^22 



HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY. 



count}^ Pennsylvania, in 1845, ^ daugh- 

 ter of Thomas and Sarah (Parsons) 

 Powell, both descendants of early fami- 

 lies of Delaware county. They were 

 members of the Friends' meeting, and 

 Mr. Powell followed the occupation of 

 farming to provide for his family. His 

 death occurred in Delaware county and 

 his wife, yet surviving him, still makes 

 her home there. His political views ac- 

 corded with the principles of the Repub- 

 lican party, and he was an honored citi- 

 zen 01 his community. In their family 

 were seven children: Anna, wife of L. 

 Hill; Jane, wife of T. S. Worthington; 

 Owen and William, who follow farming; 

 Emily, the wife of G. Dutton; Linton, a 

 farmer; and Hannah, deceased. Mr. and 

 Mrs. Worthington have two sons and 

 two daughters: Amasa, who is farming 

 on the old homestead, was born May 6, 

 1873, and married Grace Jones, a daugh- 

 ter of George Jones, a prominent rail- 

 road man employed as machinist boss, 

 having charge of a gang of men for the 

 Cumberland Valley Railroad. Amasa 

 Worthington has two children — Sarah 

 J. and Helen M. T. Powell Worthing- 

 ton, the second son, died at the age of 

 twenty-three years. Ethel has completed 

 the Normal Teachers' course at West 

 Chester, and is now teaching. Amy S. is 

 now attending the West Chester Normal 

 School. 



BANES FAMILY. The Banes and 

 Beans families of Bucks county are de- 

 scended from the old Yorkshire family 

 of Baines, the main branch of which have 

 resided at Baines Hall, Knowesthorpe, 

 Yorkshire, for over seven hundred years. 

 According to Burke, the founder of the 

 Yorkshire family came from Scotland 

 and located in Yorkshire in 1182, and 

 they as well as the Bayne, Bane, and 

 Bean families, of Scotland, representa- 

 tives of whom have found their way to 

 America at different periods since 1650. 

 claim descent from Donalbain, son of 

 Duncan, King of Scotland, and brother 

 to Malcomb Canmore, with whom and 

 his son he several times contended for 

 the throne of Scotia, and has been im- 

 mortalized by Shakespeare in "Mac- 

 beth." The Yorkshire family of Baines 

 have been knighted at several different 

 periods and has produced many famous 

 men. Sir Edward Baines, M. P., the 

 owner and editor of the Leeds Mercury 

 a century ago, and whose descendants 

 still edit the paper, and his distinguished 

 brother, Hon. Mathew Baines, M. P., 

 were of this family. Among the earliest 

 converts of George Fox in Yorkshire 

 were Joseph and William Baines, of 

 Stangerthwaite. The former, born in 

 1633, became a landholder in Bucks 

 county in T683, and through his daugh- 

 ter Hannah, wife of Daniel Jackson, to 



whom he conveyed five hundred acres of 

 land in Buckingham township in 1699, 

 has descendants in Bucks county at this 

 day. 



The pioneer ancestor of the family of 

 the name of Bucks county was Mathew 

 Baines, of Weyersdale, Lancashire, sup- 

 posed to have been the son of William 

 Baines, the convert above mentioned. 

 Mathew Baines, of Wyersdale, husband- 

 man, was married at Lancaster Monthly 

 of Friends, England, 10 mo. 22, 1672, to 

 Margaret Hatton, daughter of William 

 Hatton, of Bradley, Lancashire, and the 

 records of that meeting show the birth 

 of four of their children: Thomas, born 

 1675; Eleanor, 1677; Timothy, 1678, and 

 William, 5 mo. 14, 1681. In the year 

 1687, Mathew Baines sailed for America 

 with his family, but he and his wife and 

 possibly two of their children died at 

 sea. On the arrival of the vessel in 

 which they sailed at Chester, the two 

 children Eleanor and William were taken 

 in charge by Friends, and the records of 

 the orphans' court held at Chester, i mo. 

 6, 1687, show that Francis Little, prob- 

 ably a fellow passenger, was directed to 

 pay over to John Simcock and Thomas 

 Brasse, trustees, to William and Ellin 

 Baines, the sum of twenty-eight shillings 

 in his hands. The date of the court 

 minute being old style, was probably 

 l\Iarch 6. 1688, as indicated by the fol- 

 lowing letter of Phineas Pemberton, 

 written to John Walker of Lancashire, 

 from which it would seem that Mathew 

 Baines carried a letter to James Harri- 

 son, of Bucks county, one of Penn's 

 commissioners, an'd father-in-law of 

 Phineas Pemberton, called by Logan, 

 the "Father of Bucks County," or that 

 one had been sent to Harrison in his 

 behalf. The letter is as follows: 



"Pennsillvania, fron ye fifalls of Dell- 

 aware, in ye County of Buckes, the 13th 

 day of ye ist Mo., 1688: 



My very deare love to Hen: Coward 

 & his wife, I reed, his letter to father, 

 concerneing Mat : Banes but have not time 

 now to write him how: He died att sea 

 & desired father in Law might have the 

 tuition of his children but father died be- 

 fore the children came in: however I 

 went to see after them, they inclined to 

 stay at Chester County where they 

 landed to wch I was willing p'vided 

 Friends would see after them, els if they 

 would not I told ffriends I would. Ye 

 boy is put out to one Joseph Stidman 

 who is said to be a very honest man. Ye 

 girle is withe John Simcocke & hath 40 

 or 50S. wages per annum. The boy is to 

 be with sd. Stidman until he comes to 

 ye age of 20 yeares wch is ye customary 

 way of putting forth orphans in these 

 partes. My deare love to ffriends att 

 Lancaster Remember me if thou hast 

 opportunity to Judith Hunter and to old 

 Tho: Rawiinson if living." 



"Phinehas Pemberton." 



