Family Ancestry

FAMILY ANCESTRY

Family Ancestry

According to Margaret Grundy’s genealogical research, she and Joseph Grundy traced their lineage through their maternal line to one of Pennsylvania’s original settlers, as well as an English baron who was one of the Sureties of the Magna Charta [1215 A.D.], and the Anglo-Saxon King, Alfred the Great, who ruled from 871 to 899 A.D.

The Grundy family, of which Margaret and Joseph were the last two direct descendants, sprang from Edmund Grundy, a native of England who came to this country as a young man. Having left his home in Lancashire, England, Edmund first settled in Philadelphia and soon there became a noted and prosperous merchant. In 1856, he moved to Walnut Grove in Bristol Township, Bucks County, Pennsylvania, and resided there until his death in 1878. His wife was Rebecca Hulme, daughter of William Hulme, and a direct descendent of John Hulme, founder of Hulmeville, Bucks County, Pennsylvania. Rebecca Hulme’s mother was born Rachel Knight, a descendent of Giles Knight, who came to America with William Penn aboard the ship “Welcome,” on Penn’s first visit to his new province. 

Click the image to view the Grundy Family Tree. 

According to Margaret Grundy’s genealogical records, she and her brother Joseph follow their maternal family roots to Richard Ridgway, a member of a prominent Colonial family of that name. Ridgway arrived before the country came into William Penn’s possesion. He was an original settler having purchased from Sir Edmund Andros, the Duke of York’s representative, land that bordered the Delaware River near present-day Pennsbury Manor. Ridgway’s grandson, Solomon Ridgway, married Mary Burr, a descendent of Anne Mauleverer. It is through this union that Margaret documented her descendancy from Henry deBohun, Earl of Hereford, a Surety for the Magna Charta, and back thirty-eight generations to the 9th Century Anglo-Saxon king, Alfred the Great.