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 61
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James Logan.
I once had the privilege to see an original MS., of four pages, at Stenton, in the handwriting of James Logan, wherein he gave " his parentage and early life." It appeared that his father, Patrick, was born in Scotland, and there educated as a clergyman. For some time he served as a chaplain, but turning Quaker by convincement, was obliged to go over to Ireland, and there to teach a Latin school ; afterwards he taught at Bristol in England. While yet in Scotland, he married Isabel Hume ; her family was related to the Laird of Dundas, and the Earl of Panmar.
Besides these facts, related by James Logan, I have met with
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other facts of the early antiquity and distinction of his family, which as they are but little known, I shall inscribe in part from the Scots- man's Library, and from the Memoirs of the Somervilles, to wit :
" The name of Logan is one of those derived from locality, and hence deemed the more honourable. It appears in Scotch history at the early period of William the Lion, and throughout subsequent ages is connected with important national transactions. The Chief was Baron of Restalrig, and this house was connected by various intermarriages with most of the noble families in the kingdom, and even with royalty itself, one of them having married a daughter of Robert II., who granted him the lands of Grugar, by a charter ad- dressed " militi dilecto fratri suo."
James Logan had several brothers and sisters, but none of them lived long, save his brother William, who became a physician of eminence in Bristol. James Logan was born at Lurgan in Ireland, on the 20th of October, 1674; he had learned Latin, Greek, and some Hebrew, even before he was thirteen years of age. While in Bristol he assisted his father as a teacher. In his sixteenth year he instructed himself in the mathematics, a science in which he afterwards showed much ability in our country, as a scientific correspondent. At nineteen years of age he had studied French, Italian and Spanish.
In the year 1699, then in his twenty-fifth year, he was solicited by William Penn to accompany him to Pennsylvania as his Secre- tary, &c., where, in time, he fell into the general charge of all his business ; but from motives of tenderness to his harassed principal, he never charged but £100 a year for all his numerous services, for many years. This was itself a lively proof of his liberality and dis- interested zeal for a good man, and showed him at once a faithful and a generous friend. Steadfast as he was to his honoured prin- cipal, it is hardly possible to conceive how irksome and perplexing his duties, so moderately charged, always were. In his MS. book of letters to the proprietaries is preserved a long detail of them, such as they were in general, drawn up by him about the year 1729, as reasons to show why he so earnestly prayed to be excused from further servitude, saying it injured his health, and much trespassed upon the time due to his proper business as a merchant, &c.
When James Logan first consented to come to this country with Penn, he came to it as a place to hide himself from the cares of life, and with no wish or expectation to advance his fortune among us ; but the reasons which he gives, in more advanced years, for changing his mind, are instructive, as they show that a religious man may moderately desire a measure of wealth with sincere purposes to make himself a better man, by attaining the proper means of becoming most useful. His words strike me as sufficiently sensible and very impressive, to wit : " When he was a young man, and secretary to Penn, he felt an indifference to money, and deemed this a happy retirement for cultivating the Christian graces ; but after he had some experience in life, finding how litt e respect and influence could he
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usefully exerted without such competency as could give man a ready access to good society, he thenceforward set himself seriously to endeavour, by engagements in commerce, (a new track to him,) to attain that consequence and weight which property so readily con- fers." In the same connexion he adds, "he never had the wish to leave any large possessions to his posterity, from the belief that moderate fortunes were more beneficial legacies than large ones." It was probably from these views of moderate bequests to heirs, that he was so liberal to bestow his large library and other gifts to public pur- poses, rather than to his immediate heirs.
In personal appearance James Logan was tall and well-propor- tioned, with a graceful yet grave demeanour. He had a good com- plexion, and was quite florid, even in old age ; nor did his hair, which was brown, turn gray in the decline of life, nor his eyes require spectacles. According to the fashion of the times he wore a powdered wig. His whole manner was dignified, so as to abash impertinence ; yet he was kind, and strictly just in all the minor duties of acquaint- ance and society. The engraved portrait is taken from a family piece now in the Loganian Library.
As a man of learning, he stood pre-eminent. His business never led him off from his affection to the muses. He maintained a cor- respondence with several of the literati in Europe, and fostered science at home. His aid to Godfrey, the inventor of the quadrant, is in proof to this point; and his literary intercourse with Governor Hun- ter, Dr. Colden, Col. Morris, Dr. Johnstone, Dr. Jenny, Governor Burnet., and others, at New York and elsewhere in our country, shows how much his mind was turned to the love of science, and to its disciples wherever found.
As he advanced in life, he much desired to give up the cares of business. He retired altogether to his country place at Stenton, hoping there to enjoy himself otium cum dignitate. Still, however, Penn's business and official employs were occasionally pressed upon him ; especially in cases of Indian affairs ; because in them he had merited the peculiar affection and confidence of the Indian tribes, they often visiting his grounds and remaining there some time under his hospitality. The celebrated Mingo chief, "Logan," whose eloquent speech has been preserved by Mr. Jefferson, was so named by his father Shickallemy, because of his regard to James Logan. As he grew in years, he met with the injury of a limb, which con- fined him long to his home. He there endeavoured to fortify his mind, like Cicero before him, in cultivating the best feelings of old age, by keeping his mind and attachments young and cheerful. To this cause he translated Cicero de Senectute into English, a work which when published was imputed erroneously to Dr. Franklin, who was only the printer. This fact may be seen demonstrated at large in my MS. Annals in the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, page 322. He was also the author of two other works, now in pos-
,
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session of Joshua Fisher, Esq., but not found in any catalogues to wit :
" Demonstrationes de Rudiorum Lucis in Superfices Sphericas,- Auctore Jacobo Logan, Judice Supremo et Præside Concilii Province Pennsylvaniensis in America."-Also,
"Jacobi Logani Judicis Supremi et Concilii Præsidis Provincæ Pennsylvaniensis, Epistola ad Virum Clarissimum, Joannem Alber- tum Fabricium, Experimenta et Meletemata de Plantarum," &c.
He died in 1751, aged 77 years, and lies interred at Friends' Arch street ground. Several other facts concerning James Logan having been already distributed through these pages, are omitted in the present article.
James Logan, at different periods of his life, held the offices of Provincial Secretary, Commissioner of Property and Receiver Gen- eral, Mayor of Philadelphia, Recorder of the city, President Judge of Common Pleas, Chief Justice of the Province, and President of the Council, in which latter office he governed the Province, as Governor, for two years, from 1736 to '38.
From his steadfast and known attachment to the Penn family, he became occasionally exposed to the shafts of obloquy,-from those who had adverse purposes and sinister designs to answer. This led to one instance of his impeachment by the Assembly, urged on by David Lloyd. His defence was able and sufficient in the opinion of Governors Evans and Gordon. To them succeeded Sir Wm. Keith, who from his needy circumstances and his desire to gain popularity with the people, renewed the excitements against James Logan and deprived him of his place in the Council and of the seals of the Province. When Governor Gordon came into power, the power and influence of James Logan was regained. Not long after he retired from his public employments with the respect of all the colonists, and to the great regret of the proprietary family.
When retired to his country seat at Stenton, he seems to have occupied himself in agriculture and literature. He there made out a large collection of mathematical papers. Treatises on History, Archaiology, Criticism, Theology, Ethics, Natural Philosophy, Ana- tomy, Law, severally engaged his mind and occupied his pen. His MS. remains and printed pamphlets are numerous, and ought to be deemed worthy of being gathered and placed in the Loganian library, as papers characteristic of the generous founder, and also as an evidence that he personally understood the valuable scientific works which he had so munificently accumulated for the use of others
Some among Friends have been surprised to have heard that James Logan should have been an advocate for placing the city and country in a state of defence ;- but it was really so. In the year 1741, he actually wrote a paper to dissuade Friends from serving in the Legislature, unless they could feel free to contribute to the cost of defence. He actually gave £500 towards the erection of the town battery at the South End.
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JOHN S. HUTTON .- Page 527.
JAMES PEMBERTON .- Page 595.
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John S. Hutton, aged 109 years.
John S. Hutton, silversmith of Philadelphia, as he related the particulars of his life to the late C. W. Peale, was born in New York, in 1684. He was originally bound apprentice to a sea captain, who put him to school to learn the art of navigation. At that time he became intimate with a boy who worked at the white-smith trade, with whom he amused himself in acquiring the use of the hammer, by which means he obtained a facility in working at plate-work in the silversmith's business. He followed the seafaring life for thirty years, and then commenced the silversmith's trade. He was long esteemed in Philadelphia one of the best workmen at hollow work ; and there are still pieces of his work in much esteem. He made a tumbler in silver when he was 94 years of age.
Through the course of a long and hazardous life in various climes, he was always plain and temperate in his eating and drinking, and particularly avoided spirituous liquors, except in one instance, while he was serving as lieutenant of a privateer in Queen Anne's war. That occasion gave him a lasting lesson of future restraint ; for having made a descent on the Spanish main and pillaged a village, while they had all given themselves to mirth and revelry, they were intercepted in their return to their boats, and all killed save himself and one other, who were made prisoners and held in long con- finement.
His first wife was Catharine Cheeseman, of New York, by whom he had eight children, 25 grandchildren, 23 great grandchildren and great great grandchildren.
At the age of 51 he married his second wife in Philadelphia, Ann Vanlear, 19 years of age, by whom he had 17 children, 41 grand- children, and 15 great grandchildren-forming in all a grand total of 132 descendants, of whom 45 were then dead. Those who survived were generally dwelling in Philadelphia. His last wife died in 1788, at the age of 72. Mr. Hutton deemed himself in the prime of his life when 60 years of age. He never had a headach.
He was always fond of fishing and fowling, and till his 81st year used to carry a heavy English musket in his hunting excursions. He was ever a quiet, temperate, and hard-working man, and even in the year of his death was quite cheerful and good humoured. He could then see, hear, and walk about; had a good appetite, and no complaints whatever, except from the mere debility of old age. When shal! " we behold his like again !"
In his early life he was on two scouts against the Indians ; he used to tell, that in one of these excursions they went out in the · night, that they took a squaw prisoner, who led them to where the Indians lay, of whom they killed the most, before they could get to their arms. The circumstance induced the Indians to come in and make their peace.
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He knew the noted pirate, Teach, called Blackbeard ; he saw him at Barbadoes after he had come in under the Act of Oblivion to him and other pirates. This was a short time before that pirate made his last cruise and was killed in Carolina.
The father of Hutton was John Hutton, of Bermuda in Scotland, where many of the family reside. His grandfather, by his mother's side, was Arthur Strangeways, who died at Boston, at the age of 101 years, while sitting in his chair.
J. S. Hutton died at Philadelphia, on the 20th of December, 1792, in the 109th year of his age. His long life, and numerous children, made him a patriarch indeed ! " In children's lives feels his resur- rection, and grows immortal in his children's children !" He was deemed so rare an instance of lusty old age, that Mr. C. W. Peale was induced to take his portrait as now seen in the Museum, as he appeared in the last year of his life. He was borne to his grave by his fellow craftsmen-all silversmiths.
Thomas Godfrey,
The inventor of the quadrant, was born in Bristol township, about one mile from Germantown, in the year 1704, on a farm ad- joining to Lukens' mill, on the Church lane. His grandfather, Thomas Godfrey, a farmer, had purchased the place of 153 acres from Samuel Carpenter, merchant of Philadelphia, on the 24th of August, 1697. His father, Joseph, a farmer and malster, died in 1705, when he was but one year old. His mother afterwards mar- ried one Wood, of Philadelphia, and put her son out to learn the business of a glazier. The glaziers then did not paint as now ; they only soldered the glasses into leaden frames. He did such work for the State house in 1732-3. He also did the same for £6 10s. for Andrew Hamilton's house at Bush hill, in 1740-and I saw his bills. His father's estate became his when he was of age. He appears to have sold it to John Lukens on the 1st of January, 1735. The same premises sold in 1812 for $30,600.
While engaged at his business on the premises at Stenton-J. Logan's place-accidently observing a piece of fallen glass, an idea presented to his reflecting mind, which caused him to quit his scaffold and to go into Mr. Logan's library, where he took down a volume of Newton. Mr. Logan entering at this time and see- ing the book in his hand, inquired into the motive of his search, when he was exceedingly pleased with Godfrey's ingenuity, and from that time became his zealous friend. He procured for him a skilful person to try his quadrant at sea; and finding it fully answered every wish, he endeavoured to serve him by writing to his friends in England, especially to Sir Hans Sloane, so as to get for him the reward offered by the Royal Society. This was in tended to be a measure in opposition to the claim of Hadley, who it was supposed had obtained the description of the instrument from
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Jis nephew, who it was recollected had seen it in the West Indies. Such is the tradition of the matter in the Logan family as preserved by Mrs. Logan. James Logan asserts in a letter to one of his friends, that Godfrey's discovery was two years prior to Hadley's.
" Joshua Fisher, of Lewistown, afterwards of Philadelphia, merchant, first tried the quadrant in the bay of Delaware." Af- terwards Captain Wright carried it to Jamaica, where, unsuspicious of the piracy, he showed and explained it to several Englishmen, among whom was a nephew of Hadley's.
Godfrey's affections for mathematical science occurred at an early period, from a chance opportunity of reading a book on that study. Finding the subject perplexed with Latin terms, he applied himself to that language with such diligence as to be able to read the occasional Latin he found. Optics and astronomy became his favourite studies, and the exercise of his thoughts led him on to con- ceive at length the instrument which should enlarge his fame. Further particulars, in print, on this subject may be found in the Philosophical Transactions, No. 435, and also in Bradford's American Magazine for July 1758, and in my MS. Annals in the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, p. 566.
The grave-stones of some of the family still remained upon the farm. Two of them, of soapstone, were out in the field close to a partition fence, and the letters much effaced ; but Mr. Nathan Spen- cer, near there, who once owned the place, and honoured the in- ventor, had procured the inscriptions as they once stood, being told by Ann Nedrow to Spencer's father, and from him to Nathan, my informant, to wit :
East side :-
Here lyeth the body of Joseph, son of Thomas and Frances Godfrey, aged thirty-and-two years, who died the 14th of 2nd mo., in the year 1705,-
As by grace comes election, So the end of our hope is resurrection.
West side :-
Death ends man's worke And labour here. The man is blest Whose labour's just and pure.
'Tis vain for man This life for to adore,
For our dear son Is dead and gone before ; We hope our Saviour Him hath justified Though of his being present We are now deprived.
On the south side of the above described stone were placed the bodies of his father (Thomas) and mother, and on the north side, the VOL. I .- 3 R 45
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bodies of his son Thomas, the inventor, and his wife Mrs. Nedrow said she saw Thomas, the inventor, there buried in December, 1749. There never was any separate stone placed for him. Thus he, who had benefited naval science and commerce with millions, had not had the requital of a stone itself to mark his memory ! Like Wash- ington's, it may live without it-without " storied urn or monumental bust !"
I have since taken the headstone and the remains of the whole Godfrey family to the Cemetery at Laurel Hill, where, beside the old stone, valuable for its antiquity, they have generously placed a new marble tombstone with this inscription, to wit :
Here repose the remains of Thomas Godfrey, The Inventor of the Quadrant. Born 1704, died 1749. Also, The remains of his father and mother, Joseph Godfrey and wife, They were removed from the Old homestead by Townsend's first Mill, October 6, 1838, By John F. Watson Viam navitæ complanavit .*
[ deem it a general mistake to suppose that Thomas Godfrey was either poor or uneducated. His trade as a plumber, who glazed window panes in leaden frames, (the latter of which he made, and of which I have seen some remains of his matrices, &c.,) must have been a good one, when he made such for the State House, Hamil- ton's place at Bush Hill, and probably for Christ Church and other respectable buildings. It was a mistake to suppose he was a com- mon house-painter because he was a glazier. I know, also, that he was a measurer of superfices, by profession, for I have in my pos- session his original MS. certificate, in good handwriting and spelling, of the quantity of ground dug and carted from the State House pre- mises, on the 29th September, 1738, from which I here give his signature, viz.
The Godfrey 1738
Some persons seem to have wished to magnify his discoveries by affecting to lower his attainments. But truth is truth ; and so 1 have given it, as I have found it.
* There has since been a monument placed there.
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Thomas Godfrey, Junior.
This was the second son of Godfrey the inventor. He had learn- ed, in Philadelphia, the business of watchmaking, but became a lieu- tenant of the royal Americans raised for the expedition to Fort du Quesne in 1758. After their disbandment, he went to Wilmington, North Carolina, where he became a factor. He died there, after three years' residence, the 3d August, 1763, in the twenty-seventh year of his age, in consequence of over exercise on a very warm day. His remains were designated there by a tombstone, in the ground of St. James' church. He was much of a reader,-well versed in the English poets, and was himself a poet of no mean rank. He wrote several pieces descriptive of the vicinity where he dwelt. His principal poem was called the Court of Fancy. Some of his pastorals and elegies possess beauty. His Epistle from Fort Henry has been admired. He is principally, however, to be dis- tinguished as the author of the first American drama. He called it the Prince of Parthia,-a tragedy of some merit. He had also some taste for music and painting. Genius was in him and stirred.
It is scarcely known to the public that the inventor had another and an elder son, Joseph, brought up in the trade of his father, as a glazier ; but about himself or family we know nothing, save that when his mother Ann died, in 1752, (only three years after the death of her husband, the inventor,) letters of administration were granted to him on the estate, and in that estate it appears they had an in- terest in the house now standing at the north-west corner of Straw- berry alley and Chestnut street.
There seems some reason to believe that there were some other branches of the Godfrey family in Philadelphia. For instance, Philip Godfrey of Cape May, born about the year 1721, was a respectable landholder and shipbuilder there, with a large family, and I chance to know that, about the year 1743, his sons and daughters became heirs of family estate left to them in Philadelphia .* And upon look- ing over the records of Philadelphia, we find there a Thomas God- frey, who died in 1756, and his wife Jane, in 1771, leaving a large family of children, whose names are on the record, and connected with the book of Wills, &c.
We mention the facts without presuming to settle any inferences.
* A descendant of theirs, Thomas Godfrey, a plasterer, aged about thirty years, is now a resident of Kensington.
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Dr. Franklin.
It is but little known, or set down to the commendation of Frank lin, that when he was young in business, and stood in need of sun- dry articles in the line of his profession as a printer, he had the ingenuity to make them for himself. In this way he founded letters of lead, engraved various printing ornaments, cut wood-cuts, made printer's ink, engraved copperplate vignettes, and made his plate press. Sower, an ingenious German printer, did something in the same way at Germantown.
Not long after Benjamin Franklin had commenced editor of a newspaper, he noticed with considerable freedom the public conduct of one or two influential persons in Philadelphia. This circumstance was regarded by some of his patrons with disapprobation, and induced one of them to convey to Franklin the opinion of his friends in re- gard to it. The doctor listened with patience to the reproof, and begged the favour of his friend's company at supper on an evening which he named ; at the same time requesting that the other gentle- men who were dissatisfied with him should also attend. The invi- tation was accepted by Philip Syng, Hugh Roberts, and several others. The doctor received them cordially, and his editorial con- duct was canvassed, and some advice given. Supper was at last an- nounced, and the guests invited to an adjoining room. The doctor begged the party to be seated, and urged them to help themselves ; but the table was only supplied with two puddings and a stone pitcher filled with water ! Each guest had a plate, a spoon, and a penny porringer; they were all helped ; but none but the doctor could eat ; he partook freely of the pudding, and urged his friends to do the same; but it was out of the question-they tasted and tried in vain. When their facetious host saw the difficulty was uncon- querable, he rose and addressed them thus: " My friends, any one who can subsist upon saw-dust pudding and water, as I can, needs no man's patronage !"
The house, No. 141 High street, on the north side, between Third and Fourth streets, (now the property of the heirs of Daniel Wister) was originally the residence of Dr. Franklin, and was the first house in Philadelphia which ever had a lightning rod affixed to it. This was put up by Dr. Franklin. The rod came into the bedchamber in the second story on the gable end, eastern side, and there being cut off from its communication with the rod descending to the ground, the intermediate space of about one yard was filled up with a range or chime of bells, which whenever an electric cloud passed over the place were set to ringing and throwing out sparks of electricity. These bells remained some time after Daniel Wister occupied the house, and were at last reluctantly taken down, to quiet the fears of his wife. Mr. C. J. Wister, who told me of this, told me they ever played and conducted electricity sometimes in the winter.
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