JOLLY LONGSHORE (1786-1869)
Nov
9, 1786
Birth of Jolly Longshore
Mar 27, 1813 Jolly
Longshore now 26 years old, Valley Farms, issues RECEIPT for goods sold to
Gannet Johnson including Gingham, & Tobacco.
1815
Jolly Longshore now 28 years old, married Mercy Yardley (b. Oct 29, 1793). She was the grand daughter of William
Yardley, who in turn was the brother of Thomas Yardley (Jr.) who owned the
original Yardley Ferry House. Her father's name was also Thomas,
the nephew of Thomas Yardley (Jr.). Mercy Yardley's mother's name was
Susanna Brown.
April 24, 1820 Jolly Longshore now 33 years old, writes LETTER to
Cowperthwait & Newbold, Merchants, North Front Street between Market &
Arch Streets, Philadelphia. Letter
reports that certain goods purchased of
Lawrence & Co. were not included in shipment to Longshore in
Newtown.
Apr 1, 1828 Jolly
Longshore now 41 years old, and Storekeeper of the Middle Store, Newtown,
purchased Brick Hotel along with 14 acres of land. Thomas Yardley, the father of Mercy Yardley died that same year.
Longshore rented out the hotel, and presumably continued to maintain his
business at Middle Store. (Reference: Historic Newtown, 1934, by Edward R. Barnsly)
Apr 1,
1829 Jolly
Longshore sold the Brick Hotel and purchased the Temperance House both in
Newtown.
Apr 4,
1834 Jolly
Longshore sold Temperance House to Betts. He had lived there and had not
operated it as a tavern.(Reference: Historic Newtown, 1934, by Edward R. Barnsly)
Apr 2,
1835 Jolly
Longshore now 48 years old, purchased lot on Main Street, Yardley, from William
Gregg (Ref: DB 59 PG 655). This lot was located between Joseph Lovett and
Leander Rice. It's the last lot inside the 503 foot frontage measured
from Ferry Road.
Aug 27,
1835 Mercy Yardley Longshore
died
Mar 19,
1836 Jolly Longshore
sells his Main Street property to Joel Palmer (Ref: DB 60 PG 457).
May 9,
1836 Jolly
Longshore now 49 years old, purchases both Lots #1 and #2, of the Martha
Margerum Hough Estate. (Ref: DB 59, PG
557)(Ref: DB 61, PG 209). These lands did not include the Tavern at Brock
Creek, which the former owner Green had previously sold to others.
Orphans Court on Feb 13, 1835, had inspected
the property of Martha Margerum Hough (Ref: Orphan's Court Book 8,
Page 357-358), and ordered a special plan dated February 1835, for sale of
property. It divides the land into two
lots. There were some complicated
transactions, but both of these lots ended up in the hands of Jolly
Longshore. He paid $802 for Lot 1, and $2,420 for Lot 2. Since the
price for Lot 1 is substantially less than the appraisal, there must be
something about it that we don't understand.
Lot 1 Stone House & Barn
29 acres $95 per acre $2,800 appraised
This is a recombined 18-acre Vansant tract to
the George Green tract including "Ferry House" located a few hundred
feet above what is now Letchworth Avenue ---this structure does not appear to
be shown on the 1835 map--- together
with the roughly 15 acres sold by Stapler to the Greens.
Lot 2 Frame House & Barn 22 acres $110 per acre
$2,420 appraised
The plan appears to show these two structures on Lot 2 although at very small
scale. One is believed to be the Boat House at top of the Ferry Ramp. The
other may have been constructed by the 2nd generation Green's (from Richard
Green) as a residence, conveniently located at the abandoned 1721 Ferry Ramp,
and later becoming the Tenant's House on the Longshore farm. One roughly
scales at 170 feet below Afton, and the second roughly scales at 350 feet below
Afton, which is the approximate location of the 1921 funeral home.
Apr 1,
1842 Jolly
Longshore now 55 years old, purchases about 15 acres with river frontage from
George Yardley (Ref: DB 68, PG 216,217). This purchase by Longshore
extends his lands 468.6 feet further down river. Whereas prior to this
purchase his land extended to the lower Belville property line, his land has
now been extended past the future location of Letchworth to a new property line
which will eventually become the Yardley Borough Line. Some of this
additional 15 acres purchased by Longshore from George Yardley must have been
subsequently sold, because the September 7, 1894 Harriet Longshore
Subdivision Plan appears to show she owned from E. Afton to only 80-90 feet
below the lower R.O.W. line of Letchworth.
The difficulties tracing the ownership of the
Yardley Ferry House are legend, and for many years the records back beyond
Longshore were thought to have been lost. We now know owners of the land
included: 1) Brock, 2) Lambert, 3) T. Yardley
(Sr.), 4) T. Yardley (Jr.), 5) Stapler, 6)
Leedom, 7) Vansant, 8) Green, 9) John
Hough, 10) Martha Hough, One confusion factor was that some of these
lands passed through the hands of Margerum representing the nieces and nephews
of Martha Margerum Hough, and further that one of the deeds was to the uncle of
Jolly Longshore who was the guardian of these children.
1864
Jolly Longshore signs his will (Ref: Will No 12307, Bucks County,
Pennsylvania).
1869
Jolly Longshore died at the age of 82.
Dec
1871
Final statement of Jolly Longshore Executors includes following:
"Rents on Tenant House $105"
1875
Harriet W. Longshore owns a house on South Afton Avenue by 1875.
Nov 1,
1875 Harriet W.
Longshore, conveys lot on River Road to Elizabeth W. Baker Livezey, wife of
Theodore Livezey (Ref: DB 177, PG 384).
1885
Harriet W. Longshore, 2nd wife of Jolly Longshore, signs her will (Ref: WB 24,
Page 243). There are no children. Her will leaves almost everything
to niece an nephew who are the Skinner children.
Aug
1889
Items appearing in Settlement of Accounts - Longshore Estate
Jane McGregor mortgage paid 9 mos $500
William Richards mortgage paid 9 mos $500
WS.C. Crafts mortgage paid 6 mos $500
Oscar A. Crafts mortgage paid 6 mos $250
Martha Howell
Timothy Howell
E. Mauson
Long List of Names for small amounts
Aug 21,
1889 Appraisal Farm (between
Letchworth & Yardley Bridge, 35 acres @ $130 = $4,550
(Belville "Ferry House")
Jul 13,
1891 Extract
from Settlement of Accounts - Longshore Estate
Cash from sale of Farm House $1,975