300 



HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY. 



ing physicians of Hatboro; Stacy Beans, 

 in the wholesale and retail grocerj^ busi- 

 ness in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Ezra 

 P., the subject of this sketch; and 

 Emily, who died in infancy. 



James Carrell, the pioneer ancestor 

 ■of the family, settled in Bucks county 

 about i/oo and possibly came from 

 Rhode Island in 1683 with Rev. Thomas 

 Dungan, wliose daughter Sarah he mar- 

 ried. Tradition, however, relates that 

 he was a weaver, and had a mill or loom, 

 in Philadelphia, where he wove linen 

 and linsey-woolsey; some products of 

 his loom remaining in the family until 

 recently. He purchased one hundred 

 acres of land in Southampton in 1704 

 and lived thereon until his death about 

 1730. In 171 1 he purchased of his broth- 

 €rs-in-Iaw, Thomas and Clement Dun- 

 gan, a tract of land in Warminster which 

 is still the property of his descendants, 

 descending from father to son down to 

 the present owner, Isaac Carrell. The 

 children of Thomas and Sarah (Dun- 

 gan) Carrell were six in number: James, 

 the eldest son; Benjamin, who died in 

 1733; Elizabeth, who married Samuel 

 Gilbert, of Warminster; Sarah, who 

 married Silas McCarty; and Lydia, who 

 married Robert Tompkins, of Warmin- 

 ster, later of Warrington, Bucks county ; 

 and another daughter of whom we have 

 no record. In 1732 the other heirs of 

 James Carrell conveyed the homestead 

 in Southampton to the eldest son James 

 and in 1734 he also purchased the North- 

 ampton homestead on which he settled 

 and lived until his death in 1750, con- 

 veying the Southampton homestead on 

 his purchase of the Northampton farm. 

 The family were of Scotch-Irish Pres- 

 byterian stock, and are supposed to have 

 emigrated from Scotland or Ireland in 

 the seventeenth century. Tradition re- 

 lates that James Carrell, Sr., was im- 

 prisoned in Londonderry during that 

 memorable siege of one hundred and five 

 days, and soon after came to America'. 

 The family is probably of the branch of 

 the house of Carroll who were rulers in 

 the northern counties of Ireland, which 

 Dr. William Carrell in his historj'- of the 

 family traces back to the beginning of 

 the third century. 



James Carrell, Jr., married Diana Van 

 Kirk, of Holland descent, daughter of 

 Bernard and Rachel (Vandegrift) Van 

 Kirk, and granddaughter of Jan Janse 

 Ver Kirk or Van Kirk, who emigrated 

 to Long Island in 1663 from the little 

 town of Bueer Maetsen. in Gelderland. 

 Holland, 'and settled at New Utrecht, 

 where he died in 1688. His wife was 

 Maykje Gysberts and they were the pa- 

 rents of the following children: Roelof 

 Janse, born 1654; Aert Janse, -born 

 1655; Geertje. married Jan Dirckse Von 

 Vliet: Barentje, married Nicholas Van- 

 degrift; Cornelis Janse; Jan Janse, Jr., 

 and Bernard or Barnet, the father of 



Diana, above mentioned, who married 

 Rachel Vandegrift. The maternal an- 

 cestor of Diana (Van Kirk) Carrell is 

 given in full in this work under the head 

 of "The Vandegrift Family." Jamc^ and 

 Diana Carrell were the parents of eleven 

 children, viz.: Rebecca, born May 25, 

 1725, married Robert Weir, of Warring- 

 ton, and their descendants later mi- 

 grated to Kentucky. Sarah, born Sep- 

 tember 25, 1726, married Robert Patter- 

 son, of Tinicum, whose descendants set- 

 tled in Virginia, from whence they mi- 

 grated to Ohio and Missouri. Bernard, 

 married Lucretia McKnure and settled 

 on one of his father's farms in Warmin- 

 ster purchased of the heirs of Rev. Will- 

 iam Tennent, and including the site of 

 the famous log college of which Ten- 

 nent was the founder, and which re- 

 mained in the tenure of the descendants 

 of Bernard until quite recently. James, 

 born March 26, 1730, married Sarah' 



and settled in Tinicum township, 



Bucks county, in 1765, on land pur- 

 chased of his brother Solomon and died 

 there leaving four children who have 

 numerous descendants scattered over 

 the whole union. He was a private in 

 the associated company, of Tinicum, 

 Nicholas Patterson captain, during the 

 revolution. Jacob and Rachel (twins), 

 born April 27, 1735: Rachel became the 

 second wife of Robert Stewart, of War- 

 wick, Bucks county, and after her hus- 

 band's death settled with her son Robert 

 in Tinicum, from whence the family 

 migrated to New Jersey. Phoebe, born 

 August 20, 1837, married Andrew Scout, 

 of Warminster. Solomon, born May 25, 

 1740, died 1777, married Mary Van Kirk, 

 and in 1761 purchased a farm of three 

 hundred and five acres in Plumstead, 

 one hundred and forty-three acres of 

 which he conveyed to his brother James 

 in 1765 and the balance of which he sold 

 in 1774 and then settled in Kenseng- 

 ton, Philadelphia; he went with Wash- 

 ington to New York, dying of the fever 

 on Staten Island, whence _ his body \yas 

 never removed; his widow married 

 Charles Ryan, and died in Wallingford. 

 Chester county, in 1821. Descendants of 

 Solomon now reside in Chester, Penn- 

 sylvania, and in Delaware. Elizabeth, 

 born May t6. 1742. Diana married Elias 

 Dungan, who" was a soldier in the Revo- 

 lutionary war. and has left numerous 

 descendants; her daughter Rachel mar- 

 ried Tesse Johnson. 



Jacob Carrell. son of James and Diana 

 (Van Kirk) Carrell, born April 27, 

 1735, was the great-grandfather of Ezra 

 P. Carrell. He was born and reared on 

 the old family homestead known as Car- 

 rcllton and lived there all his life. He 

 and his brother served in the Northamp- 

 ton company in the revolutionary war. 

 He was a successful farmer and pos- 

 sessed of considerable means. He de- 

 voted himself to home and church af- 



