History of Bucks
County, Pa Volume 3 by William H. Davis
|
THE HALL FAMILY
THE HALL FAMILY.
The pioneer ancestor of this family was Mathew HALL, who came from Birmingham, England, about
1725, and settled in Buckingham township, Bucks county, Pennsylvania, where he married in
1731 Sarah (SCARBOROUGH) HAWORTH, widow of George HAWORTH, daughter of John and Mary SCARBOROUGH, and granddaughter of John SCARBOROUGH, a coachsmith of St. Sepulchre,
London, England, who came to America in 1682 accompanied by his son John. Sarah was born in Solebury township, Bucks
county, Pennsylvania, 2 mo. 4, 1694, and married George HAWORTH at Falls Meeting, 9 mo. 20, 1710. Mr. HAWORTH,
who died in 1725, purchased 500 acres on the north corner of Buckingham and settled
thereon, and at his demise was seized of 339 acres thereof which descended to his six
children; George, Stephanus, Absalom, James, Mary, who became the wife of John MICHENER; and John.
Of these George and John remained in Bucks county, the former dying in 1749,
and James and Absalom removed
to the Shenandoah valley in Virginia. Mathew HALL settled on the land belonging to the estate
of his wife’s first husband, nearly the whole of which he subsequently purchased of
his step-children. His wife died 3 mo. 4,
1748, and on 7 mo. 13, 1750, he married Rebecca (RHOADS)
MASSEY, widow of Mordecai MASSEY, of Marple, Delaware county, Pennsylvania,
and daughter of Joseph and Abigail RHOADS. On 8 mo. 3, 1752, with a certificate to Haverford
Meeting, he removed with his family to Blockley, Philadelphia, where he purchased a large
tract of land, and in 1756 removed to Marple, Delaware county, and purchased 194 acres of
land there, whereon he died 9 mo. 1766. His
second wife, by whom he had no children, died prior to his death. He was not a member of the Society of Friends on
his arrival in Bucks county, but became a member after his first marriage. He was an overseer of Springfield (Chester
county,) Meeting from 3 mo. 28, 1757, to 3 mo. 23, 1759.
The children of Mathew and Sarah (SCARBOROUGH)
(HAWORTH) HALL were as follow; 1. David, born in
Buckingham, 7 mo. 7, 1732, died in Marple, Delaware county, 1802, He married, 12 mo. 21,
1758, Deborah FELL, daughter of Edward Fell, of Springfield, and had children; Beulah,
who married William BROOMALL; David, who
married Hannah PARNELL; Sarah, who married
Joseph LEVIS; (sic) Edward and Joseph. 2. Mahlon, born in
Buckingham, 11 mo. 12, 1733-34; see forward. 3. Margery, born 1 mo. 23,
1734-35, married, 11 mo. 10, 1753, at Merion Meeting, Arnold WARNER, of Blockley, son of Isaac and Veronica WARNER, of Blockley, and had four daughters, of
whom Gulielma, wife of William WIDDIFIELD,
was for many years an accepted minister of Friends in Philadelphia. 4. Sarah, born 11 mo. 24, 1736-37, married at
Buckingham Meeting. 5 Mo. 12, 1756, John PEARSON, and had children, Enoch, Margaret, Mahlon
and William. The family removed to Bush
River, South Carolina, in 1772, with the exception of Enoch, who removed to Gunpowder,
Maryland, in 1780.
Mahlon HALL, second son of Mathew and
Sarah Hall, born in Buckingham, 11 mo. (January) 12, 1733-34, took a certificate from
Buckingham Meeting to Falls in 1752, and from there to Chester Meeting in 1756. He married at Bristol, Bucks county, 4 mo. 21,
1757, Jane HIGGS, daughter of James and
Elizabeth (ANDREWS) HIGGS, of Bristol. Jane was born 8 mo. 17, 1728, and died 5 mo. 10,
1812. On their marriage they settled on a
tract of land in Blockley township, Philadelphia, devised to him by his father later, much
of which is now within the limits of the park. It
adjoined Belmont, the residence of Judge PETERS,
and Lansdowne, the residence of Governor John PENN,
the last of the colonial governors. Mahlon
HALL related to his granddaughter, Matilda HESTON, that during the revolutionary war a party
of British soldiers visited his home, and the officer in command after some conversation with
Mahlon HALL told him that he was a native of
Birmingham, England, and on learning that the father of Mahlon HALL was also a native of that place gave strict
orders that nothing about the place should be disturbed by the soldiers. Mahlon HALL,
died 7 mo. 26, 1818, and he and his wife are buried at Merion Meeting. Their children, were as follows; 1. John, born at Blockley, 6
mo. 16, 1758, died there 1 mo. 17, 1842, married, 11 mo. 21, 1783, Anna MORRIS, daughter of Edward MORRIS, of Montgomery township, now Montgomery
county, Pennsylvania; she died 6 mo. 17, 1845, aged ninety-one years; they had children;
Martha, who married Nathan DICKINSON, and was
the mother of Mahlon Hall DICKINSON, late
president of the State Board, of Charities, and an eminent Philadelphian; James, George,
John, Morris, Hannah, Sarah and Charles. 2. Mahlon, born 11 mo. 289, 1759, died 4 mo. 7, 1805;
see forward. 3. Sarah, born 4 mo. 16, 1763. Died 8 mo. 18, 1856, married 11 mo. 18, 1784,
Edward Warner HESTON, the founder of
Hestonville, now part of the city of Philadelphia. She
was his second wife, he having previously married Mary GRIFFITH, by whom he had children; Abraham, Isaac,
Bathsheba, Mary, who married Mahlon HALL; Jacob
F. and Thomas W. The children of the second
wife, Sarah HALL, were; Jane, who married
Joseph WORSTALL, of Newtown, Bucks county, in
1808; Rachel, Anna, Matilda, Isaac, Sarah, William Penn and Louisa.
Mahlon HALL, second son of Mahlon and
Jane (HIGGS) HALL, was born in Blockley township, Philadelphia
county, 11 mo. 29, 1759. He married 5 mo. 15,
1791, Mary HESTON, born 3 mo. 26, 1775, died 12
mo. 12, 1858, daughter of Edward Warner and Mary (GRIFFITH)
HESTON, of Blockley, before mentioned. Edward Warner HESTON was born in Bucks county, and was a son of
Jacob and Mary (WARNER) HESTON, of Makefield, and a grandson of Zebulon
and Dorothy HESTON, early settlers in
Wrightstown, Bucks county. He inherited from
his father the lands at what was named Hestonville, in Blockley township, and was the
founder of the village. He was an officer of
the Seventh Battalion, Pennsylvania Militia, during the revolution and saw active service
and was subsequently one of the judges of the court of common pleas of Philadelphia
county. His second wife was a sister of
Mahlon HALL, who married his daughter. On his marriage Mahlon HALL erected a house on what is now Elm avenue,
West Philadelphia, close to Fairmount Park, where he died 4 mo. 7, 1805. He was an active businessman of Philadelphia. His widow married William SANDERS, and had one son, Jacob SANDERS, born 5 mo. 22, 1810. Mahlon and Mary (HESTON) HALL
were the parents of nine children;
Mahlon HALL, second son of Mahlon and
Mary (HESTON) HALL, born at Hestonville, Philadelphia, March 11,
1793, was the father of Mathias H. HALL and the
grandfather of William W. HALL, sketches of
whom follow. He was a blacksmith by trade,
and came to Buckingham, near Pineville, Bucks county, when a young man and followed his
trade there for some years, returning later to Philadelphia where he was a partner with
his brother John in the milk business. Subsequently
he removed again to Bucks county, and in 1836 purchased a farm of fifty acres in
Doylestown township, where his son, Isaac H. HALL,
still lives, and thereon died November 3, 1872. He
married (first) Hannah P. HAMPTON, of
Buckingham, by whom he had five children: Thomas, a prominent businessman of Philadelphia;
John; William; Moses P., for many years a merchant in Buckingham; and Benjamin, the father
of Squire Hall. Mr. HALL married (second) Isabella ROBINSON, daughter of John ROBINSON, who was a soldier in the war of 1812 and
stationed at Marcus Hook, by whom he had twelve children, of whom eleven survived him;
Mary, who never married; Hannah, who married her cousin, Albert P. HALL, son of Edward H. and Jane (Paxson) HALL,
who is a dry goods merchant at West Chester, Pennsylvania; Jane H., who married William SEAL; Martha R., who married George Geil; Edward D.; Isaac H., who lives on the
homestead in Doylestown township; Sarah D., who married J. Gilpin SEAL; Matthias H., a prominent farmer of Upper
Makefield township; Charles Henry; George W., and Emma P. HALL. Isabella
(ROBINSON) HALL, widow of Mahlon HALL, died in Doylestown township, June 29, 1879.
Benjamin HALL, third son of Mahlon and
Hannah P. (HAMPTON) HALL, was born in Bnuckingham, (sic) Bucks county,
Pennsylvania, September 30, 1823, and resides with his son, William W. HALL, at Danboro.
He went to Philadelphia when a boy, and for sometime drove a milk wagon for his
uncle. Returning to Bucks county he clerked
in the store of his brother Thomas at Mechanics Valley until 1850, when in partnership
with his brother, Moses P. HALL, he purchased
the store at Buckingham, which they conducted for four years. On April 1, 1854, he purchased and removed to the
present homestead farm at Danboro where he resided for the following thirteen years. In April, 1867, he purchased a property at
Smith’s Corner in Plumstead township and opened a store, which he conducted for two
years. He then removed to Mechanics Valley,
where he conducted the store for six years, and in 1875 returned to the old homestead,
where he has since resided. Mr. HALL was the pioneer milk shipper to
Philadelphia market from Doylestown. He married Sarah CARLILE, daughter of Benjamin and Elizabeth CARLILE, of Plumstead, who was born on the present
Hall homestead, where her father died January 9, 1833.
Benjamin and Sarah (CARLILE) HALL were the parents of two sons and a
daughter, of whom William W., mentioned hereinafter, alone survives. Test taken from page
147-149 of: Davis, William W. H.,
A.M., History of Bucks County, Pennsylvania [New
York-Chicago: The Lewis Publishing Company,
1905] Volume III Transcribed February 2001
by Joan Lollis of IN. as part of the Bucks
Co., Pa., Early Family Project, Published April 2000 on
the Bucks County, Pa., USGenWeb pages |