to who were the children of the third Thomas Biddle, who the daughters married, and of the estate involved in the transfer. It is the kind of evidence that is never questioned, and an inquiry does not often go back of it. This deed, not of record, with many other papers of that character relating to the family, are in possession of John Bishop, of Columbus, N.J., who appreciates their value and cares for their preservation. Thomas and Charlotte Biddle's children were Abigail, who died unmarried; Thomas, married Mary Harvey; Israel, married Sarah Tallman and Sarah T. Field; Mary, married James Bates and Isaac Field; John, died unmarried; Charlotte, married Samuel Black; Achsa, married Joseph Haines; and William, married Elizabeth Rockhill. John and Abigail Harvey's children were Job, married Sarah Bunting; John, married Mary Potts; and Thomas, married Lydia Wainwright. Caleb and Mary Foster's children were John, married and Abigail, married Joshua Bispham. It is true that Joseph Biddle, in his will dated February 19, 1776, mentions a "daughter-in-law Abigail Biddle," which might leave the impression that she was the wife of a son Thomas, who for some reason was not named in the will, that he was the purchaser of the homestead in 1741, and that the "daughter-in-law Abigail Biddle" was Abigail Scull. In this view, therefore, the descendants of Thomas Biddle must trace their line from William Biddle, the emigrant, through Joseph Biddle, and not from Thomas Biddle, the cousin of William, through Thomas Biddle of 1741. This might claim some plausibility in the absence of the conveyance before named from John and Abigail Harvey and Caleb and Mary Foster to their brother, Thomas Biddle, in 1793, for their interest in their father's property. The fact is, that Joseph Biddle's "daughter-in-law Abigail Biddle" was the widow of his son Arney Biddle, and puts at rest any speculation on the point before suggested. Joseph Biddle was twice married. This is shown by two documents. In 1731, John Arney, of Freehold, in Mon mouth County, N.J., conveyed to his daughter Rebecca, wife of Joseph Biddle, of Mansfield Township, Burlington County, N.J., a tract of land in Springfield Township of the last-named county, and in the will of Joseph Biddle he mentions his wife Sarah. Joseph Biddle's children were Joseph, married Sarah Shreve; Mary, married Restore Shinn; Sarah, married John Monroe; and Arney, married Abigail The difficulty, however, is to show what relation the children of the testator bore to these two females, and the lapse of one hundred years renders it almost impossible of solution. Apart from the service of Joseph Biddle as a member of the legislature from 1779 to 1790, with one interval, the name does not often occur in the civil or political records of the State. They seldom sought political preferment, but "Kept the noiseless tenor of their way" in the community where they lived. Surrounded with their broad acres, which gave the assurance of full and plenty, the profits of office did not tempt them, nor the allurements of speculation lead them astray. Although but little, if any, of the land is in the name or even in the line of blood, where the head of the house made his home and has but few representatives thereabouts, yet the many associations and incidents connected with the family are such that no proper history of the county can be written without giving it a conspicuous place. The laws of New Jersey regulating the inheritance, the descent, and disposal of real estate have much to do with the constant change going on in the ownership of land. A lack of family pride, the division of properties, and the alienation in the female line is the reason in many instances why so little of the first settlers' choice of real estate can now be found in possession of their descendants. The spirit of unrest, characteristic of the American people, is not influenced by home attachments. They leave the graves of their fathers without a sigh, and the old hearth stones without a regret. The ancestral acres have no charm where the temptations of fortune, of ambition, or of adventure stand out so boldly as they do in this wide domain, bounded by the oceans only. "Impell'd with steps unceasing to pursue Some fleeting good, that mocks us with the view, |