IIO 



HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY. 



England. Many of his descendants even- 

 tually became residents of Bucks county. 

 Anthony and Mary (Newbold) Taylor 

 were the parents of eleven children, Robert, 

 Anthony, Sarah, William, Edward, Law- 

 rence, Michael, Caleb Newbold, Mary Aim, 

 Thomas, Emma L. and Franklin. The 

 seventh of these children, Hon. Caleb 

 Newbold Taylor, born at "Sunbury," July 

 27," 1814, was for over fifty years one of 

 the most prominent men in Bucks county, 

 being an acknowledged leader tirst of the 

 Whig and later of the Republican party in 

 Bucks county, representing his county in 

 state and national conventions almost con- 

 tinuously after attaining his majority, and 

 four times was the candidate of his district 

 for congress, being twice elected, in 1866 

 and 1868, respectively. He was also one of 

 the most prominent business men in the 

 ■county and amassed a large estate, owning 

 at one time about 3,000 acres of land in 

 Bucks county. He was president of the 

 Farmers' National Bank of Bucks county, 

 of which his father, Anthony Taylor, had 

 been president for many years at his death 

 in 1837. He died unmarried. 



Dr. Robert Taylor, eldest son of An- 

 thony and Mary (Newbold) Taylor, was 

 the father of the subject of this sketch. He 

 was born in Philadelphia in 1803, and was 

 reared in Bucks county. On attaining 

 manhood settled in Philadelphia, removing 

 later to Burlington county. New Jersey, and 

 late in life to Bristol, Bucks county, resid- 

 ing at Sunbury Farm, where he died in 

 August, 1872, at the age of sixty-nine years 

 and was buried in the graveyard of the 

 Protestant Episcopal church of St. James, 

 the less, at the Falls of Schuylkill. Pie mar- 

 ried Elizabeth Jones, daughter of Benjamin 

 Jones, of Philadelphia, and a great-grand- 

 daughter of John Jones, a large landowner 

 in Bucks and Philadelphia counties in 

 colonial times. Dr. Robert and Eliza- 

 beth Ash (Jones) Taylor were the pa- 

 rents of five children: Benjamin J., Cap^- 

 tain Anthony, Robert, Fr&nces, and Alice 

 J. Elizabeth Taylor, the mother of 

 these children, died at Bristol, January 

 29. 1893, aged eighty years. 



Captain Anthony Taylor, the second 

 son of Dr. Robert Taylor, born in Bur- 

 lington county, New Jersey, October 11, 

 1837, rendered distinguished services to 

 his countrj' during the civil war. He 

 ■enlisted August 8, 1862, in the Fifteenth 

 Pennsylvania Cavalry as a private, was 

 made sergeant, October 30, 1862; first 

 sergeant, March i. 1863; first lieutenant 

 of Company A, May 8, 1863: and Cap- 

 tain. June I, 1865; having had command 

 of the company as lieutenant, command- 

 ing almost from the date of his commis- 

 sion as first lieutenant. Prior to 1865 

 he was under Brigadier General Rosen- 

 crans, in the Army of the Cuml)erland, 

 and participated in the battles of An- 

 tietam, Stone River, Chickamauga and 

 many other engagements. From June 

 I, 1865 until tlie close of the war he 



served on the stafif of General William 

 J. Palmer, as aide-de-camp, and was 

 honorably mustered out June 21, 1865. 

 In 1893 he was awarded a medal of 

 honor by the United States congress for 

 signal acts of bravery and meritorious 

 service. He married, February 21, 1871. 

 Caroline Fletcher Johnson, daughter of 

 Lawrence and Mary (Winder) Johnson, 

 and died in Philadelphia, May 21, 1894, 

 leaving two daughters, Mary Lawrence, 

 now wife of Bromley Wharton, private 

 secretary to Governor Pennypacker; and 

 Elizabeth Elmslie, wife of Hcruston- 

 Dunn. 



Benjamin J. Taylor was born in Bur- 

 lington county,. New Jersey, and re- 

 ceived his education at the Friends' 

 Select School and at the Protestant 

 Episcopal Academy of Philadelphia. He 

 received a thorough business training, 

 and followed mercantile pursuits in 

 Philadelphia for eight years. In 1863 he 

 served for three months in the Grey Re- 

 serves, and was at the shelling of Car- 

 lisle by General Fitz Hugh Lee. He 

 also saw military service in Tennessee 

 and Mississippi as volunteer aide on the 

 staff of dififerent commanders. After 

 retiring from active mercantile pursuits 

 he made his residence at the old fam- 

 ily homestead at Sunbury Farm, in 

 Bristol township, and devoted much of 

 his time to the transaction of business, 

 acting as agent for others and assisting 

 in the care and management of the large 

 estate belonging to the family. He has 

 been a director of the Farmers' National 

 Bank of Bristol for many years, and on 

 the death of Pierson Mitchell, in 1894, 

 was elected its president, representing 

 the third generation of his family in suc- 

 cession to serve in that capacity. Mr. 

 Taylor has inherited many of the ster- 

 ling business qualities of his ancestors, 

 and is interested in niost of the local 

 business enterprises. He and his sisfer 

 Alice are the owners of Sunbury Farmj 

 comprising 400 acres, which has been 

 the home of his ancestors and their fam- 

 ilies for four generations, covering a 

 period of over a century. He is a mem- 

 ber of H. Clay Beatty Post, G. A. R., 

 and other social, fraternal, and patriotic 

 associations. 



THE HICKS FAMILY of Bucks 

 county descend from Pilgrim stock, 

 their first American progenitor being 

 Robert Hicks, who landed at Plymouth, 

 Massachusetts, November 11, 1621, hav- 

 ing sailed from London in the ship 

 "Fortune," which followed the "May- 

 riower," and brought over those left be- 

 hind the previous year by that famous 

 t'essel. The family of Robert Hicks 

 were natives of Gloucestershire, Eng- 

 land, and traced their ancestry in an 

 unbroken line back to Sir Ellis Hicks, 

 who was knighted by Edward, the Black 



