About
About
Genealogy
Between 1681 and 1944, the property was home to eight generations of the same Minshall/Painter/Tyler family.
Thomas Minshall I
(1650 - 1730) of Lathford, Cheshire, England, received a grant of 625 acres from William Penn on March 22, 1681. He arrived in Pennsylvania in August of 1682 with his wife, Margaret Hickock.
Jacob Minshall I
(1685 - 1734) was born to Thomas I and Margaret in their first house in Nether Providence. He married Sarah Owen in 1707 and the same year was given 500 acres of his father's land in Middletown. Circa 1710, he built the first stone house on the property, known as Round Top. In this house, Thomas I and Margaret lived out the remaining years of their lives.
Thomas Minshall II
(1708 - 1783) was the son of Jacob I and Sarah. He inherited 150 acres from his father, including 80 acres of the original land grant and 70 acres bought from John Cheyney. In 1734, Thomas II bought another 50 acres, now known as South Farm, from Peter Trego. Thomas II married Agness Salkeld in 1738, and either built the western end of Lachford Hall or added to an original house built by John Cheyney. In the 1760s, he added the eastern end of Lachford Hall, and began the construction of the Valley Cottage. Before he died, he also began construction of the South Farm.
Jacob Minshall II
(1738 - 1817), son of Thomas II and Agness, built the first stone barn at the Home Farm and began a large orchard. He married Ann Heacock in 1777, and they lived in the western end of Lachford Hall.
Hannah Minshall
(1782 - 1838), the only child of Jacob II and Ann, married Enos Painter (1773 - 1857) in 1800, and added a small kitchen wing to Lachford Hall. hey raised a family of seven children. Enos purchased parts of the original land grant from other branches of the Minshall family, including Round Top and the Middle Farm. Enos built the saw mill in 1814 and built the large stone barn at the Home Farm in 1833.
Minshall Painter
(1801 - 1873), eldest son of Hannah and Enos, and Jacob Painter (1814 - 1876) inherited about 500 acres from their father and added about 150 acres in their lifetimes. They improved the farm with a number of springhouses, smokehouses, and other structures. At the Home Farm, they built the root cellar in 1858 and the library building (the Painter Library) in 1863. Stimulated by their grandfather's orchard, the brothers added a number of fruit trees, including an orange tree which they kept in their greenhouse, built in 1849. They expanded their plantings to include over 1,000 specimen trees, creating the original Painter Arboretum.
Ann Painter
(1818 - 1914), the youngest child of Hannah and Enos, married William Tyler in 1847. Ann inherited the family farms from her brothers in 1876, but took no active role in running the farms. The Tylers lived in Philadelphia and used Lachford Hall as a summer home.
John J. Tyler
(1851 - 1930), son of Ann and William, took control of the farms for his mother. About 1877, John began renovating Lachford Hall with many Victorian additions. In 1881, he married his cousin, Laura Hoopes (1859 - 1944). Laura was a great-granddaughter of Hannah and Enos, through their daughter, Sarah Painter Barnard. After John Tyler died, Laura built the caretaker's house in 1932, and arranged for the property to be left in trust as the Tyler Arboretum. John and Laura had no children, and when Laura died in 1944, a family tradition of eight generations was ended.
