keeper at Fallsington, of whom more will be said further on.
Isaiah's cousins, the Vansant children, would be his daily schoolmates and playmates; they were of good, solid Dutch stock, which was also Isaiah's inheritance on his mother's side. She was descended from Gerrit Vansant, who came to this country in 1651, as he testified in taking the oath of allegiance at New Utrecht, Long Island, in September, 1687. The records of the Dutch Reformed Church at that place note the baptism of several of Gerrit's children. Gerrit and his son, Jacobus, purchased land on Neshaminy Creek, each having about one hundred and fifty acres, the deeds being dated and recorded in December, 1698; and there they finally settled. Charity Vansant, of the fourth generation from Gerrit, was born in Bensalem Township, just at the close of the Revolutionary War, November 16, 1781. She was a woman of sympathetic nature and was Isaiah's confidant, having much influence over his early life.
At the time Isaiah attended the Orthodox
