| Notes |
- Doylestown Township
The Merediths were early settlers in Doylestown township, & were among the first to take up land on the Neshaminy creek, in the vicinity of Castle Valley bridge.
James Meredith.1 came as early as about 1730, whose son, Hugh Meredith, was a practicing physician in Doylestown, in 1776.
The descendants of the Meredith family are quite numerous in Bucks & neighboring counties. They descend from Chester county ancestry who settled there the beginning of the last 18th century.
William Meredith, the partner of Benjamin Franklin about 1725, & the late Hon. William M. Meredith were both of the same family.
James.1, said to have been a brother of Franklin's partner, was the immediate progenitor of our Bucks Co. family.
His uncle Thomas.1 became possessed of several hundred acres about Castle Valley, on both sides of the creek.
- His son Thomas.2, who became crazed with over-much study, & was the inheritor of these lands, was sent to Bucks county to spend his life on his possessions, & his cousin James.2 was induced to come along to take care of him. The harmless, demented young man in his whims planned the building of a castle on the right bank of the Neshaminy, near the Alms-House road. With labor & perseverance he carried to the spot a great quantity of stones which he piled up in a circle as high as his head, & cut down trees & had the logs transported to the site. His castle building, which many saner men indulge in, but in not half so practical a way, was not interfered with, & when he died the logs & stones were used to build the first bridge that spanned the stream, & several dwellings. Thomas Meredith's.2 castle building gave the name to that locality. [i.e. Castle Valley to New Britain, Penn.]
At the death of the crazy cousin [Thomas Meredith.2] the land came into the possession of James, & embraced the farms of Sheridan T. Patterson, Lewis Tomlinson, that lately owned by George W. Lightcap & others. He built a house on the Patterson farm, long owned by Monroe Buckman, & married Mary Nicholas, of Philadelphia.
He had four sons, Simon.2, John.2, Thomas, & Hugh.1:
James Meredith.1 bought an adjoining farm, now Bonsall's, which then belonged to Samuel Wells, who had built a house on it as early as 1730, & which is still standing.
. Simon Meredith.2, born in 1740, married Hannah Hough in 1766, a daughter of Joseph Hough, & granddaughter of Richard Hough, who settled on the banks of the Delaware in 1682, & died in 1813. (3)
. Hugh was a physician, married Mary Todd, & lived & died in Doylestown. His two sons, John & Joseph, were likewise physicians, & his daughter Elizabeth married Abraham Chapman & became the mother of Hon. Henry Chapman.
Three of Simon's sons became physicians. His widow died April 18, 1819, aged 87 years, which carries her birth back to 1732. The older branches of the Meredith family intermarried with the Fells, Mathewes, Foulkes, etc.
Ref: THE HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA, Chapter XIII, by W. Davis 1876 & 1905.
Note: The numbering of Meredith.1 & 2 have been added, I hope, for clarification. - PJ Ahlberg 2015. - - - [1]
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1701 - 1775 (74 years)