THE HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA, CHAPTER XVII, BUCKINGHAM, 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 XVII BUCKINGHAM 1703 The empire township. -Vale of Lahaska. -Surface broken. -Durham and York roads. - Origin of name. -First settlers. -Amor, Paul and Samuel Preston, -James Streator and Richard Parsons. -The West and Reynolds tracts. -Robert Smith. The Worthingtons.* -Windy bush. -Gen'l A. J. Smith.* -Thomas Canby. - William Cooper. -Thomas Bye. -Edward Hartly. -The Paxson family. -The Watsons. -John Watson, the surveyor. -Matthew Hughes and others. -Joseph Fell. -Jesse Fell burns hard coal in a grate. -The Carvers. -Meetings for worship. -Meeting-house built. -Burned down. -Used as hospital. -Births, deaths, marriages. -The Laceys.* -General John Lacey.* -Old house*. -Taverns.* -Cross Keys*. -Lenape Stone.* -Ann Moore. -Earliest boundary. -Old map. -The Idens. -Doctor John Wilson. -Schools. -Amos Austin Hughes. -Justin Cox. -Doctor Cernea. -Buckingham library. -Nail factory. -Big Ben. -James Jamison. -The villages. -Population. -Caves and sink holes. -African church. -William Simpson. -Scythe and ax factory. -Catching pigeons. (See map of Buckingham & Soulbury townships, 1703) The central location of Buckingham, its productive soil, valuable quarries of limestone, its wealth, intelligence, population, and area, 18,488 acres, entitle it to be considered the empire township of the county. The stream of immigration, that brought settlers into the woods of Wrightstown, carried them up to the "Great mountain" (1), and they gradually spread over Buckingham and Solebury, originally one township. It is well watered by the Lahaska creek and its tributaries, which meander the township in several directions, and branches of Pine run, Pidcock's creek, and Paunacussing (2), which drain its east and north corners and along the northeast border. (1) Called by the Indians Lahaskekee. Samuel Preston said the Indian name was "Laskeek." In an old paper it is written "Lehoskuk" hill. In 1815 it was called, by some, "Lackawissa." (2) The Indian name was Paunauissinck. A note, to the "Vale of Lahaska" written by Samuel Johnson in 1835, says Lahaska was the name of what is now called Buckingham mountain. This is an error. On an old manuscript map of part of the township, drawn in 1726, the name is written, "the Great mountain, called by the Indians Pepacating," probably Pepacatek, as "ing" is not an Indian termination. The mountain must have been named after the township, at a later date. It lies in the lap of one of the loveliest valleys in the worked, runs nearly northeast and southwest, and about two miles in length. It is rich in agricultural and mineral wealth, and in the middle of it is a natural well, around which the Indians cleared off the timber, and built a village for the sake of the water. The poet of the valley drew a true picture when he wrote: "From the brow of Lahaska wide to the west, The eye sweetly rests on the landscape below; 'Tis blooming as Eden, when Eden was blest, As the sun lights its charms with the evening glow." The surface is broken by Buckingham mountain (3). A vein of limestone begins back of the Lahaska hills, which widens as it extends into Solebury, and the many lime-kilns it feeds adds greatly to the productive wealth of the township. The soil in all parts is naturally fertile, while the famous valley is unsurpassed in fertility. The population is well-educated and intelligent. The original settlers were almost exclusively English Friends, whose descendants now form the bulk of the population. Two of the main highways of the county, the Durham and York roads, pass through the township in its entire length and breadth, intersecting at Centreville, while lateral roads lead in all directions. Before Solebury was cut off, about 1703, Buckingham contained 33,000 acres, and with its present area it is the largest township in the county. (3) On the summit, and near the middle of the range, is a rocky cavern, called "Wolf Rocks," said to have had its hermit, and some romantic stories are told about it. The mountain is much frequented in the spring of the year by young people.* The name Buckingham is of English origin, and in England it is borne by several localities. We have Bushing, from becen, the beech-tree, then Becen-ham, then Bushingham, the village among the beeches, and lastly Buckingham. Probably it was given this name from a desire to retain it in the county, after that of Bristol had been changed from Buckingham to what it now bears. In 1706 the township was called New Buckingham, probably to distinguish it from Bristol, which was still called "Buckingham." It is possible the name had not been given to it in 1700, for in the return of survey of James Streater's land it is said to be laid out in Bucks county, township not mentioned. John Watson records, that in cutting down a white oak in 1769, there were found in it several large marks of an ax, which the growth of the tree indicated must have been made some fifty years before the province was granted to Penn. It is impossible to say who was the first settler in Buckingham, and the time of his arrival, but it could not have been more than a year or two after John Chapman had seated himself in the woods of Wrightstown. It is probable all the first settlers of this region made a halt in Falls, or the neighboring settlements, before they pushed their way back into the woods about the great mountain. They were mostly members of Falls meeting, and it is said that some of them walked all the way down there to attend meetings, before they had permission to hold them in Buckingham. These settlers were of a better class, many of them were intelligent and educated, and the energy required in the settlement of a new country developed their best mental and physical qualities. Surveys were made as early as 1687, and before 1702 nearly all the land was located. This was before the Indian title had been extinguished to an acre in the township (4). Until grain enough was raised to support the pioneers of Buckingham and Solebury the supply was fetched from Falls and Middletown. At the time Buckingham was first settled there was no store north of Bristol, and grain was taken to Morris Gwin's mill, on the Pennypack, to be ground, down to 1707. (4) Among the original settlers were John and Thomas Bye, George Pownall, Edward Henry, Roger Hartley, James Streater, William Cooper, Richard Burgess, John Scarborough, Henry Paxson, John and Richard Lundy, John Large, James Lenox, William Lacey, John Worstall, Jacob Holcomb, Joseph Linton, Joseph Fell, Matthew Hughes, Thomas Weston, Amor Preston, Joseph George, Lawrence Pearson, Rachel Parsons, Daniel Jackson and Joseph Gilbert. Some of these settlers did not come into the township until after 1700. It is claimed that Amor Preston was the first white man who settled in Buckingham, but the time of his coming or whether he was actually the earliest settler, it is not positively known. He is said to have followed his trade, that of a tailor, at Wiccaco, where his cabin was burned, whereupon the Indians who lived about the Buckingham mountain, invited him to move up to their village. His wife, the child of Swedish parents who lived on the Delaware, above the mouth of Neshaminy, was brought up in the family of James Boyden, who had 541 acres surveyed to him in Bristol township, in 1682. Their eldest son, Nathan, erroneously said to have been the first white child in Buckingham, was born in 1711, married Mary Hough in 1737, died in 1778, and was buried at Plumstead. His widow died in 1782. The descendants of Amor Preston claim that he married his wife at Pennsbury, in the presence of William Penn; but as they were not married until 1710 or 1711, several years after Penn had left the province, not to return, this claim is not well founded. His widow died in 1774, at the house of her grandson, Paul Preston, in Buckingham, aged upward of one hundred years (5). She used to relate that she saw William Penn land where Philadelphia stands (6). (5) The Preston homestead was the farm now owned and occupied by Benjamin Goss, near the east line of the township. (6) The Preston Bible says that Amor Preston was born at Frankford, Philadelphia Co., Feb. 7, 1684-5. In it is the following made by the father, William Preston: "I left old England, with my wife and children, the 10th, 4th month, 1683. We arrived in Pennsylvania 20th, 6th month, 1683." William Preston's wife, the mother of Amor, was Ann Taylor. The will of William Preston, Frankford, Philadelphia Co., is dated 5 month, 29, 1714, and probated Oct. 9, 1717 - witness, Thomas Canby and Morris Morris. The children mentioned are Amor, Abell, Paul, Priscilla and Sarah. The executors were the widow and Paul Preston.* This family produced an eccentric, and to some extent, distinguished, member in the person of Paul Preston. By close application he became a fine mathematician and linguist, studying in a small building he erected off from his dwelling. He lead an active life until upward of sixty, dressed in homespun clothes and leathern apron, ate off a wooden trencher, and died from a fall into a ditch, at the age of eighty-four. His widow, Hannah Fisher, whom he married in 1763, lived to her ninety-fourth year. He was county-surveyor, tax-collector, and translator of German for the courts. He was six feet six and three-quarters inches in height. Paul Preston was the friend and associate of Franklin, who esteemed him highly. It is related, that a friend of Franklin, about to go to court at Newtown, asked for a letter of introduction to Preston, but the doctor declined to give it, saying he would know him easy enough, as he will be the tallest man, the homeliest-looking man, and the most sensible man he would meet at Newtown. His son Samuel, born in 1756, and died in 1834, was the first Associate-Judge of Wayne county, where his descendants reside (7). Samuel Preston used to relate of his grandmother, that when a little girl tending cows in the swamp near the Neshaminy, she discovered the dead body of a white man in the water, a peddler who had been seen about the day before. She was sent to the nearest house, one Johnson's, to give the alarm, that as she entered a little girl said her father had killed a man the night before, and a woman was then wiping up the blood (8). (7) The Preston coat-of-arms is almost identical with that of the Preston family of England, and the motto nearly the same. The surname and arms of the family were assumed, by royal license, by Thomas Hutton, a descendant of the Prestons, who was created a baronet in 1815. The family seat is at Beeston, St. Lawrence, Norfolk. The name of Preston is one of great antiquity in North Britain. (8) We find it impossible to reconcile the conflicting statements concerning Mrs. Preston. If she were a "little girl" when she found the dead man, (who was killed in May 1692,) she could not have been over an hundred years when she died, in 1774. If she were married at Pennsbury, while the manor house was building, and Penn at the wedding, it must have taken place at his second visit, 1699-1701, for she was too young at his first visit. The theory that her son Nathan was the first white child born in the township is spoiled by the fact that he was actually born in 1711, and as he was the eldest child of his parents we have the right to suppose that they were married within a year of that time. The Buckingham meeting records contain the date of birth of seven children of William and Jane Preston, of Bradley, England, all born between 1699 and 1713. If we are to credit some of the Preston family records, Nathan was the only son of Amor and Esther Preston who grew to manhood; and as all the children of Nathan are said to have been daughters, the first progenitors could not have left descendants in the male line beyond their son Nathan. (See illustration of Preston coat-of-arms) James Streater, of Alsfre, England, and Richard Parsons each owned 500 acres, which they located soon after 1683. The former bought the tract which Penn granted to George Jackson, of Wellow, in September 1681, and by the latter to Streater in 1683, which Penn confirmed March 5, 1700. He sold it to Edmund Kinsey, in 1714, and at his death it passed to his heirs. The meeting-house stands on this tract. It was a parallelogram in shape, and lay on both sides of the York road from the township line to about Greenville. In 1714 Streater styles himself, "practitioner in physic," but as he was a grocer in 1683, he must have studied the healing art between these dates. Perhaps he practiced without study, and exclaimed with Shakespeare, "Throw physic to the dogs." Parson's tract lay above Streater's and was granted in 1682. He conveyed it to Thomas Nicholas, of New Castle, in 1727, and at his death in 1746, 334 acres were bought by Stephen Perry, of Philadelphia. The farm of Joseph Fell is part of it. In 1688, a tract of a 1,000 acres was confirmed to Richard Lundy. At the close of 1684, a warrant for several thousand acres was issued to Thomas Hudson. The land was located in Buckingham and elsewhere, but not being taken up regularly, it was finally covered with warrants to other persons. In 1722, 212 acres lying on the Street road, were surveyed to Joseph Worth. June 21, 1687, 980 acres were surveyed to Edward West, and 984 to John Reynolds, on both (south*) sides of the mountain on the road from Pineville to Claytown, the two tracts joining each other (9) [and extending to the Wrightstown line.*] The original purchasers never appearing, the land was settled upon by others, at an early day, without any color of title, and the improvement rights sold, down to 1769. The Proprietaries took bonds from the tenants against waste. In 1742 they sold 500 acres of the West tract. From 1752 to 1760 there were numerous suits for the possession of these lands, and litigation was continued down to within the present generation. At various times those in possession took out warrants to locate by actual survey. In 1781 the Reynolds tract was declared an escheat to the Proprietaries, and the claimants under the escheat were permitted to take out patents at the rate of £15 per 100 acres. Those claiming to be the heirs of the first purchaser filed caveats against issuing the patents, and about 1788 one Reynolds, from Ireland, brought an action of ejectment, but was non-suited. The caveat claimants afterward brought suit, but were defeated. In 1808 John Harrison Kaign made claim to the property for himself and others. The last suit about these lands was terminated within a few years, in which the late Thomas Ross was engaged as counsel. The absence of Reynolds was accounted for by his alleged loss at sea, and the Revolution was given as the cause of delay in bringing suit. There are two traditions about Reynolds, one that he was lost at sea returning to England, the other that he was lost coming to America to take possession of his tract which had been located by an agent. On the trial several old letters were produced, one purporting to be written by John Reynolds in England to his brother in Chester county, stating his intention to sail for Pennsylvania to take possession of the land. The absence of West was not accounted for. (9) The two tracts were re-surveyed by Cutler in 1703 by virtue of a warrant dated 11th month, 5th, 1702, and found to contain 2,450 acres. [Some steps were taken in more recent years to recover the Reynolds tract for the heirs, but nothing came of it. The editor of the Doylestown "Democrat" received a letter at the time, stating that the tract "descended to the late Samuel Reynolds, Philadelphia, but three years of age when his father, James Reynolds, died, 1767; who was heir in common with two brothers, Nathaniel, the elder, who possessed the land, 1794, and Chicester, the younger. They were the sons of Reverend James Reynolds, rector of the Parish of Denertogney in the Barony of Inishane, County Donegal, Ireland; that the Reverend James Reynolds was the eldest son and heir-at-law of Nathaniel Reynolds, which Nathaniel Reynolds was the eldest son and heir-at-law of the original purchases, who came in the "Welcome" with Penn. The original patent of this land is in the Land Department at Harrisburg, and the title is now in the heirs of the late Samuel Reynolds.*] Robert Smith, the first of his family in Buckingham, was the second son of his father, who died on his passage from England. He arrived before 1699, and in his minority. His mother married a second time, and on arriving at age he left the maternal home barefooted. He took up 500 acres of land. He made his way well in life, married in 1719, and died in 1745, possessed of 700 acres in Buckingham, Makefield and Wrightstown. He had six sons, and John Watson, the surveyor, said they were the six best penmen he had ever met in one family. He was the grandfather of Robert Smith, surveyor and conveyancer half a century ago, and the ancestor of Carey Smith, of Spring Valley. About the time of Robert Smith's purchase, came William Smith, with his son Thomas, and purchased 500 acres adjoining Robert. When the township lines were run the latter's land fell into Upper Makefield, and was known as the "Windy bush" tract. These two families were not related. Joseph Smith, who introduced the use of anthracite coal into this county, and Charles Smith, of Pineville, the first to burn lime with hard coal, were both descendants of Robert Smith, the elder. Robert Smith, but from which of the original Smiths descended we do not know, was one of the pioneers in burning lime, having burnt a kiln as early as 1785. It is uncertain when the first kiln was burnt in this county, but probably as early as 1761 (10). The account book of Samuel Smith, grandfather of Josiah B., of Newtown, who lived on the Windy bush farm, shows that he paid John Long and David Stogdale for "digging limestone" in June 1761. This work was probably done in Buckingham. In 1774 he charged Timothy Smith fifteen shillings "for hauling five loads of lime," and about the same date with 180 bushels of lime at eight pence a bushel. January 2, 1819, the lime-burners of Buckingham and Solebury met at Newtown to petition the legislature for an act to establish a bushel measure for lime. Buyers and sellers of lime were invited to attend. Thomas Smith, the elder, of Buckingham, planted the seed that grew the tree that bore the first Cider apples raised in America, on the farm where the first Robert Smith settled. This now excellent apple began its career as natural fruit. The name, "Cider apple," was given to it by an Irishman who lived at Timothy Smith's. Mahlon Smith says he remembered the tree perfectly well, and that it was a very large one. At one time there were ten Robert Smiths in the same neighborhood in Buckingham. Samuel Smith, a soldier and officer of the Revolution, was [not a member of this family, but a son or grandson of Hugh Smith, a Scotch-Irish settler on the Reynolds tract in Buckingham.*] He was born February 1, 1749, and died September 17, 1835. He entered the Continental army in 1776, and served to the end of the war. He rose to the rank of captain, and was in some of the severest battles. He was an officer in Lafayette's brigade. After the war he married a daughter of John Wilkinson, and settled down as a farmer. In the war of 1812-14 he commanded a brigade of militia at Marcus Hook. He was the father of General Andrew J. Smith (11), of the United States army, who distinguished himself in the late civil war. (10) Limestone was quarried, and probably burnt, in Buckingham as early as 1703. In a deed from Lawrence Pearson to his brother Enoch Pearson, for 100 acres of the 200 bought by Lawrence of John Burgess in the Lundy tract, comprising the western part of the farm of Samuel E. Broadhurst and the Anderson farm, the 100 acres to be taken off next the Lundy, or Eastern side, and dated March 8, 1703-4, is this reservation: "Except the privilege of getting limestone for the said Lawrence and his children's own use with full egress and regress for fetching the same." Deed Book No. 3, pg. 181. (11) Andrew Jackson Smith was born in Buckingham township, Bucks Co., Pa., 1815, and died at St. Louis, Mo., January 30, 1897. He entered West Point, 1834, graduated, 1838; on recruiting service, 1839-45; promoted 1st lieutenant and served in Mexican war, Captain, 1848, and served through the Civil war reaching the rank of brevet major-general. He was appointed colonel 7th U. S. Cavalry after the war, and was retired 1889. [Samuel A. Smith and wife, Oxford, Chester county, Pennsylvania, son of General Samuel Smith, celebrated their golden wedding, November 6, 1877. There was a large company present, embracing four generations of the Smith family. At that time Samuel A. Smith had three brothers living, George A., Zion Hill, Maryland; Andrew J., United States Army, and Jenks Smith, Philadelphia. Among the guests was a Mrs. Waddleton, New York, a sister of Mrs. Smith, and bridesmaid at the wedding fifty years before. The occasion was one of great family interest. George A. Smith died at Zion Hill, January 7, 1879, in his 85th year. The deceased was a member of the Society of the Cincinnati.*] Thomas Canby, son of Benjamin, of Thorn, Yorkshire, England, born about 1667, came to Pennsylvania in 1683 as an indentured apprentice of Henry Baker, and was in Buckingham before, or by, 1690. He bought part of the Lundy tract, near Centreville, and married Sarah Garis [Jarvis*] in 1693. He was married three times, and was the father of seventeen children. Selling the Lundy property to Samuel Baker, he purchased part of the Scarborough tract in Solebury, including the Stavely farm, which he sold to his two sons, Thomas and Benjamin, and afterward bought Heath's mills on the Great Spring creek, near New Hope, where he died in 1742. His descendants are nearly numerous enough to people a state. Among the families who have descended, in part, from this ancestry are the Laceys, Hamptons, Smiths, Elys, Fells, Staplers, Gillinghams, Paxsons, Wilsons, Eastburns, Johnsons, Watsons, Pickerings, Parrys, Newbolds, Magills, Duers, Prices, Tysons, etc. William Cooper (12), one of the earliest settlers of Buckingham, was descended from an ancestor of the same name, of Nether, sometimes called Low Ellington, a hamlet on the river Vre, in the North Riding of Yorkshire, England. He was born August 16, 1649, and in the registry of his marriage at Masham the name is written, "Cowper." He immigrated to Pennsylvania in 1699, and probably came first to Falls, but settled in Buckingham the same year. His first wife's name was Thomasine, whom he married about 1672, three years before he joined the Friends, by whom he had three children, and one by Elizabeth, his second wife, all of whom came to America with him. He purchased 500 acres from Christopher Atkinson, who died before the deed was made, but, under the will, the title was confirmed by his widow Margaret, "of Belmont, of Bensalem." In this conveyance the name is written Cowper, as it is in the parish record in England. Friends' meeting, in Buckingham, was first held at his house. This early settler died in 1709. His children married into the families of Buckman, Huddleston, Hibbs, Pearson and Bond. The family here recorded is not identical with that of Cooper, the novelist. His ancestor, James Cooper, settled in Philadelphia in 1683, and then owned the lot on which the deeds office [stood*] on Chestnut street, opposite the customhouse. He was probably a brother of William Cooper, of Coleshill, Hertfordshire, England (born 1632, died 1710), who settled at Pine point, now Camden, New Jersey, in 1679, with his wife Margaret and five children. Some of his descendants and relatives married into Bucks county families, his daughter Hannah to John Woolston, in 1681, and his nephew, William Cooper, to Mary Groom, of Southampton. Their son James married Hannah Hibbs in 1750, and another of their sons, Thomas, married Phoebe Hibbs, and lived many years in Solebury, where he died at the close of the last century. Hannah Hibbs was the grandmother of James Fenimore Cooper, who thus descends of a Bucks county family in the maternal line. In 1723, and for some years following, his ancestor owned 150 acres of land near Quakertown. James Cooper, the grandfather of Fenimore, took by bequest, under the will of his uncle, Samuel, in 1750, "ye plantation att Buckingham that Nathan Preston did claire out of ye woods;" and his brother Thomas too by the same will "the plantation that William Preston did claire out of ye woods." These were grandsons of James Cooper, who died in 1732, having lived fifty years after his arrival in America, and descendants of two Bucks county mothers. The first wife of James Cooper, of Philadelphia, was Sarah Dunning, of Southampton. More recent inquiry proves that the ancestor of the novelist was probably born in 1645, at Bolton, in Lancashire (13). (12) In "Bessies' Sufferings," vol. 2, p. 171, we read that in 1690 William Cooper, of Yorkshire, was fined 2s. 6d. This was our Buckingham William. (13) The Oswege (New York) "Times," of May 3, 1849, contains the following obituary notice of a Bucks county Cooper: "James Cooper died at eight o'clock last evening at the residence of his son, C. C. Cooper, esquire, of this city, after a short illness, in the ninety-seventh year of his age, having been born in Bucks county, Pennsylvania, on the 6th of March, 1753. He was a brother of the late Judge William Cooper, and uncle of James Fenimore Cooper. Till within a few days Mr. Cooper retained in a remarkable degree the powers and faculties of an athletic frame and strong intellect. He emphatically belonged to the iron race of the Revolution, to an age gone by, and was the friend and intimate acquaintance of Washington. At the commencement of the Revolution he served in the navy of Pennsylvania, and subsequently in the militia of his native state, and participated in the hard fought battles of Monmouth and Germantown." The Byes were in the township before the close of the century. In 1699 Thomas Bye bought some 600 acres of Edward Crews, Nathaniel Park, and others, which was laid out by John Cutler, October 6, 1701. It ran down to the mountain. The land Crews and Park conveyed to Bye was granted to them in 1681, but they were probably never residents of the township. He received 250 acres from each of them, and 100 acres from Samuel Martin, part of 300 acres that Park conveyed to him. The Bye tract was bounded by lands of Richard Lundy, James Streater, John Scarborough, and vacant lands. March 5, 1702, Nathaniel Bye, the son of Thomas, bought 250 acres of Edward Simpkins, of Southwark, England, for £9, lying in Buckingham, and in 1706 Thomas conveyed the 600 acre tract to his son Nathaniel but it was not to be sold during the lifetime of the grantor and his wife. The grandson of the first Thomas Bye, also Thomas, died in Buckingham December 27, 1727 [1827*], in his eighty-eighth year. [Hezekiah Bye married Sarah, daughter of William Pettitt, who owned the mill at, or near, the Ingham spring. Some years after they removed to Centre county, where their daughter, Charity, born 1780, married James Packer, and became the mother of several children, one of whom, William F. Packer, was elected Governor of Pennsylvania, 1857. Hezekiah Bye was a noted hunter. Late in life he and his wife removed to Ohio, where they died. A daughter of Governor Parker married Elisha Ellis, member of the Easton bar. The late Mary Bye, of Buckingham, was thought to have been a lineal descendant of Thomas Bye, the immigrant.*] May 3, 1702, 300 acres were laid off in Buckingham to Edward Hartly, by virtue of a warrant dated December 31, 1701. This was part of a 2,500 acre tract that Penn conveyed to John Rowland, who dying intestate, his brother took the land and conveyed to Hartly. Before 1702 Paul Wolf, Stephen Beck [Beaks*] and John Scarborough were landholders in the township. A thousand acres were surveyed to Isaac Duow [Decow*] (14), as early as 1688, which bounded Richard Lundy's land on the eastern line at its upper corner, and in 1689 300 acres were surveyed to Henry Paulin, under a warrant dated May 3, 1686. (14) Probably a misnomer. Surveyed by Christopher Taylor. The Paxson family came into Buckingham from Solebury, where the ancestor, Henry (15), settled in 1704. His father, William Paxson, from Buckinghamshire, settled in Middletown in 1682, whence the son removed. Thomas Paxson, of Buckingham, was the fifth in descent from Henry who settled in Solebury, through Jacob, his fourth son, and second wife, Sarah Shaw, of Plumstead, whom he married in 1777. But two of Jacob Paxson's large family of children became residents of Bucks county, Thomas, who married Ann, a granddaughter of William Johnson, and is the father of ex-Judge Edward M. Paxson of the State Supreme Court, and Mary, who married William H. Johnson, and deceased in 1862. William Johnson was born in Ireland, and received a good education. He came to Pennsylvania after his majority, bringing with him an extensive library for the times, settled in Bucks county, married Ann Potts, and removed to South Carolina, where he died at the age of thirty-five. His sons were all cultivated men, Thomas became an eminent lawyer, and died at New Hope in 1838. Samuel, the youngest son, spent his life in Buckingham, married Martha Hutchinson, and died in 1843. He was a poet of considerable distinction. (15) Was in the Assembly in 1705-1707. The Watsons came into the township the beginning of the eighteenth century. Thomas Watson, the first of the name, a malster from Cumberland, England, settled near Bristol, at a place called "Honey Hill," about 1701, with his wife, and sons Thomas and John. He brought a certificate from Friends's meeting at Pardsay Cragg, dated 7th month, 23d, 1701. He married Eleanor Pearson, of Robank, in Yorkshire. In 1704 he removed to Buckingham, on 450 acres bought of [the sons of John Hough (who were devisees of Francis Rosill, the Philadelphia merchant), *]bounded on the northwest by the York road (16). Being a man of intelligence he turned his attention to medicine, and there being no physician within several miles, he grew into a large practice before his death, in 1731 or 1732. He was interested in the education of the Indians, and it is said kept a school for them, but lost his most promising pupils by small-pox. Of his sons, John, a man of strong and well-cultivated intellect, and of greater medical knowledge, took his father's place, was a successful practitioner, and died in 1760. He was sixteen years a member of Assembly. Thomas, the eldest son, died before his father. His son John, born about 1720, finished his education at Jacob Taylor's Academy, Philadelphia, and became one of the most eminent men in the province. He was a distinguished mathematician and surveyor, and assisted to run the line between Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Maryland. He was noted for his elegant penmanship. He died in 1761, in his forty-second year, at William Blackfan's, and was buried at Buckingham. The newspapers of the day expressed great regret at his death (17). John Watson was secretary for Governor Morris at the Indian treaty at Easton, 1756. Franklin had promised to find the governor a good penman, and mentioned Mr. Watson. When the governor's party passed up the York road, Mr. Watson was out mending fence, barefooted, but on invitation to accompany them, he threw down his ax and walked to Easton without preparation for the journey. He engrossed the treaty on parchment, and his penmanship elicited great admiration. Franklin says that after the treaty was engrossed the governor took off his hat to Watson and said to him: "Since I first saw you I have been trying to make out what you are. I now have it. You are the greatest hypocrite in the world." He was a large, heavy man, with a forbidding appearance. He was both a scholar and a poet, and spoke good extempore verse. It is stated that on one occasion an Irishman, indicted for stealing a halter, asked Mr. Watson to defend him, who consented. The testimony was positive, but he addressed the jury in fine extempore poetry, beginning: "Indulgent Nature generously bestows All creatures knowledge of their mortal foes," etc., and the fellow was acquitted. A memorandum of John Watson states that he grafted two apple trees with the "New York syder apple" in February 1757 on his farm in Buckingham. Thomas Penn wanted him to accept the office of surveyor-general in 1760, which he declined. (16) He refused to survey the tract on Penn's warrant without consent of the Indians. (17) The coast-survey office is now engaged in collecting material to publish the biography of the surveyors who run Mason and Dixon's line, of which John Watson was one. He had previously run the line between the Penns and Maryland, but while engaged on the Mason and Dixon line he contracted the influenza that proved fatal. He caught a severe cold on a warm day, and such was his anxiety to reach home he dropped everything and hastened to William Blackfan's, Solebury, riding over 60 miles in one day, where he died. His will is dated 8th, 11 month, 1760, and probated September 1, 1761. There was a pathetic side to John Watson's last illness. He was engaged to Mr. Blackfan's daughter, Hannah, and his anxiety to see her induced him to make the ride that hastened his death. He left to her a large share of his estate, out of a sincere friendship, and honorable esteem he entertained for her."* [On the back of one of the sheets of "Cutler's Survey," 1703, found among the papers of John Watson, Jr., was the drawing of a bee hive with a recipe to keep millers from the bees - "induce them to light on the end of a pole," but nothing more; also a recipe to preserve the taste of cider - "put four ounces of pearl ash into a barrel of cider when pretty well worked, and it will not turn sour." Watson also made use of the back of a surveying book for a good deal of general scribbling, and on one of them, we found a copy of Dr. John Watson's famous pastoral of the "Jolly Boatman:" "The jolly boatman, down the ebbing stream, By the clear moonlight, plies his easy way. With prosp'rous fortune to inspire his theme, Sings a sweet farewell to the parting day."*] [These were among the Longstreth papers placed in our hands while preparing the revised edition of Bucks county. The Longstreths and Watsons were warm friends (18).*] (18) In Buckingham, May 5, 1816, Euphemia, wife of John Watson, and daughter of the late Dr. Jonathan Ingham, aged 40 years.* Among those who came into the township about the time of Thomas Watson were Matthew Hughes, Joseph Fell, the Lintons, John Hill, Ephraim Fenton, Isaac Pennington and William Pickering. Matthew Hughes was in the Assembly for several years, was a member in 1725, and commissioned a justice in 1738. Although he made a cross instead of writing his name, he was a man of ability and great integrity of character, and much esteemed. Joseph Fell, the ancestor of the Fells of this county, son of John and Margaret Fell, was born at Longlands, in the parish of Rockdale, county of Cumberland, England, October 19, 1668. His father died when he was two years old. He learned the trade of carpenter and joiner with John Bond, of Wheelbarrow hill, near Carlisle, and worked at it as long as he remained in England. He married Elizabeth Wilson, of Cumberland, at the age of thirty, and in 1705 immigrated to America with his wife and two children. They sailed in the Cumberland, and made the capes of Virginia in twenty-nine days from Belfast. Landing at the mouth of the Potomac, they made their way by land and water via Choptank, Frenchtown and New Castle, where they took boat for Bristol in this county. He lived in Upper Makefield a few months, and then removed to Buckingham in 1706, where he died. About 1709 he married his second wife, Elizabeth Doyle, of Irish and New England parentage, but born in this county, with whom he lived the rest of his life. He was the father of eleven children, and left thirty-five grandchildren, his children marrying into the families of Scarborough, Kinsey, Watson, Haines, Kirk, Church and Heston. He was the ancestor of Joseph Fell, of Buckingham. [J. Gillingham Fell, long a resident of Philadelphia, where he died October 27, 1878, was born at Mechanicsville, Buckingham township, November 1816. He was the son of William Fell and Mary Gillingham. At his father's death his mother married Dr. John Wilson, who was the father to the two orphan child of William Fell. After receiving his education, Gillingham Fell turned his attention to civil engineering, and among his early work, was establishing the lines and grades of Doylestown at its incorporation, 1838. After spending some time on the Island of Cuba, he went into the Lehigh coal region, and formed a business connection with the late Ario Pardee, which continued to Mr. Fell's death, and resulted profitably. He accumulated large wealth, and was highly esteemed. His private charities were numerous. Mr. Fell married Amanda, daughter of John Ruckman, Solebury, and they were the parents of two children, a son and daughter. The former is deceased, the latter is the wife of the son of the late Bishop Howe. Mrs. Fell died February 7, 1900, in her 81st year.*] (See illustration of the Crest of the Fells) Jesse Fell, the son of Thomas and Jane, and a descendant of Joseph Fell, the elder, born in Buckingham April 16, 1751, was the first person to make a successful experiment of burning anthracite coal in a grate. About 1790 he removed to Wilkes-Barre, Luzerne county, where he became a respected citizen, held several county offices, including Associate-Judge, and died August 11, 1830. He had burnt hard coal in a nailery, and was satisfied it would burn in a grate if it were properly constructed. He and his nephew, Edward Fell, made an iron grate, which was set in the fire-place of his bar- room , the afternoon of February 11, 1808. His attempts had attracted considerable attention, and created no little merriment among his neighbors. He invited several of them to come and witness the experiment, but only two came, from fear of being hoaxed. Among others he invited the Honorable Thomas Cooper, them President-Judge of the Courts, and afterward president of South Carolina College, to stop at his tavern on his way home. He did so and saw a nice coal-fire burning in the grate. Judge Cooper became very angry to find that he had been [anticipated*] in the discovery, and he walked the floor, muttering to himself, that it was strange an illiterate man like Fell should discover what he had tried in vain to find out. Mr. Fell made a memorandum of the successful experiment on the fly-leaf of "The Mason's Monitor," which he signed with his name and date. The Carvers, of Buckingham, who came into the township early, are probably descended from William, the second of three brothers who came over in 1682, and settled in Byberry, Philadelphia county. John, the eldest brother, took up 690 acres on Poquessing creek, in the northeast part of the township. The homestead remained in the family for six generations, until 1864. It is claimed that his eldest daughter, Mary, was born in a cave on the site of Philadelphia, the first child of English parents in the province. John Carver planted two pear trees, which he brought with him from England, which are said to be still standing. Several of John Carver's descendants married into Bucks county families, his grandson John to Rachel Naylor, of Southampton, one great-grandson, John, to Mary Buckman, of Wrightstown, and another, Mahlon, to Amy Pickering, of Solebury. The latter was born in 1754, and kept the Anchor tavern at one time. William Carver traded his farm in Byberry to Silas Walmsly for land in Buckingham, near Bushington. His eldest son, William, married a daughter of Henry Walmsly, and removed to Buckingham, but we do not know whether the father did. The latter's wife dying in 1692, he married again and had four children. Either the father or son is supposed to have built the Green Tree tavern, at Bushington. Among the descendants of William Carver and Elizabeth Walmsly is Elias Carver, of Doylestown. Thomas Parsons took up 500 acres, which were surveyed to him April 6, 1700. George Claypole owned 1,100 acres, mostly in Buckingham, which formerly belonged to one Mary Crap. This tract probably extended into the eastern edge of Doylestown township. In 1700 the quarterly meeting granted leave to the Buckingham Friends to hold a meeting for worship, which was first held at the house of William Cooper, alternating at John Gillingham's, James Streater's, and Nathaniel Bye's. In 1705 Streater conveyed ten acres, in trust, to build a meeting-house on, and for a burying ground, with the privilege of roads to get to it. This was the lot where the meeting-house now stands. On the west side of the road that wound up the hill, and near the lower side of the graveyard, a small log meeting-house was soon afterward built (19). On the establishment of a monthly meeting, in 1721, a new frame house was built a little further up the slope of the hill. In 1731 a stone house, with a stone addition one story high, for the use of the women, was built still higher up the hill. Some wanted to build where the present house stands, but prejudice for the old spot was too strong. In this house, in 1732, Buckingham Friends held their first meeting. It caught fire April 8, 1768, from a stove, during meeting, and was burned down. The present house was erected the same season, at a cost of £36. 14s. one and a half d., a fine old-fashioned stone edifice, forty by seventy feet, two storied high, with a panel partition to separate the women from the men (20). Until the new house was built and ready to occupy, First-day meetings were held at the house of Benjamin Williamson, near by (21). (19) In June 1705 Buckingham Friends notified Falls meeting that they intended to build a meeting-house, and asked their advice, when Stephen Wilson and John Watson were appointed to collect money among Friends for Buckingham. The house was commenced that year, but not being finished by September 1708, Falls meeting appointed Thomas Streater and Thomas Watson, "to get done with speed." (20) The mason-work and plastering were done by Mathias Hutchinson, of Solebury, and the carpenter-work by Edward Good, of Plumstead, father of Nathan Good. (21) The farm now belongs to Robert Ash, and an hundred years ago to Benjamin Kinsey, as part of the Parsons tract. It is related that a wild deer, one day, walked into the old meeting-house, looked round at the people, and walked out again. (See illustration of Buckingham Meeting House) The meeting-house was used as an hospital a portion of the time during the Revolutionary war, and several soldiers were buried about where the turnpike crosses the hill, some of whose remains were uncovered when the pike was made. On meeting days the soldiers put one-half the house in order for Friends, and many of them attended service. The only monthly meeting held out of the house during the war was February 1, 1777, in Thomas Ellicott's blacksmith shop. Buckingham Friends were among the earliest to see the evil effects from the use of whiskey at vendues, and the monthly meeting of April 1724 reported against the practice. In 1756 the meeting bore testimony against war, by advising all Friends "not to be concerned in a military match, by attending in person or paying toward it." Two years afterward John Love was "dealt with" for enlisting as a soldier in the king's service. The two old horse blocks remaining, one at each end of the meeting-house, were built at the time the house was, in 1768. Then the young people of both sexes went to meeting on horseback, the general way of traveling from home. The record of births, deaths and marriages go back to 1720. From 1725 to 1734 Buckingham and Wrightstown had a joint meeting at the house of the former, where the marriages of the two meetings were celebrated. The first was that of Thomas Lancaster to Phoebe Wardell, both of Wrightstown, October 19, 1725, and the second, Zebulon Heston, uncle of General Lacey, to Elizabeth Buckman, of Newtown. During these ten years there were fifty-five marriages, and among the parties are the familiar names of Large, Paxson, Fell, Chapman, Preston, Janney, etc. Among the members of this meeting who were active in the ministry in former times may be mentioned John Scarborough, born in Buckingham about 1713, and died in 1769, John Simpson, born in Falls, 1739, removed to Buckingham when an infant, and died in 1811, on his return from a ministerial visit to Ohio, Samuel Eastburn, Benjamin Fell, Elizabeth Fell, Phoebe Ely and Ann Schofield. Ann Moore, a native of Bucks county, but we do not know that Buckingham was her birthplace, living in Byberry about 1750, was one of the most celebrated preachers of the day. She was brought p without much education, and married unfortunately, but she overcame all difficulty in the way, and became a powerful preacher. Doctor John Watson said of her that the "truths of the gospel flowed from her tongue in language, accents and periods somewhat resembling the style of the poems of Ossian." She and her husband moved to Byberry in 1750, where they resided for four years, when they removed to Maryland. While yellow fever prevailed in Philadelphia in 1793, Jesse Blackfan and Benjamin Ely, merchants of that city, brought their goods up to the Buckingham school-house, still standing on the meeting-house lot, in the second story of which they opened and kept store until it was safe to return to the city. The meeting to form the first agricultural society organized in the county was held in this school-house. [William Lacey, the immediate ancestor of the family in Bucks county bearing this name, was an early settler in Buckingham near the line of Wrightstown. He came from the Isle of Wight, England, but we neither know the time of his arrival nor where he first settled. He was a member of the Society of Friends. In 1701 William Penn granted to William Parlet and William Derrick, a tract of 292 acres, but this grant not having been confirmed, and Parlet and Derrick meanwhile dying, Penn granted the land to William Lacey, the son-in-law of Parlet, the conveyance being dated 1718, and the land was surveyed to him. The original order of Penn, to Parlet and Derrick, dated at Pennsbury located the "tract" near "Wrightstown." Their names appear on Cutler's resurvey, 1703. In 1718 William Lacey conveyed to his son John, seventy-three acres, and an additional 120 acres 1733, and in 1726, 100 acres to his son Thomas, making in all 293 acres. The stream known as "Randal's Run," runs through the tract. We are not informed as to the names of other children of William Lacey, if he had any besides the two sons mentioned. A mill was built on the property, 1743, by John and Thomas Lacey, and is now known as the "Vandegrift" mill. It was owned many years by the Carver family.*] [In 1718 John Lacey, son of William, married Rachel Heston, of New England descent, whose family had come to Bucks county a few years prior. John and Rachel (Heston) Lacey had a family of eleven children, five dying in their minority and three marrying: Rachel to John Terry, 1738, John to Jane Chapman, 1746, and Joseph to Esther Warner, December 7, 1748. John Lacey, son of John and Jane (Chapman) Lacey and grandson of John and Rachel Lacey, was the most conspicuous member of the family. During the Revolution he was in both the military and civil service of the Colonies, being a captain in the Continental army, and Brigadier General of the militia in active service, and member of Assembly, and of the State Executive Committee, and held other places of public trust. He married a daughter of Colonel Thomas Reynolds, Burlington county, New Jersey, and one of their daughter, Kitty, became wife of Dr. William Darlington, the distinguished botanist of Chester county. General Lacey was born in Buckingham, 4th of 12th month, 1752, and died at New Mills, Burlington county, New Jersey, February 17, 1814.*] [The Lacey homestead, built either by William Parlet, William Derrick, or William Lacey, was in the Lacey family until within about fifty years. It was standing until 1877 on the farm of Charles T. Bewley, part of the original tract, and at that time was probably the oldest house in the county. It was built 1705 or 1706, was still used as a dwelling, and quite comfortable. It was built of logs clapboarded, with a great chimneystack in the middle, the eaves coming down almost to the ground and all the rooms on one floor. Mr. Bewley, a descendant of William Lacey, was the owner of the old family bible printed at Cambridge, England, 1630. If this old dwelling had possessed "the gift of tongues," it could have told a more interesting story of the past than any pen can write. This venerable dwelling was taken down on a Saturday afternoon in the spring of 1877. Mr. Bewley invited a number of his neighbors to assist at the obsequies, and after it had been laid low, a lunch was served. The main timbers were of black oak, and the boards, used inside, of the toughest red cedar. The timbers were generally sound. The property is now owned by John B. Mallory. I visited the Lacey house twenty years ago accompanied by the late Thomas P. Otter, artist, who made a correct drawing on the spot, painted it on canvas from which the picture that illustrates this page was made. In this house General John Lacey was born*] (See illustration of Oldest House in Bucks County, Wrightstown) The earliest boundary of Buckingham that we have seen is that entered of record the 15th of September, 1722, and was substantially as at present. How long the township had been laid out with this boundary is not known. The only change noticed is on the southwest side by the formation of Doylestown, and the taking in of some lands across Little Neshaminy. The following is the boundary given: "It shall begin at a corner by a street which lies between the said Buckingham township and Solebury township, and to run from thence S. W. by line of marked trees, 1,493 perches to a corner by Claypole's land; thence N. W. by the said Claypole's 430 perches to a corner; thence S. W. 210 perches to a corner; thence N. W. by John Rodman's land, 1,060 perches to a corner by the Society land; thence N. E. by the said Society's land 390 perches to a corner; thence N. E. by Richard Hill's and Christopher Day's land 953 perches to another corner; thence N. W. 80 perches to a corner by Thomas Brown's land; thence N. E. 390 perches to another corner; thence by the said street 2,184 perches to the first-mentioned corner, the place of beginning." We met with an old map of Buckingham, dated 1726, which embraced the whole of the township from Solebury line to the west end of the mountain. On it is marked the York road, "falsely so called," the Durham road to "Ephraim Fenton's land," above Centreville, and a few other things of no special interest. All but a single tract of land is marked with the owners' name, twenty in all (22). Another old map, drawn a few years later by John Watson, the surveyor, of the Israel Pemberton tract, embraces the territory from about Bushington to the Warwick line. The only two enclosed portions are those of A. McKinstry, 327 acres and seventeen acres and 134 perches. The tract is now divided into twelve or fifteen farms. Doctor John Rodman bounds it on the Warwick side, and William Corbet and Ely Welding in Wrightstown. The quality of the soil is marked in several places, and the map has on it "a branch of Hickory Hill run," and Roberts' now Robin run. Like all of Mr. Watson's work, the map is elegantly drawn. The Street road, which separates Buckingham from Solebury, was projected about the time the lands on the line of the two townships were surveyed, and was probably run by Phineas Pemberton, county-surveyor, in 1700. (22) Names of land-owners: Ephraim Fenton, Samuel Hough, John Preston, George Howard, Joseph Fell, T. Worral, Isaac Pennington, Mercy Phillips, John Harford, Jacob Holcomb, Thomas Gilbert, Thomas Parsons, John Fell, Joseph Large, Edmund Kinsey, Matthew Howe, James Lenix, Richard Lundy and Nathaniel Bye. The Idens had been in the county many years before they made their appearance in Buckingham. Randall Iden, the first of the name we meet with, was probably married as early as 1690. In 1710 his daughter Dorothy married William Stogdale, an ancestor of the Buntings on the female side, and on the 16th of June, 1724, a Randall Iden of Bristol township, probably the son of the former, married Margaret Greenfield of "Middle township (23). Randall Iden, the grandfather of James C., of Buckingham, and son of Jacob, of Rockhill, married Eleanor, daughter of Samuel Foulke, of Richland, March 9, 1772. Their marriage certificate contains the name of twelve Foulkes and thirteen Robertses. The great-grandfather of James C. Iden, on the maternal side, was John Chapman, of Wrightstown. (23) Middletown. [The Worthingtons (24) claim descent from three brothers, John, Samuel and Thomas, who settled in Byberry about 1705. John married Mary Walmsly, 1720, who died 1754, and he 1777. They had eleven children: Elizabeth, born 1, 15, 1721; Mary; Thomas; Hannah; John; William; Isaac; Joseph; Martha; Benjamin, and Esther, who married into the families of Tomlinson, Duncan, Homer, Carver, Malone and others. William, Isaac and Joseph Worthington removed to Buckingham, where William died, 1816; Isaac went to Chester county, 1783, and died there 1800; and Joseph, born 1737, died 1822, and his wife, Esther, 1828. The Buckingham Worthingtons claim immediate descent from Richard, who settled in the township, 1750, purchased land of Thomas Lacey and died 1806. Their children were Mahlon, born 12, 19, 1750, John, Joseph, Mary, Thomas, Sarah Elizabeth, Tamer, John, Hannah, Letitia, William and Isaac, born 1, 20, 1773. The will of Richard Worthington, dated March 21, 1803, was probated August 26, 1806. A Samuel Worthington brought his certificate to Buckingham meeting from Abington, 1736, and settled in New Britain, where he died, 1775. In his will, probated March 20, are mentioned his wife Mary, sons, Jonathan, David and Samuel, and daughters Sarah, Hester, Kimble, Rachel Rue and Pleasant Lap. The descendants of Samuel Worthington are known as the "Plumstead Worthingtons," the late Aaron Worthington being a grandson of Jonathan. Thomas Worthington was received as a member of Buckingham monthly meeting, 1732, but shortly removed to Abington.*] (24) The name "Worthington" is an old one in Lancashire, England, whence the family came. The etymology is said to be three Saxon words, Worth-in-ton, i.e., Farm-in-Town. There is a town of Worthington in Lancaster, 20 miles north of Liverpool, where the family lived many generations. It can be traced to Worthington de Worthington, 20th of Henry III. There are many Worthingtons in Ohio, possibly descendants of Thomas, son of Richard, who settled there. The town of Worthington, a few miles from Columbus, was intended to be the State capital, but influence located it on the bank of the Sciota. * Doctor John Wilson, one of Buckingham's most distinguished citizens, three quarters of a century ago, was the son of Thomas and Rachel Wilson, Southampton, where he was born, 1768. After leaving the ordinary country school, he went to Philadelphia, then taught and after attended a classical school at Southampton Baptist Church kept by Jesse Moore, subsequently a Judge in Pennsylvania and where Judge John Ross and Doctor Charles Meredith were pupils. Here he was a close student, studying eighteen hours out of twenty-four. He next taught classics in a school where the late Samuel D. Ingham was a pupil, where a friendship was contracted that lasted through life. He graduated at Dickinson college, 1792. He commenced reading medicine with Doctor Jonathan Ingham, and, after his death by yellow fever, 1793, entered himself a student with Doctor Casper Wistar, Philadelphia, and attended lectures at the University of Pennsylvania, where he graduated, 1796, being one of the first medical graduates from Bucks county. He worked his own way through college and his medical studies by teaching and surveying, his father, being averse to his studying medicine, refused to assist him. After graduating he married Margaret Mitchel, daughter of Richard Mitchel, Middletown, and settled at the place known as "Walton's mill," just below Ingham's paper-mill. Within a year he purchased, of the late Samuel Johnson, the place known as Elm Grove, Buckingham, where he resided until his death, October, 1835. His first wife died in 1821. In 1824 he married Mary Fell, the widow of William Fell, and daughter of Joseph and Phoebe Gillingham. By these two marriages he left four children. Richard and Sarah were children of the first wife. Richard studied medicine and settled in St. Jago de Cuba, where he acquired a large estate, and died in Philadelphia during a visit in 1854. Sarah married Elias Ely, New Hope, and died of cholera, 1850. By his second wife Doctor Wilson had two sons, Elias and Henry. The first is supposed to have been murdered December 24, 1868, at the head of the Red sea, while making a visit to the "Fountain of Moses," in Arabia. Henry is living (1876 edition). Doctor Wilson possessed a rare combination of desirable qualities. In stature he was tall and straight, light but vigorous, and with an excellent physique. In all out-door exercises, of which he was very fond, he had few superiors. He was a fine horseman, as rider, driver, and judge of the animal, and in his youth was celebrated as a skater and swimmer. He had great quickness of perception, an intrepid spirit, and was equal to any emergency in his profession or out of it. He was a fine surgeon, and performed capital operations with great success. But few men equaled him in the best combination of learning, practical skill and common sense. The late Lewis S. Coryell, a shrewd observer of human nature, and an extensive acquaintance with prominent men of his day, once remarked of him: "Doctor Wilson knew more, from a potato-hill up, than any other man I ever knew." He was handsome and courtly, his wives elegant and graceful women; and, for many years, his home at Elm Grove was the seat of a refined and generous hospitality. Buckingham has been fortunate in the quality of her schools, some of which were well endowed before the common school system was adopted. In 1755 Adam Harker, a citizen of the township, left £40 by will toward settling and maintaining a free school in Buckingham, under the care of the monthly meeting. In 1789 Thomas Smith conveyed to the township a lot of land for a school house, on the northwest side of Hyrl's run, for a term of thirty years at an annual rent of a pepper corn. This was on condition that the township build a house, twenty-two by twenty feet, on the lot before the expiration of the year, the school to be governed by a committee of four. This was known as the "Red school house," which stood on the Street road, 100 yards northwest of the creek. A new house was erected on the northeast side of the road many years ago, and is now used as a dwelling. Toward the close of the last century, the Buckingham meeting raised a school fund of $2,072, by subscription, the interest to be applied to educating children of members of monthly meeting in the first place, then to the children of those in straightened circumstances, and afterward all other children of members of the meeting. The heaviest subscribers were Andrew Ellicott and Oliver Paxson, twenty-five dollars each. When the society divided, the money was loaned in small sums, to the two divisions. A school is still supported by the fund (25). About 1806 the school fund of Buckingham and Solebury amounted to £758. 10s, near $3,000, but we are not informed of its present amount and condition. In 1790 several of the inhabitants of the township subscribed £99. 18s. 3 and a half d. for building and furbishing a school house erected on the cross road just above Greenville, on a lot given by David Gilbert in trust (26). It was governed by three trustees elected by the contributors. A constitution for the government of the school was adopted May 16, 1792. It was given the name of Tyro hall, and was at one time in a flourishing condition. The building is still standing, but the school has long since been discontinued. The last board of trustees was Jesse Haney, John C. Shepherd, and Joseph Beans, in 1854. Some good scholars were graduated at Tyro hall. Among those who taught there were William H. Johnson, Joseph Price, Albert Smith, afterward a member of the bar, and died about 1833, and Joseph Fell. (25) Jonathan Longstreth, Warminster, taught this school 1795-6, the contract executed 3 2d month for three months at 12s. 6d. per scholar. At first he had only four subscribers, Mathias Hutchinson, Joseph Wilkinson, Thomas Bye and Thomas Blackledge, 6 scholars. There was some friction between Longstreth and Joseph Harold, a patron. The latter wrote him February 15, 1796: "I have sent my son to pay you for his schooling but not for whipping him." Longstreth replied that he considered himself "possessed of full powers, both legislative and executive, to deal with his scholars for misbehaving in school, and referred the matter to the committee.'" -Longstreth MS.* (26) The deed is in possession of the family of the late Watson Fell, Buckingham.* (See illustration of Tyro Hall, a famous school) [A noted school in Buckingham in the past was the boarding school for girls at Greenville, now Holicong, established 1830, by Martha Hampton and Hannah Lloyd, sisters. Boarding schools were then rare in the county, and this venture by two women comparatively little known, one a widow with four children and slender means, was an enterprise of great risk. They bought the long white house still standing on the northwest corner of the cross roads, opened school and went to work, one taking charge of the household, the other the school, each eminently fitted for her task. The school soon became a success and the house was filled with pupils from Bucks, Montgomery, Philadelphia and New Jersey. A day school was subsequently opened in connection and Elizabeth and Sarah Ely, sister of the late State Senator Jonathan Ely, Solebury, were given charge. A few boys were admitted to the day school, among them the late Judge Richard Watson, ex-Chief Justice Edward M. Paxson, John Ruckman, Albert S. Paxson and Samuel E. Broadhurst, presumably the "gilt-edge" boys of the neighborhood. The school was discontinued upon the death of Hannah Lloyd at the end of several years.*] Amos Austin Hughes, at his death, in 1811, left by his will, the plantation on which he resided in Buckingham, and the remainder of his personal estate, amounting to $4,000, and $2,000 more, at the death of his sister, to create a fund for the erection and maintaining a school, to be called "Hughesian free school." It was to educate the poor children of the township, and such others as stood in need for ever, and when necessary they were to be boarded and clothed. A charter was obtained in 1812, and a building erected soon afterward, in which a school is maintained, governed by a board of trustees. The amount of funds held in trust is $21,450. Mr. Hughes, who died at the early age of forty-four, was an invalid from his youth. He was a quiet and patient sufferer, was confined to his room for many years, and spent his time chiefly in reading and meditation. He contributed freely to the relief of the poor and afflicted during his life, which his generous bequests are evidence he did not forget them at his death. [It is said that when the Hughsian school house was built the township was canvassed to make up a school of "poor children" to be educated in it, but none could be found, and, by advice of counsel, a public school was opened. This was in 1851. The first school board of trustees was composed of John Ely, Nicholas Austin, John Watson, Jr., William Ely, Thomas Bye, John Wilson, M.D., Samuel Johnson, Joseph Shaw, Isaiah Jones, Joshua Anderson, Joseph Watson and Stephen Wilson, all of Buckingham. When Pennsylvania passed the pubic school law the will of Amos Austin Hughes became inoperative, as it was intended that his estate should only benefit those who could not afford to go to a pay school, and there was none such now in the township, all being free. What action was taken to change the direction of the bequest we are not informed, but the school was reorganized, 1841. This resulted in an increase of scholars and the doing of better work, the trustees equipping the school to meet modern requirements. The school is graded in three departments, primary, intermediate and grammar, with an average of forty scholars in each, or 120 in all. It has three teachers, two paid by the trustees, and one by the township school board. The branches taught include Latin, German, Bookkeeping, higher Algebra, Geometry and Astronomy. The candidates for graduation are examined by the county superintendent. In 1897 the graduates of the Hughesian Free School, thirty in number, organized an association at the dwelling of Charles P. Large, Buckingham, and completed it, January 3, 1898. Only four males were eligible. Annual reunions are held. A leaflet, published 12, 11, 1841, says the middle room of the Hughesian Free School was rented of the trustees, furnished and school opened by Miss Burson, the 12 day, 1 mo., 1842. The teachers were paid 3 cents per scholar per day, and $15 per month, and later increased to $20, the teachers furnishing pen and ink, the pens made of quills. Joseph Fell was the first teacher paid by the trustees, 1851, and to December 31, 1898, there had been twenty-six principals and eighteen assistants connected with the school.*] Although Justice Cox came into the township at a recent date, he can trace his ancestry back among the earliest in the state. He is a descendant of that Peter Cock who settled between the Delaware and the Schuylkill in 1660, who was commissioner on the Delaware in 1662, a counselor in 1667, and in 1669 Governor Lovelace confirmed to him the patent for Tinicum island. In the course of centuries the name has been changed from Cock to Cox. Doctor Arthur D. Cernea, a prominent practitioner of medicine as well as a leading citizen of Buckingham, has been a resident of the township over forty years. His history is an exceeding romantic and interesting one, sufficiently so, we think, to warrant the sketch of his life and adventures found in the note below (27). Thomas Cernea, a son of the Doctor, is one of the most skilled architects of Philadelphia, and has planned a number of handsome buildings, [including Lenape building, Doylestown, 1874.*] (27) Doctor Cernea was born in Philadelphia of French parentage, about 1806. His father, an officer of the French army, came to the United States near the close of the last century with his wife. She was likewise of a French family, which had lost a large portion of their estates in the West Indies during the Revolution which commenced in 1791. Contemplating a visit to France, from which they intended to return in a short time, they placed their eldest son, Arthur, a lad nine years of age at the Moravian school at Nazareth. To the present time no tidings of them have been received, except information obtained from the records of a lodge of French Masons lately discovered in the possession of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. It is there stated that his father arrived in Philadelphia about 1793; the time of his departure on his visit to France, a few years later, his mother's name before marriage, parentage, etc. The anxiety felt by the over-absence of the parents was kept from the son, until discovered by the failure to receive his regular stipend of spending money. It was the opinion of those to whom young Cernea had been entrusted that the vessel had been lost at sea, or some other unknown calamity had befallen them. It was supposed that he would remain at the school until cared for, but the spirited boy, sensitive that a portion of his dues remained unpaid, left the school unknown to the faculty, with a small sum of money in his pocket realized from the sale of a box of paints. Thus alone in the world he started on foot for Philadelphia in search of his parents, stopping for the night at the inn at Jenkingtown. Here he met one who proved a kind friend, Eleazer Shaw, of Plumstead, on his way to market, with whom he rode to the city, and to whom he related his story. After a fruitless search for his parents his kind friend persuaded him to go home with him, which he did. At this time young Cernea was about thirteen years old, having been more than four years at Nazareth. There he had acquired a taste for study, and he now devoted his leisure to self-improvement, encouraged by those with whom he had found a home. By his own exertions he qualified himself to instruct others, and at eighteen he commenced teaching at the "eight square" school-house in Plumstead, which, from its quaint appearance, was a landmark among the places of instruction in the olden time. He taught in turn, at the Mennonite meeting-house, Tinicum church, and at Quakertown. At the latter place he commenced the study of medicine with Dr. Hampton Watson, now Judge Watson, of Kansas. In 1831 he graduated at the University of Pennsylvania; soon afterward married Sarah Lester, daughter of Thomas Lester, of Richland; and removed to Buckingham, where he associated himself in the practice of medicine with Doctor Wilson, an eminent and well-known physician. At the death of Doctor Wilson, a few years later, he continued the practice, removing to Centreville, a more convenient location. Here he lost his wife, a most estimable woman and after married Sarah Taylor, daughter of William Taylor, a minister among Friends. Although no doubt of Catholic parentage, Doctor Cernea was naturally drawn to the Friends, from their great kindness to him in his troubles, and he joined this religious body, of which he is a useful and active member. During the busy years of an arduous practice, aside from being a diligent student in his own profession, he found time to devote to literature and the sciences, for which he had a natural fondness. He gave much attention to botany. He was an industrious contributor to the Buckingham lyceum, a literary society of some merit in its day. When the subject of anti-slavery and temperance began to agitate the public mind, Doctor Cernea, a man of strong convictions, became an earnest advocate of these reforms. This was at a time when such advocacy was at the expense of personal interest. He has lived to see the principle he advocated recognized. In his retirement he can look back upon a well-spent and useful life, colored with enough romance to make it interesting to others. The Buckingham library was organized October 31, 1795. The by-laws were revised in 1820. For a number of years it was a flourishing institution, and was the means of disseminating intelligence throughout the neighborhood, but interest in it gradually decreased until 1853, when the corporation was dissolved and the books sold at public sale. In this connection we must mention the "Buckingham lyceum," a literary society of some local note forty years ago, and which enabled many a fledgling in literature to get his productions before the public. [In a letter Joseph Erwin, Tinicum, wrote to George Wall, Solebury, under date of September 10, 1801, he says that Mr. Smith (probably Joseph Smith, who founded Smithtown), tells him "Goodwine's Political Justice," that had been purchased for the Buckingham library, had been condemned to the flames by the board of directors, "as containing damnable heresies, both in religions and politics."*] In 1806 Moses Bradshaw had a nail factory near Pool's corner, a mile from Doylestown, but in 1807 it was removed to Thomas Fell's smith-shop, on the road, between what was then Rodrock's and Vanhorne's tavern, now Centreville. In 1817 a peace association was formed in Buckingham, with William H. Johnson as president, and John Parry, secretary. In June, 1819, the farmers held a meeting at Buckingham school-house to fix wages for hay and harvesting. Samuel Hanin, a distinguished, self-taught mathematician, died in 1820, at the age of seventy-six. Of the roads in the township, not already mentioned, that from the Tohickon, through Greenville, over the mountain, was laid out in 1732, and from Wilkinson's ford, on the Neshaminy, to Durham road in 1771. Not the least important resident of Buckingham thirty years ago was a giant black man, known the county over a "Big Ben." He was a slave of William Anderson, of Baltimore county, Maryland, from whom he escaped when young, and settled in this township. He was arrested by his master in 1844 on John Kitchen's farm, in Solebury, after a hard fight, and sent back to slavery, but the citizens of Buckingham raised money to purchase his freedom, when he returned. His arrest caused great excitement in the county. Ben spent the last years of his life in the Bucks county alms-house, where he died in 1875, aged over seventy. He was a man of immense strength and great size, and his foot measured sixteen inches from heel to toe. [Isaiah Michener, who died in Buckingham, May 25, 1899, son of Thomas and Sarah Bradshaw Michener, was born January 25, 1812. He was the grandson of Meschach, eighth child of William Michener, who settled in Plumstead, with his father, and afterward settled in Buckingham, living with an uncle. This was in 1830. He married Esther Good, Plumstead, 1836, and at her death, Rebecca Scott. He studied at Dodd's Veterinary College, Boston, subsequently graduating at Penn College, Philadelphia. He became prominent in the profession; contributed much to veterinary medical literature; was a member of the national society and the oldest practitioner in the State. He was prominent as a citizen and held many public functions, including the offices of president of the Doylestown Agricultural Society and Mechanics Institute, and Carversville Normal Institute. He was a member of the Society of Friends and left numerous descendants.*] [The county is more indebted to the late James Jamison, Buckingham, than to any other one man, for the introduction of the present method of burning lime in fixed kilns. He found, by repeated experiment, that by putting lime and coal in a kiln in alternate layers from top to bottom, the whole supported by grates, with space underneath for wood to kindle the lower layer of coal, the manufacture of lime was much expedited and cheapened. Before this, wood had been exclusively used, but the cost of lime was now reduced about one-half. The consequence was it came into extensive use as a fertilizer, and was hauled twelve or fifteen miles in wagons for that purpose. Of course, coal was more extensively used to burn lime after the Delaware Division canal was opened. While it was burned exclusively with wood, lime was too dear to be generally used as a fertilizer, much to the detriment of agriculture.*] There are seven [nine*] villages in Buckingham, Centreville, Mechanicsville, Lahaska, Holicong, formerly Greenville, Mechanics Valley, formerly Spring Valley, Furlong, formerly Bushington, Mozart, formerly Concord, Buckingham Valley and Forest Grove, formerly Forestville, all post villages. Buckingham (formerly Centreville (28), at the intersection of the Durham and York roads, is the largest, containing an Episcopal church, the Hughesian Free Schools, two taverns, etc., and twenty-five dwellings. One of the inns, famous in its day and called "Bogart's tavern," in the Revolution, is over a century and a quarter old. Under its roof the Bucks County Committees of Safety met, 1775, and in it General Green, for a time, had his headquarters during one of the most trying periods of the Revolution. Buckingham postoffice was established here in 1805, and Cornelius Vanhorne appointed postmaster. Three-quarters of a century ago Greenville was called "Grintown," which name we are told was given it in this wise: A flock of geese driven by a Jerseyman down the York road to Philadelphia becoming unmanageable at this point, the people flocked to the doors to witness the poor man's discomfiture. On seeing these witnesses of his shame, he yelled out in his agony, "this is Grintown." The name stuck to the unfortunate village several years. About 1810 a number of young people were passing a social afternoon at the dwelling of Josiah Shaw, when the name was spoken of in not very respectful terms, and it was suggested that the state of society required a change. Eliza Johnson, daughter of the late Samuel Johnson, was called upon for a new name, when she proposed "Greenville," which was adopted unanimously, and the company was pledged to support it. Forty years ago this hamlet was the seat of a female boarding-school of some local celebrity, but long since discontinued. The other villages names are pleasant little hamlets of a few dwellings each, some with public houses, other without. At Lahaska is a Methodist Episcopal church, built in 1830, rebuilt in 1868. The postoffice at Mechanicsville was established in 1830, and Peter Lester appointed postmaster. The hamlet of Cross Keys, on the Easton pike, a mile from Doylestown, is partly in Buckingham. In 1804 Daniel Stradling kept store there in a house opposite James Dunlap's tavern. He had formerly been partner of Joseph Morton at Willow Grove. (28) The initial steps toward organizing a parish and erecting an Episcopal church at Centreville, were taken in 1837 by Rev. G. W. Ridgly, rector at Newtown, holding open air meetings, followed by service in Haslet Gibson's coach shop. A public meeting was held in April 1839, Mr. Ridgly presiding, to consider the propriety of erecting a church building. The subscriptions warranting the expense, work was begun the same fall, and the church finished in July 1840. The lot was the gift of Joseph Anderson and wife, and cost of building $640. The first rector was Rev. Wiltberger, called September 1841, and preached his first sermon October 10. On the resignation of Mr. Wiltberger, 1853, the Centreville and Doylestown parishes were served by the same rector for the next 20 years. The late William Stavely, Buckingham, was a liberal contributor to Trinity church and parish. An interesting history of the church was recently written by Albert S. Paxson. [A Presbyterian church was built at Forest Grove, 1855, and dedicated November 21. As early as 1846 the Reverend Robert D. Morris, then pastor at Newtown, began holding services here at the home of John Gray, and was subsequently assisted by other clergymen. The first pastor was the Reverend Henry E. Spayed, elected September 11, ----, installed November 11, ----, and resigned in 1867. The church now had supplies until the winter of 1869, when the Reverend Jacob Krewson was called and ordained May 20. He is still pastor, one of the longest in continuous charge in the county. A postoffice was established at Forest Grove, December 12, 1877, and William Kirk appointed postmaster. One of the first meetings in the State in favor of internal improvements was held at Centreville about 1822-23. Samuel D. Ingham, chairman, was the leading spirit, and one of three delegates to make favor with the Legislature. John Watson, father of the late Judge Richard Watson, was one of the warmest friends of internal improvements in the county.*] The township records do not extend back much over 100 years. In 1722 the tax-rate was two-pence half-penny per pound, and seven shillings six-pence a head on single men. Thomas Brown, Jr., was the collector (29). In 1767 a three-penny tax raised £22, 5s. 6d. in the township, and John Lacey, Jr., was one of the auditors. About double the amount raised was expended on the roads. From 1776 to 1781, the Revolutionary period, there is no account of money spent for the township. The latter year, the period of greatest depression of Continental money, a tax of one penny raised £6,767, 8s. 8d. in the township, which was also expended on the roads. The duplicate for 1797 amounted to £269, 13s. 6d., but to only £48, 11s. 9d. the following year. Since 1800 there has been a gradual increase in the amount of tax levied and collected in Buckingham, being $179.50 for that year, and $455.90 for 1810. In 1820 the township expenses were $706.72; in 1830, $483.12; 1840, $925.68; 1850, $972; 1860, $957.26, and $741.56 in 1870. In 1722 there were fifty-three taxables in the township, of whom nine were single men. The heaviest tax-payer was Richard Humphrey Morris, £1, 3s. 9d., taxed for 1,900 acres of land. The taxables, 1761, were 155, and 178 in 1764. In 1771 the householders were 178, showing considerable increase in population if the figures be correct. The population of the township at different periods since then was as follows: 1810, 1,715; 1820, 1,862; 1830, 2,193, and 467 taxables; 1840, 2,482; 1850, 2,596 whites, 171 blacks; 1860, 2,960 whites, 128 blacks, and 1870, 2,910, of which 101 were foreign-born and 143 blacks; [1880, 2,850; 1890, 2,544; 1900, 2,506.*] (29) In 1719 John Dawson bought a cow of John Bye for £3. 10s., the low price being in keeping with the times. Caves and sinks are common in limestone valleys, the former frequently of great magnitude, while depressions or basins, occasioned by subterranean water courses or other causes, are more frequently but limited in dimensions. Several of these sinks are found in the valley extending from Bushington, in Buckingham, to Limeport, in Solebury, and two or three are worthy of especial notice. The easternmost one, known as Large's pond, near Centreville, was never known to go dry until within recent years. It was thought to be bottomless, and a young man named Gilbert was drowned in this pond a century ago. The washings from the turnpike and the diminished rainfall have exerted their influence in drying up this once beautiful little lake. On the line between the farms of Benjamin Smith and Amos Corson, a fourth of a mile southeast of Greenville, is a locally celebrated sink, which the Indians gave the name of "Holy Cong," but known to the inhabitants of the township as the "Conky hole." It is a nearly circular, funnel-shaped basin, about forty yards in diameter, and from forty to sixty feet down to the water. The water rises and falls in this funnel; formerly it at times was twenty feet across the surface, and then would fall until it appeared to be not more than tow. Several unsuccessful attempts have been made to fathom its depth, but the projecting limestone has proved an insuperable barrier. Tradition tells us that chaff thrown into this hole has been known to come out at the Ingham spring. In former times it was considered a great natural curiosity, and many strangers visited it. It is known the Indians frequently collected here to hole their councils and jollifications. "Grintown pond" is the name of a basin of water in the valley nearly opposite Greenville. Ninety years ago it was the resort of all the boys of the neighborhood who were ambitious to have a swim. Here the young Elys, Larges, Gilberts, Beanses, Williamses, Jonese, Parrys, Linburgs, Johnsons, Byes, Shaws, Fells, Hellyers, Watsons, Paxsons, and others, resorted on Saturday evenings, making the air ring with their hilarity. Many horses were taken there to be washed, and every one that went into the water had a boy on its back and another on its tail. Two old men living in the neighborhood some years ago, between seventy and eighty years of age, were capering in the pond one Saturday when one saved the other from a watery grave. As he was sinking for the last time his friend dove after him and brought him up. On top of Buckingham mountain is the Mount Gilead African Methodist Episcopal church, built of logs, 1835-36, and rebuilt of stone, 1852. It is quite a snug edifice, and near by is a graveyard enclosed by a neat pale-fence. The Orthodox Friends' meeting-house, Buckingham, was built in 1830, the date being cut by Joseph Fell on a stone and placed in the front wall. Sometime before the Revolution William Simpson, from the North of Ireland, came into Bucks county and settled in Buckingham or Solebury. The year of his arrival is not known, but on January 15, 1766, he made application to purchase 100 acres, and the deed was executed by John Penn, May 23, 1767. He married a Hines, probably prior to that time. He had two sons and two daughters, Ann, Mary, John and Matthew. John lived and died in Bucks county, and was the father of Mrs. Ann Jamison, Buckingham. Matthew removed to Ohio, near Zanesville, about 1810. Ann married John Davis about 1782, who moved to Maryland, 1795, and to Ohio, 1816, settling on the Sciota, near Columbus. William Simpson was a soldier in the Revolution, and at the battle of Trenton. On one occasion, when he came home to visit his family, his house was searched by his Tory neighbors, but failed to find him, as he was in the cellar with a hogshead turned over him. James Simpson, son of John and Hannah, not related to the foregoing so far as we know, spent part of his life in Buckingham, and became quite a celebrated preacher among Friends. He was born in Solebury, May 19, 1743. He was full of eccentricities and widely known. He kept school for a while in Buckingham, but dreaming how to make brooms he commenced and followed that business. He removed to Hatboro, 1789, and married Martha Shoemaker, a widow, and died at Frankford, 1811, at sixty-eight. He left some sermons and other writings. [There were other Simpsons in Bucks county besides those named in the preceding paragraph, among them James Simpson and his wife Mary, who lived in Buckingham. Their son John, born in Buckingham or Newtown about 1744, went to Lancaster, now Dauphin county, 1769-70, married Margaret, daughter of James Murray, son of Major Francis Murray, Newtown, 1776, and subsequently removed to Huntingdon county, where he died February 3, 1809. He was a lieutenant in Captain James Murray's Company of Associations in the Ambo expedition the summer and fall of 1776, and is said to have participated in the battle of Trenton and Princeton. Of the other children of James Simpson, Martha married William Kerns, and lived in Northampton county; James married and was living in Botetourt county, Virginia, 1783; Samuel, who died in Wilkes county, Georgia, October 13, 1791, and William, who probably remained in Bucks county. The parents of James and Mary Simpson were living in Towan county, New Jersey, August 23, 1783. In 1785 they removed to Georgia, and were living in Wilkes county, April 10, 1793. William Simpson, Jr., in letters to john Simpson, dated respectively, October 27, 1773, and August 7, 1796, and written at Buckingham, Bucks county, addressed him as "cousin," evidence he must have been the son of a brother of James Simpson. Benjamin and Jane Simpson, in a letter written at New Britain, Bucks county, Pennsylvania, October 9, 1803, addressed John Simpson as "dear uncle," states they were married December 2, 1802, and were then living about eighteen miles from "Uncle William Simpson." These family letters are quite conclusive that William Simpson, Jr., was a son of James Simpson's brother William, and that James' son William remarried in Bucks county or its vicinity as late as 1803. John Simpson, the eldest son of James, was the grandfather of the late J. Simpson Africa, president of the Union Trust Company, Philadelphia. William Simpson, Jr., was a justice of the peace (30).*] (30) The late J. Simpson Africa, of Huntingdon, Pa., was a descendant of John Simpson, of Buckingham. His father was Daniel Africa, and the son was born September 15, 1832, and died there in August 1900. He was educated for a civil engineer, which he made his profession. He became conspicuous in political, Masonic and financial circles having served one term as Secretary of Internal Affairs, and was many years president of the Union Trust Company, Philadelphia.* In olden times Edmund Kinsey had a scythe and ax factory about two miles northwest of Lahaska, where he had a tilt or trip hammer operated by water-power. The remains of the race could be traced in recent years. Kinsey, esteemed one of the first mechanics of the county, was born in Buckingham. There was also a saw-mill on the property of Paul Preston, near his study, where a part of the dam was to be seen a few years ago on the stream that crosses the York road near Greenville. Three quarters of a century ago Jacob Walton and Philip Parry were noted for their dexterity in catching pigeons. Walton was quite a famous hunter as well. He dressed in buckskin breeches and vest, tanned after the Indian fashion, from deer-skins his own trusty rifle had brought down. The garments were made up by himself and wife. Every fall the old man made a trip to the mountains, and returned loaded with game. Pigeons were formerly very numerous in Buckingham. Walton and Parry kept their stool pigeons and flyers in cages ready for the sport. When the time arrived they would erect their bough-houses, of cedar limbs, in the fields most frequented by these birds, set their nets in position, place the stool pigeons near the net on the ground, liberally sprinkled with buckwheat, fasten a long string to one or more pigeons, called flyers, and then retire to their bough-houses. When a flock of wild birds was seen, the flyers were thrown into the air, keeping them on the wing until observed by the flock, which approached and settled down with the stool pigeons, when the net is sprung and hundreds of them captured. Those old men were also as fond of fishing as Izaak Walton is reported to have been, frequently going to the Delaware, and to places renowned for trout, and always returning heavily laden with their piscatory treasures. They were both Friends, belonging to Buckingham meeting, and left numerous descendants in the township. [There are five taverns in Buckingham, two at Centreville, and one each at Bushington, Lahaska and the Cross Keys. The latter is the oldest of the group. It was first licensed at June term, 1758, the applicant for license and new landlord being Alexander Brown, son of Thomas Brown, Plumstead. It is set forth in the petition that he "had settled by the side of the road that leads from the Great Swamp to Newtown, which crosses the road that leads from Durham to Philadelphia." Among the names signed to the petition are: Henry Taylor, William Foulke, William Thomas, John Lester, Cephas Child, John Child, Isaac Child, Henry Child, William Yardly, Jonathan Foulke, Edward Thomas, Thomas Thomas, Samuel Shaw, Theophilus Foulke, John Thomas, Abel Roberts, and Benjamin Chapman. The "Swamp Road" was the traveled highway from Richland and other sections of the northwest part of the county to Newtown, the then county seat. This brought the new inn considerable custom. It has been a licensed house in all the 140 years since then, with the exception of an interregnum of a few months, and the Keys of Saint Peter have swung on its sign board. Its history would be worth writing up could it be gotten at. Its location is on the Easton road, one mile above Doylestown. *] [It was in Buckingham township the somewhat famous "Lenape Stone" was found by Bernard Hansell, the son of a farmer, while plowing in one of his father's fields. It was in two pieces, the first found in the spring of 1872, the second, 1881, about four and a half miles east of Doylestown. Both pieces were picked up in the same field and near the same spot. When the pieces were put together they fit. The length is one inch and three eights, one inch and five eights wide in its widest part, and covered with rude surface drawings of what purports to be an aboriginal mammoth, and other designs. It was first given to Henry D. Paxson, Buckingham, who had a taste for such things, but subsequently fell into the possession of Henry C. Mercer, of the Bucks County Historical Society, who published quite an exhaustive volume on the subject. He and others pronounced it an Indian "Gorget" and genuine. When submitted to foreign archeological experts it led to wide discussion, some pronouncing it a fraud. This opinion, however, cannot be accepted as correct, unless we are prepared to say the finder, and others, into whose possession it first came, were swindlers. As the motive is wanting for respectable persons to become cheats and frauds on the public, the author, for one, cannot accept their diagnosis. A single breath, sometimes, ruins the title to the most valuable real estate, but more is required in this case. If an unlettered youth could produce so good a counterfeit, it seems strange he should close his factory after the production of a single specimen. To continue the work would pay better than farming.*] End of Chapter XVII.