THE HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA: CHAPTER XXI: NORTHAMPTON, 1722 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 Thera Hammond. tsh@harborside.com 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 XXI NORTHAMPTON 1722 Third group of townships. -Original settlers. -William Buckman. -John Pennington. -Thomas Walmsly. -Anthony Tompkins. -The Corsons. -Benjamin Corson. -Blakers. -The Wynkoops. -Henry Wynkoop, Colonel F. M. Wynkoop. - The Dungans. -The Shaws. -Kroesens. -Addis family. -Morrisons et al. - Township organized. -Names of petitioners. -Roads opened. -Holland settlers. -Old house. -Villages. -Dutch Reformed church. -The Miles family. -William Bennett. - Population. -Cuckold's manor. -Large tree. -Lead mine. -Richboro postoffice. Our third group of townships, comprising Northampton, Hilltown, New Britain, Plumstead, Warwick and Warrington, lying contiguous to each other, was organized between 1722 and 1734. Northampton and Warwick were formed of surplus territory rejected in the organization of surrounding townships. In this group we are introduced to a new race of settlers, and the waves of civilization carry immigration above the present centre of the county. The territory of Northampton was largely settled, in the first instance, by English Friends, who came to America with the founder of the commonwealth, or about that time. According to the map of Thomas Holme, the following were original land-owners in Northampton: Benjamin East, Thomas Atkinson, William Pickering, John Brown, Robert Turner, Anthony Tompkins, John Pennington, Christopher Taylor, Daniel Wharley, Samuel Allen, Peter Freeman, Richard Thatcher, Edmund Bennet, widow Hunt, widow Walmsly, Nicholas Walne, widow Plumly, Thomas Rowland, William Buckman, Joab Howle, Arthur Cook, George Willard, Henry Baly, Thomas Potter, James Boiden and James Claypole. Some of them came with their families, while others sought new homes in the forest of Bucks county alone. These names are to be received with a grain of allowance, on account of their imperfect spelling, and as some of these persons owned land in other townships, all of them hardly residents at all. Thomas Walmsley, William Plumly, eldest son of Charles and Margery and the husband of Mrs. Hunt, lived only about a year after their arrival, and dying left their wives widows in a strange land. William Buckman (1), a carpenter from Billingshurst, in Sussex, a Welcome passenger, brought with him his wife, daughters Mary and Sarah, and son William. A daughter, Ruth, was born to them after their arrival. He took up a tract of land along the Bristol road, above Churchville, which extended nearly to Richborough. His second wife was Elizabeth Wilson, by whom he had four children, and at his death, 1716, his widow married Thomas Story, of Falls. His children intermarried with the families of Cooper, Buck, Blaker, Penquite and Heston, and left numerous descendants. (1) Identical with the William Buckman who afterward settled in Newtown. The discrepancy in the names of the children is accounted for by there being two sets. John Pennington purchased twelve hundred and fifty acres before leaving England, which he located to the northeast and adjoining, William Buckman. Arthur Cook owned a large tract on the northwest side of the township, next to Warwick, and laying along the Bristol road. Joab Howle came with John Brock as his indentured servant, and, at the end of his four years of servitude, settled in Northampton and purchased fifty acres near William Buckman. Thomas Walmsly arrived in 1682 with his wife and two sons, and settled in the lower part of the township on the Neshaminy. He brought machinery with the intention of building a mill, but died before he could erect it. William Plumly took up land in the southwest corner of the township, about Scottsville, and now part of Southampton. He died shortly after and his widow married Henry Paxson, of Middletown, in 1684. A thousand acres were surveyed to Anthony Tompkins along the Neshaminy, in 1685. Thomas Atkinson owned five hundred acres north of the road leading from Addisville to Newtown, reaching six hundred perches northeast of that village. Adjoining this tract on the north was John Holme, seven hundred acres, which he conveyed to Jeremiah Dungan in 1716. James Logan owned six hundred and fifty acres below Richborough, embracing the upper part of what is now Holland, and lying between the Newtown roads. In 1701 William Penn granted six hundred and fifty acres to Edward Pennington, of Philadelphia. The names of some of the earliest settlers in Northampton are not on Holme's map, among which is Cuthbert Hayhurst, who married Mary Harker. He arrived soon after the first immigrants, with four children, and his descendant, Shelmire Hayhurst, was living in the township as late as 1805. Of some of them nothing more is known than their names, while others are mentioned in connection with the townships in which they were actual settlers. The Blaker family, which have become quite numerous and scattered over a wide extent of country, were among the early settlers of Northampton. They are all, so far as we have any knowledge, descendants of John Blaker, born in Germany, and appears to have become interested in America while he was quite young. A few years after he was married he heard of the tide of immigration from Holland to this country, and at once formed the resolution of joining in the movement if he could obtain permission to do so. Just how he managed to cross the ocean in a ship bound for Philadelphia is not clearly known. But we find that soon after his arrival, in 1683, he bought two hundred acres at Germantown of the Frankfort company of Rotterdam. His family at the time consisted of his wife and three sons, the youngest born on board the ship in which they crossed the ocean. The locality of Germantown, however, was not satisfactory, as we find that in 1699 he bought a thousand acres on the southwest bank of Neshaminy, in Northampton, which had been conveyed to Robert Turner by patent in 1690, to which he removed with his family. A dwelling house, near a fine large spring of water, was the first building erected on his thousand-acre farm. This portion of the land now belongs to the heirs of Charles Blaker, deceased, and is occupied [1876] by the widow and her son, John D. Blaker. In 1721, Samuel, one of the sons of John Blaker, joined the Society of Friends and was married to Sarah Smith, daughter of William Smith, of Wrightstown. In 1741 Samuel sold his share of the land apportioned to him, during the lifetime of his father, to John and William Cooper, and moved up near Centreville, in Buckingham. He died in 1778 and was buried on the farm. A fragment of the old tombstone, with the name and date, was found on a lot adjoining Buckingham graveyard by Joseph Fell, of Buckingham, and given to Alfred Blaker, of Newtown, many years ago. Lewis Blaker, [late *] of Newtown, and his descendants are all that is known of the name in Bucks county in the line from Samuel Blaker. Paul, the youngest son of John Blaker, had no children. His dwelling house, a substantial stone structure, built in 1731, in which he lived and died, is now [1876] owned and occupied by [the late *] Joshua C. Blaker, brother of Alfred Blaker, of Newtown. These two brothers are of the sixth generation. Peter Blaker, second generation, raised a family of children, whose descendants have always manifested a warm attachment for the old homestead tract of their fathers, and constitute a large proportion of the name in the county, five hundred and ninety acres of the original tract being owned by the Blaker family in recent years. The Corsons, of this and other counties, are descended from Benjamin, son of Cornelius Courson, or Corssen, a Huguenot who left France in 1685 and settled on Staten Island. Benjamin Corson, a son, came to Northampton [Bucks*] county, 1726, and bought 250 acres of Jeremiah Dungan for 350 pounds, on the Middle road, just below Richborough, which was in the family one hundred years. The father died on Staten Island [in 1692-3, his will being probated Dec. 1, 1693.*] Benjamin brought with him to Bucks county his son Benjamin, born 1719 and died in 1774 at fifty-five. His wife was Mary Seidam (2) born 1721, died 1792, aged seventy-one. She and her husband were buried in the graveyard at Richboro. The first Benjamin Corson was buried in the middle of the aisle of the old Reformed Dutch church, North and Southampton, near the Buck tavern in the latter township. Benjamin Corson the second had eight children: Benjamin, grandfather of Doctor Hiram Corson, Plymouth, Montgomery county; Richard, father of Doctor Richard Corson, New Hope; Cornelius; Henry, grandfather of William Corson of Doylestown; John who died on the old homestead in 1823, married Charity Vansant and had two daughters, Jane and Mary; Abraham; Mary, who married Enoch Marple and left several children in Montgomery county; and Jeannette, who married John Krewson. Benjamin, eldest son of Benjamin the second, married Sarah Dungan, and had eleven sons and daughters who married into the families of Harvey, Bennet, Blaker and Morris. Of this family of eleven children all were living and in good health when the youngest was seventy [fifty*] years of age. They were large, strong and healthy, but are now [1876] all dead. The family are numerous and scattered into various parts of the country. Alongside the Corsons in the old graveyard at Richborough, lie the remains of DuBois, Krewson, Larzelere and other Dutch and Huguenot settlers and their descendants. (2) The present spelling is Suydam. The Wynkoops (3) are probably descended from Cornelius C. Wynkoop, who immigrated from Holland to New York early in the seventeenth century. His son Gerardus, who married Hilletji Gerritse, moved to Moreland township, Montgomery county, with his family, in 1717. Of his children, Mary, baptised January 3, 1694, married Abraham Vandegrift, of Bensalem, and Jemima George VanBuskirk, of Moreland. Gerardus Wynkoop came into Northampton in 1727, which year Edward Weston and wife conveyed five hundred acres of the Tompkins tract to "Garret Winekoop, gentleman, of Philadelphia." In 1738 he conveyed two hundred and sixty acres of the same to Nicholas Wynkoop, of Northampton. Gerardus, probably the eldest son of the Moreland Gerardus, married Elizabeth Bennet. One of his children, or grandchildren, was baptised October 9, 1738, at the old Reformed Dutch church of North and Southampton, of which he was an elder in 1744. He had considerable local prominence during the Revolutionary war, of which he was an ardent advocate, and was several times speaker of the assembly. His grandson, Henry Wynkoop, son of Nicholas, born March 2, 1737, and* married Ann Knipers, of Bergen county, New Jersey, was a prominent citizen of the county and Province. He was a member of the Bucks county committee of safety in 1774, 1775 and 1776, lieutenant in the Revolutionary army, member of the Congress that met in Carpenter's hall June 18, 1776, and a member of the first Congress of the United States that met at New York in 1789. He was the personal friend of Washington and Hamilton, and was a man of large frame and handsome appearance. Lieutenant Monroe is said to have spent part of his time, after he was wounded at Trenton, at the Wynkoop mansion in Northampton. Mr. Wynkoop was Associate Judge of our court of common pleas in 1777, and delivered the first charge to the grand jury at Newtown, under the constitution of 1776. Gerardus Wynkoop's son David married Ann McNair, and represented the county several years in the legislature. (3) In olden times the name was spelled Wincope, Winckoop, and Wynkoop, meaning "a wine buyer." Of the children of Henry Wynkoop, Christina, born Apr 20, 1763, married Doctor Reading Beatty, of Newtown, and died at Abington May 18, 1841; Ann, born in 1765, married James Raguet, 1790, and died in 1814; Margaretta, born in 1768, married Herman J. Lombert, 1789, and died of yellow fever, Philadelphia, 1793; Nicholas, born in 1770, married Fanny, eldest daughter of Francis Murray, of Newtown, in 1793. Their grandson Francis M. Wynkoop, born near Newtown, distinguished himself in the Mexican war as a colonel of the First Pennsylvania volunteers. His uncle, George C. Wynkoop, son of Nicholas, was a brigadier-general in the three months' service in the civil war, and afterward commanded the Seventh Pennsylvania cavalry. Emily, the sister of Colonel Francis M. Wynkoop, married William Brindle, a lieutenant-colonel in the Mexican war. The descendants of Cornelius C. Wynkoop are numerous, and many of them occupy honorable positions in life. The Dungans were early settlers in Northampton, where they were numerous and influential a century ago. They are descended from the Reverend Thomas Dungan, Baptist minister from Rhode Island, who settled in Bristol township, in 1684, where he founded the first Baptist church in the province. Just at what time they came into Northampton is not known, but probably not until after 1700. The oldest will on record is that of Thomas Dungan, of Northampton, admitted to probate July 4, 1759, no doubt the son or grandson of the Reverend Thomas. He left children, Thomas, Joseph, Elizabeth, Mary and Sarah. Joseph married Mary Ohl, and their daughter Sarah married Benjamin Corson, grandfather of Doctor Hiram Corson, of Plymouth. To his widow, Joseph Dungan left, among other things, "his negro wench and her child." He left two sons, Joshua, the father of the late Joshua Dungan, of Northampton, and Thomas Dungan, a lieutenant in the Revolutionary army. The descendants of the old Rhode Island Baptist are numerous, living in various parts of this and adjoining counties and states. It is said the lineage of the Dungans can be traced back to the Earl of Dunganon. Northampton had quite a sprinkling of Hollanders among her early settlers. The Cornells, yet numerous in the township, came from Long Island. Among the earliest to settle at Flatbush were Cornelius, Giljam and Peter Cornell, sons of Peter. Giljam came to Northampton with the stream of Dutch immigration that set this way the first quarter of the last century, and with others took up land in a fertile section they called New Holland, which name it retains. He was followed soon afterward by some of the children of Cornelius Cornell, who settled in the same neighborhood. From these ancestors have descended all of that numerous family in this county.(4) We have examined a package of letters that passed between the Cornells of Long Island and their relatives in this county while the British held that island during the Revolution, but they contained not a line of interest. They left the British lines under a flag of truce, and were examined before being transmitted. (4) George A. Cornell, who died at Edison, near Doylestown, August, 1896, at the age of 67, was a son of William and grandson of Gilliam Cornell, an early settler in Northampton. His mother was a daughter of Benjamin Stevens, of Southampton, whose ancestors were among the early settlers in that township.* The Vanhornes, of the same lineage, probably came into the township with the Long Island current, and settled in the same section. The family name comes from the little town and Seigneuri of Horn, in Brabant, Netherlands, and was known as early as the eleventh century. The family was one of the most illustrious in Europe, and by intermarriage became widely connected with the highest nobility. Those who immigrated to this country were probably retainers of the princes Von Horn, and, as was very much the custom at that day, took the family name. The first of the family to settle in Northampton was Abraham, great-grandfather of Isaac Vanhorne, who came previous to 1722. In that year he purchased two hundred and ninety acres of Bernard Christian, now owned in whole or part by a Mr. Evans, on the road from Newtown to the Buck. He died in 1773, leaving a family of five sons and three daughters, bequeathing to his son Isaac about one hundred and seventy-five acres of his real estate. Some of the descendants are still living in this county, but many are in other counties and states. The Kroesens were in the township as early as 1722, and probably several years before. In 1871 one of the old dwellings of this family was torn down, on the farm of Aaron Cornell, near the road from Addisville to the Bristol road. On the date stone was the inscription: "Derrick Kroesen, May 12th, 1731." Behind a cupboard was a secret hiding place that would have contained several persons, common in dwellings of that period. The Bennets were in the township before 1738, but we have not been able to learn anything of their family history or immigration. The Spencers are an old family in Northampton. The paternal ancestor, William Spencer, came from Virginia early in the last century and settled in the township, becoming the owner of several hundred acres of land, part of which is still in the family. We have not the time of his arrival, but it was probably shortly after 1730, as his first child was born in 1734. His wife was a Lewis, but whether he married before or after he settled in the township is not known. We know neither the date of his birth, death, nor the names of his children, except a son, Thomas, who married Mary Hollowell, of Sandy Run, Montgomery county. Their youngest son, Amos, married Ann Brown, daughter of Thomas Brown, who, with his wife, came to this country from Ireland about 1770. He was a fine classical scholar and an excellent penman. The descendants of William Spencer are still quite numerous in this county. [John Addis,(5) an immigrant, a tanner by trade, was born September 2, 1687, and died 1745. He came to Northampton from Philadelphia about 1719 and bought two tracts of land in the township, one hundred acres of Nathaniel West and two hundred and fifty acres of Joseph Wantier, 1724. The children of John Addis were Nehemiah, Joseph (born 1726), John, Richard, Mary, Bridgett, wife of William Peachy, and Jane, wife of Linn. In 1746, the heir sold one hundred acres of the two-hundred-and-fifty-acre tract for 200 pounds to their brother Richard, who died, 1749 (his wife Mary, August 9, 1747), leaving children: John, Richard, Charity, Mary and one other. John Addis, son of Richard, born November 1, 1725, bought one hundred and fourteen acres of Isaac Bolton, 1763, once part of his father's estate, and eighty acres additional, 1770, part of the same, with house and tanyard. They were still in Northampton, 1791. John Addis (2d) married Elizabeth Strickland, and had children, Ann, Enoch, John, to whom he gave his plantation, and daughters Elizabeth Duffield and Mary Duffield. John Addis (3d), son of the above, who died in 1818, had wife Mary and sons Miles and Joseph, and daughters Phebe Dungan, Elizabeth Levenster, Martha Seager, Nancy Seager and Rebecca. His two sons, Miles and Joseph, got his plantation. Joseph was the father of Henry Addis, of Ivyland. Enoch, born 1758, died August 5, 1830, was buried at Southampton, and Elizabeth, his wife, born 1754, died 1839. John, brother of Enoch, born 1756, died 1818, and Mary, wife of John born 1762, died 1850, was buried at Southampton. Nehemiah Addis, son of the immigrant, born 1740, died 1824, and Grace, his wife, born 1738, died 1822. *] (5) Although the Addis family is a large one, and, in the past one of the most prominent in middle lower Bucks, we have found it difficult to trace for want of data. What we have given here relates to a single branch only, and for that we are indebted to Edward Matthews, one of our most diligent students of history. * The children of John and Elizabeth Addis were Mary, born April, 1750, Martha, born March 3, 1752, Elizabeth, born May 4, 1754, John, April 8, 1756, Enoch, August 5, 1758, Amy, February 22, 1763, and Amos, November 28, 1767. The children of another John Addis, doubtless the 4th, whose wife was Elizabeth Strickland, had children, Amy, Phebe, Elizabeth, Mary, Richard, Sarah, John, Miles, Martha, Nancy, Rebecca and Joseph, all born between 1782 and 1805. The family was Scotch-Irish or Welsh--in this county, generally Welsh. * For nearly forty years after its settlement, what is now Northampton township was known and called "the adjacents of Southampton."(6) When created it was formed out of territory not embraced in the surrounding township, and was the last to be organized in this section of the county excepting Warwick, which joined it on the northwest. The 11th of December, 1722, a number of the inhabitants "settled between Southampton, Warminster and Neshaminy," petitioned the court to lay out this district of country into a township under the name of Northampton. The petitioners state that there are "forty settlements," probably meaning that number of families, were settled in the district. The petition was accompanied by a draft of the township with its present boundaries. We have not been able to find any record of the action the court took upon the subject, but no doubt the prayer of the petitioners was granted, and the township allowed and organized. It was probably named after Northampton, in England, the county seat of the county of the same name, sixty miles northwest of London. The names of those who petitioned for the organization of Northampton township are, Clement Dungan, James Carrell, Thomas Dungan, Ralph Dunn, Jeremiah Bartholomew, Francis Kroesen, Cephas Childs, John Routlege, Christian Vanhorne, John Hayhurst, Cuthbert Hayhurst, Robert Heaton, William Stockdale, William Shepherd, James Shaw, John Shaw, James Heaton, Benjamin Jones, William Clukenberry, Jeremiah Dungan, and Johannes Van Boskirk. Among these names there is hardly one of the first settlers, who appear to have been supplanted by others. (6) On an old draft in the surveyor-general's office, of a survey of part of Northampton, it is styled: "A return of lands adjacent to Southampton." Prior to 1722 there were but few roads in the township, and none leading toward Bristol, the county seat, or elsewhere, in that direction, or toward Philadelphia. The inhabitants traveled through the woods by bridle paths, and often had great difficulty in getting from one point to another. But as soon as the township was organized, they petitioned the court for two roads, one of them "to lead into the road from Southampton to Philadelphia." This was either an extension of the Middle road from about Springville, to which point it had already been opened, or a new road to meet what is now the Feasterville turn-pike, then known as the King's road, which passed through Attleborough to the falls. The following year a road was petitioned for from Taylorsville to Newtown, and thence across Northampton to Addisville, to meet the Middle Road. The road from the top of the hill below the Chain bridge in the Middle road, across Northampton to the Bristol road, and thence on the line between Warminster and Southampton, to the county line, was laid out in 1761. Local lateral roads were opened through the township as they were required. Of the earliest settlers, William Dunn died in 1727, and Stephen Whitters in 1728. Of the second and third generations, Arthur Bennet died in 1818, aged ninety-two years, Garret Dungan in 1820, aged eighty, and Henry Wynkoop in 1816, in his eightieth year. There deceased in Northampton, in 1869, Mrs. Rachel Harding in her ninety-seventh year, said to have been the great-grandchild of the first white person born in Philadelphia. Five generations of descendants were present at her funeral. In 1728 Stephen Sanders--at what time he came into the township is not known--was fined twenty shillings by the court for refusing to work on the roads. Among the early mills in Northampton was Fletcher's, built before 1731, but how long is not known, and is supposed to have been on the Neshaminy. [The Shaws, English Friends, originally settled in Southampton township, but had removed to Northampton prior to the close of the seventeenth century. On July 7, 1697, William Buckman, Newtown, conveyed three hundred acres to John Shaw, whose name, with that of his son James, is signed to the petition for the organization of the township, December 11, 1722. John and Susannah Shaw, Northampton, were members of Middletown Monthly Meeting. They had a family of ten children born to them in twenty years: James, born January 9, 1694, died December 3, 1761; Eliza, born July 2 1697; Susanna, born February 2, 1699; John, born October 29, 1700, died about 1776; Joseph, born December 9, 1702, died about 1760; George, September 17, 1704; Sarah, born April 4, 1706; Ann, born February 25, 1709; Mary, born November 26, 1710, and John (2d), born February 22, 1712. The Shaws next appear in Plumstead, but it is not known when they removed there. James, the eldest son of John Shaw, married Mary Brown, of that township, 1718. He probably did not leave Northampton until after 1722, the year the township was organized, as he was one of the petitioners. *] One of the oldest houses standing in the township is the hip-roof dwelling on the Pineville and Richborough turnpike below the Chain bridge, but at what time it was built is not known(7). It was owned by John Thompson, grandfather of William [Thompson, late *] of Doylestown, a hundred years ago, and its appearance indicates it had considerable age on its shoulders at that early day. He bought the frame of the old Presbyterian church, Newtown, in 1769, and erected it for a hayhouse on this farm. The old Thompson mill on the Neshaminy, belonging to this property, was built about 1760. During the troublous days of the Revolution the house was entered by burglars, who carried off silver spoons and money. Hearing them coming up the steps, Mr. Thompson jumped out of bed and got behind the door. As the burglars entered the room, he struck one of them over the arm with an iron rod, which caused him to drop his pistol, and the other fired, but did no harm, when they both fled with their plunder. The Thompson house now belongs [1876] to Benjamin Fenton. (7) The picture of this old house, among the illustrations, was drawn for the author many years ago by the late Thomas P. Otter, artist, of Doylestown. Few, if any, dwellings in middle Bucks are older. (See illustration of Old Hip Roof House, Northampton Township) [One of the most prominent residents of Northampton township, in his generation was the late General Joseph Morrison, who carried on milling and farming on a branch of Neshaminy, near Rocksville. The Morrisons were Irish, David Morrison coming from Ireland and settling on the Brandywine, near Chad's Ford, 1750. He had two children, Betsy and John. John Morrison, born 1768 and died 1851, was an eyewitness of the battle of Brandywine. He married Hannah Yerkes. They settled in Chester county and became the parents of fifteen children, of which one was the late General Joseph Morrison, born October 18, 1794, and died July 30, 1880. The last survivor of this large family of children was the late Jonathan Morrison, born May 4, 1815, and died in Moreland township, Montgomery county, March 15, 1900. He was justice of the peace for ten years, and one term of commissioner of highways, Philadelphia. Joseph Morrison married Eleanor Addis, daughter of Colonel Amos Addis, 1823, and had nine children, Amos, John, Johnson, Ruth, Charles, Eliza, Mary, Annie and Andrew. Soon after their marriage they removed to the mill property spoken of above. Joseph Morrison was conspicuous in military and political life, holding commissions in the volunteer militia from captain to brigadier-general, and filling several political offices; county commissioner, 1836, county treasurer, 1851, recorder of deeds, 1863, and twice elected associate judge, retiring to private life in 1873, on the abolition of the office. He was the last survivor of his social, military and political circle.*] Northampton has four villages, Jacksonville, Addisville, Richborough and Rocksville. We might enumerate Churchville as a fifth, on the Bristol road where crossed by the Richborough and Feasterville turnpike, and lies partly in Northampton and partly in Southampton. Jacksonville, almost a town without houses, with but three or four dwellings besides the ever present smithy, is in the west end of the township. It was ushered into the world with the euphonious name of "Tinkertown," which it bore for many years, and until it became necessary to give the great name of the hero of New Orleans to a new town. How it got its original cognomen is not known but it is to be hoped it was not from any connection with that early tinker, whose son Johnny [Tommy *], on one occasion, made way with a pig under very suspicious circumstances. It was many years the residence of John Hart, farmer and storekeeper, who transacted a large business and wielded a wide influence. Addisville and Richborough are properly one village, lying about half a mile along the turnpike, with twenty-five dwellings, two churches, Dutch Reformed and Methodist, a school-house, store, mechanics, and two public inns. The former of these hamlets was named after Amos Addis, its chiefest citizen, and was so called in 1817. In early days, Richborough was called Bennet's and Leedomville, but it was hard for the public to give up the name, Black bear, which it was called for miles around, and yield to the modern name it now bears. The first tavern here was a little log building, said to have stood in a lot at the junction of the two roads. The White bear and the Black bear were famous trysting places for the lovers of fun of the generation now going off the stage. The two old taverns were popular headquarters for country politicians, and many a slate has been made up and smashed within their walls. The author's first recollection of mimic war is connected with the blood-stained fields of Northampton lying around the two bears, where our doughty volunteers met, fall and spring, to do their constitutional amount of drilling. But these days have long gone by, and most of the "warriors bold" have been called to the great drillground. The post-office for these united villages is called Richborough.(8) Rocksville, on the Neshaminy in the south-east part of the township, so named because of the rocky banks of the creek and hills, has a flour-mill, one store, a few dwellings, and a postoffice, called Holland. (8) It was at the Black Bear tavern, Richboro, the dinner was given the Hon. Samuel D. Ingham on his return home from Washington upon retiring from Jackson's cabinet, 1831. Henry Chapman, Esqr., delivered the address of welcome to which Mr. Ingham made an elaborate reply.* (See illustration of Black Bear Tavern) The Dutch Reformed church at Richborough is the child of the North and Southampton church. The mother church increasing largely in numbers, it was agreed in 1857 to erect a new church edifice at Addisville, and call an associate pastor. The new building was dedicated in April, 1859, and in January, 1860, the Reverend W. Knowlton was called to the charge. He left in the spring of 1864. [Prior to the resignation of Mr. Knowlton a movement was made for the separation of the two churches, which resulted in an application to the Classis. It was granted May 19, 1864. The Reformed church, Addisville, began its separate career with suitable services, the Revs. T. DeWitt Talmage and William Fulton officiating. At the time of organization, seventy-nine persons presented themselves for membership, former members of North and Southampton. *] In January of that year a friendly division of the church took place, the mother one retaining its corporate name, the new one assuming that of "The Reformed Dutch church at Addisville," and receiving one-half the parsonage and property at Churchville, valued at $5,350. The first consistory of the new church, chosen April 7, 1864 consisted of the following persons: Henry S. Kroesen, Sr., Gilliam Cornell, Jonathan Lefferts, and Theodore M. Vanartsdalen, elders, and Alfred Carver, Isaac Bennet, John Kroesen, and Thomas H. Hart, deacons. The first settled pastor was the Reverend G. De Witt Bodine, from the Classis of Geneva, New York, who was ordained and installed September 20, 1864. He resigned in July, 1868, and was succeeded by the Reverend Jacob Ammerman that fall. The latter remained until April, 1871, when he was called to another field of labor. His successor, and present [1876] pastor, the Reverend J. Collier was installed the following November 1, whose pastorate extended thirteen years. He was succeeded by the Rev. E. Birdsell.*] This congregation is in a prosperous condition, and within a few years have erected a handsome stone chapel for Sunday school, prayer meetings, etc. The mother and daughter are among the wealthiest and most flourishing churches in the county. The Bennetts (9) were the earliest Holland immigrants in Northampton, Abraham, son of William, arriving from Long Island, 1687. He purchased a large tract near Addisville. In 1731 his cousin William, son of his uncle John Bennett, settled in Northampton, buying Abraham's land, the latter moving away. His wife's name was Charity. Subsequently Abraham's brother Jacob, whose son was an officer in the Continental army, bought the tract recently owned by Jesse Twining. Isaac, cousin of William, with his sons George and Isaac, settled on the tract owned by Lewis Rorer, where he and his second wife were killed by lightning. Of the children of Isaac, George settled near New Hope, Isaac on the Krewson tract, near Richboro, and John, son of the second wife, occupied the homestead. Among his children were the late Lott Bennett, Warminster. William and Charity, from whom most of the name descended, had ten children. Richard settled in Solebury; he and his brother Aaron were powerful men physically. One day while Aaron was visiting Richard, the latter threw him in wrestling and he was killed by the fall. Lena married Thomas Craven, whose farm on the Bucks-Montgomery county line was part of the battlefield of the "Crooked Billett" fought May 1, 1778. Jane Bennett, daughter of William and Charity, born September 16, 1733, married James Vansant, September 9, 1756, and had fifteen children, of which General Harman Vansant, Warminster, was one; Edith married Dirck Hoagland, from whom have descended the large family of that name; William lived on the Henry Gill property, but subsequently removed to Long Island; Isaac owned the tract where Henry Addis lived and died; Matthias owned the Worthington farm; John, the youngest child, married Huldah Dunham, 1793, and had eight children, of which William Bennett, the eldest son, born August 21, 1794, lived and died in Northampton. He married Sarah Wynkoop, November 15, 1827, and was the father of seven children; Mary, Elizabeth, Miles, Isaac, John, Ellen and Asher. Miles and John spent many years in the far West, the former in Nevada.(10) * (9) The Kings county, New York, Bennetts, are said to be of English origin. Their progenitor, William Adriaene Bennett, was a cooper and in New York prior to 1636. That year, with Jaques Bentyn, he bought of the Indians 930 acres at Gowanus, near the present Greenwood cemetery, Brooklyn, New York. He died prior to 1644. * (10) The Vanartsdalens were among the Holland settlers from Long Island, who settled in Northampton and Southampton and were quite numerous fifty years ago, but few are left in the male line. The author has pleasant recollections of the family of Isaac Vanartsdalen, when a boy. They lived on a handsome farm on the road leading across from the Bristol road, at what used to be called "Bennett's Corner," after Lott Bennett, a mile above Davisville to Addisville. They were related to my father by marriage. The visits were frequent, and the children never failed to have a good time. * July 4, 1794, William Bennett, (11) "late of Northampton Township, Bucks county, blacksmith, but now of Long Island," executed an instrument under seal setting free his negro woman, Sarah, about twenty-seven years of age, acknowledged before Samuel Benezet, and witnessed by him and Isaac Hicks. (11) The Bennetts were early in Kings county, Long Island. Arie, or Adriaen Bennett, born 1637, being married Dec. 3, 1662. He was the son of William Adraens J. Bennett. What time they came into Bucks county is not known, but doubtless with the Holland immigration. [The Miles family of Pennsylvania is descended from three brothers, Richard, Griffith and Samuel Miles, immigrants from Wales, 1682-83, who settled in Chester county. Griffith Miles, from whom the Bucks county branch trace their descent, was born in 1670 and was twelve years old when he arrived. He married Bridget Edwards, at Radnor Friends' Meeting, 20th, 8th mo., 1692. Their certificate was signed by thirty witnesses, including his brothers, Richard and Samuel, and among others, are the names of Pugh, Price, Evans, Edwards and Griffith. They joined the Keithians shortly after marriage, and became members of the Pennepack Baptist church, 1697. Mrs. Miles was baptized July 3, and her husband July 9. From this time forth Griffith Miles was a leading Baptist in the colony. They had six children, Hester, born July 28, 1693; Martha, born August 12, 1695; Margaret, February 9, 1698; Griffith, October 3, 1700; Samuel, July, 1703; and John Miles, February 26, 1709. Griffith Miles, the elder, died in January, 1719, at the age of forty-nine, but the date of his wife's death is not given. Griffith Miles, the eldest son and fourth child of Griffith the elder, was married to Sarah about 1721 and had three children, Martha, Ann and Joseph Miles, born September 17, 1722. He was married in February, 1750, in the Gloria Dei Church, Philadelphia, and had children, Lucy, born December 17, 1750, and died in infancy; Lydia, born October 7, 1752, died August 28, 1841; Griffith, October 4, 1754, died December 8, 1835; Margaret, born August 30, 1756, died April 3, 1826; Joseph, born December 5, 1758, died January 18, 1826; John, born February 6, 1761; Thomas, born January 2, 1762, died 1861; Dorcas, born December 30, 1764, died and infant; Samuel, born October 30, 1766, died September 6, 1849; Jacob born December 19, 1768, died August 23, 1822; William, born June 11, 1771, died May 29, 1855; Ann, born August 4, died 23d. 1865. Ann, youngest child and daughter of Joseph and Anne Miles, was twice married, the first time to William Banes, born August 24, 1770, died January 1, 1803, and four children were born to them. On his death she married Christopher Search, Southampton, and eight children, six sons and two daughters, were born to them of this second marriage. Joseph Miles passed his life in Lower Dublin, and died there March 27, 1800, his wife surviving him until December 21, 1821. The Rev. Samuel Jones, D.D., is mentioned in his will as advisor to the executor. The inventory of his estate is a long one, the last item being "Abraham, the negro boy," valued at 75 pounds. Of these descendants of Anne Miles, nee Nesmith, two of them reached prominence, the late Colonel Charles Banes, Philadelphia, and Theodore C. Search, still living there.*] [Down to this period, Lower Dublin, Philadelphia county, had been the home of the Miles famliy and none of them had come into Bucks across an imaginary line, but the time had arrived when the children would migrate from the homestead. Griffith Miles, second son and third child of Joseph and Anne Miles, is said to have been born in Bucks county, and this may have been the case, but we have seen no evidence of it. However, this may be, family tradition says he was here prior to 1800,(12) when a young man, following the patriotic instincts of the family he served in the continental army, and postponed marriage until he was thirty-seven years old, when he married Jane Beans, of Bucks, April 8, 1791. She is said to have been a woman of lovely character, popular with relatives and friends, born December 8, 1759, and died August 19, 1813. Griffith Miles bought a one-hundred-acre farm in Northampton township, on the Bristol road, contiguous to what is now Breadyville, then the farm house of John Bready, long since deceased. Here the family, parents and children, only two generations, lived a hundred years, none of the children entering the married state. Like his father, Griffith Miles was a farmer, filling his sphere in life with great respectability, dying at the age of eighty-two. Griffith and Jane Miles had five children: Jane, born March 4, 1792, died February 11, 1843; John, born August 22, 1793, died November 13, 1826; Lydia, born October 21, 1795, died December 29, 1893; Susan, born December 1, 1797, died October 23, 1875; Griffith, born February 8, 1800, died March 16, 1894. His will was executed June 21, 1826, in presence of John Kerr and Samuel Hart, and his son Griffith was made the executor to settle the worldly affairs of the father. After the death of the father, the surviving children, three daughters and one son, Griffith, lived in the old homestead, one after another going to that "undiscovered country whence no traveler returns." In settling the estate, a bold attempt was made to rob the heirs of Griffith Miles by the agency of a forged will, presented for probate by a shrewd, unprincipled woman, who enjoyed a passing intimacy with the family, but the attempt was too bold in conception, and bungling in execution to answer the purpose. When submitted to the scrutiny of the common pleas court and jury of Bucks county its intent was instantly fathomed and a verdict rendered accordingly.*] (12) Before going to press, the records of the recorder's office Bucks county were examined and they reveal this fact: On April 1, 1800, Samuel Spencer conveyed to Griffith Miles, of Moreland, Montgomery county, two tracts of land on the east side of the Bristol road, Northampton township, making 104 acres and 94 perches. This was the homestead of the elder and younger Griffith Miles, and but recently passed out of the family. * [Samuel Miles, fifth son of Joseph and Anne Miles, born June 11, 1771, died May 19, 1855, also settled in Bucks county, spending his married life there. He bought a farm in Southampton township, on the road from Davisville to Southampton church. He married Catharine, daughter of John and Ann Jones Bennett, and they were the parents of the following children: William Griffith, born February 19, 1798, died June 13, 1889; Ann Jones, born October 27, 1799, died December 23, 1802; Elizabeth Lydia, born November 5, 1801, died August 1, 1897; John Bennett, born March 3, 1804, died April 20, 1869; Erasmus Nesmith, born August 2, 1806, died May 8, 1872; Samuel Madison, born October 18, 1809, died February, 1810; Mary Bennett, born December 13, 1813, the only living member of the family. But one of this family married, William Grifith Miles to Ellen M. Bennett, daughter of John and Huldah Bennett. They had six children, the daughter, A. Melvina Miles, being the only survivor. In these two branches of the Miles family, with ten children who grew to be men and women but one entered the married state, and that one has but a single living descendant. William Miles, seventh son of Joseph and Anne Miles, married Rebecca, daughter of Josiah and Ann Hart, of Southampton, and were the parents of a large family of children, sons and daughters. He was married twice. His first wife died of typhus fever at Doylestown, March 2, 1815, caught while nursing her only brother. By the second wife, William Miles had several children, and died on his farm near the Pennepack Baptist church. The Miles family has become very scattered in recent years, and are to be found in several states.(13) * (13) Some members of the family trace relationship to the Mileses of New England, but if there be a connection it is very remote and before they came to America. Richard and Catharine Miles came to this country from Yorkshire, England, 1637; first settled in Boston till 1642; thence to Shrewsbury, Mass., till 1658, and to New Haven, where Richard died, 1678, leaving a son John, who married Elizabeth Redfield. Now follows four generations of Johns who represent the family--but we have only been able to trace one of them as far south as Pennsylvania, Wm. R. Miles of Germantown, who came from Connecticut. Colonel Samuel Miles, Philadelphia county, now Montgomery, was also a member of this family. He was born March 11, 1740, was a soldier under Captain Isaac Wayne at Braddock's defeat, commanded a regiment in the Continental army, and promoted a Brigadier for distinguished services. After the war for Independence he held several important civil positions.* [In 1761 Northampton contained one hundred and thirteen taxables. In 1784 it had seven hundred and twenty-two white inhabitants, ninety-one blacks, and one hundred and eight dwellings. In 1810 the population was 1,411; 1830, 1,151 inhabitants and 311 taxables; 1840, 1,694; 1850, 1,843; 1860, 2,048; and 1870, 1,896, of which 111 were of foreign-birth[; 1880, 1,768; 1890, 2,049; 1900, 1,522. *] The area is fourteen thousand three hundred and eighty acres.*] In 1761 there was a bridge in Northampton called "Cuckoldstown" bridge, to which a road was laid out that year from James Vansant's but we have not been able to fix the location of it or the stream. The old records speak of a tract of land called Cuckold's manor, but we were equally in the dark as to its exact situation.(14) (14) Subsequent research has thrown light on this matter. Under date of June 15, 1794, was presented to the "worshipful Justice holding court of Quarter Sessions, at Newtown," the petition of Ebenezer Large stating that "our petitioner has rented the old accustomed Inn at Cuckhold's Town, which he has repainted and much improved, and as he is well provided with everything necessary for the accommodation of travelers he prays your worship to grant him your recommendation to keep a Public House of Entertainment" etc. etc. This was signed by Ebenezer Large, and his prayer was granted. Where was it? * [It is tradition that a lead mine, many years, was worked on Neshaminy, on the farm owned by S. S. Tomlinson, between Twining bridge and the head of Spring Garden dam, south of the Swamp road. It is said the old shaft and drift are still to be seen, but we know of no one who has seen them. Tradition also points to iron work in the same section, on a farm on the road from Churchville to the Holland road, southeast side of the creek. Joseph Morrison's old mill dam backs up to it. Safety Maghee, whom the author knew, and who died fifty years ago, up in the nineties, is given as authority for iron works, in the long past, being about the location named. Geo. W. Henry, Frankford, Philadelphia, who furnished some of this information, says he thinks the work on "Iron Work Creek," was an ore washing mill prior to 1812. He has some of the lead specimens taken from the mine on the Tomlinson farm and has been told it was worked by one Chilion Cooper.*] A postoffice was established at Richborough, and Richard L. Thomas appointed postmaster, in 1830. Northampton must have been noted for her fat cattle more than half a century ago, for we find that in 1815 Aaron Feaster, one of her citizens, sold an ox in Philadelphia that weighted alive two thousand four hundred and sixty-four pounds. The soil of Northampton is rich and fertile, and the township is watered by the Neshaminy, which forms its eastern boundary, and its tributaries. [Northampton is the home of a large tree, but does not quite come up to the Bensalem buttonwood. So far that "takes the cake." This tree is on the Allen Tomlinson farm, on the road from Langhorne to Richborough, and is a chestnut, measuring 24 feet 8 inches in circumference, only 10 inches less than the Bensalem tree. It was struck by lightning some years ago and is something of an invalid.*] End of Chapter XXI.