196 



HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY. 



tershire, England, in 1702. He came to 

 IMiiladelphia. June 7, 1722, and purchased 

 from the I*cnn estate a tract of land in 

 New Britain township, Bucks county, 

 Pennsylvania, near Doylestown. He 

 founded Painswick Hall, of which an ac- 

 count will be found elsewhere in this 

 volume. Dr. Abbott is the sixth in de- 

 scent from Walter and Mary (Kimber) 

 Shewell, who had with other issue, Rob- 

 ert Shewell. born 1740, died 1825. He 

 was a merchant in the West India trade. 

 He married Sarah Sallows, and they had, 

 with other issue. Thomas Shewell, born 

 1774. died 1848. He was a merchant. He 

 married Sarah B. Linnington,. and they 

 had, with other issue, Linnington Dan- 

 iel Shewell, born 1808, died 1873. He 

 married Martha R. Roberts, and they 

 had, with other issue. Julia Churchman 

 Shewell, born 1843, died 1882. She was 

 the wife of Francis Abbott, and mother 

 of Joseph de Bennevjlle .Abbott. 

 ■ Dr. Joseph de Benncville Abbott was 

 educated at the famous Germantown 

 Academj', and subsequently studied 

 medicine in the Hahnemann Medical 

 College of Philadelphia, from which he 

 was graduated in April, 1887. In Octo- 

 ber. 1890, he entered upon the practice 

 of his profession in Bristol, Pennsyl- 

 vania, in which he has been usefully en-' 

 gaged to the present time. February 20, 

 1903, he was chosen burgess for a two 

 year term, ending in 1905. In 1897 Dr. 

 Abbott married his second cousin, Helen 

 Shewell Kcim, who is a descendant on 

 her mother's side of the Rodman fam- 

 ily, prominent in Bucks county since 

 early in the eighteenth century. (Vide 

 "Autumn Leaves fr'om , Family' Trees," 

 by Theo. Francis Rodenbough, New 

 York, 1892. Privatelj' printed.) Two 

 children have been the issue of this mar- 

 riage: Charles Shewell, born Febru- 

 ary 17, 1899; Helen Rodman, born Aug- 

 ust 20, 1900. 



MARY S. ABBOTT. The paternal 

 ancestors of Mrs. Abbott were among 

 the earliest German settlers in Pennsyl- 

 vania, her first American ancestor be-" 

 ing Johannes Keim, who emigrated from 

 Germany in 1698. and after a short stay 

 in Pennsylvania returned to the fath- 

 erland, where he married in 1706, and 

 returned to Pennsylvania the following- 

 year. He located soon after on the Ma- 

 natawny, in Oley township. Berks coun- 

 ty, and took up land. He was probably 

 one of "those adventurous Germans" 

 who settled bej^ond the limits of the 

 land purchased by Penn of the Indians, 

 and referred to in the correspondence 

 between James Logan, Penn's famous 

 secretary, and the founder. He obtained 

 a patent for his land in 1720 and fur- 

 ther patents for additional land in 1737- 

 He died in Oley in December, 1753- A 

 manuscript in his own writing gives an 



account of his first marriage in 1706, 

 (without mentioning the name of his 

 wife) and the birth of his six children 

 by that marriage, and his second mar- 

 riage in 1731. By the second marriage 

 he had ten children. The children by 

 the first marriage were: Katharina, born 

 1708, died 1793; Johannes, born 1711; 

 Stephen, born ' 1717; Johan Nicholas, 

 born April 2, 17197 died at Reading, 

 Berks county, Pennsylvania, in 1803; 

 Elizabeth, born 1723; and Jacob, born- 



1724- 



Nicholas Keim, the third son, became 

 a merchant in Reading, and his son 

 John, born at Oley in 1749, was the an- 

 cestor of Mrs. Abbott. At the age of 

 twentj'-eight years, in 1777, John Keim 

 enlisted in the Fourth Battalion of 

 Berks county and served through the 

 Revolutionary war. He was a captain 

 in the Fifth Battalion in 1778. At the 

 close of the war he returned to 

 Reading and resumed his position with 

 his father in the mercantile business, and 

 remained in that business until his death 

 on February 19, 1819. The "Berks and 

 Schuylkill Journal," in referring to his 

 death, says: "The remains of John 

 Keim, merchant, were interred in the 

 Episcopal burial ground this afternoon. 

 * * * * jjg ].,j^(j resided in this 

 borough sixty-four years, during which 

 time he amassed a large fortune which 

 never caused a widow's tear or an or- 

 phan's execration. What he left behind 

 was justly his own. As a creditor he 

 was ever lenient and his numerous ten- 

 antry can testify to his goodness as a 

 landlord." His wife was a daughter of 

 George de Benneville, of Bristol town- 

 ship, near Germantown, Philadelphia; 

 county. 



Daniel De Benneville Keim was cap- 

 tain of the Berks county "Washington 

 Blues," attached to the First Regiment 

 of Pennsylvania Volunteers in the war 

 of 1812. General George de Benneville 

 Keim. grandfather of Mrs. Abbott, was 

 born in Reading in 1778, and died there 

 in 1852. He married INIary May, daugh- 

 ter of James and Bridget (Douglass) 

 May, of Reading. James May was born 

 May 2. 1749, in Coventry township, 

 Chester county, Pennsylvania, and re- 

 moved to Reading prior to the Revolu- 

 tion, dying there March 13, 1819. He 

 was a descendant of John ]\Tay, born in 

 Mayfield, Sussex, England, in 1590. and 

 emigrated to New England in 1635, Rob- 

 ert Mny. the grandfather of James, com- 

 ing from New England in 1700 and set- 

 tling at Limerick, now ]\Iontgomery 

 county. Bridget Douglass was a daugh- 

 ter of George Douglass and granddaugh- 

 ter of Andrew Douglass, of Scotland, 

 the latter of whom settled at what is 

 now Douglassville. Berks county. 



Major Daniel May Keim, son of 

 George De Benneville and Mary (May) 

 Keim, was born at Reading, in 1806, and 



