History of Philadelphia, 1609-1884, Part 92

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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In a letter, Sept. 7, 1705, Penn wrote to Logan,-

" As to T. L.'s request to me from Friends with you for land in or near the centre, gratify good friends, but none of the leaven, and what aod where it is, and in whut proportions tell me. I would have it within bounds, and rather to the line, by Schuylkill on the south honads, or the nerth, than in the middle. Let it be ' the gift of William Penn to his dear friend aud George Fox, and George Fox's gift to truth's and Friends' service.'"

On the 14th of September, Penn wrote to Logan,-

" To thy twelfth paragraph about the meeting-house and school lot, I conld wish that some people had exercised some more tenderness toward my poor, suffering, and necessitone circumstances, than in Invading lotts and lunds in nomine domine. . . . However, since 1 will hope the better sort of Friends that seek it, I consent as my gift both thut the meeting- house and school-honse be granted and confirmed to the meeting-house aod school-house and confirmed to the meeting."

On the 21st of September, 1705, he again wrote to Logan,-

"George Fox's lot is n mystery. Would Friends have it in the centre ? What then shall we do with the city ? I will not allow that which tinie may accomplish to be prevented. Take it on the right side or on the left, which yet is irregular. I rather it were ont of my strife. Spring- ettshury, that runs up by the side of the city, and wherever it is, I will have a quit-rent, and recordod my gift to George Fox and his friende."

place to erect a meeting-house and school house on for ye use and service of the said people, and for a place to bury their dead." A few years later a piece of ground adjoining came into possession of the society under the following circumstances:

George Fox, founder of the society, had nominally purchased one thousand acres of land in Pennsyl- vania, and under the concessions and changes subse- quently made, was entitled to sixteen acres of liberty land and two town lots. But Fox really was not a purchaser. William Penn made a gift of the right to take up the land to him. Fox did not receive a patent for his property during his lifetime. He died in 1690, and by his will he gave his lands in Pennsyl- vania to his sons-in-law, Thomas Lower, John Rouse, and Daniel Abraham, and their children, to be equally divided between them; but sixteen acres of it "he gave to Friends there, ten of it for a close to put Friends' horses in when they came afar to the meeting, that they may not be lost in the woods, and the other six for a meeting house and school-house and a burying-place, and for a play-ground for the children in the town to play on, and for a garden to plant with physical plants, for lads and lasses to know simples and learn to make oils and ointments." The heirs of George Fox seemed to have imbibed the idca that there was a promise made to him in his lifetime that his town lots should be in the centre of the city. After his death his devisees and the Yearly Meeting of Friends pressed for the gift under the same cir- cumstances.2

Finally, however, on the 5th of October, 1702, Samuel Carpenter, Isaac Norris, Anthony Morris, David Lloyd, and others wrote to Thomas Lower, of London, proposing that the proprietary, in lieu of the liberty land and town lots, should grant to Friends " twenty acres of land between the Delaware and the Schuylkill, as near the centre as conveniently may be." On the 30th of May, 1703, Penn replied to this proposition that he was willing to have "settled as desired" any part " the very nearest to the town out of the Liberty lands, though it be twenty-five acres." but " no part of the city ground lots, because it would make a perfect overthrow of the city."

As Penn persisted in his refusal, the Friends finally accepted a grant of land in the Northern Liberties, and on the 28th of August, 1705, Penn's commissioners granted by patent to Samuel Carpenter, Anthony Morris, and Richard Hill, in trust for the meeting of Friends, at a quit-rent of two and one-half pence, twenty acres of land in the Northern Libertics, which adjoins the land formerly bought in 1703 for the use of the Monthly Meeting. The whole twenty-four acres at Fairhill were therefore thrown into one tract. At the same time were conveyed, as part of the George Fox gift, a lot on the south side of High Street, be- tween Third and Fourth Streets, thirty-three feet

: Thompson Westcott.

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HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.

front by three hundred and six feet deep, at a rent of fifteen pence,1 and a lot on the west side of Front Street, between Sassafras and Vine Streets, twenty- five feet front by four hundred and twenty-six feet deep to Second Street, at a rent of fifteen pence. Also the bank lot on the river Delaware, in front of the same.

A small meeting-house was built at Fairhill, being located on the present Germantown road, above Cam- bria Street, which was standing in 1876 as the kitchen of a stone house adjoining. It was about twenty-five by fifteen feet, and the front and sides were of alter- nate red and black bricks. On the rear side the black bricks were arranged in lozenge or diamond shapes, a style in vogue between 1700 and 1720.2

Near the meeting-house a graveyard was established, a portion of which now belongs to Fairhill Cemetery. The meeting-house at Fairhill must have been built between 1706 and 1709.3

Plymouth meeting-house, in Plymouth township, was built some time after the Haverford Monthly Meeting, in 1703, gave its consent to Friends to hold meetings at the house of Hugh Jones, from which in a few years they were removed to that of John Cartledge. In 1858 the building, which is of stone, one story high, was repaired, and a gallery placed in the east end.

In 1715 the Friends of Plymouth and Gwynedd Meetings were constituted a Monthly Meeting for business, by consent of Haverford Monthly Meeting and Philadelphia Quarterly Meeting.

The meeting at Horsham was settled on the 24th of September, 1716, and after some time a meeting- house was built. In 1701 it was agreed in the Monthly Meeting at Byberry " that a Preparative Meeting be established at Byberry, to be held on the weekly meeting day that happened next before the Monthly Meeting, and that those Friends that are appointed as overseers do attend to that service." This meeting continued for many years. In 1714, the old meeting- house at Byberry being no longer tenable, a new house was erected on the land (one acre) given by Henry English. It was of stone, thirty-five by fifty feet,

two stories high, and situated a few feet to the east of the old structure. In 1720 a school-house of logs and about eighteen feet square was erected near the meeting-house. The principal minister at Byberry Meeting between 1700 and 1725 is believed to have been William Walton, who died in 1736.

A Seventh-day (Saturday) Morning Meeting was established by the Yearly Meeting at Philadelphia in 1701. " .. . These meetings, after the official ap- pointment of elders, became meetings of ministers and elders, and after being held in Philadelphia on Seventh days for about fifty years were changed to Second days. It is said that after this change it be- came customary to review some of the public dis- courses that had been delivered the preceding day."4

The Meeting for Sufferings had its origin in a reso- lution of the Yearly Meeting of Friends at Philadel- phia, in 1705, appointing Thomas Story, Samuel Jennings, Griffith Owen, Edward Shippen, and Thomas Gardner correspondents with other Yearly Meetings, with the view of collecting accounts of the sufferings and trials of Friends in maintenance of the faith. In 1709 it was decided that a committee of eight Friends should have power " to peruse writings and manuscripts, with power to correct what may not be for the service of truth, otherwise to not suffer anything to be printed." This power of supervision, which at this day seems strangely arbitrary, was exer- cised by the Friends' committee from 1718 to 1722.5

The following ministering Friends from abroad visited the meetings in Philadelphia and Pennsylva- nia during the years from 1701 to 1726: John Rich- ardson, 1701 ; John Estaugh, 1701 ; John Salkeld, 1701; Thomas Chalkley, 1701, who settled in Phila- delphia and became a noted man in the province ; Samuel Bownas, 1702; Thomas Wilson and James Dickerson, 1713-14; Thomas Thompson, Josiah Lan- dale, and Benjamin Holme, 1715; John Appleton, 1720; John Fothergill and William Armistead, 1721.

George Keith, who had caused so much trouble among the Philadelphia Friends some years before, again came to the surface in 1702-3. He was now a minister of the Church of England, and, in company with the Rev. Mr. Talbot, returned to Philadelphia on missionary service. He preached at Christ Church, but occasionally attempted to interfere with the Friends by appearing at their meetings in order to read "remarks," and engage them in discussion. On one occasion, according to the Logan papers, he had " a public dispute with himself" in Whitepain's great house.6 During his stay in Philadelphia several

1 This lot on High Street was where " Franklin Place" afterward went through, and was at one time the property of Benjamin Franklin. The meeting of Friends subsequently had some trouble about all of these properties. The heirs of George Fox in 1767 claimed all the property under the patent to Carpenter, Morris, and Hill, alleging that George Fox'e right was never duly conveyed to them. The matter was com- promised by the payment at that time of five hnodred pounds, aod the property confirmed to the then owners.

2 Thompson Westcott, in making this assertion, Hdds: " The diamond- shape lozenge of black-headed brick is to be found npon Trinity Church, Oxford, built in 1709; Plain Pleasant House, Passynuk road, near Brond Street, built in 1701; upon a building in Mickles' Court, running from south side of Arch Street west of Second; on Fairhill meeting-house, and the farm-house of the Norris Fairhill mansion, to which the dute of erection is assigned 1717. There may be other in- stances of the use of this ornaoient in Philadelphia unknown to the writer."

3 In a deed fiom Arnold Cassel to Isaac Norris, Jan. 19, 1709, the ground is described As " lying contiguous and adjoining the Fairhill meeting-house land."

4 Janney's History of the Religions Society of Friends.

5 Thompson Westcott.

6 " Whitepain's great house," says Thompson Westcott, " was built by Richard Whitepain, on the east side of Front Street, below Walnut, as early as 1685. It was a very large honse, and it was recommended by Penn, in 1687, that it should be taken for public service. It is prob- ehle that the Assembly sat in it in 1695 and in 1701. This house was built with oyster-shell lime, and the walls fell down gradnelly in 1707, 1708, and 1709."

1247

RELIGIOUS DENOMINATIONS.

pamphlets were published by the friends and enemies of Keith, and a spirited controversy was carried on.

From 1701 to 1726 the Society of Friends suffered considerably from the efforts of those who desired the supremacy of the Church of England in Pennsyl- vania to dispossess Penn of his proprietary rights and bring the province under royal authority and control. The Lieutenant-Governors were all church- men and sympathized with the movement, which was strengthened by the opposition of the Provincial As- sembly, then under the control of the Quakers, to the establishment of a militia or the voting of supplies for military purposes to the government. Among the measures aimed at the Quakers the most serious was the extension, in 1715, to the colonies, for five years, of the statute of 7 and 8 William III., which pro- vided that no Quaker "could be qualified or per- mitted to give evidence in any criminal case or serve on juries, or hold any place or office of profit in the government." At this time almost all the offices in the province were filled by Quakers, and as the Gov- ernor (Gookin) held the opinion that the act repealed the provincial law permitting affirmations instead of oaths, and disqualified Quakers from giving testimony in criminal cases, sitting on juries, or holding office, the judges of the Supreme Court hesitated to proceed in the discharge of their official duties. The troubles and uncertainty on this point continued throughout the administration of Gookin, and were not settled finally until 1725, when an act of Assembly, passed May 9, 1721, embodying the principles as to affirma- tions which bad always been prevalent in Pennsyl- vania, was ratified by the Privy Council. The act was strongly antagonized by the Church of England party, and in 1723 Christ Church sent a memorial to the Assembly protesting "against the omission of the sacred name in affirmations." But, as we have seen, the act was sustained by the Privy Council, and the Yearly Meeting was so grateful for the concession that it prepared and transmitted to England an address of thanks to the king.

In 1706 an effort was made to obtain the passage of a law confirming Friends in their titles, which rested upon an unsafe tenure, to meeting-houses and other places of burial and worship, and in January of that year the Assembly passed a bill " for the confirmation of gifts, grants, and conveyances to religious meet- ings, schools, towns, villages, and counties in this province, and their sales and grants." Objection to this bill was made in the Council by Governor Evans, who finally refused to approve it at that session. The matter remained in abeyance for many years, during which period "the religious meeting-houses of Pro- testant dissenting subjects," as the Assembly in a remonstrance to Governor Gookin, in 1709, expressed it, were "left exposed to the danger of the statute of mortmain."

The question of the right of Quakers to wear hats in courts of justice was another subject of contro-

versy about this time. In Governor Keith's Court of Chancery, in 1720, John Kinsey, a Quaker lawyer, appeared " with his hat on his head, according to the usual manner of that people." He was ordered to take it off but refused, and the hat was removed by an officer of the court. The Quakers remonstrated with the Governor, who was informed, in an address signed by Richard Hill, Richard Hayes, Morris Morris, Anthony Morris, Evan Evans, John Goodson, Rowland Ellis, Reese Thomas, Samuel Preston, and William Hudson, that the removal of Kinsey's hat was "altogether new and unprecedented in this prov- ince," and a transaction which had "a tendency to the subversion of our religious liberties." In com- pliance with the request of the memorialists, the Gov- ernor promulgated a rule for the Court of Chancery, permitting Quakers to appear in court " without being obliged to observe the usual ceremony of uncovering their heads by having their hats taken off."

This was a small thing, but as in small things, so in great. They insisted uniformly that loyalty and conformity were two different things. Their duty compelled them to loyal obedience and respect for the powers of the realm, but their conscience forbade them to conform to and to do anything that bore the character of resistance. In a despotism their pas- sive resistance would have amounted itself to rebel- lion and an attitude of war against the State. But the Quakers have not always been logical,-no sec- taries ever were, perhaps; consistent with them- selves, however, they ever were, and the record of their relations to church and State and their sub- mission to conscience during the period under review, is highly honorable. We have already seen, in a previous chapter, how they dealt with Governor Fletcher when he attempted to force them to con- tribute to war revenue. In 1706, Governor Evans tried to rouse them to make provision for the defense of the province, by fair means and foul. The Quaker majority in Council and Assembly baffled him at every point. They refused to discuss the questions propounded by him, assuming that there could he but one answer, and, therefore, discussion would but injure them by seeming to set thein wrong. This was most ingenious, since it prevented Evans from getting hold of a single declaration as a point upon which to attack them. In the time of Governor Gookin, they resisted as much, but in a different way. They were very sensible, they said, that the queen, their gra- cious sovereign, had been at a great expense in carry- ing out her war policy, " and were it not that the rais- ing of money to hire men to fight or kill one another is matter of conscience to us, and against our re- ligions principles, we should not be wanting, accord- ing to our small abilities, to contribute to these designs." As it was, they did not look upon the province as being in any danger, they could not give money for war, but they could vote the queen five hundred pounds to show their gratitude to her for

1248

HISTORY OF PHILADELPHIA.

her great and many favors. They would like to give more, but they were poor, taxes had been misapplied, their losses had been great, trade was depressed, prices for products low, etc.

In 1727, Samuel Bownas, a distinguished member of the society, made his second visit to America, and during his stay in Philadelphia noticed what he thought to be a falling off in the spirit of the Friends since his visit twenty years before. The meetings, however, were large, and he observed that "there was a fine living people amongst them, and they were in a thriving, good way." In Pennsylvania at that time (1727-28), he said, there were thirteen meeting- houses. Among other prominent members of the society from abroad who visited Pennsylvania about this time were Mungo Bewley, Paul Johnson, and Samuel Stephens, of Ireland; Alice Anderson and Hannah Dent, of Yorkshire; and Margaret Cope- land, of Westmoreland, all in 1732; John Burton, of Yorkshire, William Backhouse, of Lancashire, and Joseph Gill, of Dublin, in 1734; and John Fother- gill, who made his third and last visit to the colonies in 1736, remaining until 1738.1

1 In the manuscript journal of John Smith, a minister of the society, the following list is given of persons who preached or prayed at the meetings in Philadelphia and vicinity in 1746, with the number of times each did so:

MEN.

WOMEN.

Michael Lightfoot .. 69

Hannah Cooper 1

William Iammans ..

Eliza Shipley

Isauc DAVIS ..

1 Eliza Wyatt

6 Jane Hoskins.

Thomas Gawthrop.

10 Aon Roberts

Abraham Farrington.

7 Ano Moore.

Mordecai Yarnall

5 Susanna Morris

John Griffith

Eliza Pennock

Thomas Brown.

18 Joyce Benezet.

Daniel Stanton.

69 Eliza Sullivan

John Churchnat

4 Esther White

William Brown

4 Rebecca Minshall 8

Jacob Howell

3 Hannah Jenkinson.

John Sykes

5 Mary Emlen 14

4 Ann Scoffield.

Thomas Wood,

Phebe Lancaster.

Thomas Russ.

Widow Mendenhall. 1

Jushha Johnston

2 Sarah Morris

Hugh Fontk.

1 Mary Smith. 1

Juhu Woolman

1 Eliza Stevens.

Issac Andrews.

Mary Marriott.

Samuel Jordan

27 Phebe Smith.

2 5

Joseph Jones.

1 M. Pennell's daughter

Samuel Abbott

Widow Mittlin 4

Samuel Pennock

6 Eliza Evans. 7 5

Joshua Lord.

1 Rebecca Bryan.

John Stackhouse

2 Ann Pierce .. 5

Josiah White

2 Ann Widowfield 11

Joseph England

Mary Wala, Jr. 4

Joshua Gilt

422

Sarah Banks 4 Sarah Lewis .. 42

Joshua Streeve.

Robert French.

In all. 268

O. Barton.

Benjamin Fell

Thomas Lewis.

Stranger.

Edward Whitcraft. 2

Alexander Crukshank's ap- prentice . G

In all 376

Women 268

Total 644

During the period under consideration (1725-51) occurred the death of the following members.of the society who attained to prominence as ministers or elders in or near Philadelphia :

Robert Fletcher, of Abington, August, 1726 ; Eliza- beth Webb, Nov. 6, 1726 ; Caleb Pusey ( Feb. 25, 1727, in his seventy-sixth year). He was one of the first settlers in 1682, and partner with William Penn in the mill at Chester, author of tracts against George Keith, and a member of the Council and Assembly ; Hannah Hill (Feb. 25, 1727), danghter of Thomas Lloyd, a native of Montgomeryshire, in Wales; she came to Philadelphia with her parents, married John Delaval, a minister of the society, and ten years after his death, in 1693, married Richard Hill, a leading merchant; Richard Hill (died in 1729) was for twenty-five years a member of the Governor's Conn- cil, several times a member and Speaker of the Gen- eral Assembly, and for ten years judge of the Pro- vincial Court; Dennis Conrad, of Germantown, died in 1729. At his house the first meeting of German- town Friends was held; Isaac Norris, 1735, a mer- chant, who emigrated from Jamaica, many times a member of the Assembly, and at the time of his death chief justice of Pennsylvania; Edward Jones, of Merion, February, 1737, in his seventy-sixth year ; Robert Evans, of North Wales, in March, 1738, aged over eighty ; Benjamin Humphreys, of Merion (Nov. 4, 1738), who came over in 1683; John Salkeld, at Chester, Nov. 29, 1739, aged nearly sixty-eight,-he was a prominent minister among the early Friends, and had traveled in England, Scotland, and Ireland, preaching the doctrines of his sect ; Thomas Chalk- ley, while " itinerating" at the island of Tortola, Nov. 4, 1741, in his sixty-seventh year; originally a mari- ner, Chalkley was a man of great importance and in- fluence in the society, and an indefatigable preacher, making long voyages in his vessel, and thus dis- charging both religious and business duties, he set- tled near Frankford, where his memory is preserved by his house, Chalkley Hall ; Thomas Story, at Car- lisle, England, in 1742, he had held various civil offices, and was greatly trusted by Penn; John Cad- walader, of Abington Monthly Meeting, at Tortola, in October, 1742; John Estaugh, of Haddonfield, N. J., a frequent visitor and preacher at the Phila- delphia meetings, Dec. 6, 1742, in the sixty-seventh year of his age; Robert Jordan, died October, 1742, in his forty-ninth year. He was a native of Nanse- mond County, Va., horn in 1693, a traveling preacher, came to Philadelphia in 1730, and married Mary, the widow of Richard Hill.

John Oxley, of Barbadocs, died while on a visit to Philadelphia in 1743. He was born at Chester, Pa., but had resided most of his time in the West Indies; Samuel Preston, Sept. 7, 1743, in his seventy-ninth year, born in Maryland, came to Pennsylvania after 1701, was a member of the Governor's Council, and for many years treasurer of the province, married,

Peter Andrews. Margaret Ellis 5

Richard Symmons

3 Mary Waln

Alexander Senton

1 .Jane Ellis

Hannah Harris

Benjamin Trotter 59

Jacob Holcombe.

1 Strangers ...

Andrew Cranmer

-- Durbrugh

- Cowperthwait. 1

Abraham Griffith

John Laycork

Peter Fearn.

Eliza Hudson

Joseph Hoskins

1 Hannah Hulford

13 13 7

John Wright

9 Evan Eval18 ..

1249

RELIGIOUS DENOMINATIONS.

first, Rachel Lloyd, daughter of Thomas Lloyd, and second, Margaret, widow of Josiah Langdale; Ann Roberts, June 4, 1750, in her seventy-third year, having been a minister fifty years. She was a native of Wales, who, after her arrival in Pennsylvania, set- tled at Gwynedd. She traveled, preaching, not only through the American provinces, but in England and Wales.

The wars in which Great Britain was engaged about this time necessitated frequent demands upon the Assembly for pecuniary aid ; but the majority being | Nov. 2, 1738, a statement denying that Lay's book Quakers, could not conseientiously vote appropria- tions for military purposes. Eventually a way out of the difficulty was found by nominally denying military aid, but voting presents of money for the king, which it was well known would be applied to the support of the army. The opposition of Friends In 1739, 1741, and 1742 the Yearly Meeting re- peated its advice against the importation of negroes, or buying them after they were imported. to the military establishment would appear, indeed, to have been more formal than real, and qualified, to a great extent, by prudential considerations; for, when necessary, they exhibited no hesitation in ac- cepting the protection of the army or navy. The formal testimonies of the society, however, continued to be given against war.

The attitude of the society toward the institution of slavery began to be defined at an early day. At first, however, the progress was gradual. The pro- test of the German Friends of Germantown against slavery, in 1688, failed to produce more than a deela- ration in 1696, after eight years of delay, that Friends should "be careful not to encourage the bringing in of any more negroes," but the holding in slavery of such as were already in the province was not dis- conraged. In 1711 the Friends of Chester Quarterly Meeting declared their dissatisfaction with Friends buying and encouraging the bringing in of negroes, and " desire the care of this meeting concerning it." After a due consideration of the matter, the meeting, " considering that other Friends in many other places are concerned in it as much as we are, advises that Friends may be careful, according to a former minute of the Yearly Meeting (1696), not to encourage the bringing in of any more, and that all merchants and factors write to their correspondents to discourage them from sending any more." In 1715 the Phila- delphia Yearly Meeting advised that Friends con- cerned in the importation of slaves " should be dealt with;" but in 1716, after confirming the minute of 1715, the meeting recommended that Friends "avoid buying such negroes as shall hereafter be brought in rather than offend any Friends that are against it," adding " this is only caution, and not censure." In 1719 the advice against importing slaves was repeated, and ten years later, in 1729, appeared the first treatise against slavery known to have been published in any part of the world. It was entitled " A Brief Exami- nation of the Practice of the Times," and was written by Ralph Sandiford, and printed against the consent of the society, the overseers of the press having re-

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History of Philadelphia, 1609-1884, Part 92

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