Joseph Kirkbride (227)

Joseph Kirkbride (13 August 1731–26 October 1803) was a farmer, businessman, colonel, slaveholder, and public officeholder, and a member of the American Philosophical Society, elected in 1768. Born in Bucks County, he grew up an avid horsemen with a country education. As his parents only son, upon the death of his father Kirkbride inherited his family’s home, farm, and enslaved laborers at the age of seventeen. Though his grandfather had been a Quaker minister, Kirkbride joined the Anglican church after the Falls Monthly Meeting disowned him in 1756, first for having married a non-Quaker (Mary Rogers), followed by enlisting in the armed defense of the Province. In the subsequent years, Kirkbride increased his wealth through a ferry business and land sales and by 1776 his taxes suggest he was the second wealthiest man in the township. Leading up to and throughout the American Revolution, Kirkbride proved himself a leader. He was appointed to serve as the county representative at the Provincial Conference in Philadelphia in 1774, he joined APS members Joseph Galloway, John Kidd, and John Chapman on the Committee of Observation in 1774, and in 1776 was on the committee that prepared Pennsylvania’s new constitution. When the fighting began, Kirkbride served as a colonel in the First Battalion of Bucks County and spent the next several years defending, what he described as, an “Intirely Open & Naked” country. Indeed Kirkbride watched Tory forces burn many of his buildings and most of his belongings. When the fighting ended, he rebuilt his home across the Delaware River in Bordentown, New Jersey, though he continued to do business and hold offices back in Bucks County. Once again established, he hosted many friends, including Thomas Paine, and began to serve in local offices. When Kirkbridge died, Paine lamented that “Bordentown has lost its Patron and I my best friend.” (PI)