from The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, Volume 45
John Nice [de Neus], son of John Nice (died in March, 1794; his will was made on March 12, 1793), who,
on October 30, 1767, married his second wife Margaret Coffin;
was born in Germantown, January 29, 1739, and died there on July 5 (September 26), 1806, aged 67 years.
In May, 1760, he was commissioned an Ensign in the 7th Co., of the Pennsylvania Regiment by Governor (Colonel) John Penn; and in September, 1763, Governor James Hamilton commissioned him a Captain in the colonial service.
In 1772, he married Sarah daughter of Colonel Jacob Engle (born in 1727; died on Wednesday, February 20, 1799, in his 72d year), of Germantown, who survived him, and by her had five children
James,
Mary,
Ann,
Washington, and
Levi.
On March 15, 1776, when 37 years old, he was appointed a Captain in a battalion of musketmen in Colonel Samuel Miles' Sixth Pennsylvania Regiment, which was attached to the Flying Camp.
He was, together with Colonel Miles and his regiment, captured by the British at the battle of Long Island on August 27, 1776 (Scharf and Westcott, vol. i, p. 331), but was exchanged on December 9, 1776, and became, in 1777, a member of Captain Faries' Troop of Horse.
On November 12, 1777, he was transferred to the Pennsylvania State Regiment designated the "13th Pennsylvania;"
on July 1, 1778, was transferred to the Sixth Pennsylvania Regiment; and,
on January 17, 1781, to the Second Pennsylvania Regiment, and served to June, 1783.
He participated in the battles of Brandywine and Germantown.
In March, 1782, he joined with Captains Schneider [Snyder] and [Robert] Erwin in charges before the President and Supreme Executive Council of Pennsylvania of certain abuses and irregularities at the last general election for the County.
On January 15, 1785, he was appointed a Justice of the Peace for Philadelphia County, Germantown and Roxborough townships, which office he resigned on April 3, 1786.
In October, 1786, he ran for Representative of the County in the Assembly.
In June, 1787, he offered for sale his "valuable plantation situate in Bristol township, Philadelphia County, near the Old York Road, about seven miles from the city," containing 90 acres of land.
He resigned as Major of the Second Battalion of Philadelphia County Militia in April, 1787, to which office he had been elected in April, 1786. He was a member of the Pennsylvania Society of the Cincinnati, as was also his son, James, and his grandson, Levi.
