THE HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA, CHAPTER VI, SOME ACCOUNT OF PENNSBURY, 1682 TO 1690.
from the discovery of the Delaware to the present time by W. W. H. Davis, A.M., 
Democrat Book and Job Office Print., Doylestown, PA, 1876.

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Transcriber's note: Liberty has been taken with numbering footnotes so as 
to include all footnotes from both the 1876 and 1905 editions, plus any 
additional text and pictures in the 1905 edition. All 1905 material will 
be noted with an asterisk. 

Note: Where names differ, the 1905 edition spelling is applied.

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                                CHAPTER VI.

                         SOME ACCOUNT OF PENNSBURY.

                               1682 TO 1690

Markham and Harrison select a site for manor house.  -The situation. 
     -Description of house.  -Gardens and lawns.  -Written instructions. 
     -Penn's horses.  -Furniture of house.  -Table ware and plate.  Penn did 
     not live there at first visit.  -Letter post established.  -Bucks county a 
     Quaker settlement.  -The meeting was supreme, but discipline lax.  
     -Discountenanced the use of strong drinks.  -Penn returns to England.   
     -Population.  -Schism of George Keith.  -Wages.  -Farm produce.  - Stock.   
     -Great rupture.  -Dress.  -Quit-rents hard to collect.

    Delightful memories linger around Pennsbury manor, the Bucks county home 
of the founder of Pennsylvania; that was his rural residence, whither he 
retired from the cares of state to spend his time in the bosom of his 
family, and where he intended to fix his permanent home and live and die 
in the pursuit of agriculture, his favorite occupation.  But Providence 
interfered with his designs, and instead of closing his eyes amid the 
peaceful shades of Pennsbury, he died in England, away from the home of 
his affections.  As we have remarked in a previous chapter, both William 
Markham and James Harrison were commissioned by William Penn, before they 
left England, to select a site and build him a residence.  Markham probably 
selected the site, as he was the first to arrive, but it is possible that 
it was done by William Penn himself after his arrival in 1682 (1).  The 
erection of the dwelling was commenced in 1682-83, and cost from five to 
seven thousand pounds.  It stood on a gentle eminence, about fifteen feet 
above high-water and one hundred and fifty from the river bank, while 
Welcome creek wound its gentle waters closely about it.  There is not a 
vestige of the building remaining, and of all its beautiful surroundings 
there are to be seen only a few old cherry trees, said to have been 
planted by Penn's own hand, standing in the Crozier lane.  Penn probably 
did not live there until his second visit in 1699, when he made it his 
home.

      (1) This location was probably fixed upon, because it was near 
          the flourishing Friends' settlement at Burlington, and also 
          contiguous to the falls.

    Unfortunately no drawing has been preserved of Pennsbury house, if one 
were ever made of it, nevertheless we are able to approximate its true 
size, arrangements and surroundings (2).  The main edifice was sixty feet 
long by thirty feet wide, two stories high and stately in appearance, 
built of bricks probably burnt on the premises (3), as a bricklayer was 
sent out from England in 1685, and a wheelwright in 1686.  The dwelling 
faced the river.  There was a handsome porch, front and rear, with steps, 
having both "rails and banisters."  On the first floor was a wide hall 
running through the building and opening onto the back porch, and in which 
the Proprietary received distinguished strangers, and used on public 
occasions.  There were at least four rooms on this floor.  On the left was 
a parlor separated from the large eating-room of the servants back of it 
by a wainscoted partition, and there was probably a room on the opposite 
side of the hall opening into the drawing-room.  There were likewise a 
small hall and a little closet.  There were four chambers on the second 
floor, one denominated the "best chamber," an entry, a nursery and a 
closet, which seems to have been exclusively Mrs. Penn's.  In the attic 
were at least two garrets, and the stories were nine feet.  The back door 
of the hall Penn styled "two leaved," and after his return to England he 
ordered a new front door because "the present one is most ugly and low." 
The roof was covered with tiles from the Province, and on the top was a 
leaden reservoir, to the leakage of which is mainly charged the 
destruction of the mansion (4).


              [Picture of Pennsbury Manor, appears here.]


      (2) Considerable light has been thrown on the subject by the 
          researches of the late J. Francis Fisher, a close student 
          of local history.
      (3) He directed bricks to be used wherever it were possible, and 
          when not, good timbers cased with clapboards.
      (4) The engraving of Pennsbury House, accompanying this chapter, 
          was projected and drawn under the supervision of Addison Hutton, 
          architect, Philadelphia, from the most exact description and measurements 
          that could be obtained, even to the "shutts" that were ordered about the 
          time the house was finished.  The unsightly reservoir on top of the roof, 
          and the cause of the mansion's destruction, was omitted.  So far as our 
          information extends, there never was any attempt to draw, or otherwise 
          reproduce, Pennsbury House in the time of its owner or subsequently, for 
          the reason, doubtless that Friends of that day did not approve of such 
          things.  We believe the picture here presented to the reader is as near 
          counterpart of the original as can be produced; a first-class colonial 
          dwelling of that period.


    Near the house were the necessary out-buildings, about which he gave 
directions, in a letter, to James Harrison, in August, 1684.  He writes: "I 
would have a kitchen, two larders, a wash-house, a room to iron in, a brew 
house (5), and a Milan oven for baking, and a stabling for twelve horses." 
The out-buildings were to be placed "uniform and not ascu;" were to be a 
story and a half high, the story eleven feet.  The dwelling remained 
unfinished for several years, and in May 1685 Penn writes to Harrison, 
"finish what is built as fast as it can be done." No doubt there was 
considerable ornamentation about the building, for in 1686 Penn again 
writes, "pray don't let the front be common."  The brew house was the last 
to yield to the tooth of time.  It had long been in a dilapidated 
condition, but was not torn down till the fall of 1864.  It was twenty by 
thirty-five feet, and eleven feet to the eves; chimney and foundation of 
brick; the sills and posts were ten inches square; the weather-boarding of 
planed cedar, and the lath split in the woods.  The fire-place was of the 
most generous kind, and would take in a sixteen-foot backlog.

       
            [Picture of Penn's Brew-house, appears here.]


        (5) Gabriel Thomas.

    Among the mechanics who worked at the building, and the material men, the 
following are mentioned: E. James, who was "to finish the work which his 
men had begun;" bricks were furnished by J. Redman, and deal-boards were 
got of John Parsons.  Hannah (6) Penn writes to James Logan that her 
husband is dissatisfied with E. James, "he's too much of a gentleman" and 
"must have two servants to such a job of work."  Henry Gibbs is called "the 
governor's carpenter."

        (6) Second wife of the founder, daughter of Thomas Callowhill.

    The house was surrounded by gardens and lawns, and vistas were opened 
through the forest, so that there was a view up and down the river.  A 
broad walk was laid out from the house down to the river, and in the fall 
of 1685 poplar trees, eighteen inches in diameter, were planted on each 
side of it.  The ground in front was terraced with steps leading to the 
grounds below.  The surrounding woods was laid out in walks at Penn's first 
visit, and he gave direction to have the trees preserved, as he 
contemplated fencing off the neck for a park, but we have no evidence that 
it was ever done.  Gravel, for the walks, was taken from the pit, near the 
swamp in the vicinity, as Penn would not allow that from Philadelphia 
used, because it was red.  Steps  led down to the boat-landing in front of 
the house, and Welcome creek was bridged in several places.  By Penn's 
directions great care was bestowed upon the gardens, and several gardeners 
were sent out to take charge of them, also various kinds of shade and 
fruit trees, shrubbery, and the rarest seeds and roots were planted.  In 
Maryland he purchased many trees indigenous to that climate.  He caused the 
most beautiful of the wild flowers to be transplanted into his gardens.  A 
well of water supplied the several offices, but how the tank on the roof 
was filled is not known.  

    All his letters to his steward prove Penn's great love for rural life, 
and his desire as he expressed it, to make his children "husbandmen and 
housewives." He continually looked forward, almost down to his death, to 
establish his permanent home at Pennsbury and after his second return to 
England he gave instructions to have the improvements go on (7).  He 
directs his fields laid out at least twelve acres each.  He paid 
considerable attention to agriculture, and took pains to introduce new 
seeds at Pennsbury.  We are probably indebted to him for the introduction 
of clover and other grass seeds into this county.  He writes to his steward 
in 1685, "Haydust (8) from Long Island, such as I sowed in my court-yard, 
is best for our fields." Again: "Lay as much down as you can with 
haydust."  The first twenty years there were less than one hundred acres of 
the manor cleared for cultivation (9).  Penn appears to have located a 
tract of land in the same section for his children, for in a letter to 
William Markham, in 1689, he writes: "I send to seat my children's 
plantation that I gave them, near Pennsbury, by Edward Blackfan." (10)

    (7) He writes from England in 1705: "If Pennsbury has cost me 
        one penny, it has cost me above 5,000 pounds, and it was with an intention 
        to settle there; though God has been pleased to order it otherwise.  I 
        should have returned to it in 1686, or at farthest, in 1689.
    (8) Grass seed, no doubt.
    (9) Forty acres were cleared by 1701, and an additional forty acres the 
        following year.
   (10) Ancestor of the Bucks county Blackfans.

    William Penn was as fond of good stock as of trees and shrubbery.  On his 
first visit he brought over three blood mares, which he rode during his 
sojourn here, a fine white horse, not full blood, and other inferior 
animals, for labor.  At his second visit, in 1699, he brought the 
magnificent stallion colt "Tamerlane," by the celebrated Godolphin Barb, 
from which some of the best horses in England have descended.  His 
inquiries about the mares were as frequent as about the gardens.  In his 
letters he frequently speaks of his horse "Silas," and his "ball nag 
Tamerlane."  It is quite likely these horses were kept at Pennsbury from 
the first.

    The manor house was furnished with all the appliances of comfort and 
convenience known to persons of rank and wealth of that day.  The furniture 
was good and substantial, without being extravagant.  In "the best 
chamber," in addition to the bed and bedding, with its silk quilt, were "a 
suit of satin curtains," and "four satin cushions."  There were six cane 
chairs, and "two with twiggen bottoms." In the next chamber was a suit of 
camblet curtains, "with white head-cloth and testar," and a looking-glass 
in each.  The nursery had "one pallet bedstead" and "two chairs of Master 
John's," Penn's little son born at Pennsbury.  In the best parlor the 
entire furniture was "two tables, one pair stands, two great cane chairs 
and four small do., seven cushions, four of them satin, the other three 
green plush; one pair brasses, brass fire-shovel, tongs and fender, one 
pair bellows, two large maps."  In the other parlor was a leathern chair, 
which, no doubt, was occupied by William Penn in person.  In the great hall 
was a long table, at which public business was transacted, and "two forms 
of chairs" to sit at the table.  In Mrs. Penn's closet were four chairs 
with needle-worked cases, and in the little closet below were four flower 
basins.  The table furniture was handsome, and included damask table-cloths 
and napkins; a suit of Tunbridge ware, besides white and blue china.  White 
pewter-ware was in common use, the Proprietary's family possessed a 
considerable quantity of plate, including silver forks and a tea set.  The 
tables and chairs were made of oak or other suitable wood, as mahogany had 
not then come into use.  Carpets were little used in Europe, and probably 
there were none at Pennsbury.  A tall, old-fashioned, clock stood in the 
house, which now stands in the Philadelphia Library.  Penn brought the 
greater part of the furniture from Europe, and our list of articles is 
made up from the inventory left at Pennsbury when the family sailed for 
England in November 1701.  No doubt some of the most valuable articles were 
taken along.  After they sailed the goods from the town-house were sent up 
to Pennsbury.  In 1695 Penn writes to James Harrison, in charge of the 
manor house: "Get window shutts (shutters) and two or three eating tables 
to flap down, one less than another, as for twelve, eight, five (persons.) 
Get some wooden chairs of walnut, with long backs, four inches lower than 
the old ones, because of cushions."

    William Penn did not reside at Pennsbury, during his first visit, because 
the mansion was not in a condition to live in, but he was frequently there 
to give directions about the work.  He probably made his home with some of 
the Friends already settled along the Delaware, below the falls, for he is 
known to have been in the county at various times and places, holding 
court, attending meeting, etc.  He had not been a year in his new Province, 
when he established a letter post to convey intelligence from one part to 
another.  In July 1683 he ordered a post-office at "Tekony," and appointed 
Henry Wady (11), postmaster.  Among his other duties he was "to supply 
passengers with horses, from Philadelphia to New Castle or the falls." The 
rates of postage were, letters from the falls to Philadelphia, 3d.; to 
Chester, 5d.; to New Castle, 7d.; to Maryland, 9d.  The post went once a 
week, and the time of starting was to be carefully published "on the 
meeting-house door, and other public places." This post was continued until 
some better arrangement was made.  The falls, the starting place of the 
mail, was an important point in the young Province.

        (11) Probably Waddy.

    We must not lose sight of the fact that Bucks county was a Quaker 
settlement, and Pennsylvania a Quaker commonwealth.  Outside pressure had 
intensified their religious convictions, which they carried into the State 
(politics *) and family.  Their social and domestic government was 
practically turned over to the church, which enforced a discipline that 
would not be tolerated now.  It prescribed the rules for dress, and marked 
out the line of behavior.  In 1682, male and female, old and young, are 
advised against "wearing superfluity of apparel," and in 1694, "to keep 
out of the world's corrupt language, manners, and vain, heedless things, 
and fashions in apparel, and immoderate and indecent smoking of tobacco." 
In 1719 they advanced a step further, and advised all who accustom 
themselves, or suffer their children, to use "the corrupt and unscriptural 
language of 'you' to a single" person, to be "dealt with."  In 1744 it was 
deemed a "fault" not to take a certificate when removing from one meeting 
to another.  The Friends in some respects ignored other denominations, and 
held themselves aloof from colonial gentiles.  In 1711 they were exhorted 
not to attend the funerals of those not in communion with them; nor to go 
into any of their "worship-houses," nor hear their sermons.  They were very 
strict in the matter of courtship and marriage.  In 1705 the Bucks 
quarterly ordered those intending marriage, to acquaint the overseers of 
monthly meeting before they declare their intentions; and the man and 
woman were not allowed to dwell in the same house, from the time they 
begin to be "concerned in proposals of marriage" until it consummation 
(12).

     (12) A curious marriage custom prevailed in this province at 
          that day, that of widows being married en chimese to screen the second 
          from the first husband's debts.  Kalm says it was a common occurrence when 
          the first husband died in debt.  The Friends discountenanced such 
          marriages, which were performed by ministers of other denominations.

    In spite of this strict discipline, private morals were far from being 
unexceptionable.  A favorite author (13) writing of the first twenty years 
of the last century, says, "cases of immoral conduct were common at this 
period," which happened principally among those who "were in the practice 
of mingling with, and following, the fashions and customs of the people of 
the world."  The poor colonial gentiles are made the convenient scape-goat.

     (13) Michener.

    In some respects the discipline was lax.  The meeting countenanced the 
supplying of liquors at funerals and marriages from the first settlement, 
no doubt a practice brought from England.  Nevertheless, when they saw it 
was hurtful, they took steps to correct it.  In 1729 the yearly meeting 
recommended that strong liquors be served round but once at funerals, and 
only to those that came from a distance; and in 1735 the same authority 
declared that "greater provision for eating and drinking are made at 
marriages and burials than is consistent with good order."  In 1750 the 
meeting recommends the appointment of overseers "to prevent the 
unnecessary use of strong drink at burials." A Quaker author writing on 
this subject says: "The custom long prevailed of converting the solemn 
burial service at the house of mourning into a noisy bacchanalian 
festival" (14).

     (14) In 1683 the grand jury of Philadelphia made presentment, 
          "Of ye great rudeness and wildness of ye youths and children in ye 
          town of Philadelphia, that then daily appear up and down ye streets, 
          gaming and playing for money, etc."

    The early Friends were alive to the demands of "melting charity," and 
from their first appearance on the Delaware, they cared for their own 
poor.  Neither man nor woman, within the folds of the meeting, was allowed 
to want.  As late as 1801, the Middletown meeting contributed $447.85 to 
poor Friends in Great Britain and Ireland.

    William Penn sailed on his return to England, from his first visit, June 
12, 1684, having been in his new province about twenty-one months.  In this 
brief period he succeeded in organizing a great commonwealth, laying its 
foundations of civil and religious liberty so broad and deep that tyranny, 
from church or state, cannot prevail against them.  He committed the 
management of public affairs during his absence to his lieutenant-governor 
and the council and assembly, while James Harrison, his agent, who resided 
at Pennsbury, looked after his personal interest.  At this time the 
Province and territories annexed contained a population of seven thousand.

    The first great trouble that came upon the Friends on the Delaware, was 
the schism of George Keith, in 1690.  He was a preacher of great note and 
influence in the Society.  Born at Aberdeen, Scotland, in 1638, and fellow 
student of Bishop Burnett, he joined the Friends soon after he left the 
university.  He settled in East New Jersey before Penn's arrival, of which 
he was surveyor-general, and in 1689 was called to take charge of the 
first public grammar school in Philadelphia.  At this time he commenced the 
agitation that led to a division in the Society.  They split on the rock of 
"the sufficiency of what every man has within himself for the purpose of 
his own salvation." His followers, known as Keithian Quakers, numbered 
about one-half of the yearly meeting, including some of its most 
considerable men.  He established meetings in various parts of the 
Province.  Among those who joined him in this county were John Swift, of 
Southampton, and John Hart, who moved from Byberry to Warminster about 
this time.  A Keithian meeting, the germ of the Southampton Baptist church, 
was held at Swift's house, and he and Hart both became Baptist ministers.  
Thomas Rutter, a Quaker of Philadelphia, who joined Keith, was married to 
Rebecca Staples, of this county, at Pennsbury, 11th month, 10th, 1685; and 
was baptised at Philadelphia by Rev. Thomas Killingsworth, in 1697.  He 
began to preach and baptised nine persons, who united in communion, June 
12, 1698, and appointed Mr. Rutter their minister.  The society was kept up 
until about 1707 (15).   Keith returned to England in 1695, his followers holding 
together for a few years when most of them joined the Baptists or Episcopalians.  
Among the signers to "the testimony" against Keith from this county, were 
Nicholas Walne, William Cooper, William Biles, William Yardley, and Joseph 
Kirkbride, which was dated June 12, 1692.

     (15) Rutter baptised Evan Morgan in 1697.

    The rate of wages in this county, and elsewhere in the province, at that 
early day, cannot fail to interest the reader.  From the first English 
settlement, down to the close of the century, carpenters, bricklayers and 
masons received from five to six shillings a day; journeymen shoemakers 
two shillings per day for making both men's and women's shoes; tailors 
twelve shillings per week, with board; cutting pine boards six or seven 
shillings the hundred; weaving cloth a yard wide, ten or twelve pence a 
yard; green hides three half-pence, and tanners were paid four pence per 
hide for dressing; brick at the kiln twenty shillings per thousand; wool 
twelve to fifteen cents per pound; plasterers eighteen cents per yard.  A 
good fat cow could be bought for about three pounds, and butchers charged 
five shilling for killing a beef, and their board.  Laboring men received 
between [eighteen pence and half a crown per day, with board; between 
three and four shillings during harvest, and fourteen or fifteen pounds a 
year, with board and lodging.  Female servants received between six and ten 
pounds a year, and their wages were higher in proportion *] because of 
their scarcity, usually getting married before they were twenty years of 
age.  Gabriel Thomas tells us there were neither beggars nor old maids in 
the county.

    The farmers raised wheat, rye, barley, buckwheat, Indian corn, peas, 
beans, hemp, flax, turnips, potatoes and parsnips.  Some farmers sowed as 
high as seventy and eighty acres of wheat, besides other grains.  A 
considerable number of cattle was raised, individual farmers having as 
high as forty or sixty head, and an occasional one from one to  three 
hundred.  The country was favorable to stock-raising, the woods being open, 
often covered with grass, and the cattle roamed at will.  The wheat harvest 
was finished before the middle of July, the yield being from twenty to 
thirty bushels to the acre.  The farmers used harrows with wooden teeth, 
and the ground was so mellow that twice mending plow irons sufficed for a 
year.  The horses commonly went unshod.  Land had increased considerably in 
value, and some near Philadelphia that could be bought for six or eight 
pound the hundred acres, when the country was first settled, could be 
bought under one hundred and fifty pounds at the close of the century.  
This province was a happy commonwealth; bread and meat, and whatever else 
of drink, food, and raiment that man required, were cheaper than in 
England, and wages were higher.

    Among the notable events along the Delaware, before the close of the 
century, was the "great land flood and rupture" at the falls in 1687, 
which was followed by great sickness.  There was another great flood in the 
Delaware in April 1692 (16), when the water rose twelve feet above the 
usual high-water mark, and caused great destruction.  It reached the 
second story of some of the houses built on the low ground at South 
Trenton, and the inmates were rescued by people from the Bucks county 
shore, in canoes and conveyed to this side.  Several houses were carried 
away, two persons and a number of cattle drowned, and the shore of the 
river was strewn with household goods.  This freshet was known as "the 
great flood at Delaware falls" (17).  Phineas Pemberton records, in 1688, 
that a whale was seen as high as the falls that year.

     (16) Pemberton says "the rupture" occurred the 29th of May, and 
          some suppose it refers to the separation of the island opposite 
          Morrisville from the main-land.  This is an error, as the island 
          referred to was Vurhulsten's island, where the Walloon families had 
          settled nearly three-quarters of a century before.
     (17) When the first settlers about the falls on the New Jersey side
          built their homes on the low ground, the Indians told them they were 
          liable to be damaged by the freshets, but they did not heed the advice.

    At that day people of all classes dressed in plain attire, conforming to 
English fashions, but more subdued in deference to Friends' principles.  
Even among the most exacting the clothing was not reduced to the formal 
cut of the costume at a later period.  The wife of Phineas Pemberton, in a 
reply to a letter in which he complains of the want of clothing suited to 
the season, says: "I have sent thee thy leather doublet, and britches, and 
great stomacher." 

    In the course of our investigations we have met with several references 
to the difficulty William Penn had in collecting his quit rents in this 
county and elsewhere.  In 1702 James Logan writes him: "Of all the rents in 
Bucks county I have received but one ton and a half of flour." He says 
"Philadelphia is the worst, Bucks not much better." On another occasion he 
writes: "Bucks, exceedingly degenerate of late," pays no taxes, nor will 
any one in the county levy by distress.  The county is again mentioned in 
1704, as being "slow in paying her taxes."

END OF CHAPTER VI