrove, with whom he remained one year. He then entered the University of Pennsylvania, in which he attended two courses of lectures, including the clinics at the Pennsylvania Hospital. His anxiety to enter upon the active duties of life induced him to leave the university at the termination of his second course and commence the practice of his profession, intending at some future day to return and obtain his degree. He located at Jersey Shore, Lycoming Co., and soon became engaged in professional duties.


In 1812 he was married to Elizabeth, daughter of Judge Allen, of Monmouth Co., N. J. In 1814 he received the appointment of assistant surgeon's mate in the army, and immediately afterwards he was ordered to join the army on our northern frontier, then under the command of Gen. Brown. At the battles of Bridgewater and Fort Erie he was upon active duty. Soon after the battle of Bridgewater his life was saved by Gen. Scott in a manner which reflects great honor on that veteran for the cool courage which so much distinguished him. The doctor was walking with a friend, and, being in close conversation, had gone some distance beyond the American lines. A party of British sharpshooters perceiving the advantage, had gained a favorable point unseen, and with rifles leveled were on the point of " picking off" the two young officers. At this moment Gen. Scott, whose habit it was often to ride out alone for the purpose of reconnoitring, rode up, and said, in a calm and unconcerned manner, " Gentlemen, jump down that bank or you will be shot." They instantly obeyed, the volley of balls whistled over their heads, and the general rode slowly away, though many a messenger of death was aimed at his tall and commanding figure.


The army was doubtless the school in which Dr. Pennington laid the foundation for that surgical knowledge which in after-life constituted one of the leading features


680 - HISTORY OF CHESTER COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.


of his profession. He remained in the army until the close of the war. Sept. 30, 1816, he resigned his commission and resumed the practice of his profession at Jersey Shore.


Soon after he returned to Chester Co., Pa., locating in Sadsbury township, where he remained about two years, removing to Honeybrook, where he resided until 1832. During this time he devoted himself with great fidelity to the duties of his profession, and enjoyed an extensive practice. Several capital operations were performed by him in that neighborhood. In the year 1832 he was induced to relinquish his profession and remove to Hampshire Co., Va., where he engaged in the iron business. This proved to be an unfortunate move, and at the end of three years he was obliged to give up the business and resume his profession. With this view he removed to Moorefield, Hardy Co., Va., where he continued until 1843. During his sojourn in this place the Washington College of Baltimore conferred upon him the degree of Doctor of Medicine. Under the arduous duties that rested upon him in this locality his health began to give way, and a constitution heretofore capable of great endurance became so enfeebled as to compel him to seek another residence. In February, 1843, he removed to St. Clairsville, Belmont Co , Ohio, where he had many relatives. He remained there but a short time. In November of the same year, through a pressing invitation from his brother-in-law, Dr. Allen, of Oakland Co., Mich., he was induced to remove to that place. In January, 1844, while visiting a patient, he experienced another threatening of apoplexy, the first occurring at the age of sixteen. After this attack his health remained feeble, and in April he returned to Honeybrook, Chester Co., with the hope that the air of his native county, together with the scenes and associations of his youth, would restore him, or postpone the fatal issue of his disease. He purchased a small property at Compassville, where he resided until his death. His change of residence was not accompanied with any permanent improvement in his health. In the fall of 1848 he had a severe attack of pneumonia, which left him still more feeble ; and during the winter following unmistakable symptoms of organic disease of the heart presented themselves.


On Tuesday, May 1, 1849, whilst on his way to West Chester to attend the annual meeting of the Chester County Medical Society, he was attacked with apoplexy. He received prompt medical attendance, but the best efforts were unavailing. He died on the Sunday morning following.


Dr. Pennington was one of the earliest members of the Chester County Medical Society, having participated in its formation in 1828. He was fond of his profession, and took much interest in its advancement ; was gifted with a strong and comprehensive intellect, and few men possessed a greater degree of firmness of purpose and boldness of hand to execute the trying duties of his calling. In the performance of his social and domestic duties he was ardent and unwearied. He was, indeed, a fond husband and affectionate Wier, a kind neighbor, a skillful physician, and a worthy citizen.*


* Medical Reporter, vol. iii. p. 94.


PENNOCK, CHRISTOPHER, the ancestor of the Pennock family, married, prior to 1675, Mary, the daughter of George Collett, of Clonmell, county of Tipperary, Ireland. After residing there and in Cornwall, England, for some time, he emigrated to Pennsylvania about 1685. He was an officer in the service of King William of Orange, and was at the battle of Boyne, 1690. He died in Philadelphia in 1701. He left three children, two of whom died without issue. His son, Joseph Pennock, was born 1677, in or near Clonmell, Ireland. In one of his passages to this country in a letter-of-marque he was captured by a French ship-of-war and confined in France as a prisoner upwards of a year, where he endured much hardship. In 1702 he settled in Philadelphia, where he engaged in the mercantile business. About 1714 he removed to West Marlborough township, of this county, and settled on a large tract of land, of which he became proprietor by virtue of a grant from William Penn to George Collett, his grandfather. He there, in 1738, erected a large mansion, " Primitive Hall," in which he died, 3, 27, 1771. He married Mary Levis, and had the following twelve children : Elizabeth, Samuel, William, Mary, Joseph, Nathaniel, Joseph, Ann, Sarah, Hannah, Levis, and Susanna. William married Alice Mendenhall, 7, 26, 1739, and had the following nine children : Moses, Joseph, Hannah, Phebe, 'William, Caleb, Samuel, Joshua, and Alice. Samuel, born 11, 23, 1754, married Mary Hadley, and had the following nine children : Margaret, Simon, Phebe, Moses, Elizabeth, John, Amy, Hannah, and Mary. Moses, born 10, 14, 1786, married Mary Jones Lamborn, daughter of Robert Lamborn and Martha Townsend, and had the following nine children : Thomazine, Jesse, Samuel, Hannah, Barclay, Morton, Edith, Joanna, and Sarah.


SAMUEL PENNOCK was born Oct. 8, 1816, married in September, 1853, Deborah Ann S , daughter of John Yerkes and Catharine Dull, of New Garden, by whom he has three children,—Frederick M., Charles J., and Theodore,—who with their father compose the firm of S. Pennock & Sons, of Kennet Square, manufacturers of Pennock's Patent Road-Machine. Mr. Pennock was raised on the farm, and at eighteen learned the carriage-making business. During the last year of his apprenticeship his father invented a grain-drill, and he joined his father in perfecting and patenting this the first successful one used in America. From this time until the Rebellion he and his brother Morton were engaged in the manufacture of these drills, with other agricultural implements. About 1861 they began to build cars, in connection with other machinery, but in 1867, on the death of his brother, lie discontinued the making of cars. In 1870 the Pennock Manufacturing Company was organized, of which he has been president to this time. Mr. Pennock is a Republican in politics, and was one of the first in the county associated with the Abolitionists in the agitation of the question of slavery. Was born and raised in the Society of Friends, and about 1852-53 was interested in the organization of the Progressive Friends at Longwood. His father, Moses, filed the first disclaimer in the U. S. Patent Office in 1822, it being a disclaimer on a certain part of a horse-rake. Samuel patented the road machine which he and his sons now manufacture. From 1875 to 1879 lie resided with his family at Ithaca,


BIOGRAPHICAL AND GENEALOGICAL - 681


N. Y., where his sons were in attendance at Cornell University. He is a charter member of Kennet Lodge, No. 475, F. and A. M., and for ten years has belonged to the Masonic order. Kennet Square, when he removed to it, had only thirty-six houses, but is now a thriving borough.




BARCLAY PENNOCK, born in East Marlborough, Chester Co., Jan. 26, 1821, died March 9, 1858, at the place of his birth, was the son of Moses and Mary J. Pennock. He early manifested an ardent desire for knowledge, and the early defects of his education were supplied by the exertions of a life devoted to study. Beginning at the school in the neighborhood, established by, and then under care of, the Kennet Monthly Meeting of Friends, of which society his parents were members, with Samuel Martin as his first teacher, he thence passed to the academy in Kennet Square, where, under Joseph B. Phillips, he studied the higher mathematics and began Latin and French. Afterwards, in company with his friends, Joseph B. and John B. Phillips, he sought instruction in Greek and Latin and in general literature at Kinderhook, N. Y. He spent two years in Europe, studying the language and literature of Germany, Italy, and France and visiting places of historic interest, as one of the traveling-party led by Bayard Taylor, the story of which tour is so familiar to the reader of " Views Afoot."


In October, 1851, he again went to Europe, and after a short visit to Germany spent the winter in Copenhagen, studying the language of Northern Europe,—Danish, Swedish, Norwegian, and Icelandic. Here he enjoyed the personal acquaintance and friendship of Hans Christian Andersen and Mr. Goldsmith, another literary celebrity of Denmark.


For two months in the following spring he was in the


- 86 -


family of Count Frys, a Danish nobleman, on his landed estate, " Frysenborg," on the peninsula of Jutland, where he had been kindly introduced by Mr. Goldsmith. The count and countess had studied English, and were intelligent and sociable, and much facilitated Mr. Pennock's acquaintance with the domestic and social life of the better classes of the people.


Mr. Pennock then journeyed through the interiors of Sweden and Norway, chiefly on foot, and going as far north as Drontheim, where the nights in summer are only a prolonged twilight. In this tour through the country among the peasantry, Mr. Pennock formed a high opinion of the brotherly kindness, manliness, and thrift of the people whom he met and observed at their every-day occupations and in their humble homes. At Stockholm he met some interesting personages, and among them Frederika Bremer, who had then recently returned from her American tour.


From Stockholm Mr. Pennock carried an introduction from the United States Minister there, Mr. Schroeder, to Mr. Willard Fisk, an American student at the University of Upsala, afterwards a professor at Cornell University, at Ithaca, N. Y. After visiting the porphyry quarries and copper-mines of Elfdal, he crossed the Dovrefield Mountains on foot. From Drontheim, going southward, " by fiord and by fell," he halted at Bergen, Christiania, and other prominent points, reaching Upsala again in the following autumn.


After five years' study and observation he returned home, where he engaged in literary pursuits. He translated " The Religion of the Northmen," a work written by Professor Keyser, of Christiania, Norway, which he published, with an elaborate " Introduction" by himself. This work met the approval and welcome of scholarly men.


682 - HISTORY OF CHESTER COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.


Mr. Pennock left ready for the press two other translations, one a romance of Iceland about the time of the introduction of Christianity there, which contains a description of the struggles attendant on the change from an old faith to a new one, together with descriptions of scenery, pictures of domestic life among the Icelanders, etc. ; the other work is a volume of fireside legends, or " folklore," of ancient Scandinavia.


Barclay Pennock was married, Feb. 8, 1857, to Miss Lydia A. Caldwell, of Cayuga Co., N. Y., a lady of refinement, literary acquirements, and intellectual force, who had published some poems of great merit, which lady died April 13, 1857. This was a terrible blow to Mr. Pennock, whose own health was impaired. In his well-kept diary, in the space allotted to that day, without a word, he drew with his well-skilled hand a mound with a cross at the head. He survived his wife less than one year.


Mr. Pennock had an active brain, a correct eye, and a deft hand ; was fond of the principles of mechanism, and possessed of such skill in drawing as to have at one time considered whether to make it and engraving the profession and business of his life ; but the bent of his mind was towards the scientific knowledge of mental phenomena. He was ambitious of a learned and noble manhood, but not of fame,-not for the vain glory of " a great name rattling behind him,"-but held for his motto :


"Do what all men, if they knew it,

Could not choose but praise;

Then, should no one know you do it,

Better price it pays."


PENNYPACKER.-This family, which the Hon. Isaac Anderson, in his sketch of Charlestown township, written more than fifty years ago, said was " rich, respectable, and numerous," had its origin in North Brabant, in Holland, and members of it still exist at Waalwyk, near Hertogenbosch. About the year 1650 some of them went up the Rhine to Flomborn, a village near Worms, and became Germanized, changing their Dutch name Pannebakker (tile-maker) to Pfannebecker. The Weissthum, a manuscript record of this village from 1542 to 1656, signed by Johannes Pfannebecker, one of the town officers, is now in the possession of Samuel W. Pennypacker, Esq., of Philadelphia. About 1699, Heinrich Pannebecker, born in 1674, came to Germantown, and from there moved to Skip-pack, where he died in 1754. He was the first German surveyor in Pennsylvania, and a large land-owner. Several of his grandsons crossed the Schuylkill into Chester County, -Jacob to Perkiomen Junction in 1772 ; Matthias to the Pickering, in 1774 ; Harman, John, and Benjamin to the Chester Springs in 1792, 1794, and 1796 ; and Henry to Vincent in 1794.


Nathan, son of Jacob, born March 2, 1771, died July 9, 1833, was a farmer, living on the Schuylkill, and an active Federalist and Anti-Mason. He was nominated for the Assembly in 1811, 1812, 1813, 1814, and 1830, and in the years 1812, 1814, and 1830 was elected ; but whether successful or defeated he always led his party ticket. In 1814 he was one of the conference committee to select a member of Congress, and in 1832 was on the Anti-Jackson electoral ticket.


Matthias, born Oct. 14, 1742, died Feb. 13, 1808, was a wealthy farmer and miller, and a bishop in the Mennonite Church. He was the first preacher in the old church at Phoenixville, and used the German, English, and Dutch languages. While the army was at Valley Forge a number of officers were quartered at his house, and in 1777 the British committed a great deal of destruction at his mill. In 1784 he was appointed by the Assembly one of the commissioners to provide for the navigation of the river Schuylkill, and in 1793, when Philadelphia was ravaged by the yellow fever, he sent $240 for the relief of the poor in that city.


Several of his descendants have been people of note in Chester County. Elijah F., born Nov. 20, 1804, was elected to the Assembly in 1831, 1832, 1834, and 1835. During a part of this time he was chairman of the committee on banks, and he was instrumental in having the Bank of the United States, after its charter had been withdrawn by the general government, incorporated by the State. During the session of 1832-33 he presented the bill for the incorporation of the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad, and he was chairman of the committee having the matter in charge until it became a law. He was associated with Thaddeus Stevens in the organization of the public school system. He was elected secretary of the board of canal commissioners in 1836 and 1837, and a member of the board, with Stevens, in 1838. A sketch of his life as an early Abolitionist, and in connection with the Underground Railway, may be found in Still's " History of the Underground Railway." He was president of the Anti-Slavery Society of Chester County, and of the State society. He was the candidate of the Temperance party for State treasurer in 1875, and for many years president of the school board of Schuylkill township, and president of the Mutual Insurance Company of Chester County.


URIAH V. PENNYPACKER, son of Joseph and Elizabeth Pennypacker, was born in Schuylkill township, Oct. 6, 1809. He inherited a great love of humor and a taste for discussion and investigation. At an early age he became a member of a debating society that met at the Union school-house, in Charlestown township, and there displayed so much ability that his father induced him to commence the study of the law with his uncle, Matthias Pennypacker, at West Chester. Meantime he had been a pupil at Jonathan Gause's school, and had written many articles for the newspapers of the day. He was admitted to the bar, and at once became noted for his diligent study of the law and his close attention to his profession. In a few years he was admitted to the Supreme Court, where for many years thereafter he achieved some of his greatest triumphs. Of marked personal appearance (being six feet seven inches in height), and gifted with a fund of anecdote and illustration, he attained success as a political speaker, and was an active Whig as long as that party existed. He was one of the founders of the First Baptist Church of West Chester, and an incorporator of the Central Union Association, and its treasurer for twenty years, and was burgess of West Chester in 1845 and 1848. In 1855 his health declined and he was compelled to relinquish active work, and on the 16th day of August, 1867, he died from a stroke of apo-


BIOGRAPHICAL AND GENEALOGICAL - 683


plexy, and is buried in the Oaklands Cemetery. In all the relations of life he was faithful, honest, and true, and had the confidence and respect of the profession and people. He left four children, among them


Charles H., born April 16, 1845, a prominent lawyer, amateur scientist, and active politician, has been concerned in many important cases in Chester County, notably the Udderzook murder trial and the cases originating in the Pickering Valley accident in 1877.


The events in the life of Galusha, born June 1, 1842, colonel of the 16th U. S. Infantry, and brevet major-general U.S.A., the hero of Fort Fisher, and the youngest general officer during the Rebellion, have been detailed elsewhere in this volume, and may be found in all the histories of the war. His rapid elevation, due solely to gallantry and intelligence, from the rank of a private to that of a full brigadier at the age of twenty-two ; his seven wounds in eight months, and his five promotions within a year ; his gallant and hopeless charge at Green Plains, and his leadership, flag in hand, over the traverse at Fisher into the very face of Death, whom all thought he had met, signalize what in some respects was the most remarkable career of that great struggle.


Matthias, born Aug. 15, 1786, died April 4, 1852, a farmer and miller on the Pickering, was elected to the Assembly in 1826 and 1827. In 1837 he was a member of the Constitutional Convention. In 1831 he was chairman of the organization of the leading men of Chester County which made the first mile towards the construction of the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad, and he was one of the corporators of that road.


Dr. Isaac A. Pennypacker was born in Schuylkill township on July 9, 1812. His father was Matthias Pennypacker, and his mother Sarah Anderson, a daughter of Isaac Anderson. He read medicine with his maternal uncle, Dr. Isaac Anderson, and Prof. William E. Horner, and graduated in the Medical Department of the University of Pennsylvania, March 26, 1835. He established himself in the practice of his profession in Phoenixville in 1836, and continued in the performance of its active duties until 1854, when he became Professor of the Practice of Medicine in the Philadelphia College of Medicine.


During his residence in Phoenixville he was active in plans for the improvement and incorporation of the town, of which he was burgess in 1849, 1851, and 1853, and for the dissemination of knowledge among its inhabitants. A portion of his leisure time was spent in giving lectures upon various literary and scientific subjects, and in gathering material for a history of Schuylkill township and Phoenixville.


In his professorship he displayed all the energy, manliness, integrity, and sagacity, as well as professional competency, which a laborious life of country practice had matured. As a teacher of medicine he was clear, thorough, and practical, combining a due valuation of works of authority with ample exemplifications from his own experience. As a professor, as a man and a friend, he was beloved by his pupils, perhaps as much as any who ever occupied a similar station. He was endowed by nature with a noble and generous heart, mild and affable in his manners, affectionate and kind in his deportment, with a mind well stored with practical knowledge always at command.


On May 9, 1839, he married Anna Maria Whitaker, eldest daughter of Joseph Whitaker, Esq., then a resident of Phoenixville.


Dr. Pennypacker died Feb. 13, 1856, and was interred in the Mennonist society's burying-ground in Phoenixville.


Dr. Matthias J., of Schuylkill, born Sept. 10, 1819, was elected to the Assembly in 1855.

Dr. Nathan A., of Schuylkill township, born Oct. 20, 1835, was captain of Co. K, 4th Penn. Reserves, during the Rebellion. In 1865, 1866, and 1867 he was elected to the Assembly. He was one of the commissioners to erect the State Hospital for the Insane at Norristown in 1877, and is a lieutenant-colonel on the staff of Governor Hoyt. For several years he has been president of the school board of Schuylkill township.


Samuel W., lawyer in Philadelphia, was born at Phoenixville, April 9, 1843. He is a Bachelor of Laws of the University of Pennsylvania, and in 1867 was elected president of the Law Academy of Philadelphia. For several years he has been one of the editors and proprietors of the Weekly Notes of Cases, the leading law journal of Pennsylvania, and he is one of the compilers of a digest of the " English Common Law Reports," which was commenced by Chief Justice Sharswood. He has also given considerable attention to local historical investigation. In 1872 he published the " Annals of Phoenixville," and in 1880 a paper on the " Settlement of Germantown." He was one of the Congress of Authors, who, on invitation, wrote sketches, which were deposited in Independence Hall July 2, 1876. Some of his articles have been cited with approval by scholars in England, Germany, and Holland.


Isaac R., born in Phoenixville, Dec. 11, 1852, and one of the editors of the Morning News, of Wilmington, Del., has written some local poetry, which attracted the attention of Longfellow, Whittier, and Whitman. Two of his poems, " By the Perkiomen" and " The Old Church at the Trappe," may be found in Longfellow's " Poems of Places."


Want of space prevents us from giving more than a meagre sketch of this family, which has a history outside of Chester County. Its members held, Oct. 4, 1877, a reunion at Pennypacker's Mills, the site of Washington's camp, from which he marched to Germantown. The proceedings were printed.


PHILIPS.-Joseph Philips was born in Wales in 1716. His wife, Mary, was born in 1710. In 1755 he came to this country with his wife, Mary, and three children,-David, John, and Josiah. A fourth, Joseph, was born after their arrival. The first place of settlement was near the present West Chester, but subsequently he purchased the farm now of Frederick Bingaman, in Uwchlan, on which he built a two-story log house. He was a weaver by occupation, and carried on the business in the unpretentious ways of those times. As the family grew up the business increased, until there were three shops, with three looms in each shop. Joseph Philips wore the small-clothes of the olden time, buckskin breeches with buckles. His native language was Welsh, which was spoken by all the family. He was of medium height, portly in appearance.


684 - HISTORY OF CHESTER COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.


The family lived with the simplicity which then prevailed, using wooden trenchers at table. At first they attended the Great Valley Baptist Church, thirteen miles distant, but in 1771 a new church—the Vincent—was constituted nearer to their homes, of which they became members at its organization. Joseph Philips died May 18, 1792, and his wife, Mary, died Dec. 26, 1792. In the Revolution the family were patriots. David, the oldest son, was a captain John was taken captive in the Jerseys, and held in confinement in the prison-ship at New York, and Josiah was a lieutenant.


David and Joseph (2) emigrated to the western part of Pennsylvania, and settled south of Pittsburgh. David became a Baptist clergyman, and was pastor of Peter's Creek Church forty years. He died March 5, 1829, at the age of eighty-seven years. He had thirteen children, and his descendants are scattered over Western Pennsylvania, Ohio, Tennessee, and westward to the Pacific. Joseph Philips died Sept. 3, 1832, at the age of seventy-eight. He had five children. He was for many years a justice of the peace.


John Philips settled on the old Lancaster road, near Downingtown. He had seven children,—three sons and four daughters. Some of his descendants were constituent members of the Glen Run Baptist Church, near Penningtonville, now Atglen, and many of them now reside in At-glen and its vicinity. Some of the principal branches of this family are Pettit, Miller, Young, Chalfant, Osborn, and Chamberlain. John Philips died May 22, 1790, at the age of forty-five.


Josiah Philips settled on the old homestead in Uwchlan. He had nine children,—five sons and four daughters. He was a man of deep piety and fidelity to conviction. He died March 1, 1817, at the age of sixty-six. Among his descendants are the surnames of Philips, Brenholtz, Jones, Severn, Dowling, Guest, Griffith, Bingaman, Rapp, Miller, Frame, Lungren, Perkins, Smith, Tustin, Fussell, Trickett, Dennithorne, Miles, Stiteler, Heffelfinger, Davis, Kiter, Eaches, Still, and Brinton.


The descendants of Joseph and Mary Philips are so numerous that it is impossible to give any detailed account of them. It is estimated that they now number over seventeen hundred.


One characteristic of the family is its longevity, another is that of a strong religious element.

There are at present not less than fifteen ministers in the connection. Another feature is its strong intellectual vigor. From 1797 to the present it has been a race of teachers. It has furnished college professors, principals of academies and seminaries, and teachers of all grades. At the present time G. Morris Philips is a professor in the university at Lewisburg. In political life its members have been justices of the peace, judges, and legislators, and have filled various other positions. In their religious convictions they are almost entirely of the Baptist faith and polity.


PHILLIPS, DR. JOHN BARNARD, son of Mahlon and Dinah (Barnard) Phillips, was born in Kennet in 1821, and died in 1877. He settled at St. Paul, Minn., where he was a practicing physician, and held various positions of honor and trust,—acted as assistant Secretary of State, commissioner of statistics, and member of the State board of examining pension surgeons.


In 1851 he entered the University of Pennsylvania, and graduated in 1855 in the mean time he had spent two years in study at Heidelberg, Paris, and Vienna. In passing through Basle (Switzerland) in 1854 he was arrested and incarcerated on suspicion of being the Italian patriot Mazzini, who was at that time an object of vigorous search on account of a recent uprising at Milan. For this indignity the United States Government interfered, and he was reclaimed and compensated.


Dr. Phillips possessed qualities of a high order. He was an eager student of literature, science, and art. He was fond of music and poetry, and excelled in both. He translated German poetry, and, preparatory to publishing a volume of lyrics, visited New England authors and publishers in 1876, and was cordially received by Longfellow, Holmes, Whittier, and others.


He died suddenly at St. Paul in his fifty-sixth year. The deceased was a great-grandson of Richard Barnard the third.


JOSEPH BARNARD PHILLIPS, a brother of the former, was born in Kennet in 1819, and died at his residence, Traer, Tama Co., Iowa, in 1877. He was a profound mathematician. He ranked high as a scholar, though his modest and unassuming manners revealed to comparatively few the great extent of his research or the sufficiency of his scholarship. The greater part of his life was employed in teaching, chiefly in Pennsylvania. He was at one time principal of Pottsville Seminary.


JOSEPH T. PHILLIPS.—William Penn, by deed of April 12, 1682, conveyed a thousand acres of land to Humphrey Killingbeck, who, Sept. 11, 1700, sold the same to Thomas Wickersham, to hold in trust for his children. Oct. 24,1720, he conveyed of it one hundred acres to John Wickersham, from whom by descent it passed to his son John. He conveyed the same to George Passmore, who conveyed it to his son, George, Jr., who, on 7th mo. 28, 1787, sold fifty-three acres (lacking one perch) to Joshua Pusey, including the mill. Joshua conveyed the same to William Pusey, 9th mo. 28, 1801, who willed it to his son Jonathan, from whom by descent it passed to his daughter, Mary E. Pusey, intermarried with Joseph T. Phillips. The original grist-mill was erected about 1750, and the present one in 1833. The stone part of the present dwelling was built in 1780, and the brick portion in 1810. The mill has been in active operation at least one hundred and thirty years.


Mr. Phillips' original green-house was erected by him about 1859, and since then he has enlarged it to eleven houses, embracing nearly seventeen thousand feet of glass. The business is chiefly by shipping, and not local. He ships on orders to all parts of the United States, Canadas, and the islands, mostly sent by mail. Roses are his leading specialties, but he is largely engaged in general green-house collections. His establishment is called " Sunnyside," and is situated in the western part of Londongrove township, and near West Grove Station on the Philadelphia and Baltimore Central Railroad, and is most beautifully located in a fine and picturesque region of country.






BIOGRAPHICAL AND GENEALOGICAL - 685




PICKERING, BENJAMIN.-The Pickering family, of English extraction on the paternal and of Welsh on the maternal side, is found at a very early period in Bucks County, of this State, where John Pickering, the emigrant, settled. His son Joseph married Ann Watson, and to them were born two children, Benjamin and Watson. The former and eldest was born Jan. 17, 1798, in New Hope, Solebury township, Bucks Co. His grandfather, John, married Rachel Duer, had seven sons and two daughters, and died on the place lie bought upon his arrival in America. The family was ever engaged almost exclusively in agricultural pursuits.


Benjamin removed to East Nottingham township in 1840, in which year he married Jane, daughter of William and Mary Idal. To them twelve children were born : Charles W. ; Sarah Ann, m. George Smith ; Mary Elizabeth, m. William Kennedy ; William J. ; Rachel Ann, m. John Reynolds ; Martha Jane, m. Archie McFalls ; and Joseph Warner, living ; and the following five deceased, Mary Ann, Matilda, Stacy (all three in infancy), Emily, aged five, and Charlotte Eliza, aged eleven years. Jane, his wife, was born Dec. 22, 1802, and died in August, 1863. His farm of 140 acres lies about one mile from Oxford. He began life with no means, learned the trade of a cooper, and later that of a carpenter. By industry, economy, and perseverance he has achieved a competence. He is esteemed as a man of sterling integrity and upright character.


PIM.-This family can be traced from Richard Pim, of Leicestershire, England, who in his old age removed to Ireland, about 1655. His son William, with his family, also removed to Ireland in the same year. John Pim, son of William, born in Leicestershire, married, in 1663, Mary Pleadwell, and lived at Montrath, Ireland. He had eleven children, of whom the eldest was Moses, born 7, 19, 1664, who married Ann, daughter of Christopher and Philippa Raper.


WILLIAM Pim, in the next generation, born at Lackah, 11, 15, 1692, married, 11, 21, 1715, Dorothy Jackson, daughter of Thomas and Dorothy. The family came to Pennsylvania in 1730, and settled in East Caln township, where Dorothy died 1, 15, 1732, and her husband 10, 11, 1751. He was for many years the clerk of Bradford Monthly Meeting, an elder in the church, and an active, influential citizen.


His children were Moses, b. 10, 27, 1716 ; Sarah, b. 4, 23, 1719, m. George Mendenhall ; Thomas, b. 3, 1, 1721, d. 10, 3, 1786 ; Hannah, b. 4, 18, 1723, m. Thomas Paine ; Richard, b. 10, 10, 1728, d. 4, 12, 1760 ; Mary, b. 6, 6, 1731, d. 1, 30, 1732.


Thomas Pim married, 10, 24, 1746, Frances Wilkinson, daughter of James, of Wilmington, and continued on the homestead. His wife died 5, 7, 1784, aged sixty-three. Their children were Moses, Ann (m. to John Edge), William, Thomas, Hannah, Sarah, John, and Rachel.


Thomas, Jr., married his cousin Mary, daughter of Richard Pim, and was the father of Rachel, who died young ; Hannah, m. to Job Remington ; Sarah, m. to William Abbott ; Mary, in. to Abraham Gibbons ; Anne, living in 'West Chester, unmarried, in her 90th year ; and Richard, who died on the homestead in 1857, leaving children.


Richard Pim, son of William, married, 2, 5, 1752, Hannah, daughter of Phinehas Lewis, and left four children,- John, died young ; Mary, m. to Thomas Pim, Jr. ; Isaac, m. to Hannah Cope, and Moses.


POTTS, DAVID, JR.-The ship " Shield," Capt. Daniel Towes, from Hull, England, arrived in the Delaware River in December, 1678, and anchored at Burlington, West Jersey colony. Among its passengers were Thomas Potts and his wife, Ann, and children. He died in Germantown in 1726. On Dec. 30, 1680, he purchased in Burlington, N. J., a dwelling, bark-mill, tanyard, etc. In 1692 he bought lands in Philadelphia. He was a tanner by trade. His wife, Ann, died 7th mo. 9, 1714, and in 1716 he married Alice Pusser. The Potts family were Friends. His will was proven Nov. 10, 1726. His only son and heir, Thomas Potts, appears on record as an iron-master, residing in Colebrookdale township, then Philadelphia County, and he there bought from Gerhart Henkels 192 acres of land. He married, 8th mo. 3, 1699, Martha Keurling, who subsequently dying, he again was married to Grace Farmer. She died in the same year, and he the third time was married to Magdalen Robeson. His will was proven Jan. 10, 1752. John, son of Thomas Potts by his first wife, Martha, married, April 11, 1734, Ruth Savage, of Coventry, a daughter of Samuel Savage, by his wife, Anna, daughter of Thomas Rutter. He was the founder of Pottstown, and the common ancestor of the Potts family, and among his direct lineal descendants was David Potts, Sr. His son, David, Jr., was born in the year 1794, and for near a half-century successfully managed Warwick Furnace, and greatly enlarged and improved the estate therewith connected. He represented, in part, Chester County in the Legislature for several years, having been elected in 1823, '24, and '25, and subsequently was the representative from this district in Congress for eight years, from 1831 to 1839. He was bitterly opposed to slavery, and in the halls of Congress


686 - HISTORY OF CHESTER COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.


manfully opposed all legislation to perpetuate it. He married Anna Nutt May, of Coventry township, in 1819. She died March 17, 1823, and he never remarried. The Warwick branch of the Potts family espoused the patriot side in the Revolutionary war, and some of them served in the Continental army. Among these were Jonathan Potts, surgeon-general of the army, and Lieut.-Col. John Potts. The Warwick Furnace cast many hundred cannon for the American army, and its locality is surrounded with rich historic associations of the days of the Revolutionary era. David Potts, Jr., died June 1, 1863, at the age of sixty-nine years. He served in the war of 1812 with his brother, Thomas M., and was with Capt. Kimes' company, of Reading, at Marcus Hook. He was active in politics, and in later life was at one time the Free-Soil candidate for Governor. He was universally esteemed by the community was a man of clear brain, noble impulse, and warm heart, of energy and upright character, and the impress of his active life was greatly felt throughout the State.




THOMAS M. POTTS.-" Warwick Furnace," so long the home of this branch of the family, was founded in 1736 by Rebecca Grace, and has been almost all that time in blast until quite recently. Mrs. Grace, wife of Robert Grace, an extensive iron-master, did not reside here, but at her Coventry estate, in what is now known as South Coventry township. She was twice married, her first husband being Samuel Nutt, by whom she had one daughter, Anna, who married Thomas Potts. Her second husband was Robert Grace, the lifelong friend and intimate companion of Benjamin Franklin. Two of Thomas Potts' daughters were in succession married to Robert May. Mrs. Grace, after the decease of her husband, resided in Robert May's family until her death, and was buried in the family burying-ground at Coventry. Thomas M. Potts, son of David Potts, Sr., and Martha, his wife, was a brother of David, Jr., and was born at Warwick Furnace, Aug. 9, 1797. As there were no suitable schools in the neighborhood, Thomas M. was placed under the tuition of a noted teacher named Glass, at Pottstown. After having received his education he returned home and assisted in the management of the furnace. He married Hannah, daughter of John Templin,—a gentleman residing near Warwick, well and favorably known for his general intelligence, business ability, and strict integrity,—on July 6, 1826. Shortly after, he moved to the State of Tennessee, where he conducted the iron-works of Anthony Van Leer, near Nashville, a relative of his wife. He remained there about two years, then returned to Chester County, and erected a foundry about a mile below Warwick Furnace, on the South Branch of French Creek, where he engaged in producing castings of various kinds and patterns ; but as they could be more cheaply made in Philadelphia, which was his principal market, he abandoned the foundry after two years of labor. He then went to Virginia and engaged in the manufacture of iron with David Jenkins, of Lancaster County.


While he was in Virginia his brother, David, Jr., purchased Jefferson Furnace, in South Manheim township, Schuylkill Co. At David's instance Thomas took charge of these works, and conducted them for some time ; but unfortunately the mines which had been relied on to supply these works failed, on the discovery of which David, Jr., sold them, and Thomas M. once more returned to his native county, in which he continued to reside till he died. The house in which he resided for many years had been


BIOGRAPHICAL AND GENEALOGICAL - 687


built for him by David, Jr., on part of the Warwick estate. Here he passed the remnant of his days in agricultural pursuits, exercising a generous hospitality and living in the affectionate respect of his relatives, friends, and neighbors. He died Oct. 29, 1876. His widow survives, and resides with her son, Capt. John T. Potts.




JOHN T. POTTS.—Thomas M. and Hannaette (Templin) Potts had nine children, viz. : David, sergt.-maj. 175th Pennsylvania Infantry, d. after the close of the war ; Holman Vincent, private in Co. A, 53d Pennsylvania Infantry, promoted to lieutenant, and d. after the war of the Rebellion closed ; John T. ; Nathaniel, d. quite young; Thomas M. ; Anna T., m. William L. Whitney, cashier of Miners' National Bank of Pottsville, and d. ; Gertrude, d. ; Martha Ellen, m. Francis M. Nichols, of Philadelphia ; and Mary K.


The wife of Thomas M. Potts was a Templin, and her grandmother was a sister of Gen. Anthony Wayne, and her mother was a Van Leer, of an old and well-known family, noted in the anti-slavery cause. Of the children of Thomas M. Potts, John T. was born Feb. 28, 1841, in Rockingham Co., Va., where his father was then temporarily residing in the iron business. When two years old he removed with his parents to Schuylkill County, where he lived until he was about thirteen, and then came to Chester County. He was educated in the academies of Pottstown and Pottsville. He married, May 24, 1865, Martha E. Jones, of Doe Run, who died in Philadelphia in 1873. He enlisted April 19, 1861, as a private in 4th Pennsylvania Infantry, under Col. (late Governor) Hartranft, three months' men ; re-enlisted in August as a private in three years' service at Harrisburg in 53d Pennsylvania Infantry was promoted in August to be second lieutenant, and again, on the following June 2d, to be first lieutenant of Company A of said regiment ; was wounded at Antietam and Fredericksburg.


Afterwards, by the direction of the President, he was detailed for special duty at Washington City, and commissioned by President Lincoln, Aug. 1, 1864, captain in the Veteran Reserve Corps, and was mustered out July 13, 1865.


On July 22, 1865, Brig.-Gen. Joseph H. Taylor, chief of Gen. Augur's staff, wrote the following letter :


" Capt. John T. Potts has long been employed at these headquarters on duties exceedingly delicate and responsible, which he has performed always with fidelity, firmness, and good judgment, to the perfect satisfaction of Maj.-Gen. Augur, Comdg. Dpt. Originally an officer of the 53d Pennsylvania Volunteers, he served faithfully in the field until wounded in action. His resignation deprives the service of a most worthy and excellent gentleman and soldier."


On the above is the following indorsement :

"I fully and entirely and heartily concur in the foregoing.

"C. C. AUGUR,

" Major- God. Comdg. Dpt."


He was treasurer of Chester County from 1865 to 1867, and was afterwards largely engaged in the manufacture of brick in Philadelphia, but since his father's death in 1876 he resides at the homestead. In 1880 he was elected a member of the Legislature.




MAJOR JAMES POTTS was born at Germantown, June 17, 1752 (O.S.). He was the son of Samuel and Ann (Rush) (Ashmead) Potts, grandson of Daniel and Sarah (Shoemaker) Potts, and great-grandson of David and Alice (Croasdale) Potts. The ancestors of Maj. Potts were members of the Society of Friends, and settled in the province of Pennsylvania about the time of the formation of the colony.


688 - HISTORY OF CHESTER COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.


He always took a great interest in political and military affairs, and during the Revolutionary war took an active part in the cause of the colonies. He was an officer in the service, and was in the battles of Brandywine and Germantown, and was engaged in a number of skirmishes.


Until the year 1808 he resided a short distance north of Philadelphia. In that year he removed to Chester County, and settled in West Fallowfield (now Highland) township, and soon .thereafter purchased the farm since owned by J. Wilson Hershberger and others, near the Limestone road, where he resided until his death, which occurred on the 28th of July, 1822.


Although Maj. Potts never had the advantage of a liberal education, yet he was a man of no mean attainments, and possessed a good sound judgment. He early took strong grounds in favor of the temperance movement, and sometimes offended his neighbors because the customary decanter was not always brought from the sideboard. He gave considerable attention to the culture of peaches, having a large and productive orchard.


His wife was Sarah Wessell, daughter of John and Hannah (Wells) Wessell, of Philadelphia County. They had twelve children, eight of whom grew up, viz. : Rachel, m. Eneas Hughes ; James Wessell, m. Margaret Stroud ; Ann, m. Thomas McIntire ; Eliza ; Samuel, m. Margaret Shaeffer ; Hannah, m. Isaac D. Tarrance ; Sarah, m. Joseph Tarrance ; and Thomas Jefferson, m. Margaret Carter. The latter resided on the Limestone road, one mile north of Cochranville, and died Oct. 26, 1877. Two of his sons publish a newspaper at Parkesburg, and another, Thomas

Maxwell Potts, is much interested in antiquarian and genealogical studies, and is the author of a biographical sketch of Maj. Potts, to which the writers are indebted for the facts contained in this paper. He now resides in Canonsburg, Pa.


POWER, D.D., REV. JAMES, was born in Nottingham, Chester Co., Pa., in the year 1746, the child of parents who had emigrated from the north of Ireland. He received his preparatory education at the school of the eminent Dr. Samuel Finley, and graduated at Princeton in 1766. Among his classmates in college were Hezekiah J. Balch, Oliver Ellsworth, Luther Martin, and Nathaniel Niles. He was licensed by the Presbytery of New Castle, June 24, 1772, and ordained at Octorara on the 23d of May, 1776.


In the fall of that year he removed to Western Pennsylvania, and took up his residence in Fayette County. He supplied the destitute congregations over an extensive district for a time, and in 1779 became pastor of the Sewickly and Mount Pleasant congregations. He was the first settled Presbyterian minister in Western Pennsylvania. He lived to the age of eighty-five years, greatly venerated and beloved for his piety, fidelity, and usefulness. He was a graceful speaker and of polished manners, and his enunciation was so perfect that when he spoke in the open air, as he frequently did, he could be heard at a great distance.


The degree of Doctor of Divinity was conferred on Mr. Power by Jefferson College in 1808. He died Aug. 5, 1830.


BIOGRAPHICAL AND GENEALOGICAL - 689


PRATT.-Abraham Pratt, the first of the name in this province, lived in Dublin township, where he died in 1709, his will being proven Dec. 21st of that year, and in which document (of which his wife Jane was executrix) are mentioned his sons Joseph, John, and Jeremiah, and daughter Elizabeth.


Joseph, presumably the son of the above, married Sarah, daughter of William and Jane Edwards, May 9, 1717, and settled on a farm in Edgmont, on the east side of Ridley Creek, about five miles northwest of where his wife was born, and where her descendants continued to reside until 1830. His second marriage, with Mary Jones, took place at Christ Church, Philadelphia, Nov. 25, 1728. The children of Joseph were Thomas, Alice, Ann, Sarah, Rose, and Joseph. Thomas married Hannah Evans in 1742, and died 8, 3, 1743. Alice married Randal Malin, of Whiteland, and had seven children. Ann married Amos Davies, of Goshen, and had nine children. Sarah married Thomas Moore, and later David Yarnall, of Willistown, and settled in Coventry. Joseph, born in 1727, married Jane Davis in 1752, and settled on his father's farm. Of the children of Joseph and Jane the following record is given :


1. Abraham, b. 12, 19, 1746 ; m. Sarah Williamson, 4, 28, 1773, and settled in Goshen ; d. 3, 26, 1813 ; had one daughter, Elizabeth (b. 1774), who m. Robert Roberts, 1799. Abraham's widow died in 1824.


2. Sarah, b. 5, 13, 1748 ; died young.

3. Jane, b. 5, 30, 1751 ; m. John Hoopes, 1772.

4. Joseph, b. 9, 12, 1753 ; m. Sarah Davis, his cousin, in 1780, and settled on his grandfather's farm. He left two sons,-Joseph, b. 1, 9, 1781, who married Sarah Hoopes, and died 10, 25, 1861, and Lewis, a drover, who died in 1848.


5. David, b. 6, 12, 1756 ; m. Lydia Hoopes, 1777, and settled in Marple. He died in 1844 ; had eleven children, -John, David, Joseph, Abram, Jeremiah, Henry, Randal, Jane, Lydia, Christiana, Orpah. Of their sons, John married and settled near Newtown meeting-house, and died in 1837 ; Joseph settled at the White Horse, in Willistown, as a merchant, and died, leaving a large family ; Abram resided on the paternal homestead ; Jeremiah removed to Ohio ; Henry married Susan Garrett and settled in Newtown ; and Randal resides on the farm late his father's, in M arple.


6. Mary, b. 5, 8, 1759 ; m. Francis Hoopes, of New Garden, 1777.


7. Priscilla, b. 9, 3, 1761 ; m. Thomas Bishop, Jr., 1780 ; she died in 1847, aged eighty-five years. They had eleven children.


8. Thomas, b. 1, 13, 1764 ; m. Hannah Massey, 1786, and Hannah Heacock, 1813. He lived in Marple, and died in 1820. By first marriage had children,-Ann, Susan, Jane, Massey, Priscilla, and Phineas ; by his second marriage one son, Thomas.


9. Sarah, m. to Joseph Bishop, d. 7, 17, 1809.


PRESTON, WILLIAM, and wife, Jane, " of Bradley, in the parish of Huthersfield, Old England," arrived in Pennsylvania in the year 1718, bringing a certificate from Brighouse Monthly Meeting of Friends, held 11, 17, 1717, at Harwood-well, near Halifax, in the county of York. Their


- 87 -


children were John, b. 2, 12, 1699 ; Martha, b. 7, 30, 1700, m. Benjamin Canby ; Joseph, b. 12, 28, 1702, d. 5, 30, 1716 ; Sarah, b. 4, 6, 1706 ; William, b. 6, 7, 1708, d. 3, 9, 1766 ; Jonas, b. 11, 19, 1710, d. 2, 1, 1772 ; Mary, b. 7, 13, 1713, d. 7, 2, 1731.


They settled in Buckingham, Bucks Co., where, in 1722,


Jane Preston, the widow of William, became the third wife of Thomas Canby.


John Preston, son of John, and grandson of William and Jane, settled in Lynchburg, Va., and had children,-John, Amos, Moses, Sarah, Peter, and William, who were living in Ohio in 1830, and two others, Anne and David, then deceased.


William Preston, Jr., married, in 1735, Deborah Chesman, who died 11, 29, 1749-50. They had five children, -Martha, b. 5, 27, 1737, m. Stephen Wilson ; Mary, b. 2, 17, 1740 ; Ruth, b. 9, 15, 1742 ; Sarah, b. 6, 3, 1745 ; Joseph, b. 1, 11, 1748, d. 6, 1, 1810.


Joseph Preston, of Buckingham, and Rebecca Bills, of Solebury, were married, 1, 17, 1770, at Buckingham, Bucks Co., and some time prior to 1790 removed to Londongrove, Chester Co. She was born 11, 30, 1744, and died 3, 7, 1790. Joseph married (second) Anna Simmons. His children were William, b. 11, 6, 1770, m. Mary Moore ; Jonas, b. 10, 22, 1772, in. Elizabeth Brown ; David, b. 9, 20, 1774, m. Judith Hollingsworth ; Rachel, b. 9, 1, 1776, m. Henry Simmons ; Joseph, b. 3, 8, 1779 ; Mahlon, b. 2, 8, 1781, m. Amy Coates ; Deborah, b. 8, 4, 1783, m. Seymour Coates ; Sarah, b. 8, 4, 1783, d. 1, 22, 1786 ; Amos, b. 7, 15, 1786, d. 12, 2, 1856 ; Rebecca, b. 4, 28, 1802 ; Isaac, b. 6, 7, 1805, d. 4, 9, 1806.


William and Jonas settled in Octorara Hundred (now Eighth District), Cecil Co., Md., and were the founders of Octorara Meeting. David removed to Harford Co., Md., near Bel Air. Mahlon and Amos remained on their father's farm, at what is now called Prestonville.


Amos Preston married, 4, 10, 1811, Margaret Smith, daughter of Joseph and Elinor Smith, of Londongrove, born 3, 29, 1791, died 1, 4, 1863. They had children,-Joseph, Ann, Simpson, Smith, Levi, Charles, Rebecca, Howard, and Caroline S. Preston. The following sketch of the eldest daughter, Ann, born 12, 1, 1813, is taken from a memorial pamphlet :


In the quiet old homestead where her grandfather lived, where her father was born, lived, and died, she spent the first thirty-six years of what then promised to be an uneventful life. Confined somewhat closely at home, her early education was not what is usually called liberal, and her attendance at school was limited to the excellent one near her country home and a short time spent at a boarding-school in West Chester. Later in life she mastered the Latin language, and became early interested in the leading philanthropic questions of that time, and thought and wrote carefully concerning them. Prior to 1833 she had become a member of the Clarkson Anti-Slavery Society, which held its meetings quarterly at different points in Chester and Lancaster Counties. In 1838 she attended the meeting held in Philadelphia for the dedication of Pennsylvania Hall, erected for the purposes of free discussion. Her poem, entitled ' The Burning of Pennsylvania Hall' (by a mob), was one of two selected from several hundred for publication in the 'History of Pennsylvania Hall,' the other being written by Rev, John Pierpont. In 1848 she published a small book of poems for children, entitled Cousin Ann's Stories,' which have become classic in child literature. While her course for the future was still undetermined, information reached her of the proposed opening of the Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania.


690 - HISTORY OF CHESTER COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.


Having decided for herself that the study and practice of medicine were both womanly and adapted to her moral, mental, and physical constitution, she was one of the first applicants for admission to this college as a student at its opening in 1850. She graduated at the first annual commencement, at the close of the session of 1851-52. The following spring she accepted in this institution the professorship of the chair of Physiology and Hygiene. She spent a year in the Maternite Hospital of Paris, and on her return home was the instrument mainly of the origin of the Woman's Hospital, in Philadelphia, of which she was appointed on its board of managers corresponding secretary and consulting physician, offices she held until her death. In 1866 she was elected dean of the faculty of the college, and the next year a member of its board of incorporators. She died at her post of duty, April 18, 1872. Her introductory lectures and valedictory addresses, now a part of the Woman's Medical College history, are especially able. In practice Dr. Preston was successful, and, keenly alive to the wants of the sick and suffering, she was unusually loved and trusted. The medical college, under her charge, was the first ever chartered for its purpose, and the number of its graduates exceed that of any similar institution. Dr. Preston early became identified with it, and for nineteen years was Professor of Physiology and Hygiene, for six years dean of the faculty, and for four years member of the board of corporators. She was a woman of rare talent, and by her death the medical profession and the cause of medical education sustained a great loss. When Dr. Preston's will was published, the friends of the college and hospital found that both institutions had been generously remembered. To the cause of woman her work and example were invaluable. Her personal character was so high, her ability so great, her judgment so accurate, her nature so truly feminine, her success as a physician so universally acknowledged, that her life was an unanswerable argument against those who would exclude women from the medical profession.


Jonas, youngest son of William and Jane Preston, was born in Yorkshire, 19th of 11th mo., 1710, and died in New Castle, Del., 2d mo. 1, 1772, aged sixty-two. He married Jane Paxson, of Bucks County, and had children, viz. : William, b. 11, 25, 1732-3 ; Mary, b. 9, 20, 1734 ; John, b. 10, 20, 1736, d. 6, 4, 1740 Jane, b. 10, 16, 1738, d. 6, 8, 1740 ; Sarah, b. 10, 13, 1740, m. Joshua Richardson ; Jonas, b. 7, 24, 1742, d. 7, 10, 1748; Martha, b. 6, 22, 1744, m. Thomas Sharpless ; Ann, b. 12, 15, 1745-6, m. Isaac Eyre ; Hannah, b. 10, 22, 1747, m. Nicholas Fair-lamb. Jane (Paxson) Preston, wife of Jonas, died 10, 29, 1749. He afterwards married a widow, Sarah (Plumley) Carter, and had one child, Jonas, who died young, the mother dying the day of his birth, 7th mo. 29, 1754. Jonas moved to Chester County about 1752, where he married, in 1756, (his third wife) Hannah Lewis, widow of William Lewis, of Haverford, by whom he had no issue. He married (fourth), 4, 14, 1763, at Chester Meeting, Mary, widow of John Lea, of Chester, and daughter of John and Abigail Yarnall, of Edgmont, and mother of Thomas Lea, founder of the Brandywine Flour-Mills, in Wilmington. By her he had one son, Jonas (Dr. Preston), born 1st mo. 25, 1764, and who died 4th mo. 4, 1836, in Philadelphia, and was buried at his request in his mother's grave in Friends' graveyard, at Chester. His remains

were disinterred 6th mo. 24, 1867, and removed to Friends' graveyard at Downingtown.


Dr. Preston read medicine under Dr. Bond, 1782-83, and attended to his practice in Penn Hospital, after which he spent several years in medical schools at Edinburgh and Paris, graduating from the former in 1785 or '86. Upon returning he located himself in Wilmington, Del., for a time, after which he went to Georgia, but returning, settled for some time in Chester, Delaware Co., and succeeded in acquiring an extensive practice, both in Chester and Del-

aware Counties, particularly in obstetrics, in which he was celebrated, and was called upon in consultation far and near.


He represented his county in the House and Senate of Pennsylvania for many years, and was active in building a bridge over the Susquehanna at McCall's, with Dr. Abraham Baily, which in the end proved a failure. At the period of the Whisky Insurrection he volunteered his services, and was with the troops sent out on that occasion. His first wife was Orpha, daughter of William and Mary Reece, of Newtown, and he afterwards married Jane, daughter of George and Sarah Thomas, of West Whiteland, 8th mo. 19, 1812, leaving no children by either wife. He soon after relinquished his profession and removed to Philadelphia, where he continued till his death, taking an active interest in various benevolent and other institutions, such as Pennsylvania Hospital, Friends' Asylum at Frankford, Penn Bank, Schuylkill Navigation Company, etc., and to crown the works of a long life of activity and usefulness he left some four hundred thousand dollars• or more, in addition to other benevolent bequests, towards founding an " institution for the relief of indigent married women of good character, distinct and unconnected with any other hospital, where they may be received and provided with proper obstetric aid for their delivery, with suitable attendance and comforts during their period of weakness and susceptibility Which ensues," etc., which is now in active operation under the wise supervision of Dr. William Goodell, and has done and is doing, in a quiet, unostentatious way, an incalculable amount of good.


PRICE, PHILIP.*-In the " History of Chester County" I have been invited to fill a space with a sketch of the life of my father. I appreciate the privilege, and will not abuse it. It is my native county, and it and its people have always had the strongest hold upon my affections, and wherever I have lived or traveled there my untraveled heart has ever turned as to a home and scenes the most beautiful of earth.


Philip Price was born on the 8th of the first month (January), 1764, in Kingsessing, Philadelphia, on the brow of the first upland overlooking the meadows and the lower Schuylkill and the Delaware Rivers, within five miles of the southwest corner of William Penn's city of two square miles, and in the beautiful but little varied scenery of that home of the Bonsalls his youth was spent.


It has been a labor of love to trace the ancestry of my parents in all their branches back to the first settlers, all of whom came direct to Pennsylvania and the " three Lower Counties," and seated themselves under the benign auspices of William Penn and a civil and religious government of the Society of Friends. No colony was ever planted under influences so beneficent, none ever had to endure evils so few, none so fully enjoyed the just fruits of wise principles, and a good moral and religious life. The true history of that colony is the brightest oasis in the dreary records of wrongs and misgovernment which all other histories present to our view. We can never cease to love to contemplate it, and -reproduce it for the loving admiration of all who love the good, the true, and the righteous. From the


* By Eli K. Price.


BIOGRAPHICAL AND GENEALOGICAL - 691


wise institutions of Penn all our declarations of rights and constitutions have borrowed some of their best principles.


All the immigrant ancestors of our parents came with William Penn in 1682, or within a few years afterwards. There was but one male in each of the four generations of the name of Price who preceded my father, thus named: Philip, Isaac, Isaac, and Philip. The first Isaac Price married Susannah Shoemaker, who came to Pennsylvania with Sarah, her mother, and her uncles Jacob and Peter Shoemaker, 8th mo. 12, 1685, some of whose descendants were Millers, of Shoemaker Town, near Abington. These were German Friends from the Palatinate of the Rhine. The second Isaac married Margaret, daughter of the second Henry Lewis, whose father was the loved and trusted friend of William Penn.


Philip Price's father was a farmer and grazier, and his son assisted and was trained in his business. During the war of the Revolution the farm was twice swept of its cattle, alternately, for the British and American army, and for a short time Gen. Howe had his headquarters at the father's house, by the Kingsessing church.


Philip Price remained, after his marriage on the 20th of the tenth month, 1784, about three years with his father, and afterwards occupied a film in East Nantmeal, Chester Co., for four years. In 1791, by deed 23d of third month, he bought the farm within two miles southwest of West Chester, the birthplace of all his children except the first four. Here it was that he began his improvements of grounds, then exhausted, gully-washed, and overgrown with poverty-grass and weeds. Those 317 acres 104 perches are now in the ownership of the widow and children of Philip P. Paxson, the widow and children of William P. Foulke, Esq., of Dr. Alfred Elwyn, of Richard Strode, and parts of it are in the farms of Alfred Sharpies and John Yerkes.


Writing to Judge Peters in 1796, Philip Price said, " In the spring of the year 1792 I fenced of a piece of about four acres" (to fold his cattle), " being a part of a large field that was much reduced, washed into deep gullies in many parts, and which had been totally neglected for many years. The appearance was so disagreeable that I put no value on it when I purchased the place, though the field contained fifty acres." The best efforts made in agricultural improvement at that time in the neighborhood were those of meadow-bank irrigation. Philip Price was in communication with the best theoretical and practical information of the period, and made his own observation and experiment with skill and judgment. Judge Peters and Dr. Mease were then our best writers and most zealous patrons of agriculture. Philip Price saved and spread his stable-manure, used lime, and was among the first in Chester County to begin the use of plaster of Paris. Judge Peters writes, " I have heard of none who have been more remarkably successful in the plaster system than Mr. West and Mr. Price. They have brought old, worn-out lands to an astonishing degree of fertility and profit by combining the plaster with other manures."—(Mem. of Agl. Soc., 2 vols., 34.)


The rotation of crops adopted was to plow in the fall or early spring, for the spring planting of Indian corn ; the next year to sow barley or oats, and in the fall to sow the wheat crop ; and upon this to sow the clover- and timothy-seed, and the product of these in the following year was a fine crop of hay, with a fall crop of clover, and this for some years, until it became expedient to repeat the same rotation.


In 1796, Philip Price answered the queries of Judge Peters to the following effect as to the use of' gypsum. On a high, loamy soil it operated better than on low-lying clay ground. One to one and a half bushels per acre are sufficient, repeated yearly while in clover ; the effect being good with or without recent plowing, and is without liability to leave the soil exhausted, where the increased product is returned in increase of the stable-manure. It is most beneficially applied to Indian corn and red clover, but usefully on other grain- and grass-crops, with or without other manuring, but with most striking effect if not immediately preceded by other manure. The best time to sow it is at the first harrowing of Indian corn, and on clover, in small quantity, soon after it comes up, to be repeated as soon as vegetation takes place in the spring. The effect is most visible on a poor soil. Eight acres sowed plentifully with it, without other manure, in five years, said Philip Price, " became worth ten times what it was before I plastered it, the face of the soil appearing to be entirely changed, and is admired by all who have hitherto known it."


In 1799 the first trials were made in London of Dr. Jenner's new discovery of vaccination to prevent the loathsome scourge of smallpox. Within a few years Philip Price brought the vaccine scab, and with his own hand, as I remember, vaccinated successfully all his children ; and all escaped the disease from which immunity was sought. Yet, strange perversity ! there are now those who oppose that invaluable preventive.


Philip Price was deputed by his neighbors, about the end of the first decade of this century, to go into Virginia and bring into Chester County the seeds of the Virginia thorn for hedging. The writer was present at the division of the seeds, and helped to plant the first hedges. These became of extended use, and added an ornament to the landscape. This thorn is now falling into disuse, and it is largely replaced by the osage orange, of larger and more vigorous growth and a more permanent verdure.


When the Chester County Agricultural Society was formed, many years after, the remembrance of what Philip Price had done for their cause was held reason sufficing for his being elected its first president.


Farming was then more picturesque than now. Then farmers would in turn join their forces, and it was a sight pleasing to behold when ten to twenty men reaped beside each other, he to the left being successively a few feet in advance ; and more so when they swung so many cradles in concert, as by one impulse. The sickle was the primitive instrument for cutting wheat; but early in the century the cradle, with scythe and four fingers, came into general use; but still the sickle or naked scythe was needed where the wheat, barley, or oats was lodged. In 1809, on my twelfth birthday, I reaped my dozen sheaves.


At the beginning of the century most of the traveling was done on horseback, and but few kept their carriages. Philip Price was equipped to face the storm on horseback.


692 - HISTORY OF CHESTER COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.


It was unknown to his family that he ever failed in any appointment on account of weather. He wore high boots and a light-colored glazed silk water-proof, with a hood and skirts that covered him from the crown of his head to the soles of his feet, and so spread as to protect the saddle and the body of the horse. Though a less manly exercise, carriages were a good institution and a step taken in civilization, for then more women and children could be taken to meetings and in making social visits.


At that period Philip Price, as was the custom, was a liberal smoker of cigars, the worst thing I ever knew him to do ; but others inveighed against the habit, and William Townsend with peculiar emphasis. Philip Price resolved to quit the practice, and lie did it at once.


Philip Price never served spirituous liqours to his hands in harvest, or at other times, though many of his neighbors did. Friends were always a temperance society, but did not formerly absolutely abstain from wine, and more habitually drank malt liquor ; but I do not remember its use in our family ; indeed, but a little currant wine and some cider occasionally. Modern Friends have made an advance in this respect.


Here I am brought to a pause. I am asked to give a sketch of the life of Philip Price. That life I never knew in separation from his wife. It cannot be told in separation from his wife without being defective ; a failure in delineation, when it should not be so, for in reality there was none in his life. All the descendants of Philip and Rachel Price, all their friends, visitors, and neighbors, have ever known and spoken of their names unitedly, and as inseparably connected. Two trees that have so long stood together that their branches and leaves have blended into one harmonious canopy must be viewed as one picture. Separate them, and either is imperfect ; the symmetry is gone ; a chasm appears. And what would the men of Chester County have achieved without the wife and mother of the household, the mistress of the dairy, the provider for the harvesters? Yet more, what is a Friend, in the Friends' Church, without his or her sympathizing and sustaining companion ? Almost a withered branch. The Friends are yet, or ought to be, a peculiar people ; a missionary society to raise mankind to higher conceptions of the good and a more perfect example of Christianity. I must speak of my mother, or I feel that I both wrong her memory and that of my father. The primitive command was, "Honor thy father and thy mother." The child equally inherits the qualities of her blood, and, even more, the influences of her mind are impressed upon the minds of her children. Our civilization and refinement depend more upon woman than man. Let us, then, hold her at least in equal honor. This Friends have done beyond all other religious persuasions. She repeats the same marriage ceremony as her husband ; is his social companion, his most trusted friend, and safest counselor; and the spirit of the gospel is alike given unto her, and more readily accepted by her.


Alphonsus Kirk came, a young man, from Lurgan, province of Ulster, in Ireland, with certificate from his meeting and his parents, Roger Kirk and Elizabeth Kirk, dated 9th of 10th month, 1688 ; settled on the east side of the Brandywine, New Castle Co., and on the 22d of 12th month, 1692-3, married Abigail Sharpley, daughter of Adam Sharpley, who had arrived in 1682. Their tenth child was William Kirk, who removed to East Nantmeal, Chester Co., whose second wife was Sibilla Davis, of Welsh ancestry, a granddaughter of David Harris, who arrived the 17th of 10th month, 1684. Rachel Kirk was the sixth child of William and Sibilla Kirk, and became the wife of Philip Price.


Since my earliest memory, which reaches to A.D. 1800, my parents were constant attendants of meetings for discipline and worship ; my father acted much as clerk, was an elder, and my mother a recommended minister of the gospel back into the last century. They took me with them to Birmingham Meeting ; and as probably my memory extends farther back than that of nearly all others, I think it would now interest many descendants to record the names of those who sat facing that meeting when its bounds included West Chester and vicinity, before the end of the first decade of this century. If an artist, I could portray their venerable faces and forms. Joshua Sharpless would have been there, but was absent as superintendent of West-town school. At the head of the higher bench sat Richard Strode, then came John Forsythe, Philip Price, Cheyney Jefferis, William Sharpless, Abraham Sharpless. On the second bench were James Painter, Abraham Darlington, William Townsend, Caleb Brinton, Thomas Wistar ; the latter, an invalid, was carried in and out by Cheyney Jefferis, who was stalwart. My mother was the only member I remember as a minister at that time.


I may not pass by the name of John Forsythe, my mother's teacher, without saying that he was more learned than any of his farming neighbors whom I knew. He was familiar with the writings of Dugald Stewart, and his mental philosophy was quite reconcilable with his religious faith. I heard him say in my youth that the evidence of the presence of the Divine Spirit was to him as plain as if the Creator had given him the proof by a sixth outward sense. He had this sense distinctly within. Friends held this from the first. Thomas Ellis brought here in his certificate from Friends in Wales, in 1683, a testimony, now among Merlon Meeting records, wherein it is said, he being " a man of a tender spirit, and often broken before the Lord ; the sense of the power of an endless life being upon him." And Henry Thomas Buckle, an English philosopher, after writing volumes on European civilization in a spirit but too skeptical, was constrained at last to say, " It is, then, to that sense of immortality with which the affections inspire us that I would appeal for the best proof of reality of a future." He had deeply sympathized with a beloved mother during her slow decay, and was only consoled for her loss by the undoubting belief that he would rejoin her. This event was not long delayed. He died at Damascus, May 31, 1867. In the end his philosophy became the religion of the Friends; and by the same induction the religion of the Friends is the true philosophy. Thus the religious belief is real, and more than theological theory. In 1803 another wrote,—


"Like as a language and the sound of words

To thought is but a moan, a symbol, help,

So is the soul's emotion thought itself."*


* Von Chamisso's "Faust," translated by Henry Phillips, Jr.


BIOGRAPHICAL AND GENEALOGICAL - 693


The same was said by Paul : " That they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him ;" was said by Jesus, when he said, " that neither in this mountain, nor yet in Jerusalem, was the true place to worship ;" said, " God is a spirit, and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth,"—that is, in the conscious soul, where " the Father seeketh such to worship him." Paul, again, said, " the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life." The emotion and spirit being that which comes from God, which men's words less perfectly express to others less inspired. From the inspired feeling arise thoughts and convictions, and with these come the fitting words, such as man has invented and uses.


Of the worthy array of Friends named none have been living for many years, nor is a son or daughter of any of them now living except three, but of grandchildren and remoter descendants there are many living in Chester County and elsewhere who will be glad to hear of them all. Of these descendants of my parents I have to say they extend across this continent from California and Oregon to Boston ; and in Europe from Paris to Constantinople,—in all more than twelve localities. In numbers, those living in 1864 were 129, and since then the births have exceeded considerably the deaths.


Philip and Rachel Price brought a certificate from Uwchlan Monthly Meeting, dated 4th month 21, 1791, which was presented at Concord 5th month 4. He was appointed clerk of the latter Monthly Meeting 3d month 5, 1794 ; and an elder 5th month 3, 1797. Rachel Price was recommended as a minister 4th month 7, 1802.


The deep concern Philip and Rachel Price felt in the Society of Friends and in the spread of gospel truth, and their perfect accord of views, made their union of sentiment and service very close, but caused their frequent separation for months at a time, in a mutual sacrifice for the good of the church. With a numerous family of children at home, for in 1802 they had ten living, all of whom lived to settle in life, it was a necessity that one should remain at home when the other was absent. These absences and sacrifices tested their fidelity to Him to whom they owed their highest duty and whom they most faithfully served, added to their devotion a more perfect earnestness and refinement of religious culture, and caused them to write to each other many affectionate and instructive letters, that otherwise would never have been written.


Philip Price traveled in the winter of 1796-97, with Charity Cook and Susanna Hollingsworth, through Virginia and Western Pennsylvania, when " Redstone" had seemed the terminus of Friends' westward settlements. The roads were very bad and the weather very severe, the ink freezing in his pen as he wrote. Charity regarded him as a son in the spiritual life, and they performed the trying journey and severe service with much fortitude and patient endurance, with the reward of satisfaction. .


During 1800 and 1801, John Hall, a minister from England, was a frequent inmate in the family of Philip and Rachel Price, and by his cheerful and social manners was a welcome guest to all. He was in good fellowship with us little fellows, and after his return from Caspar Wistar's, where he stayed while we went through the measles, he saluted me, " Well, Eli, canst thou whistle yet ?" for at four he indulged in that proof of an empty mind, and his parents were not oversevere. Philip traveled with John through New Jersey and Delaware, and in Pennsylvania as far northwestward as Muncy and Catawissa. John's letters, after his return home, were most cordial and affectionate, and strong in the utterances of gospel fellowship and prayers for the final future.


In the 7th month, 1801, Rachel Price joined Sarah Newlin, of Darby, in religious visits to the families of Friends in Delaware and the Eastern Shore of Maryland. The separation from her family was trying, and when ready to despond the words " Thy Maker shall be thy husband" came to her relief, and she was encouraged to complete her assigned work in resignation. The service was felt to be owned by the Master, and she returned with the consolations of peace.


In the spring of 1804, Sarah Talbot, of Chichester, of clear and thrilling voice, and Rachel Price made a religious visit to Friends in Middle and East New Jersey, and in the spring of 1805 visited those of South and West New Jersey. They held meetings almost daily, and met valued Friends. At Egg Harbor Rachel Price for the first time looked upon the ocean. Its unlimited expanse and the power of its waves as they ceaselessly rolled upon the shore moved her sensitive mind to wonder and praise of the Great Creator. In her religious services she had the compensation of the divine favor ; but the separation was mutually felt to be a great trial, yet husband and wife always encouraged each the other to patient perseverance to finish the allotted service in which he or she was engaged.


In 1807, Mary Witchell, an English Friend, sensible and strong, and Rachel Price traveled to Ohio, crossing the mountains over the roughest roads, and returned through Virginia and-Maryland. So rough were then the mountain roads that the women Friends were often obliged to walk and to ride in turn the one saddle-horse, sitting insecurely sideways on a man's saddle. Rachel wrote, " I think it is not possible for any one to conceive how bad the roads are without seeing them." They made two miles an hour. Ohio had then numerous primitive dwellings and some meeting-houses; and where these were not, court-houses and churches were freely opened. The mountains deeply impressed my mother's mind by their grandeur, and their testimony to the Creative power. She loved to commune with Friends in their simple homes, and sympathized in their trials, temporal and spiritual. She wrote from New Garden : " There is a valuable settlement of Friends here in this wilderness country, whom we feel nearly united to, and I may tell thee that I fully believe that I am in my place in coming here. Though trying to be separated from you at home, yet I feel very comfortable in being with our friends here in little cabins." In 1821 the writer visited Mary at Leeds, England, found her hale and kind, and since 1850 received from her a silk purse knit after she was one hundred years old.


In 1809 Rachel Price and Sarah Talbot traveled extensively through Virginia and Maryland. But regard for allotted space compels me to forbear giving details. In 1810 she visited the meetings of the Western Quarter ; in 1812,


694 - HISTORY OF CHESTER COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA;


those of Abington ; and in 1813, Philip Price went to the opening of the first Yearly Meeting in Ohio. On that occasion Jesse Kersey's services were eminently influential. At that period his eloquence had such persuasive and argumentative power as never to be forgotten by his hearers, as never have they been by the writer, whose memory reaches back to the most favored years of his gospel ministry.


During the war of 1812 to 1815 our people were forced into manufactures by the war with Great Britain, and these demanded wool, and the farm was used to graze merino sheep, with good results while the war lasted, but when it ceased protection of manufactures ceased, the manufactories fell into decay, and the price of wool and value of sheep fell, and these went to the shambles. Then and before, during Jefferson's embargoes, the Democrats were the most zealous champions of American manufactures. The parties reversed their policy after the first quarter of the century, and our factories went to decay when they should have been saved.


From 1795, Philip Price, and from 1802, Rachel Price, had been one of the Yearly Meeting's committee to build and manage the Westtown Boarding-School. There all of their ten children received their last year's education. In 1818, Philip and Rachel Price were appointed to take charge of the school as superintendents, and continued under the appointment until 1830. After that time he built the Girls' Boarding-School, at West Chester, which his daughter, Hannah P. Davis, sold in 1852. Their government in both was essentially a rule by kindness and affection, and thousands have remembered and remember them and their daughter, in all the residue of their lives, with the love of affectionate children towards beloved parents.


During their residence at Westtown the committee authorized many improvements : that of building a wall round the girls' garden, but so as not to intercept the view ; the planting of trees ; an improvement in the food ; the use of cups and saucers instead of porringers ; and above all a milder discipline was practiced, and whipping almost ceased. This was found to be the better method. The refractory boy was invited into the library, where sat the superintendent and several teachers in solemn silence. Some kindly words and admonitions were spoken by the superintendent; usually the boy was softened, and the conclusion was that he might be trusted with a further trial, and thus bodily infliction was averted. There was no irritating system of espionage to produce resentment and a more determined purpose of retaliation. Superintendent and teachers were quick enough in observation, but it was not always best to seem to see, or to make too much account of what was seen. The bad boy was thus made of more kindly disposition ; was less hardened and fixed in vicious ways.


The following were the children of Philip and Rachel Price: 1. Martha, b. 11th mo. 3, 1785 ; d. 9th mo. 11, 1852 ; m. Nathan II. Sharpies. 2. Hannah, b. 3d mo. 26, 1787 ; d. 1st mo. 10, 1861 ; m. Dr. David Jones Davis. 3. William, b. 9th mo. 17, 1788; d. 1st rue. 27, 1860 ; m. Hannah Fisher. 4. Sibbilla, b. 2d mo. 19, 1790 ; d. 8th mo. 6, 1853 ; m. John W. Townsend. 5. Margaret, b. 4th mo. 9, 1792 ; d. 7th mo. 15, 1830 ; m. Jonathan Paxson. 6. Benjamin, b. 12th mo. 17, 1793 ; d. 1st mo. 15, 1872; m. Jane Paxson. 7. Sarah, b. 11th mo. 6, 1795 ; d. 12th mo. 4, 1873 ; m. Caleb Carmalt. 8. Eli K., b. 7th mo. 20, 1797 ; m. Anna Embree. 9. Isaac, b. 11th me. 30, 1799 ; d. 8th me. 25, 1825 ; m. Susanna Payne. 10. Philip, b. 7th me. 7, 1802 ;. d. 6th mo. 16, 1870 ; m. Matilda Greentree. 11. Rachel, b. 7th me. 19, 1808 ; d. 9th mo. 25, 1808.


The one blank in the record of' deaths another hand must fill. The survivor leaves it for the posterity of his sisters and brothers to continue the family narratives, as they may be influenced by the sense of duty. He has had great satisfaction in tracing their ancestry from their landing on our Atlantic shore. In this sketch, and in the centennial meeting of the family, he has given the starting-points for others. His best wish is that they may have as much pleasure in their work as he has had, and as good lives to commemorate. His very earnest purpose and prayer have been that the examples of Philip and Rachel Price shall be kept before their descendants as long as they may continue on this earth. (See " Memoir of Philip and Rachel Price, and the Family Centennial Meeting in 1864," privately printed, distributed, and for distribution among the descendants.)


I now approach a great and painful crisis in the Society of Friends in America, and that made a crisis in the lives of those prominent in the concerns of the society. It was the separation, that commenced in overt acts in 1827. The fact was cause of great sorrow to the well-wishers of the stability of order and the best good of general society. Friends had been a ballast in the social order. The influence of Friends in the whole community was impaired. They lost prestige and power ; they appeared not quite so near perfection as was supposed ; they were seen to be yet human. Partisan feeling became strong. Their strength had been in unity : it was wasted now in contest. The contestants receded towards opposing ends of an ancient and expanded platform that embraced. an orthodox faith, as it is in the text of the New Testament, and an unprecedented spirituality of interpretation, worship, and divine guidance. 1 would name no names for censure or praise; I have no privilege to be censor of the eminently good. Deep sorrow for the fact of separation was now my abiding emotion. I was closely observant of the history as it transpired; I read it in periodical publications; I have it in many volumes, but have no wish even to open one of them again. The testimony of witnesses professionally examined by me swelled to volumes. It was round me everywhere and always for years, but my feelings were not in it. To me it seemed the rending of the fairest temple in history, the loss of reverence for sacred things and persons, yet both parties thought they were striving for sacred doctrines and religious rights.


The controversy was doctrinal, yet there was mixed in it a jealousy of the select bodies, whose members, by weight of influence, had long shaped the proceedings of the meetings to which all members of the society were freely admitted. The select meetings that sat with closed doors were the Meeting for Sufferings, that represented the Yearly Meeting for all matters that affected the welfare of the


BIOGRAPHICAL AND GENEALOGICAL - 695


society for more than fifty-one weeks in the year, and the Meetings of Ministers and Elders, that met in connection with the Monthly, Quarterly, and Yearly Meetings. Of both Philip and Rachel Price had long been members.


There had been unquestionably much preaching and writing among members of the society that leaned towards Unitarianism, and that tended to impair its ancient faith in the full divinity of our Saviour ; and the Orthodox, in opposing innovations, seemed to recede too exclusively to a dependence upon the outward history, the letter of the Scriptures, and the vicarious office of Christ in the work of human salvation. They were accused of irregularity of proceeding, and the opposition was the more effective as the Orthodox were backed by English ministers, who little regarded the American feeling of independence that was naturally offended by their foreign interference.


To understand the earnest leaders of each party we must place ourselves in their respective positions, and, doing so, we cannot fail to become more charitable in our judgment. On the one hand, the Orthodox believed that their faith in the divinity of our Saviour was assailed ; believed that their Saviour, who died on the cross that mankind might he saved, was shorn of his godhead,—a faith dearer to them than life. On the other hand, the unorthodox apprehended that the great distinguishing doctrine of the inward work of Christ in the souls of men was to be largely replaced by a relapse towards the orthodoxy of the churches out of which their forefathers had come under great persecution and suffering.


No discipline of the Yearly Meeting had provided for the emergency of such a separation. The Orthodox proceeded to disown those they considered separatists, by individual visitation, as offenders,—offenders who thought their visitors the real offenders. That proceeding caused much irritation. Such dealing was with little expectation of reclamation, and the visited felt that the form might have been dispensed with by a few lines of discipline ordained by the Orthodox Yearly Meeting. In this work of disownment the kindly nature of Philip Price was severely tasked ; but it is believed that he never lost a friend by the performance of apprehended duty. Rachel Price took no part in the controversy; for years her ministry was much closed. She dwelt, under great sorrow, in a Christian quietude and retirement, —a result prompted alike by gospel conviction and maternal feeling. Her children, who had remained Friends, took either side about equally. She perceived no change of faith in them nor in their Christian life, nor did they themselves, or others, perceive them changed in doctrine. The love of the parents for children, and of the children for parents, was preserved during the lives of all ; and the survivor of them all, who here testifies to the fact, further avers that the memory of our parents has always been held sacred and in tender regard by all their descendants.


It is needed to explain to others than Friends that they were constituted and held in unity as a religious society by other ties and for other purposes, as well as to uphold certain religious doctrines. True, they could not be true Friends without believing fully in the gospel as it is recorded in the New Testament, and that with greater earnestness and stricter practice than usually pervaded Christianity since apostolic days. They had many reforms to make in the world, purposes to be more Christ-like, to love their fellow-beings more, and to enter into a closer religious unity. Love was the badge of the discipleship of Christ, and it was meant should be theirs. They eschewed all heathen names, banished all worldly compliments, and reverted to an apostolic simplicity of dress, address, and sincerity of manners. They swore not at all, for so bidden by Christ ; they put the highest value on life, and suffered any consequence rather than take human life ; they bore an incessant testimony against intemperance, war, and all human wrong and oppression. Ten Friends, including William Dilwyn, born in New Jersey, with two others, formed a committee, who, drawing Clarkson and Wilberforce to their aid, by thirty years' persistent labor destroyed the African slave-trade by the English and other nations. In 1688 the few Friends from the Rhine who settled Germantown started the proposal that the keeping of slaves was unchristian. The superior meetings were not then prepared to act. The small leaven worked on until about half a century produced Benjamin Lay, John Woolman, and Anthony Benezet ; and in less than another half-century slavery was abolished among Friends. Our State, in 1780, provided for emancipation, and the Northern States also then and afterwards had become leavened ; and the consummation was Lincoln's proclamation of emancipation of all slaves in 1862. And so from William Penn until this day all Friends have been the persistent advocates for justice to the Indians. In all these regards and other humanitarian purposes there has never been division of sentiments among them. What, then, should be the fervent prayer of all good men but that all claiming the name of Friends should be true standard-bearers of all the testimonies and doctrines of ancient Friends, and give their lives to the like domestic and social virtues and good works, private and public.


Whilst I would inculcate toleration, charity, and kindness, I would not wish to be understood as desiring to palliate errors and the loss of influence for good, still less to countenance any relapse from an earnest and true Christian faith. All Friends are to be allowed abstinence from all outward forms and ritualistic ceremonies without imputation of defective Christian faith, for this proceeds consistently from their fuller spiritual apprehension of the Christian faith, and this most distinguished them from their beginning. Their creed has always been the New Testament itself, read under the light of the Holy Spirit, given to all men for their guidance. They accept the words of the Scripture as the best outward means of transmitting thought, but have also with them the Spirit that gave forth the Scriptures, which is the witness within themselves to enable them to understand the Scriptures and to become real professors of the Christian faith ; and rightly followed they will abide by the Scriptures as the best outward evidence of truth, and will preserve from going astray by speculation, and in moral conduct. (See Barclay's Apology, Exposition III.) They adhere to the Scripture language more closely than the orthodox churches. They use not the terms " trinity," nor the three "persons" in




696 - HISTORY OF CHESTER COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.


the trinity, for they find them not in the New Testament ; yet as fully as those churches believe in the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost do they believe in them, but will not fetter the teachings of the Holy Spirit more than is done by the outward words necessarily used to transmit the history and faith of Christianity.


If permitted to one not a member, but all his long life very familiar with the lives, conversation, preaching, and writings of Friends, he would give his own intellectual apprehension of this fundamental part of their faith. " God is a Spirit ;" in Christ " dwelleth all the fullness of the godhead bodily ;" " the Holy Ghost ;" all these words express God, who is a Spirit; one God, one Holy Spirit, eternal ; yet manifested differently unto men, yet never less than God, who is a Spirit. The " word" " was in the beginning with God ;" " the word was God ;" " the word was made flesh and dwelt among us." " This is the true God and eternal life." Jesus said, " I and my Father are one." Thus one was the Father, the Son, and Holy Spirit. This "God is love," who sent his only-begotten Son into the world that we might live through him. " God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us ;" and Jesus said, " the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach all things." " Which is Christ within you, the hope of glory." " And we are in him that is true, even his Son Jesus Christ." Now I have apprehended that Friends have always held to the high standard of such Scripture, and that when men have fallen from such Scripture they have devised a creed or philosophy in their own wisdom. If we believe that nature had a cause, and that such cause transcended all matter, we may well believe that that cause was mental, spiritual, and able and willing to condescend to visit in love his creatures in the ways he thought best, and that there is therein no more puzzle or mystery involved than that God is, and could create man and endow him with mind, thoughts, and affections, in their best estate, kindred to his own, for he is Almighty. Yet truly all is wonderful, and the manner thereof above our comprehension. True Friends were never Socinians. For these views no one but the writer is responsible. All they are worth is the truth that may be found in them.


Philip and Rachel Price were by nature constitutionally cheerful and of vigorous health. In religion they were profound in sympathy with the sufferings and contumelies endured by our Saviour, and ever had deepest sorrow for the errors and sins of their fellow-beings. Their exercises in worship were very solemn, and the plaintive and persuasive tones of our mother in her ministry showed how deeply she was moved ; how charitable towards human infirmity ; how she yearned to gather her hearers under the wing of a divine protection. Yet in the consciousness of duty performed they had precious consolations. In the visitations of the Comforter had comfort beyond the power of human expression. And most pleasant and refining was it to them to cherish the religious fellowship of the good, and to renew the sweet memories of the righteous laborers and the saintly martyrs who had gone before them to blessed rewards.


The space allotted permits no further expansion of this summary sketch. Other volumes privately printed for the descendants of Philip and Rachel Price have fulfilled that duty. Chester County has a precious history in the lives of a host of Friends who have lived and died within her boundaries ; many, very many, without a record to preserve their memory ; yet it is to be hoped that the names of many will be found in " The History of Chester County," and a clear gain it will be to humanity and religion.


Philip Price died 2d month 26, 1837 ; Rachel Price, 8th month 6, 1847 ; both in their residence on Union Street, West Chester, and their remains were placed next each other in the old burial ground at Birmingham, the place marked by a cedar planted by their son and headstones now permitted to appear a little above the surface.


There, in sacred seclusion, rest their remains ; there, where the war once raged, the cannon roared, and the mingled blood of foes stained the soil ; there where, since the conflict, the spirit of peace has dwelt for more than a century ; there the solitary bird now broods undisturbed in branches that shade their graves ; there sits the plaintive dove, emblem of innocence and of their lives ; symbol of the Holy Spirit, type of the Church of Christ, and of the soul's resurrection.


ELI K. PRICE.*—Every branch of the ancestry of Eli K. Price is traced through the blood of Friends to the settlers of Pennsylvania who came over with William Penn, chiefly from Wales and England, but partly from Ulster, in Ireland, and the Palatinate of the Rhine, whence came the first settlers of Germantown. He is the son of Philip and Rachel Price, of Chester County, and was born at a spot within view of Brandywine battle-ground, on the 20th day of July, 1797. His early education was obtained at Friends' Westtown School, in that county. His business training was in the shipping-house of Thomas P. Cope, and as a student of law with John Sergeant, Esq., he laid the foundation for a course of study which he has continuously pursued. since his admission to the Philadelphia bar, on the 28th day of May, 1822. While in the countinghouse he thoroughly familiarized himself with shipping and commercial law, and afterwards grappled with the harder law of real estate. It was in the latter that the public have most made their demands on his services. He has served the people of Philadelphia in the State revenue boards of 1845 and 1848; in the State Senate, 1854, '55, '56 ; and for the past fourteen years as commissioner of Fairmount Park.


About 1844, the year of our " Native American" riots, disastrous in fires and bloodshed, it became obvious to many independent and public-spirited citizens that radical remedies were needed for the agglomeration of our municipal corporations, seldom in accord and frequently hostile. Philadelphia was not then a name that represented the strength and power of a great metropolis, neither for her own progress nor in her comparison with sister-cities. Composed of narrow sectional divisions, which acted not in their united strength, but with their power neutralized by want of concert and jealous hostilities, with contiguous boundary lines, criminals escaped pursuit, and volunteer



* Prepared by Wm. E. DuBois, assisted by J. S. Price as to legal matters.


BIOGRAPHICAL AND GENEALOGICAL - 697


fire companies fought the battles of their sectional hostilities in our streets with deadly missiles and firearms, and conflagrations were even lighted for the entertainment of firemen visitors. We could consummate no great internal improvements, could make no great water-works, nor create a Fairmount Park, owing to the jealous fear of some part acquiring local advantages over others. No political party dared to assume the responsibility of coping with a task so formidable as to combine the heterogeneous elements, and to impress the strength of all into harmonious action demanded for the general good. To meet these great wants Mr. Price was sent to the Senate for three years, and Matthias W. Baldwin and William C. Patterson to the House of Representatives for one year, to provide an adequate remedy, and the three were elected over the regular candidates of both political parties.


The result was the new charter for the city of Feb. 2, 1854, called the " Consolidation Act," which united about a dozen corporations, including the county of Philadelphia, of 122 square miles ; and the further consequences have been that a population of nearly a million people has since acted in the strength of its unanimity ; has advanced largely, even through a period of great manufacturing and commercial prostration, its trade, transporting power, and financial stability ; has approximated towards a great system of water supply ; a police force was maintained here in July, 1877, that prevented a worse destruction than that of the Pittsburgh riots, with a Park unsurpassed in area and beauty, wherein the Centennial International Exhibition was held. The history of the consolidation was written and published by Mr. Price in 1873, containing 137 pages, dedicated to our venerated citizen, Horace Binney, whose father, Dr. Barnabas Binney, like Franklin, came to us from Massachusetts. The valued conservatism of Mr. Binney, after long experience and much reflection, yielded to the judgment of the necessity of the great municipal change.


More than a year before Mr. Price went to the Senate he had, at the request of Governor Bigler, prepared a bill for an act entitled " An act relating to the sale and conveyance of real estate," with the following preamble, " Whereas, The general welfare requires that real estate should be freely alienable, and be made productive to the owners thereof," and " Whereas, In matters which the judiciary is competent to hear and decide it is expedient that the courts should adjudicate them after a full hearing of all parties, rather than that they should be determined by special legislative acts upon an ex-parte hearing." The evils had been that real estate was extensively bound by trusts that made vacant ground and dilapidated buildings inalienable in title, which kept it out of the market and unproductive and unimprovable by the owners or purchasers, without a special act of Assembly, and in some instances such act would not avail. The courts for remedy were enabled to make decrees to sell, lease, mortgage, and convey on ground-rent, or to enable the trustees to build, and the reservation of rents and the purchase moneys were substituted, with security, for the land sold on the limitations of the original trusts. Thus the present generation got a better living without loss to the succeeding owners of the trust property ; the dilapida-


- 88 -


tions, like those that tell of long chancery suits in England, have disappeared ; our city has been improved and beautified and business accommodated ; the public revenue by taxes is increased, and unfettered titles are carried into the world's commerce for the most profitable uses ; purchasers holding titles already adjudicated are purged of legal questions. The act has been in force since April 18, 1853, and is popularly called the " Price Act." Its beneficence has been often judicially acknowledged.


In 1874, Mr Price published a treatise on " The Act for the sale of Real Estate," containing 193 pages, as a " reading" thereon, embracing the reasons for and the decisions upon the act.


In the session of 1855 " an act was prepared by him relating to corporations, and to estates held for corporate, religious, and charitable uses," which became a law on the 25th of April. Its enactments indicate the evils to be remedied. The holding of subordinate offices by corpora-tors is declared incompatible, and to be surety for such is forbidden, or to be interested in the corporate contracts, and to receive gratuities is declared illegal, and is met with penalties. Shares in corporations are declared personalty, the annual income and estates held limited ; the manner of holding property for religious purposes is regulated ; dispositions of property for charitable and religious uses are not to be lost by the death, etc., of the trustee, but a trustee is to be supplied and to exercise the discretion given, and if the object ceases, a kindred one is to be selected ; and dispositions to charity and religion are required to be made a calendar month before death.—P. L. 328.


On the 28th of April, 1855, an act prepared by Mr. Price was passed entitled " An act to amend certain defects of the law for the more just and safe transmission and more secure enjoyment of real and personal estate." Estates in fee tail are to be taken in fee ; intestate estates are to reach grandchildren of brothers and sisters, and children of uncles and aunts, and by representation of their parents ; partitions may be made by three or more commissioners ; in litigations as to realty, title out of the commonwealth is to be presumed after thirty years' possession ; after title had been held for twenty-one years by a purchaser from a corporation who had held it defensible by the commonwealth the latter is barred ; ground-rents, annuities, or other charges upon real estate unclaimed for twenty-one years are barred ; lessees are enabled to mortgage their leasehold.—P. L. 368.


On the 10th of May, 1855, an act prepared by Mr. Price was passed " relating to certain duties and rights of husband and wife, and parents and children." This act sprung from feelings often awakened in professional practice by observing how deplorably helpless is the condition of virtuous wives with spendthrift husbands, who, while possessed of the desire and ability to provide respectably for themselves and children, were unable to do so. Though a dronish and drinking husband might or might not personally meddle and thwart her efforts, the store goods in her shop and furniture might always be seized for his debts and his family cast out, though that debt were incurred for the drink that crazed and unmanned him. The act enabled, the wife to become a femme sole trader ; to own her own earnings and dispose of her property while living, and when„


698 - HISTORY OF CHESTER COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.


dying, without his interference, and if she die intestate, it enabled her next of kin to take it. If by drunkenness, profligacy, or other cause he shall neglect or refuse to provide for his child or children, the mother shall have all the rights of the father and perform his duties ; may place the children at employment and receive their earnings, or bind them to apprenticeship, without the interference of such a husband, in the same manner as the father can now do by law ; but if the mother be of unsuitable character, the court is to appoint a guardian of such children with like powers. A husband guilty of such conduct for a year preceding his wife's death forfeits all right to her estate, and also the right to appoint a testamentary guardian of his children. Persons are enabled by judicial decree to adopt children, and give them the rights of lawful children, binding themselves to the duties of parents.—P. L. 430. This law of humanity is probably an advance on the statute-book of any civilized nation, and was necessary, as these protections were not covered by our act of 1848, passed to secure to married women their own property. Mr. Price had passed in 1856 (P. L. 315) sections enabling a deserted or unsupported wife, or one divorced from bed and board, to protect her reputation by action of slander and libel, and to sue for her earnings and property, and to receipt for and give refunding bonds for legacies and shares of decedents' estates.


On the 22d of April, 1856, he prepared, and while in the Senate procured to be passed, " an act for the greater security of title and more secure enjoyment of real estate," which cut off all the exceptions to land limitations of twenty-one years after thirty years ; requiring all ejectments for land to be indexed, to give notice to purchasers and mortgagees also of liens acquired by levies on real estates ; all trusts to be manifested by writing, except they arise by implication ; specific performance, etc., is required to be demanded in five years ; wills probated to stand unless objected to within five years, surviving executors and administrators to exercise testamentary powers of sale ; subrogation to liens are regulated ; and in partition the highest bidder is to have choice of shares.—P. L. 532. He also drew the act of 1859, which requires action within a year after entry made on land to stop the running of the statute of limitations in favor of the possessor, and to bar the remainder after tenant in tail is barred.—P. L. 603.


In 1857 he published the " Law of Limitations and Liens against Real Estate," pp. 392. He was also the author of many acts of municipal legislation, passed with a view to the health, comfort, and security of the citizens of Philadelphia among others, that no street or alley is ever to be laid out of a less width than twenty-five feet. If any house now standing on a street narrower than that shall be taken down, the owner, in rebuilding, must set it back to that regulation. Every new house shall have a curtilage of at least 144 square feet of open space. There must be a parapet wall of brick or stone between the roofs of all houses, extending through the cornices, to prevent the spread of fire. A board of building inspectors was also created, to see that all buildings are safely erected, and in accordance with the strict requirements of law. A board of revision of taxes was established to compel equality of valuation for taxation, and to supervise all as sessments of property. A survey department, to lay out plans for streets, culverts, etc., was also created, to which was attached a registry bureau, in which must be registered every deed or conveyance of real estate before it can be recorded, with a plan of the premises conveyed, so that no property shall escape taxation. And if there be conflict of claim of title, it can be promptly known, as no careful conveyancer passes any title without a certificate of search. He also prepared most of the sections of the Park Act of 1868.


Mr. Price was an earnest advocate for the centennial international celebration from the first movement towards it. Before the United States Commissioners, the Board of Finance, and the representatives of the City Councils and the Park Commissioners, early in 1873, he found great despondency to prevail, and spoke earnestly and effectively to infuse hope and courage. At their request he went with their deputation to Harrisburg, and there addressed the members of both Houses of the Legislature ; and on his return he, with others, addressed a town-meeting in Independence Square. The needed legislation and appropriations were made by State and city.


In his eighty-fourth year, Mr. Price is yet giving opinions on titles, acting as a Fairmount Park Commissioner, trustee of the University of Pennsylvania, etc.


He has for many years been an active member of the American Philosophical Society, and is now one of its vice-presidents. Its published proceedings bear abundant record of his labors in behalf of science, and in " the promotion of useful knowledge." Among his works in this field are the following treatises :


1. " The Trial by Jury," written in 1863.


2. " The Family as an Element of Government," in 1864. These two discourses were published as pamphlets in the same year. In concluding the latter he tersely apologizes for bringing it before the Philosophical Society by saying, " Truly there is a philosophy that transcends and comprehends all other philosophies, the philosophy that teaches man how to live and how to die."


3, 4. " Some Phases of Modern Philosophy," written in 1872. Two discourses. The scope and aim of which may be imagined from one initial sentence, " I am a brother to dragons and a companion to owls. So Job was constrained to say in the hour of his great afflictions ; so others now say, induced only by speculative philosophy." The philosophy of Darwin and Huxley is therein thoroughly examined and refuted.


5. " The Glacial Epochs," 1876.


6. " Sylviculture," 1877.


But to many minds nothing which he has written can surpass in interest two volumes which were printed for private circulation. One was a memoir of a rare and excellent couple, his own father and mother, Philip and Rachel Price, of Chester County ; the other gave the life and death of a daughter, not less attractive in character. The latter, especially, contains some thrilling experiences. Both are written with a singular judgment and delicacy, warmed, but not colored, by an intense and well-deserved affection. In fitness of expression they are models of composition.


It is much to be desired that these family memorials were


BIOGRAPHICAL AND GENEALOGICAL - 699


more abundant. Written by intelligent minds and practiced hands, with enough of incident to relieve from dullness, they would form a legacy to coming generations more and more valued as time passed along, far more interesting and durable than the short record of a tombstone.


BENJAMIN PRICE, son of Philip and Rachel Price, was born in East Bradford, 12th mo. 17, 1793. His school education was received at Birmingham, under John Forsythe and Ennion Cook, and at Westtown School, completing his course at the academy of Enoch Lewis, in New Garden. His tastes led him to adopt farming as his occupation, and in this he became prominent for his progressive spirit. He was among the first to practice underdraining extensively ; also to plant the Virginia thorn for hedges, and to use the mowing-machine, which he did as early as 1820.


In 1817 he was married to Jane, daughter of Jacob Paxson, of Abington, Montgomery Co. They settled upon the farm lying west of that upon which his father lived, and which is now (1881) held by the children of Mary Mitchell, née Elwyn. In 1841 they disposed of the southern part of the farm to their eldest son, Paxson, and erecting. buildings upon the northern part, opened " Prospect Hill Boarding-School for Boys." This continued in operation until the spring of 1847. In 1852 they sold the residue of the farm to their son Jacob, and two years afterwards removed to the home of their son Paxson, near Parkerville. In 1865 they came to live with their son Jacob, in West Chester, where they remained till the close of life. The death of Benjamin occurred on the 15th of 1st mo., 1871, and that of Jane on the 9th of 5th mo., 1876.


In reviewing the life-work of Benjamin Price, we are led to remark the faithfulness and conscientiousness with which he discharged every duty that came to him. As a husband, he was unremitting in devotion and kindness ; as a parent, indulgent, yet steady in discipline ; as a neighbor and citizen, kind and public-spirited ; as a farmer, skillful and progressive ; and as a member of the Society of Friends, zealous and exemplary. He held the position of elder for about fifty years, traveled extensively with ministers of the society, and for several years filled most satisfactorily the difficult and important position of clerk of the Yearly Meeting. During the latter part of his life he spoke frequently in the meetings for worship. Of the peace and anti-slavery movements he was an efficient friend. He was active in assisting fugitive slaves, and his house was for a long while an important post in the " Underground Railway."


Jane Price was most of her life an approved minister, and traveled extensively in that capacity. At the division of the society, in 1827, they remained with that portion of the society denominated " Hicksite," a term which it is well known the society never acknowledged. They had five children to grow to adult life, viz. : Paxson, married to Jane J., daughter of Halliday Jackson ; they now reside at Cheyney, Delaware Co., Pa. Mary S., married to Josiah Wilson, of Hockessin, Del. ; they now live at Kirkwood, Mo. Isaiah, married to Lydia, daughter of Jacob Heald, of Hockessin, Del. ; lie is a graduate of the Philadelphia College of Dental Surgery, and is practicing his profession at No. 1112 Arch Street, Philadelphia. In the suppression of the Rebellion he took an active part, of which mention has already been made (p. 138).


The third son, Philip, spent eight years of his early adult life in California. lie was one of the first to enlist in the war, and served through all the hard work that fell upon the Pennsylvania Reserves. He left the service with impaired health upon the discharge of his regiment. He entered a private and passed the various promotions to the first lieutenancy. He married Ellen M., daughter of Charles Satterthwait, of Crosswicks, N. J. They now live at El Moro, Colorado.


Jacob (the youngest child of Benjamin and Jane Price that lived to adult life) engaged in the study of medicine, graduating at the Jefferson Medical College, class of 1850. He located for the practice of his profession in West Chester in the fall of the same year, and the following year was married to Rachel L., daughter of Philip D. Thomas, then of Philadelphia. They have lived continuously in West Chester, and the doctor is still actively devoted to his professional work.




PUGH, JOHN, with Jane, his wife, supposed from Wales, were among the early residents of East Nottingham ; where John died, 4, 24, 1760. Their children, so far as known, were,-1. Mary, m. 10, 11, 1733, to John Barrett. 2. William, m. 2, 8, 1742, to Mary Brown, daughter of Messer and Jane Brown, of East Nottingham ; second marriage, 3, 13, 1755, to Sarah Chandler, daughter of Jacob ; she died 7, 27, 1756: third wife, Patience Casner. 3. John, m. 8, 7, 1742, Sarah Littler, daughter of Samuel and Rachel, b. 6, 24, 1721 ; d. 6, 2, 1743, leaving one child. John died 7, 28, 1790, aged over seventy-two years. He married second, 6, 1, 1769, Hannah Bennett, who died

1, 26, 1818. 4. Sarah, m. 9, 10, 1743, to William White. 5. Jane, m. 9, 21, 1751, to John Brown.


William (2) was residing in Londongrove in 1771. His children were Jean, Dinah, John, Jesse, Mary, and William. John was born 6, 9, 1747, and married, 5, 9, 1771, Rachel Barrett, daughter of Thomas and Hannah, of East Nottingham. Issue.-12. Jesse, b. 3, 1, 1772, d. 10, 16, 1847 ; 13. Thomas, b. 11, 17, 1773 ; 14. William, b. 12, 4, 1775 ; 15. John, b. 10, 11, 1778 ; 16. Mary, b. 2, 16, 1781, m. Jacob Cope ; 17. Hannah, b. 2, 16, 1781, m. William Howell ; 18. Ellis, b. 2, 25, 1785 ; 19. David, b. 9, 8, 1788.


Jesse Pugh (12) married, 3, 19, 1795, Elizabeth Hudson, daughter of Joseph and Elizabeth, of East Nottingham. She died 7, 18, 1825. Their children were Rachel, Lewis, Amos, Rachel, Adrianna, Reece, Evan, Abner, Elizabeth, and Mary W. Pugh.


Lewis Pugh, eldest son, born 12, 4, 1796, died 7, 20, 1840, married, 9, 12, 1822, Mary Hutton, born 9, 8, 1797, daughter of Hiett Hutton and Sarah, his wife, daughter of Joshua and Hannah (Chandler) Pugh, and granddaughter of John (3) and Sarah Pugh. Their children were Rebecca, b. 6, 30, 1823, d. 7, 1, 1823 ; Susanna, b. 10, 11, 1824 ; Elizabeth, b. 4, 12, 1826, d. 7, 10, 1847 ; Evan, b. 2, 29, 1828, d. 4, 29, 1864 ; Enoch, b. 2, 2, 1830 ; John L., b. 3, 2, 1832, d. 11, 15, 1834.


EVAN PUGH, Ph.D., F.C.S., was born at Jordan Bank,