Rash's Surname Index
Notes for Samuel ATKINSON
Samuel Atkinson, the father of Ruth (Atkinson) Bispham, was the youngest son of Thomas and Jane (Bond) Atkinson, and was born in Bristol township. Bucks county, Pennsylvania, July 17, 1685. On the re-marriage of his mother in 1688, he went to live with her and his step-father William Biles in Falls township, and
remained in that township until 1714, when he removed to Nottingham township, Burlington county, New Jersey, taking a certificate from Falls Meeting in Bucks, to Chesterfield Meeting in Burlington county, dated August 4, 1714, and proposing intentions of marriage the following day at Chesterfield Meeting to Ruth (Stacy) Beakes widow of William Beakes, formerly of Bucks county, and daughter of Mahlon Stacy and his wife Rebecca Ely, who were among the most prominent people of Burlington county. Mahlon Stacy belong to the prominent family of landed gentry of Ballifield, Yorkshire, and married there in 1668, Rebecca Ely, of a like prominent family. He was one of the purchasers of the lands of West Jersey, becoming one of the lords proprietors of the province, of which he owned one-tenth interest. He came over with his family in 1678, and
settled on the site of Trenton, New Jersey, of which settlement he was the founder, and named his main plantation Ballifield, after his ancestral home in England. He erected a mill on the site of Trenton, which with a goodly portion of his land thereabout was sold by his son, of the same name to Colonel William Trent and Trent adding a number of other manufacturing industries, the town took its name from him. Mahlon Stacy was one of the principal men of the province and filled many important official positions. Ruth Stacy inherited considerable estate from her father, and after the death of her first husband, William Beakes,
purchased 100 acres of land of her stepson, Edmond Beakes, adjoining Ballifield, on which she and her second husband, Samuel Atkinson, took up their residence on their marriage, which took place at the house of her brother Mahlon, September 12, 1714. She was born March 30, 1680, and died June 9, 1755. They however resided here but a short time, removing in 1719, to a large tract of land in Chester township, in the lower part of Burlington county, embracing what is now the easterly portion of Moorestown, where he lived in lordly style. His wife having inherited a large part of the estate of her brother Mahlon Stacy, Jr., who died without issue, as well as a considerable estate from her father, Samuel and Ruth Atkinson were among the most wealthy people of the province in their day. They were, after their removal to Moorestown, active
members of Gloucester, later Haddonfield, Monthly Meeting of Friends, of which Samuel was an overseer, and frequently represented in the Quarterly Meeting at Salem, and the Yearly Meeting in Philadelphia. He died at his home in Chester township, Burlington county, New Jersey, February 21, 1775, aged nearly ninety
years. An obituary notice of him in the Pennsylvania Gazette, of March 1, 1775, says of him, "In every period and station of his life, he supported the character of an honest man, which secured him the esteem of those who were acquainted with his virtues--With a tender benevolent heart, he possessed extensive
knowledge and good abilities, which he always cheerfully exerted for the benefit of his fellow-creatures. He endured all the infirmities of old age with Christian fortitude and resignation, leaving this world with a well-grounded hope of unfading joys, in a kingdom 'not made with hands, eternal in the Heavens.' " Samuel and Ruth (Stacy) Atkinson, had four children, of whom Ruth, the wife of Joshua Bispham, was the youngest.
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