^2 



HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY 



John; Isaac; Margaret, wlio married 

 Henry Lewis; Abel; and Rebecca, who 

 married Simon Butler, Jr. 



John James, eldest son of William and 

 Mary, born 1719, died 1785, was a car- 

 penter and joiner by trade, but, since he 

 retained possession of his farm and re- 

 sided thereon his whole life, it is to be 

 supposed his principal occupation was 

 the tilling of the soil. He married, May 

 20, 1740, Elizabeth, daughter of Lewis 

 ' Evans, and was the father of ten chil- 

 ■dren, nine of whom grew to maturity, 

 viz: I. Josiah, born 1741, died December 

 II, 1816, married Elizabeth Evans. 2. 

 AVilliam, born 1742, died May 10, 1828, 

 married January 25, 1769, Rebecca Will- 

 iams. 3. Isaac, born 1744, married Jemi- 

 ma Mason, and removed to the state of 

 Ohio. 4. Ebenezar, born 1746, died 1815, 

 had no children. 5. Simon, born 1748, 

 died 1814, married Elizabeth Hines. 

 6. Morgan, born April 27, 1752, died 

 April 18, 1816, married Margaret James, 

 daughter of John, as before stated. 7. 

 Elizabeth, married John Callender. 8. 

 Mary, married Nathan Evans. 9. Alice 

 married Thomas Mathias. Of the above 

 Josiah and Elizabeth were the great- 

 grandparents of Robert E. James, Esq., 

 of Easton, Pennsylvania, and the chil- 

 dren of William and Rebecca all re- 

 moved to the west. The only one who 

 left descendants in Bucks of the name 

 was Morgan, and Margaret. 



Morgan James, sixth son of John and 

 Elizabeth James, was born on the old 

 plantation in New Britain, April 27, 

 1752. At the breaking out of the Revo- 

 lution he, with his brothers Josiah, Will- 

 iam, Isaac, became members of the Asso- 

 ciated Company of New Britain militia. 

 Morgan was later a private in Captain 

 Henry Darrah's company, and was in ac- 

 tive service under General John Lacey. 

 His brothers, Isaac, Ebenezer, Simon 

 and William, were also in this company. 

 Morgan James married, as before stated, 

 Margaret James, daughter of John and 

 Magdalene. Their children were: i. Ly- 

 ■dia, who married Mathew Thomas. 2. 

 Benjamin, born November 28, 1786, 

 died May 24, 1865, married Elizabeth, 

 daughter of Moses Aaron, and widow of 

 James Poole, left no issue. 3. Naomi, 

 iDorn February 26, 1793, died November 

 4, 1871, married Jacob Conrad. 4. Isa- 

 iah, born August 27, 1798, died Septem- 

 ber 23, 1886, married Caroline James, 

 daughter of Abel James. 



Isaac James, second son of Williani 

 and Mary James, born in New Britain 

 about 1726, received from his father in 

 1749 a deed for over 200 acres of land 

 upon which he lived his entire life. He 

 was constable of New Britain township 

 for many years. He died very suddenly 

 in 1766. aged about fifty years. His wife, 

 whom he married in 1751. was Sarah 

 Thomas, daughter of John Thomas, who 

 •came to New Britain from Wales in 



1726 and died there in 1750. The chil- 

 dren of Isaac and Sarah (Thomas') 

 James were: i. Abiah, born 1745, died 

 December i, 1834, married September 22, 

 1773, Rachel Williams. 2. John, born 

 1747- a soldier in the Revolution, mar- 

 ried Dorothy Jones. 3. Abel, born 1749, 

 died 1798, married Elizabeth Hines. 4. 

 Nathan, born 1754, died 1845, married 

 Sarah Dungan. 5. Samuel, born 1760, 

 died 1848, married Elizabeth Cornell and 

 removed to North Carolina in 1785. 6. Us- 

 lega, born 1762, died 1844, married Jo- 

 seph Morris. 7. William, born 1764, 

 died 1854, removed to Reading, Berks 

 county, Pennsylvania. 8. Benjamin, 

 born 1766, died 1854, married Ann Will- 

 iams. Tracy, died young. Of these, Ab- 

 iah, Abel, Nathan, and Benjamin have 

 descendants residing in Doylestown.and 

 will be noticed later in this sketch. 



Abel, the youngest son of William and. 

 Mary James, born about 1729, died Sep- 

 tember, 1770, at Dover, Delaware, was in 

 some respects the most prominent of 

 the family m his generation. He re- 

 ceived a liberal education and was pos- 

 sessed of ample means and early evinced 

 a taste for mercantile pursuits. He mar- 

 ried Mary, daughter of Thomas Howell, 

 of Warwick, in 1756, and entered into 

 business in Philadelphia and Dover, Del- 

 aware, and was for several years very 

 successful. An unfortunate speculation 

 ruined him. and the worry and strain 

 of his financial difficulties brought on a 

 fever from which he died while at Dover. _/;^ 

 His plantation of 235 acres in New Brit- - 

 ain had been heavily mortgaged to tide 

 him over a financial speculation and was 

 sold. He left five sons and four daugh- 

 ters, viz: I. Daniel, the eldest son, was a 

 clerk for his father at Dover at the time 

 of the failure; after his father's death r 

 he secured a position as clerk at Dur- 

 ham Iron Works, then operated by Jo- 

 seph Galloway. At the closing of the 

 furnace in 1776 he returned to Delaware 

 and joined Proctor's Delaware regiment 

 as a lieutenant, was promoted to cap- 

 tain, and served throughout the war. 2. 

 William, the second son, was also a sold- "^' 

 ier in the Revolution, first enlisting in 

 Captain Edward Jones' company recruit- 

 ed in Hilltown, and later serving in Cap- 

 tain John Spear's company in the Elev- 

 enth Pennsylvania Regiment. 3. Mar- .^ 

 garet, married William Kerr, of War- »* 

 wnck. 4. John James was a noted mill- ,J* 

 wright, and lived and died in Lower ^ 

 Dublin township, Philadelphia county."^ 

 5. Mary, married Abel Thomas of Hill- 

 town; they removed first to Harford 

 county, Maryland, and later to Rock- 

 bridge county, Virginia. 6. Martha, 

 married Asa Thomas, brother of Abel.* 

 Abel H., youngest child of ."Vbel and 

 Mary (Howell) James, was born Jan- 



*Catharine, another dauehter. married Mr. Hilt, an 

 iron master, having iron works in the extreme western 

 end of Virginia. 



