THE HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA, CHAPTER XIII, SOUTHAMPTON, 1703. 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 XIII SOUTHAMPTON 1703 Second group of townships. -Pickets of civilization. -Southampton first named. -Separated from Warminster. -Original settlers. -John Swift. -Meeting granted. -Additional settlers. -Thomas Callowhill, a land-owner. -Town plat. -Holland settlers. -Krewson, Vanartsdalen, Hogeland, et al. -Still later settlers. -John Purdy. -Curious dreams. -The Watts family*. -The Duffields, [Folwells, Beanses, Searches, McNairs.*] -Ralph Dracot. -The Davies. -Moravian church. -John Perkins. -Taxables and population. -Southampton Baptist church. [Old school house.*] -Quaint inscription. Davisville church. -Dutch Reformed. -Its early name. -Paulus Van Vleck officiates. -Dortius the pastor. -Schlatter comes to settle troubles. -[Jacob*] Larzelere. -Location of Southampton. -Roads. - Villages. -Turnpikes. (See Map of Southampton, Warminster & Warrington townships, 1734) Our second group of townships is composed of Southampton (1), Warminster, Newtown, Wrightstown, Buckingham, and Solebury. They were settled about the same time, or immediately after the townships of the first group, and we purpose to tell the story of their settlement in detail. The territorial limits of this group reach to the central section of the county, throughout which considerable land was taken up prior to 1700. Among the pickets of civilization, who early pushed their way up through the woods from Delaware, in advance of the tidal wave, may be mentioned John Chapman, John and Thomas Bye, William Cooper, George Pownall, and [Edward and*] Roger Hartley. For several years the supplies for a part of this region were drawn from Falls and Middletown, and transported through the forest on horseback, or on the shoulders of those who did not own horses. When Gwin's mill was built on the Pennypack, their bread supply was drawn from a more convenient point, until mills were erected nearer home. (1) Southampton is a parliamentary municipal borough and seaport of England, county Hampshire, at the mouth of the Itchen, 71 miles southwest of London.* In the proceedings of the Provincial Council, 1685, fixing the boundary line between Bucks and Philadelphia counties, Southampton and Warminster are called by their present names. But at that early day these townships were not organized subdivisions of the county, but were only settlements with English names (2). The report of the jury laying out the groups of townships, in 1692, concludes thus: "Southampton and the lands about it, with Warminster, one" (3), which means that these two townships, with the unorganized lands adjoining, embracing Northampton and probably Warwick, should be considered one township. For several years this township and Warminster were one for all municipal purposes, and it was not until 1703 that the court recognized Southampton as a township, and authorized it to elect its own supervisor of highways. It would appear from the records that the two townships were not entirely separated until a later period. At the March term, 1711, the inhabitants of Southampton petitioned court to be separated from Warminster, in the county assessments and collection of taxes; whereupon it was ordered that the said petitioners and the lands of James Carter, Ralph Dracot, and Joseph Tomlinson may be, in future, one township and have a constable appointed to serve therein. It is stated in the court records, that the inhabitants of Southampton petitioned March term, 1712, to be allowed to remain a township by themselves. Among the names signed to the petition are Edward Bolton, John Morris, Ralph Dunn, John Naylor, Thomas Harding, Daniel Robinson, Mary Poynter, Richard Lather, and William Beans. (2) As Holme's map, 1684, gives the boundaries of Southampton and Warminster as they now exist, it is barely possible that these two townships were already laid out and named, but there is no direct testimony to support it. (3) The will of Robert Marsh, "South Hampton," Bucks county, was dated July 25, 1689, and proved, at Philadelphia, 17, 3 mo., May, 1689. As this was fourteen years before the township was organized, it is additional evidence, if that were needed, that the locality was given its present name before organization.* When Thomas Holme made his map of the province, in 1684, there were thirteen (4) landowners in what is now Southampton; probably the greater part were settlers, and some of them had purchased land before leaving England. Of these settlers John Swift (5), one of Penn's pioneers, owned 500 acres that lay near Feasterville, between the Street road and county line. He was a Friend, but went off with Keith in 1692, and ultimately became a Baptist minister. He was called to the ministry in 1702, and, although never ordained, preached nine years in Philadelphia as a assistant. For some unknown cause he was excommunicated in 1730, and died in 1732. He represented Bucks county in the Assembly in 1701, and 1707. The lands of John Martin, Robert Pressmore, and John Luffe were situated in the upper part of the township touching the line of Warminster, and extending to the county line. Robert Bresmal was a settler in Southampton as early as 1683, in which year he married Mary Webber, "of John Hart's family." (4) John Gilbert, Thomas Hould, Thomas Groom, Joseph Jones, Robert Marsh, John Swift, Enoch Flowers, Jonathan Jones, Mark Betris, Richard Wood, John Luffe, John Martin and Robert Pressmore.* (5) In 1708 John Swift paid his quit-rent "in goods and chattels," to Lawrence Johnson and Charles Heafte, at Pennsbury. Soon after the settlement of the township, the Friends of Southampton requested to have a meeting settled among them, which was granted April 1, 1686, and a general meeting for worship, once a week, was ordered at the house of James Dilworth. Previous to that Friends had met at each others houses for worship. They have never been strong enough in the township to warrant the erection of a meeting-house, and they attend meetings elsewhere, generally at Middletown and Byberry. As the location and soil were inviting, settlers flocked in rapidly, and in 1709 we find the additional names of Stephen Sands, John Vansant, Thomas Cutler, James Carter, John Naylor, Joseph Webb, John Frost, John Shaw, Clement Dungan, Jeremiah Dungan, James Carrell, John Morris, Thomas Dungan, John Clark, David Griffith, Christopher Day, Nathaniel West, William Gregory, and Samuel Selers. The Dungans were sons of Reverend Thomas Dungan, the same who emigrated from Rhode Island, and organized the Baptist church at Cold spring, near Bristol, in 1684. Joseph Dungan, grandson of the Reverend Thomas, died August 25, 1785, in his seventy-sixth year [78th*] and was buried at Southampton. We find no further mention of Thomas Cutler, but William, who was an early settler there, died in 1714. They were probably brothers of John Cutler, who made the re-survey of the county in 1702-3. James Carter died in 1714. John Morris bought 582 acres of James Plumley in 1698, which lay in the upper part of the township, between the Street road and county line, and a considerable part, if not all, north of the Middle road. When the re-survey was made, in 1702, Thomas Harding was one of the largest land owners in the township, his acres numbering 618. Joseph Tomlinson was there early, and died in 1723. April 20, 1705, 417 acres were surveyed, by warrant, to Thomas Callowhill, the father-in-law of William Penn, situated in the upper part of the township, and bounded by the Street road and Warminster line. It covered the site of Davisville. John, Thomas, and Richard Penn inherited this tract from their grandfather Callowhill, and January, 20, 1734, they conveyed 149 acres by patent to Stephen Watts. The land of John Morris bounded this tract on the southwest. On Holme's map is laid off, in about the middle of the township, a plat one mile square, similar to what is seen in Newtown and Wrightstown. An in those townships it was, no doubt, intended for a park or town plat, and to have been divided among the land owners in the township outside of it, in the proportion of one to ten. But as we have not met with it in any of the Southampton conveyances, it probably had no other existence than on the map. At an early day, and following the English Friends, there was a considerable influx of Hollanders into the township, and the large and influential families of Krewson, Vanartsdalen, Vandeventer, Hogeland, Barcalow, Vanhorne, Lefferts, Vansant and Vandeveer descend from this sturdy stock. Other families, which started out with but one Holland ancestor, have become of almost pure blood by intermarriage. The descendants of Dutch parentage in this and adjoining townships have thus become very numerous. Both the spelling of the names, and their pronunciation, have been considerably changed since their ancestors settled in the township. Derrick Krewson (6) was a land-holder, if not a settler, in Southampton as early as 1684, for the 11th of September, 1717, he paid to James Steele, receiver of the Proprietary quit-rents, £9. 11s. 4d. For thirty-three years' interest due on 580 acres of land in this township. In March 1756 Henry Krewson paid sixteen years' quit-rent to E. Physic on 230 acres in Southampton (7). The will of Derrick Krewson was executed January 4, 1729, but the time of his death is not known. He probably came from Long Island, the starting point of most of the Hollanders who settled in Bucks county (8). (6) Original spelling Kroesen. (7) Down to 1756 the Proprietary quit-rents were paid at Pennsbury, but we do not know how much later. (8) Helena Temple, Churchville, who died, February 1884, would have been 100 years old had she lived to June 10. She was of Low Dutch stock, daughter of Garret Krewson, Southampton, a patriot of the Revolution, who died, 1852. She was baptized September 22, 1784, by the Rev. Simeon Van Arsdalen, who had been dead ninety-eight years when she died, and the pastor of her middle life, Jacob Larzelere, had been deceased fifty years. She lived to see three generations born, live and die. At ninety-six she walked to church. At ninety-nine and within a week of her death, she kept her own house and table, and was busy with home duties. In her long life she was sick in bed but a single day. She was a fair example of the sturdiness of the Holland settlers in Bucks county. The Vanartsdalens of Southampton and Northampton are descended from Simon, son of Jan Von Arsdalen, from Ars Dale, in Holland, who immigrated to America in 1653, and settled at Flatbush, Long Island. He married a daughter of Peter Wykoff, and had two sons, Cornelius Simonse and John. The former became the husband of three Dutch spouses (9), and the latter of two. Our Bucks county family comes mediately from Nicholas and Abraham, sons of John, who settled in Southampton. Nicholas married Jane Vansant, and had seven children, and John Vanartsdelen, of Richborough, was a grandson. Simon, the eldest son, died in 1770, and a daughter, Ann, married Garret Stevens. The Vandeventers (10), Vanhornes, Vandeveers and Vansants (11), are descended from Jacobus Van de Venter, Rutgert Vanhorne, Cornelius Vandeveer, and William Van Zandt, who came from Netherland in 1660. There are but few of the Vandeventers and Vandeveers in the township, but the Vanhornes and Vansants are numerous. (9) Tjelletzi Reiners Wizzlepennig, Ailtie Willems Konwenhoven, and Marytzi Dirks. (10) The correct name is Van de Venter. (11) Van Zandt. Dirck Hanse Hogeland (12), the first of the name who came to America, commanded the vessel that brought him from Holland to New Amsterdam in 1655. He settled at Flatbush, and in 1622 married Anne Bergen, widow of Jan Clerq, by whom he had six children. He built the first brick house on Manhattan island. His grandson Dirck, son of William, born in 1698, and married to Mariah Slot, of New York, with others of the descendants, had settled in Southampton before 1729. They had a family of ten children, from whom have descended a numerous progeny. As a rule both sons and daughters married into Holland families, and the blood to this time has been kept comparatively pure. The distinguishing features of the Hogelands are large families of children, longevity, and stalwart sons (13). The youngest son of Dirck, Derrick K., was long a justice of peace in Southampton, but resigned about 1820, on account of age. He was the grandfather of Elias Hogeland, late sheriff of this county. Some of the family have wandered to Kentucky, where the members occupy positions of honor. (12) Hogeland, or Hoogland, is the Dutch for highlands. In 1746 Indians living among the highlands on the Hudson were called the Hogeland Indians. (13) The will of Dirck Hogeland is dated December 7, 1775, and proved August 1, 1778. He left his six daughters £220 each, a considerable sum in that day, and a large landed estate to them and his sons. Four hundred acres are specified in the will, and other lands not described. His youngest son, Dirck, afterward called Derrick, got two hundred and fifty acres. In the spring of 1662, William Hanse Von Barkeloo (14) and his brother, Harman Jansen Von Barkeloo with wife and two children, landed at New York, where Harman died prior to December 1671. William married Elizabeth Jane Claessen in 1666, and died in 1683, leaving eight children. His son Dirck married Jamelia Von Ars Dale September 17, 1709, and settled at Freehold, New Jersey. Conrad, [born December 4, 1680, died 1754, settled on the Raritan, and married a daughter of Jacob Laes, Monmouth. It was their son, Conrad*] who settled in this county, and was the immediate ancestor of the Barcalows of Southampton. Conrad's son, Garret, married Elizabeth, daughter of the first Dirck Hogeland, and had a family of nine children, who intermarried with the Finneys, Cornells, Mitchells, Baneses, Stevenses and McMasters. The descendants of Garret Barcalow are numerous in Southampton. (14) This name has been variously spelled, Borculo, Barckelloo, Burkiloo and Barkeloo, by different branches of the family. The family came from Borkelo in the earldom of Zutphen, and province of Guilderland, Holland. The Stevenses are English on the male side, the ancestor, Abraham, coming to this county shortly after William Penn. His son John married Sarah Stootholf, and their son, Ann Vanartsdalen, daughter of Nicholas, one of the two brothers of the name who first settled in Southampton. The Benjamin Stevens, who married Elizabeth Barcalow, was a son of Abraham Stevens and Mary Hogeland, daughter of Daniel, who was brother of the Dirck who settled in this county before 1720. The mother of the present Benjamin Stevens was a sister of Abraham, Isaac and William Hogeland, and Garret B. Stevens of the Berks county bar is a son of Benjamin. The ancestor of the Lefferts family, Leffert Pieterse, immigrated from North Brabant, Holland, in 1660, and settled at Flatbush, Long Island. His grandson, Leffert Leffert, the son of Peter Leffertze (15) and Ida Suydam came into the county in 1738, with the Cornells, on a prospecting tour. He returned the following year and settled in Northampton township, on a 400 acre tract (16), bought of Isaac Pennington, being part of 651 acres that William Penn granted to Edmund Pennington, his father. The deed is dated June 7, 1739, and the consideration £492. His will was executed October 6, 1773, and he probably died soon afterward. His wife's name was Ann. He left five sons and two daughters, but the greater part of his estate went to his sons. The venerable late John Lefferts, of Southampton, [who died at about ninety-five,*] is the grandson of Leffert Leffert. (15) The family on Long Island retain the name "Leffertze," but the first generation born in this county dropped the "z" and final "e" and substituted "s." (16) It was bounded by lands of Bernard Vanhorne, Isaac Vanhorne, Adrian Cornell, Henry Krewson, Isaac Bennet, John Shaw, and Jeremiah Dungan. He owned a plantation in Newtown. The Vanhornes came into the township early, but the time is not known. The 6th and 7th of May, 1722, Bernard Christian, of Bergen, New Jersey, conveyed 290 acres to Abraham Vanhorne, by deed of lease and re-lease, which was probably situated in Southampton. Other Holland families settled in this and the adjoining township of Northampton about the same period, among whom we find the names of Staates, now of Bensalem, Bennet, Rhodes, Johnson, Fenten, Wright, etc. They were generally large slaveholders, while the "institution" existed in this state. They were universally patriotic and loyal during the Revolution, and often the slaves accompanied their masters to the field. These old Holland families have a tradition that at one time Washington passed through Southampton, and stopped at the houses of some of their patriotic ancestors, and their descendants still cherish the tables he ate at, the mugs he drank from, and the chairs he sat upon. These families have become so thoroughly Anglicized that no trace is left of their ancestry. At a still later period the families of Purdy, Watts, Folwell, Search, Miles, Duffield, Davis, and others, well-known, settled in Southampton, of some of which we have been able to collect information. (See illustration of Old Sawmill at Davisville) John Purdy (17) immigrated from Ireland in 1742, and settled on the Pennypack, in Moreland township, married Grace Dunlap, and died in 1752, leaving a son, William, and three daughters. The son married Mary Roney, whose father came from Ireland in 1735, and served in the Continental army. In 1797 the family removed to western New York, except the son, William, who married a daughter of William Folwell, of Southampton, whither he removed and spent his life. He became a prominent man, commanded a company of volunteers in the war of 1812-15; was several times elected to the Assembly, and Prothonotary of the Court of Common Pleas. His son, Thomas, was elected Sheriff of the county in 1842, and his grandson, John, was elected to the same office in 1872. The family are no longer residents of the township [with the exception of John, the son of Thomas. The family records relate singular dreams the first John Purdy and his wife had, and their remarkable fulfillment. On a certain night he dreamed that he was going to Philadelphia on a great white horse, and that as he went by Abington the horse turned into the graveyard and rolled. About the same time his wife dreamed that "a large white horse came and pulled down half her house." A few days afterward, while attending the election at Newtown, where they were running horses down the main street, he was run against by a large white horse and killed, and his death, in fact, was equivalent to pulling down half the wife's house. (17) The name is Anglo-Irish, and thought to be a modification of Pardew, Pardee, or Pardoe, and is more common in England and Scotland than Ireland. [Among the new comers into Southampton township, about 1730, was Stephen Watts from Lower Dublin, Philadelphia county, who purchased 150 acres from Thomas Callowhill. It covered part of the site of Davisville and ran across the township line into Warminster. The deed bears date of 1733. He improved the premises and made it the home of his lifetime. It embraced what is known as the "sawmill" property, long in the possession of the late General John Davis.*] [Stephen Watts was a descendant of the Reverend John Watts, second pastor of the Lower Dublin Baptist church, Philadelphia county, who was a son of Henry and Elizabeth Watts and grandson of Gregory Watts, born at Leeds, county Kent, England, November 3, 1661, immigrated to Pennsylvania about 1686, baptized in the Baptist faith November 21, 1686, the following year connected himself with the Pennepek or Pennypack church, and married Sarah Eaton (born 1655) in 1687-88. He entered the ministry, 1688, became the pastor of the church, 1690, and had charge to his death, August 27, 1702 (18). The following were the children of the Reverend John and Sarah Eaton Watts: Elizabeth Watts, born April 15, 1689, died October 11, 1756; John Watts, born December 3, 1693, died 1771; Sarah Watts, born December 8, 1693, Mary Watts, twin of Sarah, December 8, 1693; Deborah Watts, born February 6, 1695; Silas Watts, born March 7, 1697, died August 16, 1737; Stephen Watts, born February 6, 1700, died 1784.*] (18) John Watts is spoken of as a man of good understanding, and a fine speaker. Morgan Edwards said he was an English scholar. He was active against the Keithian movement, and held a public discussion with one of their preachers, coming off the victor. (See illustration of the Watt's Homestead) [Stephen Watts, the youngest son of the Reverend John Watts, and the fourth in descent from Gregory, married Elizabeth Melchior, born 1707, and died March 16, 1794. Mr. Watts was an influential man in the community and prominent in the Southampton Baptist church, of which he was a ruling elder for many years. The farm Stephen Watts purchased of Thomas Callowhill, in 1733, is still in the family, being held by Rodney A. Mercer, Esq., through his mother, a great-great-granddaughter of the said Stephen Watts. The following were the children of Stephen and Elizabeth (Melchior) Watts: Hannah Watts married, June 14, 1750, James Smith, of Philadelphia; Arthur Watts (19), born October 29, 1733, died October 9, 1809, married Sarah Folwell; Rachel Watts, born June 29, 1736, died November 11, 1765, married as first wife, her cousin John Watts; Elizabeth Watts, born August 23, 1738, died August 22, 1824, married, May 29, 1764, Thomas Folwell, of Southampton, Bucks county, born October 7, 1737, died September 13, 1813, son of William Folwell by his wife Anne Potts; Stephen Watts, born February 5, 1741, died in 1788, married Francis Assheton; Sarah Watts, married ----Shaw.*] (19) Arthur Watts was the father of two children, by his first wife, William, born September 8, 1765, and died, 1838, and Ann, born October 5, 1759, married Josiah Hart, January 11, 1776, and died at Doylestown, March 2, 1815, of typhus fever. The son attained some prominence, was major in a rifle regiment, was or 1812-15, Associate Judge and clerk of the court. He inherited the Watts homestead. In the advertisement for the sale of the farm, 1833, it was stated that "the same head and tail races were made several years ago, with a view of building a grist mill, which was not done owning to the death of the then owner." It is claimed that on this dam John Fitch made a trial of his steamboat models. [Several of the Watts family, by descent and intermarriage were prominent in their day and generation. John Watts, son of Stephen, the elder, was a celebrated surveyor and conveyancer, and wrote a work on surveying, 1765. His brother Silas was also a practical surveyor. Arthur Watts, son of Stephen the elder, was a private in Captain John Folwell's company of Associators in 1775-76, a delegate to the Lancaster convention, July 4, 1776, to choose two Brigadier Generals to command the Pennsylvania militia in the Revolution, and also a member of the Bucks County Committee of Safety and the Committee of Correspondence. William Watts, the son of Arthur, was one of the Associate Judges of Bucks county, and the clerk of the courts, and second Major of Colonel Humphrey's regiment of riflemen, in the war of 1812-15, with England. Josiah Hart, husband of Anne Watts, daughter of Arthur Watts, was a colonel of militia in the Revolution. Stephen Watts, the younger, son of Stephen Watts, the elder, born February 5, 1741, was graduated at the college of Philadelphia, now the University of Pennsylvania, in 1762, and was a tutor there for a time. In 1766 he was the author of an "Essay on the Reciprocal Advantages" of a perfect union between Great Britain and her American colonies; he read law, was admitted to the Bar and practiced for years. About 1770, he moved to Baton Rouge, Louisiana, where he became Master in Chancery, recorder of deeds for the English on the Mississippi, and King's Attorney for Baton Rouge, dying in Louisiana, 1788. His daughter, Margaret Cyrilla Watts, married Manuel Gayaso de Lamos, Brigadier-General and Governor of the Spanish colony at Natchez, until 1797, when he succeeded the Baron de Carondelet as Governor of Louisiana. Stephen Watts, March 10, 1767, married Frances, daughter of Ralph Assheton, of Philadelphia, and granddaughter of Robert Assheton, both members of the Provincial Council of Pennsylvania and kinsmen of William Penn.*] [It is not known when the Folwells came into the township, but shortly after the middle of the eighteenth century, possibly before. A branch of the family lived in Philadelphia county, now Montgomery. The brothers, Thomas and John Folwell, owned farms in Southampton, the former that of the late Cornell Hobensack, the latter the Roberts farm on the road to Southampton church a few hundred yards from Davisville. Thomas Folwell, whose wife was a daughter of Stephen Watts, had five children, a son, William Watts Folwell, born January 13, 1768, who graduated with honor from the University of Pennsylvania, and subsequently a tutor in the institution, and four daughters. The son married Jane Dungan, born September 9, 1776, removed to Seneca county, N. Y., 1807, and died there leaving numerous descendants. Of the daughters of Thomas Folwell, Ann married Joseph Hart, of Warminster, Mary married William Purdy, Elizabeth married Joshua Jones, both of Southampton, and Rachel married William Reeder, of Mercer county, New Jersey. Their daughters were famous for their beauty, and domestic and womanly virtues. On the date stone of the old Folwell mansion when taken down, 1874, to make way for a new dwelling, were the letters and figures "A. M. M. 1719."]* The Duffield (20) family can be traced back to the reign of Edward II, when Richard was bailiff of York, 1535. The first of the name came to England with William the Conqueror. The Pennsylvania Duffields are descended from Benjamin, the son of Robert and Bridget, born 1661, who landed at Burlington, New Jersey, in 1679, and is said to have been one of a delegation who came across the river to welcome William Penn on his arrival. He afterward settled in Lower Dublin, married a daughter of Arthur Watts, and was the father of thirteen children. He died at Philadelphia in 1741, and was buried at Christ church. The late Alfred T. Duffield, of Southampton, was the fifth in descent from Benjamin, and was the son of Jacob, who died at Sackett's Harbor in 1815, while in the military service of the country. Edward Duffield (21), the grandson of Benjamin, was distinguished for his scientific acquirements, was the associate and friend of Rittenhouse, and one of the executors of Franklin. Benjamin Duffield has a numerous posterity. (20) The name is probably Norman-French, and is variously spelled, as Du Fielde, De Duffeld, Duffeld and Duffield. It is found among the records of Ripon Cathedral, where the name is Duffeld, Duffeilde, Duffyeld and Duffield. William Duffield was Arch Deacon of Cleveland, 1435, and diet 1452. (21) It is said that the first consultation held by Jefferson and others, on the subject of independence, was at the house of Edward Duffield, at the northwest corner of Fifth and Market streets, Philadelphia. [The Beans or Banes family, Buckingham, Southampton and Warminster, were descendants of Matthew Baines, of Wyerdale, Lancashire, England, who married Margaret, daughter of William Hatton, of Bradley, 10 mo., 22, 1672, and had issue: Thomas, born 11 mo., 11, 1675, married 4 mo., 21, 1718, Elizabeth Ellison; Elinor, born 8 mo., 22, 1677, married (at Falls) 7 mo., 26, 1694, Thomas Duer; Timothy, born 1 mo., 1678, married 1710, Hannah Low; William, born 5, 14, 1681, married 1707, Elizabeth -----; Deborah, born 1, 1, 1683, married, 1708 (at Falls), Thomas Ashton.*] [In 1686 Mather Baines, with children, Elinor and William, left England for Pennsylvania, the father dying at sea. When the children landed, they were taken charge of by Friends of Chester monthly meeting. The father's dying request, as shown by a letter of Phineas Pemberton to John Walker, 1688, was that his children should be placed in care of James Harrison, but Harrison having died before their arrival, his son- in-law, Pemberton, went to Chester to look after them, and finding them in good hands they were allowed to remain. As the record of the times puts it: "The boy was put with one Joseph Stidman and the girl with one John Simcock, and hath 40 or 50s wages per annum, the boy to be with said Stidman, who is said to be a very honest man, until he comes to ye age of 20 years, which is ye customary way of putting forth orphans in these parts."*] [When the children of Mather Baines came of age they settled in Bucks county, married, raised families and died here. Elinor was married at Falls Meeting, 7 mo. 26, 1694, to Thomas Duer, and became the ancestors of the Duers of Makefield. The name of William's wife is not known, but he settled in Southampton near the line of Warminster, where he died, 1729, leaving a widow, Elizabeth and nine children, Joseph, Mather, James, Thomas, Elizabeth, Timothy, William, Jacob and Elinor. They married and settled in Bucks county, except Elinor, who died single. Three of them, James, Thomas and Elizabeth, allied themselves with the Sands family. Four removed to Buckingham and took up land there, Mather and Timothy marrying Paxsons, and Jacob, a Hartley. Timothy lived for a time in Solebury and Tinicum, then removed to Fairfax, Virginia, and some of his descendants are said to have subsequently removed to Cuba. The other three Beans brothers, of Buckingham, lived to a good old age, and raised large families of children, whose descendants are found in several states. The only child of Timothy that remained in Bucks county married Daniel Doan, Jr.*] [Joseph, the eldest son of William and Elizabeth, married 3 mo., 17, 1733, Esther Evan and died in Southampton, 1771, only a few months after his mother, leaving four sons, John, Joseph, Mather and Seth. James, the third son of William and Elizabeth, was a blacksmith and died 1749. His widow, Elizabeth, married a Roberts, and had three children, Phebe, Jesse and Elizabeth, who survived him. Thomas, the fourth son, who married Jane Sands, had five children, Nathan, Isaac, Thomas, Stephen and James, the latter marrying Griffith Miles, the elder. On the death of his first wife he married Elizabeth Hollinghead who survived him. Isaac, the second son of Thomas and Jane, married Christine Johnson, a descendant of the old New Amsterdam "Jansens," was the ancestor of J. Johnson Beans, Doylestown. William Baines, the ancestor, marrying out of meeting, his family became associated with the Southampton and Pennypack churches. The Buckingham Beanses of later year were descendants of William Beans, sixth son of William and Elizabeth Beans, among which was the late Joshua Beans of Doylestown. The late Colonel Charles Banes, Philadelphia, was one of the most prominent members of the family, although it produced several in the past (22).*] (22) It is difficult to account for the change of the name to Beans, which is peculiar to Bucks county. Of the seven sons of William and Elizabeth, only two, Joseph and James, retained the name of Banes, though some of the descendants of Thomas returned to the name in the third and fourth generations. As nothing is known of Deborah Banes' arrival in America, she probably died in England prior to the husband sailing with the children.* [Charles Search, the first of this family to settle in Bucks county, came from England about 1750, but it is not known where he settled; we have the names of but two of his children, Christopher and Lott. The former settled on a farm he purchased on the Street road half a mile below Davisville, where he died. He was married twice, his first wife being a Torbert, and his second wife being a Corson. Lott Search married Sarah Davis, and owned and lived several years on the farm now the property of J. Davis Duffield, on the Warminster township line road, just above Davisville. About 1830, himself and family removed to Avon, western New York, where he and his wife died, leaving sons Lott and William, and probably other children. They are both deceased. A son of William lived at Batavia, New York (23). Theodore C. Search, son of Jacob and grandson of Christopher Search, is a successful businessman of Philadelphia and founder of the "Textile School of Art," a very prosperous institution with 800 pupils. He has achieved distinction on other lines.*] (23) Lott Search was living in Southampton, 1805, where he conveyed twenty acres to William Barnesley, in Newtown. His wife's name was then Sarah, evidence that he had married Sarah Davis prior to that time. He was then a "cooper." In 1815 he was in Warminster, and on April 3, himself and wife, Sarah, conveyed twenty-four acres to Isaac Warner. He was still in Warminster, 1825, when Isaac Longstreth, John Longstreth and Samuel Miles conveyed three lots of land to him, forty-seven acres. The author remembers when he lived on the Warminster farm.* [John McNair, son of Samuel McNair, Horsham, Montgomery county, settled in Southampton, 1794, living in the hip-roof house on the Buck road below churchill, where he died, 1833. He followed milling. He was a man of some prominence, holding the offices of justice of the peace, county treasurer, county commissioner, and member of Assembly. While commissioner 1811-13, the new public buildings were erected at Doylestown, and it is related that while the Court house was being built, one of the workmen enlisted for war with England, which so enraged the others, they were on the point of tearing down the recruiting office, but Commissioner McNair appeased them. His son Samuel was living at Davisville, 1877, at the age of seventy-seven, but we do not know the date of his death. Another son, John, settled at Norristown, at one time kept a flourishing boarding school, then read law and practiced, and subsequently represented Montgomery county in Congress, prior to 1850. His son, F. V. McNair, an officer of the United States Navy, served with distinction under Farragut on the Mississippi, in the Civil War; more recently he was superintendent of the Naval Academy, Annapolis, but was relieved on account of ill health. He was subsequently promoted to Rear Admiral and died suddenly at Washington.*] [The Davis family of Southampton, of which the late General John Davis was long the head and representative member, are descended from William Davis, a Welsh immigrant, who settled in Solebury, or Upper Makefield, Bucks county, about 1740, and married Sarah Burley, daughter of John Burley, Upper Makefield, 1756. He died near the close of the century, his widow surviving him until May 15, 1819, at the age of eight-four. They had born to them seven children: Jemima, December 25, 1758, married John Pitner; John, born September 6, 1760, married Ann Simpson, June 26, 1783, died January 22, 1832; Sarah, born October 1, 1763, married Lott Search; William, born September 9, 1766; Joshua, born July 6, 1769; Mary, born October 3, 1771, and Joseph, born March 1, 1774. A sister of Sarah Burley married James Torbet, Upper Makefield, and other members of the family connected themselves by marriages with the Slacks, McNairs, Searches, Simpsons, Houghs, Harts and other well known county families.*] (See illustration of Gen. John Davis) [John Davis, the eldest son of William Davis and Sarah Burley, almost sixteen when the war for Independence broke out, immediately took up arms in defense of the colonies, his first service being in the Amboy expedition 1776, as a private in the company of Captain William Hart. In January 1777 he enlisted in Captain Thomas Butler's company, Third regiment, Pennsylvania Line, and in turn, served in the Second, Third, Eighth and Ninth Pennsylvania regiments, the change in commands being caused by consolidation and reorganization as the service required. He also served in Captain Joseph McClellan's company of Light Infantry corps, commanded by Lafayette, in all about five years, from 1778 to 1781. He was at Brandywine, Germantown, Paoli, Monmouth, passed the winter at Valley Forge, was wounded at the Block House on the Hudson, assisted to carry Lafayette to a place of safety at Brandywine when wounded, and was one of the guard at the gallows when Major Andre was hanged, the storming of Stony Point and at Yorktown.*] [If further evidence were wanting to prove the Revolutionary service of John Davis, the elder, it is found in the following declaration under oath, made September 1, 1829, three years before his death, in his application for a pension under the laws of Pennsylvania: "I John Davis, do, on my oath, testify and declare that I enlisted in the army of the Revolution in 1777, in Captain Butler's Company, Colonel Butler's regiment, Pennsylvania Line; afterward was transferred into Captain McClellan's company of Light Infantry; that I served in the Line until sometime in 1781, when I was honorably discharged, which discharge is lost. I further testify that I was wounded in my foot while in service at a block house near Fort Lee, on the Hudson river, from which I was and continue to be much disabled." etc (Signed.) John Davis.*] [After John Davis was discharged from the Continental army, he was appointed and commissioned an ensign in the second battalion, Bucks county militia, and with it was called into service on two occasions. This commission is in possession of the author; also the certificate of John Chapman, who administered the oath of allegiance to John Davis, the 18th day of October, 1779. Under the act of Assembly of Pennsylvania of March 24, 1785, allotting land to those who had served in the Revolution. John Davis drew lot No. 1,167, in the sixth donation district, 200 acres, for which the patent was issued to him, September 29, 1787. It was located in Crawford county.*] [Peace having been declared, John Davis, the Revolutionary veteran, returned to his father's home and took up the laboring oar which he had laid down seven years before. As he had been brought up on a farm, he resolved to resume that occupation, but before doing so, took unto himself a wife, in the person of Ann Simpson, daughter of William Simpson, of Buckingham township, to whom he was married June 26, 1783. They had issue: Sarah, born October 12, 1784, William, born August 22, 1786, John, born August 7, 1788, died April 1, 1878, Ann, born November 6, 1790, Joshua, born June 27, 1796, Samuel, born September 1798 Joseph, born January 27, 1803, and Elizabeth, born November 18, 1805. John Davis continued farming in Solebury until 1795, when he removed to Montgomery county, Maryland, settling near Rock Creek Meeting House, some twelve miles from Washington. In 1816 he made a second removal, this time to Ohio, locating on the east bank of the Sciota river, ten miles above Columbus, the capital, where he spent the balance of his life.*] [In the meantime John Davis' second son and third child of the foregoing, having married Amy Hart, daughter of Josiah Hart, and niece of William Watts, of Southampton, March 13, 1813, settled at what became Davisville, where he spent his life, farming, store-keeping and saw-milling, dying within four months of ninety. He was a central figure in that community, and took an interest in politics and military matters, representing the district in Congress, filling the office of surveyor of the port of Philadelphia for four years, and holding commissions from ensign to major-general in the volunteer militia. In the war of 1812-15 he served a tour of duty as lieutenant in Colonel Humphrey's rifle regiment. John and Amy Davis had a family of seven children, one dying in infancy, the remainder marrying into the families of Erwin, Duffield, Carpenter, Mercur and Sells, the husband of the daughter Sarah, Ulysses Mercur, becoming chief justice of the State Supreme Count.*] The Moravians made a lodgement in Southampton about 1740. On the 2d of June, 1744, they purchased a lot of one acre and nine perches, on which a meeting-house was erected, and where the itinerant, Owen Rice, John Okely, and others of Bethlehem, preached in English, until 1747 (24). The site of this early Moravian church was probably on the lot of the Gimlettown school-house, where the remains of an old foundation wall can be traced. This location is sustained by the tradition of the neighborhood. The lot is on the Bristol road, and the title is traced back to Thomas Phillips, before 1687. (24) Rev. William C. Reichel of Bethlehem. Among the early families in the township we omitted to mention that of Dracot, or Dracket, probably of French descent. Ralph Dracot was there before 1712. About 1750 one of this name, who lived on the Newtown road below the Buck, discovered black lead on the farm belonging to John Naylor (25). He kept the secret to himself for some time, quietly extracting the lead which he sold in Philadelphia; and when the owner found out he generously permitted him to get what lead he wanted. Dracot died in 1780. The mine was worked within the memory of the author, but has long since been abandoned. The lead is said to be of a good quality. (25) Was owned by the estate of Isaac Hogeland a few years ago. One of the most remarkable characters that lived in Southampton [in the past*], was John Perkins, who died August 8, 1838, at the age of eighty-four years. He was blind for upward of seventy years, but nevertheless was enabled by his industry to lay up enough to support him in his old age. His principal occupation was threshing grain [with a flail*] and dressing flax, and he was so well acquainted with the roads that he could travel alone in all directions. He was a member of the Southampton Baptist church about sixty years, and was a regular attendant on the services, in all weather. The earliest record of taxables in Southampton that we have met, in 1742, when there were forty-three, the heaviest one paying ten shilling on a valuation of £60. The rate was two pence per pound, and nine shillings for single men. By 1762 the taxables had increased to eighty-five. In 1784 the population of the township was 568, of whom thirty were negroes, and there were eighty-four dwelling houses. In 1810 the number of inhabitants was 739; 1820, 907; 1830, 1,228, of which 234 were taxables; 1840, 1,256; 1850, 1,407; 1860, 1,356; 1870, 1,303, of which fifty-eight were of foreign birth, [and in 1900, the population was 1,637*]. If these figures be correct the township gained 165 in forty years, and the population was fourteen less in 1870 than in 1850. The area is 8,119 acres. There are three churches in this township, the Southampton Baptist church, the Davisville Baptist church, and the Low Dutch Reformed. The first named stands on the Middle Road half a mile below Springville; was founded in 1731, and was the seventh in the Province. It had its origin in the small band of Keithian Friends which commenced their meetings at the house of John Swift forty years before. The first pastor was the Reverend John Potts [Joshua Potts*], since whose times nine [eleven*] others have ministered at its desk (26). Several generations of the inhabitants of the surrounding country lie buried in its grave yard. In the rear of the church is the grave of John Watts (27), one of the preachers to the Keithian band, on whose tombstone is the following quaint inscription: "Intered here I be O that you could now see How unto Jesus for to flee Not in sin still to be. Warning in time pray take And peace by Jesus make Then at the last when you awake Sure on his right hand you'l partake." (26) A more extended account of the Southampton Baptist Church will be found in the Chapter on "Historic Churches." (27) There is some conflict concerning John Watts, both in life and death. The inscription on his tombstone argues that he was buried there, but it is positively asserted that he was buried at Cold Spring near Bristol, this county. This we believe to have been the case, for at that period, there was neither church nor graveyard at Southampton. It is also asserted in the old record that he was both for and against the Keithian movement, but we cannot stop to unravel it. We were told in the long ago that the gravestones were only erected at Southampton to mark the respect that the church had for his memory. Among the pastors there have been some able and eminent men, and in its time the Southampton Baptist church was one of the most influential of that body. The Davisville Baptist church, an offshoot of Southampton church, was organized March 31, 1849, at the house of Jesse L. Booz, in that village. It began with thirty-three members, who left the mother church because of a want of harmony. The seceders were accompanied by the pastor, Alfred Earle, who became the first pastor of the new organization, with John Potts and Bernard Vanhorne as deacons. A meeting-house thirty-six by forty-five feet was erected at an expense of $1,500, and was first occupied January 1, 1850. The pastors from that time to the present have been the Reverends Messrs. F. Kent, Charles Cox, James H. Appleton, and William H. Conrad, who was installed September 1, 1862, with eighty-four members, and thirty-five children in the Sunday school. Since then the church building has been much enlarged and improved, and a handsome parsonage erected. There is now about [250*] members, with nearly as many scholars in the Sunday school. The money collections in 1873, for all purposes, were $1,436.22. The church is one of the most flourishing of the denomination in the county, and exercises a wide influence for good in the surrounding neighborhood. The Low Dutch Reformed (28) congregation of North and Southampton, whose place of worship is at Churchville, on the Bristol road, is probably the third, if not the second, oldest denominational organization in the county. It was originally called Neshaminy church, or, as it was written in the old Dutch records, "Sammany," and "Shammony." It is not known just when, nor where, the first church was built, but no doubt near the creek that gave its name, and at an early date churches were erected on the Street road in Southampton, at what is now Featerville, and at Richborough in Northampton. These churches were necessary to accommodate the Holland settlers in these two townships. Reverend Paulus Van Vleck, who was chosen pastor at Bensalem, May 30, 1710, officiated at "Shammony" until he left his charge in 1712. Jan Banch, a Swedish missionary from Stockholm, visited this church in January, July, November and December, 1710, and was there again in April 1711 and January 1712. At his second visit he baptised a child of Jacob and Catalinda Welfenstein, the witnesses being Van Vleck, the pastor, his wife Janett, Rachael Coarson, and Stoffel Van Sand, a deacon. (28) This denomination was formerly known as the "Reformed Protestant Dutch church in North America," but the name was changed a few years ago to "The Reformed church in America." It is Presbyterian in government, and Calvinistic in doctrine. It is the oldest branch of the Presbyterian church in America by nearly an hundred years, being planted on these shores in 1610, when the Hollanders settled at Manhattan. In the petition for the organization of Northampton township, December 1722, this church is called the "Neshaminy meeting-house." Samuel Hesselius, one of the pastors at Wicacoa, officiated there in 1719 and 1720, and he afterward preached there in connection with Kalkonhooks (29) and Matson's ford on the Schuylkill. He was there in 1721, but how much longer is not known. This congregation and Bensalem were probably branches of Wicacoa at first, and the people of "Shammony" had the privilege of burying on the north side of the Wicacoa graveyard. At what time it was given the name of the church of North and Southampton is not known, but probably when a church building was erected in each township. After Mr. Hesselius, there is an interregnum of several years, until the pastorate of Reverend Peter Henry Dortius (30), who came about 1730 (31). He preached in both Dutch and German, and frequently traveled a considerable distance to preach to destitute German congregations. In September 1740 he baptised several children of the Egypt church, north of Allentown, in Lehigh county. He was called "Herr Inspector," and probably had a commission to inspect the German churches and report their condition to the authorities in Europe. In the latter year of his pastorate he was involved in trouble with his congregation on account of his falling into dissipated habits. The Reverend Michael Schlatter (32), the ruling elder of the Reformed churches in America, was called upon by the pastor to settle the trouble between him and his congregation. He made several visits to "Northampton, in Schameny," as he calls the place, to allay the strife, but was not successful. Dortius left about 1748, and is supposed to have returned to Holland. During the vacancy Mr. Schlatter preached to the congregation once a month on a week day. (29) Darby creek. (30) His wife was Jane, daughter of Dirck Hogeland; they had three children. (31) An authority states that Mr. Dortius was called January 1, 1744, to receive £40 a year salary in "gold money," house, land, firewood, and saddle horse, to preach twice on Sunday in summer and once in winter. Abraham Van de Grift, and Garret Wynkoop were then elders. The year is wrong, probably because the entry was not made until that year. He was pastor there as early as March 1739 and no doubt the date given in the text is correct. (32) A native of St. Gall, Switzerland, where he was born July 14, 1716, and came to America in 1746 to inspect the Reformed churches. At one time he was chaplain in the British army, and was imprisoned because he was a patriot in the Revolution. He died between October 22 and November 23, 1790. Schlatter says that when he landed in New York he received especial proofs of friendship from Father DuBois, who had labored in the ministry with great success more than fifty years. The Reverend Jonathan DuBois (33) was called to succeed Mr. Dortius, on recommendation of Mr. Schlatter, November 11, 1752, and installed the next day. He was to receive £50 a year, a house and seventeen acres in Byberry, a saddle horse, and eight Sundays in each year to himself. In the call the elders and the deacons style him "your honor." He was to serve the church in each township on Sunday, when the days were long. It is stated in the life of the Reverend Henry M. Muhlenberg, that he visited the remnant of Dutch Lutherans, at Neshaminy, twenty miles from Philadelphia, in 1754. They had been served some time by Mr. Van Doran, who preached to them in a barn. Mr. Muhlenberg visited them every six weeks in the summer, and preached three sermons each Sunday, in Dutch, German and English. He says the Dutch Reformed had a church. The Lutherans were scattered by death, removals, etc. In the distribution of charities from the classes of Amsterdam, in April 1755, "Mr. DuBois, of Northampton," received £21.5s., and Mr. Dortius £5.8s. In 1759 £20 were given to Mr. DuBois. In 1760 the congregation maintained a school of sixty boys. Mr. DuBois officiated for this congregation until his death December 16, 1772, a period of nearly twenty-two years. (33) Jonathan DuBois was the son of Barnet DuBois, and both he and his cousin John, son of Louis, were educated for the ministry by voluntary subscription, the father of Jonathan carrying round the subscription paper, which was drawn by David Evans, pastor of the Pillsgrove church, Salem county, New Jersey. John died in New London, in 1745, while pursuing his studies with Doctor Allison. The wife of Jonathan DuBois is said to have been Amy, sister of Reverend Nehemiah Greenman. There is no record of a successor to Mr. DuBois, until 1777, when he was succeeded by Reverend William Schenck, who was driven out of New Jersey by the British. He was born in Monmouth county October 13, 1740, graduated at Princeton 1767, married 1768, and studied theology with Mr. Tennent. He was chaplain in the army for a time. He came to Southampton March 3, 1777, and moved to the parsonage, then the farm now owned by Stephen Rhoads, on the road to Churchville, a quarter of a mile from the Buck tavern, the 24th of April. It is not known how long he staid, but he was at Pittsgrove in 1783, and probably left Southampton that year or the year before. Mr. Schenck died at Franklin, Ohio, September 1, 1827 (34), where he had settled in 1817. Afterward, in succession, were Reverends Mathias Leydt, who died November 24, 1783, aged twenty-nine years, Peter Stryker, in 1788, who resigned in 1790, Jacob Larzelere, who came October 13, 1798, and resigned in 1828, on account of declining years, A. O. Halsey, 1829 to 1867, an able man and minister, who left his mark on the community, William H. DeHart, from 1868 to 1870, and H. M. Vorhees, in October 1871, [followed by B. C. Lippencott, Samuel Streng and H. P. Craig.*] (34) The Schencks trace their ancestry back to Colve DeWitte, the founder of the house, a Hollander who was killed in battle with the Danes in 828. Christian, the first of the name, butler to the Count of Gulic, called by him Schenck in 1225, was a younger son of one of the lords of Tontenburg. The name means cup-bearer, butler, or wine-server. We have seen a copy of the hangman's bill of expenses attending the execution of Sir Martin Schenck, in Holland, about 1589. He had some sort of "on-pleasantness" with the powers that be, and to prevent further trouble he was turned over to the public executioner. The cost of putting him and three of his faithful soldiers out of the way was twenty-five guilders and fifteen stivers. It is a quaint old document. The Reverend William descends from Peter Schenck, who came to Long Island in 1650. While Mr. Schenck was at Southampton his son John Noble was born, January 28, 1778. The church was chartered by the legislature September 20, 1782, the consistory being then composed of Mr. Leydt, president, Gilliam Cornell and Henry Wynkoop, elders, and William Bennett, Arthur Lefferts and Daniel Hogeland, deacons. The first parsonage was in Byberry, Philadelphia county, but in 1775 the assembly authorized the trustees, Henry Krewson, Gilliam Cornell, John Krewson and William Bennet, to sell it an buy a new one. They bought 120 acres (35) of the estate of Thomas Harding, deceased, of Southampton, for £805.16s. (35) Farm of Stephen Rhoads on Churchville road, near the Buck tavern. During the pastorate of Mr. Larzelere, the church buildings at the extreme ends of the parish, Richborough and Feasterville, being out of repair, it was resolved to build a new church at a central point. A lot of three acres was bought of John McNair, at Churchville (36), and the cornerstone was laid June 16, 1814. The original building has been much enlarged and improved within recent years. The old church at Feasterville stood in the graveyard, about on a line with the front wall, was small, old-fashioned, of stone, and was torn down soon after the new edifice was erected. That at Richborough stood just outside the graveyard, about on the site of the present school-house. In the front wall of the old graveyard in Southampton we find, among others, the following inscriptions: "G. R., 1738" (37), "D. K. (38), 1738." [The oldest gravestone that gives an account of itself bears the inscription, "A. S. 1760," Abraham Staates. *] One stone records that Garret Krewson died in 1767, aged eighty-two years. There is a large number of stones that tell no story of those who sleep beneath. Three-quarters of a century ago the minister preached in Dutch and English, Sunday about. The congregation generally spoke Dutch, and the venerable John Lefferts remembers when he learned to speak English of the black cook of the kitchen. The people went to church in ox teams, and the girls without stockings in warm weather. On the Street road, a short distance above the site of the old church, is a burial-ground, free to all, and known as Harding's graveyard. The flourishing Reformed Dutch church at Richborough is the child of the old church of North and Southampton. (36) Then call Smoketown. (37) Garret Krewson. (38) Derrick Krewson. [Probably the oldest school house in the township, and possibly in the county, when it rendered its final account, was at the Southampton Baptist church, a mile east of Davisville; and was thought to have been built as early as 1750. A school house was there in 1765, and doubtless a log one, when Thomas Folwell leased the lot to Gilliam Cornell, Joseph Beans and Richard Leedom, "in trust for the people of the neighborhood, for the use of a school, and no other use whatever, so long as said house shall remain tenantable with small repairs." The house then on the lot was an old one or one was to be built on it. In 1771, Thomas Folwell and Elizabeth, doubtless his wife, and son William, conveyed an acre to the Baptist church, including the school lot of twelve square perches, "on which the new school house stands." This is evidence a previous school house had been taken down. As the first church was erected, 1732, no doubt a school house soon followed. These lots were part of 160 acres Thomas Folwell granted to his son William, 1762. The school was classical and mathematical. We know the name of but two of the early teachers, Rev. Isaac Eaton and Jesse Moore, a brother of Dr. Moore, who was subsequently a tutor in the University of Pennsylvania, then read law and became a judge in one of our western counties. He taught Latin at Southampton. At a later day Robert Lewis taught there, eighty hears ago, and was paid four dollars per quarter for each pupil. Among Moore's pupils were Doctors Wilson Ramsey, Hough, Rev. Oliver Hart, a distinguished Baptist minister, and Joseph Gales, one of the proprietors of the "National Intelligencer," Washington (39).*] (39) The author learned his A, B, C's in this old school house, stone pointed 16-16 feet, and has a distinct recollection of attending a school commencement there when a child. That and the stone shed and quaint sexton's home were torn down nearly seventy years ago.* Southampton lies in the southwest corner of the county, adjoining Philadelphia and Montgomery, is six miles long by two wide, in the shape of a parallelogram, except a ragged corner next to Middletown and Northampton. The upper part is quite level, with occasional gentle swells, but more broken and rolling in the middle and lower end. Edge Hill crosses the township about its middle. It is well-watered by the Pennypack, Poquessing, Neshaminy, and numerous smaller streams. The soil is fertile and well-cultivated, with but little waste land. It is well provided with roads. The Street road {runs through the middle its entire length; the Montgomery county line bounds it on the southwest, the Bristol road on the northeast, while a number of*] cross roads cut them at nearly right-angles. In 1709 the inhabitants of the township stated to the court that they had no public road to mill, market, or church. In March of that year they petition for a road "from the Queen's road (40), in Southampton, down to Joseph Growden's mill," and in September they ask the court to open a road "towards the new mill (41) on the Pennypack, which is likely to be our chief market." As late as 1722 the inhabitants complain that they have no regularly established roads. As early as 1699 a road was laid out from the King's highway "to Peter Webster's new dwelling" (42). The Buck road to the Philadelphia county line was relaid fifty feet wide in 1790, and the old road vacated in 1797. The road to Churchville, from the Buck (43), was laid out in 1795, and that from Davisville to Southampton Baptist church in 1814. (40) Old Buck Road. (41) Probably Gwinn's mill, below Hatboro. (42) The location of Webster's dwelling is not known. (43) The "Buck" was so named from the head of the animal that graces it sign board. The oldest inhabitant of Southampton that we have any account of was a colored woman, named Heston, who died November 15, 1821, in her 105th year, which carries her birth back to 1716 or 1717. Sarah Bolton, daughter of Isaac, who was an inhabitant of Southampton 150 years ago, was a minister among the Friends, and preached in Byberry in 1752. [This township was the birthplace of Dr. John Wilson, who became one of the most distinguished physicians of the county. He was born in the vicinity of Feasterville, sent to the classical school at Southampton Baptist church, graduated at the Philadelphia Medical School, and spent the greater part of his professional life in Buckingham, were he died. He was accomplished and elegant in manner.*] [The township is crossed by three railroads, built in the past twenty-five years. The first was that from Philadelphia to Newtown, intending to be continued to New York, but never finished. It crossed the Street road at Southampton, which it has been the means of greatly improving and was finished in the early spring of 1878. The Bound Brook road from Philadelphia to New York, shortly followed, forming connection at Bound Brook, and thence running over the New Jersey Central tracks to Jersey City. It leaves the North Penn track at Jenkintown, crossing the Street road at the township line. The third is the "Pennsylvania Cut-Off," from the Schuylkill below Norristown to the Delaware at Morrisville, and is used by heavy through freight. It too crosses the Street road half a mile above Feasterville.*] [The township has likewise two turnpikes crossing it from northeast to southwest, one on the bed of the Middle or Oxford road, giving a continuous pike from Philadelphia to New Hope, via Centerville; the other from Richborough via the Buck, Somerton, etc., to Philadelphia . These roads were early arteries of trade and travel, the latter one the first pike in the county. A branch turnpike a mile long runs from the Fox Chase, Richborough pike to Davisville. *] [There are five post offices in the township, Davisville, established in 1827, Feasterville, 1831, Churchville, 1872, Southampton and Cornell of more recent date.*] [Southampton has six villages, all terminating in "ville," the American weakness. Davisville, the oldest in name at the Warminster line; Feasterville, four miles below, also on the Street road; Brownsville, two miles below that; Churchville on the Bristol road; Cornell on the same road, a mile above it, and Southampton, the youngest and largest, named after the township. Davisville was named after the late General John Davis, and we may say was founded by him, 1827, when he erected a store house and dwelling at the cross roads, and the post office was moved down from Joseph Warner's over the line in Warminster, the head waters of one branch of the Pennypack, takes its rise in the meadows a few hundred yards above. It was the seat of a sawmill for nearly a century, and in former years the center of very considerable business. A county bridge built 1843, spans the old sawmill dam, now almost filled with mud. Here five public roads meet, and the village contains twenty dwelling, with a store and some minor industries (44). A school house was erected fifty-five years ago, and dedicated to public use with the following inscription cut on a marble slab in the gable by the late Daniel Longstreth, 11 mo., 1843: "Davisville Seminary, built by voluntary contribution; lot the gift of Richard Benson. The building committee were David Marple, James M. Boileau, Thomas Montanye, Samuel Naylor, and Jesse Edwards." A day school was kept in it until the township accepted the school law, when it was turned over to the public school board and occupied until recently. The first school in Davisville was a select school for girls, opened by Miss Isabella McCarren, 1834, and kept there several years. She subsequently married and spent many years in Philadelphia, but now lives at Southampton, a mile below, in her ninety-second year. Her mind is good and she takes an interest in current events.*] (44) Seventy-five years ago there were but four dwellings in the immediate vicinity of Davisville; the Watts homestead, Josiah Hart's dwelling and sawmill property, John Folwell's house, recently Roberts', and the John White dwelling on the Duffield farm. For a number of years, especially during the active life of the late General John Davis, the village was a political and military center. The volunteer system was in its prime, politics warm and spicy, and the leaders of both made frequent visits hither for orders.* [The village of Southampton, a mile below Davisville at the junction of the Street and Middle road, contains 100 dwellings with the usual complement of stores, mechanics, etc. In 1841 there were but three houses here - Elijah Banes, Edward Boileau, and the store with dwelling attached. The store house was built by Thomas Banes for his son William, 1793, and probably occupied by him until his death, 1803, being accidentally killed in Philadelphia. He was born, 1770, and married Nancy Miles, Thomas Banes died 1828. The storehouse was left to his daughter, Lydia Lukens, who sold it to Dr. Joshua Jones, 1827, and since that time, it has had a number of owners and occupants. A smithy and wheelwright shop was located here early in the century. In the early day this place was called the "Lower Corner," in contradistinction to the "Upper Corner," now Johnsville, a mile above Davisville, and later took the name of the storekeeper for the time being, as "Hicks' Corner," "Fetter's Corner," etc. Among the occupants of the store in the past sixty years were Watts Jones, 1841; James Hicks, 1845; Casper Fetter, 1853; George W. Boileau, 1868; Alfred Boileau, 1874; John Woodington, William Sharp, Frank Buckius, Jacob Buckman, George Wolf and others. Woodington removed to Kansas some years ago. In the field at the northeast corner of the two roads, Capt. William Purdy's rifle company assembled, September 1814, previous to setting off for Camp Dupont, Delaware, the Rev. Thomas B. Montanye preaching an appropriate sermon. A Baptist camp meeting held in a wood near here, 1835, on the Baptist parsonage farm, gave birth to the Hatboro Baptist church.*] [Feasterville, a hamlet of a few houses on the turnpike leading from Richborough to Philadelphia, is in the midst of a highly cultivated country. Here is the only tavern in the township, the historic "Buck," and on the turnpike, a mile from Churchville, the only flour mill. In the old hip-roofed house nearby, the late James Carter, Byberry, was born, 1778.*] [Springville, a hamlet of about the same number of dwellings and two or three farm houses, with a post office called "Cornell," a smithy and a store at the intersection of the Bristol and Middle road, make up the complement of Southampton's villages. Tradition tells us that in the "long ago," whereof the memory of man "runneth not to the contrary," Springville had a tavern called "The Blue Bell," on the site of the store on the Bristol road, but of its history we know nothing.*] End of Chapter XIII.