History of Philadelphia, 1609-1884, Part 91

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

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The old Gloria Dei Church is a sacred relic of

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colonial days, and of the earliest Philadelphia, when it was "a neat little village." It is a place of his- torical as well as ecclesiastical interest, and belongs to the whole commonwealth. It is a hundred and eighty-four years now since the classic building was dedicated. Here for over two hundred years the quiet and moss-grown cemetery has been receiving for their last quiet rest the pioneers who had landed with Printz, listened to the preaching of Campanius, helped to consecrate the Tinicum Island Church in 1643, or the Wicaco block-house a quarter of a cen- tury later, the block-house near which William Penn landed, on the tree-shaded knoll sloping down to the broad and gleaming river, and to a pleasant inlet on the north, looking across to another knoll crowned by the rough log cabin of the Swansons, who then owned what is now Southwark, Moyamensing, and Passyunk. If those homely toilers could return for a glimpse of the Philadelphia of 1884, with what surprise would they behold its vast development.

THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS.

The Quakers under George Fox-he was born in the year 1624-originally called themselves "Pro- fessors" or "Children of the Light." It was Ger- vase Bennet, the magistrate signing the mittimus when Fox was first arrested at Derby, who gave to the sect in derision the name of "Quakers," be- câuse Fox bade him and those present to "tremble at the word of the Lord."1 Bennet, a sturdy Puri- tan and Roundhead, was not in the habit of trem- bling at anything, and the extravagant bodily tremors of the new sect might easily be denominated quakings. The name stuck,-it is usually the case with sects and parties that they get their most en- during titles from the lips of opponents,-and the Friends have no aversion to hear themselves so called. The authentic title of Friends was not adopted until the sect embraced a considerable society. In their earlier periods the Friends encountered bitter perse- cution, and endured it with steadfast hearts even to death under torture. In these periods they were in- tensely imbued with a missionary and proselyting spirit, and went abroad through all lands to invite others to participate in the awful gifts of the Di- vine Spirit, with which they believed themselves en- dowed. They believed the grace of God to be upon them, making them intuitively conscious of the right interpretation of the Word, and that this infalli- bility of perception of the truth carried with it a sa- cred duty of teaching and preaching to the unenlight- ened.

Originally they came to America to seek savages to convert, but soon learned to flee hither for refuge from persecution. In Maryland, in Delaware, in New Jersey, and in Pennsylvania they found a security for rest and worship denied them everywhere else,

and speedily they began to form towns in those col- onies,-towns which still exist.

The first Quakers on the Delaware landed at the place afterward known as Salem, where a town grew up. In 1667 others of the same persuasion followed, and settled at the localities afterward called Glouces- ter and Beverly, the latter subsequently known as Burlington, in New Jersey. The first prominent member of the society who visited any part of the country attached to Pennsylvania was the famous George Fox, who, in 1672, arrived in Maryland, and, crossing to the eastern shore, proceeded to New Cas- tle, on the Delaware. From this point he continued his journey northward to Middletown, in East New Jersey, where there was already a Quaker meeting- house. After visiting New England he returned to Middletown, and, having crossed the Delaware with the help of Indians and their canoes, he and his fel- low-travelers proceeded to New Castle. On reaching the latter town he met with a handsome reception from the Governor (Carre), and had a large meeting there, it being the first ever held at that place. From New Castle, Fox went to Maryland, and thence back to England.

Three years later William Edmondson, an English Friend, while making a second visit to North Amer- ica, came to Middletown, N. J., from New England, and attempted to reach the falls of the Delaware, at what is now the city of Trenton, but lost his way. He finally discovered the falls, and after visiting set- tlements on the west side of the Delaware, proceeded to New Castle, and from that point to Maryland. Shortly afterward, in 1679, Jasper Dankers and Peter Sluyter, members of the religious sect called Laba- dists, also visited the settlements on the Delaware, and finally established a community at Bohemia Manor in Cecil County, Md. In their "Journal," published by the Long Island Historical Society, they mention having met some of the Quakers on the Delaware, whom they describe as being "the most worldly of men in all their deportment and conver- sation." The two Labadists appear to have formed a very unfavorable opinion of the Quakers, but their impressions were evidently colored by prejudice and bigotry.

As the settlements on the Delaware grew, Weekly, Monthly, and Quarterly Meetings of Friends were established at Burlington and Rancocas. At Shaka- maxon the first meetings were held in 1681. In the year 1682 it was established by the consent of the meeting at Burlington that Monthly Meetings between Friends at Arwames (Gloucester) and Shakamaxon should be held on the second First day of each month. The first, for Arwames, was to be held at William Cooper's, at Pine Point (Gloucester Point , at Arwames, on the second First day of the Third month |May) of this year (1682), and the next at Thomas Fairman's at Shakamaxon, and so on alternately. This meeting at Fairman's was the first known to have been held

1 Sewell, " History of the People called Quakers."

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HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.

within the present limits of Philadelphia. A six weeks' meeting for business was also appointed to be held between the Friends of these two places. These meetings did not long continue. The settlement of Philadelphia rendered it more convenient to make the place of assembling in the city, and the meeting held at Shakamaxon ceased. Richard Townsend, in his "Testimony," says. "Our first concern was to keep up and maintain our religious worship, and, in order thereto, we had several meetings in the houses of the inhabitants ; and one boarded meeting-house was set up where the city was to be, near the Delaware ; and, as we had nothing but love and good-will in our hearts one to another, we had very comfortable meet- ings from time to time, and after our meeting was over we assisted one another in building little houses for our shelter." As Townsend came with William Penn in the " Welcome," it seems certain from this that the meeting-house was put up even before the dwellings, and while the caves were yet in use.

On the 9th of Jannary, 1683, a meeting of Friends was held at Philadelphia, at which it was agreed that the Monthly Meetings should be held on the first Third day of every month for men's and women's meeting, and that every third meeting should be the Quarterly Meeting. Thomas Holme, John Songhurst, Thomas Wynne, and Griffith Owen were selected to make the necessary arrangements for the choice of a site for a meeting-house and for building the same, the charge to be borne by Friends belonging to the city. At the same time John Hart and Henry Waddy for the upper part of the county, and Thomas Brown and Henry Lewis for the town and lower part of the county, were appointed to visit the poor and siek and supply them with what they deemed necessary, at the expense of the Monthly Meeting.

In Angust, 1684, the Quarterly Meeting at Phila- ! nors, who were all orthodox churchmen, and the delphia decided that a meeting-house should be built in the Centre Square, to be of brick, its dimensions sixty by forty feet. For some reason the size was altered in the next year, and it was ordered that the honse should be fifty feet long and forty-six wide. It was also ordered that the erection of the building be finished with all possible expedition. The Quar- terly Meeting was now composed of the meetings of Philadelphia, Tacony, Poquessing, the Welsh Friends of the Welsh traet in Chester County, and those near the city, on the other side of the Schuylkill.

About the same time that the meeting-house was in course of construction at Centre Square another was projected upon the river-bank, being situated on Front above Sassafras Street. Robert Turner, in his letter to William Penn, of Aug. 3, 1685, published by the latter in his second account of Pennsylvania, chapter xxxi., says, "We are now laying the foun- dation of a new briek meeting-house in the Centre (sixty feet long and about forty feet broad), and hope to soon have it up, there being many hearts and hands at work that will do it. A large meeting-house, fifty

feet long and thirty-eight broad, also going on in the front of the river for an evening meeting."

This meeting-house was situated on the square at Broad and Market Streets, and not at Twelfth and Market Streets, as has been supposed by some.

The Bank meeting-house was probably of frame, and was but a temporary affair, being replaced by another of brick, built in 1703, which stood on the west side of Front Street above Race, and was torn down many years ago.

The Haverford Monthly Meeting was formed in 1684, of three meetings, one called the Schuylkill, another Merion, and the other Haverford. The first Monthly Meeting was held at the house of Thomas Duckett, located on the west side of the Schuylkill, a short distance above the present site of Market Street bridge.1

The first burying-ground used by the inhabitants of Philadelphia was located on the west side of the Schuylkill, near the river, between Market and Spring Garden Streets. It probably belonged to the Centre Meeting, but the ownership and the date at which it was first used are now matters of conjecture.

The Friends had external difficulties to contend with, which troubled them quite as much as their internal wrestlings with conscience and the flesh and spirit; but this pressure from withont probably tended to maintain the homogeneousness of the society and strengthen the unity of its members. The "hot church party" was embarked in a per- petual conspiracy against their character and their political predominance, as a sect, in the affairs of the province. The churchmen had the establishment, and desired to annex to it the practical control of the State. In this movement they had, more or less, the sympathy and co-operation of the lieutenant-gover- state of war which generally existed with France or Spain, or both, and the anomalous attitude of the Quakers to every measure of military resistance and defense, contributed materially to foster the preju- diees of the minority against them. .

It may be said in a general way of the Quakers of Philadelphia and Pennsylvania, between the time of Penn's last visit and the conclusion of the Revolu- tionary war, when the Governor, the Council, and sometimes the Assembly and the body of the people were not only at variance with, but actually hostile to them, that they were steadfast in adhering to their doctrine and discipline, quick in obeying their consciences, tenacious in their opinions even in in- different matters ; but cautious in their demonstra- tions, prudent in their resistance, patient in waiting, watchful in action. Their enemies were active and enterprising, but divided in counsel and not united ; the Quakers, on the other hand, were a unit always in counsel and in action. They had, moreover, the

1 Smith's History of Delaware County.

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advantage in the great controversy in respect to taxation and revenue, to take common ground with every other colony in America; and in their differ- ence with the established church, the latter could in- angurate few positive measures against them which did not strike with equal severity the dissenters in other colonies, who, collectively, were much more numerous than the church people.

The Quakers insisted that they should not be out- numbered in the Governor's Council by the church people, and they carried their point, and they were equally successful in regard to the composition of the Supreme Court.

George Keith, the leader of the first schism among the Quakers, was the instructor of the public school, who, becoming dissatisfied with the proceedings of the leading men in the society, resorted to criticism and abuse. Having given up the school he visited New England, where he held disputations with theologians, and on his return to Philadelphia urged upon the meeting certain reforms in discipline, which were not adopted. He now became involved in a controversy with William Stockdale and Thomas Fitzwater, whom he charged with preaching false doctrine. All the parties to the discussion were censured by the Monthly Meeting ; but Stockdale and Fitzwater having pre- ferred against Keith the charge of denying the great fundamental principle of the Society of Friends,- the universality of the light of Christ, or divine grace and its sufficiency, if obeyed, to effect the salvation of mankind,-the subject was reopened. An excited discussion was the result, and before any conclusion was reached the clerk and others withdrew, but Keith and his adherents remained, and adjourned to meet the next morning at the school-house. Here they adopted a minute in which they condemned Fitz- water and Stockdale for holding false doctrines, and with charging Keith with the same fault. An attempt was made to have this minute inserted in the book of the Monthly Meeting, which was resisted. On appeal the Quarterly Meeting decided that the meeting at the school-house was irregular and unauthorized.

In consequence of these proceedings and his abuse of Governor Lloyd, Keith made himself obnoxious to many of his fellow-members of the society, and an account of the troubles in the province having reached England, a long epistle was sent from the meeting in London, in which Friends in Pennsyl- vania were adjured to avoid " all heats, disputations, and occasions for display of passion." On the 28th of June, 1692, the meeting of Friends in Philadel- phia sent a communication to the several Monthly and Quarterly Meetings in Pennsylvania, East and West Jersey, setting forth their sorrow at the defec- tion of Keith, and asserting that he " had gone into a spirit of enmity, wrath, self-exaltation, contention, and jangling ;" that he had disregarded the advice of the meeting, and said he " had trampled it under his feet as dirt." He had also set up a separate meeting,

"where, like an open opposer, he not only reviled several Friends, by exposing their religious reputa- tions in mixed auditories of some hundreds, endeav- oring to render them and Friends here, by the press and otherwise, a scorn to the profane and the song of the drunkards." He was accused of traducing and vilifying James Dickinson and Thomas Wilson, trav- eling Friends, and of putting on his hat when James Dickinson was at prayer, and going out of meeting, drawing some scores with him by his evil example. It was therefore declared to be the duty of the meet- ing to disown him and those who had gone out with him.

This epistle was signed by Thomas Lloyd, John Wilsford, Nicholas Waln, William Watson, George Morris, Thomas Duckett, Joshua Fearne, Evan Morris, Richard Walter, John Symcock, Griffith Owen, John Boun, Henry Willis, Paul Saunders, John Blunston, William Cooper, Thomas Thackery, William Byles, Samuel Jennings, John Delaval, William Yeardley, Joseph Kirkbride, Walter Faw- cett, Hugh Roberts, Robert Owen, William Walker, John Lyman, George Gray.

Keith and his followers, who called themselves "Christian Quakers," or "Christian Friends," estab- lished a separate meeting, and having obtained a lot of ground on the west side of Second Street, below Mulberry, built a small log meeting-house.1

To the accusations of the Philadelphia meeting the Christian Quakers, or Keithites, replied by pub- lishing a "counter testimony," signed by twenty-eight members, in which they disowned the twenty-eight who had disowned George Keith. An " Expostula- tion" and several other papers were published, one of which caused the indictment of Keith and Thomas Budd, who were tried, convicted, and fined five pounds each. The meetings of ministers of Phila- delphia and Burlington on the 6th of September, 1692, sent an epistle to London, setting forth the ill- behavior of Keith, and announcing that he had been disowned. Keith published an "appeal," in contrat- diction of this epistle, which was posted over the city.

At the time of the Yearly Meeting, Keith and his adherents met in the court-house,2 and sent the regu- lar Friends a paper demanding that his " appeal" be

1 Bowden, in hie " Ilistory of the Quakers," says that Keith had sev- enty or eighty followers, but Keith, in hie journal, saye thore were five hundred, and that they had fifteen meeting-places in Pennsylvania and New Jersey. The names of the following Keithinos lo Philadelphia have been preserved: Thomas Budd (anthor of " Good Order Established in Pennsylvania and New Jersey"), Thomas Penrt, Ralph Ward, James Poulter (these four purchased the ground for the meeting-house in trust for the society), John Budd, William Bettridge, William Lee and his wife Joan, Nicholas Plerce, Thomas Tress, Robert Turnor, Griffith Jones, Caleb Wheatley, George Hutchinson, John Hart, John Rush, Nathaniel Walton, Richard Collet, - Johnson, - Jackson, - Foster.

2 Where the court-house was at this time is not knowu. It was prob- ably some building hired for the occasion. Whether the Yearly Meet- Ing was held at the Centre meeting-house or at the "evening meeting" on the hauk, or elsewhere, is also open to conjecture.

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HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.

heard. The paper was presented to the meeting by , northern corner of the present site of the old grave- one of Keith's followers, "who, instead of entering yard,3 and was built of logs chinked with mud and covered with bark. Monthly Meetings were held for Byberry, Oxford, and Cheltenham, and in 1687 one was established at the house of Richard Worrel, Jr. the door to deliver it, climbed up in the meeting- house window, and stood in the window and read his paper with his hat on, while Thomas Janney was at prayer." On the third day of the meeting, Keith, by his own appointment, came to the Yearly Meeting. Friends apprised him that they had fixed the next day to hear his case. Keith and his party insisted upon being heard at once, which being refused, they withdrew in confusion to the court house, from which they sent forth a paper, as from their Yearly Meeting, signed by Robert Turner, Griffith Jones, and others.1

In 1693, Keithi went to London, and ultimately became a member of the Church of England.

As soon as their leader left the country, the " Christian Quakers" began to languish, although they had meeting-houses at Phila- delphia, Burlington, Neshaminy, and else- where. The Keithian Quakers were finally transformed into Keithian Baptists, being also known as Quaker Baptists, from the fact that they retained the language, dress, and manners of Quakers. Some of them also became Seventh Day Baptists and members of other societies.2 In after-years a dispute arose between Christ Church and the Baptist Church as to which had the better right to the lot on Second Street below Mulberry, on which stood the meeting-house of the " Chris- tian Quakers," the controversy being decided in favor of the Baptists.

German Friends are supposed to have established the meeting at Germantown soon after the settle- ment of the German township. The first meetings were held at Tennis Kundert's (Dennis Conrad's) as early as 1683. The Merion meeting-house, built in 1695, in Merion township, at the head of the Philadelphia plank-road, about five miles from the city, is the oldest meeting-house of the Society of Friends now standing in Pennsylvania.4

In the township of Plymouth a meeting is known

FRIENDS' MEETING-HOUSE NEAR MERION.

In 1683 a First-day meeting of Friends was estab- I to have been in existence as early as March, 1699. lished at Tacony, or Frankford, and one at Poques- In the following year a meeting-house was established at North Wales, and meetings held by consent of Haverford Monthly Meeting, to which the members attached themselves. A meeting-house was built in 1700, and the number of members increased so rapidly that in 1712 it was found necessary to erect another and larger meeting-house. sing, or Byberry. A Monthly Meeting for discipline was formed, and held alternately at the houses of John Seary, at Oxford, and John Hart, Poquessing. The weekly meeting of Poquessing was held at Giles Knight's until some time in 1685. Soon after the Poquessing meeting was commenced, a lot of about one acre was set apart as a burial-ground, which, after The first meeting-house, at the corner of Second the defection of Keith, was used only by the Chris- | and High [the present Market] Streets, was built in the year 1695. " It was surmounted, in the centre of its four-angled roof, by a raised frame of glass-work so constructed as to let light down into the meeting below, after the manner of the former Burlington meeting-house." 5 tian Quakers. In 1685 ten acres were given for the same purpose to the Monthly Meeting by Walter Forrest. The land was situated near Poquessing Creek, and was to be conveyed to Joseph Fisher, John Hart, Samnel Ellis, and Giles Knight, in trust ; but whether it was ever used as a place of interment The lot on which it stood was given to George Fox, the land being due to him under a promise from Wil- liam Penn. The latter, however, was very loth to is doubtful. In 1696, John Hart having joined the Keithians, Monthly Meetings of Friends residing in the northern part of Byberry were held in the house of Henry English, who two years before had given $ Dr. J. C. Martindale's History of Byberry and Moreland. an acre of land on his farm in Byberry, on which a log meeting-house was erected. It stood in the

1 Keith continued to frequent the meetings of Friends, calling them "hypocrites, snakes, vipers, bloodthirsty hounds, impudent rascals, aod euch like, bidding them cut him in collops, fry him, and eat him, and saying that his back had long Itched to be whipped."

2 Janney's llistory of Friends.

4 " It is," says W. J. Buck, in his " History of Montgomery County," " in its ground plan in the form of a T. It isa enbstantial stone edifice of one story, or about fourteen feet to the roof, with walls over two feet in thickness. Its greatest length is about thirty-six feet, and the facing southwest is twenty by twenty-four feet. Originally it was stone- pointed, but in repairing it, in 1829, it was plastered over in imitation of large ent stone. It was surrounded by several large, venerable- looking buttonwood-trees."

6 Watson's Annals, vol. I. p. S55.

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give up the land, which was really composed of re- served lots for the use of William Penn, Jr., and his sister Letitia, but which Governor Markham had granted to Friends without consultation with the proprietary.

The building was taken down in 1755, and another erected in its stead. In 1804 the property was sold, and the large meeting-house on Arch Street built.

The first grant of ground at Fourth and Mulberry [Arch] Streets was made, in 1690, to Thomas Fitz- water and Alexander Beardsley for "a piece of ground for a burial-place adjoining another laid out for the same use, bounded by the back of High Street lots and Mulberry Street." This lot and another were confirmed, Oct. 18, 1701, by William Penn to Edward Shippen and Samuel Carpenter, in trust " for the use and behoof of the people called Quakers in Philadel- phia, with whom I am now in communion, and who are and shall be in fellowship with the Yearly Meet- ing of the said Friends at London, for a burying- place," etc. It had a frontage of three hundred and two feet on Arch Street, below which it was of irreg- ular width on the eastern end, being three hundred and fifty-two feet in length on Fourth Street.

In 1703, by direction of the Monthly Meeting in Philadelphia, Nicholas Waln and John Goodson pur- chased four acres of ground for eight pounds current money of Pennsylvania, situated upon the liberty lands, near and upon the road leading from Phila- delphia to Germantown, and afterward known as Fairhill. On the present city plan the lot is situated between Indiana and Cambria Streets and Ninth and Tenth Streets. It was to be held "for the benefit, use, and behoof of the poor people of the said Qua- kers belonging to the said meeting forever, and for a

1 In October, 1703, Penn wrote to James Logan,-

" Look into the first, if not only map of Philadelphia, and there thou wilt find N. N. where our meeting-honse stands, and Thomas Lloyd had a lot, and how it was disposed of, being my son's and daughters High Street lot, reserved by me for their shares, every front lot having s High Street lot belonging to it."

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History of Philadelphia, 1609-1884, Part 91

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