5i6 



HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY. 



Ruth (Simpson) EcUs. was the father of 

 the subject of this sketch. He was born 

 January 24, 1824, on the old homestead in 

 Solebury. and spent his whole life there, 

 dying November 28, 1895. He married 

 Emily Walton, daughter of Jonathan and 

 Jane Walton, of Buckingham, where Emily 

 was born February 11, 1835. She died 

 September 11, 1895, two months prior to 

 her husband. They were the parents of 

 four children; Edward, deceased; Anna J., 

 wife of John W. Bradshaw; C. Watson; 

 and Ruth, wife of Edward Livezey. The 

 family were members of the Society of 

 Friends from the time of their arrival in 

 Bucks county. 



C. WATSON BETTS was born on the 

 old homestead in Solebury, and acquired 

 his education at the public schools. At the 

 age of eighteen years he apprenticed him- 

 self to the miller's trade under his uncle 

 J. Simpson Betts, at New Hope, where he 

 has since resided. At the end of three years 

 he took charge of the mill, and continued 

 to manage it for his uncle until the death 

 of the latter, in February, 1900, and for his 

 successor Isaac W. Holcombe, until July 2, 

 1900. On the latter date he was appointed 

 postmaster of New Hope, and, resigning 

 his position in the mill, took charge of the 

 office, which he has since filled. In poli- 

 tics he is a Republican, but has never held 

 other than local elective offices, filling the 

 position of auditor and other local posi- 

 tions in New Hope borough. He is a 

 member of Unity Lodge, No. 300, I. O. O. 

 F., of New Hope; and Lone Star Lodge, 

 No. 16, K. of P., Lambertville, New Jersey. 

 Mr. Betts married November 24. 1888, 

 Emma E. Hough, daughter of John Hough, 

 of Solebury. They are the parents of 

 two children — Alice H., and Emma Francis, 

 who reside at home. 



CHARLES WEST HANCOCK. Among 

 the retired business men who have found 

 congenial homes in Bucks county, though 

 born without her borders, and have become 

 identified with and interested in the affairs 

 of their adopted county and town, is 

 Charles West Hancock, of Langhorne. a 

 native of Philadelphia, where he w-as born 

 June 19, 183s, of distinguished English 

 ancestry. 



John Hancock, the paternal ancestor of 

 the subject of this sketch, was a native 

 of London, England, and came to Fen- 

 wick's colony, Salem county, West New 

 Jersey, by way of Maryland, in the "Willing 

 Mind," arriving in New Jersey 10 mo. 25^, 

 1679, according to an account given by 

 himself and transcribed upon the records 

 of Salem Monthly Meeting of Friends. 

 His father, William Hancock, seems to 

 have preceded him to New Jersey, as one 

 thousand acres were allotted to him on 

 Alloway's Creek, and surveyed in 1676 by 

 Richard Ilancock by order of Fenwick. 

 John Hancock inherited five hundred acres 



of this land on the south side of the creek, 

 while his brother, inheriting the personal 

 estate of his father, settled at Elsinboro. 

 John Hancock built in the year 1708 a 

 bridge over Alloway's Creek that has given 

 the name to the present town of liawrock's 

 Bridge. His son William built in 1734 

 the brick house, now historic as the scene 

 of the massacre of American militia and 

 defenceless noncombatants by the British 

 soldiers under Colonel Mawhood in 1778. 

 William Hancock, then seventy-eight years 

 old, was mortally wounded and died a few 

 days later in the house of his brother-in- 

 law, Joshua Thompson. Both John and 

 William Hancock were prominent in the 

 afifairs of the colony and province, the 

 latter being a member of assembly for 

 upwards of twenty years and a justice of 

 the courts of Salem county for a longer 

 period, holding that position at the time 

 of his death. John Hancock married Mary 

 Champney, daughter of Nathaniel and 

 Elizabeth. She was also a native of Lon- 

 don, and came to New Jersey with her 

 mother in the ship "Henry" in 1681. John 

 and Mary (Champney) Hancock w'ere the 

 parents of ten children: John, William^ 

 Elizabeth, Mary, Sarah, Nathaniel, Edward^ 

 Joseph, Jonathan and Samuel. John Han- 

 cock, Sr., died in the year 1725. 



Samuel Hancock married 4mo. 26, 1727, 

 Rebecca Fogg, and had several children, 

 among them a son Samuel, born 8 mo. 28, 

 1738, who on arriving at manhood married 

 Rachel Bradway. born 11 mo. 17, 1738. 

 Samuel Hancock, son of Samuel and 

 Rachel, born 3 mo. 25, 1772, was the grand- 

 father of the subject of this sketch. He 

 married Hannah Pancoast. 



Joseph Lee Hancock, son of Samuel and. 

 Hannah (Pancoast) Hancock, was bora 

 at Hancock's Bridge. Salem county, New 

 Jersey, I mo. 5, 1806, and died in Phila- 

 delphia 6 mo. 5, 1878. He was a promi- 

 nent and influential man in Philadelphia, 

 serving a term in the state legislature and 

 filling the office of school' director for 

 several j'ears. He moved to Philadelphia 

 at an early age, and pursued various occu- 

 pations. In 1845 he settled in West Phila- 

 delphia and became actively identified with 

 its development and growth. He married 

 in 2 mo., 1832, Susanna Pryor Bacon, born 

 in Philadelphia,. 2 mo. 22, 1810, died there 

 3 mo. ig, 1878. daughter of David and 

 ^Margaret E. (Pryor) Bacon, and grand- 

 daughter of Joseph and Sarah (West) 

 Bacon of Philadelphia. On the paternal 

 side she was a descendant of an early set- 

 tler in Salem county, New Jersey, and on 

 the maternal side from early Quaker set- 

 tlers of Chester county, Pennsylvania, her 

 mother, Margaret Edge Pryor, being a 

 daughter of Thomas W. and Susanna 

 (Edge) Pryor. and granddaughter of Jacob 

 Edge and Margaret Paul, and great- 

 granddaughter of Robert, son of John ap 

 Thomas and Ellen Jones. Anna Bacon, a 

 sister of Mrs. Hancock, married Mitchell 

 Watson, late of Langhorne. Joseph Lee, 



