462 



HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY. 



have been found to clearly demonstrate 

 that fact. 



James Wallace, the direct ancestor of 

 the subject of this sketch, and who from 

 various indications was likely a son of 

 John also named, was born about the 

 year 1725, and from his first appearance 

 of record in the township of Warwick, 

 Bucks county twenty-live years later, 

 was one of the prominent men of that 

 community, frequently appearing as a 

 member of commissions to lay out roads, 

 as an auditor to settle decedents' es- 

 tates, and in various other positions of 

 public trust. He was commissioned 

 coroner of Bucks county in 1768, and 

 filled that position for five years. He 

 was one of the trustees of Neshaminy 

 Presbyterian church in 1767. From the 

 time when the relations between the col- 

 onies and the mother country became 

 strained, he was one of the foremost pa- 

 triots in Bucks county. He was one of 

 the deputies appointed at the meeting 

 •of the inhabitants of the county at New- 

 town, July 9, 1774, to represent the 

 county in the meeting of provincial 

 deputies held in Carpenter's Hall, Phil- 

 adelphia, July 15, 1774. His name heads 

 the list of the Warwick Associators, or- 

 ganized August 21, 1775. He was one 

 •of the most prominent members of the 

 committee of safety of the county from 

 its organization, a member of its sub- 

 committee of correspondence, and many 

 other important committees. He was 

 again appointed to represent the county 

 in provincial convention. May 8, 1775, 

 and again in June, 1776, in the provin- 

 cial conference at Carpenter's Hall, that 

 resulted in calling the convention that 

 drafted the first constitution of the state, 

 and was a member of the committee to 

 report regulations governing the elec- 

 tion of delegates to the constitutional 

 convention, held on July 15, 1776, and 

 was one of the judges of that election 

 in Bucks. He was appointed in the 

 same year to ascertain the process of 

 making saltpetre, explain it to the in- 

 Tiabitants of the county, and to receive 

 and pay for it when manufactured. In 

 this connection he is spoken of in a let- 

 ter from Judge Henry Wvnkoop to the 

 committee of safety of Philadelphia, as 

 "a gentleman of property, strict hon- 

 esty and firm attachment to the cause." 

 Unon the state constitution going into 

 effect, he was commissioned one of the 

 judges of the civil and criminal courts 

 of Bucks county, March 31, 1777. He 

 was undoubtedly a leading poirit in the 

 Scotch-Trish community at Neshaminy, 

 as well as in the county at large, and en- 

 joyed the confidence of his neighbors 

 and the community, as is evidenced by 

 liis always appearing as their representa- 

 tive in all the stirring events of that 

 eventful period, but his career of use- 

 fnlness was suddenly cut short by his 

 rleath in the autumn of 1777. He mar- 



ried, in 1754, Isabel Miller, daughter of 

 Robert and Margaret (Graham) Miller 

 of Warring:ton, and granddaughter of 

 William Miller, one of the earliest set- 

 tlers of Warwick, and who donated the 

 land upon which the original Neshaminy 

 church was built in 1727. William Miller " 

 was one of the patriarchs of the Scotch- 

 Irish settlement on the Neshaminy. He 

 died February 27, 1758, at the age of 

 eighty-seven years, and his wife Isabel 

 died December 26, 1757, at about thf 

 same age. They were the parents of six 

 children: William, who married a Jam- 

 ison: Robert, surnamed Hugh (single); 

 Isabel, the wife of Andrew Long; Mar- 

 garet, wife of John Earle; and Mary, 

 wife of James Curry. 



Robert, second son of William and 

 Isabel Miller, was a large land owner in 

 Warrington, and died before his father, 

 and his wife Margaret Graham also died 

 while their children were yet minors. 

 They were the parents of four children: 

 William, Hugh, Robert and Isabel, who 

 married James Wallace above men- 

 tioned. James and Isabel (Miller) Wal- 

 lace were the parents of six children: 

 John and William, who both died un- 

 married: Jean, married John Carr, and 

 died February 8, 1844, at the age of 

 eighty-nine years: Margaret, married 

 Samuel Polk; Robert, married Mary 

 Long, and Isabel who died unmarried. 

 Isabel (Miller) Wallace survived her 

 husband many years, living to an ad- 

 vanced age. Her husband had purchased 

 in 1763 a large portion of the homestead 

 tract of_ William Miller. Sr., adjoining 

 Neshaminy church, where she resided 

 with her sons Robert and William as 

 late as 1810. 



Robert Wallace, third son of James 

 and Isabel, was born in Warwick, and 

 spent his whole life there, dying in 1850. 

 The Wallace farm, where he was born 

 and lived for so many years, was the 

 site of the .encampment of General 

 Washington's army during his two 

 weeks stay at Neshaminy in the summer 

 of 1777. Tradition relates that Robert 

 and' his sister carried some choice pears 

 to the General's headquarters and pre- 

 sented them to him. Robert was cap- 

 tain of a company of militia during the 

 Whiskey insurrection and was out again 

 in i8t2. He married, November 23. 

 1792. his cousin. Mar}- Long, daughter of 

 Hugh and Mary (Corbit) Long, of War- 

 wick, and granddaughter of Andrew and 

 Isabel (Miller) Long. Hugh Long was 

 first lieutenant of Captain William 

 Hart's company in the Bucks county 

 battalion of the Flying Camp, under 

 Colonel Joseph Hart, in 1776. and died 

 of camp fever during service in 1778. He 

 had married Mary Corbet. October 31. 

 i76t. and they were the parents of seven 

 children, three sons and four daughters. 

 Robert and Marv (Lone:'* Wallace were 

 the parents of eight children, viz.: Pris- 



