130 



HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY. 



Joshua Ely, eldest son of George and 

 Jane (Pettit) Ely, born at Trenton, New 

 Jersey March 16, 1704, married in 1729, 

 Elizabeth Bell, daughter of Henry and 

 Elizabeth Bell, of Burlington county, 

 New Jersey. He removed to Pennsyl- 

 vania permanently in 1737, but .it would 

 appear that he had established a resi- 

 dence there some years earlier, as he 

 was admitted a member of Buckingham 

 Meeting in 1734- Though the minutes 

 of that meeting fail to show any record 

 of his removal, he and his wife Eliza- 

 beth received a certificate of removal 

 from Chesterfield Meeting to Bucking- 

 ham in 1738. In 1737 he leased of Will- 

 iam Blakey 400 acres in Solebury town- 

 ship. Bucks county, the greater part of 

 which is still owned and occupied by his 

 descendants of the name. The lease 

 was for ten years, and under its provis- 

 I'ons, he was to clear sixty acres of up- 

 land and ten acres of meadow, and build 

 an addition to the house, Blakey to fur- 

 nish "nails and shingles," and to build 

 a frame barn. The lease was renewed 

 in 1747, but in 1749 he contracted for its 

 purchase, which failed of consummation 

 until two years later by reason of the 

 death of Blakey before the deed was de- 

 livered. Here Joshua Ely lived until his 

 death in 1783, building a stone house 

 soon after his purchase, which is still 

 occupied by his great-great-grandson, 

 William L. Ely. He became a prominent 

 man in Solebury but, being a consistent 

 member of the Society of Friends, took 

 no part in the revolutionary struggle, 

 his name and those of his sons appear- 

 ing on the list of "non-associators" in 

 1775. He was made an elder of Bucking- 

 ham Meeting in 1752 and was recom- 

 mended as a minister in 1758. He was a 

 successful farmer, and in addition to the 

 400 acres acquired another large tract 

 of land, part of the Pike tract adjoining. 

 The children of Joshua and Elizabeth 

 (Bell) Ely were as follows: 



1. Joshua, born at Trenton in 1730, 

 died on a part of the Solebury home- 

 stead in 1804. He married Elizabeth 

 Hughes, daughter of IMathew and Eliza- 

 beth (Stevenson) Hughes, of Plumstead, 

 and has left numerous descendants. The 

 farm of 150 acres received by him of his 

 father was occupied successively by his 

 son and grandson, both named Jonathan, 

 the latter dying in 1867, when the farm 

 went to another branch of the family, 

 and is now conducted by a great-great- 

 grandson of his brother George, George 

 H. Ely. 



2. George Ely. born at Trenton, New 

 Jersey. November 9. 1733- died in New- 

 town township in 1815. He married Sep- 

 tember 24, 1760, Sarah Magill; see for- 

 ward. 



3. John, born May 28, 1738. married 

 SaVah Sinicock. and inherited the home- 

 stead tract of his father. For his de- 



scendants see sketch of William L. Ely, 

 who still resides there. 



4. Sarah Ely, born June 14; 1736, mar- 

 ried William Kitchin, to whom her fath- 

 er conveyed a portion of the homestead 

 lying next to the Delaware river, upon 

 which he erected a mill for his half- 

 brother Aaron Phillips, whose descend- 

 ants of the name operated it until about 

 1890. 



5. Hugh Ely, born August 8, 1741, mar- 

 ried Elizabeth Wilson. He inherited 

 from his father a farm in the "Pike 

 Tract," but sold it and resided in New 

 Hope, where he was a noted clock mak- 

 er a century ago. 



6 Hannah, married James Dubree, 

 and left two children Absalom and Han- 

 nah. 



7. Jane, married Jonathan Balderston, 

 and lived and died in Solebury. 



George Ely, second son of Joshua and 

 Elizabeth (Bell) Ely, born at Trenton, 

 November 8, 1733, married November 24, 

 1760, Sarah Magill, Jr., daughter of 

 William and Sarah (Simcock) Magill, of 

 Solebury, the former a native of Ulster, 

 Ireland, located in Solebury about 1730. 

 Sarah Simcock was a daughter of Jacob 

 Simcock, Jr., and Sarah Wain, of Rid- 

 ley, Chester county; Sarah Wain being 

 a daughter of Nicholas -Wain, for many 

 years a member of colonial assembly, 

 at whose house in Middletown, Bucks 

 county, the early Friends Meetings were 

 held. John Simcock, of Ridley, the 

 grandfather of Jacob, Jr., born in Chesh- 

 ire, England, in 1630, came to Chester 

 county with his wife Elizabeth about 

 1682; he was one of Penn's five commis- 

 sioners, and a member of provincial 

 council, 1683-1700; judge of Chester 

 county, 1683-86; puisine judge of prov- 

 ince, 1686-90; provincial judge. 1690-93; 

 and speaker of assembly, 1696; died 1703. 

 His son Jacob, who was coroner of 

 Chester county in 1691, married Alice 

 Maris, daughter of George Maris and 

 Alice his wife, who came from Wor- 

 cestershire, England, to Chester county 

 in 1682, a member of the governor's 

 council. 1684 to 1695. member of assem- 

 bly, justice, etc., died 1705. In 1760 

 George Ely received from his father 

 112 acres of the homestead, on which he 

 erected a house still standing, aijd 

 which is still owned by his descendants, 

 being the home of his great-grand- 

 daughter Laura Ely Walton. He later 

 purchased considerable other land in 

 Solebury and elsewhere, much of which 

 is also occupied by his descendants. He 

 was a prominent man in the community, 

 and a member of colonial assembly in 

 1760. He was a resident on the old 

 homestead until 1802, when he trans- 

 ferred it to his son George Ely, Jr., 

 and removed to Newtown township to a 

 farm purchased of Hampton Wilson, 

 where he died in 1814. The children of 



