172 



HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY. 



16S3; swore allegiance to Charles I, IMay 



1, 1682; chosen justice of the peace May 



2, 1704; October, 1705, Captain Samuel 

 Wilkinson, deput}' to colonial assembly 

 for Providence; February 25, 1708, re- 

 appointed deputy; October 27, 1707, Cap- 

 tain Samuel Wilkinson, deputy to as- 

 sembly held at Warwick; October 31, 

 1716, deputy for Providence; May 14, 

 1719, Captain Samuel Wilkinson appoint- 

 ed to settle boundary dispute between 

 Rhode Island and Massachusetts. (John 

 and Josiah, brothers of Samuel were also 

 in the Indian Wars, and the historians 

 say "fought valiantly"). 



Samuel and Plain Wilkinson were the 

 parents of six children, viz: Samuel, 

 John, William, Joseph, Ruth, and Sus- 

 annah. Of these Ruth married William 

 Hopkins, and became the mother of two 

 <iistinguished men, Stephen Hopkins for 

 many years governor of Rhode Island, 

 and a signer of the Declaration of Inde- 

 pendence, and Essex Hopkins, the first 

 commander of an American fleet in 1776. 



John Wilkinson, second son of Sam- 

 uel and Plain Wilkinson, was born on 

 his father's homestead at Loquiessett, 

 Providence, Rhode Island, on January 

 25, 1677-8. He left there when a young 

 man and located in Hunterdon county. 

 New Jersey, where he married Mary 

 . He later removed to Wrights- 

 town township, and in 1713 purchased 

 three hundred and seven acres of lau' 

 lying partly in the three townships of 

 Wrightstown, Warwick antl Bucking- 

 ham, near what is now Rushland Sta- 

 tion, on the Northeast Pennsylvania 

 Railroad. In 1728 he returned to Provi- 

 dence and participated in the settlement 

 of his father's estate, signing on July 

 3 of that year a power of attorney for 

 his brothers and brothers-in-law, to sell 

 his father's land. The deed for the 

 land, dated July 6, 1728, and recorded 

 at Providence, is signed by Josiah Wilk- 

 inson, of Providence, John Wilkinson of 

 Wrightstown, in the county of Bucks 

 and Province of Pennsylvania, William 

 Hopkins and Ruth, his wife, James An- 

 gell and Susanna his wife, David, Sam- 

 uel, and Huldah Wilkinson, Ichabod 

 Comstock and Zabiah his wife, and Jo- 

 seph Arnold and PAtience his wife. John 

 Wilkinson was one of the justices of 

 the peace of Bucks county who were 

 commissioned to hold the court of com- 

 mon pleas, quarter sessions and orphans' 

 court for the county, and he became a 

 large landowner on both sides of Ne- 

 shaminy. and a prominent man in the 

 commnnit\'. He was an active member 

 of Wrightstown Friends' -Meeting. His 

 will is dated February, 1751, and was 

 proven April 2t,. 1751. He had seven 

 children, viz: Mary, born July 17, 1709, 

 married Joseph Chapman; Kcziah, mar- 

 ried Thomas Ross, and was the grand- 

 mother of Judge John Ross (see Ross 

 family): Plain, married Peter Ball; Su- 



sanna, married Adrien Dawes; Ruth, 

 married Joseph Chapman; John, see for- 

 ward; Josiah, who married Rosanna 

 Kemble and (second) Mary Carver, 

 daughter of William Carver and Mary 

 Walmsley; and Joseph, who married 

 Barbara Lacy. The last two removed to 

 Chester county in 1762. 



John Wilkinson, son of John above 

 mentioned, was born in the year 171 1. He 

 became a very prominent citizen of 

 Bucks county, serving in the colonial 

 assembly for the years 1761, 1762-3, and 

 in that of the commonwealth of Penn- 

 sylvania for the years 1776-1781, and 

 1782, and as a justice of the peace from 

 1764 to 1774 inclusive. At the organi- 

 zation of the committee of safety in 

 1774 he participated therein, and was one 

 of the delegates from Bucks county to 

 the conference held at Philadelphia July 

 July 15, 1774; was selected on December 

 15, 1774, as one of the committee of ob- 

 servation; was again a delegate to the 

 provincial convention at Philadelphia, 

 January 23, 1775, and a member of the 

 first constitutional convention, July 15, 

 1776. When, however, it became evident 

 that war would ensue, he, with a num- 

 ber of other members of the Society of 

 Friends, on July 21, 1775, "alleging 

 scruples of conscience relative to the 

 business necessarily transacted by the 

 Committee, desired to be relieved from 

 ' further attendance." Later, however, his 

 patriotic feelings got the better of his 

 religious feelings; and in spite of the 

 protests of Wrightstown Meeting, of 

 which he was a member, he again united 

 himself with the defenders of the rights 

 of his country, and continued to take an 

 active part in that defence until his death 

 on May 31, 1782, serving as lieutenant- 

 colonel of militia, and filling other im- 

 portant positions. He was appointed 

 lieutenant-cononel of the Third Bucks 

 County Associators, August 16, I775; 

 and member of conference of delegates 

 for all the counties at Philadelphia, 

 July 18, 1776. He was constantly on 

 important committees as representative 

 of either the assembly or the commit- 

 tee of safety, in both of which he rep- 

 resented his district, during the most 

 trying time of the Revolution. He was 

 appointed justice of the peace and judge 

 of the court of common pleas, September 

 3. T776; committee and referee to In- 

 dian lands; one of committee to consider 

 draft and report to the house what laws 

 it will be necessary should be passed, 

 at this season; (Journals of Assembly, 

 vol. i, p. 133); was appointed by assem- 

 bly one of committee to consider an act 

 for emitting the sum of 200,000 pounds 

 in bills of credit for the defence of the 

 State, and providing a fund for sinking 

 the same by tax on all estate, real and 

 personal; as a member of the committee 

 of safety he served upon the committee 

 of observation and committee of cor- 



