Janet and Robert Wolfe Genealogy --- Go to Genealogy Page for Joseph Kirkbride

Notes for Joseph Kirkbride

"Joseph Kirkbride was a son of Mathew and Magdelen Kirkbride, of the parish of Kirkbride, near Carlisle, England." [1]

"Joseph Kirkbride, son of Mahlon and Magdalene, ... came over in the Welcome, at the age of 19, running away from his master and starting for the New World with a little wallet and a flail. He was first employed at Pennsbury, but soon removing to West Jersey." [2]

"Phebe Blackshaw had accompanied her parents, Randolph and Alice (Burgis) Blackshaw, in 1682, from Hollingee, Cheshire, on the ship, "Submission," from Liverpool, which by the dishonesty of the master landed its passengers at Choptank, Maryland, November 2, 1682; from whence Randolph Blackshaw and his daughter Phebe at once made their, way to Bucks county to be followed later by the remainder of the family." [3]

Joseph Hutchinson married, first, Phebe Kirkbride, daughter of Randall and Alice Blackshaw. [4]

1687 "Joseph Kirkbride, sometime inhabitant of this province now living in Pennsylvania having intentions to marry Mary Cofires?" "Joseph Kirkbride clear to marry." [5]

1699 Joseph Kirkbride "went to England, visiting his old master in Cumberland and paying him for the services he had deprived him of seventeen years before, by running away." [6]

1699 The role of William Penn at a two day meeting dated 6 mo 11, 1699, in London, England was acknowledged on a Certificate of Removal to the Philadelphia Quaker Meeting listing Joseph Kirkbride. [7]

1700 "Michael Russell of London, mercer, citizen and weaver, [sold] to Joseph Kirkbride of Bucks Co., Penna; now in London, yeoman, for ½ of a share of W. J." Dated between May 7-18. [8]

1701 Phebe (Blackshaw) Kirkbride died. [9]

1702 Joseph Kirkbride, of Bucks County, Pennsylvania, delivered a certificate from the Bucks meeting to the Chesterfield meeting to marry Sarah Stacy. Date 2 of month 1 [March]. [10]

1702 Joseph Kirkbride and Sarah Stacy made their second declaration of intention to marry, as recorded in the Chesterfield, Burlington County, monthly meeting minutes. Dated December 3. [11] Marriage of Joseph Kirkbride, Bucks Co, Pennsylvania, and Sarah Story, Chesterfield Monthly Meeting accomplished, 3rd day, 10th month, 1702. [12] [13]

"Joseph Kirkbride ... was a son of Mahlon and Magdalen Kirkbride, of Kirkbride, Cumberland. He came to Pennsylvania with Penn, in the 'Welcome,' and became one of the most prominent men of the province, serving many years as a Justice of Bucks county courts and in the Colonial Assembly, and was the largest landowner in Bucks county in his time, as well as owning large tracts of land in New Jersey and elsewhere. After the death of his first wife, Phebe Blackshaw, he married Sarah, daughter of Mahlon Stacy, the founder of Trenton, New Jersey, by his wife, Rebecca Ely, and left many descendants, who have been prominent in the affairs of Bucks county and of Philadelphia." [14]

A history of Doylestown reports [15]:

The Kirkbrides came from Cumberland, Joseph, the ancestor, arriving in the Welcome, 1682, and settling in Falls township; an indentured apprentice, he ran away from his master at the age of nineteen, starting for the new world with a little wallet of clothing and a flail. He was first employed at Pennsbury, but removed to West Jersey and there married a daughter of Randall Blackshaw, 1688. He became influential and wealthy, and a leading minister among friends, dying 1738, at the age of seventy- five. From his son Mahlon have descended all that bear the name, and a numerous posterity in the female line. Mahlon Kirkbride married Mary, daughter of John and Mary Sotcher, favorites of William Penn.

A history of Doylestown reports [16]:

Of Langhorne' s purchase, Joseph Kirkbride, Falls township, bought several hundred acres in New Britain, the southeastern boundary being the present Court street. At this time these two proprietors owned every acre of land within the present borough limits....Joseph Kirkbride, Langhorne's fellow owner of the site of Doylestown, ran away from his master in England when a youth of twenty, and came over in the Welcome, starting for the new world with a wallet, containing some clothing, and a flail. He was first employed at Pennsbury but soon removed to New Jersey; was twice married and lived to become an influential and wealthy man, and a leading minister among Friends. At his death, 1738, at the age of seventy-five, he left 13,439 acres to be divided among his children, Colonel Joseph Kirkbride, who lived in Falls township and prominent in the Revolution, being a grandson.

A history of Doylestown reports [17]:

What was remaining of Joseph Kirkbride' s tract, northwest of the present Court street, and a large quantity of other lands in the lower end of the county was left to his children at his death. Some of them held the ancestral acres for two or three generations, but it is said not an acre at present is known to be in the possession of their descendants. The last of the New Britain tract, in the valley of Cook's Run, was sold to Abraham Chapman, 1814, and is still in this family. Kirkbride is not known to have ever lived in this part of the county, and doubtless kept his home in Falls township, where he settled.

A history of Doylestown reports [18]:

We have already mentioned the Kirkbride estate on the northwestern confine of the borough, and that his vast realty was inherited by his heirs. One of these was Robert Kirkbride, probably a grandson, who owned the Chapman farm. His executors, shortly after his death, made a sale of building lots, including both sides of the slope of the Germany hill. This was in 1799, the first public sale of lots at Doylestown, and among the purchasers, were Elijah Russell, William Magill, George Stewart, John Byerly and Eleazer Fenton. This was the south end of the plantation.

1702 Joseph Kirkbride and Sarah Stacy married at the home of Mahlon Stacy.

1703 Sarah Stacy Kirkbride died on September 28. [19]

1712 A history of Warren County, New Jersey reports [20] [21]:

The land of Warren county was obtained from the Indians by what is known as "The last purchase made by the Council of Proprietors above the branches of Rarington between the River Delaware and the bounds of the Eastern Division of the said Province." For this purpose, Governor Robert Hunter, on December 5, 1712, "Lycensed and authorized . . Daniel Coxe, Thomas Gardner, Joseph Kirkbride, Thomas Stevenson, Peter Fretwell and John Wills, to call togeather the Indians or native inhabitants that profess to be or call themselves owners of any tract or tracts of Land in the Western Division of the said province and to treet with, bye, purchase and accept of a deed or deeds of sale from said Indians or natives in behalf of themselves and of such others of the proprietors of the said western division as they shall associate to themselves before the making of such purchase eranging of such deed or deeds such quantity or number of ackers of land or lands yet unpurchased as they by virtue of those proprietyes are entitled to take up or to make further purchase of, provided the said purchase be made and entered in the proprietors' office of this province within two years after the date hereof and for soedoing this shall be a sufficient warrant." In accordance with this warrant, the Commissioners called together the Indians of what is now Warren and part of Sussex counties, and on August 18, 1713, secured four deeds from the Indian owners of that territory. The deeds were recorded on December 4, 17 14, on the last day allowable by the commission from Governor Hunter. The following is an abstract from the Indian deed for the Southern part of Warren County. It Is recorded In book BBB of deeds, page 144, in the office of the Secretary of State at Trenton: "On August 18, 1713, Sasakamon, Wowapekoshot and Wenaccikoman, Indian Sachemas and owners of land in the western division of New Jersey sold to Daniel Coxe, Matthew Gardner, Thomas Stevenson, Joseph Kirkbride, John Budd, John Wills, and .Peter Fretwell all of them proprietors and commissioners empowered by his excellency. Col. Robert Hunter, Governor of the province of New Jersey to purchase lands of the Indians, for and In consideration of ten guns, fiveteen blankets, fiveteen kettles, twenty matchcoats, twenty shirts, eight strouds, ten paire of stockings, three paire of shoes and buckles, ten pound of powder, twenty-five barrs of lead, ten hatchets, twenty knives, rive pounds in silver money, three coates, ten hilling hoes, ten pounds of red lead, ten looking glasses, fivety awles, one hundred botls, fiveteen paire of tobacco tongs, five gallons of rum, ten tobacco boxes, and one hundred needles, all that tract of land bounded with the River Delaware on the south and southwestwardly sides on the north with the land late Matamyska's now sold to the proprietors, on the eastward by the land purchased of the Indians by Col. Loursmans and the last purchase made by the proprietors on the lower side of the Musconetcong river. ...

Joseph Kirkbride served many years as a Justice of the Bucks County courts and served in the colonial assembly.

Joseph Kirkbride was one of the largest landowners in Bucks County in his time and also owned land in New Jersey and elsewhere.

1730 Joseph and Mary Kirkbride were named in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. [22]

c 1731 Sarah's brother Mahlon died intestate and his five sisters were named in the estate proceedings: "Sarah Stacey left issue Mahlon Kirkbride, her heir-at-law". [23]

1737 Joseph was Minister of the Falls Monthly Meeting. Church Records: Selected Areas of PA, 1600s-1800s (source not seen).

1736 A will is on record for a Joseph Kirkbride. See PA Bucks Wills. Check Dates of the will (not seen). [24]

1738 Joseph Kirkbride died in 1738 at the age of 75. [25]

A biosketch reports [26]:

Col. Joseph Kirkbride. — On the 26th day of October, 1803, died Col. Joseph Kirkbride, a pure patriot and Christian gentleman of the Revolution. His great-grandparents, of Scottish origin, were Matthew and Magdalen Kirkbride, of the parish and town of Kirkbride, twelve miles west of Carlisle, Cumberland Co., England. They became united with the Society of Friends early after its rise in 1652. Soon after that the province of Pennsylvania became a household word among the sect, and his grandfather, Joseph Kirkbride, the founder of the family in America, then a youth of nineteen, ran away from his'master, and started for the New World with a little wallet of clothing and a flail. He arrived safely at Chester Creek, in the " British Factor," Roger Drew, commander, on the 11th of December, 1681. He was soon taken into the employ of the proprietor at Penn's Manor, opposite Bordentown, but his stay was not of long duration, he crossing the Delaware into West Jersey. While in Pennsylvania he, however, formed an attachment for Phcebe, the daughter of Randall Blackshaw, a large landed proprietor of Bucks County, and on the 14th of the 1st month, 1688, they were united in marriage at the Friends' Meeting at the Falls. Phcebe lived but a few years, leaving several young children. On the 17th of December, 1702, he married Sarah, the daughter of Mahlon and Rebecca Stacy, of the Falls. He was one of the commissioners in 1710 to run the boundary line between New Jersey and New York, and in 1719 was a member of the West Jersey Assembly. He died in the early part of the 1st month, 1737, aged seventy-five years.

Research Notes:

Bucks County, Pennsylvania, Falls Monthly Meeting: Men's Minutes record:

Page 84, October 13, 1697 - This meeting hath ordered ten Friends to hear and end the difference between Joseph Kirkbride and Peter Webster [ and their wives ]: Willm. Biles, Phinehas Pemberton, Willm. Dunkin, Henry Baker, John Surket, Joshua Hoops, Abraham Cox, Edmond Lovet, Joseph Millner and Richard Hough.
Page 95, April 5, 1699 - Joseph Kirkbride and Stephen Beakes laid their intentions of going to England to visit Friends. Joseph Kirkbride's wife consents.
Page 139, April 4, 1705 - Joseph Kirkbride lays before the meeting the necessity of some advice and assistance in placing out John and Abigall Tidwell's children.
Page 156, July 2, 1707 - Complaint by Richard Stockton against George Biles and Joseph Kirkbride for a certain sum of money due him.
Page 170, October 5, 1709 - Wm. Brown makes complaint against Joseph Kirkbride for detaining some estate which did belong to Thomas Yeardley's son, he being likewise dead that it doth belong to his wife the said child's mother.
Bucks County, Pennsylvania, Falls Monthly Meeting: Miscellaneous Papers
Page 6, Joseph Kirkbride, 1st? of 7th month 1708 for engaging in real estate speculation at the time of a religious visit to England, in which Robert Heath felt aggrieved.
Bucks County, Pennsylvania, Middletown Monthly Meeting: Men's Minutes
Page 10, November 1, 1711 - Daniel Jackson disowned for having spoken some things scandalous and unchristian like against Joseph Kirkbride.
Page 123, November 1, 1705 - Difference between Joseph Kirkbride and Robert Heaton ended.
Page 171, April 5, 1711 - The matter between Daniel Jackson and Joseph Kirkbride is not ended and Daniel acknowledges his disorderly spreading of scandalous reports and doth promise to take regular methods to clear himself further.
Page 244, October 5, 1720 - Joseph Kirkbride sent a complaint against Jonathan Cooper for detaining a considerable sum of money from the said Kirkbride.


Footnotes:

[1] Francis Bazley Lee, ed., Genealogical and Personal Memorial of Mercer County, New Jersey, Vol. 1 (1907), 14, [HathiTrust], [GoogleBooks].

[2] William W. H. Davis, "Early Settlers in Bucks County," Papers Read Before the Bucks County Historical Society 2 (1909), 192-204, at 197, [InternetArchive].

[3] John W. Jordan, Colonial Families of Philadelphia, Vol. 1 (New York: Lewis Publishing Company, 1911), 547, [HathiTrust], [InternetArchive].

[4] John W. Jordan, Colonial Families of Philadelphia, Vol. 1 (New York: Lewis Publishing Company, 1911), 547, 584, [HathiTrust], [InternetArchive].

[5] Charlotte D. Meldrum, Early Church Records of Burlington County, New Jersey, Vol. 2 (1995), 40.

[6] William W. H. Davis, "Early Settlers in Bucks County," Papers Read Before the Bucks County Historical Society 2 (1909), 192-204, at 198, [InternetArchive].

[7] Albert Cook Myers, Quaker Arrivals at Philadelphia, 1682-1750 (1902), 22, [GoogleBooks].

[8] William Nelson, Documents relating to the Colonial History of the State of New Jersey. Archives Vol. 21. (Patents and Deeds, 1664-1703) (1899), 530, citing West Jersey Records, Liber B, Part 2, 696, [HathiTrust], [GoogleBooks], [InternetArchive].

[9] John W. Jordan, Colonial Families of Philadelphia, Vol. 1 (New York: Lewis Publishing Company, 1911), 547, [HathiTrust], [InternetArchive].

[10] Quaker Meeting Records, 1681-1935, Chesterfield Monthly Meeting, Certificates received, 1694-1836, [AncestryRecord], [AncestryImage].

[11] Lewis D. Cook, "Marriage Intentions, 1685-1730, Burlington County, New Jersey," National Genealogical Society Quarterly 53 (1965), 129-32, at 129.

[12] Charlotte D. Meldrum, Early Church Records of Burlington County, New Jersey, Vol. 2 (1995), 43.

[13] "Marriages at Chesterfield, New Jersey, 1685-1730," The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography 9 (1885), 347-352, at 348, reports date 10m, 3d, 1702, [GoogleBooks].

[14] John W. Jordan, Colonial Families of Philadelphia, Vol. 1 (New York: Lewis Publishing Company, 1911), 584, [HathiTrust], [InternetArchive].

[15] William W. H. Davis, History of Doylestown, Old and New (1904), 304, of 304-5, [InternetArchive].

[16] William W. H. Davis, History of Doylestown, Old and New (1904), 3, of 3-4, [InternetArchive].

[17] William W. H. Davis, History of Doylestown, Old and New (1904), 7, of 7-8, [InternetArchive].

[18] William W. H. Davis, History of Doylestown, Old and New (1904), 18, [InternetArchive].

[19] Francis Bazley Lee, ed., Genealogical and Memorial History of the State of New Jersey, Vol. 4 (1910), 1404, left column, [HathiTrust], [GoogleBooks].

[20] George Wyckoff Cummins, History of Warren County New Jersey (1911), 10, [InternetArchive].

[21] Mrs Harry Rogers and Mrs Alexander H Lane, "Abstracts of New Jersey Commissions," Publications of the Genealogical Society of Pennsylvania, Vol. 7 (1920), 62-9, 147-57, and 236-44, at 156, citing p 140, [GoogleBooks].

[22] New Jersey, U.S., Compiled Census and Census Substitutes Index, 1643-1890, [AncestryRecord].

[23] Major E. M. Woodward and John Hageman, History of Burlington and Mercer Counties, New Jersey (Philadelphia: Everts & Peck, 1883), 180, left column, bottom, [HathiTrust].

[24] F. Edward Wright, Abstracts of Bucks County, Pennsylvania Wills, 1685-1785 (1995), 22.

[25] William W. H. Davis, "Early Settlers in Bucks County," Papers Read Before the Bucks County Historical Society 2 (1909), 192-204, at 198, [InternetArchive].

[26] Major E. M. Woodward and John Hageman, History of Burlington and Mercer Counties, New Jersey (Philadelphia: Everts & Peck, 1883), 471-472, [HathiTrust].