THE HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA, CHAPTER XI, MIDDLETOWN, 1692. from the discovery of the Delaware to the present time by W. W. H. Davis, A.M., 1876 and 1905* editions.. Contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by Donna Bluemink. dbluemink@cox.net USGENWEB NOTICE: Printing this file by non-commercial individuals and libraries is encouraged, as long as all notices and submitter information is included. Any other use, including copying files to other sites requires permission from the submitters PRIOR to uploading to any other sites. We encourage links to the state and county table of contents. ___________________________________________________________________________________ Transcriber's note: Liberty has been taken with numbering footnotes so as to include all footnotes from both the 1876 and 1905 editions, plus any additional text and pictures in the 1905 edition. All 1905 material will be noted with an asterisk. Note: Where names differ, the 1905 edition spelling is applied. ___________________________________________________________________________________ CHAPTER XI MIDDLETOWN 1692 Original name. -Nicholas Walne. -Richard Amor. -John Cutler. Thomas Stackhouse*. -John Eastburn. -Thomas Janney. -Simon Gillam. -Great mixing of blood. - William Huddleston. -Abraham and Christopher Vanhorne. -John Richardson. - The Jenks family. -Middletown meeting. -Story of Lady Jenks. -Jeremiah Langhorne. -The Mitchells*. -Charles Plumley*. -Langhorne. -Four Lanes Ends. -Joshua Richardson. -High-school built. -The Hulme family. -The Cawleys*. - Dr. White*. Hulmeville. Memorial tree*. John Hulme. -Josiah Quincy. Extract from daughter's memoirs*. -Mill built. -Industrial establishments. -Oxford Valley. -Origin of name Eden. -Early mills. -Trolley roads. Peter Peterson Vanhorne. -Taxables. -Population. -Death of Robert Skirm and wife. -Farley. - The inhabitants farmers. -Galloway's and Baldwin's fords*. -Dr. Longshore*. Middletown is the last of the original townships. In the report of the jury that erected it, it is designated, "the middle township" of the group, but was frequently called "Middle Lots," down to 1703, and "middle township" as late as 1724. Gradually it came to be called by the name it bears. A few of the original settlers (1) came in the Welcome, with William Penn, while others preceded or followed him. By 1684 the land was generally taken up, a good deal of it in large tracts, and some by non-residents. Some of these settlers purchased land of the Proprietary before he left England. Nicholas Walne, of Yorkshire, came in the Welcome, and took up a large tract between Attleborough [Langhorne*] and the Neshaminy. He was a distinguished minister among Friends, and held a leading part in the politics of the county, which he represented several years in the Assembly. [His son*] died in 1744. Nicholas Walne, his descendant, probably his grandson, was born at Fair Hill, Philadelphia, in 1742; studied law at the Temple, London, returned and practiced seven years in this county and elsewhere. Janney says that after he had been engaged in a real estate case at Newtown, Mr. Walne was asked, by a Friend, on his return to the city, how it was decided. He replied, "I did the best I could for my client; gained the case for him, and thereby defrauded an honest man of his dues." He then relinquished the law, on the ground that its practice is inconsistent with the principles of Christianity, settled up his business, and returned the fees of unfinished cases. He now became a devout attendant on religious meeting, and afterward a minister among Friends. (1) Land-owners in Middletown in 1684: Walter Bridgeman, Thomas Constable, Widow Croasdale, Robert Holdgate, Alexander Biles, Widow Bond, Robert Heaton, Thomas Stackhouse, Jr., Thomas Stackhouse, James Dilworth, Widow Hurst, Richard Thatcher, John Scarborow (Scarborough), Nicholas Walne, Jonathan Towne, Joshua Boar, Thomas Marle, William Paxson, James Paxson, Jonathan Fleckne, William Brian, Robert Carter, Francis Dove, Henry Paxson, William Wiggin and Edward Samway. Richard Amor (2), from Berkshire, located 250 acres on the Neshaminy, below Hulmeville, but died a few months after his arrival. He brought with him a servant, Stephen Sands, who [married Jane Cowgill, 1685, and left children*]. Henry Paxson, from Bycothouse, Oxfordshire, who located 500 acres on the Neshaminy, above Hulmeville, lost his wife, two sons, and a brother at sea, by disease, and married the widow of William [Charles*] Plumley, of Northampton, in 1684. He was a man of influence, and a member of Assembly. James Dilworth, of Thornley, in Lancashire, arrived with his son William and a servant, in October 1682, and settled on 1,000 acres on the Neshaminy, below Attleborough, the present Langhorne. Richard Davis came from Wales in November 1683 with his son David, who married Margaret Evans in March 1686 and died fifteen days afterward. Richard is supposed to have been the first surgeon in the county (3). The land taken up by John Scarborough in Middletown came to the possession of his son John, by his father returning to England to fetch his family, but failed to come back (4). Thomas Stackhouse and his son Thomas were the proprietors of a large tract in the lower part of the township. Richard Thatcher took up 1,000 acres, and Ralph Ward and Philip [Ralph*] Alford 125 [1,025*]acres each. Robert Hall, whose name is not on Holme's map, but was one of the earliest settlers, owned a tract that joined Bristol township. Robert Heaton, one of the earliest settlers, and a landowner on Holme's map, built the first mill in the township. Its exact situation is not known, but it probably stood on the Neshaminy about where Comfort's mill is. He died in 1716 (5). William Paxson's tract extended from near Attleborough [Langhorne*] back to Oxford. He was a member of Assembly in 1701. Among others who were original settlers and land owners were George and John White, Francis Andrews, and Alexander Giles. Thomas Constable owned a considerable tract in the upper part of the township, bordering on Newtown. John Atkinson arrived [embarked*] in 1699, with a certificate from Lancaster monthly meeting, [but died at sea; also his wife, Susannah, leaving children, William, Mary and John*]. Thomas Atkinson was an early settler, but probably not until after Holme's map was made. [Before 1700, Thomas Musgrove owned 500 acres in the township, patented to Hannah Price, and after came into possession of Thomas Jenks.*] (2) His name is not on the Holme's map. (3) There was a "barber," as surgeons were then called, on the Delaware as early as 1638, but it is not known that he lived in the county, or that his practice even extended it. (4) A further account of John Scarborough will be found in a previous chapter. (5) He had 1,088 [188 *] acres surveyed to him in Middletown. [The Cutlers were early settlers in Bucks county, John and Edmund, from Yorkshire, England, landing at Philadelphia from the Rebecka. James Skinner, master, 8th month, 31st, 1685. John, who probably arrived single, 1703, married Margery, daughter of Cuthbert Hayhurst. Northampton, and had children, Elizabeth, Mary and Benjamin. The two brothers brought with them indentured servants, Cornelius Nettlewood, Richard Mather, Ellen Wingreen, William Wardle, James Moliner, son of James Moliner, late of Liverpool. John Cutler settled in Middletown; was county - surveyor in 1702-3; and made the resurvey of the county; laid out Bristol borough in 1713; was coroner in 1719, and died in 1720.Edmund Cutler, brother of John, was married before leaving England from the date of his children's birth, who were Elizabeth, born 14th, 7th month, 1680; Thomas, 16th, 9th month, 1681, and William, born 16th, 10th month, 1682. Edmund's Cutler's wife, whose name is given both as Jane and Isabel, died 4th month, 1715. Edmund Cutler probably settled in Southampton, and his son John was a school teacher in Middletown, 1705, and coroner of the county, 1718-19. Lawrence Cutler, a descendant of one of the brothers, married Naomi Brown, Penn's Manor, and another a Stackhouse. Both brother were surveyors, and John is understood to have been in Penn's employ before leaving England. Edmund was a farmer. *] Among the earliest settlers who came with children were: Nicholas and Jane Walne, three, Thomas and Agnes Croasdale, six, Robert and Elizabeth Hall, two, James and Ann Dilworth, one, William and Mary Paxson, one, James and Jane Paxson, two; James and Mary Radcliff, four, Jonathan and Anne Scaife, two, Robert and Alice Heaton, five, Martin and Anne Wildman, with six children. John Eastburn came from the parish of Bingley, county of York, with a certificate from Bradley meeting, dated July 31st, 1684. Johannes Searl was in Middletown prior to 1725, from whose house a road leading to Bristol was laid out that year. Before 1700 Thoms Musgrove owned 500 acres in the township, patented to Hannah Price, and afterward came into the possession of Thomas Jenks. We are enabled to trace the descent of several of the present families of long-standing, in Middletown, with greater minuteness than the foregoing. The Buntings were among the earliest settlers. In 1689 Job married Rachel Baker, and starting from this couple the descent is traced, in the male line, through Samuel, born 1692, married Priscilla Burgess, in 1716; Samuel, second, born 1718, married in 1740; William born 1745, married Margery Woolston in 1771; William, married Mary W. Blakey in 1824, parents of Blakey Bunting. Jonathan Bunting, from a collateral branch, is the sixth in descent from the first Job Bunting. In the maternal line they descend from John Sotcher and Mary Lofty, the maternal ancestor of the Taylors and Blakeys. Thomas Yardley, who married Susan Brown in 1785, had the Sotcher and Lofty blood from both lines, through the Kirkbrides and the Stacys in the paternal, and the Clarks, the Worrells and the Browns in the maternal. [One branch of *] the Croasdales are descended from Ezra and Ann [Peacock*], who married in 1687, through Jeremiah, Robert, and Robert second, on the paternal side, and on the maternal from William, son of James and Jane Paxson; born 1633, came to America in 1682, and married Mary Packingham. Robert M. Croasdale, deceased in the female line, was descended through the Watsons, Richardsons, Prestons, etc. The maternal ancestors of Isaiah Watson trace their descent back to William and Margaret Cooper. Blakey, the family name of the maternal side, first appears in William Blakey, about 1703; and about the same period the Watsons come upon the stage in the person of Thomas Watson the progenitor of those who bear that name in Middletown. Thomas Janney is the sixth in descent from the first Thomas and his wife Margaret, who came from Cheshire, England, in 1683, through the families of Hough, Mitchell, Briggs, Penquite, Harding, Carr, Croasdale, and Buckman. Simon Gillam is the great-grandson of Lucas Gillam, (who was a grandson of Anna Paxson, and descended from James and Jane Paxson,) who married Ann Dungan in 1748. On the maternal side the male line runs back through five generations of Woolstons, to John, who married Hannah Cooper in 1681. Jonathan Woolston married Sarah Pearson, of Burlington, New Jersey, in 1712, and is thought to have been the first of the name who came to Middletown. Joshua Woolston, so well known in the lower and middle sections of the county, was the fifth in descent from John and Hannah. His mother, a Richardson, married Joshua Woolston, in 1786, who could trace his descent back to William and Mary Paxson, the common progenitors of many families in this county (6). (6) Among them are the families of Jenks, Croasdale, Palmer, Briggs, Knight, Wills, Stackhouse, and Carr, besides those already mentioned. Mahlon Stacy, the pioneer miller of West Jersey, was ancestor to the Bucks county families of Taylor, Yardley, Croasdale, Stapler, Eastburn, and Warner. In tracing the descent of families in the lower end of the county we find great commingling of blood. Several of them start from a common ancestor, on one side or the other, and sometimes both, and when one or two generations removed they commenced to intermarry and continued it. Thus we find John and Mary Sotcher, and William and Margaret Cooper, the common ancestors of the families of Bunting, Blakey, Taylor, Yardley, Croasdale, Knowles, Swain, Buzby, Watson, Knight, Wills, Dennis, Burton, Warner, Stapler, Gillam, Kirkbride, Palmer, Jenks, Woolston, Griscom, Satterthwaite, Gummere, Paxson, and Deacon. These families have extensively intermarried. Pierson Mitchell came of the blood of the Piersons, the Stackhouses, the Walnes and Hestons, and was the fifth in descent from Henry Mitchell. William Huddleston was an early settler where Attleborough [Langhorne*] stands, his land extending north of the village. He was a shoemaker by trade and lived in a log house back from the road, on the lot now owned by Absalom Mitchener. The house was on the side of a hill, near a spring. In moderate weather he worked with the south door open to give him light, as he had no glass in the windows, but bits of parchment instead. Doctor Huddleston, of Norristown, was his descendant, but the family has run out in this county (7). (7) Possibly he was the William Huddleston who married a daughter of William Cooper, of Buckingham, before 1709. Abraham and Christian Vanhorne, Hollanders, took up land on the south side of the Buck road, parts of it within the limits of Attleborough [Langhorne*], but the time is not known, who lived in a small log house in the middle of their tract. It is told of one of the brothers, that on one occasion, while he was gone to mill, his family went to bed leaving a candle burning upon the bureau, and that on his return he found his dwelling in flames, which was destroyed, and with difficulty he rescued his wife and children. Gilbert Hicks came from Long Island, bought forty acres of land at Four Lanes Ends and built the house, now owned by James Flowers, at the southeast corner of the cross-roads, in 1763. He was a "loyalist" in the Revolution, and fled to the British army (8). (8) A further account of Gilbert Hicks will be found elsewhere. Joseph Richardson, the great-grandfather of the late Joshua Richardson, settled at Attleborough [Langhorne*] as early as 1730, and about six years afterwards he bought the land of the Vanhornes. At his death he paid quit-rent to Penn's agent for over 1,200 acres in Middletown, and North and Southampton, one 200 of which remained in the family at the death of Joshua, the homestead tract at Attleborough [Langhorne*]. He married a daughter of William Paxson in 1732, and had six children; Joshua, born November 22, 1733; Mary, July 25, 1735; William, October 3, 1737; Rachel, May 29, 1739; Rebecca, March 27, 1742, and Ruth, October 31, 1748. (See illustration of the Jenks' Coat-of Arms.) The Jenkses are Welsh, and the genealogy of the family can be traced from the year 900 down to 1669, when it becomes somewhat obscure. The arms, which have long been in possession of the family at Wolverton, England, descendants of Sir George, to whom they were confirmed by Queen Elizabeth, in 1582, are supposed to have been granted soon after the time of William the Conqueror, for bravery on the field of battle (9). The first progenitor of the family in America was Thomas, son of Thomas Jenks, born in Wales in December or January, 1699. When [a child he came to Pennsylvania with his*] mother, Susan Jenks, who settled in Wrightstown, and married Benjamin Wiggins (10), of Buckingham, by whom she had a son, born in 1709. She died while he was young, and was buried at Wrightstown meeting. Thomas Jenks was brought up a farmer, joined the Friends in 1723, married Mercy Wildman, of Middletown, in 1731, and afterwards removed to that township, where he spent his life. He bought 600 acres southeast of Newtown, on which he erected his homestead, which he called Jenks' Hall, and built a fulling-mill on Core creek that runs through the premises, several years before 1742. He led an active business life, lived respected, and died May 4, 1797, at the good old age of ninety-seven. He was small in stature, but sprightly, temperate in his habits, and of great physical vigor. At the age of ninety he walked fifty miles in a week, and at ninety-two his eye-sight and hearing were both remarkably good. He had lived to see the wilderness and haunts of wild beasts become the seats of polished life. (9) The confirmation in the patent describes that as "Argent, three Boars Heades Coupee, and Cheefe indented sables, with this crest or cognizance, a Lione rampant, with a Boar's Heade in his [pawes*]," as copied from the records in the college of arms, London, in 1832. (10) The Wigginses came from New England. Thomas Jenks left three sons and three daughters: Mary, Elizabeth, Ann, John, Thomas and Joseph, who married into the families of Wier [Weir*], Richardson, Pierson, Twining, and Watson. His son Thomas, a man of ability and commanding person, became prominent. He had a taste for politics, was a member of the Constitutional Convention of 1790, and was afterwards elected to the Senate, of which he was a member at his death. The descendants of Thomas Jenks, the elder, are very numerous and found in various parts, in and out of the state, although a few of the name are now in Bucks county. We have not the space nor time to trace them, for their name is almost legion. Among the families of the present and past generations, with which they have allied themselves by marriage, in addition to those already mentioned, are Kennedy, of New York, Story, Carlisle, Fell, Dixson, Watson, Trimble, Murray, Snyder (governor of Pennsylvania), Gillingham, Hutchinson, Justice, Collins, of New York, Kirkbride, Stockton, of New Jersey, Canby, Brown, Elsegood, Davis, Yardley, Newbold, Morris, Earl, Handy, Robbins, Ramsey (former governor of Minnesota), Martin, Randolph, etc. Doctor Phineas Jenks, and Michael H. Jenks, of Newtown, deceased, were descendant of Thomas, the elder. The story of "Lady Jenks," as written in Watson's Annals, has been too closely associated with the family of that name in Middletown to be passed in silence. The allegation of Watson is, that when Thomas Penn came to this country he was accompanied by "a person of show and display called Lady Jenks," who passed her time in the then wilds of Bucks county, that her beauty and accomplishments gave her notoriety; that she rode with him at fox-hunting and at the famous "Indian walk" [of 1737*], and that it was well understood she was the mother of Thomas Jenks, of Middletown. Watson gives "old Samuel Preston" as authority for this story, but adds that it was afterwards confirmed by others. This piece of Watson's gossip and scandal must stand upon its own merits, if it stands at all. Let the voice of History be heard in the case. Susan Jenks, a widow, came to America with her young son, Thomas, (born in 1700,) married Benjamin Wiggins, of Buckingham, in 1708 or 1709, died a few years afterward, and was buried at Wrightstown. Thomas Penn was born in 1703 or 1704, about the time Susan Jenks came to this country, which would make him three or four years younger than his reputed son. As Penn did not come to America until 1732, several years after Susan Jenks was dead, he could not have brought her with him; and as he was not at the "Indian walk" in 1737, she could not have accompanied him, living or dead. These simple facts, which are susceptible of proof from family and church records, are sufficient to disprove the romantic story of Watson. A story so idle is not worthy of investigation. "Lady Jenks" may be set down as an historic myth, made out of the whole cloth. The only foundation for a story of this kind is the alleged liaison of William Penn, Jr., with a young lady of Bucks county, when here in 1703. Of this James Logan writes" "Tis a pity his wife came not with him, for her presence would have confined him within bounds he was not too regular in observing." [The Mitchells, early settlers of Middletown, were descendants of Henry Mitchell, Marsden Lane, Lancashire, England, carpenter by trade, who married Elizabeth Foulds, 3d month, 6th, 1675. Both were members of the Society of Friends and he was imprisoned for his religious conviction, 1685. On 12th month, 16th, 1699, Marsden monthly meeting gave a certificate to Henry Mitchell, wife and four children; they embarked in the Britannica for Pennsylvania, and arrived in the Delaware August 25, after a voyage of fourteen weeks. The vessel was overcrowded and there was great sickness on board, fifty-six dying at sea and twenty after landing, among them being Henry Mitchell and one son. The widow and three children settled near the head of tide water on Neshaminy, and Middletown has been considered the home of the family. Of the children, Richard built and run the first grist mill in Wrightstown, and became a prominent man; the daughter Margaret married Stephen Twining; Henry remained at the Middletown homestead, and married Sarah, a daughter of Richard Gove, London. Elizabeth Mitchell, widow of Henry, the immigrant, died in Middletown, where her death is recorded in the Meeting record. Pierson, son of John, married Rebecca Allen, daughter of John Allen, and also remained at the homestead. In 1804, Gove Mitchell, son of Pierson, bought a farm in Moorland, Montgomery county, at the intersection of the York road and county line, half a mile above Hatboro. He studied medicine and spent his life here practicing his profession. At his death the farm passed to his eldest son, George Justice Mitchell, and from him to his son J. Howard Mitchell, who lives there with his children and grand children. The late Pierson Mitchell, Middletown, was a descendant of Henry Mitchell.*] The Carters trace their descent to William Carter, who settled in Philadelphia, but located 600 acres in this county, east of the Neshaminy, near Hulmeville, on a deed given to him by Penn before he left England. Carter was an alderman of the city, and was elected mayor in 1711. On the expiration of his term of office he removed to his tract in Middletown, where he spent the remainder of his days. He has numerous descendants in this county, and in Byberry. The family is in possession of an old clock that has belonged to it since 1711 (11). (11) William Carter, Philadelphia, probably never lived in Bucks county, and does not appear to have left descendants. In his will he mentions his relatives, Robert Carter, Bucks county, deceased. A Carter died prior to 1688, leaving children, Edward, Joan, Margaret, John and Jane, all minors. -Gilbert Cope * (See illustration of Middletown meeting.) The Middletown meeting, next to Falls, is the oldest in the county. Meetings for worship were first held at the houses of Nicholas Walne, John Otter and Robert Hall, 1682. The first monthly meeting was held at Walne's December 1, 1684, and the next at Hall's, where Friends were to bring the dates of their births and marriages. They met sometimes at widow Hayhurst's, who lived across the Neshaminy in Northampton. Nicholas Walne and Thomas Atkinson were the first delegates from Middletown to the yearly meeting, September 2, 1684. It was called Neshaminy Meeting until 1706. The first meeting-house was built by Thomas Stackhouse in 1690, at a cost of £26. 19s. 5d., and £10 additional for a stable. One light of glass was put in each lower window in 1698, muslin or oiled paper being probably used in the others. Martin Wildman was appointed to clean the house and make fires at an annual salary of twenty shillings for the first year, and six shillings additional for the next. The first marriage recorded is that of Henry Paxson, whose wife died at sea, to Margery Plumley, March 8, 1684. [August 13, 1684*]. There were only forty-seven marriages [at Middletown*] from 1684 to 1700, less than three a year (12), evidence that the battle of life was too hard to allow much indulgence in matrimony. In the first fifty years there were 359 births in the bounds of the meeting, the earliest a son of James and Jane Paxson, born July 1683, and thirty deaths to 1731. The sixth person buried at Middletown was Susannah, daughter of John and Jane Naylor, who died September 27, 1699. The quarterly meetings at Falls and Middletown were the only ones in the county, and they were held alternately at each place until 1722, when a third was held at Wrightstown. The Friends at Middletown brought certificates from the monthly meetings of Settle, Coleshill, Bucks and Lancaster, Westminster, Brighouse, in York, etc. (12) Among the earliest marriages in Middletown were: Henry Baker to Mary Radcliff, 1st month, 7th, 1692; Edmund Bennett to Elizabeth Potts, 1st month, 8th, 1685; Walter Bridgman to Blanch Constable, 1st month, 5th, 1686; John Otter to Mary Blinston, 2d month, 7th, 1686; Abraham Wharley to Damarias Walley, 6th month, 8th, 1687; Thomas Stackhouse to Grace Heaton, 5th month, 5th, 1688; William Croasdale to Elizabeth Hayhurst, 6th month, 12th, 1689. Charles Plumley, Somersetshire, England, married Margery Page, 12, 11, 1665; settled in Middletown, 1682, with wife and sons, William, James, Charles, John and George; and purchased land on the Neshaminy. He died in 1683. His widow married Henry Paxson, 6 13, 1684. Of the sons, William born 10, 7, 1666, married Elizabeth Thompson, 1688; James, born 6, 22, 1668, married Mary Budd, settled in Southampton, and died 1702; Charles, born 12, 9, 1674, married Rose Budd, and died in Philadelphia, 1708; John, born 7, 8, 1677, married Mary Bainbridge, daughter of John and Sarah of N. J. 1708, settled in Middletown, and died 1732; George, born 4, 14, 1680, married Sarah -----, died at Philadelphia, 1754, and his widow, 1759, without issue. The later Plumleys were descended from Charles and John, sons of Rose (Budd) Plumley. Among the early settlers in Middletown were the Cawleys, who probably came sometime in the first quarter of the eighteenth century. The first of the name we have met with was Thomas Cawley, who was married at Christ church, Philadelphia, July 1, 1720, to Mary Moggrage. In 1721, Thomas Cawley was a witness to the will of Evan Thomas, Philadelphia county, yeoman. John Cawley, of Yate House Green, Middlewich, county Chester, England, was in Middletown, Bucks county, in March 1729, and on the 28th bought real estate in Great Egg Harbor, N. J. He was probably the same John Cawley who died in Middletown, 1761, at a very great age. He was twice married, first to Elinor Earle, Burlington, N. J., April 12, 1729, and the name of his second wife was Margaret, as we learn from a deed executed May 1, 1754, to which it was attached as a witness. In one place he is spoken of as a "tanner," in another "yeoman." He had a son John, in England, when he made his will, 1765, but was at home in Middletown, April 22, 1768, when he executed a power of attorney to Thomas Cawley. John Cawley, the elder, had also a daughter, Elizabeth Pratt, a grand-daughter, Sarah Cawley, and grandson, John Cawley, the younger, who lived and died in Northampton township, whose will was made August 23, 1768. His widow, Sarah Cawley, was married to Joshua Dungan, April 3, 1773, and another Sarah Cawley, probably his sister or daughter, married John Fenton, Northampton township, June 20, 1773, at the Southampton Baptist church. From the data at hand it is impossible to trace the descendants of father or son. A Thomas Cawley settled in Northampton county, and died there August 5, 1806. John R. Cawley, born 1811, lived at Allentown in recent years, and Dr. James I. Cawley is now living at Springtown, Bucks county. Alfred C. Willit, a descendant of John Cawley, the elder, lives at Holmesburg, Philadelphia county. Thomas Langhorne, a minister among Friends, came from Westmoreland, England, with a certificate from the Kendall monthly meeting, and settled in Middletown in 1684. He took up a large tract below Attleborough [Langhorne*] running to Neshaminy. He died in 1687. His son Jeremiah became Chief Justice of the Province, was a man of mark and note, and died October 11, 1742 (13). He was a large land-owner. His homestead tract, on the Durham road below Attleborough [Langhorne*], contained 800 acres and was known as Langhorne park. He owned 2,000 acres in Warwick and New Britain townships, purchased of the Free Society of Traders, 2,000 acres at Perkasie, and a large tract on the Monockasy, now in Lehigh, but then in Bucks county. In his will, dated May 16, 1742, he made liberal provision for his negroes, of whom he owned a number. Those twenty-four years of age were manumitted, and others were to be set free on arriving at that age. A few received especial marks of his favor. Joe, Cudjo, and London were to live at the park until his nephew, Thomas Biles, to whom it was left, came of age, with the use of the necessary stock, at a rent of £30 per annum, and they were to support all the women and children on the place. Joe and Cudjo were given life estates in certain lands in Warwick township after they left the park. Langhorne directed houses to be built for some of his negroes, with fifty acres and stock allotted to each, during their lives. He was careful to specify that the negroes should work for their support. (13) Jeremiah Langhorne was commissioned a justice of the peace, May 20, 1715, again September 17, 1717; was commissioner to erect a new jail and court house at Newtown, 1724; was speaker of the Colonial Council; succeeded Robert Asheton, third justice of the Supreme court, September 15, 1726; was appointed second justice, April 8, 1731, and chief justice, August 9, 1739, which he held to his death. The Langhorne mansion stood on the site of the dwelling of Charles Osborn, two miles above Holmeville. The old road from Philadelphia to Trenton, crossing the Neshaminy just above Hulmeville, made a sweep around by the Langhorne house, and thence on to Trenton. The part of the road from Neshaminy to Attleborough [Langhorne*] was probably vacated when the Durham road was opened down to Bristol. The Park embraced the farms of Charles Osmond, George Ambler, and Caleb N. Taylor, and probably others. The mansion was built with two wings. The furniture in the parlor in the west end, in the chamber overhead and in the closet adjoining was not to be removed, but to pass with the estate as an heirloom. [The Park was advertised in the Pennsylvania "Packet," Philadelphia, May 3, 1788, to be sold at private sale, and a full description of the property given. "It contains 929 acres of excellent land, arable and meadow, abounding with several streams of water, and remarkable fine springs. The mansion house, kitchen and out offices, suitable to accommodate a large and genteel family; the prospect delightful and capable of the first improvements; nineteen miles from the city of Philadelphia, and five from Newtown, the county seat." The buildings were sold with four hundred and fifty-two and one-half acres, to a committee of the Philadelphia meeting of Friends, Henry Drinker, Samuel Smith, and Thomas Fisher, for the purpose of establishing there a Friends' Boarding and Day School, but, not being pleased with the situation, the property at Westtown, Chester county, was selected for this purpose, 1794. The Langhorne property was subsequently sold by the meeting at public sale to Andrew Kennedy for a low price. The part unsold was the portion, forty-seven acres*], called "Guinea." About 150 acres in the southwest corner of the tract, were enclosed by a stone wall, but it has long been removed to build stone fences. On the top the stones were set on edge. "Fiddler Bill," the last of the Langhorne slaves, lived some time among the ruins of an old house on the premises, but was finally taken to the alms [poor*] house, where he died. The villages of Middletown are Langhorne, formerly Attleborough, Hulmeville, [Langhorne Manor*], Oxford Valley [and Eden*], all post villages. Langhorne, the oldest and largest, is situated at the intersection of the Durham, Philadelphia and Trenton roads, four miles southeast of Newtown, and seven from Bristol. The latter road branches just south of the village, one leading to Philadelphia via Feasterville, while the other crosses the Neshaminy at Oregon, and runs via the Trappe tavern to meet the Bustleton pike. A third important road, that from Yardleyville, falling into the Durham road at the upper end of the village, afforded the earliest outlet for the inhabitants of Lower Makefield to Philadelphia (14). Langhorne, built at the crossing and intersection of these roads, was an important point in the lower section of the county at an early day. It was called "Four Lanes Ends," for many years, [because four roads ended there.*] When the present name, Attleborough, was given to it is not known. In all old documents, where the name is met with, it is written "Attlebury," which we believe to be the correct spelling. The village is built upon a broad plateau, from which there is a fine view on all sides, and is approached on the north and south [on the east and south and west*] up a considerable rise (15), on the two other sides the ground falling off more gradually. It contains a number of handsome dwellings, two Friends' meeting-houses, a Methodist church, and a tavern. The books of the library, one of the earliest in the lower end of the county, were sold a few years ago because it failed to receive the proper public support. The Philadelphia and Bound Brook railroad runs at the foot of Langhorne's hill, less than a mile south [east*] of the village. At the foot of the hill to the north [west*] of the village is a public drinking-fountain dedicated to "Faith, Hope, and Charity." [Langhorne is connected by trolley with Newtown and Bristol, while the Pennsylvania Cut-Off road connects it with Trenton and Norristown.*] (14) Opened in 1721. (15) Three of these boroughs, Langhorne Manor, Langhorne and Eden are within less than two miles of each other.* [While the Hulme family, Middletown are of undoubted English ancestry, their descent from the Seignor de Hulme, who came over with William the Conqueror, and their birth place in England, are not so clear. The first of the family to settle in Bucks County was George Hulme and his son George Hulme, Jr., who took up 200 acres in this township and were members of Falls Meeting. George Hulme, Jr., was twice married, first to Naomi Palmer, 10, 2, 1708, and then to her sister Ruth Palmer, 10 mo., 1710, the first wife dying 1709. The Falls Meeting, objecting to the second marriage, it was referred to the Quarterly Meeting which reported against it, but they married in spite of this. George Hulme, the elder, died 1714, and George, Jr., 1729, whose will was executed June 9, and proved January 8, 1730. The children of George Hulme, Jr., by his second wife, were Eleanor, Naomi, John, who first married Mary Pearson, daughter of Enoch Pearson and Margaret Smith, and for second wife, Elizabeth Cutler, daughter of John Cutler, 1796; and Hannah, who married John Merrick. Ruth, widow of George Hulme, married William Shallcross, 1732, and was "dealt with for frivolous dress." The children of John and Mary Pearson Hulme were, Rachel, born 10, 15, 1745, John, Elizabeth, George and Hannah. John Hulme, Jr., married Rebecca Milnor, daughter of William Milnor, Falls township, and lived for a time on his father-in-law's farm on the northern boundary of Pennsbury Manor, but subsequently purchased a part of Israel Pemberton's tract near Fallsington, upon which he lived until 1796, when he exchanged the farm with Joshua Woolston for the Milford mills, and sixty-eight and three-fourth acres of land belonging thereto and removed there. He afterward acquired other considerable tracts adjoining the mill property in the growing village of Milford, which was soon called Hulmeville. At his death, 1818, he and his sons, George, Isaac, Samuel, Joseph and sons-in-law, Joshua Canby and George Harrison, practically owned the whole town, but his son Joseph, who was the storekeeper, failed, 1839, and ruined his brother who was the miller. William, eldest son of John Hulme, died 1809, leaving a son, Joseph R. and two daughters. He was commissioned justice of the peace, January 1, 1806. His father, John Hulme, was commissioned justice of the peace, September 1, 1789, for seven years. John Hulme was one of the most prominent, wealthy and influential men of his time in Bucks county.*] [Thomas Stackhouse and wife Margery arrived in the Welcome, 1682, and settled on 312 acres on the Neshaminy, where Langhorne stands. He was born at Stackhouse, Yorkshire, 1635. His wife, a Heahurst, dying 11 mo. 15, 1682, he married Margaret, Christopher Atkinson's widow, 1 mo. 1702, and removed to Bensalem where he died 1706, without descendants. The Stackhouses of Bucks are descended from Thomas and John, nephews of the Welcome immigrant, who came over prior to 1685. Thomas married Grace Heaton, daughter of Robert and Alice, of Middletown Meeting, 7 mo. 27, 1688; second wife Ann, widow of Edward Mayos, 1 mo. 1, ----, and third wife Dorothy, widow of Zebulon Heston, Wrightstown. Thomas Stackhouse was the father of fourteen children and died 4 mo. 26, 1744. John Stackhouse married Elizabeth Pearson or Pierson, 7 mo. 1702, and had nine children. She died 1743 and he, 1757, and both were buried at Middletown. The children of Thomas and John Stackhouse, in the first generation intermarried with the families of Clark, Stone, Wilson, Longshore, Copeland, Gilbert, Watson, Plumley, Cary, Haring, Janney, Mitchell, Stephenson, Tomlinson and others and their descendants are almost legion. The Baileys of Buckingham, are descended from Jacob, second, son of Thomas Stackhouse, and Ann Mayos, born 8 mo. 25, 1713, married 3 mo. 25, 1742. Hannah Watson, daughter of Amos and Mary (Hillborn) Watson, had four children.*] As we have already remarked, Christian and Abraham Vanhorne and William Huddleston were among the earliest settlers in the township about where Langhorne stands. About 1730-35 Joseph Richardson opened a store in the west end of the building now the tavern, then a small hipped-roof brick and stone house, where he kept until 1738. He then erected the stone house on the southwest corner, where the late Joshua Richardson lived and died, where he opened a store in the southeast room. The goods were brought by boat to Bristol, and then hauled up the Durham road. This store commanded a large country trade. The new dwelling was a costly and fine house in its day. It is related that when partly finished Mr. R. took a friend to look at it. As he was about to go away without saying anything, Mr. R. ventured to remark: "thee does not say what thee thinks about it;" to which the friend replied, "all I have to say is, take care thee does not get to the bottom of thy purse, before thee gets to the top of the house." Mr. Richardson died in 1772, the owner of a large landed estate. The brick house, on the southeast corner, was built by Gilbert Hicks in 1763. After his flight it was sold, with the forty acres of land attached, to William Goforth. During the Revolution (16) the house was used as an hospital, and about 150 dead bodies were buried in the lot opposite Joseph Stackhouse's, then a common. The ground was frozen so hard that the graves could not be dug the proper depth, and when spring opened the stench was so great the lot had to be filled up. In 1783 a tract on the east side of the village was laid off in building lots, 100 in all, and streets projected through it. It was called "Washington Village," and lots were donated to the three denominations of Baptists, Episcopalian and Presbyterian. Among the streets were Lamb, Montgomery, Macpherson, MacDougall and Willett, with a few alleys (17). The hopes of the projectors were never realized, and "Washington Village" is now principally occupied by negroes. (16) Probably in the winter of 1776-77. (17) On the map made of this projected addition to "Four Lanes End," it is called "Washington Village in Attlebury," and Goforth, its originator, styled himself "Proprietor and Layer Out." See deed book, pp. 329, 331. [The Newtown, Langhorne and Bristol trolley railway was chartered, 1895, and a section built the following spring from the upper end of Langhorne to the Bound Brook railroad, about a mile. The cars began to run April 15, 1896, and the track was shortly extended to Hulmeville and Bristol. In 1897 Langhorne was connected with Newtown, and in the spring of 1900 the road was finished and opened to Doylestown and the connection is now completed between the county seat and Bristol, and the travel increases. In 1898 considerable industrial improvement set in at Langhorne. Frederick Rumpf, formerly of Philadelphia, erected a linen factory, 402 by 40, a portion of it three stories high. Several kinds of goods are manufactured, and employment given to a number of hands. Mr. Rumpf has also built houses for his employees, and dwellings of a most costly style.*] [While Langhorne was known as Attleborough, about sixty years ago, a flourishing high school was opened. It had its birth in the*] "Middletown Boarding School Association," the first recorded meeting being held July 10, 1834, when steps were taken to erect suitable buildings. Lots were bought in August, of Henry Atherton, Walter M. Bateman and C. L. Richardson, at a cost of $450 and contracts made. The carpenter work was done by Thomas Baker and Thomas Blakey, of Attleborough, the mason work by Evan Groom and Hazel Scott, of Southampton, for sixty-two [and one-half*] cents a perch, and the brick work by Gillingham and Small, of Bristol, for three dollars per thousand. The dimensions of the building were seventy by fifty feet, and three stories high. The view from the top is very fine, over a beautifully variegated and richly cultivated country. The school was incorporated by the legislature in 1835. In 1837 an effort was made to get an appropriation of $2,000 from the State for the "trustees of the Middletown School Association," but it failed, because in former years the Newtown Academy had received $4,000. Before 1862 the school was known as the "Attleborough Academy," although called "Minerva Seminary" on the books. The property was sold by the sheriff in 1846, and bought by four of the shareholders, who had claims against it for $3,000. They sold it to Israel J. Graham in 1862, who re-established the school, and called it "Bellevue Institute," the name it now bears. It was bought in 1867 by William T. Seal, [and maintained a school there several years. The building, now owned by Winfield Scull, Philadelphia, is occupied as a summer boarding house.*] Among the pupils taught at this institution in former times were, John Price Wetherill, Doctor Samuel Wetherill and the late Hon. Samuel J. Randall. The building was erected mainly through the exertion of Dr. Thomas Allen, [Arnold Myers and Aaron Tomlinson, all of Middletown, at a cost of $6,000, and was first opened for a school, 1836, by the Rev. Alexander T. Dobbs, who was succeeded by the Rev. William Mann and James Anderson. Langhorne has a flourishing Friends' school, established about 1792, in charge of a committee of Middletown Preparative meeting. The village, also, has a public graded school in a two story brick, erected to the purpose. Few county towns of the size are supplied with better schools (18).*] (18) Anna E. Dickenson, who achieved distinction as platform orator and teacher, taught her first school in Middletown at Wildman's Corner. She was examined by County Superintendent Wm. H. Johnson, for teacher's certificate at Laurel Hill, Bristol township, April 1860, and made her first effort as a public speaker by lecturing at Newtown and Yardley in November same year. Miss Dickenson was then but 17 years old.* [Attleborough was incorporated into a borough and before the name was changed, December 7, 1874, John Wildman was elected the first Chief Burgess, and Harvey G. Wells, James W. Newbold, Joseph K. Harding, Dr. James B. Canby, Joseph R. Hibbs and Edward C. Nield, councilmen. After the Bound Brook railroad was opened for travel, June 15, 1876, the station was called "Langhorne," and the name of the village changed to the same shortly afterward. The borough has an estimated population of 1,500; contains a number of handsome private dwellings, two Friends' meeting houses, Hicksites and Orthodox, three churches, Methodist built 1829, and rebuilt 1852; Presbyterian, 1893, and African; a flourishing library; a public inn; several stores; newspaper; Odd Fellows Hall, with lodge rooms; public hall, etc. The library was organized 1800, and incorporated 1802, to which Miss Williamson has given an income from $4,000 for the purchase of books. A post office was opened, 1805, and Robert Croasdale was appointed postmaster.*] Hulmeville is built on the left bank of the Neshaminy, where the road from Trenton to Philadelphia intersects that from Newtown to Bristol. The principal part of the village is situated on high ground, a little removed from the creek. It takes its name from John Hulme, who settled there [about the close of the eighteenth century*], purchased the site of the village and a large tract adjoining, with water [privileges, taking possession, 1792. The place was then called Milford and had only one house. The town site was laid out 1796-99, a post office opened with a weekly mail, and the name of the place changed to that of the new owner. It was called Hulmeville Landing, 1812, by many. Additions were made to the corn and grist mills; fulling mill, merchant four and saw mills erected, followed by a machine shop. In a few the years the village had grown into a place of*] thirty dwellings, besides stores, work-shops, and mills, and a stone bridge across the Neshaminy. Mr. Hulme brought up his sons to practical and mechanical pursuits, and had them settled around him. For several years he would not allow a public house to be opened in the village, but entertained travelers at his own residence. When the growth of the town forced him to change his policy, he built a tavern, but prohibited the opening of a bar. [After the war with England, 1812-15, a crash came, and disaster overtook the sons. The population of Hulmeville was 376 in 1880 and 418 in 1890. A new iron bridge was erected here in 1899, the spans making 430 feet.*] [The author is indebted to Edmund G. Harrison (19) for the following incident connected with Hulmeville, his birthplace. About 1834, two little girls, of six and seven years, respectively, lived in the village - one, Martha Crealy, an orphan child, adopted by Mary Canby, widow of Joshua Canby, who lived in the dwelling lately owned and occupied by Elisha Praul; the other, Mary Parsons, who lived with her aunt, Mary Nelson, on the site of William Tilton's residence. The girls played in the yard, around the house, at toss and catch with acorns; both died before they reached ten years, leaving monuments to their memory without knowing it. In each yard a little oak sprang up and in the years that have intervened, developed into splendid specimens of trees; that in Mr. Tilton's yard being a red oak, twelve feet eight inches in circumference and ninety feet high; the one in Elisha Praul's a Spanish oak, ten feet three inches in circumference and ninety-six feet high, measured four and one-half feet above ground. The trees are seventy feet apart, and the lower limbs intertwine, forming an arch over Neshaminy street, the Doylestown and Bristol trolley running under it. What more beautiful and suggestive memorial. The trees are named Martha and Mary, respectively.*] (19) Edmund G. Harrison, son of George Harrison, was born at Hulmeville, May 2, 1828, and his mother a daughter of John Hulme, who established industrial work on the Neshaminy one hundred years ago. The father of Edmund G. was a prominent man, and twice elected to the Assembly. The son spent several years at Asbury Park, on the Jersey Coast, and from there went to Washington to take charge of the Roads Division of the Agricultural Department, where he died February 6, 1901. In the summer of 1900 he put down a specimen road from Doylestown to the Farm School. Mr. Harrison founded the "Delaware Valley Advance," 1877; was deputy collector of Internal Revenue, and during the Civil War served a tour of duty in Capt. Burnett Landreth's state militia. His first public honor was a seat in the legislature, to which he was elected, 1854, at the age of twenty-six.* In the autumn of 1809, Josiah Quincy, of Boston, with his family, on his way to Washington to attend Congress, stopped overnight at Hulmeville, and were entertained by Mr. Hulme. Mrs. Quincy made a flattering notice of Mr. Hulme in her journal, and afterward spoke to him as one of the most practical philosophers she had ever met, and that "his virtues proved him truly wise." Mr. Hulme rose from poverty to wealth and influence by the force of his own character. He became one of the most respected men in the county, was several times elected to the legislature, was the first president of the Farmers' bank of Bucks county, and held other positions of honor and trust. He died in 1817. [The following extract from the "Memoir of the Life of Eliza S. Quincy," Boston, daughter of Josiah Quincy, tells of the visit to Hulmeville. "In the autumn of 1809, Mr. and Mrs. Quincy left Boston for the City of Washington, with two of their children and three servants. They traveled in their carriage with four horses and in passing through New Jersey (Pennsylvania) they stopped over night at Hulmeville, a town situated on the Neshaminy, four miles from the Delaware. In the evening Mr. Hulme, the proprietor of the place, a venerable man in the Quaker dress, visited them, attended by two of his sons. He informed Mr. Quincy that he had often read his speeches in Congress, and came to thank him for the views and principles he supported. In reply to inquiries, Mr. Hulme said: 'When I purchased the site of this village, fourteen years ago, there was only one dwelling house upon it; now there are thirty, besides stores and workshops, a valuable set of mills, and a stone bridge over the Neshaminy. Here I have established a numerous family. I might have educated one of my sons as a lawyer, or set one up as a merchant, but I had not property enough to give them all such advantages; and I wished to make them equally attached to each other, and useful members of society; one of them is a miller, another a storekeeper, a blacksmith, a tanner, a farmer, a coachmaker, all master of their respective employments and they all assist one another. I have been rewarded by their good conduct and grateful affection. No one envies another. I have never heard an expression of discontent. We live like one family and my children and grandchildren are the comforts of my old age.' "The next morning Mr. Hulme attended Mr. and Mrs. Quincy to see his mills and improvements. They were delighted with his arrangement, and when the hour of parting came, took a reluctant leave of their new friend, who had highly excited their admiration and respect." The descendants of Mr. Hulme kept up a correspondence with Josiah Quincy and family for many years, numerous letter passing between them.*] According to Holme's map the site of Hulmeville was covered by Penn's grant to Henry Paulin, Henry Paxson, and William Carter. The original name was Milford, derived from "mill-ford," the mill at the ford across the Neshaminy, the first erected on that stream and by driven by its waters. The mill, of stone, built prior to 1725, stood just below the wing-wall of the present bridge (20). A plaster-mill was connected with it, and subsequently a woolen-mill. The erection of the dam across the stream prevented shad running up which greatly offended the Holland settlers of North and Southampton who made several attempts to tear it away. The town site was first laid out into building lots in 1799, and again in 1803. Its incorporation into a borough, in 1872, gave it an impetus forward, and since then the improvements have been quite rapid. Among the industrial establishments of Hulmeville are a cotton factory, erected in 1831, two years after the old woolen factory and grist and merchant-mills were burned, where 1,000 pounds of cotton yarn are turned out daily, a grist-mill, and large weaving shop and coverlet factory, and the customary mechanics. In the village there are two churches, the Episcopal, founded in 1831, and Methodist, in 1844, a large public and private school, lodges of Odd Fellows, Knights of Pythias, and Good Templars, Young Mens' Christian Association, two building associations, Fire Insurance company, organized in 1842, a manufacturing company, etc. Johnson's building contains a handsome hall that will seat 350 persons, with stage, drop curtain, etc. The bridge across the Neshaminy, 425 feet long, was re-built after the freshet of 1865, and is said to be highest bridge spanning the stream. Three stages connect with the Philadelphia and Trenton railroad, and the Philadelphia and Bound Brook railroad passes within a mile of the village. Beechwood cemetery, a handsomely laid out burial place, is located on the brow of the hill on the south bank of the Neshaminy. (20) Probably the oldest mills on the lower Neshaminy, erected at Hulmeville about 1720, both grist and saw. The old foundations were exposed many years ago, when Silas Barkley made excavations for a new mill. The old mills were burned down, 1829, flour and plaster mills and woolen factory. The saw mill ceased running, 1834. In digging for the foundations of the new mill the water wheel of the old one was found. The present bridge, over the Neshaminy at Hulmeville replaces the last of the structures, built 1865, after the great flood. Henry Mitchell was one of the original owners of Milford mills, in partnership with Jeremiah Langhorne, Stoffell Vansant, John Plumley and Bartholomew Jacobs, and assisted in building them. Grace Episcopal church, Hulmeville, was formerly a mission station of St. James' church, Bristol. A Sunday school was organized about 1826, and occasional service was held in the old school house. A subscription to raise funds for "an Episcopal church edifice" was started July 18, 1831, naming George Harrison, G. W. Rue, and William Johnson trustees. The principal subscribers were Reverend George [Greenbury*] W. Ridgeley, [who studied law with Henry Clay], George Harrison, Elizabeth and Hannah Gill, and Esther Rodman, each $100, besides many others of $50, and less. The building was commenced September 16, 1831, and finished October 21st, same year, a plain stone structure sixty by forty feet. It was consecrated July 3, 1837. In 1866 the church was remodeled and enlarged, and a two-story Sunday school-room erected in the rear. A tower was added to the church the following year. The cost of the improvements was about $4,000. [Mr. Ridgeway was the first rector.*] A post office was established at Hulmeville in 1809, and Isaac Hulme appointed the first postmaster. [A public library was organized the winter of 1877.*] The third village of Middletown is Oxford Valley, a place of twenty-five families, situated at the intersection of the roads leading from Bristol to Dolington, and from Langhorne to Trenton, on the south side of Edgehill. It was originally settled by the Watsons, who owned a large tract of land around it, but all except one of the name have long disappeared and their broad acres have fallen into other hands. The ancient name was Oxford, supposed to have been so called from a primitive-looking ox on the tavern sign, and a bad ford over the creek that runs through the place. When the post-office was established in 1844, the hamlet was called Oxford Valley. Of late years there has been considerable improvement, and a number of new buildings erected. Two of the old houses, 150 years old, are still standing. Among the buildings there are a school house, church, public hall and a mill. This locality, or near it, was probably "Honey hill," the original home of the Watsons. The excellent water privileges along the Neshaminy led to the early erection of mills. There was a mill in the township as early as about 1703, but its location is unknown, although it is probable that the ruins of the mill on the farm of Moses Knight, a mile below Langhorne, are the remains of it. Heaton's was one of the earliest mills on this stream, and it is supposed to have stood on or about the site of Vansant's mill. Timothy Roberts owned a flour mill on the Neshaminy some years before the middle of the last century, and in 1749 it belonged to Stephen Williams. Williams had a wharf and store-house at Margaret Johnson's landing on the creek, whither he hauled flour to be shipped in boats or flats. In dry times the people of Bristol hauled their corn to this mill to be ground (21). Mitchell's mill, on the Neshaminy opposite Oregon, then called Comfort's ford, was an early one, and re-built in 1795. William Rodman re-built Growden's mill (22) in 1764. Jesse Comfort's mill at Bridgetown, between Newtown and Langhorne, ranks among the old mills in the lower end of the county, having been built about 1731 or 1732. (21) Neither the location of the mill, nor the wharf and landing, are know. Galloway's ford was between Oregon and Hulmeville. (22) In the Neshaminy. Samuel Stockton White, born in Hulmeville, 1822, became a distinguished dentist and manufacturer of dentists' supplies. He began life poor, worked his way to distinction and died worth a million. He learned his trade with his uncle J. Wesley Stockton, on Vine street, and carried on business in Philadelphia. He died December 30, 1899. At the settlement of the county, two important fords were opened across Neshaminy, and in use for many years, Galloway's ford and Baldwin's The former and upper one led across the stream from the Growden place, Bensalem, to the Langhorne Manor House, Middletown; the latter lower down near the head of tidewater below Newportville, near Flushing, where the Bristol road crossed extending through eastern and northern Bensalem, thence northwest parallel to the Montgomery Co. Line and Street road. At an early day a stage road crossed Galloway's ford, from Philadelphia to Trenton via Bustleton, Four Lanes End, Oxford to Kirkbride's ferry on the Delaware. The Galloway ford road was vacated forty years ago, but shortly reopened for the purpose of bridging the stream, but this was never done. In the course of time these fords and others in the county were superceded by bridges. One of the earliest Acts of Congress declared Neshaminy a navigable river from its mouth to Baldwin's ferry. Middletown was well provided with local roads at an early day, which were increased according to the wants of her inhabitants. In 1712 a road was laid out from John Wildman's to the Durham road. The King's highway, from Langhorne to Scott's ford, on Poquessing, was widened to fifty feet in 1753. There was a jury on it in December 1748, probably to relay and straighten it. In 1795 the court was asked to straighten it from the falls to the Neshaminy via Langhorne. A road from Yardley's ferry, to the bridge over the Neshaminy, was laid out in 1767, but probably it was only the relaying and straightening of the road already running between these points. The old road from Philadelphia to New York via Kirkbride's ferry on the Delaware passed through Hulmeville, crossing the Neshaminy at Galloway's ford, and by Langhorne and Oxford Valley. In 1749 a road fifty feet wide and used as a stage road was laid out from the Chicken's-foot, half a mile above Fallsington, through Hulmeville and across Neshaminy to the Bristol pike at Andalusia. It shortened the road between Philadelphia and New York about four miles. What is now Main street, Hulmeville, was laid out in 1799. The bridge across Neshaminy was built soon after the road was laid out from Chicken's-foot in 1794. Several roads concentrated at Hulmeville in early times. On the eastern edge of the borough, near the Methodist church, was a deposit of iron ore quite extensively worked a hundred years ago by a Philadelphia company, whither it was shipped and smelted. [In 1792 John Hulme had a direct road laid out from Kirkbride's ferry on the Delaware via Hulmeville, to the King's Highway, now the Frankford and Bristol turnpike. This became the short line stage road from Philadelphia to New York via Trenton and New Brunswick.*] Among the natives of this township, who gained prominence in the world, was Peter Peterson Vanhorne, a son of one of the two Hollanders of that name who settled near Langhorne. He became a noted Baptist minister. He was born August 24, 1719, and bred and educated a Lutheran, but embraced the principles of the Baptists, and was baptised September 6, 1741, ordained pastor at Pennypack June 18, 1747, removed to Pemberton, New Jersey, in 1763, and to Cape May in 1770. He returned twice to Pennypack, and was pastor at Dividing Ridge and Salem in 1789. He married Margaret Marshall, and had eight children. His eldest son, William, was pastor at Southampton, and a chaplain in the Continental army. In 1825 Arnold Myers, a gentleman from London, bought the old Simon Gillam farm in Middletown and settled there. He was a cultivated and scholarly man. He was engaged in mercantile pursuits at Naples and Trieste, where he was "agent for Lloyds" several years, married in Antwerp, and after residing there a considerable time came to the United States. His son Leonard Myers, several years member of Congress from Philadelphia, was born in Middletown. Mardon Wilson, who was born in Byberry in 1789, and died near Wilmington Delaware, in 1784, spent the greater part of his life in Middletown, carrying on milling at the Neshaminy crossing, on the road from Langhorne to the Buck tavern. He was a man of ability, integrity and energy, and an advocate of all the reforms of the day. [Among other prominent sons of Middletown, who live in history, Joseph S. Longshore, born 1809 and died 1879-80, is entitled to a niche. He lost the partial use of one leg when a boy and was lamed for life. Turning his attention to the medical profession he graduated in medicine from the University of Pennsylvania at the age of twenty-four, and practiced for several years at Attleborough. In 1850 he established a medical college in Philadelphia for women, the first of its kind in the world. He was also an ardent advocate of total abstinence, and an active Abolitionist, at a period when it required no little courage to declare oneself.*] In 1742 there were about 100 taxables in the township, of whom seventeen were single men. William Paxson and John Praul were overseers of the poor, the poor-rate being two pence per pound, and six shillings a head for single men. The amount of poor tax collected that year was £21. 2s. 6d. In 1760 the taxables had increased to 131, and there were 122 in 1762, a slight falling off. In 1784 the population of Middletown was 698 whites and 43 blacks, and 124 dwellings. It was 1,663 in 1810; 1,891 in 1820; 2,178 in 1830, and 424 taxables; 2,124 in 1840; 2,223 in 1850; 2,265 in 1860, and 2,360 in 1870, of whom 122 were foreign-born; 2,360 in 1880; 2,028 in 1890; 2,214 in 1900. Among the accidents recorded in this township was that which happened to Robert Skirm and wife, in April 1809 on their way to Philadelphia. In crossing Mitchell's bridge over the Neshaminy, the horse leaped over the railing, killing Mr. Skirm and badly injuring his wife. Among the deaths of aged persons in this century, in Middletown, was Sarah Carey, relict of Samuel Carey, June 7, 1808, in her ninetieth year. [Among the real estate at "Four Lanes End," belonging to Gilbert Hicks at the outbreak of the Revolution, and was confiscated for his opposition to the cause of the colonies, was a tavern property. In the advertisement of its sale, it was described as "an old and accustomed inn" but nothing more. It was purchased by Gershon Johnson, who applied for license at September term, 1780. The location of this tavern does not seem to be known.*] On rising ground near the Neshaminy, and on the farm formerly the property of Doctor Shippen, and now called Farley, is the old Williamson burying-ground, where lie many of the descendants of ancient Duncan Williamson, who settled in Bensalem years before William Penn landed on the Delaware. Middletown, like the other townships of the group of 1692, is devoted to agriculture, and her intelligent farmers live in independence on their well-cultivated farms. The Neshaminy and its tributaries water her fertile acres, which slope gradually to receive the warm rays of the southern sun (23). (23) In Middletown township, January 1805, a negro man, named "Jack," the property of Colonel William Chambers, died at the age of 116. He was born, 1699, at the time William Penn was making his second visit to his infant colony, and as he did not return to England until November 1701, the negro, while a child, may have looked upon the founder, and there are a very few people, in Bucks county, old enough to have seen negro "Jack," who may have actually seen William Penn.*] End of Chapter XI