I found a "story" on
ancestry.com which gives a good compilation on Thomas
Canby, b. 1667. This was placed on
ancestry.com by PMBenell. Various sources
were used to put the story together. With her permission, I thought I would
post it here.
Thomas Canby1, son of Benjamin and Elizabeth/Mary, was born in Thorne,
Yorkshire, on 9 April 1667, and ten days later his parents had him christened in
the Anglican parish church.[25] Sometime after that the family became convinced
of Friends’ principles and joined that persecuted group. Thomas died 20 November
1742 in Solebury, Bucks County, Pennsylvania. He married three times.
Thomas’s mother died when he was very young, and his father died in 1681. At
first Thomas’s step mother Jane intended to move from Liverpool, but after three
members of Hardshaw Monthly Meeting met with her, she was persuaded to remain
and allow the Meeting to assist her in apprenticing her step-son. In August the
Meeting learned that Thomas had been sent to Dublin, apprenticed to Michael
SMITH. But the lad soon returned, Smith claiming he “could not fitt him for an
apprentice.” In December 1683 the Meeting ordered Thomas to remain with another
uncle, Henry BAKER, who lived in Walton, Lancashire, near Liverpool. Jane’s name
no longer appeared in the minutes, so perhaps she had died or moved. In April
1684 Thomas was still living with Henry Baker when he refused to be bound
apprentice to Tristram JACKSON, but was willing to go with his uncle to
Pennsylvania. Baker took Thomas with him as one of his ten indentured
servants.[26]
Thomas’s Uncle Henry Baker purchased 500 acres in Pennsylvania in Fifth Month
1684.[27] Henry, with Thomas in tow, sailed to Penn’s colony from Liverpool on
the Vine, William PREESON, Master. They landed in Philadelphia 17 Seventh Month
[September] 1684.[28] The Falls Monthly Meeting minutes of Fifth Month [July]
1685 record that Henry BAKER reported to the meeting that he took, “of charity”,
the destitute Thomas, son of Benjamin Canby of Liverpool. Young Thomas had then
been with Henry for six months, no suitable place being found for him. So
William YARDLEY (1632-1693) and Thomas JANNEY (1633-1697) were appointed to talk
with Henry and Thomas to see how long Thomas should serve Henry.[29] Thomas was
apprenticed to Henry Baker “for Joseph fferror” for four years.[30] Baker’s
nephew Thomas Canby was registered as one of the servants accompanying him, who
was to work for his passage an indeterminate time plus for the 6 months
(presumably in England) he had “rested with him at his charge.” Descendant Henry
Seidel Canby concludes, “Baker seems to have been a skinflint. Four years was
the usual time an able-bodied man was supposed to work to pay off the five
pounds paid for his transportation across seas, but Thomas’s uncle persuaded the
[Quarterly] meeting, to which young Thomas must have appealed, to bind the boy
for five years from June 15, 1685, in addition to his year already passed as a
servant; then he was to be given apparel and ‘what other things are allowed by
law to minors so brought over.’”[31]
There is some dispute over where Thomas first settled. If he was bound to Henry,
he would have been living with Henry in Falls, unless Henry put him in charge of
one of his more distant pieces of property—an unlikely assignment for an
apprentice. H. S. Canby claims Thomas settled at first in Cheltenham, and took
up land near present Willow Grove, and that he was a member of Abington Monthly
Meeting.[32] But the Falls Meeting records indicate that Thomas lived with Henry
until his indenture was finished in 1688, then continued on in Falls until 1693
when he married and settled in Abington.
Thomas’s difficulties with his relatives were not over when he had finished
serving his indenture, however. The Hardshaw Meeting minutes from 17 February
1690/1 to 17 July 1692 indicate there was some disagreement between Thomas and
the uncle who was holding in trust the lands Thomas’s father had left him. The
Meeting minutes do not record the resolution of the difference.[33] As Friends
refused on grounds of conscience to take an oath, the courts were closed to them
as an avenue of redress.[33a] Thomas's uncle was apparently not a Friend, and if
he wanted to cheat his nephew, it would be relatively easy to do so—with the
sanction of the courts.
On 12 Seventh Month [September] 1693 Falls MM sent a certificate to Oxford
Meeting, indicating Thomas Canby’s clearness to marry.[34] Oxford Meeting,
originally gathering for worship in the home of Sarah SEYERS, was then a
particular meeting under Abington Monthly Meeting.[35] The next month, on 27
Eighth Month [October] 1693, at Philadelphia Monthly Meeting he and Sarah
JARVIS, or Jervis, the daughter of Charles and Elizabeth (BOORE) declared their
intention to marry.[36] They married 2 Ninth Month [November], 1693.[37] Darrell
Kitchen writes that they were married in the home of Richard Wall, or Waln,
where Abington Meeting met. But this seems somewhat unlikely as usually the
marriage took place in the bride's meeting, in this case Philadelphia.
Sarah was Irish, supposedly a sister of Charles Jarvis (1675-1739), London
artist and painter to the King, although this seems very dubious to me on the
basis of biographical details of the painter.[38] A self-portrait of Charles
Jarvis is to the right. A later Charles Jervis was one of the "Virginia exiles",
Friends and others in Philadelphia, who were suspected of Tory leanings during
the Revolution, and exiled to Winchester. I have not researched to see if there
is a connection between him and our Sarah Jervis/Jarvis.
The births of Thomas and Sarah's first six children were recorded at Abington
Monthly Meeting.
Thomas was one of the first three trustees appointed in 1697 for Abington
School, which was under the care of the meeting.[39] He was appointed an
overseer in 1709. He was named a representative to Quarterly Meeting at least
seven times between 1705 and 1717 when he transferred his membership.[40]
Thomas purchased 250 acres in the Abington-Cheltenham area from a son of Joseph
PHIPPS. In February 1695 Henry Baker reported to Falls Monthly Meeting that
Thomas Canby had suffered a loss by fire. A collection of 49/ 1d [49 shillings
and 1 pence] was raised immediately to assist him, with more money received the
following month.[41]
In 1713 Thomas exchanged his now rebuilt house and 198 acres for a house and 116
acres in Dublin Township, in what became Montgomery County. He added 70 more
acres to his farm in 1715. Then in 1717 he purchased 444 acres in Solebury,
Bucks County, lying along the Buckingham line, for £200. The family lived there
until 1729.[42]
From Abington Monthly Meeting Thomas transferred with his family to Falls
Monthly Meeting; his certificate of removal dated 31 First Month [March] 1718/9
was received there on 7 Third Month [May] 1718/9.[43] At the time, Buckingham
Preparative Meeting was a part of Falls Monthly Meeting. Thomas was quite active
in his meeting, and before Buckingham was set off, he was named an overseer in
1718 and then in 1720 an elder in Falls Monthly Meeting.[44] A weekly meeting
for worship had been settled in Buckingham in 1701, meeting at first in homes.
In 1706 a meeting house was built, with a larger one constructed in 1729. In
1720 Buckingham Meeting was set off from Falls as an independent monthly
meeting. Bucks Quarter minuted that Falls was loath to see them go.[45] The
first monthly meeting of Buckingham was held on 6 Tenth Month [December] 1720,
and Thomas Canby was named clerk. [46]
With the establishment of the Monthly Meeting Thomas Canby’s name appears
regularly in the Buckingham Men’s Meeting minutes. For example, 9 Twelfth Month
[February] 1720/1 he was one of two men appointed to speak to James HAMBLETON
who had owed money to a Friend in Chester Meeting for a long time. On 3 Eighth
Month [October] 1721 Thomas Canby and John SCARBOROUGH were appointed to speak
to John KNOWLES to ascertain if he considered himself a member of Buckingham, or
any other meeting, since formal recording of memberships had not yet been
instituted. On 5 Tenth Month [December] 1721 he and John DAWSON were asked to
visit Amor PRESTON’s family to “see how things were with them as to subsistence,
and his wife being weak and out of health.” On 6 Fourth Month [June] 1722 Edmund
HENSEY, Thomas BROWN, and Thomas Canby were appointed to visit Friends’ families
in Solebury. The latter two were appointed the following year to visit again.
The gifts Thomas had for the type of spiritual and pastoral work represented by
these appointments was acknowledged 8 Eighth Month [October] 1723 when Thomas
was named to the station of elder in Buckingham. While recognition of gifts of
ministry were transferred from one meeting to another when the minister moved,
Friends understood that the gifts of eldering were specific to a particular
meeting, and were not transferred when the elder moved.[47] Thomas was
instrumental in having the first log meeting house constructed in Plumstead,
when a meeting for worship was settled there in 1730. In 1734 the Quarterly
Meeting directed that Plumstead and Buckingham together be a Monthly Meeting.
The log house stood in Plumstead until replaced by a stone building in 1752.[48]
Thomas was clerk of Buckingham Monthly Meeting for 19 years, and had “a gift for
the ministry”. Two daughters, Mary and Phoebe, were approved ministers.[49]
Sarah died 8 Second Month [April] 1708.[50] Thomas married for the second time
in 4 Second month [April] 1709 Mary OLIVER, daughter of Evan and Jean (LLOYD)
Oliver. Mary was born 12 December 1677 in Radnorshire, Wales. She was 31 when
she married 41 year old Thomas Canby. Her parents had emigrated with their
children David, Elizabeth, John, Mary, Evan, and Hannah on the Bristol Factor,
from Glascomb, Radnorshire, in 1682. Another child, “Seaborn Oliver” was born
just as the voyage was ending.[51] Thomas and Mary had eight children, in
addition to the nine Thomas had with his first wife.
Mary died in 20 Tenth Month [December] 1721.[52] Thomas married for a third time
on 9 Eighth Month (October) 1722, Jane (DOYN) PRESTON, born in 1671 in
Cloverdale, Yorkshire,[52a] the widow of William Preston. Thomas requested a
certificate of clearness to Middletown Meeting for this purpose on 4 Seventh
Month [September], and it was granted the next monthly meeting, 9 Eighth Month
[October].[53] Jane went through a similar clearness process in her meeting,
Middletown, where the wedding was held. It was reported at the following monthly
meeting in Buckingham, 1 Ninth Month [November] 1722, that the marriage had been
accomplished in an orderly manner.[53a] Sarah had two children from her first
marriage, Martha Preston, born 30 July 1700, died in 1 Ninth Month [November]
1729, and married Jane's step-son Benjamin Canby; and Sarah Preston, born 6
April 1706 who married Jane's step-son Thomas Canby.[54]
Thomas had a number of real estate dealings, and particularly invested in mills,
often in partnership with Samuel CART, Morris MORRIS (his signature is shown on
the left)[54a], Anthony MORRIS (1682-1763), and Richard WALN (son of Nicholas).
In 1711 he sold his quarter share of a mill in Abington Township for £150, and
in 1717 he sold his third share of a mill in Cheltenham Township to Anthony
Morris for £193.[55] On 3 December 1717 Jacob HOLCOMB sold him 444 acres in
Solebury, Holcombe having purchased it from John SCARBOROUGH in 1709.[56]
Eastburn Reeder describes this purchase as two thirds of the Heath Mill tract.
This first grist mill in Solebury had been built by Robert HEATH in 1707 on the
Great Spring stream.[57] Thomas Canby and Anthony Morris, a Philadelphia brewer,
remodeled Heath’s Mill. The ruins were still there in 1918. The farm in New Hope
was on the creek leading from the “Great Spring” (which Thomas seems to have
owned) to the Delaware.[58] Thomas and his (second) wife Mary then sold one
sixth of the original tract (meaning one quarter of their portion) to Anthony
Morris on 1 May 1718. In 1718 he requested that a road be laid out from his mill
to the New Pennypack Mill. The following year Wrightstown petitioned for that
road to be joined with the road to Philadelphia.[59] On 20 December 1720 Thomas
sold one quarter (presumably of the original portion, or half of what he had
left) to Thomas CHALKLEY.
As was usual for the time, Thomas Canby was asked to witness wills, as he did
for John SCARBOROUGH in 1727.[60]
Typical of Friends in early Pennsylvania, Thomas was active in political life as
well as the meeting’s life. In 1718 he was an overseer of highways in Solebury.
Not coincidently this was the year he requested that a road be laid out to his
mill.[61] He was a justice of the peace, serving on the Bucks County court in
1719, 1722, and 1725-27. He served in the Provincial Assembly in 1721, 1722,
1730, 1733, and 1738. He tried to get the ferry privilege from his New Hope
lands to Lambertville, and perhaps this is why he entered politics. But in the
end the right to run a ferry was given to John WELLS. In 1738 Thomas voted with
five other Bucks County representatives to accept a compromise with the Penn
family on the issue of paper currency. Legislators in Pennsylvania summed up
Thomas Canby’s service in the Pennsylvania Assembly as “five undistinguished
terms” of a backbencher.[62]
Thomas was typical of the American spirit: restless and entrepreneurial. In
addition to his venture capital in mills, he was retailing liquor as early as
1726. In 1729 he purchasedd 200 acres at the intersection of Old York Road and
Durham Road, in the present village of Buckingham, where he lived until 1740. He
then returned to his Solebury farm. At the age of 72 he took a certificate of
removal for himself and his family to Newark Monthly Meeting, and set out with
his wife and son Oliver (then 25) to settle with his son Thomas Jr. on the
Brandywine. In April 1742 he acquired seven acres for £107 in Christiana
Hundred, New Castle County: the most magnificent mill site in all the
colonies.[63]
Thomas returned to his farm in Solebury for an extended visit and died there, 20
Ninth Month [November] 1742. He was buried in Buckingham Friends Burial
Ground.[64] His watch came down in the family, and Henry Seidel Canby inherited
it, “a splendid piece imported from London in the early seventeen hundreds. It
is of the onion type, case within case, with a beautiful face, and a finely
wrought chain and key attached. The watch is of silver, the chain, I think, of
steel.”[65]
Thomas signed his will shortly before he died. He left his share of the mill in
Solebury (held in partnership with Anthony Morris) to his son Benjamin, and
divided the rest of his estate among his wife and children. In addition he
specified 5 shillings to each of eight children and four shillings to his
daughter Lydia because of her (unexplained) “disobedience” to him. He stipulated
that his sons Oliver, Benjamin, and Thomas each provide their mother with £10 a
year. Oliver and Benjamin were named executors. The will was not probated until
25 May 1750 by which time Oliver, residing in Wilmington, was the only surviving
executor. He renounced his right in favor of William HILL, William YARDLEY, and
Thomas YARDLEY (1721-1803) who were the executors for Oliver’s deceased brother
Benjamin Canby. The estate inventory made 16 August 1749 listed Thomas’s quarter
share in the mill, worth £250, as his only asset. The eight year gap between
death and probate, and Oliver’s renunciation suggest either that the will was
subject to dispute or encumbered with debt.[66]
Children of Thomas and his first wife Sarah (Jarvis) Canby:[67]
i. Benjamin Canby2, b. 24/7m (Sept.) 1694; d. 25 Jun 1695, in Abington MM rec.
ii. Sarah Canby, b. 23/8m (Oct.) 1695 in Cheltenham Twp.; d. 1748/9; m. 30/7m
(Sept.) 1719 at the Buckingham mtg house (the same day as her sister Phebe, both
under the care of Falls MM) John HILL.[68]
iii. Elizabeth Canby, b. 24/10m (Dec.) 1696; d. 1745; m. 1724 Thomas LACEY.
iv. Mary Canby, b. 14/10m (Dec.) 1697; d. 4 Aug. 1754 in Wrightstown; m(1) 1715
Nathaniel CHAMPION; m(2) 1722 in Buckingham MM Joseph HAMPTON of Solebury. She
removed from Abington MM to Falls MM 1/5m/1719.[69] In 1724 Thomas Canby sold
224 acres in Wrightstown for £170 to his son-in-law Joseph Hampton—property
Thomas had acquired by his third marriage, to Jane PRESTON.[70] Mary was a
recorded minister.[71]
v. Phoebe Canby, b. 19/7m (Sept.) 1699; d. 19 Jan. 1774 in Buckingham; m(1)
30/7m/1719 at Buckingham mtg house Robert SMITH[72]; m(2) 16 May 1763 Hugh ELY,
son of Joshua and Mary (SENIOR) Ely of Buckingham. He d. 1772. Phebe was a
recorded minister. Phoebe and Mary (Nicholas) EVANS (ca. 1695-1769) felt drawn
to pay a visit in the "love of the Gospel" to Friends on the West Indies island
of Tortola. They arrived 14/2m/1750, conducted by John PICKERING, Jr., in his
father's sloop. "They remained thirty-two days and had good service and went
well away."[72a]
vi. Esther, or Hester, Canby, b. 16 /12m (Feb.) 1700/1 in Abington; d. 12 May
1777; removed from Providence MM to Falls MM 2/1m/1719/20.[73] Reported on
4/3m/1720 at Falls MM that she m(1) 1719 John STAPLER, son of Stephen and
Elizabeth of Abington MM[74] ; John was disciplined for drinking to excess, but
made acknowledgment; res. in Bensalem; John d. 1734; 4 children[75]; m(2) 1735
at Middletown MM John WHITE, a well-known Friends minister. Removed to
Wilmington MM. Esther was recorded as a minister in 1732; she visited English
Friends in 1743. Total of 8 children.[76]
vii. Thomas Canby, b. 12/8m (Oct.) 1702; d. 1764 in Kent Co., Md.; m. 1724 Sarah
PRESTON, daughter of William and Jane (Doyn) Preston, originally of
Huddersfield, Yorks; Jane was Thomas’s step-mother. They res. in Md.; had 9
children. It is probably his son Benjamin described by Reeder, 84. Canby says
this Thomas removed to Wilmington in 1741.[77]
viii. Benjamin Canby, b. 18/7m (Sept.) 1704; d. 17 Feb. 1748 in Solebury Twp.;
m(1) 26/3m (May) 1724 Martha PRESTON, daughter of William of Great Britain.[78]
They had 3 children:
a) Thomas3, b. 26/1m/1725; d. 11/6m/1728 or d. 1725 (Brey, 416),
b) Joseph, b. 20/8m/1726;
c) Benjamin, b. 31/5m/1728;
Martha d. 1/9m (Nov.) 1729. Benjamin m(2) 1734 Sarah YARDLEY, daughter of Thomas
and Ann (BILES) Yardley. They had 7 children:
d) Sarah, b.4/8m/1735; d. 1748.
e) William, b. 6/2m/1737;
f) Ann or Anne, b. 1/9m/1738; m. John WETHERILL;
g) Thomas, b. 26/11m [or Nov.?] 1739; d. 9 Apr. 1790; m. Beulah CARY; they had a
son Samuel (b. 1772) who m. Elizabeth WOOLSTON
h) Zacheus [or Zacharus, Brey, 416], b. 16/_m/1743; d. 14/6m/1747,
i) Samuel, b. 6/4m/1745;
j) Charles, b. 26/8m/1747; d. 9m/1748.
On 27 Apr. 1731 Thomas Canby sold to Benjamin 232 acres, 144 perches, plus 8.5
acres of meadow from the original Scarborough tract “for love and affection”. On
18 Feb. 1745/6 Benjamin sold all this land to Geysbert BOGART.[79] On 29 Oct.
1745 Benjamin bought a portion of the ferry tract, including the ferry, from
John WELLS. After Benjamin’s death Sarah m(2) in 1751 David KINSEY, who
continued to operate the ferry. It was inherited by Thomas's son Thomas and
daughter Anne, wife of John WETHERILL, carpenter of Philadelphia. The heirs sold
it eventually to John CORYELL, and the ferry became known as Coryell’s Ferry
(now New Hope).[80]
ix. Martha Canby, b. 9/3m (May) 1705; m(1) 1731 at Falls MM James GILLINGHAM,
Jr., son of Yeamans and Mary (BROADWAY) Gillingham; James's first wife had been
Sarah Paxson; Martha m(2) 1748 at Buckingham MM Joseph DUER, widower, son of
Thomas and Ellin (BEANS) Duer.
Children of Thomas and his second wife Mary (Oliver) Canby:
x. Jane Canby, b. 12/4m (June) 1710; d. 1789; m. 4/2m (May) 1732 Thomas PAXSON
(1712-1782), son of William Paxson Jr. and Abigail (POWNALL). They had 9
children.
xi. Rebecca Canby, b. 16/12m (Feb.) 1711/2; d. 18/8m/1766; m. Samuel WILSON, son
of Stephen and Sarah (BAKER) Wilson; had 7 sons and 6 daughters.
xii. Hannah Canby, b. 3/11m (Jan.) 1712/3 [or b. 1717, Brey, 417]; d. 25/8m
(Oct.) 1722.
xiii. Joseph Canby, b. 1/1m (Mar.) 1713/4; d. 4/7m (Sept.) 1718.
xiv. Rachel Canby, b. 8/7m (Sept.) 1715; d. 5/9m/1771 age 56, in Phila. MM;
never married.[81]
xv. Oliver Canby, b. 24/11m (Jan.) 1716/7; d. 1754; m. 1744 Elizabeth SHIPLEY.
Their son Samuel m. 1775 Frances LEA and had a daughter Ann, who m. 1803 William
Paxson. Elizabeth m(2) 1761 William POOLE.
xvi. Ann Canby, b. 26/5m (July) 1718; d. 11/7m/1763 at age 45 in Philadelphia;
Removed 2/2/1744 from Buckingham MM to Burlington MM; and 1/5m/1751 from
Burlington MM to Philadelphia MM. Never married.[82]
xvii. Lydia Canby, b. 25/10m (Dec.) 1720; d. 1819 or 1821; m(1) 1749 John
JOHNSON of Buckingham; m(2) 1763 Christopher ATKINSON, son of John and Mary
(SMITH) Atkinson. Brey recounts the story of Lydia, as a girl of 12, unhitching
and mounting a black stallion owned by Thomas WATSON, who was visiting her
father. The noise of hoofbeats brought the two men to the door in time to see
Lydia astride the horse, feet far above the stirrups, clinging to the saddle,
and riding easily as the horse galloped for home. Friend Watson, frightened,
shouted, “Somebody stop that child, she’ll be killed! What’ll we do, Thomas,
what’ll we do?” Thomas Canby calmly replied, “Well, Thomas, if thee’ll risk thy
horse, I’ll risk my child.” Horse and child reached the Watson stable three
miles away, without mishap. Covered with lather, he stopped quietly, and Lydia
calmly grabbed hold of the loosened reins, turned the horse around, and rode him
back home where Thomas Watson was anxiously awaiting the worst. Lydia lived to
be 101.[83]However, she apparently did something to anger her father, for he
deliberately left her one shilling less than he left to her siblings, because of
her “disobedience” to him.[84]