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Newbold-Fox Family Papers
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Held at: Friends Historical Library of Swarthmore College [Contact Us]500 College Avenue, Swarthmore, Pennsylvania 19081
This is a finding aid. It is a description of archival material held at the Friends Historical Library of Swarthmore College. Unless otherwise noted, the materials described below are physically available in their reading room, and not digitally available through the web.
Overview and metadata sections
Michael Newbold (1623-1690) of York, England, arrived in America in 1680 and purchased a large tract of land in West Jersey. A son, Michael Newbold (d. 1721) married Sarah Clayton under the care of Burlington Monthly Meeting in 1697 and inherited most of the land in Burlington County. In 1730 their son, Michael Newbold (b. 1706) married Susanna Schooley. Succeeding generations of the family became members of Upper Springfield Monthly Meeting upon establishment of that meeting in 1781. Michael and Susanna Newbold had seven children including a son Clayton Newbold (1737-1812) who married Mary Foster in 1759. A grandson, Walter Newbold (b. 1819) married Rebecca Say Richards in 1860, resigning his membership in the Society of Friends. She was a daughter of Thomas Richards (1780-1860) who established the Jackson Glass Works in Camden County, New Jersey, in 1827. Their daughter, Elizabeth Richards Newbold, married Samuel M. Fox in 1890.
Justinian and Elizabeth Yard Fox emigrated to America in 1685. Their son Joseph (1709-1779) married Elizabeth Mickle in 1746 under the care of Philadelphia Monthly Meeting. A carpenter who inherited and invested in real estate, he became wealthy and served twenty terms in the Pennsylvania Assembly. He was disowned for supporting the military but his death was recorded by the Meeting. His children married into prominent Quaker families including Roberts, Pleasants, Pemberton and Norris. Son George Fox (1759-1828) married Mary Pemberton, and the youngest of their 17 children, Elizabeth Hill Fox, married Joseph Parker Norris (1763-1841), descendant of Colonial merchant and statesman Isaac Norris. Joseph Parker Norris was a successful lawyer and collector of Shakespeariana and landowner. Joseph Fox's son Samuel Mickle Fox (1763-1808) married Sarah M. Pleasants in 1788 under the care of Philadelphia Monthly Meeting. He invested in western Pennsylvania real estate which became the center of booming oil production and was an incorporator of the Bank of Pennsylvania. Like his father, he was disowned for supporting the military, but listed in the death records of Philadelphia Monthly Meeting. Samuel and Sarah Fox had eleven children, including Ann Pleasants Fox who married George Newbold (1780-1858), son of Clayton and Mary Foster Newbold, and a prominent New York Quaker banker who owned "Cloverdale" estate in New Jersey. Samuel and Sarah Fox's son, George (1806-1883) was a physician and married Sarah Valentine in 1850. Their son, also named Samuel Mickle Fox, married Elizabeth Richard Newbold in 1890.
The collection is composed largely of property and legal papers which descended in the Quaker Newbold and Fox families of Burlington County, New Jersey, and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The Newbolds were among the earliest settlers and prominent landowners in West Jersey. The Fox family of Philadelphia was descended from Justinian Fox who emigrated to America in 1685. In 1796, the family purchased a number of tracts of land in western Pennsylvania from the Commonwealth. A descendant, Samuel Mickle Fox (1851-1905) was a successful estates lawyer and antiquarian with an interest in family history. He married Elizabeth Richards Newbold in 1890, and their daughter inherited the records, genealogical research, and miscellaneous papers which include some correspondence and photographs. Of special interest are the property records concerning the Cedar Swamp Tract, New Jersey.
Arranged in two series: Series 1. Newbold family papers; Series 2. Fox family papers.
The papers were inherited by Elizabeth Newbold Fox Forbes (1897-1982) who was the daughter of Samuel Mickle Fox and Elizabeth Richards Newbold.
Many of the materials are stored in archival mylar folders as received.
People
Subject
Place
- Publisher
- Friends Historical Library of Swarthmore College
- Finding Aid Author
- Susanna Morikawa
- Finding Aid Date
- October 2020
- Access Restrictions
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Collection is open for research.
- Use Restrictions
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Some of the items in this collection may be protected by copyright. The user is solely responsible for making a final determination of copyright status. If copyright protection applies, permission must be obtained from the copyright holder or their heirs/assigns to reuse, publish, or reproduce relevant items beyond the bounds of Fair Use or other exemptions to the law. See http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/UND/1.0/.
Collection Inventory
The series contains largely deeds, surveys, maps and related documents concerning the Cedar Swamp Tract, Burlington County, New Jersey
"Piece of Cedar Swamp tract to Daniel Leeds, Samuel Goldy, and Tunis Titus." Two manuscript copies and a survey made at same time of [additional?] 250 acres. Surveys and notes
Survey and plot plan, 2 surveys, property on South branch of Mount Misery, Burlington County. 80 acres. West Jersey.
"Commonly called Job's Old Swamp." Torn at folds.
Shares of land conveyed to Clayton Newbold and others in West Jersey. Surveys, notes.
Burlington County, New Jersey, property inherited from Michael Clayton. Deeds, surveys 500 acres of unappropriated land in West Jersey,
Caleb Shreve purchased tract in Burlington County from Richard French in 1699
Includes Michael Newbold's 90 acre tract. Also partial letter dated 3 mo. 5, 1792, concerning disagreement on terms of the title, property in Cedar Swamp
Signed by Clayton Newbold
South branch of Mill Pond
Extract of a 1699 deed, from Richard French to Caleb Shreve, extract concerning Abraham Brown, Richard French to son Thomas French, copy of tract in Shrewsbury of William Burnet, Eliaken Higgins tract adjacent to Newbold,
Clayton Newbold, executor
Included bequest to preparative meeting and trustee of the school, map of property
Includes penciled note by Elizabeth Forbes about the silver she inherited.
Unsigned letter sent from Manchester [England] described visit from American Quaker minister Robert Valentine. While author was attending meeting, she had a premonition that her nephew/adopted son Tommy had died. Returning home, she regretted his will and courage - he had died in an accident and urged all mothers to watch carefully their children. Valentine returned to provide solace.
The list of members of Upper Springfield Preparative include Newbolds, Shreve. Note on reverse 12 mo 23, 1785, that meeting was visited by Benjamin Jones, Joshua Gibbs, Mary Newbold, Mary Sykes and others. Separated at fold lines.
Account of his travel from Philadelphia to Northumberland County, Pennsylvania.
The Jackson Glass Works, Camden County, were established by Thomas Richards (d. 1860) in 1827. Instructions for cow and an expression of sympathy for her endurance with mosquitoes. Manuscript letter is separated on fold lines
Wife of Walter Newbold who resigned from the Society of Friends at the time of their marriage in 1860. She was the daughter Thomas and Anna Bartram Richards; her mother was a descendent of John Bartram of Darby, Pennsylvania.
Newbold family home. Labeled by Elizabeth Newbold Fox or her daughter. Carte-de-visite of Charles Pemberton Fox, "The elder of Champlost." Son of George Fox and Mary Pemberton Fox who preserved Benjamin Franklin's papers. The Foxes donated most of the papers to the American Philosophical Society in 1840.
Carte de visite of Sarah Ann Lippincott who married Benjamin W. Richards in 1821. Deed for a tomb in Laurel Hill Cemetery dated 1865 for Thomas Richards
Letters concerning the estate of her husband, Samuel Mickle Fox, most addressed to her brother-in-law Joseph P. Norris, who was an executor for the estate. She expressed need and thanks for financial aid. Sarah M. Pleasants (1767-1825), daughter of Samuel and Mary (Pemberton) Pleasants married Samuel Fox in 1788. At his death in 1808, he left his widow with 11 minor children, the eldest Joseph was born 1789 and the youngest a year old. Also sorrowful letters concerning death of her mother and a child. Joseph P. Norris married Samuel Fox's youngest sibling, Elizabeth Hill Fox, in 1790. She was the fifth daughter of Joseph and Elizabeth (Mickle) Fox to be named Elizabeth, and the only one to survive infancy. Folder includes a manuscript poem "Lines from a Husband to his Lady sitting at work previous to her confinement."
Letters between the children of Samuel Mickle and Sarah Pleasants Fox: Sarah (Salley), Caroline, and Eliza to Emmeline (Emmy), Louisa, and brother. Sent from Philadelphia to siblings at Forburgh with family news. Letter from Eliza (Elizabeth)to brother mentions death of their sister, Caroline, who died in 1859. The letters mention members of the Pleasants, Drinker, Tunis, Norris, and other family and friends.
From nephew Samuel M. Fox and others to George Fox, M.D.
nquiries concerning Mickle family history. Also family photographs, not labeled except family group of Elizabeth Richards Fox with young children Samuel, Jr., and Elizabeth Fox, later Forbes.
A childhood letter
Travel letters from Sarah Fox Norris (1863-1952, daughter of George Fox and Sarah Valentine Fox and wife of George W. Norris, from Gypsy Hill, Pennsylvania, and travel in Egypt, Rome, and France
Invitation, license, labeled photo of the wedding party
Dr. Pleasants (1771-1797) taken ill, black vomit.
Includes reseaerch on Drinker, Pleasants, Pemberton, Valentine, Newbold, Fox ancestors.
Also memorabilia