[Pennsylvania County Histories]
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Q7l l <P v 16 Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2018 with funding from This project is made possible by a grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services as administered by the Pennsylvania Department of Education through the Office of Commonwealth-Libraries https://archive.org/details/pennsylvaniacoun16unse MARK TW^HSTS PATENT 281-657. TRADE MARKS: UNITED STATES. , GREAT BRITAIN. Registered No. 5,896. Registered No. 15,979. DIRECTIONS. » ' * Use but little moisture, and only on the gummed lines. Press the scrap on without wetting it. DANIEL SLOTE & COMPANY, NEW YORK. uv w w XYZ Simultaneous with their arrival be¬ gan the I organization of the Presby¬ terian church, and frequently of i [schools in connection therewith. The [early records furnish abundant evi- jdence of their zeal, the purity of their | (lives, and their earnest effort to foster ! tin the minds of the young a‘reverence (for Divine teachings, and a due respect ■for our peculiar institutions. Their (piety, and their rigid enforcement of law and order in their section .stands out in strong contrast with the lawless¬ ness of the frontier settlements of later days. In writing anything like an authentic and connected history of the early Scotch-Irish settlers of America, the historian will find the way beset with difficulties. Unlike his Quaker contem¬ porary, who was most careful and | painstaking in such matters, the early Some of the Early Settlers Scotch-Irishman appears to have re¬ garded the preservation of family data ‘ in Bucks County. as of minor importance, and the rec- ! ords of the early churches have either (been lost or appropriated by the de¬ A Paper by Warren S. Ely, Read Before scendants of the former custodians. The information in reference to this the Bucks County Historical Society, at race must therefore be largely sought in the county records and the archives Its Midsummer Meeting, at Langhorne, of the State, with some little help from August 9th, 1898. the tombstone inscriptions in the old Presbyterian graveyards. ! Full justice has probably never been Prior to 1720 very few of the race had (done the Scotc-h-Irish race for the part jcome to America, but in that year ap- jpeared the vanguard of that great they played in the founding of our army of Ulster Scots, with their rugged great Commonwealth. The history of and aggressive qualiicies, nurtured the English Quaker, the Welsh Baptist, amid the adverse conditions of the j | the Swede, the German and Palatine, the English policy in church and State, who were destined to have such an im¬ (French Huegenot, has been fully writ¬ portant influence in the formation of ten, and their influence on our common our coming State and Nation. 'institutions fully credited, but little or They came in such increasing num¬ nothing has been said of this one of the bers that in 1729 James Logan, the great Secretary and mouthpiece of the most important and dominant forces in ProprietaryGovernment became alarm¬ |the formation of our composite Nation- ed. It looks he said as if “Ireland is to jal character. send all her inhabitants to this Prov¬ : It is not our object in this brief sketch ince,” and he feared they would make themselves master of it. The same dis¬ to go generally into the history of this trust of this yet untried element in [race in our county or country. The part Penn's “Holy Experiment” was large- : 'they took in its settlement and the es¬ ly shared by the prominent people of ; the Province for many years. When, [ tablishment of a local self-government however, it became necessary to. raise j in accordance with Penn’s “Holy Ex¬ troops and formulate plans for the de- | periment,” but too briefly touch upon fence of our frontiers from the ravages [ their national characteristics, and the of the savage hordes, instigated by a National, enemy, it became very ap¬ | influence they exerted upon the com¬ parent that the Quaker, the hitherto munity. And follow tins with a brief dominant element in politics coulci not account of some of the early settlers j be relied upon as a Legislator. The and their immediate descendants. Scotch-Irish on the other hand had cheerfully responded to the call for Hardy, active, aggressive, intelligent, troops, and had in every way upheld keenly alive to the necessity of estab¬ the hands of the executive in this try¬ lishing a colony where perfect freedom ing time. Then it was that their intel¬ of conscience in the matter of religious ligence, courage and patriotism began faith could be enjoyed, yet almost fa¬ to receive proper recognition and that ! natically attached to their own re¬ they took their place shoulder to should- j ligious tenets, those of the Presbyterian i ler with men of all other nationalities [ kirk of Scotland, they formed an im¬ in the upholding and maintenance of portant adjunct to the peace-loving lour grand Commonwealth. The promi- Quaker and phlegmatic German in the Inent part played by the Scotch-Irish formation of our National character, (in the Revolution is well known. It is and in the preparation of the somewhat no detraction from the services render¬ conglomerate elements in our early ed by others to say that this race, and population for the burdens and respon¬ especially in this section, was the domi¬ sibilities of self-government. nant force in that movement; so mark- / 2 ed was their prominence therein that of their "atTTYhJ' irom th an English officer writing home in 1778 manyfof them being persons of somi designates the struggle then being what limited means, and accustomed waged for freedom, as “an Irish-Scotch the Feudal system in their native cou -Presbyterian Rebellion.’’ try, very few of them took a'ifee simp The principal gateways of the Scotch- title to their lands at first but took u Irish ‘'Invasion’’ before referred to considerable tracts of land on a leas< were Philadelphia and Newcastle, from hold with a title to the improvement: which points they radiated into the though by 1730 many of them had be-' counties of Chester, Bucks and Lancas¬ come quite extensive landholders. ter, and later from these localities, aug¬ Among the earliest arrivals were the mented by later arrivals into York and families of Craig. Jamison, Baird, Stew¬ Cumberland and the section west of art, Hair, Long, Weir, Armstrong, Gray, the Susquehanna. Graham r Graeme, Wallace and others. There is no doubt that one of the Warwick seems to have been the earliest settlements of the race was natural entre of the settlement, and within the borders of our county, and while so.ne of the settlers there early; that this was to a great extent the associated themselves with the Presby-' threshold from whence this sturdy ad¬ terian churches of Bensalem and Ab- venturous race sent forth its sons into ington, a church organization was evi¬ the then untried wilderness of our pres¬ dently effected at Neshaminy in 1726, at ent Northern and Central counties the site of the present Neshaminy where they achieved a na.me to which i church, and near the site of th? famous their descendants refer "with pride: at a still later period peopling the valleys “Log College.” of Virginia, the Cumberland Valley, William Miller, Senior, and his wile I Kentucky, Ohio and the Northwest, | Isabel, born in Scotland} in 1671 and Tennessee and portions of the South. I 1670 respectively, with three sons, Will-' We know that many of the earliest ar¬ j iam, Robert and Hugh, and at least rivals found homes in Bucks. In 1728 was ] two sons-in-law, Andrew Long and made the settlement knotvn as‘‘Craig's’’ John Earle, were among the earliest or the “Irish Settlement,” in the upper arrivals in the county. The date of part of what was then Bucks, but their arrival could not have been much, which, in 1752, became Northampton if any, later than 1720. as upon the rec¬ county. Among the original settlers be¬ ords of Abington Presbyterian Church ing Colonel Thomas Craig, William and is the following entry: “Margaret, James Craig, John Boyd, Hugh Wilson, daughter of Andrew Long,*' baptised* Nigel Gray, with the Lattimores, Horn¬ August ye 4th, 1722.” And agairPon the’ ers, Armstrongs, Wallaces Kerrs, records of Bensalem Church are the’ Greggs and others. There is little doubt following items, immediately following that this settlement was an off shoot each other: “October ye 2d, 1725, An-- from the settlement at Neshaminy. drew Long and Ezabel, his wife, had a Most of these people were closely allied daughter baptised, named Ezabel,” and j by kinship with those at Neshaminy, "John jjarle and Margaret, his wife, Col. Thomas Craig being a brother of had a daughter baptised, named Mary.” Daniel Craig, of Warrington, and a John Earle is mentioned as a land own¬ brother-in-law to Elders John Gray er on a draft of - Plumsteadi'township, and Richard Walker, of the same plade, I made March 11. 1724, and he and a the latter having married his sisters. j Thomas Earle were among? the peti- The Creightons, Millers and Jamisons, ! tioners for the organization of the of Neshaminy, were also connections of township in March. 1725, but* it is im¬ the Craigs. Col. Thomas Craig owned probable that he ever was a resident of a large plantation in Warrington for the township. Another item appearing many years after his settlement in on the records of Bensalem Church is Northampton, which he conveyed to this: ‘‘George Hare and his wife had a James Barclay on the marriage of the son baptised, named Benjamin, S-mo latter to his niece, Margaret, the ye 1st day, 1724.” This George Hare daughter of his brother Daniel; he also was one of the trustees mentioned in had a son Thomas, who married a the trust deed for the purchase of land Mary Wright and settled in New Brit¬ by the “New Lights in 1744, and died ain township, where he died in 1746.