\ %,.^^ :Mk- %/ .'M'v %/ •• .-^^^-^ ,1' **'% °^w^- -J .0^ 0^ 0* .^^ ^0 ^ n\ LIFE OF John Davis, BY W. W. H. DAVIS, A.M. 5or )Pri&atc CircuEation. DOYLESTOWN, PA. 1 886. Press of " Department, • Democrat Job Doylestown, Pa. A Labor of Love. —Sr. Paul. Illustrations. - 1. John Davis, - - Frontispiece. 2. Oath of Ali.egiancf,, - - - 50. - - - 100. j{. Amv Hart, - 4. Old Saw Mill, - - 125. - - 5. W. W. H. Davis, 150. 6. Family Rksidence, - - - 190- John Davis. CHAPTER I. John Davis was descended of Welsh and North of Ireland ancestors. William Davis, his grandfather, came from Great Britain about 1740, and settled in Solebury town- ship, Bucks county, Pa., near the line of Upper Make- field. It was generally supposed, in the absence of testimony, he was born in Wales and came direct from that country, but it is now believed he was a native of London, whence he immigrated to America. The name, however, bespeaks his descent without regard to birthplace. Some of the family claim his descent to be Scotch-Welsh. Nothing is positively known of the family before William Davis came to America. It comes down, by tradition, that the American ancestor had two brothers. One of them went to the West Indies, engaged in planting, made a fortune and returned to England to enjoy it ; the other remained in London, studied and practiced law, became distinguished in his profession, and received the honors of knight- hood. An effort was made, many years ago, to re- — 4 JOHN DAVIS. cover an estate in England, said to have been left by one of these brothers, who died without issue, but the papers were lost and the matter given up. Whether this family tradition be true or false, we know that William Davis came to America, married, and was the ancestor of a numerous progeny. William Davis married Sarah Burley, a daughter of John Burley,' of Upper Makefield, Bucks county, about 1756. The Burleys were settled in that town- ship early, and John was the owner of considerable real estate there prior to 1750. His first tract was held under a patent from Thomas Penn, but its date is not known. He owned, in all, 254 acres, of which 200 were bought of Samuel Bunting. John Burley, Sr., died in 1748, and his will was proved April 5, 1749. He left five children, and possibly others John, Joshua, Sarah, Elizabeth and Mary. The will provides that in case his widow shall marry a "care- 1 When the Burleys came into Bucks is not known, but probably in the first thirty years of the last century. Some of the Western descend- ants claim the first progenitor landed with Penn. The name, in both England and Ireland, is an ancient one, and is spelled in various ways : Burleigh, Borleigh, Barghley, Burley, Burly, Burlie, Burle, Berley, Birley, et al. Burleigh is the more modern spelling. The name may have been derived from Bu7-lei\ a dresser of cloth, Burly, boisterous, or compounded from Bur, Burgh, elevated, and Ley, meaning unfilled ground. The first of the name in America was Giles Berdley, or Burly, an inhabitant of Ipswich, Mass., in 1648, whose will is dated July, 1668. John Burley set- tled in Connecticut, whence some of his descendants probably strayed to New Jersey and across the river into Bucks county. In Burke's Peerage are given nineteen different coats-of-arms, borne by the various English families of this name. JOHN DAVIS. 5 fill, frugal man," she and her husband may enjoy the income from the estate until the youngest child is fourteen years of age. As the widow found a new husband in John Simmons, he probably filled the requirements of the will. John Rurley, Jr., died in 1799 or 1800, and left three sons and eight daughters. After 1809, the name of Burley drops out of the county records, but the descendants, in the female line, are quite numerous. William Davis and Sarah Burley were the parents of seven children, all born subjects of the king of Great Britain: Jemima, December 25, 1758; John, September 6, 1760; Sarah, October i, 1763; William, September 9, 1766; Joshua, July 6, 1769; Mary, October 3, 1771, and Joseph, March i, 1774. The eldest son was named after the grandfather on the mother's side. One of Sarah Burley's sisters married James Torbet,^ and the family was also connected by marriage with the Slacks' and 2 The Torberts of Bucks county are descended from Samuel, who settled in Upper Makefield, but we do not know at what time. His will is dated February t2, 1777, and proved July 28, 1778. He left six sons and two daughters, and his estate was divided among his children. Among the provisions of his will was the following : "I give my negro woman Sarah her freedom, she to give bail to executors to save my estate harmless." James Torbert, who married a daughter of John Burley, was the third son and fourth child of Samuel. His will is dated September 18, 1813, and was admitted to probate November 8th, same year. He left five sons and four daughters, the latter intermarrying with the Slacks, Hares, and Searches. His executors were his sons James and Anthony. 3 The Slacks, of Bucks, are descended from Abraham, one of three brothers who came from Holland, about 1750, and settled on the Delaware, 6 JOHN DAVIS. McNairs'', all well-known Bucks county families. We know less of the life of William Davis after marriage than before. He lived in Solebury township to the end of his days, and died near the close of the last cen- tury. His life was uneventful, and probably the only in Lower Makefield. Slack's Island, in the Delaware, was named for him. He was born in 1722, and died in 1802, leaving- four children—Abraham, Cornelius, Ja nes and Sarah, who married and left descendants. Cornelius died in 1828, leaving several children ; and James, born in 1756 and died in 1832, left three sons and one daughter. He assisted to ferry Washington's army across the Delaware the night of December 25, 1776. Of the sons of James, Elijah graduated at Princeton, became a clergyman and died at Cincinnati, leaving several children. Anthony, the youngest son of Abra- ham the second, and grandson of the first Abraham, removed to Indiana in 1838, and died there in 1847. He was the father of the late James R. Slack, of Huntingdon, Indiana, who was a State Senator, Judge of the Courts, and a Major-General in the civil war. The Slack descendants in this county are numerous, and intermarried with the families of Rich, Stevens, Torbert, Emery, McNair, LaRue, Young, Balderson, Harvey, Lippincott, et al. * The McNairs, Scotch-Irish, are descended from Samuel, son of James, driven out of Scotland to Ireland. Samuel was born in County Donegal, in 1699 ; married Anna Murdock, came to America in 1732, and settled in Upper Makefield, where the family lived five generations. He landed at Bristol and spent the first winter in an old school house, around which the wolves howled at night. He died in 1761, leaving five children - James, Samuel, Solomon, Rebecca and one other. James, born in 1733, married a Keith, had nine childrt;n, and died in i8og. From this marriage sprung the Bucks county McNairs. Samuel, born in 1739, married Mary Mann, of Horsham, and from them descended the McNairs of Montgomery county. The late John McNair, M. C, of Norristown, Montgomery county, was a grandson of Samuel, and son of John, of Southampton. He was the father of Captain F. V, McNair, United States navy, one of the most gal- lant officers of the late war. Solomon, the third son of Samuel McNair, the elder, was a merchant of Philadelphia, where he died in 1812. The descendants are found in many parts of th3 Union, and in all the walks of life. They have generally remained Presbyterian, the faith of their fathers. JOHN DAVIS. 7 thing that stirred its even current was the presence of the Continental army in the neighborhood, in Decem- ber, 1776. The widow of WilHam Davis survived him until May 10, 18 19, when she died at the age of eighty-four. This would bring her birth to 1735. We find it impossible to trace some of the children of William Davis and Sarah Burley, and their de- scendants. Jemima, the eldest child, married John Pitner, the son of Henry and Deborah, of Bucks county, about 1786. He was born at Penn's Manor, August 18, 1755, and married, in early life, a daughter of a Captain Thompson, of near Newtown. Six daughters and two sons were born to Jemima and John Pitner: Sarah, May 21, 1787, and died September 9, 1809, of yellow fever; James Neely, September 29, 1788, died about 1842 ; Deborah, June 19, 1790, died April 5, 1879; Mary, May 30, 1792, and has been dead half a century ; Anna, January II, 1794, died December 14, 1836; John, October 19, 1796, died October 15, 1823; William, October 29, 1798, died April 10, 1833 ; and Eliza N., born July 12, 1802, still living (1885) at Wilmington, Dela- ware. Several of these children married and left large families. John Pitner lived at Newtown several years after his second marriage, but removed to Maryland, five miles west of Newark, in 181 i. He afterward moved across the Delaware line to New Castle, where he died. Of John Davis, the second child and eldest son of 8 JOHN DAVIS. William and Sarah Davis, and the father of the sub- ject of this sketch, we have more accurate knowledge.