Person:James Moon (6)

James Moon and Joan Burgess were married near Bristol, England, and with a family of children were among the early emigrants to settle Pennsylvania. By deed dated 10 mo., 13, 1688, he purchased of James Hill, 125 acres of land in Falls township, one and a half miles west from Morrisville, and largely covered in 1905 by the classification yard of the Trenton branch of the Pennsylvania Railroad. On 12 mo., 11, 1706, he conveyed the same by deed in fee to his son Roger. James Moon's will mentioned six children: Sarah, James, Jonas, Jasper, Mary and Roger. Among the earmarks of cattle recorded at the clerk's office in a book preserved in the library of the Bucks County Historical Society are those of James Moon. He was a member of Falls Monthly Meeting of Friends, and was buried in the old graveyard at Fallsington.

A paper written about the Moon immigrants by Joseph Moon and read at a reunion in Ohio in 1894 states that "On September 1, 1682 a band of one hundred persons set sail from Deal, England on the 'Welcome' with William Penn ... They reached New Castle, on the Delaware River, October 27, 1682, one third fewer in number because of the ravages of smallpox on shipboard." He writes that among the passengers were James Moon, Sr., born in 1640, his wife Joan (Burgess) Moon, born in 1647, and their six children -Sarah, James, Jr., Jonas, Mary, Jasper and Roger. Information in The Pennsylvania Traveler reveals that James Moon, Sr., had married Joan Burgess near Bristol, England in 1665. Being among the Quaker families who were persecuted for their faith, they had sought and received passageway to America on the "Welcome" with William Penn. Along with other Quaker families, the Moon family first settled in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. According to The Pennsylvania Traveler; "On October 13, 1688 James Moon, Sr, purchased 125 aces of land in Falls Township in Bucks County, one and one-half miles from the present town of Morrisville." Here James planted a large orchard and cleared pasture land. According to records in Bucks County, he was also among those who raised cattle.

James and Joan Moon became members of the Falls Monthly Meeting of Friends, near Fallsington. Here they remained loyal members the remaining years of their lives. Even when "Joan was past eighty years of age, she attended all services and frequently preferred to walk to the meeting house."

James Moon, Jr, the oldest son of James, Sr, and Joan (Burgess) Moon, was "granted a certificate to marry Mary Wilsford on February 7, 1697." Soon after their marriage they moved to Chester County, where their son Simon was born cir. 1700. Mary (Wilsford) Moon died when Simon was quite young; and James, Jr, married Agnes Priestly in 1714. The Moon family continued to live in Chester County, where in 1721 Simon married Lowry Humphrey in Christ Church in Philadelphia, according to the Records of Pennsylvania Marriages Prior to 1810. To them were born eight children-James III, Jacob, Richard, Margaret, Hannah, Anna, Mary and Rachel. James Moon, Sr, died in July 1713. He was buried in the old cemetery at Fallsington. In his will, dated January 20, 1711 and proved January 9,1713, he left to his wife "the dwelling house and one-third of the orchard"; to Sarah, the right "to live in the home till her marriage"; to Mary, "one shilling"; and to Sarah Curles and Elizabeth Moon, granddaughters, each "a cow and a calf when of age." The balance of the estate was to go to his youngest son Roger: His oldest sons, James, Jr, and Jonas, were not named in the will as recipients of any part of James, Sr.'s, estate. Undoubtedly James, Sr., left provisions for only those who were members of his household at the time of his death.

According to the History of Bucks County, after James Moon, Sr.'s, death, Joan Moon's English relatives also provided for her welfare. They sent "money to her to purchase a farm. The farm she purchased was located near the River Delaware, two miles north of Yardlesville." Here she resided with her son Roger until her death in October 1739, twenty-six years after the death of her husband. She was buried beside her husband James Moon, Sr, in the cemetery in Fallsington. James Moone, came to Pennsylvania from Bristol, England at about the same date that John Moone, first appears in Philadelphia, and located near the falls of the Delaware in Bucks county. He had married at Bristol, England about 1663, Joan Burgess, and was accompanied to America by several children, of nearly adult age. When he purchased a tract of land in Falls township in 1695, his son, James Moone, Jr., was named as one of the grantees, the title to vest in him when he arrived at the age of twenty-one years.

There is little doubt that John Moone, of Philadelphia, was a brother of James of Bucks, they were both witnesses to the will of Joseph Siddal of Bucks County, which was probated in Philadelphia May 5, 1704.

James Moone was actively associated with the affairs of Bucks county, his name frequently appearing on the early records of the courts of that county after 1685, as a member of Grand and Petit Juries, and as serving in various capacities by appointment of the court, up to the time of his decease in September 1713.

The children of James and Joan (Burgess) Moone were Sarah, Jasper, James, Roger, Jonas, and Mary. James, Roger and Jonas Moon remained in Bucks county, and have left descendants.

1. ↑ A Short history of the Moon family: with records of the family of James & Sara Moon. (Call #: 929.273 M778ma -Location: FHL FAM HIST Book - Published abt 1950 - Also on microfilm. Salt Lake City: Filmed by the Genealogical Society of Utah, 1976 on 1 microfilm reel; 35 mm - FHL US/CAN Film [982009 item 4]).

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2.   Ancestry.com.
3.   GenCircles.
4.   History of Clinton County, Ohio. (published by Beers & Co. Chicago, Illinois 1882).
5.   William Wade Hinshaw. Encylopedia of American Quaker Genealogy. (Repository: Utah Valley Regional History Center - BYU)
   Vol II New Jersey, Pennsylvania; page 965.
6. ↑ A short history of the Moon family: with records of the family of James and Sarah Moon. (1950).
7. ↑ James Moon was a Quaker