Lower Gwynedd was known to play a role during the Underground Railroad. There were abolitionists in the area like William Foulke (1802-1882) who used their homes to hide fugitive slaves to help them seek freedom from the antebellum South. Then there were individuals who were part of the Underground Railroad, and guided fugitive slaves to the right direction. Thanks to the Princeton University Special Collections, I found an individual from Whitpain who wrote a letter dating back to 1839. His name was John C. Lester.
Who was John C. Lester?
John Clifton Lester (1809-1873) was born in Quakertown, PA. He inherited his father's homestead in Quakertown and lived there for a long time until his death in 1873. He married in 1835 to Hannah B. Mather, daughter of Charles and Jane Mathers of Whitpain Township.
John was descended from Peter Lester, who was the first member of the Lester family to arrive in Pennsylvania in 1682 from Leicestershire, England. He officially moved to the "Great Swamp" (now parts of Quakertown, Richland Township, Milford Township, Springfield Township, and Saucon Township) with his family where he purchased 600 acres of land from Griffith Jones in 1712. He became a member of the Gwynedd Friends Meeting after the organization was established in the area. Around 1715, he was granted permission from the "Friends in the Swamp" to hold meetings at his home until in 1723, they build a log house to hold the meetings for the Society of Friends in the area.
Peter was considered the pioneer of the early migration from Gwynedd to the "Great Swamp."
Who was Elizabeth M. Jacobs Davis?
Elizabeth M. Jacobs Davis (1817-1904) was the wife of William Morris Davis, a US congressman who represented Pennsylvania's 5th congressional district. Both William and Elizabeth were abolitionists, and they were contacted by other abolitionists and reformers in Pennsylvania, including John C. Lester of Quakertown.
Below was an 1839 letter written to Elizabeth from John Lester, who was living in Whitpain Township, possibly living with his wife's family at the time. Then below that was an 1840 letter he wrote to Elizabeth from Buttonwood Hall in Quakertown.
Special Thanks to Emma Sarconi and the staff members at the Princeton University Special Collections for providing me these letters!
Bibliography
"Historic Quakertown Walking Tour." Quakertown Historical Society. Accessed August 20, 2023. https://www.ubcc.org/uploads/7/7/5/3/77533576/walking_tour_brochure_final.pdf.
Incoming Correspondence to Elizabeth M. Jacobs Davis; William Morris Davis and Elizabeth M. Jacobs Davis Correspondence, C1660, Manuscripts Division, Department of Special Collections, Princeton University Library.
Morris, William E, and Robert Pearsall Smith. Map of Bucks County, Pennsylvania: from surveys. [Philadelphia: R.P. Smith, 1850] Map. https://www.loc.gov/item/2012590185/.
Morris, William E, and Smith & Wistar. Map of Montgomery County, Pennsylvania: from original surveys. [Philadelphia: Smith & Wistar, 1849] Map. https://www.loc.gov/item/2012590207/.
Roberts, Clarence Vernon and Warren Smedley Ely. Early Friends Families of Upper Bucks, with Some Account of Their Descendants: Historical and Genealogical Information about the Early Settlers in Upper Bucks County, Pennsylvania. (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Company, 1975): 345.
Scott, J. D. Bucks County 1876, Quakertown Borough, 1876.
"The Lester Family." Caldwell County Coordinator. Last modified August 21, 2006. https://www.caldwell.mogenweb.org/peterlester.htm.
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