William Paxson was baptized in St. Mary’s Church in Marsh Gibbon, Buckinghamshire, in 1648, one of the four sons of James Paxson and Jane Clerk. William and his three brothers became Quakers and appeared in the minutes of the meeting at the Upperside of Bucks.1 Three of the brothers, Henry, William and James, married while still in England, and immigrated in 1682 with their younger brother Thomas. They came on separate ships. William and James came on the Amity, while Henry and Thomas came on the Samuel. Disease broke out on the Samuel, and Henry’s wife and brother Thomas died at sea. William, James and Henry arrived safely and settled in Middletown.

William’s land in Middletown is shown on Holmes’ 1687 map of Pennsylvania near the land of Robert Heaton, Thomas Stackhouse, James Dilworth, and Nicholas Waln.2 In 1693 James, William and Henry Paxson were all taxed in Middletown. James had the most land of the three. William eventually owned about 900 acres of land and sold only one piece, to his son-in-law Thomas Walmsley.3

William apparently married twice, both times to women named Mary. There are no records of either marriage, but circumstantial evidence for their names. In England he married Mary Sydenham and had two or three children with her.4 The evidence for her name is the family Bible of William Sydenham, which included the births of Sydenham’s children as well as the children of William and Mary Paxson, not William Paxson the immigrant but his son William and wife Mary Watson. The only logical reason for them to be there is that the wife of the older William was William Sydenham’s sister.5

William and Mary immigrated together with their two children and settled in Middletown. Mary died before September 1698 when he married Mary White, the widow of Judge John White.6 Again there is no record, so the date is unknown and her maiden name is uncertain. It is often said to be Packingham, but there is no good evidence for this.7 William and his second wife had no children together, but she had three children by John White, named in his will of 1693 as James, Mary and Grace.
William was active in local government and in the Pennsylvania Assembly. “William was elected a representative from Bucks County to the Pennsylvania General Assembly in 1692, 1696, 1700, 1701, 1703, and from 1705 through 1708.  He served as a highway overseer in 1693 and was suggested as a County tax collector in 1696.  He served on eight grand and twelve petit juries before 1700, and was asked by the court to appraise distrained goods which had been overpriced and would not sell. He was listed as one of the justices sitting at the Quarter Session held 13 December 1704 …  He also witnessed wills and served as an executor at least once.”8

He was also active in Middletown Friends Meeting. “His name appeared often in the minutes as he was appointed to various committees to clear a man for marriage (five times), deal with a Friend who acted out of unity with  Friends’ principles (twelve times), and other jobs. In 1690 he was one of several asked to set out and fence the burial ground, and to oversee the building of a stable for the meeting house. He had subscribed £10 to help build the meeting house and 10s for the stable. He signed with his mark the 1687 Meeting testimony against selling rum to the Indians. He attended and signed the certificates of at least eight weddings in the Meeting, including that of his brother Henry.”9 A letter written by a Friend in 1688 stated that “William Paxson is a man mild in manner but as strong in the cause of Truth as the great oaks by which he is surrounded.”10

In 1692, when the teachings of George Keith split the Quaker community into two factions, William followed Keith and withdrew from Middletown Friends for a time. Keith was a charismatic preacher who taught that Quakers needed more than just the inner light; they needed specific beliefs in scripture. On 6 August 1692 the Middletown minutes showed that William Paxson had separated. He did not reappear in their minutes under September 1696, when he wrote a paper acknowledging his fault and condemning it. This was accepted and he was once more active in committees, as a trustee, overseer, and representative to the Quarterly and Yearly meetings.11

William wrote his will in August 1709; it was proved the following January.12 He was buried in the burying ground of Middletown Meeting on 2 January 1710. In the will he left the usual one-third of his estate to his wife Mary, plus a bond for £120 for her heirs. He left a smaller sum to his daughter Mary and her husband Thomas, plus a legacy for their four oldest children. (Their other five children were born after their grandfather’s death.) He left the land to his son William, three tracts for a total of 900 acres, and made William the executor. There was no mention of Mary’s children with John White; they would be provided for by the £120 bond. The inventory was extensive. He owned six horses, four oxen, fourteen cattle, the usual household furnishings, a wolf trap, tools, bushels of wheat and rye, the time of a servant woman and a Negro boy. The value was over £391.13

Mary died in 1718. In her will she provided for her daughters Mary and Grace and several grandchildren.14

Children of William and his first wife Mary:

Elizabeth, bapt. Feb. 1676/7 in Marsh Gibbon, England, died in infancy.

Mary, bapt. Mar 1678/9 in England, d. 1755, m. 4 April 1698 Thomas Walmsley, the son of Thomas Walmsley and Elizabeth Rudd. The older Thomas died two months after landing in Pennsylvania, and Thomas and his brother and sister were raised by their mother and her second husband John Purslow. Thomas married Mary in 1698 and they moved to Byberry, where Thomas was a farmer and dealer in horses. He was not active in the meeting or in government. By the time he died Thomas owned a large tract in Byberry, 200 acres in Middletown, land in Buckingham, another 60 acres in Byberry, and a farm in Moreland. Mary was subject to seizures. Her descendants remembered a story about her. “Mary had fits, many years before she died, took all her senses away, once fell in the fire, had to mind her carefully as a child.  After a while she would come to…”15 They had nine children who all lived to adulthood and married. Children of Thomas and Mary: Elizabeth, Mary, Thomas, William, Agnes, Abigail, Phebe, Esther, Martha.

William, b. June 1685 in Middletown, d. 1733, m. Mary Watson in May 1711 at Falls Meeting, daughter of Thomas and Rebecca.16 She d. 1760. William served in the Provincial Assembly for many years, where he was “remarkably inactive”.17 He was a Justice of the Peace, and was active in Middletown Monthly Meeting. Mary was even more active in the Meeting, serving as the clerk of the women’s meeting for almost 25 years.18 William’s will named his wife, sons and daughters. His estate included a Negro man, who was probably the Negro boy bequeathed to him by his father years earlier. “William’s personal estate (excluding real property but including crops “in the ground”) was worth £542.03.0. It included possessions his parents had not owned such as two looking glasses, two brass kettles and six brass pans, two maps, and table linens.”19 Children of William and Mary: William, Mary, Thomas, John, Henry, James, Deborah. All but John lived to marry and have children.