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

WILLIAM CLAYTON NEWELL

   WILLIAM CLAYTON NEWELL, of Doylestown, Pennsylvania, was born in Philadelphia, October 23, 1856, and is a son of William C. and Susan (BISPHAM) NEWELL.

   William (first) and Martha (MCGEE) NEWELL, the great-grandparents of William C. NEWELL, came from Belfast, Ireland, to Philadelphia in 1780.  He was a wholesale merchant and importer and conducted a large mercantile establishment at Water street, below Market street, Philadelphia, for many years.  He died January 7, 1883, and Martha, his wife, died in 1843 at the age of eighty-four years.  They were the parents of nine children, all of whom were born in Philadelphia: John in 1789; Elizabeth in 1790; William. February 25, 1792; James in 1797; Ann in 1800; Stewart in 1802: Samuel in 1804; Robert in 1808, and Martha, in 1806.

   William NEWELL (second) son of William And Martha (MCGEE) NEWELL, born in Philadelphia, February 25, 1792, succeeded his father in the wholesale business in Philadelphia, and was a large importer of teas and coffees, owning two docks on the river front and doing a large business.  He was a member of the First Troop Philadelphia City Cavalry, 1820 to 1831, and was the bearer of government dispatches to France in 1842.  He married, April 10, 1823, Eliza _____, born in Philadelphia.  October 19, 1795, and died August 2, 1863. and they were the parents of two children, William and Rebecca.

   William C. NEWELL (third) son of William and Eliza, was born in Philadelphia, September 5, 1825, and died there June 27, 1865.  He was reared and educated in Philadelphia, and on arriving at manhood engaged in the wholesale tea business in Philadelphia, and was a large importer of tea from China, to which country he was the bearer of government dispatches in 1846.  He married, June 16, 1852, Susan Bispham DUNLAP, of a prominent family of that city, where she was born in May, 1824.  They were the parents of three children: Susan, wife of Dr. James Hendrie LLOYD, of Philadelphia; William Clayton, the subject of this sketch; and Rebecca W., wife of Grellett COLLINS, of Philadelphia.

   William Clayton NEWELL, son of William C. and Susan (DUNLAP) NEWELL, born in Philadelphia, October 23, 1856, was reared in that city and acquired his education at the Central High School.  At the close of his school days he engaged in the wholesale provision business, in 1877, with which he was connected for several years.  In 1892 he accepted a position with the Provident Life and Trust Co. of Philadelphia, and has since filled a responsible position with that company, having charge of the real estate department.   He is a member of the Pennsylvania Society of the Sons of the Revolution, and of the Society of the War of 1812.  He has been a resident of Doylestown since 1880, and is a vestryman of St. Paul's Protestant Episcopal church of Doylestown.  Mr. NEWELL married, 17 April 1880, Sarah Rex HARVEY, daughter of Dr. George T. and Mary L. REX HARVEY, of Doylestown, who is a descendant of one of the oldest families in Bucks county.

   Mathias HARVYE, the great-great-great-grandfather of Mrs. NEWELL, came from England and settled in Flushing, Long Island, where he was a justice of Kings county, New York, commissioned October 1, 1690.'  On January 1, 1697, he purchased 1050 acres in Upper Makefield, Bucks county, Pennsylvania, and settled thereon.  By his will dated April 5, 1699, his land was devised to his three sons Mathias, Thomas and Benjamin, Mathias, the eldest, getting the dwelling house and four hundred acres, and Thomas and Benjamin each three hundred acres.  All three of the sons reared large families and left numerous descendants in Bucks county.  Mathias married Elizabeth Margerum and died in 1742.  Benjamin died in 1730.  Mathias, the father, was twice married, the three sons above named being by the second marriage, June 2, 1689, to Sarah HARRINGTON.

   Thomas HARVYE, the second son of Mathias and Sarah (HARRINGTON) HARVYE, born at Flushing, Long Island, October 22, 1692, came with his parents to Makefield when a child.  As above stated he inherited from his father three hundred acres of land in Upper Makefield, on which he lived and died, his death occurring in January, 1759.  He married Tamar _________, and had eleven children, five sons: Thomas, who died in 1749; Benjamin, who also died before his father; Joseph, Mathias and William; and six daughters: Hannah, who married John MILNOR in 1741; Ann, who married Edward BAILEY; Elizabeth, married a CORYELL; Mary, married Richard HOLCOMB; Letitia, married Nathaniel ELLICOTT; and Sarah.

   Joseph HARVEY, son of Thomas and Tamar, was born in Upper Makefield, Bucks county, February 8, 1734, and died there February, 1779.  He inherited from his father one-half of the homestead in Makefield, and lived there all his life.  He was twice married, his second wife Margaret, surviving him.  By his first wife, Mary, he had six children: Thomas, Joseph, Letitia, William, Enoch and Joshua.

   Enoch HARVEY, son of Joseph and Mary, was born in Upper Makefield in 1767, and came to Doylestown about 1790, where he followed the trade of a saddler for a few years and was later the proprietor of the inn now known as the Fountain House for a few years.  He was a large landowner and an influential citizen, and took an active part in the improvement of Doylestown as it grew from a cross-road village into a town and borough.  He died July 15, 1831, in his sixty-fifth year.  He married, March 20, 1792, Sarah STEWART, daughter of Charles STEWART, of Doylestown, of Scotch-Irish ancestry, a granddaughter of Captain Charles STEWART, a soldier in both the provincial and revolutionary wars.   Sarah died February 16, 1847, aged seventy-three.  The children of Enoch and Sarah (STEWART) HARVEY, were: Joseph, Charles, Mary, Pleasant, Letitia, Sarah and George T. HARVEY.

   George T. HARVEY, youngest child of Enoch and Sarah (STEWART) HARVEY, was born at Doylestown, February 27, 1813.  He was educated at a school kept at Bridge Point by Samuel AARON, and at the Doylestown Academy.  At the age of twenty years he began the study of medicine with Dr. Abraham STOUT, of Bethlehem, and entering the medical department of the University of Pennsylvania, graduated in 1835.   He then removed to Missouri, where he practiced medicine until 1840, when he returned to Doylestown and erected a drug store on the site of the present Hart building at Court and Main streets, where he kept a drug store for nearly half a century.  He was a prominent and influential citizen, was three times postmaster of the town and several years a member of town council, being a member of that body when water was first introduced into the borough in 1869.  He was second lieutenant of the Doylestown Guards, the first company organized in Bucks county for the civil war, and later served three years and three months as captain of Company E, 104th Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteers.  Dr. HARVEY married (first) June 27, 1842, Mary K. LARUE, of Philadelphia, by whom he had two children, Emma and Edward, the latter judge of the Northampton county courts.  Dr. HARVEY married (second) in 1856, Mary L. REX, of Montgomery county, by whom he had three daughters:  Mary, Sarah, (Mrs. NEWELL) and Emily.

   The children of William Clayton and Sarah (HARVEY) NEWELL are: George Harvey, born June 25, 1881, died July 28, 1881; William Clayton, born September 16, 1883; Edward Harvey, born September 4, 1885; Louis H. F., born November 16, 1887; Mary Louise, born April 4, 1890; and Margaret, born September 10, 1891, died October 5, 1891.

Text taken from pages 157-158 of:

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

Transcribed JANUARY 2001 by GRACE T. BURTON of PA as part of the Bucks Co., Early Family Project, www.rootsweb.com/~pabucks/bucksindex.html