122 



HISTORY OP BUCKS COUNTY. 



Pennsylvania Comniandcry, No. 70, 

 Knights Templar of Philadelphia; Qua- 

 kertown Lodge, No. 714, 1. O. O. F.; 

 Secona Tribe, No. 263, 1. O. of R. M., 

 and Marion Circle, No. 16, B. U. (H. F.) 

 of Pennsylvania. 



On October 26, 1882, Dr. Fretz mar- 

 ried Elniira A. Roedcr, daughter of Na- 

 than C. and Lucinda (Antrim) Roeder, 

 of Spinnerstown, Pennsylvania. Both are 

 members of the Reformed church. Their 

 union was blessed with two children: 

 Roberts Bartholow, born January 19, 

 1884, and died October i, 1884, and Ray- 

 mond Lamar, born April 24, 1885. The 

 latter received his primary education in 

 the public schools of Quakertown, 

 Pennsylvania; later he attended Perkio- 

 men Seminary for two years, and the 

 Bethlehem Preparatory School, an ad- 

 junct to Lehigh University for one year. 

 He then entered his father's drug store 

 as a student of medicine and pharmacy, 

 and in May, 1905, he graduated in the 

 Era Course of Pharmacy of New York. 

 He is also a member of Marion Circle, 

 No. 16, B. U. (H. F.) of Pennsylvania, 

 also of the Quakertown Mandolin Club. 



YARDLEY FAMILY. John Yardley, 

 treasurer of the Doylestown Trust Com- 

 pany, is a son of Mahlon and Elizabeth 

 (Brock) Yardley, and was born in Doy- 

 lestown, 6 mo. IS, 1852, and belongs to 

 the fourteenth generation of the descen- 

 dants of John Yardley, of county Staf- 

 ford, England, who married a daughter 

 of Marbury of Dadesbury, in 1402. The 

 family of Yardley (formerly spelled 

 Yeardley) is an ancient one with resi- 

 dence in Staffordshire, where the heads 

 of the familj-^ were known as the "Lords 

 of Yeardley." Their coat-of-arms is: 

 "Argent on a chevron azure, three garbs 

 or, on a canton gules, a fret or;" Crest: 

 "A buck courant, gu. attired or." 



The pioneer emigrant of the family 

 was William Yeardley, who with wife 

 Jane and three sons, Enoch, William 

 and Thomas and a servant Andrew 

 Heath, emigrated from Ransclough, 

 near Leake, in the county of Stafford, 

 and arrived in the river Delaware in the 

 good ship "Friends' Adventure," 7 mo. 

 29, 1682. They located on five hun- 

 dred acres of land purchased of William 

 Penn 3 mo. 30, i68r, (just sixteen days 

 after Penn received the grant of Penn- 

 sylvania from Charles II). This tract 

 was located on the Delaware river, near 

 the present site of the borough of Yard- 

 ley, and was called "Prospect Farm." 

 William Yardley was fifty years of age 

 on his arrival in Bucks county. He was a 

 member of the Society of Friends, and 

 had been called to the ministry among 

 them in his twenty-third year. He had 

 traveled through dififerent parts of iMig- 

 land preaching the Gospel, and had suf- 



fered imprisonment and fines for his- 

 faith. He became at once and contin- 

 ud to his death one of the most promi- 

 ennt men of the province. He was a 

 member of the first Colonial Assembly 

 in 1682, and again in 1683; member of 

 Provincial Council in 1688-9; justice of 

 the peace and of the courts of Bucks 

 county, April 6, 1685, to January 2, 1689; 

 sheriff, February 11, 1690, to April 29, 

 1693. He died 5 mo. 6, 1693, aged sixty- 

 one years. 



Enoch Yardley, eldest son of William 

 and Jane, was a member of Colonial 

 Assembly in 1699. He married 10 mo. 

 1697, Mary, daughter of Robert Pletch- 

 er, of Abington, Philadelphia county, 

 Pennsylvania, and had by her three 

 daughters, Jane, Mary and Sarah, all of 

 whom died in infancy. He died li mo. 

 23, 1702-3. His brother William died' 

 unmarried 12 mo. 12, 1792-3. Thomas, 

 the other brother, married 9 mo. 6, 1700, 

 Hester Blaker, and had two children, 

 William and Hester, both of whom died" 

 in infancy. He died on the same day as 

 his brother, 11 mo. 23, 1702-3. Mary, 

 the widow of Enoch Yardley, married 

 (second) Joseph Kirkbridge, one of the 

 most prominent men of the Province, 

 who had emigrated from the parish of 

 Kirkbride, in Cumberland, England. She 

 was his third wife, and bore him seven 

 children — John, Robert, Mary, Sarah 

 (married Israel Pemberton), Thomas, 

 and Jane, who married Samuel Smith, 

 the historian of New Jersey. Hester, 

 the widow of Thomas Yardley, married 

 8 mo. 1704, William Browne, of Chiches- 

 ter, Chester county, Pennsylvania. 



William Yardley, his wife, children 

 and grandchildren all being dead, his 

 real estate in Bucks county descended 

 to his brother Thomas, of "The Beech- 

 es," in the parish of Rushton, Stafford- 

 shire. In the year 1704 Thomas^ Yard- 

 ley, Jr.. son of Thomas of Rushton, 

 came to Bucks county with a power of 

 attorney from his father and his brother 

 Samuel to claim the real estate. "Pros- 

 pect Farm" was sold under this power, 

 of attorney, 5 mo. 25, 1710, to Joseph 

 Janney, who as "straw man" conveyed 

 it back to Thomas Yeardley, Jr., 6 mo. 

 14, 1710. This Thomas Yeardley (as he 

 always wrote his name) was the ances- 

 tor of all the Yardleyi of Bucks county. 

 He married 12 mo., 1706-7, Ann, the 

 youngest daughter of William and Joan- 

 na Biles, who had emigrated from Dor- 

 chester, in the county of Dorset. Eng- 

 land, and arrived in the river Delaware 

 4 mo. 4. 1679. The children of Thomas 

 and Ann (Biles) Yardley were ten in 

 number: 



1. Mary, born 8 mo. 4. 1707, married. 

 12 mo. 30, T72S-9. Amos Janney of Lou- 

 doun county. Virginia. 



2. Jane, born 11 mo. 20, 1708-9. married 

 Francis Hague, of Loudoun county, Vir- 

 ginia. 



