USA > Pennsylvania > Colonial and revolutionary families of Pennsylvania; genealogical and personal memoirs, Vol. I > Part 4
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84 | Part 85 | Part 86 | Part 87 | Part 88 | Part 89
Colonel Hall married (first) December 24, 1861, Annie M., daughter of Philip and Sarah (Deihle) Mixsell, of Easton, Pennsylvania ; granddaughter of Philip Mixsell, of Easton, Pennsylvania, born in Williams township, North- ampton county, Pennsylvania, March 10, 1777, died in Easton, July 26, 1870; and great-granddaughter of Philip Mixsael, born in Conestoga township, Lan- caster county, Pennsylvania, November 23, 1731, died in Northampton county, Pennsylvania, May 13, 1817. The latter was a nephew of Jacob Mixsell, of
21
PENN
Leacock township, Lancaster county, who came from Germany in the ship "Mortonhouse", which arrived at Philadelphia, August 24, 1728.
Philip Mixsell (2d) (1770-1870) married, April, 1804, Mary Wagner, born April 30, 1786, died February 26, 1856, daughter of Daniel and Eve (Opp) Wagner, of Easton, and granddaughter of Judge David Wagner, by his wife Susanna Umstead, born February 2, 1734, died April 22, 1819, daughter of John Umstead, of Skippack, Philadelphia, now Montgomery county, and his wife Deborah. John Umsted, who died in December, 1759, was a son of John Umsted, who died at Skippack, December 31, 1747, and grandson of Hans Peter Umsted, or Umstat, who with Barbara his wife and three children-John; Eve (married Hendrick Pannebecker), and Anna Margaretta-came from Crefeld, on the Rhine, arriving in Philadelphia, October 12, 1685, in the "Francis and Dorothy", settled in Germantown. John Umsted and Hendrick Pannebecker, his brother-in-law, were among the pioneer settlers on the Skippack. Annie Hall, died at Vicksburg, Mississippi, February 14, 1869, and September 13, 1871, Colonel Peter Penn-Gaskell Hall married (second), at San Antonio, Texas, her sister, Amelia Mixsell.
Issue of Major Penn-Gaskell and Annie M. (Mixsell) Hall :-
Christiana Gulielma, b. at "Ashwood" April 19, 1863; unm .; living at 906 Spruce street, Philadelphia, 1909.
Eliza Hall Penn-Gaskell, b. at Baltimore, Md., Feb. 1, 1865; m. July 1, 1892, Henry James Hancock, of the Philadelphia Bar, son of George W. and Elizabeth (James) Hancock, and 8th in descent from John Hancock, one of the Proprietors of New Jersey, through Judge William Hancock, of Hancock's Bridge, Salem Co., N. J., killed in his house by Col. Mawhood's Tory raiders, 1778; 7th in descent from Marmaduke Coate, of Wivelscomb, Somersetshire, who was in Wadham College, Oxford, with William Penn, and later his secretary in Pennsylvania; 8th in descent from Nathaniel Allen, one of Penn's Commissioners; 7th in descent from James West, one of the earliest grantees of land in Philadelphia, and first ship-builder there; also descended from many early settlers in New England, and on maternal side descended from Morgan James, of Narbeth, Wales; Evan ap Thomas, of Laufkeven, Wales; Capt. John Seaman, of Hempstead, Long Island; of Giles Knight, and his wife Mary English, of Horsley, Gloucestershire, who came over in the "Welcome" with William Penn; and eighth in descent from Robert Lloyd and Lowry Jones, his wife, an account of whose descendants is given elsewhere in these volumes; Henry J. and Eliza (Hall) Hancock, had issue :-
Jean Barclay Hancock, b. March 24, 1893.
Edward Von Swartzbreck Hall, b. "Ashwood," Jan., 1867, d. at Vicksburg, Miss., Jan., 1869.
Amelia Mixsell Hall, b. Vicksburg, Miss., Jan., 1869, d. at Holly Springs, Miss., May, I869.
Issue of Major Peter Penn-Gaskell Hall, and his second wife, Amelia Mix- sell :-
WILLIAM PENN-GASKELL HALL, b. January 16, 1873; of whom presently ;
Peter Penn-Gaskell Hall, b. in New York City, March 14, 1875; living at 906 Spruce street, Philadelphia, unm. in 1909;
Amelia Penn-Gaskell Hall, b. in New York City, Feb. 9, 1877; m. Dec. 10, 1902, Richard Philip McGrann, of Grandview Farms, Lancaster county, Pa., at the Cathedral of St. Peter and St. Paul, Philadelphia, by Archbishop Ryan; they have issue, Bernard Penn-Gaskell McGrann, b. at "Grandview," Nov. 20, 1903.
Philip Penn-Gaskell Hall, of New London township, Chester county, Pa., b. at "Ash- wood," Delaware county, Pa., Sept. 10, 1878; educated at Forsythe School, Philadel- phia; m. at Wilmington, Del., Dec. 21, 1901, Mary Eloise Fulton, of Philadelphia, of the family of Robert Fulton, of steamboat fame; they had issue :-
Mary Eloise Hall, b. at 906 Spruce street, Philadelphia, Oct. 4, 1902;
Amelia Hall, born at 906 Spruce street, Philadelphia, Nov. 27, 1905.
22
PENN
WILLIAM PENN-GASKELL HALL, of 1118 Spruce street, Philadelphia, and "Leventhorpe", Chester county, Pennsylvania, eldest son of Colonel Peter Penn- Gaskell Hall, by his second wife, Amelia Mixsell, was born at San Antonio, Texas, January 16, 1873. He was educated at Dr. Ferris' and the Forsythe Schools, in Philadelphia. He is a member of the Racquet Club, of the Society of Colonial Wars, Colonial Society, etc. He was married at St. Luke's Church, Philadelphia, by Rev. David M. Steel, December 8, 1904, to Caroline Hare Davis, daughter of Sussex Delaware Davis Esq., of the Philadelphia Bar, and his wife. Mary Fleming Hare, on account of whose ancestry in England and America is given in these volumes.
Issue of William Penn-Gaskell, and Caroline Hare (Davis) Hall :-
Mary Fleeming Hare Hal' b. at 1118 Spruce street, Philadelphia, Dec. 31, 1905; William Leventhorpe Penn-Gaskell Hall, b. at Atlantic City, N. J., October 9, 1908.
LOGAN ARMS.
LOGAN FAMILY
JAMES LOGAN, William Penn's Secretary, confidential friend and adviser, as well as of his sons and grandsons, and for nearly half a century the factotum of the Colonial government of Pennsylvania, and one of its most prominent officials, Provincial Councillor, Judge, Assemblyman, Surveyor General, and at times all of these and more; came of an ancient and honorable family of Scot- land, and is thought to have been a grandson or great-grandson of Logan of Restalrigg, who in the year 1600 conspired with the Earl of Gowrie to kidnap James VI. of Scotland, later James I. of England, for which complicity, dis- covered after his death, his estate was confiscated and "his name, memory, and dignity abolished ; his arms cancelled, so that his posterity be excluded from any offices, honors, lands, tenements, etc."
The Barony of Restalrigg, Scotland, originally was vested in the Leith family, and in the reign of Robert the Bruce came into the Logan family by the mar- riage of an heiress of the Leiths with a Logan. Sir Robert Logan, of this family, accompanied Sir James Douglas on his way to the Holy Land with the heart of their royal master Bruce, and with Douglas was slain by the Saracens, in Andalusia, Spain, in 1330.
In 1398 Robert Logan, of Restalrigg, who married a daughter of Robert II., of Scotland, and was Admiral of Scotland, etc., bore the coat-of-arms granted to the family in commemoration of the heroic services and death of Sir Robert Logan, before mentioned, viz .: "Three passion nails piercing a man's heart."
Sir Robert Logan, son of the Admiral, married Geilless, daughter of the fourth Lord Seton, and a descendant, another Sir Robert Logan, married about 1650, Agnes, daughter of Patrick, Lord Gray. Another Logan of Restalrigg, in the sixteenth century, married Elizabeth, daughter of David Magill, of Cranston- riddel, King's Advocate; and the attainted Logan of Restalrigg married a daugh- ter of Patrick Home, of Fastcastle, in Berwickshire. They had at least four sons-Robert, who succeeded his father as Laird of Restalrigg, and was sum- moned to answer his father's treason; George; John, and Archibald.
PATRICK LOGAN, the father of James, of Pennsylvania, was born in East Lothia, Scotland, and is said to have been a son of George and grandson of Logan of Restalrigg. He graduated with the degree of M. A. from the University of Edinburgh, and became a clergyman of the Established Church, but becoming a convert to Quakerism, in March, 1671, he removed to Lurgan, county Armagh, Ireland, and had charge of a Latin school there until the landing of William of Orange in 1689, when he removed with his family to Edinburgh, and soon after to Bristol, England, where he took charge of a Latin school under the care of Friends. He had married while in Scotland, Isabel, daughter of James Hume, a younger son of the House of St. Leonard's in the south of Scotland, by his wife Bethia Dundas, sister to the Laird of Dundas, of Didiston, about eight miles from Edinburgh, and a descendant of Lord Panmure. James Logan says, "The Earl of Murray assisted my grandfather to carry off my grandmother."
24
LOGAN
William Logan, eldest son of Patrick and Isabel (Hume) Logan, became an eminent physician at Bristol, England, and his nephew, William Logan, son of James of Philadelphia, was sent to his uncle by his parents at the age of twelve years and was educated under his supervision. At the death of the uncle, his nephew and namesake received under his will a legacy of considerable estate.
JAMES LOGAN was born at Lurgan, Ireland, October 20, 1674, and was edu- cated in his father's school there, acquiring a fair knowledge of Latin, Greek and Hebrew before he was thirteen years of age. In his fourteenth year he was apprenticed to a linen draper in Dublin, but he writes in his autobiography, "the Prince of Orange landing before I was bound, (tho I served my Master for 6 Months) in the Winter of 1688, I went down to my Parents, and the wars in Ireland coming on, in the Spring I went over to Edinburgh with my mother, after which my father soon followed, who being out of employment, repaired to London & was there gladly received by our friends, Deputies to the General Meeting from Bristol in that city, as their School Master for the Latin language, and I followed him the next year." Patrick Logan returned to Ireland in 1693, leaving James in charge of the school. He retained his position there, continu- ing his studies until 1697, when he engaged in the shipping trade between Dublin and Bristol. His father died in 1702, and his mother married again "out of Meeting", and in 1717, again a widow, came to Pennsylvania and lived with her son until her death, January 17, 1722. Logan, when invited by William Penn to become his Secretary and accompany him to Pennsylvania, had in prospect a successful business career. The promise and prospects of material advance- ment in the new country, however, induced him to accept the offer, and he sailed with "The Founder" and his family in the "Canterbury," for Pennsylvania, September 9, 1699.
James Logan was born and reared a Quaker, and held to that faith through life; but, aristocratic by birth and tendency, ambitious and courageous by nature, and always tenacious of his rights, the stricter tenets of the faith of his sect had little hold on his outward life; particularly was this so in reference to the defence of inherent rights and liberties by force if necessary. These traits, which marked his whole after career, were thus early made manifest to his dis- tinguished patron before their arrival in America. The vessel in which they were passengers being attacked by pirates, Logan took an active part in its defense, while Penn, the great apostle of peace, retired "below". After the pirates had been driven off and Penn reappeared, he reproved Logan for engag- ing in force of arms. Logan, with characteristic bluntness, entered into no lengthy defence of what he considered a perfectly natural action, but contented him- self with inquiring of his patron and master, since he did not wish that he should take part in the sanguinary struggle, "Why then did you not order me down too?"
They arrived in Philadelphia in the early part of December, 1699, and Logan took up his residence in the family of William Penn, in Anthony Morris' "slate- roof house", on Second street, and remained there after Penn had returned to England two years later. Penn at once made him Secretary of the Governor's Council, and when about to depart for England made him also his Commissioner of Property and Receiver General, and he thereafter had principal charge of the
25
LOGAN
making of titles to lands, and the collection of quit rents, and had a general supervision of the vast business interests of Penn and his family in America. He gained and held the confidence of the Founder, and that of his heirs and suc- cessors in the proprietary interests, and his recommendations, as to the policy of government, the selection of members of Council, and other high officials, even the Deputy or Lieutenant Governors of the Province, as well as in all matters pertaining to the proprietary interests, had great weight as abundantly evidenced in the correspondence with Penn and his family.
Logan became a voting member of the Governor's Council, April 21, 1702, and after the arrival of Lieutenant Governor John Evans was formally quali- fied as a member, February 8, 1703-4; and he continued an active and often a dominant member of that body until his voluntary retirement, May 29, 1747, and during nearly two years, after the retirement of Gov. Patrick Gordon, August 4, 1736, to June I, 1738, as President and senior member of Council, he was acting Chief Executive of the Province.
At the time that Logan became an acting member of Council and assumed the administration of the business affairs of the Proprietary, troubles were crowding about his great patron on both sides of the ocean. He was involved in various disputes with the Crown, and had quarreled with the settlers on the question of quit rents, large arrearages of which remained unpaid, and Logan's insistence on a perhaps too rigid enforcement of his master's rights and per- quisites, further aggravated the trouble with the anti-proprietary party, and on him as the confidential clerk and devout friend of Penn devolved cares too mani- fold for his youthful shoulders. By nature and inheritance an aristocrat, he resented the pretensions of the democratic element in the Assembly, always too ready to ignore the prerogatives of the Proprietary, and his haughty manner and want of diplomacy embroiled him in a quarrel between the young and dis- solute Governor Evans and the Assembly, which culminated in the articles of impeachment against him, exhibited February 26, 1706-7, charging him with inserting in the Governor's commissions, clauses contrary to the Royal Charter. He was also charged with holding two incompatible offices, of Surveyor Gen- eral, which he had held since its vacation by the death of Edward Pennington in 1702, and that of Clerk of the Council. The Governor notified the Assembly that he could find no warrant under his commission or the Royal Charter, to conduct a trial of impeachment, and Logan having sent to the Assembly a spe- cific answer to the several charges separately, the Assembly still clamored for an impeachment. Logan petitioned the Governor and Council to permit the Assembly to present their charges, but since the Governor declined to act in a judicial capacity at the trial the controversy continued with much bitterness for over two years, Governor John Evans having in the meantime been super- seded by Colonel Charles Gookin. The controversy was more in the nature of a contest between David Lloyd, Speaker of the Assembly and the leader of the anti-proprietary party, and James Logan as the direct representative of the Proprietary. Lloyd having issued addresses abusing and maligning Logan, he replied with some spirit, the Assembly on November 25, 1709, issued an order to Peter Evans, High Sheriff of Philadelphia, to take Logan into custody and confine him within the county jail "& him therein safely to detain & keep until he shall willingly make his submission to the satisfaction of this House &c."
26
LOGAN
Evans communicating with the Governor was directed by him, "that you suffer not the said James Logan to be in anywise molested by virtue of any order, or pretended order of Assembly whatsoever; and in case any of the said Assem- bly or others under pretense of any authority derived from them, shall attempt to molest or attach the said James Logan in his person, I do hereby Command you to oppose such attachment; &c."
Logan had been long making preparation to sail for England, having about concluded his arrangements when the attachment was issued and soon after sailed. He remained abroad for over two years, and on the eve of his return to Pennsylvania, under date of November 30, 1711, was commissioned by the trustees to whom William Penn had made over all his interests in Pennsylvania, as their Commissioner of Property and Receiver General.
To these trustees, Henry Gouldney and Sylvanus Grove, he writes from "Spitthead, 19th 10mo. 1711," after beginning his journey homeward, urging them to use their utmost endeavors to have Penn execute "a good substantial will, such as may be seen to the honor of his name after he is gone wch. is not yet done." He arrived in Philadelphia, March II, 1711-12, and at once resumed his seat in the Provincial Council and the duties of Clerk, as well as the many other duties in the interest of the Proprietary. In a letter to Hannah Penn, under date of April 27, 1716, he recommended the appointment of Sir Wil- liam Keith as Governor to succeed Gookin, and he arrived and assumed his duties, May 31, 1717, from which date Logan relinquished the duties of clerk to his deputies, Ralph Asheton and George Barclay. He was elected a member of the Board of Aldermen of the city of Philadelphia, October 17, 1717, and as Mayor of the city, October 2, 1722. He and Governor Keith did not get along very smoothly after the first few years of the latter's governorship, for the reason that Keith began to ignore the recommendations of Council and the interests of the Proprietaries to propitiate certain wealthy and influential mem- bers of the anti-Proprietary party, whose interests and friendship he thought it to his personal interest to cultivate, and Logan always true to his trust as the representative of the family, resented any abrogation of these rights or inter- ests. The breach widened and on May 20, 1723, Keith appointed his private secretary, Patrick Baird, Secretary of Council, to succeed Logan. On his retirement from the active work of Secretary of the Council in 1717, Logan engaged extensively in mercantile business and in the Indian trade. He had always been on intimate terms with the leading Indian chiefs and had negotiated many important treaties with them in the Proprietaries' interest, almost from the time of his arrival in Pennsylvania. He always retained the friendship of the Indians, and it was their custom to pay him periodical visits, late in his life, while residing at "Stenton", where he frequently entertained large numbers of them, as many as three and four hundred of them being hospitably entertained at "Stenton" for days at a time.
On the expiration of his term of office as mayor of Philadelphia, he again went abroad, and as a result of his conference with Hannah Penn, and the trus- tees of the Penn estate, Keith was withdrawn and Patrick Gordon was com- missioned Deputy Governor, June 22, 1726, with instructions to immediately re-instate James Logan as Secretary of Council, and to "be ruled by him." Gordon also named him, on August 25, 1726, as one of the Justices of Phila-
27
LOGAN
delphia county, and he was recommissioned September 2, 1727, and became one of the Judges of the Court of Common Pleas.
On August 25, 1731, he was appointed Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, on the unanimous recommendation of Council, to succeed his old adversary, David Lloyd, who had recently died. He filled this position until August 9, 1739, with marked ability. A volume of his decisions and charges to juries was published in England in 1736.
On the death of Governor Patrick Gordon, in August, 1736, James Logan as senior member of Council, became its President, and as such filled the posi- tion of Chief Executive of the Province until the arrival of George Thomas, the next Deputy Governor, June 1, 1738, Logan having been offered the posi- tion of Deputy Governor, but declining. His two years administration of the affairs of the Province as Chief Executive were marked by the Border War, resulting from the dispute over the boundary between Maryland and Pennsyl- vania.
It was at Logan's urgent request to be relieved from the burden of the gov- ernment of the Province, that George Thomas was sent to take the position of Deputy Governor. Down to this time his untiring industry had been taxed to the utmost by the cares of many offices, he having for many years been the general factotum of the government, bringing to bear upon its multifarious affairs all the force of his intellectual and business capacity. His correspond- ence with the Penn family, covering a period of nearly forty years, during which he had been actively employed in their interest and during the greater part of which he had been the most prominent figure in the government, are a mine of historical information, and reveal his marvelous industry, carefulness in all the details of the business, and an intellectual breadth and capacity for business that demand the admiration of posterity. An amateur in every act he was called to perform, when he undertook the work on the departure of Penn in 1701, having no private means, he espoused the cause of the then much abused founder of the Province, and undertook the herculean task of protecting and husbanding his interests and those of his family, against the opposition of some of the most prominent and influential men in the Colony, and for years carried the heavy burden of clerk, agent, book-keeper, steward, Surveyor and Receiver General, Councillor, and later Judge and Governor.
In the midst of all this business and official activity, he found time for reading and the most exhaustive researches in the realms of science, letters, history and languages. Nearly all his business letters abroad contained orders for books, and he carried on an extensive correspondence with many of the most learned men of Europe, and there was no topic of science or literature that he was not qualified to discuss with the most learned scholars of his time. He sometimes indited a lively Greek "Ode to a friend", and often his letters were indited in the Latin tongue.
He was an intimate friend and correspondent of Linnaeus, who, in com- pliment to the botanical knowledge transmitted to him by Logan, named for him an order of herbs and shrubs "Loganiaceae", containing thirty genera in over three hundred and fifty species. He was a close student of scientific phenomena and contributed a number of papers, now in the Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, on the result of his scientific observations
28
LOGAN
on lightning; "Apparent increase of the magnitude of the Sun and Moon near the horison", "Davis' Quadrant", "Experimenta et Meletemata circa Planarium Generationem", etc. He published Latin essays on reproduction in plants, and the aberration of light, translated Cato's "Distich", and Cicero's "De Senectute" and issued many other works many of which still remain in manuscript.
With his withdrawl from the governorship in 1738, he retired almost entirely from public business and passed the remainder of his days at "Stenton", his country seat near Germantown, erected in 1728, on a plantation of five hun- dred acres. The mansion house, raised on the very day his son James was born, is still to be seen on an eminence a short distance east of Wayne Junc- tion, and is still owned by his descendants.
This picturesque and dignified old mansion is rich in historic associations, and is one of the finest specimens of Colonial architecture. The Pennsylvania Society of Colonial Dames have recently restored it, and under their guardian- ship it is open to the public. It is built of variegated brick, two stories, sur- mounted by a pyramidal shaped roof, pierced by dormer windows, and is approached by a long avenue of grand old sycamore trees. The Colonial door- way is reached by three curious circular stone steps firmly clasped together with iron. The doorway opens into a great hall, paved with brick and wainscoted in white to the ceiling, with an open fireplace on the right, and a stately double staircase ascends through an archway in the rear. On either side are lofty rooms also wainscoted in white. Over the large fireplace in the room to the left is an ornamental iron back plate inscribed "J. L. 1728." In another room some of the original blue and white Dutch tiles, in grotesque pattern, still adorn the fireplace.
One of the most attractive rooms in the house is the library, where the illustrious book-loving statesman and scholar spent most of his time during his declining years. It is a fine room, recently taking up half of the front of the house, on the second story, and once contained the finest collection of books of any private library in Colonial America, later presented by the collector to the city of Philadelphia, through the medium of the Loganian Library, founded by him, and later merged with the Philadelphia Library. The ancient house, so long inhabited by the Logan family, is full of interest to the lover of the oldentime. From cellar to garret there are all sorts of quaint nooks and corners, and lead- ing from the cellar to the stables is a long underground passage, which is the subject of many a strange legend. No longer surrounded by its ample estate, "Stenton" at this time presents a pathetic appearance, as to surroundings. Within a few hundred yards of the mansion on the south and west terminate the rows of brick houses and intervening streets-the built up portion of the city of Philadelphia once miles away-on the northwest overshadowed by the elevated tracks of the Philadelphia and Reading Railway, at Wayne Junction, and beyond, to the north and east, encompassed by the irregular gradings and elevations of new streets and buildings of a great city which in its onward march of expansion has leaped over this little oasis of faded Colonial grandeur and pushed for miles beyond, leaving "Stenton", the old home of the departed statesman with only a pathetic semblance of its departed grandeur and mag- nificence.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.