BIOGRAPHICAL AND HISTORICAL ACCOUNTS OF THE Fox, ELLICOTT, AND EVANS FAMILIES, AND THE DIFFERENT FAMILIES CONNECTED WITH THEM. COLLECTED AND COMPILED BY CHARLES W. EVANS, BUFFALO, N. Y. BUFFALO: PRESS OF BAKER, JONES & CO. 1882. PREFACE. OME fifty years ago, before I was twenty, I began to collect material Sfor this family history, but with no intention of publishing it, until within five years past. Many of those who originally gave me the infor­ -~iati0u, which I at the time committed to writing, have passed away. I remember them with much pleasure, because I took great interest in their narratives. Among them were my father, mother, grandmother, and aunts, and also more distant relatives, such as l\,f ARTHA ELLICOTT CAREY, and her sister, ELIZABETH ELLICOTT, of Avalon; ELIZABETH ELLICOTT, • wife of GEORGE ELLICOTT, of Ellicott's Mills, Md.; THOMAS ELLICOTT, of Avondale, Pa.; RACHEL T. HEwEs; JOHN ELLICOTT, son of ELIAS; and MARTHA E. TvsoN. I have also had access to several fan1ily records, and to 1nany family letters, particularly those to JOSEPH ELLICOTT, of Batavia, N. Y. Among those now living, to none am I so much indebted as to JOHN H. BLISS, of Erie, Pa. Had it not been for his unwearied patience and perseverance in collecting family statistics, not more than half, and perhaps not more than one-£ ourth, of the names, dates; etc., par­ ticularly those of the youuger branches, could have been obtained. Com­ paratively few, scarcely any, of those to whom he wrote, refused to give the information asked of them, for which they deserve much credit. Many of those to whom he wrote, not only gave the desired information, but took much interest in the proposed book, and obtained additional statistics for him. Among these we mention with much pleasure WIL­ LIAM M. ELLICOTT, of Baltimore, and ·his son, WILLIAM M. ELLICOTT, of Philadelphia; JOSEPH C. G. KENNEDY, of Washington, D. C.; I SABELLA TvsoN, and her sister, Mrs. KIRK; JAMES CAREY CoALE; PHILIP T. 4 GEORGE, his sister, Mrs. ELIZA G. EARLY, and THOMAS J. CAREY, all of Baltimore; Mrs. LETITIA ROBINSON, of Carversville, ~ucks County, Penn­ sylvania, and her son, DEW ITT C. RoBINSON, of Philadelphia; IsAAC McPHERSON, of St. Louis; THOMAS J. INGHAM, of La Porte, Pa.; SILAS WARNER, of Chrome Hill, Md.; Mrs. EMMA M. WooLEY, Mrs. SARAH P. OPIE, and Mrs. CAROLINE B. DAVIS, of Philadelphia; WILLIAM D. JunsoN, of New York; Mrs. CORNELIA D. GRANT, of Oswego, N. Y.; WILLIAM REYNOLDS, Meadville, Pa.; MARY A. TvsoN, and Rev. MALCOLM Douc­ LASS, D. D. The amount of correspondence carried on by Mr. BLISS with so many different persons was large, very large, and took much of his valuable time from his extensive business. Preparing for the press all the information obtained by Mr. BLISS, and all the material collected by my­ self during so many years past, was of course no easy task; in this I was much assisted by my daughters, ALICE M. and VIRGINIA Ev ANS, and with­ out their assistance the work would have been much longer delayed than it already has been. Great care has been taken, both by Mr. BLISS and myself, to avoid errors, but it would be remarkable, in a work of this kind, if there were not many of them. How the ,vork will be received by the different members of the family cannot, of course, be known,_ but this much is certain, none of them can derive ·more pleasure in perusing it than I have had in its compilation. CHARLES W. EVANS. BUFFALO, N. Y., March 13, 1882. LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. PAGE. I PAGE Fox Arms, • 8 Ann Evans, of Lewiston, N. Y. , . 180 Ellicott Arms, 12 Letitia Evans, of Buffalo, N. Y., 182 Musical Clock, . 21 Rachel Evans, of Batavia, N. Y., . 184 Ellicott's Upper Mills, 178r, 2-l Letitia M. Bliss, of Erie, Pa., . 206 Map of part of Maryland, 65 John-H. Bliss, of Erie, Pa., . 206 Martha E. Tyson, of Baltimore, 70 David B. Douglass, of Geneva, N. Y., . 212 Thomas J. Ingham, of Laporte, Pa.. 120 Ann E. Douglass, of Geneva, N. Y., 212 Andrew Ellicott, of West Point, N. Y , 155 Rev. Malcolm Douglass. D. D., . 214 Sarah Ellicott, of West Point, N. Y., 164 Alice Peacock, of Mayville, N. Y., 225 Joseph Ellicott, of Batavia, N. Y., 166 William Peacock, of Mayville. N. Y., . 226 · Residence of Joseph Ellicott, in Batavia, . 172 William Evans, of Buffalo, N. Y., 241 Map of the Holland Land Purchase in Western Margaret Evans, of Buffalo, N. Y., . 244 New York, . 174 Rachel Loomis, of Buffalo, N-. Y., . 246 Benjamin Ellicott, of Batavia, N. Y ., . l7j Charles W. Evans, of Buffalo, N. Y., . 266 THE FOX FAMILY IN ENGLAND. HE numerous farnilies of Fox, at present residing in different parts of the T south-west counties of England, were descended f n>n1· one comn1on ances­ tor, FRANCIS Fox. Tradition represents that he came from \Vil!shire-it is said from the parish of Farley-or from that of Pitton, about the year 1645, .during the con1motions of the civil war, in the reign of King Charles the First. He settled in the parish of St. Germans, in Corn \Vall. He is stated to have been descended from the same fan1ily as the celebrated Sir STEPHEN Fox, and l married, about the year 1646, DOROTHY KEKEWICH, a relative of the fan1ily of KEKEWICH of Exeter, ,vhose house at Catchfrench, in the parish of St. Germans, being then vacant, became their home. The KEKEWICH f arnil y seat is now at Penoire, three miles south-west of Exeter. FRANCIS Fox and his family became members of the Society of Friends soon after its first establishment in Cornwall. He died in 1670, and DOROTHY died in 16g3. They had three sons, namely, FRANCIS, JOHN, and JAMES. JonN ·died in infancy. JAMES married ELIZABETH RECORP in 1673, and removed to Philadelphia in 168?. The eldest son, FRANCIS _FOX, of St. Germans, mar­ ried first, in 1671, JOAN, daughter of RICHARD SMIT~ of Plymouth, Gentle­ man, by ,vhom he had three sons, all of ,vhom died young; and two daughters. The elder daughter, RACHEL, married GEORGE HODGE, and had three children ;­ and the younger, DEBORAH, married SAMUE~ CROKER of Plymouth, of the fan1ily of CROKER of Lineha1n, in Devonshire, and had two sons. JOAN, wife of FRANCIS Fox, died in 1684, and FRANCIS married secondly, on March 30, 1686, TABITHA, daughter of GEORGE CROKER, Gentleman, of Plymouth, eldest son of FRANCIS CROKER, who was the ·second son of HUGH CROKER of Lineham. FRANCIS Fox had a store in St. Germans, and he and TABITHA were mem hers of the Society of Friends. The antiquity of the CROKER family is shown by the old proverbial distich :- '' CROKERS, CREWYS, and CoPPLESTONE, When the conqueror came were at home." The CROKERS originally, in 1o60, lived at Croker's Hele, and Croker's Tor, in Devonshire. A place cal led Crockern well, ten miles ,vest of Exeter, derives its ria1ne from them. They became possessed of Lineham, in the parish of Yealn1pton, formerly Yelhampton, about six miles east of Plymouth, in Dev- 2 6 onshire, about the year 1410, in the reign of HENRY IV., by the n1arriage of Sir JOHN CROKER \vith AGNES, the heiress of CHURCHILL, elder branch of the family of the DUKE OF MARLBOROUGH. The CHURCHILL fan1ily was descended from GITTO DE I.JEON, ,vho. lived in 105 5, and was probably born about the year 990, and ,vho ,vas of a noble family in Nonnandy. His grandson, ROGER DE CoURCIL, ca1ne into England, in 1066, ,vith William the Conqueror, and fought at the battle of Hastings, October 4, 1o66. He ,vas re,varded for his services with divers lands in Somersetshire, Dorsetshire, and Devonshire, part of ,v hich was the Lordship of CHURCHILL in Somersetshire. CHURCHILL became the family name. GILES CHURCHILL inherited as part of those lands, the Lordship of \'.~ a1npton and Lineham, in Devonshire. Although William the Conqueror confiscated ivost of the possessions of the defeated Saxons, yet some of their landed estates in the southern and south-western counties of England were not granted to his Norman followers. The arms of CHURCHILL:- ARMS:-Sable; a lion rampant, argent; over all a bendlet dexter, gules. CREST:-A demi-lion rampant, argent. The arms of BoNVILE (Prince's "Worthies of Devon," article BON- . VILE):- ARMS:-Sable, six mullets, argent, pierced gules, 3, 2, and I. Another Sir JOHN CROKER accompanied EDWARD IV. as cup and standard­ bearer, in his expedition to France, in the year 1475. Prince, in his "Worthies of Devon," says:- " As to Sir JoHN CROKER, what brought him first-into favour at Court, whether courage or skill in arms, or readiness of address, or what else, I do not find; but he became so gracious with King Edward IV., that he was admitted his sworn servant in honorable office of cup-bearer; who in nmunera­ tioi,s servitii, gave a cup d'or, having in' the center a rose, p. p. r., for the crest unto his coat armour; and moreover bestowed upon him the honor of knighthood. This crest was further augmented in 1475 by Louis XI. of France, with three fleurs de-lis, p. p. r., on the occasion of Sir JoHN accompanying his master into France." The tomb of this Sir JORN, with his effigy in brass, is in good preservation in the parish church of Yealn1pton, Lineham, ,vith the following inscription:- "Hie jacet JOHANNES CROKER, miles, quandam Ciphoramis ae Signifer Illustri~simi, regis Edwardi quarti, qui obiit, Maii S, Anno Domini millesimo quingerrtesimo octavo." The great great grandson of this Sir JOHN married AGNES, daughter and co-heiress of JOHN BoNVILE of Ivy Bridge.