46 



HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY 



father, William Davis, was an early settler 

 in Solebury or Upper Makefield township, 

 Bucks county, and while tradition makes 

 Tiim of Welsh descent, his environment and 

 associations indicate very strongly to the 

 the writer of these lines that he was either 

 a native of the north of Ireland, or a son 

 of an Ulster Scot, who had made his way to 

 Pennsylvania with the great army of Scotch 

 Covenanters from the province of Ulster in 

 the first quarter of the eighteenth century. 

 He married, about 1756, Sarah Burleigh (or 

 Burley) daughter of John Burley, of Upper 

 Makefield, an Ulster Scot, who had settled 

 in Upper Makefield about 1735 with the 

 Torberts, IMcNairs and others with whom 

 his family later intermarried. Little is 

 known of the life of William Davis other 

 than that he was a farmer in Solebury and 

 Upper Makefield, and died in the latter 

 part of the century. William and Sarah 

 (Burley) Davis were the parents of seven 

 children, viz : Jemima, born December 25, 

 1758, married John Pitner, and removed 

 with him first to Maryland and later to 

 New Castle. Delaware ; John, the grand- 

 father of General Davis, born September 6, 

 1760; Sarah, born October i, 1763, married 

 Lott Search, of Southampton, Bucks 

 county; William, born September 9, 1766, 

 became a sea captain and died at sea ; 

 Joshua, born July 6, 1769, removed to 

 Maryland about 1800; Marv, born October 

 3, 1771, and Joseph, born March i, 1774, of 

 whom we have no further record. 



John Davis, second son of William and 

 Sarah (Burley) Davis, the grandfather of 

 the subject of this sketch, was born and 

 reared in Solebury, and at the age of six- 

 teen years became a member of William 

 Hart's company in the Bucks county bat- 

 talion of the Flying Camp, under Colonel 

 Joseph Hart, and participated with it in the 

 New Jersey and Long Island campaign of 

 1776. Returning with the battalion to 

 Bucks county he participated with General 

 Washington in the Christmas night attack 

 on Trenton. In 1777 he enlisted in Caotain 

 Thomas Butler's company in the Third 

 Pennsylvania Regiment, later becoming a 

 part of the Second Pennsylvania Regi- 

 ment ; then transferred to Captain Joseph 

 McClelland's company, was at the storming 

 of Stony Point, and wounded in the foot at 

 Fort Lee on the Hudson. 1780. He was in 

 the Ninth, under IMcClelland. at the time of 

 revolt in New Jersey, proceeded from there 

 to York in January. 1781, and from there 

 the company was ordered south under 

 Lafayette and participated in the battle of 

 Yorktown.- after which Davis was dis- 

 charged on account of his disabled foot 

 and returned to Bucks county. In 1782 he 

 was commissioned ensign of Captain 

 Neclev's company. Colonel John Keller's 

 battalion, Bucks county militia, and was one 

 of the members of that battalion to enter 

 into active service for seven months. At 

 the close of his military service John Davis 

 married. June ■ 26. T783. Ann Simp'^on. 

 daughter of William and Ann (Ilines) 



Simpson, of Buckingham, and rented the 

 Ellicott farm in Solebury, where he lived 

 until 1795, when he removed with his fam- 

 ily to Ellicott's Mills, Maryland, where 

 they resided until 1816, when he removed 

 to Franklin county, Ohio, where he died 

 January 25, 1832, at the age of seventy-two 

 years. His wife, Ann, survived him, dying 

 June 6, 185 T, in her eighty-seventh year. 

 Her father, William Simpson, was born in 

 Ireland in 17,32. and is said to have come 

 to Pennsylvania about 1740 with his 

 widowed mother and a- brother John, who 

 was the great-grandfather of General U. S. 

 Grant. William Simpson married Ann 

 Hines, daughter of Mathew Hines, of New 

 Britain, and lived for a time in that town- 

 ship, removing later to Buckingham, where 

 he died in 1816. The children of John and 

 Ann (Simpson) Davis were: Sarah, born 

 in Solebury, October 12, 1784; William 

 born August 22, 1786; John, born August 7, 

 1788; Ann, born November 6, 1790; 

 Samuel, born 1792, died in infancy; Joshua, 

 born in Maryland, June 27, 17^\ Samuel 

 S., born September, 1798 ; Joseph, born 

 January 27, 1803, and Elizabeth, born 

 November 18, 1805. Most of these children 

 removed with their parents to the banks of 

 the Scioto, where they became useful and 

 active members of the community and en- 

 gaged in different • branches of business 

 and professions. 



John Davis, the second son of John and 

 Ann. born in Solebury. August 7. 1788. was 

 the father of the subject of this sketch. He 

 removed with his parents to Rock Creek, on 

 the banks of the Potapsico, Maryland, at 

 the age of seven years, and was reared' to 

 the life of a farmer. At the age of sixteen 

 years he began to drive his father's Cone- 

 stoga wagon with produce to Baltimore, 

 and before he was seventeen was sent with 

 his father's team to remove the goods of a 

 neighbor to Pittsburg, crossing the Alle- 

 ghenies and passing through what was then 

 a wilderness with scattering settlers ; tUe 

 trip occupying about sixty days. In 1808, 

 at the age of twenty, he bought his time 

 of his father and began farming for him- 

 self. His opportunities for an education 

 being limited, he supplemented what schol- 

 astic knovvledge he had gained in his boy- 

 hood bv the reading of books and period- 

 icals of the day in the midst of a life of 

 business activity. He had a thirst for 

 knowledge, and. possessing a retentive 

 memory, became exceptionally well in- 

 formed on history and the issues of Amer- 

 ican politics of the day. On one of his 

 visits to his uncle. Lott Search, in South- 

 ampton township, he made the acnuain- 

 tance of his future wife, Amy Hart, daugh- 

 ter of Josiah and Ann (Watts) Hart, who 

 was living with her widowed mother on the 

 old Watts homestead in Southampton, and 

 from that time until March 13. 1813. the 

 date of his marriage, was a frequent vis- 

 itor at his uncle's house. ' 



.^my Hart was born June 30. T784. and 

 came of distinguished ancestry, her father. 



