Bucks County PA Archives Biographies.....Canby, The Family
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Joe Patterson, Patricia Bastik & Susan Walters Dec 2009

Source: History of Bucks County, Pennsylvania; edited by 
J.H. Battle; A. Warner & Co.; 1887
Solebury Township


   THE CANBY FAMILY Perhaps no one person who came to our 
shores in the early settlement of this county has a history 
of more interest than Thomas Canby.  His father was Benjamin 
Canby, who resided in Thorne, Yorkshire, England.  Thomas 
was an orphan of 16 years of age when in 1683 he came with 
his uncle and guardian to Bucks county.  The family were 
Friends, and the youth, in connection with his guardian and 
Bucks quarterly meeting, settled a claim of five years' 
service due in payment of his passage over.  After the 
expiration of this service young Canby settled near 
Jenkintown, Montgomery county, and in 1693 married Sarah 
Jarvis, by whom he had nine children.  His wife died in 
1708, and about two years thereafter he married Mary, 
daughter of Evan Oliver, who came from Radnorshire, in 
Wales.  By her he had eight children.  She died in 1721.  He 
moved from Abington shortly after and purchased land below 
Centerville, in Bucks county.  He remained there some time, 
but finally disposed of it and purchased three hundred acres 
on the Street road, in Solebury township.  We find him again 
marrying his third wife, Jane Preston, a widow, and living 
at the mill on the Great spring above New Hope, on the 
Delaware.  It does not appear that he had any children by 
his third wife.  Some time afterward he removed to 
Wilmington, Delaware, where some of his children had 
located, but returned to Solebury, where he died in 1842, 
aged 75 years.  In the life of Thomas Canby there is much to 
admire.  Starting in the humble walks of life a poor and 
friendless orphan boy, we find him working his way by 
industry and perseverance into general confidence, while his 
sterling integrity of character, his usefulness as a 
citizen, and his many acts of Christian kindness and charity 
endeared him to the community at large.  In the home circle 
and the religious society, of which he as an active member, 
his influence for good was widely felt.  He and his 
descendants served Buckingham monthly meeting as clerks 
almost continuously after its establishment in 1720 for a 
period of over one hundred years, and in important 
appointments in church matters the name of Canby often 
appears.  The Canby name is not very common in our county at 
the present day.  This is partly owing to the fact that of 
Thomas Canby's seventeen children twelve were girls.  Most 
of them changed their names and were blessed with large 
families.  The children of Thomas Canby by his first wife 
were:  Benjamin, who died young; Sarah, married John Hill; 
Elizabeth, married a Lacey; Mary, married a Hampton; Phebe, 
married, first, Robert Smith, and second, Hugh Ely, of 
Buckingham; Esther, married John Stapler; Thomas, married 
Sarah Preston; Benjamin, the second of the name in the 
family, left eight children; Martha, married a Gillingham.   
Of the children by his second wife, Jane, the eldest, 
married Thomas Paxson, who was a grandson of James, through 
William.  The late Thomas Paxson was a grandson through 
Jacob.  Rebecca, another child of Thomas Canby, married a 
Wilson; Hannah died young; Joseph left no children; Rachel 
died single; Oliver married Elizabeth Shipley; Ann did not 
marry; and Lydia married John Johnson.  Many of the above 
contracting parties settled outside of Bucks county, and 
their descendants under the various names have a large 
following in the states of New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, 
Ohio and the far west.  Bucks county retained her full 
quota, however, and travelers in central and lower Bucks 
will meet them on every hand; and to have come from "the 
good old Canby stock" is a household word.