The circle remains unbroken as the Pidcock Family reunites where it all began in 1678
John Pidcock arrived in Bucks County about a dozen years before William Penn. He got here from England possibly as the indentured employee of Gilbert Wheeler who made his living off fruit-bearing plants. Earning his freedom, John slipped upstream on the Delaware River to the mouth of a creek flowing past Bowman’s Hill in Solebury. There he founded a trading post to barter goods with Lenape Indians who occupied the nearby village of Win-na-haw-aw-chunk.
Downriver, Wheeler sold booze to the natives. The provincial government had outlawed the practice after meeting with a delegation of eight Lenape chiefs near Bristol in 1679. Their leader complained about the effects of rum. “When we drink it, it makes us mad. We then abuse each other. We must put it down by mutual consent. The cask must be sealed up.” Wheeler paid no heed, enraging Pidcock. The two got into a scuffle in 1686, leading to Pidcock paying a fine. Later that year he testified against Wheeler for violating the liquor law. A Bucks County Court jury seated in Crewcorne (the future Morrisville) found Wheeler guilty of selling rum to the Indians but innocent of selling a more potent version. He paid a fine equivalent to $1,433 today.
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Pidcock continued living at his trading post and raising a family, a lineage unbroken to the present day. Earlier this month, 47 descendants reunited at the junction of Pidcock Creek and the Delaware in Solebury where the trading post once stood, now a Revolutionary War burial ground. Descendants came from as far away as Alabama for the family picnic at the Gen. Sullivan pavilion near the creek, now the upper section of Washington Crossing Historic Park. It was the 111th Pidcock reunion dating back to 1913. That includes virtual Zoom sessions during the pandemic that reunited Pidcock descendants with those in New Zealand and England.
At this year’s picnic, I was a guest to tell area tales about Lurgan College, buried pirate’s gold on Bowman’s Hill, a Pidcock Creek covered bridge that disappeared, and creek wetlands known as “Firefly Valley.” Family members logged into a ledger chronicling each of their reunions. Available for purchase were copies of “The Pidcock Chronicles”, a 40-page booklet authored by descendant John Moore of Northumberland, Pa. He details early stories about the Pidcocks who built a grist mill in the future New Hope, operated a fleet of Durham grain boats on the Delaware, settled Lambertville and fought with George Washington in the American Revolution.
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Later descendant Anderson W. Pidcock served with distinction in the Civil War. In response to a letter from his father in 1863 insinuating that his son joined up to die a hero, Andy fired back, “You say that I came to war to get shot. You are mistaken. I came to fight for my country and run the risk of getting shot.” He added, “As for getting captured, that is out of the question. No three men will ever capture me if I have got a rifle and a bayonet.” In a letter home to his mother in Lambertville, he boasted of having gone through 13 battles “and come out safe.” He survived a musket ball wound and subsequent infection at the Battle of Chancellorsville in 1863. But he would not survive the war. He was killed in action in the Battle of the Wilderness in 1864.
Prior to my visit, I researched the early history of the Pidcocks. They are descended from the first king of Mercia, the most powerful center of the Anglo-Saxon homeland in central England. The family’s ancient crest includes the motto, “Lord, I pray you, keep my life”. Words such as “valor, serious, full of wisdom, blessed with uncanny intuition, kindness” describe them. That most certainly describes those in “The Pidcock Chronicles.”
Sources include “The Pidcock Chronicles: True Stories from the History of an American Family” by John L. Moore published in 2013 by the Pidcock Family Association.
Carl LaVO can be reached at carllavo0@gmail.co. Signed copies of his three volumes of “Bucks County Adventures” are available at bookstores in Newtown, Doylestown and Lahaska. His latest -- “Bucks County Adventures for Kids” published this month -- is co-authored by Carl’s 13-year-old grandson Dashiell Cosdon.
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This article originally appeared on Bucks County Courier Times: Pidcock family chronicles nearly 350 years of Bucks County history
