USA > Pennsylvania > Chester County > London Grove > Two hundredth anniversary of the founding of London Grove Meeting by the Society of Friends at London Grove, Pennsylvania, tenth month third, 1914 > Part 7
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. After the lapse of centuries, we are apt to look back upon the
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men of those early days as if they were all cast in an heroic mould. Separated from men and objects by distance, our vision discerns them as they diminish in physical size; but, separated by the long stretch of time, they seem to grow in mental, physical and moral stature. We are apt to think of these pioneers as always right, and that to criticise them is almost profane. I trust I may be ac- quitted, however, of any desire to reflect upon their judgment, their patriotism, or their loyalty to conviction, when I say that the Friends of the eighteenth century committed a grievous blunder when they voluntarily divorced themselves from politics and gov- ernment. Their public service had not theretofore injured them, or the cause for which they were prepared to sacrifice even life itself. It had been of incalculable benefit in starting the colonies in which they lived upon the course which would ultimately make for hap- piness for the people, freedom of religious conscience, and the ad- vance of human liberty throughout the world.
In a government of the people such as ours, the kind of gov- ernment we shall have rests entirely with the people themselves. They fall short in their duty to that government if they refuse to accept the responsibility which citizenship entails. A man who, in the security of his personal and property rights, reaps the benefit of the government under which he lives, does not pay the debt which that benefit lays upon him, by the mere exercise of the right of suffrage. He must do his share of the work of government. He should-and if he is a good citizen he will-accept public place. Nay, more than that, he will seek it.
The theory that public office should seek the man is very pretty, but weak in practice. Cincinnatus would have been a bet- ter citizen if he had left the plow to seek the place the Roman people pressed upon him, rather than wait until the people called him to the high station of power and influence. No false modesty, or lack of self-confidence, should deter the loyal and patriotic citizen from offering himself as a candidate for public place. For he will find the field crowded by men less worthy, less honest, less patriotic, who seek the place not for the public good, but to ad- vance their private fortunes. While the good citizen waits for the office to seek him, the office will as a rule be filled by the other kind of citizen.
In a representative democracy there is no good reason why
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the man's individual religious convictions, or the law, the decree, or the discipline of the religious organization in which he works, should prevent him from accepting public position. Even if he must, in the public service, sacrifice, to some extent, his individual views, patriotism should be bounded by no secular lines, geograph- ical, denominational, or partisan. The man in the official sta- tion is a representative of all of the people whose ballots were cast to fill the place; and to be true to them and consistent with our theory of government, he must represent no one religious sect, but all; no particular section of the country, but all; not alone the political party which made him its standard bearer, but all the people.
I have many times been asked how I reconciled my official acts as a member of congress in voting for supplies for the army and navy, with my firm adherence to the principles of the Society of Friends. I have been asked how I can sit in a preparative meeting and unite with the usual answer to the query: "Do you maintain a faithful testimony in favor of peace and arbitration, and against war and the preparations and excitements to it?" when, as a mem- ber of the national lawmaking body, I must do my part towards appropriating money for war, and the preparations for war. The answer has never troubled me. I would be glad, if it were pos- sible, for every army in the world to be disbanded, and every navy to be driven from the seas. I would be glad to see every man who wears the military uniform returned to the peaceful vocations of life, and every ship that flies a flag, carrying merchandise into the ports of all nations, instead of frowning guns to face their forts. I pray for the coming of the millennium period when every dispute between nations, whether involving questions of honor or merely the settlement of property rights, may be settled by international courts, whose decrees will be enforced by the peace-following sentiment of a civilized world. And I would use all the strength that in me lies to impress upon my people that these are consummations devoutly to be wished.
But until that come, I recognize the responsibilities of my position as a representative of 200,000 people, most of whom do not hold my views on these things, and none of whom should be led by the example of his representative to evade the law made by the majority. A man can better prove his faithful adherence to
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principle by fighting for it in public place, even if he must com- promise at times, than by the refusal to accept public place in fear that he might be compelled to make such compromise.
In recent times; when every civilized nation on the globe preached the doctrine of peace, and practiced only the attributes of the bear; when every government among the great powers of the world accompanied its protestations in favor of arbitration with increased armaments, and more active preparations for interna- tional conflict-there was special need in the public service for men whose personal, individual and religious convictions give as- surance of their sincerity in the advocacy of peace amongst the nations of the earth. And this need is even greater to-day, in the face of the great crisis in the world's history which we now observe in Europe.
In these troublous days, when all the world abroad is em- broiled in the greatest war which history has recorded; when na- tions supposedly civilized have descended to the depths of savagery and barbarism to settle a quarrel which they can not define; when millions of men are being hurled at other millions to satisfy the ambitions of kings; when fields which a year ago were alive with the harvests of industry are today red with the blood of brave men ; when the very structure of Christian civilization, which has been building on this earth ever since the Prince of Peace taught his doctrine nearly 2,000 years ago, seems to be tottering to its fall- has it ever occurred to you what need there is in this hour for men whose convictions will make them stand up and preserve our coun- try as the sole and only keeper of the world's Christian civilization?
I do not know how you feel about it; but I have often thought that every fairhaired boy who lies today on French or Belgian soil face upwards to the sky, in the long sleep from which no man has e'er awakened; every wounded soldier-boy whose groans go out from field hospital or army barracks; every widowed wife and orphaned child, every sorrowing mother and grief-bent father in those unhappy lands-is sending up to heaven argument more elo- quent than has been heard since the morning stars sang together, in support of the Friendly and American doctrine of peace on earth, good will to men.
And we know, my friends, why it is. I would not inject a par- tisan note in this meeting this afternoon; and I do not say it because
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he is my leader, or because I have followed him since he lighted up the eastern horizon as the governor of the great state of New Jersey. I say it because as the head of this great young republic of the West, at the very hour when a great personal grief was gnawing at his heart, he set his face like flint against the awful pressure which would have plunged our country into war and he maintained this nation upon the Friendly path of Christian peace; and-I say it reverently-thank God for Woodrow Wilson !
There are those who have tried to break down the policy which he supported to maintain Christian peace upon this continent. You remember that there were those who urged, in the congress of the United States, that an appropriation of $25,000,000 should be made out of the federal treasury and the president be directed to send an army across the southern border to intervene in the troubles of our unhappy sister republic on the South. I asked a general officer of the American army, the chief of staff in the war depart- ment, the man who pacified Cuba after the Spanish-American War, what that resolution meant, and he replied: "Twenty-five million dollars will hurl an army of 25,000 men for a year, of 50,000 men for six months, of a hundred thousand men for three months; and," said he, "I could take a hundred thousand men from Vera Cruz to Mexico City in three months, fight three great battles, win them all, capture the capital, overthrow the government and take pos- session." "Well," said I, "and when would they come back?"
"Oh," he replied, "they would never come back. And," said he, "it would be nine years before the last American boy could leave the hills of Mexico, safe in the knowledge that that unhappy country was at peace."
What, then, was the proposition? To take $25,000,000 of our treasure and a hundred thousand of the fine, strong young boys of America, and feed them into the mouths of the cannon of the enemy, and leave the bones of thousands more to bleach upon the hills of a hostile land. All for what? In the name of liberty? No. In the cause of human freedom? No. All to settle a prop- erty dispute between the Standard Oil Company of Kansas and the British Oil Company.
O, my friends, not because I am a partisan, though I confess to partisan opinions; but because I love my country, because I
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believe in the principles which-since the foundation of this com- monwealth, when William Penn nosed the good ship "Welcome" up the Delaware to land his colonists upon the plains to found this great experiment in the woods-have always stood for the ad- vancement of Christian civilization along the path of Christian peace: because I believe in those principles, I ask the men and the women, who would put upon their country's altar the greatest sacri- fice if the hour should come, to hold up the hands of our great president at Washington, who has not only kept our country at peace, but who has asked the Christian people of America to- morrow to join with him in a prayer to the Almighty for that peace on earth, good will toward men, for which Christ came into the world.
I did not expect to get off onto war. If good citizens amongst the Friends would offset the influence of men who would drive us into war, they must put into the public service the leaven of that sincerity of purpose which rises out of religious conviction. They must put into the places of power in the government of the state and nation men who have received their training in places of good influ- ence-from the altar at the mother's knee to the holy place before the pulpit: a training which will bring to the service of the people the honest desire to engraft upon the body politic the same prin- ciples of right living and adherence to the unerring guide within, which leads to the path of rectitude in the sight of God, which characterizes the private life of men who learn the lessons of those incomparable schools.
And they should not mix in the political game in any faint- hearted, academic, or cloisterlike fashion. The politician of the library probably is about as useful to his country as the gossip of the sewing circle. The man who will not attend his ward caucus, or his county convention, but will criticize the party's nominations in the meetings of the reform committee, may save his hands from the dirt of an association with citizens who are not his social equals; but he will not perform his duty as loyally as those whose actions he condemns. The trouble with the political activity of the average good citizen is that it is sporadic and intermittent. Eternal vigi- lance is the price of good government. The bad citizen is on the job 365 days in the year. He is not in the majority; but more of
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his class are working all the time in the political affairs of the state and country than the class whose interests are more largely affected by the kind of government to which we are treated.
Two-thirds of the questions which divide our people in every section are not political. They are not even economic. They are moral questions. That is the reason I am a strong believer in giv- ing to woman in Pennsylvania and the nation the equal rights with man to which they are entitled. You know, the only class of the population in Pennsylvania which is not permitted to vote, consists of infants and idiots and lunatics and criminals (while they are in jail) and Indians and women. As far as I am concerned, I think it is about time that we men of Pennsylvania wake up and take our wives, our sisters and our mothers out of such disreputable company. Time for it because I know that two-thirds of the questions which divide men are moral questions; and I know, also, that my mother, my wife and my sister are on the right side of every moral question.
The times call for more active participation in political affairs of men who are actuated by unselfish motives, and who will seek the common good. The main question heard through the struggle is for the conquest of wrong. Will we admit that, as Friends, we can not, or will not, furnish volunteers to the battle, both in com- mand and in the ranks, to make forever sure the priceless heritage of free government bequeathed to us by our fathers?
With a membership who would everywhere be counted as good citizens, should we not do what we can to show an example of good citizenship, as well? My friends, I have thought that the message of this hour, in these troublous days of political strife and great wars in the world, to men and women who believed in the prin- ciples of the Society of Friends, which would be most effective, would be that message which would turn you from the inertia of good citizenship into the strenuous action of men and women de- termined to clean the government wherever a rotten spot appears. Regardless of party affiliations, regardless of partisan prejudice, the times call for men and women who hold their country above the party name, their state above the party treasury, to get on the right side of the great moral questions which agitate men everywhere at this hour. I thank you.
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Closing Remarks.
THE CHAIRMAN: Just a word; that is, a word of gratitude for all who have been here, who have helped us by their presence and in every way; and of gratitude to our Heavenly Father, whose bless- ings we have so fully enjoyed to-day.
And here is the hope that a hundred years from now we will have a bigger and a better celebration than this.
VOICES: We will have! Not we, but they.
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*LONDON GROVE MEETING And Its Environs
By GILBERT COPE, West Chester
*Specially prepared for this book but not delivered at the meeting.
F OR the better understanding of the events in which we are especially interested it may be well to review briefly some of earlier date.
With a desire to found a colony in which freedom and jus- tice might have full sway, William Penn obtained from King Charles II of England, who was supposed to be the sovereign by right of conquest, a charter for a considerable territory in the wilds of America. The paramount object was doubtless to establish an asylum for those of his religious faith, who for thirty years had suffered persecution by fines and imprisonment in filthy dungeons.
This charter was dated March 3d, 1680, but as March 25th was at that time New Year's Day, it was very nearly 1681. Penn soon began to sell lands in his province, before visiting America, and without definite location. A great many Friends and some others became buyers and commissioners were sent over in ad- vance to lay out the city of Philadelphia and locate lands for the colonists upon their arrival.
Some settlements had been previously made by the Swedes and a very few English, along the 'Delaware river, and these were not disturbed in their possessions. Some of the purchasers never came to this country but sold their rights, still unlocated, and others who were a little tardy found on their arrival that they would have to take up their lands "back in the woods," so postponed the locating, and purchased homes from the original settlers.
With an eye to the possible commerce of the colony a number of persons in England associated themselves under the title of The Free Society of Traders, and as a speculation purchased 20,000 acres of land from William Penn, in 1681, and of this 7,100 were located on the western branch of the Brandywine, in 1688. In 1724 Nathaniel Newlin became the owner of this, which formed the township of Newlin.
William Penn came first to his province in 1682, but re- turned to England in 1684. In the autumn of 1699 he came again
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and remained about two years. While here he executed a patent to his daughter Letitia for all the land (with slight exception) in the present Kennet Township, Chester County, and directed the survey of another large tract, including all of New Garden Town- ship, for his son William. Just before sailing for Pennsylvania the last time he sold to Tobias Collet, Daniel Quare, Henry Gold- ney and Michael Russell, afterward known as the Pennsylvania Land Company of London, or simply the London Company, 60,000 acres of unlocated land in Pennsylvania. As part of this the lands in the townships of London Grove, with the greater part of Franklin (formerly New London) and London Britain, were surveyed. For several years the land in London Grove was leased to settlers, but on March 14, 1722-3, a number of deeds were executed in Eng- land and brought over by John Estaugh, agent for the company, who had married Elizabeth Haddon, whose father, John Haddon, was a shareholder therein; and Estaugh and wife were witnesses to the deeds.
The township of East Marlborough was laid out after an ideal plan, which, however, was seldom followed, by having a road or Street through the middle and all the landowners fronting thereon. The surveys made here, 1700-1702, were in right of early purchases from Penn. Some of those for whom they were made sold to others without settling thereon. A wedge shaped tract, between these surveys and Newlin township was added to the others, thus destroy- ing the symmetry of the township.
West Marlborough lands were surveyed very soon after those in the eastern part, and largely in right of first purchasers, one sur- vey of 2,875 acres being in part of John Simcock's purchase of 5,000 acres, made in 1681.
Friends' Meetings
A Friends' Meeting was established at Salem, N. J., about 1675, and another at Burlington about two years later. A few persons who had come over with the Jersey colonists located on the other side of the river and held a meeting at the house of Robert Wade, at Upland, now Chester, which was considered a branch of Burlington Monthly Meeting, of which a session was held here on the 15th of 9th Mo. 1681. This was probably for the purpose of
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judging of the fitness of Upland Friends to have a monthly meet- ing of their own. The decision appears to have been favorable and the first monthly meeting held by Friends on the Pennsylvania side was dated the 10th of 11th Mo. 1681. A meeting for worship was doubtless established at Chichester in the following year, of which those settled in Brandywine Hundred, New Castle Co., were considered members at first. These soon had a meeting at the house of Valentine Hollingsworth, one of their number, who called his plantation Newark, and this became the name of the meeting. As the settlements extended back from the river other meetings were established, and Center, in Christiana Hundred, was next in line, about 1702, and Kennet, in Chester County, in 1709. The fore- going order and succession may be accepted to this point. The Bi-Centennial of the Old Kennet Meeting House was observed in 1710, and its history set forth in the subsequent publication.
Applications for the establishment of new meetings are made to the monthly meeting of which most of the petitioners are mem- bers. If approved by the monthly it is then presented to the Quar- terly Meeting, whose judgment is final. The Friends who founded London Grove Meeting were members of Newark (now Kennet) Monthly Meeting and Chester Quarterly Meeting. In 1718 Newark was divided and they then became members of New Garden Monthly Meeting. In 1758 the Quarterly Meeting was divided and they became members of Western Quarterly Meeting. In 1792 New Garden Monthly Meeting was divided and London Grove Monthly Meeting established.
London Grove Meeting
At Newark (now Kennet) Monthly Meeting, 12-5-1714/5 :
"Friends of Marlborough raquestes of this meeting for to have a meeting at the house of John Smith one first day in the month and every other sixth day for halfe a year and the meeting having taken the same into Consideration and have consented that it goe to the Quarterly meeting for aprobation."
At Chester Quarterly Meeting, 12-7-1714 :-
"Newark monthly meeting laid before this meeting a request of some ffriends belonging to their meeting that a meeting be settled at the house of John Smith in Marlborough one first Day in Every month and Every sixt Day for half a year which Request this meeting orders to be put in practice until further order."
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At Newark Monthly Meeting, 1-5-1714/5 :-
"Marlborough frinds request to this meeting was taken to the Quarterly meet- ing the which they granted and is to be held the second first day of every month untill further order."
At Newark Monthly Meeting, 12-8-1717/8 :-
"Newgarden preparative meeting have aquainted this meeting that Marl- borough ffriends desires to have the priviledg of having a meeting Every sixth day Except the preparative week which this meeting agrees to that it may be taken to the Quarterly meeting for approbation."
At Chester Quarterly Meeting, 12-10-1717 :-
"Marlborough friends Request that they may have a meeting Every sixth Day of the week Except the week on which their preparative meeting is on at Newgarden, which This meeting allowes of till further order."
At Newark Monthly Meeting, 1-1-1717/8 :-
"The request of Marlborough ffriends to the Last monthly meeting was laid before the Quarterly meeting and is granted."
New Garden Monthly Meeting was established in 1718 by division of Newark or Kennet Monthly Meeting.
At Chester Quarterly Meeting, 3-11-1724 :-
"The friends of Marlborough meeting (with the consent of newgarden Monthly Meeting) requests of this meeting that they may have liberty to build a meeting house on the Corner of Londongrove township Joining to Marlborough in order to keep a meeting there every first day of the week as also on week days once every week except that week on which the preparative meeting is at New- garden this meeting after taking it into their solid consideration do approve thereof and grant the said friends their request."
It will appear by the date of the deed that the land for this new location had been purchased more than a year before the application for liberty to build; also that an agreement was made to purchase ten acres additional from Henry Travilla before the latter had received his deed.
The deed for the first purchase being historical as to facts, and in- structive as to verbiage, may be of interest to some readers.
THIS INDENTURE Made the ffourteenth day of March in the Ninth year of the reign of our Sovereign Lord George king of Great Britain &c., Annoq. Dom. 1722 Between Tobias Collet of London in the Kingdom of Great Brittain Haberdasher, Daniel Quare of London aforesaid Watch maker, Henry Goldney of London aforesaid Linnen Draper, of the one part and John Smith of Marl- borough in the County of Chester and Province of Pensilvania, yoman, Joseph Pennock of Marlborough aforesaid in the County & Province aforesaid, yoman,
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Caleb Pusey Junr of Marlborough in the County & Province aforesaid yoman, William Swain of Marlborough aforesaid in the County and Province aforesaid yoman & John Cook of the London Tract in the County and Province aforesaid yoman of the other part : WHEREAS William Penn Esqr late Proprietary & Govern- our of the said Province by his Indentures of Lease and Release bearing date on or about the Eleventh & Twelfth Days of August Ano. Dom. 1699 for the Consideration therein mentioned did grant & Convey unto the said Tobias Collet Daniel Quare Henry Goldney and one Michall Russell Sixty Thousand acres of Land to be laid out in the Sd Province & Counties annexed To hold to them their heirs and assigns for ever as by the said Indentures recorded in the Rolls office of Philadelphia in Book B. vol. 2, page 336 &c may more fully appear, And Whereas the said Proprietary by Three several Warrants under his hand and Scal all bearing Date the seventeenth day of August in the said year 1699 and Directed to Thomas ffairman then one of the Surveyors of Land in the said Province Did authorize and require him forthwith to Survey unto the Said Tobias Collet Daniel Quare Henry Goldney & Michael Russel the said Quantity of Sixty Thousand Acres of Land by vertue of which said Warrants or one of them the said Thomas ffairman laid out unto the Said Tobias Collet Daniel Quare Henry Goldney & Michael Russell a Certain Tract of Sixteen Thousand five hundred & Six acres (part of the Said Sixty Thousand acres on the back of New Castle County as by the returns of the said Several Warrants may appear; and whereas Isaac Taylor, Surveyor of Land in the said County of Chester, by vertue of a warrant from the said Proprietary's Commissioners Did add Seven hundred & Eighteen acres to the Said Sixteen Thousand five hundred & Six acres of Land in part of the Said Sixty Thousand By vertue of which Said Indentures Warrants and Surveys or by force & vertne of some other Good Conveyance or assurance in Law Duly had and Executed They the said Tobias Collet Daniel Quare Henry Goldney & Michael Russel became Lawfully Seized in their Demeasn as of ffee of and in the Said Lands; And whereas the said Michael Russel is Deceased whereby the Estate of Inheritance of and in the said Sixty Thousand Acres of Land & premisses is vested in the said Tobias Collet, Daniel Quare and Henry Goldney or some of them: Now This INDENTURE WITNESSETH that they the said Tobias Collet Daniel Quare and Henry Goldney, for and in Consideration of the Sum of ffive Shillings Lawfull Mony of America To them in hand paid by the said John Smith Joseph Pennock Caleb Pusey Junr William Swain & John Cook, the receipt whereof they do hereby acknowledge and thereof do acquit & for ever Discharge the said John Smith Joseph Pennock Caleb Pusey Junr William Swain & John Cook their heirs and assigns by these presents Have Granted Bargained Sold Aliened enfeoffed and Confirmed and by these presents Do Grant Bargain Sell Alien Enfeoff and Confirm unto the said John Smith Joseph Pennock Caleb Pusey Jur William Swain & John Cook their heirs and assigns all that piece or parcell of Land Situate Lyeing & being on the North Easterly Corner of the said London Tract Begining at a Corner of Joseph Pennock's Land thence South fforty perches to a Corner Stone ffrom thence West forty perches to a Corner Stone thence North fforty perches to a Corner Stone from thence East fforty perches to the place of Begining Containing Ten acres being part of the above recited additional Tract of Seven Hundred and Eighteen acres Together with all the
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