History of Philadelphia, 1609-1884, Part 8

Author: Scharf, J. Thomas (John Thomas), 1843-1898. cn; Westcott, Thompson, 1820-1888, joint author
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: Philadelphia, Pa. : L. H. Everts & Co.
Number of Pages: 992

USA > Pennsylvania > Philadelphia County > Philadelphia > History of Philadelphia, 1609-1884 > Part 8

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).

Old advertisements will give us some information about vehicles for hire. In 1728, Thomas Skelton advertises in the Gazette that he has got "a four- wheeled chaise, on Chestnut Street, to be hired." He affixes prices, to wit : "For four persons to German- town, 12 shillings and 6 pence; to Frankford, 10 shillings ; and to Gray's Ferry, 7 shillings and 6 pence to 10 shillings."

In 1746, Abram Carpenter, a cooper, in Dock Street, near the Golden Fleece, calls in the assistance of his muse to tempt his customers with the follow- ing announcement :

Sam. Powel, Dr. Thomas Bond, Dr. Phineas Bond, Dr. John Redman,- each one chariot ; Capt. Edward Stiles; Widow Masters, mother to the Governor's lady,-ench one coach; " added by J. F. F.," Tench Francis, merchant, one coach and one chariot; Joseph Sims, merchant, one coach-wagon ; Widow Harrison, Widow Montgomery, Peggy Oswald,- each one chariot. September, carringes mieking for the following: Steinmetz, Morton,-each one chariot ; Peter Turner, Daniel Benezet, William Logan, James Logan, Israel Tomberton,-each one chariot ; James Pemberton, merchant, one coach-wagon and one chariot ; Joha Pemberton, preacher, one chariot ; Joseph Pemberton, merchunt, one coach ; Dr Samnel Preston Moore and Henry Hill, Madeira merchant, -each ono chariot; Joseph Fox ; Hugh Roberts, iron-monger; Samuel Shoemaker, merchant; Joshna Howell, merchant; Reese Meredith, merchant; Abel James, merchant; Henry Drinker, Thomas Clifford, John Reynell, merchants,-each one conch-wagon ; Joseph Wharton, commonly called Duko Wharton, one couch-wagon and one chariot ; Thomas Wharton, Joseph Wharton, Jr., and Jacob Lewis, merchants; Sammel Morris; Richard Wietar, glass and button-maker; Samuel Emlen, Jr., preacher ; James Bringhurst, carpenter ; Samnel Noble, John Bhifflin, Anthony Morris, Joshua Fisher, Widow Greenlenf,-ench one coach- wngon ; George Emlon, Jr., merchant ; and Elizabeth Norris,-each one chariot. ("Chariots" or "post-chaises" are the same vehicle.)

" Two handsome chairs, With very good geers, With horses, or without, To carry friends abont.

" Likewise, saddle-horses, if gentlemen please, To carry them handsomely, much at their ease, Is to be hired by Abram Carpenter, cooper, Well known as a very good cask.cooper."

Robert Robson, in 1759, advertised that he had "removed from Coombs' Alley to the sign of the Horse and Groom, at the corner of the fourteen houses in Fifth Street, above Sassafras, where gentle- men may be supplied with horses and chairs by the day or journey, and horses taken in to be kept by the night, day, or year. Said Robson will ride express for any who are pleased to employ him, who may de- pend on what they trust to his care. N.B .- Good pasturing." 1

The fact of there being but little demand for car- riages did not deter an adventurous coach- and har- ness-maker from London and Bristol, named William Welsh, from trying his fortunes in Philadelphia. He advertised, in 1759, that he had set up the coach- making business in Market Street, and proceeded to dazzle the minds of the simple citizens by informing them that he had "the honor of being coachmaker to his royal Highness the Duke of Cumberland, her royal Highness the Princess Amelia, and the Prince of Hesse-Cassel, with dukes and lords of the first rank, together with the right worshipful John Clem- ent, Lord Mayor of London and City Corporation, in building the state coach, which had cost fifteen hundred pounds sterling, and which had given great satisfaction."

History does not say that the good Philadelphians were induced to vie with those illustrious personages in the gorgeousness of their equipage, but the ob- servant Mr. Watson informs us that " merchants and professional gentlemen were quite content to keep a one-horse chair. These had none of the present trappings of silver-plate, nor were the chair-bodies varnished; plain paint alone adorned them, and brass rings and buckles were all the ornaments found on the harness; the chairs were without springs, on leather bands, such as could now (1842) be made for fifty dollars." The ex-coachmaker to many High- nesses must have been highly disgusted with his American customers when he found them so easily contented.

Before we close our record of events in "Penn's City" and pass to the more exciting scenes of the Revolutionary period, mention should be made of certain houses erected during the third quarter of the century, and to which is attached some historic in- terest owing to the part taken in the Revolution

1 " The fourteen houses," usually called " the fourteon chimneys," stood west of Fifth Street, above Race, nad had their fronts on Sassafras Alley. These houses, whon first orocted, were out of town, -- a settlement by themselves. There was no obstruction between them and Fifth Stroet, and ne a landmark they wero well known.

882

HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.

either by the men who built them, or by those who afterward lived in them.

At the northeast corner of Third and Pine Streets stood a large house of peculiar aspect, erected by Anthony Duché. It was three stories high, with a roof addition, somewhat like a modern mansard, decorated with urns and a railing; it had a centre building and two small wings with gables in front. A central dormer-window, decorated with serolls, as- similated with the gables on either side. This house was occupied as a military hospital when the British troops came to Philadelphia after Braddock's defeat. Mr. Duché gave this house to his son, Rev. Jacob Duché, after the latter was made rector of Christ Church and St. Peter's. It afterward became the property of Chief Justice Mckean.

The fine house built by William Masters, some time before 1761, on the south side of Market Street, between Fifth and Sixth, was destined to acquire historic fame as the residence of George Washington while he was President of the United States. From that time it was designated as "The Washington Mansion." This property was conveyed by William Masters' widow to her daughter Mary, on the occasion of her marriage with Richard Penn. The young couple lived in it until their departure for Europe, in 1775. When the British troops entered Philadelphia, Gen. Howe took possession of Richard Penn's man- sion. He made it his headquarters until the evacua- tion in 1778. Benedict Arnold coming to take com- mand of Philadelphia as military governor, took possession of the premises just vacated by Howe. He ocenpied them until July, 1780, when he left the city. The Sieur John Holker, consul-general of France, was the next occupant. The mansion was burned down in 1780, but the stout old walls remained standing. Robert Morris then obtained a lease of the grounds, and caused the house to be rebuilt and repaired. He occupied it until the removal of the seat of the Federal government from New York to Philadelphia. Mr. Morris then gave up the use of the mansion to President Washington. The mansion was occupied by Mr. Adams when he became President. It was subsequently turned into a hotel, and, finally, was torn down and three stores erected on the site.

Richard Rush, in his "Reminiscences," gives his boyhood recollection of the mansion, as he saw it between 1790 and 1800, in these words, " It was a large double house; few, if any, equal to it are at present in Philadelphia. The brick of the honse was, even in my time, dark with age; and two ancient lamp-posts, furnished with large lamps, which stood in front, marked it, in conjunction with the whole external aspect, as the abode of opulence and respectability before he became its august tenant. No market- house then stood on the street. To the east a brick wall, six or seven feet high, ran well on toward Fifth Street, until it met other houses (the first house, be- lieved to be now 514 and 516, also owned by Robert

Morris, as I find, was occupied by Gen. Stewart) ; the wall inclosed a garden, which was shaded by lofty old trees, and ran back to what is now Minor Street, where the stables stood. To the west no building adjoined it, the nearest house in that direction heing at the corner of Sixth and Market, where lived Robert Morris."

On Third Street, between Willing's Alley and Sprnee Street, were two houses built by Thomas Wil- ling. One of these houses was occupied by his son- in-law, Col. William Byrd, of Westover, Va. In 1758, of the two Virginia regiments in the British service, one was commanded by Col. Byrd, the other by Col. Washington, of Mount Vernon. This house subsequently belonged to Andrew Allen and Chief Justice Chew. John Adams, describing the house which he visited in the chief justice's time, said, "We were shown into a grand entry and staircase, and into an elegant and most magnificent chamber, until dinner."

The other honse which Mr. Willing erected for his daughter Elizabeth, wife of Samuel Powell, Mr. Adams speaks of as " a splendid seat."

Benjamin Franklin, before he went to Europe in 1764, built a house on his lot on Market Street between Third and Fourth. It is the house Mrs. Franklin had just moved into when she wrote to her husband the letter already quoted, about furnishing the "new house." Abont 1785, when he was elected President of Pennsylvania, Franklin erected a new wing to his house, which was three stories high. The first story was a large apartment designed for the meetings of the Philosophical Society. His library was in the second story, and the third story was occu- pied as lodging rooms. Franklin thought that he had effected some improvements. He said, --

" None of the woodwork of one room communicates with the wood- work of any other room, and all the floors and even the steps of the stairs are plastered close to the boards, besides the plastering on the laths under the joists. There are also trap-doors to go out upon the roof, so that one may go out and wet the shingles io case of a neighbor- ing fire. But, indeed, I think the staircases should be stone and the floors tiled, as in Paris, and the roofs either tiled or slated."

In 1765 Edward Penington erected a handsome honse, built of red and black bricks, the prevailing taste at the time, on a large lot which he owned at the corner of Crown and Race Streets. The house with its stahles and extensive back buildings occu- pied the ground to Fifth Street. During the Revo- lution this honse became the headquarters of Lieut .- Col. Henry Johnson, of the Twenty-eighth Regiment, British Regulars, afterward brigadier-general, who was defeated by Wayne at Stony Point.

A very fine stately dwelling was erected in 1773, by John Lawrence, on the northeast corner of Sixth and Chestnut Streets, which was subsequently oceu- pied first by Hon. Robert R. Livingston, and last by Peter S. Du Ponceau.

John Cadwalader's house on the west side of Second Street, below Spruce, was one of the largest dwelling-

883

MANNERS AND CUSTOMS, 1700-1800.

houses in the city. It had extensive grounds and gardens extending to Third Street. Graydon relates that in the early part of the Revolution the "Silk Stocking Company," so called, commanded by John Cadwalader, being about seventy strong, rendezvoused at his house, " where capacious demijohns of Madeira were constantly set out in the yard, where we formed for our refreshment before marching out to exercise. The ample fortune of Mr. Cadwalader had enabled him to fill his cellars with the choicest liquors; and it must be admitted that he dealt them out with the most gentlemanly liberality."

John Cadwalader was immensely wealthy, and kept a very large establishment. He was the only man in Philadelphia, in 1772, besides the Governor, Richard Penn, who kept "all sorts" of carriages.

Archibald McCall, probably about 1762-63, when he married Judith Kemble, built a fine house at the northeast corner of Second and Union Streets. He was the leading East India merchant of his day, and a citizen of great influence.

1136127

In 1761, John Stamper, an English merchant, pur- chased from the proprietaries, Thomas and Richard Penn, the whole front on Pine Street, from Second to Third, being four hundred and sixty feet in width by one hundred and two feet in depth, for and in con- sideration of eleven hundred pounds sterling, and a yearly quit-rent of five shillings. Mr. Stamper was a member of the Common Council and an alderman, and in 1750 mayor of the city. He resided on Second Street. He bought forty feet of ground south of the original grant from the Penns. This made his lot one hundred and forty-two feet deep, to an alley which was called after him, Stamper's Alley. On this large piece of ground he commenced making various improvements. On the Pine Street lot he erected, some time before the Revolution, a fine three-story brick house, which was formerly No. 50, . and which, in 1884, was No. 224. It was distinguished by its red- and blue-glazed brick, its ancient columnar doorway, and its low steps. The cornice and dormer- windows were fine specimens of old-fashioned wood- work. The interior of the house was finished, ac- cording to the taste of the ante-Revolutionary times, with elaborate paneling, wainscoting, surbases, heavy doors, etc., which still remain. The stable and coach- house in Stamper's Alley are also still standing.

At the southeast corner of Pine and Third Streets he built a castellated mansion for his son, Joseph Stam- per, on the occasion of the latter's marriage with Miss Sarah Maddox, granddaughter of Joshua Mad- dox, one of the justices of the province. This prop- erty was subsequently bought by Dr. Philip Sing Physick, who erected a row of houses on the site.

John Stamper had two daughters; one of these, Mary Stamper, married William Bingham, and was the mother of William Bingham, Jr., afterward sen- ator of the United States. The other daughter, Han- nah Stamper, married the Rev. Robert Blackwell.

The mansion on Pine Street, first described, passed into their possession and became their residence. Dr. Blackwell, on the occasion of the marriage of his only daughter, Rebecca Harrison Blackwell, with George Willing, built for her, on the west end of this lot, a fine house, which, in 1884, was No. 238 Pine Street. This house was one of the handsomest in the then new style, with chimneys against the sides, and folding doors between the parlors. In 1773, Dr. Blackwell built another house, corner of Pine and Second Streets. In this house, at the time of the Revolution, boarded Elias Boudinot, LL.D., who was a member of Congress, and at one time presided over that body. He was also commissary-general of pris- oners during the Revolutionary war, and director of the mint under President Washington. His gener- ous bequest of lands bordering on the Susquehanna River to the city of Philadelphia, in trust for the purpose of supplying poor housekeepers with fuel, has placed his name among those of public benefac- tors never to be forgotten.

The house erected by William Logan, the son of James Logan, at the northwest corner of Second Street and Lodge Alley (now Gothic Street), some time between 1750 and 1760, had interesting recollec- tions attached to it. At William Logan's death, in 1772, he devised this property to his son Charles Logan.1 It was to this house that John Smith, when he married William Logan's sister, Hannah, took his bride during the honeymoon. It was here, also, that David Franks, merchant,-a wealthy Hebrew con- verted to Christianity,-lived during the Revolution with his daughter, Polly, a famous beauty and wit.2 In this house, it is said, Dr. James Rush was born in March, 1786.

North of William Logan's house, and separated from it by a garden (long since obliterated and built upon), was a spacious mansion built in the best style by James Pemberton, merchant, the brother of Israel Pemberton. It was built some time before the Revo- lution. Mr. Pemberton lived in it until his death. For many years the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company have occupied this house as an office.

Many old houses remain, whose appearance pro-

1 Charlea Logan, by deed executed io 1790, conveyed the house to James Smith. After James Logan, the younger, sold the old home- stead to the Bank of Pennsylvania, he removed to the house formerly his brother'a, which he bought of Smith in 1798. It was conveyed by James Logan to Joshua Fisher in 1805. The executors of the latter, after hia death, sold this house to William Lehman, William Smith, and Samuel Smith, copartners as druggists, who changed it into a store. It was occupied for that purpose for many years by Lehman & Smithe, William Lehman, A. S. & E. Roberts, and others. The honse is still standing, so changed by business alterations and abused by the progress of time that few will suppose, from its present appearance, that it ever could have been the abode of wealth, taste, and influence .- Westcott's History of Philadelphia.

2 Another daughter married one of the Hamiltons of The Wood- lande. Franke was commissary of Uritish prisoners during The early pert of the Revolutionary war, but waa suspected of secretly leaning to the British cause, was deprived of his office in 1778, and was ordered, in 1780, to depart from the State .- Ibid.

884

HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.

claims them of ante-Revolution construction. Some have their story well known by the descendants of the old Philadelphians. Others are a puzzle ; their former tenants have passed away from the earth, and their very origin is a mystery.

About 1767 it was the fashion for ladies to wear their hair hanging loose about the head, and espe- cially over the forehead, much in the hideous style which has prevailed since a few years past under the name of "bangs." This fashion was the occasion of an epigrammatic quarrel in the columns of a New York paper. A cynical bachelor made bold to write as follows :

"TO THE LADIES ON THE PRESENT FASHION OF NOT DRESS- ING THEIR HEADS: " With hair so loog, so laok, so sleek, Which not a comb composes, Why do you hide your brow and cheek And hardly spare your noses? Say, ye, in whom each worth appears Adorned by all the graces, What makes you thus, my pretty dears, Ashamed to show your faces?"

" A Miss" promptly answered in the next issue of the paper,-

" Presumptuous man, to slander prone 1 Whose verse thy name disgraces ; What Demon whispered we were grown Ashamed to show our Faces ? In perfect pity to mankind We veiled us for a season ; Unmask, my Girls! he'll quickly find That Pity was the Reason."

" A Boy" (he must have been an old one) dared to reply to the Miss,-

" The veteran Hunks all covered with sears, Long battered and wounded in Venus' wars, When her charms proved deficient to win her a lover, Her-conscience-then bids the good dame to give over, So our Chloes, with foreheads too low or too high, Or covered with Wrinkles that tell something nigh, Well knowing the consequence if they reveal them, The good-oatured Creatures,-in Pity conceal them."

The " Boy" had the last word, but the ladies con- tinued to consult their own taste or convenience, in New York as well as in Philadelphia. No argument could avail with the goddess Fashion.

The practice of importing "indented servants" continued in force, and although we find in the newspapers of the time (1768-69) communications attacking and defending the enslaving of negroes, there seems to have been no objection to reducing white men to temporary slavery. Such advertise- ments as the following were not uncommon : "Just imported in the Brigantine . . . from Bristol a parcel of healthy, likely men and women, indented servants, among which are Blacksmiths, Cutlers, House-carpenters, Painters and Glaziers, Bakers, Turners, Husbandmen, and Labourers." This was no longer the scum of the streets and jails of Lon- don shipped to America by the authorities as a safe means of riddance. Here we have honest artisans

selling themselves voluntarily into servitude in order to get to the new land of promise. What a sad com- ment on the condition of the working-classes in Eng- land ! These poor fellows could be transferred by one master to another, and sold like common goods or chattel, until the term of their indentures had ex- pired. But there were cases when the master, not the servant, deserved sympathy. The thieves and rascals of every grade, who came over under com- pulsion, or animated by the hope that they would find in Philadelphia a new field for their nefarious practices, gave no end of trouble to the unfortunate citizen who had invested his money in them; they were continually running away, and they generally carried off all they could lay their hands on. One fellow is advertised as runaway for the seventeenth time. A remarkable faet is that the negro slaves did not run away. Another, resulting from the perusal of hundreds of advertisements, is that nine-tenths of the runaway servants are described as being dis- figured hy the smallpox, which gives a faint idea of the ravages made by that dread disease before Jenner discovered vaccination.

All runaways were not criminals, however; some, probably, found servitude more irksome and unbear- able than they had imagined, and impelled by a mad desire for liberty, made their escape and became liable to punishment for breaking their indentures. Of this class, we will charitably suppose, was the unfortunate "schoolmaster" (?), William Fetherson by name, who ran away from some place in Mary- land, and was believed to have gone to Philadelphia. The description of this "schoolmaster abroad" is a picture in itself. He had on an old blue broadcloth coat and vest with yellow buttons, leather breeches, half-worn, with several patches above the knees, a white sheeting-linen shirt, and an old black silk handkerchief round his neck, yarn stockings, stout leather shoes, a half-worn castor hat, and a great-coat scorched on the left side, with a slit on the right foreskirt.

Advertising in verse was frequent at that time, and we cannot resist the temptation of giving here one of these quaint conceits. It appeared in the Pennsylva- nia Chronicle, and is somewhat prolix in style :

" THREE POUNDS REWARD. "In Seventeen Hundred and Sixty-eight, Of n runaway servant I'll relate ; In the Eighth month the twenty-first, Which is commonly called Angust. He from his master inn away, It being on a Sabbath-day ; Some particulars I will relato : The first his hair is dark and strait, Ilis eyes and visage bothi ure dark, And the smallpox hath left his mark ;

Ilo has a hobble in his walk, And a mutter in his talk ; Ils nge I don't hardly know, But I believe near thirty-two ; An Englishman both born and bred, And a barber is by trade ;

885

MANNERS AND CUSTOMS, 1700-1800.

William Tyler was hia name, But I have heard he changed the same ; About five feet six inches high, And very upt to swear and lie. He has been much used to the sea, And had a shot went thro' one knee, Which makes that leg less than the t'other ; By his account when got that scar, He was on board a man-of-war; In divers places he has been, And great part of the world hath seen ; A scholar good, and for his clothes They homespan are, as I suppose ; An old felt hat nud bearskin vest, With a striped ditto, when he's drest, And good strong shoes, with strings to tie,

Which he is apt to tread awry ; Ile takes tobacco and strong drink, When he can get 'em, I do think.

Whoever secures said servant-man, And sends bim home soon as they can,

Shall receive the above reward, Which I will pay upon my word, With charges all that Diay accrue, Which shall be paid na soon as due ; In Bradford township where I dwell, And 80 my name I think to tell, Therefore in print I'll let it stand, Which you may see at your right hand. "JOHN TOWNSEND."

Old advertisements are sometimes very amusing, but they are oftener positively useful as furnishing the most certain data about events. They are more precise even than personal recollections. Mr. Wat- son, in his " Annals of Philadelphia," speaks of Dr. Le Mayeur, dentist, who proposed, in 1784, to transplant teeth, and remarks, "This was quite a novelty in Philadelphia, the present care of the teeth was ill understood theu. He had, however, great success in Philadelphia, and went off with a great deal of our patricians' money. Several respectable ladies had them implanted. I remember some curious anecdotes of some cases. One of the Meschianza belles had such teeth. They were, in some cases, two months before they could eat with them. . . . Dr. Baker, who preceded Le Mayeur, was the first person ever known as a dentist in Philadelphia." We cannot say how long before Le Mayeur Dr. Baker practiced, but in- serting false teeth could not have been so great a novelty in 1784, since, in 1769, " Mr. Hamilton, sur- geon-dentist and operator for the teeth from London," announced that he " displaces all superfluous teeth and stumps with the greatest ease and safety, and makes and sets in artificial teeth from one single tooth to a whole set, in so nice a manner that they cannot be distinguished from natural; therefore, those ladies and gentlemen who have had the misfortune of losing their teeth, have now an opportunity of having nat- ural or artificial put in with dispatch and secrecy, and in such a manner as to be of real use, ornament, and service for many years, without giving the least pain to the patient."

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.

History of Philadelphia, 1609-1884, Part 8

Author: Scharf, J. Thomas (John Thomas), 1843-1898. cn; Westcott, Thompson, 1820-1888, joint author Publication date: 1884 Publisher: Philadelphia, Pa. : L. H. Everts & Co. Number of Pages: 992

Author: Scharf, J. Thomas (John Thomas), 1843-1898. cn; Westcott, Thompson, 1820-1888, joint author
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: Philadelphia, Pa. : L. H. Everts & Co.
Number of Pages: 992