450 



BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICES. 



malt-house on his premises, he probably 

 carried on the business of malting also. 

 He was a Friend, but took no very 

 active part in the meetings of that So- 

 ciety. He was a Justice of the Court, 

 was a member of Council from 1687 

 to 1600, and also represented Chester 

 County in the Provincial Assembly one 

 year. His death occurred in 1694. 

 By his will, dated the same year, he 

 gives all his property to his three chil- 

 dren, John, William, and Hester, who 

 were all minors; and in the event of 

 their death, his brother Richard of 

 Bristol, England, was to be his heir. 

 He, with Caleb Pusey, was appointed to 

 superintend the building of the first 

 meeting-house at Chester, towards the 

 finishing of which he bequeathed £6. 

 He owned three negroes at the time 

 of his decease. John Salkeld subse- 

 quently became the owner of and occu- 

 pied the Bristow estate. John Bristow 

 migrated from Bristol in England or 

 from the neighborhood of that city. 



Brooke, William, one of the active 

 participants and a Captain in the Revo- 

 lutionary war, was born in Limeric, 

 Montgomery County, about the year 

 1750. He was very active in the mili- 

 tary operations in the neighborhood 

 while the British army was in Phila- 

 delphia and its neighborhood. One of 

 his daring exploits is detailed in the 

 general narrative contained in this 

 volume. He resided in Haverford 

 township, and while in service his 

 dwelling was plundered of nearly every 

 article of food and furniture, so that 

 his wife with two young children was 

 obliged to turn out in the snow and 

 seek a shelter elsewhere. 



Brown, James, with his wife Hannah, 

 •was among the earliest English set- 

 tlers within our limits, having fixed 

 their rsidence in Marcus Hook, before 

 William Penn obtained his grant from 

 King Charles. Their son, James, was 

 born at that place on the 17th of the 

 first mo. (March) 1681. In 1684 he 

 purchased part of Walter Martin's 

 '•house and settlement" called Middle- 

 town in Chichester on Naaman's Creek, 

 where he subsequently resided. He 

 was II member of the Society of Friends, 

 but was not very zealous. His name 

 occurs on the list of jurors, summoned 

 to attend the first two courts under the 



Proprietary government. In 1688, he 

 conveyed tivo acres of land to Friends, 

 for the use of the Society, upon which 

 Chichester meeting-house was subse- 

 quently erected. 



Brown, William, born in North- 

 ampton County, England, in 1656, was 

 convinced of the truth of Friend's 

 doctrines by the preaching of Wm. 

 Dewsbury. It is probable he arrived 

 about the same time as the Proprietary, 

 and having settled in Chichester, was 

 in 1684 married to Ann Mercer of 

 Chester meeting. After some time he 

 removed to Nottingham, where meet- 

 ings were held at his house till l7o9, 

 when, by order of the Quarterly meet- 

 ing, they were held in the new meeting- 

 house that had been erected there. 

 " He was of a loving disposition, a 

 serviceable member and elder in the 

 church, being a pattern of plainness, 

 and bore the marks of a true Christian." 

 By trade he was a maltster. He died 

 in 1746, in the ninety-first year of his 

 age. 



Brown, John, was a resident and 

 taxable of Marcus Hook or vicinitj- as 

 early as 1677. He served on the first 

 jury empanneled in Pennsylvania, of 

 which there is any record. There is no 

 evidence that he was a Quaker. 



BuFFiNGTON, RiCHARD, was residing 

 in Upland as early as 1677. In 1679 

 he purchased, in conjunction with John 

 Grubb, a tract of land west of Chester 

 Creek, above Chester which they called 

 "Hopewell of Kent." In 1688 Richard 

 Buffington resided in Aston, and served 

 the office of constable for that town- 

 ship. In 1739 at the age of eighty-five, 

 it is said, that he assembled at his own 

 house at Chester, one hundred and fif- 

 teen decendauts, his eldest son then 

 present being aged sixty years. The 

 same tradition mentions this sou as the 

 first born of English parents in Penn- 

 sylvania. The records of Chester 

 Monthly Meeting, testify to an earlier 

 " first born," and the fact that Richard 

 Buffington had removed to Bradford as 

 early as 1708, where he continued to 

 reside, renders it very probable that he 

 had no house at Chester. There is, 

 however, reason to believe that he was 

 married more than once, and that his 

 descendants were very numerous. In 



