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. III > Part 21
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In 1735, Rev. Richard Peters came from London. He had
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studied law for seven years in the Temple, and two years of the civil law. But "his honesty and candor " made the law un- pleasant to him, and induced him to assume the clergyman's gown. He had been unfortunate in his first marriage at the early age of fourteen, and had left his first wife, who was un- worthy of him. Upon her supposed decease he had married again, but, hearing that she was still living, he left for this country. He assisted Rev. Mr. Cummings for six months, but on account of disagreements he resigned in May, 1736. He be- came secretary of the governor's Council, and was employed in several offices of trust under the Proprietaries. He is alluded to several times in this work as Secretary Peters. In September, 1762, he resigned his civil offices and again became rector of Christ Church, and so continued until his resignation in 1775. He died July 10th, 1776.
Rev. Archibald Cummings died in April, 1741, and was suc- ceeded by Rev. Eneas Ross, who had been invited by the church to officiate. He gave such satisfaction that the vestry requested the bishop of London to send him a license. In the mean while the bishop had licensed Rev. Robert Jennings of Hempstead, N. Y., who, hearing of the favor with which Mr. Ross was held, declined to accept, but finally did, with Mr. Ross as assistant ; the latter remained until July, 1743. In 1747, Rev. William Sturgeon was made an assistant for teaching the negroes and as catechist.
Jacob Duché was licensed in 1759, and became assistant min- ister under Dr. Jennings, finally having charge of St. Peter's Church when Richard Peters was again rector of Christ Church, and whom he succeeded in 1775. He opened the Continental Congress in 1774 with a remarkable prayer, and was appointed chaplain to Congress July 9th, 1776; which position he resigned in about three months. On the occupation of the city by the British in September, 1777, he showed his Tory proclivities, and wrote a letter in October to Washington urging him to give up the cause; which angered the general exceedingly. Before the evacuation he went to England; his house was confiscated and sold to Thomas Mckean, afterward chief-justice. On his return after the peace he received no employment, and died Jan- uary 3, 1798. His wife died a year before him; she was sister to Francis Hopkinson.
Rev. Thomas Coombe had charge of the churches during the occupation of the city by the British, and went to England in 1778.
Rev. William White, who had been appointed assistant min- ister in November, 1772, was made rector in 1779, and so re- mained until his death, July 17, 1836, in his eighty-ninth year -a service of sixty-five years. He was a firm patriot, and was chaplain of Congress during the Revolution, and afterward of
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the United States Senate. He was consecrated as bishop of Pennsylvania at the same time as Rev. Samuel Provoost was consecrated bishop of New York-in England, Feb. 4, 1787, by the archbishops of Canterbury and York. Bishop White's only sister, Mary, married Robert Morris. Rev. John Waller James succeeded him, but died in four weeks. Dr. Benjamin Dorr was elected in 1837, and officiated thirty-two years, until his death, September 18, 1869. Rev. E. A. Foggo, the present rector, suc- ceeded him.
The present church was commenced in 1727, and was nine years in being completed. It was built of brick, some of which were brought from the old country. Franklin was one of the managers of the lottery in 1753 for raising funds for the steeple and bells.
Dr. Kearsley assumed the superintendence of the architecture of the church. The corner-stone was laid April 27, 1727, and the alterations were completed by July, 1737, and it was deter- mined to remove the eastern wooden end. Subscriptions came in slowly, but a determined effort was made in 1739, and the names of two hundred subscribers were obtained with various efforts, and after moving the pulpit twice, enlarging the gallery, altering the seats, and hanging the chandelier of twenty-four branches, the body of the church was completed in 1744. The accounts of Dr. Kearsley were audited, a balance paid him, and a vote of thanks and a piece of plate of the value of forty pounds ordered for him as a lasting memorial of his services in rebuild- ing and ornamenting the church. The tower and steeple were completed in 1753-54, and a chime of eight bells, costing five hundred pounds, was imported.
Upon the eastern end, above the great arched window, at the time of the Revolution was a profile bust in relief of George II., carved in wood, and on the steeple a crown. The Eng- lish arms had also been placed over the governor's pew in colo- nial days. These remained in place until after peace was de- clared, when an excited state of public feeling compelled their removal. They are now to be seen in the vestry-room. The figure-head of the king and the crown became the property of the Library Company of Philadelphia. The date of these being taken down, and whether it was exactly at the behest of ex- cited citizens, are not quite certain. If Cobbett (who lived op- posite Christ Church) is to be believed, the figure-head of the king, in a mutilated condition, was in front of the church as latex as 1796. "Peter Porcupine" (William Cobbett) published in the Scarecrow for 1796 the following: "To return to the print indicative of British prowess, have I not as good a right to ex- hibit a proof of this prowess at my window as the Democrats have to exhibit proofs of theirs on the front of the church op- nosite ? The half-destroyed bust of George II. remains is a
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monument of their valor, and why should I not be permitted to expose a picture to perpetuate the valor of Earl Howe and his gallant fleet ?" In 1794 the retention of the medallion portrait of George II. upon the eastern front of Christ Church was com- plained of in Bache's paper. There was published an address to the vestry, stating that if they would not take down the head it would be taken down for them. A week or two afterward a regular address to the vestry was published, in which it was said in regard to the head: "It has nothing to do with the worship of the Most High God nor the government under which we exist. It has a tendency to cause that church to be disliked whilst bearing the mark of infamy. It has a tendency, to the knowledge of many, to keep young and virtuous men from at- tending worship. It is therefore a public nuisance." It appears from Cobbett's reference that the profile still remained in 1796. The late Thomas Harrison White (a son of Bishop White) in February, 1857, mentioned that the figure-head of the king was removed from the front of the church by order of John Wil- cocks, one of the vestry. It was thrown into the gutter, where it was found by Zaccheus Collins, and taken to his residence, directly opposite the church, on Second street, near the dwelling of William Cobbett. As the vestry had ordered the removal of this emblem of royalty, Mr. C. did not, of course, offer to return it to the church ; but, being desirous that the relic should be pre- served, he gave it to the Library Company of Philadelphia. There is nothing in Dr. Dorr's History of Christ Church which sheds any light on the matter.
In the Independent Gazetteer of August 18, 1787, is this an- ecdote : "On taking down the CROWN of Christ Church steeple, which some time since had been much injured by lightning, one of the bystanders asked what they were going to do with it. He was told it was to be repaired and put up immediately. 'I guess,' says an arch boy, who had been very attentive to the query and answer, 'they had better wait till the Convention breaks up, and know first what they recommend.'" After the adjournment of the Convention it was no doubt considered inexpedient to replace the crown on the spire, for soon after a mitre was substituted. The mitre had on it thirteen stars, the number of the original States, and the inscription, "The Right Rev. William White, D. D., consecrated bishop of the Episcopal Church of Pennsyl- vania February 4, 1787."
The size of the church is sixty-one feet in width by ninety feet in length. The interior was altered in 1836, the year of Bishop White's death, by removing the old pews, taking down the sounding-board, etc., according to the plans of Thomas U. Walter, architect. The sounding-board (which had graced the chancel since the church was built) was taken down and present- ed to a merchant of this city who had his country-sea+ at Mount
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Peace, near Laurel Hill. At Mount Peace this sacred relic (un- der which Bishop White and Rev. Dr. Duché had so ofter preached) was used as a roof for a summer house. Mount Peace was afterward changed from a country residence to a cemetery. The old pulpit of 1770 remains; the prayer-desks are made from the original high desk, and the old communion- table is under the present altar. The font, in which Bishop White, Francis Hopkinson, and a long list of worthies were bap- tized, was in 1865 brought from the resting-place into which for over seventy years it had been thrust to give way for a new one presented in 1789 by Jonathan Gostelowe. The beautiful silver bowl, weighing over sixty-three ounces, presented in 1712 by Colonel Robert Quarry of the British army, is still used. The old chandelier of twenty-four branches, purchased in London and brought by Captain Seymour in 1744, was brought from the steeple, where it had lain since 1836, was repaired, and hung in its old place in 1870. A new chandelier, made by Cornelius & Co. to match it, was presented by George M. Coates, a mem- ber of the vestry, placed in the chancel, and lighted Feb. 4, 1877.
An old hatchment of Robert Smythe, who died in 1808, and who was formerly chief-justice of New Jersey, was probably borne before the funeral cortége from his residence in Union street, and placed in the church. Only one other hatchment is known in this country-that of the Izzard family in South Carolina.
On the alterations in 1836 the pew in which Washington sat was presented by the vestry to Independence Hall. It is the general impression that Washington, during his residence in Philadelphia, was a regular attendant only at Christ Curch. But it would seem, from the correspondence between Colonel Mercer and Bishop White in August, 1835, that General Washı- ington was also at one time a regular worshipper at St. Peter's Church, Third and Pine streets. Colonel Mercer had written to Bishop White (see Rev. Dr. Bird Wilson's Memoir of Bishop White) asking whether Washington communed in the Episcopal church, etc., etc., during his residence here. Bishop White re- plied to Colonel Mercer as follows:
" PHILADELPHIA, August 15, 1835.
"DEAR SIR: In regard to the subject of your inquiry, truth requires me to say that General Washington never received the communion in the churches of which I am parochial minister. Mrs. Washington was an habitual communicant before the gen- eral left his seat in Congress to take the command of the army. Afterward, during the war, whenever he was in this city and since, having rented a house near my other church (St. Peter's),
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he attended there. He was an antipode to those who are in the habit of changing the places of their attendance. .
" Respectfully, " Your humble servant, " WILLIAM WHITE."
Under the floors were buried many distinguished men. The remains of one of them, Hon. John Penn, a former Proprietary, were removed to England. Under the schoolhouse on the north side of the church, in the family vault in the crypt, lie the re- mains of Bishop White and his brother-in-law, Robert Morris. Bishop Stevens, in his sermon at the centenary of Bishop White, celebrated at Christ Church, said : "We are now to place all that remains of the once beautiful and venerable form of William White in this new tomb, built within this chancel. wherein never man before was laid."
The Bishop was in error as to the remains of Bishop White being the first interment in the chancel of this venerable sanctu- ary, the body of General Forbes having been buried there more than a century ago, as will be seen from this obituary notice, published in the Pennsylvania Gazette, March 15, 1759: "On Sunday last died, of a tedious illness, John Forbes, Esq., in the forty-ninth year of his age, son to Forbes of Pentinaief, Eng- land, in the shire of Fife, in Scotland, brigadier-general, colonel of the Seventeenth Regiment of Foot, and commander of His Majesty's troops in the southern provinces of North America. Yesterday he was interred in the chancel of Christ Church in this city." (See Clark's Inscriptions in Burial-grounds of Christ Church.
In the burying-ground at the south-east corner of Fifth and Arch streets, purchased in 1719, were buried Franklin and his wife Deborah ; a portion of the wall was taken down in Sept. 1858, so that the tombstone might be seen from the street ; General James Irvine, Major William Jackson, Rev. Bird Wilson, Peyton Randolph, president of first Continental Con- gress, and Francis Hopkinson. In this ground also were buried the following naval officers: Commodore Bainbridge; Commodore Truxton, May 5, 1822; Commodore Shaw, Sept. 17, 1823; Commodore Dale, Feb. 24, 1826; his son, Com- mander Dale, Dec. 15, 1852; Commodore James Biddle, Oct. 5, 1848 ; Captain William M. Hunter, March 5, 1849; Com- modore Conner, March 25, 1856; Commodore Rodgers, date unknown. The funeral services of Commodore Isaac Hull were in Christ Church, and his body was placed in a private vault there for a few weeks, and was then taken to his tomb at Laurel Hill. The remains of Commodore Conner were also re- moved to Laurel Hill, and those of Commodore Rodgers to Washington City.
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Nicholas Biddle was buried March 2, 1844, in a vault near that of his father, Charles Biddle, and his brother the com- modore.
On the west side of the Arch street ground is the grave of General Jacob Morgan, who died Sept. 18, 1802. In the same burial-place are the remains of three of the most eminent phy- sicians-viz: Dr. Benjamin Rush, one of the Signers of the Declaration of Independence, died April 19, 1813; Dr. Ben- jamin Smith Barton, died Dec. 19, 1815; and Dr. Philip Syng Physick, died 1837.
In order to extend Christ Church alley of the same width from Third to Second streets, the wall at the south side, which left only a passage of some six or eight feet, was removed in November, 1861, and set back toward the church on a line with the build- ings on the north side of the alley, the city having purchased from the church that much ground for nine thousand dollars. In the space vacated there had been numerous interments, the remains of which have been removed farther inward. Among these were those of General Charles Lee, who was buried there October 4th, 1782. The remains of General Hugh Mercer, killed at Princeton in 1777, were removed several years before to Laurel Hill with great ceremony, after having reposed in the south-west corner of the churchyard for more than sixty years. The houses which projected beyond the south line of the alley were also purchased by the city for sixteen thousand dollars, and were removed in the following year.
P. 382. See Pennsylvania Archives for a letter from Rev. Dr. Muhlenberg to Rev. R. Peters on the subject of his secular employment.
P. 382, note .- Dr. John Kearsley died in January, 1772. (See his obituary in Pennsylvania Packet, January 13th, 1772; also a sketch by Dr. Dorr at the laying of the cornerstone of the new hospital over the Schuylkill, November 18, 1856, published in the Evening Bulletin of November 19th, and afterward in a pamphlet with Bishop Potter's address and the proceedings.)
Christ Church Hospital belonged to "the United Churches of Christ Church and St. Peter's," which were chartered by the Penns in 1765. The hospital was founded in 1772 by Dr. John Kearsley, who left a large portion of his property for founding it, and was afterward enriched in 1789 by Joseph Dobbins of South Carolina. He gave five hundred pounds and two lots-one on Fifth street, adjoining the burial-ground, and the other a square of ground between Spruce and Pine and Eighteenth and Nine- teenth streets. The vestry sold the latter, which by the growth of the city brought one hundred and eighty thousand dollars after being vacant for seventy years, which enabled them to build the present building. Mr. Dobbins fifteen years after, in 1804, died, and left all his real and personal estate as an endowment
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for the hospital. It is a happy retreat for aged poor females, who by their sex have been least able to make provision for them- selves, and who have been brought from plenty to penury. The widows of clergymen are to have precedence among these. It originally provided for five or six, but now supports fifty gentle- women, and will in time undoubtedly support one hundred and fifty in the whole edifice provided for them. The present site of the hospital is a farm of one hundred and forty-two acres west of Belmont road, about one mile north of George's Hill, west of the Park. It was begun in 1856, and the inmates were removed to it from the old building on Cherry street above Third in 1860. It has a front of two hundred and thirty-seven feet, and the depth of the wings is one hundred feet, and it accommodates one hun- dred persons. There is a chapel attached to it.
The first building occupied was a two-story house given by Dr. Kearsley on Arch above Third, which was pulled down in 1785, and a larger one erected. This too becoming too small, and the funds having increased by the rise in value of the property, a new one was built in the rear on Cherry street, at a cost of nine- teen thousand dollars, and opened in March, 1819.
Rev. Thomas Coombe (p. 386) was arrested and committed Sep- tember 2, 1777, for refusing to sign a parole. No papers were found on him. His release was requested by the rector and church wardens, but refused. It was determined to send him to Virginia with others; he requested to go there under parole, and thence to the West Indies; agreed to; refused discharge from parole; declines to take the oath of allegiance and requests to go to New York, thence to Europe; granted July 6, 1778. (See Col. Records, vol. xi. pp. 288, 296, 300, 525, 527; and Pennsyl- vania Archives, vol. v. pp. 575, 600, 603; and vol. vi. p. 626.)
P. 386. Hand-stoves were, however, in use long after this; for my father many a time carried his mother's stove for her to the church corner of Third and Arch streets. These stoves were wooden boxes, perhaps eight or ten inches square and about as many high, with holes in the top to allow the heat to escape. An iron cup or square vessel contained the live coals. On these stoves the feet rested during service, and kept the whole body very comfortable.
P. 386. The steeple was repainted and balls regilt in 1849, the color of the steeple being changed from white to the color of red sandstone.
A ring of bells, p. 388 .- On the 4th of July, after the reading of the Declaration, the bells of Christ Church rang out a merry chime, the pastor, Rev. Jacob Duché, becoming, at least for the time being, a patriot. He subsequently wrote his famous letter to Washington, in which he states he persisted in using the prayer for the royal family till the latest moment, though threatened with insults from the violence of a party ; but that on the Declara-
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tion of Independence, not being able to consult his spiritual supe- rior, he called his vestry together and solemnly put the question, whether they thought it best for the peace and welfare of the congregations to shut up the churches or to continue the services without using the petitions for the royal family. The vestry promptly decided : " The Hon. Continental Congress have re- solved to declare the American Colonies to be free and independ- ent States : .... it will be proper to omit those petitions."
Height of the Principal Spires .- The First Baptist Church tower, Broad and Arch streets, 232 feet; Christ Church, 196 feet 9 inches ; West Spruce Street Presbyterian Church, 265 feet ; the new white spire at Broad and Arch streets, 240 feet.
P. 390. Friends' Bank meeting-house is laid down on Scull's map of 1762 as on the west side of Front, a little above Arch street. The General Assembly held its sessions in the first meet- ing-house, and afterward in its successor, the Bank Meeting-house, for twelve years.
The Hill meeting-house, at Front and Pine streets, was dis- used as a meeting-house in 18 -; a suit was commenced against the trustees for diverting it from its original design. It has since been pulled down, and a row of houses erected on the lot.
The Keys' alley meeting-house was burned down by the great fire, July 9, 1850.
From the following extract from a will it appears there was a meeting-house at Fourth and Chestnut streets: "15th 8th mo., 1692: John Day left for the use of the people called Quakers being at the corner of Fourth and Chestnut, where their meeting- house now stands-" This is probably the Quaker Academy, which lot extended to the corner of Fourth and Chestnut, where Mr. Carey afterward built his bookstore and other houses.
P. 391-2. It will be noticed that Robert Turner figures very largely in the early history of Philadelphia. He was a merchant of Dublin, and one of the company that purchased East Jersey in 1681-82 from the estate of Sir George Carteret. As he was an early friend of Penn, he soon became interested in the new colony, and Penn was frequently guided by his advice, as Turner wrote often to the Proprietary in England. He was largely interested in building up Philadelphia, and was the first to erect a brick house, the one at the south-west corner of Front and Mulberry streets. He was a member of the Provincial Council from 1686 to 1694 and in 1700-1. He was one of the commissioners car- rying on the government in 1687 and 1689. He was also justice of the peace and commissioner of property. He was an active partisan of George Keith, and lost some of his influence by it. He died in 1701, leaving two daughters. The families of Leam- ing, Rawle, Pemberton, Coleman, Fisher, and Hollingsworth can trace back to him.
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The London Coffee House.
THE LONDON COFFEE HOUSE.
The London Coffee House, p. 393 .- The cut is a very good representation of the building still standing (in 1878) at the south-west corner of Front and Market streets, the back building having been built a story higher. Here was the Pennsylvania Journal "printed and sold by William and Thomas Bradford," and " where persons may be supplied with the paper at ten shil- lings a year, and where advertisements are taken in."
P. 395. (See Pennsylvania Gazette, June 1st, 1749 ; also Jan- uary 10, 1748-49 : " Thomas Lloyd, two doors below the Widow Roberts' Coffee House.")
There is the following notice in the Pennsylvania Evening Post by B. Town : "The London Coffee House, corner of Market and Front streets, will be opened this day by E. Smith."
For many years most of the leading events narrated in Watson took place or culminated at this corner and in this house. Burn- ing Stamp-Act papers, whenever found, took place here, and the mariner (Captain Wise) who brought the news of the repeal of the Stamp Act was feasted and wined amid great excitement. The effigies of Governor Hutchinson of Massachusetts and Alex- ander Wedderburn with double face were burnt in effigy in May, 1774, for their insults to Dr. Franklin. The royal arms from the court-house were publicly burned here after the reading of the Declaration of Independence by John Nixon. Leigh Hunt's father was brought here in his coat of tar and feathers and made to humbly acknowledge his wrong; also on the same day his sympathizer, Dr. Kearsley, was carted here, and allowed to quaff a bowl of punch to quench his thirst, caused by great excitement; he afterward became insane. Here occurred the personal attack by General Thompson on Justice Mckean which led to a challenge, but which Mckean declined as a violation of the laws he was appointed to maintain.
It is owing to the good taste of its owner, Samuel Croft, that the building still stands in its original condition. While this place was styled a coffee-house, and coffee was the principal liquid drunk there, liquors were also sold, and it was really only a genteel tavern. The capital to build it was raised by sub- scription and loaned to William Bradford-two hundred and thirty-two persons subscribing thirty shillings each.
William Bradford, in addition to keeping the coffee-house, was publisher of the Pennsylvania Journal. When his uncle Andrew came back from New York in 1712, where he had been with William, the first printer in this country-who was father of Andrew and grandfather of the William under notice, the third of the name-he established the Mercury in 1739-40, and took his adopted nephew into partnership. Owing to the latter
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