two years, the salary was to be increased to one hundred and twenty pounds. But one year in this quiet position was enough for Keith, and we shall hear of him again as involving the peaceful society in dire perplexities. Thomas Makin (1665-1733), the chief usher of the school, clerk of the Provincial Council, and a writer of Latin verse, followed Keith as master. His Descriptio Pennsylvania, 1729, contains a notice of the school: "Hic in gymnasiis linguæ docentur et artes Una schola his alias etiam supereminet omnes, He wrote an Encomium Pennsylvaniæ in 1678, which with the former production was found in manuscript along with the papers of James Logan, for whom they were composed. In both, Makin dwells on the fertility of the land, the excellence of the government, the presence of churches, etc., but his most hearty delight is in the peacefulness of his life. His fondness for nature is evinced in the following lines :11 ""Tis here the mocking bird extends his throat, 'Tis here the smallest of the feather'd train, The humming bird, frequents the flow'ry plain. The last notice we have of this poet is found in the Pennsylvania Gazette, of November 28, 1733, where we read, "On Monday evening last Mr. Thomas Makin fell off a wharf into the Delaware, and before he could be taken out again, was drowned. He was an ancient man, and formerly 14 See Proud's History of Pennsylvania. lived very well in this city, teaching a considerable school; but of late years, was reduced to extreme poverty." On Penn's first visit he brought with him William Bradford of Leicester (1658–1752), an apprentice to the Quaker printer, Andrew Sowles, in whose office he had known George Fox. Fox introduced Bradford to Thomas Lloyd and the colonists, as "a sober young man, a civil young man, convinced of the Truth." In 1685 Bradford returned to England for his wife, a daughter of Sowles, and also for a press, which was set up at Kensington near the famous Treaty Tree.15 In Pennsylvania, it was four years after the settlement, in Massachusetts eighteen years, in New York seventy-three, before a printing-press was set up. In Virginia, the press of 1681 was condemned and only revived in 1729. This of Philadelphia was the first press south of New England, the third in the colonies, and it did the work for the people of Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and Rhode Island. 17 The first work issued from the new press was the Kalendarium Pennsylvaniense16 for 1686, by Samuel Atkins,1 student in mathematics and astrology. The first tract issued was Good Order Established in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, by Thomas Budd, 1686. Only recently has it been discovered that this was from the Bradford press. 18 15 See page 5. 16 An original copy is in the Library of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. 17 Knowing of the inability of the people to keep account of the days, the author wrote: "I was really troubled, and did design, according to that small knowledge that I had, to pleasure these my Countrymen with that which they wanted." The printer added an explanation: Hereby understand that after great Charge and Trouble, I have brought that great Art and Mystery of Printing into this part of America . . . for being lately come hither, my Materials were Misplaced, and out of order, whereupon I was forced to use Figures and Letters of various sizes." Beginning with January, the eleventh month, he has the calendar, followed by remarks on weather, tides, a table of the kings of England and a few generalities. The first almanac printed in America, was in Cambridge, 1639, by Stephen Daye; the first humorous one was by John Gully, Saybrook, Connecticut, 1687. 18 See Hildebrun's Pennsylvania Press and Authors, Vol. 1, p. 4. 1885. Budd was the son of a parish clergyman in Somersetshire, who died in jail rather than take the oath of conformity prescribed by statute. He joined the Friends and came to New Jersey in 1678. He was a man of importance, a member of the council and a commissioner for the purchasing of land. After his unfortunate connection with Keith, of which we shall hear later, he joined the Baptists and died in Philadelphia in 1697-8. The book gives a description of the country, its produce and commodities. His great zeal for the establishment of a public school system had immediate effect, whereas his banking scheme lay unused by America for some years.19 This observation of social and economic conditions recalls the achievements of William Paterson, who founded the Bank of England in 1694, and of Defoe, whose Essay on Projects, published in 1698 but written sooner, contained suggestions for a national bank. In 1687 Penn wrote and published The Excellent Privilege of Liberty and Property, containing an abstract of the Patent granted him by the King and the Charter given by Penn to the inhabitants. The only other work of his that concerns us, The Description of Pennsylvania, written to induce emigration, was published in London in 1683. It contained a detailed account of the country, the scheme of government, the advantages and opportunities for emigrants, and is interesting reading today. Curiously enough, Penn's religious works were not printed in America until after his death; five hundred copies of the Key in 1717, were followed by the Advice to His Children in 1720. As is usual in a recently opened country, the first message sent by the colonists to the fatherland emphasized the advantages offered by their commonwealth. Aside from the 19 For the movement in New England in 1700 see Weeden's Economic History of New England, Vol. 1, pp. 328 ff. annalistic and topographical productions, two poems in English were of this nature: first, A Short Description of Pennsylvania, or A Relation of what Things are known, enjoyed and like to be Discovered in said Province, by Richard Frame, 1692.20 The poet described the attractions of the land and the progress of the people; and in the latter connection, mentioned, as a proof of their prosperity,21 the papermill which Bradford and Rittenhouse22 established in 1690 near Philadelphia on the Wissahickon. Comparing the native land and the wilderness, he wrote: "No doubt but you will like this Country well, We that did leave our Country thought it strange 23 The second poem, longer and better, entitled A True Relation of the Flourishing State of Pennsylvania, 1686, was by Judge John Holme. This was not published until 1847.2 The author was born in England and came to Pennsylvania in 1685. He was a justice of the County Court and a city magistrate, and is remembered as having sat upon the bench when William Bradford was tried for publishing the pamphlets of George Keith. In the introduction to his poem, Judge Holme grew enthusiastic and exclaimed that a 20 One hundred and eighteen copies of Frame's poem were reprinted by S. J. Hamilton, with an introduction by H. G. Jones, in 1867. An address by J. W. Wallace at the Bradford anniversary, New York, 1863, contains the poem, copied from The Sunday Dispatch, Philadelphia, for August 26, 1862. 21 Massachusetts had a paper mill in 1728 at Dorcester, managed by Daniel Henchman, with aid from the General Court. History of Dorcester, p. 612. Thomas, History of Printing, Vol. 1, p. 25. 22 Rittenhouse, a Mennonite preacher, was born in the Principality of Broich, Holland, 1644. Samuel Carpenter, Robert Turner, Wiillam Bradford, and K. Rittenhouse continued the paper mill until 1700, when a freshet swept it away. Penn at once wrote a letter in its behalf and saw it reopened. Supplies were sent to New York to William Bradford; A. S. Bradford used this paper for the Mercury, in which the watermark, K.R., can be seen. The scheme proved so remunerative that Rittenhouse's brother-in-law, William DeWees, started a second, in 1710. 23 See Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, Vol. 17, p. 3; and Bulletin of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Vol. 1, No. 13, p. 72. stranger after reading his description would be amazed as was the Queen of Sheba, on her visit to Solomon. Concerning Philadelphia, he remarked: Strangers do wonder and some say,— And can they now build such a town?" It is curious to note that after Budd's Good Order and Penn's Liberty and Property, the first reprint was The Temple of Wisdom, in two parts. The first part was a philosophical treatise by Daniel Leeds with a fragment of an English Primer; the second was made up of Abuses Stript and Whipt by George Wither,24 Poems by Francis Quarles 25 and Essays by Francis Bacon. The fact that these few works did not demand much labor nor return much compensation, caused the press to be inactive. A religious controversy gave it a real impetus. George Keith, the first head of the Friends' School, now a public preacher, accused the magistrates of spiritual lukewarmness and denounced them for executing the law upon malefactors, saying that no true Quaker would draw a sword for the sake of justice. The elders, considering him turbulent and over-bearing, denied him the right of speaking or attending their meetings. Thus debarred, he sought the 24 George Wither (1588-1667) may have appealed to the Quakers because of his misfortunes in prison and his loss of property, as well as for any qualities in the satire. Abuses Stript and Whipt (1613), which sent him to the Marshalsea prison, contained many things nearest the Quaker heart, e. g., the attacks on the follies and abuses of society. Francis Quarles (1592-1644) published among other things a collection of Divine Poems in 1630 and Divine Fancies, in 1632. This verse, made up of “ exemplary" wisdom in a quaint, epigrammatic form, appealed to the Quakers. In 1638 he sent John Winthrop and John Cotton metrical versions of six psalms (numbers 16, 25, 51, 88, 113 and 137), printed in the Whole Book of Psalms; Boston, 1640. |