JEFFERIS, Robert, is first mentioned as a witness at a court held at Chester, September, 1685.  In 1691 he purchased 60 acres of land near the middle of Upper Chichester township, whereon he probably resided for some years.  In 1701 he purchased 169 acres in East Bradford township, and having sold that in Chichester, removed to the last purchase.  In 1703 he was appointed constable for Westtown, Bradford not being then organized. In 1721 he added to his possessions by purchasing 189 acres from William Buffington.  He conveyed the homestead in 1733 to his son Benjamin, reserving a life estate, and having divided his other land between his sons, he does not appear to have owned any at the time of his death, in 1738.

His first wife was Jane, daughter of George and Jane Chandler, to whom he was married about 1692.  After her death he married Ann ___,by whom he had one child.  His widow married Richard Archer prior to 1745, and surviving him, died at the residence of her son, Richard Jefferis, in Tell township, Huntingdon Co.

The children of Robert and Jane Jefferis were Patience, m. to Henry Betterton and ___ Mackey; Charity, m. to John Evans, and again, in 1721, to John Cope; William, m. to Elizabeth (Ring) Neild; James m. March 3, 1728, to Elizabeth (Tull) Carter; Robert, m. Eleanor ___ and Elizabeth Harper, a widow; George, m. Lydia ___; Jane m. to Joseph Skeen; Anne, m. to Alexander Duncan; Mary, m. to Thomas Temple, of Caln; Benjamin, m. to Elizabeth Carter; Thomas, m. to Catherine (?); John.

William Jefferis resided to Chester township for some time after his marriage, but after his father's death he purchased the homestead in East Bradford and removed thither.  He died 11,23,1777, and was buried on the 25th, at Birmingham Meeting.  His children were Mary, b. 5,29,1727, m. William Marsh, of Sadsbury; William b. 3,12,1729, d. 1778, m. Hannah Darlington; Martha, b. 1,8,1731 m. William Bennett; Nathaniel, b. 11,8,1733, d. 9,30,1823; Hannah, m. John Hunt; Samuel, b. 10,6,1736, d. 2,28,1823; Nathan, b. 5,6,1741; d. 1777.  The descendants of William and Hannah (Darlington) Jefferis are very numerous, but mostly in the West. Nathaniel Jefferis married his first cousin, Prudence ___, and had seven children.

He afterwards married Mary, daughter of Isaac Chalfant, by whom he ad eight, of whom the late Isaac Jefferis, of Newlin, was one.   Samuel Jefferis was married 11,24,1759, to Margaret, daughter of John and Joanna Townsend, of East Bradford, born 7,27,1742, died 7,9,1832.  They resided for many years in West Whiteland, but died in West Chester.  They had two sons,--William and John, of whom the first died with yellow fever in Philadelphia, leaving children, who went to Baltimore.

John Jefferis married, 3,29,1787, Hannah, daughter of John and Hannah Carpenter, of West Bradford, born 1,4,1768, died 7,30,1799.  He married a second wife, Jane P. Bishop, who died 2,14,1845.  Her children were Minerva, b. 12,17,1787, d. 8,23,1795; Horatio Townsend, b. 6,22,1789, d. 5,14,1836; Samuel Carpenter, b. 12,1,1790, d. 3,20,1843; Malinda England, b. 9,9,1792, d. 2,27,1863, m. Job Wickersham; Phebe Baily, b. 8,19,1794, d. 3,29,1829; William Walter, b. 12,5,1796, died young; Granville Sharp, b. 10,5,1802; Joseph Addison, b. 11,3,1803.

Horatio Townsend Jefferis married, March 27, 1816, Hannah Paul, born April 19, 1790, died March 23, 1851.  They resided in West Chester, and had children,--Minerva; William Walter, now cashier of the Bank of Chester County; Emily Jane; Martha Ann, m. Charles Fairlamb; John Paul, now of Washington D.C.; Horatio Carpenter and Mortimer Townsend, lately Episcopal minister of an English Church at Dresden.

James Jefferis, son of Robert and Jane, married Elizabeth, widow of George Carter, of East Bradford, and settled on the Carter homestead on the west side of Brandywine, at Jefferis' Ford.  His father conveyed some land to him on the east side of the creek, and he purchased from the Worth family 150 acres on the west side.  He became a member of Birmingham meeting in 1738, and was appointed an overseer in 1743.  He died in 1745, but his wife survived him many years.  They had three children,--James, Abigail, who married Thomas Williamson, and Emmor.

James was born Nov. 20, 1728, and married, Dec. 23, 1749, Ann, daughter of Thomas and Elizabeth Cheyney, of Thornbury, born Feb. 21, 1727-8, died at the age of seventy-six years, six months, twenty-seven days.  He inherited his father's lands on the east side of the creek, where he died in 1807.  His children were Mary, b. 9,9,1750, m. to Thomas Hickman; Emmor, b. 1,18,1752, d. 10,8,1822, m. Rachel Grubb; Betty, b. 3,17,1755, d. 1,5,1838, unmarried; Hannah, b. 10,19,1757, m. to Moses Hickman; Jane, b. 10,7,1759, d. 3,16,1849.  Her son Chalkley, b. 11,17,1789, d. 11,4,1870, was a mason and builder, and in conjunction with William Ingram erected many important public buildings.  Cheyney, b. 4,26,1762, d. 4,6,1828; Jacob, b. 9,26,1764, d. 11,20,1840, m. Elizabeth Cope; Ann, b. 9,24,1767, d. 6,5,1768.

Cheyney Jefferis learned the hatting business, but became a farmer.  He married, 11,26,1790, Mary Bennett, b. 11,29,1762, died 9,2,1807, daughter of James and Hannah Bennett, of Pennsbury.,  He married again, 3,22,1810, Martha Sharpless, b. 4,27,1775, died 4,30,1854, daughter of Joshua and Edith Sharpless.  He purchased a farm eastward of and adjoining that of his father, now owned by his grandson, Edwin James.  His children by the first wife were Hannah, m. to John James; James, Titus, Cheyney, Mary, m. to James Bennett; Edith; and by the second, Ann, m. to Moses Sheppard; Lydia, Martha, and Joshua; all deceased except the last, who is one of Chester County's model farmers, residing in New Garden township.   Emmor Jefferis, son of James and Elizabeth, inherited the land on the west side of the ford, where he died about 1802.  It was he who was compelled to guide the British army towards Birmingham Meeting on the day of battle.  He married, in 1757, Elizabeth, daughter of Benjamin and Sarah Taylor, on Pocopson Creek.  She died 7,11,1793, aged about fifty-three years.  They had three children,--James, b. about 1758, d. 1,25,1822; Emmor, b. 3,2,1769, d. 8,8,1813; and Sarah, who married Dr. Joseph Moore.   James as a sea-captain, and owner of the vessel "Neptune," which sailed from Wilmington.  Later in life he settled down on his farm in East Bradford, now of E.H. Holley.  He also became the owner of his brother Emmor's share of their father's land by purchase from the heirs.  Capt. Jefferis is represented in the name by his grandson, Bayard Jefferis, of West Chester.

Emmor Jefferis, his brother, married Charity, daughter of Samuel and Lydia Grubb, born 12,30,1762, died 3,10,1836.  They had children,--Sarah, mother of Hon. John Hickman; Grubb, Curtis, Joseph, Benjamin, Lydia, John S., Elizabeth, Anna, Charity, Emmor, and Abigail.  Of these, Anna, widow of Isaac Trimble, of West Bradford, is living at the age of eighty-four years. Emmor Jefferis, the youngest son, was the grandfather of Rev. William Jefferis, of Neward College, Delaware.

Richard Jefferis, the youngest son of the first Robert, born about 1730, settled in Huntingdon County, and had a large family of children by two wives, the names of twenty-two being known.  His son Mark, born Feb. 10, 1787, died Feb. 11, 1877, was the father of Gen. Noah L. Jefferis, sometime register of the treasury at Washington, D.C.  Robert Jefferis the first was probably born as early as 1670, and some of his grandchildren were living in 1879, making an unusually long period to be covered by three generations.   The name is differently spelled in different branches of the family, but by those in Chester County it is written Jefferis.