THE CHALFANT LINE
Chalfant St Giles, Buckinghamshire, England, is the ancestral home of the Chalfants and the name is of local origin.
A family of Chalfants is found in South Bucks, England in the 16th century. William Chalfant was mayor of High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire in the 6th, 8th, and 12th years of King Henry VIII. Thomas Chalfant held the same office in the first year of Queen Mary, the last master of the hospital or almshouse of St John the Baptist. In the same borough was Christopher Chalfant. He held this office from 1546 to 1553. As William Penn was well known at High Wycombe and the Quakers were strong here, it is not hard to conjecture how the family extended to Pennslyvania. The family is known to have come with Penn and to have settled in or about Philadelphia. All of this name in America are of Quaker descent.
John Chalfant is the first of the name in America about whom we have any information.
John Chalfant came to this country from England with William Penn in the ship "Welcome" about 1683. [Another site on the internet has John arriving in 1699 aboard "The Canterbury" with William Penn.] He was granted a large tract of land in Chester Co., Pa. and about 1699 he patented a tract of 250 acres in Rockland Manor, Chester Co. This tract of land cost him the "going rate" of 63 pounds, 10 shillings. He died in 1725 leaving two sons, John and Robert. My kin are concerned with Robert.
Robert Chalfant, son of John (died 1725) was born February 2, 1725. He married Sarah Cloud, daughter of Mordecai Cloud and Sarah (Chads) Cloud on November 16, 1747. Sarah Chads was a descendant of Francis Chads who came from Wiltshire, England in 1684. After Francis Chads second marriage in 1695 to Grace Marple, he settled on the Brandywine at the ford which bears the family name of Chads Ford.
Robert Chalfant and Sarah Cloud Chalfant had two sons: Chads Chalfant born at Chads Ford, Pa., about 1759 and Mordecai Chalfant born April 8, 1757 and died Sept. 15, 1823.
Chads Chalfant, with his bride Miss McManna, set out to find a home in the wilderness beyond the mountains and settled near Brownsville, Fayette Co., Pa. He was an enthusiastic mason and took an active part in establishing the lodge known as the Lodge of Hope and Good Intentions (now the Brownsville Lodge No. 60). He was the first worshipful master of this lodge and he is buried under the first church built in 1776 - now known as the First Methodist Church of Brownsville, Pa. His children were Elizabeth, James, Robert, Mordecai, Abner, Basil, and Walter Brown.
Mordecai Chalfant followed his brother to Fayette County where the first census of the United States (Pennsylvania) 1790 gives him as head of a family. Mordecai Chalfant married Margaret Forsythe (May 18, 1759; August 26, 1759?), daughter of William and Elizabeth Forsythe of Fayette County, PA. Originally from the eastern shore of Maryland, their children were Betsy (January 24, 1785), Robert (March 13, 1786), William (March 27, 1788 - February 8,1867), Thomas (February 5, 1791 - December 22, 1820), Amos (January 4, 1792), Francis (March 25, 1794), Margaret (May 17, 1796), and Sarah (August 7, 1793). Mordecai Chalfant enlisted in the Revolutionary Army serving under Captain Andrew Lynn in the Continental Line from Westmoreland County and also after the war under Captain Stokely in Stokely's Rangers. Mordecai Chalfant and his family moved to Bracken County, Kentucky in 1805.