486 



HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY. 



JOHN M. STAPLER, for over forty 

 years one of the prominent merchants 

 of Newtown, Bucks county, was born 

 in Buckingham township. Bucks county, 

 Pennsylvania 5 mo. 6, 1828, and is a son 

 of John and Susanna (Betts) Stapler, 

 both of whom were of English Quaker 

 parentage, whose ancestors were among 

 the earliest settlers in Penn's colony. 



Stephen Stapler, the first paternal an- 

 cestor of the subject of this sketch of 

 whom we have any definite knowledge, 

 was a resident of Philadelphia, where he 

 purchased a lot at the corner of Front 

 and High (now Market) streets, in 1701. 

 He was a butcher by trade, and a mem- 

 ber of the Society of Friends. He be- 

 came a considerable landowner in Phil- 

 adelphia, but the date of his birth or 

 death have not been ascertained. He 

 was probably a native of Surrey. Eng- 

 land, as he and John Sotcher, Penn's 

 steward at Pennsbury, were made joint 

 executors of the will of a resident of 

 Surrey, executed when the testator was 

 about to start for America. The chil- 

 dren of Stephen Stapler so far as known 

 were: Martha, who married Richard 

 Radclifife, of Bucks county, at Falls 

 Meeting, 8 mo. 31, 1709; William, who 

 married a widow Catharine Clifton, and 

 died in Philadelphia in 1730. leaving chil- 

 dren, Stephen, William and Joseph; and 

 John Stapler. 



John Stapler, son of Stephen, was a 

 member of Abington Friends' Meeting 

 in 1719, when he obtained a certificate 

 to Falls Meeting to marry Esther Canby, 

 daughter of Thomas and Sarah (Jarvis) 

 Canby, who was born in 2 mo., 1700. Her 

 father, Thomas Canby, was a son of 

 Benjamin Canby, of Thorn. Yorkshire, 

 and was one of the most prominent men 

 of Bucks county during a long life; he 

 was a preacher among Friends, a justice 

 of the county courts, and for many years 

 a member of the colonial assembly. He 

 was for many years a resident of Buck- 

 ingham, and removed to Solebury a few 

 years prior to his death in 1749. He was 

 thrice married, and left nineteen chil- 

 dren, who intermarried with many of 

 the old families of Bucks and have left 

 numerous descendants. John and Esther 

 (Canby) Stapler settled in Bensalem 

 township, where the latter died in 1734. 

 Their children were four in number, as 

 follows: I. John, born 3 mo. 27, 1721, 

 married 10 mo. 22. 1745. Rachel West. 

 2. Thomas, born ti mo. 18. 1723-4. see 

 forward. 3. Stephen, born 10 mo. 24. 1725, 

 married 2 mo. 21, 1748, Mary Gififin. 4. 

 Sarah, born 11 mo. 7, 1727. 



Thomas Stapler, second son of John 

 and Esther (Canby) Stapler, was born, 

 according to our present calendar, on 

 the last day of February, 1724. He was 

 reared in Middletown township, in the 

 family of his stepfather. John White, 

 whom his mother married 8 mo. t6, 1735. 

 His mother died 12 mo. 5, 1777. Her chil- 



dren by the second marriage were Lydia 

 and Mary White. 



Thomas Stapler was apprenticed early 

 in life to the blacksmith trade, and fol- 

 lowed that vocation for several years in 

 Middletown township. About 1760 he 

 removed to Bensalem township, where- 

 he resided until 1800. when he retnoved 

 to Lower Makefield township, and pur- 

 chased over two hundred acres of land^ 

 upon which he resided until his death in 

 March, 1810. He was a prominent mem- 

 ber of the Society of Friends, and a trus- 

 tee for many years of a fund devised by 

 John Harker to Bristol and Byberry 

 Meetings. He married, 10 mo. 18, i75©> 

 Rachel Atkinson, daughter of William 

 and Margaret (Baker) Atkinson, of Bris- 

 tol, Bucks county, and a granddaughter 

 of Henry Baker by his second wife^ 

 Mary Radcliffe. Henry Baker, the ma- 

 ternal grandfather of Rachel (Atkinson) 

 Stapler, came to Bucks county from. 

 Darby, Lancashire, England, in 1684, 

 with wife Margaret, and seven children 

 — two sons. Samuel and Nathan; and five 

 daughters: Rachel, who married Job 

 Bunting; Sarah, who married (first) 

 Stephen Wilson and (second) Isaac 

 Milnor; Phebe. who married (first) Ed- 

 ward Radcliffe, and (second) William 

 Stockdale; and Esther, who married 

 Thomas Yardley. Henry Baker was. 

 one of the most prominent men of Bucks 

 county in his day. He was an active 

 member of the Society of Friends, and 

 the early meetings of the society were 

 held at his house prior to the erection of 

 Falls Meeting House. He was one of 

 the committee to lay out Bucks county 

 into townships in 1690; was one of the 

 early justices of the courts of the 

 county, and a member of the colonial as- 

 sembly from 1685 to 1698. His second 

 wife, Mary Radclifife, whom he married 

 8 mo.. 13, 1692, was the widow of James 

 Radcliffe, whom she accompanied to 

 America, from Chapel Hill, Rosendale, 

 Lancashire, in 1685; it was their son 

 Richard who married Martha Stapler in 

 1709, and their son Edward married 

 Phebe Baker, as above shown. James 

 Radcliffe was a noted minister among: 

 Friends, and died in 1690. Mary died in 



1715- 



William Atkinson, the father of 

 Rachel Stapler was a son of Thomas and 

 Jane (Bond) Atkinson, both ministers 

 among Friends, who were married at 

 Knares borough Meeting, in Yorkshire, 

 in 1678. and some years later migrated' 

 to Pennsylvania with their three sons, 

 Isaac. W^illiam and Samuel, and settled 

 in Bucks county. 



William Atkinson, second son of 

 Thomas and Jane, and the father of 

 Rachel Stapler, was born in Lancashire, 

 and died in Bristol in 1749. He was twice 

 married, his first wife being a daughter 

 of Richard and Margery Hough. He was 

 a member of the Society of Friends, and' 



