THE WILSON FAMILY.
FIRST GENERATION.
(1) JOHN WILSON, whom tradition makes the ancestor
of the Wilson family from Antrim, Ireland, which
was transplanted to Bucks county about 1730 or 1735,
was a nephew of Gilbert Wilson mentioned in the foregoing
narrative.
According to the family tradition, John Wilson was in
the employ of Gilbert Kennedy, Earl of Cassilis, and
clandestinely married the daughter, Isabelle Kennedy,
and fled with her to County Antrim, Ireland, a few miles
east or southeast of the town of Antrim. Mrs. Wilson
was invariably known as Lady Isabelle, or Isabelle of
Cassilis. The Wilson family, however, was an armorial
family having a coat of arms representing a shield surmounted
by a naked white hand holding a dagger. In
the background was a half moon and three stars.
The family cherished traditions of the bravery and
prowess of their Scottish forbears. One clearly defined
tradition relates that upon a certain occasion when a ship
driven on the coast was in danger of being taken by
pirates or mutineers, the bravery and prom