beneficent intentions of our honoured founder (in whose just praise I have been led out beyond my original intentions,) I have little cared to consider. I saw traits in his character to admire, and as they won my regard and excited my feelings, I have occasionally set them down. It is possible, I am aware, to impute selfish motives to the founder, by reviving (if they can be found,) the squibs and pasquinades of detraction once propagated by adverse interests. This is the tax which preeminence must often pay to envy. Cotemporary renown may often meet such assailants; and posthumous fame is sometimes doomed to their revival for a season by the perverted or oblique sensibilities of some men's peculiar sympathies and natures:-Such may write with "just enough of candour thrown in to take off the appearance of illiberality and hostility, whilst the general impression would remain detractive. Little praise could be used as the means of rendering censure more pointed, and what was wanting in fact, could be supplied by innuendo." But although an inscrutable providence had so overruled the closing events of Penn's eventful life, the reasonable expectation of cheering prosperity, so long withheld from himself, fell largely upon his posterity. His possessions in this country, as we all know, became of immense value to his succeeding generations. When Penn made his will, in 1712, six years before his death, it was estimated that his estate in Europe was worth more than all his province in point of actual product. In that will he left his son William heir of all his estate in England and Ireland. This was his only son surviving by his first wife, Gulielma Springett. His estate in Pennsylvania he left to his sons by his second wife, Hannah Callowhill, to wit: John, Thomas, Richard, and Dennis,all then minors. His wife, Hannah Penn, having been made his sole executrix, (a great woman in the management of business, as will be shown elsewhere,) she became in effect our governor, ruling us by her deputies, or lieutenant governors, during all the term of her children's minority.

In tracing downward the succession of events, it falls in order to mention, that in 1717, Sir William Keith superseded governor Gookin. Sir William continued in office till the year 1726, and was very successful in cultivating and winning the popularity at which he chiefly aimed. This was quite a new thing in a deputy governor to accomplish. Hannah Penn, however, was displeased with him, because he chose rather to please the people by compliances of dubious propriety than to adhere to the interests and wishes of his principal. His deceptive and flattering pretensions to young Benjamin Franklin are well known.

Governor Gordon succeeded governor Keith in 1726, and continued in place till the year 1736.

In 1732, the country was gratified with the arrival of Thomas Penn, the second son by the second wife, and in 1734, his brother, John Penn, eldest son by the second wife, also arrived. He was

called "the Pennsylvania born," and "the American," having been born in Philadelphia at the time of Penn's second arrival, in 1699. He never married, and died in 1746. After his death, his youngest brothers, Thomas and Richard, (Dennis being dead,) became sole proprietaries.

In 1763, John Penn, (the son of Richard, last above named) was made Governor for the interests of his father and uncle Thomas. In this office he continued till 1775, when the war of independence dissevered this link of union with the founder in the person of his grandson. His brother, Richard Penn, was also in this country at that time; and not being under official obligations (like his brother, the Governor) to keep a seal upon his lips, he showed his wit among our whigs by telling them "they must now hang together or expect to be hung up by others!"

The foregoing recitals, as the instructed reader will readily perceive, have only been designed as a brief outline-portrait of our general history. The object was to give some leading features, in their consecutive order, intended in some measure as an appropriate accompaniment to the numerous facts (which will follow under distinguishing heads) of incidents in our domestic history of Philadelphia and adjacent country, never before published or known.

In cases where authorities have not been otherwise cited, I have, in general, followed names and dates, or assumed the facts as Ï found them related in substance in Proud's Annals of Pennsylvania, or, in Smith's New Jersey.

To a considerate and reflecting mind it must be a matter of just surprise, that Pennsylvania, and, I might add, the other colonies, should so rapidly and progressively attain to riches, independence, and renown, notwithstanding the numerous and successive disas trous events;-such as might be regarded, by the superficial, as quite sufficient to cripple and prevent the growth of the infant Hercules. We can scarcely look into any period of colonial history, where we cannot find them struggling with what they deemed adverse circumstances;- such as, low markets, want of currency, slow returns for debt, and loud contentions about deficiencies of public funds for national purposes. In New England they had Indian wars to sustain. The colonies generally had to make large appropriations to aid the wars of the crown against the French and Indians in Canada and on the western frontiers, &c,—not to forget the expensive and "glorious" expedition to Cape Breton. To these succeeded the waste and ravages of the war of the revolution. In all these measures the waste of treasure was immense; and yet the nation as a whole has gone on in quick and full bodily vigour to full-grown manhood,- even, as if none of those evils had ever existed to impede the growth! Nor are these all the disasters they encountered-they actually lost, by depreciation, immense sums in a depreciated paper currency; (for their practice was to issue

a paper medium for almost every pressing emergency,) so that the abundance and worthlessness of continental money was itself a proverb. Our frequent commercial failures too, since the year 1800, have nearly ruined all the old and firmest houses of the country, and yet trade survives and flourishes, and the nation as a whole, is in signal prosperity! Such a phenomenon might be imputed to a special providence, resolved thus to exalt and establish us against probabilities and against hope! But it may not be amiss to suggest such causes as appear to have been natural:-such as may in some good degree account for our surmounting so many apparent obstacles. They are generally these, to wit:-the seeming waste of money in furnishing supplies for the wars of the crown, as it never went out of the country still enriched such classes of the community as are usually the operatives for those who merely live to fight. Even the money often so paid was of the paper emission, and usually depreciated beyond redemption, which of course was a virtual relief of the national treasury. As it would never circulate abroad it afforded no means to foreigners to withdraw thereby our substantial resources. If fortunes were indeed lost to some by a sinking of paper money in their hands, it also aided others to pay great purchases with small means, in the form of debts incurred. The rich sometimes sunk, and the poor sometimes rose. There was a change of relative condition, but the usual required proportion of the sons of toil to be hewers of wood and drawers of water" to the self-indulgent and the dainty, was still the same. The whole transaction having been an entire family affair, although the sign of money often changed its character and produced eventful changes in the relations of the members of the family, still the land and its improvements were theirs, and could not be alienated from the whole as an entire people. In the mean time, real substantial coin in great sums flowed into the country for the necessary purposes of paying off the crown officers and army, and these being expended in the country for the necessary commodities of the consumers, left a real wealth among us. * The very Indian wars too, although expensive to the State, at the same time enriched the men who ministered to the campaigns. The lands too, so acquired by conquest, enriched the colonies by furnishing them the means to sell lands to the numerous emigrants arriving with coin and substance from abroad. The constant influx of population as it gave a constant call for lands in the country, or for lots and houses in the cities and towns for their accommodation, not to omit the consideration also of our own natural increase, so it naturally tended to enhance all real estate; and therefore, so many as have been holders of estates in town and country have

6

The tory paper, called "Pennsylvania Ledger," printed at Philadelphia, under the auspices of general Howe, contains in No. 122, of January 28, 1778, a detailed account of all monies expended by the crown for colonial purposes from 1714 (the time of the Hanover accession to 1775, making the same 344 millions of pounds sterling- Vide Folio, No. 504, in the City Library.

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called "the Pennsylvania born," and "the American,"-having been born in Philadelphia at the time of Penn's second arrival, in 1699. He never married, and died in 1746. After his death, his youngest brothers, Thomas and Richard, (Dennis being dead,) became sole proprietaries.

In 1763, John Penn, (the son of Richard, last above named) was made Governor for the interests of his father and uncle Thomas. In this office he continued till 1775, when the war of independence dissevered this link of union with the founder in the person of his grandson. His brother, Richard Penn, was also in this country at that time; and not being under official obligations (like his brother, the Governor) to keep a seal upon his lips, he showed his wit among our whigs by telling them "they must now hang together or expect to be hung up by others!"

The foregoing recitals, as the instructed reader will readily perceive, have only been designed as a brief outline-portrait of our general history. The object was to give some leading features, in their consecutive order, intended in some measure as an appropriate accompaniment to the numerous facts (which will follow under distinguishing heads) of incidents in our domestic history of Philadelphia and adjacent country, never before published or known.

In cases where authorities have not been otherwise cited, I have, in general, followed names and dates, or assumed the facts as I found them related in substance in Proud's Annals of Pennsylvania, or, in Smith's New Jersey.

To a considerate and reflecting mind it must be a matter of just surprise, that Pennsylvania, and, I might add, the other colonies, should so rapidly and progressively attain to riches, independence, and renown, notwithstanding the numerous and successive disas trous events;-such as might be regarded, by the superficial, as quite sufficient to cripple and prevent the growth of the infant Hercules. We can scarcely look into any period of colonial history, where we cannot find them struggling with what they deemed adverse circumstances;- such as, low markets, want of currency, slow returns for debt, and loud contentions about deficiencies of public funds for national purposes. In New England they had Indian wars to sustain. The colonies generally had to make large appropriations to aid the wars of the crown against the French and Indians in Canada and on the western frontiers, &c,- not to forget the expensive and "glorious" expedition to Cape Breton. To these succeeded the waste and ravages of the war of the revolution. In all these measures the waste of treasure was immense; and yet the nation as a whole has gone on in quick and full bodily vigour to full-grown manhood,- even, as if none of those evils had ever existed to impede the growth! Nor are these all the disasters they encountered:-they actually lost, by depreciation, immense sums in a depreciated paper currency; (for their practice was to issue

a paper medium for almost every pressing emergency,) so that the abundance and worthlessness of continental money was itself a proverb. Our frequent commercial failures too, since the year 1800, have nearly ruined all the old and firmest houses of the country, and yet trade survives and flourishes, and the nation as a whole, is in signal prosperity! Such a phenomenon might be imputed to a special providence, resolved thus to exalt and establish us against probabilities and against hope! But it may not be amiss to suggest such causes as appear to have been natural:-such as may in some good degree account for our surmounting so many apparent obstacles. They are generally these, to wit:-the seeming waste of money in furnishing supplies for the wars of the crown, as it never went out of the country still enriched such classes of the community as are usually the operatives for those who merely live to fight. Even the money often so paid was of the paper emission, and usually depreciated beyond redemption, which of course was a virtual relief of the national treasury. As it would never circulate abroad it afforded no means to foreigners to withdraw thereby our substantial resources. If fortunes were indeed lost to some by a sinking of paper money in their hands, it also aided others to pay great purchases with small means, in the form of debts incurred. The rich sometimes sunk, and the poor sometimes rose. There was a change of relative condition,-but the usual required proportion of the sons of toil to be hewers of wood and drawers of water" to the self-indulgent and the dainty, was still the same. The whole transaction having been an entire family affair, although the sign of money often changed its character and produced eventful changes in the relations of the members of the family, still the land and its improvements were theirs, and could not be alienated from the whole as an entire people. In the mean time, real substantial coin in great sums flowed into the ⚫ country for the necessary purposes of paying off the crown officers and army, and these being expended in the country for the necessary commodities of the consumers, left a real wealth among us. * The very Indian wars too, although expensive to the State, at the same time enriched the men who ministered to the campaigns. The lands too, so acquired by conquest, enriched the colonies by furnishing them the means to sell lands to the numerous emigrants arriving with coin and substance from abroad. The constant influx of population as it gave a constant call for lands in the country, or for lots and houses in the cities and towns for their accommodation, not to omit the consideration also of our own natural increase, so it naturally tended to enhance all real estate; and therefore, so many as have been holders of estates in town and country have

*The tory paper, called "Pennsylvania Ledger," printed at Philadelphia, under the auspices of general Howe, contains in No. 122, of January 28, 1778, a detailed account of all monies expended by the crown for colonial purposes from 1714 (the time of the Hanover accession) to 1775, making the same 344 millions of pounds sterling- Vide Folio, No. 304, in the City Library.

G