68 



HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY. 



that they had before. It is only since 

 comparatively late years that there were 

 turnpikes from Willow Grove, in Mont- 

 gomery county to either Doylestown or 

 New Hope, in Bucks county. The de- 

 scendants of Thomas and Jane Morris 

 Parry are to be found at the present day 

 not only in Pennsylvania, but in parts of 

 Ohio, Indiana, Tennessee, New Jersey, 

 and Virginia. By intermarriage the 

 Parrys have become allied with some of 

 the oldest colonial families in the United 

 States, such as Tyson, Randolph, Pax- 

 son, Morris, Waldron, Gerrish, Winslow, 

 and others of note. A paper, stamed 

 yellow with age, found recently among 

 some old family papers recites quaintly 

 that "Thomas Parrj' dyed ye 30th day 

 of ye seventh month, in the year of our 

 Lord, one thousand seven hundred and 

 Forty Eight." (7 mo. 30, 1748). His 

 widow, Jane Parry, survived him many 

 years, dying September 6, 1777, aged 

 eighty-two years. Both Davis "History 

 of Bucks County, Pennsylvania" 1876, 

 and "Munsell's American Ancestry" Vol. 

 7, page 21, note the coming to America 

 of this Thomas Parry. 



JOHN PARRY, of "Moorland Manor," 

 so styled to distinguish him from an- 

 other John of the same name, the third 

 child of Thomas Parry, born 1680, and 

 Jane Parry, his wife, was born July 25, 

 1721, married September 21, 1751, Mar- 

 garet Tyson, daughter of Derick and 

 Ann Tyson, and granddaughter of Re- 

 nier (sometimes spelled Reynear) Ty- 

 son, who, with Daniel Pastorius, the 

 three brothers UpdegrafF, Jan Lukens, 

 and others, came to America in 1683, 

 from Crefeld in Germany, and were the 

 original settlers of Germantown, Penn- 

 sylvania. Renier Tyson was twice chief 

 burgess of Germantown; he in early 

 days, removed to Montgomery countjs 

 then a part of Philadelphia county, ac- 

 quired a large estate, and became ances- 

 tor of the Pennsylvania and Maryland 

 Tysons. John Parry and Margaret Ty- 

 son Parry, his wife, had seven children: 

 Thomas, John, Benjamin, Phebe, 

 Stephen, David and Daniel, the eldest 

 born August 20. 1752, and the youngest 

 April 21, 1774. John Parry lived on the 

 back road, near the present "Heaton 

 station" of the North-East Pennsylvania 

 Railroad, the road running into the old 

 York Road at about this point. This 

 estate was derived from his father, 

 Thomas Parry and his house, a large 

 double stone mansion, still stands, but 

 has since that time been altered by car- 

 rying the attic up square, making it now 

 (1905) a double three-story structure, but 

 losing in its colonial style, which was 

 originally not unlike the "Old Parry 

 Mansion" at New Hope, Pennsylvania, 

 built in T784. John Parry was an elder 

 in the Society of Friends, had many city 

 acquaintances and, being a man of means 



and much given to hospitality, enter- 

 tained largely in this ancient home in his 

 day; it passed out of the ownership of 

 the family, however a number of years 

 ago. Several of John Parry's books 

 containing his autograph and dated and 

 an oaken and iron-bound wine chest 

 once owned by him containing a num- 

 ber of very thin bottles bearing curious 

 cut devices and most of them unbroken, 

 with the wine glasses and two small 

 glass funnels, each dotted with cut stars 

 gilt are still in existence and much val- 

 ued by their owner, a great-grandson, re- 

 siding at New Hope. Pennsylvania. .A 

 stout gold-headed walking stick or cane 

 of this John Parry's and engraved with 

 his name and date, A. D., 1751, was also 

 in the possession of his great-grandson. 

 Judge William Parry, now deceased, and 

 doubtless is still preserved in that branch 

 of the family. John Parry, of Moorland 

 Manor died November 10, 1789, his wife, 

 Margaret Tyson Parry, surviving him 

 for eighteen years and dying November 

 24, 1807. 



BENJAMIN PARRY, a prominent and 

 influential citizen of Bucks county. 

 Pennsylvania, during the latter part of 

 the eighteenth and early part of the nine- 

 teenth centuries, was the third child of 

 John Parry, of "Moorland Manor" and 

 Margaret Tyson, his wife, and was born 

 March i. 1757, and married November 

 4> 1787, Jane Paxson, daughter of Oliver 

 Paxson the elder, of "Maple Grove," 

 Coryell's Ferry (now New Hope) Penn- 

 sylvania, by whom he had issue, four 

 children as follows: 



1. Oliver, born December 20, 1794 (and 

 noted later on) died February 20, 1874, 

 in eightieth year. 



2. Ruth, born January 4, 1797 and died 

 October 28, 1885 in ninetieth year, un- 

 married. 



3. Jane, born August 27, 1799, and died 

 September 28, 1879, in eighty-first year, 

 unmarried. 



4. Margaret, born December 7, 1804, 

 and married C. B. Knowles, and had no 

 issue. Died July 26, 1880, aged seventy- 

 six years. 



Benjamin Parry is mentioned at con- 

 siderable length in General Davis' "His- 

 tory of Bucks County. Pennsylvania," 1876, 

 in Hotchkin's "York Road, Old and New," 

 Philadelphia. 1892, and in divers other 

 published works. Under the chapter 

 upon New Hope. General Davis in the 

 historical pages of this work gives some 

 account of Benjamin Parry and the old 

 Parry Mansion, which is minecessary to 

 repeat here. 



Benjamin Parrj^ was the original pro- 

 moter of the New Hope Delaware Bridge 

 Company and in 1810. first agitated the 

 subject, with his friend, the Hon. Sam- 

 uel D. Ingham of Solebury. secretary of 

 the United States Treasury, under Pres- 

 ident Jackson. At that early day, real- 



