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Below is a family biography included in the Biographical Annals of Montgomery County, Pennsylvania published in 1904 by T. S. Benham & Company and The Lewis Publishing Company; Elwood Roberts, Editor.  These biographies are valuable for genealogy research in discovering missing ancestors or filling in the details of a family tree. Family biographies often include far more information than can be found in a census record or obituary.  Details will vary with each biography but will often include the date and place of birth, parent names including mothers' maiden name, name of wife including maiden name, her parents' names, name of children (including spouses if married), former places of residence, occupation details, military service, church and social organization affiliations, and more.  There are often ancestry details included that cannot be found in any other type of genealogical record.

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SAMUEL NOBLE, dealer in dairy products at Jenkintown, Pennsylvania, is a member of an old family long resident in that section of the state of Pennsylvania. He is the son of Samuel W. and Elizabeth H. (Mather) Noble. He is a native of Abington township, having been born at the old homestead, now the grounds of the Golf Club, November 18, 1849.

William Noble and his wife Frances, who were the progenitors of the family, were natives of the city of Bristol, England, where, being consistent members of the Society of Friends, then proscribed on account of their religious faith, they suffered persecution. Their son Abel, in 1684, when he was not yet of age, emigrated to America and settled in Philadelphia. He learned the trade of a cooper, and subsequently followed it for a time, but subsequently became the owner of an extensive tract of land in Bucks county, on which he settled. Among his children was Joseph, great-great-grandfather of Samuel Noble, the subject of this sketch. Joseph Noble married Mary, daughter of Samuel and Elizabeth (Lovett) Smith, her father having been one of four brothers who emigrated from England and settled in Burlington county, New Jersey, where they founded the city of Burlington. They were long known as the “Burlington Smiths”, the designation attaching also to their descendants, the family being owners of the ground on which the city now stands, and also of much valuable property adjacent. Samuel and Mary Noble, the latter becoming Mrs. Samuel Wetherill, were children of Joseph and Mary Noble. Samuel married Lydia, daughter of Isaac Cooper, of New Jersey, in 1746. Their children were eight in number, several of them dying young. Those who grew to maturity were Hannah (Mrs. William Norton), Samuel and Richard. Samuel was born in 1766. He married, in 1792, Elizabeth, daughter of Robert Tompkins, of Philadelphia. Of their children, Joseph, born in 1799, died in 1854; Dr. Charles, born in 1801, died in 1873; Lydia, married Thomas Longstreth, died in 1876. Samuel Noble’s first wife, Lydia, dying, he married a second time, in 1817, Sarah, daughter of Samuel Webster, of New Jersey. The children of the second marriage were Samuel W. and Richard.

Samuel W. Noble, father of Samuel Noble, was born August 15, 1818, in Philadelphia. His father was at that time engaged in business in that city as a tanner and currier. Samuel W. resided there until he was about seventeen years of age, meanwhile attending school and acquiring a good English education. Developing a fondness for agricultural pursuits, he removed to Byberry, where he became proficient in the occupation of farming. In 1838 the father purchased a farm of eighty acres in Abington township, Montgomery county, and subsequently an additional thirty-five acres immediately adjoining the other. In 1839 Samuel W. Noble removed to this farm, and upon it his entire life ever after was spent in agricultural pursuits and in the nursery business. He married, October 30, 1844, Elizabeth H., daughter of John and Martha P. Mather, of Cheltenham township. Their children: Henry A., born in 1845, now a resident of Philadelphia; Sarah, died young; John M., born in 1848, deceased; Samuel, born in 1849; Clara, deceased; Howard, born in 1852, teller of the Jenkintown National Bank; Lydia L., deceased; Franklin, born in 1855, now residing in New York ; Thomas L., born in 1857, residing in Abington; Charles M., born in 1859, now a resident of Idaho; Mary T., born in 1861, married Joseph Lippincott; Anna, born in 1862; Elizabeth, deceased.

Samuel W. Noble was an active man in his community, being a consistent member of the Society of Friends, and ever attentive to his religious, social and other duties. He devoted much attention to his chosen pursuits, farming and horticulture. He was for many years a member of the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society. He was in 1875 elected president of the Jenkintown National Bank, of which he was one of the incorporators. He was secretary and treasurer of the Cheltenham and Willow Grove Turnpike Company, and at one time was president of the Union Mutual Fire Insurance Company of Montgomery county. He was for more than forty years treasurer of the Abington Library Company, an institution that was organized in 1804 and was very useful and popular. He was influential in every neighborhood enterprise that tended towards the advancement of the interests of the public. He was a Republican in politics, and served as a school director for a number of years, but was in no sense an office seeker. The family have been Friends for seven generations, and are now members of Abington Meeting, one of the oldest in the country. Samuel W. Noble died in 1887, at the age of sixty-nine years.

Samuel Noble was educated in Abington Friends’ School and the Friends’ Central School, Philadelphia, under the care of Aaran B. Ivins, a very thorough teacher: He spent his early life on the homestead farm, remaining there until 1899, when the farm was sold and he purchased a farm in Buckingham township, Bucks county, Pennsylvania, where since that time he has engaged in agricultural pursuits and in dairying. He has filled the position of school director.

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This family biography is one of more than 1,000 biographies included in the Biographical Annals of Montgomery County, Pennsylvania published in 1904 by T. S. Benham & Company and The Lewis Publishing Company.  For the complete description, click here: Biographical Annals of Montgomery County, Pennsylvania

View additional Montgomery County, Pennsylvania family biographies here: Montgomery County, Pennsylvania Biographies

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