Alexander Beale, son of William and Elizabeth Beale of Bensalem, had a complicated life, with four marriages and many changes of residence. He grew up in Bensalem and was at first a member of Abington Meeting. In 1716 he married Sarah Bowman at Wrightstown Meeting. A year or so later he got a certificate from Abington to go to Falls Meeting. Perhaps he and Sarah were living with his widowed mother and farming her land in Bensalem. He and Sarah later became members of Buckingham Monthly Meeting.1 The births of their children were not recorded, but two survived to adulthood, Hannah and William.2 Sarah died about 1722. In early 1722/3 Alexander got a certificate from Buckingham to marry Sarah Town, a member of Falls Meeting. They lived in Buckingham, where in 1724 he mortgaged a 200-acre tract bounded by land of his brother John and others.3

Alexander and Sarah Town had at least two children, but she died before 1737 when he asked  Buckingham for a certificate to Burlington, West Jersey, to marry Hannah Rogers. The request was denied. He asked again the next month, and married her the month after that, probably without permission since he made acknowledgement to the meeting for his misconduct. The following year he came before the meeting again to acknowledge fornication with Hannah before marriage. Alexander was almost 50 years old at this time, so he should have known better. Hannah was the widow of William Rogers, who had been a lieutenant of militia of Northampton in 1706 and who died in 1736 in Burlington County.

In 1741 and 1742 Alexander sold off his Buckingham land, apparently preparing for a move to West Jersey.  He sold a small portion of it to Elizabeth and Ely Welding, and the remainder to John Watson, practitioner in physic. It was about this time that his older children married and started households of their own.4 After his eventful life Alexander remained in good standing with Buckingham Meeting, and in 1743 he requested a certificate from them to Burlington Meeting. Around 1742 he and Hannah moved to Burlington, NJ and owned a farm in Hanover Township. Alexander was to marry one more time. In 1746 he married Esther Butterworth, with a license in New Jersey on December 11, 1746.5

In March 1749/50 his daughter Deborah married Thomas Rambo, both of Gloucester County. Married at St. Michael’s and Zion Church in Philadelphia, they lived in Deptford Township, Gloucester County.6

Alexander died in Gloucester County, New Jersey, in 1754.7 Thomas Rambo was the administrator for Alexander’s estate. Beal was described as a husbandman of the Township of Deptford, Gloucester County. Was he living with Deborah and Thomas when he died?

Children of Alexander and Sarah Bowman:8

Hannah, b. 1717, d. between 1769 and 1784, married Patrick Malone about 1742. They bought a farm in Buckingham in 1745 near Forest Grove. Patrick died in 1788. In his will Patrick named his sons John and James, and his daughters Elizabeth, Mary, Hannah, Phebe, and Ann, as well as grandchildren Abner and Sarah Worthington, children of his daughter Sarah Worthington deceased. John was the residual heir and executor.  Since there was no mention of Hannah, she had clearly died before him.

William, b. about 1722, d. 1751, married 1742 Grace Gill at Buckingham MM.  She was the daughter of Thomas Gill and Alice Comly of Byberry. They lived in New Britain and had six children before William’s death in March 1752. In his will he provided for the maintenance of his “dearly beloved” wife Grace, left the plantation to his two sons Thomas and Joseph, asked his father-in-law Thomas Gill and cousin Thomas Watson to be executors. His inventory showed the typical farming household of the time.9

Children of Alexander and Sarah Town: (born between 1723 and 1730)

Deborah, married in 1749 Thomas Rambo at St. Michael’s and Zion Church, Philadelphia; lived in Deptford Township, Gloucester County, New Jersey. They had children James, Jonathan, Elizabeth and Hannah.10

Benjamin, mentioned in a certificate of 1741. Benjamin was called before Bucks County court in May 1758 to answer a suit of Richard Yardley. His uncle John Beal of Buckingham and brother-in-law Patrick Malone were sureties for his appearance. There is no record of how this case ended. In 1764 he was probably the Benjamin Beal taxed in Buckingham, and in the same year Isaac Beal, son of Benjamin Beal of Buckingham Twp, was apprenticed to Edmond Kinsey, blacksmith. In 1769 Benjamin Beal, possibly the same one, was called before Bucks County court for assault and battery. Again there is no record of how the case ended.