JAMES B. CANDY

Kindly submitted by Joan Lollis,

 JAMES B. CANDY.  The family of CANDY in England are of French extraction, whose progenitor was Jean de CONDE, younger son of Louis de BOURBON, the first Prince of CONDE, and the founder of the family who took their name from the town of Conde, near the borders of Belgium, and the home of the royal family of Bourbon and Navarre.  He was the friend and pupil of Gaspard COLIGNY, the famous Admiral of France, and like him espoused the cause and religion of the Huguenots and became their leader in 1554.  Condemned to death by Francis II. he escaped through the sudden demise of that prince, and at the reopening of hostilities between the Catholic and Protestant factions in 1562 he became again  the recognized leader of the Huguenots, and opened negotiations with Queen Elizabeth, under whose protection he placed his family.  He was killed at the battle of Jarnac, December 15, 1569.  His eldest son Henry, second Prince of Conde, returned to France, and his descendants were prominent in the internecine struggles at the court of that kingdom for several generations.  From the younger son of Louis the English family is descended.  A grandson emigrated to the New England colony in 1639 and settled in Boston, from whence he removed to Windsor in 1650.  Another descendant, John CONDEE, with his nephew, Alexander CONDEE, emigrated to Maryland and settled in Prince George county.  In HANSON’S “Old Kent” is this record; “Alexander CONDEE, baptized ye 22d day of Aprill (sic) 1693.”  Through their residence among the English the ending of the name became changed.  On a tombstone in an old cemetery at New Haven, Connecticut, is found this inscription; “Rebecca CANBE, wife of Zachariah CANBE, died September 22, 1739, aged 91 years.”  The family has been prominent in England for many generations, some of its members holding high governmental and social positions.  In the “Armorielle Universelle” is recorded their coat-of-arms, charged with three fleur-de-lis and a star.

            Thomas Davy CANDY, father of James Bentley CANDY, of Langhorne, Bucks county, Pennsylvania, and a lineal descendant of Jean de CONDE, emigrated with his parents from Manchester, England, at the age of two years.  The family settled at Poughkeepsie, New York, where Thomas Davy CANDY was reared and educated and acquired proficiency as a mechanical engineer.  He later located at Paterson, New Jersey, where he married Ann BENTLEY.   She was a native of England, and had come to America with her parents at the age on one and a half years.  Her family had located for a time at Ellicott’s Mills, Maryland, and removed from there to Lancaster, Pennsylvania, where the parents died, after which the family moved to Paterson, New Jersey.  Thomas D. CANDY removed with his wife to Philadelphia soon after their marriage, and followed the trade of a mechanical engineer in that city for many years.  He was the father of two sons, James Bentley and John Bentley CANDY. 

            JAMES BENTLEY CANDY was born in the city of Philadelphia, June 7, 1836. He began his education at the private school of EDWARDS & PARTON, at the southwest corner of Penn Square and Market street, and later attended the Morris public school and the high school, graduating from the latter in 1852.  He inherited from his father a mechanical turn of mind and much of his leisure time as a boy was spent in the neighboring machine shop of Mr. HARRISON.  On leaving school he entered the employ of James E. CALDWELL & Co. to Learn the jewelry business, but later chose the calling of dentistry and took up his studies under the tutelage of John De Haven WHITE, M. D., D. D. S., Professor of Anatomy and Physiology in the Pennsylvania College of Dental Surgery.  Mr. CANDY was a student at this college and was an assistant in the clinical department at the age of nineteen years.  He graduated at the age of twenty-one, and practiced his profession in the villages of Yardley, Dolington, and Attleboro, now Langhorne, Bucks county, Pennsylvania.  He then entered the employ of his preceptor, and subsequently opened a dental laboratory at 108 South Eighth street, Philadelphia.  He was also in the employ of what is now the S. S. White Dental Manufacturing Company in the manufacture of artificial teeth, in sections; these were then entirely handmade, and were mounted upon gold or silver plates.

            At the outbreak of the civil war Dr. CANDY, having been a member of the Artillery Corps of the Washington Greys for nearly five years, was well skilled in the manual of arms, and was called upon to spend several months in the drilling of squads of recruits for the front.  He was Lieutenant commanding, of Company B, Grey Reserves, Captain William H. KERN, and at one time gave an exhibition drill and company movements in Musical Fund Hall, and was subsequently presented with a sword for his proficiency in the art of war.

            Returning to the practice of his profession, he located at 248 North Eleventh street, where he practiced until April 1, 1863, when, owing to the illness of his wife, he removed for her benefit to Attleboro (now Langhorne), Bucks county, where he has since resided, and has achieved distinction and succes (sic) in his chosen profession.

            Dr, CANDY is a man of strong individuality, has always been a close student, and is independent and fearless in the advocacy of what he believes to be right.  In the matter of the incorporation of the village of Attleboro into a borough he was one of the most earnest advocates of the change, and took an active part in the establishment of grades and building and fence lines, though these measures met with strong opposition by some of the property owners of the borough.  He has always been a strong advocate of the Democratic party and its principles.  In 1883 he was appointed a notary public, and filled that position with satisfaction to the public, until he was appointed by President CLEVELAND, postmaster of Langhorne, which latter office he held until the change in the administration.  He is a past master of Bristol Lodge, No. 25, F. and A. M.

            On March 15, 1855, Doctor CANDY was married to Jennie MOSER, of Philadelphia, daughter of Henry and Catharine (EVERETT) MOSER, and of English and German descent.  Her grandfather, Henry MOSER, was a soldier in the revolutionary war under General Anthony WAYNE, and his brother, Burkhardt MOSER, furnished financial and material aid for the prosecution of the war of independence.  Dr. James B. and Jennie (MOSER) CANDY were the parents of six children; Kate Adele; Anna Bentley; Thomas Davy; James Bentley, Jr.; Pierson Mitchell; and Laura Hudson. Kate Adele died in her fifth year of diphtheria.  Anna Bentley married Wilmer Stevens BLACK (an account of whose ancestry appears in this work) and they are the parents of two children; Edith Holbrook and Cyrille Kershaw.  James Bentley CANDY, Jr., married Harriet L. HEADLEY, daughter of John Burton HEADLEY, of Winchester, Virginia, and they have one child, James Bentley (3), born September 22, 1904.  Dr. CANDY’S sons have been established by him in the business of Florists and landscape gardeners at Langhorne, in which they are successfully engaged and give employment to a number of hands.  The Doctor is still hale and hearty, and gives promise of many years of usefulness.

Text taken from page 528 to 529 of: 

Davis, William W. H., A.M., History of Bucks County, Pennsylvania [New York-Chicago: The Lewis Publishing Company, 1905] Volume III

Transcribed September 2005 by Joan Lollis as part of the Bucks Co., Pa., Early Family Project, www.rootsweb.com/~pabucks/bucksindex.html

Published September 2005 on the Bucks County, Pa., USGenWeb pages at www.rootsweb.com/~pabucks/