History of Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, Part 194

Author: Bean, Theodore Weber, 1833-1891, [from old catalog] ed; Buck, William J. (William Joseph), 1825-1901
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: Philadelphia, Everts & Peck
Number of Pages: 1534

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889

HORSHAM TOWNSHIP.

have made the kitchen under the house, which is disagreeable in warm weather."

From a letter written by Dr. Græme, June 6, 1760, to Thomas Penn, we derive some additional informa- tion respecting the family. He wrote :

" I now come to return you my most humble thanks for your condo- lence on the loss of my brother, whom you know I most affectionately re. garded, as also for what befel Captain Græme. These distresses happen- ing at the same time I lost my daughter (Jane, wife of James Young) made it a scene of affliction in my family, such as I never felt before. As to my nephew, his disorder was a melancholy, yet, in most respects, seemed to retain his understanding. In respect to the tar-water, I labor under a cough, and it has done me great service. I am now going in my seventy-first year, at which time of life it cannot be expected but what I shall feel my growing infirmities, so I have reason to be thankful that it is not worse with me."

His nephew, Charles Græme, here alluded to, was a captain in the British army, who had been in the siege of Louisburg, and but recently deceased.

Mrs. Græme wrote from Grame Park, August 20, 1762, to her daughter Elizabeth, in the city, to "tell Barbara I can't think of her coming here now, because your sister is so crowded with people that any addition would be quite an intrusion, as there are masons and carpenters at work in her kitchen." The sister here meant was Ann, wife of Charles Stedman, merchant of the city, who were then in the practice of spending their summers here. It is evident that they had at that time numerous visitors and that repairs were then being made on the place. During the summer of 1763, through the hands of his neighbor, John Jarrett, of Horsham, Dr. Græme made a donation of books to the Hatboro' Library, which were valued by the directors at fifteen pounds. At the annual meeting, the following November 5th, he received a letter of thanks for so kind a gift.

Dr. Grime wrote from the city, September 10, 1763, to his daughter Elizabeth, at the park,-

" I am glad your Mama stayed till Monday, by which she should have a proof of her distemper abating, and the fine weather since, with so much change of pure air, will no doubt contribute to her recovery. It gives me likewise pleasure to hear that your own health seems so thor- oughly established, yet I desire you not to trust to the change of weather, but when damp comes to take a glass twice a day of the bark and bitter, I sent for your use. I hear your cider-mill is brought into good order, notwithstanding which it will be time enough to begin cider-making the week after next. We have next our second crop of hay to get madle. I have pressed Henry White to see that Roberts gets the shed ready to put the apples in, which will be a great convenience in carrying on your manufacture. It is still uncertain whether I shall come the latter end of next week or not ; it would suit me better one week longer. Pay my compliments to your bashful companion, which is all I choose to offer."

In June, 1764, Elizabeth Græme, in company with the Rev. Richard Peters, of Philadelphia, sailed for Europe, the former with a view of receiving some medical treatment and of visiting her relatives in Scotland. Her mother, who was now in declining health, sent her a letter, dated the 17th of the follow- ing month, in which she said,-

" This day, and just at this time, it is a month since you left these

C'apes ; many tell me you are now on shore, but I think it is too soon to indulge in this pleasing hope. A tedions time it will be till I can hear from you, but I will hope the account will be good when it comes. When you receive this, think you see me in the dining-room writing; Anna sitting hy me ut her work, desiring me to give her duty ; John driving a little cart through the entry, enjoying himself with high glee, and no anxiety for the future ; your Papa reading the newspaper in the office."

James Young wrote to Miss Græme from Philadel- phia, April 3, 1765, in reference to her parents,-

"I should think it the duty of my friendship to you to let you know, without hesitation, as you are as good a judge of their time of life as I can be : Your Papa continues as hearty as usual ; your Mama's delicate and tender constitution often makes me uneasy, neither is it to be ex- pected that at her time of life she can be free from all the disorders that afflict the human form. These are the reasons, my dear Betsy, I earn- estly wish to see you home in the fall of the year, and I hope you will bring good health with you."

Mrs. Græme died in the city May 29, 1765, aged nearly sixty-five years. In the last letter to her daughter, written fourteen days before her death, she said,-

"These considerations have made nie quite resigned as to seeing you, and indeed, my dear, as you went ont of the Courtyard into the chaise, something whispered to me, ' yon bave taken your last look of her.' Two similar impressions I had in my life before, both of which proved true."

The following letter (copied from the original) to the absent daughter is so admirable in its style that we give it entire :

". PHILADELPHIA, May 30th, 1765.

" My much-loved Friend I hope will arm herself with resolution and fortitude on this trying occasion, and call to her aid resignation. My heart is too full to say much, but you have much consulation in the cer- tainty of your dear Mama being happy. I sat with her from six last evening till four in the morning, close to her head and observed each movement. Oh, my dear Betsy, you were never one moment out of my thoughts. To tell what I felt would but affect yon too much, when the last breath was gone and that dear body cold and insensible. I closed her eyes, for my friend I know would be pleased that strangers might not perform this last sad office.

" This is Wednesday, and on Sunday I saw she was going very fast and I kissed her, as I thought, for the last time. She begged a blessing for me. I cannot dwell longer on this subject, but be assured I am your truly afflicted Friend,

" ELIZA STEDMAN."

From a letter sent by Mrs. Ann Stedman to her sister, Miss Græme, dated June 4th, we receive ad- ditional information,-

"I must now inform you that she has not been quite well since you left. She was quite sensibile till about two hours before she died, and spoke to comfort me and left her blessing with me for you. By the last letters she wrote yon she was so weak that she could not write above four lines at a time; yet she wrote as cheerful as though nothing had been the matter. Yon was one of the last persons that she thought of in this life. Be assured that I shall nse every method in my power to make our dear remaining parent easy till your return, which you may imagine we all are very anxious for ; but your dear father intends writing himself, so I shall say nothing for him only that he is very much to be pitied at his time of life to meet with such a loss, though he bears it with great composure. He says everything shall be done that our dear mother directed. She m:ule known all her bequests in a letter that she wrote our dear father, and she bas also left a letter for every one of her family, to be opened a month after her decease. I am preparing to go to Gramme Park, where our father has promised to stay the best part of the summer, and when I am there I will write more fully."

890

HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

Francis Hopkinsou, while on a visit to Græme Park in July, 1765, composed " An Elegy sacred to the Memory of Mrs. Ann Græme," which may be seen in the third volume of his published works, comprising four pages. The following are the con- eluding lines :

" Oh ! may I strive her footsteps to pursue, And keep the Christian's glorious prize in view : Like her defy the stormy waves of life, And with heroic zeal maintain the strife : Like her find comfort in the arms of death, And in a peaceful calm resign my breath."

Mrs. Græme was an excellent and remarkable woman, who took great pains in the rearing and proper training of her children, taking their instruction un- der her immediate charge. She had herself received a good education, was fond of books and delighted in literary society. Iler " Farewell Advice" to her daugh- ter Elizabeth, in England, is a fine composition, about four or five ordinary foolscap pages in length. Dr. Rush speaks of Mrs. Græme as possessing "a mascu- line mind, with all the female charms and accom- plishments which render a woman agreeable to both sexes."

After the death of his wife, at the earnest solicita- tion of his family, Dr. Græme retired to his country home to spend there the remainder of his long life. Here in a walk he suddenly dropped down dead on Friday, September 4, 1772, lacking only forty-six days of being aged eighty-four years. His funeral was held on Sunday afternoon following, on which occa- sion the Rev. William Smith, D.D., provost of the college, preached the sermon, his interment taking place in Christ Churchyard, beside his wife and fam- ily, who had preceded him. On his tomb are the following lines, no doubt the composition of his danghter, Mrs. Ferguson :

" The soul that lived within the crumbling dust In every act was eminently just ; Peaceful through life, as peaceful, too, in death, Without one pang he rendered back his breath."

Dr. Græme appears to have been unusnally re- spected, and in all our researches we have not been able to find any reflections whatever against his eharaeter. He was a prudent and successful business man, avoid- ing debt and a stranger to pecuniary embarrassments. Dr. Rush states that, " For nearly half a century he maintained the first rank in his profession in the city of Philadelphia." Thatcher, in his " Medical Biogra- phy," published in 1828, mentions him as possessing " an excellent education and agreeable manners, and was, therefore, much employed as a practitioner, and greatly confided in by his fellow-citizens." In his long possession of Græme Park estate he did much to improve it, and its area of near one thousand acres was not diminished in his lifetime.

MRS. ELIZABETH FERGUSON .- This lady was the youngest child of Dr. Thomas Græme, and born at

the family residence, in Second Street, Philadelphia, February 3, 1739.

Dr. Rush in his account in the Portfolio of 1809 (vol. i. p. 520) said,-

"She discovered in early life signs of uncommon talents and virtnes, both of which were cultivated with great care, and chiefly by her mother. Her person was slender and her health delicate. The latter was partly the effect of native weakness, being a seven-months child, and partly acquired by too great an application to hooks. She passed her youth in the lap of parental affection. A pleasant and highly-improved retreat known by the name of Grame Park, where her parents spent their sum- mers, afforded her the most delightful opportunities for study, meditation, rural walks and pleasures, and, above all, for cultivating a talent for poetry. This retreat was, morcover, consecrated to society and friend- ship. A plentiful table was spread daily for visitors, aud two or three ladies from Philadelphia generally partook with Miss Græme of the en- joyments which her situation in the country afforded."

In a letter to Miss Græme at Burlington, dated Philadelphia, September 24, 1755, in which her mother said,-

"I steal time to write, notwithstanding my hurry, which you may be- lieve is not a little, as Sir John goes to-day at twelve, and we must have dinner ready before that, besides other company dines here. We shall now retmn to our usual quiet. Your room is ready for you, and I hope by the very first opportunity you will let me know when I shall send for you, for I shall have no peace till you come home. I am so afraid of your being sick, which you cannot escape there at this season. This comes by a servant of Sir John's ; he probably will make you a call, if he goes to Bristol, for he inquired twice if he should not see you at home before he went, and when we told him you was at Burlington, he said that he would have an opportunity of seeing you there. He is an ex- tremely calm, polite, reasonable gentleman, the very reverse of what we were told. I send you the ticket to the Ball; it was a smnptnous one. The supper dressed by the General's French cook, and his plate set out on the sideboard, besides a great deal of plate borrowed from the Governor, Mr. Allen and others. Notwithstanding all these preparations I understand the officers did not gain much favor from the ladies. There was a great number not at the Ball, including our family. I hope you will have an opportunity of seeing the army march through Bristol ; they go from here on Monday."

We infer the gentleman meant in this communica- tion was Sir John St. Clair.

In August, 1762, a small party was made up, consisting of Alexander Stedman and wife, Charles Stedman and wife, Mr. Bremer, Franeis Hopkinson, Miss Shoman and Miss Græme, for a traveling jaunt into the country. From Græme Park they proceeded to Bethlehem, Reading, Lancaster, Duncannon and the Elizabeth Furnace, at Manheim. At the latter place the Messrs. Stedman had purchased, in the pre- vious February, of Isaac Norris, nine hundred acres, on which said town had been laid out, now con- taining some seventy or eighty dwellings. Charles Stedman was married to Ann, Dr. Græme's eldest daughter, who was born in 1726. Respecting this excursion, Miss Græme subsequently wrote, "It seems a fairy dream, like some of Susquehanna's islands, when the magic wand of memory wakes up those days. We tasted the feast of reason and the flow of soul."

Said Dr. Rush,-

" About her seventeenth year Miss Granne was addressed by a citizen of Philadelphia, of respectalde connections and character. She gave him her heart, with the promise of her band upon his return from Lon- don, whither he went to complete his education in the law. Frout

MRS. ELIZABETH FERGUSON.

891

HORSHAM TOWNSHIP.

canses which it is not necessary to detail the contract of marriage, at a future day, was broken, but not without much suffering on the part of Miss Græme. To relieve and divert her mind from the effects of this event she translated the whole of Telemachus into English verse ; but this, instead of saving, perhaps aided the distress of her disappointment in impairing her health, and that to such a degree as to induce her father, in conjunction with two other physicians, to advise a voyage to England for its recovery, her mother concurring in this opinion."

Respecting this "affair of the heart," several allu- sions are found at this time in her correspondence. Margaret Abercombie, in a letter dated May II, 1763, thus referred to the matter,-

" It would have afforded me no small degree of satisfaction to have had the pleasure of seeing yon before I left the city. I understood you are now at Grame Park, and I think that charming retreat cannot fail of affording you some pleasure and anmsement, and I hope will coll- tribute to your health."

The same wrote again on the 20th of said month, saying,-

"In regard to my friend, as yon are pleased to style him, I have little to offer either in vindication of his actions or his arguments, and wish, if it was possible, you could erase from your mind a person who has been the cause of giving you and the rest of your worthy family so much uneasiness, for I have no doubt but the overruling hand of Providence has ordered this as well as every other rveut for some wise end and design, which at present our narrow minds cannot comprehend or sec into."

From a letter by her father, dated Philadelphia, the following 15th of June, we ascertain that Miss Græme was still at the park, dangerously ill, and suf- fering much from excessive pains in her head.

At the time that Miss Græme made her translation of Bishop Fenelon's celebrated work of Telemachus she must have been aged about twenty-one or twenty- two years. The original manuscript, comprised in two manuscript volumes, was presented by the late Samuel F. Smith, a great-grandson of Dr. Græme, to the Philadelphia Library, in whose possession it re- mains. There is no question but she was a fine French scholar, which this production sufficiently attests, and it is now remarkable for being one of the few translations from a foreign modern language in America during the colonial period. In scanning over its numerous pages, we cannot help but be im- pressed at the industry of this remarkable lady, who, it is said, accomplished most of her labors at night.

On the 17th of June, 1764, in company with the Rev. Richard Peters, rector of Christ and St. Peter's Churches, embarked at Philadelphia for Europe. Respecting this, Governor John Penn wrote, on the 19th, to his uncle, Thomas Penn, that "Mr. Peters is in a bad state of health, and I believe could not have got through here this summer. Miss Græme has gone with him for the recovery of her health and to see her relations in Scotland." From her correspondence we learn that they visited Liverpool, York, Scarborough, Bath, Bristol and London. "As to shells," she wrote, "I thought I saw more beautiful ones in Dr. Fother- gill's cabinet than in the British Museum." Mrs. Græme wrote, April 11, 1765, to her daughter,-

" Your journal gave great delight to all, but exquisite pleasure to me, for I think, when I read it, I see you telling me what you have seen and

know ; I am delighted with your having seen so many thingsand places. I suppose you will close the second part upon going to Scotland, and send it as soon as you can, for we all long to see it. These, my dear, will be an entertainment for you and for your friends through life."

She visited Thomas Penn and his lady, Juliana, at their country residence and also in London. In the following September she went to Scotland, to the family seat of Balgowan, then in possession of Thomas Græme, her father's nephew, and consequently her first cousin, who received her very kindly, and on her departure presented her with several works from his library, containing his book-plate and the Græme coat-of-arms. His son afterwards became Lord Lyn-

ELIZABETH GRÆEME'S BOOK-PLATE, 1766.

dock. It appears that the design was that Miss Græme should also visit the Continent, more particu- larly a brother of Charles and Alexander Stedman, in Holstein, Denmark, but owing to the death of her mother she was induced to return home, taking pas- sage with Mr. Peters and the Rev. Nathaniel Evans, on board of Captain Spark's ship, at London, and arrived in Philadelphia December 26, 1765. In reference to Miss Græme's trip, Dr. Rush states,-

"She was accompanied by the Rev. Dr. Richard Peters, of Philadel- phia, a gentleman of highly-polished manners, and whose rank enabled him to introduce her to the most respectable circles of company. She sought and was sought for by the most celebrated literary gentleman who flourished in England at the time of the accession of George the Third to the throne. She was introduced to this monarch, and particu- larly noticed by him. The celebrated Dr. Fothergill, whom she con- sulted as a physician, became her friend, and corresponded as long as she lived. Upon her return to Philadelphia she was visited, by a numerous circle of friends, as well to condole with her upon the death of her mother, as to welcome her arrival to her native shores, They soon dis- covered, by the stream of information she poured upon her friends, that she had been 'all eye, all ear, and all grasp,' during her visit to Great Britain, The journal she kept of her travels was a feast to all who read it. Manders and characters in an ohl and highly civilized country, contrasted with those to which she had been accustomed in our own, accompanied with many curious facts and anecdotos, were the compo- nent parts of this interesting manuscript. Her modesty alone preveoted its bring made public, and thereby affording a specimen to the work, and to posterity, of her happy talents for observation, reflection and composition.

"In her father's family she now occupied the place of her mother. She kept his house and presided at his table and fireside in entertaining all his company. Such was the character of Dr. Græme's family for hospi- tality and refinement of manders that all the strangers of note wlio visited Philadelphia were introduced to it. Saturday evenings were ap-

892

HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

propriated, for many years during Miss Græme's winter residence in the city, for the entertainment, not only of strangers, but of such of her friends of both sexes as were considered the most suitable company for them. These evenings were, properly speaking, of the attic kind. The genius of Miss Græme evolved the heat and light that animated them. It was at one of these evening parties she first saw Mr. Ilenry JIugh Fer- gusen, a handsome and accomplished young gentleman, who had lately arrived in this country from Scotland. They were suddenly pleased with | each other. Private interviews soon took place between them, and in the course of a few months they were married. The inequality of their ages (for he was ten years younger) was opposed, in a calculation of their conjugal happiness, by the sameness of their attachment to books, retire- ment and literary society."

Mrs. Ferguson stated in her manuscripts that she first saw Henry Hugh Ferguson, at her father's house in the city, December 7, 1771, and was married to him at Swede's Church, April 21, 1772, at eight o'clock in the evening, nearly four and a half mouths previous to her father's death, who was then at Græme Park, and upwards of eighty-three years of age. On this occasion, as they were about returning, a family tra- dition states, she stumbled in the churchyard and fell on a grave, when some one present remarked that this accident betokened to her an ill omen for the future. As Mrs. Ferguson was now aged thirty-three years, if Dr. Rush is correct, her husband was only

CANDIDE

-SECURE

COAT OF ARMS, GRAEME, OF BALGOWAN.

twenty-three,-certainly a great and odd inequality, Dr. Græme was strongly opposed to the match, and died ignorant of the marriage. Tradition states that Mr. Ferguson urged her to inform him, but she de- ferred, when he stated that if she delayed much longer he would go up to Græme Park and disclose the mat- ter to him. One morning, as the doctor went out to take his usual walk before breakfast, Mrs. Ferguson had decided to tell her father. "I sat," she states, "on the bench at the window, and watched him com- ing up the avenue. It was a terrible task to perform. I was in agony; at every step he was approaching nearer. As he reached the tenant-house, near the gate, he fell and died. Had I told him the day be- forc, as I thought of doing, I should have reproached myself for his death and gone crazy." The remarka- ble circumstances attending this marriage have been

rendered in exquisite lines by Dr. John Watson, a native and resident of Buckingham, Bucks Co., grand- father of Judge Richard Watson, of Doylestown. Laura was Mrs. Ferguson's nom de plume to her vari- ous poetical contributions,-

LINES ON MRS. FERGUSON'S MARRIAGE.

BY JOUN WATSON.

"Can the muse that laments the misfortunes of love Draw a shade o'er the sorrowful tale,

That Laura was cheated and fully could prove That Scotchmen have honor that sometimes may fail ?

" She says that the lady took not the advice Of a tender, kind parent in what she should do ;

To suit his goud will iu a matter so nice, And the visions of fancy would not bear her through ;

"For pastoral changed to the tragedy style, And taught a hard lesson too late;

Though the rashiness of youth in its fully may siuile, Yet in tears must submit to its fate.

" Young Ferguson rau from whence he had came, And a slice of her fortune he pillaged away ; Then Love, the sly rogue, must bear all the blame, Aud in his defence had nothing to say ;

"But laughed at the mischief, and to a romance Reduced the whole life of a lady so gay ; Fine fancy refined still led up the dance, Politeness aud learning the music did play.

" But religion has hopes for the heart that's sincere, And feels for the sorrows of humau distress, That tenderly wipes away poverty's tear In a way that may make its impression the less.

" Kind charity pleads in her advocate's cause That the frailties of nature may all be forgiven,

That kindness of heart should meet with applause, And virtue on earth a reward in heaven."

Immediately on the death of her father, Mrs. Fer- guson and her husband removed on the Græme Park estate, which had already been bequeathed to her. Their object now was to settle down here and lead a farmer's happy and independent life. We find Henry Hugh Ferguson at a quarterly meeting of the Hat- boro' Library Company, held February 6, 1773, admitted a member in the place of John Hart, whose share he had purchased. At the annual meeting of November 5, 1774, he was elected one of its three directors, and again the following year, which is the last mention of his name in their minutes. He was commissioned a justice of the peace for Philadelphia County February 13, 1775, his being the last appoint- ment to this office under the colonial government. He must have have already expressed himself quite openly on the approaching troubles of the Revolution, for Anna Young, in a letter to her aunt, from Phila- delphia, June 14th, thus expressed herself,-

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History of Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, Part 194

Author: Bean, Theodore Weber, 1833-1891, [from old catalog] ed; Buck, William J. (William Joseph), 1825-1901 Publication date: 1884 Publisher: Philadelphia, Everts & Peck Number of Pages: 1534

Author: Bean, Theodore Weber, 1833-1891, [from old catalog] ed; Buck, William J. (William Joseph), 1825-1901
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: Philadelphia, Everts & Peck
Number of Pages: 1534