HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY. 



229 



Bristol was erected, and contributed 

 liberally to its erection in 1712. From 

 the records of this old church it ap- 

 pears that his lineal descendants are en- 

 titled to occupy two pews therein for- 

 ■ever. Anthony Burton married, Decem- 

 ber 18, 1687, Sarah Gibbs, a widow. She 

 died June 28, 1718, without issue. On 

 July 28, 1720, he married Susan Keene, 

 by whom he had two children; Martha, 

 who died unmarried; and Anthony, Jr., 

 born July 17, 1721. Anthony Burton, 

 Sr., died in 1739, and is buried in St. 

 James churchyard at Bristol. 



Anthony Burton, Jr., son of Anthony 

 and Susan (Keene) Burton, was a far- 

 mer and a large landowner in Bristol 

 township, residing on the road from 

 Bristol to the "Falls of the Delaware." 

 He married, February 12, 1752, Mary 

 ' Hough, daughter of Richard Hough^, of 

 Falls, and, she being a member of the 

 Society of Friends, he also became af- 

 filiated with that society, as have been 

 "his descendants to this day. He died 

 February, 1798. Anthony and Mary 

 (Hough) Burton were the parents of 

 eight children, four of whom died in 

 infancy; those who survived were: John, 

 born September 17, 1753; Martha, born 

 July 25, 1756, married John Minster; 

 Anthony, born August 9. 1758; and 

 Jonathan born August 21, 1765. 



John Burton, eldest son of Anthony 

 and Mary (Hough), born September 

 17, 1753. was the great-grandfather of 

 the subject of this sketch. He was a 

 farmer and resided for many years on 

 the old homestead in Bristol township, 

 but removed late in life to Falls town- 

 ship, where he died September 3. 1835. 

 He was twice married, first in Febru- 

 ary, 1778, to Rachel Wilson, nee Sotch- 

 er, widow of Henry Wilson and daugh- 

 ter o" Robert and ]\Iercy (Brown) Sotch- 

 er. She died in 1781, leaving two sons, 

 Joseph and John. On October 9, 1789, 

 be inarried Hannah Watson, by whom 

 be had five children: Benjamin, Mary, 

 Rachel, Anthony, and Charles. 



Anthony, the second son of Anthony 

 and Mary (Hough) Burton, born Aug- 

 ust 9, 1758, married Jane, daughter of 

 John and Deborah (Watson) Gregg, 

 April 27, 1781, and had children: John 

 G., Amos, Deborah, and William. The 

 latter became a successful merchant in 

 Philadelphia and afterwards a physician. 

 He was a remarkably brilliant man. His 

 wife was Susan Hallowell, of Philadel- 

 phia, belonging to an old Bucks county 

 family, who died in Penns Manor, Bucks 

 ■county. Jonathan, the other son of An- 

 thony and Mary, married Letitia Will- 

 iamson, March 11, 1790. and died in 

 1840. His children were William, Sarah. 

 Peter, Ann L., and Elizabeth. His 

 grandson, Jonathan Burton, was a large 

 manufacturer of iron, and died in Ohio. 

 Joseph Burton, son of John and Rachel 

 <Wilson) Burton, was a large landhold- 



er in Bristol and Falls township, and 

 a justice of the peace for over thirty 

 years. He married Sarah Watson, and 

 died in 1858. Many descendants of the 

 three sons of Anthony and Mary 

 (Hough) Burton still reside in Bucks 

 county, where they have intermarried 

 with other families that have been 

 prominent in the development of the 

 county. 



Anthony Burton, grandfather of the 

 subject of this sketch, born in 1796, was 

 a son of John and Hannah (Watson) 

 Burton. In his 3'ounger days he was a 

 school teacher, but later became a farm- 

 er, and he was also identified with va- 

 rious business enterprises, operating for 

 several years an extensive shad fishery 

 on the Delaware. He was for twenty- 

 four years the president of the Farmers' 

 National Bank of Bucks county, at Bris- 

 tol, and was also president of the Upper 

 Delaware River Steamboat Company, 

 and filled many other positions of trust. 

 He was a prominent member of the So- 

 ciety of Friends, and a man much es- 

 teemed In the communit^^ He died near 

 Tullytown in 1874, at the age of seventy 

 eight years, lamented by all who knew 

 him. He was twice married, his first 

 wife and the mother of his children 

 being Mary Headley, and his second 

 wife was Anna Paxson. His children 

 were Caroline, Hannah, John, Anna, 

 and Elwood. John, born August 3, 1829, 

 was a soldier in the war of the rebel- 

 lion, serving in the Anderson Cavalry, 

 and participating in eighteen engage- 

 ments. He was a prominent business 

 man in Falls township, holding many 

 positions of trust and honor, being a 

 director of the Farmers' National Bank 

 of Bucks county, president of the Bris- 

 tol Improvement Company, and direc- 

 tor of the Delaware River Steamboat 

 Transportation Company, and of the 

 Cape May and Delaware Bay Naviga- 

 tion Company. He was also president 

 of the William Penn Mutual Loan and 

 Building Association. He married, Feb- 

 ruary 7, 1867, Elizabeth Headley, daugh- 

 ter of William and Eliza, and had chil- 

 dren, Franklin, Elwood, Horace H. and 

 A. Russell. Caroline Burton, daughter 

 of Anthony and Mary Headley Burton, 

 married Pierson Mitchell, of Middle- 

 town. Hannah never rnarried, and Anna 

 married John W. Paxson, of Philadel- 

 phia. 



Elwood Burton, father of the subject 

 of this sketch, was the youngest son of 

 Anthony and Mary (Headley) Burton, 

 and was born on the old homestead farm 

 near Tullytown, February 28, 1836. He 

 obtained his elementary education in 

 the public schools of Falls township, 

 and finished at the academy at Lang- 

 horne. On leaving school he entered 

 the store of his brother-in-law, John 

 W. Paxson, at Tullytown, as a clerk, 

 and filled that position until arriving at 



