History of Delaware County, Pennsylvania, Part 89

Author: Ashmead, Henry Graham, 1838-1920
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: Philadelphia, Pa. : L.H. Everts
Number of Pages: 1150

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353

THE CITY OF CHESTER.

lined with illuminated tiles, delineating incidents of Scriptural history. Large buttresses were built against the gables for strength, and smaller ones to guard the brick walls on each side of the main building. These buttresses were subsequently removed.

Jasper Yeates, of Philadelphia, a native of York- shire, England, married Catharine, daughter of James Sandelands, the elder, and in 1697 purchased mills and a tract of ground at the mouth of Naaman's Creek. The next year he built a goodly-sized struc- ture between Chester Creek and Edgmont Avenue for a granary or store-house for grain on the second floor, and established a bakery in the lower room. It should be recollected that two hundred years ago Chester Creek, at that point, was considerably to the west- ward of the present stream." He was a prominent man of his day. He was appointed by Penn, when the proprietary created the borough of Chester, Oct. 13, 1701, one of its four burgesses. In 1703 he was chosen chief burgess of the borough, and is believed to have been the first person holding that office. He was one of the justices of Chester County, afterwards one of the justices of the Supreme Court of the prov- ince; a member of the Provincial Council, and a member of the General Assembly. He and his brother- in-law, James Sandelands, the younger, were the prin- cipal promoters of the building of St. Paul's Church. He died previously to May 2, 1720, for his will was probated at New Castle, Del., at the date last given. He left six children surviving him,-four sons and two daughters.

John Yeates, the third son of Jasper and Catharine Yeates, was born at Chester, March 1, 1705. He in; herited from his father the "dwelling house" at Ches- ter, with the " boulting" wharf, gardens and lots near the same town, " bought of Jonas Sandelands and Edward Henneston." He was a shipping merchant, and resided for a time in the island of Barbadoes, and afterwards in Philadelphia, where he acquired considerable real estate. Later in life he sustained large pecuniary losses in business ventures, and through the influence of friends, in 1764, was ap- pointed comptroller of customs at Pocomoke, Md. He died there the following year. Under date of Sept. 4, 1733, John Yeates and Elizabeth (Sidbot- ham), his wife, conveyed the mansion-house and lot, of which I am speaking, to Joseph Parker, as well as other lands in Chester.

Joseph Parker was a nephew of the noted and ec- centric Quaker preacher, John Salkeld. He was a native of Cumberland, England, and in 1714, at the age of twenty-five, came to the province and settled at Chester to be near his uncle. He entered the office of David Lloyd, and after Lloyd's death he succeeded him as register and recorder of Chester County. In 1724 he was prothonotary of the courts, and in 1738 he was commissioned a justice of the peace, a posi- tion of much dignity in colonial days. In 1730 he married Mary, daughter of James Ladd, of Gloucester

County, N. J. His wife died the following year, leav- ing one child, a daughter, Mary. Joseph Parker died May 21, 1766.

Mary Parker, born April 21, 1731, at Chester, to whom the Logan house descended, was married to Charles Norris, of Philadelphia, in the old Quaker meeting-house, Sixth month 21, 1759. Her husband died Jan. 15, 1766, and she returned to Chester and resided in the parental mansion until her death, Dec. 4, 1799. She was the mother of three sons and one daughter, Deborah, to whom by will she devised the Logan house.

Deborah Norris was born in Philadelphia, Oct. 19, 1761, and was a small child when her widowed mother returned to Chester. She was married to Dr. George Logan, a grandson of James Logan, Sept. 6, 1781, and removed to the Logan family seat, Stenton, where she resided until her death, Feb. 2, 1839. Deb- orah Logan was a woman of much literary ability, and a historian of great attainments. Indeed, her remarkable store of antiquarian information justly entitled her to the appellation of "The Female His- torian of the Colonial Times." She had mingled freely with the leading spirits of the Revolutionary period, and her cousin, Charles Thomson, the first and long confidential secretary of the Continental Congress, was through life an intimate visitor at her house, and from him she learned much of the inner history of those times. In 1814, Mrs. Logan believ- ing the correspondence of William Penn and James Logan contained much valuable information respect- ing the early history of the commonwealth, she began the task of collating, deciphering, and copying the manuscripts in her possession, many of the documents being much decayed and difficult to read ; but she in- dustriously worked, rising in the winter-time before sunrise and at daylight in the summer, for a period of several years. Her manuscripts made eleven large quarto volumes, and formed two clever-sized octavo volumes when published by the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. John F. Watson, the annalist, ob- tained many of the interesting items in his popular work from Mrs. Logan. The old dwelling is now owned by Mrs. Rebecca Ross.

The Old Hoskins (Graham) House ( Edgmont Ave- nue below Third Street) .- John Simcock, of Ridley, received a patent from the Duke of York for sixteen yards, fronting upon Chester Creek and running back into the land of Neeles Laerson, bounded on the north by lands of Jöran Keen, and on the south by land of Neeles Laerson. On the 5th day of Sixth month, 1684, Simcock sold to John Hoskins (then spelled Hodgkins) the tract of land, and the latter, in the year 1688, built the house now standing at the south- east corner of Edgmont Avenue and Graham Street.

The house thus erected was used by him as an inn, and was a substantial structure, as is evidenced even in its present declination by an inspection of the build- ing. It is two stories in height, with attics; the steps

354

HISTORY OF DELAWARE COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

and porch, which were located before the street-line was definitely fixed, extend a goodly distance into the sidewalk. A hall-way runs through the centre of the building ; a wide, easily-ascended staircase rises from the rear of the entry at the south side to the apart- ments above. The balustrade is fashioned of hard wood and is very massive, while the steps of ash in many places show marks of worms, who have eaten deep grooves in the solid planking. The windows in the lower rooms are deeply recessed within the apart- ments, and old-time seats constructed therein. The heavy beams supporting the upper floors stand prom- inently out from the ceiling. In the rooms on the first and second floors on the north side of the house the high, old-fashioned wooden mantels over the large

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HOSKINS (GRAHAM) HOUSE, BUILT IN 1688.

fireplaces are flanked by enormous closets, which are lighted by small windows in the outer walls ; those in the southern end have been walled up. The floors are laid in hard wood, and the flooring-boards are wide,-almost the entire width of the trees from which they were cut. The ceilings are lofty for the time when the building was erected, and the house is di- vided into numerous sleeping apartments intended to accommodate many guests. The steep roof exter- nally would indicate that the attics were so low that they would be uncomfortable to the inmates, whereas the contrary is the fact. The kitchen, which is built in an L on the northeastern end of the house, is large ; the fireplace comprising almost the entire eastern end, -now inclosed as a closet,-is of that ample size, usual among our ancestors, that the benumbed way-

farers could seat themselves at either side of the chim- ney, on benches provided for that purpose, and enjoy the warmth of the roaring fire of huge logs, formerly the only way employed to heat that part of the build- ing. In the days of its ancient grandeur there was a portico or veranda in the rear of the main building extending ten or twelve feet outward, which was in- closed with lattice-work, where, in the summer-time, the hospitable table was spread. An old oven, long since torn down, was attached to the house on the north side of the kitchen, and a well of good water, now abandoned, was located in the rear and at some distance from the portico,

John Hoskins and Mary, his wife, were natives of Cheshire, England, and came to this country in the year 1682. In August, 1684, he purchased from John Sim- cock the property whereon he afterwards built the house ; and he had purchased Ninth month 21, 1681, from Penn, before leaving England, two hundred and fifty acres of land, which was laid out to him in Middletown township, between the lands of Richard Crosby and David Ogden, Fourth month 27, 1684, He was a member of the General Assembly which sat March 12, 1683. His will, dated Eleventh month 2, 1694/5, and probated Aug. 15, 1698, in Philadelphia, is signed John Hodgskins, but the renuncia- tion of the executors named therein, dated 12th of Sixth month, 1698, speaks of him as John Hoskins. He left two children, John and Hannah, and his widow, who although aged, married in 1700, George Woodier, of Chester. His daughter, Hannah, married, in 1698, Charles Whitaker. His estate was a large one for those times, the appraisement amounting to £450 128. 2d., and the different articles set forth therein, as contained in the various rooms of the house wherein he died, answer to the number in the present Graham house.

His son, John Hoskins, married in 1698, Ruth At- kinson, and in 1700, when only twenty-three years of age, was elected sheriff of the county, an office the duties of which he discharged so successfully that for fifteen years in succession, excepting during the year 1708, he was continued in that office. To him the old homestead descended, and here he lived until his death, Oct. 26, 1716. He was the father of four sons and one daughter, Mary, who married John Mather. One of the sons, I suppose, died before their mother,

355

THE CITY OF CHESTER.

for in the will of Ruth Hoskins, dated July 3, 1739, she mentions only her sons Stephen and Joseph Hos- kins,-although John was still living,-and devised to her son-in-law, Mather, a house and lot. Stephen Hoskins was born in Chester, Twelfth month 18, 1701/2, and Joseph was born in the same place, Fourth month 30, 1705.

Stephen Hoskins married, in 1727, Sarah Warner, of Maryland, and moved into that province, but re- turned to Chester, 1730, and was elected coroner of Chester County. About 1743 he removed to Phila- delphia, and it was to his son, John, of Burlington, that Joseph Hoskins, of the Porter house, devised the real estate of which he died seized. This Joseph Hoskins, to whom more particular reference will be made in account of the Porter house, purchased the homestead from his brother, John, to whom it was awarded in partition of John Hoskins', the elder, estate, and on June 4, 1762, Joseph sold the house and lot to Henry Hale Graham. A brief notice of Judge Graham has been given herein, as also an account of William Graham, his son, to whom the property descended. The house and lot was sold by the heirs of William Graham to John G. Dyer in 1857, by whose estate it is now owned.

The Old Porter (Lloyd) House .- It is doubtful whether any building in the United States, whose history extends over more than a century and a half, has had connected in the title to the property so many distinguished owners as will be found in that of the old Porter house in this city, whose record was closed in that appalling tragedy, in 1882, which enshrouded our city in mourning for a season.

By patent dated April 9, 1669, Francis Lovelace, Governor-General under the Duke of York, granted unto Neeles Laerson, alias Friend, a large tract of ground comprising one hundred and fifty acres, but which by subsequent survey proved to include in the boundary lines one hundred and eighty-three acres. The patent reserved a yearly rent of one and a half bushels of winter wheat, payable to the king. Laer- son entered into possession of the land thus allotted him, built upon and improved the premises. By will, dated Dec. 17, 1686 (he died the following year), Laerson gave authority to his wife to sell the real estate in her discretion. In exercise of this power, Ann Friend (the family had by this time assumed the Eng- lish alias as their family name, and had abandoned the Swedish patronymic absolutely), the widow, An- drew Friend, son and heir of Laerson and Johannes Friend, the second son, by deed dated May 27, 1689, conveyed the estate to David Lloyd. Lloyd, how- ever, after he built the house whose history I am writing, seemed to have had some doubts of the suffi- ciency of the title, and therefore, thirty-four years subsequently, July 13, 1723, he had Ann Friend (then one hundred and five years old), and Gabriel Friend and Laurence Friend, the younger sons of Neeles Laerson and Ann, his wife, execute a deed conveying

the premises he had purchased in 1686. Parts of the estate thus acquired were sold by Lloyd to Joseph Richardson, and to Rodger Jackson, but he subse- quently repurchased the land thus conveyed, and in addition acquired from Jonas Sandelands a consider- able tract, until the estate had increased to about five hundred acres.

David Lloyd, a sketch of whose eventful, useful life is given in the chapter on the bench and bar, was twice married. His second wife was Grace Growden, whom he married after the year 1703, for several deeds of that year are executed by him alone, indicating that at that time he was a wid- ower. By his first marriage he was childless; by his second, he was the father of one son, who, at an early age, was killed by an accident. He died "6th day of ye 2d month" (May), 1731, aged seventy-eight years, for such is the inscription on his tombstone in Friends' graveyard here. If it be a fact that he was seventy-eight years old when he died, David Lloyd could not have been barn in 1656, and yet all the au- thorities agree in giving the latter date as that of his birth. By his will, dated March 24, 1724, after a few bequests, the remainder of his estate is devised to his wife, Grace, who was twenty-seven years younger than her husband.

The old mansion was built in 1721, and the slab on which was engraved the letters "L. L. D. & G., 1721," which was formerly in the western gable of the dwell- ing. The house was of stone, massively built, and was one of the best specimens of colonial grandeur which had descended to our time. It received many additions to it after it passed into the possession of Commodore Porter, such as the building of the cupola on the roof, the walling up of the open corner chim- ney-place and substituting therefor the grates and marble mantels which were seen there when the ruins were visited by thousands of people after the explosion. Lloyd lived sumptuously in the old mansion, then, as before stated, one of the most imposing dwellings in the New World, entertaining largely and keeping a retinue of servants. He was one of the eight gentle- men of means in the province, including the Gov- ernor, who, in the year 1725, are recorded as owning four-wheeled carriages drawn by two horses.

Grace Lloyd, in her widowhood, was attended faith- fully by her friend, Jane Fenn, a noted minister of Friends, until the latter married, and in turn became the mistress of the old dwelling. Jane Fenn was born in 1693, in London, and when very young was strongly impressed with the belief that it was her duty to go to Pennsylvania, and after several years had elapsed, in which she struggled against the impression, she sailed in 1712, in company with a Welshman, Robert Davis, who with his family were emigrating to Penn- sylvania. Davis had paid her passage, and she had obligated herself to return the outlay out of the first money she could earn ; but when he insisted that she should bind herself as a servant for four years to re-

356

HISTORY OF DELAWARE COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

pay him the money, she resisted, as she had not come ' of the garden, with free liberty of ingress, egress and as a redemptioner. Davis had her arrested for debt. regress into and out of all and every the premises for the term of her natural life without impeachment of waste." Grace Lloyd died in 1760. She was thrown into prison, but was relieved there- from by some Friends, who paid the claim and em- ployed her in their families as a teacher of their children. At this time she was not a Quaker, but the kindness of these people attracted her towards them, and finally she united with the society and be- came ultimately one of its most efficient ministers. It is recorded that at a meeting at Haverford, David and Grace Lloyd came in, and immediately Jane Fenn, who was present, was impressed with the con- viction that "these were the people with whom she must go and settle," while David and Grace Lloyd were in their turn impressed with Jane, "and it was fixed in their minds to take her for the Lord's ser- vice." She lived with them until 1727, when she visited

THE PORTER (LLOYD) HOUSE, BUILT IN 1721, DESTROYED BY EXPLOSION FEB. 17, 1882. [From photograph owned by W. W. Amos.]

England and Ireland on a religious mission, and re- turned to Chester in 1730, a short time previous to David Lloyd's death. She remained with his widow until her (Jane Fenn's) marriage to Joseph Hoskins, Eighth month 26, 1738, at Chester Meeting.

On May 1, 1741, Grace Lloyd conveyed the man- sion and most of the real estate she acquired under her husband's will to Joseph Hoskins, reserving two acres of ground, and " also the room in the southwest corner of the mansion-house, called the dining-room, the room on the northeast corner of said house, called the parlor, with a closet and milk-house adjoining, the chamber over the said dining-room, the chamber over the said parlor, one-half part of the garret, the front part of the cellar, the old kitchen and chamber over it, the chaise-house, the use of the pump, cider- mill and cider-press to make her own cider, and part

Joseph Hoskins was one of the most useful citizens Chester has ever numbered among its residents. He was an enterprising, public-spirited man, doing good and asking no mere gratification of his personal vanity by coupling his gift with conditions that the donor's name should be made conspicuous and held in remem- brance because of these works by which others should be benefited. He gave because his heart prompted the act in the love he bore his fellows. Joseph Hos- kins was born in Chester, June 30, 1705, and seems to have been an active man of business. When twenty- six years of age he made a voyage to the island of Barbadoes, but returned after a short absence, and in 1739, after his marriage, he went to Boston on business. In the early days of our country a jour- ney such as this was a remark- able event in a man's life, and at this time more persons can be found in Chester, in propor- tion to its population, who have visited Japan than, at the period I am alluding to, who had made a voyage to Boston. He was made chief burgess of Chester and one of his majesty's justices of the peace in 1758. By his will, dated Twelfth month, 1769, he devised certain lands in the borough of Chester for school purposes, more fully mentioned under that heading, and also gave ten pounds towards inclos- ing Friends' graveyard, on Edg- mont Avenue, with a brick or stone wall. Being childless, the residue of his estate, after a few bequests to relatives and friends, he devised to his nephew, John Hoskins, of Burlington, N. J. This John Hoskins, in 1750, had married Mary, a daughter of Joshua and Sarah Raper, of Burlington, and their son, Raper Hoskins, who came to Chester in charge of his father's property there, on May 2, 1781, married Eleanor, daughter of Henry Hale Graham, while Joseph Hoskins, Raper Hoskins' brother, mar- ried, June 12, 1793, Mary, a younger daughter of Henry Hale Graham. John Hoskins, to whom the estate descended under Joseph Hoskins' will, after holding the title to the premises for eighteen years, on March 22, 1791, made a deed conveying a large tract of land, comprising that whereon the old man- sion-house stood, to Raper Hoskins. The latter hav- ing died in the fall of the year 1798, a victim of the yellow-fever scourge in Chester, his widow, Eleanor Hoskins, was granted letters on his estate, and in dis-

357

THE CITY OF CHESTER.

charge of her duties sold the property, April 28, 1799, to Thomas Laycock. The estate subsequently was purchased by Maj. William Anderson. Evelina An- derson, the daughter of the major, having intermar- ried with David Porter, in that year the newly-wedded conple made their home at the old mansion, excepting during the times when Porter was located at naval stations in charge of the government yards. Feb. 24, 1816, William Anderson and Elizabeth, his wife, “in consideration of the natural love and affection which they have and bear for their son-in-law, the said David Porter, as well for and in consideration of one dollar," conveyed to David Porter, in fee, the house, improve- ments, and a trifle over three acres and a half of land.

David Porter was born in Boston, Feb. 1, 1780, and was appointed midshipman April 3, 1793. He was a lientenant on board the "Constellation" when that frigate captured the French vessel of war, "L'Insur- gent," in February, 1799, and was promoted for his bravery on that occasion. In 1800 he was wounded in an engagement with pirates off Santo Domingo, and was promoted to the command of the "Enterprise." While commanding that vessel he captured a Trip- olitan corsair. He had charge of the expedition which destroyed several feluccas, ladened with wheat, under the batteries at Tripoli, in which engagement he was again wounded. In 1803 he was captured in the frigate "Philadelphia," when that vessel grounded in the harbor of Tripoli, was taken prisoner, and for eigh- teen months was held as a slave. In 1806 he com- manded the "Enterprise," and fought and severely handled twelve Spanish gunboats near Gibraltar. In 1812 he was commissioned captain, and placed in command of the " Essex," which vessel he rendered famous in our country's annals, although he finally lost the ship in one of the most noted naval combats of history with two British vessels of war off Val- paraiso. In 1815 to 1816 he was one of the naval commissioners, and in the latter year made a success- ful cruise against the pirates that then infested the Gulf of Mexico. In consequence of some infraction of naval law he was suspended for six months; in 1826 he resigned his commission and entered the Mexican navy as its commander-in-chief, an office which he soon resigned. In 1829 he was appointed United States consul at Algiers, and when that coun- try was conquered by the French he was made United States charge d'affairs at Constantinople, and while discharging the dnties of that office he negotiated several important treaties with that government. He died at Pera, near Constantinople, March 3, 1843, and his remains were brought to this country and interred in Woodland Cemetery, Philadelphia. Mrs. Evelina Porter survived her husband twenty-eight years, dying Oct. 1, 1871, in her eightieth year.

David Porter left five sons and two daughters. The eldest daughter, Evelina, married Capt. Harris Heap, and the youngest, Imogene, married Mr. Harris.

William David Porter, the eldest son, born in New

i Orleans in 1810, entered the navy in his eighteenth year. During the early part of the Rebellion his loyalty was unjustly suspected when he was in com- mand of the sloop-of-war "St. Mary," on the Pacific station. He was, however, assigned to duty on the Mississippi River, where he fitted out the gunboat fleet, and was placed in command of the " Essex," which took part in the attack on Forts Henry and Donelson, in which latter engagement a ball from the fort plunged through the boiler of his vessel, and the escaping steam so severely scalded Porter that he ultimately died from its effects, May 1, 1864. Not- withstanding his feeble health, he ran the batteries between Cairo and New Orleans, took part in the attack on Vicksburg, destroyed the rebel ram " Ar- kansas" near Baton Rouge, and assisted in the attack on Port Hudson. He had by this time become so ill that he was ordered to New York to recrnit his shat- tered health, and died there at the date stated.

David D. Porter, the present admiral, is said to have been horn in Philadelphia in 1813, although in his letter to the Hanley Hose Company respecting the date-stone of the Porter house he speaks of Chester as his native place. When a mere lad at school in this city, one Saturday afternoon he and the late George W. Piper provided themselves with several pounds of powder, and made what the hoys call a squib. The match seeming to have gone out, David Porter and his companion got down on their knees and blew the flame. The squib exploded, and Porter and Piper were hlown over the fence, near the old mansion. The hair on their heads was burned off, as well as their eyebrows, and the skin of their faces and hands was blistered badly. This was the future admiral's "baptism of fire." He entered the navy as midshipman in 1829, and from 1836 to 1840 was attached to the coast survey. He took part in the Mexican war, and in 1861 joined the Gulf Squad- ron, in command of the "Powhatan." He was in command of the mortar-boats in the attack on the forts below New Orleans, in 1862, and did important duties on the Mississippi and Red Rivers in 1863-64. He was conspicuous in the siege of Vieksburg, for which he was made rear-admiral. In 1864 he was in command of the North Atlantic Blockading Squad- ron, and rendered efficient services in the capture of Fort Fisher, in January, 1865. In 1866 he was made vice-admiral, and in 1876 admiral of the United States. He is the present owner of the old Porter property in this city.

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History of Delaware County, Pennsylvania, Part 89

Author: Ashmead, Henry Graham, 1838-1920 Publication date: 1884 Publisher: Philadelphia, Pa. : L.H. Everts Number of Pages: 1150

Author: Ashmead, Henry Graham, 1838-1920
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: Philadelphia, Pa. : L.H. Everts
Number of Pages: 1150