154 



HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY 



many prominent P)ucks counlians, ami 

 at least one thousand pe()j)le ijacked the 

 "Temple of Justice" while others climbed 

 up to the windows on ladders to wel- 

 come the distinguished traveler on his 

 return to his native heath. In August, 

 7905, he again sailed for foreign lands, 

 and. after spending some months in Eng- 

 land, Scotland and Wales, intends mak- 

 ing an extended trip to Persia and other 

 Asiatic points to fmish up the work of 

 his renowned trip around the world. 



Mr. Geil, in addition to numerous and 

 noted magazine articles, is the author of 

 a number of books that have had enor- 

 mous sales. One of his earliest publica- 

 tions was "The Pocket Sword," a vest- 

 pocket book of scriptural phrases anr! 

 texts and the lessons drawn from them, 

 that has been immensely popular and has 

 reached a sale of over j^ocooo copies. 

 Among his other books are, "Judas Is- 

 cariot and other Lectures;" "The Isle 

 That is Called Patmos;" "A P.oy in the 

 Sun;" "Laodicea, Or the Marble Heart;" 

 "Smyrna, or the Flight of the Angel;" 

 "Trip Stories;" "Ocean and Isle;" "A 

 Yankee on the Yangtse;" "The Man of 

 Galilee;" "A Yankee in Pigmy Land." 

 Mr. Geil's new books "The Men on the 

 Mount;" "The Automatic Calf," and 

 "The Worker's Testament," have just 

 passed throught the press. He has deliv- 

 ered six thousand lectures to large au- 

 diences in many states and countries. He 

 is a Fellow of the Royal Geographical 

 Society of London, and a member of a 

 number of other noted societies. In all 

 his wanderings the heart of the great 

 traveler still clings to Doylestown as his 

 "home," in all the 'truest sense of that 

 much abused term. 



HON. EDWARD M. PAXSON, of By- 

 cot House, Buckingham township, Bucks 

 county, Pennsylvania, ex-chief justice of 

 the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, was 

 born in Buckingham, September 3, 1824, 

 and is a son of Thomas and Ann (John- 

 son) Paxson, and comes of an old and dis- 

 tinguished family that have been residents 

 of Bucks county from its earliest settle- 

 ment. 



James, Henry and William Paxson, 

 brothers, came to Pennsylvania in the ship 

 "Samuel," arriving in the river Delaware 

 the middle of the eleventh month, 1682. 

 Another brother, Thomas, died at sea on 

 the same ship as did the wife and son 

 (Henry) of Henry. Henry Paxton came 

 from Bycott House, in the parish of Stowe, 

 Oxfordshire, and James and William from 

 the parish of Marsh Gibbon, county of 

 Bucks, near Stowe. Bycot House is said 

 to have been the ancestral home of the 

 family for many generations. The subject 

 of this sketch, in a visit there several years 

 ago, found a Henry Paxton then occupy- 

 ing the premises. The family were Friends 



prior to tlicir coming to Pennsylvania, anrl 

 brought certificates from Bucks Monthly 

 Meeting in Buckinghamshire, England. The 

 family settled in Middletown, where Henry 

 took as a second wife, Margery, the widow 

 of Charles Plumly, August 13, 1684, his 

 nephew, Henry Paxson, son of James, mar- 

 rying her daughter, Ann Plumly. Eliza- 

 beth, the only child of Henry Paxson, Sr., 

 who reached Pennsylvania with him, mar- 

 ried Richard Burgess, who in 1696 pur- 

 chased two hundred acres on the river 

 Delaware in Solebury, and what was long 

 known as "Paxson's Island," in the river 

 adjoining, then known as "Turkey Point." 

 This tract, and island later became the prop- 

 erty of William Paxson, son of James, and 

 remained in the family many generations. 

 Henry Paxson was also a very extensive 

 land holder in Solebury, owning about one 

 thousand acres there, and numerous large 

 tracts elsewhere. He died about 1725, and, 

 having no living descendants, devised his 

 immense holdings of real estate to his 

 nephews, the Solebury land going to Will- 

 iam and Henry, the sons of his brother 

 James. 



James Paxson and Jane his wife, who 

 came from Marsh Gibbon, in the county of 

 Bucks, England, as before recited, were the 

 parents of four children : Sarah, born in 

 England, Smo. 28, 1671, married 1692, John 

 Burling; William, born lomo 25, 1675, mar- 

 ried Abigail Pownall ; Henry, born in 

 Bucks county, 7mo. 20, 1683, married Ann 

 Plumly ; and James, born 4mo. 10, 1687. 

 died 7mo. 16, 1687. Jane, the mother, died 

 2mo. 7, 1710, and James, the father, 2mo. 

 29, 1722. 



William Paxson, the second son of James 

 and Jane, born in Bucks county, England^ 

 on Christmas day, 1675, was the direct an- 

 cestor of Judge Paxson. He married, Feb- 

 ruary 20, 1695, Abigail Pownall. youngest 

 daughter of George and Elinor Pownall. 

 of Laycock, Cheshire, England, who, with 

 their son, Reuben and daughters Elizabeth, 

 Sarah, Rachel, and Abigail, came to Penn- 

 sylvania" in the ship "Friends' Adventure,"" 

 arriving in the Delaware river Smo. (Octo- 

 ber) II, 1682, and located in Falls town- 

 ship, where George was killed by a falling 

 tree thirty days after his arrival. Another 

 son George was born eleven days after his 

 father's death. The w^idow Elinor later 

 married Jo.shua Boare. Abigail was born 

 in England in 1678. She became a recom- 

 mended minister among Friends, and died 

 in Solebury, Bucks county, 4mo. 17, 1749- 

 Her husband, William Paxson. died in 1719. 

 Their children were: Mary, born iimo. 2, 

 1696; Al)igail, born 6mo. 20, 1700; James, 

 born gmo. 5, 1702, married (first) Mary 

 Horsman in 1723, and (second) Margaret 

 Hodges in 1730; Thqmas, born 9mo. 20, 

 1712, married Jane Canby ; Reuben, who 

 married Alice Simcock ; Esther, who mar- 

 ried a Clayton ; and Amy. who never 

 married. 



Thomas Paxsnn. son of William and 

 Abigail (Pownall) Paxson, in the division 



