The Twining Farm
Boyhood Home of Quaker Artist Edward Hicks
A Subject of Four of His Paintings

Above: The Twining Farm, Newtown, Bucks County. Image source: Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh.

  The Twining Farm is closely tied to Quaker folk painter Edward Hicks. The artist lived here as a foster child for about 10 years after his mother’s death. Hicks later painted four views of this farm.
Quaker farmers David and Elizabeth Twining owned the property from 1757 until David’s death in 1791. David Twining assembled 341 acres in southwest Newtown Township. He served two terms in the General Assembly, and was a founding director of the Newtown Library Company.
Edward Hicks became a devout Quaker minister whose preaching reflected his deep commitment to Friends’ beliefs. He was also a self-taught folk painter and is best known for his Peaceable Kingdom paintings and memory pictures of Bucks County, including the Twining Farm.

 The Twining Farm Today:

Above: The Twining farmhouse. 12 Winterset Court, Newtown. The two original, central sections of this house are visible in Edward Hick’s painting of this farm. Image source: Lee J. Stoltzfus.

 A Historical Marker on the House:

 Above: This plaque by the Newtown Historical Association marks this farmhouse as the boyhood home of Quaker preacher and artist Edward Hicks. He was raised on this farm as a foster child of David and Elizabeth Twining. Image source: Lee J. Stoltzfus

 Edward Hick Painted Four Examples of this Farm
With Self-Portraits of Himself at Age Five:

Above: Details of the four paintings of the Twining Farm, painted by Edward Hicks. Images source: #1. Carnegie Museum of Art #2. Colonial Williamsburg #3. American Folk Art Museum #4. Christie’s, 1999, Price realized: $1.43 Million.
Edward Hicks painted himself as a five-year-old child at the knee of his adoptive mother Elizabeth Hicks in these four examples of the Twining Farm. Mrs. Twining wears Quaker gray and tan. She sits beside her husband who wears a Quaker collarless coat and an appropriately plain hat. David Twining was one of the most prominent farmers in Bucks County.

 The Twinings Moved from Massachusetts
To Pennsylvania to Escape Persecution
for their Quaker Faith:

Above: Portrait of Quaker martyr Mary Dyer, executed in Boston in 1660 by Puritans because of her Quaker faith. Painting by Howard Pyle. Image source: Newport Historical Society.

In the 1690s, David Twining’s great grandparents, William and Elizabeth Twining, lived in Eastham, Massachusetts, where they were persecuted by the Puritans for their Quaker faith. They had originally belonged to the Congregational Church, the leading Puritan denomination. After joining the Society of Friends / Quakers, the Twinings faced intolerance for their new beliefs. So in 1695 they moved to Newtown, Bucks County.
In Massachusetts four Quakers were hanged for refusing to conform to the Puritan religion, including Mary Dyer who was hanged by the Puritans in 1660. Here in William Penn’s Pennsylvania the Twining family found their peaceable kingdom.

 A Quaker Vision of Peace
Edward Hicks’ Peaceable Kingdom Paintings:

Above: Peaceable Kingdom, by Edward Hicks, ca. 1834. This painting sold for $9.67 million at a Sotheby’s auction in 2008. Image source: Antiques and the Arts Weekly

Above: Edward Hicks Painting the Peaceable Kingdom, by Thomas Hicks, ca. 1839. Image source: National Portrait Gallery

Edward Hicks is best known for his series of Peaceable Kingdom paintings. Beginning in the 1820s, he produced more than 60 versions of this work. Hicks’ paintings reflect his Quaker belief in peace and the possibility of a just society. Today, the Peaceable Kingdom paintings are celebrated for their spiritual depth and are icons of American folk art.

 The Twining Farmhouse:

Above: The Twining farmhouse was built in at least five sections, beginning ca. 1750 with the central block and expanding outward.
“It appears that the building pictured in the Edward Hicks paintings of the Twining Farm consisted of the early period of section one (A) and section two viewed from the north, which was probably the front of the building at that date.” Floorplan image and quote: Newtown Joint Historic Commission, National Register of Historic Places.

Historical marker on Twining farmhouse. Image source: Lee J. Stoltzfus

Above: Entry to the 1832 farmhouse addition. Image source: Lee J. Stoltzfus

Above: Smokehouse at the Twining Farm. Image source: Lee J. Stoltzfus

Above: The Twining farmhouse and other buildings here are built of local sandstone from the Stockton Formation. This building stone is known as Stockton sandstone.

 Links: