^54 



HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY. 



township, Bucks county, in 1862, her pa- 

 rents being Charles and Mary J. Gaines, 

 also natives of this county, but now de- 

 ceased. Her grandfather, James Gaines, 

 was a farmer and merchant, and was promi- 

 nent in community interests. Charles 

 Gaines also engaged in merchandising in 

 his younger years, but later devoted his 

 energies to agricultural pursuits. He was 

 popular in his community because of a 

 genial manner, personal worth and unfalter- 

 ing loyalty to the general good in all mat- 

 ters of citizenship. He served in the gen- 

 eral assembly for two terms, elected on the 

 Democratic ticket, and was actively con- 

 cerned in constructive legislation as shown 

 in the work of the committee rooms. He 

 exerted considerable influence in public af- 

 fairs, and his efforts were always for the 

 general good, he placing the welfare of state 

 and county before personal aggrandizement. 

 He died in 1895 at the age of sixty-two 

 years, while his wife's death occurred in 

 1890. She was a devoted member of the 

 Methodist church. Their children were 

 three in number : Anna M., who became the 

 wife of L. Worthington ; Esther P., the wife 

 of Samuel K. Radcliff ; and John T., a 

 bookkeeper, of Philadelphia. 



LEMUEL HASTING DOYLE, of 

 Doylestown, Wisconsin, editor and proprie- 

 tor of the "Badger Blade," and for the past 

 twenty-five years actively interested in 

 journalist work in Wisconsin, was born 

 November 26, 1832, at Mount Washington, 

 Steuben county, New York, and is a de- 

 scendant of the Doyle family of Bucks 

 county, for whom our county seat is named 



Edward Doyle, the pioneer ancestor of 

 the family and the great-great-great-grand- 

 father of Lemuel H. Doyle, came to Bucks 

 county from Newport, Rhode Island, with 

 his father-in-law, Reverend Thomas Dun- 

 gan (an account of whom is given in this 

 volume) and settled on land taken up by 

 the Dungans in Bristol township. On June 

 9, 1696, he purchased of his brother-in- 

 law, Clement Dungan, fifty acres of land 

 on the banks of the Delaware and lived 

 there until his death in the latter part of 

 1702, leaving a will dated September 16, 

 1702. He married Rebecca Dungan and 

 had at least three children, Edward, Clem- 

 ent, and Elizabeth, who married Joseph 

 Fell, the pioneer ancestor of the Fell fam- 

 ily of Bucks county. Edward and Clement 

 Doyle, the sons of Edward and Rebecca, 

 both settled near Doylestown ; Edward on 

 the present site of the borough and county 

 seat, and Clement a mile north of the pres- 

 ent borough, and both reared families whose 

 descendants are now widely scattered over 

 the United States, none of the name re- 

 siding in th<j county where their ancestor 

 was one of the earliest settlers, though one 

 branch of the descendants of Edward re- 

 cently resided just over our borders in 

 Montgomery county, and others reside in 



Philadelphia, the late James B. Doyle, the 

 architect and builder of our court house in 

 1877, being a descendant of the founder 

 of Doylestown. Edward Doyle, second, pur- 

 chased a tract of land fronting on our pres- 

 ent Court street, Doylestown, Bucks coun- 

 ty, then the line of New Britain and War- 

 wick township, in 1730, and resided there 

 until his death in 1770. He was a farmer,, 

 but does not seem to have been a success- 

 ful agriculturist. His estate was sold by-- 

 the shcrifT and purchased by his son, Will- 

 iam Doyle, for whom the town was named^ 

 He had sons, William, Edward, and Jere- 

 miah, and daughters Rebecca, wife of Rich- 

 ard Freeman, and another who married a 

 Rees. 



William Doyle, son and grandson of Ed- 

 ward Doyle, was born in Bucks county- 

 about the year 1720. In 1745 he petitioned 

 the court for recommendation to the gov- 

 ernor for a license to keep a "house of en- 

 tertainment" in New Britain township, near, 

 the crossing of the two great roads across-' 

 the county, at the present site of Doyles- 

 town, and his petition was granted and a 

 license issued. He continued to keep the inn 

 on the New Britain side of the line until 

 1752, when he purchased two acres cov- 

 ering the present site of the Fountain 

 House then in Warwick township, and the 

 following year was licensed to keep his inn 

 at that place and regularly conducted the 

 old hostelry there from which the town 

 took its name vmtil 1775, when he sold it 

 and removed to Plumstead township, and 

 is supposed to have followed some of his 

 children outside of the county soon after; 

 a theory that seems to be borne out by the 

 fact that there is no further record of hinr 

 in Bucks county after about 1785, and no 

 probate record of the settlement of his es- 

 tate in the county of his Tjirth. The little 

 hamlet that grew up about his tavern knowrk 

 first as "Doyle's Tavern," a noted stopping 

 Iplace for travelers in colonial times trav- 

 'eling from the Delaware to the Welsh set- 

 tlements in Montgomery county and from^ 

 Philadelphia to the "Forks of the Dela- 

 ware," now Easton, came in the beginning 

 of the revolutionary war to be known as- 

 "Doyle Town," and being the geographical 

 center of the county became the county 

 seat in 1812. William Doyle married first 

 about 1742, Martha Hellings. probably his- 

 second cousin, as Elizabeth Dungan, a sis- 

 ter of his grandmother, married Nicholas- 

 Hellings. She was at least a daughter of 

 Nicholas Hellings of Newtown, and is men- 

 tioned in his will in 1745. William Doyle 

 married (second) about 1775 Olive Hough^ 

 widow of John Hough and daughter of 

 Hezekiah Rogers of Plumstead township, 

 Bucks county. No authentic list of the chil- 

 dren of William and Martha (Hellings) 

 Hough is obtainable, as they seem to have 

 left the place of their nativity on reaching 

 manhood and womanhood. Two at least of 

 his sons, Samuel and William, found homes- 

 in Northumberland county soon after the 

 close of the revolutionarv war. Williant 



