40 



HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY 



died at St. Louis, t mo. 9. 1863, from 

 diarrhoea contracted in the service. 



George A. Jenks, Esq., the only surviv- 

 ing child of Dr. Phineas and Amelia 

 (Snyder) Jenks, was born at Newtown, 

 October 9, 1829. He received his ele- 

 mentary education at the Newtown 

 Academy, and then entered the Univer- 

 sity of Pennsylvania, from which he 

 graduated July 4, 1850. He entered him- 

 self as a student at law with James C. 

 Van Dycke, Esq., of Philadelphia, then 

 United States district attorney, and also 

 entered the law department of the Uni- 

 versity, where he took a full course, and 

 on July 3, 1853, the degrees of Master 

 of Arts and Bachelor of Laws were con- 

 ferred upon him. 



On April 16, 1853. he was admitted to 

 the bar of Philadelphia, and on October 

 8, 1855, was admitted to practice in the 

 circuit and district courts of Pennsyl- 

 vania, having. been admitted to practice 

 in the supreme court on January 13, 

 1854. He practiced law in Philadelphia 

 from 1853 to '1859, when he removed to 

 Newtown, and was admitted to the bar 

 of his native county, of which he is now 

 the senior member. He is a careful stu- 

 dent, and his thorough knowledge of the 

 law and sound judgment have made him 

 a safe counselor. In his long practice 

 he has had many intricate cases to un- 

 ravel, and in the vast number of dis- 

 puted cases as to questions of law, re- 

 ferred to him by the courts as auditor, 

 he has seldom been reversed in either 

 the lower or upper courts. He has filled 

 the office of justice of the peace for 

 forty-four years, and has served his bor- 

 ough in the position of school director 

 for nineteen y^ears ; and filled the ofiice of 

 chief burgess for seven years. He has 

 always been actively interested in all 

 that pertains to the interest of the local- 

 ity in which he lived, and has been con- 

 nected with nearly all the meritorious 

 local enterprises of his town. He is 

 president and one of the directors and 

 active supporters of the Newtown Li- 

 brary, as was both his father and grand- 

 father, George A. Jenks having served as 

 a director for over forty years, and presi- 

 dent for about thirty years. He is a 

 member of the Bucks County Historical 

 Society, and has always been actively 

 interested in its work, and has furnished 

 several historical papers for its archives. 

 He is a member of Newtown Lodge, 

 No. 427, F. and A. M., of which he was 

 the first master, and Newtown Chapter, 

 No. 229, R. A.-M., of which he was the 

 first high priest, and served as district 

 deputy grand master for the district for 

 five years. He is a member of St. 

 Luke's Protestant Episcopal church of 

 Newtown, of which his father was one of 

 the founders. He was married, June 15, 

 i860, to Ella Davis, daughter of Jesse 

 and Susan B. Davis, and they have been 

 the parents of two children, Sylva P. 



and Elizabeth M., both of whom died in 

 early childhood. In politics he has been 

 a lifelong Republican, but has never 

 sought or held other than local office. 



Joseph Jenks, third son of Thomas 

 and Mercy (Wildman) Jenks, was boni 

 and reared on the old homestead in 

 Middletown. He married, 6 mo. 22, 



1763, Elizabeth Pearson, born in 1744, 

 died 1768, daughter of William and Eliza- 

 beth (Duer) Pearson, and granddaugh- 

 ter of Enoch and Margaret (Smith) 

 Pearson, of Buckingham, Enoch Pearson 

 being a native of Cheshire, England, hav- 

 ing come to Bucks county with his par- 

 ents, Edward and Sarah (Burgie) Pear- 

 son, in 1687. Joseph and Elizabeth 

 (Pearson) Jenks were the parents of 

 three children: Margaret, born 6 mo. 6, 



1764, died 1841; married li mo. 12, 1783, 

 Samuel Gillingham. William, born 8 

 mo. 12, 1766, died 12 'mo. 5, 1818; mar- 

 ried 10 mo. 28, 1790, Mary Hutchinson. 

 Elizabeth, born 10 mo. 21, 1768, died 1828, 

 married, in 1787, Isaiah Shinn, of New Jer- 

 sey, who was a general in the war of 

 1812. Joseph Jenks married a second 

 time, 4 mo. 25, 1770, to Mary Ingham, 

 who lived but a few years after tlTe mar- 

 riage, and he married a third time, on 

 5 mo. 30, 1776, Hannah Davids; neither 

 of the last two wives left issue. 



William, only son of Joseph and Eliza- 

 beth (Pearson) Jenks, was a lifelong 

 .resident of Bucks county, following the 

 vocation of a farmer and miller on the 

 homestead. He died at the early age of 

 forty-two years, leaving a widow and 

 ten children, six of whom were minors 

 at the time of his death. His wife Mary 

 was a daughter of Michael and Margery 

 (Palmer) Hutchinson, of Lower Make- 

 field township, a descendant of two old 

 and prominent families of Makefield. 

 The children of William and Mary 

 (Hutchinson) Jenks, were: 



1. Joseph, born 9 mo. 12, 1792, died il 

 mo. 19, 1869, married 5 mo. 29, 1827, 

 his second cousin, Eliza Jenks, daughter 

 of Joseph R. and Sarah (Watson) Jenks. 



2. Rebecca H., born I mo. 30, 1794, 

 died 4 mo. 21, I797- 



3. Michael Hutchinson Jenks, born S 

 mo. 21, 179s, died 10 mo. 16, 1867. He 

 was a surveyor and conveyancer, as well 

 as a justice of the peace, for very many 

 years, and did an immense amount of 

 local business, and was a very fine pen- 

 man and draughtsman. He was county 

 commissioner for the term of 1830-2, 

 county treasurer in 1834, ^n associate 

 judge of the county, and represented his 

 district in the twenty-eighth congress, as 

 well as filling a great number of other 

 positions of trust. He was four times 

 married; first, in 1821, to Mary Ridg- 

 way Earl, who was the mother of his 

 nine children. His third daughter, .^.nna 

 Earl, became the wife of Alexander 

 Ramsey, first governor of Minnesota, 

 and United States senator from that 



