USA > Pennsylvania > Philadelphia County > Philadelphia > Annals of Philadelphia, and Pennsylvania in the olden time; being a collection of the memoirs, anecdotes, and incidents of the earliest settlements of the inland part of Pennsylvania, Vol. I > Part 59
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In the same year, Governor Thomas having required of the As- sembly measures for protection and defence, made some excitement there among the Friends, then members. On this occasion John Churchman, a public Friend, deemed himself called to visit that body and to set forth his testimony against war measures. It perhaps shows the kind feelings of that day, and the influence which Friends then enjoyed in the House, to say, that on making his wish known to speak, through the Speaker, he was allowed to go in and deliver his religious counsel. The sum of what he then said at considera- ble length is preserved in his Journal. "Beware (said he) of acting to oppress tender consciences, for many whom you now represent would be greatly grieved to see warlike preparations carried on by a law, consented to by their brethren in profession, contrary to the charter, for it is concluded that a reverent and true fear of God, the ancient arm of power, would be our greatest defence and safety."
A writer, of the year 1755, (Samuel Wharton's MS.,) writing on the political influence of the Friends, and wishing to see them ex- cluded, tells the opinion of his day, as held by him and his party, saying, "But if it be asked by what means the Quakers, whose measures (against war) are so unpopular, get continually chosen into our Assemblies, I answer-they enter into cabals in their yearly meeting, which is convened just before the election, and being composed of deputies from all the monthly meetings, provides a fit place for conducting political intrigues under the mask of religion." I presume few of the present day will credit this scandal ; but, as the feature of that day, it may now amuse a modern Friend thus to see such a novel use of their religious meetings! They are also accused of procuring great influence in the elections among the Germans, through the aid of C. Sower's German paper, which always advo- cated Friends' principles. Sower himself was a very good man, and therefore had a deserved influence over his countrymen. In 1759, four Friends, then members of Assembly, vacated their seats at the desire of the Council of the Crown, because it was a time of war.
I have seen in the possession of Mr. Henry Pemberton of Phila- delphia, among other letters of William Penn of about the year 1677, one of them, having a postscript to which is the signature of the celebrated George Fox. He used, like Penn and other writers of that day, two small effs, in lieu of one capital, as thus-"G-ff." Another autograph of Fox and of Barclay I have seen with R Haines.
NICHOLAS WALN .- Page 507.
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The Friends were long accustomed to hold night meetings on the Sabbath ; their house on the Bank Hill, in Front near Arch street, was at first called Evening Meeting, because chiefly made for such a convenience when that at the Centre Square was too far off. They continued the evening meetings till after the Revolution, when they were constrained, by their sense of " not letting their good being evil spoken of," to disuse them, because their young women (as at some other meetings almost ever since) were mobbed by rude young men, who assembled in long lines of idlers, generating and cherishing more evil without the walls, than the good people could counterbalance within. The change met the approbation of the discreet-of those who virtually aim by every means "to suppress vice and immorality."
My friend Lang Syne, who has good feelings for those kind of reminiscences, has left some picturesque traces of some of the old preaching Friends, and of some of their school teachers, calculated to revive pleasing images of the past to those who love the associ- ations of their early days. He thus speaks of his recollections of the preachers, saying, " James Pemberton, Nicholas Waln, Daniel Offley, Arthur Howell, William Savery and Thomas Scattergood were the then " burning and shining lights." From the preacher's gallery, as beheld through the "mist of years," James Pemberton sat at the head of the gallery-an immovable figure, very erect, and resting with both hands crossed on the top of his cane. Nicholas Waln ap- peared at all times with a smile of sunshine upon his countenance. An imperturbable severity rested on the dark features of Thomas Scattergood. Arthur Howell always sat shrouded beneath his hat drawn down over his face, and the upper part of his outside coat ele- vated to meet it-like unto a prophet " in his mantle wrapt," and isolated in thought from all sublunary things. William Savery possessed a mild solemnity of voice and feature, which distinguished him as a preacher above other men; his softer and solemn tones and words in preaching, like those which may be imagined of the Eolian harp rudely touched by the wind, sunk through the ears down into the heart, as " the dew of heaven" falling gently to the earth. The voice of Daniel Offley was as a sound produced by the falling of a bar of his own iron on the brick pavement before his furnace door. Among his dozen hammermen he was always ac- customed to raise his piercing voice distinctly above their pattering sounds.
Of the teachers, more will be said in another place under the ar- ticle "Education." Friends' academy then consisted of four differ- ent masters :- Robert Proud, Latin master ; William Waring, teacher of astronomy and mathematics; Jeremiah Paul ; " The Master of Scholars" was John Todd.
As a curiosity, now that the scandal has lost its sting, I present here some extracts from an old publication of London imprint of 1703-36 pages 12mo It is entitled "News from Pennsylvania
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respecting the government of the Quakers." It bears the style of an embittered " churchman" writing to London from Philadelphia ;- one of those whom Penn and Logan called " the hot church party." I give some extracts. Whoever he may have been, he seems to have been a theologian in reading and quotations.
Of the Quakers, he says,-" Quakerism and heresie here go hand in hand. It is a grim and deformed mass of hypocrisie, atheism, paganism, &c. In their meetings William leads the van like a mighty champion of war. After him follow the mighty Dons ac- cording to their several movings, and then for the chorus, the Femi- nine prophets tune their quail pipes, and having ended as they began,-with hawlings and yawlings, gripings and graspings, hic labor hoc opus !- they spend the remaining part of the day in feasting each other."
Some personalities are thus brought out :- " R- E-, a great holder forth, was found too free with a quaking woman, the wife of R- W-, seen by one Whitpin (Whitpaine ?) One Moore too, of the ministry, had raised up seed unto the Lord by his servant maid. One A M- packed tobacco cut and dried into flour barrels to cheat the customs, and it is supposed he has got his estate by this means." He is also slurred as having been once a tradesman. E- S is called a great man and a great usurer.
In September, 1777, the Friends at Philadelphia, as Howe's army was approaching, were regarded by some of the strong Whigs of the day with distrust, because they could not fall into their common mea- sures of defence, &c. Their Testimonies, so called, were deemed ex- ceptionable by some. The result was that seventeen of the society were exiled for a time to Virginia. The Testimony of December, '76, was found fault with, and the Testimony of 24 of 1 mo., 1775, given in the Pennsylvania Evening Post, No. 402, contains words of this kind. "We have by repeated public advices and private admoni- tions, used our endeavours to dissuade the members of our reli- gious society from joining with the public resolutions prompted and entered into by some people, which, as we apprehended, so we now find, have increased contention, and produced great disorder and confusion." It says also, "From our past experience of the clemency of the King, we believe that decent and respectable addresses, would avail towards obtaining relief and restoring the public tranquillity !- and we deeply deplore that contrary modes of proceeding have in- volved the colonies in confusion." Signed by James Pemberton, clerk, in behalf of the meeting held at Philadelphia.
The Evening Post of 4th November, 1778, reports that John Ro- berts, miller, and Abraham Carlisle, a citizen, both of the society of Friends, were executed for treason on the public commons, where both behaved with great resolution. This was a measure, as I have understood since from many judicious persons, not of that persuasion, that ought not to have been done. The ultra Whigs were much
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excited on the occasion, and had often been bearded by men of tory feelings that they dared not to take such an attitude of self-protection as they regarded such an example to be. It was the general opinion to the last that they would be reprieved. Mr. Carlisle, I have been assured, was a very respectable and inoffensive man. He had been urged by the British, while in Philadelphia, to serve as an umpire at the Pass Gate up Front street, so as to say what American persons should pass or repass under their licenses or protections : this to guard against abuse. For his judgment and action in these matters, in which he acted without reward or known benefit, he forfeited his life. Of Roberts I have heard less; his enemies said he poisoned his flour. Great exertions by numerous subscriptions and personal influ- ences were made to save them.
Parson Peters and Anthony Benezet were personal friends, and good Anthony, knowing the prejudice of the reverend gentleman against Friends' principles or profession, got him to read Barclay's Apology, which he lent him. After its perusal he sent his approbation in some poetic lines, of which I here give about half, in extract, latter part, viz .:
Long had I censured, with contemptuous rage, And cursed your tenets, with the foolish age ; Thought nothing could appear in your defence Till Barclay shone with all the rays of sense. His works at least shall make me moderate prove,
And those who practise what he teaches, love. With the censurious world no more I'll sin, In scouting those who own the light within ; If they can see with Barclay's piercing eyes,
The world may deem them fools, but I shall think them wise.
Miss Gould has endeavoured to illustrate the character of Penn and Pennsylvania, and the society of Friends, in poetic measure, after this manner,
" I'll seek," said the Quaker, " a happier shore, Where I and my people may kneel before The shrine we erect to the God we adore,
And none shall our rights molest."
And sick of the sounding of empty things,
Of beggarly strife in the island of kings,
His dove-like spirit unfurled her wings,
For a bold and a venturous sweep. She wafted him off, o'er billow and spray,
Twixt the sea and the sky, on a pathless way
To a beautiful sylvan scene, that lay Far over the boiling deep.
Then the tomahawk dropped from the red man's hand When he saw the Quakers advance, and stand
Presenting his purse, but to share the land
He had come to possess with him.
"Thou'lt find," said the Quaker, " in me, and in mine 43*
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But friends and brothers to thee and to thine, Who abuse no power, and admit no line Twixt the red men and the white." And bright was the spot where the Quaker came, To leave it his hat,* his drab and his name,
That will sweetly sound from the trump of fame Till its final blast shall die. The city he reared from the sylvan shade, His beautiful monument now is made! And long have the rivers their pride displayed In the scenes that are rolling by.
l'he dress of Friends, at first, was not intended to differ greatly from the common mode of the time, save that it was to exclude all show, and to appear simple and neat ; I mean that they have since seemed more peculiar in their dress from the fact that fashion changed since from what was their starting point, and to which they have adhered with more steadiness and sobriety than others. When they started as a sect, broad-brimmed felt hats with loops at the side were common. So of their coats and the straight collars. The drab was their prevalent colour, because least removed from the uncoloured state of cloth or drap. They excluded the use of metal buttons, because of their former extreme tinsel finery, and they wore cloth- covered or stained horn ones. They used ties to shoes, when buckles were worn with much display. At present friends are much departing from their uniformity of drab, and resort to many shades of brown, olive, &c., and only avoiding black, which with some of the younger people is now used in effect under the name of invisi- ble green. A Friends' meeting at present shows very little of former " plain garb," as seen in such meetings in very early days, or along the streets. The females keep nearest to former dress.
The Friends, as we have been informed, were much perplexed, at the time of the Revolution, to settle the course which they should pursue in those unsettled and troublous times. They held extra and protracted meetings, even till after night, to determine measures ;- and finally, when they came out with their published advice, called a Testimony, it gave offence to sundry persons not of their society, and also to some among themselves. Some went off and made a separate meeting,-building themselves a brick meeting-house at the south-west corner of Fifth and Arch streets ; others were found so far seceding, as to form a military company under Captain Hum- phries, and taking the distinctive name of " the Quaker company." The city common at that time was daily filled with train bands of many kinds, exercising, and preparing themselves for the tug of war.
During this exciting period, Mary Harris, a friend from Wilming- ton, visited the then three meetings in the city, in the time of the Congress in May 1775, and walking through each of the preachers'
* In allusion to Penn's " bland and noble face far under the hat's broad brim."
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galleries, in much seeming distress of mind, she exclaimed, "See now to your standing, for thus is the Lord about to search and examine his camp." About the same time another Friend, of the name of Robert Walker, publicly declared that their counsels were double minded, and that the end would show it. As if to add to the stir of the day, one of the Friends,-whose name I purposely omit,- acting with more zeal than discretion, delivered to a ship master, going to England, and then at anchor down the river, sundry letters to correspondents abroad, much censuring therein men and measures, &c. Of these letters, the Committee of Associators got wind, went down to the vessel by night,-brought off the letters, and made an expose and blow-up, much to the annoyance of sundry individuals.
I give the facts without comment and " without partiality," as things picturing the incidents of an eventful period. Their descend- ants have some right, I suppose, to know, even by a little, that their forefathers were once so straightened, in a very narrow pass.
PERSONS AND CHARACTERS.
" A mingled group-of good or ill." " The charm of biography consists of minor truths neglected by graver history."
THE following facts concerning the persons severally named, are not intended as their proper biography, but as slight notices of indi- vidual character, which might be usefully preserved. As a general list, it will embrace alike, noble or ignoble-not solely a roll of merit, but rather of notoriety, to wit :
The First Born-John Key.
John Key, " the first born" of our city, of English parentage, was born in 1682, in a cave at " Penny-pot landing," i. e. at the north- west corner of Vine and Water streets. William Penn was pleased to distinguish the person and the circumstance, by the gift of a city lot ; the original patent of which is in my possession through the po- liteness of George Vaux, Esq. The tradition of the spot granted was utterly lost to common fame ; but this patent shows its location to have been on the south side of Sassafras street, nearly opposite to Crown street, say vis-a-vis to Pennington's sugar house.
The parchment and seal are in fine preservation. The seal is fla*, circular, four inches wide, of brown wax, appended by a green ripand. It may be curious to preserve the following abstract, to wit : " William Penn, Proprietary and Chief of Pennsylvania, sends
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greeting, &c., that a certain lot of ground between the Fourth. and Fifth streets, bounded on the north by Sassafras street, &c .- in breadth 493 feet and in length 306 feet ; first granted by warrant from myself bearing date the 26th day of 3 mo. 1683, unto John Key, then an infant, being the first-born in the said city of Philadel- phia," &c. The patent to confirm the warrant aforesaid is dated the 20th of July, 1713; the first-born being then a man of 31 years of age. The lot it appears he sold at the age of 33 years (say on the 24th of May, 1715,) to Clement Plumstead ; and the latter, in 2 years afterwards, sold it to Richard Hill for only twelve pounds! This he joined to many other lots, and made of it " Hill's Farm." Further particulars may be read in my MS. Annals in the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, page 50.
This notable first-born lived to good old age at his home in Chester county, and was accustomed to come occasionally to the city, always walking the streets with an unusually active step, although necessarily wondering at the changing scenes he constantly witnessed. Considering that he only died in his 85th year, as late as the year 1767, (July) persons may be still alive who may have heard him talk of those things! When the hospital was founded in 1755, he was present by request, to lay the corner stone !
It was remarkable that the same year (August 10th, 1767,) was also the year of the death of " the first-born" child in the province of English parents, born in 1681, one year before John Key, in a cave by the side of the Delaware river. This venerable man of 86 died at Brandywine Hundred, Emanuel Grubb by name. He was active and vigorous to the last, and actually rode to Philadelphia and back on horseback, equal to forty miles-only a few months be- fore his death. His habits were temperate, never drinking any ar- dent spirits.
As those two venerable "first-borns" lived both near Chester, they had means of intercourse ; and strange must have been their several emotions in talking over the years of improvement which they had witnessed down to the year 1767! What a feast they might have afforded to younger minds !
But another and a still earlier first-born, than either of the pre- ceding, dwelt also in their neighbourhood, in the person of Richard Buffington, (son of Richard) he being " the first-born Englishman in Pennsylvania," having been born in what was afterwards "the province," in the year 1679. The facts in his case were peculiarly commemorated in the parish of Chester on the 30th of May, 1739; on that day the father, Richard, having attained his 85th year, had a great assemblage of his proper descendants, to the number of 115 persons, convened in his own house, consisting of children, grand- children, and great-grand-children-the first-born being then present in his 60th year.
These affections and respects to " first-borns" were alike com. mendable and natural. They possessed a peculiarity of character.
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Persons and Characters.
and a relationship to things around them, which none others could enjoy, or even share with them. They were beings by themselves -alone! Others also have had and signalized their first-born ' The New Yorkers had their first-born, in the person of Sarah Rapaelje, born in 1625, and the maternal ancestor of the Bogerts and Hansens. When she became the widow Forey, Governor Stuyvesant, in consideration of her birth, granted her a valley of land near the city. The Virginians had theirs, and such was their respect
to him, that in the case of his rebellion, his life was spared to him, and he lived to be 80 years of age .* Our sister city of Baltimore honoured their first-born, in the person of Mrs. EHlen Moale, who died in that city in 1825, in her 84th year-she having been the first-born white woman in that place. Strange it was, that she in her own person could say of such a city as Baltimore, that she had seen it first, covered with woods, then become a field, next a village, and at last a city of 70,000 souls !
Edward Drinker.
Edward Drinker was born on the 24th of December, 1680, in a small cabin, near the present corner of Walnut and Second streets, in the city of Philadelphia. His parents came from Beverly, in the state of Massachusetts. The banks of the Delaware, on which the city of Philadelphia now stands, were inhabited, at the time of his birth, by Indians, and a few Swedes and Hollanders. He often talked to his companions of picking whortleberries and catching rabbits, on spots now the most improved and populous in the city. He recollected about the time William Penn came to Pennsylvania, an'] used to point to the place where the cabin stood, in which he, and his friends that accompanied him, were accommodated upon their first arrival. At twelve years of age, he went to Boston, where he served his apprenticeship to a cabinet maker. In the year 1745, he returned to Philadelphia with his family, where he lived until the time of his death. He was four times married, and had eighteen children, all of whom were by his first wife. At one time of his life, he sat down, at his own table, with fourteen children. Not long before his death he heard of the birth of a grand-child, to one of his grand-children, the fifth in succession to himself.
He retained all his faculties till the last year of his life. Even his memory, so generally diminished by age, was but little impaired. He not only remembered the incidents of his childhood and youth, but the events of latter years ; and so faithful was his memory to him, that his son has informed that he never heard him tell the same story twice, but to different persons, and in different companies. His eye sight failed him many years before his death, but his hear- ing was uniformly perfect and unimpaired. His appetite was good
ยท Vide Samuel Bownas' Journal
VOL. I. - 3 P
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till within a few days before his death. He generally ate a hearty breakfast of a pint of tea or coffee, as soon as he got out of bead, with bread and butter in proportion. He ate likewise at eleven ,'clock, and never failed to eat plentifully at dinner of the grossest solid food. He drank tea in the evening, but never ate any sup- per ; he had lost all his teeth thirty years before his death, which was occasioned, his son said, by drawing excessive hot smoke of tobacco into his mouth: but the want of suitable mastication of his food did not prevent its speedy digestion, nor impair his health. Whether the gums, hardened by age, supplied the place of his teeth in a certain degree, or whether the juices of the mouth and stomach be- came so much more acrid by time, as to perform the office of dis- solving the food more speedily and more perfectly, is not known ; but it has often been observed, that old people are most disposed to excessive eating, and that they suffer fewest inconveniences from it. He was inqusitive after news in the last years of his life. His education did not lead him to increase the stock of his ideas any other way. But it is a fact well worth attending to, that old age, instead of diminishing, always increases the desire of knowledge. It must afford some consolation to those who expect to be old, to dis- cover, that the infirmities, to which the decays of nature expose the human body, are rendered more tolerable by the enjoy .. ments that are to be derived from the appetite for sensual and in- tellectual food.
He was remarkably sober and temperate. Neither hard labour, nor company, nor the usual afflictions of human life, nor the wastes of nature, ever led him to an improper or excessive use of strong drink. For the last twenty-five years of his life, he drank twice every day of toddy, made with two table spoonfuls of spirit, in half a pint of water. His son, when a man of fifty-nine years of age, said that he never saw him intoxicated. The time and manner in which he used spirituous liquors, it is believed, contributed to lighten the weight of his years, and probably to prolong his life. " Give wine to him that is of a heavy heart, and strong drink to him that is ready to perish with age, as well as with sickness. Let him drink and forget his sorrow, and remember his misery no more."
He enjoyed an uncommon share of health, insomuch that in the course of his long life he never was confined more than three days to his bed. He often declared that he had no idea of that most distressing pain called the headach. His sleep was interrupted a little in the last years of his life with a defluxion on his breast, which produced what is commonly called the old man's cough.
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