Biographical Sketch of William Price CORYELL (1893); Chester County, PA

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Source: "Biographical and Portrait Cyclopedia of Chester County, Pennsyl-
vania, comprising a historical sketch of the county," by Samuel T. Wiley
and edited by Winfield Scott Garner, Gresham Publishing Company, Phila-
delphia, PA, 1893, pp. 373-4.

"WILLIAM PRICE CORYELL, of Kenilworth, is a son of George and Sarah Ann
(Price) Coryell; was born in Pottsgrove township, Montgomery county, this
State, August 14, 1858.  The Coryells were originally natives of France,
and the family was transplanted to America after the revocation of the
edict of Nantes, the landing being at Perth Amboy, New Jersey, which was
followed by the taking up of land on Scotch Plains, near Plainfield.
Later we find one of the family, Emanuel, located on the Delaware river at
Lambertville, where Coryell's ferry connecting Lambertville with New Hope
was owned and operated by the family until it was superseded in 1818 by
what was then considered the wonderful bridge.  It was at this ferry (in
low water Coryell's ford) that Washington and the Continental army made
several of their memorable crossings.

"The family attained great age.  Emanuel Coryell's son Cornelius (great-
grandfather of William P. Coryell), was ninety-nine years old when he
died, July 10, 1831, having been born June 27, 1732; and another son,
Abraham, died at the age of ninety, in 1828.  Cornelius married Mary Shaw,
and reared a family of nine children, his eldest son, George, was a pat-
riot of the revolution, and fought at the battle of Monmouth.  Later in
life he was a confidential friend of George Washington, and was a fellow
member with Washington of Lodge 22 of Masons.  He was also one of Washing-
ton's pall bearers.  He was born August 19, 1760, and died February 18,
1850, as his tombstone in the Presbyterian churchyard at Lambertville will
tell you, 'The last survivor of the six men who laid The Father of his
county in his grave.'

"Another son, John (grandfather), who was born May 30, 1766, and reared in
the vicinity of the ferry, after attaining his majority settled in what
was then New Hanover, now Pottsgrove township, Montgomery county, Pennsyl-
vania.  He was a democrat in political belief, and married Sarah, daughter
of Israel Ortlip, by whom he had a family of nine children: Mary Ann,
Susan, John, Sarah, George, Abbie, Rebecca, Eleanor and Alexander.  Of the
three sons, George was the only one to marry and continue the name; Alex-
ander died in childhood, and John died when a young man, unmarried.

"George Coryell (father) was a native of Pottsgrove township, was born
there October 22, 1810.  He lived in Montgomery county until 1866, when he
removed to Chester county.  Here he lived for a period of ten years, dying
February 3, 1876, on the farm now owned by the subject of this sketch.  He
was a farmer, a whig and republican in politics, and always active in
behalf of his party's interests.  On January 1, 1850, he married Sarah Ann,
daughter of William Price, of North Coventry, this county.  By this mar-
riage Mr. Coryell had a family of five children, two sons and three daugh-
ters: Sallie, Ella (died in infancy), Louis Augustus (died in his seventh
year), William P. and Carrie.  William P. Coryell was reared partly in
Montgomery and partly in Chester county.  In boyhood he attended the
public school of the district, from which he went to Millersville Normal,
until the death of his father caused him to return home to assume (at the
age of seventeen) in connection with his sisters, charge of the farm
(their mother having died previous to their father).  He then attended for
a time, as a day scholar, the Hill school at Pottstown, continuing to farm
on the old homestead in East Coventry township, this county, which he has
ever since cultivated and now owns.  It consists of fifty-two acres of
valuable land, highly improved and in a good state of cultivation.  In
politics Mr. Coryell is republican, and gives his party a loyal support
on all leading questions.  He is unmarried.

"The maternal great-great-grandfather of William P. Coryell, George Price,
was a native of Chester county, and died at his farm near Pottstown, Sep-
tember 25, 1823, aged seventy years.  He was a preacher in the Dunkard or
German Baptist church.  He married Sarah Harley, and reared a large family,
among his children being Daniel Price (maternal great-grandfather), who
was also born in this county, and followed farming, dying August 20, 1810,
at his home in what is now North Coventry, aged thirty-five years.  He was
married to Hannah Bach, and left two daughters and one son, William Price
(grandfather), who followed the peaceful and independent vocation of farm-
er, and was quite successful in his calling.  He was a thinker, a close
observer of events.  His intelligence, sound judgment, and independence of
thought and action made him a man of more than ordinary prominence and
usefulness.  He was a whig and later a republican, and represented his
district in the legislature in the sessions of 1844 and 1845.  He died in
February, 1875, aged seventy-four, in the house in which he had been born
and lived all his life.  He married Lydia Urner (daughter of Jonas Urner,
who was a preacher in the Dunkard church), and reared a family of six
children, three sons and three daughters.  They all married, and with one
exception are now dead.  Sarah Ann and Elizabeth (both deceased); Daniel,
who is president of the National bank of Pottstown; Caroline, deceased;
Jonas, who was sergeant in the army, and was killed in battle at Green-
brier, Virginia; and Nathan, now deceased, who removed to Kansas, and at
the breaking out of the war enlisted in a Kansas regiment.  He served as
a captain, and afterward studied law and became president judge of Doni-
phan, Brown and Atchison counties, Kansas."