458 



HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY. 



Brooke, Mrs. Stacy B. Lloyd, Caroline iM. 

 Morris, and Effingham B. Morris, Jr. 



PURDY FAMILY. The founder of 

 the branch of the Purdy family of which 

 this narrative treats was John Purdy, 

 who emigrated from county Antrim, 

 Ireland, about 1740, and settled on a 

 farm on Pennypack creek, Moreland 

 township, Montgomery county, Penn- 

 sj-lvania. It is a familj^ tradition that 

 his ancestors were French Hugenots, 

 who to escape persecution left their na- 

 tive land and took refuge in the north 

 of Ireland early in the sixteenth century. 



His education was manifestly far 

 above the average for his day, for he 

 brought with him a library. He was a 

 man of piety and ability, a Covenanter 

 in religion; he was instrumental in get- 

 ting ministers and people of that order 

 to come to America, and he was the first 

 to establish the Covenanters in Penn- 

 sylvania and Maryland. In 1742 he vis- 

 ited Ireland, and on his .return to Amer- 

 ica was accompanied by his brother 

 Thomas, who settled in Juniata county, 

 Pennsylvania. John Purdy became a 

 prosperous farmer and a man of influ- 

 ence. In 1752, while attending an elec- 

 tion in Newtown, Bucks count}', in cros- 

 sing a street, he was killed by being run 

 over by a horse. He married at the 

 First Presbyterian church, Philadelphia. 

 December 3, 1743, Grace Dunlap, who 

 came from county Antrim, Ireland, with 

 her brother John She survived him, 

 with four children: William, born Janu- 

 ary 13, 1745; Mary, born September 29, 

 1747, married John Ramsay, May 14, 

 1765; Martha, born September 29, 1749, 

 married John Hellens; Elizabeth, born 

 March 31, 1753, married Benjamin Scott. 



William (2), only son of John Purdy, 

 obtained a better education than was 

 common at that time. He was bound 

 out to a tailor, and after finishing- his 

 apprenticeship married Mary Roney. 

 Her father, Hercules Roney, was the 

 only child of a surgeon in the army of 

 Queen Anne, who died on the cost of 

 Guinea. Hercules Roney married into 

 the Barnes family. He and his sons 

 John, James, Joseph, Thomas, Robert, 

 Hamilton and William, all served in the 

 revolutionary army. After W^illiam 

 Purdy and his wife had made their home 

 in Moreland his mother came to live with 

 them. She died in 1776, a few days after 

 William had rejoined the Revolutionary 

 army at Amboy, being a member of 

 Captain Hart's Moreland company, at- 

 tached to the fourth battalion of the 

 Philadelphia county niilitia. The chil- 

 dren of William and Mary (Roney) 

 Purdy were: 



I. John, born April 24, 1767; died in 

 1808, at Ovid, New York; he married 



Mary Wheeler, and they had three chil- 

 dren. 



2. William, of whom see forward. 



3. Mary, born January 17, 1772, died 

 June, 1821, at Ovid, New York; married 

 Joseph Yerkes, 1793; had eight children. 



4. Thomas, born December 13, 1774, 

 died April 3, 1864, at Ovid, New York; 

 married December 31, iSoi, Charity Smith; 

 had four children, 



5. Sarah, born October 4, 1777, died 

 June 13, 1850, at Romulus, New York; 

 married in 1801 to John Pinkerton, who 

 died in 1805 ; married in 1817 to Silas 

 Allen; three children. 



6. James, born December 23, 1780, died 

 November 17, 1864, at Plymouth, Michi- 

 gan; married, December 24, 1806, Eliza- 

 beth Hathaway, who died 1840; married 

 (second) Matilda Blauvelt; fourteen 

 children. 



7. Elizabeth, born December 23, 1780^ 

 died in infancy; a twin with James. 



8. Robert, born August 9, 1783, died 

 August 18, 1856, at Northville, Michi- 

 gan; married, December 18, 1810, Han- 

 nah Brockway; nine children. 



9. Joseph, born April 17, 1786, died 

 March 3, 1813, at Canandaigua, New 

 York; unmarried; was a soldier in army, 

 in Captain Dox's company, Colonel 

 Christey's (13th) regiment. 



In July, 1799, all of the family except 

 the son William removed from Penn- 

 sylvania to Seneca county. New York, 

 which was at that time all but a wilder- 

 ness. All prospered fairly well, and 

 twenty-five years later some of them,, m- 

 cludin'g Robert, went to Michigan, 

 where they again felled forests, tilled 

 the land and aided in the upbuilding of 

 society. James and Robert were active 

 in establishing the Presbyterian church 

 in Ovid, New York, and they aided in 

 founding four churches in Michigan. 

 The father, William Purdy, who re- 

 mained in Ovid, died September 13, 

 1825, in his eighty-first year, and his 

 wife died September 2, 1823, in her sev- 

 enty-ninth year, and both are buried in 

 the graveyard originally owned by Rob- 

 ert Dunlap, in Seneca county, Nev7 

 York. 



William (3), second son of William 

 (2) and Mary (Roney) Purdy, was born 

 in Moreland, Montgomery county, Penn- 

 sylvania, June 4, 1769- He obtained a 

 fair education, and by occupation was 

 a farmer. About 1800 he married Mary, 

 daughter of Thomas and Elizabeth Fol- 

 well. of Southampton, Bucks county, 

 whither he removed and where he 

 passed his life. The Folwells were an 

 old and prominent family whose an- 

 cestors are said to have come out of 

 Normandy with William the Conqueror, 

 Thomas's grandfather Nathan came 

 from England and settled in Burling- 

 ton county, New Jersey, in 1680. Thom- 

 as's father William was born in I704» 



