6o 



HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY. 



26, 1877, Wilmer A. Briggs, son of Theo- 

 dore S. and Sarah B. (Leedom) Briggs, 

 of Upper Makefield, and they reside at 

 Glen Ridge, New Jersey. 



DR. WILLIAM SMITH JANNEY, of 

 1535 North Broad street, Philadelphia,, 

 Pennsylvania( second son of William and 

 Rebecca (Smith) Janney, was born in 

 Lower Makefield township, Bucks 

 •county, Pennsylvania, August 12, 1833. 

 He acquired his elementary education at 

 the public schools, Newtown Academy, 

 Bellevue Academy at Langhorne, and 

 finished as a private pupil of Joseph Fell, 

 of Buckingham. At the age of seventeen 

 years he taught school at Brownsburg, 

 Upper Makefield township, and later at 

 Lumberville, in Solebury, at the same 

 time taking up the study of medicine. He 

 attended lectures at the Pennsylvania 

 Medical College at Philadelphia in the 

 winters of 1852 and 1853, and graduated 

 in March, 1854. He practiced medicine 

 at Tullytown, Bucks county, for two 

 years, and in April, 1856, removed to 

 Leavenworth, Kansas, just in time to 

 tecome involved in the noted "Border 

 War." Returning to Bucks county in 

 the fall of the same year, he located at 

 Woodsville, Mercer county, New Jerse3% 

 where he remained until 1870. In the 

 meantime, however, (in 1862, he enlisted 

 in the army as assistant surgeon of the 

 Twenty-first New Jersey Volunteers, and 

 was promoted to surgeon of the Twenty- 

 second Regiment. His regiment during 

 its ten months service took part in the 

 battles of Chancellorsville and Freder- 

 icksburg, and the doctor had ample op- 

 portunity for the use of his skill as a 

 surgeon. Returning to Woodsville, New 

 Jersey he resumed his practice, which 

 continued until 1870, when he removed 

 to a plantation in Caroline county, Vir- 

 ginia, where he remained until 1874. 

 when he resumed the practice of his pro- 

 fession at Eighth and Oxford streets, 

 Philadelphia, removing in 1877 to his 

 present location, where he has since 

 practiced. In 1880 he was elected cor- 

 oner of Philadelphia by 20,000 majority. 

 He was for sixteen years surgeon of the 

 Philadelphia Hospital, and for the last 

 fourteen years has had charge of the 

 "hospital of Girard College, and stands 

 deservedly high in his profession. He 

 is a member of Post No. 2, G. A. R., and 

 of the Loyal Legion, and in politics is a 

 Republican. He married, in November, 

 185s, Sarah Ellen Beans, born April, 

 1835, daughter of Benjamin and Mary 

 Beans, of Lower Makefield, Bucks 

 county, Pennsylvania. They have been 

 the parents of four children, two of 

 whom, a son and daughter, died in in- 

 fancy; those who survive are: Marianna, 

 born November 2, 1873; and William, 

 born February 18. 1876, a graduate of 

 the University of Pennsylvania, both re- 

 siding with their father. 



THE JAMES FAMILY. The James 

 family of Bucks county is of Welsh orig- 

 in, being descended from John James 

 and Elizabeth, his wife, who with sons 

 Thomas, William, Josiah, and Isaac, 

 and daughters Sarah, Rebecca and Mary, 

 migrated in the year 171 1 from 

 the parish of Riddillyn, Pem- 

 brokeshire, South Wales, and settled in 

 Montgomery township, Philadelphia, 

 (now Montgomery) county. They 

 were Welsh Baptists, and the vanguard 

 of the little colony of that denomination 

 who eight years later organized them- 

 selves into a church known as the Mont- 

 gomery Baptist church, of which the 

 James family were members for many 

 years. New Britain and Hilltown Bap- 

 tist churches were ofifshoots of this an- 

 cient church. The James family con- 

 tributed largely to the moral and finan- 

 cial support of the New Britain church 

 for many generations. 



Whether the family settled originally 

 in Montgomery or in New Britain is 

 problematical. According to Rev. Mor- 

 gan Edwards, the great Baptist histor- 

 ian, the Rev. Abel Morgan, pastor of 

 Pennypack church, preached to the lit- 

 tle colony at Montgomery prior to the 

 organization of the church, at the house 

 of John Evans, who arrived from Pem- 

 brokeshire a year prior to the arrival 

 of the James family, and the James fam- 

 ily formed part of the assembly. At that 

 period all the land on the Bucks county 

 side of the line belonged to other than 

 actual settlers, in large tracts, and it 

 is more than probable that the James 

 family were tenants on some of this 

 land. In 1720 John James and his eldest 

 son Thomas purchased one thousand 

 acres in New Britain township, Bucks 

 county, including a portion of the pres- 

 ent borough of Chalfont, and extending 

 eastward at least two miles, and north 

 westerly at its western end nearly as far, 

 being in the shape of the letter L. Be- 

 tween that date and 1726, when they 

 made a division of the land between 

 them, they conveyed nearly one half of 

 this tract to the other three brothers, 

 William, Josiah and Isaac, and William 

 and Thomas had purchased other tracts 

 adjoining on the northeast until the fam- 

 il}^ owned nearly if not quite 2,000 acres, 

 extending from Chalfont far into what 

 is now Doylestown township, and up 

 across Pine Run and North Branch to 

 the old highway leading through New 

 Galena. Two of the brothers. Josiah 

 and Isaac, do not seem to have left de- 

 scendants in Bucks county, though both 

 owned portions of the original 1,000 

 acre purchase. Josiah married. May 21, 

 T724, Elizabeth, daughter of Thomas 

 Ferry of Great Valley Baptist church, 

 Chester county, and a year later she was 

 received as a member of Montgomery 

 church, but June 16. 1727, they received 

 a dismissal to Great Valley and prob- 



