JANNEY. "THOMAS JANNEY, of Stiall, in the county of Chester, England, Yeoman, and Margery, his wife, arrived in Delaware River, the 29th 7th month, 1683, in the 'Endeavor,' of London, the master George Thrope. Children Jacob, Thomas, Abell, Joseph. Servants John Neild and Hannah Faulkner." "It was he who gave the ground for the old stone graveyard, a burial ground of much historical local interest." He was a celebrated Friends' minister and companion of William Penn. He settled in Middletown Township, Bucks County, Pennsylvania, and was a member of the first Friends' Meeting established in Bucks County. In the year 1684 he was chosen one of council of the Colony of Pennsylvania, and was returned in 1685 and 1686. In the year 1686 he was made surveyor of Bucks County, an office of great responsibility. He lost his house by fire in the year 1695. "In 1695 Falls Meeting contributed £49 towards repairing the loss of Thomas Janney by fire." Soon after this, the same year, 1695, he returned to England, where he died, February 12, 1696, at the age of sixty-three. He was several times in prison for his religious testimony. Joseph Janney, fourth son of Thomas Janney and Margery, his wife, was born in England, and landed in the Delaware River with his parents July 29, 1683. He settled in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, and on June 18, 1703, was married at Falls Meeting to Rebecca Biles, sixth child of William Biles and Jane Atkinson, his wife, of Bucks County, Pennsylvania (who emigrated from Dorchester, England, with his family, 1679). Their home was in Makefield Township, Bucks County, Pennsylvania. His wife was left a good estate by her father and by friends in Old England. Almost every American family of English descent has at some time during its history been agitated by the prospect of a fortune from the mother country. Ours was not without this tradition, and through our ancestress, Rebecca Biles, it was to come. It was a very large estate, and family expectations were great, even members in the fifth generation were to receive something like one hundred thousand each. Like most of such English estates, however, it reverted to the Crown or elsewhere than the American descend ants, and we have only left her name and the tale that is told, which I hereby bequeath to coming generations. Abel Janney, son of Joseph Janney and Rebecca Biles, his wife, of Bucks County, Pennsylvania, was born in Makefield, Bucks County, and was married August 2, 1733, to Sarah Baker, daughter of Samuel Baker and Rachel Warder, his wife, at Falls Meeting. Sarah Baker was born October 9, 1712, and was the fifth child. On July 27, 1746, Abel Janney and his wife produced their certificate of removal from Middletown, Bucks County, Pennsylvania, to Fairfax, Loudoun County, Virginia. He went back to Pennsylvania for a short time in 1748, but finally made his home in Virginia, where he reared a large family of children. Abel Janney was granted by the Governor of Virginia an estate in Loudoun County. "Abel Janney, late of Pennsylvania, upon survey made by Amos Janney, 626 acres of land on Goose Creek, Prince William County, Virginia, the year 1741." (Loudoun was afterwards created from part of Prince William territory.) Rachel Janney, daughter of Abel Janney and Sarah Baker, his wife, was born in Loudoun County, Virginia, and married Lewis Neill, son of Lewis Neill and Lydia Hollingsworth, bis wife, May 5, 1774, and had seven children,-viz., Abel and Joseph, both of whom died young; Lydia, who married John Williams in 1804; Sarah, who married William Hunt Brown in 1801; Rebecca, who married William Jolliffe in 1799; Ann, who married Mahlon Schofield in 1807; and Mary, who never married, and died when eighty years old while on a visit to Swarthmore, Virginia. |