The Jeffery Hawkins’s in 1692 America
Of the one hundred immigrants the Welcome brought to the wilderness west of the Delaware, the heads of families
were generally persons of standing and intelligence. About one-half of all who arrived with Penn settled in Bucks
County, and their descendants are found here to this day, many of them bearing the same names and some living on
the ancestral homesteads.
I am not aware that a plat of our Hawkins’s early holdings exists, and I have not seen any description of the properties by anyone. I believe that the information offered here locates it on the west side of Morrisville, PA, across from Trenton, NJ.
It is 5 miles across the top of Falls Twp. per Google Earth. A likely projection of the Hawkins properties as described could be From the Delaware along the North Falls County line, using the “jogs,” Woods 1.42 mi + 590 acres, Hawkins 1.54 mi + 550 acres, Kirkbride .89 mi. +500 acres, and Lucas 1.18 mi +322 acres. The Hawkins’s 550 acres would require an area of .859% of a 640 acre square mile. A rectangle with a side 1.54 mi., and containing 640 acres would require the squared side to be .654 mi. A Hawkins rectangle requires that side to be 86% or .558 mi.
p102 ~ Bucks County, at the September term, 1692, appointed a jury, and directed them to meet at the Neshaminy meeting-house, in Middletown, the 27th to divide the county into townships. They reported at the December term, dividing the settled portions into five townships, viz : Makefield, Falls, Buckingham, now Bristol, Salem, now Bensalem, and Middletown, giving the metes and bounds.
The following is the text of the report: "The uppermost township being called Makefield to begin at the uppermost plantations and along the river to the uppermost part of John Wood's land, and by the lands formerly belonging to the Hawkinses and Joseph Kirkbride and widow Lucas' land, and so along as near as may be in a straight line to -- in Joshua Hoops' land.
"The township at the falls being called — is to begin at Pennsbury and so up the river to the upper side of John Woods' land, and then to take in the Hawkinses, Joseph Kirkbride and widow Lucas' lands, and so the land along that creek, continuing the same until it takes in the land of John Rowland and Edward Pearson, and so to continue till it come with Pennsbury upper land, then along Pennsbury to the place of beginning. Then Pennsbury as its laid out.
p103 ~ It will be noticed that the report of the jury to lay out these townships leaves the name of Falls, blank, a matter to be determined in the future. But the location gave it the name it bears; and for years it was as often called "the township at the Falls." as Falls township. We doubt whether its original limits have been curtailed, and its generous area, fourteen thousand eight hundred and thirty-eight acres, is probably the same now as when first organized.
Of the original settlers, in Falls, several of them were there before the country came into Penn's possession.
The Names of original settlers: Joshua Hoops, John Palmer, John Collins, William and Charles Biles, William Darke, John Hayecock, John Wheeler, Jonathan Witscard, John Parrons, Andrew Elland, William Beaks, William Venable, John Luff, Jeffrey Hawkins, Ann Millcornb, James Hill, John and Thomas Rowland, Thomas Atkinson, Thomas Wolf, Ralph Smith, John Wood, Daniel Brindsly, John Acreman, Joshua Bore, Robert Lucas., Gilbert Wheeler,
Samuel Darke, Daniel Gardner, Lyonel Britton, George Brown, James Harrison and George Heathcote.
pp 193-194 ~ Within a few years after the settlement of the province, great trouble and inconvenience were found in the transfer of real estate, by reason of the discrepancy between the quantity called for in the warrant, and that returned in the survey. To remedy the difficulty, the commissioners of property ordered a re-survey of all the lands taken up, and a warrant was issued to John Cutler12 surveyor of Bucks county, August 11th, 1702. In the warrant he was directed to re- survey only the lands of Bristol and Falls township,
Falls [Twp.], Jeffrey Hawkins 555, Joseph Wood 590, and Robert Lucas 322 acres; Makefield [Twp.] ......
I am not aware that a plat of our Hawkins’s early holdings exists, and I have not seen any description of the properties by anyone. I believe that the information offered here locates it on the west side of Morrisville, PA, across from Trenton, NJ.
It is 5 miles across the top of Falls Twp. per Google Earth. A likely projection of the Hawkins properties as described could be From the Delaware along the North Falls County line, using the “jogs,” Woods 1.42 mi + 590 acres, Hawkins 1.54 mi + 550 acres, Kirkbride .89 mi. +500 acres, and Lucas 1.18 mi +322 acres. The Hawkins’s 550 acres would require an area of .859% of a 640 acre square mile. A rectangle with a side 1.54 mi., and containing 640 acres would require the squared side to be .654 mi. A Hawkins rectangle requires that side to be 86% or .558 mi.
p102 ~ Bucks County, at the September term, 1692, appointed a jury, and directed them to meet at the Neshaminy meeting-house, in Middletown, the 27th to divide the county into townships. They reported at the December term, dividing the settled portions into five townships, viz : Makefield, Falls, Buckingham, now Bristol, Salem, now Bensalem, and Middletown, giving the metes and bounds.
The following is the text of the report: "The uppermost township being called Makefield to begin at the uppermost plantations and along the river to the uppermost part of John Wood's land, and by the lands formerly belonging to the Hawkinses and Joseph Kirkbride and widow Lucas' land, and so along as near as may be in a straight line to -- in Joshua Hoops' land.
"The township at the falls being called — is to begin at Pennsbury and so up the river to the upper side of John Woods' land, and then to take in the Hawkinses, Joseph Kirkbride and widow Lucas' lands, and so the land along that creek, continuing the same until it takes in the land of John Rowland and Edward Pearson, and so to continue till it come with Pennsbury upper land, then along Pennsbury to the place of beginning. Then Pennsbury as its laid out.
p103 ~ It will be noticed that the report of the jury to lay out these townships leaves the name of Falls, blank, a matter to be determined in the future. But the location gave it the name it bears; and for years it was as often called "the township at the Falls." as Falls township. We doubt whether its original limits have been curtailed, and its generous area, fourteen thousand eight hundred and thirty-eight acres, is probably the same now as when first organized.
Of the original settlers, in Falls, several of them were there before the country came into Penn's possession.
The Names of original settlers: Joshua Hoops, John Palmer, John Collins, William and Charles Biles, William Darke, John Hayecock, John Wheeler, Jonathan Witscard, John Parrons, Andrew Elland, William Beaks, William Venable, John Luff, Jeffrey Hawkins, Ann Millcornb, James Hill, John and Thomas Rowland, Thomas Atkinson, Thomas Wolf, Ralph Smith, John Wood, Daniel Brindsly, John Acreman, Joshua Bore, Robert Lucas., Gilbert Wheeler,
Samuel Darke, Daniel Gardner, Lyonel Britton, George Brown, James Harrison and George Heathcote.
pp 193-194 ~ Within a few years after the settlement of the province, great trouble and inconvenience were found in the transfer of real estate, by reason of the discrepancy between the quantity called for in the warrant, and that returned in the survey. To remedy the difficulty, the commissioners of property ordered a re-survey of all the lands taken up, and a warrant was issued to John Cutler12 surveyor of Bucks county, August 11th, 1702. In the warrant he was directed to re- survey only the lands of Bristol and Falls township,
Falls [Twp.], Jeffrey Hawkins 555, Joseph Wood 590, and Robert Lucas 322 acres; Makefield [Twp.] ......
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