USA > Pennsylvania > Welsh settlement of Pennsylvania > Part 21
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Although the Information contained in the following let- ter, written about 1710, is hearsay, for its writer, John Jones, was born in Pensylvania, it is interesting. He was a son of a Thomas Sion Evan, (or Thomas Jones), who came to the South River, or Delaware country, from near Bala, Merionthshire, in April, 1682, and subsequently set- tled in what became Radnor township, whose will, signed 31, 1, 1707, was proved at Phila. 23, 7, 1707 ; to be guardians and overseers, Rowland Ellis, Sr., Joseph Owen, and Row- land Ellis, the younger. The date of this interesting letter, entirely in Welsh language, is uncertain, but it was writ- ten after 1707 .*
"My Dear Kinsman, Hugh Jones,
"I received a letter from you dated May, 8th, 1705, and I was glad to fod that one of my relatives in the old land of which I ha: heard so much was pleased to recollect me. I have heard my father speak much about old Cymru; but I was born in this woody region -- this new world."
Then, mentioning many places in Wales he had heard his parents talk affectionately about, "and the kind-hearted and innocent old people who lived in them," he continued, "And now, my friend, I will give an account of the life and fortunes of my dear father, from the time he left Wales to the day of his death."
"He was at St. Po'er's fair, at Bala [10 July, 1681], when he first heard of Pensylvania, three weeks only after this, he took leave of his neighbors and relatives, who were anxiously looking forward to his departure for London on his way to America.
"Here [in London] he waited three months for a ship ; and at length went out in one bearing the name of "William Penn." He had a very tempestuous passage for several weeks, and when in sight of the river Delaware, owing to adverse winds and a boisterous sea, the sails were torn, and the rudder injured. By this disaster they were greatly dis- heartened, and were obliged to go back to the Barbadoes,
*Printed in the Cambrian Magazine, 1833.
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where they continued three weeks, expending much money in refitting the ship. Being now ready for a second attempt, they casily accomplished their voyage and arrived safely in the river Delaware, on the 16th of April, being thirty weeks from the time they left London. During this long voyage, he learned to speak and read English tolerably well.
"They now came up the river 120 miles, to the place Phil- adelphia is at present situate. At that time, as the Welsh say, there was 'na thy nac ymogor,' [neither house nor shelter], but the wild woods, nor any one to welcome them to land. A poor outlook this for persons who had been su long at sea, many of whom had spent their little all.
"This was not the place for them to remain stationary. My father, therefore, went alone where chance led him, to endeavor the means of subsistence. IIe longed much at this time for milk.
"During his wanderings, he met with a drunken old man, who understood neither Welsh nor English, and, who no- ticing the stranger, by means of some signs and gesticula- tions, invited him to his dwelling, where he was received by the old man's wife and several sons, in the most kind and hospitable manner. They were Swedes. Here he made his home till he had habitation of his own.
"As you shall hear, during the summer of 1682, [October], our governor, William Penn, Esq'r, arrived here, together with several from England, having bought lands here.
"They now began to divide the country into allotments and to plan the city of Philadelphia (which was to be more than two miles in length), laying it out in streets and square .. , etc., with portions of land assigned to several of the houses. He also bought the freehold of the soil from the Indians, a savaş, race of men, who have lived here from time immemorial, as far as I am able to understand. They can give no account of themselves, not knowing where or whence they came here; an irrational set, I should imagine, but they have some kind of reason, too, and extraordinary
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natural endowments in their peculiar way ; they had neither towns nor villages, but lived in booths or tents.
"In the autumn [August] of this year [1682], several from Wales arrived here-Edward ab Rhys [Edward Prees], Edward Jones of Bala [the doctor], William ab Edward, and many others.
"By this time, there was a kind of neighborhood here, although, as neighbors they coul little benefit each other. They were sometimes in making huts beneath some cliff, or under the hollow banks of rivulets, thus sheltering them- selves where their fancy dictated.
"There were neither cows, nor horses, to be had at any price. Yet no one was in want, and all were much at- tached to each other.
"During this eventful period, our governor began to build mansion houses at different intervals, to the distance of fifty miles from the city, although the country appeared a complete wilderness.
"At this time, my father, Thomas Sion [John] Evan, was living with the Swedes [possibly the Swenson or Swan- son family], and intending daily to return to Wales. But, as time advanced, the country improved. In the course of three years, several were beginning to obtain a pretty good livelihood, and my father determined to remain with them.
"There was by this time no land to be bought within twelve miles of the city, and my father having purchased a small tract of land [in Radnor] married the widow of Thomas Llwyd [Lloyd] of Penmaen, [a poet]. He now went to live near the woods. It was now a very rare, but pleasing thing to hear a neighbor's cock crow.
"My father had now only one small horse. In process of time, however, the little which he had prospered, so that he became possessed of horses, cows, and everything else that was necessary for him. During the latter years of his life, he kept twelve good milch cows. He had eight children. He was a muscular man."
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The writer of this letter, which is a fine advertisement of some school in Radnor tp., was the eldest child. He and his brother, Joseph b. 28. 2. 1695, each received a farm from their father, as also did his sister Elizabeth, b. 8. 11. 1691, she married, as stated, in the letter, Risiart ab Thomas ab Rhys. His mother, Lowry, he says, was then 75 years old.
Probably one of the most valuable and interesting let- ters of the first Welsh settlers preserved is that of Dr. Edward Jones, the leader of "Company No. 1," of Pensyl- vania adventurers, the first settler of Merion, since it was written 26 Aug. 1682, thirteen days after landing here. It is what may be defined as a chatty letter, and a letter of ad- vice to immigrants, and is full of interesting items showing the state of affairs and prices current, in the home of their adoption as viewed by a man of education and refinement, to his partner, in this land adventure, John ap Thomas. It confirm. much that John Jones told in the aforesaid letter.
"Ye name of town [Philadelphia] lots," he wrote, "is called now Wicoco. Here is a Crowd of people striving for ye Country land, for ye town lot is not divided, & therefore we are forced to take up ye Country lots. We had much adoe to get a grant of it, but it cost us 4 or 5 days attend- ance, besides some score of miles we traveled before we brought it to pass, [this was locating the 5.000 acre share of the general purchase from Penn, and which became 'Merion,' or (Lower) Merion township]. I hope it will please thee, and the rest yt are concerned, for it hath most rare timber. I have not seen the like in all these parts, there is water enough besides. The end of each lot will be on a river, as large or larger than the Dye at Bala, it is called Skool Kill River."
The expected discomforts of the first settlers of Merion, is further recorded in an old Bible by someone who probably had heard the immigrants relate them, thus :-
"In the fall of 1682, William ap Edwards, with his family, Edward Jones, Edward Rees, Robert Davies, and many
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others, setiled on the west side of the Schuylkill, Six or seven mile :: distant from the city, there dug caves, walled them, and dwelt therein a considerable time, where they suffered many hardships in the beginning. The next season being wet and rainy, about their barley harvest [time], they could not get their grain dry to stack before it swelled, and it began to sprout, rendering it unfit for bread. They were in their necessities supplied by the natives with veni- son and wild fowl. Their first cows to milk were obtained from New Castle, and divided among the neighbors, and not having inclosures for them, they were obliged to tie them with rope of grape vine, some to a tree, or a stake driven into the ground, there being plenty of grass and sweet weeds. The Lord blessed them, and enabled them to bear their difficulties for a time, and blessed their labor with great success in raising grain, and every support they could wish for."
However, we have William Penn's word for it that the first winter, 1682-3, the Merion sett1 's lived here, was the coldest in the memory of "the oldest inhabitants," (White, or Indian). It may have been that being unprepared for weather colder than a winter in Wales, they "suffered many hardships," having only poor shelters for dwellings, and only green wood for fires. In Penn's letter to London share- holders of the Free Society of Traders, he wrote from Philadelphia, on 16. 8mo .* 1683, when he had been here almost a year. He said he had then "lived over the coldest and hottest times that the oldest liver in the province can remember " so this first year must have been one of ex- treme of temperature. In general, what were Mr. Penn's experiences this year, were those of Dr. Edward Jones, and his neighbors, on the bank of the Schuylkill, who had been
*The date of this letter shows that Penn did not always begin the year with "the month called March," the then "First Month," for the letter is dated "8th month," which according to the then custom would make it written in October, and he was writing in August.
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here just one year. Penn says that from the time of his arrival in October, up to December, the weather was mild, "like an English mild spring," and "from December to the beginning of the month called March, we had sharp, frosty weather, not foul, thick, black weather, [as in England], but a sky as clear as in summer, and the air dry, cold, piercing and hungry," and tells that the Delaware river was frozen over for a few days. We can imagine what sort of a winter he passed through, but he was writing an adver- tisement of his province to be published in England, so why tell of "zero weather" to possible customers used only to a mild winter. (Rowland Ellis was more candid in his de- scription of a Pensylvania winter, in a letter quoted further on). "From March to June," Penn continues, "we enjoyed sweet spring, gentle showers, and a fine sky." "From thence to this present month, we have had extraordinary heats."
Thomas Ellis, of Haverford, in a letter dated 13. 4mo. 1685, tells of the hard winter in Pensylvania he had just passed through. He says no ships could leave Philadelphia in February, "being there was so much winter wether ['twas certainly a bad spell of weather], the like was hardly known, and so no seasoning wether for tobacco."
The make-shift protections against storms and freezing weather which the first settlers used in their necessity, nat- urally influenced the accounts of their first winter in Ameri- ca. It is notorious that the first settlers on the Delaware, where they supposed Philadelphia was to be, lived in "caves," dug in the river bluff. And it also may be pre- sumed that the Welsh Friends on the Schuylkill did the same. These artificial grottoes were by no means poor ac- commodations, excepting that the occupants must, in many large families, have been greatly cramped for room, and there could not have been any opportunity for privacy. But they were no worse off than the Western pioneers in their cabins. The description of one of the best "caves"
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has come down to us as follows. First, a pit was dug, three feet deep, and twelve by fifteen feet in extent, in the river bank, well up from the water. The side towards the river was levelled and left open. The side walls were carried up from the ground to the height of the tallest man standing erect, with interlaced and thatched saplings, and the roof over all was also made this way. The floor was beaten earth. So it may be imagined these temporary abodes were fairly comfortable, when the family was in the open much of the time, and certainly they were substantially put up, as in the city some were rented to party after party of new comers, and some became boarding houses, and worse, and, becoming a scandal to the city, all were extirpated.
In the country, it is said some of these caves were in ex- istence* many years after the log cabin was put up, and became stables, and in many cases the old log cabin, re- placed by the stone house, was left standing and used for servants' quarters, or for storage. There are a few of these cabins still standing in the Welsh Tract, at least it is so claimed, which were the early home of the founders of our most prominent families.
*The only instance known to me of the original "eave dwelling" of an early settler being preserved, or identified, in the family of a present day descendant, is the one belonging to the Lownes family, in Springfield tp., now in Delaware Co. Hugh Lownes, and his wife Jane, and four children, sailed from Chester, England, for Pensyl- vania in 1685. They were Friends. Mr. Lownes had been imprisoned because he was "a practicing Quaker," and contracted a discase in jail from which he died ?+ sea. His widow took up his land in Spring- field tp., and farmed it, and a portion of the old place is owned by descendants. On this property is the cave, a natural rock grotto, which served as the home for the widow and her children, till the log cabin was built, which in turn was followed by the present st ne mansion. The cave has been carefully protected all these years, and is marked on a tablet, "Jane Lownes's Cave and Dwelling, 1685." Watson, in his "Annals of Philadelphia," mentions that the "cave," made and used by the Quaker family of Coates, was incorporated in the cell:r of their brick house, erected at Front and Green streets, and survived till his day (1830).
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A preserved letter,* written in the spring of 1698, by Rowland Ellis, of "Bryn Mawr," gives us a good view of the progress Merion had made in ten years, and customs of its people in their new home. Mr. Ellis had shortly re- turned from Wales, where he went in the spring of 1688, after having been here about a year, so his letter may be considered one of an observant man considering contrasts.
"They begin now to build the houses with Stone, & many with brick, whe may be made in any place here. * * * There are but few natives now. Not 1 to 10 as formerly. As many as there is, are very quiet.
"A new comer may supply himself with horses, cows, and sheep, as many as he wants-good horse £4 with you, may cost #8 more or less; Good Cow here, $5, or 6; beef ye last fall 21/2 per pound; pork 3d; cheese 7d; butter 10d. to 1s. per pound; mutton 5d. also; wheat 8s; Rye 6s; Malt 6s. ye bushell. All other things are very dear, accordingly all things, whether foreign, or country commodities, will fall.
"We had a very cold winter, such another people here cannot remember; hard frost, & deep snow, which con- tinued untill ye beginning of this month; we bore it I think as well as most, we had an indifferent good house, very good & large chimney ; we made fire night & day. * * It has been very sickly season here ye last fall & winter; several died of our Countrymen."
Proud, in his History of Pensylvania, says further of these first colonists and early settlers, "Among those ad- venturers and settlers, who arrived about this time [1682-3], were also many from Wales, of these who are called An- cient Britons, and mostly Quakers, divers of whom were of the original, or early stock of that society there. They had early purchased of the Proprietary, in England, 40,000 acres of land. Those who came, at present, took up so much of it, on the west side of Sculkil river, as made the three townships of Merion, Haverford, and Radnor; and in a
*Pa. Mag. of His., 1891.
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few years afterwards, their number was so much aug- mented, as to settle the three other townships of New-town, Goshen, and Uwchland."
"Divers of these early Welsh settlers were persons of excellent and worthy character, and several of good eduea- tion, family, and estate; chiefly Quakers, and many of them either eminent preachers in the society, or otherwise quali- fied and disposed to do good, in various capacities, both in religious and civil, in public and private life. Of some of them there are particular and extraordinary accounts in manuscript, both respecting their eminent religious services among the Quakers, &c., and also of their great usefulness among their neighbors, in settling the province, and in re- gulating and managing the civil affairs of the government; as persons highly and justly esteemed and distinguished both in private and public station."
In his notice of these Welsh who were active in public life, and in the affairs of the Province, as well as in those of the Friends, Proud named as the most prominent only Rowland Ellis, Robert Owen, Hugh Roberts, and Ellis Pugh. But there were a few others of the Welshmen who were quite as prominent in the affairs of Philadelphia county, and who represented it in the assembly, before 1709, namely Thomas Lloyd, Griffith Jones, David Lloyd, Griffith Owen, John Bevan, Thomas Wynne, Rees Thomas, John Roberts, etc.
In the very first meeting of the assembly, in Philadelphia, on 10 and 12, 1mo. 1683, out of the nine representatives from Philadelphia Co. two were Welshmen, Dr. Wynne and Dr. Owen. But in 1684 and 1685, no Welshman repre- sented Philadelphia Co., in which the entire Welsh Tract was then located, nor in 1690, but in other years there was always found some Welsh Friend willing to sacrifice some of his time for the public good, and sit in the general assembly.
The early Welsh Friends seem to have been soon inter- ested in education, as among the petitioners for a charter for the first Friends' Public School, in Philadelphia in 1697,
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which was a Latin and grammar school in 1689, were David Lloyd and John Jones. In his final patent for this school, dated 29 Nov. 1711, Penn nominated as overseers of the public school, among others, Griffith Owen and Rowland Ellis, of Merion. This institution is still maintained, as the William Penn Charter School.
During the "Keith Disturbance," at a general meeting of Friends, in Philadelphia to denounce and disown the dis- turber, Keith, among the signers of the "Declaration of Denial," 20, 4mo. 1692, were the Welshmen from over the Schuylkill, Robert Owen, and Hugh Roberts, and in town, Thomas Lloyd, and Griffith Owen. Mr. Keith came to Phil- adelphia as the first headmaster of the aforementioned Latin school.
Penn in his letters frequently manifested his regard for individual Welshmen of Merion, which he did not have for the Welsh collectively. For instance, in a long letter dated London, 16. 1mo. 1684-5, to his Deputy, Thomas Lloyd a Merion Welshman, he concluded, "Dearly salute me to dear friends, particularly Thomas Ellis, G. Jones, H. Lewis, T. Howel, J. B., [John Bevan] and the rest of the Welsh Friends, Captain Owen, &c., with their families."
Oldmixon, writing in 1708, said of the Welsh Tract, " "Tis very populous, and the people are very industrious, by which means this country is better cleared than any other part of the country. The inhabitants have many fine plan- tations; they are looked upon to be as thriving and wealthy as any in the province, and this must always be said of the Welsh, that wherever they come, 'tis not their fault if they do not live, and live well, too, for they seldom spare for labour."
Since we thus have their own evidence, and that of con- temporary writers, there is no occasion for one to draw any imaginary picture of the first years here of the Welsh Friends; nor to imagine what manner and quality these settlers were. As experienced farmers, they were well able to take care of their families. The soil was good we know,
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the seasons in general were not unlike those of Wales, and there was nothing to prevent them from exercising their industry and ingenuity. That they made no attempt at commercial farming, or cultivation of their plantations on a scale larger than to supply home necessities, is not sur- prising, since the early large landowners here had been gentlemen farmers in the old country, and they only re- sumed the life here.
Nor is there evidence there were "country stores" in the Welsh Tract till many years after its settlement, so it may be presumed the Welsh Quakers did the buying of neces- saries they could not raise, or find, at the Philadelphia stores. In the years 1700, &c., the largest general store in Philadelphia was conducted by William Trent, and his ex- tant account books show that the country people brought him peltry of all kinds and got in exchange dry goods and groceries. Among his Welsh customers, who had accounts with him, were Richard Anthony, "John Andrew, ye shrieve," (1705), William Bevan, Mary Bevan, his widow, Owen Davis, Francis Ellis, Edward Evans, "Evan Evans, ye minister," Thomas Griffith, Thomas Harriss, Thomas Howell, "Evan Harry of Morgan," (bought a negro for £60, in 1708), John Jones, Sr. and Jr., Nicholas Thomas Jones, Griffith, Edward, Samuel, Moses, and Richard Jones, David Lloyd, Griffith Owen, "Ro Owen ye ministr," John Powell, John Richard, Elizabeth Roberts, "John Thomas, ye tailor," Richard and Lewis Thomas, and John Vaughan.
Some of the household and economic features of the times I write of, are not without interest here. While the Welsh Friends were "plain people," they liked to have about them, and evidently did according to inventories, the best of all solid-wood furniture in their houses, modest though these were. But, if we could inspect one of the better class of these, the things we would not see would impress us more than what we did. We would see no carpets, nor rugs ; but hardwood floors, holy-stoned, or polished, and nearly always
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sanded; the clean creek sand brushed into curious designs by the housewife, an artistic labor in which they had great pride. We would be pleased to see no wall paper, for the walls of rooms would be half, or wholly wainseoted and panelled and, if in hard wood, waxed and polished in na- tural color, but if only in pine wood, then painted white. We would also be pleased to see no stoves, only the large fire places, with pictured tiles about them. There would be a mantle-board, but never a marble mantle. If there was a mirror, it was in seetions, framed in polished mahogany, or in black-painted wood. Of pictures, there were none men- tioned in inventories. Of course, we would see the chests, the high nests of drawers, the high-boys and the low-boys, peculiar to the times, the tall elock, the corner-cupboard, the hinged tea-table, the dresser, but no easy chairs would greet us; possibly not even the "winsor" ones, but many with rush seats, and always high baeked, and uncomfort- able, companions of the high-backed bench. Candles in plain "sticks," never in girandoles, gave the artificial light; but they were dipped candles for ordinary use. At meals, if there was silver, it was solid, for plated ware was un- known, and the coffee, or tea service was of china, as it was considered more elegant. Delft-ware was held in reserve for grand occasions, and earthen-ware, and plates and plat- ters of pewter, and wooden trenchers, were in ordinary use, and it was long subsequent when silver waiters, for serving, succeeded wooden trays. There were glasses for wine, but not glass tumblers. But different times made different ways, and the 'Velsh Friends followed the fashions, as much as their convenience, and the war of the revolution, as did the civil war, for us, marked distinet changes in their man- ner of living and furnishing, for innovations and luxuries invaded their dwellings and habits, and the general primi- tiveness, the relative differences, remained about the same from Penn's day till after the revolution's influence was experienced, just as our customs and needs are changed from our ante-bellum days. It is worthy of notice here,
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however, that the first carpet in Philadelphia was laid, 1750, in the city dwelling of the Welsh Friend, Owen Jones.
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