HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY. 



129 



sides his original purchase on the site of 

 Trenton, of which he died seized. His 

 wife Mary died in 1698, and he married 

 (second) November 9, 1699, Rachel Lee, 

 who bore him two children, Benjamin 

 and Ruth, twins. He died 4th month, 

 1702, at Trenton. The children of Josh- 

 ua and Mary (Seniar) Ely were John 

 and George, before mentioned, who died 

 in infancy in England ; Joshua, born in Eng- 

 land 1680; George, born 1682 in England; 

 John, said to have been born on the voy- 

 age to America; Hugh, born at Tren- 

 ton about 1686; Elizabeth, and Sarah, 

 the latter born -in the same year that 

 her mother died. Of Rachel, the widow 

 and her two children, nothing is known. 



Joshua Ely, the eldest son, bought a 

 portion of the homestead in 1705. Let- 

 ters of administration were granted on 

 his estate to George Ely in 1760, but 

 whether his son or not wc are unable 

 to determine; nothing is known of his 

 descendants. 



George Ely, the second son, it would 

 seem, was about to marry Christian, the 

 daughter of Nathaniel Pettit, who lived 

 on an adjoining tract, at the death of 

 his father, and the latter, in his will, 

 expresses decided objections to the mar- 

 riage and practically disinherits George 

 in case of its consummation. What be- 

 came of Christian Pettit remains a mys- 

 tery, but in 1703 George Ely married 

 Jane Pettit, daughter of Nathaniel, but 

 whether the same person or another 

 daughter is a matter of conjecture. 

 George Ely purchased 100 acres of the 

 old homestead of his father's executors 

 at Trent Town (as it came to be known 

 after the purchase by William Trent of 

 the Stacy mill and lands) and lived 

 thereon until his death in 1750. He was 

 active in the affairs of the embryo city, 

 and a member of its first town coun- 

 cil, at the incorporation in 1746. The 

 children of George and Jane (Pettit) 

 Ely were: Joshua, born March 16, 1704; 

 George, born 1706; Rebecca, who mar- 

 ried Eliakim Anderson, and has descend- 

 ants in Bucks county; Joseph; Mary, 

 who married Richard Green, and is the 

 ancestress of Mrs. Ethan Allen Weaver 

 of Philadelphia; Sarah, who married 

 John Dagworthy:* and Elizabeth, who 

 married James Price of Hopewell. 



John Ely, the tjhird son of Joshua and 

 Mary (Seniar) Ely, married Frances 

 Venables, daughter of William and Eli- 

 zabeth Venables, of Bucks county. Penn- 

 sylvania, in 1706, and died at Trenton. 

 in 1732. Their four children, John, who 

 married Phebe Allison; William; Mary, 

 wife of William Hill; and Elizabeth, 

 wife of Joseph Higbee, have left num- 

 erous descendants in New Jersey. The 



*John Dagworthv's sons. John and Ely. were 

 officers in the French and Indian war. John became 

 a brigardier general, and was granted 20,000 acres of 

 land in Maryland for his services. 



U-3 



descendants of John and Phebe are es- 

 pecially numerous in southern New Jer- 

 sey. 



Hugh Ely, the youngest son of Josh- 

 ua and JNIary (Seniar) Ely, born at 

 Trenton about 1686, married December 

 12, 1712, Mary Hewson, and in 1720 

 settled in Buckingham township on 400 

 acres of land purchased in the "Lundy 

 Tract," extending from Broadhurst's 

 lane to Holicong and from the York 

 road to Buckingham Mountain, and 

 lived there the remander of his life, dy- 

 ing in 1771. He became a member of 

 Buckingham Friends' Meeting, and, his 

 wife Mary having died, he married May 

 16, 1753, Phoebe Smith, widow of Robert 

 Smith, of Buckingham, and daughter of 

 Thomas Canby, an eminent minister among 

 Friends. Phoebe was also an accepted 

 minister. The children of Hugh Ely, all 

 by his first wife, were : 



1. Thomas, who married January 22, 

 1734, Sarah Lowther, daughter of William 

 and Ruth Lowther, of Buckingham and 

 about 1775, removed with most of his grown 

 up children to Maryland. Gen. Hugh Ely 

 of Baltimore county, veteran of the sec- 

 ond war with Great Britain, congress- 

 man. United States senator, etc., was a 

 son of Mahlon and grandson of Thomas 

 and Sarah (Lowther) Ely. Many of the 

 male descendants of Thomas migrated 

 to Ohio, where the family is now quite 

 numerous. 



2. Hugh Ely, Jr., married Elizabeth 

 Blackfan, and remained on the home- 

 stead in Buckingham, part of which is 

 still owned and occupied by his de- 

 scendants. He reared a family and has 

 very numerous descendants in Bucks 

 county and elsewhere. 



3. Ann Ely married Peter Matson. 



4. Anna Ely, married John Wilkinson. 



Of Elizabeth and Sarah Lly, daugh- 

 ters of Joshua and Mary, little is known. 

 The descendants of the three sons, 

 George, John and Hugh, are now widely 

 scattered over the United States, and 

 many of them have filled honored po- 

 sitions in the official, professional and 

 business life of the sections in which 

 their lot was cast. 



George Ely, second son of George and 

 Jane (Pettit) Ely, married Mary Prout,, 

 and settled in Amwell township, near 

 Lambertville, New Jersey, in 1748- 1750. 

 He was proprietor of Wells Ferry, now 

 New Hope, and resided there, and also 

 was the owner of considerable land in 

 the Ferry Tract, Solebury. He had sons 

 Joseph, John and George, the last named 

 of whom was colonel of a New Jersey 

 regiment during the revolutionary war, 

 and at its close removed to Shamokin, 

 Pa., where he died in 1820, He married 

 Susanna Farley, of Amwell and had nine 

 children, many of whose descendants 

 now reside in western Pennsylvania and 

 Ohio. 



