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Manuscript Group 143
SARAH R. MESEROLL COLLECTION
[1733-1956, & undated]
3 cu. ft.


This collection holds papers relating to the Preston family, chiefly of Buckingham and Plumstead townships, Bucks County, with a branch located at Stockport, Wayne County. Family members represented include Paul Preston (b. 1724, d. 1806), Bucks County surveyor, tax collector, court translator of German, and clerk for many years of Buckingham Monthly Meeting of Friends; his sons, Samuel (b. 1756, d. 1834), Paul (b. 1767, d. 1853), and Silas (b. 1769, d. 1855), the first of whom was a pioneer settler of Wayne County and that county's associate judge; Joseph Preston and his uncle, Thomas Stradling; Nathan Preston; and Mary Preston and her husband, John M. South, who became supervisor of the Delaware and Raritan Canal in 1879. A large part of the collection connects to Mary Preston, whose interests in suffrage, female education, and Quakerism are well-represented and whose correspondence makes up a substantial part of {series 143m.1}. Striking aspects of the Mary Preston's correspondence includes discourse on women's rights and mentions of other issues that were important to Mary Preston and the friends with whom she corresponded.

The collection includes correspondence; legal papers, among which are deeds, bonds, estate papers, copies of wills, and Friends marriage certificates; invoices and receipts; essays and poetry; lecture notes, school class rolls, and copy books; a translation by the elder Paul Preston, apparently from the German, of an epistle by Christopher Shets; and genealogical notes. The material principally concerns personal and family affairs; political matters; railroad and canal construction; the general subjects of education and women's rights, as well as the schooling and the teaching careers of Mary Preston and others; the Religious Society of Friends (the Hicksite branch after 1827), particularly Buckingham Monthly Meeting; and the histories of the Preston and related families. Also in the collection is a quantity of printed material covering the period 1801-1939, including general newspapers from several cities; religious, educational, literary, and anti-slavery newspapers and magazines; almanacs; and a wide range of newspaper clippings related to Preston family history.

The relationship of Sarah R. Meseroll, from whose estate this collection was donated, to the Preston family is unclear. The material was donated in 1964 and there is little documentation in the collection as to the relation of Sarah R. Meseroll to the Prestons.




PA State Archives Hours, Directions, & Fees Research Topics Finding Aids for Collections Land Records