THE SECOND GENERATION

Pages 32-34

From T. Reece Heacock's book: The children of Jonathan and Ann Heacock as we find their names entered in an ancient bible:

            Mary, born 26th of 3rd mo., 1712. 
            John, born 23rd of 9th mo., 1713. 
            Jonathan, born 10th of 3rd mo., 1715. 
            William, born 13th of 1st mo., 1716-17. 
            Ann, born 11th of 12th mo., 1718-19. 
            Joseph, born 31st of 3rd mo., 1722. 

Only two of the six children remained in Chester (now Delaware) county, the eldest son John and the youngest, Joseph, who married Hannah Massey and settled on his father's homestead in Marple. His youngest son, James, who inherited the property in turn, never married, and with his death the property passed out of the family.

John, the eldest son of Jonathan, was a cabinet maker by trade. He married Sarah Taylor in 1739, and settled on a farm in Middletown, which was probably ten miles or less from his father's homestead. T. Reece Heacock tells this story: ". . . John, in advanced life caused a walnut tree, which grew from a nut he once carried in his pocket, to be cut into boards, out of which he made his own coffin. In this he placed his grave clothes, and in conformity with his request they were used at his interment. He died the 13th of 11th mo. 1794, aged 80 years and was buried in Middletown Friends grave yard."

The other four children of Jonathan, including the second Jonathan from whom our family is descended, William, from whom most of the Heacocks now living in the east are descended, and the two daughters, removed to Bucks County. Bucks County, which lies just north of Philadelphia, whereas Chester lies west, was the original site of the settlement of John Heacock, the predecessor of Jonathan, but the new settlement of the Heacock family in Bucks County was not connected with the prior incident. The township of Falls, where John took up his farm in 1682, is on the Delaware River, while the township of Richland, the seat of four of the children of Jonathan, lies about 30 miles from the river. It also lies about 30 miles from Marple, and this must have been a formidable distance in those days. The Bucks County Heacocks were probably seldom in contact with their brothers who remained in Chester County.

The township of Richland was virgin territory when the Heacock families arrived, although it had been laid out twenty years before, and there were enough settlers to build a Quaker meeting house in 1721. Robert Penrose and his wife, Mary Heacock, were the first of the family to settle in Richland. Records show he brought a certificate from the Gwenedd Monthly Meeting in 1734 and settled "on a large tract of land lying along the east side of the Philadelphia road and southeast of the present Station road. On a lot on the northeast corner of this tract was erected the first meeting house of the Richland Friends. Robert Penrose was a tanner and operated a tannery on this tract which comprised 200 acres."^(*)

William Heacock followed his sister six years later. He settled in Rockhill township near the border of Richland township, in a section known as "The Bog", in 1740, where he took up a large plantation and erected and operated a saw mill. In the lowest stories of the mill--possibly not the original building--there are several old "stones" used in grist mills, showing that grain grinding was also done there at some period.

William apparently did not marry until several years after his arrival in Richland, as his first child, Jeremiah, was not born until 1747. William's wife was Ann Roberts, a member of one of the earliest families settling in the Richland neighborhood.

William died on a part of his plantation 4 mo. 12, 1800. By his will made 12 mo. 2, 1797, and probated 5 mo. 8, 1800, he directed that the plantation on which his son William lived, containing 93 acres and 146 perches, should be sold. The saw mill with a tract of land was devised to his son Jesse, and remained in the family for several generations. In addition to legacies to his several children, he left to his sister, Ann, ten pounds if she should survive him, otherwise to her daughter Mary.

Ann Heacock, the youngest daughter of Jonathan, married James Morgan, son of another of the earliest Richland settlers, and the brother of Susanna Morgan, who married Ann's brother, Jonathan. James Morgan was born in Abington, Pennsylvania, in 1721, but was taken by his parents to Richland while an infant. His marriage to Ann Heacock occured on 5 mo. 23, 1745. After their marriage James and Ann moved to Darby, near Ann's father, where James operated a mill. In 1753 they returned to Richland, and lived there and in Rockhill for several years. Ann's brother, William, owned the mill in Rockhill, and James Morgan may have worked for his brother-in-law. James Morgan inherited 200 acres of land in Richland under his father's will, and on the death without issue of his younger brother Isaac, he inherited the share of the land Isaac had received from their father, but the title was disputed by reason of a double conveyance. James and Ann later returned to Chester County, and James died there 7 mo. 2, 1790. Their daughter Sarah married her cousin. Jeremiah, son of William Heacock. Thus the descendants of Jeremiah, of whom there are many, trace their ancestry to Jonathan Heacock through two of his children.

Jonathan Heacock, the second son of Jonathan the emigrant, married Susanna Morgan, daughter of John Morgan, on 3 mo. 9, 1745. Jonathan had presented a certificate from the Chester Monthly Meeting the previous month, 2 mo. 18, 1745, and was married before the Richland meeting. He was by trade a weaver, and we may suppose that this is a continuance of the family tradition from his father, who was a wool merchant. Jonathan was the executor of the will of his mother-in-law, Deborah Morgan, upon her death in 1750. Under the will he received a part of the Morgan tract, and seems to have lived there for several years.

Jonathan and Susanna may have returned to Chester county with their family before the children reached maturity. Their son, John, married into the Pyle family of Chester county in 1783, and another son, Jonathan, is shown by the minutes of the Richland meeting to have left Chester with wife and children, 4 mo. 18, 1782, to have remained two months in Richland and then gone to Haverford. This is the family which later settled in Canada. The date and place of death of Jonathan and Susanna are not known.