William Lightfoot (1731 - 1797) was born in Pikeland Township, Chester County, PA to his father Samuel Lightfoot - a prominent Quaker, surveyor, and Justice of the Peace for Chester County - and while two of his brothers followed their father’s career to become surveyors themselves, it is unclear how William made his living. It is most likely he worked his father’s land and ran the flour mill built by his father in 1747 that he would eventually inherit. In 1763, William set out with the Quaker preacher John Woolman on his journey of peaceful dialogue with local Native American tribes, but only accompanied him from Bethlehem, PA as far as Fort Allen. Three years later William married Mary Ferris and kept the records of Quaker births, marriages, and deaths as his duty to his Quaker Monthly Meeting. Around 1781, William’s daughter Susanna ran off with her lover - a John Spencer from Culpepper, Virginia - and settled in Half Moon Township, Centre County, Pennsylvania. William had previously forbidden his daughter from this marriage due to her young age, so one night she escaped out of her bedroom window with the help of some friends and eloped. It is unknown what specific effect the American Revolution had on the life of William and his family, but the political influence of Quakers in Chester County is said to have waned as more diverse elements moved into the area in its aftermath. The flour mill on William’s land seems to have provided him with respectable income, but by his death in 1797 was reportedly in need of a serious overhaul.

Sources:*Immigration of the Irish Quakers into Pennsylvania, 1682 - 1750 With Their Early History in Ireland - Albert Cook Myers
*Encyclopedia of American Quaker Genealogy - William Wade Hinshaw
*History of Chester County, Pennsylvania with Genealogical and Biographical Sketches - J. Smith Futhey and Gilbert Cope
*The Historical Society of Pennsylvania - Collection 371 - Lightfoot Family Papers - http://www.hsp.org
*Friends Historical Library of Swarthmore College - Lightfoot Manuscripts, 1737 - ca. 1948 - RG5/184 - http://www.swarthmore.edu/Library/friends/ead/5184ligh.xml
*Transactions of the Historical Society of Berks County Embracing Papers Contributed to the Society 1898 - 1904
*Reading and Berks County - A History - Cyrus T. Fox, Editor-In Chief
*The Foundation of the Town of Reading in Pennsylvania - J. Bennett Nolan, Esq.
*Annals of Phoenixville and its Vicinity: From the Settlement to the Year 1871, Giving the Origin and Growth of the Borough, with Information Concerning the Adjacent Townships of Chester and Montgomery Counties and the Valley of the Schuylkill - Samuel Whitaker Pennypacker, Esq.
*http://www.anselmamill.org/mill.htm
*The Journal and Essays of John Woolman - Edited from the Original Manuscripts with a Biographical Introduction - Amelia Mott Gummere
*The Descendants of Samuel Lightfoot and Rachel Milhous - Dorothy Z. Milhous & Hazel A. Stewart*Early Ohio Settlers - Purchasers of Land in Southeastern Ohio, 1800 - 1840 - Ellen T. Berry & David A. Berry