USA > Pennsylvania > Luzerne County > Wilkes-Barre > A history of Wilkes-Barre, Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, from its first beginnings to the present time; including chapters of newly-discovered, Vol. I > Part 58
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Joseph Shippen, abovementioned, was the sixth child of Edward Shippen and his first wife, Elizabeth Lybrand, of Boston. He was Grand Master of Free Masons in Pennsylvania in 1738-'40. The last-men- tioned Edward Shippen was born in Yorkshire, England, in 1639, and immigrated in 1668 to Boston, where he engaged in mercantile pursuits. Having embraced Quakerism he was persecuted therefor, and for conscience sake, and in response to au invitation from William Penn, he removed to Philadelphia in 1694. He was elected Speaker of the Pennsylvania Assembly July 9, 1695, and in 1701 became the first Mayor of Philadelphia-being named for that office by William Penn in the charter granted by him October 25th. It is said that Mayor Shippen "had the biggest person, the biggest house and the biggest coach in the Province, and his property in Philadelphia stretched unbroken from Sixteenth Street to the Delaware River." He died at Philadelphia October 2, 1712.
Edward Shippen, 2d, grandson and namesake of the last-mentioned (and Wyoming Commissioner in 1757), removed with his parents in 1704 from Boston to Philadelphia, and thence to 'Germantown in 1716 with his father and the other members of the family after the death of Mrs. Abigail Shippen. Later he returned to Philadelphia, where, for a number of years, he was engaged in mercantile pursuits-dealing largely in supplies for Indian traders. In 1741 he was Mayor of the city. Prior to 1750 he laid out and named, in that part of Lancaster County which is now Cumberland County, the town of Shippensburg- the oldest town, except York, west of the Susquehanna in Pennsylvania. In May, 1752, Edward Shippen removed to the borough of Lancaster, where he was appointed Prothonotary of the Court of Common Pleas of Lancaster County. This office he held till 1778. He was also one of the Judges of the Lancaster County Courts under both the Provincial and the State Governments ; and during the French and Indian War he was a Paymaster of Army Supplies. In 1746 he was one of the founders of "The College of New Jersey" (Princeton University), and for twenty years was a member of its Board of Trustees. He died at Lancaster September 25, 1781.
In 1764 Judge Jasper Yeates-whose wife was a granddaughter of Edward Shippen-wrote of the lat- ter, then in the sixty-first year of his life, as follows : "I know none happier in their temper and dispo- sition, or any who have a greater fund of pleasantry and good humor than the old gentleman. In a minute he relates to me ten different stories, interlarding each narrative with choice scraps of Latin, Greek and French." Another, who knew him well, wrote of him later: "He was in truth a many-sided man. One found him reading, with enjoyment, Telemachus in the original French ; quoting Latin verses in his correspondence with Robert Cooper, the minister; ordering in London in' 1749 a bust of Pope and Ovid's 'Epistles,' 'with ye best notes ;' a subscriber to the Philadelphia Academy, afterwards the Uni- versity of Pennsylvania."
Edward Shippen was twice married, his first wife being his step-sister Sarah Plumley, to whom he was married at Philadelphia September 20, 1725. Their fourth child was Edward Shippen, Jr. (the third of the name), who was born at Philadelphia February 16, 1729. In 1746 he began the study of law under the direction of Tench Francis (Attorney General of Pennsylvania, 1744-'52, and Recorder of Philadelphia, 1750-'54), and at the end of two years went to London to complete his studies. In 1750 he was there admitted a Barrister of the Middle Temple, and shortly afterwards returned to Philadelphia and began to practise his profession. About the time of his father's removal to Lancaster he was appointed Prothonotary of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, and Judge of the Court of Vice Admiralty for the Province. These offices he held for several years, and in the meantime was appointed a member of the Provincial Council. About 1775 he was appointed President Judge of the Court of Common Pleas of Philadelphia. Upon the breaking out of the Revolution he gave up his various offices, and during the war lived in comparative retirement in Philadelphia, being a loyalist-although not offensively so. No act of disloyalty was charged against him by the Americans, but he was required in 1776 to give a parole to stay within certain limits. (See "Pennsylvania Colonial Records," XI : 38.) During the occupation of Philadelphia by the British Major André was a guest at his house. In October, 1785, Edward Shippen, Jr., was appointed President Judge of the various Courts of Philadelphia County. In 1791 he was appointed one of the Judges of the Supreme Court of the State, and became Chief Justice of the Court in December, 1799, by appointment of Governor Mckean, who had just resigned the office to assume that of Governor. Judge Shippen held this office until about the close of 1805, when he resigned it. He died at Philadelphia April 16, 1806.
Judge Edward Shippen, Jr., was married November 29, 1753, to Margaret (born 1735; died 1794), sixth child of Tench Francis, previously mentioned, and his wife Elizabeth Turbutt, a native of Kent County, Maryland. Elizabeth ("Betsey"), eldest child of Judge Edward and Margaret (Francis) Shippen, was born September 15, 1754, and was married in December, 1778, to her first cousin Maj. Edward Shippen Burd (see post); and Margaret ("Peggy"), sixth and youngest child of Judge and Mrs. Shippen, was born June 11, 1760, and was married April 8, 1779, to Maj. Gen. Benedict Arnold, mentioned on page 284.
Sarah Shippen, fifth child of Edward and Sarah (Plumley) Shippen, was born in Philadelphia Feb- ruary 22, 1730, and about 1750 was married to James Burd. He was born at Ormiston, near Edinburgh, Scotland, March 10, 1726, the third son and youngest child of Edward Burd. In 1747 or '48 he immigrated to America. In 1752 and '53 he and his wife were living on Edward Shippen's property at Shippensburg. In April, 1755, he was appointed a commissioner with George Croghan and others to lay out a road from Harris' Ferry on the Susquehanna to the Ohio River. As early as February, 1756, he held a commission as Captain in the Second Battalion of the Pennsylvania Regiment, commanded by Colonel Clapham. In July, 1756, Captain Burd was promoted Major of this Battalion (which then and later was commonly called the "Augusta Regiment"), and was stationed at Fort Augusta, Shamokin. In February and March, 1757, and later he was in command of this fort. January 2, 1758, he was promoted "Colonel commanding the Second Battalion," and in the following November was at Loyalhanna.
In 1759 Colonel Burd was sent into what is now Fayette County, Pennsylvania, to continue the cutting of Braddock's road, where incomplete, as far as the junction of Redstone Creek with the Monongahela River, the present site of Brownsville. At that point, in October, 1759, "Fort Burd" was constructed. It long continued to be the favorite rendezvous for those who kept watch upon the movements of the Indi- ans inhabiting the head-waters of the Ohio. Froin its location the fort became more widely known as "Redstone Old Fort." At the beginning of the Revolution Colonel Burd was very active in the efforts made to raise troops for the American cause, and September 18, 1775, he was commissioned Colonel of the Fourth Battalion (composed of seven companies), Lancaster County Associators, of the "Pennsylvania Associated Battalions." Dissensions in his battalion, reluctance on the part of the soldiers to serve any- where else than in their own immediate neighborhood, and his own great disappointment at not receiv- ing a commission as Brigadier General, induced Colonel Burd to resign his commission in December, 1776.
In1 1758 Colonel Burd purchased 600 acres of land in Paxtang, Lancaster County, now Lower Swatara Township, Dauphin County, six miles below Harrisburg, and there in 1760 he erected a stone house, which
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Beatty (a Presbyterian clergyman) and James Galbraith*, as "Agents and Commissioners on the part of the Province, to construct such a fort and build as many houses as shall be necessary for the residence, security and protection from their enemies of Teedyuscung, the Delaware Indi- ans and the Ten Nation Indians considered with them at the late treaty at Easton ; and in such form, place and manner as shall be inost agree- able to Teedynscung and the other Indians who shall be present." The Commissioners were instructed by the Governor to "consult with the Indians and contrive and accommodate matters to their satisfaction." Commissioner Hughes insisted that the workmen, as well as the Provin- cial troops who would accompany the party to Wyoming as a guard, should be placed under his sole orders. This, however, was denied by the Governor and Council as an "absurd demand."
Under date of October 23, 1757, at Harris' Ferry, Capt. Joseph Shippen wrote to his brother-in-law Maj. James Burd, at Fort Augusta, as followst :
"The Governor, agreeable to the promises made the Indians at Easton, has appointed John Hughes, Edward Shippen, James Galbraith and Henry Pawlingt, Esquires, Com- missioners for constructing a stockade fort and building a number of houses for the accommodation of the Indians at Wyoming, which is an affair of great consequence, to be done immediately. The Governor has ordered a party of three companies to be detached from the Western Battalion to escort the above Commissioners to Wyoming and to accom- plish the work there ; and he has appointed Captain Mercer? and myself to be two of the
still stands. He called his plantation "Tinian," and there he made his home until his death, which occurred October 5, 1793. His wife died there September 17, 1784. They were the parents of seven chil- dren, the eldest of whom, Sarah Burd, became the wife of Judge Jasper Yeates of Lancaster County. Edward Shippen Burd, the second child, who was married to his cousin Sarah Shippen, as previously noted, was a Major in the American army during the Revolutionary War. Mary Shippen Burd, third child of Col. James and Sarah (Shippen) Burd, became the wife of Peter Grubb of Lancaster County.
Joseph Shippen, sixth child of Edward and Sarah ( Plumley) Shippen, was born at Philadelphia October 30, 1732, and was graduated at Princeton College in 1753. In 1756 he was commissioned Captain of a company in the Second Battalion of the Pennsylvania Regiment, later commanded by his brother-in-law, Colonel Burd. May 28, 1758, he was promoted Major of this Battalion, and later in that year he took part in the expedition commanded by General Forbes (see § below). In 1759 he was with the army of General Stanwix (mentioned on page 316). In the Spring of 1760 he went to Europe, returning to Penn- sylvania in the Autumn of 1761. The next year he was appointed to succeed the Rev. Richard Peters (mentioned on page 262) as Secretary of the Provincial Council of Pennsylvania, and this office he held for a number of years. About 1773 he removed to Chester County, and in 1789 was appointed Judge of the Courts of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. September 29, 1768, he was married to Jane, daughter of John Galloway of Maryland. Colonel Shippen died February 10, 1810.
For other matters of interest concerning the various members of the Shippen and Burd families see Hazard's Register of Pennsylvania, IV : 241 (October 17, 1829) ; Pennsylvania Magazine of History, XXIV : 257, et seq., and Egle's Historical Register of Pennsylvania, II : 214.
* JAMES GALBRAITH was the son of James Galbraith, Sr., of Scots-Irish descent and an early settler on the banks of Swatara Creek in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. James Galbraith, the younger, was elected Sheriff of Lancaster County in 1742 and '43. He was a Justice of the Peace for many years, and took an active part in protecting the settlers of the County from the onslaught of the savages in 1755. In 1760 he removed from the Swatara to Pennsborough Township. Cumberland County. During the Revolu- tion he was appointed County Lieutenant for Cumberland County, but being too aged for active duty he served as an adviser to others who did the routine work of the office. Every one of his sons became prominent on the side of the patriots in the Revolutionary War. His wife was the only daughter of the Rev. William Bertram, who had settled near the Swatara in 1757.
f See "The Shippen Papers" (Philadelphia, 1855), page 99.
Į The Rev. Charles Beatty having declined the appointment tendered him, Henry Pawling was named in his stead ; but he, it seems, either refused or failed to act with the other Commissioners.
¿ HUGH MERCER was born in Aberdeen, Scotland, in 1720. He was educated at the University of Aberdeen, became a physician, and later was appointed an Assistant Surgeon in the army of Prince Charles Edward-in which capacity he took part in the battle of Culloden in 1745. Ile immigrated to America in 1747 and settled near what is now Mercersburg, Franklin County, Pennsylvania. He served as Captain under Col. George Washington in the Braddock expedition in 1755, and was wounded in the shoulder at the battle of the Monongahela. Being pursued by Indians he found refuge in the hollow trunk of a tree, and then wandered alone through the wilderness one hundred miles to Fort Cumberland. In August, 1756, Lient. Col. John Armstrong (previously mentioned ), commanding the "First Bat- talion of the Pennsylvania Regiment," was appointed to lead an expedition against the hostile Delaware and Shawanese Indians at Kittanning on the Allegheny River. One of the Captains in the "First Battal- ion" was Hugh Mercer, and at the close of the campaign he was presented by the corporation of Philadel- phia with a medal, "for his gallantry and military skill proved in a distinguished degree by his destruction of the Indian settlement at Kittanning." December 4, 1757-a few days after his return with the Commis- sioners to Fort Augusta from Wyoming-he was promoted Lieutenant Colonel of the "First Battalion," to succeed John Armstrong, who had been promoted Colonel. In 1758 he accompanied Gen. John Forbes on his expedition into western Pennsylvania, and for some time was in command of Fort Pitt. (See note, page 308.) In June, 1760, he was still Lieutenant Colonel of the "First Battalion." Later he retired to private life and resumed the practise of medicine-locating at Fredericksburg, Virginia, where he con- tinued to reside till the breaking out of the Revolutionary War. He was married to Ann Gordon, of Vir- ginia, who bore him three sons and one daughter.
Colonel Mercer organized and helped to drill the Virginia militia in 1775, and the minute-men the next year. He was then appointed Colonel of the Third Regiment of Virginia. In June, 1776, at the sug-
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officers upon this service. The bateaux are to be employed in carrying provisions, tools, etc., for this expedition to Wyoming. The Commissioners will be here on Friday [Octo- ber 28th], and are to make no delay ; therefore I ami sent up with orders from the Governor to detain all the bateaux at Hunter's till they come up. But upon consulting with Cap- tains [John] Hambright and Mercer I have concluded it is most prudent to suffer the bateaux to go up to Augusta with the present loading, as you will be in great want of salt."
After his interview with the Governor and Council (mentioned on page 358) Teedyuscung returned to Bethlehem, where he remained with his wife and young children (the family being maintained by the Mora- vian Brethren at the expense of the Province) until October 7th, when he again went to Philadelphia. There he spent four or five days, during which he was informed by the Governor of the appointment of the Wyoming Commissioners. Teedyuscung was also present at a confer- ence between the Governor and several Cherokee, Mohawk and Seneca deputies, with whom the Governor was negotiating in order to secure their aid to gain over certain tribes to the English cause. Again repair- ing to Bethlehem Teedyuscung remained there until October 27th, when, accompanied by twenty other Indians, presumably Wanamies- , among whom were his half-brother "Captain Harris," John Pompshire and Moses Tatemy-he set out for Wyoming. The valley was then, and had been for some time previously, wholly unoccupied.
On November 3d John Hughes, Edward Shippen and James Gal- braith, three of the Wyoming Commissioners, wrote to Governor Denny from the fort at Hunter's Mill as follows :
"The company from Weiser's battalion has not come, but we have agreed to set off this day with Captain Mercer's company and a party of fifty men who came down with the bateaux from Fort Augusta ; having left directions for that company [of Weiser's battalion] to follow us immediately."
A few days later the Commissioners mentioned above, convoyed by about 150 officers and men of the Provincial forces, under the command of Captains Joseph Shippen, Hugh Mercer and another whose name has not been ascertained, set out from Fort Augusta for Wyoming. In a number of bateaux and canoes, manned by some of the Provincials, were conveyed tools and provisions for the use of the expedition, while the Commissioners, and the troops not detailed to duty in connection with the boats, marched on horseback and on foot over the old Indian trail leading from Shamokin to Wyoming. When the expedition had arrived within a few miles of Wyoming it was met by Teedyuscung, accom- panied by some of his people, who "showed the way to the spot he had pitched upon for the town," and said he desired the Commissioners "not to erect a fort, but only some houses."* The site selected by Teedyus- cung for the erection of these houses was the one, lying within the present
gestion of General Washington he was commissioned by Congress a Brigadier General in the Continental army and assigned to the command of the flying camp. He accompanied Washington in the retreat through New Jersey, led the column of attack at the battle of Trenton, and advised the night march on Princeton (January 3, 1777), in which he commanded the advance. General Mercer's brigade marched some distance, and only discovered the enemy when turning the buildings behind which the latter (three regiments of British) were posted, and then they were not more than fifty yards off. Mercer, with great courage, immediately formed his men and poured in a heavy fire upon the enemy ; but the latter, being greatly superior in numbers, returned the fire and charged bayonets. In the fierce onset Mercer had his horse shot under him, and was himself felled to the ground by a blow from the butt end of a musket. Although surrounded by the British he arose and, refusing to surrender, defended himself with his sword ; but, after a brief struggle, in which he was repeatedly bayonetted, he fell to the ground mortally wounded. He was then removed to a neighboring farm-house within the enemy's lines. In the meantime his brigade, which had been effectually broken up, had begun a disorderly retreat, but Washington having rallied it and Cadwaleder's brigade, they moved forward and began a very heavy platoon fire on the march. Soon after the battle Washington, receiving news of General Mercer's condition, despatched to General Corn- wallis a flag of truce with the request that the bearer thereof-Maj. George Lewis, Washington's nephew and aide-de-camp-be allowed to remain with and care for Mercer. This was permitted ; but after several days of suffering the General died on the 12th of January. His funeral at Philadelphia was attended by 30,000 people. Later the St. Andrew's Society of Philadelphia erected a monument to his memory in Laurel Hill Cemetery.
* See "Pennsylvania Archives," First Series, III : 318.
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limits of the Tenth Ward of Wilkes-Barré (as described on page 310), upon which had stood the wigwams of himself and his tribesmen prior to their desertion of the valley in the previous year. The business of erecting the houses was immediately begun, all the work being performed by a detail of the Provincials, while the remainder of the force did guard and picket duty, fearing an incursion of hostile Indians.
The Commissioners subsequently reported to Governor Denny that, after they had listened to Teedyuscung's desires, they set the men to work ; and, when they had "covered in two houses and set up six more," Teedyuscung let the Commissioners know "he was satisfied, as he in- tended to go to Bethlehem immediately and live there all Winter, in which time he thought it not improbable but some straggling, ill-affected Indian might burn them down. However, be that as it might, he designed to return in the Spring and settle there, when he would have the business completed." It was now about the 20th of November, and the Commissioners, escorted by the Provincials, departed without delay for Fort Augusta, leaving the houses in possession of Teedyuscung and his Indians .* The latter did not remain here very long, however, but set out for Bethlehem, whence Teedyuscung, Moses Tatemy and John Pompshire proceeded to Philadelphia, where, on December 1st, they were admitted to an interview with the Governor and Council. Tee- dyuscung then said :
"When the Commissioners arrived at Wyoming there were but thirteen Indians there. I advised with the Commissioners whether it would not be better if they only began to build some houses now and would finish them in the Spring. They agreed with me. The Indians were all out hunting, so we all left and returned home."
Teedyuscung and his two companions then left Philadelphia for Burlington, New Jersey, "on business," having first received from the Governor of Pennsylvania a passport and an order on the Indian Com- missioners to pay the King "£10 for his journey, and something proper for Pompshire and Moses Tatemy." Teedyuscung having previously signified to the Moravian Brethren at Bethlehem his desire to spend the Winter at Bethlehem, permission for him and his family to do so was reluctantly granted. Therefore, upon his return from New Jersey, a lodge was built for him near "The Crown" inn. "There he held court and gave audience to the wild embassies that would come from the Indian country-from the land of the implacable Monsey, from the gates of Diahoga and from the ultimate dim Thule of Allegheny or the Ohio country." In addition to Teedyuscung and his family nearly one hundred Indians spent the Winter of 1757-'58 in the neighborhood of "The Crown," states Loskiel. Reichel says ("Memorials," page 215):
"Government was imposing an additional burden upon the Brethren when it con- initted this lawless crowd to their keeping ; and although aware of this, its assurance that their knowledge of Indian character rendered then desirable custodians, and that at Bethlehem the hated Indians would be safe, outweighied all other considerations. In vain did the Brethren deprecate this measure as one that was likely to cause them serious in- convenience, to prove hurtful to the welfare of the Christian Indians, and to involve themselves in difficulties with their neighbors. Their repeated appeals to the Governor, to the Assembly and to the Commissioners for relief were ineffectual. 'We are at a loss how to act,' Bishop Spangenberg writes to Governor Denny, 'with those Indians that come out of the woods and want to stay at Bethlehem. They are very troublesome guests, and we should be glad to have your Honor's orders about them. Our houses are already full, and we must be at the expense of building winter houses for them if more should come-which likely will be the case if we are to believe the accounts of those who are here. Furthermore, we are told that some of our neighbors are growing uneasy at our
* See "Pennsylvania Archives," Second Series, XVIII : 699.
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receiving such murdering Indians, as they style theni. I fear we shall be obliged to set watches to keep such of them off as are disposed to quarrel with, or may attempt to hurt, any of them.' "
At a meeting of the Governor and Council in Philadelphia January 18, 1758, Teedyuscung, his son John Jacob, his counselor Tapescawen and other Indians attending without were summoned to the Council- room, where the King said : "I entreat you to enable me to make the fire enkindled at Easton blaze up high, that it may be the better seen by all the Indians, and that they may be brought to join in this good work-which will be attended with expense ; and this, as I have it not myself, must be provided by you." The Governor then addressed a letter to the Indian Commissioners, as follows : "Teedyuscung, in coming on this visit, has incurred expenses for himself and company, with their horses, which you will please defray." This was given to the King, and, with his retinue, he departed very well pleased. At this time William Edmonds, the Storekeeper at Bethlehem, acquainted the Governor with the fact that the law allowed an Indian "but one-half a gill of rum in twelve hours, except at treaties ; but when Teedyuscung brings intelligence to Bethlehem it is impossible to avoid giving him more." Mr. Edmonds desired "to receive orders on this head."
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