190 



HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY. 



town, and has two daughters: Mary, and 

 Ellen Bryan Swartzlander. 



DR. JOSEPH RANKIN SWARTZ- 

 LANDER, Eorest Grove, Buckingham 

 township, Bucks county, son of Dr. 

 Frank and Susan (Bryan) Swartzlander, 

 was born in Doylestown, August 23, 

 1875. He acquired his education at the 

 public and private schools of Doyles- 

 town, studied medicine under his father, 

 and in 1893 entered Jefferson Medical 

 College, graduating in class of 1897. He 

 served as resident physician in the Jer- 

 sey City Hospital for eighteen months, 

 and in the . summer of 1899 located at 

 Forest Grove and began the practice of 

 medicine. With inherited ability and 

 careful training and experience, he 

 started well equipped in his chosen pro- 

 fession and has met with merited suc- 

 cess. He is still single. 



GEORGE C. WORSTALL, one of 

 the most prominent business men of 

 Newtown, is one of the representatives 

 of a family that have been prominent in 

 the business affairs of Newtown for four 

 generations, and extending over a period 

 of one hundred and thirty years. He 

 was born in Upper Makefield. October 

 25, 1839. and is a son of Edward H. and 

 Maria E. (Smith) Worstall. 



The family is said to have been of 

 Welsh origin, but nothing definite is 

 known of the ancestry of John Worstall 

 or of his whereabouts until his proposal 

 of marriage at Middletown Friends 

 Meeting in 7 mo., 1720. to Elizabeth 

 Wildman, daughter of Martin and Ann 

 Wildman, who was born in Settle. York- 

 shire, England, 9 mo. 19. 1689, and came 

 with her parents to Bucks county, and 

 they settled in Middletown township. 

 John and Elizabeth Worstall were the 

 parents of three sons: John, born 7 mo. 

 4, 1722; Edward, born 5 mo. 21. 1724; 

 and James, born 12 mo. 26, 1726-7. The 

 mother died when James was But two 

 weeks old, and the children were reared 

 by their maternal relatives in Middle-' 

 town. Nothing is known of the descen- 

 dants of Edward Worstall. James mar- 

 ried Esther Satterthwaite and removed 

 to Makefield in 1759, and has left nu- 

 merous descendants in Bucks county. 



John Worstall. eldest son of John and 

 Elizabeth (Wildman) Worstall. born in 

 Middletown, 7 mo. 4. 1722. married 8 mo. 

 2. 1746, Mary Higgs, daughter of James 

 and Elizabeth (Andrews) Higgs. of Bris- 

 tol, who were married in 1719. James 

 Higgs died in 1736, leaving a son James 

 and four daughters: Mary: Elizabeth, 

 who married Thomas Hutchinson: Jane, 

 who married Mahlon Hall: and Ann. 

 Mary Higgs Worstall was born in 1720. 

 and died at the residence of her son 



Joseph, in Newtown, 8 mo., 1808, at the 

 age of eighty-eight years. 



Joseph Worstall, son of John and 

 Mary (Higgs) Worstall, was born in 

 Middletown, i mo. 13, 1750, and married, 

 m 1778, Susanna Hibbs, daughter of 

 William and Anna (Carter) Hibbs of 

 Middletown. In 1774 he purchased of 

 General Francis Murray a tract of land 

 on Penn street, in Newtown, part of the 

 old court house grounds, and erected 

 thereon a tannery which he operated 

 for fifty-five years. He subsequently 

 purchased considerable other land ad- 

 joining, and erected houses and other 

 buildings and carried on an extensive 

 business. In addition to the tanning 

 business he carried on the manufacture 

 of shoes on a large scale, and employed 

 a number of workmen. He also ground 

 and shipped an immense amount of 

 bark. The bark after being cured and 

 ground was packed in hogsheads and 

 hauled to the Delaware, where it was 

 loaded on the Durham boats then plying 

 on the Delaware, and carried to Phila- 

 delphia, where it was shipped to France 

 and other parts of the old world. It is 

 related that George Washington, while 

 he had his headquarters at Newtown, 

 had a pair of boots made at the shops 

 of Mr. Worstall, from leather tanned on 

 the premises, which he wore during the 

 revolutionary war. Mr. Worstall also 

 owned about fifty acres of land adjoin- 

 ing his business place on the south, and 

 carried on farming in connection with 

 his other business enterprises, in which 

 he was assisted by his sons Joseph and 

 James. The successful business career 

 of the family was suddenly wrecked in 

 February. 1829. when his large curry- 

 ing shops, bark mill house, wagon 

 hou?e, barns and an immense amount of 

 bark, implements and farm produce 

 were consumed by fire. There was no 

 insurance on the property, and Mr. Wor- 

 stall was financially ruined, and in his 

 old age saw the savings of a life-time of 

 industry and business activity swept 

 away in a single night. He sacrificed 

 the greater part of his real estate for 

 the payment of his debts, retaining the 

 tannery and his residence and some of 

 his other houses. Being unable to carry 

 on the tannery, however, with his lim- 

 ited means, he sold that also in 1831. and 

 it remained out of the family until 1842, 

 when it was purchased and remodeled by 

 his grandson Edward H. Worstall. Jo- 

 seph Worstall. Sr.. died i mo. 13. 1841, 

 at the age of ninety-one years, having 

 lived a long life of extraordinary busi- 

 ness activity. His children were: 



1. Elizabeth, born 9 mo. 3. 1779, mar- 

 ried in 1807. James Sleeper. 



2. Sarah, born 6 mo. i. 1781, married 

 in 1803 Edward Hicks, the eminent min- 

 ister among Friends. 



3. Joseph, born 2 mo. 8, 1783. see for- 

 ward. 



