Lightfoot Family Manuscripts

The Lightfoot family was a Pennsylvania Quaker family descended from Thomas Lightfoot (d. 1725), a Quaker minister who emigrated from Ireland to Kennett Monthly Meeting in 1716 with his second wife, Sarah Wiley, and nine children. His son Samuel (1701-1777) was a prominent surveyor and married Mary Head of New Garden Monthly Meeting. They had four children. Son Thomas (1728-1793) was an Elder in Goshen Monthly Meeting and accompanied visiting ministers such as Susanna Hatton from Ireland.

Susanna Hatton Lightfoot (1720-1781), eminent Quaker minister, was born Susanna Hudson in Ireland to a poor Quaker family. She traveled to America in the ministry with Ruth Courtney in 1737, and in 1742 married Joseph Hatton. He died in 1759, and in 1760 she made a second trip to America where she met Thomas Lightfoot. They married in Ireland in 1763, and she became a member of Uwchlan Monthly Meeting and continued her ministry in America. Thomas Lightfoot became a minister after his wife’s death in 1781, and he married a second time, to Rachel Hunt, in 1785.

Jacob Lightfoot (1707-1774), also a son of Thomas and Sarah Lightfoot, married Mary Bonsall (1707-1777) of Darby Monthly Meeting in 1735. Mary Bonsall Lightfoot was a prominent Quaker minister. In 1757 she made a religious visit with Grace Fisher to Quaker meetings in the Concord Quarter. The family settled in Maiden Creek, Pa.

Their grandson, Thomas Lightfoot (1821-1896), was an Indian Agent in southeastern Nebraska during the period of Quaker involvement in President U.S. Grant's "peace policy." He was a the son of Benjamin W. and Rachel S. (Lee) Lightfoot. In 1846, Lightfoot married Mary Bonner Cadwallader (1820-1907), daughter of Yardley and Christianna (Moore) of Upper Dublin, Pa.. They had four children, two of whom survived to adulthood: Sallie C., born 1851, who married Albert L. Green, and Lee Garrigues.

Thomas Lightfoot was appointed Agent to the Great Nemaha Reservation in 1869 and served until 1873. The tribes for which he was responsible included Iowas as well as Sacs and Foxes. Mary B. Lightfoot established a mission school, and her husband attempted to promote agriculture and a "civilized" life style among the Native Americans.

Thomas Montgomery Lightfoot (1865-[1959?]) was also descended from Jacob and Mary Bonsall Lightfoot. He was the son of Jesse Lightfoot (1818-1894) and Hannah Eliza Montgomery. Jesse Lightfoot’s parents were Jacob and Elizabeth Willets Lightfoot, and Jacob’s parents were Thomas Lightfoot (1742-1821) and Hannah Wright. Thomas M. Lightfoot graduated from Swarthmore College, Class of 1888, and was a teacher.