HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY. 



637 



conclusion any matter of dispute or litiga- 

 tion between contestants who appeared be- 

 fore him. 



Mr. Heacock is now living a retired life, 

 and has gathered around him many warm 

 friends who are deeply interested in the 

 social, economic and municipal questions 

 which elicit his earnest attention and co- 

 operation. Everything that tends to benefit 

 mankind is a matter of concern to him, 

 and especially has he labored for the wel- 

 fare of his home locality and native county. 



MRS. N. D. IRWIN, of Newtown, 

 Pennsylvania, is the wife of Nathaniel D. 

 Irwin, who descends from James Irwin, the 

 first of the family to come from Ireland to 

 America. He settled in Philadelphia, where 

 he engaged in the manufacture of cloth- 

 mg, continuing the same until his death in 

 1891. He had children as follows: i. Mary, 

 wife of Matthew Woodburn; 2. Alexan- 

 der; 3. Nathan D. ; 4. Robert; 5. James 

 A.; 6. Rachel; 7. George. 



Nathan D., the second son, preferred the 

 life of a farmer and settled in Upper Make- 

 field township, Bucks county, Pennsylvania, 

 where he gave his attention to agriculture 

 until his death in 1S72. 



February 14, 1866, he married Sarah J., 

 daughter of James jNIcNair and the grand- 

 daughter of Solomon JMcNair. The family 

 of :\lcNair is of Scotch origin, and be- 

 longed to the gathering of clans of whom 

 the Earls of Lenox were the hereditary 

 chieftains. Their place of gathering was 

 near the head of Loch Lomond. They were 

 pioneers in the establishing of the Presby- 

 terian Kirk of Scotland, and in the latter 

 part of the seventeenth century left tjieir 

 home on the banks of the river Dee and 

 settled in county Donegal, Ireland, from 

 whence in 1732 three of the family, John, 

 Samuel and David, either cousins. or brotn- 

 ers, emigrated to Pennsylvania. John mar- 

 ried Christine Walker, whose parents and 

 brothers had accompanied the INIcNairs to 

 Pennsylvania and settled in Warringtoir 

 township, Bucks county. /After a short 

 stay in Bucks county where his son John 

 was born in 1737, John McNair removed to 

 Craig's, or the "Irish' Settlement," in what 

 is now Northampton county, from whence 

 a number of his descendants in 178S mi- 

 grated to the valley of the Genesee in New 

 York, where their descendants are still 

 quite numerous. David McNair settled in 

 Derry township, now Dauphin county, 

 from whence his descendants moved west- 

 ward and were prominent military and civil 

 officers in western Pennsylvania and fur- 

 ther westward, a grandson being the first 

 sheriff of St. Louis and the first governor 

 of Missouri. 



Samuel ■McNair, the ancestor of the j\Ic- 

 Nairs of Bucks county, was a son of James 

 McNair, a native of Scotland, and was 

 born in county Donegal, Ireland, in 1699. 

 He married there Anna Murdock, and on 

 coming to Pennsylvania in 1732 settled in 



Upper Makefield township, Bucks county, 

 where he died in 1761. He was one of the 

 founders and active supporters of the 

 Newtown Presbyterian church. He set- 

 tled on land belonging to the London Com- 

 pany, which, on the closing out of that com- 

 pany in 1760, was conveyed to his sons 

 James and Samuel. Solomon, another' son, 

 removed to Philadelphia during the Revo- 

 lution and became a prominent merchant 

 there, dying in 1812 at the age of sixty- 

 eight years. Samuel, born September 25, 

 1739, married Mary Mann, March 15, 1765] 

 and was the ancestor of the family in 

 Southampton and Montgomery county. 

 John McNair, a grandson was a member ot 

 congress from Montgomery. Some of the 

 family also intermarried with the Genesee 

 family of AIcNair. 



James McNair, eldest son of Samuel and 

 Anna Ulurdock) McNair, was born in 

 Upper Makefield township, Bucks county,. 

 February 6, 1733, and in 1762 received a 

 deed from the trustees of the London Com- 

 pany, for 189 acres of land land held - by 

 his father under the London com- 

 pany, and settled thereon. He married, 

 xMarch 13, 1766, Martha Keith, daughter 

 of William Keith, who had accompanied 

 his father from Ireland in 1732 and settled 

 in Upper Makefield. James McNair died on 

 the old plantation in Upper Makefield in 

 1807, leaving sons— James, Samuel, Solo- 

 moii and David; and daughters— Ann, Eli- 

 zabeth, JMartha, and Rachel. By will dat- 

 ed August 16, 1805, he devised the home- 

 stead to his sons Solomon and David. Da- 

 vid released his interest to Solomon, who 

 lived all his life thereon, and it descended 

 to his son James M. McNair, and thus re- 

 mained in the tenure of the family for 140 

 years. By a singular coincidence the whole 

 tract upon which Samuel McNair settled 

 in 1732 remained in the tenure of his de- 

 scendants for about the same period. Sam- 

 uel McNair, who had acquired 128 acres 

 of the tract in 1762, conveyed it to James 

 Torbert in 1775, and he in 1792 conveyed 

 it to his son James, who had married Mar- 

 garet McNair, from whom it descended to 

 his son John Keith Torbert. 



Solomon McNair, son of James and Mar- 

 tha (.Keith) McNair, was a prominent man 

 in the community, and held many positions 

 of trust. Like his father, he was a mem- 

 ber and elder of the Presbyterian chuich 

 at Newtown, where many of the family iie 

 buried. He was a member of the Pen isvl- 

 vania assembly for the term of 1822-3. A 

 letter written by him to his brother-in- 

 law, James Torbert, while at Harrisburg, 

 is still in possession of Maria K. Torbert, 

 of Newtown, a daughter of John K. Tor- 

 bert and granddaughter of James Torbert, 

 to whom it was written. Solomon McNair 

 died in February, 1832, leaving sons— 

 James M., William, John and Solomon, 

 and daughters — Eliza, Martha, Mary and 

 Sarah Ann. 



JA^IES M. McNAIR, son of Solomon, 

 was bcrn on the old homestead in Upper 



