56 



HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY. 



William Janney was baptised Decem- 

 ber 8, 1641, died 8 mo. 4, 1724, and is 

 buried among his kinsman in the old 

 burying ground at Mobberly. He mar- 

 ried 7 mo. 30, 1671, Deborah Webb, and 

 was then living at liandforth; after his 

 wife's death he removed to Morley. He 

 was a prominent member of the Society 

 of Friends, and suffered persecution for 

 his faith. Meetings were frequently held 

 at h's house. His son Randle, born 2 

 mo. 10, 1677, in 1699 obtained a certifi- 

 cate from the Meeting at Morley and 

 emigrated to Philadelphia, where he be- 

 came a prominent merchant, was a friend 

 of Penn, and a large landowner in Penn- 

 sylvania and Cecil county, Maryland. He 

 married at Philadelphia, in 9 mo., i/OI, 

 Frances Righton, daughter of William 

 and Sarah Righton, of Philadelphia. 

 Their only child died in infancy. In 1702 

 and 1706 he visited England, and in 

 1715 obtained a certificate to visit the 

 Bermudas, but died before starting, 10 

 mo. 7, 1715. His will mentions his 

 brother Thomas and his sister Mary, wife 

 of George Pawley, who had also come 

 to Philadelphia, and their children, De- 

 bora. Mary, Sarah and Thomas. 



Thomas Janney, brother of Randle, 

 was born in Cheshire, England, 3 mo. 18, 

 1679, and died in Cecil county, Maryland, 

 about 1750. In 1702 his brother Randle 

 obtained a certificate for him to Phila- 

 delphia, which, with the one brought 

 from the Morley Meeting by Randle in 

 1699, is preserved among the records of 

 Philadelphia Monthly Meeting. In 1706 

 he went to England with his brother, and 

 after his return settled in West Not- 

 tingham township, Chester county, on 

 land formerly owned by Randle, and 

 later found to be in Cecil county, Marj-- 

 land. His will was proven in Cecil 

 county, March 22, 1751, and in it he men- 

 tions his wife Magdalen, son-in-law Rob- 

 ert Lashly, and children Jemima Janney, 

 Debora Lashly, William, Thomas and 

 Isaac Janney, who are the progenitors 

 of the Janneys of Cecil county. Robert 

 Lashly was Robert Leslie, who married 

 Debora Janney, in 1740, and is the an- 

 cestor of Charles Robert Leslie, R. A., 

 the noted author and artist, and his"'tal- 

 ented sisters. Deborah Pawlee, daugh- 

 ter of George and Mary (Janney) 

 Pauley, married 9 mo. 21, 1727, Samuel 

 Siddons, son of Thomas and Lowrey 

 (Evans) Siddons, who have descendants 

 in Bucks county. Sarah Pawley, another 

 daughter of George and Mary, married 7 

 mo. 24. 1734, William Atkinson, Jr., of a 

 Bucks county family. 



THOMAS JANNEY, second son of 

 Thomas and Elizabeth (Worthington) 

 Janney, baptised at Stiall. Cheshire, Eng- 

 land, January 11, 1634, "was convinced 

 of the truth as held by Friends" at the 

 first preaching thereof in Cheshire in 

 1654, and the next year took up the min- 



istry in that sect and traveled exten- 

 sively in England and Ireland. He mar- 

 ried, 9 mo. 24, 1660, Margery Heath, of 

 Horton, Staffordshire. The marriage 

 took place at the house of James Harri- 

 son, in the township of Pownal Fee, in 

 which Stiall the home of the Janneys 

 was situated. Ann, the wife of James 

 Harrison, was a sister of Margery, as 

 was also Jane, the wife of William Yard- 

 ley, both of whom came with their hus- 

 bands to Pennsylvania and settled m 

 Bucks county in 1682, as shown by an 

 account of each family given in this 

 volume. They lived at Stiall, where their 

 four sons were born, until 1683, when 

 they followed their brothers-in-law to 

 Pennsylvania and settled on a tract of 

 land in Makefield, Bucks county. Thomas 

 Janney had purchased of William Penn, 

 6 mo. 12, 1682, 250 acres of land to be 

 laid out in Per .;sylvania, and it was laid 

 out in Lower Makefield, fronting on the 

 Delaware. He and his wife Margery, 

 their four sons and two servants, John 

 Nield and Hannah Falkner, arrived in 

 the Delaware river in the Endeavor, 7 

 mo. (September) 29, 1683. He eventually 

 purchased other lands in the vicinity; the 

 tract fronting on the Delaware below the 

 present borough of Yardley containing 

 550 acres was confirmed by patent in 

 T691, and ancther tract of 1000 acres lay 

 back of the "River Lots" and extended 

 into Newtown and Middletown town- 

 ships, wdiere the line between these 

 townships joins the line of Lower Make- 

 field. The latter tract was of irregular 

 form and was well watered. Core creek 

 running through it. A saw mill was 

 erected on it soon after its occupation in 

 1683, and Jacob Janney erected a grist 

 mill near the old family mansion in 1816, 

 which was in use until a few years since, 

 that portion of the plantation still being 

 owned and occupied by descendants of 

 the name. Thomas Janney was related 

 by blood or marriage to many of the 

 most prominent settlers of the county. 

 William Yardley, for many years a jus- 

 tice of the county courts and a member 

 of provincial assembly, and James Har- 

 rison, Penn's confidential agent in Penn- 

 sylvania, were, as before stated, his 

 brothers-in-law. and Phineas Pemberton, 

 called by Logan "the father of Bucks 

 County." was therefore his nephew, and 

 John Brock, another prominent oificial 

 of the county, was his cousin. Thomas 

 Janney was also an intimate friend of 

 Penn, who entertained a high opinion of 

 him and mentioned him lovinglj' in many 

 of his letters. Thomas Janney continued 

 his labors as a minister of the Society of 

 Friends, but that did not preclude his en- 

 gaging actively in civil affairs, and upon 

 his arrival in America he at once took a 

 prominent place in the affairs of the col- 

 ony. He was elected to provincial coun- 

 cil for a term of three 3-ears, and was 

 qualified as a member i mo. 20. 1684, and 



