Area History: Watson's Annals of Philadelphia and Pennsylvania, 1857, Vol I: 
Chapters 40 - 49

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          WATSON'S  ANNALS  of  PHILADELPHIA  and  PENNSYLVANIA

                  Vol. I    Written 1830 - 1850

Chapter 40.                SHIPPEN'S  HOUSE

   This venerable edifice long bore the name of "the Governor's House".  It
was built in the early rise of the city -- received then the name of
"Shippey's Great House", while Shippen himself was proverbally distinguished
for three great things -- "the biggest person, the biggest house, and the
biggest coach".
   It was for many years after its construction beautifully situated, and
surrounded with rural beauty, being originally on a small eminence, with a
row of tall yellow pines in its rear, a full orchard of best fruit trees
close by, overlooking the rising city beyond the Dock creek, and having on
its front view a beautiful green lawn, gently sloping to the then pleasant
Dock creek and Drawbridge, and the whole prospect unobstructed to the
Delaware and the Jersey shore.  It was indeed a princely place for that day,
and caused the honest heart of Gabriel Thomas to overflow at its
recollection, as he spoke of it in the year 1698, saying of it, that "Edward
Shippey, who lives near the capital city, has an orchard and gardens
adjoining to his great house that equals any I have ever seen, being a very
famous and pleasant summer house, erected in the middle of his garden, and
abounding with tulips, carnations, roses, lilies, &c., with many wild plants
of the country besides".
   Such was the place enjoyed by Edward Shippen, the first Mayor, under the
regular charter of the year 1700.  Shippen was a Friend, from England, who
had suffered "for truth's and Friend's sake" at Boston, by a public
punishment from the misguided rulers there.  Possessing such a mansion and
the means to be hospitable, he made it the temporary residence of William
Penn and his family, for about a month, when they arrived in 1699.  About
the year 1720 it was held by Governor Keith, and in 1756 it became the
residence of Governor Denny.  As it usually bore the name of "the Governor's
house" in aftertimes, it was probably occupied by other rulers.
   The Shippen family came out from York in England to Boston.  One of the
family, Joseph Shippen, married there Abigail Gross, in 1702, and when she
visited her relations in Philadelphia, some time after, she came all the way
from Boston on horseback -- nor is this all, she brought a baby with her
safely, resting it all the way on her lap.  Think of that, ye ladies of the
present day !  We know, from Madame Knight's horseback journey to New York
the long and arduous concerns of such an enterprise. The postman was the
guide on such occasions.
   A minute of the City Council of the year 1720, while it shows the then
residence of Sir William Keith on the premises, shows also the fact of
keeping open and beautifying the prospect to the river, to wit:  "The
Governor having requested the Mayor to propose to the board the grant of the
piece of ground on the south-west side of the dock, over against the house
he now lives in, for such term as the corporation shall think fit, and
proposes to drain and ditch the same, this board agree the Governor may
enjoy the same for the space of seven years, should he so long continue in
the said house".  It was probably during his term of use that the green lawn
had a few tame deer, spoken of as seen by Owen Jones, the Colonial Treasurer.
   Thomas Storey, once Master of the Rolls, who married Shippen's daughter
Anne, must have derived a good portion of the rear grounds extending out to
Third street, as the late aged Colonel A. J. Morris tells me that in his
time "Storey's grounds", sold to Samuel Powel, were unbuilt, and enclosed
with a brick wall from St. Paul's church down to Spruce street, and thence
eastward to Laurel Court.
   The lofty pine trees were long conspicuous from many points of the city.
Aged men have seen them sheltering flocks of blackbirds; and the late aged
Samuel R. Fisher remembers very well to have seen crows occupying their
nests on those very trees.  The fact impresses upon the mind the beautiful
lines made by his son on that bird of omen and long life.  Some of them are
so very descriptive of the probable state of scenes gone by, that I will not
resist the wish I feel to connect them with the present page, to wit :
           The pine tree of my Eyry stood
           A patriarch mid the younger wood,
           A forest race that now are not,
           Other than with the world forgot ;
           And countless herds of tranquil deer,
           When I was fledged, were sporting here.

           And now, if o'er the scene I fly,
           'Tis only in the upper sky;
           Yet well I know, mid spires and snake,
           The spot where stood my pine and oak,
           Yes !  I can e'en replace again
           The forests as I knew them then. -----
           The primal scene, and herds of deer,
           That used to browse so calmly here !

   Such musings in the "bird of black and glossy coat", so renowned for its
long endurance of years, may readily be imagined in an animal visiting in
numerous return of years "its accustomed perch".  It saw all our city rise
from its sylvan shades.---

                 "It could develope, if his babbling tongue
                  Would tell us, what those peering eyes had seen,
                  And how the place looked when 'twas fresh and green !"

   The sequel of those trees was, that the stables in the rear of them on
Laurel Court took fire not many years ago, and communicating to them, caused
their destruction.
   The house too, great and respectable as it had been, possessed of
garden-grounds fronting on Second street, north and south of it, became of
too much value as a site for a plurality of houses, to be longer tolerated
in lonely grandeur, and was therefore, in the year 1790, pulled down to give
place to four or five modern houses "Waln's Row"".  The street there as it
is now levelled is one story below the present gardens, in the rear.

Chapter 41.    BENEZET'S  HOUSE,  AND  CHESTNUT  STREET  BRIDGE

   The ancient house of Anthony Benezet, lately taken down, stood on the
site of the house now No. 115 Chestnut street.  It was built in the first
settlement of the city for a Friend of the name of David Breintnall.  He,
deeming it too fine for his plain cloth and profession, hired it for the use
of the Governor of Barbadoes (or of Bermuda, as said by some) who had come
here for the recovery of his health.  While he lived there he used to come
in a boat by the Dock creek to his own door.  David Breintnall in the mean
time occupied the house and store at the south-west corner of Hudson's
alley, where he died in 1731.  The house having been a good specimen of
respectable architecture was drafted by Mr. Strickland just before it was
taken down in 1818, and an engraving made from it was published in the Port
Folio of that year.
   The bridge near it was long lost to the memory of the oldest inhabitants,
and none of the youths of the present day have any conception that a bridge
once traversed Dock creek in the line of Chestnut street !   In the year
1823, in digging along Chestnut street to lay the iron pipes for the city
water, great surprise was excited by finding, at six feet beneath the
present surface, the appearance of a regularly framed wharf -- the oak logs
so sound and entire as to require some labour to remove them, and some of
the wood of which was preserved for me in the form of an urn, as a memento.
It was in fact the abutment wharf of the eastern end of the original bridge,
where it has been preserved one hundred and forty years, by its being
constantly saturated with water.
   The fact of the original wooden bridge, and of the later one of brick and
stone after the year 1699, is set forth in the following copy of an original
MS. petition, which I have seen in the records of the Mayor's Court, dated
the 7th of 2d mo. 1719, to wit : "We, whose names are hereunto written,
livers in Chestnut street, humbly show -- that at the laying out of the
city, Chestnut street crossed a deep vale, which brought a considerable
quantity of water in wet seasons, from without and through several streets
and lots in the town, -- [emptying into the Dock creek] this rendering the
street impassable for cart and horse, a bridge of wood was built in the
middle way which for many years was commodious;  when that decayed, an arch
of brick and stone was built the whole breadth, which with earth cast
thereon made the street a good road, except that walls breast high, to keep
from falling from the top, were neglected -- not being finished, as the
money fell short.  Now this we think to be about twenty years ago; since
which, nothing to prevent danger or of repairing has been done, save some
small amendments and fencing by the people of the neighbourhood;* and as
there is now a great necessity for those walls, or one wall, and as the arch
(i.e. the bridge) is in very great danger of sudden breach in some parts,
whereby horses and people's lives may be endangered, we nigh inhabitants
give you this timely notice thereof, and crave the remedy".  To show those
ancients, I add their names, to wit :  Samuel Richardson;  David Breitnall;
John Breitnall;  Thomas Roberts;  Solomon Cresson;  William Linyard;  Henry
Stevens; Daniel Hudson;; John Lancaster;  and William Tidmarsh.  * In the
year 1708 the Grand Jury present, that there is "a deficiency in the arch
bridge in Chestnut street, adjoining to the lot of the widow Townsend."
   In the same year, 1719, the Grand Jury sustained the above petition by
their presentment, saying :  "The arch in Chestnut street between the house
of Grace Townsend and the house of Edward Pleadwell, is part broken down --
much of the fence wanting and very unsafe -- Chestnut street itself between
the Front and Fourth streets is very deep and irregular.
   It would appear that this bridge was continued by repairs for thirty
years longer at least, for we find that in the year 1750 the Grand Jury
present that "the pavement in Chestnut street, near Fleeson's shop
[north-east corner of Fourth and Chestnut streets] as exceeding dangerous,
occasioned by the arch joining thereto being fallen down and no care taken
to repair it."
   The former state of the "deep vale" along the line of Dock creek is
indicated by some modern observations : In the year 1789, when Richard
Wistar's house, at the south-east corner of Hudson's alley and Chestnut
street was built, the builder, Mr. Wogle said he had to dig twenty feet deep
to procure a firm foundation.  The house, too, rebuilt by Prittchet, on the
opposite corner on the site of "Whalebone house", (once David Breintnall's)
had to be dug down fourteen feet for a foundation on the creek side, and but
nine feet on the western side; the deepest part was the corner on Chestnut
street.  Every thing indicated a shelving gravelly shore once there.  In the
course of their digging they found several large bones of whales and a great
tail of a fish, four to five feet under the ground; some of which are now
nailed up on the premises.  The original old house had been used for some
whale purposes.  On the northern side of Chestnut street, in digging for the
foundation of the house of Mr. Storey, No. 113, they found themselves in the
bed of the same creek, and had to drive piles there.  At this place and the
adjoining lot was originally a tanyard, next a coachmaker's shop and yard.
At twelve feet they came to the top of the old tunnel.
   James Mintus, a black man, living with Arthur Howell till he died in 1822
at the age of 75 years, used to say in that family that his father, who
lived to the age of 80, used to tell him there was a wharf under Chestnut
street before Mr. Howell's house.  The discovery there in 1823 verified his
assertions.
   The dangerous state of the bridge, and of the water there while it
lasted, was verified by the fact that John Reynalls lost his only daughter
"by drowning in Dock creek by Hudson's alley".
   The very estimable character of Anthony Benezet confers an interest on
every thing connected with his name; it therefore attaches to the house
which he owned and dwelt in for fifty years of his life, keeping school
there for children of both sexes of the most respectable families, for
several years, and finally dying there in 1784.
   The house had in the rear of it a two-story brick kitchen, and in
entering its present proper ground floor you descend from the yard down two
steps.  This was far from being its original state; for it was plain to be
seen, in looking down into its open area, that it has two brick stories
still lower under the ground.  My opinion is, that this kitchen was once on
the bank of Dock creek, on the shelving edge; that the eastern side of it
was never any part of it under ground, and that the area, or western side,
(from the creek) was originally only one story under the ground, and the
rest has since been filled up to make the yard agree with the raising of
Chestnut street.  I am confirmed in this idea from having heard, in a very
direct manner, that Anthony Benezet, at an early period of his residence
there, was accustomed statedly to feed his rats in his area.  An old Friend,
who visited him, having found him at that employment, expressed his wonder
that he so kindly treated such pernicious vermin, saying they should rather
be killed out of the way.  Nay, said good Anthony, I will not treat them so;
you make them thieves by maltreating and starving them, but I make them
honest by feeding them; for being so fed, they never prey on any goods of
mine !  This singular fact may be confided in.  It was further said, that on
the occasion of feeding them he was used to stand in the area, when they
would gather round his feet like chickens.  One of his family once hung a
collar round one of them, which was seen for years after, feeding in the
groupe.  These facts coincide with the fancy of the London gentleman who has
been lately noticed as reconciling and taming the most opposite natures of
animals, by causing them to dwell together in peace.  Benezet's sympathy was
great with every thing capable of feeling pain -- from this cause he
abstained for several years from eating any animal food.  Being asked one
day to partake of some poultry on the table at his brother's house, he
exclaimed : "What !  would you have me to eat my neighbours ?"
   Before the house came into the hands of Anthony Benezet, it was known as
a public house, having the sign of "the Hen and Chickens".
   Anthony Benezet, as I have been told by eye-witnesses, had the largest
funeral that had ever been seen in Philadelphia.  One-third of the number
were blacks, who walked in the rear.
   Parson Peters, being known to be unfriendly to Friend's doctrines, was
presented by A. Benezet with a copy of Barclay's Apology, for his perusal.
It broke down some of his aversions, as may be seen by these lines of
poetry, which he sent him in return as his acknowledgment, to wit:

              Long had I censured with contemptuous rage,
              And scorn'd your tenets with the foolish age,
              Thought nothing could appear in your defence
              Till Barclay shone with all the rays of sense.
              His works at least shall make me moderate prove
              To those who practise what he teaches -- love.
              With the censorious world no more I'll sin,
              In scouting those who own the light within;
              If they can see with Barclay's piercing eyes,
              The world may deem them fools, but I shall think them wise.

Chapter 42.                 CLARKE'S  HALL,  &c.

   Clarke's Hall was originally constructed for William Clarke, Esq., at an
early period of the city.  He was by profession a lawyer, and at one time
held the revenue of the customs at Lewistown.  The house was deemed among
the grandest in its day; and even in modern times was deemed a large and
venerable structure -- it was at all times notable for its display and
extent of garden cultivation.  It occupied the area from Chestnut street to
the Dock creek, where is now Girard's Bank, and from Third street up to
Hudson's alley; the Hall itself, of double front, faced on Chestnut street
-- was formed of brick, and two stories high.  Its rear or south exposure
into the garden, descending to Dock creek, was always deemed beautiful.  At
that early day Dock creek was crossed in Third street over a wooden bridge *
-- thence the creek went up to the line of present Hudson's alley, and by
it, across Chestnut street -- passing under the bridge there close by
Breintnall's house -- the same afterwards the residence of Anthony Benezet.
All this neighbourhood was long deemed rural and out of town; only two other
houses and families of note were near it, say -- that of Thomas Lloyd, once
the Governor, on the north-east corner of Chestnut and Third streets, and
that of William Hudson, once the Mayor, near the south-east corner of the
same streets, having its front and court yard upon Third street, wherein
were growing two very large buttonwood trees. [* I see this bridge referred
to as still standing as late as the year 1769, and lately some remains of it
were found in digging in Third street, although none of the lookers-on could
conjecture what it meant.]
   In the year 1704, in consequence of the arrival of William Penn, Jun.,
and his love of display and expense, James Logan rented and occupied these
Clarke Hall premises -- saying, as his reasons for the measure, (to the
father) that as no house in the town suited the enlarged views of his son,
he had taken Clarke's great house, into which himself, William Penn, Jun.,
Governor Evans, and Judge Mompesson, had all joined "en famille" as young
bachelors.
   In 1718 an act was passed, (but repealed in a few months) vesting this
house and grounds, as "the property of the late William Clarke of Lewes
town", in trustees for the payment of his debts, &c.
   For some years the premises were occupied by some of the earliest
Governors.  It next came into the hands of Andrew Hamilton, the Attorney
General, who derived it from the Clarke family; an aged daughter of whom
long remained in the Hamilton family, and afterwards in John Pemberton's, as
an heir-loom upon the premises.  Thence, the estate went into the hands of
Israel Pemberton, a wealthy Friend, in whose name the place acquired all its
fame, in more modern ears, as "Pemberton's house and gardens".  It once
filled the eyes and the mouths of all passing citizens and strangers, as the
nonpareil of the city -- say at the period of the Revolution.  The low fence
along the garden on the line of Third street, gave a full expose of the
garden walks and shrubbery, and never failed to arrest the attention of
those who passed that way.  The garden itself being upon an inclined plane,
had three or four falls or platforms.  Captain Graydon, in his Memoirs,
speaks in lively emotions of his boyish wonders there, and saying of them,
"they were laid out in the old style of uniformity, with walks and alleys
nodding to their brothers -- decorated with a number of evergreens,
carefully clipped into pyramidal and conical forms.  The amenity of this
view usually detained him a few minutes to contemplate the scene".  The
building itself, of large dimensions, had many parlours and chambers; it
stood on the south side of Chestnut street, a little westward of Third
street.  After the decease of Mr. Pemberton, it was engaged by Secretary
Hamilton for the offices of the Treasury of the United States, and was so
occupied until the year 1800.  Soon afterwards it was sold and taken down,
to cut it up into smaller lots, and to make more modern buildings.
   To a modern Philadelphian it must seem strange to contemplate the garden
as having its southern termination in a beautiful creek, with a pleasure
boat joined to its bank, and the tides flowing therein -- but the fact was
so.  Patty Powell, when aged 77, told me that her aged mother often told her
of her having spoken with aged persons who had seen a schooner above Third
street; and Israel Pemberton used to say he had been told of sloops having
been seen as high as his lot in early years.

Chapter 43.               CARPENTER'S  MANSION

   This ancient structure was originally built as the residence of Joshua
Carpenter, the brother of Samuel.  It was, in truth, in the early days, a
proper country seat, remote from the primitive town.  Its respectable and
peculiar style of architecture has been a motive for preserving this brief
memorial; it has, besides, been sometimes remarkable for it occasional
inmates.  The present marble Arcade now occupies a part of its former site,
and while the beholder is standing to gaze on the present expensive pile, he
may remember the former with all its inmates gone down to the dust.  It was
taken down in April, 1826.
   Here once lived Doctor Graeme who died in 1772, a distinguished
physician, long holding an office in the customs.  His wife was the daughter
of Sir William Keith by his first wife.  Graeme's house, besides his own
hospitable manner of living, was long made attractive and celebrated by the
mind and manners of their daughter, the celebrated Mrs. Ferguson --- the
same whose alleged overtures to Governor Reed produced the noble and
patriotic repulse --- "go tell your employers, poor as I am, the wealth of
the King cannot buy me !"  A mind like hers, embued with elegant literature,
and herself a poetess, readily formed frequent literary coteries at her
father's mansion, so much so, as to make it the town talk of her day.*
        [* She died at Graeme Park, in Horsham, about twenty-five years ago,
beloved in her neighbourhood for her religion, and her goodness to the poor.
Her literary remains are said to be in possession of Dr. Smith, of the house
of Lehman and Smith.  Colonel A. M'Lane assured me she was always the friend
of our country, although she may have had the confidence of the British
because of her known integrity.]
   While Governor Thomas occupied those premises, from 1738 to 1747, the
fruit trees and garden shrubbery had the effect to allure many of the
townfolk to take their walks out Chestnut street to become its spectators.
The youth of that day long remembered the kindness of the Governor's lady
who seeing their longing eyes set upon their long range of fine cherry
trees, (fronting the premises on Chestnut street) used to invite them to
help themselves from the trees; and oft as May-day came, the pretty misses
were indulged with bouquets and nosegays; to such purposes the grounds were
ample, extending from Sixth to Seventh streets, and from Chestnut street
back to the next street, the mansion resting in the centre.
   A letter from John Ross, Esq., attorney at law, of the year 1761, then
owner of the premises, agrees to sell them for the sum of 3000 Pounds to
John Smith, Esq., who afterwards became the occupant.  The dimensions of the
lot then given, were two hundred and thirty-seven feet on Chestnut street,
and then back one hundred and fifty feet to "the lane".  It may surprise us,
in our present enlarged conceptions of city precincts, to learn by the said
letter of J. Ross, that "he sells it because his wife deems it too remote
for his family to live in !"  And he adds, if he sells it, "he must then
look out another airy place to build on; and how to succeed therein, he
knows not !"  We know, however, that he afterwards found it on the site
where is now United States Hotel, "vis-a-vis" the Bank of the United States
-- then a kind of out-town situation !"
   It afterwards became the property of Colonel John Dickinson, who in 1774
made to it a new front of modern construction, facing on Chestnut street --
such as we saw the premises when taken down in April 1826.  It was next
owned by General Philomon Dickinson.  It being empty in the time of the war
of Independence, it was taken possession of for our sick soldiery, when it
became an actual hospital for the sick infantry of the Virginia and
Pennsylvania line, who died there rapidly, in hundreds, of the camp fever !
On that occasion our ladies were very assiduous in supplying the poor
sufferers with soups and nourishments.  General Washington himself joined in
those succours, sending them a cask of Madeira, which he had himself
received as a present from Robert Morris.  At that place Mrs. Logan's mother
witnessed an affecting spectacle -- the mother of a youth from the country,
in the Pennsylvania line, came to seek her son among the dead -- whilst
wailing over him as lost, but rubbing him earnestly at the same time, he
came again to life to her great joy and surprise !
   After this it was fitted up as the splendid mansion of the Chevalier de
Luzerne, who, while there as the Ambassador of France, gave a splendid night
entertainment of fire-works, rockets, &c., in honour of the birth of the
Dauphin of France.  The whole gardens were gorgeously illuminated, and the
guests were seen by the crowd from the street under an illuminated arcade of
fanciful construction and scenery.
   About the year 1779, Monsieur Gerard, the French Ambassador, being then
the occupant, gave an elegant dinner there to about one hundred French and
American officers.  Colonel M'Lane, who was among the guests, told me that
while they were dining the house was thunder-struck, and the lightning
melted all the silver spoons and other plate upon the table, stunning all
the company, and killing one of the French officers !  What a scene -- and
what associations !
   In time, as ground became enhanced in value, large encroachments were
made upon these rural grounds by selling off lots for the theatre, &c., but
the mansion, with its court yard upon Chestnut street, long continued a
genteel residence in the possession of Judge Tilghman -- the last owner
preceeding the sale to the Arcade Company in 1826.

Chapter 44.                   CHRIST  CHURCH

                 "----------------------Monument of ancient taste,
                 And awful as the consecrated roof -------------
                 Re-echoing pious anthems."

   This venerable looking and ornamental edifice was constructed at various
periods of time.  The western end, as we now see it, was raised in 1727, and
having enlarged their means, they, in 1731, erected the eastern end.  The
steeple was elevated on or about the year 1853-4.
   The facts concerning the premises, gleaned from a variety of sources, are
to the following effect, to wit:
   The first church built under the ministry of the Rev. Mr. Clayton, in the
year 1695, is specially referred to by Gabriel Thomas' publication of 1698,
who says, "the Church of England built a very fine church in this city in
the year 1695".  The most we should infer from his commendation of it is,
that it was probably sufficiently sightly for its then size.  We know it was
his general manner to extol other buildings, which still remain to convince
us that good buildings then are but ordinary in our present enlarged
conceptions of beauty and greatness.  Such as it was, it was enlarged in 1710.
   We know that the Rev. Mr. Clayton was first in charge of it, from the
book of the Rev. Morgan Edwards, who has therein left us the record of his
letter to the Baptists of Philadelphia of the year 1698, wherein he invites
them to a public conference on the merits of their several religions, in
hopes thereby to surpass them in argument, and win them over to his faith as
proselytes; but they stood firmly to their defence, and the breach was widened.
   The original records were accidently destroyed by fire; of course, what
we can now know must be such as has been incidentally mentioned in connexion
with other facts.
   Among the witnesses who had once seen the primitive church, and had been
also contemporary with our own times, was old black Alice, who died in 1802,
at the advanced age of 116 years.  She had been all her long life a zealous
and hearty member of that church.  At the age of 115 she came from Dunk's
ferry, where she lived, to see once more her beloved Christ Church.  She
then told my friend Samuel Coates, Esq., and others present, that she well
remembered the original lowly structure of wood.  The ceiling of it, she
said, she could touch with her lifted hands.  The bell, to call the people,
was hung in the crotch of a tree close by.  She said, when it was superseded
by a more stately structure of brick, they run up their walls so far outside
of the first church, that the worship was continued unmolested until the
other was roofed and so far finished as to be used in its stead. Facts since
brought to light by the present rector, the Rev. Dr. Dorr, seem to show that
the original wooden structure must have been a temporary shed, constructed
within the walls of brick, and used till the out-walls and roofing could be
finished.  In some such way Whitfield used his church, (the old Academy) by
preaching in it while the walls were building.  Or, the building may have
been a frame, found on the premises, when the lot was first taken up, and in
which Mr. Clayton may have preached when first visiting the city as a
missionary from Jersey, where he was at first engaged.
   As early as the year 1698, the Rev. Evan Evans, who appears to have
succeeded Mr. Clayton, is mentioned as the church pastor, in a public
Friends' journal of the time.  He calls him "Church Missionary", and names
him for the purpose of saying he had been out to visit the Welsh Friends at
Gwyned, in hopes to convert them over to his fellowship.  [His diligence and
zeal must have been great; for, besides Sunday services in Philadelphia, he
held public prayers on Wednesdays and Fridays -- preaching also at
Chichester, Chester, Concord, Montgomery, Radnor, and Perkiomen,
occasionally.]  From his name and visit to Welsh people, we should infer
that he was himself a Welshman.  About this time the church was served by
the Swedish minister, Mr. Rudman, for nearly two years.
   The Rev. Mr. Keith, who visited Philadelphia in 1702, as church
missionary*, speaks of having then found the Rev. Evan Evans in charge of
Christ Church as its first Rector, and said to have been sent out in 1700 by
Bishop Comptin of London.  That time was probably referred to, because
although he had been here at an earlier time, he may have been in London in
1700 also.  Certainly he is mentioned as there by William Penn himself, in
his letter to James Logan of 1709, to wit :  "Governor Gookin has presented
Parson Evans with two gaudy costly prayer-books as any in the Queen's
chapel, and intends as fine a communion table also; both which charms the
Bishop of London as well as Parson Evans, whom I esteem".  [* This George
Keith had himself been a public Friend not long before, at Philadelphia.]
   It was probably on some such occasion of the presence of the Rector of
London that Queen Anne made her present of a service of church plate for the
use of Christ Church -- the same which now bears the impress of her arms, &c.
   We may be justified, we presume, in speaking of all the truth, to say a
little of what was called "the church party" -- a name expressive at the
time of mutual dissatisfaction between the churchmen and the Friends;
probably not so much from religious differences of opinion, as from
dissimilarity in views of civil government, to wit :
  In 1701, James Logan writes to William Penn, saying, "I can see no hopes
of getting any material subscriptions from those of the church against the
report of persecution, they having consulted together on that head, and as I
am informed, concluded that not allowing their clergy here what they of
right claim in England, and not suffering them to be superior, may justly
bear that name". [* It was ascertained that Colonel Quarry, who was at the
head of Penn's enemies, had taken over to England secret subscriptions on
that subject, intending them there to injure Penn.]  {Note : subscription =
a signed petition}
   A letter from William Penn of 1703, says : "The church party with a
packed vestry, headed by his enemy, John Moore, [once Attorney General],
complemented by an address the Lord Cornbury, wherein they say, they hope
they shall prevail with the Queen to extend the limits of his government
over them, so they may enjoy the same blessing as others under his
authority".  Penn calls this "a foul insubordination to him".
   The "Hot Church Party" as it was called, began its opposition to Friends'
rule, about the year 1701-2, (much of it from civil causes) for instance,
James Logan, in writing to William Penn in 1702 says :  "Orders having come
to the Governor to proclaim the war, he recommended to the people to put
themselves into a posture of defence, and since has issued commissions for
one company of militia, and intends to proceed all the government over.
Those of the hot church party oppose it to their utmost, because they would
have nothing done that may look with a countenance at home.  They have done
all they can to dissuade all from touching with it" &c., [The reason they
assigned was, that they would not engage to defend and fight, while Friends
could be exempted.]
   When Lord Cornbury was again in Philadelphia on his second visit in 1703,
Colonel Quarry and the rest of the churchmen, congratulated him and
presented an address from the church vestry, requesting his patronage to the
church, and closing with a prayer that he would beseech the Queen to extend
his government over this province !  Colonel Quarry also said, "they hoped
they also should be partakers of the happiness Jersey enjoyed under his
government."
   William Penn, after hearing of this act to a mere visitor in his colony,
treats it as an overt act of anarchy -- a treason against his supremacy !
He therefore sends a copy of the address (called "Colonel Quarry's packed
Vestry Address") to the Lords of Trade, to be by them punished as an
"impudent" affair.  "I offered the Lords, that they should either buy us
out, or that we might buy out the turbulent churchmen".
   William Penn, Jun., in writing to James Logan in 1703, says "I am told
the church party are very desirous of my coming over, as not doubting but to
make me their property; but they will find themselves mistaken.*  I should
not encourage a people who are such enemies to my father and the province".
[Yet he did, not long after, join the communion of the Church of England]
   The Rev. Mr. Evans' services to Christ Church terminated in 1719; he was
then succeeded by the Rev. Mr. Vicary -- after whom the succession
continued downward thus, to wit :  The Rev. Mr. Cummings was installed in
1726 -- next, by Rev. Robert Jenney, in 1742 -- then by Rev. Richard Peters,
in 1762, and by the late Bishop White in 1772 -- the same who became Rector
in 1779.  The Rev. Mr. Duche' began his services in 1775.  From the year
1747 to 1766, the Rev. William Sturgeon, Curate, was assistant minister of
Christ Church and St. Peter's -- at the same time he was in the service of
the "Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts".  Several
other missionaries of that society were also here, to wit:  the Rev. William
Currie, missionary for Radnor;  the Rev. N. Evans for Gloucester;  the Rev.
E. Ross for New Castle; also the Rev. Mr. Barron there; the Rev. Mr. Barton
for Lancaster; another is also designated for Oxford in 1758.
   In the year 1727 was begun the enlargement of the present venerable
Christ Church.  The occasion was thus noticed in the Gazettes of the day, to
wit : April 28th 1727 -- "Yesterday the Hon. P. Gordon, our Governor, with
the Mayor, Recorder, and the Rev. Mr. Cummings, our minister, and sundry
gentlemen, laid the first stone of the additional building designed to be
made to the church of this city".  I regard this to have been the present
western end, including the base of the tower -- as will hereafter appear
more obvious from subsequent facts to be told.
   In the year 1729 Thomas Makin's Latin description of the city thus hints
at its unfinished state then, to wit :

              "Of these appears one in a grander style,
               But yet unfinished is the lofty pile.
               A lofty tow'r is founded on the ground
               For future bells to make a distant sound."

   The tower was probably not extended above the first or second story till
the year 1753, when they began the present elegant steeple.  In the mean
time it may have been used for other purposes.
    From incidental facts it appears, in the year 1729, to have been first
furnished with an organ, and to have had there a Welsh preacher, of the name
of Doctor Wayman -- for the Gazette states, that the Welshmen in the city,
having formed themselves into a fellowship chose Doctor Wayman to preach
them a sermon in the Welsh language, and to give them a Welsh psalm on the
organ.  This organ I presume to have been at Christ Church, for a writer
says "I have subscribed 5 Pounds towards carrying on the new church, and
50s. to the organ, and 20s. to the organist".
   As soon as they could bring the western end to a finish, by measures
adapted to their limited means and resources, they set upon the building of
the front or eastern end, which I found more than once ascribed to the year
1731.
   For the impressive architectural style of Christ Church, (as well as of
the State-house also) we are indebted to the taste and direction of Doctor
John Kearsley, the elder, an eminent physician of Philadelphia.  [He died in
1772, a the age of 88 years, leaving three of his houses as a legacy to the
poor widows of the church.  He was a very popular man, member of Assembly,
&c.]  Robert Smith was the carpenter.
   The grounds in the rear of the church were originally very different from
the present level appearance. At first the ground along the rear wall of the
yard descended into a very extensive pond, reaching from near High street to
Arch street -- once a place for wild ducks, afterwards a skating place for
boys.  An aged lady, named Betty Chandler, knew the site when she had
gathered blackberries and whortleberries near there, and so described it.
Davenport Marrot (he died in 1831 aged 84 years) had seen the pond open and
skated upon; and the late aged Thomas Bradford, Esq., said the site of the
church itself is artificial ground, filled in to some extent even out to
Second street.  In digging in the rear of the lot on the northern side
boundary for the foundation of Mr. Haines' house there, they found a very
marshy bottom, and at fourteen feet below the present surface they came to
the remains of a horse stall once there.
   The present alley, along the south wall, leading into Church alley from
Second street, was originally part of the church burial ground.  Samuel
Coates, Esq., told me he could remember when the grave-hillocks still
existed there; and in confirmation, when the iron pipes for the Schuylkill
water was laid along that alley, they found bones enough to fill a large
box, which Mr. North, the druggist near there, had reinterred.
   In the year 1727, Robert Asheton, Esq., Recorder and Prothonotary, died
at the age of 58, and was buried after the English manner of people of
distinction, in much pomp, by torch-light, at Christ Church ground.  He was
probably a cousin of William Penn, as he had cousins of that name in
Philadelphia.
   In 1741 the churchmen of Philadelphia manifested some disaffection to the
alleged supremacy of the Bishop of London, saying in the case of the Rev.
Richard Peters, who was serving as the secretary and agent of the
proprietaries, that as the Bishop declined to license him for their church,
after they had chosen him (alleging for his reason, his living by his lay
functions) they would not accept any person whom he might license, they
saying, his diocese did not extend to the province.  Mr. Peters himself
alleged that the right of presentation lay in the proprietaries and
Governor.  This Rev. Mr. Peters was uncle to our late venerable and
respected Judge R. Peters.
   Christ Church, as it appeared in 1748 - 9, is described by the Swedish
traveller Professor Kalm.  Although he speaks of it as "the finest of all
then in the city", he notwithstanding, states that "the two churches then at
Elizabethtown surpassed any thing in Philadelphia !"  For at that time
Christ Church had "a little inconsiderable steeple, in which was a bell, and
also a clock (now gone!!) which strikes the hours.  It had (he says) been
lately rebuilt, (by an addition) and was more adorned than formerly".  He
mentions that the two ministers to this church received their salary from
England; and that between forty and fifty years before, the Swedish minister,
Mr. Rudman, performed the functions of a clergyman for this congregation for
nearly two years.

   The Rev. Mr. Peters, Secretary, in writing to the proprietaries in 1749,
speaks of  "the church" as having "no funds for repairs, although we beg
around the town -- no steeple -- no wall -- no gates -- no bells. [ This may
possibly be a purposed desolate picture, as a begging hint to them, since
Kalm then saw the little steeple, heard the bell and clock, and saw some
ornaments - still all was much inferior to what we now see there.]  "The
church too, [as big then as now !] is too little by one half to hold the
members, [then the only church] and there is an absolute necessity for
building another church;  but as this, (other) when built, [alluding to St.
Peter's] must be a chapel of ease to the present church, it may perhaps
promote the finishing the old church with quicker expedition".
   The year 1752-3 was very fruitful in expedients for adorning and
beautifying the city.  The war had ended in 1748, and had given a little
time to devise expedients.  Several new improvements were started upon
lotteries; among these was that of November 1752, for aiding in raising a
steeple for Christ church.  It is called a "scheme to raise 1012 (Pounds),
10s -- being half the sum required to finish the steeple to Christ Church,
and to purchase a ring of bells and a clock".  The lottery was drawn in
March 1753.  As it was deemed a Philadelphia ornament, it was appropriately
enough called "the Philadelphia steeple lottery".  The managers therefore
say, "We hope that a work of this kind, which is purely ornamental, will
meet with encouragement from all well-wishers to the credit, beauty and
prosperity of Philadelphia".  The vestry had previously attempted a
subscription, but as it fell "much short" of the necessary sum, it became
necessary to resort to a lottery.  Two lotteries were instituted for this
object, and both for the same amount; the one immediately succeeding the
other, to wit :  in May 1753.  Each lottery contained four thousand five
hundred tickets, at $4 each, making $36,000, and to net 2,023 Pounds.  Jacob
Duche' was treasurer.  The subscriptions amounted to about 1000 Pounds.
   This "Philadelphia steeple" being one of peculiar beauty of symmetry and
grace, since deemed worthy to be imitated by the Episcopal cathedral at
Quebec, has been thus extolled by Joseph Sansom, Esq., who had seen numerous
similar architectural ornaments abroad, to wit :  "It is the handsomest
structure of the kind, that I ever saw in any part of the world;  uniting in
the peculiar features of that species of architecture, the most elegant
variety of forms, with the most chaste simplicity of combination".
   The steeple was finished in November 1754, at a cost of 2100 Pounds, and
the bells were purchased in England, at a cost of 900 Pounds -- they were
brought out, freight free, in the ship Matilda, Captain Budden; and as a
compliment to his generosity, as often as he arrived in subsequent years,
the bells put forth a merry peal to announce their gratitude.  The whole
weight of the eight bells was said to be eight thousand pounds -- the tenor
bell weighing eighteen hundred pounds.  They were cast by Lester and Pack,
men of most note in their day.  They were hung here by Nicholas Nicholson, a
native of Yorkshire, in an entirely new manner.
   These bells, heavy as they were in mounting, had to be taken down in the
year 1777, by the Commissary General of military stores, to keep them from
falling into the hands of the British for military purposes; they were again
returned and hung after the evacuation of the city.  [They had been taken
with the State House bell to Trenton -- another account says to Allentown.]
   When the bells were yet a novelty, they excited very great interest to
hear them chime and ring tunes. They used to ring the night before markets;
and on such occasions numbers of persons would go from villages like
Germantown, half way to the city, to listen to the peals of merry music.
   The first time the bells were tolled was long remembered as being the
occasion of Governor Anthony Palmer's wife, the mother of twenty-one
children, all of whom died with consumption !  The ringing was also doubly
memorable in having caused the death of one of the ringers, by his ignorance
and ill-judged management of the bell rope.
   Christ Church steeple was built by Robert Smith.  Its height is one
hundred and ninety-six feet eight inches from the base to the mitre.  On the
mitre is engraved Bishop White's name, as first Bishop.  It has thirteen
holes in it, for the thirteen original States; is inscribed, "The Right Rev.
William White, D.D., consecrated Bishop of the Episcopal church of
Pennsylvania, February 4th 1787".  The mitre is four feet in circumference
at bottom, and two and a half feet in length.  The vane is seven feet seven
inches in length, and two feet two inches in breadth.  The four balls are
each one foot ten inches in circumference.  The extremities of the four
balls are three feet ten inches.  The big ball measures seven feet nine
inches in circumference.  These may seem unimportant facts in themselves, if
we really saw them as little, as they seem at their elevation; but it must
add to their interest to thus know them as large as they actually measure.
   The Hon. Charles Thompson said he well remembered being present when a
man fell from a high elevation on the steeple, down to the ground unhurt !
While he was up, some commotion occurred in the crowd below, and he, turning
his head and body backwards to look, gave occasion to the wind to pass
between him and the steeple, and so forced him to let go his hold by the
hands, and he fell !   What horrors he must have felt in his terrified
thoughts, rapid as his descent !  "Mercy he sought, and mercy found", for he
fell, providentially and strangely enough; into a large mass of mortar, and
his great fall was harmless !!
   After the steeple had been built some years, it was found it was getting
into the same decay at its sleepers as caused the taking down of the steeple
of the Presbyterian church, on the corner of Third and Arch streets, and of
the State House steeple.  On that occasion Owen Biddle, an ingenious
carpenter, undertook to supply new sleepers of red cedar, which he got into
place, on each of the four angles, by extending ropes with pullies, &c.,
from the spire into each of the streets a square off, so as to keep the
steeple both in place and in check when needful; the fact I had from Owen
Jones, Esq., an aged gentleman, who saw the display of ropes in the streets.
[Note: sleeper = a piece of timber, stone, or steel on or near the ground to
support a superstructure.]
   The Rev. George Whitfield, though no favourite in the church, was
admitted to preach in Christ Church to a great concourse in September 1763,
and soon after at St. Paul's also.
   The parsonage house has long been disused as such, so much so, that
scarcely an inhabitant remains that remembers to have heard of such a
building, although it is still existing entire, but altered from a house of
double front to the appearance of two or three modern stores.  Its position
is No. 28, North Second street, was originally a two-story building, having
five chamber windows in front, placed at about twelve feet back from the
line of Second street, and having a grass-plot, shrubbery and a palisade in
front; additional buildings are now added in front to make it flush with the
street, but the three dormer windows and roof of the original house may be
still seen from the street.  It was once the Custom House, under Collector
F. Phile.  The garden ground originally ran back half through the square.
The premises now pay a ground-rent of $300 a year to the church.
   The two frame houses south of it, Nos. 24 and 26, were till lately, the
two oldest wooden houses remaining in Philadelphia, and it may be deemed
strange that such mean structures should so long occupy the place of better
buildings in so central a part of the city.
   Since writing the foregoing, I learn that the ancient communion plate of
Christ Church consists of the following articles, to wit :  a large silver
baptismal font, inscribed as a gift from Col. Quarry; a goblet and two
tankards of silver from Queen Anne, are severally inscribed "Annae Anglican
ae apud Philad., A. D., 1708".  The two latter are decorated with figures of
the apostles.  Another antique-looking goblet is inscribed "the gift of
Margaret Tresse, to Christ Church in Philadelphia".  Besides these, might be
added the primitive altar-piece of antique character, now disused, and an
early library of many and rare books.
   The original deed for the ground plot is from the family of Jones,
conveyed per Joshua Carpenter, as their agent, for the sum of 150 Pounds,
for one hundred feet of front.  The deed being later than the creation of
the Church, may possibly lead to the idea that the ground was at first held
on ground-rent.
   The Rev. Thomas Coombe, the Rector, resigned his place and took refuge
with the British in New York because he could not swear allegiance to the
new government of the States; on that occasion Doctor Wm. White was made his
successor.  It was from the family of Mr. Coombe, I believe, that we have
derived the name of Coombe's alley.  He was an American, and much esteemed.
   In the year 1782, stoves, as a new article of comfort, were provided --
whereby we may know how our forefathers were wont to endure the cold !  They
were of the kind called cannon-stoves.
   At one time, Judge Francis Hopkinson, the poet, was the temporary
organist of Christ Church, as a volunteer, in the absence of Mr. Bremner,
the regular organist.
   We may know the fact, that the church originally had little panes of
glass set in leaden frames, (most probably made by our celebrated Godfrey,
as a plumber and glazier), by its appearing on record on the minutes, that
in June 1767, there is a call for their repair; and Mr. Denormandie is
engaged to repair the glass, and to new lead the windows for the sum of 12
Pounds.
   It may possibly please some of the present day, who do not like the
introduction of some modern music of orchestra taste and caste, to learn,
that in 1785 it was gravely determined by the vestry, "that the clerks be
required to sing such tunes only as are plain and familiar to the
congregation; and that the singing of other tunes, and the frequent changing
of tunes, are deemed disagreeable and inconvenient".
   It appears from the church records, that the six feet alley along the
south wall of the yard was opened in 1756, in consequence of a gift of 100
Pounds from Hugh Roberts and A. Shute, as a Second street opening to Church
alley.  Some interments had been made there before the change.
   In June 1777, the steeple was struck with lightning, by which the
conductor and lightning rod were so ruined as to require new ones.  It also
melted down the Crown before there -- ominous.
   The burial ground on Arch and Fifth streets was purchased of James Steel
in 1719, and surrounded by a board fence, and in 1770 it was taken down, and
the present brick wall erected -- finished by the year 1772.  The street
before the church was first paved by the church and the near inhabitants in
1757.  When the additions were made, bodies which had been interred were
removed, to prepare the place of the new foundations.
   The bells of this church are said to be the oldest on this side of the
Atlantic, and the only ones which are rung in peals in the United States; if
so, this is going ahead of the New Yorkers, notwithstanding their greater
attachment to bells and spires.  They were so rung at the Declaration of
Independence, and it might be, that the expected offence of the British at
that act, might have caused their expensive and laborious removal from the
steeple to Allentown, for their preservation.
   When the mitre was put up, after the war, it was in place of the crown,
before there.
   Bishop White, when a little boy, (in High street between Fourth and Fifth
streets) dwelling next door to a Quaker family of the name of Pascal, used
as a child, to play with their little daughter.  She, when grown up, used to
say, in her own style of speech, that Billy White was born a bishop, for she
never could persuade him to play any thing but church.  He would tie her
apron round his neck for a gown, and stand behind a chair for his pulpit,
whilst she, seated before him on a low bench, was to be the congregation.
   The history of this church (says the Protestant Episcopalian of March
1838) is in a measure identified with the first organization and
establishment of the church in the United States -- for here it was that the
first general convention of clerical and lay deputies from seven of the
thirteen states, met to frame an Ecclesiastical Constitution in 1785 and
again in 1786
   The minutes of the vestry (now extant, the earlier ones being gone by
fire, it is said) begin in 1717, but a cash book goes back to 1708.  In that
book is a charge in April 1709 "for 2250 bricks for the belfry"; and in May
1711 (when the first alteration was made) there is a charge "for 3700 bricks
for an addition to the church" -- and at the same time another charge "for
pulling down the gable end and cleaning the bricks".  This naming of
"bricks" is supposed to indicate a brick church, contrary to the saying of
"Alice, the black woman" who said she remembered the first church as of
wood, as herein before explained.
   The same cash book intimates a belfry, contrary to her intimation of "the
bell in the crotch of a tree" to wit : in November 1708, is a charge "for
four cedar posts to support the belfry"; and in April 1709 is a charge "for
2250 bricks for the belfry"; as before mentioned.  In 1712 there is a
mention in the minutes of the vestry of "the little bell" and "the great
bell".   [ The bell in the crotch of the tree was confirmed to me by Bishop
White himself, who added, it was the same, afterwards the best tenor bell at
St. Peter's.]  The minutes of December 1723 make mention of their address to
the Bishop of London, wherein it says, "it is now about 28 years since the
foundation of this church was laid (in 1695) by a very few of her communion,
from which the congregation has so increased that two additions have been
made thereto".
   The enlargement to the west end, of thirty-three feet, so as to hold
sixty-seven pews, was not finished till March 1731; and the enlargement at
the east end began seemingly, in 1740, is spoken of as finished in August
1744, and votes of thanks are passed to Doctor Kearsley for his aid therein;
and in 1747 he is voted a present of plate of 40 Pounds for his services in
superintending the architectural embellishments &c.  The city and the
country seem to have been indebted to "Mr. Harrison for a plan of the tower
and spire, as agreed upon, to be erected for a ring of bells"  [Henry
Harrison was one of the vestry]
   The subscription paper put forth by the vestry in May 1739, states that
"it was resolved by two vestries in 1727, that a sum should be raised by
subscription, for erecting a new, larger, and more convenient building,
which has been since carried and a steeple laid, and the body of the new
church outside almost finished; wherefore, to finish the inside with
additional pews &c., a new subscription is now to be instituted".
   The minutes of 1744 make an entry "for building the outside of the
church, which was done at two several times -- there was paid then by Dr.
Kearsley 2197 Pounds".  In the preceding year (1743) it reads, that Dr. John
Kearsley has served since the year 1727, "as trustee and overseer in
carrying on and rebuilding the church, and for five years of the time had
given daily attendance".  [Possibly old Alice vaguely spoke of "outside
walls after 1727, as above, and the lowness of the ceiling may have meant
some part of the church, such as the gallery for blacks, which "she could
reach".  On the whole, she must not be allowed to invalidate the better
authority of Gabriel Thomas, who said it was "a very fine church", possibly
such as he considered the then new Swedes' church to be; and Keith, who
preached in it in 1702, said it then held five hundred persons.]
   `Tis a gratification to consider that this ancient church, though it has
been lately reformed, in the modern passion for innovation and change, yet
there has been a steadfast desire in some of the vestry to retain, as far as
practible, the preservation of the former appearances of things once there.
The "long drawn aisles", formerly of brick, have been superseded by floors
and carpets, and the stone memorials once there under the passing
foot-tread, now no longer seen, have been memorized on the side walls; --
the once high and straight  backs in the pews have been replaced by ones of
lower size, and inclined backwards for more reposing comfort.  The whole
reminds one of Mrs. Seba Smith's poetry, to wit :

          _________________There might be seen
         Oak timbers large and strong,
         And those who reared them must have been
         Stout men when they were young ---
         For oft I've heard my grandsire speak,
         How men were growing thin and weak.
         Alas ! that he should see the day
         That rent those oaken planks away.
         His heart was twined, I do believe,
         Round every timber there -----
         For memory loved a web to weave
         Of all the young and fair
         Who gathered there, with him to pray,
         For many a long ---long Sabbath day.
         Old churches, with their walls of gray,.
         Must yield to something new :
         Be-gothic'd things, all neat and white,
         Greet every where the traveller's sight ;
         And stern old men, with hearts of oak,
         Their bed-room pews must quit,
         And like degenerate common folk,
         In cushioned slip must sit.
         Then pull them down, and rear on high
         New-fangled, painted things,
         For these but mock the modern eye,
         The past around them brings,
         Ay, pull them down, as well ye may,
         Those altars stern and old ----
         They speak of those long pass'd away,
         Whose ashes now are cold.

   We thank the sparing hand that has still preserved one vestige of the
past, the elaborate sounding board -- one now rare and curious specimen of a
thing once deemed so indispensable in audible prayer and supplication :

         "That sounding board, to me it seemed
          A cherub poised on high ---
          A mystery I almost deemed
          Quite hid from vulgar eye.
          And that old pastor, wrapt in prayer,
          Looked doubly awful 'neath it there."

   We are glad to add that it was always the fond wish of Bishop White, that
as much as possible of the original church, and its olden form and
appurtenances, should remain unchanged.
   It is the architectural style and arrangements of the interior of Christ
church, which give it a peculiar claim to public regard, as an elegant relic
of the olden time.  There is a hallowed and holy feeling in worshipping in
such an edifice, because the place is full of associations connected with
our domestic history and forefathers :

        "For memory loves a web to weave
         Of all who gathered there."

   There went all the Colonial Governors and other officers of state with
their families -- there went Washington and Franklin and their families.  In
such a place we may contemplate our forefathers as being once engaged in the
same duties, confiding in the same faith, hearing the same service and the
same doctrines -- and even occupying the same seats.  Such reflections must
generate grateful family remembrances -- must admonish us that we are also
in a state of transit, and "know not what a day may bring forth".  Christ
church is a place to think.

 Chapter 45.      FRIENDS'  BANK  MEETING  ON  FRONT  STREET

   The Friends' Meeting, in Front above Mulberry street, built in 1685, was
originally intended as an "Evening Meeting", while the one at the Centre
Square (south-west corner) was then erected as a Day Meeting.  Part of the
surplus materials used at the latter were removed to aid in building the
evening meeting.  It was called, in that day, "the Evening Meeting".  In
after years, when they constructed in 1753, "the Hill Meeting" on Pine
street, they called this house, in relation to its position, the "North
Meeting".  After they cut down the Front street before the house, so as to
leave the meeting on a high table land, they then called it "the Bank
Meeting".  It was sold and taken down in 1789, at the time it became useless
by their building "the new meeting-house" in Keys' alley, which soon
afterwards took the name of "the Up-town Meeting".
   The Bank Meeting, as aforesaid, had its front on the Front street.  The
pediment at the front door was supported by columns -- at that door the men
entered.  On the southern side was a double door, covered by a shed, by one
of which the women entered.  At those doors was the entrance for men and
women to the gallery -- the men going to the east, and the women to the
west.  Originally the meeting had no board partition, but a curtain was used
when they held the preparative meeting.  The preachers' gallery was on the
northern side.  The house was fifty feet front by thirty-eight feet wide,
and the green yard in front within the brick enclosure or wall, was fourteen
feet wide.  Originally, the street and house were on the same level.  The
present James C. Fisher Esq., has preserved the oak column which supported
the gallery, and which had been brought from the Centre Square Meeting.
   Such minute detail may seem too circumstantial to some who never gave the
place, when standing, their regard or inspection; but those who were
accustomed to assemble there in their youth, conducted and controlled by
parents now no more, will be thankful for every revived impression, and
every means of recreating the former images of things by-gone.

      "Ilk place we scan seems still to speak
       Of some dear former days---------------
       We think where ilka ane had sat,
       Or fixt our hearts to pray,
       Till soft remembrance drew a veil
       Across these een o' mine !"
   Thus-----"when we remembered Zion, then we sat down and wept."

   Richard Townsend, the primitive settler and a public Friend, says the
Friends set up, in 1682, a boarded meeting-house near to the Delaware,  We
presume it was on this premises; it meant a temporary building.  "The
meeting on Front street was opened first for worship in the afternoon, and
began on the 1st day of the 20th of 7 mo., 1685".
   Robert Turner, in writing to William Penn, in 1685, says besides the
brick meeting-house at the Centre, we have a large meeting-house, fifty by
thirty-eight, going on, the front of the river, for an Evening Meeting.
   The meeting-house elevated as it was, as much as ten or twelve feet above
the street from which you beheld it, gave it a peculiar and striking
appearance, and the abundance of green sod, seen from the street when the
two gates were opened, contrasted with the whitish stone steps of ascent,
gave the whole a very attractive aspect.
   Its original advantages for prospect and river scenery  must have been
delightful; it had no obstruction between it and the river, so that all who
assembled there could look over to the Jerseys and up and down the river,
from a commanding eminence.  The houses answering to Nos. 83 and 85,
opposite to it, were built with flat roofs, caulked and pitched, and did not
rise higher above Front street than to serve as a breast-high wall.
  The meeting-house, when taken down, was superseded by a uniform row of
three-story houses now flushing with the line of Front street.  It may be
still seen near there that the old houses have marks of having once had
their present first stories under ground, and their street doors formerly in
what is now their second story.

Chapter 46.       FRIENDS'  MEETING  AT  CENTRE  SQUARE, & c.

   This building was originally constructed in the year 1685, at the
south-west corner of the Centre square, then in a natural forest of oaks and
hickories.  It might surprise some now, to account for a choice so far from
the inhabitants dwelling on the Delaware side of the city.  The truth was
that expectations were originally entertained that the city would expand
from the centre towards both rivers; but it was soon found that the commerce
of the Delaware engrossed all, and Centre Square Meeting came, in time, to
be deserted, and the house itself in time disappeared.
   Penn's letter of 1683 to the Free Society of Traders sufficiently
intimates the cause of its location there, showing that Penn expected
business to concentre there, he saying, "Delaware is a glorious river; but
the Schuylkill being one hundred miles boatable above the falls, and its
course north-west towards the fountain of Susquehanna, (that tends to the
heart of the province, and both sides our own) it is like to be a great part
of the settlement of this age".  In concurrence with these ideas, Oldmixon's
book says, "the Centre Square, as he heard it from Penn, was for a
state-house, markethouse, and chief meeting-house for the Quakers".
   Robert Turner's letter, of 1685, to William Penn says : "We are now
laying the foundation of a large plain brick building for a meeting-house in
the Centre, sixty feet long by forty feet broad, and hope to have it soon
up, there being many hearts and hands at work that will do it".  "The
dimensions were altered afterwards, and the house was not built for more
than a year after the above date".  The late aged D. Merrot and B. Kite,
Friends, have told me they remembered to have seen brick remains of the
foundation, in the days of their youth, on the south-west corner of the
square.  Whether they meant the present centre I am not able to say; for it
is to be observed, there was at some period a re-appointment, by which the
Broad street is now placed more westward than was originally appointed.  At
first it as placed, on paper, five hundred and twenty-eight feet west from
Eleventh street; but now Twelfth and Thirteenth street intervene, making one
thousand and twenty-four feet now westward of Eleventh street.
   The general state of woods in which the meeting-house was originally
located continued much the same till the time of the revolution.  It was
once so far a wild forest, that the grandmother of the late aged Col. A.J.
Morris told him that when they used to go out from the city to the centre
square Meeting, she had seen deer and wild turkeys cross their path.  At
that time they had a resting seat under a fine shade at the corner of High
and Sixth street, then far out of town, and called "the half-way rest".
   These woods were long reserved as the property of Penn, he conceding,
however that "they should remain open as commons to the west of Broad
street, until he should be prepared to settle in". But as early as the year
1701, Penn complained much of "the great abuse done in his absence by
destroying his timber and wood, and suffering it to overrun with brush, to
the injury and discredit of the town",  being, as he said, "his fourth part
of the city, reserved by him for such as were not first purchasers, who
might want to build in future time".
   At the time the British possessed Philadelphia, in the winter of '77 and
'78, the woods were so freely taken for the use of the army, that it was
deemed most politic in the agent to cut them down and sell them.  This was
the business of one Adam Poth, a german of much self-consequence, well known
to the city lads as a vigilant frustrater of many of their schemes to cut
saplings, shinny-clubs, &c., in his woody domain.
   In 1726, the Grand Jury presented two old wells, very deep, "which lie
open at the Centre Square".  And about the same time, an order of the City
Council directs a well there to be filled up.  Perhaps these may yet be
discovered to the surprise of many.
   When the writer was a lad the Centre Square was never named but in
connexion with military trainings, or as an object of universal terror to
boys, as the gallows ground.  Woe to the urchin then that should be found
there after evening-fall among the spectres who then possessed that region.
The woods were all gone, and a green commons occupied their place all the
way out to Schuylkill.  As late as the year 1790 the common road to Gray's
ferry ran diagonally across those commons, so few then had fenced in their lots.
   On page 507 of my MS Annals, in the Historical Society, is a long article
containing facts on the lines and uses in the grants of the Centre Square,
not expedient to insert here.

Chapter 47.        THE  LONDON  COFFEE  HOUSE,  &c.

   What was called the old London Coffee House before and after the
Revolution, now the property of James Stokes, Esq., was originally built
about the year 1702, by Charles Reed, who obtained his lot, in the year
1701, from Laetitia Penn -- in the same year in which William Penn patented
it with other grounds, to his daughter, to wit:  the 29th of 1st mo., 1701.
The original lot to Charles Reed contained twenty-five feet upon Front
street, and one hundred up High street.  This his widow conveyed in 1739 to
Israel Pemberton.  In December 1751, he willed it to his son John, and at
his death his widow sold it at Orphans' sale to the Pleasant family, who on
the 20th of September, 1796, sold it with but 82 feet of depth of lot for
the great sum of 8216 Pounds 13s. 4d. to James Stokes.
   This celebrated house, as a Coffee House, was first introduced to its new
employment by William Bradford, the printer, in the year 1754, upon the
occasion of the declining of the widow Roberts, who till then had kept a
Coffee House in Front street below Blackhorse alley.  [At the house now
Dixon's, the same which became the store of Rhea and Wikoff in 1755]
   The original petition of William Bradford to the Governor, for his
license to keep the house, is somewhat strange to our modern conceptions of
such a place, by showing that coffee was ordinarily drunk as a refreshment
then, even as spirituous liquors are now.  It is dated July 1754, and reads
verbatim thus, to wit :  "Having been advised to keep a Coffee House for the
benefit of merchants and traders, and as some people may at times be
desirous to be furnished with other liquors besides coffee, your petitioner
apprehends it is necessary to have the Governor's license".
   At this Coffee House, so begun, the Governor and other persons of note
ordinarily went at set hours to sip their coffee from the hissing urn, and
some of those stated visiters had their known stalls.  It was long the focus
which attracted all manner of genteel strangers; the general parade was
outside of the house to the gutter-way, both on the Front street and High
street sides.  It was to this, as the most public place, they brought all
vendues of horses, carriages, and groceries, &c., and above all, here
Philadelphians once sold negro men, women and children as slaves.
   When these premises were rented in 1780, to Gifford Dally, the written
terms with John Pemberton, a Friend, the then proprietor, were so unusual
and exemplary for a tavern as to deserve a record, to wit:  On the 8th of 7
mo., 1780 the said Dally "covenants and agrees and promises, that he will
exert his endeavours as a Christian to preserve decency and order in said
house, and to discourage the profanation of the sacred name of God Almighty
by cursing, swearing, &c., and that the house on the first day of the week
shall always be kept closed from public use, so that regard and reverence
may be manifested for retirement and the worship of God";  he further
"covenants, that under a penalty of 100 Pounds he will not allow or suffer
any person to use, play at, or divert themselves with cards, dice,
back-gammon, or any other unlawful game".  To secure the fulfilment of these
purposes he limits his lease for trial to but one year, and next year he
renews a like lease for two years -- after this, to my knowledge, he
solicited Mr. Stokes to occupy it as a dwelling and store, and finally to
purchase it for private use -- a thing which Mr. Pemberton said he much
preferred.
   Such religious scruples in regard to a public city tavern, would look
strange enough to Europeans accustomed to the licensed gambling and
licentiousness practised at the Orleans palace at Paris !  The submission to
such terms, in such a city as Philadelphia then was, strongly marked the
moral feelings of the town.
   It might be curious to connect with this article the little history we
possess of any anterior coffee houses.  The earliest mention we have seen of
a coffee house, was that built by Samuel Carpenter on some of his ground at
or near to Walnut street.  In 1705, he speaks of having sold such a building
some time before to Captain Finney, who was also Sheriff.  [The Common
Council proceedings, of 1704, are dated at Herbert Carey's inn, and at other
times at "the Coffee House".]  I am much inclined to think it was on the
east side of Water street, adjoining to Samuel Carpenter's own dwelling,
being probably the same building which in the time of the colony was called
Peg Mullen's celebrated beef-steak and oyster house, and stood then at or
near the present Mariner's church.  The water side was the first court end
of the town, and in that neighbourhood Carpenter had erected a bakery,
crane, public scales, &c.  [I since perceive that Edward Bridges in 1739,
advertised his dry goods store "at the corner of Front and Walnut streets,
commonly called the Scales."]  It is also possible it may have been on the
north-west corner of Front and Walnut streets, where was once a frame
building, which had once been what was called the first Coffee House, and at
another period, the first Papal chapel.  The late owner of that corner,
Samuel Coates, Esq., now having a large brick building there, told me he had
those facts from his uncle Reynalls, the former owner, who said that at a
very early day the coffee house there was kept by a widow, Sarah James,
afterwards by her son James James, and lastly by Thomas James, jun.  The
Gazettes too, of 1744 and 1749, speak of incidents at James' Coffee House.
[The Philadelphia Mercury, of 1720, speaks of the then Coffee House in the
Front street.]  Mrs. Sarah Shoemaker, who died in 1825, at the age of 95,
told me that her father or grandfather spoke of their drinking the first
dish of tea, as a rarity, in that coffee house.  But I perceive a sale at
auction is advertised in the year 1742, as to take place at "Mrs. Roberts'
Coffee House", which was in Front street below Blackhorse alley, west side
-- thus indicating that, while she kept her house there, Mr. James was
keeping another coffee house at Walnut street.  I notice also, that in 1744,
a recruiting lieutenant, raising troops for Jamaica, advertises himself as
to be seen at "the widow Roberts' Coffee House".  There she certainly
continued until the year 1754, when the house was converted into a store.  I
ought to add, that as early as the year 1725, I noticed a case of theft, in
which the person escaped from "the Coffee House in Front street by the back
gate opening out on Chestnut street";  from which I am inclined to think it
was then the same widow Roberts' house, or some house still nearer to
Chestnut street.
   In the year 1741, John Shewbart makes an advertisement in the Gazette,
saying he is about to remove "from the London Coffee House, near Carpenter's
wharf", to the house in Hanover square, about half a mile from the Delaware,
between Arch and Race streets, "which is a short walk and agreeable exercise".

Chapter 38.              STATE-HOUSE  AND  YARD

   This distinguished building was begun in the year 1729, and finished in
the year 1734.  The amplitude of such an edifice in so early a day, and the
expensive interior decorations, are creditable evidence of the liberality
and public spirit of the times.
   I have in my possession the original bills and papers, as kept by Andrew
Hamilton, Esq., one of the three commissioners charged with the erection of
the same.  It seems to have cost 5600 Pounds, and the two wings seem to have
been made as late as 1739-40;  Edmund Woolley did the carpenter work; John
Harrison the joiner work; Thos. Boude was brick mason; Wm. Holland did the
marble work; Thos. Kerr, plasterer; Benjamin Fairman and James Stoopers made
the bricks; the lime was from the kilns of the Tysons.  The "glass and lead"
cost 170 Pounds, and the glazing in leaden frames was done by Thomas
Godfrey, the celebrated. The interior brick pavement was made of clay tiles,
by Benjamin Fairman.
   I may here usefully add, for the sake of comparison, the costs of sundry
items, to wit:  Carpenter's work at 4s. per day, boys at 1s., master
carpenter E. Wooley, 4s 6d; bricklaying by Thos. Boude, John Palmer and
Thos. Redman at 10s 6d. per M.; stone work in the foundation at 4s. per perch
; digging grounds and carting away 9d. per yard ; bricks 31s. 8d. per M.;
lime, per 100 bushels, 4 Pounds; boards 20s. per M.; lath wood 18s. per cord
; laths 3s. per C.; shingles 20s. per M ;  scandlings 1 1/2d. per foot ;
stone 3s. per perch;
and 5s 5d  per load.  Laborers receive 2s 6d. per day;  2100 loads of earth
are hauled away at 9d. per load are hauled away at 9d. per load.
  Before the location of the State House, the ground towards Chestnut street
was more elevated than now.  The grandmother of S.R. Wood remembered it when
it was covered with whortleberry bushes.  On the line of Walnut street the
ground was lower, and was built upon with a few small houses, which were
afterwards purchased and torn down, to enlarge and beautify the State-House
square.
   The late aged Thomas Bradford, Esq. who has described it as it was in his
youth, says the yard at that time was but about half its present depth from
Chestnut street -- was very irregular on its surface and no attention paid
to its appearance.  On the Sixth street side, about fifteen to twenty feet
from the then brick wall, the ground was sloping one to two feet below the
general surface -- over that space rested against the wall a long shed,
which afforded and was used as the common shelter for the parties of Indians
occasionally visiting the city on business.  [This shed afterwards became an
artillery range, having its front gate of entrance upon Chestnut street.]
Among such a party he saw the celebrated old King Hendrick, about the year
1756, not long before he joined Sir William Johnson at Lake George, and was
killed.
   In the year 1760 the other half-square, fronting on Walnut street, was
purchased.  After pulling down the houses there, among which were old Mr.
Townsend's at north-east corner of Walnut and Sixth street  -- a brick house
with a large walnut tree before it, which he lamented over as a patrimonial
gift forced out of his possession by a jury valuation, the whole space was
walled in with a high brick wall, and at the centre of the Walnut street
wall was a ponderous high gate and massive brick structure over the top of
it, placed there by Joseph Fox.  It was ornamental but heavy; vis-a-vis to
this gate, the south side of Walnut street, was a considerable space of
vacant ground.
   About the year 1783-4 the father of the late John Vaughan, Esq., coming
to Philadelphia from England to reside among us, set his heart upon
improving and adorning the yard, as an embellishment to the city.  He
succeeded to accomplish this in a very tasteful and agreeable manner.  The
trees and shrubbery which he had planted were very numerous and in great
variety.  When thus improved, it became a place of general resort as a
delightful promenade.  Window settees and garden chairs were placed in
appropriate places, and all, for a while, operated as a charm.  It was
something in itself altogether unprecedented, in a public way, in the former
simpler habits of our citizens; but after some time it became, in the course
of the day, to use the language of my informant Mr. Bradford, the haunt of
many idle people and tavern resorters; and, in the evening, a place of
rendezvous to profligate persons; so that in spite of public interest to the
contrary, it ran into disesteem among the better part of society.  Efforts
were made to restore it lost credit; the seats were removed, and loungers
spoken of as trespassers, &c.--- but the remedy came too late; good company
had deserted it, and the tide of fashion did not again set in its favor.
   In later years, the fine elms, planted by Mr. Vaughan, annually lost
their leaves by numerous caterpillars (an accidental foreign importation)
which so much annoyed the visiters, as well as the trees, that they were
reluctantly cut down after attaining to a large size.  After this, the dull,
heavy brick wall was removed to give place to the present airy and more
graceful iron palisade.  Numerous new trees were planted to supply the place
of the former ones removed, [Doctor James Moore has been active in getting
trees planted before the State house, and also at our public squares.] and
now the place being revived, is returning again to public favor; but our
citizens have never had the taste for promenading public walks, so prevalent
in Londoners and Parisians -- a subject to be regretted, since the
opportunity of indulgence is so expensively provided in this and the
neighbouring Washington square.
   We come now to speak of the venerable pile, the State-house, a place
consecrated by numerous facts in our colonial and revolutionary history. Its
contemplation fills the mind with numerous associations and local
impressions -- within its walls were once witnessed all the memorable doings
of our spirited forefathers -- above all, it was made renowned in 1776, as
possessing beneath its dome "the Hall of Independence" in which the
representatives of a nation resolved to be "free and independent".
   The general history of such an edifice, destined to run its fame
co-extensive with our history, may afford some interest to the reader.
   The style of the architecture of the house and steeple was directed by
Doctor John Kearsley, Sen. -- the same amateur who gave the architectural
character to Christ church.  The carpenter employed was Mr. Edward Woolley.
The fact concerning its bell, first set up in the steeple, (if we regard its
after-history) has something peculiar.  It was of itself not a little
singular that the bell, when first set up, should in its colonial character,
have been inscribed as its motto -- "Proclaim liberty throughout the land,
and to all the people thereof" !  But it is still stranger, and deserves to
be often remembered, that it was the first in Philadelphia, and from the
situation of the Congress then legislating beneath its peals, it was also
the first in the United States to proclaim, by ringing, the news of "the
Declaration of Independence !  The coincidents are certainly peculiar, and
could be amplified by a poetic imagination into many singular relations !
   This bell was imported from England in 1752 for the State House, but
having met with some accident in the trial-ringing, after it was landed, it
lost its tones received in the fatherland, and had to be conformed to ours,
by a recasting !  This was done under the direction of Isaac Norris, Esq.,
the then speaker of the Colonial Assembly, and to him we are probably
indebted for the remarkable motto so indicative of its future use !  That it
was adopted from Scripture (Lev. 25, 10,) may to many be still more
impressive, as being also the voice of God -- of that great Arbiter, by
whose signal providences we afterwards attained to that "liberty" and
self-government which bids fair to emancipate our whole continent, and in
time to influence and melorate the condition of the subjects of arbitrary
government throughout the civilized world !
          "The motto of our father band
           Circled the world in its embrace:
           `Twas "Liberty throughout the land,
           And good to all their brother race !"
           Long here -- within the pilgrim's bell
           Had lingered -- tho' it often pealed --
           Those treasured tones, that eke should tell
           When freedom's proudest scroll was sealed !
           Here the dawn of reason broke,
           On the trampled rights of man;
           And a moral era woke,
           Brightest since the world began !
           And still shall deep and loud acclaim
           Here tremble on its sacred chime;
           While e'er the thrilling trump of fame
           Shall linger on the pulse of time !

   It was stated in the letters of Isaac Norris, that the bell got cracked
by a stroke of the clapper when hung up to try the sound.  Pass and Stow
undertook to recast it; and on this circumstance Mr. Norris remarks : "They
have made a good bell, which pleases me much that we should first venture
upon and succeed in the greatest bell, for aught I know, in English America
-- surpassing too (he says) the imported one, which was too high and brittle
-- [sufficiently emblematic !] -- the weight was 2080 lbs".
   At the time the British were expected to occupy Philadelphia, in 1777,
the bell, with others, was taken from the city to preserve them from the
enemy.  At a former period, say in 1774, the base of the wood work of the
steeple was found in a state of decay, and it was deemed advisable to take
it down, leaving only a small belfry to cover the bell for the use of the
town clock.  It so continued until lately, when public feeling being much in
favour of restoring the venerated building to its former character, (as seen
when it became the Hall of Independence) a new steeple was again erected as
much like the former as circumstances would admit.  The chamber in which the
representatives signed the memorable declaration, on the eastern side, first
floor, we are sorry to add, is not in the primitive old style of wainscotted
and pannelled grandeur in which it once stood in appropriate conformity with
the remains still found in the great entry and stairway.  To remove and
destroy these, made a job for some of the former sapient commissioners, but
much to the chagrin of men of taste and feeling, who felt, when La Fayette
possessed that chamber (eighteen years ago) as his appropriate hall of
audience, that it was robbed of half its associations !  For that eventful
occasion, and duly to honour "the nation's guest" (who cordially invited all
our citizens to visit him) all the former interior furniture of benches and
forms occupying the floor were removed, and the whole area was richly
carpeted and furnished with numerous mahogany chairs, &c.
   To revert back to the period of the revolution, when that hall was
consecrated to perpetual fame, by the decisive act of the most talented and
patriotic convention of men that ever represented our country, brings us to
the contemplation of those hazards and extremities which "tried men's
souls".  Their energies and civic virtues were tested in the deed.  Look at
the sign-manual in their signatures; not a hand faltered -- no tremor
affected any but Stephen Hopkins, who had a natural infirmity. [ Their plain
and fairly legible hands might shame the modern affectation of many who make
signatures not to be read.  When John Hancock signed his name, he did it in
a large strong hand, and rising from his seat, said "There !  John Bull can
read my name without spectacles, and may now double his reward of 500 Pounds
for my head.  That is my defiance".]  We could wish to sketch with
picturesque effect the honoured group who thus sealed the destinies of a
nation.  The genius of Trumbull has done this so far as canvas could
accomplish it.  Another group, formed solely of citizens, was soon
afterwards assembled by public call, to hear the declaration read in the
State-house yard.
   It is a fact, that the Declaration of Independence was not actually
signed on the 4th July, nor was there that intrepid and concurrent
enthusiasm in all the members of Congress which has been generally imputed.
The facts, as I have seen them stated by Judge M'Kean, were in substance
these, viz :  On the 1st July the question of "Independence" was taken in
committee of the whole, when the "whole seven" representatives of
Pennsylvania voted against it, and Delaware, which had but two members
present, divided.  These were the only states which so demurred !  It was at
this crisis that Judge M'Kean sent an express for Caesar Rodney, the other
member for Delaware; and soon after his arrival, the important question was
put, when Mr. Rodney arose, and in a few words said he spoke the voice of
his constituents and his own, in casting his vote for Independence.  On the
4th of July, five representatives from Pennsylvania (Dickinson and Morris,
who before voted against it, being absent) gave their votes three to two,
Messrs. Humphries and Willing voting in the negative.
   No person actually, signed on the 4th July.  Mr. Read, whose name appears
among the list of subscribers, was then actually against it; and Morris,
Rush, Clymer, Smith, Taylor and Ross whose names also appear, were not
members on that day, for in truth, they were not appointed delegates by the
State Convention till the 20th July.  The declaration was only ordered to be
engrossed on parchment on the 4th July, and it was not until many days after
that all the names were affixed; for instance Thornton of New Hampshire who
entered Congress in November, then placed his name -- and Judge M'Kean,
though he was once present and voted for Independence, did not sign till
after his return from Washington's camp, where he had gone at the head of
his regiment of City Associators, of temporary soldiers (!), gone out to
support the general until the formation of the flying camp of 10,000 men.
   It has been said that it was a "secret" resolution of the house, that no
member of the first year should hold his seat, unless he became a
subscriber; this, as a measure to prevent the presence of spies and informers.
   When the regular sessions of the Assembly were held in the Statehouse,
the Senate occupied up stairs, and the Lower House in the same chamber since
called the Hall of Independence.  In the former, Anthony Morris is
remembered as the Speaker, occupying an elevated chair facing north --
himself a man of amiable mien, contemplative aspect, dressed in a suit of
drab cloth, flaxen hair slightly powdered, and his eyes fronted with
spectacles.  The representative chamber had George Latimer for Speaker,
seated with face to the west -- a well-formed, manly person, "his fair large
front and eye sublime declared absolute rule".
   The most conspicuous persons which struck the eye of a lad was Mr.
Coolbaugh, a member from Berks, called the Dutch giant, from his great
amplitude of stature and person; and Doctor Michael Leib, the active
democratic member, a gentleman of much personal beauty, always fashionably
dressed, and seen often moving to and fro in the House, to hold his converse
with other members.
   But these halls of legislation and court uses were not always restricted
to grave debate and civil rules.  It sometimes (in colonial days) served the
occasion of generous banqueting, and the consequent hilarity and jocund
glee.  In the long gallery up stairs, where Peale afterwards had his
Museum, the long tables had been sometimes made to groan with their long
array of bountiful repast.  I shall mention some such occasions, to wit:
   In September 1736, soon after the edifice was completed, his honour,
William Allen, Esq., the Mayor, made a feast at his own expense, at the
State-house, to which all strangers of note were invited.  The Gazette of
the day says "all agree that for excellency of fare, and number of guests,
it was the most elegant entertainment ever given in these parts".
   In August 1756, the Assembly then in session, on the occasion of the
arrival of the new governor, Denny, gave him a great dinner at the
State-house, at which were present "the civil and military officers and
clergy of the city".
   In March 1757, on the occasion of the visit of Lord London as
Commander-in-chief of the King's troops in the colonies, the city
corporation prepared a splendid banquet at the State-house, for himself and
General Forbes, then commander at Philadelphia and southward, together with
the officers of the royal Americans, the Governor, gentlemen strangers,
civil officers, and clergy.
   Finally in 1774, when the first Congress met in Philadelphia, the
gentlemen of the city, having prepared them a sumptuous entertainment at the
State-house, met at the city tavern, and thence went in procession to the
dining hall, where about five hundred persons were feasted, and the toasts
were accompanied by music and great guns.
   For many years the public papers of the colony, and afterwards of the
city and state, were kept in the east and west wings of the State-house,
without any fire-proof security as they now possess.  From their manifest
insecurity, it was deemed expedient about nineteen years ago to pull down
those former two-story brick wings, and to supply their place by those which
are now there.  In former times such important papers as rest with the
Prothonotaries were kept in their offices at their family residences.  Thus
Charles Biddle long had his in his house, one door west of the present
Farmers and Mechanics' Bank, in Chestnut street; and Edward Burd had his in
his office, up a yard in Fourth street below Walnut street.
   In pulling down the western wing, Mr. Grove, the master mason, told me of
several curious discoveries made under the foundation, in digging for the
present cellars.  Close by the western wall of the State-house, at the depth
of four or five feet he came to a keg of excellent flints; the wood was
utterly decayed, but the impression of the keg was distinct in the loam
ground.  Near to it he found, at the same depth, the entire equipment of a
sergeant -- a sword, musket, cartouch-box, buckles, &c. -- the wood being
decayed left the impressions of what they had been.  They also dug up, close
by the same, as many as one dozen bomb-shells filled with powder.  And two
of these, as a freak of the mason's lads, are now actually walled into the
new cellar wall on the south side.  But for this explanation a day may yet
come when such a discovery might give circulation to another Guy Faux and
gunpowder plot story !
   An elderly gentleman requests me to add as supplemental to the
State-house and its yard, that the wall along Fifth street was much older
than that along Sixth street, and that the ground at Sixth and Walnut, where
once stood James Townsend's brick house, was much the lowest part.
   He says, that in the first construction of the State-house, there was no
place assigned for the stairs, and to remedy the mistake, the great stairs
in the rear are made so disproportionate.  The Convention which met to form
the Constitution of the United states, met upstairs, and at the same time
the street pavement along Chestnut street was covered with earth to silence
the rattling of wheels.
   The Declaration of Independence was read publicly on the 8th of July,
from the platform of "the observatory" before erected there, by Rittenhouse,
to observe the transit of Venus.  Captain Hopkins, who read it, belonged to
the Navy.  It was about twenty feet high, and twelve to fifteen feet square,
at fifty to sixty feet south of the house, and fifteen to twenty feet west
of the main walk.  It seems to have been used occasionally as a stand for
public addresses, it being referred to as such by Stansberry, in his militia
poem.

Chapter 49.                   STATE-HOUSE  INN

   The crowds of gay passengers who now promenade the line of Chestnut
street, especially the younger part, who behold the costly edifices which
crowd the whole range of their long walk, have little or no conception of
the former blank and vacant features of the street, devoid of those mansions
in which they now feel their pride and admiration.  It is only forty years
ago since the north side of Chestnut street, facing the State-house, now so
compact and stately in its houses, had but two good houses in the whole line
of the street from Fifth to Sixth street; but one of these now remain -- the
present residence of P.S. Duponceau, Esq., at the north-east corner of Sixth
street.  The whole scene was an out-town spectacle, without pavement, and of
uninviting aspect.  In the midst of this area stood the State-house Inn, a
small two-story tavern, of rough-dashed construction, very old, being marked
with the year 1693 as its birth-year.  It stood back a little from the line
of the street, but in lieu of a green court-yard to gratify the eye, the
space was filled with bleached oyster shells -- the remains of numerous
years of shells left about the premises at occasions of elections, &c.  It
looked like a sea-beach tavern.  That single and diminutive inn for a long
time gave all the entertainment then taken by the court-suitors, or by those
who hung about the colonial Assemblies and the primitive Congress.  But
desolate as it looked in front and rear, having a waste lot of commons
instead of garden shrubbery, and the neighbouring lots equally open and
cheerless, there was a redeeming appendage in a range of lofty and primitive
walnut trees, which served as distant pointers to guide the stranger to the
venerable State-house -- itself beyond the verge of common population.
   Of these trees we have something special and interesting to say :  They
were the last remains within the city precincts of that primitive forest
which had been the cotemporary of Penn the founder.  There they had stood at
the infant cradling of our nation, and had survived to see our manhood and
independence asserted in that memorable "Hall of Independence" before which
they stood.
   When Richard Penn first came to this country, and was shown by Samuel
Coates these primitive remains of his grandfather's eventful day, the crowd
of associations which pressed upon his mind made him raise his hands in
exclamation, and his eyes burst forth in tears.
   It would have been grateful to have retained those trees, but they came
to the axe before their time, to make way for city improvements.  The last
of them was taken down in 1818, from before the office of Mr. Ridgway, No.
183, from a fear that its height and heaviness, in case of being blown over,
might endanger the houses near it.  In falling across the street diagonally,
it reached with its branches the eastern end of the State-house -- as if to
take its last leave of the Hall of Independence there.  It was found to be
sound, and to have had one hundred and forty-six years' growth.  Several
snuff-boxes, inlaid with other relic wood, have been made from its remains,
and distributed among such as have fellowship with such local recollections.
[Since penning the above publication, "La Fayette in America" Vol. 2, page
232 speaks with much commendation of such a box given to General La Fayette.]
   As early as the days of William Penn, the inn had been used as an
out-town tavern.  The ancient black Alice, who lived there, used to tell
with pleasure, that Master William Penn would stop there and refresh himself
in the porch with a pipe, for which she always had his penny.
   In the colonial days it was long known as "Clarke's Inn", at which he had
the sign of the "coach and horses".  All that we can say of "mine host" is,
that he prepared dogs -- real dogs ! -- for cooking the meat of the epicures
and gentry !  In 1745 he advertises in the public prints, that he has for
sale several dogs and wheels, much preferable to any jacks for roasting any
joint of meat".  Few Philadelphians of modern times would be likely to
understand what was meant. Our modern improvements are so great that we have
little conception of the painstaking means they once employed for roast
meats.  They trained little bow-legged dogs, called spit-dogs, to run in a
hollow cylinder, like a squirrel, by which impulse was given to a turn-jack,
which kept the meat in motion, suspended before the kitchen fire.  We pity
the little dogs and their hard service while we think of them !  As
cooking-time approached, it was no uncommon thing to see the cooks running
about the streets looking up their truant labourers.  What a relief to them
was self-moving jacks !  and, still more, what have tin kitchens since
produced for us !
   Mr. Edward Duffield tells me that when he was a boy he saw the voters of
the whole county giving in their votes at Clarke's Inn.  On that occasion he
saw the whole crowd put in commotion by an accident which befel a horse
there.  He had been hitched to a fence, and in pulling backward fell into a
concealed and covered well of water; after being got up once he fell down a
second time, and was again recovered -- strange to tell -- without injury !
Such a covered and concealed well, of excellent water too, was lately
discovered near there in the garden of Jacob Ridgway.
   After the Revolution, the inn was known as the "Half Moon", by Mr.
Hassell; and much its attractions were increased by the charms of his only
daughter Norah; "passing fair", who drew after her the Oglebies of the day.

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