"Mahlon Kirkbride. was son of Joseph Kirkbride, of Bordentown, by his second wife, Sarah, daughter of Mahlon and Rebecca Stacy, of Trenton. Joseph Kirkbride was a son of Mathew and Magdelen Kirkbride, of the parish of Kirkbride, near Carlisle, England." [1]
1703 Mahlon Kirkbride, son of Joseph and Sarah Kirkbride, was born on 3 of month 9 (November). [2] [3]
1704 Mary Sotcher, daughter of John and Mary Sotcher, was born on 15 of month 7 (September). [4] [5]
1724 Mary Sotcher married Mahlon Kirkbride on 12 of month 9. [6] [7] [8] Mary Sotcher was the daughter of John and Mary Sotcher. [9] [10]
1734 Mahlon Kirkbride's plantation in Nottingham was put on sale on July 11. [11]
1739 A plantation in Nottingham was for sale by Mahlon Kirkbride on March 1. [12]
1742-43 Mahlon Kirkbride was taxed in Lower Makefield Twp, Bucks County. [13]
1749 Church Records: Selected Areas of PA, 1600s-1800s Bucks County, Pennsylvania, Falls Monthly Meeting: Men's Minutes Page 471, March 1, 1749/50 - John Lucas, an Elder, being deceased, Mahlon Kirkbride appointed in his stead.
1751 Mahlon Kirkbride (perhaps Mahlon or his son) was elected representative for Bucks County, Pennsylvania on 3 October. Benjamin Franklin was elected Burgess for Philadelphia in the same election. [14]
1753 Mahlon Kirkbride was taxed in Lower Makefield Twp, Bucks County.
1762 Mahlon Kirkbride was named as an uncle in the will of Ann Hutchinson (wife of John, who was son of Phebe Kirkbride) of Bristol, Bucks Co.
1764 Mahlon Kirkbride was taxed in Lower Makefield Twp, Bucks County.
1775 Mahlon Kirkbride was taxed in Lower Makefield Twp, Bucks County. This could be Mahlon Jr.
1776 On 17 November, Mahlon Kirkbride, son of Joseph and Sarah, died. [15] [16]
A biosketch reports [17]:
Mahlon Kirkbride, only child of Joseph Kirkbride Sr., by his second wife, Sarah Stacy, born November 18, 1703, married at Falls Meeting, November 12, 1724, Mary, daughter of Penn's faithful stewards at Pennsbury, John and Mary (Loftus) Sotcher, and settled on a plantation in Lower Makefield township, Bucks county, erecting thereon a stone house in 1750, which remained standing and in good order until torn down by his great-grandson in 1853, to make way for a more modern structure. It was for more than a century a favorite and welcome sojourning place for Friends travelling in the ministry.
Like his father, Mahlon Kirkbride was active in public affairs. He was a member of Colonial Assembly for fourteen years between 1740 and 1756, when he resigned upon the request of the home government that Friends, not in accord with the policy of arming troops for defence of the frontiers, should not seek to serve in the Assembly. He was also a Justice of the Peace and of the County Courts. He was a consistent member of the Society of Friends, and an Elder of Falls Monthly Meeting from early life until his death. He was one of the committee appointed by Pennsylvania Assembly in 1754 to visit the Pennsylvania Hospital, to which he had been one of the early contributors. He died at his home in Lower Makefield, Bucks county, November 17, 1776.
Mary Sotcher, wife of Mahlon Kirkbride, born in Falls township, Bucks county, September 15, 1704, was the second daughter of John and Mary (Loftus) Sotcher, William Penn's steward and stewardess at Pennsbury, his Bucks county home, he having brought them, then single, from England, with him on his second visit to his colony in 1699 to fill those positions. John Sotcher and Mary Loftus were already betrothed when Penn was preparing to leave and return to England in 1701. The Proprietor wished the marriage to take place before his departure and at his request, the Monthly Meeting at which they had declared their intentions adjourned that day week, instead of to the next month as usual, so that the committee appointed could report on their "clearness," and their second declaration of intentions could be received. On the day following this adjourned meeting, October 16, 1701, a public meeting was held at which they were married, William Penn being one of the witnesses and signed the certificate, the original of which now hangs in Washington's Headquarters at Morristown, New Jersey. William Penn never returned to Pennsylvania, and his home at Pennsbury and its furniture remained in the custody of the Sotcher family. A chest and cradle which came from Pennsbury and are said to have been brought over from England in 1682, by William Penn, belonged to Mary Sotcher, and were preserved in the Kirkbride family for generations. They are now among the collections of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, at Philadelphia. ...
Mahlon Kirkbride retained much of the real estate he had inherited from his father and acquired large holdings in other localities. His will dated Fifth Month (May) 18, 1774, and proven November 30, 1776, devises to his wife Mary, various articles of personal property, among them his "riding Chair and harnis thereunto belonging, also three Books, to wit, My Great Bible, Thomas Chalkley's Journal and Piety Promoted," also 1000 pounds current money of the Province, and certain quaintly described rights in the house and farm during her widowhood; to his son Stacy he devises one-third interest in a tract of land in Morris county (New Jersey), "called and known by the Name of the Mine Tract; together with one equal and undivided third part of the mine;" also a plantation of 400 acres in the same county in the tenure of Thomas Logan, during life, then to his son, Joseph Kirkbride, and in case of death of Joseph in his minority to his three sisters, Mary, Prudence and Sarah; to his son Mahlon, 200 acres in Morris county in tenure of Daniel Kelsey, and a lot of half an acre near Falls Ferry, and 600 pounds in money; to his son Robert 250 acres in Morris county, in tenure of David Logan, 200 acres in tenure of Felix Doran, a lot of half an acre near the Falls Ferry, and 400 pounds in money; to his son Jonathan the "Messuage Plantation & Tract of Land Whereon I now live together with the Tenement now in tenure of Joseph Hutchinson," together with all the stock, cattle, sheep, horses, swine, husbandry utensils and farming instruments thereon, subject to the privileges, etc., granted to his mother; also 200 acres in Morris county, in tenure of Samuel Hillock, and a lot near Falls Ferry; also one-quarter of a Property in West Jersey; to his daughter Mary Taylor 418 acres in Morris county in tenure of Phebe Riggs, and a lot at Falls Ferry, and 600 pounds in money; to his daughter Sarah Yeardley, 355 acres in Morris county in tenure of James Curdie and his son John, a lot at Falls Ferry and 300 pounds in money; to grandson, Joseph Taylor, a plantation of 420 acres at a place called Black Oak Thicket in Loudoun county, Virginia, and "my rifel Gun;" to grandsons, Stacy Taylor and Mahlon Taylor, sons of his daughter, Letitia Taylor, a plantation of 450 acres in Loudoun county, Virginia, conveyed to him by Mahlon Janney; to grandsons, Timothy, David and Jonathan Taylor, sons of Letitia, a plantation of 570 acres near a branch of Goose creek in Loudoun county, Virginia, bought of John Hough and Edward Harden; grandson, Bernard Taylor, two lots at Falls Ferry, if he died in his minority, to his father, Timothy Taylor; to granddaughters. Hannah and Letitia Taylor, each 100 pounds; to each of daughter Mary Taylor's three children five pounds each; to grandson, Mahlon Taylor, son of Mary, a lot near Falls Ferry; 60 pounds is devised for the use of the school to be kept near Falls Meeting House, to be put to interest for the education of poor children at the said school; his Library of Books, except the three given to his wife to be divided between his three sons, Mahlon, Robert and Jonathan. These three sons with their mother are named as executors, and residuary legatees. [18] [19] Mary (Sotcher) Kirkbride died September 22, 1778.
1749 Mahlon Kirkbride was appointed elder of the Falls Monthly Quaker meeting on 1 January.
1778 Mary Kirkbride's will in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, named Daughters Mary Taylor, Sarah Yeardley and several grandchildren. No grandchildren through Mahlon were named. [20]
1778 On 22 of month 9, Mary, wife of Mahlon Kirkbride, died. [21] [22] [23]
1779 On 14 June, Mahlon Kirkbride of Lower Makefield Twp, Bucks County, (perhaps his estate) made bequests to the children of Timothy Taylor Sr: Mahlon, Timothy Jr, and Letitia over age 14 and David, Jonathan, and Bernard under age 14. Timothy Taylor, Esq appointed guardian. [24]
1783 The will of Mary Kirkbride, widow of Mahlon named children and grandchildren. sons Robert and Jonathan were executors. [25]
[1] Francis Bazley Lee, ed., Genealogical and Personal Memorial of Mercer County, New Jersey, Vol. 1 (1907), 14, [HathiTrust], [GoogleBooks].
[2] Quaker Meeting Records, 1681-1935, Bucks County Pennsylvania, Marriages and Births, Book B, 186, [AncestryImage].
[3] Francis Bazley Lee, ed., Genealogical and Memorial History of the State of New Jersey, Vol. 4 (1910), 1404, left column, [HathiTrust], [GoogleBooks].
[4] Quaker Meeting Records, 1681-1935, Bucks County Pennsylvania, Marriages and Births, Book B, 186, [AncestryImage].
[5] Francis Bazley Lee, ed., Genealogical and Memorial History of the State of New Jersey, Vol. 4 (1910), 1404, right column, [HathiTrust], [GoogleBooks].
[6] William W. H. Davis, with Warren S. Ely and John W. Jordan, ed., History of Bucks County Pennsylvania, 2nd ed., Vol. III (1905), 217, right column, reports date 12 November, [GoogleBooks], [HathiTrust].
[7] Francis Bazley Lee, ed., Genealogical and Memorial History of the State of New Jersey, Vol. 4 (1910), 1404, right column, reports date 12 September, [HathiTrust], [GoogleBooks].
[8] John B. Linn and William Henry Egle, Pennsylvania Archives, Second Series, Volume 9. (Marriages to 1810, Volume 2) (1890), 239, reports date 9/12, [InternetArchive], [GoogleBooks].
[9] William W. H. Davis, History of Doylestown, Old and New (1904), 305, [InternetArchive].
[10] John W. Jordan, Colonial Families of Philadelphia, Vol. 1 (New York: Lewis Publishing Company, 1911), 552, [HathiTrust], [InternetArchive].
[11] Francis Bazley Lee, ed., Genealogical and Personal Memorial of Mercer County, New Jersey, Vol. 1 (1907), 13, [HathiTrust], [GoogleBooks].
[12] Francis Bazley Lee, ed., Genealogical and Personal Memorial of Mercer County, New Jersey, Vol. 1 (1907), 14, [HathiTrust], [GoogleBooks].
[13] Terry A McNealy and Frances Wise Waite, Bucks County Tax Records 1693-1778 (1983), 6, 10, 15, 42, 59, [GoogleBooks].
[14] Kenneth Scott and Janet Clarke, Pennsylvania Gazette: Abstracts 1748-1755 (1977, Genealogical Publishing Co, Baltimore), 149, [GoogleBooks].
[15] Quaker Meeting Records, 1681-1935, Bucks County Pennsylvania, Marriages and Births, Book B, 221, [AncestryImage].
[16] Francis Bazley Lee, ed., Genealogical and Memorial History of the State of New Jersey, Vol. 4 (1910), 1404, left column, [HathiTrust], [GoogleBooks].
[17] John W. Jordan, Colonial Families of Philadelphia, Vol. 1 (New York: Lewis Publishing Company, 1911), 552-553, [HathiTrust], [InternetArchive].
[18] John W. Jordan, Colonial Families of Philadelphia, Vol. 1 (New York: Lewis Publishing Company, 1911), 552, [HathiTrust], [InternetArchive].
[19] Pennsylvania Probate Records, 1683-1994, Bucks, Will 3-431, FHL film 172900, image 243, [FamilySearchImage].
[20] F. Edward Wright, Abstracts of Bucks County, Pennsylvania Wills, 1685-1785 (1995), 124.
[21] Quaker Meeting Records, 1681-1935, Bucks County Pennsylvania, Marriages and Births, Book B, 221, [AncestryImage].
[22] Anna Miller Watring and F. Edward Wright, Bucks County, Pennsylvania. Church Records of the 17th & 18th Centuries, V2, Quaker Records: Falls and Middletown Monthly Meetings (Bowie, MD: Heritage Books, 2003, ISBN 1-58549-270-1), 19.
[23] John W. Jordan, Colonial Families of Philadelphia, Vol. 1 (New York: Lewis Publishing Company, 1911), 554, [HathiTrust], [InternetArchive].
[24] Thomas G Myers, Bucks County, Pennsylvania Orphans' Court Records 1685-1852 (1939), 83, file #663.
[25] Pennsylvania Probate Records, 1683-1994, Bucks, Will 4-297, abstract 934, FHL film 172929, [FamilySearchImage].