JESSE C. EVERITT, clerk of the orphans’ court of the county of Bucks, was born in Middletown, Bucks county, Pennsylvania, October 24, 1866, and is a son of the late David P. and Hannah M. (Vandegrift) Everitt.

Ezekiel Everitt, the great-great-grandfather of Mr. Everitt, came to Bucks county about the close of the revolutionary war, from Hunterdon county, New Jersey, his ancestor had probably been residents for two or three generations. The first of the name of whom we have any record was Edward Everett, “of St. Saviour’s, Southwark, Surrey, England, Shipper,” who came to New Jersey and purchased on July 23, 1681, a tract of land in Gloucester county, East Jersey, opposite Philadelphia, a part of which he and his wife Mary conveyed to Richard Wall, December 9, 1681. No probate record is found on his estate, and there is no proof that he was the ancestor of the family of Everitt who later settled in Middlesex and Hunterdon counties, New Jersey, and were the direct ancestors of the subject of this sketch. Nicholas Everitt, of Hopewell, Hunterdon county, died in 1723, intestate, and letters of administration were granted on his estate to his widow Phebe. He was probably the father of Benjamin, who died at Maidenhead in 1760; William, of Kingwood; John, of Bethlehem, who died 1756; and possibly also of Ezekiel Everitt, who died in Middlesex county, in 1795. William Everitt purchased land in Hunterdon county in 1753, and died there in 1782, letters of administration being granted to his son Samuel, who died in December, 1783. The similarity of the names of the children of the Everitts above named indicates that they were all of the family.

The first record we have of Ezekiel Everitt, the ancestor of the Bucks county family, is in 1784 when, with Benjamin Doughty, of Hunterdon county, he advertises for information in reference to a span of horses stolen from his late residence in Ulster county, New York. At about this date he came to Bucks county, and was engaged in the milling business on the Neshaminy in Middletown, and in 1789 purchased lots in the present limits of the borough of Langhorne. He later purchased a farm of eighty acres on Core Creek near Jenks’ Mill, and several other tracts of land in Middletown. About 1810 he removed to Tinicum township, Bucks county, where he purchased a farm of ninety-eight acres, but soon after removed to Amwell township, Hunterdon county, New Jersey, where he lived until his death, about May 1, 1829. He was twice married; his first wife and the mother of his children was Mary. About the time of his removal to New Jersey he married a second wife, Abigail, who survived him. His children were: Jacob, Epenetes; Aaron; Moses; William; David; Ezekiel; Rachel, wife of William Tomlinson, of Middletown; Mary Quick, and Elizabeth Bonham; Jacob died in Middletown, in 1832, on land devised to him by his father.

Aaron, the great-grandfather of the subject, was the third son of Ezekiel and Mary Everitt, and was probably a native of New Jersey. In 1809 he purchased of his father, a home in Middletown, and three years later purchased of the heirs of John Van Horn a farm of 93 1/2 acres in Middletown, on which he lived until his death in 1852. In the year 1829 he purchased a farm of seventy-eight acres which, on March 31, 1830, he conveyed to his son Samuel. Aaron Everitt married Mary ______, and their children were: David, who inherited the homestead in Middletown; Samuel; and Rachel, who married Ridgway Longshore.

Samuel Everitt, son of Aaron and Mary, was born in Middletown township, Bucks county. As before stated, he purchased a farm in Middletown of his father in 1830 on which he lived the greater part of his life, dying about 1874. He was a leading man in the community, taking an active part in local affairs. He was at one time engaged in milling at Hulmeville. He married Sarah Bennett, and was the father of five children: Christiana, wife of Jesse Cabe of Middletown; Leila, wife of Joseph Hammer, of Bakersfield, California; Mary, widow of Burtis Magill, of Hulmeville; David P.; and Clara, wife of James M. Boileau, of Bridesburg, Philadelphia.

David Everitt, only son of Samuel and Sarah (Bennett) Everitt, was born on the old homestead in Middletown, November 20, 1839. He was educated at the Bellevue Academy at Langhorne, and on attaining manhood engaged in farming in Middletown for eight years. In 1872 he engaged in the mercantile business at Newportville, Bristol township, Bucks county, which he continued until his death, May 18, 1893, serving as postmaster for four years during Cleveland’s administration. He was a Democrat in politics, and religiously was a member of the Methodist Episcopal church, of which he was a trustee. He was a member of Neshaminy Lodge, No. 422, I. O. O. F., of Hulmeville. He married Hannah M. Vandegrift, daughter of Jonathan and Martha Vandegrift, of Middletown, where she was born, March 17, 1842. She now resides with her son, Jesse C., of Newportville. David P. and Hannah M. (Vandegrift) Everitt were the parents of nine children: Camilla and Samuel, who died young; Jesse C.; Stanley, who died young; Etta, wife of Samuel G. Davis, of Eddington; Edward, who married Nellie Rudolph, and died January 9, 1903; Gertrude S., wife of James J. Dungan, of Bristol; and Nellie D., wife of Joseph Y. Severns of Newportville.

Jesse C. Everitt obtained his early education at the public school at Newportville. At an early age he entered his father’s store as clerk and filled that position for eighteen years. At the death of his father he took charge of the store, which he has since conducted in connection with his mother. He served as assistant postmaster under his father and mother respectively, during the two administrations of President Cleveland. In politics he is a Democrat, and has for several years taken an active interest in the councils of his party. He was elected school director of Bristol township in 1901 and served for three years, filling the position of president of the board. In the fall of 1902 he was elected to the office of clerk of orphans’ court of Bucks county, and has filled that position with eminent ability, meanwhile continuing the mercantile business at Newportville. He is a member of Neshaminy Methodist Episcopal church, of which he is trustee, and has filled the position of superintendent of the Sunday school for a number of years. He is a member of Neshaminy Lodge, No. 422, I. O. O. F., of Hulmeville, and of a lodge of Knights of Pythias at Burlington, New Jersey. He married, June 12, 1890, Lizzie May Hunt, daughter of Lambert S. and Rebecca (McNeil) Hunt. They have no children.

Text taken from page 412

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