I40 



HISTORY OP BUCKS COUNTY. 



the original trustees of the "new lights" 

 of the Neshaminy Church in 1743, a 

 large landowner and prominent man in 

 the Scotch-Irish settlement on the 

 Neshaminy. He sailed for Florida in 

 1765, and was never heard of after- 

 wards. His wife Mary Stewart was one 

 of a large and influential family of the 

 names that were early settlers in War- 

 wick, New Britain, Warrington. Plum- 

 stead and Tinicum. The children of 

 Henry and Mary (Stewart) Jamison 

 were, Isabel, who married Tristram 

 Davis, brother of John who married 

 Agnes Darroch; Jean, wife of Captain 

 Thomas Craig; Ann, wife of Captain 

 Darroch; Alexander; William. Robert 

 and John. 



In the possession of the descendants 

 is a beautifully written letter yellow 

 with age written by Ann Darroch to her 

 husband while he was in the army. The 

 children of Captain Henry and Ann 

 (Jamison) Darroch, were, James, see 

 forward Ann, who married Hugh Shaw; 

 Margaret who married William Hewitt; 

 William, born 1767, died July 11, 1838; 

 John and George, the last two of whom 

 died young. 



James Darrah. eldest son of Captain 

 Henry and Ann (Jamison) Darroch, was 

 born in 1764, and reared in New Britain 

 township. In 1789, the executors of his 

 father's will conveyed to him 170 acres 

 of the homestead tract in New Britain 

 and the balance 114 acres to his brother 

 William. James married Rachel Hen- 

 derson, born in Warminster July 27, 

 1762, daughter of Robert and Margaret 

 (Archibald) Henderson, of Warminster. 

 In 1794, James Darrah purchased of h'is 

 w^ife's sisters and their husbands the 

 250 acres farm in Warminster belong- 

 ing to the estate of Robert Henderson, 

 formerly the property of Rev. Charles 

 Beatty, pastor of Neshaminy Church, 

 and they sold the New Britain farm and 

 made their home on the Warminster 

 farm, all of which is still owned by their 

 grandsons, John M. and R. Henderson 

 Darrah. Rachel (Henderson) Darrah 

 died November 18, 1802, and James mar- 

 ried second Rebecca McCrea. James 

 Darrah died February 17, 1842, aged 78 

 years. His children, both by the first 

 wife, were Robert Henderson and 

 Henry. The latter married his cousin 

 Martha Stinson, daughter of Elijah and 

 Mary (Henderson) Stinson and lived for 

 a time in Warminster, but removed later 

 to Richboro, Northampton township 

 where he died August 10, 1849, aged 58 

 years. 



Robert Darrah, eldest son of James 

 and Rachel ("Henderson) Darrah, was 

 born on his grandfather's homestead in 

 New Britain, February 8, 1789, and re- 

 moved with his parents to the War- 

 minster homestead at the age of nine 

 years, and spent the remainder of his 

 •days there. He was an ensign in the 



war of 1812. Among the cherished me- 

 mentoes now owned by the family are 

 three swords, that of Captain Henry 

 Darroch, of the Revolution; the sword 

 of Ensign Robert Darrah of the war of 

 1812 and that of Lieutenant Robert Hen- 

 derson Darrah of the Civil war. Rob- 

 ert Darrah was an industrious and enter- 

 prising farmer and accumulated a con- 

 siderable estate. He had a sawrnill on 

 the farm which he operated in connec- 

 tion with his farming. He also had a 

 lime kiln and burned the lime used "on 

 his plantation. He early realized the 

 value of a dairy and gave much atten- 

 tion to this branch of husbandry, mar- 

 keting the product in Philadelphia. He 

 married September 4, 1819, Catharine 

 Gait of Lancaster county, born January 

 26, 1799, a woman of fine intellectual 

 ability and both she and her husband 

 took a deep interest in and devoted their 

 energies and means to the cause of 

 morality, temperance, education and re- 

 ligion. In 1835, at the urgent request' 

 of his wife, he erected a school house on 

 his farm which was afterwards en- 

 larged and in connection with Josepii 

 Hart and others secured college gradu- 

 ates as teachers for their own and theii^ 

 neighbors children for many years, in 

 1849, he built a fine stone mansion house 

 on the Bristol Road and retired from 

 active farming, introducing water, bath," 

 any many modern improvements, and 

 this was the happy home of his family 

 for forty years. His wife entered into 

 all his plans and was his wise and pru- 

 dent adviser. She lived to the good old 

 age of ninety-one years, surviving her 

 husband thirty years, he having died 

 August 5, i860. The Darrahs were of 

 strong Scotch-Irish Presbyterian stock. 

 For more than a century the family have 

 occupied the same pew in the historic 

 Neshaminy Church, and the first two 

 generations were intimately associated 

 with the equally historic church at Deep 

 Run, near their first Bucks county home, 

 then presided over by Rev. Francis 

 McHenry. Robert Darrah left a fam- 

 ily of three sons and six daughters. His 

 eldest son. Rev. James A. Darrah, born 

 in 1821, was one of the pioneer home 

 missionaries and teachers in the West. 

 He graduated at Princeton in 1840 and 

 studied law under Judge John Fox at 

 Doylestown and was admitted to the bar 

 in 1843. But feeling called to the min- 

 istry he took a three years' course in the 

 Theological Seminary of Yale College 

 and was licensed to preach by the Pres- 

 bytery of Philadelphia September 23, 

 1846. For some months he labored as a 

 missionary at Winchester, Va., and tlien 

 removed to St. Louis, Mo., where he 

 was pastor of a church and principal of 

 the preparatory department of Webster 

 college for nine years and tlien was 

 called to the pastorate of a church at 

 West Ely, Mo. He died at Zanesville, 



