History of Bucks County, Pa Volume 3 by William H. Davis
Names and Page # Index

The Parsons family of Falls township, Bucks county, Pennsylvania, is descended from Isaac Parsons, born November 12, 1748, in Pennsylvania, and supposed to be the son of Abraham and Johanna Parsons, of Lower Dublin, Philadelphia county, and mentioned in the will of the latter in 1779. He settled in Penns Manor, Bucks county, prior to the revolutionary war and later sold his Manor farm and purchased one in the upper part of Falls township between Morrisville and Fallsington. He was a member of St. James Episcopal Church of Bristol, Bucks county, and is buried in the old graveyard connected with that church beside his second wife, Elizabeth. His tombstone records the fact that he was born November 12, 1748, and died September 26, 1818. His first wife was a Stillwell and his second Elizabeth Brodnax, born May 20, 1755, died June 15, 1827. His children by his two wives were: Abraham, who died at about the same time as his father in Falls township; Rachel, born June 3, 1773, died December 22, 1831, married Israel Bailey; Mary, died November 26, 1871, married John Martin; John; Amos; Sarah, who married Lemuel Crozer; and Isaac. The last two were children of the second marriage. Elizabeth (Brodnax) Parsons is supposed to have been a daughter of Robert Brodnax, an early settler in Bensalem township. The land purchased by Isaac Parsons in Upper Falls about 1790 is still occupied by his grandson, Alfred M. Parsons.

Isaac Parsons, son of Isaac and Elizabeth (Brodnax) Parsons, was born in Falls township, July 3, 1794, and died there August 21, 1851. He inherited the homestead of his father and lived there the greater part of his life, but was for a time engaged in mercantile pursuits. He married, April 5, 1821, Lydia Ann Anderson, born in New Jersey, July 18, 1801, died July 19, 1901, one day over one hundred years old. She belonged to one of the oldest families in New Jersey, whose pioneer ancestor is supposed to be Alexander Anderson, who came from East Lothian, Scotland, and settled in Monmouth county, New Jersey, about 1674, but her first known ancestor of whom we have any authentic record was Enoch Anderson, who was one of the early settlers on the site of Trenton, and one of the founders of the First Presbyterian Church of that city. He took an active part in the affairs of the colony and held a number of positions of trust. He died in 1741, leaving children: John; Enoch, born 1697, died 1756; Eliakim; Jeremiah; Joshua; Catharine; Sarah; Rachel; Elizabeth and Mary. His son Eliakim became a large landowner in Hopewell township, now Mercer county, and died there in 1782, at a very advanced age. He married Rebecca Ely, daughter of George and Jane (Pettit) Ely, and had children: Rebecca, Catherine, Sarah, Ely and George. Of these Sarah married her first cousin, Josiah Anderson, son of Jeremiah Anderson, above mentioned, and had children: Elizabeth, wife of Joseph Skirm; George; Joseph; Joshua; Achsah; Samuel; Catharine; Dagworthy; Rebecca. Joseph Anderson, son of Josiah and Sarah, married Sarah Norton, daughter of Joshua Norton, of New Jersey, and lived for a time in Bucks county, where his daughter, Lydia Ann, married Isaac Parsons, Jr. The children of Isaac and Lydia Ann (Anderson) Parsons were: 1. Elwood, born April 5, 1822, died October 13, 1891; married, March 26, 1851, Mercy Ann Taylor, of Morrisville, and had children: Anna C., Mary T., Lydia A. and Ella. He was a farmer in Falls, later near Bordentown, New Jersey, and for several years engaged in the lumber business with his brothers Joseph C. and David Taylor at Morrisville. He was one of the prominent business men of that community, a director of First National Bank of Trenton, the Bucks County Contributionship and the Trenton Bridge Company. 2. Charles A., born June 30, 1831, a more particular account of whom is given below. 3. Alfred M., born February 25, 1834, still living on the old homestead in Falls; married in 1856, Josephine Harman and has children: Edward B., Caroline, Anna H., and Gertrude. 4. Sarah A., married Joseph Robbins. 5. Mary A., married William S. Mull. 6. Elizabeth. 7. Emma, married James Newbold. 8. Rose P., widow of John E. Case.

Charles A. Parsons, son of Isaac and Lydia Ann (Anderson) Parsons, born in Falls township, Bucks county, Pennsylvania, June 30, 1831, was reared in that township and acquired his education in Samuel Aaron’s Academy at Norristown, Montgomery county, and at the Bellevue Academy, at Langhorne, Bucks county. He was a successful farmer and a fine type of American citizenship, taking a lively interest in the affairs of his township, county, state and nation, but neither seeking nor holding public office. He died January 9, 1885, in his fifty-fourth year. He married Mary Buckman, daughter of Spencer W. and Sarah Ann (Williamson) Buckman, of Falls township, an account of whose ancestry is given later in this narrative, and they were the parents of the following named children: Lucy, married Elwood Tyson, and resides in Chester, Delaware county, Pennsylvania. Alice, married Charles E. Hayes, and resides in Penn Valley, Pennsylvania. Sarah B., married M. Harvey Ivins, and resides in Langhorne, Pennsylvania. Mary, married Henry Palmer, and resides in Langhorne, Pennsylvania. Elizabeth, married W. Coates Foresman, and resides in Chicago, Illinois. Margaret, married Edmund D. Cook, and resides in Trenton, New Jersey. Charles A., married Elsie Fox, and resides in Morris Heights, Bucks county, Pennsylvania.

Text taken from page 400

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

Transcribed November  2002 as part of the Bucks Co., Pa., Early Family Project, www.rootsweb.com/~pabucks/bucksindex.html