History of Buckingham, (Bucks County) Pennsylvania United States of America

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Edward M. Paxson, jurist, was born in Buckingham, Bucks county, Pa., Sept. 3, 1824; son of Thomas and Ann (Johnson) Paxson; grandson of Jacob and Mary (Shaw) Paxson, and a descendant of James Paxson, who emigrated from the parish of Marsh Gibbon, Bucks county, England, and settled in Middletown, Bucks county, Pa., in 1682, and maternally of William Johnson, a native of Ireland, who settled in New Jersey before the Revolution and subsequently was professor in a South Carolina college. He attended the Friends schools, learned the trade of printer, and in 1843 became editor of the Newton Journal, which he established. He founded and was editor of the Philadelphia Daily News, 1847, and after conducting it one year sold it and studied law. He was admitted to the bar of Bucks county, Pa., April 24, 1850, and practised in Philadelphia. He was judge of the court of common pleas of Philadelphia, 1869-74; judge of the supreme court of the state, 1874-95, and chief justice of the supreme court, 1889-93. He resigned his seat on the bench Feb. 20, 1893, to accept the appointment as one of the receivers of the Philadelphia and Reading railroad company by order of Judge George M. Dallas. He completed his task as receiver April 20, 1897, when he resigned. He gave to the committee of the Bucks County Friends Quarterly Meeting on March 3, 1901, deeds for a large and handsome building erected by him in Newton as a memorial to his parents as a home for aged and infirm members of the Society of Friends of his native county. In 1902 he erected an infirmary for the "Home for Aged and Infirm Colored Persons" in Philadelphia, the building being opened early in January, 1903. He was married, April 30, 1846, to Mary C., daughter of Nathaniel Newin of Delaware county, and after her death, June 7, 1885, secondly, December 1, 1886, to Mary Martha S., widow of Samuel A. Bridges of Allentown, Pa., representative in the 45th congress. He is the author of: Brown's Collection Laws and Memoirs Of the Johnson Family.

From: Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Johnson, Rossiter, editor

History of Buckingham, (Bucks County) Pennsylvania

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