JOSEPH PAULL Ilm inster Som erset En land , , g Some of His Descendants w ho have resided in Philadel hia Penna. p , PAUL HENRY N . m t Concerning Joseph Paull, the Quaker im igran and founder of the Paul family in Philadelphia , an effort is here made to make reference to all known . e recorded facts No p rsonal memoir of him, and but one letter written by him , has come down to us . There is in fact little left but the dry- as - dust records occur Wi o n ring in Deeds , lls , and ther public docume ts , together with the form al but minutely accurate rec ords of the Quaker Meetings with which he was con nected. Perhaps the recital of these things may be found tedious , but it is my belief that such materials , if ex am ined ffi with su cient care , may be compelled to yield up some sort of a picture of the man, clothing the dry bones with human flesh . This I have tried to do . Some years ago I compiled in manuscript a ten tative account of various lines of his descendants bear ing the name of Paul and hoped to complete it by tracing the female lines also ; but this must remain in manuscript , to be completed if at all , by someone else , for it has not been possible for me to give to it the very considerable amount of time required . Accordingly, I am now printing a few copies of such part only of my manuscript as relates to Joseph Paull the immi ’ grant , his son James , and the latter s son John, who e e was the parent of the broth rs , Thomas and Jam s e Paul, living in Philad lphia during and after the Revo lution from whom our immediate family is descended . Of these two brothers I have endeavored to supply fo r preservation a full record of the descendants . This much I am now printing for the benefit of my children I and grandchildren . will leave to some of them the extension of this work should it ever seem desirable . H ENRY N . PAUL . 2 lst 1 93 . Philadelphia , September , P ENN SYLVAN IA IMMI RA T G N . A ncestr y. ( 1 ) JOSEPH PAULL was a Sergem aker of Ilmin ster, Somerset County, England, whence he emigrated P nn l to Oxford Township, Philadelphia County, e sy va nia 1 6 5 , in the fall of 8 , three years after William Penn t i e founded the Ci y of Ph lad lphia . Ilminster is in the southwestern part of Somerset mi shire , about ten les from Taunton and near to the b oundary lines of Devonshire and Dorsetshire . It is a very ancient town with a history reaching back to x Sa on times . Especially interesting is its very old parish church . An account of the town and its history has been published by Mr . Street, late Vicar of the “ ” c . Ilminster Chur h ( The Minister of the Ile , by Rev James Street , Taunton, Pauls live in Ilminster today, and have lived there since early Tudor times , and probably longer . The f name in the old records is spelled indi ferently, Pol, Poole , Polle , Pawle , Pall , Palle , and no doubt in other ways . One cannot but suspect some confusion or pos sibly identity with Powell (the Welsh of ap Howell) . During the 1 7th Century the name was usually spelled Paull . The family seems to have been closely connected w ith the woolen and cloth making industry during the l h 1 n 6t and 7th centuries . This was and long had bee the chief industry not only of Ilminster , but of the other towns in the neighbourhood of Taunton . With a View to improving this useful art , the great Duke of Somerset in the l6th century brought from the Rhine country a number of German families Who w ere skilled in cloth making , and settled them in vari ous towns in Somersetshire in order that their superior knowledge of the art and mystery of cloth making 6 FIRST GEN ERA TIO N m ight be disseminated through the county . These Ger m “ ” ans knew how to make serge cloth, with a some w hat different weave from that previously practiced by the English weavers . Thereafter the cloth makers of “ ” “ Somersetshire became serge makers , and Taunton serges ’ found a market not only in England but on the continent . The business was carried on upon a con “ ” i r - s de able scale . The Serge maker , who occupied as m we will assu e, his long, low, thatched Tudor dwelling on the village street, extended his house to a consider able length and placed in the extension a number of hand looms which were operated by weavers hired l from the neighborhood . There was usual y a dye house in the rear where the yarn was dyed and often a spin ning establishment where the wo ol - combers and e spinners worked . The product of thes operations was “ ” the e e m sold to Clothier, of whom ther wer any in Somersetshire , who in turn sent the cloth to the London m or any other convenient arket . Among the Germans who came from the Rhine country to Ilminster during the reign of Edward VI , Stes slin en t ck sh was Peter Meyer of g , Bezirksamt S o a , 58 Oberrhein . In 1 7 his daughter Maria married t William Paull , also of Ilminster, who was the Grea Grandfather of Joseph . This William Paull was a “ ” clothier, as was his son John . His Grandson William, and Great Grandson Joseph were both “ ” r m k se ge a ers . This is the line in which we are in t rest d e e . Of John Paull we only know that he was a clothier i D olishw ake resid ng in , a little village one and one half miles south of Ilminster . He had several children including sons , William and Thomas . This second William Paull was a sergem aker. He was also a Church Warden of Ilminster Church II during the reign of Charles . The record of his marriage is of interest . During the Commonwealth an Act of Parliament permitted certain Justices of the ni Peace to solem ze marriage. This was because so — JOSEPH PAULL ANCESTRY m any of the parish churches were without any clergy in c e man charge , or because in other pla es indep ndent m inisters who were unacceptable to the parishioners , had been put in charge of the parish churches . At h Ilminster, James Strong, who for a time had t e living, was particularly obnoxious to many of the town ’s people . fiv i At Weston , Combe St . Nicholas , e m les distant o P . from Ilminster, lived Henry B nner , J . , who was “ ” one of these marrying Justices . His marriage reg ister is preserved among the records of Wells Cathedral , and in it are recorded the large number of marriages which he performed at his house for the fee . d of six shillings each But as a favor , or for an ad i tional consideration , he would go elsewhere to per form the ceremony, and he has entered in his registry 2 3 1 655 mi that on Tuesday, October , , he went to Il nster and there married William Paull and Mary Townsend “ ‘ ” T ow nesind . ( spelled ) , both of Ilminster Of this marriage were born a number of children, including Joseph Paull, the subject of this sketch . After the death of this wife , William Paull married on December 9 1 669 , , as his second wife, Petronella Somers , this marriage being set down in the records of Ilminster Church . There is no reason to suppose that William Paull ever became a Quaker , for his name does not occur in their records . Quakers were numerous in Ilminster In even before the Restoration of King Charles II. the year 1 659 the Ilminster Meeting numbered 2 90 persons and among them is found William ’s brother “ ’ ” Thomas . In Besse s Sufferings there is a detailed record of the hardships to which his religion subjected 1 1 Thomas Paull . In 66 distraint was made upon his 2 - 5s . goods to the value of £ . for non attendance at the 1 2 parish church . In 66 he was put in jail for attending 0 1 6 . meeting . The same thing happened in 7 Later in the same year, being in London, he was taken from meeting and committed to N ew gate as a rioter . 8 FIRST GENERATION r Sergem aker and Quake . 1 4 1 65 Joseph Paull was born at Ilminster July , 7, and the influence of his uncle Thomas is sufficient to account for his presence as a boy at the Ilminster Quar terly Meeting on and His name does not again occur in the Ilminster records until 1 681 . During this interval he was residing at or near rli Ba scom be in Devonshire . This was also a woollen town and we may assume that his residence there had “ ’ ff something to do with this trade . In Besse s Su er ” 1 ings (Vol . , page is the record of distress taken from Joseph Paull in the year 1 676 for attending l meeting at Bar iscom be. At this time he must have h contracted his friends ip with Robert Welsh, a well known Quaker of considerable means who lived about U fculm e t one mile away at , and who , wh n he af erwards wanted an agent to manage his land in West Jersey, chose Joseph Paull , then living in Philadelphia .