HARRY E. MOLLOY, recorder of deeds of the county of Bucks, was born in Wrightstown, August 14, 1856, and is a son of Nicholas E. and Frances Jenks (Stradling) Molloy.

Nicholas E. Molloy, for many years a well known farmer and highly respected citizen of Wrightstown, was born on the Atlantic ocean when his parents were on their way to America from Ireland in 1817. At the age of six, he was taken charge of by David Shipps of Northampton township, and was reared in his family. Soon after arriving at manhood he purchased a farm in Northampton, near Richboro, on which he resided for a number of years, and then sold it and removed to Wrightstown where he resided for two years, and then removed to the old Lacey farm in Buckingham, on the Wrightstown line, the birthplace of General John Lacey, living in the house erected by the Lacey family about 1706, now torn down. He purchased this farm in 1878, but had previously purchased and removed upon an adjoining farm, now occupied by his son Harry F. Molloy, where he died in August, 1880, aged sixty-three years. Mr. Molloy was an industrious and successful man, and was highly respected in the community. For over thirty years he ran a commission wagon to Philadelphia, carrying his own and his neighbors' country produce to the Philadelphia market. He was a member of the I. O. O. F. lodge and encampment. Frances J. Stradling, the mother of the subject of this sketch, was a daughter of Thomas Stradling, and a descendant of Thomas Stradling who married, October 5, 1715, Lydia Doan, daughter of Daniel Doan, who came to Middletown from Massachusetts in 1699. Thomas Stradling settled in Newtown township, where he died in 1761, leaving two sons: Daniel, of Plumstead, and Joseph, who died on the homestead in 1810, without issue, and the children of his second son Thomas who died in Newtown in 1757. Thomas, Jr., the ancestor of Mrs. Molloy, married, December 13, 1744, Elizabeth Fisher, born June 13, 1727, daughter of John and Elizabeth (Scarborough) Fisher, who, after his death, married, December 4, 1759, Joseph Lee. The children of Thomas and Elizabeth (Fisher) Stradling were: Sarah, Elizabeth, John, Thomas, and Daniel, of whom Thomas was the grandfather of Mrs. Molloy. Nicholas E. and Frances J. (Stradling) Molloy were the parents of three children: Harry F., the present recorder of deeds of Bucks county, and popular merchant at Pineville; Anna, wife of W. Harry Rockafellow, of Buckingham; and John B. Molloy, of Wycombe, a sketch of whom appears in this work.

Harry F. Molloy was born and reared in Wrightstown and has always lived in that vicinity. He was educated at the public schools, and continued to reside on his father's farm until 1875, when he became a clerk in the store of Jesse P. Carver, at Pineville, of which he is now proprietor. On Mr. Carver's retirement in 1877 he continued with his successor, Seth Cattell Van Pelt, until 1879 when he went back to the farm. In 1888 he purchased the store at Mozart, Buckingham township, where he conducted the mercantile business for five years. Having purchased the store stand at Pineville, he removed there April 1, 1893, and has since conducted a large and successful business there. In politics Mr. Molloy is a Democrat, and in the fall of 1902 was elected on the Democrat ticket to the office of recorder of deeds. He continued to conduct his store at Pineville, spending a portion of each week in the office in Doylestown, which is mainly conducted by his son J. Carroll, a young man of much promise. Mr. Molloy takes an active interest in local affairs, and is well and favorably known in his native township. He is a member of Doylestown Lodge No. 245, F. and A. M.; Doylestown Chapter No. 270, R. A. M.; of Northern Star Lodge No. 54, I. O. O. F. at Richboro; Newtown Council, K. of P.; and Wycombe Castle No. 125, K. G. E.

He married in 1883 Anna M. Leedom, daughter of John and Sarah (Harrold) Leedom, of Wrightstown. She died October 5, 1902. On the paternal side she was descended from Richard Leedom, an early English settler in Southampton, the ancestor of a numerous and prominent family in Lower Bucks and elsewhere, and on the material side from Samuel Harrold, who came from Ireland in the early part of the eighteenth century and settled in Buckingham, where he became a large landholder and prominent man. He was twice married and reared a large family who have left numerous descendents in Bucks, though few of the name now reside here. The children of Harry F. and Anna M. (Leedom) Molloy are: J. Carroll and William H.

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