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 66
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Charles Thomson in early life became one of the early teachers of the languages in the academy; as much to serve the cause of lite- rature, to which he was solicited by Dr. Franklin, as for his personal gain. Later in life he entered into business of the mercantile nature, and was at one time concerned in the Batsto furnace-still retaining his residence at Philadelphia.
He told me that he was first induced to study Greek from having bought a part of the Septuagint at an auction in this city. He bought it for a mere trifle, and without knowing what it was, save that the crier said it was outlandish letters. When he had mastered it enough to understand it, his anxiety became great to see the whole ; but he could find no copy. Strange to tell-in the interval of two years, passing the same store, and chancing to look in, he then saw the remainder actually crying off for a few pence, and he bought it! I
* He went to the forge and made a nail so well himself, after once seeing it done, that they augured favourably of his future ingenuity.
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used to tell him that the translation which he afterwards made should have had these facts set to the front of that work as a preface ; for that great work, the first of the kind in the English language, strangely enough, was ushered into the world without any preface ! For want of some introductory explanation to the common English reader, it was not known to be of great value in Biblical elucidation, and therefore was but seldom sold or read. Yet Dr. A. Clarke, who is good authority in this matter, says it is a treasure in itself, abso- lutely indispensable to Bible truth. He told me that such was his passion for Greek study, that he actually walked, when young, to Amboy, for the purpose of seeing and conversing there with a stranger, a British officer, the first rate Greek scholar then in our country.
When Charles Thomson first saw Philadelphia, the whole of the ground between the house, afterwards his, at the corner of Spruce and Fourth streets, and the river, was all open and covered with whortleberry bushes, and much of it of a miry soil towards the Little Dock creek and river shore.
His appointment as Secretary to Congress was singular. He had lately married Miss Harrison, who inherited the estate of Harriton where he afterwards lived and died. Coming with her to Philadel- phia, he had scarcely alighted from his carriage when a message came to him from the President of Congress-when first in session, in 1774 -to say he wished to see him immediately. He went forthwith, not conceiving what could be purposed, and was told he was wished to take their minutes. He set to it as for a temporary affair ; but in fact became their Secretary thereby for several years! As no compensa- tion was received for that first service, the Congress presented him with a silver urn (still in the family) inscribed as their gift ; and as a compliment to his lady, whom they had so divested of his attentions, she was asked by the committee to say what vessel it should be, and she chose an urn.
He was after the peace much urged to write a history of the Re- volution, and after the year 1789, when he first settled at Harriton, actually gathered many curious and valuable papers, and wrote many pages of the work ; but at length, as his nephew told me, he resolved to destroy the whole, giving as his chief reason, that he was unwilling to blast the reputation of families rising into repute, whose progeni- tors must have had a bad character in such a work. A letter from John Jay, which I saw, stimulated him to execute it " as the best qualified man in the country."
Many facts concerning Mr. Thomson and his measures in the pe- riod of the Revolution will be found connected with my facts under that article, and therefore not to be usefully repeated here.
Mr. Thomson was made an adopted son in the Delaware tribe at the treaty at Easton, in 1756. He had been invited by sundry Friends, members of the Peace Association, to attend for them, and take minutes in short hand. It was the proper business of the se- cretary of the Governor, the Rev. Mr. Peters ; but his minutes were VOL. I .- 3 W 48*
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so often disputed in the reading of them, by the Indian Chief Tede uscund, that Mr. Thomson's inofficial minutes were called for, and they, in the opinion of the Indians, were true. From their respect to this fact, they forthwith solemnly adopted him into their family, under the appropriate name of " the man who tells the truth,"-in Indian sounds thus, to wit : " Wegh-wu-law-mo-end." It is not a little curious that this name, in substance, became his usual appella- tion during the war of the Revolution , for, as secretary of Congress, credence was given to his official reports, which always were looked for to settle doubtful news and flying reports, saying on such occasions, ' Here comes the truth ; here is Charles Thomson !"
He once related an incident of his life to Mrs. Logan, which strongly marked the integrity of his feelings. When young he be- came an inmate in the house of David I. Dove, the doggerel satirist, whom he soon found, as well as his wife, addicted to the most un- pitying scandal; this was altogether irksome to his honest nature. Wishing to leave them, and still dreading their reproach when he should be gone, he hit upon an expedient to exempt himself : he gravely asked them one evening if his behaviour, since he had been their boarder, had been satisfactory to them ? They readily answered, "O yes." Would you then be willing to give me a certificate to that effect ? "O certainly," was the reply. A certificate was given, and the next day he parted from them in peace.
Charles Thomson, was favoured by Divine Providence with a long and peaceful life-as if in reward for his generous services for his country, as the honoured instrument for translating the Scriptures, and for his exalted love of truth. He was indeed the Caleb of the war of the Revolution ; and while he prolonged his life, he might exclaim like the spy of Israel-as he sometimes did,-" As yet I am strong this day as I was in the day that Moses sent me ; as my strength was then, even so is my strength now-both to go out and to come "ื! ืื
In April, 1824, I visited Charles Thomson, then in his 95th year. I found him still the erect, tall man he had ever been ; his counte- nance very little changed, but his mental faculties in ruins. He could not remember me although formerly an occasional visiter. He appeared cheerful, and with many smiles expressed thankfulness for the usual expressions of kindness extended to him. He was then under the surveillance of his nephew, John Thomson, who, with his family, lived on the Harriton farm, and managed its concerns.
Charles Thomson passed the most of his time reposing and slum- bering on a settee in the common parlour. A circumstance occurred at the dinner table, at the head of which he was usually placed, which sufficiently marked the abberration of his mind, even while it showed that " his very failings leaned to virtue's side." While the grace was saying by a clergyman present, he began in an elevat- ed and audible voice to say the Lord's prayer, and he did not desist, nor regard the other, although his grace was also saying at the same
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time ! It was remarkable that his prayer was all said in the words of his own translation, and with entire correctness. He made no re- marks at the table, and ate without discrimination whatever was set before him. In his rooms I observed, besides the silver urn before mentioned, a portrait of himself and second wife, Miss Harrison-a colossal bust of J. P. Jones, the celebrated naval commander, a small man-a large print of William Tell, and an engraved likeness of the Count de Vergennes, and of C. J. Fox.
He employed many years of his life in making his translation of the Septuagint ; nor could he be drawn from it into public life, al- though solicited by the letters of Washington himself, which I have seen. He looked to be useful ; and he deemed, as he said, that he had a call of Providence to that pursuit. He improved it with most sedulous anxiety and care for its perfection-writing it over and over again six or seven times. His original printed Septuagint has been given to the Theological Library at Allegheny College, since his death, Some others of his relics are in my possession; and the chief of them are with his nephew, at Newark, Delaware.
He died the 16th of August, 1824, in the 95th year of his age, and was interred in the private burial ground on the Harriton farm. In the year 1838, however, his remains were exhumed at the instance of his nephew, and conveyed to the Laurel Hill Cemetery, both as an honour to that place, and as a duty due to the honoured individual himself. The monument is in the form of Cleopatra's needle-16 feet in height, and placed in a conspicuous position on the river side. It bears an inscription which I was honoured to compose, and which was formed for four divisions, to be placed severally on the four sides of the basement, but owing to the spalling of the granite it could not be so engraved, and was therefore set on a side marble slab in one entire inscription, thus :-
This monument Covers the remains of the Honourable Charles Thomson, The first, and long The confidential Secretary of the Continental Congress, And the Enlightened benefactor of his country In its day of peril and need. Born Nov., 1729, Died Aug. 16, 1824. Full of honours and of years
As a Patriot, His memorial and just honours Are inscribed on the pages Of his country's history
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As a Christian, His piety was sincere and enduring, His Biblical learning was profound, As is shown by his translation of the Septuagint. As a man, He was honoured, loved and wept.
7
Erected To the memory of an honoured Uncle and Benefactor, By his nephew, John Thomson of Delaware. Hic jacet Homo veritatis et gratia.
I give the following lines of poetry, as marking the feelings which the visit to such a man inspired. "In his commendation I am fed."
There one I saw
Who in this wilderness had trod, till life Retreated from the bloodless veins, and made Faint stand at her last fortress. His wan brow Was lightly furrow'd, and his lofty form* Unbent by time, while dignified, erect, And passionless, he made his narrow round From couch to casement, and his eye beheld This world of shadowy things unmoved, as one Who was about to cast his vesture off In weariness to sleep. Sly memory slipt Her treacherous cable from the reeling mind,t Blotting the chart whereon it loved to gaze Amid the sea of years. His course had been On those high places, where the dazzling ray Of honour shines ; and when men's souls were tried, As in a furnace, his came forth like gold.
To his dull ear
I spake the message of a friend who walked With him in glory's path, and nobly shared That fellowship in danger and in toil Which knits pure souls together. But the name Restored no image of the cherish'd form So long beloved. I should have said farewell, In brokenness of heart,-but up he rose And, with a seerlike majesty, poured forth His holy adjuration to the God Who o'er life's broken wave had borne his bark Safe toward the haven. Deep that thrilling prayer Sank down into my bosom, like a spring Of comfort and of joy.
ยท His " lofty form, unbent by time," was remarkable
+ His memory of all, save his religion, was gone.
* His prevailing thoughts were all devotional,
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Deborah Logan.
I cannot presume to offer, in this place, any thing like a bio- graphical notice of this eminent lady, who did me the honour to be my steadfast friend, and to whom I was so usefully indebted for many facts of the olden times; but it seems not wholly out of place to set her name in close connexion with her much esteemed cousin, Charles Thomson, the name preceding ; besides, Mrs. Logan was a diligent and judicious compiler of historical events of Pennsylvania, and had received, as she deserved, the appellation of " the female his- torian of the colonial times." How I valued and appreciated her character and memory may be here expressed in the obituary which I published at the time of her lamented decease, on the 2d February, 1839, in the 78th year of her age-to wit :
" Mrs. Deborah Logan, the refined, the enlightened and the good, now sleeps in death ! She died at the family seat, at Stenton, near Germantown, on the 2d instant, in the 78th year of her age.
" It is not often that a person descends to the tomb, leaving so wide, so deep a void. Matured and fitted as she was for eternity, she is, nevertheless, painfully missed from the circle which she adorned : a general gloom affects and saddens her numerous friends.
"All ranks and classes among us know something of her peculiar excellence,-the poor and the ignorant, as well as the cultivated and refined. Her manners possessed a peculiarly winning grace and ease, -strongly expressive of benevolence and polished politeness com- bined. Her ability to adapt herself to all circumstances, and to all and every occasion of life, shone in her actions with all the grace and purity of Christian love and gentleness, for she was deeply imbued with Christian affections and graces.
" To love such a lovely woman was instinctive in all who ap- proached her-she was the delight of the young, and the beloved of the aged. Rarely indeed does it fall to the lot of humanity, in old age, to possess so many points of attraction, so many traits of love- liness and goodness, worthy to be admired in life, and fondly remem- bered in death.
" That she was of a superior order of female excellence and intelli- gence, may be inferred from her fine talent as a composuist, both in prose and verse. Her modesty and unwillingness to meet the public gaze did not allow her to come before the world in her proper name ; but it is known to some that she has received the emphatic name of " the female historian of Pennsylvania," as due to her for the large manuscript collections of historical papers which she had compiled and elucidated for future public instruction. She delighted to live in the memory of the past, and her mind was therefore rich in imagery of other times-
" You might have asked her, and she could have told How, step by step, her native place threw off
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Its rude colonial vestments, for the garb That cities wear. And she could give recitals of a race Now rooted up and perished. Many a date And legend, slumbers in that ample breast, Which History coveted."
Edward Duffield
Was a very respectable inhabitant of Philadelphia-very intelli- gent as a reading man ; and as a watch and clock maker, at the head of his profession in the city. He was the particular friend, and, finally, executor of Dr. Franklin. He made the first medals ever executed in the province-such as the destruction of the Indians at Kittataning, in 1756, by Colonel Armstrong, &c.
When he kept his shop at the north-west corner of Second and Arch streets, he used to be so annoyed by frequent applications of passing persons to inquire the time of day-for in early days the gen- try only carried watches-that he hit upon the expedient of making a clock with a double face, so as to show north and south at once ; and projecting this out from the second story, it became the first standard of the town. That same olden clock is the same now in use at the lower Dublin academy ; near to which place his son Ed- ward now lives. He is a curious preserver of the relics of his fa- ther's day.
Lindley Murray,
So celebrated for his English Grammar and other elementary works on English education, was a Pennsylvanian by birth-born in the year 1745, and died at York, in England, in 1826. He was the eldest son of Robert Murray, who established in New York the mercantile houses of Robert and John Murray, and of Murray and Sansom- houses of eminence in their day. Lindley Murray studied law in New York, in the same office with John Jay. He afterwards went into mercantile business there, but on account of his declining health, said to have been occasioned by a strain in springing across Burling's slip-a great distance-he went to England and settled at York, at the place called Holdgate, where he died, full of years and in love with God and man. His mother, who was Mary Lindley, was also born in Philadelphia-was the same lady who so ingeniously and patriotically entertained General Howe and his staff at her mansion after their landing at Kip's bay, near New York-thus giving to General Putnam, who would otherwise have been caught in New York, the chance of getting off with his command of 3000 men and their stores. The fact is admitted by Stedman, in his History of the War-himself a British officer and a native of Philadelphia.
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Benjamin West.
Our distinguished countryman from Chester county, when he was yet a lad without reputation, boarded, when in Philadelphia, at a house (now down) in Strawberry alley. To indulge his favourite passion for the pencil, he painted in that house, while there, two pic- tures upon the two large cedar panels-usual in old houses-over the mantel-pieces. One of them was a sea piece. There they remained, smoked and neglected, until the year 1825, when Thomas Rogers, the proprietor, had them taken out and cleansed, and since they have been given to the hospital, to show, by way of contrast to his finished production of Christ healing the sick. Samuel R. Wood told me that Benjamin West bid him to seek out and preserve those early ef forts of his mind.
William Rush.
Few citizens of Philadelphia are more deserving of commendation for their excellence in their profession than this gentleman, as a ship carver. In his skill in his art he surpasses any other American, and probably any other ship carver in the world! He gives more grace and character to his figures than are to be found in any other wooden designs. He ought to have been encouraged to leave specimens of his best skill for posterity, by receiving an order to that effect from some of the learned societies. I have heard him say his genius would be most displayed in carving the three great divisions of the human face -the negro, the American Indian, and the white man. The con- tour or profile of these run diametrically opposite ; because the fea- tures of a white man, which stand in relief, all proceed from a per- fect perpendicular line, thus | . A negro's has a projecting forehead and lips, precisely the reverse of those of the Indian, thus ( ; but an Indian's, thus > *
I made it my business to become acquainted with Mr. Rush, be- cause I have admired his remarkable talents. He was born in Phila- delphia; his father was a ship carpenter. From his youth he was fond of ships, and used, when a boy, to pass his time in the garret in cutting out ships from blocks of wood, and to exer- cise himself in drawing figures in chalk and paints. When of a proper age he followed his inclination in engaging his term of ap- prenticeship with Edward Cutbush, from London, the then best car- ver of his day. He was a man of spirited execution, but inharmo- nious proportions. Walking attitudes were then unknown; but all rested astride the cutwater. When Rush first saw, on a foreign ves- sel, a walking figure, he instantly conceived the design of more taste- ful and graceful figures than had been before executed. He instantly
* To these might be added the features of a Jew, if an artist could express them.
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surpassed his master ; and having once opened his mind to the con- templation and study of such attitudes and figures as he saw in na- ture, he was very soon enabled to surpass all his former performances. Then his figures began to excite admiration in foreign ports. The figure of the " Indian Trader" to the ship William Penn (the Trader was dressed in Indian habiliments) excited great observation in London. The carvers there would come in boats and lay near the ship, and sketch designs from it. They even came to take casts, of plaster of Paris, from the head. This was directly after the Revolu- tion, when she was commanded by Captain Josiah. When he carved a river god as the figure for the ship Ganges, the Hindoos came off in numerous boats to pay their admiration and perhaps reverence to the various emblems in the trail of the image. On one occasion, the house of Nicklin and Griffeth actually had orders from England, to Rush, (nearly forty years ago,) to carve two figures for two ships building there. One was a female personation of commerce. The duties in that case cost more than the first cost of the images them- selves ! A fine Indian figure, in Rush's best style, might be pre served in some public edifice for many centuries to come ; even as he carved the full statue of Washington for the Academy of Arts- making the figure hollow in the trunk and limbs, to add to its du- rability.
Isaac Hunt, Esq.
This gentleman was the author of many poetic squibs against Dove and his party ; they were often affixed to caricatures. This Hunt, a Philadelphian, was educated a lawyer, and proving a strong loyalist at the Revolution, he was carted round the city to be tarred and feathered at the same time with Dr. Kearsley. He then fled to England, and became a clergyman of the established church. He was the father of the present celebrated Leigh Hunt, on the side of the Radicals in England. So different do father and son sometimes walk! One of Hunt's satires thus spoke of Dove, to wit :
" See Lilliput, in beehive wig, A most abandon'd sinner ! Would vote for boar, or sow, or pig, To gain thereby a dinner."
James Pellar Malcom, F. S. A.
An artist of celebrity in England, who died there about the year 1815, was born of the Pellar family, of Solesbury township, Bucks county. He was an only son, and his mother, to enable him to pro- secute his studies in England, sold her patrimonial estate on the banks of the Delaware. The ancestor of the family, James Pellar, was a Friend, who came out with Penn. In 1689, he built his house here, which remained in the family till sold out and taken down in
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1793. Mr. Malcom appears to have visited this country in 1806. and to have been much gratified in finding numerous rich farmers of the name of Pellar, members of the Society of Friends-" descend- ants (he says) of original settlers-the old Castilians of the place." A pre-eminence we are ever willing to accord to all families of ori- ginal settlers. Thus constituting such, by courtesy and respect, the proper primores of our country: Particulars concerning him may be seen in the Gentlemen's Magazine, vol. 85-year 1815. Much con- cerning old James Pellar, of Solesbury, Bucks county, as given by my aged friend, Samuel Preston, Esq., as his recollections of him, is given at some length in my MS. Annals, in the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, p. 491. He is there described as of great natural genius, a wit-fond of poetry, and sub-surveyor.
Andrew Wallace.
There is now alive, (March, 1833,) in Chester county, near West Chester, Andrew Wallace, in the one hundred and fourth year of his age-a pensioner of the United States,-has a wife and two children-his youngest about fifteen years of age ! Retains a fine in- telligent countenance, and is in full possession of his faculties-his body shakes with paralysis. He was born at Inverness, in Scotland, 14th March, 1730. Was at the battle of Culloden, on the side of the Stuarts. He came to America in 1752; joined soon after Cap- tain Hannum's company at Chester, as a sergeant, in the French war; was with Forbes' division at the time of Braddock's defeat. At the Revolutionary war, joined Colonel Anthony Wayne's 4th re- giment, and served in it through all the war; was in many of our battles, and was one who escaped at the Paoli massacre ; was a sergeant in the Forlorn Hope, at Stony Point, and finally, at the surrender of Cornwallis. In 1791, he served with Captain Doyle, in St. Clair's defeat by the Indians; was finally discharged as dis- abled, at the age of eighty, at New Orleans, in 1812, from the regi- ment of Colonel Cushing. He always had a bias for military life ; never sought a place above a sergeant. Wonderful that such a man should have so long survived "the haps and ills of life." Charles Miner described him to me, as a man he much desired me to see ! There has been made a likeness of him in Philadelphia.
William Butler,
Another aged wonder I visited at Philadelphia, at his son's house in south Ninth street, below Locust street, aged 103-4 years ; he being born in Merion, on the 15th February, 1730, at the Gulf; he died in May, 1838, in his 108th year. Butler's father died at 89 years ; had in his 84th year worked fifteen days in harvesting. My visit to him was on the 14th May, 1833; he had been rambling about the city, a walk of two miles, out ana in! At my salutation VOL. I .- 3 X 49
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