Area history: Watson's Annals, The Treaty Tree, 1857: Vol I

Contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by EVC.

USGENWEB NOTICE: Printing this file by non-commercial individuals
               and libraries is encouraged, as long as all notices
               and submitter information is included. Any other use,
               including copying files to other sites requires
               permission from the submitters PRIOR to uploading to
               any other sites. We encourage links to the state and
               county table of contents.
____________________________________________________________


     WATSON'S  ANNALS  of  PHILADELPHIA  and  PENNSYLVANIA
       Vol. 1    Written 1830 - 1850

 Chpater 9             THE TREATY TREE
                             and
                     FAIRMAN'S  MANSION

     "But thou, broad Elm !  Canst thou tell us nought
      Of forest Chieftains, and their vanish'd tribes ?
      -----------------------Hast thou no record left
     Of perish'd generations, o'er whose heads
     Thy foliage droop'd ?---thou who shadowed once
     The rever'd Founders of our honour'd State."

   The site of this venerable tree is filled with local impressions.  The
tree itself, of great magnitude and great age, was of most impressive
grandeur.  Other cities of our Union have had their consecrated trees; and
history abounds with those which spread in arborescent glory, and claimed
their renown both from the pencil and the historic muse.  Such have been
"the royal oak", Shakespeare's "mulberry tree", &c.

      "From his touch-wood trunk the mulberry tree
       Supplied such relics as devotion holds
       Still sacred, and preserves with pious care."

   In their state of lofty and silent grandeur they impress a soothing
influence on the soul, and lead out the meditative mind to enlargement of
conception and thought.  On such a spot, Penn, with appropriate acumen,
selected his treaty grounds.  There long stood the stately witness of the
solemn covenant --- a lasting emblem of the unbroken faith, "pledged without
an oath, and never broken!"
   Nothing could surpass the amenity of the whole scene as it once stood,
before "improvement", that effacive name of every thing rural or
picturesque, destroyed its former charms, cut down its sloping verdant bank,
razed the tasteful Fairman mansion, and turned all into the levelled
uniformity of a city street.  Once remote from city bustle, and blest in its
own silent shades amid many lofty trees, it looked out upon the distant
city, "saw the stir of the great Babel, nor felt the crowd";  long,
therefore, it was the favourite walk of the citizen.  There he sought his
seat and rest.  Beneath the wide spread branches of the impending Elm
gathered in summer whole congregations to hymn their anthems and to hearken
to the preacher, beseeching them, "in Christ's stead, to be reconciled unto
God".  Those days are gone, "but sweet's their memory still!"
   Not to further dilate on the picture which the imagination fondly draws
of scenes no longer there, we shall proceed to state such facts as the
former history of the place affords, to wit:
   The fact of the treaty being held under the Elm, depends more upon the
general tenor of tradition, than upon any direct facts now in our
possession.  When all men knew it to be so, they felt little occasion to lay
up evidences for posterity.  Lest any should hereafter doubt it, the
following corroborative facts are furnished to wit:
   The late aged Judge Peters said he had no doubt of its being the place of
the treaty.  He and David H. Conyngham (lately alive), had been familiar
with the place from their youth as their swimming place, and both had always
heard and always believed it designated the treaty ground.  Judge Peters
remarked too, that Benjamin Lay, the hermit, who came to this country in
1731, used to visit it and speak of it as the place of the treaty; of course
he had his opinion from those who preceded him.  Mr. Thomas Hopkins, who
died lately at the age of 93, had lived there upwards of fifty years, and
told me he never heard the subject questioned in his time.  James Reed,
Esq., a nephew of James Logan's wife, who died in 1793, at the age of 71, (a
great observer of passing events) used to say of West's paintings of the
treaty, that the English characters severally present were all intended to
be resemblances, and were so far true, that he (Mr. Reed) could name them
all.  He fully believed the treaty was held at the Elm; and Mrs. Logan has
heard him express his regret (in which others will join him) that Benjamin
West should have neglected truth so far as to have omitted the river scenery.
   Proud says, "the proprietary being now returned from Maryland to
Coaquannock, the place so called by the Indians, where Philadelphia now
stands, began to purchase lands of the natives.  It was at this time (says
he) when William Penn first entered personally into that lasting friendship
with the Indians, [meaning the treaty, it is presumed] which ever after
continued between them".
   Clarkson, who had access to all the Penn papers in England, and who had
possession of the blue sash of silk with which Penn was girt at the
aforesaid famous treaty, gives the following facts, strongly coincident with
the fact of the locality of the treaty tree, --- saying, "It appears,
[meaning, I presume, it was in evidence, as he was too remote to be led to
the inference by our traditions] that though the parties were to assemble at
Coaquannock, the treaty was made a little higher up, at Shackamaxon".  We
can readily assign a good reason for the change of place; the latter had a
kind of village near there of Friends, and it had been besides the residence
of Indians, and probably had some remains of their families still there.
   Benjamin West, who lived here sufficiently early to have heard the direct
traditions in favour of the treaty, has left us his deep sense of that
historical fact, by giving it the best efforts of his pencil, and therein
drawn the portrait of his grandfather as one of the group of Friends
attendant on Penn in that early national act.  His picture, indeed, has
given no appearance of that tree, but this is of no weight; as painters,
like poets, are indulged to make their own drapery and effect.  Nothing can
be said against the absence of the tree, which may not be equally urged
against the character and position of the range of houses in his back
ground, which were certainly never exactly found at Shackamaxon,
Coaquannock, or Upland.  But we may rest assured that Mr. West, although he
did not use the image of the treaty tree as any part of his picture,
[possibly because he could have no picture of it in England, where he
painted]  he nevertheless regarded it as the true locality; because he has
left a fact from his own pen to countenance it. This he did in relating what
he learnt from Colonel Simcoe respecting his protection of that tree during
the time of the stay of the British army at and near Philadelphia.  It shows
so much generous and good feeling from all the parties concerned, that Mr.
West's words may be worthy of preservation in this connection, to wit:
"This tree, which was held in the highest veneration by the original
inhabitants of my native country, by the first settlers, and by their
descendants, and to which I well remember, about the year 1755, when a boy,
often resorting with my school fellows, was in some danger during the
American war, when the British possessed the country, from parties sent out
in search of wood for firing; but the late General Simcoe, who had the
command of the district where it grew, (from a regard for the character of
William Penn, and the interest he took in the history connected  with the
tree), ordered a guard of British soldiers to protect it from the axe.  This
circumstance the General related to me, in answer to my inquiries, after his
return from England."  If we consider the lively interest thus manifested by
Mr. West in the tree, connected with the facts that he could have known from
his grandfather, who was present and must have left a correct tradition in
the family, (thus inducing him to become the painter of the subject), we
cannot but be convinced how amply he corroborates the locality above stated.
   We have been thus particular because the archives at Harrisburg, which
have been searched, in illustration and confirmation of the said treaty,
have hitherto been to little effect; one paper found barely mentions that,
"after the treaty was held, William Penn and the Friends went into the house
of Lacy Cock.  [There is a deed from Governor Henoyon of New York, of the
year 1664, granting onto Peter Cock his tract, then called Shackamaxon.]
And Mr. Gordon, the author of the late History of Pennsylvania, informed me
that he could only find at Harrisburg the original envelope relating to the
treaty papers; on which was endorsed "Papers relative to the Indian treaty
under the great Elm".
  In regard to the form and manner of the treaty as held, we think William
Penn has given us ideas, in addition to West's painting, which we think must
one day provide material for a new painting of this interesting national
subject.  Penn's letters of 1683, to the Free Society of Traders, and to the
Earl of Sunderland, both describe an Indian treaty to this effect, to wit:
To the Society he says, "I have had occasion to be in council with them upon
treaties for land, and to adjust the terms of trade.  Their order is thus --
the king sits in the middle of an half moon and hath his council, the old
and wise on each hand.  Behind them or at a little distance sit the younger
fry in the same figure.  Having consulted and resolved their business, the
king ordered one of them to speak to me; he stood up, came to me, and in the
name of his king saluted me; then took me by the hand and told me `he was
ordered by his king to speak to me, and that what he should say was the
king's mind,' &c.  While he spoke not a man of them was observed to whisper
or smile.  When the purchase was made great promises passed between us of
kindness and good neighbourhood, and that we must live in love so long as
the sun gave light.  This done, another made a speech to the Indians in the
name of all the Sachamachers or kings, --- first, to tell what was done;
next, to charge and command them to love the Christians, and particularly to
live in peace with me and my people.  At every sentence they shouted, and,
in their way, said Amen."
   To the Earl of Sunderland, Penn says: "In selling me their land they
ordered themselves -- the old in a half moon upon the ground; the middle
aged in a like figure at a little distance behind them; and the young fry in
the same manner behind them.  None speak but the aged, -- they having
consulted the rest before hand."
   We have thus, it may be perceived, a graphic picture of Penn's treaty, as
painted by himself; and, to my mind, the sloping green bank presented a
ready amphitheatre for the display of the successive semicircles of Indians.
   Fishbourne's MS. Narrative of 1739, says Penn established a friendly
correspondence by way of treaty with the Indians, at least twice a year.
   The only mark of distinction used by Penn at the treaty was that of a
blue silk net-work sash girt around his waist.  This sash is still in
existence in England; it was once in possession of Thomas Clarkson, Esq.,
who bestowed it to his friend as a valuable relic.  John Cook, Esq., our
townsman, was told this by Clarkson himself in the year 1801, --- such a
relic should be owned by the Penn Society.
   The tree thus memorable was blown over on the 3d of March, 1810; the blow
was not deemed generally prevalent, nor strong.  In its case, the root was
wrenched and the trunk broken off; it fell on Saturday night, and on Sunday
many hundreds of people visited it.  In its form it was remarkably wide
spread, but not lofty; its main branch inclining towards the river measured
150 feet in length; its girth around the trunk was 24 feet, and its age, as
it was counted by the inspection of its circles of annual growth, was 283
years.  The tree, such as it was in 1800, was very accurately drawn on the
spot by Thomas Birch, and the large engraving, executed from it by Seymour,
gives the true appearance of every visible limb, &c.  While it stood, the
Methodists and Baptists often held their summer meetings under its shade.
When it had fallen, several took their measures to secure some of the wood
as relics.  An arm-chair was made from it and presented to Doctor Rush; a
part of it is constructed into something memorable and enduring at Penn's
Park, in England.  I have some remains of it myself.
   But the fallen tree finely revived, in a sucker from it, was flourishing
in the amplitude of an actual tree on the premises of the Pennsylvania
Hospital, in the centre of the western vacant lot, since turned into Linden
Street, where it stood a while in the paved street and was cut down in 1841.
Messrs. Coates and Brown, managers, placed it there some 25 or 26 years ago.
I had myself seen another sucker growing on the original spot, a dozen years
ago, amid the lumber of the ship yard.  It was then about 15 feet high, and
might have been still larger but for neglect and abuse. I was aiding to have
it boxed in for protection; but, whether from previous barking of the trunk,
or from injuring the roots by settling the box it did not long survive the
intended kindness.  Had it lived, it would have been an appropriate shade to
the marble monument, since erected near the site of the original tree to
perpetuate its memory, with the following four inscriptions on its four
sides, to wit:
Treaty ground
      of
William Penn        William Penn
   and the               Born  1644
Indian Nations,       Died   1718
    1682
Unbroken faith.

------------------------------------------------
  Placed by the        Pennsylvania
  Penn Society           Founded
  A.D.  1827                  1681
  to mark the            by Deeds of
  site of the                  Peace.
 Great Elm Tree.

-------------------------------------------------
  As it is possible, with nourishing earth and due watering, to raise small
cuttings from another Elm, I recommend that a successor may yet be placed
over the monument.
   We come now next in order to speak of the

   FAIRMAN MANSION --- This respectable and venerable looking brick edifice
was constructed in 1702, for the use of Thomas Fairman, the deputy of Thomas
Holme, the Surveyor General, and was taken down in April 1825, chiefly
because it encroached on the range of the present street.  A brick was found
in the wall, on which was marked, "Thomas Fairman, September, 1702".
   It had been the abode of many respectable inmates, and was once desired
as the county seat of William Penn himself, --- a place highly appropriate
for him who made his treaty there.  Governor Evans, after leaving his office
as Governor, dwelt there some time.  It was afterwards the residence of
Governor Palmer; and these two names were sufficient to give it the
character of the "Governor's House", --- a name which it long retained after
the cause had been forgotten.  After them the aged and respectable Mr.
Thomas Hopkins occupied it for fifty years.
   Penn's conception of this beautiful place is well expressed in his letter
of 1708, to James Logan, saying, "If John Evans (the late Governor) leaves
your place, then try to secure his plantation; for I think, from above
Shackamaxon to the town is one of the pleasantest situations upon the river
for a Governor; where one sees and hears what one will and when one will,
and yet have a good deal of the sweetness and quiet of the country.  And I
do assure thee, if the country would settle upon me six hundred pounds per
annum, I would hasten over the following summer.* Cultivate this amongst the
best Friends".  The next year, (1709) his mind being intent on the same
thing, he says: "Pray get Daniel Pegg's, or such a remote place, (then on
Front near to Green Street) in good order for me and family".
[* We may here see how absolutely determined, and pledged too, Penn once was
to return and settle his family forever among us, by his request in next
year to engage Pegg's house.  I presume, Evans' house could not then be had,
and that he was actually encouraged to come over at the £ 600 a year; but
after circumstances in England prevented his return here.]
   A letter of Robert Fairman, brother of Thomas, the surveyor, dated
London, 10th of 2d mo. 1711, to Jonathan Dickinson, which I have seen in MS.
claims to be the proper owner of the estate at Shackamaxon, and saying, "I
have been lately in company with William Penn; and there speaking to him of
thy proposing to buy for a friend that plantation at Coxon Creek, (i.e. the
Cohocksinc) he says it is a pleasant place for situation, out of the noise
of Philadelphia, but in sight of it, --- a place he would choose for his
dwelling if he should return there, --- says he asks £ 600 for it".  In
another letter of the 30th of 8 mo. 1711, he marks its location in front by
saying, "The river Delaware joining to said land makes it more valuable than
back land, and besides, it is so near the town".  He states also, that his
brother writes him that thirteen aces of the said land next the creek
(Coxon) may ere long be worth £ 1000. He expressly speaks of the place as
situated in "Shackamaxon".  In another letter dated the 12th of 3 mo. 1715,
which I have preserved, on page 252 of my Annals in the Historical Society,
as a singularity for its peculiar hand-writing in text character, he speaks
therein of his place near Coxen Creek as having woods and stumps; says the
trees have been cut there to form a new bridge on the new road across the
creek; speaks of Thomas Fairman's death, and that the widow then on the
premises complains of hard usage from Captain Palmer, --- the same, it is
probable, who afterwards came to be President of the Council, and for a
short time, in 1747, Governor, ex-officio.
   "Governor Anthony Palmer," so called in his latter years, was a wealthy
gentleman who came from the West Indies about the year 1709, and lived in a
style suited to his circumstances, keeping a coach, then a great luxury, and
a pleasure barge, by which he readily made his visits from Shackamaxon to
the city.  He was said to have 21 children by his first wife, all of whom
died of consumptions; some of his descendants by a second wife are now
residents of Philadelphia.  The present aged colonel A. J. Morris told me
that he heard old Mr. Tatnal say, that Governor Palmer offered him a great
extent of Kensington lots on the River Street at six pence a foot
ground-rent forever, --- a small sum for our present conceptions of its
value, changing as the whole scene now is to a city form, filling with
houses, cutting down eminences, and filling up some lower places to the
general level, --- a change, on the whole, not unlike what must have been
the superficial change originally effected at Philadelphia.

   Old Edward Duffield, the executor of Dr. Franklin's will, who used to own
land in Kensington and had been curious to enquire the meaning of
Shackamaxon, told his son that he learnt that it meant the "field of blood",
in reference to a great Indian battle once sustained there. I must remark,
however, that the Delaware missionary, Mr. Luckenbach, informed me that if
it is a Delaware word, allowing for a little variation in spelling, it meant
"a child not able to feed itself".  In general he deemed our Indian names of
Shawnese origin. --- Another and most probable sense, is "the place of
Eels". --- "Vide" Heckewelder.
   As every thing relative to this hallowed place, by reason of the Treaty
Tree, once there, is to be deemed interesting, we have concluded since the
first edition, to add the following additional items, to wit:
   The Shackamaxon locality has long been a mooted point, and we had before
entertained the belief that it began as "Pleasant Point", in Kensington, (a
place already effaced and changed as a "point", but once sufficiently plain
as a gravelly strand on the north side of the mouth of Cohocksinc,) and
therefore, to be in effect considered as beginning at Cohocksinc Creek, and
extending along the River to Gunner's Creek.  I have lately found a fact in
the Minutes of the Friends' Meetings at Abington, which goes to prove that
the Friends' Meetings were originally held at Shackamaxon at the house of
Thomas Fairman, (miscalled Fairlamb, in Proud and others) to wit:  "on the
11 of 2 mo. 1682, it was mutually agreed that a meeting be at William
Cooper's at Pyne Point, (N.J.) the 2d first day of 3 mo. next, and the next
meeting be at Thomas Fairman's at Shackamaxon, and so in course", and "at a
monthly Meeting the 8th of 9 mo.1682 --- at this time Governor William Penn
and a multitude of Friends arrived here and erected a City called
Philadelphia, "about half a mile from Shackamaxon", where Meetings, &c., were
established, &c.  Thomas Fairman, at the request of the Governor, removed
himself and family to Tackony, where there was also a Meeting appointed to
be kept, and the ancient Meeting of Shackamaxon removed to Philadelphia,
from which meeting also other meetings were appointed in the Province of
Pennsylvania".
   From the premises it is to be inferred, as very natural to have made the
Treaty at the Treaty Tree, when it was also the ample house, and the head
quarters, of the Friends and their meetings.
   On page 130 of my MS. Annals, it will be seen respecting "Fairman's
Mansion", that by a letter of Robert Fairman of London, of 1711, he speaks
of the house "at the Treaty Tree", built of brick in 1702, (and taken down
in 1825) as the locality of the said Thomas Fairman's former house --- he
having been dead some time, and his widow being then (in 1711) on the premises.
   Robert Venables, the aged black who died in Philadelphia in 1834, aged
98, told me that he had always heard that it was at the Treaty Tree that
William Penn held his treaty.  He had never heard a doubt of it in his long
life in Philadelphia.  He heard it often so said by the aged and by his own
parents, who were blacks from Barbadoes.  He said it was the current report
that the "three balls" on Penn's  arms represented three apple dumplings*,
and were intended to commemorate the fact of Penn being treated at the
treaty.  [This, though erroneous, tests the popular confirmation of the
treaty there in early times.]  He said also as the popular story of the aged
in his youth (and he had seen several persons who had seen Penn !)  that the
treaty was made "under the great Elm" on the 1st day of May", and that for
that cause, they kept May days with great rejoicings as King Tamanee's day.
*[These are so called also by the people, on the Penn arms, on the old
milestones on the Gulf and Haverford roads.]
   In the year 1836, there was published some notices of the gift I had made
to the Town House in Kensington, acknowledging the welcome reception of two
elm trees which I had planted in the front court yard of that house, as
mementos of the Treaty Elm: --- they being of the same species and
transplanted from the premises once Richard Townsends, where he had erected
the first mill in Philadelpia County, now the same place called Roberts'
Mill, near to Germantown.  It had also the additional interest of being the
same place once owned by Godfrey, the inventor of the quadrant, and where
his body, now taken to Laurel Hill Cemetery, was for many years interred.
It may be mentioned also, that a similar Elm, from near his grave, was also
taken and planted and now flourishes before my own house, in the Main Street
in Germantown.
   The Commissioners of Kensington, too, with commendable good feelings,
have constructed for their Town Hall, a great arm chair of relic wood formed
of the real Treaty Tree, and sundry other woods designated in a secret
drawer attached, so as to perpetuate the facts intended to be consecrated to
posterity by the enduring presence of the elegant chair.  All this showed
most commendable feelings for the honoured founders of the State, and was in
just keeping with their own local relation to the historical incidents of
the country.  Long may it be preserved as a memento of the past, and long
may the trees, so planted, endure to link one generation with another, ---
to stand like living monuments speaking forth their solemn and soothing
lessons, as from fathers to sons and the sons of sons.
   Having made a communication to the Historical Society in December, 1835,
since printed, concerning "the Indian Treaty for the Lands near the site of
Philadelphia and the adjacent country", I hereby repeat some of the remarks
then made, to the effect that there has been a misconception of the nature
and object of the admitted assemblage of Penn and the Indians under the
Great Tree.  It was emphatically true that under that ample Elm,

                    "Was sheltered once
        The rev'd Founders of our honour'd State,
        Met, with forest chieftains and their vanish'd tribes."

   But, it was not a Treaty for lands to be then purchased, but was a great
meeting of verbal conference and pledge, popularly called "the Treaty", in
which presents were bestowed, mutual civilities exchanged, and reciprocal
promises of friendship and good will were severally made.  Made in the name
and form (as will be shown) of a league and chain of friendship".  To this
fact, the testimony of tradition has also been unceasing and unchanging.  It
has been told and believed from the beginning, or from a time, as the
civilians say, "in which the memory of man runneth not to the contrary".
   If this, my assumption or position, be true, it will then sufficiently
account for the hitherto strange fact, that in so important a matter as the
deed and title to "the lands" which we now, as Philadelpians, and even as
Pennsylvanians, occupy, we have NO original Treaty ___ formed at the Treaty
Tree, to show !  We have hitherto been looking for an alleged instrument of
writing, which had no existence at that time, because it was not then
necessary, nor then executed,  But the fact is, as the records which I
inspected at Harrisburg lately, will show, that the actual treaty for the
lands of the present Philadelphia and adjacent country, out to Susquehanna,
was made in the year 1685, by Thomas Holme as President of the Council, in
the absence of William Penn, who was then returned back to England.

   The Treaty, so made, on the 30th dy of the 5th mo.1685, was formed with
Shakkoppoh, Secane, Malibore, and Tangoras, Indian Sakamakers, and right
owners of the lands lying between Macapanackan, alias Upland, now called
Chester River or Creek, and the River or Creek of Pemapecka, now called
Dublin Creek, beginning at a hill called Conshohockin (at present by
Matson's ford) on the River Manaiunk or Skoolkill, &c., &c. .....then to go
north-westerly back into the woods --- to make up two full days' journey, AS
FAR AS A MAN CAN GO IN TWO DAYS, from the said station of the parallel line
at Pemapecka, [thus going or extending in effect back to the Susquehanna
River, and no further, at that time, and in THAT treaty].  FOR, AND IN
CONSIDERATION, [we feel almost ashamed to name it !] of 200 fathoms of
wampum, 30 fathoms of duffels, 30 guns, 60 fathoms of strawed waters, 30
kettles, 30 shirts, 20 gunbelts, 12 pair of shoes, 30 pair of stockings, 30
pair of scissors, 30 combs, 30 axes, 30 knives, 20 tobacco tongs, 30 bars of
lead, 30 pounds of powder, 30 awls, 30 glasses, 30 tobacco boxes, 3 papers
of beads, 44 pounds of red lead, 30 pair of hawks' bells, 6 drawing knives,
6 caps, 12 hoes: Do by these presents grant, bargain and sell, &c., all
right, title and interest, THAT WE OR ANY OTHERS SHALL OR MAY CLAIM IN THE
SAME, --- hereby renouncing and disclaiming for ever any claim or pretence
to the premises, for us, our heirs, and successors, and all other Indians
whatsoever.  The whole is signed by queer marks and witnessed by seven
Indians and eight white men --- citizens.
   It may possibly be urged that the Treaty made on 23d of 4mo, 1683, when
William Penn was still here, between William Penn and Kings Tamanen and
Metamequan, for their lands, from "near Neshemanah Creek, and thence to
Pemapecka" may have been treated for under the Treaty Tree.  This certainly
appears to have been the earliest land treaty on record; but as Phladelphia
was then already located as a city, it could not have been necessary for
that object.  There is still another view of this subject to be considered
--- which is, that Capt. Sven, then resident near Swedes' Church, south end
of the City, was then proprietor of part, if not all of Philadelphia land,
under a grant of gift from his own sovereign Queen Christiana --- and it is
already matter of history that he yielded his land to Penn, in consideration
of other lands bestowed upon him up the Schuylkill.
   A Treaty made at Conastogae the 26th of May 1728, stated in the Minutes
of Council at the time, between Governor Gordon and Captain Civility and
other Chiefs, makes direct reference to the first Treaty in nine items,
concluding that amity and friendship was to exist between them for ever, or
--- "as long as the Creeks and Rivers run, and while the sun, moon, and
stars endure", "and lastly, that both Christians and Indians should acquaint
their children with this league and firm chain of friendship now made, while
Creeks and Rivers run, &c.
   From the proceeding I have arrived, as I conceive -- by consulting in
connexion Proud's History --- at the confirmation of the fact, that the
aforesaid nine articles were a part of "the league and chain of friendship",
first made by William Penn himself at the time of his arrival, when made
under the Treaty Tree in 1682, to wit: --- Proud's History, vol. 1,  p.212
says, "it was at this time (1682) when he first entered personally into that
lasting friendship (not land purchase) with the Indians, which ever
afterwards continued between them; and for the space of more than seventy
years, (say till the time of Braddock and the French War) was never
interrupted".  "A firm peace (not a treaty for land) was, therefore, now
reciprocally concluded between William Penn and the Indians; and both
parties mutually promised to live together as brethern, (as one of the
articles said, as members of "one body") this was solemnly ratified by the
usual token of a chain of friendship and covenant never to be broken so
long as the sun and moon endure."  In the same vol.  1, p. 215, in stating the
case of the Indian Treaty at Albany in 1722, Governor Keith, then present,
is made to say to the Indians, "that he desired that the visit and the
Covenant chain, which is hereby brightened, may be recorded in everlasting
remembrance, and to last as long as the mountains and rivers, and while the
sun and moon (former words) endure", and this he especially said, as "the
repetition of the former treaties which they made with William Penn".  I
conclude, therefore, that although the original of "the League and chain of
friendship", made at "the conference at the Treaty Tree in 1682, is not now
to be found, (unless at Stoke Pogis --- the Penn residence in England,) we
have the "nine articles" aforesaid, being all of "the main heads" of that
memorable and venerable Treaty Tree instrument.
   I have endeavoured to repress the expression of the feelings I cannot but
feel in the contemplation of the premises, that such lands as we now possess
should have been bestowed for such very inconsiderable reward !   I feel it
as a stain upon our escutcheon of honour, that while
            "They, to greet the pale faced stranger
              Stretch'd an unsuspecting hand,"
we should have been so unmindful of our own duties, as to overlook the
recompense due ---
             "Entrapp'd by Treaties, driven forth to range
              The distant west in misery and revenge ! "
The only abatement I know, is to say that Penn in fact deemed the land his
own by grant from the Crown even before he came among them; as his letter to
the Indians from London sets forth, on the 15 of 8 mo.1681, saying, even to
themselves openly, that his king hath given him a great Province, (i.e.
their lands!) which he, however, "desires to enjoy with their love and consent".

         "Then redmen took the law of love
          As from a brother's hand
          And they blessed him while he founded
          The city of our love."

 Chapter 10.             THE  SWEDES'  CHURCH
                                 and
                         HOUSE OF SVEN SENER

   The Swedes of the hamlet at Wiccao, at the present Swedes' Church in
Southwark, having been the primitive occupants, near the present site of
Philadelphia, (before the location of our city was determined), will make it
interesting to glean such facts as we can concerning that place and people.
There they once saw the region of our present city scenes ---
                                     "One still
                                      And solemn desert in primeval garb ! "

   Mr. Kalm, the Swedish traveller, when here in 1748, saw Nils Gustafson,
and old Swede, then 91 years of age, who told him he well remembered to have
seen a great forest on the spot where Philadelphia now stands; that he
himself had brought a great deal of timber to Philadelphia at the time it
was built.  Mr. Kalm also met with an old Indian, who had often killed stags
on the spot where Philadelphia now stands !
   It appears from manuscripts and records that the southern part of our
city, including present Swedes' Church, Navy Yard, &c., was originally
possessed by the Swedish family of Sven, the chief of which was Sven Schute,
--- a title equivalent to the Commandant; in which capacity he once held
Nieu Amstel under charge from Risingh.  As the Shute of Korsholm fort,
standing in the domain of Passaiung, he probably had its site some where in
the sub-district of Wiccao, --- an Indian name, traditionally said to imply
"pleasant place" --- a name highly indicative of what Swedes' Church place
originally was .  We take for granted that the village and church would, as
a matter of course, get as near the block-house fort as circumstances would
admit.
   The lands of the Sven family we however know from actual title, which I
have seen to this effect, to wit: "I, Francis Lovelace, Esq., one of the
gentlemen of his Majesty's Honourable Privy Council, and Governor General
under his Royal Highness, James, Duke of York and Albany, to all to whom
these presents may come, &c.  Whereas, there was a Patent or Ground brief
granted by the Dutch Governor at Delaware to Swen Gonderson, Swen Swenson,
Oele Swenson, and Andrew Swenson, for a certain piece of ground lying up
above in the river, beginning at Moyamensing kill, and so stretching upwards
in breadth 400 rods, [about 1 1/4 mile wide] and in length into the woods
600 rods, [nearly 2 miles] in all about 800 acres, dated 5th of May, 1664,
KNOW YE, &c., that I have ratified the same, they paying an annual quit rent
of eight bushels of winter wheat to his Majesty."  This patent was found
recorded at Upland, the 31st of August, 1741.
   The Moyamensing kill above mentioned was probably the same creek now
called Hay creek, above Gloucester Point, and the 600 rods, or 2 miles of
length, probably extended along the river.
   We know that Penn deemed their lines so far within the bounds of his plan
of Philadelphia and Southwark, that he actually extinguished their title by
giving them lands on the Schuylkill, above Lemon hill, &c.
  The Rev'd. Dr. Collin has ascertained from the Swedish MS. records in his
possession, that the first Swedes' Church at Wiccao was built on the present
site in 1677, five years before Penn's colony came.  It was of logs, and had
loop-holes in lieu of window lights, which might serve for fire-arms in case
of need.  The congregation also was accustomed to bring fire-arms to prevent
surprise, but ostensibly to use for any wild game which might present in
their way in coming from various places.
   In 1700, the present brick church was erected, and it was then deemed a
great edifice, and so generally spoken of; for certainly nothing was then
equal to it, as a public building, in the city.  An elderly gentleman
informs me that he had cause to know that the
Swedes' Church was built mostly by subscription.  Some paid in money and
some in work and materials --- the then parson carried the hod himself.
The bell is said to have some silver in it, and to give a disagreeable sound.
   The same gentleman informed me that he had seen a view of the first
church engraved on a curiously shaped silver box, which had come from an old
Swede.  It had become at last a lip-salve box.
   The parsonage house, now standing, was built in 1737. The former
parsonage house was in the Neck.  There were originally 27 acres of land
attached to the Wiccao Church.  These facts were told me by Dr. Collins.  At
my request he made several extacts from the Swedish Church-books to
illustrate those early times; which he has since bestowed to the historical
department of the Philosophical Society.
   The original log-house of the sons of Sven was standing till the time the
British occupied Philadelphia; when it was taken down and converted into
fuel.  It stood on a knoll or hill on the N.W. corner of Swanson Street and
Beck's Alley.  Professor Kalm visited it in 1748 as a curiosity, and his
description of it then is striking, to wit:  "The wretched old wooden
building, (on a hill a little north of the Swedes'  Church) belonging to one
of the sons of Sven, (Sven's Saener) is still preserved as a memorial of the
once poor state of that place.  Its antiquity gives it a kind of superiority
over all the other buildings in the town, although in itself it is the worst
of all.  But with these advantages it is ready to fall down, and in a few
years to come it will be as difficult to find the place where it stood, as
it was unlikely, when built, that it should in a short time become the place
of one of the greatest towns in America.  Such as it was, it showed how they
dwelt, when stags, elk, deer and beavers ranged in broad daylight in the
future streets and public places of Philadelphia.  In that house was heard
the sound of the spinning wheel before the city was ever thought of ! "  He
describes the site as having on the river side, in front of it, a great
number of very large sized water-beech or buttonwood trees; one of them, as a
solitary way-mark to the spot, is still remaining there.  He mentions also
some great ones as standing on the river shore by the Swedes' Church --- the
whole then a rural scene.
   It was deemed so attractive, as a "pleasant place", that Thomas Penn when
in Philadelphia made it his favourite ramble; so much so, that Secretary
Peters, in writing to him in 1743, thus complains of its changes --- saying,
"Southwark is getting greatly disfigured by erecting irregular and mean
houses; thereby so marring its beauty that, when he shall return, he will
lose his usual pretty walk to Wiccaco".
   I ascertained the following facts concerning "the old Swedes' house", as
they called the log-house of the sons of Sven.  Its exact location was where
the blacksmith's shop now stands, about 30 feet north of Beck's Alley, and
fronting upon Swanson Street.  It had a large garden and various fruit trees
behind it.  The little hill on which it stood has been cut down as much as
five or six feet, to make the lot conform to the present street.  It
descended to Paul Beck, Esqr., through the Parhams, an English family.
  The wife of the late Rev. Dr. Rogers remembered going to school in the
Sven House with her sister.  They described it to me, as well as a Mrs.
Stewart also, as having been one and a half story high, with a piazza all
around it, having four rooms on a floor, and a very large fire-place with
seats in each jamb.  Beck's Alley and the "improvements" there had much
spoiled the former beauty of the scene along that alley.  There had been
near there, an inlet of water from the Delaware, in which boats could float,
especially  at high tides.  There were many very high trees, a ship yard,
and much green grass all about the place.  Now not a vestige of the former
scene remains.
   Although my informants had often heard it called "the Swedes' house" in
their youth, they never understood the cause of the distinction until I
explained it.
   The Sven family, although once sole lords of the southern domain, have
now dwindled away, and I know of no male member of that name, or rather of
their anglified name of Swanson.  The name was successively altered.  At the
earliest time it was occasionally written Suan, which sometimes gave
occasion to the sound of Swan, and in their patent, confirmed by Governor
Lovelace, they are named Swen.  By Professor Kalm, himself a Swede, and most
competant to give the true name, they are called Sven's-Saener, i.e., sons
of Sven.  Hence in time they were called sons of Suan or Swan, and
afterwards, for euphony sake, Swanson.
   I found in the burial place of the Swedes' church a solitary memorial;
such as the tablet and the chisel have preserved in these rude lines, to wit:
      "In memory of Peter Swanson,
       who died December 18, 1737,
                  aged 61 years
       Reader, stop and self behold !
       Thou'rt made of ye same mould,
       And shortly must dissolved be:
       Make sure of blest Eternity !"
   In the same ground is the inscription of Swan Johnson, who died in 1733,
aged 48 years, who probably derived his baptismal name from the Sven race.
   The extinction of these names of the primitive lords of the soil, reminds
one of the equally lost names of the primitive lords at the other end of the
city, to wit:  the Hartsfelders and Peggs --- all sunk in the abyss of time
!  "By whom begotten or by whom forgot", equally is all their lot !
   One street has preserved their Swanson name; and the City Directory did
once show the names of one or two persons in lowly circumstances; if, indeed
their names was any proof of their connexion with Sven Schute.
   The late Anthony Cuthbert, of Penn Street, when aged 77, told me he
remembered an aged Mr. Swanson in his youth, who was a large landholder of
property near this Sven house; that he gave all his deeds or leases, "with
the privilege of using his wharf or landing near the buttonwoods."  The
single great tree still standing there as a pointer to the spot, is nearly
as thick at its base as the Treaty Elm, and like it diverges into two great
branches near the ground.  Long may it remain the last relic of the home of
Sven Sener !
   They who see the region of Swedes' Church now, can have little
conception of the hills and undulations primarily there.  The first story
of the Swedes' Church, now on Swanson Street made of stone, was originally
so much under ground.  The site there was on a small hill now cut down eight
feet.  At the east end of Christian Street, where it is crossed by Swanson
Street, the river Delaware used to flow in, so that Swanson Street in that
place, say from the north side of Swedes" Church lot up to near Queen
street, was originally a raised causeway.  Therefore, the oldest houses now
standing on the western side of that street do not conform to the line of
the street, but range in a line nearly south west, and also stand back from
the present street on what was (before the street was laid out) the margin
of the high ground bordering on the River Delaware.  Those houses too have
their yards one story higher than their front pavements, and what was once
their cellars under ground is now the first story of the same buildings.
   From the Swedes' Church down to the Navy yard, the high hill formerly
there has been cut down five or six feet, and by filling up the wharves
below the former steep banks, the bank itself, as once remembered, even 30
years ago, seems strangely diminished.
   At some distance from Swedes' Church, westward, is a remarkably low
ground, between hills, having a pebbly bed like the river shore, which shows
it once had a communication with the Delaware River at the foot of Christian
Street; where Mr. Joseph Marsh, an aged gentleman, told me he had himself
filled up his lot on the south-west corner as much as three feet.  On that
same lot he tells me there was formerly, before his time, a grain mill
worked by two horses, which did considerable grinding.
   The same Mr. Marsh, then aged 86, showed me that all the ground northward
of Christian Street, and in the rear of his own house, No. 13, descended
suddenly; thus showing there must have been there a vale or water channel
leading out to the river.  His own house formerly went up four steps at his
door, and now the ground in the street is so raised as to remove them all.
   Near him, at NO. 7, on the north side of Christian street, is a very
ancient-looking boarded house of but one very low story, having its roof
projecting beyond the wall of the house in front and rear, so as to form
pent-houses.  It is a log-house, in truth, concealed by boards and painted,
and certainly the only Log House in Philadelphia !  What is curious
respecting it, is that it was actually framed and floated to its present spot
by "old Joseph Wharton" from Chester county.  Of this fact Mr. Marsh assured
me, and told me it was an old building in his early days, and was always
then called "Noah's ark".  He remembered it when the cellar part of it
(which is of stone and seven feet deep) was all above ground, and the cellar
floor was even with the former street !  I observed a hearth and chimney
still in the cellar, and water was also in it.  This water the tenants told
me they supposed came in even now from the river, although at 100 feet
distance.  I think it not improbable that it stands on spring ground, which,
as long as the street was lower than the cellar, found its way off, but now
it is dammed.  The floor of the once second story is now one foot lower than
the street.
   On the whole, there are signs of great changes in that neighbourhood, ---
of depressing hills or of filling vales; which, if my conjectures be just,
would have made the Swedes' Church, in times of water invasions from high
tides, a kind of peninsula, and itself and parsonage on the extreme point of
projection.
   The primitive Swedes generally located all their residences "near the
freshes of the river', always choosing places of a ready water
communication, --- preferring thus their conveyances in canoes to the labour
of opening roads and inland improvements.  From this cause their churches,
like this at Wiccao, were visited from considerable distances along the
river, and making there, when assembled on Lord's day, quite a squadron of
boats along the river side.
   A granddaughter of Sven Schute --- then bearing the name of Swanson,
married to John Parham of London --- lived to be 103 years of age, and died
in 1795.  She has told the present John Parham of West Chestnut Street, her
grandson, that she well remembered having been at the Swedes' Church while
it was still a block house --- having loop-holes for firing therefrom.  She
had seen William Penn on his second visit; she described him as a thick-set
agreeable looking man, of middle stature, wearing a wig.  She had at one
time heard through an Indian woman, coming out a doctress with herbs from up
Timber Creek, that the Indians in Jersey meditated an attack.  The women at
Sven Schute's house were then making soft soap, which they forthwith took
scalding-hot to the block house, with more fuel to keep it hot there ---
they then sounded their conchs to call in the people --- as soon as the
women were gathered thereby, the Indians came and began to undermine the
building, when they were successfully repelled by the scalding soap and
delayed until the men began to approach from a distance, and the Indians
made off.  After this, some of the inhabitants fearing a repetition of the
assault moved off to Bucks County.
   There are some facts existing, which seem to indicate that the first
Swedish settlement was destroyed by fire.  Mrs. Preston, the grandmother of
Samuel Preston, an aged gentleman lately alive, often told him of their
being driven from thence, by being burnt out, and then going off by
invitation to an Indian settlement in Buck's County.  In Campanius work, he
speaks of Korsholm fort, (supposed to be the same place) as being abandoned
after Governor Printz returned to Sweden, and afterwards burned by the
Indians; very probably as a measure policy, to diminish the strength of
their new masters, the Dutch; or perhaps to show their retained affection to
the Swedes, and their aversion to the Dutch.  So they did when they burned
the place which the Dutch had constructed at Gloucester Point.  There seems
at least some coincidence in the two stories.
   The road through Wiccaco to Gloucester Point was petitioned for, and
granted by the Council in the year 1720, and called --- the road through the
marsh.
   The ground of the Swedes' church contains the monument and remains of
Wilson the ornithologist, who desired such a then retired place, where
birds, amid its trees, might carol over his grave.
   For many years, the venerable church --- while it stood far from the
town, was essentially a Country Church, and in that relation it brings up to
the fancy the poetic description of Mrs. Seba Smith --- to wit : ----

   They all are passing from the land
       Those Churches old and gray,
   In which our fathers used to stand
       In years gone by, to pray ---
   There meekly knelt, those stern old men,
   Who worshipped at our Altars then.

   It was a church low built and square,
      With belfry perched on high,
   And no unseemly carvings there
      To shock the pious eye---
   That belfry was a modest thing,
   In which a bell was wont to swing.

   It stood, like many a country church,
      Upon a spacious green;
   Whence stile and by-path go in search
      Of cot, the hills between,
   The rudest boor that turf would spare,
   And turn aside his team with care.

   I smile with no sarcastic smile
      As I each group review,
   That came by many a long, long mile,
     In garments fresh and new;
   The Sunday dress --- the Sunday air,
   The thorough-greased and Sunday hair.

   The straight, stiff walk, with Sunday suit,
      The squeaking leather shoe,
   The solemn air of man and brute,
      As each the Sabbath knew;
   The conscious air as passed the maid,
   The swains collected in the shade.

   The females enter straight the door,
      And talk with those within ---
   The elders on town matters pore,
      Nor deem it deadly sin,
   And now the pastor grave and slow,
   Along the aisle is seen to go.

   Down drop the children from the seat,
      The groups disperse around ---
   Pew doors are slamm'd and gathering feet
      Give out a busy sound ---
   The sounding pipe and viol string
   No longer through the old church ring.

   I do remember with what awe
      That pulpit filled mine eye,
   As through the balusters I saw
      The sounding board on high,
   Those balusters ! --- a childish crime --
   Alas ! I've squeaked in sermon time.

   Hard thinkers were they, those old men,
      And patient too I ween ---
  Long words and knotty questions then
      But made our fathers keen.
   I doubt me if their sons would hear
   Such lengthy sermons year by year.

   But all are passing fast away ---
      Those abstruse thinkers too ---
   Old churches with their walls of gray
      Must yield to something new ---
   Be-Gothic'd things, all neat and white,
   Greet everywhere the traveller's sights.

 Chapter 11.      PENNY-POT  HOUSE  AND  LANDING

   It was not long after I first saw the above title that I met with any
certain means of establishing its location at Vine Street.  Proud spoke of it
as "near to Race Street", and none of the aged whom I interrogated knew any
thing about it.  Of course it would be still less known to any modern
Philadelphian, although it had been bestowed as a gift to the city by Penn,
and was made memorable as the birth-place of "the first born".  Some of the
following facts will fully certify its location at Vine Street.
   In the year 1701, William Penn sets forth and ordains "that the landing
places now and heretofore used at the Penny Pot-House and Blue Anchor, shall
be left open and common for the use of the city", &c.
   The landing appears to have derived its name from the Inn built there,
which was early famed for its beer at a penny a pot.  [The "Duke  of York's
law", still preserved in MS. on Long Island, shows that the price of beer
was fixed in his colony at a penny a pint; and Penn, in 1683, speaks of
abundance of malt beer in use then at the Inns.]  The house itself was
standing in my time as the Jolly Tar Inn, kept by one Tage.  It was a two
story brick house of good dimensions, having for its front a southern
exposure.  At first it had no intervening houses between it and the area of
Vine Street; but when I last saw it, as many as three houses had filled up
that space.  The aged Joseph Norris of that neighbourhood, who died a few
years ago in his ninetieth year, told me he remembered in his youth to have
seen a sign affixed to the house, and having thereon the words, "Penny-Pot
Free Landing".
   On the same area, and on the first water lot above it, was for many years
the active ship-yards of Charles West, who came out with Penn, and began his
career by building him a vessel, for which in part pay he received the lot
on which the present William West, Esqr., his grandson, has his salt stores
and wharf.  The vessels once built on that site extended their bowsprits up
to Penny-Pot House, and those built upon the area of Vine Street extended
the jib-boom across Front Street to the eaves of West's House --- then a two
story building on the north-west corner of Vine and Front Streets.  Ship
building was for many years a very active and profitable concern, ---
building many ships and brigs for orders in England and Ireland, and
producing in this neighborhood a busy scene in that line.
   The aged John Brown and some others told me there were originally
rope-walks along the line of Cable Lane; from which circumstance it received
its title; and much ship timber and many saw-pits were thereabout.  Mrs.
Steward, an old lady of 93, told me she remembered when the neighborhood of
Cable Lane was all in whortleberry bushes; and, as late as 1754, it may be
seen in the Gazette, that William Rakestraw then advertises himself as
living "in the uppermost house in Water Street, near Vine Street", and there
keeping his board yard.
   The occasional state of Penny-Pot may be learned from the several
Presentments of the Grand Jury at successive periods, to wit:
   In the year 1706, they present the "Free Landing of Vine Street" as
necessary to be secured with the banks of the same, whereby the Front Street
may not become, as it threatens to be, unfit to be passed with carts.
   In 1713, they present as a nuisance the east end of Vine Street, where
Front Street crosses it.
   In 1718, they present a gully running down Vine Street and crossing Front
Street, for that the same is not passable by coaches, wagons or carts, to
the endangering of lives.
   In 1719, they present several dangerous breaches, and among them that
near the Penny-Pot House as almost impassable.
   In 1720, they again present a breach in the upper end of Front Street,
near the Penny-Pot House, as unpassable for carts, and the cross-way of Vine
Street and the Front street, by Sassafras Street, almost unpassable.
   In 1724, they present the bank at the end of Vine street, being worn away
to the middle of Front Street, and very dangerous.  We thus perceive that
the breach was the tumbling down of the river side bank, which, by
successive rains rushing down Vine street, had worn away the Fronot Street
road half across that street.
   Finally, in 1740, they present again "the Penny-Pot Landing and the east
end of Vine Street", as encumbered with timber and plank, &c., by Samuel
Hastings and Charles West.
   In the original foundation of the city, it having been of easier access
as a landing, it was chosen, as the best location for a cave, for the
parents of John Key, from which cause he came to have his birth there as the
first born of Philadelphia.  The founder, in consideration of that
distinction in his colony, presented a patent in his name for a large lot in
Race Street --- the same which he sold at his majority, in 1715, to Clement
Plumstead, for only £12.
   The lot adjoining Penny-Pot on the north was once distinguished by a row
of threble stone houses of two stories, projecting quite into the present
street. [The street there, as Water Street continued, was not recorded till
about 48 years ago.]  Its original appearance was striking from the river,
and its own river prospect unrivalled.  This then notable building, now
down, received the name of "the College"; and, in 1770, the principal and
owner, Mr. Griscom, advertised it as his beautiful private academy, far out
of town, "free from the noise of the city, at the north end".  It afterwards
fell into decay and neglect, but still retained the name of "the College",
but (as was said in my boyish days) because every chamber held separate
families after the manner of a college, --- the original use of it having
been forgotten, and many poor families thus filling it up.

 Chapter 12.          POOLE'S  BRIDGE

   This bridge, crossing Pegg's Run at Front Street, was named as well as
the neighbourhood, after one Poole, a Friend, who had his ship yard and
dwelling on the hill there, called "Poole's Hill" in early days.  It as then
an establishment quite separate from the city population, and even from
Front Street itself; for neither Front Street nor Water street, which not
long since united there, were then extended so far.  "Poole's Hill" was
therefore the name before the bridge was constructed there, and designated a
high bluff, abruptly terminating the high table land of the city at its
approach to Pegg's Run, and the overflowing marsh ground beyond it northward
as high as Noble Lane and Duke Street.  Poole's dwelling house was
picturesque, and pleasantly situated on the west side of present Front
Street, on a descending hill sloping westward, and giving a prospect up the
Creek and into the adjacent country.  A fine peach orchard lay along the
line of the present Front Street as far south as Margaretta Street, and
extended eastward, down the sloping green bank into the river.  To this add
his ship yard close to the margin of the creek, and the whole scene is
grateful.  The well of water, for which the place was famous, stood in the
middle of the present Front Street.  These acts were confirmed to me in
general by Mr. Tallman, the butcher, and Mr. Norris the ship carpenter, near
there, and by Mr. John Brown; all of whom, if now alive, would be severally
about 100 years of age.  They all concurred in saying that Front Street,
when it reached near to present Margaretta Street, went off (down the hill)
westward, so as to pass over Pegg's marsh meadow, 150 feet further westward
than the present Front Street, which was itself a causeway of late years.
   It may serve in corroboration of some of the preceding facts to state,
that by the Minutes of Friends, it appears that one Nathaniel Poole passed
Meeting with Ann Till in the year 1714.  In the year 1701, his name appeared
on a jury list in my possession, and in 1708-9, William Poole appears as
part owner of a vessel and sea-adventure.  In the year 1754, a Mr. Carpenter
advertises in the Gazette, that he has then "for sale, boards and staves on
Poole's Hill, at the upper end of Front Street",  This intimates, I presume,
that before the building of Poole's Bridge, and making the causeway from it,
northward, "the hill" ended the then town; and as the ship yard was probably
then discontinued, the place was converted into a northern landing place for
lumber, &c.
   In the year 1713, the Grand Jury recommended a tax of one penny per pound
to be assessed, to pay for repair of road at Poole's Hill, and at the new
bridge at Governor's Mill --- Cohocksinc.
   Mr. John Brown informed me that when Poole's Bridge was built, the
Philadelphia masons would not undertake it, and Israel Roberts, from
Maryland, was sent for to construct it.  This was done about 85 years ago.
The same year a northeast September gale beat it down.  It was soon rebuilt
again --- say in 1755.  The time is probably more accurately fixed by
Secretary Peters; he, writing to Penn in 1747, says, "A new bridge made on
the present line of Front Street over Pegg's Run, whereby the street now
makes a fine view by a north entry over the town".  The former low wooden
bridge was further west.
   The causeway from Front Street, which was formed in connection with the
bridge in 1755, has been described to me by Mr. Thomas Bradford and J.
Brown, to the following effect, to wit:
   The road was formed with sluices made under it, so that tidewater flowed
into the pond then along the eastern end of Pegg's meadow.  This pond was
probably caused by the former parallel causeway further to the westward
making a barrier to the water.  On the eastern side of Front Street,
opposite to present Noble Street, was a long barrier or wharf, up to which
the river came, and in the time of the war, seventeen of the row gallies lay
there quite up to the street.
   The late aged Timothy Matlack, Esq., told me there was a tradition of a
sloop of war having once wintered at the creek at Poole's Bridge, and that
when they were digging for a foundation for the bridge; they found articles
which must have been dropped from such a vessel.  There is in this relation,
something like an attempt at the story of the sword dug up at Second Street
Bridge, on this run.  But, as "sloops of war" in old times meant any sized
armed vessels, it would be easy enough to conceive that vessels would be
found getting out of the ice at Poole's shipyard.  Of the once greater depth
of the creek there can be no doubt, as Colonel A. J. Morris told me that his
grandparents had gone up it to Spring Garden Spring; in a boat, and made
their tea there amid the trees and shrubbery.
   The earliest built houses, near Poole's Bridge on the causeway, were
Anthony Wilkinson's row on the western side, and Doctor Clifton's row on the
eastern side.  They had in that day some attempt at display, having brick
columns in relief; but they were deemed an abortive speculation in both.
   On the occasion of an extreme great freshet, the river water over-flowed
all the mounds and embankments, deluging the whole area of Pegg's meadows,
and giving occasion to the Tallman family, who dwelt near there, to get into
a boat and sail about to and fro as high up as to Third Street.  This fact
was told to me by Mrs. Tallman when she was past seventy, --- and spoke of
it as an event of fifty years before.

Chapter 13.        PENN'S  COTTAGE  IN  LAETITIA  COURT

   It is a matter of inquiry and doubt with some, at this day, to fix which
has been the house in Laetitia Court, wherein William Penn, the founder, and
Colonel Markham, the Lieutenant Governor, dwelt.  The popular opinion now
is, that the Inn at the head of the court, occupied as the Leopard Inn, and
since Penn Hall, is the identical house alluded to.   The cause of this
modern confidence is ascribable (even if there were no better ground of
assurance) to the fact, that this building, since they built the additional
end to the westward, of about eighteen to twenty feet, presents such an
imposing front towards High Street, and so entirely closes the court at that
end, (formerly open as a cart passage) that from that cause alone, to those
not well informed, it looks as the principal house, and may have, therefore,
been regarded by transient passengers as Penn's House.
   The truth is, that for many years the great mass of the population had
dropped or lost the tradition about Penn's House in the court; and it is
only of later years, antiquities beginning to excite some attention, that the
more intelligent citizens have revived some of their former hearings about
the court.  During all the earlier years of my life I never heard of Penn
living there at all; but of later years I have.  I have been, therefore,
diligent to ask old men about it.  Several said it never used to be spoken
of in their youth.  John Warder, an intelligent merchant, born at the corner
house of the alley on High Street, told me, when he was about 73 years of
age, that he never was told of Penn's living there, when a boy.  On the
other hand, a few old men have told me, that at every period of their life
the tradition (though known to but few) was, that it was one of two houses,
to wit --- either Doyle's Inn, or the Old Rising Sun Inn, on the western
side of the alley.  Joseph Sansom, Esq., when about 60, told me he heard and
believed it was the house at the head of the court, and so also some few
others; but more persons, of more weight in due knowledge of the subject,
have told me they had been always satisfied it was the Old Rising Inn, on
the western side of the court.  Timothy Matlack, when aged 92, who was very
inquisitive, and knew it from 14 years of age, said it was then the chief
house in that court as to character; it was a very popular Inn for many
years; (whereas Doyle's House was not an Inn till many years afterwards)
that it then had an alley on its northern side for a cartway, running out to
Second Street, and thus agreeing with "Penn's gate over against Friends'
Meeting", at which place his Council, 1685, required King James'
proclamation to be read.
   If what was lately Doyle's Inn, (Penn's Hall) had a south front, and a
"dead wall" towards High Street, it seems very difficult to conceive how its
great gate could be "vis-a-vis" Friends' Great Meeting, on the southeast
corner of High and Second Streets.  But the Laetitia House, i.e. Old Rising
Sun, would correspond; besides, Penn, in his instructions to his
commissioners, says, "Pitch my house
the middle of the towne, and facing the harbour," &c.
   Timothy Matlack also told me that he used to be told that on the southern
side of that Rising Sun Inn was Penn's stable, and that they used to say he
could lay in his bed or on his settee, and hear  his horses in the next
building munching their food. Colonel Anthony Morris, when aged 84, told me
expressly, he always understood the same house was Penn's residence; that it
was so talked of when a boy, and that it is only of later years that he ever
heard a hint of the house at the head of the court as being his residence.
Thomas Bradford, when 80 years of age, who was born close by there, and has
always dwelt there, has told me he always heard the Rising Sun Inn, western
side, was "Laetitia's House", and that what was lately Doyle's Inn was never
stated as Penn's till of modern times, and in its primitive state it
presented a dead wall to High Street, and had its only front upon Black
Horse Alley.
   The aged Robert Venables, who died in 1834, aged 98, told me that he knew
the Laetitia House, on the west side of the court.  It was the same which
has been since "the Old Rising Sun Inn".  "It had a shell over the door" in
his time --- "was very curiously worked in stucco".  The house at the head
of the court was never named as Penn's House.  That house had its front to
Black Horse Alley --- old Johnson lived there and was a painter.
   This name "Laetitia House", I found, was a name which even those who
thought the house at the head of the court was Penn's, granted that Laetitia
Penn dwelt in, even while the father may have occupied the other.  In this
they were certainly in some error ---  Laetitia, being an unmarried girl,
could never have had a separate house; she was not with her father till his
second visit, in 1700.  It was in Penn's first visit only, in 1682, that he
could have dwelt there.
   I infer from all the facts, that Penn had "his cottage" built there
before his landing, by Colonel Markham; [Gabriel Thomas, who said "he went
out in the first ship", said he then saw "the first cellar digging for the
use of our Governor".] that some of the finer work was imported for it with
the first vessels; that he used it as often as not at his "palace" at
Pennsbury.  After him, it was used by Colonel Markham, his Deputy Governor;
and afterwards for public offices.  That in 1700, when he used the "Slate
House", corner of Second Street and Norris' Alley; having a mind to confer
something upon his daughter then with him, he gave her a deed, 1 mo.,
29th, 1701, for all that half square laying on High Street, and including
said house.  Several years after this event, the people, as was their
custom, when the court began to be built up on each side of a "38 feet
alley", having no name for it, they, in reference to the last conspicuous
owner, called it Laetitia Court, in reference to the then most conspicuous
house; the same house so given to Penn to his daughter.  A letter, which I
have, from William Penn, dated 1687, says, "Your improvements (in
Philadelphia) now require some conveniency above what my cottage has
afforded you in times past".  He means this "for the offices of state".  In
1684-5, his letter to James Harrison, which I have seen and copied, allows
"his cousin, Markham, to live in his house in Philadelphia, and that Thomas
Lloyd, the Deputy Governor, should have the use of his periwigs, and any
wines and beer he may have there left, for the use of strangers".
   It may possibly be deemed over fanciful in me to express a wish to have
this primitive house purchased by our Penn Association, and consecrated to
future renown.  I hope, indeed, the idea will yet generate in the breasts of
some of my fellow members the real poetry of the subject.  It is all
intellectual; and has had its warrant (if required) in numerous precedents
abroad.  We may now see written upon Melancthon's house in Wirtenburg, "Here
lived and died Melancthon !"  In the same city are still preserved "Luther's
Room", his chair, table, and stove; and at Eisleben is seen a small house,
bought and preserved by the king of Prussia, inscribed, "This is the house
in which Luther was born". [This house, so kept to the memory of Luther, has
its rooms hung with pictures, ancient and grotesque, and the rooms contain
chairs, tables and other relics of the former possessor.  An Album is there,
in which the visitor inscribes his name from Luther's inkstand.  "Vide
Dwight's travels."]  Petrach's house is not suffered to be altered.  Such
things, in every country, every intelligent traveller seeks out with
avidity.  Why, therefore, should we not retain for public exhibition the
primitive house of Penn?  Yea, whose foundation constituted "the first
cellar dug in Philadelphia !"  To proper minds, the going into the alley and
narrow court to find the hallowed spot (now so humble) should constitute its
chiefest interest.  It would be the actual contrast between the beginning
and the progress of our city.
   Its exterior walls I would preserve with inviolate faithfulness; and
within those walls (wherein space is ample, if partitions were removed)
might be an appropriate and highly characteristic place of meeting for the
ordinary business of the Penn Association and the Historical Society, and
also for the exhibition of such paintings and relics as could now be
obtained, --- such as Penn's clock, his escritoire, writing table, &c.,
besides several articles to be had of some families, of curiously
constructed furniture of the primitive days.  The hint is thus given ---
will any now support the idea?
   If we would contemplate this Laetitia House in its first relations, we
should consider it as having an open area to the river the whole width of
the half square, with here and there retained an ornamental clump of forest
trees and shrubbery on either side of an avenue leading out to the Front
Street; having a garden of fruit trees on the Second Street side, and on
Second Street "the Governor's gate", so called, "opposite to the lot of the
Friends' Great Meeting".  By this gate the carriages entered and rode along
the avenue by the north side of the house to the east front of the premises.
This avenue remained an alley way long after, even to within the early
memory of Timothy Matlack, who told me that he had seen it open as a common
passage into Second Street.  The same was confirmed by Mr. Harris, a former
owner, to Mr. Heberton, the present owner.  Indeed, it is even now open and
paved up to the rear of the house on Second Street.
   This general rural appearance was all in accordance with Penn's known
taste, and was doubtless so continued until the ground was apportioned out
in thirty city lots, as expressed by James Logan in a letter to Laetitia
Aubrey, in the year 1737, saying, "There was about 26 shillings per annum
reserved upon the large city lot, divided into thirty smaller parts ---
seven on the Front Street, seven on Second Street, and eight on the High
Street, -- all of these at one shilling Pennsylvania money per annum, and
those in Laetitia Court at six pence each" for the remaining eight lots there.
   The following facts present scraps of information which may tend still
further to illustrate the proper history of the premises, to wit : ---
   Penn's instructions to his commissioners, of 30th of 9 mo. 1681, says
expressly, "Pitch upon the very middle of the platt of the towne, to be laid
facing the harbour, for the situation of my house".  Thus intimating, as I
conceive, the choice of Laetitia Court, and intimating his desire to have it
facing the river, "as the line of houses of the town should be".
   It is stated in the Minutes of the Executive Council of the 11th of 3d
mo. 1685, that the proclamation of James II, and the papers relative to the
death of Charles II, and the speech of his successor, were solemnly read
before the Governor's gate in the town of Philadelphia.
   In 1721, the names of "Governor's lot" and of "Laetitia Court" are thus
identified in the words of the Grand Jury, who present "the muddiness of the
alley into Laetitia Court, formerly called the Governor's lot".
   I have seen a letter of the 14th of 6 mo. 1702, from James Logan to
Laetitia Penn, wherein he speaks of the sale of several of her lots, after
the square had been divided.  He says he had sold the first four of the
Front Street lots for £ 450, which money he set out on interest, &c.  Since
then he had sold sixteen feet of the bank, clear of reversion, with a small
High Street lot, to Thomas Masters for £ 230.  The corner lot next the
Meeting House he sold for £ 115, and three High Street lots for 50 and £ 60
each; and the remaining four in the same street he hopes to sell soon. The
whole sale effected is called £ 895, and shall continue to sell as occasion
shall offer.  He mentions also that he has agreed for the value of about
£ 100 of her 15,000 acres, new tract of land, near New Castle County ---
estimated, then, as to sell at £ 20 per hundred.  "THY OLD MANSION I DO NOT
TOUCH WITH. I hope in seven years to be able to raise thee a good portion
from what is already settled on thee in this province. Be not too easily
disposed of; it could be a scandal, that any of thy father's engagements
should be an occasion to sacrifice thee to any but where true love
officiates as priest.  Thy marriage is commonly reported here", [as a
measure to take place, to some one.]
   We discern from the premises that lots on High Street, now so highly
prized, brought only one-third the price of lots on Front Street, now so
much lower.  We perceive, too, distinct mention of his reservation of the
one house, called her mansion.
   Those who are curious to further explore this subject may find, in my MS
Annals, in the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, much additional matter on
pages 140 to 149, giving a table of descents of title to lots on the square,
as deduced from Laetitia Penn, together with the brief presented me by
Samuel Chew, Esq., and the testimony of sundry aged witnesses appearing in
court, in 1822, to testify their early recollections concerning the
Laetitia Court and the Inn at the head of the court.
   It appears from the whole, that William Penn, by patent or deed, conveyed
to Laetitia Penn, on the 1st mo. 29th, 1701, the ground on the south side of
High Street, 175 feet deep, [making the present distance to Black Horse
Alley] and from Front to Second Street, 402 feet; granting unto her "all the
houses, edifices, buildings, casements, liberties, profits, and
commodities", thereunto belonging.

 Charter 14.      SLATE-ROOF  HOUSE,  PENN'S  RESIDENCE

   This house, still standing at the southeast corner of Norris' Alley and
Second Street, and now reduced to a lowly appearance, derives its chief
interest from having been the residence of William Penn.  The peculiarity of
its original construction, and the character of several of its successive
inmates, will enhance its interest to the modern reader.  The facts
concerning the premises, so far as may now be known, are generally these, to
wit:
   The house was originally built, in the early origin of the city, for
Samuel Carpenter --- certainly one of the earliest and greatest improvers of
the primitive city.  It was probably designed for his own residence,
although he had other houses on the same square, nearer to the river.  His
portrait is owned by Isaac C. Jones.
   It was occupied as the city residence of William Penn and family, while
in Philadelphia on his second visit in 1700; in which house was born, in one
month after their arrival, John Penn, "the American", --- the only one of
the race ever born in the country.  To that house therefore, humble,
degenerated, and altered in aspect as it now is, we are to appropriate all
our conceptions of Penn's employments, meditations, hopes, fears, &c., while
acting as Governor and proprietary among us.  In those doors he went in and
out --- up and down those stairs he passed --- in those chambers he reposed
--- in those parlours he dined or regaled his friends --- through those
garden grounds they sauntered.  His wife, his daughter Laetitia, his family
and his servants, were there.  In short, to those who can think and feel,
the place "is filled with local impressions".  Such a house should be
rescued from its present forlorn neglect; [the same remark is applicable to
Penn's cottage in Laetitia Court] it ought to be bought and consecrated to
some lasting memorial of its former character, by restoring its bastions and
salient angles, &c.  It would be to the credit of such Societies as the
Historical and Penn Association, &c., to club their means to preserve it for
their chambers, &c., as long as themselves and the city may endure !  There
is a moral influence in these measures that implies and effects much more in
its influence on national action and feeling, than can reach the
apprehension of superficial thinkers; who can only estimate its value by
their conception of so much brick and mortar !  It was feelings, such as I
wish to see appreciated here, that aroused the ardour of Petrarch's
townsmen, jealous of every thing consecrated by his name, whereby they ran
together `en masse' , to prevent the proprietor of his house from altering
it !  Foreigners, we know, have honoured England by their eagerness to go to
Bread Street, and there visit the house and chambers, once Milton's !  It is
in vain to deride the passion as futile; the charm is in the ideal presence,
which the association has power to create in the imagination; and they who
can command the grateful visions will be sure to indulge them.  It is poetry
of feeling --- scoffs cannot repress it. It equally possessed the mind of
Tully when he visited Athens; he could not forbear to visit the walks and
houses which the old philosophers had frequented or inhabited.  In this
matter, says Dr. Johnson, "I am afraid to declare against the general voice
of mankind".  "The heart is stone that feels not at it; or, it feels at none
!"  Sheer insensibility, absorbed in its own selfishness, alone escapes the
spell-like influence !  Every nation, when sufficiently intellectual, has
its golden and heroic ages; and the due contemplation of these relics of our
antiquities presents the proper occasion for forming ours.  These thoughts,
elicited by the occasion, form the proper apology for whatever else we may
offer to public notice in this way.  There is a generation to come who will
be grateful for all such notices.
   After William Penn had left this house, on his intended return with his
family to England, he, while aboard his return ship, the Messenger, (an
appropriate name for the message and business he was proposing!) writes on
the 3d of September 1701, to James Logan saying, "Thou may continue in the
house I lived in till the year is up".
   James Logan, in reply in 1702 says, "I am forced to keep this house
still, there being no accommodation to be had elsewhere for public
business".  In fact, he retained it as a government - house till 1704, when
he and his coadjutors moved to Clark Hall in Chestnut Street, afterwards
Pemberton's Great House.   In a letter to William Penn of 5th December 1703,
he says, "Samuel Carpenter has sold the house thou lived in to William
Trent" (the founder of Trenton in 1719) for £ 850.*
   [*William Trent began his settlement at Trenton, in 1719, by erecting
mills there.  He died there in 1724, in the office of Chief Justice of New
Jersey.]
  At this house, Lord Cornbury, then Governor of New York and New Jersey,
(son of Lord Cornbury, cousin of Queen Anne, &c.) was banqueted in great
style in 1702, on the occasion of his being invited by James Logan, from
Burlington, where he had gone to proclaim the queen.  Logan's letter,
speaking of the event, says he was dined "equal to anything he had seen in
America".  At night he was invited to Edward Shippen's (great house in south
Second Street) where he was lodged, and dined with all his company, making a
retinue of nearly thirty persons.  He went back well pleased with his
reception, via Burlington, in the Governor's barge, and was again banqueted
at Pennsbury by James Logan, who had preceded him for that purpose.  Lord
Cornbury had a retinue of about fifty persons, which accompanied him thither
in four boats.  His wife was once with him in Philadephia, in 1703.  Penn,
on one occasion, calls him a man of luxury and poverty.  He was at first
very popular; and having made many fine promises to Penn, it was probably
deemed good policy to cheer his vanity by striking public entertainments.
In time, however, his extravagant living, and consequent extortion, divested
him of all respect among the people.  Only one legendary tale respecting
this personage has reached us:  An old woman at Chester had told the Parker
family she remembered to have seen him at that place, and having heard he
was a lord, and a queen's cousin, she had eyed him with great exactness, and
had seen no difference in him, from other men, but that he wore leather
stockings !*
  [*William Penn, in one of his notes, says "Pray send me my leather
stockings".]
   In 1709, "the  slated-roof house of William Trent" is thus commended by
James Logan as a suitable residence for him as Governor, saying "William
Trent, designing for England, is about selling his house, (that he bought of
Samuel Carpenter) which thou lived in, with the improvement of a beautiful
garden", --- then extending half way to Front Street, and on Second Street
nearly down to Walnut Street.  "I wish it could be made thine, as nothing in
this town is so well fitting a Governor.  His price is £ 900 of our money,
which it is hard thou canst not spare.  I would give 20 to £ 30 out of my
own pocket that it were thine --- nobody's but thine".
   The house was, however, sold to Isaac Norris, who devised it to his son
Isaac, through whom it has descended down to the present proprietor, Sally
Norris Dickinson, his granddaughter.
   It was occupied at one period, it is said, by Governor Hamilton, and for
many years preceding the war of Independence, it was deemed a superior
boarding house.  While it held its rank as such, it was honoured with the
company, and finally, with the funeral honours of General Forbes, successor
to General Braddock, who died in that house in 1759.  The pomp of his
funeral from that house surpassed everything the simple inhabitants had
before seen in their city.  His horse was led in the procession, richly
caparisoned, --- the whole conducted in all "the pomp of war", with funeral
dirges, and a military array with arms reversed*, &c. [*He had great honours
shown to him two years before for the capture of Fort du Quesne, (Fort Pitt) ]
   In 1764, it was rented to be occupied as a distinguished boarding house
by the Widow Graydon, mother of Captain Graydon of Carlisle, who has left us
his amusing "Memoirs of 60 years life in Pennsylvania".  There his mother,
as he informs us, had a great many gentry as lodgers.  He describes the old
house as very much of a castle in its construction, although built
originally for a Friend.
   "It was a singular old fashioned structure, laid out in the style of a
fortification, with abundance of angles both salient and re-entering.  Its
two wings projected to the street in the manner of bastions, to which the
main building, retreating from 16 to 18 feet, served for a curtain".  [We
may say of this house: --- "Trade has changed the scene"; for the recess is
since filled out to the front with store windows, and the idea of the
bastions, though they are still there, is lost.]  It had a spacious yard,
half way to Front Street, and ornamented with a double row of venerable
lofty pines, which afforded a very agreeable `rus in urbe'."  She continued
there till 1768-9, when she removed to Drinker's Big House, up Front Street
near to Race Street.  Graydon's anecdotes of distinguished persons,
especialy of British officers and gentry who were inmates, are interesting.
John Adams, and other members of the first congress, had their lodgings in
"the State-house".
   The yard in front was two or three feet above the street, and was walled
up higher than the grass plot within. Some of the lofty pines were still
there in the Revolution.  Mrs. Burdeau kept a ladies boarding-school in it,
a daughter of General Wayne was one of the scholars.
   The eccentric General Lee was buried from it, and put in Christ Church
ground, close along side of Church Alley,  "He wished not to lie within a
mile of Presbyterian ground, as too bad company".