Scripto – Moravian Lives

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Mary Ann, and Robert, Sarah Davis, sisters, who, with their chil-
dren removed to Virginia. John, the oldest son and the father
of William, in 1728 was married to Elizabeth, daughter of Hugh
and Mary (Jenkins) De Vinne, of Huguenot descent, who, with
his parents and family, in 1723 had settled in the vicinity of the
Henry plantation. John Henry died in 1747, leaving to the care
of his widow, two sons and three daughters, of whom William was
the oldest child.
At the age of 15 years William was sent to Lancaster, Pa., then
the largest inland town in the Province. There he was apprenticed
to Matthew Roesser, a gunsmith. He was mechanically inclined
and very apt and at the age of 21, in 1750, he engaged in the
manufacture of fire arms on his own account. He was prospered
and in due course built a fine stone, commodious dwelling at the
southeast corner of the public square in Lancaster, a most eligible
site, which he occupied with his mother and widowed sister. His
mother died on October 9, 1777, at the age of 74. The announce-
ment of her death, copied from a local journal, reads:
"Today the mother of William Henry died in her seventy-fifth
year. She was a friend to the poor and needy."
William Henry was married in January, 1755, to Ann Wood,
daughter of Abraham Wood, formerly of Darby, Pa. Her pro-
genitors were well educated, substantial English Quakers. She
was born January 24, 1734, at Burlington, New Jersey. George
Wood, her great-grandfather, was one of the first settlers of Darby,
Pa., and served in the Assembly. Her grandfather, John Wood,
married Jane Bevan, a daughter of John and Barbara Bevan.
John Bevan was an eminent Welsh Quaker and friend of Wil-
liam Penn, who came to the Province of Pennsylvania in 1683
and with his family took up a tract of 5000 acres of land in what
was known as "the Welsh Tract," in Montgomery County, Penn-
sylvania (now Merion, on the main line of the Penn. R. R. near
Philadelphia.) This tract was largely settled by Welsh Quakers
who came from Glamorganshire, Wales, near Cardiff. John
Bevan served on the local bench and in the Assembly, and

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was a convincing Quaker preacher. In 1903 the American
descendants of John Bevan erected a memorial stone and bronze
tablet at his former home and burial place-Treferhyg, Glamor-
ganshire, Wales.
Ann Wood Henry was a thrifty, singularly clear-headed woman
of affairs, with an aptitude for administration. At the time of
his death (her husband, as for years, was Treasurer of Lancaster
County), she was appointed to assume his position and thus served
with honor and satisfaction, for about four years.
In his "Reminiscences," the Hon. John Joseph Henry, second
son of William Henry, testifies, to his mother's strong convictions,
extensive reading and unusual cleverness, "and yet so tender-heart-
ed that of a truth it may be said of her, 'She knew no guile.' "
Dr. William H. Egle, in "Some Pennsylvania Women during
the War of the Revolution," thus commemorates her patriotic de-
votion to the American cause:
"She was a typical matron of that period, of great energy of
character, and in full sympathy with her husband's active and
patriotic life. During that momentous period in our history, her
children being young, required attention, yet she entertained Rit-
tenhouse and Paine when the British occupied Philadelphia, and
it is well known that she aided her husband in all the various
duties assigned to him, as Treasurer of the County, State Armorer,
Asisstant Commissary General and Member of Congress."
Mrs. Henry died Sept. 6, 1799, while on a visit to a portion
of her family at Darby, Pa. (near Philadelphia), and was interrred
in the "Strangers' Plot" in the Darby-Smith burial ground.
William Henry was Armorer (1755-58) of the troops of Gen-
erals Braddock and Forbes in their expedition against Fort Du-
quesne. He was Justice of the Peace, 1758, 1770, and 1777; Asso-
ciate Justice of the Court of Common Pleas and Quarter Sessions,
1780; and 1776 was elected a member of the Assembly; in 1777
member of the Council of Safety. Served as Treasurer of Lan-
caster County from 1777 to 1786; was Armorer of the State in
1778; Assistant Commissary General, 1778; and 1784 and 1785,