86 



HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY. 



(luring the brief period of bis nianbood. 

 His wife, Elizabeth Cassel, was a descend- 

 ant of early German settlers on the Skip- 

 pack, who have left numerous descendants 

 of the name in Bucks and Montgomery 

 counties and elsewhere. She is still living 

 in Lansdale. Pennsylvania. 



John C. Swartley, the subject of 

 this sketch, left an orphan at the age of 

 two years, was reared in the family of his 

 maternal uncle, Abraham F. Delp, in the 

 township of New Britain, Bucks county, 

 and acquired his elementary education in 

 the public schools of that township. He 

 entered the First state normal school at 

 Millersville in 1885, and graduated in 1888. 

 For the next two years he was principal of 

 the North Wales high schools, in Mont- 

 gomery county. In 1890 he entered the law 

 department of the University of Pennsyl- 

 vania, from which he graduated in 1893, 

 in the meantime reading law in the office of 

 Henry Lear, Esq.. at Doylestown. He was 

 admitted to the Philadelphia bar in June, 

 1893, and in August of the same year to 

 the bar of Bucks county, and at once be- 

 gan the practice of his profession at the 

 county seat. Soon after admission to the 

 bar he became active and influential in pol- 

 itical circles, and served for three years as 

 chairman of the Republican county com- 

 mittee. In the fall of 1897 he was elected 

 to the office of district attorney for the 

 term of three years, and filled that position 

 with ability. He has always been active in 

 the councils of his party, and has served 

 as delegate to state and congressional con- 

 ventions. He was appointed January i, 1903, 

 assistant United States attorney for the 

 Eastern District of Pennsylvania, a posi- 

 tion which he still fills. In 1903 he formed 

 a co-partnership at law with Wesley Bunt- 

 ing, Esq., and the firm have a good prac- 

 tice in the several courts of Bucks county. 



Mr. Swartley was married on October 24, 

 1900, to Agnes Darlington, daughter of the 

 late Henry T. and Susan Darlington, of 

 Doylestown, and this union has been blessed 

 with two children — John C. Jr., and Mar- 

 garet Darlington. 



(A sketch of the career and ancestry of 

 Mrs. Swartley's distinguished father, 

 Henry T. Darlington, will be found in this 

 volume.) 



LEE S. CLYAffiR, of Riegelsville. Bucks 

 county, Pennsylvania, one of the prominent 

 manufacturers and business men of uppei 

 Bucks, was born at Mt. Laurel Furnace. 

 Berks -county, Pennsylvania. (Temple post-- 

 office) April 2, 1863, and is a son of Will- 

 iam Hiester and Valeria (Smith) Clymer. 

 His father was for many years proprietor 

 of the Mt. Laurel furnace. Mr. Clymer 

 comes of a distinguished ancestry both in 

 this country and in Europe, only brief men- 

 tion of which can be given in the scope of 

 this brief sketch. Richard Clymer, the pa- 

 ternal ancestor, was a native of Bristol, 

 England, from whence he migrated to 



Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1705, ac- 

 companied by his mother, Catharine Clymer, 

 and a brother William, who died in 1740 

 without issue. Richard Clymer was ' a. 

 shipping merchant and shipbuilder; he died 

 August 18, 1734, leaving several children, 

 of whom only his sons, Christopher and 

 William have left descendants. George 

 Clymer, the signer of the Declaration of In- 

 dependence, was a son of the former. 



William Clymer, son of Richard, was a 

 captain in the English navy, commanding 

 the frigate "Penzance" during the reign of 

 George II, and was lost at sea, leaving a 

 will dated October 16, 1760. He married 

 at Christ Church, Philadelphia, January 19, 

 1742, Ann Judith Roberdeau, daughter of 

 Isaac and Mary (Conyngham) Roberdeau, 

 and sister to General Daniel Roberdeau, 

 the friend of Franklin, and one of the most 

 distinguished patriots in Pennsylvania dur- 

 ing the Revolution. Ann Judith (Rober- 

 deau) Clymer was born on the Island of 

 St. Christopher, West Indies, in the year 

 1725, and died at Morgantown, Berks 

 county, Pennsylvania, April, 1782. Isaac 

 I Roberdeau, father of Mrs. Clymer, was a 

 native of Rochelle, France, and fled to the 

 , island of St. Christopher, one of the Brit- 

 I ish West Indies, on the revocation of the 

 Edict of Nantes in 1685. Here he met and 

 married Mary Conyngham, born at Cayou, 

 on that island, April 4, 1699. daughter of 

 Robert Conyngham, born in Scotland, 

 March 24, 1669, and his wife Judith Eliza- 

 beth de Bonneson, a native of Morlais, 

 France, the former of whom traced his des- 

 cent back through a long line of kings and 

 princes royal to William the Conqueror, 

 and in his own direct line to Malcolm, son 

 of Friskine, who assisted Malcolm Can- 

 more, afterwards King of Scotland, to es- 

 cape from ]\IacBeth"s tyranny and treason, 

 and was in return made Thane of Conyng- 

 ham, from which his posterity afterwards 

 took their surname. Robert Conyngham, of 

 St. Christopher, left an immense estate in 

 St. Christopher and in Scotland, a portion 

 of which he entailed in the male line, and 

 which was the subject of litigation a cen- 

 tury later on the male line bearing his sur- 

 name becoming extinct. Isaac and Mary 

 (Conyngham) Roberdeau were the parents 

 of three children, all born at St. Christo- 

 pher, viz : Elizabeth, born 1724, who died 

 unmarried ; Ann Judith, who married Will- 

 iam Clymer; and Daniel, the eminent mer- 

 chant, statesman and patriot before referred 

 to. Isaac Roberdeau died at St. Christo- 

 pher, and his widow and children removed 

 to Philadelphia while the children were still 

 in their minority, where the widow married 

 a man by name of Keighly, but was again 

 a widow many years prior to her death, 

 which occurred March 13, 1771. 



Daniel Conyngham Clymer, only son of 

 William and Ann Judith (Roberdeau) Cly- 

 mer, was born in Philadelphia. April 6^ 

 1748. His father dying when he was a 

 child, he was educated under the care of his 

 distinguished uncle. General Daniel Rober- 



