364 



HISTORY OP BUCKS COUNTY 



him, to whom the king said, 'Sir Pierre, 

 thou hast given me air (Eyre) to 

 breathe,' from hence the crest. On a 

 wreath of colours, a dexter arm em- 

 bossed in armour proper garnished and 

 charged, in the hand a sword." The 

 Conqueror subsequently gave Sir Pierre 

 large tracts of land about Dale, and by 

 royal license the family name was 

 changed to that of Eyre-Dale, moder- 

 nized about the fifteenth century to Ire- 

 dell. The founder of the family in this 

 country was Thomas Iredell, who came 

 here in 1700. He belonged to the branch 

 of the family living near Carlisle, Eng- 

 land, and brought with him to the 

 Monthly Meeting of Friends in Phila- 

 delphia the following certificate: 



Certificate of Removal 



On behalf of Thomas Iredell, taken 

 from the Records of Philadelphia 

 Monthly Meeting. 



"From our. Monthly Meeting upon 

 Pardshaw Cragg, Cumberland, ye 27th 

 of ye 6th month, 1700, to Friends in 

 Pennsylvania and other parts of Amer- 

 ica: Dear friends and brethren, ye tender 

 salutation of our dearest love in ye 

 truth always continues and reaches forth 

 to you. Ye account we have to give to 

 you is on behalf of a young man, the 

 bearer hereof, Thos. Iredell, who this 

 day layd before us ye transporting of 

 Tiimself into Pennsylvania, requesting 

 our certificate along with him. 



"We therefore certifie to all where he 

 may come, that he hath of late years 

 come frequently amongst Friends. His 

 carriage appears to be sober and truth- 

 like. Those that know him ye best give 

 no other account but well. He comes 

 with consent of his Mother, though no 

 Friend, and enquiry hath been made 

 of his clearness in relation to marriage, 

 but nothing appears to ye contrary. 



"We need not to further inlarge, but 

 subscribe ourselves. Your friends and 

 brethren on behalf of ye aforesayd 

 Meeting. 

 Thos. Griffin, John Burngeat & others." 



Thomas Iredell settled at first in 

 Philadelphia, and afterward bought of 

 Samuel Carpenter two hundred acres of 

 land, in Horsham township, adjoining 

 Friends' Meeting property atthat place, 

 on which he erected a dwelling. In an 

 iron knocker on the door was drilled. 

 "T. I., 1720," supposedly the date of 

 building. Before leaving Philadelphia 

 lie married. Third month, gth. 1705. at 

 Friends' Meeting-house, corner of Sec- 

 ond and Market streets. Rebecca Will- 

 iams, also of Philadelphia. 



Robert Iredell, presumably the son of 

 Thomas and Rebecca (Williams) Ire- 

 -dell, married Hannah Lukens. who was 

 descended in the third generation from 

 Jan (or John) Lucken (or Lukens), who 

 came from Holland in 1683, and was 

 one of the thirteen original settlers of 



Germantown, who took up the land from 

 Francis Daniel Pastorius. Jan Lucken 

 was one of the overseers of Friends' 

 Meeting established in that neighbor- 

 hood, the members of which were a pro- 

 gressive and far-seeing people, inas- 

 much as they made at that early day — 

 1688 — the first protest against slavery 

 and presented it to the Yearly Meeting, 

 which, however, did not act in the mat- 

 ter. This action on the part of the Ger- 

 mantown Friends antedated bj^ many 

 years the agitation which finally cleared 

 the Society of any complicity in the evil. 



Charles Iredell, son of Robert and 

 Hannah (Lukens) Iredell, married 

 Phoebe Cadwallader, and they were the 

 parents of a son, Joseph, who was a 

 merchant in Philadelphia. Joseph Ire- 

 dell married eleventh month, gth, 1804, 

 Hannah, daughter of Mordecai and Eliza- 

 beth (Jarrett) Thomas. The Thomas 

 family was of Welsh origin. 



Charles Thomas Iredell, son of Joseph 

 and Hannah (Thomas) Iredell, was born 

 9 mo. II, 1805, in Hatboro, Pennsylvania, 

 and in his early boyhood his parents 

 moved to Philadelphia, where he at- 

 tended school, later becoming a pupil at 

 the Westtown Boarding School. Until 

 1827 he was employed in a drug-store, 

 and in that year entered the Farmers' 

 Bank of Bucks county, afterward the 

 Farmers' National Bank of Bucks county. 

 He was connected with the institution 

 first as clerk and subsequently as cash- 

 ier. For more than fifty years he was 

 at his post, faithful to his trust, with in- 

 tegrity as the key-note of his character. 

 This trait, together with his clear pene- 

 tration in regard to business matters and 

 his indefatigable energy, were fully ap- 

 preciated throughout the wide circuit 

 having dealings with the bank. He was 

 treasurer of several building associa- 

 tions. In politics he affiliated with the 

 Whigs and later with the Republicans, 

 having a warm feeling for the principles 

 through which the party appealed for its 

 support to the country, but he kept aloof 

 from the vortex of politics and never 

 sought or held an office. He and his wife 

 were both birthright members of the 

 Society of Friends, as had been their an- 

 cestors for many generations, and both 

 were -standard-bearers of its principles. 

 Mr. Iredell held many positions of 

 trust and usefulness in the Bristol Meet- 

 ing, in which he served as trustee, treas- 

 urer, elder and clerk, while Mrs. Iredell 

 was for many years an acknowledged 

 minister of the Society. 



Mr. Iredell married, 10 mo. 8. 1829, 

 Rebecca Newbold. and they were the 

 parents of the following children, all of 

 whom were born in Bristol: i. Hannah 

 Ann. who became the wife of Nathan 

 Spencer Thomas, of Philadelphia, later 

 of Elmira. New York. Their children 

 are : Rebecca Iredell, who married George 

 Pickering and has three children. Dor- 



