1880.] 11'' [Hartshorne. 



Gloucester counties ; Woodstown and Woodbury being, 

 in all probability, named after them. 



Farther back, in Gloucester, England, traces have 

 been found of the family annals, through the Woods 

 of Brockrup in the i6th, and of Gobril in the 15th 

 century, to a still earlier period, when their predeces- 

 sors inhabited for many successive years the ancient 

 Court-House of Gloucester; now, long since, con- 

 verted into a farm. Late in Dr. Wood's life, he was 

 informed of the decease of a very wealthy banker, 

 named James Wood, in Gloucester, England, without 

 direct heirs. Legal gentlemen called upon Dr. Wood, 

 proposing to dispute this banker's will, in his favor, as 

 a collateral heir; the property having been left to an 

 alderman named Wood, in London. While declininof 

 this proposition. Dr. Wood remarked upon it as 

 follows: "Had the existence of such relations been 

 known to Mr. Wood, and especially had accident 

 brought us into close intimacy or association, it is not 

 improbable that he might have preferred persons of 

 his own blood as the heirs of his fortune, to one whose 

 only claim upon him was the name of Wood, and a 

 few flattering attentions." 



Two sons of James Wood of Philadelphia, above 

 mentioned, early in the i8th century left this city to 

 settle in Southern New Jersey; probably under the 

 auspices of Thomas Chalkley, a prominent member 

 and preacher of the Society of Friends ; who contem- 

 plated founding, upon the banks of the Cohansey river, 



