724 



HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY 



vania, wlicrc he graduated in 1865, and 

 where he was engaged as an instructor. 

 He studied medicine with Dr. Charles 

 W. Seary and Dr. Gordon, of Philadel- 

 phia, after a full course in the University oi 

 Pennsylvania. He immediately began the 

 practice of his chosen profession in his na- 

 tive village of Southamptonville. In 

 1872 he removed to Camden, New Jersey, 

 and accepted the position of surgeon to 

 the Camden and Atlantic Railroad Com- 

 pany, .which position he filled until the 

 company was absorbed by the Pennsyl- 

 vania Railroad Company's system. He 

 then took a course in the Jefferson Medi- 

 cal College, and, graduating in 1882, was 

 appointed assistant on the stafif of Pro- 

 fessor William Thompson, of the depart- 

 ment of the eye and ear. He was also 

 assistant under Professor Gross of the 

 surgical department of the Jefferson 

 Medical College. In 1886 he located at 

 his present home, 845 North Broad street, 

 Philadelphia, where he has since prac- 

 ticed medicine and surgery. In 1893 he 

 was appointed special examining sur- 

 geon of the pension department of the 

 United States, and still holds that posi- 

 tion. He is a member of the Medico- 

 Legal Society, Philadelphia County ]Med- 

 ical Society and the American Medical 

 Association: also the National Associa- 

 tion of U. S. Surgeons. He is a mem- 

 ber of Crescent Lodge, No. 493, F. and 

 A. M., and Harmony Chapter No. 52, 

 R. A. M. Dr. Banes has been twice 

 married; his first wife. Carrie, daughter 

 of Frederick and Mary Ellinger of 

 Bucks county, died in 1877. He married 

 for his second wife, in 1887, Eliza S. 

 Nicholson, of Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, 

 daughter of Judge Nicholson, of that 

 city. To the doctor and his wife has 

 been born one child, Elizabeth D. The 

 family are aftiliated with the Broad 

 street Presbyterian church. 



THE TORBERT FAMILY of Bucks 

 county is descended from Samuel Tor- 

 bert, who came to Pennsylvania in 1726. 

 from Carrickfergus. Ireland, and located 

 at Newtown, Bucks county. His family 

 sought refuge in Ireland during the re- 

 ligious persecutions in Scotland and, 

 when the same contest of argument and 

 arms that had wasted Scotland sprang up 

 in Ireland, he joined the many Ulster- 

 Scots who poured into this country after 

 the period of Antrim evictions in Ire- 

 land. He was for some years associated 

 in the tanning business at Newtown with 

 John Harris, Anthony Teate (Tate) and 

 David Lawell, all compatriots of his, 

 and purchased of the London Land Com- 

 pany a tract of land in Upper Makefield 

 townsliip, which he named Sylvan Re- 

 treat, and which remained the property 

 of his descendants until 1873. being 

 owned by his son James Torbert, his 



grandson James Torbert and his great- 

 grandson John Keith Torbert. He mar- 

 ried Elizabeth Lamb in Ireland, and his 

 children were six sons and two daugh- 

 ters: William, James. Lamb, Thomas and 

 Benjamin; Elizabeth, who became the 

 wife of Anthony Teate, a Provincial sol- 

 dier and officer, who was one of the 

 largest landowners about Newtown, and 

 one of the most prominent men of his 

 day; and Jane, wife of John Henderson, 

 who removed to the west. 



James Torbert, son of Samuel and 

 Elizabeth (Lamb) Torbert, was born at 

 Carrickfergus, Ireland. Tradition relates 

 that he did not accompany his parents to 

 America, but remained in Ireland with 

 his grandmother until ten years' of age, 

 and then accompanied relatives to Bucks 

 county. These relatives were probably 

 the Polks of Warwick, Bucks county, 

 as an -old paper filed in the common 

 pleas court of Bucks county in 1752 

 shows that there were busines dealings 

 between his father, then of Carrickfergus, 

 Ireland, and the Polks, in 1725. James 

 Torbert married Hannah Burleigh (or 

 Burley), daughter of Johii Burleigh, an- 

 other Ulster-Scot, who settled in Upper 

 Makefield at about the same date as the 

 McNairs and Torberts, and died there in 

 1748. James Torbert became a consid- 

 erable land owner in Upper Makefield, 

 and died there in 1813. He and his wife 

 Hannah were the parents of nine chil- 

 dren, as follows: i. Samuel, married 

 Elizabeth Keith; 2. James, married Mar- 

 garet McN^ir; 3. Abner, married Jane 

 Gibson, and removed to Ohio; 4. Lamb, 

 born May 9, 1769, and died in Lower 

 Makefield August 23, 1849; his first wife 

 and the mother of his nine children was 

 Jane Slack, daughter of Cornelius, of 

 Makefield. 5. Elizabeth, married Abra- 

 ham Slack. 6. Alice, married James 

 Slack. 7. Ann, married John Hare. 8. 

 Amelia, married Christopher Search. 9. 

 Anthony. 



James Torbert, Jr., son of James and 

 Hannah (Burleigh) Torbert, was born 

 in Upper Makefield, March 14, 1760, and 

 died there. On April 2, 1792, his father 

 convej'ed to him 128 acres of land in 

 Upper Makefield, which had been con- 

 veyed to James, Sr., by the heirs of Will- 

 iam Keith in 1775. He married, Febru- 

 ary 6, 1787, Margaret McNair, born Feb- 

 ruary 8, 1767, daughter of James and 

 Martha (Keith) McNair, and grand- 

 daughter of Samuel McNair, born in 

 Donegal, Ireland, in 1699. of Scottish 

 parents, and came to this country in 

 1732 and settled in Upper Makefield. His 

 son James was born in 1733, and married 

 Martha Keith, daughter of William 

 Keith, who came from the north of Ire- 

 land, presumably with the McNairs, and 

 married Margaret Stockton, of New Cas- 

 tle, by whom he had nine children. None 

 of his descendants in the male line now 

 reside in Bucks. James and Margaret 



