HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY. 



155 



of the real estate in Solebnry fell heir to 

 the farm lately occupied by the Johnson 

 family near Centre Bridge, and the island 

 lying opposite. He later purchased other 

 large tracts of land in Solebury, some of 

 which still remain in the tenure of his de- 

 scendants. Thomas died in 1782. He married 

 in 1732 Jane Canby, daughter of Thomas 

 Canby, an eminent preacher among Friends, 

 (son of Benjamin Canby of Thorn, 

 Yorkshire) who had come to Penn- 

 sylvania with his uncle Henry 

 Baker. He was three times mar- 

 ried, and had nineteen children who 

 intermarried with the most prominent fam- 

 ilies of Bucks county and have left numer- 

 ous descendants. The children of Thomas 

 and Jane Canby Paxson, were : Joseph, 

 born gmo. 10, 173.3, married 6mo. 28, 1758, 

 Mary Heston ; Benjamin, born 8mo. i, 

 1739, married 6mo. 16. 1763. Deborah Tay- 

 lor, (second) in 1797 Rachel Newbold : and 

 . (third) in 1807 Mary Pickering; Oliver, 

 born 7mo. 9, 1741, married, 1766, Ruth Wat- 

 son ; Rachel, born 3mo. 6, 1744, married, 

 1764. John Watson; Jacob, born iimo. 6, 

 1745, married in 1769 Lydia Blakey ; Jona- 

 than, born iimo. 14,.^ 1748, married, 1771, 

 Rachel Biles; Isaiah, boVn 9mo. 20. 1751, 

 married, 1775. Mary Knowles ; and Martha, 

 who died yoimg. Of the above named sons 

 of Thomas and Jane (Canby) Paxson, 

 Joseph was devised a farm at Limeport, 

 Solebury township: Benjamin, a farm at 

 Aquetong. still owned by the children of 

 his grandson, Elias Ely Paxson, one of 

 whom is the wife of Colonel Henry D. 

 Paxson; Oliver, who married (second) 

 Ruth Johnson, was left a farm in the Pike 

 tract, near New Hope; Isaiah, the island 

 known as Paxson's Island, where he died 

 without issue ; Jacob, the homestead farm 

 at Centre Bridge ; Jonathan, the farm at 

 Rabbit Run, now owned by Thomas Magill. 

 , — .Jacob Paxson, born iimo. 6, 1745, in 

 I Solebury township, fourth sou and fifth 

 I child of Thomas and Jane (Can- 

 Lby) Paxson, was the grandfather of 

 Judge Paxson. He married 6 mo. 

 19, 1769, Lydia Blakey, and at 

 about that date purchased a farm and 

 mill property on Tacony creek, in Mont- 

 gomery county, Pennsvlvania. and settled 

 thereon. Here his wife died, leaving him 

 two children, and he married a second 

 time, in 1777. ^Tary Shaw. born, in Plum- 

 stead township, Bucks county. 5mo. 28, 

 T759, daughter of Johnathan and Sarah 

 ((^ood) Shaw, the former born in Plum- 

 stead, June 15, 1730. died there May 24. 

 1790, was a son of James and Mary 

 (Brown) Shaw, the pioneers of the Shaw 

 family in Plumstead. James being the son 

 of John and Susanna Shaw, early English 

 settlers in Northampton, and born January 

 9. 1694, a'icl married at Abington Friends' 

 Meeting. September 24, 1718. Mary Brown, 

 daughter of Thomas and Mary Brown, who 

 came from Barking Essex county, England, 

 and after residing for some time in Phila- 

 delphia settled near Abington, Montgomery 



county. Pennsylvania. Thomas Brown was 

 one of the earliest landowners in Plum- 

 stead township, and he and his sons were 

 pioneer Friends in that section and the 

 founders of Plumstead Meeting. In 1724 

 Thomas conveyed to his son-in-law, James 

 Shaw, two hundred acres of land on the 

 upper line of Buckingham township, that 

 remained the Shaw homestead for over a 

 century and a half. The ancestors of Sarah 

 (Good) Shaw, were also early Quaker set- 

 tlers in Plumstead and adjoining parts of 

 New Britain. Jacob and Mary (Shaw) 

 Paxson were the parents of twelve children, 

 all born in Abington township, Montgom- 

 ery county, where Jacob Paxson continued 

 to reside until his death in Buckingham, in 

 i8?2. while on a visit to his. son-in-law. 

 William H. Johnson. The children of Jacob 

 and Marv (Shaw) Paxson were: John, 

 Sarah, Isaiah. Jonathan. Jane, Thomas. 

 Jacob. Oliver, and Ruth, most of whom 

 married and reared families, whose des- 

 cendants are now widely scattered over 

 Bucks, Philadelphia. Montgomery and 

 Chester counties and elsewhere. 



Thomas Paxson, sixth child of Jacob and 

 Mary (Shaw) Paxson, was born in Mont- 

 gomery county in 1793, and reared in that 

 county. He married, in 1817. Ann Johnson, 

 daughter of Samuel and Martha (Hutchin- 

 son) Johnson, of Buckingham, and grand- 

 daughter of William Johnson, who was a 

 native of Ireland, and came to America 

 about the year 1754, in his nineteenth year. 

 He was a man of high scholastic attain- 

 ments, and a great student on scientific 

 subjects, and delivered numerous lectures 

 on electricity and kindred subjects of the 

 highest merit. He married Ruth Potts, of 

 an eminent New Jersey family, and re- 

 sided for a time in Philadelphia, where his 

 son Samuel was. born in 1763. He soon 

 after removed with his family to Charles- 

 ton, South Carolina, where he died in 

 1767 at the age of thirty-two years. His 

 widow and four children returned to Phila- 

 delphia and later removed to Trenton. New 

 Jersey, where they resided at the time of 

 the memorable battle of Tren<:on, on Christ- 

 mas night. T776. His eldest daughter Mary 

 married Thomas Mathews of Virginia, 

 and Hon. Stanley Mathews of the United 

 States supreme bench was a descendant. 

 The second child was Hon. Thomas Potts 

 Johnson, an eminent lawyer of New Jersey. 



Samuel Johnson, third child of William 

 and Ruth (Potts) Johnson, born in Phila- 

 delphia, in 1763, removed with his par- 

 ents to South Carolina, and returned with 

 his mother to Philadelphia in his fourth 

 year. He was reared at Trenton, New 

 Jersey, and came to Bucks county in 1786, 

 purchasing "Elm Grove," on the York road, 

 east of Holocong. now the residence of his 

 great-grandson. Colonel Henry D. Paxson. 

 He later purchased a farm including the 

 site of the present "Bycot House," and 

 removed thereou. He was a man of high 

 intellectual ability and literary attainments, 

 a poet of more than ordinary merit. TwO' 



