USA > Pennsylvania > Bucks County > The history of Bucks County, Pennsylvania : from the discovery of the Delaware to the present time > Part 17
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HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
Pennsbury. Among the visitors at Pennsbury was deputy-Governor Hamilton and Judge Guest. In August, 1700, the daughter of Edwin Shippen was a visitor at the manor, and returned to Phila- delphia in a boat with John Sotcher.
The contemporaries of Penn have left but little record of domestic life at the manor. Isaac Norris says, in a letter written while the Penns resided at Pennsbury : "The governor's wife and daughter are well; their little son is a lovely babe ; his wife is extremely well- beloved here, and exemplary in her station, and of an excellent spirit, which adds lustre to her character, and she has a great place in the hearts of good people." And again : "Their little son has much of his father's grace and air, and hope he will not want a good portion of his mother's sweetness." The "lovely babe" was John Penn, the eldest son of the founder, by his second wife, and was called " the American," because he was born in this country, at the manor house, the 31st of 11th month, 1699. Mrs. Deborah Logan says : "A traditionary account, heard in my youth from an aged woman, an inhabitant of Bucks county, has just now occurred to my memory. She went, when a girl, with a basket containing a rural present to the Proprietary's mansion, and saw his wife, a delicate and pretty woman, sitting beside the cradle of her infant." In the summer of 1700 the provincial council met at the manor house; Penn had hurt his leg and could not go to them, hence he caused them to be met with a boat at Burlington, and brought to him. His wife wrote Logan to get " a little more oil from Ann Parsons," to apply to the injured limb of the governor. This was probably the occasion of an Indian treaty, as he orders rum and match coats to be bought for it. There is a tradition, that when the Indians came to visit him at Pennsbury, William Penn joined them in their sports and games, and ate hominy, venison and roasted acorns with them. He is said to have matched them in strength and agility. No less than nineteen Indians treaties were concluded, and conferences held, at Pennsbury. When William Penn, jr., was there, in 1703, a large deputation of chiefs came to see him. Thomas and John Penn had several conferences with them at the manor house before the treaty at Durham in 1734, and in May, 1735, they again met the Indians there to consider the terms of the "Walking Purchase."
We have record of several marriages at Pennsbury. The first was that of William Berry, of Kent county, Delaware, to Naomy Wally, probably the daughter of Shadrick Wally, of Newtown, the
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HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
9th of September, 1686; the second was that of John Sotcher to Mary Lofty, in 1701, and the third and last, of which we have an account, was the marriage of Clement Plumstead, of Philadelphia, to Sarah Righton, formerly Riddle, in March, 1704. The latter was attended by William Penn, jr., and Judge Mompesson. About the 1st of September, 1700, William Penn sent a couple of young tame foxes to John Askew, a merchant of London. No doubt they were Bucks county foxes, and possibly their descendants yet contribute to the sport of England's nobility and gentry. In the summer of 1701 Penn visited the Susquehanna to confer with the Indians, no doubt passing up through the county and crossing the Lehigh between its mouth and Bethlehem, or in that region. He returned by way of Conestoga. The manor was not free from the depredations of horse thieves, and while Penn resided there one John Walsh drove off his roan mare and colt, and a brown gelding, which gave him occasion to write to John Moore, to get the thief indicted, for "it is too much a practice to think it no fault to cheat the governor."
William Penn was much interested in agriculture, and loved a rural life. He designed the island neighboring to Pennsbury, now Newbold's or Biddle's island, for feeding young cattle and a stud of mares. In the conveyance of an island to Thomas Fairman, it was stipulated that Penn should mow it for his own use, and keep hogs on it until it was drained and improved.
The presence of the Proprietary was now required in England, and he made his arrangements to return in the fall of 1701. John Sotcher was to bring him from Philadelphia, among other things, "his hair trunk, leather stockings, and twelve bottles of Madeira wine." He thought at first of leaving his wife and daughter behind, but they protested, and he took them with him. "Previous to em- barking for England, William Penn assembled a large company of Indians at Pennsbury, to re-view the covenants they had made with him. The council was held in the great hall of the manor house. The Indians declared they had never broken a covenant, which they made in their hearts and not in their heads. After the business had been transacted Penn made them presents of match coats and other articles. Afterward the Indians went out into the courtyard to perform their worship. John Richardson, a distinguished Eng- lish Friend, who was traveling in Pennsylvania, spent two or three days at the manor house, and witnessed the council, etc. He thus described their worship:
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HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
"First they made a small fire, and then the men without the wo- men sat down about it in a ring, and whatever object they severally fixed their eyes on, I did not see them move them in all that part of their worship, while they sang a very melodious hymn, which affected and tendered the hearts of many who were spectators. When they had thus done they began to beat upon the ground with little sticks, or make some motion with something in their hands, and pause a little, till one of the elder sort sets forth his hymn, fol- lowed by the company for a few minutes, and then a pause ; and the like was done by another, and so by a third, and followed by the company as at the first, which seemed exceedingly to affect them and others. Having done, they rose up and danced a little about the fire, and parting with some shouting, like triumph or rejoicing." When asked what they understood by eternity or a future state, they explained, through the interpreter, that those who had been guilty of theft, swearing, lying, murder, etc., went into a very cold country, where they had neither good fat venison, nor match coats, but those who died innocent of these offenses went into a fine warm country where they had good fat venison, and good match coats. They explained their idea of God by making several circles on the ground, each succeeding one being smaller, when they placed Penn in the middle circle so that he could see over all the others. He was made to represent the Almighty overlooking all the earth.
When William Penn was making his arrangements to return to England, he proposed leaving Pennsbury in charge of John Sotcher and Mary Lofty.3 John came to America, with Penn, in 1701, and stood to him in the double relation of servant and friend. He and Mary equally enjoyed the confidence and respect of the great founder, and Penn wrote him repeatedly with directions for the management of the estate. Hesaid they are "as good servants as any in America." At Falls meeting, September 4th, 1701, John announced his inten- tion of taking Mary to wife, and Joseph Kirkbride and Mary Sirket were appointed to examine the matter and report at the next meet- ing. William Penn, present at the meeting, stated that as he pro- posed leaving his affairs at Pennsbury in their hands, and as the season hurried his departure, he desired to see the marriage accom- plished before he left the country. The meeting was adjourned one week to give the committee time to examine the case and report,
3 This name is found written Lofty, Loftie, and Loftus, but Lofty is probably the correct spelling.
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HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
and Phineas Pemberton, Joseph Kirkbride, Richard Hough and Samuel Dark were appointed to draw the certificate. The com- mittee making a favorable report, and a certificate from Penn and his wife being read, the monthly meeting, held the 8th of October, gave its consent to the marriage. The certificate bears date Oc- tober 16th, and is witnessed by some of the leading men of the province, including the governor, wife and daughter.+ The mar- riage took place at Pennsbury, and is the only one William Penn is known to have attended in this county.5 Letitia made the bride a present of a chest of drawers that cost £7. Penn and his wife took a certificate from Falls meeting, while their daughter Letitia took hers from Philadelphia. The latter set forth, that to the best of their knowledge "she is not under any marriage engagement."
John and Mary Sotcher 6 had four children, Hannah, Mary, Ann and Robert. Hannah married Joseph Kirkbride in 1720, Mary married Mahlon Kirkbride in 1724, Ann married Mark Watson in 1728, and Robert married out of meeting in 1731, and was dealt with. They were the great-grandparents of the mother of Anthony Burton, of Bristol, who preserves the marriage certificate. The wife of Doctor Cernea, of Buckingham, is a descendant through the Kirk- brides. John Sotcher went to England in 1702, to receive a legacy left him by his brother, leaving his wife in charge of Pennsbury. He was a member of assembly in 1722, and died in 1729. He was in Penn's service about ten years, and on leaving in 1709, probably moved on to a plantation near by intended for John Penn, jr. When Sotcher and Logan had their first settlement in 1705, there was due the former £65, Pennsylvania currency.
William Penn fook passage in the ship Dolmahoy, for London,
4 In addition to the Penns were the following signatures : Samuel Jennings, Phin- eas Pemberton, Joseph Kirkbride, Joseph Langdale, Richard Gore, Joseph Shippen, Solomon Warder, William Hackett, Richard Cocks, Richard Hough, James Logan, Peter Worrell, Job Bunting, Samuel Burges, John Burges, and several women.
5 Watson, in his "Annals of Philadelphia," says that Amor Preston, the ancestor of the Prestons of Bucks county, married his wife at or near Pennsbury, in the presence of William Penn and many Indians, and gives her statement of his appearance and behavior. This account has been accepted, but on investigation I find it not true. In December, 1710, Amor Preston married Esther Large, on authority granted by Falls meeting, and as Penn had then been nine years in England, he could not have been present at the ceremony. As the marriage is on record in the meeting, the date no doubt is correct. The error in this statement throws doubt on all Mr. Watson says about Mrs. Preston. We shall have more to say on this subject in a future chapter.
6 She probably came from Bristol, England, where she had a brother settled in trade.
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HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
in November, 1701, after a residence of nearly two years at the manor house. He engaged the whole of the cabin for himself and family, at fifty guineas. They went down the river in a yacht, to New Castle, where the ship lay, accompanied by James Logan and other friends. They were safe on board on the 3d, whence Penn addressed his parting instructions to his faithful secretary. Logan was charged to send all the goods at the town house up to Penns- bury, except enough to furnish a room for himself; and he was re- quested " to give a small treat " in the Proprietary's name to the gentlemen of Philadelphia, for a beginning to a better understanding. His lovely seat on the Delaware was in the thoughts of William Penn to the last, for at the foot of these instructions he writes : " Remember J. Sotcher and Pennsbury." Had he realized at that moment, that he had left his home in Bucks county forever, sadder yet would have been his thoughts as he sailed down the Delaware. The Dolmahoy had a safe passage, and reached Portsmouth in thirty days. Among the bills Penn left unpaid, for Logan to settle, was the butcher's, of £60, and the baker's, of £80, so much was he strait- ened for ready money. Among the articles Penn left behind, at Pennsbury, were two pipes of Madeira wine, and in a letter to Logan, dated September 7, 1705, he wants one of them sent to him, in England.
Among the distinguished persons who visited Pennsbury, after Penn had left, was Lord Cornbury, governor of New York, in June, 1702. He came to Burlington to proclaim Queen Anne. Governor Hamilton and party met him at Crosswicks, and invited him to visit Pennsylvania. Logan, who was up at Pennsbury, hastened down to Philadelphia to provide for his entertainment, and a dinner, "equal to anything he had seen in America," was prepared for him and his retinne. He lodged at Edward Shippen's, and the next day he dined there with his company. On his return up the river from Burlington to the falls, on the 24th, he paid a visit to Pennsbury. Logan sent up wine and "what could be got," and was there to receive his guest. Lord Cornbury was attended up the river by four boats besides his own, including the Governor's barge, and ar- rived about ten in the morning, with a suite of fifty persons. James Logan, in a letter to Penn, says of the dinner : " With Mary's 7 great diligence, and all our care, we got really a handsome country entertainment, which, though much inferior to those at Philadelphia
7 Mary Sotcher, the housekeeper.
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HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
for cost, etc., yet, for decency and good order, gave no less satisfac- tion." In September 1704, Lord Cornbury again visited Pennsbury accompanied by his wife, when they were entertained by William Penn, jr. At this period the manor was noted for its apple orchard, and the quality of its " pearmains and golden pippins." Within a few years past the present owner has exhibited "Pennsbury pip- pins" at our agricultural fairs.
In 1703 William Penn sent his son William, a wild youth, to Pennsylvania, hoping the associates of the father would have a good influence over him. He came commended to the care of James Logan, to whom Penn wrote : "Take him immediately away to Pennsbury, and there give him the true state of things, and weigh down his levities, as well as temper, his resentments, and form his understanding since all depends upon it, as well for his future hap- piness, as in measure the poor country. Watch him, out-wit him, and honestly over-reach him for his own good. Fishing, little journeys, (as to see the Indians, etc.,) will divert him; no rambling to New York, nor mongrel correspondence." Logan carried out the instructions, and young Penn was soon under the peaceful roof at Penns bury. He brought two or three couple of choice hounds, " for deer, foxes, and wolves," and his father wrote to have John Sotcher quarter them about "as with young Biles, etc." Young Penn received the congratulations of his father's friends ; and when the Indians heard that the young Proprietary had arrived they sent a deputation of an hundred warriors, with nine kings to Pennsbury, to tender their welcome. They presented him some belts of wam- pum, in proof of their good will. He made a favorable impression, for Samuel Preston wrote Jonathan Dickinson, " our young land- lord, in my judgment, discovers himself his father's eldest son ; his person, his sweetness of temper and elegance of speech are no small demonstrations of it." He spent most of his time in Philadelphia, where he played some wild capers. Neither the devotion of Logan, the interest of his father's friends in his welfare, nor the pure atmos- phere of Pennsbury, had the desired effect. He fell again into evil habits, and returning to England. in the fall of 1704, he died in disgrace in France, a few years later. The waywardness of this favorite son almost broke his father's heart.
After Penn's return to England, Pennsbury had an ever abiding presence in his mind, and for years he looked forward to his return, and making it his permanent residence. It was evidently the home
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HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
of his affections. It was the text of much of his correspondence with Logan. He wrote him, June 4th, 1702: "Pennsbury ! I would be glad to hear how things are there ; the family, fruit, corn and improvements." He wants Logan to keep up things at Penns- bury, and orders fruit and other trees planted in the fields, at the distance of forty or fifty feet apart, so as not to hurt the grass nor corn. He continued to send out shrubs and trees, and gave direc- tions how to plant them. In 1705 he writes to Logan, "not so much neglect the gardens at Pennsbury, as to let them run to ruin ;" and again, not to let him be put to any more expense on account of Pennsbury, but only "to keep it in repair, and that its produce may maintain it." The manor could not have been very profitable, as a farm, for in 1704 John Sotcher could not make his own wages out of it, though Logan wrote Penn that with that exception it cleared itself. Penn evidently expected to return as late as 1708, when he wrote to James Logan, "let William Walton, that comes from Bristol, keep all in order till we come."
Penn did not live to return to his beloved Pennsylvania, for which he longed for years, but spent the remainder of his days in England, surrounded by a sea of troubles and vexations. He died betweon two and three o'clock on the morning of the 30th of July, 1718, and his body was brought from Rushbe to Jordan's, in Bucks' on the 5th of August, and there buried in the presence of a large concourse of spectators. His grave is marked by a stone with his name and date of death. His second wife, Hannah Callowhill, was buried in the same grave. In close proximity are ten other tomb- stones marking the resting places of his family and friends, with them Isaac Pennington, the son of a lord-mayor of London, and Thomas Ellwood, who read to Milton, in the cottage at Chalfont, after he was struck with blindness, and who suggested to him the writing of "Paradise Regained." It has been thought that their persecutions while in life induced these Friends to select this quiet place for burial.
Pennsbury house was kept up several years after Penn went to England, in 1701, waiting his return to spend the remainder of his days there. The furniture was long preserved,8 but was finally sold and distributed through Bucks county and elsewhere. But few
Under date of May 11th, 1721, Logan writes to Hannah Penn, "I have lately sent for the books hither, but the goods, after about twenty years age added to them, thou may assure thyself are not much improved."
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HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
pieces can be traced at this late day. Samuel Coats, of Philadelphia, purchased William Penn's secretary of John Penn, but we do not know what has become of it. After the death of James Logan many of the goods at Pennsbury were sold at public sale by an agent of the family. A gold-headed cane that belonged to the Proprietary was bought by a farmer of Bucks county. The clock that marked the time in the great hall at Pennsbury stands in the Philadelphia library, while Penn's chair is at the Pennsylvania hospital. Mrs. Alfred Blaker, of Newtown, has one of the parlor chairs, elaborately carved, with a high straight back, and a venerable look. One chamber, in particular, was kept handsomely furnished, and hung with tapestry, for the accommodation of the family descendants should any of them return. This room came to be looked upon with curiosity and suspicion, and was called " a haunted chamber." It became musty from non-use, and the rich hangings covered with dust and cobwebs. Another room was kept furnished for the agent of the family when he visited the estate, and the beds and linen are described as having been excellent. Visitors generally carried away some relic of the place, and bits of curtains and bed- covers may yet be found in the collections of the curious. Mrs. Deborah Logan9 remembered visiting the house on one occasion, with her mother, and bringing away a piece of old bed-spread, of holland, closely wrought with the needle in green silk, and said to have been the work of Penn's daughter Letitia. For many years Pennsbury was a place of resort for strangers who wished to view the home of the founder of Pennsylvania, who spread their refresh- ments under the large walnut trees that had shaded Penn and his family. The building fell into premature decay from injury re- ceived from leakage of the leaden reservoir on the roof. It was pulled down, to re-build, just before the Revolution, but the war prevented it.
When John Sotcher left Pennsbury in 1709, James Logan en- tered into an agreement to lease it to Colonel Quarry, an officer of the customs at Philadelphia. The term was for seven years, at £40 a year, and he to keep the buildings in repair, with the condition that in case William Penn should return, Colonel Quarry was to have six months notice to leave. He was to buy the stock, and hire the negroes, if he and Logan could agree upon terms. The lease fell
9 Daughter of Charles Norris, whose first wife was Margaret, daughter of Doctor Rodmau, of Bucks county.
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HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
through on account of Penn's controversy with the Fords, who claimed the fee to the territory. The place at this time was some- what out of repair, if we may judge by what was to be done before Colonel Quarry moved in. Logan was "to repair the windows and make one new door to the lower chamber at the foot of the stairs, and to lay the upper floor of the outhouse, and run one partition ; to repair the garden fences, and to build up the wall before the front at the descending steps." The falling down of the wall in front of the house had allowed the rains to wash away the earth hauled to raise the yard.
The years 1702 and 1703 were unhealthy. In the winter the small-pox 10 prevailed with severity in Bucks county, and the follow- ing summer a "distemper "n broke out, which carried off a number of the inhabitants. The summer of 1704 was the hottest and dryest since the province was settled, yet there were good crops. The pre- vious winter is noted for deep snows and cold weather, unknown to the oldest inhabitants.
Within a few years after the settlement of the province, great trouble and inconvenience were found in the transfer of real estate, by reason of the discrepancy between the quantity called for in the warrant, and that returned in the survey. To remedy the difficulty, the commissioners of property ordered a re-survey of all the lands taken up, and a warrant was issued to John Cutler,12 surveyor of Bucks county, August 11th, 1702. In the warrant he was directed to re-survey only the lands of Bristol and Falls township, but by this and subsequent warrants he re-surveyed all the seated lands in the county. We have not been able to find a complete record of this work, and what we give below is only a partial return of all the townships except Bristol, one of the two mentioned in the warrant of August 11th. The "lands adjacent" to Wrightstown embraced the territory now Buckingham and Solebury, and those "adjacent" to Southampton and Warminster were Northampton, Warwick and War- rington, none of them yet organized into townships. The surveyors were ordered to make their surveys according to the lines by which the lands were granted by the Proprietary. A number of new sur- veys were reported without the names of the townships being men- tioned, which we suppose were made in territory not yet organized.
10 Three of the Yardleys died of small-pox.
1 Supposed to have been the yellow fever.
12 His commission was dated March 10th, 1702.
13
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HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY.
Falls, Jeffrey Hawkins 555, Joseph Wood 590, and Robert Lucas 322 acres ; Makefield, Miller's heirs 1,108, Thomas Janney 4,450, Henry Marjarum 350, John Snowden 421, Peter Worral 232, Enoch Yardley 518, and Thomas Ashton 236 acres; Middletown, John Stackhouse 312, Thomas Stackhouse 507, Robert Heaton 1,088, andThomas Musgrave 440 acres ; Newtown, Thomas Hillborne 968, Jonathan Eldridge 289, Margaret Hayworth 278, Shadrick Walley 1,548, and Ezra Croasdale 530 acres ; Wrightstown and lands ad- jacent, Samuel Baker 438, William Parlet 144, William Dirrick 148, John Pidcock 505, and John Chapman 480 acres ; Bensalem, Samuel Allen 262, Tobias Dymock 302, and Joseph Kirle 400 acres ; Southampton, Warminster and lands adjacent, Isabella Cut- ler 325, William Wait 103, Joseph Kirle 543, John Morris 572, George Willard 447, John Eastborne 305, John Swift 580, Abel Noble 697, Jasper Lawrence 460, William Garret 225, Christopher Wetherill 236, Ralph Dracot 250, John Scarborough 504, John Large 107, and William Say 107 acres; Re-survey by general warrant, Anthony Burton 142, William Buckman 550, Stephen Twining 550, Samuel Carpenter 547, Henry Paxson (Tinker's Point) 300, William Gregory 225, Jonathan Couper 355, John Baldwin 139, Ezra Croasdale 220, Robert Heaton 925, John and Gyles Lucas 216, John Naylor 445, William Hammer 100, Daniel Jackson 390, Thomas Constable 550, Walter Bridgeman 220, William Croasdale 151, Thomas Coleman 248, Joseph Janney 347, and Robert Hea- Heaton, jr., 152 acres ; New surveys, Daniel Jackson 500, Richard Hough 475, widow Musgrave (two warrants) 980, George Howard 450, Edward Hartley 300, Paul Woolfe 300, Jedediah Allen 230, Thomas Carns 450, Randall Blackshaw 500, Martin Zeale 100, Thomas Bye (two warrants) 438, William Croasdale 250, Samuel Beaks 350, Ezra Croasdale 200, Randall Speakman 500, Thomas Bye 600, Henry Paxson 100, Robert Heath (two warrants) 1,000, George Brown 200, Francis White 250, Jeremiah Langhorne 250, Randall Speakman 500, Henry Child (two warrants) 984, Francis Plumstead (four warrants) 2,500, Elizabeth Sands 500, Joseph Paul 492, Tobias Dymock 220, and Joseph Pike (two tracts) 1,000 acres.
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