History of Bucks
County, Pa Volume 3 by William H. Davis
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MOON
FAMILY. James Moon and Joan Burges were married near Bristol, England, and
with a family of children were among the early emigrants to settle in Pennsylvania. By
deed dated 10 mo. 13, 1688, he purchased of James Hill 125 acres of land in Falls
township, one and a half miles west from Morrisville, and largely covered in 1905 by the
classification yard of the Trenton branch of the Pennsylvania Railroad. On 12 mo. 11,
1706, he conveyed the same by deed in fee to his son Roger. James Moon's will
mentions six children: Sarah, James, Jonas, Jasper, Mary and Roger. James married Mary Wilsford,
1 mo., 1696, and afterward Agnes Priestly, in 1714; he deceased 4th mo.
6, 1755.
Jonas, born 10 mo., 24, 1671, married Alice Chissum, about 1707, and
deceased 10 mo. 4, 1732; Mary married a Curtis. Tradition says that Jasper went to
Virginia and was the progenitor of the Moon family of that state. He married
Susanna --------. Among the ear marks of cattle recorded at the clerk's office in a book
preserved in the Library of the Bucks County Historical Society are those of James Moon.
He was a member of Falls Monthly Meeting of Friends, and was buried in the old graveyard
at Fallsington. His wife Joan's English relatives sent her money with which she purchased
a farm near the river Delaware, two miles north of Yardleyville, since owned by Zachariah Betts.
She resided with her son Roger at the homestead until her death, at nearly ninety, having
survived her husband twenty-six years. She was an active member of Falls Monthly Meeting,
and frequently preferred to walk to meeting when in advanced years.
Roger Moon, son of James and Joan Moon, born about 1680, married Ann Nutt,
of England, at Falls Meeting of Friends, 8 mo. 23, 1708; they had seven children: James,
born 1 mo., 1713, died 5 mo. 9, 1796; John, born 5 mo. 27, 1717, died 9 mo. 24, 1732;
Elizabeth, born 10 mo. 16, 1719, died aged eighty-five and one-half years, 1805; Roger,
born 1 mo. 20, 1722, died 12 mo. 4, 1759; Isaac, born 11 mo. 6, 1724, died 6 mo. 23, 1748;
William, born 3 mo. 6, 1727, died 10 mo. 4, 1795; Ann, born 4 mo. 7, 1730, died 3 mo. 28,
1764. Roger Moon's second marriage was to Elizabeth Price (daughter of Reese
and Mary Price), 1 mo., 1734. Their children were: John, born 12 mo. 28, 1734, died
1 mo. 6, 1788; Mary, born 3 mo. 8, 1736, died 11 mo. 20, 1815; Sarah, born 10 mo. 29,
1737; Timothy, born 10 mo. 15, 1739, died 7 mo. 5, 1813; Samuel, born 7 mo. 1, 1744;
Jasper, born 1 mo. 12, 1748; Hannah, born 8 mo. 29, 1749.
Roger Moon said he had lived seventy years in the same place, and had never
discharged a gun or quarreled with any man. He deceased 2 mo. 16, 1759, on the ancestral
acres, at the ripe old age of seventy-nine years; eleven of his children surviving him.
James Moon, eldest child of Roger and Ann Nutt Moon, married three
times, and one child of each marriage lived to grow up; first to Hannah Price, 11
mo. 18, 1737; their son James married Sarah Dowdney, and had two children, James
and Mary. James married and had several children, lived and died on the same farm his
father did near the river two miles about Morrisville. Mary married John Thornton,
had a large family of children. James, son of Roger and Ann Nutt Moon's second
marriage was to Elizabeth, daughter of Edward and Bridget Lucas, 3 mo. 18, 1742;
she deceased 6 mo. 14, 1748. One daughter survived her mother, who married Yeomans Gillingham,
at Falls Meeting, 1 mo. 13, 1768, and had nine children. James Moon's (son of Roger
and Ann Nutt Moon) third marriage was to Ann Watson, widow of Mark Watson,
and daughter of John and Mary (Lofty) Sotcher, at Falls Meeting, 3 mo. 28,
1753. One child, Moses Moon, survived this marriage. On 1 mo. 29, 1749, James Moon
purchased of Robert Lucas for £480, two hundred and eighteen and one-quarter acres
of land in Middletown township, now known as "Woodbourne," where he resided the
remainder of his life, and in 1905 it is owned and occupied by his descendants. Beside
ordinary farming he was a nurseryman, as entries in his cashbook testify, one reading
thus: "11th mo. 22nd 1775. Joseph Lovett bought six
Newtown pippins and two grafted pear trees for eight shillings." He thus started a
business which his descendants have followed to a greater or less extent for over one
hundred and thirty years.
Moses Moon was born 10 mo. 9, 1754. Beside following the occupations of his
father as farmer and nurseryman, he also was a noted surveyor. He married Rachel Burges,
at Falls Meeting of Friends, and deceased 4 mo. 19, 1822, having resided his entire life
at Woodbourne, which he inherited from his father and bequeathed to his only son James,
who adhered more closely to farming than did his predecessors. James Moon married
Jane Haines, at Evesham Meeting, N.J., 5 mo. 13, 1813, and continued to reside at
the homestead until his death in 1855. He left six children: Mahlon, Eliza, Charles
Rachel, James H. and Jane C.
Mahlon, the oldest son of James and Jane (Haines) Moon, followed the
nursery business for quite a period of time, after which his brother James H. Moon
purchased the greater part of the land. Charles Henry Moon, son of Charles Moon,
is a prominent surveyor and engineer, and lives on the western portion of the place, he
being the fifth generation of the family to occupy these ancestral acres.
James H. Moon, the third son of James and Jane (Haines) Moon,
married Elizabeth Balderston, in 1853, and settled two miles west of Fallsington,
where they still reside wit h their son Alfred H. Moon. Of their nine children five
are still living: Everett, LL. D., Alfred H., Willett B., M.D., Elizabeth Laetitia, Ph.
D., and Rachel, M. D.
Of James and Jane Haines Moon's daughters, Eliza married Morton A. Walmsley,
of Byberry, Pa.; Rachel married William Tatnall, of Wilmington, Delaware, and Jane
C. married Hon. Jonathan Chace, of Rhode Island. Of the eleven children which survived Roger Moon, we have partially traced but one line, that of his eldest son James. The descendants of the five sons who survived him are scattered in all directions, although there is proof that many remained near home, the name occurring frequently in this vicinity and in New Jersey. His son William married Elizabeth Nutt and settled on Moon's Island in the Delaware River. An account of his descendants is given later. Ann married Jonathan Pursell; Elizabeth married William Janney, 7 mo., 1739, at Falls Meeting and they moved near Waterford, Loudoun county, Va.; John, Roger and Isaac died without issue. Of the second wife's children; John married and left descendants; Mary married John Linton; Sarah married Daniel Burges; Timothy married Martha Richie; Hannah married Mahlon Hartley, and removed to Ohio; Jasper, unknown. Text taken from 212-213 Davis, William W. H., A.
M. History of Bucks County, Pennsylvania [New York-Chicago: The Lewis Publishing Company, 1905] Volume III Transcribed March 2001 as part of the Bucks Co., Pa., Early Family Project,
www.rootsweb.com/~pabucks/bucksindex.html Published April 2001 on the Bucks County, Pa., USGenWeb pages at
www.rootsweb.com/~pabucks/ |
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Page was last edited:
11/15/2008