THE HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA, CHAPTER XXV, WARWICK, 1733. 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 XXV WARWICK 1733 First land seated. -James Clayton. -Bowden's tract. -The Snowdens. -Doctor John Rodman. -The Jamisons. -The Baxters.* -Middlebury. -Township petitioned for. -Called Warwick. -Area. -Quaint petition. -The Ramseys. -Robert Ramsey. -Andrew and Charles McMicken. -Provisions of a will. -The Carrs. -William Rogers.* -Hendersons.* -Mathew Archibald.* -Neshaminy church. -Mr. Tennent. -Old tombstones. -Colonel William Hart. -Robert B. Belville. -James R. Wilson. -Change of hymn-books. -William Dean. -Andrew Long. -Accident. -Roads and bridges. -Wallaces.* -Well-watered. -Hamlets. -Continental Army encamped on the Neshaminy.* -The Hares.* -Post-offices. -Aged persons. -Population. When Warwick was organized all the townships immediately around it had already been formed except Warrington. The original limits included part of Doylestown, and the line between Warwick and New Britain ran along Court street. When the county was settled, and for many years afterward, this section was known as "The Forks of Neshaminy," because the greater part of its territory lay between the two branches of this stream, which unite in the southeast corner of the township. Considerable land was seated in Warwick prior to 1684, but it is doubtful whether there were any actual settlers at that date. Among the original purchasers of land, before 1696, was James Clayton, probably the ancestor of the numerous family bearing this name in eastern Pennsylvania, who came from Middlesex, England, in 1682 with his wife and children. He landed at Choptank, Maryland, in November, and came into the province the following month. We have no data to tell when he came into the county, but he took up an extensive tract west of the Neshaminy, extending from the Northampton line, or thereabouts, to Jamison's corner; also, John Gray, whose tract covered the Alms-house farm, Henry Bailey, about Hartsville, Benjamin Twily, in the vicinity of Jamison's corner, Nathaniel Stanbury, John Blayling, Dramell [Daniel*]Giles, John Fettiplace, John Cows [Clows*], Randall Blackshaw, George Willard, Thomas Potter and James Boyden. Boyden's tract was north of the Neshaminy, between the Bristol and York roads, and lay along the road from the top of Carr's hill down to Neshaminy church . As these names are not afterward met with in the township, very few, if any, were probably actual settlers. Jeremiah Langhorne and William Miller, [Sr.,*] owned 334 acres on the east side of the Bristol road, which extended down it toward the meeting-house, from the top of Long's hill, and running back from the road. [Miller purchased from Langhorne and Kirkebride in 1726, and a large part of the tract became vested in James Wallace, 1762.*] The Snowdens and McCallas were early settlers in Warwick, in the neighborhood of Neshaminy church. Both names have disappeared from the township, although we believe the descendants remain in the female line. John Snowden, the ancestor of James Ross Snowden, late Prothonotary of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, was early in the Forks of Neshaminy, probably about 1700. He is said to have come to what is now Delaware county, then Chester, in 1685. He was appointed Associate Judge of this county in 1704, Justice of the Peace in 1715, and was the first elder ordained in the old Market street Presbyterian church, Philadelphia. His son, Jedediah, was an early trustee of the Second Presbyterian church. The Reverend Daniel McCalla, probably the most eminent man Warwick ever produced, was born in 1748, graduated at Princeton, in 1766, with extraordinary attainments as a scholar, was licensed to preach in 1772, and ordained over the congregations of New Providence and Charlestown, Pennsylvania, in 1774. He was chaplain in the Continental army, and made prisoner in Canada. When exchanged he established an academy in Hanover county, Virginia, was afterward called to take charge of the congregation made vacant by the resignation of Reverend Samuel Davies, and died in May 1809. He had a wide reputation as a preacher, and was distinguished for his classical attainments. As early as 1712, Doctor John Rodman and Thomas Richardson owned large tracts of land in this township. Less than a century ago William and John Rodman still owned 2,500 acres here, the former 1,453-1/2 acres, and the latter 1,057-1/2, on both sides of the Neshaminy, extending from below Bridge Valley to half a mile above Bridge Point. This tract included the Almshouse farm, where Gilbert Rodman resided and which he sold to the county. The Rodman tract, on the northeast, as some points, was bounded by the road leading from Doylestown to Wood's corner, on the York road just above Bridge Valley. It has long since passed out of the family. The Jamisons were in Warwick several years before the township was formed, and the names of three of them are attached to the petition asking for its organization. The family, of Scotch origin and Presbyterian in faith, was among those who immigrated from Scotland to Ulster in Ireland, and was part of the great flood of Scotch-Irish which peopled this state the last century. Henry Jamison, the head of the house, came to America with his family about 1720 or 1722, and probably settled shortly afterward in this county. He bought 1,000 acres in various tracts, in Warwick and Northampton, but lived in the latter township. The deeds show these purchases were partly made of Jeremiah Langhorne, who conveyed 500 acres to Jamison February, 27, 1724. This was part of the 5,000 acres which Penn's commissioners of property conveyed to Benjamin Hurley, September 13, 1703, subject to quit-rent from 1684. John Henry Sprogel bought 1,000 acres of it, and in 1709 he conveyed the same to Thomas Tresse, and from Tresse to Joseph Kirkbride and Jeremiah Langhorne, March 23, 1714. In 1734 Henry Jamison conveyed 250 acres of this land, lying in Warwick, to Robert Jamison, and the remainder to his other children. It is related that Jean Jamison, afterward the wife of Robert Jamison, was shipwrecked in coming to American, on the island of Bermuda, and was left in a destitute condition ere she could get a passage to Philadelphia. The father returned to Ireland, but whether he died there we are not informed. Two hundred acres of the Jamison estate still remain in the family, the same which the progenitor bought of Langhorne in 1728. Robert Jamison, born in 1698, son of Henry, was the father of John Jamison, a captain in the Continental army, who married Martha, sister of the Reverend James Grier, of Deep Run, of Robert, who was a soldier in the Revolution, and long an elder in the Neshaminy church, and also of Henry Jamison, who kept the tavern at Centreville, called Jamison's in 1767, and the father of the first wife of the Reverend Nathaniel Irwin. Henry, a son of Captain John Jamison, drew a $50,000 prize in a lottery. At his death, in 1816, at the age of thirty-five, he left $500 to the Neshaminy church, and with the remainder enriched his relatives. James Jamison, of Buckingham, who was killed by an explosion in his lime quarry in 1837, at the age of fifty-eight, was a son of deacon Robert. Members of this family have immigrated to other parts, and the name is now found in various sections of this state and country. Henry Jamison went to Florida, as early as 1765, where he died. [The Baxters were early settlers in Bucks county. Some say about 1682, but we have not met with the evidence. In 1762 Margaret Baxter mortgaged her real estate, and afterward paid it off, dying about 1785. William Baxter, silversmith, was in Warwick, 1772, and Robert Baxter, 1813. The name "Baxter" originally "Bakestre" means baker and was spelled Baxter, Beckster and Bexter. In 1631 several families of the name immigrated from Shropshire, England, to Salem, Mass., with John Throckmorton and others. Excommunicated, they went to Rhode Island where one family remained. Two other Baxter families settled on Throgg's Neck, West Chester county, New York, where Thomas Baxter died 1715. He was there as early as 1685 and served as Alderman, Justice of Peace, church vestryman and captain. The third family of this name is the one that settled in Bucks county. Colonel Baxter who commanded a Pennsylvania regiment in the Revolution was probably a descendant of one of these families. He was killed at Fort Washington and his remains buried at Tenth avenue and 182d street, New York City. An unlettered stone marks the spot.*] (See illustration of Ruins of Old Cloth Mill in Neshaminy, Warwick.) The unorganized territory lying between Warminster, what was erected into Warrington in 1734, Northampton, Buckingham, and New Britain, was called "Middlebury" for several years, and as such elected overseers of the poor and of roads. February 13, 1733, twenty of the inhabitants of this region, namely: Robert Jamison, Benjamin Walton, William Ramsey, Alexander Breckenridge, Thomas Howell, Hugh Houston, Samuel Martin, William Miller, Jr., Valentine Santee, James Polk, Robert Sibbett, John McCollock, Arthur Bleakley, Alexander Jamison, Henry Jamison, Andrew Long, Joseph Walton, and Joseph Roberts, petitioned the court of quarter sessions to organize it into a township to be called Warwick, "to extend no further in breadth than from ye north-west line, or Bristol road, to Buckingham, and in length from Northampton to New Britain." The draft which accompanied the petition makes Middlebury, or Warwick, of the same size and shape as Warminster and Warrington. The petition was allowed the next day after it was received, and there can be no doubt that the township was organized under it. As to what time the name Middlebury was dropped, and the township took that it now bears, with the boundaries that covered the unorganized territory, the records are silent. It was called Warwick in 1736. The Dyer's mill road, now Doylestown and Willow Grove turnpike, was opened in 1733 by Robert Jamison, "overseer of the roads of Middlebury." The same year Benjamin Walton was appointed constable for Middlebury, and Robert Jamison supervisor of highways. At the October sessions, 1727, William Miller was appointed overseer of the York road between the two branches of the Neshaminy, from the bridge above Hartsville to Bridge Valley. The petitions for the organization of the township belonged to the first generation of actual settlers, or their immediate descendants, and the names remain in this and neighboring townships. The population at that time cannot be given, but at the first enumeration of taxables that we have seen, made in 1759, when the township embraced a much larger area that at present, they numbered 138. Before it lost any of its territory it contained 11,883 acres. Its present area is 10,731 acres. Since Doylestown township was organized there has been one or two immaterial changes in its territorial limits. Shortly after the organization of the township those who were dissatisfied with its boundaries addressed the following petition to the court asking a redress of their grievances. It is a literal transcript of the original document: "To the Honorable court held at Newtown the thirteenth day of December 1733. "The Humbel petition of the inhabetance of Middlebury, Humbly shew: "That by a warrant from Thomas Canby, Esq., Deriected to Robert Jamison, Overseer of the Rodes of the said township, requiring your petitioners to open a Rode formerly Led out from Dyer's mill to the County Line which is the breth of tow townships to wit, Northampton and Warminster as they appear by ye underneath Travfts; Now your petitioners repaired York Rode and oppen the sd Rode from New Britten to ye Northwest Line whis is Bristol Rode and Divids apart of the sd township from Warminster, and is in Bredth near four miles and in length six miles or ther abouts; now there is a considerable number of families Leving on ajasent Lands Laying betwixt ye Northwest Line and ye County Line Equale in Breath with Warminster as the sd township is equeall in Breath with Northampton. "May it therefor please the Honorable court to consider the primises and Grant your petitioners Relive by ordering the sd townships to extend as furder in Breth than from ye sd Northwest Line or Bristol Rode to Buckingham, and in Length from Northampton to New Britain, or outher ways as the Honorable court shall see meett, and your petitioners in duty bound will pray. May it please the court that sd township's name my be Warwick." The Warwick Ramseys are descended from William Ramsey, a staunch Scotch-Irish Presbyterian, who was born in Ireland in 1698, and came to America in 1741. He purchased the undivided third part of 638 acres in the south corner of the township, of Richard Ashfield, on which he settled, and afterward bought 100 acres adjoining, on the Bristol road, in Warminster. The Warwick tract comprised the farms now owned by George Small, C. Carr, Joseph Carrell, Andrew Scott, J. M. Yerkes and Hugh Thompson. The Bairds and Bradys, relatives of Ramsey, came into the township about the same time, and to whom he sold part of his land. William Ramsey married Jane Brady, probably one of his Scotch-Irish cousins, and by her had a family of seven children, Patrick, Hugh, John, William, Jennet, Jean and Robert, and died in 1787, at the age of eighty-nine. His wife died in 1761, aged fifty-eight years. Patrick, Hugh and Jennet died without issue, John, born March 1731, married Eleanor Henderson, had five children, William, John, Jane, Elizabeth and Robert, was an elder in the Neshaminy church, and died in 1813, at the age of eighty-two; William was twice married, and died in 1814, at seventy-nine, without children, leaving his real estate to his nephews; Jean married John Blair, had children, Nancy, Jane, and William R., and died in 1825, at eighty-two; Robert moved with his family to western Pennsylvania. John, the son of John and Eleanor Ramsey, born 1769, married Mary Santman, and died on his farm in Warminster, where his son John lived, in 1849, at the age of eighty. Robert Ramsey, the son of John and Eleanor Ramsey, and grandson of William, the first progenitor, was born February 15, 1780, married Mary Blair, and had children, Eleanor, John P., Jane, Ann, George, Charles, Robert Henderson, William, and another that died in infancy. Four of these children are living in recent years. Robert Ramsey lived on the farm in Warwick inherited from his father, where he died in 1849, at the age of sixty-nine. He was a man of considerable influence and note in his day, and prominent in politics, was five times elected to the Assembly, and was four years a member of the House of Representatives of the United States. The McMicken family was in Warwick at an early day, but probably not prior to 1740. It, too, was Scotch-Irish. We find that on October 7, 1763, William Rodman and wife conveyed to Andrew and Charles McMicken, Jr., of Warwick, 140 acres of land in the township, lying along Neshaminy, on both sides of the York road, for the consideration of £817. This was part of the 2,500 acres that William and John Stephenson, conveyed to John Rodman and Thomas Richardson in 1703, and, in 1726 Richardson conveyed his interest to Rodman. The late Charles McMicken, of Cincinnati, was a member of this family, and was born in Warwick in 1782. He was probably a son of Andrew. His early advantages of education were few, but he was trained to habits of industry and self-reliance. At the age of twenty-one he left his father's house and went to Cincinnati, then an inconsiderable frontier village, [and, when he arrived there,] his entire fortune consisting of his horse, saddle and bridle. There he made his future home. He engaged in trade on the Ohio, and by economy, integrity and close attention to business, amassed a fortune of a million, and died March 30, 1855, at the age of seventy-five. He never married. He was a philanthropist in the broadest sense of the word. After providing moderately for his relatives in his will, he left his entire fortune to found two colleges, one for males and the other for females. In his will he says: "Having long cherished the desire to found an institution where white boys and girls might be taught, not only the knowledge of their duties to their Creator and their fellow men, but also receive the benefit of a sound, thorough, and practical English education, such as might fit them for the active duties of life, as well as instructors in all the higher branches of knowledge, except denominational theology, to the extent that the same are now, or may hereafter, be taught in any of the secular colleges or universities of the highest grade in the country, I feel gratified to God that through his kind Providence I have been sufficiently favored to gratify the wish of my heart." Among his charities during his lifetime were a gift of $5,000 to the American Colonization Society, and another of $10,000 to endow a professorship of agricultural chemistry in the Farmers' college of Ohio. Joseph Carr, ancestor of the family bearing this name in Bucks county, an immigrant from the north of Ireland, settled in Warwick in 1743. [He first settled on a hundred acre tract he rented for a shilling an acre, part of 1,200 acres William Penn granted to Henry Bailey, Yorkshire, England, 1685, but Carr subsequently purchased it for £175. Joseph Carr was born in 1707-08, died in 1767 , and his will, executed February 18, 1756, was admitted to probate March 2, 1767. His executors were William and Andrew Long. Four sons and three daughters are mentioned in the will; John, born 1746, died March 29, 1812; William, Joseph, born 1728, died May 22, 1780. His wife's name was Mary and the inventory of his estate amounted to £900. As Joseph Carr was born fifteen years prior to his father settling in Warwick, it is conclusive evidence he was married before leaving Ireland, and Joseph was probably the eldest child. Joseph Carr, son of the first Joseph, left four children, Andrew, Margaret, Issub, and Mary.*] [John Carr, son of Joseph, the elder, as already stated, was born three years after his father's arrival. John Carr's wife was Jane Wallace, daughter of James and Isabel (Miller) Wallace. They had three sons and five daughters - James, Joseph, William, Elizabeth, Marie, Jane, Isabella and Priscilla. At the breaking out of the Revolution John Carr enrolled himself with the Warwick "Associators," the last of August 1775, and doubtless turned out with the company wherever its services were required. Of the sons of John Carr, James the elder read medicine, graduated, began practice and died young. Joseph died, 1839. William Carr, the youngest son of John Carr, the second, became quite prominent in county affairs. He was appointed clerk of the Orphan's Court in the thirties, serving a full term and was afterward deputy in other county offices. He resided at Doylestown, until in the sixties, where he died, 1872, at the age of seventy-two. He never married. William Carr took a deep interest in Masonry and stood high in the order. He superintended the erection of the Masonic Temple, built on Chestnut street in the fifties, but taken down several years ago. Mr. Carr was a man of intelligence and somewhat given to historic research. The will of John Carr the second is dated March 25, 1812, the executors being William Carr and Samuel Hart, but we have not been able to find the settlement. On the death of Joseph Carr, Sr., his children, October 13, 1769, released to their brother John their interest in the farms their father [died seized of (1)] as follows: "William Carr and Mary his wife, of Warwick; Thomas McCune, and Margaret, his wife; John Anderson, of Baltimore Co., Md., and Isabella his wife, the said William, Mary, Margaret and Isabella being children of Joseph Carr, late of Warwick, deceased, release and quit claim to John Carr of Warwick, deceased, a plantation of fifty-two acres, lying on the Bristol road; also another plantation contiguous, containing 100 acres." The Recorder's office, Doylestown, shows a number of conveyances to John Carr and some to his brother Joseph, evidence there was considerable real estate in the family. The Carrs were all Presbyterians, and have remained of this faith. Down to 1876 there had been thirty-one interments of persons of this name, twenty males and eleven females, in the Neshaminy graveyard.*] (1) Meaning unclear, may be typographical error. (See illustration of Neshaminy Church, Warwick.) The Neshaminy church of Warwick, on the north bank of that stream, half a mile from Hartsville, is one of the oldest Presbyterian churches in the county. Just when the congregation was organized is not known, but it dates back to the first quarter of the [eighteenth*] century. The first known pastor was the Reverend William Tennent, who was called from Bensalem in 1726, and was the founder of the Log college. The original church stood in the graveyard, and the site of the present building is said to have been an Indian burying ground. On the northwest end is a marble stone with the inscription: "Founded 1710, erected 1743, enlarged 1775, repaired 1842." The date of its foundation is an error, which arose from the early chronicles confounding its history with that of the Dutch Reformed church of North and Southampton, which, at its founding in 1710, and many years afterward, was called "Neshaminy church." The Warwick church never had the Reverend Paulus Van Vleck for pastor, who officiated at the Bensalem and North and Southampton churches, and who was in no wise connected with the former. There is not the least evidence that the Warwick church was in being when Van Vleck preached in the county, and moreover, he was Dutch Reformed, while this church is, and always has been, Presbyterian. On a stone in the wall of the graveyard are the letters and figures: W. M. (2) W. G. 1727 the year the first wall was built. It was rebuilt some years ago, and on the gatepost is cut the date, 1852. A number of distinguished clergymen have been pastors at Neshaminy, the Reverends Messrs. Tennent, Blair, Irwin, Belville, Wilson, etc., whose prominence in the church has given it and them an historical importance. Whitefield preached in the graveyard, where the church then stood, while in America a century and a [half*] ago. (2) These initials doubtless stand for William Miller, an early settler in the township, and a Presbyterian, who donated the land for the church in 1726. [About this period William Rogers, also a Scotch-Irish Presbyterian, settled in Warwick. Whether he came with a family is not known; or if he married after his arrival, the name of his wife and the time of their marriage, are also unknown. He died in Hanover township, then Lancaster county, now Dauphin, 1771, whither he had removed some years before. Among his children were two sons, Robert and Andrew Rogers, but we are ignorant of the date of their birth. Robert, the elder married Isabella Carr, daughter of John and Jane Carr, and his brother Andrew married Jane Henderson, daughter of Margaret and Robert Henderson. Both the sons settled in Hanover township, Lancaster county; we do not know whether before or after their father, but probably about the same time. There George W. Rogers, a great-grandson of the immigrant, was born August 23, 1819, and went west with father's family, 1836. They settled at Springfield, Ohio, whence the son George was sent to Dayton, to school, but subsequently married and settled there, and died August 11, 1899, within twelve days of eighty years of age. The widow and family still reside at Dayton. William H. Rogers was the son of Robert and Isabella Carr and grandson of Andrew who married Jane Henderson.* [About 1728 two new Scotch-Irish settlers located in Warwick, Matthew and Elizabeth Archibald, with their daughter, Margaret, and her husband Robert Henderson. On April 4, 1739, John Thomas and Richard Penn conveyed to Elizabeth Archibald 489 acres in Buckingham, on the northwest side of the York road, extending from Spring Valley to the Bushington toll gate, which she devised by her will, dated January 16, 1748, to her daughter Margaret, wife of Robert Henderson. Margaret Henderson died intestate, 1793, leaving eight daughters; Elizabeth married David Denny, Chester county Margaret married John Kerr, Warwick Jane married David Ferguson, Hanover township, Dauphin county Agnes married Moses Dunlap, Plumstead Mary married Elijah Stinson, Warwick Eleanor married James Polk, Warwick Martha Henderson, died unmarried Rachel married James Darrah. In 1761, Robert Henderson purchased land of Henry Johnson as "Robert Henderson, of Buckingham," and consequently must have lived there at that time. The executors of Elizabeth Archibald were Charles Beatty and Robert Henderson. Elijah Stinson owned the Moland plantation at the foot of Carr's hill, near Neshaminy bridge, Warwick, where Washington had his headquarters August, 1777. (3) There is some uncertainty in tracing the Henderson, by reason of a line that does not seem to connect with that of Robert Henderson and Elizabeth Archibald. Letter of administration were granted, November 5, 1782, to his brother Samuel Henderson, on the estate of "John Henderson, late of Warminster, deceased." In the administrator's account is the item of physician's attendance in sickness and funeral expenses in North Carolina, £13, 15:6, in Pennsylvania money £12, 18:3. Balance of estate £218.19-1/2. Samuel Henderson then lived in Northampton township and died there, 1821. His wife was named Elizabeth, and his will mentions a brother, "Thomas Henderson of Doylestown, Taylor, nephews William, son of brother Thomas, and William Pennell, son of sister Margaret. There are also mentioned, in the records, a Jane Henderson, who died in Wrightstown, 1796, whose estate was distributed to two heirs, Margaret Montanye, late Henderson, and Jane Vanpelt, wife of Isaac, late Henderson. These different Henderson were doubtless relatives, but we are not able to connect them. Robert Henderson died in Warminster on the farm owned by John M. Darrah. Henderson bought it April 5, 1772, of the executors of Charles Beatty. Dying intestate, the farm was bought by James Darrah, grandfather of John M., the present owner, May 2, 1793. It has been in the family 129 years, and owned by the Darrahs 107, passing from father to son.* A walk in the old graveyard [donated to the church by William Miller, Sr., and confirmed by his will, in which the original building stood*], exhibits to the visitor the resting places of four generations of the congregation, but there are no tombstones with inscriptions earlier than 1731 [1730*]. The following are among the oldest: Cornelius McCawney, who died November 29, 1731, aged forty years; Isabel Davis, August 30, 1737, aged seventy-eight years; William Walker, October 1738, aged sixty-six years; Andrew Long, November 16, 1738, aged forty-seven years, probably the first settler of the name in that vicinity; John Davis, August 6, 1748, aged sixty-three years; John Baird, February ye 2d, 1748, aged seventy-three years. Among others is a stone to the memory of the "Reverend and learned Mr. Alexander Gellatley, minister of the gospel in Middle Octoraro, who came from Perth, in Scotland, to Pennsylvania in 1753, and departed this life March 12, 1761, in his forty-second year." It is not probable any of these early inhabitants of Neshaminy graveyard were born in the county, and the birth of some was years before the English settlers landed on the Delaware. Among the stones is one to the memory of Colonel William Hart, one of the captors of the Doanes, and after whom Hartsville was named, who died June 2d, 1831, aged eighty-four years. On the tomb of Mr. Tennent, Sr., who departed this Life, May the 6th, Anno Dom. 1746, annos natus 73." (3) The following were the dates of birth of the children of Robert Henderson and Margaret Archibald: 1. Elizabeth born March 10, 1750, no children 2. Margaret born May 2, 1751, no children 3. Jane born December 22, 1752, first husband, Rogers, no children, second, Ferguson, several children 4. Agnes born April 2, 1754, married Moses Dunlap, one son 5. Mary, April 14, ? 6. Martha born 1760, one son and two daughters 7. Rachel born July 1762, two sons.* Among the pastors of the Neshaminy church, during the present century, the Reverend Robert B. Belville was one of the most distinguished, who officiated for the congregation for twenty-six years. He was a descendant of Huguenot ancestors, who came to America soon after the revocation of the edict of Nantes, and was a relative of Nicholas Belville, the famous French physician who came to this country with Count Pulaski, and settled at Trenton, New Jersey. Mr. Belville was born at New Castle, Delaware, in 1790, educated at Pennsylvania University, studied divinity with Doctor Smith at Princeton, was called to Neshaminy in 1812, and remained until 1838. When he took charge of the church it had but thirty-three members, but he left it at his resignation with three hundred. During his pastorate the church experienced two memorable revivals, in 1822 and in 1832, the latter adding to it 140 communicants. He married soon after his settlement at Neshaminy. In 1816 Mr. Belville opened a classical school in a small building on his own premises, which he kept for nine years. From this grew the other schools which were of incalculable value to that region for many years. He removed from Neshaminy in the spring of 1839, lived four years in Lancaster, and in 1843 purchased a farm in Delaware, his native state. He died at Dayton, Ohio, in 1845, while on a visit to his brothers and sisters, and was buried in the cemetery there. Mr. Belville was an able minister, and his work proves him to have been a successful pastor. One who understood his character well says of him: "He had the courage of a lion, and the tenderness of a babe; he was quick as lightning, and true as the sun, and all who knew him either loved him well, or at least thoroughly respected him." He was the father of the Reverend Jacob Belville, [formerly of Pottsville, but retired some years ago, and since deceased.*] Another able minister of this church was Reverend Henry Rowan Wilson, the son of a Revolutionary officer, and born near Gettysburg August 7, 1780. He was educated at Dickinson college, and licensed to preach in 1801. After laboring some months in Virginia, he removed to Bellefonte, in this state, where he organized a church, and also one at Lick Run, twelve miles distant, and was installed their pastor, in 1801. In 1806 he was appointed professor of languages in Dickinson college, where he continued until 1816. He was subsequently in charge of the Presbyterian church at Shippensburg, and general-agent of the Board of Publication, and was called to the [Presbyterian church of Warminster at Hartsville*], 1842, where he officiated until 1848, when he resigned because of age and disability. He was made doctor of divinity in 1845 by Lafayette college, and died at Philadelphia March 22, 1849. [The Stewarts were among the earliest Scotch-Irish settlers in Bucks county - John of Northampton and Warwick, Robert of Warwick and Thomas of Tinicum. Charles Stewart, who first appears in Plumstead, 1738, was probably a son of John, who was in Northampton, 1729. April 1, 1757, he bought 116 acres in Plumstead of William Allen. His children were George, Charles and Rachel. This Charles Stewart is probably the same who afterward removed to Upper Makefield, which a comparison of signatures, from 1738 to 1791, makes quite conclusive. Charles Stewart married the widow of David Lawell, Newton, 1756-57. At that time his residence is given as Plumstead. This was probably a second marriage, as John Harris married his daughter Hannah about the same time. While it is thought she went to Kentucky for good, 1797, she appears to have been in Bucks county, 1803, where she acknowledged a power of attorney to Robert Frazier, authorizing him to convey her interest in the Mansion Home, Newtown, as the instrument was executed there. In a letter of attorney, dated June 30, 1797, which Hannah Harris and Mary Hunter executed, they are spoken of as "late of Woodford, in the State of Kentucky, but now of Bucks county." When Charles Stewart went to Upper Makefield we do not know, but he was there in February 5, 1773.*] The Reverend Nathaniel Irwin, both eccentric and able, officiated many years at Neshaminy previous to his death in 1812. It is related of him, that during his pastorate, he made an effort to introduce Watt's hymns in the place of Rouse's version of the Psalms of David. Sometime he would give out from one book, and then from another. On one occasion he opened with a Rouse and closed with a Watts, which so greatly displeased a hearer, named Walker, that he took up his hat and walked out of the house when the Watts was given out. He went straightway up to Craig's tavern, now Warrington where he found several topers around the fire nursing their cups. On being asked why he was not at church, he replied they were "doing nothing but singing Yankee Doodle songs and play-house tunes, down at Neshaminy," and to cool his anger and assuage disgust, he cried out to the landlord, "Gee us a gill o'rum." In 1742 Reverend William Dean, of county Antrim, Ireland, was sent to preach at Neshaminy and Forks of Delaware, but the length of his stay is not known. He was ordained pastor at Forks of Brandywine in 1746, and died there in 1748. William Allen was a large owner of real estate in Warwick, and in 1756 he conveyed 134 acres to John Barnhill, bounded by lands of Margaret Grey, James Wier, and other lands of William Allen. In addition to the families already mentioned, we know that the Bairds, Crawfords, Walkers, Davises, Tompkins, and others, came into the township early, all probably in the first third of the last century (1876 edition). The name of Andrew Long is affixed to the petition for the township, but we believe he always lived on the south side of the Bristol road in Warrington, though we know he owned land in Warwick. The McKinstrys probably came into the township later, at least they do not appear to have been inhabitants when it was organized. These names are still found in this and adjoining townships. A daughter of Henry McKinstry, Christiana, a young lady of twenty years, met her death, by accident, April 19, 1809, under painful circumstances. She was returning from Philadelphia up the York road in a wagon with John Spencer. He got out at Jenkintown for a few minutes, and meanwhile the horses started on a run. Her dead body was picked up on the road just below Abington, where the horses were stopped uninjured. It is supposed that she attempted to jump out of the wagon, but fell, when the wheels passed over her head. The event created great excitement in the neighborhood where she lived. [The Wallaces came into Bucks with the Scotch-Irish Presbyterian immigration the first quarter of the eighteenth century, but we do not know where they first settled. They were in Tinicum, Plumstead and Warrington, 1739-40, and 1762. James Wallace purchased 300 acres on Neshaminy near Hartsville, but was probably in Warwick earlier. He first appears in public life, 1768, when elected Coroner, serving four years. He was active against the Crown during the Revolution, and was at the meeting at Newtown, July 9, 1774, and joined in the protest against the oppressive measure of the Parliament; was a delegate to the Carpenter Hall Conference, July 15, 1774; member of the Bucks county committee of safety, and his name heads the roll of the Warwick Associators. In January 1776 he was appointed a member of a committee to go to Philadelphia to learn the process of making saltpetre; in June 1776 was a member of the Carpenter's Hall Conference that led to the formation of a State government and one of the three judges to hold the election for delegates to the first constitutional convention. When the State government was organized, James Wallace was appointed one of the Judges of the criminal court, his commission bearing date March 31, 1777. He was equally active in church affairs, serving as trustee at Neshaminy from his first election, 1767, to his death. He died 1777 and his widow was living 1810.*] [James Wallace married Isabella Miller, daughter of Robert and Margaret (Graham) Miller, Warrington, 1754-55, and was the father of five children: William died single Jane married John Carr, son of Joseph and Mary (Long) Carr Margaret married Samuel Polk, son of James Robert Wallace married Mary Long, daughter of Hugh and Mary Corbit Long. Isabelle died single Of eight children of Robert and Mary Wallace: Priscilla married William Hart Isabella married Joseph Ford Mary married Mark Evans Jane married Charles Shewell, New Britain Rebecca married William Ward Margaret died in infancy James, the only son, married Mary Ford.*] Warwick is well provided with roads, being cut by three main highways, the York, Bristol, and Alms-house roads, and a number of short lateral roads, that afford the inhabitants easy communication from one portion of the township to another. The road from the top of Carr's hill down to the Bristol road at Neshaminy church was laid out in 1756 between the lands of William Miller and James Boyden. In 1759 [1756 in 1905 edition) a road was opened from Henry Jamison's mill, (4) on the south-west branch of Neshaminy, to the York road. A stone bridge, on the York road, over the Neshaminy, above Hartsville, was built in 1755. (5) It was replaced by another stone bridge in 1789, which stood until within the last ten years, when it was destroyed by a freshet. The datestone had cut upon it a human heart. The present bridge is an open wooden one. Warwick is one of the best watered townships in the county. Two branches of the Neshaminy form part of its east and northern boundary, which, with their tributaries, supply almost every part of it with abundance of good water. This condition is very favorable to the building of mills, and their erection was begun with the first settlement of the township. Before 1760 there were four flour-mills in Warwick: Henry Jamison's, now Lewis Ross's, Mearns', Hugh Miller's, and Faries's. Twenty-five years ago the late Admiral Dalghren, then a lieutenant in the United States navy, owned and occupied the farm now in possession of Mr. Ramsey, on the Warwick side of the Bristol road, half a mile below Hartsville. He lived there several years to recover his shattered health. (4) Now known as Mearns' lower mill, and is owned by Lewis Ross. (5) This bridge was built partly by subscription and partly by money contributed by the county. The previous bridge was too low in time of a freshet and there was trouble from overflow of the stream. George Hughes and John Wilkinson superintended its erection. In Warwick there are no villages that deserve the name. All of Hartsville but the tavern and two dwellings are on the Warminster side of the Bristol road. Bridge Valley, at the crossing of the Neshaminy by the York road, is the seat of a post-office, with an unlicenced tavern and three or four dwellings, and Jamison's corner, at the intersection of the York and Alms-house roads, consists of a tavern, a store, and a few dwellings. Warwick's three taverns, when that at Bridge Valley was in commission, lay on the York road in the distance of four miles. Before canals and railroads were constructed they had an abundant patronage from the large teams that hauled goods from Philadelphia to the upper country. Hartsville and Jamison's corner were so called as early as 1817, when Bridge Valley bore the name of Pettit's. The township has two post-offices, that at Hartsville, established in 1817, and Joseph Carr appointed postmaster, and at Bridge Valley, in 1869, with William Harvey the first postmaster. The classical school of Reverend Robert B. Belville was followed by schools of the same character, kept in turn by Messrs. Samuel, Charles and Mahlon Long, and for nearly a quarter of a century were quite celebrated. The first-named, Samuel Long, met a sad fate, being killed by a limb falling from a tree under which he was standing, giving directions to wood-choppers, in December 1836. Some of the early settlers of Warwick lived to a green old age, viz: John Crawford, who died September 4, 1806, aged eighty-eight, Mrs. Elizabeth Baird, widow of John Baird, November 9, 1808, aged ninety-five years, John Hough, January 6, 1818, aged eighty-eight years, and Charles McMicken, December 24, 1822, aged eighty-two, who was born, lived and died on the same farm. A later death shows greater longevity than the foregoing, that of Mrs. Phoebe Taylor, widow of Jacob Taylor, who died October 27, 1867, at the age of ninety-nine years, five months and four days. She was the daughter of Jeremiah and Mary Northrop, of Lower Dublin, Philadelphia county. Among the local societies of the township is the Fellowship Horse Company, organized in 1822. In 1784 Warwick, which then embraced a portion of Doylestown township, contained 609 white inhabitants, 27 blacks, and 105 dwellings. In 1810 the population was 1,287; 1820, 1,215; 1830, 1,132, with 216 taxables; 1840, 1,259; 1850, 1, 234; 1860, 881, and in 1870, 775, of which 19 were of foreign birth;1880, 722; 1890, 709; 1900, 631. We cannot account for this constant shrinkage of the population of Warwick on any other theory than the incompetency of those who took the census. It does not speak well for the growth of a township which has 350 less population in 1870 than it had 40 years before. (6) (6) The shrinkage in the population of Warwick, is said to have been due to two causes, incompetency of the census takes, and adding portions of it to Doylestown, once if not twice. When Doylestown was organized, in 1818, it was taken from the three adjoining townships of Buckingham, New Britain and Warwick, the latter giving 3,515 acres. Some 40 years ago the Alms House and farm was taken from Warwick and added to Doylestown. This reduced the population over 100.* The surface of Warwick is not as level as the adjoining townships. In the vicinity of the Neshaminy it is considerably broken in places, with steep, abrupt banks and rolling. The soil is thin on some of the hillsides. The Arctic drift, evidence of which is seen in Warrington township, extended into Warwick. [Warwick lay in the track of the Continental army at one of the most critical periods of the Revolution. Washington passed the winter, spring and most of the summer of 1777 near Morristown, New Jersey, watching the British in New York; but, when he heard of the British fleet sailing south in July 1778, believing their destination to be Philadelphia, he put his army in march to intercept them. He crossed the Delaware at New Hope, then Coryell's Ferry, the 30th and 31st of July, marching down the York road to the vicinity of Germantown, where, he halted to await further tidings. As the movements of the British fleet were uncertain and deceiving, the Continental army retraced its march to the Neshaminy hills, Washington quartered in the farm house of John Moland, then lately deceased, and the family probably lived there. The dwelling was surrounded by a plantation of 134 acres, which Daniel Longstreth purchased, 1789. He sold it, 1790, to John Richards, a Philadelphia merchant, who probably never lived there, as he conveyed the property to Elijah Stinson April 1, 1792. The latter spent the remainder of his life there, dying March 5, 1840, at the age of eighty-nine. The dwelling, with about half the original plantation was sold by William Bothwell's executors, to Mrs. Sarah R. Campbell, April 3, 1889. The Moland house, still standing, in good preservation, is on the east side of the York road, facing south and 300 yards north of Neshaminy. It is a substantial stone building, 35 feet square, two stories and attic with a stone kitchen at the east end, 16x18 feet. A porch runs in front of each building on the south side. The end of the main building stands to the road on a bank a few feet high. As when Washington occupied it, the first floor of the main building is divided into two rooms with the entry near the kitchen; the larger room being on the south side and entered from the porch, the smaller, back. The latter is thought to have been used by Washington as an office, the larger a reception room. In each there was an open fire place and then as now a door opened into the kitchen. There has been no change in the porches in 60 years, and similar ones may have been there 1777-8. Here Lafayette reported for duty and first took his seat at the council board. The whipping post was on the west side of the York road, opposite the house. The army was again put in march for Philadelphia on the 23d to intercept the enemy, the battle of Brandywine and Germantown shortly following.*] (See illustration of Moland House, Warwick) The Hares (7) were among the early settlers in Warwick, George Hare being in the township prior to 1724, but whether he came single or married is unknown. We have not been able to learn the name of his wife, but she is known to have had five children: Joseph Mary, who married a Macfarland Jean, wife of John Robinson Benjamin William. Among the records of the Bensalem Presbyterian church is the following entry: "George Hare and his wife had a son baptized, named Benjamin, 8th month, ye 1st day, 1724," probably their oldest child. George was one of the trustees in the deed for the lot on which the "New Light church" was erected, 1744. Although himself and wife were Presbyterians there is no record of them in the archives of Neshaminy, not even of their death or burial. His will was executed January 2, 1768, and probated July 29, 1769, his death taking place between these dates. His son Benjamin was his executor. In his will he bequeathed a legacy of £21, for the "support of the Gospel at the new meeting house at Neshaminy," and another of £50 to his son Joseph. William Hare, son of George, died before his father, July 1756, his will being executed January 22, and probated July 6. In it he directs that "Father be provided for." William lived in New Britain and probably died there. Benjamin Hare was probably the longest-lived child of the family, dying March 31, 1804, aged about eighty. His death is in the Neshaminy records. The name of William Hare appears on the rolls of Captain Henry Darrah's company of militia, 1778, and the second lieutenant of Captain William Magill's company of riflemen was a Hare, the first name not given. This company belonged to Colonel Humphrey's regiment of riflemen, called out for the defense of the Lower Delaware, 1814. One at least, of the Hare family, kept public house, probably a son of Benjamin. In the issue of January 15, 1805, the Pennsylvania "Correspondent," published at Doylestown by Asher Miner, says, in speaking of the public house of the village, "that noted tavern stand, 'sign of the ship,' in the tenure of Mathew Hare, situated in Doylestown, afronting the Easton and New Hope roads." It occupied the site of Lenape Building, southeast corner of Main and State streets. In 1822 Joseph Hair (Hare) was captain of the Independent Artillerists, Doylestown, organized the previous fall, and officers elected January 24. (8)*] (7) This name is spelled both Hare and Hair.* (8) The records relating to the Hares, are somewhat conflicting. George Hare, probably a son of William, is said to have removed to New Jersey, but the place of his settlement is not given. He died 1783. A Benjamin Thornton Hare, whose wife was a daughter of Jacob Krider, a soldier of the Revolution, is mentioned, but that is all. It is just possible he was the Benjamin, son of George, who was baptised at the Bensalem Church, 1724.* End of Chapter XXV.