470 



BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICES. 



nent merchant of Philadelphia, who i 



died in 1824. I 



! 



HosKiNS, John, whose name in the I 



earliest records is spelled Hodgskin, i 



with his wife Mary, came from Che- I 



shire, England, to reside in Chester as j 

 early as 1G84. He professed with the 



Quakers, and brought a certificate satis- | 



factory to the Meeting, but he was not 1 



a very strict member. In 1688 he pur- j 



chased a lot from John Simcock, " con- j 



taining in breadth 16 yards fronting ' 

 on Chester Creek and running back 



into Neals Lawsons lands and the lands | 



of Urin Keen on the North, and the j 



lands of Neals Lawson on the South," i 



upon which he erected a dwelling, and | 

 kept a house of entertainment. It does 

 not appear that he had children by his 

 first wife, but she dying, he married 

 Ruth Atkinson in 1698. The children 



by this marriage were John, Stephen, I 



George, Joseph and Mary, He died in | 



1716. John Hoskins was a member of j 

 the first Assembly held in Philadelphia, 

 and was twice Sheriff of Chester 

 County. 



Hoskins, Jane, whose maiden name 

 was Fenn, was a noted preacher in the 

 Society of Friends. She was born in 

 London in 1693, and in her sixteenth 

 year became the subject of a religious 

 impression that it was her duty to visit 

 Pennsylvania. She lost sight of this 

 impression for a time, but it returned 

 stronger than ever, and in her nine- j 

 teenth year she jielded implicit obe- j 

 dience. She accompanied a Welshman 

 named Robert Davis, who emigrated 

 with his family, and arrived in Phila- 

 delphia in 1712. Davis had paid her 

 passage, under a promise of repayment, 

 out of her first earnings in America, 

 Growing uneasy, he insisted that she 

 should bind herself as a servant four 

 years, which being contrary to her 

 agreement with him, she resisted ; 

 whereupon he had recourse to the law, 

 and caused her imprisonment. She 

 was relieved by four Friends of Ply- 

 mouth, who paid Davis, and employed 

 her to teach their children. This was 

 her first acquaintance with the Quakers. 

 In the beginning she attended their 

 meetings rather as a spy, but she soon 

 becaine convinced of th"e truth of their 

 doctrines, and of the propriety of their 

 practices, and after many weighty exer- 



cises united with the Society, and soon 

 afterwards appeared in the ministry. 

 Some time after the expiration of her 

 term with the four Plymouth Friends 

 she removed to Havcrford. One First 

 Day at Haverford Meeting, David Lloyd 

 and his wife, from Chester, came in, 

 and at once the impression came 

 strongly on Janfe that '• these were the 

 people with whom she must go and 

 settle." David and his wife had fixed 

 their eyes on the young woman, and 

 had come to the conclusion that " she 

 was or would be a preacher." They 

 " were tendered" towards her, " and it 

 was fixed in their minds to take her 

 under their care, and nurse her for the 

 Lord's service." She eventually, in 

 1719, became an inmate of David 

 Lloyd's house, and a member of his 

 family. She frequently spoke in meet- 

 ings, and made journeys '' in the ser- 

 vice of truth," to the other provinces, 

 often accompanied bj' Elizabeth Levis, 

 afterwards Shipley. In 1727 she visi- 

 ted Great Britain and Ireland in the 

 same service. In 1738 she was married 

 to Joseph Hoskins, of Chester. Jane 

 Hoskins was a woman of undoubted 

 ability, and her peculiar temperament 

 eminently fitted her for the ministry. 



Howell, William, emigrated from 

 Castle-bigt, Pembrokeshire, Wales, in 

 1682, and settled in Haverford town- 

 ship, probably at first near the meet- 

 ing-house. In 168-1, he was one of a 

 committee to fix the site and lay off 

 the grave-yard attached to Haverford 

 Friends Meeting, of which he was an 

 active and infiuential member; meet- 

 ings being frequently held at his house 

 before the meeting-house was built. 

 His wife Margaret, who had immi- 

 grated with him, died in 1685, and in 

 1688 he was again married to Mary 

 Thomas. 



Hugh, Stephen, was one of the 

 earliest settlers in Springfield, (1683,) 

 but he died before the end of the year, 

 leaving a widow, Frances, who inter- 

 married with Thomas Norbnry, and 

 one daughter, Martha, who intermar- 

 ried with Jonathan Taylor, 



Hugh, David, came -"ver with the 

 early Welsh settlers of Merion, and for 

 a time lived in that township. In 

 1696 he married Martha, the daughter 



