Page:Memoir of George B. Wood, M. D., LL.D.djvu/8

 Gloucester counties; Woodstown and Woodbury being, in all probability, named after them.

Farther back, in Gloucester, England, traces have been found of the family annals, through the Woods of Brockrup in the 16th, and of Gobril in the 15th century, to a still earlier period, when their predecessors inhabited for many successive years the ancient Court-House of Gloucester; now, long since, converted into a farm. Late in Dr. Wood's life, he was informed of the decease of a very wealthy banker, named James Wood, in Gloucester, England, without direct heirs. Legal gentlemen called upon Dr. Wood, proposing to dispute this banker's will, in his favor, as a collateral heir; the property having been left to an alderman named Wood, in London. While declining this proposition, Dr. Wood remarked upon it as follows: "Had the existence of such relations been known to Mr. Wood, and especially had accident brought us into close intimacy or association, it is not improbable that he might have preferred persons of his own blood as the heirs of his fortune, to one whose only claim upon him was the name of Wood, and a few flattering attentions."

Two sons of James Wood of Philadelphia, above mentioned, early in the 18th century left this city to settle in Southern New Jersey; probably under the auspices of Thomas Chalkley, a prominent member and preacher of the Society of Friends; who contemplated founding, upon the banks of the Cohansey river,