USA > Pennsylvania > Colonial and revolutionary families of Pennsylvania; genealogical and personal memoirs, Vol. I > Part 47
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Ist mo. 21, 1684-5, to Thomas Holme in Philadelphia, "As for the map of the city, it was needful it should be printed ; it will do us a kindness, as we were at a loss for want of something to show the people." The plan, as published, did not long remain in effect. As early as 1684, all the streets west of Delaware Eleventh, had been moved eastward, and the Broad street was changed from 12th from each river, to 14th from Delaware, the next street west being 8th from Schuylkill; this second plan still remains unchanged except that several streets have been added west of Schuylkill Front street which was some distance back from the river. Reed, in the explanation to his map, 1774, says (and others have followed him), that this change was made by Benjamin Eastburn, who was Surveyor-General about 1740, but more recent investigations have shown that it was made as early as 1684, while Holme was still in office. This change did not effect the part be- tween Delaware Eleventh and Delaware Front streets, which is still the same as on the "portraiture" of 1683.
When the plan of the city and assignment of lots there was finished, Holme turned his attention to the surveying of the country, and made a map of the Prov- ince, which was published in London under the name of "Map of the Improved Part of the Province of Pennsylvania in America Begun by Wil: Penn Proprietary & Governor thereof Anno 1681." It has a sub-heading: "A Map of the Province of Pennsylvania, Containing the three Countyes of Chester, Philadelphia & Bucks as far as yet surveyed and laid out, the divisions or distinctions made by the differ- ent coullers respect the settlements by way of townships, By Thos. Holme, Sur- vey". Gen1." It was "Sold by Robert Green at the Rose & Crown in Budgrow, And by John Thornton at the Platt in the Minories, London," and dedicated by them to William Penn. This map shows, in black and white, with colored lines for township lines, the settled portion of the Province, and the lands seated, with the owner's name on each tract; the township boundaries are nearly the same as afterwards laid down by juries appointed for that purpose, though not all of them are given names on the map. Geographically, it has a very fair degree of accuracy, except in the outlying districts, though the courses of some of the creeks as given by it are erroneous. The lines of the settlers' tracts are, in general, correct, as far as a map of small scale covering a large extent of territory could give them. There has been a great deal of uncertainity about the date of publication of Holme's map of the province, some writers asserting that it was published in 1684, while others argue that it was not published till much later, as it represents tracts, some of which were not laid out till as late as 1725, as shown by returns of survey and patents. The map is not dated, the only date on it being in the heading "Begun by Wil: Penn Proprietary and Governor thereof, Anno 1681," which, of course, does not refer to the time of printing it. The only tenable theory, in view of the conflicting evidences of the different parts of the map, is that there were several editions, the first showing the earlier surveys only (which are the tracts nearest the city), and the subsequent editions being printed from the same plates, on which the later surveys had been added without any alteration of the parts previously printed. It is certain that an edition was printed between the end of the year 1686 and the beginning of the year 1689, for the extract of Thomas Holme's letter of October, 1686 (printed with Dr. More's letter in 1687), ends thus: "I intend to send the Draught for a Map by the first-" ("opportunity" probably) ; and during a discussion on the bounds of Chester county by Governor Blackwell
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and the Council in their meeting Ist mo. 25, 1689, the Surveyor-General's Deputy was sent for, who showed the bounds of the county on the map, and the minutes of the Council say: "'Twas observed by ye Goverr and Councill that ye mapp of The Province was the work of Thomas Holme, Surveyor Genell; that it was dedi- cated to ye Proprietor by ye Publisher ; that many Coppys had been published in England and here in this Province." This settles the date of the first publication of the map some time in 1687 or 1688, and an advertisement in the London Gazette in May, 1688, evidently referring to this map, shows it to have been published by that time. That the date 1684 is too early is shown by the names attached to the tracts nearest the city (that is, the tracts earliest surveyed). Some of these were sold between 1684 and 1687 and the ownership attributed to them by the map corresponds to the latter date. One instance of this is Thomas Holme's own 600 acres in Byberry, which he sold to Nicholas Rideout in 1685; on the map it bears the name of Nicholas Rideout. This first edition could not have shown the bounds of lands that were surveyed at a later date, but copies preserved at the present time contain, as stated above, tracts that were laid out later ; for instance, Laetitia Penn's Manor of Mount Joy, and William Penn, Jr.'s, Manor of Williamstadt, both taken up in 1704, Samuel Carpenter's great tract north of Moreland (now in Horsham), laid out in 1706, and others in the more distant parts, some of which were not surveyed before 1725, or even a few years later. Therefore these copies must be of an edition published about 1730, but from the original drawings filled in to that time, for the tracts near the city are still the same on these copies as they were earlier, notwithstanding that many of them had, in the meanwhile, been subdivided and had changed owners several times. The map as a whole repre- sents different parts of the province at different dates, those nearest the city as they were in 1686, the more distant as they were laid out at intermediate periods, from that time to about 1730. Copies of the map may have been printed at any time between these two years, the original drawings remaining always unchanged, the newer surveys being added as they were made. The final edition, however, seems to be the only one that has survived ; Harris's reduced copy and the Phila- delphia Library copy, from which Smith's fac-simile was taken, both belong to it.
The Commissioners to settle the colony were also empowered to purchase lands from the Indians, but they do not seem to have exercised this right as a body. Markham purchased land near the Neshaminy from the Indians, the deed was dated July 25, 1682, but none of the Commissioners' names are subscribed to it. But Thomas Holme was present at most of the Indian treaties and had an import- ant part in some of them. He was a witness to the deed, made June 23, 1683, from the Indian chiefs Essepenaike and Swanpees to William Penn for lands between the Penepack and Neshaminy creeks, and also one dated 4th mo. 3, 1684, from Maughoughsin to Penn. In August, 1684, the old Commissioners were super- seded by new ones with more limited powers, called the Commissioners of Prop- erty. Holme, however, continued to conduct purchases of land. A deed was made July 30, 1685, from the chiefs Shakhoppoh, Secane, Malibor and Tangoras to William Penn for lands bounded on the east by two lines both beginning at Conshohocken Hill, one running to Chester creek and the other to Penepack creek, then up each creek to its source and then back from both points two days' journey into the interior. This deed was, in its own words, "sealed and delivered to Thomas Holme, President of the Council," an office he held temporarily. At a meeting of
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the Council, 7th mo. 22, 1685, information having been given that body by Captain Cock, of the Indians' willingness to sell all their right to the land between Upland and "Apoaquinamy" (Appoquinimink, in the lower part of New Castle county) as far back as they had any claim, and that they proposed meeting at Widow Scallop's on the 29th instant to treat about the same, the Council ordered Captain Thomas Holme, John Symcock and the Secretary (William Markham) or any two of them to be at this place, with full power to treat and complete the purchase. A deed dated 8th mo. 2, 1685, from a number of Indian sachems for land between Duck Creek and Chester Creek, was sealed and delivered to Captain Thomas Holme, Surveyor-General. A pamphlet called "A letter from Dr. More, with Passages out of several Letters from Persons of Good Credit, Relating to the State and Im- provement of the Province of Pennsylvania, Published to prevent false Reports. Printed in the Year 1687," contains an extract of a letter of October, 1686, from Thomas Holme, in which he says: "We have made three purchases of the Indians which added unto the six former sales, they made us, will, I believe, be Land enough for Planters for this Age." He then continues on the conduct of the Indians.
Thomas Holme was a member of the first Assembly of the Province, which began its session at Upland, December 4, 1682, Penn presiding. He was elected to represent Philadelphia county in the Provincial Council for one term of three years, 1683-85, and took a prominent part in its transactions, serving on several important committees. In the Ist mo. 1683 he was a member of a joint committee of the Council and Assembly to draw up the new Charter, or Frame of Govern- ment, which was passed and signed on 2nd mo. 2nd.
By letters dated 4th mo. 11th, 1683, William Penn appointed Christopher Tay- lor, James Harrison, Thomas Holme, and Thomas Wynne, Commissioners in his name, as Governor and Proprietary of the Province of Pennsylvania, to treat with the Governor and Council of West Jersey concerning the satisfaction he demanded of them in a letter of the same date, of which the Commissioners were bearers, for certain great wrongs and injustice done to them and his Province by some of the inhabitants of their colony. In the letter he complains that England was filled with rumors of wars between the inhabitants of Pennsylvania and Lord Balti- more's colony, of Lord Baltimore having claimed all the land from Upland to the Falls of Delaware, and of several having been killed in the conflict; that these rumors, being much talked of in London, discouraged many persons from purchas- ing land in Pennsylvania ; he says that the starting of these reports had been traced to some of the inhabitants of West Jersey, and he demands satisfaction. His letter of instructions to the Commissioners bears the same date and directs them to demand particularly the punishment of Thomas Matthews, as the principal author of the rumors, either by fine or banishment or delivery of him to be tried in Pennsylvania. These Commissioners also had authority to settle with the Gov- ernor and Council of West Jersey about the trade on the river and the islands therein. As soon as the first business was finished they were to insist on Penn's title to the river and islands according to his grant. The West Jersey authorities sent an answer by Penn's Commissioners, dated Burlington, 4th mo. 16, 1683, con- taining an explanation from Thomas Matthews, and saying they were willing to be passive in regard to the river and islands. Four Commissioners of theirs (Thomas Budd, John Gosnell, Henry Stacy and Mark Newby) also came with
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the answer. The explanation was not acceptable to Penn, as he informed them in another letter from Philadelphia, 4th mo. 20, 1683, but he appears to have obtained no further satisfaction from them.
On 4th mo. 3rd, 1684, Thomas Holme, William Welch and Thomas Lloyd were appointed a committee to look into the actions of Lord Baltimore, and draw up a declaration to hinder his illegal proceedings (referring to threats of his agents to take settlers' lands from them unless they acknowledged Lord Baltimore to be their Proprietor). On 5th mo. 26, Thomas Lloyd, Thomas Holme and William Haigue were appointed to draw up a charter for Philadelphia to become a bor- ough, with a Mayor and six Aldermen. About the middle of Holme's term, Penn sent a commission to the whole Council to act in his place as Governor ; this was read at the meeting 6th mo. 18, 1684. In the last year of Holme's term, 1685, Thomas Lloyd, President of the Council, was absent a large part of the time and Holme was elected to act as President in his place, which he did at twenty-seven out of the fifty meetings held that year. Thomas Holme acted as President of the Council at the first meeting of the year, Ist mo. 30, and those immediately fol- lowing Ist mo. 31, 2nd mo. Ist, 3rd, 4th and 6th; again 2nd mo. 25th and 28th ; Lloyd presided at the next two, 3rd mo. IIth and 12th and on the 13th and 14th the Council met as a committee of the whole with Holme as Chairman. Holme was President at the consecutive meetings 4th mo. 11th, 13th, 18th, 19th; 5th mo. 3rd, 4th, 10th, 11th, 28th, 29th, and 6th mo. 19th, Lloyd being in New York ; he returned and presided at nine meetings and then again went to New York, Holme presiding on 9th mo. 5th and 6th. Holme was again President at the consecutive meetings held IImo. 9th, 15th, 16th and 12th mo. Ist and 3rd, 1685-6, the last being the last meeting of the year, with which Holme's term in the Council expired.
During his term in the Council, Holme was attending to his duties as Surveyor- General, and after its expiration, these duties kept increasing because of the rapid growth of the Province. He had deputies in each county, whose returns were made to him, and the whole work of laying out the settlers' tracts, locating towns, highways, etc., was under his direction. This made the office of Surveyor-General one of the most important in the Province. At first the Council did not under- stand whether Holme's commission applied only to the Province proper or whether it extended to the three lower counties or territories, but on 7th mo. 10, 1684, it decided that the management of the Surveyor-General's office of New Castle coun- ty should be put into the hands of Thomas Holme, with Thomas Pearson as his deputy. On October 14th, 1688, Penn issued a new commission to Holme to be Surveyor-General of the Province of Pennsylvania and the annexed counties of New Castle, Kent and Sussex, and the island and territories thereunto belonging, for life, his office in Philadelphia to be an office of record. Both Penn and Holme were in England at this time.
At the meeting of the Council, held 6th mo. 2, 1686, Thomas Holme was one of those recommended for appointment as Provincial Judges, but the commission was not issued to him. He continued to be selected when it was necessary to treat with the Indians. At the same meeting, complaint being made to the Council of violence done Nicholas Scull and his family by Indians, forcibly entering his house and carrying away his goods ( further information being given that Nicholas Scull had, contrary to the law, sold them liquor, "whereby they were much Disordered, to ye notorious Disturbance of the neighboring Settlements"), the Council ordered
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Captain Thomas Holme, assisted by Captain Lace Cock, Zachariah Whitpaine and such others as Captain Holme should approve, to inquire into the truth of the report and, if the Indians were quilty, to require them to make speedy satisfaction, leaving the manner of treating the Indians to the discretion of Captain Holme. In 1694 he was appointed one of the Commissioners of Property, which position he held until his death in the following year.
As already mentioned, when Thomas Holme first arrived in Pennsylvania, he and his family, consisting of two sons and two daughters, lived at Shackamaxon. After the city was laid out in 1682, he built a house on his lot at the northwest corner of Front and Mulberry (now Arch) streets and lived there until 1688. Mulberry street was first called Holme street, for Thomas Holme, but the name was changed to Mulberry by Penn. On a part of this lot farther up Front street, sold by Holme to the trustees appointed by the Friends' Meeting, the Bank Meet- ing House was built in 1685. Thomas Holme was one of those appointed by the meeting, IIth mo. 9, 1683-4, to select the site for the meetinghouse, the others being John Songhurst, Thomas Wynne, and Griffith Owen. This was a fine situa- tion for a residence; the lot was a wide one, and as there were no buildings be- tween Holme's house and the meetinghouse, nor on the east side of Front street, it commanded an uninterrupted view of the river. In 1688, Thomas Holme went to England. He must have gone over in September, for on the fourth of that month he signed a deed in Philadelphia, while his new commission as Surveyor- General, dated October 14, 1688, speaks of him as being then abroad. For a short time before he left he was living on his plantation of Well-Spring, in Dublin township, Philadelphia county ; and on his return, probably about the end of 1689, he again resided there. About October, 1690, he again went to England. Before leaving he gave letters of attorney to his son-in-law, Silas Crispin, and three others, and in several deeds made by them in 1691, he is spoken of as being in London. This time he stayed until 1694, and when he came back, went to live at Well-Spring, continuing there until his death, which occurred in March or April, 1695.
In his will, dated 12th mo. 10, 1694 (o. s.), he styles himself "of Dublin town- ship in Philadelphia County, aged full seventie years." It was admitted to pro- bate, April 8, 1695. To his daughter Eleanor Moss he gave power to dispose, at her decease, of "the one moiety of the £150 in the hands of Patrick Robinson," in compensation for her resignation to him of all her right in Well-Spring Plantation, provided that she gave the said moiety to one of her sister Hester Crispin's chil- dren. To the children of Richard Holcombe, by his daughter Sarah, thirty pounds, to be paid out of his one thousand acres beyond Hilltown, Philadelphia county, when sold. To his niece, Susannah James, ten pounds for herself and children. To his granddaughter, Sarah Crispin, five hundred acres called Pyne-Spring Plantation, in the upper Dublin township (not the present Upper Dublin), Phila- delphia county, to be enjoyed and possessed by her after the death of her parents, Silas and Hester Crispin. To his granddaughters, Rebecca and Marie Crispin, one thousand acres "joining on this side of Hilltown," to be divided between them, his executor having power to convert it into money if he thought best. To his grand- sons, William and Thomas Crispin, when of age, fifty pounds apiece; and to his granddaughters, Eleanor and Esther Crispin, twenty pounds each, when of age or at marriage. He left ten pounds "for some charitable purpose in Dublin town-
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ship" either a school or other purpose. From this bequest originated the Lower Dublin Academy, one of the noted institutions of the neighborhood (and which suggested the name for the village of Collegeville near by), and later the Thomas Holme Free Library of Holmesburg, also.
Before his death Captain Holme laid out one acre on his plantation in Dublin township as a burying-ground for himself and his descendants forever and he was buried in it. The land surrounding this lot was inherited by the children of Holme's daughter, Esther Crispin, who in 1723 divided the estate, reserving the one acre for the use of all. It thus became known in the locality as the "Crispin Burying Ground." In 1831 the heirs to this one acre were very numerous and widely scattered, so on January 22 of that year a number of them met at the house of Benjamin Crispin ( whose land was part of the original Holme Plantation) and formed the "Crispin Burial Ground Community," to look after the same. In 1840 a bill was introduced by the same Benjamin Crispin, a member of the State Legis- lature, and passed by that body granting a charter to Benjamin Crispin, Paul Cris- pin, Robert C. Green, Thomas Creighton and James A. Creighton and their suc- cessors, under the title of the Crispin Cemetery Corporation, to take charge of the property. Their successors still hold this ground in trust for the descendants of Thomas Holme. In 1883 the trustees of the Lower Dublin Academy erected a small monument here over the grave of Captain Holme.
Thomas Holme married before he came to Pennsylvania, but his wife's name is not known. She probably died before 1682, as she did not accompany her hus- band to Pennsylvania. They had issue:
Sarah Holme, m. Richard Holcombe and remained in England;
Tryall Holme, came to Pa .; had Pyne-Spring Plantation on his father's inap; witness to several important Indian deeds; d. s. p. before his father;
Michael Holme, came to Pa .; d. s. p. before his father:
Eleanor Holme, came to Pa. with her father. On Holme's map her name is on part of Well-Spring southwest of the Pennepack; by agreement made Jan. 14, 1694-5, she sur- renuered to her father all right in that plantation, he putting one hundred and fifty pounds at interest for her, in hands of Patrick Robinson; he mentions this sum in his will. Eleanor m. (first) Joseph Moss, by whom she had no issue. By his will, dated 7th mo. 23, 1687, Joseph Moss, "now of Well-Spring," left all estate and anything that might be due him from anyone in Europe or America to wife Eleanor, whom he named his executrix; witnesses were Michael Holme and Thomas Holme. She m. (second) Joseph Smallwood, had one dau. Sarah. They had dispute with Silas Crispin as to division of Thomas Holme's estate; after arbitration, Crispin had one thousand acres of Holme's unsurveyed lands laid off near Germantown, and conveyed it to them; they sold it to John Cadwalader, of Phila.
Sarah, only child of Joseph and Eleanor Smallwood, m. (first) John Thomas, of Phila. co., at Christ Church, Phila., Feb. 8, 1720; she m. (second) - Win- throp Westcomb, and went to Baltimore co., Md., where he probably lived previ- ously; after his death she lived in Passyunk township, Phila. co., probably with her cousin, Sarah Hannis (granddaughter of Esther Crispin). While living there, on Jan. 14, 1745-6, she executed release, as only child and heiress of Eleanor ( Holme) Smallwood, to heirs of her aunt Esther (Holme) Crispin of all her right to any part of Thomas Holme's estate undevised by his will, espe- cially Well-Spring Plantation. She is not known to have had children by either husband.
Esther Holme (usually written Hester), came to Pa. with her father ; m. 1683, Silas, son of Captain Wm. Crispin, formerly of English navy, and one of Proprietary's Com- missioners for settling colony in Pa.
For some account of Thomas Holme's extensive land holdings (11,000 acres) see article on him in Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Bio-
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graphy (vol. xx., pp. 248-256). His principal city lot was the one his residence stood on at the corner of Front and Mulberry streets. It ran from Front four hundred and twenty-six feet along Mulberry to Second street, and one hundred and two feet on Front and Second. This lot carried with it a wharf property on the east side of Front street.
The town of Holmesburg, now absorbed in the city of Philadelphia, the site of which was covered by Thomas Holme's Well-Spring Plantation, was not named for Thomas Holme, whose descendants sold the property before it was a village. It was first called Washingtonville, and was named Holmesburg from John Holme, no relation to Thomas, who afterwards settled there.
CRISPIN FAMILY.
CAPTAIN WILLIAM CRISPIN, companion-in-arms and brother-in-law of Admiral Sir William Penn, and named by his nephew, William Penn, the great founder of Pennsylvania, as one of his first Commissioners of his new Province of Pennsyl- vania, was the ancestor of the Crispin family in America ; but little is known of his ancestry further than that he belonged to an ancient and honorable family in Great Britain ; and the part he took in affairs abroad during the time of England's Commonwealth, and in the events which led to the Restoration of King Charles II., also make him a person of some mark among the characters of that period.
An account of the Crispin family, written in 1792 by William Crispin, of Phila- delphia (Commissary-General in the American army during the Revolution), a great-grandson of Captain William Crispin, says that the latter was one of Crom- well's train band, and afterwards captain of his guard, but that, finding that Crom- well deviated from his promises, he left him and went to sea with Admiral Penn. As this account has been found unreliable in several points which were not within the personal knowledge of the writer, we may presume it to be faulty in this partic- ular also, for we have evidence that William Crispin had been following the sea for many years before he became an officer in the Commonwealth's navy. The same account states that he was descended from one of the two lords de Crispin who came to England with William the Conqueror ; but though this is possible, as the name is uncommon, and evidently of Norman origin, the line of descent has never been traced, for even the names of William Crispin's parents were unknown to his great-grandson, and remain so to later generations. There were several fam- ilies of the name among the landed gentry of some of the lower counties of Eng- land in his day, and he may have belonged to one of them, for he lived in a time when a great many masters of merchant-ships were men of good birth but small fortune, seeking a life of adventure combined with profit, which was always to be found at sea, but could not be had on land except in time of war.
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