BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICES. 



483 



Martin, Walter, was a resident cf 

 Marcus Hook before the arrival of 

 William Penn, in 1682, and was the 

 owner of a large tract of land on Naa- 

 uian's Creek, which had been pur- 

 chased in England. He appears to 

 have been a man of good standing, but 

 somewhat eccentric. It is not certain 

 that he was a member of any religious 

 denomination, but he ajipears to have 

 held in veneration certain church ordi- 

 nances and doctrines that were re- 

 garded by the Quakers as outward 

 ceremonies, or that were wholly re- 

 pudiated by them. This will be seen 

 in his grant or free gift for a burying- 

 place, ^".j mentioned elsewhere. But 

 still it does not appear that he had any 

 unkind feelings towards the Quakers, 

 for in 1684 he married Jane, the dau- 

 ghter of Joseph Bushell, who was a 

 Quaker, and by his will he entrusted the 

 administration of his estate to two 

 Quakers — Nicholas Pyle and Daniel 

 Williamson. He may have resided for 

 a time on his Naaman's Creek pur- 

 chase, but his general place of resi- 

 dence was Marcus Hook. He died in 

 1719, and was buried in the lot re- 

 served out of his "/rt'e ffifl," which 

 now constitutes St. Martin's church- 

 yard. Massive stones that have re- 

 cently been renovated, indicate the 

 exact resting-place of his remains, one 

 of which bears the following quaint 

 inscription : 



" The just man lives in good men's love. 

 And when he dies, he's bless'd above." 



Walter Martin emigrated from West- 

 minster, iu the County of Middlesex, 

 England. At the time of his death it 

 does not appear that he had any male 

 descendant living. 



Martin, John, was one of the early 

 settlers in Middletown. He brought an 

 approved certificate of membership 

 with Friends from England, and in 

 1696 was married, in accordance with 

 the usages of that Society, to Gwen 

 Morgan, of Concord Meeting. He died 

 in 1719. He came from Edgcott, in 

 the County of Berks, and was a pur- 

 chaser of five hundred acres of land be- 

 fore leaving England. 



Massey, Thomas, migrated to this 

 country prior to 1687, and before he 

 was of age. He probably resided within 

 the bounds of Chester Monthly Meeting 



from the time of his arrival In 1692 

 he married Phebe, the daughter of 

 Robert Taylor, of Springfield, and soon 

 afterwards purchased a large tract of 

 land in Marple, where he continued to 

 reside while he lived. He died in 1708, 

 in the forty-fifth year of his age, leaving 

 seven children, viz., Esther, Mordecai, 

 James, Hannah, Thomas, Phebe and 

 Mary. The brick house erected by 

 Thomas Massey is still standing in a 

 good state of preservation. His widow 

 intermarried with Bartholomew Co- 

 pock, Jr , then a widower, in 1710. 

 .Mordecai remained on the mansion 

 tract, but Thomas and James settled 

 iu Willistown. 



Matsox, Nibls, or Nkkls, was an 

 early Swedish settler, who owned 

 and occupied a tract of land imme- 

 diately on the southwest side of Crum 

 Creek, extending to the Delaware, for 

 which Governor Lovelace issued him a 

 patent on the 10th of March, 1770. In 

 1773 he served as an arbitrator by ap- 

 pointment of the (hen Upland Court, in 

 a controversy about land in Kingses- 

 sing. It was Margaret, the wife of this 

 man, who figured as defendant in the 

 only trial for witchcraft that ever oc- 

 curred in Pennsylvania. From the tes- 

 timony in that trial, it may be inferred 

 that this persecuted couple had resided 

 in the country at least twenty years 

 prior to the date of the trial, (1683.) 

 In 1678, Neels Matson convej-ed to 

 James Sandelands, two lots in Upland, 

 for which he had received a patent 

 from Governor Richard Nicolls in 1668. 



McClellan, Joseph, the eldest of 

 eight children of James and Martha 

 McClellan, was born in Middletown 

 township, in 1747. In 1770the family 

 removed to Sadsbury township, Chester 

 County. At the breaking out of the Re- 

 volution Joseph resolved to engage ac- 

 tively in the service of his country. It is 

 said that he was induced to take this 

 step, or at least confirmed in his resolu- 

 tion, by a sermon preached to the young 

 men of his neighborhood by the Rev. Mr. 

 Foster,atOctoraro Presbyterian Church, 

 on their duty to their country, in the 

 trying emergency that was then pre- 

 sented. As Joseph was nearly thirty 

 years of age, and a man of great firm- 

 ness, it may be presumed that he acted 

 on his own deliberate judgment. Im- 



