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 60
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The character of this aged citizen was not summed up in his negative quality of temperance : he was a man of the most amiable temper : old age had not curdled his blood ; he was uniformly cheer- ful and kind to every body ; his religious principles were as steady as his morals were pure. He attended public worship about thirty years in the Rev. Dr. Sprout's church, and died in a full assurance
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of a happy immortality. The Life of this man is marked with several circumstances, which perhaps have seldom occurred in the life of an individual. He saw and heard more of those events which are measured by time, than has ever been seen or heard by any man since the age of the patriarchs ; he saw the same spot of earth, which at one period of his life was covered with wood and bushes, and the receptacle of beasts and birds of prey, afterwards become the seat of a city not only the first in wealth and arts in the new, but ri- valling in both many of the first cities in the old world. He saw regular streets where he once pursued a hare : he saw churches rising upon morasses, where he had often heard the croaking of frogs ; he saw wharves and warehouses, where he had often seen Indian savages draw fish from the river for their daily subsistence, and he saw ships of every size and use in those streams, where he had often seen nothing but Indian canoes ; he saw a stately edifice filled with legislators, astonishing the world with their wisdom and virtue, on the same spot, probably, where he had seen an Indian council fire ; he saw the first treaty ratified between the newly confederated powers of America and the ancient monarchy of France, with all the for- malities of parchment and seals, near the spot where he once might have seen William Penn ratify his first and last treaty with the Indians, without the formality of pen, ink or paper ; he saw all the intermediate stages through which a people pass, from the most simple to the highest degrees of civilization. He saw the beginning and end of the empire of Great Britain, in Pennsylvania. He had been the subject of seven successive crowned heads, and afterwards became a willing citizen of a republic ; for he embraced the liberties and independence of America in his withered arms, and triumphed in the last years of his life in the freedom of his country.
It might have been said of him also, that he was in spirit and politics a real whig of the Revolution, and liked to get the King's proclamations and make them into kites for the use of his grand and great-grandchildren. The late Joseph Sansom, who used to often see him at his father's, described him to me as a little withered old man, leaning heavily upon his staff, whilst Mr. Sansom's father, to please the ancient man, searched, his clock-case for old tobacco pipes to serve him. When Dr. Franklin was asked in England to what age we lived in this country, he said he could not tell till Drinker died!
Alice-a black woman-
Was a slave, born in Philadelphia, of parents who came from Barbadoes, and lived in that city until she was ten years old, when her master removed her to Dunk's Ferry, in which neighbourhood she continued to the end of her days. She remembered the ground on which Philadelphia stands when it was a wilderness, and when the Indians (its chief inhabitants) hunted wild game in the woods, while the panther, the wolf, and the beasts of the forests w: a
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prowling about the wigwams and cabins in which they lived. Being a sensible, intelligent woman, and having a good memory, which she retained to the last, she would often make judicious remarks on the population and improvements of the city and country : hence her conversation became peculiarly interesting, especially to the immedi- ate descendants of the first settlers, of whose ancestors she often re- lated acceptable anecdotes.
She remembered William Penn, Thomas Story, James Logan, and several other distinguished characters of that day. During a short visit which she paid to Philadelphia in her last days, many respectable persons called to see her, who were all pleased with her innocent cheerfulness. In observing the increase of the city, she pointed out the house next to the Episcopal church, to the southward in Second street, as the first brick building that was erected in it. The first church, she said, was a small frame of wood that stood within the present walls, the ceiling of which she could reach with her hands. She was a worthy member of Christ church ; used to visit it on horseback at 95 years of age ; loved to hear the Bible read ; had a great regard for truth. She died in 1802, and retained her hearing ; she lost her sight at from 96 to 100 gradually, but it re- turned again. When blind she was skilful in catching fish, and would row herself out alone into the stream ; at 102 years of age her sight gradually returned, partially. Before she died, her hair became perfectly white; and the last of her teeth dropped sound from her head at the age of 116 years ; at this age she died (1802) at Bristol, Pennsylvania. For forty years she received ferriages at Dunk's Ferry. This woman said she remembered that the bell of the church was affixed in the crotch of a tree, then standing on the church alley.
F. D. Pastorius.
Among the primitive population of Philadelphia county there were some very fine scholars-such as Thomas Lloyd, 'Thomas Story, F. D. Pastorius, James Logan, John Kelpius, and others. Lloyd and Pastorious came over in 1683, in the same ship, and ever after were very great friends. Pastorious was a writer of numerous pieces, during his 36 years' residence in the colony. He left a beau- tifully written quarto book of about 300 pages, of various selections and original remarks, entitled the Bee It was with his grandson, Daniel Pastorius, in Germantown, until very lately, and has got lost by the negligence of some of its readers. I have, however, in my possession some of his MSS., from which I shall here make some remarks.
One book, in my possession, is a quarto MS. of 54 pages, entitled " Scripta sunt per Franciscum Danielem Pastorium, Germanopoli, Pennsylvania, 1714. Born in Germany, October 4th, A. D. 1651, at Limpurg." The contents of this book are principally dedicatorv
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letters, acrostics and poems, to his friends, the three daughters of Thomas Lloyd, being annual compositions, commemorative of his and their safe landing at Philadelphia, on the 20th of 6 mo. 1683 .* All his writings embrace much of piety. Those ladies he treats as eminently religious, to wit : Rachel Preston, Hannah Hill, and Mary Norris, each bearing the name of her husband. These papers are not calculated for general interest, or inspection ; but to the descendants of the families named they should be very gratifying -even as he himself has remarked ; he writes, " that some of your children and the children's children might have a few rhythmical copies to write after," &c. When we consider that Pastorius was a German, it is really surprising he could write so well in English as he did! I extract from his poem, entitled a " Token of Love and Gratitude :" --
" I'm far from flattering ! and hope ye read my mind,
Who can't nor dare forget a shipmate true and kind, As he, your father, was to me, (an alien)-
My lot being newly cast among such English men, Whose speech I thought was Welsh, their words a canting tune, Alone with him, I could in Latin then commune ; Which tongue he did pronounce right in our German way,
Hence presently we knew what he or I could say- Moreover, to the best of my remembrance,
We never disagreed, or were at variance,- Because God's sacred truth (whereat we both did aim) To her endeared friends is every where the same- Therefore 'twas he that made my passage short on sea, 'Twas he, and William Penn, that caused me to stay In this, then uncouth land, and howling wilderness, Wherein I saw, that I but little should possess,
And if I would return home to my father's house,t Perhaps great riches and preferments might espouse, &c.
Howbeit nought in the world could mine affection quench
Towards dear Penn, with whom I did converse in French,
The virtues of these two (and three or four beside)
Have been the chiefest charms which forced me to abide."
In his poem of the next year, 1715, he states the name of the ship by which they came :
" When I from Franckenland, and you from Wales set forth- In order to exile ourselves towards the west ;
And there to serve the Lord in stillness, peace, and rest!" 66 - A matter of eight weeks Restrained in a ship, America by name,
Into America, [Amgrica] we came."
This word is formed from two Arabic words, which mean bitter and sweet, the qualities of our country then.
* I: appears he began them to them in 1714.
+ His father was born at Erfurth (" Erfurti") the 21st of September, 1624.
¿ His conversing with Penn was not in the ship, but at Philadelphia, for Penn came m another vessel.
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It appears the Captain's name was Joseph Wasey, ' a courteous man, under whose skilful management and God's providence, they were enabled to escape from the cruel enslaving Turks, once sup- posed to be at our heels." It appears the panic on board was very great, and at frequent times they used to converse of these things- thus on page 28, he says, " Pray what would we have given if Joseph Wasey, at our former crossing of the Atlantic plain had been able to set us ashore, when, (on the 26th of 5 mo. 1683) mistaking a French merchantman for a Turkish caper [Were these then expected on the Atlantic wave !* ] we were in a panic fear-every mother's child of us ! Or when (the 2d and 12th of the 6 mo.) our ship was covered with a multitude of huge surges, and, as it were, with mountains of terrible and astonishing waves ; to which that of the 9th of the 5 mo. was but a gentle forerunner."
In his contribution of the 26th of 6 mo. 1718, to his friends and shipmates, Hannah Hill and Mary Norris, he commemorates their arrival on that day, 1683, by the following remarks, " The fortunate day of our arrival, although blessed with your good father's company on shipboard, I was as glad to land from the vessel every whit as St. Paul's shipmates were to land at Melito. Then Philadelphia consisted of three or four little cottages ;t all the residue being only woods, underwoods, timber, and trees, among which I several times have lost myself in travelling no farther than from the water side to the house (now of our friend William Hudson,) then allotted to a Dutch baker, whose name was Cornelius Bom .¿ What my thoughts were of such a renowned city (I not long before having seen London, Paris, Amsterdam, Gandt, &c.) is needless to rehearse unto you here. But what I think now of the same, 1 dare ingenuously say, viz., that God has made of a desert an enclosed garden, and the plantations about it, a fruitful field."
Thomas Lloyd,
Named with such profound respect and ardent affection by Pas- torius in the preceding sketch, was Deputy Governor so long as he would serve-a man of great worth as a scholar, and a religious man. He came to this country in 1683, and died at an early age of a ma- lignant fever, on the 10th of 7 mo. 1694, in the 45th year of his age, leaving behind him three married daughters, very superior women,
* There must have been a common dread of them then, for I perceive that in 1702, john Richardson in his Journal tells of being encountered off Barbadoes by a " Turkish frigate or Sallee man." They were commanded by British and Irish renegades, who in fact, about this time, had forced the Algerine sailors into their service, and had learned them to become future Pirates for their own account.
t These cottages were those of the Swedes, &c., before settled there, of which Drinker's was one.
# This house of William Hudson was standing 50 years ago in the rear of C. C. Watson's house, No. 92 Chestnut street. Its front was to Third street, with a Coun yard, and great trees in it, and a way out to Chestnut street also.
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to wit : Rachael Preston, Hannah Hill, and Mary Norris. His family was respectable and ancient in Wales; he was himself educated a: the University ; talked Latin fluently ou ship-board with Pastorius. He exercised as a public minister among Friends in this country, and in his own country suffered imprisonment for truth's sake.
Norris Family.
The first Isaac Norris came to our city as a respectable merchant, from Jamaica, beginning the fortunes of his family here in the earliest settlement of this city. He was of the Society of Friends, was al- ways of great influence there and in the public Councils, as a mem- ber of the Council, of the Assembly, &c.
The name of Norris has been remarkable for its long continuance in public life, from the origin of the city to the period of the Revolu- tion. In September, 1759, Isaac Norris, who had been almost per- petual speaker, resolved to resign his public employ, and in declin- ing his re-election remarked thus: " You were pleased to make choice of me to succeed my father in the Assembly at the Election of the year 1735." Thus showing the latter had been in the Assem- bly more than 24 years. He adds, " I never sought emolument for myself or family, and I remained at disadvantage to my private in- terest, only to oppose the measures of unreasonable men."-A true patriot in motive, surely.
An anecdote is related of the Speaker Norris, about the time of his resignation, when opposing the measures of Governor Morris's ad- ministration ; he, having left the chair, concluded his speech with all the fire of youthful patriotism and the dignity of venerable old age combined, saying, "No man shall ever stamp his foot on my grave and say, Curse him ! or, here lies he who basely betrayed the liber- ties of his country."
Jonathan Dickinson --
A name often mentioned in these Annals-was a merchant and a Friend, who came with his family to our city about the year 1697. They had been shipwrecked in their voyage, with other passengers, in the Gulf of Florida, and suffered great hardships among the Indians there ; particulars of which have been published in a small book entitled " God's protecting Providence-man's surest help in time of need." He possessed a large estate in Jamaica, from whence he emigrated, as well as landed property near our city. He purchas- ed of the proprietaries 1230 acres of part of the manor of Spingets- bury, being the chief part of the north end of the Northern Liberties, extending across from Second street to Bush hill, and since growing into an immense estate. He lived on that part of it called the Vine- yard. One of his daughters married Thomas Masters, to whom the estate descended. Such as it is, it cost originally but 26s. 8d. an acre ! He, directly after his purchase, which seemed a reluctant one
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his part, sold out a part to Richard Hill, at a good advance, and soon afterwards the whole property bore a nominal great advance in value. As he increased in wealth, he was enabled to live in a style of gene- rous hospitality and elegance, keeping his coach when but eight four- wheeled carriages were owned in the province. He died in 1722, leaving as his issue three sons and two daughters. The eldest son, though married, died in 1727 without issue ; his brothers also had no families. The daughter, Mary, married in Rhode Island, and to her heirs went the Point no Point estate of several hundred acres, sold out in 1740 and '50, to Oldman, Linn, Roberts, &c. The daughter Hannah, married Thomas Masters, and by her came a large part of " the Masters estate" in the Northern Liberties, above the Fourth street road, now the property of Penn and Camac, by marriage of Masters' daughters.
The Dickinson family of the present name in Philadelphia and Trenton came from Delaware, and were no connexion of the above.
Samuel Carpenter
Was one of the greatest improvers and builders in Philadelphia, dwelling among us at the same time as a merchant. He was pro- bably at one time, if we except the Founder, the wealthiest man in the province. There is extant a letter of his of the year 1705 t Jonathan Dickinson, offering for sale part of his estate, wherein he says, "I would sell my house and granary on the wharf (above Walnut street) where I lived last, and the wharves and warehouses; also the globe and long vault adjacent. I have three-sixteenths of 5000 acres of land and a mine, called Pickering's mine. I have sold my house over against David Lloyd's [the site of the present Bank of Pennsylvania] to William Trent, and the scales to Henry Bab- cock, and the Coffee House [at or near Walnut street and Front street] to Captain Finney, also my half of Darby mills, to John Bethell, and a half of Chester mills, to Caleb Pussey." Besides the foregoing, he was known to own the estate called Bristol mills, worth £5000; the island against Burlington of 350 acres; at Po- quessing creek, 15 miles from the city, he had 5000 acres; he owned about 380 acres at Sepviser plantation, a part of Fairhill, where he died in 1714.
Male descendants of his name, or of his brother Joshua, are not now known in our city ; but numbers of his race and name are said to be settled near Salem, in New Jersey. The Whartons, Mere- diths, Clymers, and Fishbournes, are his descendants in the female line.
James Logan, in writing to the proprietaries respecting him, says, ' He lost by the war of 1703, because the profitable trade he before carried on almost entirely failed, and his debts coming upon him, while his mills and other estate sunk in value, he could by no means
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i lear himself, and from the wealthiest man in the province in 1701. he became much embarrassed."
Isaac Norris, in his letter of the 10th of 6 mo. 1705, to Jonathan Dickinson, says of him, to wit: "That honest and valuable man, whose industry and improvements have been the stock whereon much of the labours and successes of this country have been grafted, is now weary of it all, and is resolved, I think prudently, to wind up and clear his incumbrances."
He was of the Society of Friends-was one of Penn's commis- sioners of property-was the chief cause of inducing Penn to abandon the original beautiful design of keeping a Front street open view to the river. His name will appear in numerous places con- nected with other facts told in these pages.
David Lloyd
Was by profession a lawyer, who emigrated to Philadelphia at the time of the early settlement, from Wales. He had been a captain under Cromwell in the army. In 1690, while still in England, he was one of those included in Queen Mary's proclamation as a sup- posed conspirator at the time King William was in Ireland. Whether the imputation was just or not, he seemed prone, when here, to dabble in troubled waters, and was not, it's likely, made welcome to remain in his own country, as one suspected-" d'etre suspect."
In the year 1700, James Logan speaks of David Lloyd as the then Attorney General, and as then defending the measures of Penn's administration against the faction, headed by Colonel Quarry, the Judge, and John Moore the Advocate of the Admiralty-the two ringleaders.
Proud, in his History, appears to have been afraid to touch upon his character, but says " his political talents seem to have been rather to divide than unite,-a policy that may suit the crafty politician, but must ever be disclaimed by the Christian statesman."
Mrs. Logan, in her MS. Selections, has given the following facts concerning him, to wit :
His opposition to William Penn appears to have commenced about the year 1701, and had its rise in resentment, which he con- tinued till Penn's death, in 1718. He had the faculty of leading the members of the Assembly out of their depth, and causing them to drown all others with their clamour. Afterwards, when he exerted himself to thwart the ambitious designs of Sir William Keith, whom he wished to supplant as a troublesome political rival, he readily succeeded. In this, such was his management and success, that although Sir William aimed for the Speaker's chair, and had his support out-doors in a cavalcade of 80 mounted horsemen, and the resounding of many guns fired, David Lloyd got every vote in the Assembly but three, calling himself at the same time the avowed friend of Gov. Gordon, in opposition to the wishes of Sir William VOL. I .- 3 Q 44*
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David Lloyd was accounted an able lawyer, and always well able
-to perplex and dark Maturest counsels, and to make the worst Appear the better reason."
He was, however, believed to be an upright Judge, and in private life was acknowledged to have been a good husband, a kind neigh- bour, and steady friend.
He married, after he came to Pennsylvania, Grace Growden, a dignified woman, of superior understanding, and great worth of character. They had but one child-a son-who died at an early age, by a distressing accident. He lived for above twenty years at Chester, in the same house since known as Commodore Porter's. His city house was on the site of the present Bank of Pennsylva- nia ; holding, while he lived there, the office of Register and Re corder for the county, and being, at the time of his death, in 1731, Chief Justice of Pennsylvania. The ashes of himself and wife re- pose in Friends' ground in Chester, each having a small headstone, with their names and ages attached, he dying at the age of 75, and she surviving him 29 years-to the year 1760-when she died, aged 80 years.
James Logan, in 1704, in writing to William Penn, says, "Were one man from amongst us we might perhaps be happy ; but he is truly a promoter of discord, with the deepest artifice under the smoothest language and pretences, yet cannot sometimes conceal his resentment of thy taking, as he calls it, his bread from him." This expression he has several times dropped, overlooking his politics through the heat of his indignation.
In 1705, William Penn accuses D. Lloyd of acting as Master of the Rolls without a commission-of his forgery of the Sessions' orders, and of the Assembly's remonstrance of 1704; as also, when Master of the Rolls, suffering encroachments on his lots in the city, and manors in the country-having recorded them without one caveat entered in favour of his master and patron.
James Logan, in 1707, writing of him, says he is "a close member among friends, a discordant in their meetings of business, so much so, he expects a separation and purging ; the young push for rash measures-the old for Penn's interest."
Logan's "Justification," addressed to the Assembly in 1709, con- tains much of D. Lloyd's portrait, drawn out before him, wherein he shows that much of his hostility and perverseness was induced by his personal pique against Penn.
Thomas Story
Was a distinguished preacher among Friends, who came out from England to Philadelphia in 1699. He there became Master of the Rolls, and keeper of the great seal. He married, in 1706, Anne, daughter of Edward Shippen, the elder, and received, as a part of her
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ames
Page 523.
2.Franklin . eranklin
Page 532.
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portion, the large house in south Second street, afterwards sold to James Logan, which was pulled down to afford the site, in part, of the present Bank of Pennsylvania. After the death of his wife, which occurred in a few years, he returned to England, where he died in 1742. His Journal, containing notices of our country, and the yellow fever, which he witnessed in Philadelphia in 1699, is among the published works of Friends. In 1706, he was chosen Mayor of the city, but refusing to accept, he was fined £20 by the Common Council.
Edward Shippen
Was chosen first Mayor under the city charter of 1701. Tradition says he was distinguished for three things :- the biggest man-the biggest house-and the biggest carriage. His house " was the great and famous house and orchard outside the town," situate on the site now "Waln's Row," in south Second street, below the present Custom House.
He came early into the province from Boston, whither he had gone from England in 1675. There he was persecuted for his reli- gion as a Friend, and actually received, from the zealots in power, a public whipping ! He was very successful in business as a mer- chant in our infant city, and amassed a large fortune. He was grandfather to our late Chief Justice Shippen, and ancestor of the first medical lecturer, Doctor Shippen.
I have seen a letter of 1706 to young William Penn, wherein is given a humorous description of his then late marriage to Wilcox's daughter-then his second or third wife; it was conducted, out of Meeting, in a private way, as he had previously made a breach of discipline. He had certainly, about this time, laid aside his former submissive spirit ; for in 1709, his name appears on the minutes of the Common Council, as petitioning for a remission of £7 10s. before imposed on him, as a fine for an assault and battery on the body of Thomas Clark, Esq. They agreed, however, to remit the half, in consideration of his paying the other half.
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