USA > Delaware > History of Delaware : 1609-1888 > Part 41
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HISTORY OF DELAWARE.
one and sixpence per yard, and a felt or wool hat and two or three pairs of coarse yarn stock- ings were good for two seasons. Wealthy people, who wore imported velvets, satins, silks and nan- keens, however, had to pay extravagant prices for them, and the cost of a fashonable outfit often exceeded the money value of an eligible farm. The rapid inercase 'of their "bestial" not only gave the planter- a valuable line of exports, but also early encouraged the manufacture of leather. Penn and the Society of Free Traders established a tannery in Philadelphia in 1683 and it was well supplied both with bark and hides. Leather was in general use for articles of elothing, such ns are now made of other goods Penn himself wore leather stockings, for which he paid twenty- two shillings a pair. In 1695 the exportation of dressed and undressed deer-skins was prohibited, in order to promote their utilization at home. Raw hides cost one and a half pennies per pound, while leather sold for twelve pence. A fat cow went to the butcher for three pounds, while beef sold for from three to four and a half penee per pound,-a profit of over one hundred per cent. to butcher and tanner. But land was cheap, the Barbadoes market was always ready to pay well for cattle on the hoof, and these things secured good wages for labor in the mechanie arts. Cur- riers, who paid twenty pence a gallon for their oil, received three shillings and four penee a hide for dressing leather. Journeymen shoemakers were paid two shillings a pair for men's and women's shoes, and last-makers got ten shillings a dozen for lasts; heel-makers two shillings a dozen for wooden heels. Men's shoes sold for six shil- lings and sixpence and women's for five shillings per pair. Great skill and taste were displayed in the various makes of " white leather," soft leather and buekskin for domestic wear,-a branch of manufactures taken up by the Swedes in imitation of the Indians.
old iron at sixpence per pound, earned fifty >1. lings a day. All the contemporary writers spt . of the heavy charges for smith work, though ther. was no horse-shoring to be done. Silversmith. got half a crown or three shillings per ounce for working up silver, "and for gold, equivalent" There was a furnace and forges at Durham, in Bucks, before the eighteenth century set in.
Where there was so much hand-work done, and so many things to be accomplished by mere manual labor, there was naturally not much call nor room for brain-work The habits of the Swedes, the system and culture of the Society of Friends, were not particularly favorable to intellectual growth nor to education. Many more scholars, wits and learned men came to Pennsylvania in the first two generations than went out of it. The learned Swedish pastors were exotics, and their successor -. from Campanius to Collins, had to be importei from the mother country. They did not grow up in the Delaware country. Nor did Penn's " wooden country " (as Samuel Keimer, Franklin's odd companion at the case, calls it) produce any parallels or equals to the university scholars, who. like Penn, the Lloyds, Logan, Growden, Shippen, Nicholas and John More, Pastorius, Wynne. White, Guest, Mompesson and others, devoted their talents and learning to the service of the infant Commonwealth. Penn himself, it was alleged in Council, on the trial of Bradford for the unlicensed printing of the charter -and laws (a work which he was instigated to by Judge Growden), had taken the Virginia Governor Berkeley's rule for his pattern, and wished to dis- courage publications of all sorts. The learned and elegant professione, indeed, were not well nurtured in Pennsylvania's early days. In Goodson's inventory of occupations the "chirurgion " wa- put down between the barbers and the staymakers. Gabriel Thomas shows that the professions were contemned. "Of Lawyers and Physicians," he observes, "I shall say nothing, because this Country is very Peaceable and Healthy ; long may it so continue and never haveoccasion for the Tongue of the one or the Pen of the other, both equally destructive to men's Estates and Lives." Where the sole source of divinity was " the Inner Light," cultivated persons were not to be looked for in the ministry; education was rather esteemed hindrance than a help to the free and perfect expression of inspiration. It was a " snare " and a " device," like the steeple on the church's tower. the stained glass in its windows, like the organ in the choir, and the gowns and also the salaries and benefices of the clergymen.
The mineral wealth of Pennsylvania, suspected by the Swedes, began to be revealed very early to the primitive settlers under the proprietary gov- ernment. A Dutch colony is claimed to have worked iron in the Minnesink long before Penn came over, but there is nothing but tradition in regard to these pioneers. Penn wrote to Lord Keeper North, in 1683, that copper and iron had been found in divers places in the province. Gabriel Thomas speaks of the existence of iron stone richer and less drossy than that of England : the copper, he says, " far exceeding ours, being richer, finer, and of a more glorious color. ' These " finds" were in Chester County, the seat of the earliest iron-works in the province. Thon as also There is really as little to say about the doctor- and lawyers of the province as Thomas allows. The Dutch Annals mention surgeons of the mentions limestone, lodestone, isinglass, asbestos and amianthus. Blacksmiths earned high wages ; one is mentioned who, with his negroes, by working up name of Tykman -Stidham and Jan Oosting,
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another, William Van Rasenberg, who was called land, there was a great deal of collecting to do in indifferently barber and surgeon, and Everts and the triangular trade between the province, the West Indies and the mother country, and there were numbers of personal issues and suits for assaults, libels, etc. Besides, while Penn himself did all he could to prevent litigations, the char- acier of bis laws necessarily called for the constant interference of the courts in affairs not properly their concern. There were many sumptuary laws, many restrictive ones, and the whole system was unpleasantly inquisitive and meddlesome It Arent Pietersen. Three of these in three years received government pay to the amount of two thousand seven hundred and eighty-eight forins as physicians and " comforters of the sick."! In the journal of Sluyter and Dankers, Otto Ernest Cock is called a physician, or rather "a late medicus." In addition to Drs. Thomas Wynne, Griffith Oweu and Nicholas More, John Goodson was also a physician under Penn's government, and so was Edward Jones, founder of Merion, and son-in-law of Dr. Wynne. Dr. John Le Pierre, who was reputed to be an alchemist, came over about the same time as Penn. Dr. More did not practice his profession in the colony, but Griffith Owen was a regular physician from the date of his arrival. There were several other " chirurgione" among the " first purchasers," but it is not ascer- tained that any of them immigrated to the pros- inee. Doctors could not be well dispensed with, sinee, in addition to eolds, consumptions and con- stant malarial disorders, the province was visited by three or four severe epidemies, including a fatal influenza which attacked all the settlements and colonies on the Atlantic, an outbreak of pleurisy which was noticeably destructive at Upland and New Castle, and a plague of yellow fever in Philadelphia in 1699. The smallpox likewise was a regular and terrible visitor of the coast, though its most fearful ravages were among the Indians.
The pioneer lawyer of Delaware was admitted to practice in 1676, at the session of the court held November 7th. The records of that day show that " uppon the petition of Thomas Spry desireing that he might be admitted to plead some people's eases in court, etc, The Worppll Court have granted him Leave so Long as the Petitioner Behaves himself well and carrys himself answer- able thereto."
In addition to Thomas Spry and others Charles Piekering appears to have been a member of the bar, as well as a planter on a large scale, a miner and copper and iron-worker, a manufacturer of adulterated eoins, and a sort of warden of the territory in dispute between Penn and Lord Balti- more. Patrick Robinson, the recalcitrant clerk of Judge More's court, was an attorney, and Samuel Hersent was prosecuting attorney for the province in 1655, afterwards securing his election to the sheriffalty of Philadelphia. David Lloyd suc- ceeded him as attorney-genera', and distinguished himself in the controversies with Admiralty Judge Quarry. John Moore was the royal attorney in Quarry's court.
kept up the same sort of obnoxious interference with private business and personal habits which made the Puritan system so intolerable, but its penalties had none of the Puritan's atrocious severity and bloodthirst. It must be confessed that the unorthodox person of gay temperament who sought to amuse himself in primitive Phila- delphia was likely to have a hard time of it. The sailor who landed there on liberty after a tedious three months' eruise soon found that he was not at Wapping. The Quakers had learned to despise riot and debauchery, less perhaps because it was vicious and demoralizing than for the reason that it was offensive to their ingrained love of quiet and order and to their passion for thrift and economy. Wild- ness, sport, all the livelier auntsements were abhor- rent to them because they significd extravagance and waste. The skirts of their Christian charity, admirable, thoughtful and deep as that was, seemed never broad enough to embrace or coudone prodi- gality. When the prodigal son came home to them the fatted calf was not killed, but the ques- tion was wonderingly and seriously asked (saving the oath ) " Mais, que diable allait-il faire dans cette gabire?" That was the way precisely in which they treated William Penn, Jr, when he was arrested for rioting and beating the watch in a tavern. Instead of excusing him for his youth and for his worthy father's sake, they accused him on. that account, and the father's great character actually became a part of the body of the indict- ment against the protligate son. No wonder that the father should have cried in the bitterness of his heart: "See how much more casily the bad Friend's treatment of him stumbled him from the blessed truths than those he acknowledged to be good ones eould prevail to keep him in possession of' it."
In fact, all that was not exactly according to Quaker ways was narrowly looked upon as viee and to be suppressed Christmas muniming was accused as flagrant licentiousness. Horse-racing was prevented by the grand jury It offended the sobriety of the community for ships to fire salutes on arriving and departing. The laws against the
These gentlemen of the bar found plenty of small vices were so promiscuous and indiscriminate work to do. There were many disputed tities of and the penalties so ill balanced that when the 1 Westcott's " History of Philadelphia, " chap. iti. Pennsylvania code was finally presented to Queen
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HISTORY OF DELAWARE.
Anne for approval her ministers drew their pens persons, who, upon his acknowledgments of the through half the list of misdemeanors and penal- ties, for the reason that they " restrain her Majesty's subjects from innocent sports and diversions. However, if the Assembly of Pennsylvania shall pass an act for preventing of riotou- sports, and for restraining such as are contrary to the laws of this kingdom, there will be no objection thereto, so it contains nothing else."' The character of these unnatural restraints is fully illustrated in certain " extracts from the records of Germantown Court" (1691 to 1707) and " presentmients, petitions, etc., between 1702 and 1774.": For example, Peter Keurlis, charged with not coming when the justices sent for him, with refusing to lodge travelers, with selling barley-malt at four pence per quart, and with violating Germantown law by selling more than a gill of rum and a quart of beer every half-day to each individual. Peter's answers cover the whole case of the absurdity of such apron-string government. Ile did not come because he had much work to do; he did not entertain travelers, because he only sold drink and did not keep an ordinary; he knew nothing about the four-pence a quart law of the province, and as for the Germantown statute, the people he sold to being able to bear more, he could not, or would not, obey the law. The court, how- ever, took his license away from him and forbade him to sell any drink, under penalty of £5. Oaths and charges of lying, when brought to the court's notice, if the offender acknowledged his fault and ·begged pardon, were " forgiven and laid by," the law making them finable offenses. Reinert Peters fined twenty shillings for calling the sheriff a liar and a rascal in open street. A case of Smith ra. Falkner was continued because the day when it was called " was the day wherein Herod slew the Innocents." George Muller, for his drunkenness, was condemned to five days' imprisonment ; " item, warrant in the euse of his laying a wager to smoke abore one hundred pipes in one day." Herman Dors, being drunk, called Trinke op den Graeff a naughty name, accused Peters of being too kind to Trinke, called his own sister a witch and another vile name, and said his children were thieves ; brought betere the court, " and there did particu- larly clear all and every one of the said injured
Among the grand jury presentments, etc., quoted in these papers, we find one against George Rob- inson, butcher, "for being a person of evell fame as a common swearer and a common drinker. and particularly upon the 23d day of this inst., for swearing three oaths in the market-place, and also for uttering two very bad curses the 26th day of this inst." Philip Gilbeck utters three curses also : presented and fined for terrifying " the Queen's liege people.' John Smith, living in Strawberry PILLORY. Alley, presented " for being maskt or disguised in woman's aparell ; walking openly through the streets of this citty from house to house on or about the 26th day of the 10th month [day after Christmas], it being against the Law of God, the Low of this prorince and the Law of nature, to the staining of holy profession and Incoridging of wickedness in this place." All this against all innocent Christmas masquerade ! Children and servants robbing orchards is presented as a " great to pay the C'onstahle two shillings for serving the abuse" and " liciencious liberty," a "common
nuisance " and " agreeviance." Such ridiculou- exaggeration destroys the respect for law which alone secures obedience to it. John Joyce Jr .. is presented " for having to wifes ut once, which is boath against ye Law of God and Man." Dor- othy, wife of. Richard Canterill, presented for masking in men's clothes the day after Christnuts. " walking and dancing in the house of John Sime- at 9 or 10 o'clock at night."-not even charged with being in the street! Sarah Stiner, same offense, but on the streets, "dressed in man's
1 Privy Council to Governor on repealing certain laws, Pennsylvania Archives, 1709, vol. i. p 135, First +this.
" Published in Volume First of Collections of the Pennsylvania Bis. forical Society. pp. 213-208 et sey
wrongs done them by him, freely forgave hin .. the court tined him five shilling. Peter Sh . maker, Jr., accuses the horses of John van d. : Willderness of being " unlawful," because the. " go over the fence where it had its full height The jury, however, tound Shoemaker's fences 1. be " unlawful. ' The court orders that " none wt. hath no lot nor land in this corporation shall ty. his horse or mare or any other cattle upon th .. fences or lands thereof, either by day or night. under the penalty of five shillings." Abraham ( den Graeff is before court for slandering Davi Sherker, saying no honest man would be in hi- company. Verdict for defendant. . Nov. 28th. 1703, Daniel Falkner, coming into this Court. behaved himself very ill, like one that was lust night drunk, and not yet having recovered his witts' Falkner seemed so agressive that the sheriff and constable were ordered to " bring him out," which was done, he erying, " You are all fools!" which, indeed, was not the remark of a druuken but a sober man. No court could continue to waste time in preposterous trivial proceedings of such sort without exhausting the patience of a con- munity and making it impossible for people to avoid such outbursts as those of Falkner.
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Clothes, contrary to ye nature of her scets . . . to ye grate Disturbance of well-minded persons, name of Hell-town."
and incorridging of vice in this place." John simes, who gave the masquerade party, is pre- -ented for keeping a disorderly house, " a nursery to Debotch ye inhabitants and youth of this city . . . to ye Greef of and disturbance of peaceable minds and propigating ye Throne of wickedness amongst us." Peter Evans, gentleman, presented for sending a challenge to Francis Phillips to fight with swords.1 The grand jury report that their predecessors having frequently before presented the necessity of a ducking-stool and house of cor- rection 2 "for the just punishment of scolding, Drunken Women, as well as Divers other profli- gate and Unruly persons in this place, who are be- come a Publick Nuisance and disturbance to this Town in Generall, Therefore we, the Present Grand Jury, do Earnestly again present the same to this Court of Quarter Sessions for the City, de- eiring their immediate Care, That those public Con- veniences may not be any longer delay'd." Cer- tainly it is a novel idea to class ducking-stools and houses of correction among " publie conveniences." There are three successive presentments to this effect. The grand jury also present negroes for noisy assemblages in the streets on Sunday, and think that they ought to be forbidden to walk the streets in company after dark without their mas- ter's leave. Mary, wife of John Austin, the cord- wainer is presented because she was and yet is a common seold, "a Comon and public disturber, And Strife and Debate amongst her Neighbours, a Common Sower and Mover, To the great Disturb- ance of the Liege Subjects," ete. In spite of all these presentments and indictments, however, and especially those against drunkenness and tippling- houses, we find in a presentment drawn by Benja- min Franklin in 1744 that these houses, the " Nur- series of Vice and Debauchery," are on the in- crease. The bill says there were upwards of one hundred licensed retail liquor-houses in the city, which, with the small groceries, "make by our computation near a tenth part of the city, a Pro- portion that appears to us much too great." One place, where these houses are thickest, has " ob-
Evans' challenge was as follows: "Sir: You have basely slandered a Gentlewoman that I have a profound respect for, And for my part shall give you a fair opportunity to defend yoursell to-morrow nothing, on the west side of Jos. Carpenter's Garden, betwixt seven and >, where I shall expect to meet you, Gluto cinctus, in failure whereof depend upon the usage you deserve from yr etc.
" PETER EVANS
"I am at ye Pewter Platter."
Phillips appears to have been arrested, for the grand jury present him for contirving to " deprive, annihilate and conterun " the authority of Denyor and recorder by saying, " Tell the mayor, Robert Hill, and the res eler, Robert Assheton, that I say they are no better than Regnes, Villuns and Scoundrells, for they have not done me justice, and might as well have sent a man to pick my puckett or rob my house as to bave taken away my servants," etc.
1 The whipping-post, pillory, and stocks were the usual instruments for punishtueut.
tained among the common People the shocking
The first few years of the eighteenth century did not bring much change in the mode of life or the costume of the Delawareans, but they brought much improvement in their dwellings. In Wil- mington and other large towns of Delaware many new houses were huilt of brick, and some two or three stories high. Some of these houses had a balcony, usually a front porch, a feature of vast importance in house-buikling, for it became cus- tomary in the large towns for the ladies of the family in pleasant weather to sit on the porch, after the labor of the day was over, and spend the evening in social converse. In those early days when the sun went down the young ladies were dressed and ready for the porch parade: then neighbors came for a chat about those en- grossing subjects, dress and housekeeping ; friends called, and beaux strutted by in powdered wigs, swords, square-eut coats, tights and leather or silk stockings, running the gauntlet of all those bright eyes in order to lift the three-cornered hat to some particular fair one, and to dream about the sweet smile received in return. If we are to believe the old chronicles, love- making was a very tame affair in those days. Young ladies received company with their mammas, and the STOCKS. bashful lover, in the presence of the old folks, had to resort to tender glances and softly-whispered vows. Marriages were ordered promulgated by affixing the intentions of the parties on the court-house and meet- ing-house doors, and when the act was solemnized, they were required by law to have at least twelve subscribing witnesses. The wedding entertain- ments must have been more of a nuisance than a pleasure, either for the parents or the young couple. They were inspired by a conception of nubounded hospitality, very common at that time. Even the Quakers accepted them with good grace until the evil consequences of free drinking on those occasions compelled them to coun-el more moderation. There was feasting during the whole day, and for the two following days punch was dealt out ad libitum to all comers. The gentlemen invited to partake of these libations were received by the groom on the first floor ; then they ascended to the second floor, where they found the bride surrounded by her bridesmaids, and every one of the said gentlemen, be they one hundred, kissed the bride. There was a quaint custom in those days of turning off marriage notices with some retuark complimentary
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to the bride, as follows : " Mr. Levi Hollingsworth Carroll, Jr., of Maryland. Washington was a to Miss Hannab Paschall, daughter of Mr. Ste- phen Paschall, a young lady where amiable this- position and eminent mental accomplishments add dignity to her agreeable person."
When the Revolution broke out, Miss Sally MeKean was one "among the constellation of beauties of Delaware." She was the daughter of Thomas Mckean and was remarkable for her beauty. She married Don Carlos Martinez, Mar- quis D'Yrujo; her son, the Duke of Sotomayer, who was born in Philadelphia, became prime min- ister of Spain.
At Mrs. Washington's first levee, in Philadel- phia, she was greatly admired, and the immense wealth at her command, after she was married,
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THE MARCHIONESS D'YRUJO (SALLY MCKEAN).
enabled her to maintain a style of life, withont which beauty alone stood only a slight chance of recognition. Her beauty, rank, and wealth, con- spired to draw around her a circle of men and women of the very first class in elegance and ac- complishment. After her father removed to Phila- delphia, she lived with an elegant hospitality, and numbered among her intimates the belles of the Republican Court, Mrs. William Bingham ( Anne Willing), Margaret Shippen ( Mrs. Gen. Arnold). Misses Allen, Mrs. Robert Morris, Dolly Payne (Mrs. Madison), Margaret, Sophia and Hariet Chew, Martha Jefferson, Mrs. Dr. James Rush, Mrs. Gen. Henry Knox. Rebecca Franks, Mrs. Esther Reed, Mr4, Sally Bache and a host of the place of the primitive whitewash.
great admires of her, and she accompanied him several times when he sat to Gilbert Stuart for his famous portrait. The great commander was wohlt to say that the agreeable expression on his fare was due to hes inter sting conversation. She and Mrs. Bradford, the wife of the Attorney Genera! of the United States, were the last surviving ladies of the Republican Court.
In winter, company was received in the sitting room, which might as well be styled the living mont, for the many purposes it served. They dined in it, and sometimes slept in it. The furni- ture and general arrangement of the room was of the simplest kind; setrees with stiff, high backs, one or two large table of pine or of maple, a high. deer chest of drawers containing the wearing apparel of the family and a corner eupboard in which the plate and china were displayed, consti- tuted a very satisfactory set of parlor furniture in the early part of the eighteenth century,-sofas and side-boards were not then in use, nor were carpets. The floor was sanded, the walls white- washed, and the wide mantel of the open fireplace was of wood The windows admitted light thorugh small panes of glass set in leaden frames. A few small pictures painted on glass and a look- ing-glass with a small earved border adorned the walls.
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