William Biles
| William Biles | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1644 Dorchester, England |
| Died | 19 May 1710 (aged 65–66) Falls Township, Bucks County, Pennsylvania |
| Alma mater | Exeter College, Oxford |
| Spouse(s) | Joanna Hellard (1669-1687) Jane Boyd Atkinson (1688-1709) |
| Children | William, George, John, Elizabeth, Johanah, Rebeckah & Mary |
| Parent(s) | Alexander Biles Dorothy Strong |
| Relatives | Rev. William Strong (grandfather) |
William Biles (1644 – 19 May 1710) was an American judge, attorney, legislator, sheriff, land speculator and merchant. Born in England and educated in law, Biles brought his family to America in 1679 and settled in what would become Falls Township, Bucks County, Pennsylvania, before the charter of William Penn. The Biles family had been persecuted for their religious dissension in England, and William became a prominent Quaker minister. "After the withdrawal of the Declaration of Indulgence dissenters were more often punished for being absent from their parish churches... Quakers were always fair game and in the following spring (1674) two of them, William Biles and Thomas Strong, were presented at the Assizes." Presumably punishment for being absent from their parish church and attending Quaker ceremonies.
Biles was a Justice of the first Provincial (Supreme) Court which was convened as early as 1681, a member of the Pennsylvania Provincial Council from 1683 to 1700 and of the Legislature from 1686 to 1708. He owned large tracts of land in Pennsylvania and New Jersey (including more than 50,000 acres in what is now Salem County, New Jersey) and was qualified as a proprietor of West New Jersey. He traveled back to England for Quaker interests in 1701 and 1702, and returned to Pennsylvania where he died in 1710.
William Biles was born in 1644 at Dorchester, Dorsetshire, England, the son of Alexander and Dorothy (Strong) Biles. His maternal grandfather, the Rev. William Strong, was a respected preacher at Westminster Abbey who wrote a number of religious tracts and was a supporter of the Parliamentarians during the English Civil War. The Biles (Byles) family had lived at All Saints Parish, Dorchester, for generations. When Biles was seven, in 1651, his paternal grandfather, Alexander Biles, was summoned for criticizing Parson Benn and subsequently stripped of property and title and imprisoned; this undoubtedly influenced William's religious conviction and political attitude. Biles was educated in law: he entered Exeter College, Oxford on 26 October 1660 when he was 16, received his B.A. in 1664, and his M.A. in 1669.
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