sons and two daughters, one of whom,
Elizabeth, b. May 11, 1871, m. Dr. John Bringhurst.
Rebecca Mellor, b. Apr. 6, 1845, d. Jan. I, 1851;
Sarah Mellor, b. Aug. 17, 1847, d. May 8, 1848;
Thomas Mellor, b. Jan. 4, 1849;
Edward Mellor, b. June i, 1850, m. 1875, Deborah Barker;
Harvey, b. Feb. 12, 1815, d. Sept. 30, 1893; m- May -25. 1837, Rebecca Worrell
Haines.
John Bancroft, eldest son of John and Elizabeth (Wood) Bancroft, born
at Salford, England, March 17, 1802, came to America in 1821 to arrange for
the removal of the family, and located at Wilmington, Delaware, where his par-
ents, brothers and sisters joined him the following year. (There he was in busi-
ness as "Soap Boiler and Tallow Chandler"). He married, 1828, Susanna Brooks,
born February 14, 1804, died March 25, 1881, daughter of Edward Brooks, a
minister of the Society of Friends, and of a family that had been prominent in
colonial ali'airs since the time of Penn. John Bancroft died May 2, 1882, at the
age of eighty years.
Issue of John and Susanna (Brooks) Bancroft: —
Napoleon, b. March 20, 1829, d. March 30, 1892; m. (first) Isabella G. Maree; (sec-
ond) Ella Gelwicks; of whom presently;
Margaret, m. Benjamin W. Swayne;
Joseph Wood, m. cousin, Anna Bancroft;
Edward, d. young;
Susanna, d. young;
Thomas Bright, m. Oct. 14, 1868, Agnes V. Reifsnyder;
Rebecca, unm.;
Susanna, d. young;
Charles, d. young.
Napoleon Bancroft, eldest son of John and Susanna (Brooks) Bancroft,
born near Wilmington, Delaware, March 20, 1829, and died in Philadelphia,
March 30, 1892. He married (first), in 1855, Isabella Girvan Maree, of a promi-
nent family of French extraction, a granddaughter of James Girvan, an officer
of the American Revolution. She died April 26, 1865 ; and he married (second),
in 1869 or 1870, Ella Gelwicks, by whom he had no issue.
Issue of Napoleon and Isabella G. (Maree) Bancroft:—
John, b. Jan. 11, 1856; m. Charlotte E. Bothvvell, of whom presently;
Margaret, b, Aug. I, 1857, d. Dec. 4. 1895; m. in 1882, Henry C. Walker. Issue
Robert Bancroft;
I300 SHIPLEY-POOLE AND BANCROFT
John Bancroft, of Rockford, New Castle county, Delaware, only son
of Napoleon Bancroft, by his wife Isabella Girvan Maree, was born January
II, 1856, and married in 1881, Charlotte E. Bothwell, born May i, 1858. He
obtained an interest in the manufacturing plant established by Joseph Bancroft,
and is secretary and general superintendent of the Joseph Bancroft & Sons Com-
pany, and is prominent in business and social al?airs. Mr. Bancroft is vice-
president of Delaware Society of Sons of the American Revolution, member of
the Union League of Philadelphia, director in Equitable Guarantee and Trust
Company of Wilmington, Penn Mutual Life Insurance Company of Philadelphia
and Wilmington Savings Fund of Wilmington, Delaware.
Issue of John and Charlotte E. (Bothwell) Bancroft: —
Pauline Wolf Bancroft, b. May 21, 1885;
John Bancroft, 7th, b. Jan. 3. 1887; m., Dec. 18, 1907, Madeline du Pont, dau. of
Alfred I. du Pont;
Esther Albertson Bancroft, b. Feb. 1, 1897.
Joseph Bancroft, second son of John and Elizabeth (Wood) Bancroft, born
m the city of Manchester, England, April 7, 1803, was reared in the faith of the
Society of Friends, of which his ancestors, both paternal and maternal, had long
been members.
Until he arrived at the age of fourteen years, Joseph Bancroft attended Ack-
worth School, an institution under the care of Friends, and at that age was ap-
prenticed to his maternal uncle, Jacob Bright, father of John Bright, M. P., in
the cotton manufacturing business, and served an apprenticeship of seven years,
terminating in 1824.
In the meantime his parents had emigrated to America and his father had
engaged in the maiuifacture of flannels at Wilmington, where Joseph joined them
in the year 1824. At the time he came to Wilmington, in 1824, his father John
Bancroft, lived in the house at 1803 Market street. Joseph repeatedly told of
the fact that the first evening he spent there with his parents was the first night
that they had all their twelve living children with them under the same roof.
For one or two years Joseph Bancroft assisted his father and brothers in their
Wilmington factory, and in 1826 took charge of the cotton mills operated by
William Young at Rockford, Delaware. He purchased in 1831, the property at
Rockford, Delaware, and began the business in a small way, being assisted
financially by Thomas Janvier. He encountered many difficulties in his business
career, the most discouraging being the destruction of his water-power dam and
great damage in his factory by flood in the year 1839, when he suffered such
heavy loss that he offered to surrender the plant to Mr. Janvier in payment of
the money advanced by him. Mr. Janvier refused to accept this, and advanced
him sufficient funds to rebuild and continue the business. He carried the business
successfully through several industrial and financial depressions, that seriously
affected manufacturing enterprises of that kind, without break or stop. In 1865
he took his sons, William Poole Bancroft and Samuel Bancroft, Jr., into partner-
ship with him, under the firin name of Joseph Bancroft & Sons, and that firm
continued to conduct a successful business until 1889, when it was incorporated
under the name of Joseph Bancroft & Sons Company.
Joseph Bancroft's was a remarkably earnest and consistent life. From the
B(
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SHIPLEY-POOLE AND BANCROFT 1301
time of the division in the Society of Friends, in 1827, his membership was with
the part frequently called "Hicksites," but he never approved of the separation,
and deplored it as a grievous mistake. In the latter part of his life he devoted a
great amount of his time to indefatigable efforts to promote a better state of feel-
ing between the different parts of the Society. In pursuance of this work he
compiled and circulated a book entitled "A Persuasive to Unity." It is principally
a compilation from the writings of Robert Barclay. While not regularly acknowl-
edged as a minister by the Society, he frequently addressed its meetings. He died
December 8, 1874. The public and press hastened to pay just tribute to his life
and character. One who knew him well wrote: "He stands in our mind as the
best realization of manliness and sweetness, strength and tenderness, it has ever
been our privilege to know, and whose benignant face and commanding form will
ever stand fixed indelibly in our memory as those of one who realized and typi-
fied, in his person and life, the character of a true Christian gentleman."
Joseph Bancroft married, as before stated, on June 25. 1829. Sarah, daughter
of William Poole, by his wife Sarah Sharpless.
Issue of Joseph and Sarah (Poole) Bancroft: —
William Poole Bancroft, b. July 12, 1835; ni. Emma Cooper; of whom presently;
Samuel Bancroft, Jr., b. Jan. 21, 1840; m. June 8, 1865, Mary Askew, b. Feb. 15, 1874,
dau. of Samuel and Susanna (Robinson) Richardson, of near Wilmington, Del.;
became partner with his father and elder brother in firm of Joseph Bancroft & Sons,
1865, and since the incorporation of Joseph Bancroft & Sons Co. in 1889, has been
its President and prominently identified with management of the large manufac-
turing plant of that corporation; residing at Rockford, Wilmington, Del. They
have issue:
Elizabeth Richardson Bancroft, b. May 6, 1871, m. Apr, 28, 1897, John Blymyer, son
of Charles Moody Bird and Leah Jane Blymyer; who have issue:
Samuel Bancroft Bird, b. Dec. II, 1898;
Joseph Bancroft, b. May 18, 1875; m. Oct. 29, 1902, Elizabeth, dau. of Oliver Otis
Howard, Maj.-Gen. U. S. A., (b. Leeds, Me., 1830), by his wife Elizabeth Ann
Waite, (b. Livcrmore, Me., 1832) ; and they have issue:
Elizabeth Bancroft, b. Aug. 23, 1904, d. Feb. 20, 1909.
William Poole B.^ncroft, eldest son of Joseph and Sarah (Poole) Bancroft,
bom at Rockford, Delaware, July 12, 1835, became a member of the firm of
Jcseph Bancroft & Sons in 1865, and at the death of his father in 1874 continued
the business with his brother, Samuel Bancroft, Jr. He married, November i,
1876, at Sharon Hill, Pennsylvania, Emma Cooper, born near Woodbury, Glou-
cester county. New Jersey, December 30, 1848. daughter of James and Lucy
(Middleton) Cooper, and descendant of William Cooper the pioneer settler at
Pine Point.
Issue of William P. and Emma (Cooper) Bancroft: —
Sarah, b. Aug. 24, 1877; m. Roger Clark, of Somersetshire, Eng., son of William
Stephens Clark by his wife Helen Priestman (Bright) Clark, (eldest dau. of
John Bright,) and has issue:
William Bancroft Clark, b. March i, 1902;
Priscilla Bright Clark, b. Feb. 3, 1906;
Hadwen Priestman Clark, b. Nov. 20, 1908.
Lucy, b. July 5, 1880; m. March 30, 1908, Henry Tregelles Gillett, M. D., son of
Charles and Gertrude Mary (Tregelles) Gillett. They live in Oxford, England,
and have issue:
James Cooper Gillett, b. March 5, 1910.
Margaret, b. July 21, 1884; d. Feb. 24, 1896;
Caroline, b. Nov. 21, 1888, d. Apr. 18, 1890.
HARRIS FAMILY.
So far as can now be ascertained, the Philadelphia Harris family — of whom the
brothers, Joseph S. Harris and John Campbell Harris, are now the senior repre-
sentatives — originated in the southwest of England, where they lived for several
hundred years, down to the end of the seventeenth century, when they removed
to county Antrim, Ireland, and after a short time, settled wholly in Pennsylvania,
about 1745.
An ancestor of this Chester county family was probably John Harris, a manu-
facturer of cloth ("Harris cassimeres" to this day being a noted product), of
Goatacre, Wiltshire, South England, born about 1680, who removed to Antrim,
whence his sons emigrated. He had issue :
John Harris, b. 1717; m. Hannah Stewart, 1760; d. Aug. 13, 1773;
Thomas Harris, b. 1722; m, Elizabeth Bailey, 1748; d. Dec. 11, 1799.
John Harris, on his emigration, about 1750, settled in Newtown, Bucks county,
Pennsylvania, where he passed his life. He acquired considerable real estate in
that neighborhood, and was a leading citizen of Newtown, and his house, which
was one of the best in the town, was taken by General Washington as his head-
quarters for some days before and after the battle of Trenton. On his departure
he presented Mrs. Harris with some table silver which is still treasured in her
family.
Hannah Stewart, his wife (born 1741), was a daughter of Charles and Sarah
Stewart, of Upper Makefield township, Bucks county. Charles Stewart was born
1719, in Scotland. He was a man of good position and comfortable estate, and
served some years as Captain of a company of "Associators" (as the mihtary
force of Pennsylvania, between 1748 and 1755, was called), and died September
16, 1794.
After the death of John Harris, his widow, Hannah, became the acting executor
of the estate of her husband, and later of her father, and as her brother, William
Stewart, who had accompanied Daniel Boone to Kentucky in 1773, acquired a
valuable estate there, and had been killed by the Indians at the battle of Blue
Licks, August 19, 1782. she took up the work of caring for his estate, and went to
Kentucky, 1785, with her mother and her children, in a lumbering, old-fashioned
wagon, the door handle of which is still treasured as an heirloom in the family.
She was a woman of more than ordinary ability, and made the long and tiresome
journey backward and forward several times between Kentucky and Pennsylvania,
returning finally to Kentucky 1797, and died there 1803.
Their children married well ; the eldest daughter, Ann, marrying Harry Innes,
February, 1792, a Judge of the United States District Court, appointed 1787, and
holding the office till his death, September 20, 1816; and her fourth daughter,
Elizabeth, marrying Thomas Todd, June 22, 1788, who was a Judge of the United
States Supreme Court, February, 1807, till his death, February 7, 1826. The de-
scendants of John Harris have long been of the best families of Kentucky.
HARRIS 1303
Thomas Harris came to Pennsylvania about 1745. He married, 1748, Eliza-
beth Bailey, born 1726, in county Derry, Ireland, and was brought up in the family
of her uncle, Edward Bailey, Bishop of Raphoe. He originally settled in Willis-
town, Chester county, but in 1770 bought a farm in East Whiteland, Chester
county, where he spent the rest of his life. He was a substantial farmer, and a
man of mark in his community, one of the corporators of the Great Valley Pres-
byterian Church, 1788, and on record as one of the chief persons of the congrega-
tion.
Issue of Thomas and Elizabeth (Bailey) Harris:
Mary Harris, b. March 11, 1749, d. inf.;
Bailey Harris, b. March 16, 1751, d. April 4, 1757;
John Harris, b. April 1, 1753; m. 1776; d. Dec. 25, 1838;
Jane Harris, b. May 27, 1755, d. March 9, 1778;
William Harris, b. Oct. 7, 1757; m. April 24, 1780; d. Sept. 4, 1812;
Margaret Harris, b. Jan. 10, 1760, d. Dec. 24, 1843;
Elizabeth Harris, b. Feb. g, 1762; m. May 9, 1786; d. June 2, 1840;
Agnes Harris, b. Nov. 15, 1765; m. 1801 ; d. Aug. 15, 1830;
Hannah Harris, b. Jan. 16, 1769; m. 1797; d. Feb. 14, 1843.
John Harris lived at the original Harris homestead in Willistown. He was a
paymaster in the Revolutionary Army; and an unsuccessful attempt was once
made to rob him at Valley Forge, when he had a considerable sum of money in
his possession. In 1794 he was Lieutenant-Colonel, commanding the regiment of
Chester county militia, which was a part of the force called into service by Presi-
dent Washington to quell the Whiskey Insurrection in Western Pennsylvania.
His wife, Mary Bowen, was a great-granddaughter of Rev. Malachi Jones, a
Presbyterian clergyman, born in Wales, 1651, who from 1714 till his death, March
26, 1729, was the first pastor of the Presbyterian Church of Abington, Mont-
gomery county, Pennsylvania.
William Harris spent his life on his father's farm in East Whiteland, Penn-
sylvania. He entered the Army of the Revolution at the age of eighteen, and rose
to the rank of Captain in the "State Regiment of Foot," Colonel John Bull com-
manding, serving in the battles of Brandywine and Germantown. In 1794 he was
Captain of the Eighth Company of the Chester county regiment, and regimental
paymaster in the Whiskey Insurrection. He continued throughout his life attach-
ed to the state military organization, in which he rose, by 1811, to be Brigadier-
General of the Second Brigade, Third Division, Pennsylvania troops. When, in
1812, the war with Great Britain broke out. Governor Snyder, of Pennsylvania,
ordered out fourteen thousand troops, William Harris was called into service with
the command due his rank, but he died before the troops took the field. He was a
member of the State Legislature, elected 1779-80, and again 1810-11, and was on
duty in the last session of that body prior to his death. Throughout his life he
was an active and prominent citizen. His zeal in the cause of public education is
still remembered in the community in which he lived. He gave to three of his
sons the best education the region afforded, educating two of them at the Brandy-
wine Academy, and the third at Chester County Academy, which latter school
was the result of efforts he made in the State Legislature, and for which he set
apart a part of his farm. These three were all afterwards entered in the Medical
School of the University of Pennsylvania, from which they were graduated.
1304 HARRIS
His wife, IVlary. born February 27, 1752, died November 26, 1837, was a daugh-
ter of Rev. John Campbell (a minister of the Presbyterian church) and Mary
Hubbard.
John Campbell was born in Scotland, 1713, came to Pennsylvania 1734, pursued
his theological studies at the Log College, near Hartsville, in Bucks county, Penn-
sylvania, where Rev. William Tennent maintained for twenty years after its
foundation, in 1726, a school for the education of clergymen. He was installed
October 27, 1747, as pastor of the churches of New Providence, Bucks county,
and Charlestown, Chester county, Pennsylvania. While in the pulpit of the
Charlestown church, commencing the morning service and reading the lines in the
old metrical version of the ii6th Psalm,
"Dear in Thy sight is Thy saint's death.
Thy servant. Lord, am I,"
he had an apoplectic stroke, which caused his death almost immediately. His
wife, Mary, was a daughter of Thomas and Elizabeth Hubbard. Thomas Hub-
bard was from Wales, born 1674, married about 171 5, and died February, 1764.
He lived in Tredyfifrin township, Qiester county, Pennsylvania, and he was a large
farmer.
Issue of IVilliam and Mary (Campbell) Harris:
Campbell Harris, b. May 2, 1781 ; m. 1808; d. May 17, 1853;
Thomas Harris, b. Jan. 3, 1784; m. (first) Jan. i, 1820; (second) April 20, 1839; d.
March 4, i86i ;
Mary Harris, b. Oct. 15, 1786, d. May 20, 1791;
John Harris, b. May 20, 1789; m. (first) Oct. 28, 1819; (second) Oct., 1845; d. May 12,
1864;
William Harris, b. Aug. 18, 1792; m. April 20, 1820; d. March 3, l86i;
James Bailey Harris, b. Oct. 14, 1795; m. April 10, 1838; d. June 23, 1881;
Stephen Harris, b. Sept. 4, 1798; m. April 4, 1833; d. Nov. 18, 1851.
These sons averaged lives were seventy-two years in length. Campbell and
James Bailey Harris were farmers, who emigrated, 1818, to what was then the new
rich land of Genesee Valley, Livingston county, New York, where they spent their
lives.
Thomas H.\rris was educated at Brandywine Academy, and studied medicine
at the University of Pennsylvania, receiving degree of M. D., 1809. July 6, 1812,
he entered the naval medical service, in which he spent his whole life. • He was
surgeon of the Sloop-of-War, "Wasp," which, in the fall of 1812, captured the
British Sloop-of-War, "Frolic," but was herself disabled, and obliged to sur-
render soon afterward to the British seventy-four-gun ship, "Poictiers," which
came up soon after the engagement was over. He was in active service on the
Atlantic ocean and on Lake Ontario during most of that war, but was not in any
other considerable engagement. He sailed, March, 1815, with Commodore De-
catur, on his expedition to punish the Barbary piratical powers. After the capture
of the Algerine flagship, "Mashouda," by Decatur, Thomas Harris was put in
charge of her wounded.
As the United States was at peace for many years after 1815, the navy was but
little engaged except in cruising, and Thomas Harris pursued his profession a
number of years on shore, being on leave of absence. In 1831 he was called upon
HARRIS 1305
to extract a ball which President Andrew Jackson had received in 1806, in a duel
with Charles Dickinson. He was on several occasions assigned to special duty by
die Navy Department, but his home remained in Philadelphia. He lived in his
own house at the northwest corner of Spruce and Ninth streets until 1844, when
he was ordered to Washington as Chief of the Bureau of Medicine and Surgery,
which position he held till he was retired from the service, 1857, on account of
age and physical disability. He then returned to Philadelphia, and spent the rest
of his life there.
His first wife, Jane, whom he married, January, 1820, was a (laughter of Major
Samuel Hodgdon, of Philadelphia, who was an officer of the United States Army,
1776-1800. He was Quartermaster-General of General St. Clair's Army in the
campaign against the Miami Indians, 1791. In 1813 he was president of the
Pennsylvania Company for Insurance on Lives and Granting Annuities in Phila-
delphia. His wife was Mary Hodge, of Philadelphia. Jane Hodgdon, who was
the mother of all the children of Thomas Harris, died July 21, 1834.
His second wife, Esther White, born 1803, was a daughter of Major Samuel
Macpherson, of the Revolutionary Army, and Elizabeth, daughter of William
White, first Protestant Episcopal Bishop of Pennsylvania. She died May 18,
1855-
John Harris entered the United States Marine Service during the second war
with Great Britain, his commission as Lieutenant bearing date April 23, 1814.
He served during the summer of that year, in the force which opposed the British
advance on Washington. In May, 181 5, he sailed under Commodore Decatur in
the expedition which punished the Barbary piratical powers, and was present in
the action which resulted in the capture of the Algerian flagship, "Mashouda," by
the United States frigate, "Guerriere.'" He was in active sea service a large part
of the next twenty years, visiting in that time most parts of the world in which
the United States then maintained a fleet. In 1836 he was engaged in the Creek
War, Alabama, and in the Seminole War, Florida, and received a brevet as Major
"for gallantry and good conduct in that war, particularly in the affair of Hatchee
Lustee." He was in command of the battalion of marines stationed at Alvarado,
near Vera Cruz, Mexico, during the latter part of the Mexican War, and January
7, 1859, he was appointed Colonel-Commandant of the United States Marine
Corps, which position he held till his death.
His first wife, Mary, whom he married October 28, 1819, was a daughter of
Colonel Thomas Forster and Sarah Montgomery. She was born August 16, 1795,
and died September 22, 1820. His second wife, Mary Gilliat, was the daughter
of William Gray, who was many years British Consul at Norfolk, Virginia. She
was born 181 1, married, October, 1845, and died February 16, 1883.
William Harris was educated at Brandywine Academy, and in 1812 received
the degree of M. D. from University of Pennsylvania. He practiced medicine
in Chester county until 1834, when he removed to Philadelphia, and spent the rest
of his life there, living most of the time in his house at the southeast corner of
Twelfth and Walnut streets. Fie was a successful physician, a writer on medical
subjects, and a lecturer in a summer school of medicine.
His wife, Elizabeth Matilda Patterson, born February 13, 1794, married April
20, 1820, died July 18, 1880, was the youngest daughter of Dr. Robert Patterson,
of Philadelphia, and Amy Hunter Ewing. Dr. Patterson was born in Ireland.
1306 HARRIS
May 30, 1743, emigrated to America 1768, was a surgeon in the Revolutionary
Army, 1776-8; professor of mathematics, University of Pennsylvania, 1779-1814,
and director of the United States Mint, 1805-24, in which year he died.
Stephen Harris was educated at Chester County Academy, and at the Medical
School of the University of Pennsylvania, from which he was graduated 1819.
He spent most of his life in the practice of his profession, while living at the
Harris homestead, Chester Valley, near Philadelphia, to which he succeeded by
purchase from his brother, John Harris. Never having been strong, his health
succombed to the hardships of a country practice, and partly on that account, and
partly to have better facilities for the education of his children, he removed to
Philadelphia in 1850; but died the next year. He was the leading man in his
section of the country, a physician and surgeon of excellent ability, and a fore-
most man in all that tended to the advance of the community in which he lived.
An elder in the Presbyterian church, as was his father and a number of the other
members of his family, he was the leader in the movement to build, 1839, the
church which is now called the Frazer Church, after his wife's family, and was
much the largest contributor. His services in this respect were recognized by the
congregation, when they built the present house of worship, 1876, by the erection
of a memorial window therein.
His wife, Marianne, born April 2, 1805, died March 12, 1890, was a daughter of
Joseph Smith and Mary Frazer.
Joseph Smith's father was Colonel Robert Smith, of the Revolution, and his
grandparents were John and Susanna Smith.
John Smith's father, John Smith, was born about 1655. He was of the Scottish
family of Macdonald, who are descended from Somerlett, Lord of Argyle, who
married Ragnhildis, daughter of Olave the Swarthy, 1140, and died 1164. His
grandson, Donald Mac Donald, of Islay and South Kintyre, married a daughter of
William the Steward, who was ancestor of the Stuart Kings of Scotland and Eng-
land. From this marriage the present family of Macdonald is descended.
The islands of Islay and Kintyre approach the Irish coast very nearly, less than
fifteen miles of water separating the latter island from Antrim, and intercourse
across the narrow channel has been very frequent from remote times.
In 1400, John Mor (Big John), second son of the head of the clan Donald,
married Marjory Bisset, heiress of "the Glens," Antrim, Ireland, and the clan thus