.'Wf:-" ,^\. '-^Si3^^' .'^^ '^^ ^.-V^;/" ,.s/\ '--SM^S y'"' A . -^x, ,K^' .>%^V-„ % ,■/ ''.life'- ^-J. "^ c - - '> ^ v" '>y/>:'; ^/^ ;;^:v ^^.^ .'i5& "^ c:^^ ^'v "^.^ .^^^^'^^ '^ . %/;;^V/.S «i-\„ '^^^Z^;* - ,0^ ■ • • ,V *■;•• ./\, ' -\V .■^- .^•^°- ' • I "* %.^^^ '•*o » "-I r v^^ ,^^'"-^. v^^ "j-'i' V'^^ c^"^. .^^\ y^ *^ I 1 ft <^* ♦ 'P vV-^^ °'W«V'" V * «. 'TV'S.,?-* ■T^ -*.^ '^iTSH^' «^ «, '^f^, 3,* 'O, A* % The Collateral Ancestry STEPHEN HARRIS BORN SEPTEMBER 4, 1798 MARIANNE SMITH BORN APRIL 2, 1805 ^\i^'\tmJ^ 'O. Yic(^xJxxh 3 PHILADELPHIA 1908 ( t-^.-^ ^\^ >,o^ Geobge F. Lashkb, Pmmter PHlLADELPmA Gift Author 4 Ja '09 PREFACE. This book, with the Harris Record which was printed in 1903, and the Smith Record which was printed in 1906, completes the sketches which I have prepared relating to my ancestry in all its lines back to the emigration to this country, which occurred between 1682 and 1745. It will be noticed tliat so far as these sketches show I am of wholly British origin for several hundred years, as there are no names herein contained suggesting another origin, and as my people mostly come from the interior and Avestern part of England or Scotland, where the population has changed but little for a long period. It will of course be noticed that the sketches herein given do not, as the Harris and Smith records did, bring down these families to the present time, but only to the date at which a female member of my ancestry in each family married into some other family whose male descent carried down my ancestry a little further. I have information in some of these families which comes down later than what is herein printed, but my purpose was only to give my own line of descent. These three books contain all that I have gathered in the study of thirty- five 3'ears, in which I have consulted many original manuscripts and many books; interviewed many people, and submitted most of what I have to the correction of Gilbert Cope, than whom I know no one better qualified to speak. I have confidence that the infonnation herein contained is fairly ac- curate and that I have pretty well fulfilled my self-imjjoscd task of trans- mitting to my children wliat I have been able to discover regarding my ancestry. JOSEPH S. HARRIS. Reading Terminal, Philadelphia. September, 1908. (3) > > ti > m 02 J3 '^ p 1 iH 3 H S § r J2 a 1—1 fc( H ^-B J2 3 CI >i t- 3 M ■^ o 1- -- t-^ r^ » CO lO u a r-T ca D CO l>> a .a t- s o 1-5 Xi ■a >1 0) eg o cf _N 1-1 <1 S ^ ■« 1 ^^--c f 1 CO — lO OJ i t- r-l & . rf a I- CI «=■' . <5 J^ '^ O 05 a --I M- ^^' J a — o a n ^ ■= <1 S S -Q -o ?; A ^ B CI h- r-i lO r/l T-t « r-1 w 1-^ "1< R ■4-> « V Q. ■r S °o CO .-00 sot/2 P .d TJ Sag I'M)? 02 J2 -d o 02 w 1-T tn ci aS - H ^ •= 65 ni }^9 \ THE ANCESTRY C (Bor. )F X. XI. XII XIII. John Taylor m. June 6, 1664, Hannah Osborn b. 102.5 d. IftSe d. 1688 Isaac Taylor m. Jan., 1695, Martha Roman b. 1674 b. 1674 d. May, 1728 d. Jan.. 1735 Philip Roman m. 1669, Martha Ha b. 1645 d. Jan. 11, 1730 d. 1082 rpet John Worrilow m. Oct. 14, 1690, Ann Mai jg b. 1668 b. Aug. d. 1726 d. Rowland Parry m. XIV. *>• l*"''" d. 1737 d. 1714 Pereifor Frazer m. 17(»0. Margaret Carlton b. 1667 d. 1740 d. 1740 John Smith m. 1713, Susanna XV b. 1686 b. 1691 d. Dec. 19, 1765 d. Dec. 24, 1767 Robert Smith m. 1712, Marv b. Sept. 5, 1678 d. 1757 Dod John Vaughan m. 1729, Emma Parry b. June 5. 1690 b. 1700 d. May 24. 17.50 d. 1791 XVI. Robert Smith m. Dee. 20, 1758, Margaret \: b. 1720 b. Nov. 1, 1 d. Dec. 1803 d. March 1.' XVII. Joseph Smith b. Sept. 24. 1' d. Dec. IS. 18' ICVIII. Marianne Smi b. April 2, 180 d. March 12, 1 A.RIANNE SMITH !, 1805) Christopher Warrilow m. Margery d. April 4, 1605 d. 1614 John Worrilow m. 1632, Alice b. 16(V4 d. March 20. 1034 d. Nov. 28. 1691 XI. Thomas Worrilow m. Aug. 17, 1663, Grace Perkes Baptized Dec. 20. lO.SC. d. May, 1709 d. 1700 John Worrall m. 1657, Elizabeth b. 161S d. Sept. 4. 1703 d. June 13, 1670 John Taylor m. Sept. 10, 171S, Mary Worrilow I'txker b. 1697 b. Jan. 9. 1692 d. 1756 d. 1733 George Maris iq. 16-59. Alice b. 1632 d. Jan. 1.5. 170(1 d. March 11. 16Jm Thomas Goodwin m. 1680, Elizabeth b. 1650 b. 16.52 d. d. Nov. 10. 1739 .John Worrall m. .\pril 26. 1714. Siuali Goodwin b. Sept. IS, 1658 I.. 1096 d. April 19. 1742 d. 17.55 John Frazer m. June 16. 1735, Mary Smith b. Aug. 8, 1709 b. Feb. 10, 1713 d. Sept. 7. 1765 d. July 5, 1764 .John Taylor m. 1744. Sarah Worrall 1). 1721 b. Sept. 19, 1722 d. 1701 d. April 23. 1780 Persifor Frazer m. Oct. 2, 1766, Mary Worrall Taylor b. Aug. 9, 1736 b. April 8, 1745 d. .April 24. 1792 d. Nov. 30. 1830 ,7. 1800. Mary Frazer b. Jan. 14. 17S0 d. Mav 23. 1862 iril 4. 1833. Stephen Harris / b. Sept. 4, 1798 ' d. Nov. 18, 1851 XII. XIII. XIV. XV. XVI. XVII. XVIII. INDEX. PAGE PAGE For History of the Harris Family, see the Harris Record 1 to l'^5 For History of the Smith Family, see the Smith Record 1 to 272 For History of the Campbell Family, see this Record 11 to 1<> For History of the Bailey Family, see this Record 1 7 to 18 For History of the Hubbard Family, see this Record 19 to 24 For History of the Frazer Family, see this Record 25 to 66 For History of the Vaughan Family, see this Record 67 to 72 For History of the Taylor Family, see this Record 7o to 126 For History of the Parry Family, see this Record 127 to 140 For History of the Robert Smith Family, see this Record 141 to 144 For History of the Worrall Family, see this Record 145 to 154 For History of the Worrilow Family, see this Record 155 to 166 For History of the Goodwin Family, see this Record 167 to 170 For History of the Roman Family, see this Record 171 to 184 For History of the Maris Family, see this Record 185 to 190 10 THE CAMPBELL FAMILY. GENERATION XVI. INDBIX MEMBER OP FAMILY. HO. 1 CONSORT. BIRTH. MARRIAGE. DEATH. BBSIDBNCB. XVI 1 John Campbell. Mary Hubbard. 1713. 1748. May 1, 1753. New Providence, Bucks Co. There was an emigration of Campbells from Scotland in 1685 and for several years thereafter to N"ew Jersey. In 1685 Lord Neil Campbell, brother of the Dnke of Argylc, having been implicated in some political disturbances, fled to East Jersey, where lie had property rights. At that distance from home he was not considered dangerous, and he was appointed Lieutenant Gov- ernor of East Jersey in 1686. He remained one year, but a number of his relatives, two of them being his sons, came out in the next few years. It may have been that .John Camp- bell's coming had .some connection with this emigration. All that is actually kno^vn is that he was born in Scotland in 1713, and emigrated while still a lad, possibly about 1734. No one of his family is known to have come then or after- wards, which looks a little as if he might have strayed from New Jersey into Eastern Pennsylvania. We first find him domiciled with Mr. William Da\aes, of near Summit Ridge, New Castle county, Delaware, and we are told "the father would send the lads — Campbell and his owai son, Samuel — to work on the farm. There not being sufficient work done, he determined to watch, and found the lads, each with a book, young Davies instructing young Campbell. Considering that they were but lost unto any service to be expected from them, and as book boys would never make farmers, he complained to the mother, an amiable, prudent woman, who is said to have dedicated her son to the service of God. She replied that if he woidd not make a farmer there was a possibility he would make a scholar, and by her influence her .son was sent to a grammar school" — the Rev. Samuel Blair's Classical School at Eagg's Manor, Chester county. Pa. Samuel Davies graduated there and became a preacher of great ability, a Doctor of Divinity and a pr("^idf'nt of the college of New Jersey at Princeton, where he succeeded Jonathan Edwards in 1759. He was called "the prince of preachers." Samuel Davies received fi'om Princeton the degree of A. M. in 1753. He was born November 3, 1723, and died in 1761. After Davies' graduation, having a predilection for young Campbell, he assisted him in preparing for the ministry. Campbell's studies were finished at the "Log College," which was founded by Rev. William Tennent in 1726, and presided over by him for about twenty years (he died May 9, 1746) till Princeton became "the best endowed and most desirable of the schools of theology in the vicinity of Philadelphia." The "Log College" educated some of the ablest ministers of the day, and it was during its time the only school south of New England where one could be fitted for the ministry. It stool on the "Old (11) 12 THE HARRIS COLLATERAL ANCESTRY. York Eoad," half a mile below Hartsville, Bucks county, Pa. Dr. Archibald Alexander, in his "History of the Log College 1850," says that he knew of but one instance — that of David Evans — where any man not educated in a colleg'e was admitted to the ministry in those days. Evans was, however, graduated at Yale College before his admission to the ministry. The Log College licensed Jolm Camplxdl to preach October 14, 1747. He at once accepted a call to the churches of New Providence, Bucks county, and Charlestown, Chester county, Pa., four miles north of the Great Valley Church, on Pickering Creek, and was installed as their pastor October 27, 1747. He proved himself an animated, practical and faithful preacher of the Gospel. While in the pulpit of the Charlestown Church commencing the morn- ing service, and reading the lines in the old metrical version of the 116th "Dear in Thy sight is Thy saint's death. Thy servant. Lord, am I," he had an a])oplectic stroke from which he soon died. He died on Tuesday, and his seizure was probably on the previous Sunday. He was buried at his home in Xew Providence. A stone slab in the graveyard of what is now called the North Wales Presbyterian Church covers his grave, and bears this inscrip- "Here lieth the body of Rev. John Campbell, who departed this life ^Liy 1, 1753, aged aboiTt 40 years. In 3'onder house I spent my breath, Now silent mouldering her I ly in death. These silent lips shall wake and yet declare A dread Amen to Truths they published there." The lines are supposed to have been written by his friend, Samuel Davies, and iirst used here. They were used several times afterward — once on the tomb of Davies' instructor, Eev. Samuel Blair, at Fagg's Manor. He married Alary Hub])ard soon after he was installed pastor, and at his death left her with two children. She married, two years later, Richard Richison, and her children were brought up in his household. His daughter, Mary, who became ilrs. William ILirris in 1780, could have had no recollec- tion of her father, who died when she was fourteen months old, and, so far as I have learned, there are no family traditions attached to his name. Several ponderous folios of seventeenth century divinity by English authors were pre- served at home when I was a Iwy, and some of them are still in existence ; but they are the only records of his life, or the only things that still survive M'hich have any relation to him. Richard Richison was a prominent member of St. Peter's P. E. Church. He died in E. Wliiteland in 171)0. THE campbe:.l family. GENERATION XVII. 13 INDEX NO. MBMEBB OF FAMILY. CONSORT. BIRTH. MARRIAGE. DEATH. RESIDENCE. XVII 1 2 John Campbell. Mary Campbell. never married. William Harris. 1750. Feb. 27, 1752. Apr. 24, 1780. Nov. 20, 1837. East Whiteland, Chester Co. John Campbell (XVII 1) is not known to have married. lie was a carpenter in Chester county. He went West about 1779, and though he was heard from there, he soon disappeared and nothing is known of his subsequent history. In February, 1779, he executed a power of attorney empowering his sister, Mary Campbell, to act for him concerning his interest in the estate of his uncle, Stephen Hubbard. This interest he sold to his sister Mary, January 10, 1780. February 12, 1782, he directs Dorscy Penticost, Surveyor General, to give William Harris a co])y of drafts of his two tracts of land of 400 acres each on the west side of the River Ohio, one lying on the Mingo path, the other on Robinson's River, and including a mill seat, surveyed 1774. He also directs William Crawford to deliver to William Harris a draft of 400 acres, surveyed in 1774, on the west side of the River Ohio in the forks of Half Moon Creek, within six miles of Fort Pitt. This is the last communica- tion from him. Mary Campbell (XVII 2) lived with her stepfather, Richard Richison, who was the next neighbor to the eastward of my gTeat-graudfather, Thomas Harris, but as he was a man of Tory proclivities and did not approve of his stepdaughter marrying a man who w^as an officer of the Revolutionary Army, the marriage between William Harris and Mary Campbell was made at the house of William's brother, John Harris, in Willistown. There is not much remembered about her early life. Public business called her husband a good deal from home and left her in charge. It may have been when he was in the Legislature in 1810 that she found her sons, William and James, fighting in the barn. She called them out, whipped them both, and ordered them to keep the peace. After her husband's death, in 1812, she still lived at the old homestead. It was left to his wife during her life, after which his son John was to inherit it. The first note of her character that I have heard relates to her daughter IMary, born 1786, died 1791, her only daughter, and very much beloved by her. She was taken with small-pox and was very seriously sick. At the crisis of her disease her mother, worn out with nursing and overcome by grief, made up her mind in the night that she would go out to a spot, east of the house, 14 THE HARRIS COLLATERAL A^'CESTRY. that in my jouth was marked bv a large English walnut tree, and there wrestle with God in prayer till He should give her her child's life. On the way out she recovered her self-control, and recognizing that she had no right to make such a demand, returned to the child's bedside and watched her die. At another time she had a servant in the house who was a child of worth- less parents. As she sat one day at her sewing she looked up suddenly from her work and exclaimed, "Mrs. Harris, my mother can put a spell on you," to which Mrs. Harris replied only, ''You go on with yoiir sewing." "But she can," the girl jx>rsisted, "and so can I." She was again told to attend to her work ; but Mrs. Harris soon began to have strange feelings which she could not conquer, fight against them as she would ; one physical symptom being as if a strong spider's web was being drawn over her face. As she feared that she was Ix'ing worsted she, as she was wont to do in difficulties, retired to her room to seek help in prayer, and asked that if the child were really possessed of the devil the Lord would in some way remove her. Her mind quieted by prayer, she returned do^^^l stairs, when a knock at the door announced the girl's father, who said that he had concluded that they wanted her at home, and had come to take her away. Mrs. Harris was a woman of great physical vigor, and she had a strong mind and strong religious faith. The story is told for whatever it signifies. A picture renmins of her which was painted when she was perhaps sixty- five years of age, say in 1817. It is said to be a fair likeness. It was painted by a travelling painter, who in some way persuaded her to sit for it, though she gave the matter such little heed that she sat for it in her ordinary dress. She was tall and not specially handsome, having in her later days a large nose and deep set eyes. She had plentiful chestnut brown hair, which, to the day of her death, was but slightly tinged with gray. She kept house alone when her youngest son, Stephen, first started to practice medicine in the neighborhood of his brother William, about six miles east of the old homestead ; but either because his mother wished it, or because it promised a better business opening, he removed to her house and spent the rest of her life with her. After his nuirriage, in 1833, Stephen's wife took charge of the house, relieving her mother-in-law. Being of very affectionate nature, her solicitude for her sons continued till they were middle-aged men. When drinking the sparkling water from the spring which supplied her house, she would often say, "I never drink this without thinking of the vile water John has to drink on shipboard," John being an officer of the U. S. Marine Corps and much at sea. The numerous letters from her sons remain to testify to the respect and affection they felt for her. In her last years she grew childish, but was not troublesome nor unreasonable, though somewhat headstrong. Her son Stephen had procured for her bedroom, which was the southwest comer room in the second story, the earliest form of an anthracite heating THE CAMPBELL FAMILY. 15 stove, which, from its inventor, was called the "Nott" stove. lie always arranged the dampers before going to bed and insisted that she should not dis- turb them, as the stove would throw out gas if they were improperly set. One morning he found the dampers wrongly turned, the room full of gas and his mother dead ; but whether from the effect of the gas or from natural causes, such as a stroke of apoplexy, is not known. During her lifetime several of her grandchildren, the children of Camp- bell and William, lived with her and were educated at the Chester County Academy. Levi Bull Smith, a cousin of my mother's, also lived with her for two years, about 1820, and studied at the academy. It was doubtless the way in which persons sought an education for their children in those days, when good schools were rare, to send them to live with their friends. Thomas and William Harris were so educated at the Brandywine Academy, living at their Aunt Betsy Macelduff's before the Chester County Academy was built. She lies beside her husband in the churchyard of the Great Valley Pres- byterian Church. Her tombstone bears the inscription: "To the memory of Mrs. Mary Harris, daughter of the Revd. John Campbell, and relict of Gen. William Harris, who died November 26, 1837, aged eighty-five years." I have a distinct recollection of my grandmother, though I was less than nineteen months old when she died. I was concerned with her in a transaction for which I was blamed, and the memory of it is still clear to me. For an account of her husband, William Harris, see Harris record. 16 THE 3IAEEIS COLLATERAL ANCESTRY. GENERATION XVIII. INDEX NO. MEMBER OF FAMILT. MARSIAOE. BBSIDENCE. The Children of Maby Campbell (XVII 2) and Wiluam Habbis. XVIII 1 Campbell Harris. Jane Lee. May 2, 17S1. 1808. May 17, 1853. Geneseo, N. Y. 2 Thomas Harris. I. Jane Phillips Hodgdon. Jan. 3, 1784. I. Jan., 1820. Mar. 4, 1861. Philadelphia, Pa II. Esther White Macpherson. II. Apr.30,1839. 4 Mary Harris. Oct. 1.^., 1780. Mav 20, 1791. 3 John Harris. I. Mary Forster. II. Mary Gilliat Gray. May 20, 17S9. I. Oct. 28,1819. II. Oct., 1845. May 12, 1864. Washington, D. G. 5 SVilliam Harris. Elizabeth Matilda 6 James Bailey Harris. Patterson. Aug. 18, 1792. Apr. 20, 1820. Mar. 3, 1801. Philadelphia, Pa. Maria Driesbach. Oct. 14. 179.5. Apr. 10, 1838. June 23. ISSl. Geneseo, N. Y. 7 Stephen Harris. Marianne Smith. Sept. 4. 1798. Apr. 4, 1833. Nov. 18, 1851. Philadelphia, Pa. For notes on the lives of the children of Mary Campbell and William Harris see the Harris record. riiE r'A^tiTiKi,!. FA:iin,v. NOTES. THE CAMPBET.T. FAiflLY. NOTES. THE CAT^rrBF.Li. fa:viily. NOTES. TlIF, rA:MPBKl.T, FA:\riT,Y. KOTES. THE BAILEY FAMILY. 17 THE BAILEY FAMILY. GENERATION XV. INDEX NO. MBMBEIB OF FAMILY. CONSORT. BIRTH. MARRIAGE!. DEATH. RESIDBNCH. XV 1 o 3 Alexander Baillie. William W. Baillie. Edward Bayley. Margaret Feogan. about 1695. about 171S. Apr., 1758. Willistown, Pa. about 1765. Willistown, Pa. Raplioe, Ireland. Of the father of these Baillies we only are told that he was a poor man in Ireland. Ale.\ander Baillie (XV 1) came to America abont 1716 and prospered. His name first appears on the list of taxables in 1725. He bought 100 acres of land in Willistown from Michael Jobson January 24, 1730. Having no family except his wife, he sent for his brother William, who was poor and blind. He came over not far from 1743, and lived with his daughter, Eliza- iDcth, at Alexander's house. At that time his daughter Ann was married, but Elizabeth was not, and William had given all his substance, which was con- siderable, to Ann. Alexander's wife, Margaret Feogan, died before him, leav- ing no children, and Alexander, by his will, left his property, two-thirds to William Bayley, and one-third (the wife's portion) to his kinsman and friend, Giles Feogan, perhaps her brother. There is no traditional knowledge of the emigration of the Baileys, except that the ship on which they came was overhauled by pirates who then infested every sea on which commerce was carried to such an extent that in the columns of the "American ^lercury," published weekly in Philadelphia in the middle of the eighteenth century, acts of piracy are constantly chronicled and excite no more comment as incidents of travel than do heavy gales of wind or any other disagreeable phenomenon. The pirates of those days were highway robbers and not ordinary nuirderers. That trait developed later when the severities used in punishing them caused reprisals; and when the Baileys' ship was taken, while they doubtless plundered the vessel of most of its valuables, the act which created the deej^est impression was their taking the vessel's supply of drinking water. For lack of this necessity of life the ship's company suffered gTeatly, some of the children dying for want of it, and their cries and her own sufferings, made such an impression on Elizabeth Bailey's mind that in her later life she said that she never took a drink of water without first thanking God for it. It is only related of her that she was slight of person and little of stature. The Baileys were Episcopalians and their place of worship was at St. Peter's church, two miles north of their home, where it is on record that Thomas Harris held pew ISTo. 16 in 1786. 18 THE HARRIS COLLATERAL ANCESTRY. Edward Bayley, LL.D. (XV 3), the uncle who brought up Elizabeth Bailey, is called by her brother-in-law Bishop of Raphoe. He assisted his brother "William after he came to America also. Raphoe is a market town of Donegal, 15 miles S. S.W. of Londonderry. Its see was nnited with Derry in 1835. He is recorded as being Rector of the parishes of Killmegan and Kilcow in the Diocese of Down, Ireland, in 1747, and as Treasurer of the Diocese in 1755 and 1757, and he was the only clergyman of that name in that part of Ireland. GENERATION XVI. INDEX MO. MEMBER OF FAMILY. BESIDENCE. The Children of Wilijam W. Baillie (XV 2) and XVI 1 Ann Bailey. Elizabetli Bailey. I. Richard McCaden. II. Henry McQuaid. Thomas Harris. about 1719. 1726. I. 1736. II. Apr. 1.17iJS. 1747. Aug. 22, 1700. Easttown. Pa. Willistown. Pa. The will of Richard McCaden, made Angnst 29, 1757, probated October 1, 1757, appoints his wife, Ann, and Isaac Wayne executors. His name is on the assessor's list from 1749 to 1757, b\it not in 1747. Henry McQuaid and Agnes McCaden -were married in Christ church, Philadelphia. His name is on the assessor's list in Easttown in 1758, but not in 1774. In 1764 he owned 160 acres of land. For an account of Thomas Harris see Harris Record. GENERATION XVII. The Children of Richard McCaden (XVI 1) and .\nn Bailey. XVII 1 Elizabeth McCaden. about 17.S7. 2 Margaret McCaden. about 1738. 3 Mary McCaden. about 1739. 4 John McCaden. about 1741. The Children of Elizab eth Bailey (XVI 2) and Thomas Harris. 5 Mary Harris. Mar. 11. 1749. in infancy. 6 Bailey Harris. Mar. 10, 17.51. Apr. 4, 1757. 7 John Harris. Mary Bowen. Apr. 1, 17.53. 1770. Dec. 25, 1838. Willistown, Pa. 8 Jane Harris. never married. Mav 27, 17,55. Mar. 0, 1778. [ 9 William Harris. Mary Campbell. Oct. 7, 1757. Apr. 24, 1780. Sept. 4, 1812. East Whitelaud. Pa. 10 Margaret Harris. David Christie. Jan. 10. 17(',0. Dec. 24, 1843. East Wbiteland, Pa. 11 Elizabeth Harris. Joseph Mackeldii£f. Feb. 0, 1702. May 9, 1786. June 2, 1840. Brandvwine Manor, Pn. Tredyffrin, Pa. 12 Agnes Harris. Israel Davis. Nov. 15, 1705. about ISOl. Aug. 15, 18.30. 13 Hannah Harris. George Calbraith. i Jan. 10, 1700. about 1707. Feb. 14, 1843. McVeytov.u, Pa. For an accoimt of the children of Elizabeth Bailey (XVI 2) and Thomas Harris, see Harris Record. THE BAILEY FAMTI.Y. NOTES. THE BAIT.ET FAMILY. NOTES. THE BAILEY FAMILY. NOTES. THE BAILET FAMILY. NOTES. THE HUBBABD FAMILY. 19 THE HUBBAED FAMILY. Lower, in his "J'amily Siinianies," derives this name from the Anglo- Saxon "hnghbert," "disposed to joy and gladness.'' It is frequently spelled "Hubbert" in the early records in this country. They seem to have been of Welsh origin. Thomas Hubbard (XV 1), who was the einigrant, settled in Tre- dyffrin township, within the limits of the Welsh tract. The township's name is derived from "Tre" or '"tref," "to\vn or township," and "Dyffrin," "the wide cultivated valley," and means "the township in the wide cultivated valley." It is sometimes called in the old deeds "Valley town." GENERATION XV. DBX JO. :v 1 2 MEMBER OF FAMILY. CONSORT. BIRTH. MARRIAGE. DEATH. RBSIDBNCB. Thomas Hubbard. Mark Hubbert. Sidney. Alice. 1674. about 1712. Feb. 26. 1764. Feb. 1739. Tredyffiin, Chester Co. Willistown, Chester Co Thomas Hubbert and Hark Hubbert, his br Margaret H. Smith. about 1720. 3 Thomas Smith. about 1722. 4 Alice Smith. 5 Elizabeth Smith. The Children of John Frazer (XV 5) and Mart Smith (XV 1). 6 Persifor Frazer. Marv Worrall Taylor. Aug. 9, 173G. Oct. 2, 1766. Apr. 24, 1792. Thornbury, Del. Co., Pa. 1 Robert Frazer. July 21. 1738. June, 1763. S John Frazer. Oct. 9, 1740. Aus. 30, 1741. '.) John Frazer. July 31, 1742. Sept. 7, 1742. 10 Mary Frazer. Oct. 4, 1744. July 25, 174(1. 11 Elizabeth Frazer. July 9. 1747. Oct. 9, 1747. 12 Thomas Frazer. Sept. 23. 1748. Dec. 12, 1749. 13 Sarah Frazer. I. Jacob Vernon. II. Samuel Hewes. Oct. 18, 1750. about 1772. about 1790. June 17, 1825. Ashton Twp., Del. Co., Pa. 14 Marv Frazer. May 30, 17.53. Oct. S, 17.54. 15 Anne Frazer. Joshua Vernon. Sept. 4. 1755. June, 1778. Aug. IS, 1825. Of the members of the family of Elizabeth Frazer and Alexander Smith we have only an occasional glimpse, mostly in the letters of Margaret II. Smith (X\'I 2). Their lives were spent almost wholly in Ireland. The sketch which follows of the life of Persifor Frazer (XVI 6) is made partly of what materials I conld gather from members of his family whom I have interviewed in the last thirty-five years, but it depends mainly on, and is very largely derived from, the two volumes of records of the family which have recently been printed by my cou.siu, his great-grandson, Persifor Frazer, who has gone to great pains to gather information on the subject, and who has the original sources of information in his possession. I have his permission to use his books, which I have done to correct my previous information, and I shall frequently quote from them without further noting the fact. Persifor Frazer was bom in the night between the 9th and 10th of August, 173G, in the farm house in Xewtown toA\niship, Chester county. Pa., whicli his father acquired shortly after reaching Philadelphia from Ireland, on the 2Sth of September, 1735. It is quite possible that he was put in possession of this farm by the Mr. Frazer to whom his father so gratefully alludes in his letter to his son John Frazer, dated June 3, 1737. 30 THE SMITH COLLATERAL ANCESTRY. It is probable that bis motber was not strong enougb to take charge of a farm hoiise in the new country, and her husband i-emoved bis family to Phila- delphia shortly after the birth of his first child, and spent the rest of his life there engaged in mercantile pursuits. Persifor doubtless was educated in Philadelphia, though no record to that effect has been found. His writings show him to have been an intelligent man, and bis descendants who knew him state that be was carefully taught and trained. He had an acquaintance with the French language, which doubtless aided him in the mercantile intercourse with the French West Indies in bis early life, and he had in 1777 a small library of French books. At an early age be was engaged in mercantile business with his father, in which bis brother Robert was also interested. The first record we have of Persifor Frazer's business is in September, 1758, when he gives Edward Physick, a merchant of Philadelphia, and the last Receiver General under the Penn proprietary intei'est, the father of Philip Syng Physick and Henry White Physick, a receipt for £1, Cs, 3d, for 1500 needles, and in May, 1759, when be receipts to Physick for 17s, 6d, for 1000 needles. We know nothing of the transaction, whether it was in con- nection with bis father's career in Philadelphia, or with his own in Chester county, but it w^as probably connected with bis father's business. He had, in his early life, but the date is unkno%\Ti, a store in the east end of the house owned by Richard Richison, who was the stepfather to my gi-andmother Mary Harris (born Campbell), at the intersection of the old Colonial road to Lancaster (called also the Swedesford road) wdth the road now known as Church Lane. His early mercantile education, bov.'ever, was probably wih his father, in whose business be seems to have been an active factor. Persifor Frazer was taxed in East Whiteland in 1754 and 1757. His connection with bis father and brother Robert in mercantile ventures to the Carolinas and the ^^'^est Indies were among his early undertakings ; but, on account of the death of bis brother and bis father, the wrecks of their vessels, and their unfortunate enterprises, the net result was not good. Persi- for evidently drew bis share of his father's property for some of his early ventures, as his father, though making his son Persifor an executor, leaves him but £5 in his will. He appears as interested in 1762 and 17C3 with his father, John Frazer, and his brother, Robert Frazer, in trading to the West Indies and the Southern Atlantic ports in regard to which some notes remain. They shipped beer to Charleston, South Carolina, in 1763. They made an adveiature to St. Kitts, West Indies, consigning flour to Samuel Osborne, at Barbados, West Indies, and receiving rum and molasses as a return cargo. After the loss of the brig "Ranger," with the death of Robert Frazer, in June, 1763, we have no further notes of any marine mercantile ventures and only a record in this connection of Persifor Frazer traveling overland to Charleston, South Carolina, in 1763 to settle their business and to collect the THE FEAZER FAMILY. 31 insurances. His brother Kobi-rt died about June, 176.3, his mother iu .July, 176-i, and his father in September, 17G5, so that the family was broken up, there being no one left at his father's death but himself, aged twenty-nine, his sister Sarah, aged fifteen, and his sister Anne, aged ten. John Frazer's estate was small. His executor, Persifor Frazer, accounts for it as being in all £823, lis, lid, from which £124, 16s, 9d, were deducted by him as ''desperate debts" due from seventy-one persons, probably mostly accounts of purchases at his store, and he finds after paying some debts and making some allowances that only £308, 18s, 9|d remains to be distributed. His two daughters were to bo supported out of this fund. We have no note of their whereabouts, but they nuist have removed at some time subsequent to their father's death to Chester county, where we find that Sarah married about 1772 and Anne married about 1778. They and Persifor probably lived together for a time in Philadelphia, where Frazer's home reuuiined till about 1766. October 19, 1767, in one of the papers regarding his closing out his interest in Deep Creek furnace and Nanticoke forge, he speaks of himself as "late of Philadelphia, merchant, but now of Ashton to-\vnship, Chester county." About the year 1762 Persifor Frazer became interested in the business of Jonathan Vaughan and Company, in Delaware. It had been known for some years that there were workable iron ores near Concord, in Delaware, but the development of iron works at that point was delayed because the boundary line between Delaware and Maryland had not yet been determined ; and the uncertainty of titles in the lower part of Sussex county, which was then claimed by both Delaware and Maryland, prevented capitalists from investing money in ore lands or in iron woi'ks. The boundary line was first run between the two provinces in 1763, and the Deep Creek Iron Works, located in Nanticoke hundred on Deep Creek, a tributary of the Nanticoke river, about three miles from the present town of Concord, were commenced about that time, perhaps in 1762. The company was composed of Jonathan Vaughan, who had originally Iseen of Uwchlan, Chester county, Pa., but who on becoming connected with the Deep Creek enteii:)rise removed to Worcester county, Maryland, and styles himself as iron master; William Doiiglass, of Dorset county, Maryland, iron master; Persifor Frazer, of Thornbury township, Pennsylvania, farmer; and David McMurtrie, merchant, of Philadelphia. These were their occTipations and their residences in 1770 when their connection with the Deep Creek enter- prise was being terminated, though Persifor Frazer was, in 1762, doubtless liv- ing in Philadelphia. It is likely that -John Frazer and David McMurtrie went into the enterprise, the former as a merchant, and the latter as a capitalist. They were friends before they made this venture, as Robert Frazer sent his regards to McMurtrie and his family in a letter to his brother Persifor, dated January 5, 1763. The money used in the company seems to have been largely McMurtrie's, while Frazer is active as the merchant. These parties applied 3i^ THE SMITH COLLATERAL ANCESTEY. to the aiitliorities of Pennsylvania, Avhicli then controlled the property, for 5,000 acres of land containing timber suitable for making iron. This was granted and John Lnkens, Surveyor General, was directed to survey it. The company probably found that it was short of resources, and ]\Iay 18, 1764, it was reorganized with the addition of some new members for the pur- pose of "enlarging, completing and finishing Deep Creek Furnace and Nanti- coke Forge." The latter enterprise was about three miles west of the furnace at a place known as Middleford, Maryland. Persifor Frazcr owned one-sixth interest in this enterprise and was the merchant. He seems to have had charge of the finances and of the company's store. The country was too young and capital too scarce to carry on the work successfully, and the partners in the company soon resolved to separate their -interests. ]\Iuch time and trouble were taken to agree on the terms of settle- ment, and an agreement was made in October, 1707, by which Persifor Frazer retired from Deep Creek ownership. There are many documents relating to this settlement among Persifor Frazer's papers, and he was not finally quit of his obligations for many years, tlie last note of his transactions with McMur- trie being in September, 1790 ; and one of the family traditions speaks of his contemplating a visit to Deep Creek at the time of his death in April, 1792. The iroii works themselves were largely developed, and continued to pro- duce the brand of "Old ^leadow" iron till the outbreak of the Revolutionary AVar, when, Chesapeake Bay being blockaded, the iron industry ceased. After the Revolution the grist and saw mills and the stores connected with the enterjirises w^ere kept in operation, but the iron business was not resumed. The estate was divided in 1802. After Persifor Frazer's connection with the Deep Creek operations closed he confined his interest to the Sarum Iron Works, Avhich had belonged to Dr. John Taylor, who was the grandfather of Frazer's wife, Mary Worrall Taylor. He died in 1756 and his son John Taylor, who was interested in his farms, and did not appear to care for the iron business, which was probably not very profitable, did not wish to take the management of Sarum. In the division of Dr. John Taylor's estate Sarum was put under the control for her life of his widow, Elizabeth Taylor, who leased it to the man- ager, her friend Daniel Calvert. Not having the means necessary to carry on the enterj^rise, Calvert sought the help of Jonathan Vaughan and Dr. Samuel Kennedy. Of Jonathan Vaughan some account is given in the sketch of the Yaughan family. Dr. Kennedy lived at what was afterward the "Steamboat Inn," on the Philadel- phia and Columbia tiirnpike, where my gTandfather, Joseph Smith, lived from 1824 to 1840. He was afterward the Surgeon of the Fourth Battalion of the Pennsylvania line, and was later the senior surgeon of a military hospital, and was tlie friend of Persifor Frazer. October 4, 1760, Vaughan and Kennedy made an agreement with Dennis Whelen, of Uwchlan. Vaiighan sold to Whelen his Lionville property Sep- THE FRAZER FAMILY. 33 tembcr 21, 1761, to raise money apparently for the Sarum venture, and Vaiighan and Kennedy in the agreement of October, 1700, above named, bound themselves to purchase and manage Sarum Forge. Jonathan Vaughan contracted with George Pearce, of Thornbury, that Pearce should cut from his own plantation 400 coi'ds of wood, suitable for making charcoal, for 2s, 6d, per cord, to be delivered April 1, 1761. Just how Persifor Frazer became interested in Sarum does not clearly appear, but his mercantile education fitted him for the accounting and the mercantile part of the company's business, and it was probably the work that the handsome fellow did there that won the heart of Mary Worrall Taylor and led to their marriage October 2, 1760. As Frazer was the merchant of the Deep Creek enterprise it is probable that he had at first that position in regard to Sarum also, and we may fancy that his attachment to Mary Worrall Taylor, who had a good deal of property in lands, and who by the death of her father in 1761 became an orphan, led Frazer to close his connection with Deep Creek and become especially inter- ested in the management of Sarum. He made these changes of interest in the fall of 1767, and then took up his permanent residence at Thornbury, where his wife's farms were. At a later date he seems to have had the cutii-e management of the Sarum iron works. His marriage to Mary Worrall Taylor was objected to apparently by both families ; by the Frazers, as is shown in the letter of Samuel Osbonie, the Frazer correspondent at Bai'bados, West Indies, of Xovember 14, 1769, in which he asks him "if his wife is the lady of whom his father disapproved ;" and by Mary Taylor's family, probably because Frazer was a Presbyterian, there being at that time a strong feeling of disapproval among Friends of the marriage of their young people with the later comers of another faith, who were pushing their way so vigorously into a colony which Friends had founded, and which they hoped was to remain their special preserve, and the nursery of their faith. The records of their meetings about this time are full of cases of people, who, having married out of meeting came back and said they were sorry for having committed a breach of discipline. The religions objection may have been the cause of the opposition to the marriage on the part of the Frazer family also. Both Friends and Presby- terians having been bitterly persecuted for their faith in the British Isles were now enjoying full liberty to believe and practice what pleased them, and there are many evidences in the records of the time of bitterness of feeling between them. The preachers of both faiths had gi'eat influence with their congrega- tions in those days, and it was doubtless very much frowned on by them that their communicants should marry out of their own folds. It was held to Ix; a dangerous doctrine that any one should so far depart from the rigid rules laid down in their churches as to marry out of meeting to please themselves. It has taken several generations for each to learn to recognize the other as Christiana. 34 THE SMITH COLLATERAL AXCESTKT. Persifor Frazer's wife was aftenvard much pressed to make an acknowl- edgment of her error in her marriage, but trhe would go no further than that "she was quite ready to say that she was very sorry to have wounded the feelings of Friends, but nobody should ever hear her say that she was sorry she had married Persifor Frazer." They were married in the ]\Iiddleto\\Ti Presbyterian Church by Rev. John Ewing, pastor of the First Presbyterian Church of Philadelphia, of which church the family of John Frazer were members, as many of their descendants continued to be for a centxiry. Dr. John Ewing was Provost of the University of the State of Pennsylvania from 1780 to 1791, and Provost of the University of Pennsylvania from 1791 to 1S02, and was in 178-1 Chief of a Commission to extend Mason's and Dixon's line to the Ohio river. The marriage is noted on the records of the church in Philadelphia, but the family tradition that the ceremony took place at ]\riddletoAvn is doubtless correct, that church being within two miles of the bride's home. It is remembered that when the young couple appeared in the church the popular verdict pronounced them the hand- somest couple ever seen there. It is not easy to follow the changing ownerships of the iron properties in which Persifor Frazer was interested by means of the remaining notes of the various negotiations in regard to them. May 16, 1770, an agTcement was made to settle the ownership of Sarum forge between the parties who owned Deep Creek furnace, who were Jonathan Va\ighan, William Douglass, Persifor Frazer and David !MeiIurtrie. It does not appear how the others above named became interested in Sarum forge, nor do we understand how Calvert regained possession of the property, but on March 21, 1770, he rented to James Thomson and Persifor Frazer, who were brothers-in-law, having married sisters who were John Tay- lor's (XV 3) daughters, a two-thirds interest in the saAV-mill, grist mill, iron forge and other messuages and buildings devised to Calvert by Elizabeth Taylor. Thomson and Frazer were to keep the mill in repair and to pay as rent £23, 6s, 8d, annually. May 21, 1771, John Potts, of Whitemarsh township, Philadelphia, and James Thomson and Persifor Frazer having been vested in fee of the whole of this property (Potts holding eight-twelfths, Thomson five-twenty-fourths, and Frazer three-twenty-fourths), agreed to pay Daniel Calvert £76 rent annually and to put the works in order and operate them. The property to be managed in the interest of Elizabeth Taylor. This plan worked well for a time. August 16, 1776, Mrs. Frazer writes to her husband, then at Ticon- deroga, that Air. Potts has brought sheet-iron to gTeat perfection at his mill, that the old mill has been pulled down and made larger and in general the iron trade seemed prosperous. Persifor Frazer's business undertakings do not seem to have been profit- able thus far. The ventures of the family to the Carolinas and the West Indies turned OTit badly. Frazer became involved in debt in the Deep Creek THE FRAZER FA-MTT.Y. 35 enterprises and appears for several years to liave been engaged in trying to get his indebtedness adjusted. Samuel Osborne, John Frazcr's old correspondent, writes to Persifor from Barbados, Xovembcr 1-i, 1769, asking him how he "met with these great losses," and John Pierce, May 6, 1771, reproaches him with "living in some measure upon the labors of others." He rescued himself from debt finally, but he seems to have had hard times in his early life. It was a period when ventures upon insufficient capital were usual and when it was hard to get an industry working permanently success- fiilly. It can only be said for Frazer that he was one of the many persons who in those days were working to the best of their ability to get the industries of the country established on a paying basis. John Taylor, son of Dr. John Taylor, died in 1701, and John Pierce was appointed to administer his estate August 14, 1762. He married his widow, who had been Sarah Worrall, about 176:5, and ajiparently went to live at her house. Persifor Frazer came to live with them after his marriage to Sarah Taylor's daughter, ilary Worrall Taylor, in October, 1766 (John Tay- lor's estate not having been yet divided), and continued thei-e imtil after the birth of his first child, who was born Jamiary, 1769. Contention arose upon some jioint and there are a number of angry letters on the p)art of John Pierce to Persifor Frazer and several accounts were pre- sented. The first account, in which Pierce maintains that Frazer is indebted to him, begins December 6, 1766, two months after Persifor's marriage. John Taylor's property was being divided and this apparently was partly the cause of the contention. February 11, 1768, Persifor Frazer buys of Joshua Bean, of Whiteland, a house and farm of 48 acres, 130 perches, in East Whiteland, at the inter- section of the old Colonial road with the road leading from the Steamboat Inn to the Rod Lion, where the White House store was kept till about 100 years later. The consideration named is £239, to be paid May 1, 1769. June 29, 1769, Persifor Frazer contracts with Thomas Green, carpenter, to build him a frame barn 45 x 20 feet before July 10, and to build a dwelling house 21 X 28 feet after harvest. December 9, 1709, seems to have been the tiuie at which Frazer removed his household, though it was apparently to some other house belonging to John Taylor's estate in Thornbury, perhaps the one that Thomas Green built, and not to the Whiteland house bought of Joshua Beau that he removed. The controversy with John Pierce was acute for a year or two. Mrs. Pierce left John Pierce's house probably in January, 1769, and lived thereafter till her death in 1780 largely with her daughter Mrs. Frazer, though Mrs. Frazer's daughter Sarah represents her as living with John Pierce at the time of the Battle of the l^randywine in September, 1777. She had left him again in Augiist, 1775, and seems to have had on the whole an unquiet time with him. John Pierce seems to have taken the tory side in the Revolution. June 36 THE SMITH COLLATEKAL ANCESTEY. 7, 1771), Thomas Cheyney, Esq., deputed Hugh Eeed, Jacob Vernon and Persi- for Frazer to call upon live persons, of whom John Pierce was one, "to see if they have not grain enough to spare to feed the poor." This course was taken with a number of persons whose loyalty was doubted during the Revolu- tionary War. When the trouble with Pierce subsided Persifor Frazer seems to have lived happily at home for several years. The storm blew over. Friends of those days \\ho would not fight, did not consider themselves debarred from the privilege of making themselves dis- agreeable and using harsh words, but Sarah Pierce continued to live at times with her daughter, and John Pierce contented himself as he best could, though occasionally growling as late as August, 1775. Other than this family jar, nothing seems to have marred the happiness of the Frazer home. Four children came to it before they celebrated the tenth anniversary of their wedding day, and Mrs. Frazer in after years, when the country's troubles took her husband so much away from home, looked back with fond regret to those early peaceful days. It can be fairly said for Persifor Frazer not only that he had a charm- ing and noble wife, but that he must himself have had much attractiveness to have won and kept such devoted love as she gave him. Such expressions of a warm and heartfelt though perfectly dignified and sane affection as constantly occur in her letters to him are rare in the formal correspondence of the days in which they lived, and throw a pleasing halo over their busy and earnest lives. In the years that immediately followed 1771 Persifor Frazer seems to have been mostly occupied with farming euterj^rises and with a certain unde- fined interest in the mills and the iron works that originally belonged to Dr. John Taylor's estate. We have, however, some records of other transactions of this time. John Reed, gentleman, makes a contract May 16, 1772, witli James Smither, engraver, both being of Philadeljihia, that Sraither shall engrave a map of the City and Liberties of Philadelphia from original suiwej's made by Thomas Holmes, Surveyor General of the province of Pennsylvania, and others, which map shall have the measurement 63 x 29 inches. Price to be paid to Smither £100 by January 25, 1773. This contract John Reed assigTicd Sep- tember 23, 1772, to Persifor Frazer. Accompanying this is a list of sub- scribers, 295 in all, who promise to pay to John Reed forty shillings upon deliv- ery of the work. Anthony Wayne, Persifor Frazer, Isaac Taylor and Caleb Parry are among the subscribers. I do not know that tliis map was ever pro- duced. Subscriptions to the amount of £590 should have been sufficient to ensure the publication, unless James Smither died before its completion. May 21, 1768, Persifor Carr, Sergeant in the 4St]i Regiment (of British troops), Avrites from New York, entreating Persifor Frazer to give him an account of his sister. He asks Frazer to advise her of Carr's good health. THE FRAZER FAJIILY. 37 This evideutlj is the Persifor Carr of whom the elder Persifor Frazer of Gen- eratiou XIV writes to his son, John Frazer, June 3, 1737, in which he calls Carr "a very bad boy." He was an acquaintance, possibly a relative of the family, but nothing more is known of him. Persifor Frazer, David McMurtrie and two others, who do not otherwise appear in this history, were interested in 1762 in acquiring lands on the Juniata river. Frazer seems to have retained some interests in the middle or western part of Pennsylvania throughout his life. Lands which were cheap, being unsettled, were a favorite subject of speculation in that period of the State's development. Persifor Frazer's connection with public affairs, which was to continue throughout his life, began before his marriage, for we find it of record that in January, 1765, shortly before the death of his father, before he got out of touch with aifairs in Philadelphia, he was appointed a delegate to a provincial convention, among whose acts was the adoption of a resolution recommending the passage of a law which should prohibit the importation of slaves into the provinces. When, after the French and Indian War of 1757-1763, England thought that her colonies should bear part of the burden which the war had imposed upon her, and for that purpose proposed to tax them, the merchants of Phila- delphia adopted a set of Non-Importation Kesolutions October 25, 1765. On the original co'pj of these resolutions, which was in Independence Hall in 1877, and probably is there still, Persifor Frazer's name appears as one of the sign- ing merchants. We have no further note of the part he took in the affairs of the province in the next eight years. Family tradition and official documents show him engaged in an extensive business at the iron \vorks of Sarum, while the farms owned by his wife and himself in Thornbury, where he lived, near Goshen meeting house, and at Do\vningtown, all in Chester county, must have engaged no small share of his time and thought. At Thornbury, during this time, much additional land was brought under cultivation, and tlie homestead, a substantial stone hoiise, which is still stand- ing, was built. He was doubtless ranked in those happy days as a fortunate and prosperous citizen. When, in 1774, the first Continental Congress, resenting the pressure which England was putting on the colonies in the matter of taxation, resolved that no more English goods should be imported, nor should any exportations be made to England after December, 1776, unless the obnoxious taxation laws should be repealed before that date, the Congress being without means to enforce its resolutions, popular meetings were held everywhere to ratify and carry into execution the recommendation they had made. The people of Chester county met at the Chester Court house December 20, 1774, and named a committee of sixty-nine persons to act for the county in this matter. Of this committee Persifor Frazer was a member. This com- 38 THE SMITH COLLATEEAL ANCESTET. mittee was authorized — "to be and contiune from this time until the month after the rising of the next Continental CongTess with full power to transact such business and enter into such associations as to thc-ni shall appear exfKi'dicnt." The committee advised that a Provisional Convention should be called to take into consideration — "the present unhappy situation of public affairs" — and such a convention assembled in Philadelphia January 23, 1775. In this convention Chester coimty was represented by ten members, of whom Persifor Frazer again was one. The convention took action looking to the prohibition of the importation of slaves into the pro^-ince, slavery being opposed in their view to the idea of a free Constitutional Government. The committee for Chester county met on March 20, and appointed a sub-committee of seven to draft a petition to the General Assembly with regard to the manumission of slaves. Of this sub-committee also Persifor Frazer was a member. The committee continued to meet frequently as the affairs of the country grew more disturbed. On the 22d of !May they unanimously recommended — "in order to avert the evils and calamities which threaten our devoted country that the following association be entered into by the good people of this county : We, the subscribers, do most solemnly resolve, promise and engage under the sacred ties of honor, virtue and love to our country that we will use our utmost endeavors to learn the military exercise and promote harmony and unanimity in our respective companies, that we will strictly adhere to the rules of decency during duty, that we will pay a due regard to our officers, that we will, when called upon, support, with our utmost abHities, the civil magistrate in the execution of the laws for the good of our country, and that we will, at all times, be in readiness to defend the lives, liberties and properties of ourselves and fellow-countrymen against all attempts to deprive us of them." The con^mittee, v>'hich became known as the "Committee of Safety," was reappointed by the Pennsylvania Assembly October 19, 1775. November 25, 1775, the Assembly adopted rules to perfect the organization for the several counties, and December 2C the committee reorganized in conformity with the suggestions of the Legislature, and appointed eight persons, of whom Persifor Frazer was one, — "to represent the county if occasion be in Pro^^sional Con- vention during the ensuing year." The work which this committee did, and the course of events in Xew Eng- land where the oppression of the British Government was more decided and bore earlier fruit, proved to the Peunsylvanians who were interested in the welfare of their country that an armed struggle was near, and they began to prepare for it. The provincial authorities at this time were very active in pushing for- ward military organizations, as General Washington kept urging Congress to fill his army, then besieging Boston, with fresh men to take the place of such of his troops as were ncaring the end of the period for which they had enlisted. December 9, 1775, Congress directed that four battalions should be raised THE FRAZER FAMILY. 39 in Pennsylvania, and December 15 asked the Committee of Safety to recom- mend proper persons as officers. January 5, 1776, the committee having pre- viously recommended as officers of the Fourth Battalion, Anthony Wayne as Colonel, Francis Johnston as Lieutenant-Colonel, and Nicholas Hausseger, of Lancaster county, as Major, proceeded to name eight captains for the several companies. Persifor Frazer was named first, and on the list of thirty-one cap- tains then appointed he stood eighth. He was assigned to the comuaand of the first C(impany of the Fourth Battalion, which had eighty-six ])rivates on the roll and numbered in all 104 persons. The battalion rendezvoused at Chester, Delaware county, on February 9, 177G, and on February 17 Colonel Wayne rejiorted that he had in camp five hundred and sixty men and officers, and that the officers who were absent on recruiting service had secured sufficient recruits, as he believed, to make the battalion complete. Three companies of the Fourth Battalion had reported at Xew York under Major Hausseger on January 28. Colonel Wayne took com- mand April 26, and despatched Major Hausseger to Philadelphia to bring up the remaining companies, one of which was Captain Frazer's. They marched for ISTew York May 16, 1776, arriving in Xew York Saturday morning, May 18, and crossed over to Long Island — "f miles distant from New York" — Sunday morning, J\Lay 19. From that date till June 29 he was serving in or connnanding detach- ments which scoured the island to arrest tories, and preparing to resist the expected attack by the British troops. As a number of the soldiers were not fiilly armed, they were drafted off to reinforce the Northern Army, and took boat for Albany June 29, arriving there July 2. They left Albany for Lake George Thursday, July i, where they arrived on Sunday, Jiily 7, marching on foot sixty out of the seventy miles. They were encamped about Fort Ticonderoga, where they arrived July 10, until December. During Persifor Frazer's stay about Ticonderoga he was appointed Major by General Gates September 4, 1776, Nicholas Hausseger, who had held that position, having been promoted to the Colonelcy of a German regiment. It was supposed at first that these troops were to be sent to reinforce Arnold in his attack on Quebec, but that movement having failed, they were not all sent beyond Ticonderoga. Colonel Wayne went north with part of his battalion before Frazer went north, but soon returned. The whole battalion met for the first time at Ticonderoga in July. Part of them had been in the liattle of Three Rivers. Dr. Kennedy was the surgeon with these troops, and the correspondence between Captain Frazer and his wife passed largely through his hands. j\Ir. David Jones was the chaplain. Frazer gives a very poor account of the New England troops, who lie says are largely composed of inefficient and unsuitable material, and ho expresses himself strongly in condemnation of them. 40 TIIK SJIITir COLLATERAL ANCESTRY. He sjjeaks largely of the army's work at and about Ticonderoga. He says that that place was made quite strong by repairing the old defenses, that CroA\-n Point would have required too mueh work done to make it defensible, and that when it was attacked on the 13th of October the Americans withdrew to Ticonderoga. The British finding them strongly posted there did not attack Ticonderoga and withdrew from Cro\vn Point to Canada November 2. After they left the position at Ticonderoga it was put in order for the winter. General Gates, of whose condiTct Captain Frazer always speaks highly, re- turned to Philadelphia, and Colonel Wayne was left in command. He says that Wayne did the engineering work to put the old fort in good repair, and that his services were very highly thought of. Captain Prazer was sent home with despatches December i, 1771!. There are many letters of this time between Captain Frazer and his wife, though the irregularity of the mails and the delays in receiving correspondence seemed to him unaccountable. The letters from home are largely taken up with domestic details about the farm, the children and the neighbors, and with prayers for his safe keeping and his speedy return. There are a good many details as to the attitude of the community on the questions of the day, the Independence from Great Britain which had just been proclaimed, etc. Mrs. Frazer says, Augiist 27, 1770, "the people ai-e pretty well reconciled to Inde- pendence, but fear the heavy taxes that are to come, but, above all, they fear the New Englanders should the Americans gain the day." He was not without honor in his own country. His wife writes him in October, 1776 — "No person can Ix" in greater esteem than you are both with Whig and Tory. Your letters ai'e often called for to decide disputes." The American troops were partly withdrawn from Ticonderoga in the autumn and sent to assist Washington, who was withdrawing his force across the Jerseys to defend Philadelphia. The Fourth Battalion commenced to move in the spring of 1777, Greneral Wayne accompanying the troops. Frazer was assigned to recruiting service in Chester county. He was given $1,000 for that service Februaiy 6, 1777, and July 2, 1777, he accounts to Michael Kemmel, Paymaster of the Fifth Battalion, for $3,067 which he had spent in the duty. He was appointed Lieutenant-Colonel of the Fifth Battalion March 12, 1777, Colonel Francis Johnston being in command. When the appointment was confirmed by Congress, then sitting at York, Pa., November 12, 1777, it was made to date from October 1, 1776. Colonel Johnston set out for the Jerseys from Chester in the beginning of April, 1777, leaving Lieutenant- Colonel Frazer in command at Chester. Frazer moved to Mount Pleasant, near Bound Brook, N. J., arriving there early in June. He found General Wayne there, and reports him in excellent health. At the end of June the American army advanced and the British retreated by New Brunswick to Staten Island. In the beginning of June our army was at Morristown, N. J., having moved there on the rumor that the British were going up the Hudson river to make THE FKAZEK FAMILY. 41 a junction with Burgoyno. They moved a little later to the Clove, fourteen miles from West Point, as the British army was evidently preparing for some movement, having gathered their forces in New York. At the next date of his writing the army had been withdrawn from this advanced position, and on July 29 they were at Howell's Ferry, on the Delaware river, above Trenton, having marched sixteen regiments 90 miles in four days, the British having taken ship and sailed southward. They moved slowly down southward, having heard August 22 that Howe's fleet had entered Chesapeake Bay, and on Sep- tember i the army was near Wilmington, Delaware. They were making them- selves ready for an engagement, and on August 29 they sent three wagons loaded with chests from their advaneeeen previously signed at Germantown. Thus we remained till the 7th of October, when the Commissioner of Prisoners (one Dumont) informed us that he had orders to take us to the State House, where we were to be kept in close confinement. The reason given for this was that, there being so large a number of prisoners, it might be prejudicial to their interests to have us at liberty. Many of us were six days without hav- ing any provisions sent to us, and for many weeks after our allowance did not exceed from four to six ounces of salt pork and ab<:iut half a pound of ordinary biscuit per day. "Had it not been for the supplies sent by the citizens we must have per- ished. We remonstrated, but were told that we had the same allowance as their own troops when on board transports. We were told to purchase what we had need of in the City. Upon ]\[r. Ferguson being appointed Commis- THE FKAZER FAMILY. 45 sary, oiir allowance was lioiipstlj dealt out for a considerable time, but by inat- tention it is now far short of what it should be. "At the first of our confinement our acquaintance were sufltered to visit us, but that and every other privilege was, under various pretexts, withheld from us except in some instances where particular officers of more humanity than the rest had the guard. "And it was not until they began to insult and restrain the prisoners that any attempted to escape. Sentries were placed in each of the rooms, who often picked our pockets and stole our clothes while we slept. Letters sent to lis were withheld, and often considerable sums of money. "The persons who brought our victuals were treated with abusive language and women with indecent behavior, and kept waiting at the outside door for a long time in bad weather. "This treatment, we have reason to suppose, was to prevent citizens from supplying the wants of the prisoners. "The soldiers also stole food and clothing they were entinisted with to deliver. "We were refused the liberty of going from one room to another. The windows were nailed down, though the smoke from a stove below stairs in the guard room, owing to the badness of the chimneys, has, for many days, been almost intolerable. "There were forty of us in the two upper rooms in the State House, which served for every purpose of kitchen and bedchamber. We were often insulted both by officers and soldiers. A negro, who was appointed to attend to our room, being ordered by Lieutenant Lefevre to sweep it, answered with very abusive language. Lefevre attempted to strike him, when the fellow swore he would run his bayonet through him. On Lefevre complaining to a subaltern officer of the Guard he was refused redress, and told that the negro was as good as he was. Application was made to the Captain of the Guard to as little purpose. "About the latter part of December we were informed that we were about to be removed to the new gaol (at Third and Arch streets). As we had been told by the physician who attended the prisoners that a very malignant fever raged among thom, and as we frequently saw six or eight bodies taken out to be buried in a day, we thought it our duty to complain to General Howe of this inhuman order. We were answered that the General intended by our removal to put us in a more comfortable sitiiation, and that we might be more agreeably accommodated, that he would order the physician to examine the state of the gaol and report thereon. "The doctor reported that no infectious disorder existed there, and con- seqtiently we were desired to hold ourselves in readiness for removal, with promises that the rooms allotted to us should be cleansed in the best manner, and everything made as agreeable to us as possible, which was neglected in almost every particular. One hundi-ed and eighty of the private soldiers were 46 THE SMITH COLLATEEAL ANCESTItT. sick -nben we wore sent to this place, which, together with the causes, occasioned such a ." The narrative, which ends abruptly, was ])rol)alily written as justification for Colonel Frazer's escape from prison. Whether the statement was never finished, or whether this is an imperfect draft of it, is not known. He held and maintained successfully before a Court of Inquiry that the British admin- istration, in confining in a jail oflicers who should not have been subjected to such an indignity, and in depriving them of privileges to which they were entitled, had itself violated the terms of the pai'ole, and had thereby absolved the imprisoned ofiicers from its obligations. He had addressed a communication, relative to the sufferings of the pris- oners in Philadelphia, and to the subject of exchanges, to General Washington on the 9th of October, which, with some of the mouldy bread served to the soldiers, was carried by his wife to headquarters at White Marsh, eliciting a reply from "Washington on the 4th of November, in which he speaks of the efforts he is making to bring about exchanges on a proper basis, and deplores the distress of the prisoners. His gi-anddaughter, E. "W. Smith, says that during the winter of 1777-S, jail fever broke out among the American prisoners, and the prisoners were taken out of the jail and lodged in different parts of the City. Colonel Frazer, Major Harper and Colonel Hannum, who was a neighbor, and a friend of the other two, a civilian, a zealous whig, a relative of 'Squire Cheyney, who lived in West Bradford township, where the town of Marshallton now is, were lodged at the White Swan tavern, on Third street above Market street. Notwithstanding they had given their parole, the doors of their sitting-room and bedrooms were kept locked, their windows were barred, and a guard was placed over them. They considered that these restrictions were indefensible by military law, and felt themselves therefore released fi'om their parole, and at liberty to escape if they could. On St. Patrick's Day, March 17, 177S, when the Guard who were Irishmen got patriotically drunk, they escaped from their rooms, and clambering over a stone wall in the rear of the house went, some to the house of a Mr. Frazer, who was a distant rela- tive of Colonel Frazer, living in Front street near Pine street, and others to the house of Mr. Blackstone, who lived in the same neighborhood. Vigorous efforts were made to find the escaped prisoners ; all the avenues leading from the City were closely watched, and many of the houses searched. On one occasion when some of the party were hidden in a deep closet behind shelves, on which china was so arranged as to conceal them, the house was entered and the closet searched without discovering the fugitives. Their escape was aided by the indiscretion of some yoimg British officers, who, calling on a lady of their acquaintance immediately after the jail delivery, told them of it, which news they received with apparent surprise. The officers said that, while the prisoners had disappeared for the moment, they could not get out of the City, and ])roceeded to speak of the plans for their recapture. THE FRAZER FAMILY. 47 Being encouraged, they talked freely, and ai? the escaped ])rif;oners knew what traps were set for them, they took good care not to spring them. They remained in the City several days till the ardor of the chase had somcwliat abated, when 'Slv. Tilackstone procured a boat on which they crossed the Delaware, passing through the British fleet, and landed in Xcw Jersey, and in a short time rejoined the army. The British naturally thought that the officers had broken their parole, and General Howe demanded their return from General Washing-ton, but on investigation of the circtimstances, the Court of Incpury held that they were justified, and the demand was withdrawn. The prisoners, while doubtless suffering many inconveniences, some priva- tions and some annoyances, do not seem on the whole to have been badly treated. Mrs. Frazer having credentials from General Washington was allowed several times to see her husband, and Mrs. Gibbons, who was a sister to Colonel Hannum, and a neighbor of ilrs. Frazer, sometimes accompanied her. They were allowed sometimes to supply them and their friends with food and other necessaries, and though those, at times, failed to reach their proper destination, they did much to ameliorate their condition. After his escape he rejoined the American army and was at Valley Forge for a time, his name being signed Jime 4, 1778, as Lieutenant-Colonel, Fifth Pennsylvania Regiment, to an address from the officers to the Supreme Execu- tive Council on the want of clothing for their troops. He left Valley Forge June IGth, and joined the army in Xew Jersey. His command took part in the operations in New Jersey and Xew York in the summer of 177.'^, and he is said to have commanded his regiment at the battle of j\Ionmonth Court House, June 28, 1778, Colonel Johnston being absent from sickness, Avhich frequently disabled him. It is the family tradi- tion that during part of that action he was the brigade commander. Colonel Johnston was invalided for a considerable time after the battle. His wife, on the itth of September, 1778, addresses a letter to him in General Wayne's brigade at White Plains, X. Y., written in some distress, as she has had no news of him since the I7th of August, when he was ill, and the children since then have had the whoo]iing-cougli badly. Her next letter, written at several dates from Scptendjer 28 to October 4, is written under still greater pressure. She has been bitterly disajipointed in her expectation of his return home. She has been very ill herself, and her son Persifor is still sick. There had been much dissatisfaction in the army on account of the action of Congress in promoting junior officers over the heads of those who had suf- fered imprisonment, who held that their sacrifices entitled them to continue to hold their relative rank. It was, perhajis, in recog-nition of this claim, that Congress had confirmed Colonel Frazer as Lieiitenant-Colonel of the Fifth Pennsylvania Begiment, but for some reason he was not wholly satisfied. He and his wife had many pecuniary sacrifices for the army, had sold a con- 48 THE SMITH collateral ancestry. siderable part of their property to aid it, and his affairs had fallen into some disorder at home, the iron works were not running satisfactorily, and his wife, whose health had not recovered from the trials and exertions of the fall and winter of 1777, which were responsible for the loss of the child who was born in IMay, 1778, who died before it reached the age of two months, and whose brave spirit was temporarily broken so that she was a good deal dispirited, was greatly mourning his absence. At this time the appointment of his junior, AValter Stewart, to take precedence of him seems to have made his cup over- flow, and he resigned from the service on the 2d of October, probably about the time he received the letter from his wife which has just been quoted. He had presented in a manly way his complaints to the committee who were appointed to settle these matters of precedence at "White Plains, N. Y., Sep- tember, 1778, and says that he thinks he is injured by Walter Stewart being piit before him, though he had recognized the propriety of their advancing Colonels Richard and William Butler. His resignation was accepted by the Comnuuider-iu-C"hief October 9. His descendants must regret that he yielded to his chagrin and to the pleadings of his wife for his return home to her, but they must admit that their ancestors were the best judge of the circumstances, and must respect their decisions. A number of officers who felt that Congress was not acting to them in good faith, or in accordance with the promises made to them, left the service about this time. On the occasion of the acceptance of Colonel Frazer's resignation, October 9, 1778, the following letter was addressed to him by his old commander, General Wayne : — "FRKDEEicKSBURci, October 13, 1778. "Dear Sir :— "It is with real concern that I part with a gentleman who has more than shared the dangers and fatigues of war with me ; but, as you must have maturely considered the matter previous to your resignation, I can only wish you a safe arrival, and a happy sight of your expecting friends. "At the same time I can't help expressing my regret at the loss of an officer, who, in every vicissitude of fortime and upon every occasion, has proved himself the friend of his country, the gentleman, and the soldier. "Adieu, my dear sir, and believe me, with every sentiment of esteem, "Yours most affectionately, "Lieutenant-Colonel Frazer." "Anthony Wayne." After his resignation from the army Colonel Frazer returned to bis farm at Tlionibury and took up again the work which had suffered from the absence of the master's hand for two years. He was appointed by Congress Clothier General July 15, 1779, biit declined it fi-om the inadequacy of the pay as comjiared ^vitll the necessary expenses, to say nothing about compensation. THE FKAZER FAMILY. 49 Joseph Keed, who was then the President of the Supreme Executive Council of Pennsylvania, addresses him October 15, 1779, and says that General Washington has made a requisition on the State for 1500 men whom Reed is personally to command, and as he wishes to have the assistance of some gentleman of knowledge and experience as Adjutant General he offers the posi- tion to Persifor Frazer, pointing out that it will give himself very great pleasure and perhaps lay a foundation for some office of greater value and importance to the State for Persifor Frazer. This position he did not accept. April 1, 1780, he was appointed by the Supreme Executive Council Com- missioner of Purchases for Chester county. April 5, 1780, he was appointed by Quarter Master General Nathaniel Greene as his deputy, but on April 29, 1780, he declined to accept the apiX)int- ment, thinking the pay inadequate and the service unattractive. His name is borne on the roll of General James Sullivan's exfjedition against the Seneca Indians from January 8 till October 22, 1779, as Deputy Commissary General, though there is no family tradition, no letters and no records to show that he accompanied Sullivan in that enterprise. May 25, 1782, the Supreme Executive Council of Pennsylvania appointed him Brigadier General of the militia of Pennsylvania, to rank second among the Brigadiers. This completes, I think, his military record. March 22, 1781, he was appointed County Treasurer, but was not re- appointed the next year, probably because he had then been elected to the Legislature. He was elected to represent Chester county in the Pennsylvania General Assembly October 15, 1781, and October 12, 1782, and again October 21, 1784. At this time, and until the adoption of a new constitution in 1790, the Legis- lature consisted of but one house. In an account which was made up June 1, 1784, the Comptroller General of the State of Pennsylvania admits that the State is indebted to Persifor Frazer, Lieutenant-Colonel, Fifth Regiment, in a smn which with interest amounted to £240, 5s., 8d., and March 15, 1786, the same authority reports that there is a balance due to him as Treasurer amounting with interest to £364, 16s., 5d. In September-October, 1786, he made a journey to Frankstown on the Little Jxmiata to take up lands so that the indebtedness of the State to him might be discharged, as the State had plenty of land but little money, and proposed to pay its creditors in imseatcd lands. Certain of the lands so taken up by Persifor Frazer were forfeited, as were so many of the lands located on Revolutionary warrants. His son and executor, Robert, allowed them to be sold for taxes, but parts of them were rescued by Jonathan Smith, who married Mary Anne Frazer, Persifor's daugh- ter, and thov went into the possession of .Tonathan Smith's daughter, Sarah Graves (Smith XVIII 52). 50 THE SMITH COLLATERAL AJfCESTRY. The inrst assessment of land to Persifor Frazer on the i-ecord was in "Whiteland in 1754. This was probably the house afterward owned by Richard Richison, who lived at an earlier date at the White Horse store in East Whiteland. At a later time he was possessed of 49| acres of land in East Whiteland township in the northwest angle formed by the roads leading to Lancaster (the old Colonial road) and to Yellow Springs. This tract Robert Frazer (XVII 2), who was his father's executor, sold to Joseph Smith who had mar- ried Robert's sister Mary (XVII G). It came to Persifor Frazer in 1768 in settlement of an account with Joshua Bean. In was unlawfully seized by William Noblit in April, 1777, and held for two years, which seizure was the cause of much litigation. It was in the possession of Colonel Frazer at the time of his death. In 178[), upon the division of Chester county, Colonel Frazer's home in Thornbury township being left in Delaware cotinty, he removed to Westtown to a farm which he purchased there from Josiah Haines, that he might remain in Chester county, as he wished to continue to hold his offices of Justice and Register of Wills and Recorder of Deeds. Later, the family tradition states that he removed to Goshen township, near SugartoAvn, where his last years were spent. He followed a fashion of the time among military men — George Wash- ington being the most illustrious example — in that he became a member of the Society of Free Masons. There is among his papers a call to a meeting at NomstowTi February 9, 1789. Persifor Frazer was one of the twelve charter members to whom, December 6, 1790, the Grand Lodge granted a chai-ter to hold a lodge at the sign of the "White Horse, in East Whiteland, or at any place Avithin five miles of it." It was Lodge No. 50, the first lodge chartered in Chester county. January, 1783, he was on a committee of the Pennsylvania Asseniblv to meet President Dickinson of Pennsylvania, and was appointed January 21 in the same year on a committee to make representation to Congress about certain seiztires of property. Persifor Frazer, John Hannum and Joseph Gardner reported to Congress that great abuses had been attempted in smuggling British goods from the ship "Amazon" under cover of a pass to bi-ing in clothing for British and German prisoners, and Congress resolved, January 24, to have the goods which had not been delivered to the prisoners examined. In 1785 Colonels John Bayard, Persifor Frazer and George Smith were appointed by the Supreme Executive Council, imder a resolution of the Gen- eral Assembly of April 8, 1785, Commissioners to Wyoming, where serious disturbances had been caused by the conflicting claims to jtirisdiction made by the States of Connecticut and Pennsylvania, each State claiming Wyoming as a jiart of its oaati territoiw. They left Philadelphia going by way of Bethlehem, and following prob- THE FBAZER FAMILY. 51 ably what is now the Wilkes-Barre and Easton turnpike, which for many years was the principal avenue of approach to AVyoming Valley from the southward, avoiding the deep defile of the Lehigli and crossing the streams near their heads. They started on April 23, but were dclaj-ed by high water in the streams, and by awaiting the return of an expressman whom they had sent from StroudsbTirg into the enemy's countiy. Notwithstanding they waited till the waters had fallen. Colonel Frazer's horse stumbled at the crossing of the Lehigh, and threw him into the stream, from which he emerged with a wetting and the loss of his hat. They reached Wyoming May 3. They had a con- ference with Colonel Butler and Mr. Meade, who represented the Connecticut claimants; the answers of these gentlemen to questions propounded by the Com- missioners appear to have been peacealde and satisfactory, but it does not appear from Colonel Frazer's diary what jjrogress they made toward a settlement. After remaining there aboiit a week they returned down the Susquehanna river, reaching home May 13. They report to His Excellency the President of the Supremo Executive Coiincil, but the report is incomplete. Colonel Frazer was treasurer of the party, whose expenses amounted to £36 10s. besides £18 l7s. which Colonel Bayard spent, mostly for the pur- chase of a horse. They seem to have advanced tlie money themselves, and May 18, 1785, the Comptroller General having approved their accounts, an order was drawn on the Treasurer for £57 to reimburse them. April 8, 1736, the General Assembly elected Persifor Frazer Register of Wills and Recorder of Deeds for the Coimty of Chester, to which officer he was appointed September 4, 1790. He held these offices till his death, April 24, 1792. He was appointed by the Supreme Executive Council June IG, 1786, a Justice of the Court of Common Pleas for the term of seven ^yeai-s, which term he did not live to complete. He was also Prothonotary of Chester coimty, probably from 1786 till the division of the county in 1789, that office being frequently held by the same person as held the offices of Register and Recorder. ilarch, 1786, David Rittenhouse advises him that tliey have employed Mr. Wilcocks to make a considerable quantity of paper for public use, and asks him to oversee the workmen on such terms as may be agreeable to him. The mill at which this work was to be done was on Chester crock close to the Sarum forge. The Wilcoxes still own it. In 1787 he appears as the owner of several tracts of land, each containing about 400 acres, on the waters of Hannan's river in Washington comity. These, or some of them, were tlie lauds wliich his granddaughter, Sarali Smith (XVITI 52), lived on near Kittanning. Probably the last official pa^^er in the collection wliich remains is a draft of a communication which he addressed to some person in authority, probablv to 52 THE SJIITH COLLATERAL ANCESTRY. Governor Mifflin, containing a number of suggestions as to changes desirable in the laws relating to the registering of wills and recording of deeds. It is of interest, as it refers to the bad state of his health, which for a considerable time had interfered with the discharge of the duties of his offices. It has no date nor address, and there is nothing to show that it was ever com- pleted and sent. Persifor Frazer had, in his eaidy life, been a man of gTcat endurance, though the record shows that he contracted ague while at Deep Creek funiace. After his Kevolutionary service, say from the age of forty years, he had, occasionally, attacks of sickness of whose nature there is no particular record. ISTo pennanent menace to his health was known to exist till May 13, 1788, when his youngest child, Elizabeth (XVII 9), a baby of two years old, was drowned by falling into a well six feet deep, whose water flowed over the top. Her father was several miles from home when word of the accident was brought to him. The day was a hot one. He made great haste to return, and the exertion, his grief at her loss and self-reproach at not having better secured the well brought on a heart attack from which he never fully recovered. In April, 1792, he had occasion to go South — one account says to the Virginia Springs for his health, which, perhaps, is the correct account, though another account says to Deep Creek furnace on business. His baggage was packed for the journey, as he intended to start the next day, when Sally Mattson, a cousin of his wife, a "public friend," or Quaker preacher, visited the house for the purpose of dissuading him from the journey. She read to him the thirty-first chapter of the book of Isaiah, which begins — "Wo to them that go down to Egypt for help," and warned him that the journey would not be for his health, would be attended with great inconvenience and privation of many comforts, and that it was deeply imijressed on her mind that he should not go. He and his wife were accustomed to think highly of "Cousin Sally's" counsel, and of her spiritual discernment, and the journey was given up. Soon after Colonel Frazer went to Philadelphia to consult Dr. Duffield, who was a relative, and died there within a few days. Dr. Duffield had written him April 7, 1792, advising him in regard to his proposed journey to Virginia Springs, hoping that the journey would restore him to health. Whether his death had any ctt'ect on Sally ]\Iattson is not knovTi, but she soon after fell into a melancholy, and terminated her own life by cutting her throat. In Dunlap's American Advertiser, published in Philadelphia, appeared this notice of his career, which was written by Dr. Benjamin Rush: — "On Tuesday evening, the 24th instant, departed this life in this City, in the 56th year of his age. Colonel Persifor Frazer, late Register and Recorder of the County of Chester, and formerly a Colonel in the Continental army. Yesterday his corpse was removed to his late dwelling near West Chester for intennent. THE FRAZEK FAMILY. 53 ''This respectable citizen served his country as an officer in the Continental army with zeal and activity, and though an active and decided friend to the Eevolution in every stage of it, yet such was his candour and moderation that he acquired the general esteem and confidence of those who were not perhaps entirely of his ijolitical opinions. "Since the Eevolution he has been honored by several public appointments, all of which he discharged with such fidelity as will reflect honour on his memory. "By his death society is deprived of one of its most useful and ornamental members, and a respectable family have suffered an irreparable loss. "He was an elder in the Middletown Presbyterian Church of ]\Iiddletown for some years before his death. "He was tall, and, though slender, was very active, and had great endur- ance. He was of a genial and lovable disposition." Persifor Frazer's life is more fully told in the collection of papers which his great-grandson, Persifor Frazer, ptiblished in 1907. This sketch is in- serted here chiefly to make the Frazer history complete so far as is applicable to this publication. Eobert Frazer (XVI 7). We have a number of memorandums about his career which show his life to have been spent in commerce. Eneas McCarthy gives him a promissory note for £5 February 2, 1755, which Eobert endorses to his father. A letter to his father shows him, to have been in Kingston, Jamaica, July 21, 1758. He expects to sail thence in two weeks with a cargo of rum, sugar and molasses. His own venture ttirned out badly. It seems to have been of soap, which proved unremuucrative. William Crookshanks notes in a letter to his father, .John Frazer, that Eobert landed at Dublin, Ire- land, March 8, 1759, expecting soon to return to America. Samuel Osborne, who was the correspondent of the fimi in Barbados, writes to his brother, Persifor Frazer, from that point January 23, 1762. He congratulates his correspondent on his brother's safe arrival, and condoles with Eobert for his loss in trading. In the fall of 1762 the sloop "Eanger" loaded at Philadelphia. Austin Bartholomew and Eobert Frazer insured the vessel and cargo for £1200, ten persons or firms joining in the insurance for £100 or £200 each. The insurance was made jSTovember 12, 1762, at nine per cent., and agi-eed "to be of as much force and efl'ect as the surest writing ou a policy of assur- ance heretofore made in Lombard street or elsewhere in London." This seems to have been the form of marine insurance in Philadelphia before it was assumed by companies. Bartholomew and Frazer were probably supercargoes. Outerbridge was the master of the vessel. The "Eanger" sailed on November 12, 1762. Eobert Frazer reports to his father from Cape Ilenlopen on I^Tovember 16th, noting a pleasant voyage and pronouncing the "Eanger" a very speedy craft. 4 54 THE SJIITH COLLATERAL ANCESTRY. Janiiarv 5, 1763, he writes to Persifor Frazer from St. Eustatius, or St. Eiistatia, both forms of the word being used. St. Eustatius is the name at present. It is a small Danish island, 150 miles east-southeast of Porto Pico. They seem to have sold the ship and to have bought a brigantine or to have changed the description of the rigging. The name is still the "Panger." They had secured a cargo of salt and propose to sail from Charlestown, S. C, as soon as peace is certain. The Peace of Paris was signed in 1763, but the news of its signing had not yet reached the West Indies. Outerbridge had ceased to be master of the vessel and Kobert Frazer suc- ceeded him, Bartholomew becoming supercargo. They sailed January 17, 1763, for Charlestown. The vessel was armed with eight or ten four-pounder gnms, and carried 1800 bushels of salt and thirty or forty cases of Geneva. They sailed in company with two sloops, one of them unarmed, the other a Letter of Marque, with thirteen or fourteen guns, Joseph Thompson Com- mander. Benjamin Davis, Austin and Thomas Bartholomew, and Pobert Frazer insure the boat and cargo for £800, February 21, 1763, in Philadelphia. It was also insured in Charlestown, and that insurance held, the Philadelphia insurance being surrendered. The vessel seems to have been lost, becaiise it was afterward paid for by the insurers, but Robert Frazer is heard of again. He must have returned from his voyage of January 17th, finding that no news of peace had been received and must have started again soon. Mr. Wilcocks, Jr., writing to Persifor Frazer from St. Christopher (now a British island, fifteen miles southeast of St. Eustatius), June 4, 1763, tells him that his brother sailed from there about Jlay 25th, was captured and carried into St. Martin's (now a French island, fifty miles north-northwest of St. Christopher), where he ransomed his vessel and cargo for £396. It was decided to sell the vessel at St. Eustatius. He left St. Christopher last May 28th. This is the last that we hear of Robert Frazer. His vessel was settled for in 1765 by the Charlestown insurers. Robert Frazer probably died in June, 1763, his vessel being lost in a storm. Sarah Frazer (XVI 13) lived within a short distance of her brother Persifor, half-way between Colonel Frazer's and Chadd's Ford, and it was to her house that Mrs. Persifor Frazer sent her children for safety when the British raided her house in September, 1777. Her husband, Jacob Vernon, was a son of Jacob Vernon, who married April 20, 1730, Elizabeth Cheney, widow of Thomas Cheney, whom she had married in 1726. Thomas Cheney was a son of John Cheney, of !Middletowu, who died in 1722. Elizabeth was a daughter of Benjamin Hickman and Ann Buflington, of AVestown. Thomas Cheney died in August, 1728. Jacob Vernon and Elizabeth Cheney had children — Abraham, Lydia, Elizabeth, Phebe, who married Major John Harper, and Jacob, Jr., who married Sarah Frazer. Joshua Vernon, who THE FRAZEE FAillLY. 55 married Anne Frazer, was perhaps a cousin of Jacob Vernon. John Cheney, Jr., who was a brother of Thomas, married Xov. 3, 1730, Ann Hickman, a sister of Elizabeth Hickman. Their eldest son, Thomas Cheney, born December 12, 1731, died January 12, 1811. Jacob Vernon died in 1788, and Sarah Frazer married, about 1700, Samuel Hewes. In 1793 Samuel Hewes was granted a license to keep the "Seven Stars"' tavern, in Aston to\vnship, Delaware county, which license was renewed from time to time till his death, in 1821. His widow, Sarah, continued to keep the "Seven Stars" till 1824. The "Seven Stars" Avas located at Village Green, and was famous as the headquarters of Lord Cornwallis, the commander of the British forces which lay in that vicinity for some days after the battle of Brandywine. The tavern dates back to 17G2, and it Avas a well known house for a hundred years after that time. Samuel Hewes, who was born June 20, 17C2, was his wife's junior by several years. He died April 22, 1821. Anne Frazer (XVI 15) lived M-ith her brother Persifor, to whom she was devotedly attached, till her marriage. Persifor Frazer proposed that they should go to the East Whiteland property when she married in 1778, but ISToblet, who had seized the house, was unmovable, and they went to Dihvorths- town, a few miles west of Persifor's home, in September, 1778. The property on which Persifor Frazer proposed to settle his sister Anne after her marriage to Joshua Vernon was that which he came into possession of in 17CS in a deal with Joshua Bean. Frazer had a tenant in possession of the property, but he moved out April, 1777, and William Koblet took imme- diate jjossession. Frazer urged his wife to take measures to dispossess him, but his ejectment was postponed till Frazer should return from the army. It took some years to get rid of Xoblet. Some years later Joshua and Anne removed to Eedstone, Fayette county, Pennsylvania, about thirty miles south of Pittsburg, and near the ]\Iouongahela river. Anne was, as her correspondence shows, a person of much sju-ightliness and warm alfections. Her husband, Joshua Vernon, died March, 1798. Phcbe Vernon, who was a sister of Jacob or Joshua, married John Harper, and this relationship doubtless promoted the companionship which we know to have existed between Persifor Frazer (XVI 6) and Major John Har- per, as he came to be known during the Revolution. 56 THE IIAKEIS COLLATERAL ANCESTRY. GENERATION XVII. INDBS NO. MBMBER OF i'AMILY. BIETH. MARRIAGE. RESIDENCE. The Children of Persifor Frazer (XVI 0) and Mary Wobeall T.aylor (XVI 1). SVII 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Sarah Frazer. Robert Frazer. Mary Anu Frazer. Persifor Frazer. Martha Frazer. Mary Frazer. John Frazer. Martha Frazer. Elizabeth Frazer. Elizabeth Frazer. neyer married. I. Mary Ball. II. Elizabeth Pries. III. Alice Yarnall. Jonathan Smith. neyer married. Joseph Smith. William Morris. Henry Myers. Jan. Aug. Feb. Feb. May Jan. Dec. Oct. May Dec. 11, 1769. 30, 1771. 17, 1774. 26, 1776. 22, 1778. 14, 1780. 27, 1781. 14, 1783. 17. 1786. 17, 1788. I. May 3,1798 II. Oct. 1.5,1803 III. Feb.ll.lSlS Oct. 16, 1794. Feb. 27, 1800. Oct. 15, 1818. Jan. 9, 1812. Mar. 3, 1841. Jan. 20. 1821. Feb. 19, 1845. Sept. 29, 1798. July 20, 1778. May 23, 1862. Aug. 3, 1783. Jan. 27, 1807. May 13, 1788. Apr. 25, 1857. Walnut St., Philadelphia, Pa. West Chester Pa. Bethel Twp., Pa. Upper Darby Twp., 1 'he Children of Sarah Frazer (XVI 13) and Jacob Vernon. 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 IS Abraham Vernon. Mary Vernon. Keujamiu X'tniion. Elizabeth Vernon. Persifor Vernon. Sarah Vernon. Anne Vernon. John ^'ernon. Edward Hewes. Sarah Harry. Josiah Richards. Rachel Cadwalader. Joel K. Ball. James Ball. Aug. 28, 1778. The Children of Sarah Prazee (XVI 13) and Samuel Hewes. 19 20 Samuel F. Hewes. Jemima Hewes Margaret McCullough. Isaac Massey. May Apr. 16, 1795. 16, 1707. May 6, 1819. Mar. 26, 1864. The Chiu)ren of Anne Frazer (XVI 15) and Jo.suua Vernon. 21 22 Lydia Vernon. Anne Vernon. Job Vernon. Joshua Gibbons. 1802. Sarah Frazer (XVII 1) had the family appreciation of humor, and many odd stories are told of her. She was lame, having dislocated her hip, thongh at what age is not knowai, probably after reaching maturity. She was plain spoken and somewhat eccentric. In her later years she was asked by a person who knew her slightly if she was not the mother of some person who was named. She replied with emphasis, and, ])erhaps, not without regi'ct — "I am not the mother of any living thing; I am nothing but a nasty old maid.'' THE PEAZER FAMILY. 57 She became, in middle life, a convert to the ilethodist faith, and identi- fied herself very thoroiighly with that body, which had at that time but little social position. She lived with her mother at Thornbury till about 1825, when her mother went to live at the house of her daughter (Mrs. Joseph Smith) in East Whitcland. She was an inmate for a short time of the family of her sister Martha (Mrs. William ilorris), but accepted a little later an invitation to make her home in Philadelphia with her sister Mary Ann (Mrs. Jonathan Smith). This was a Presbyterian household, and as interdenominational charity was quite undeveloped in those days, she found that she had rather live with those who were of the same household of faith with herself than with her kindred who held views not in sympathy with hers. She returned to West Chester, and took up her abode with an English family named Hodson, Avho lived on Gray street. She spent the rest of her life with them, and died at their house. Robert Frazer (XVII 2) was born in Middletown township. He received an unusually expensive education, entered the University of Pennsylvania in 1786, and started to practice law in possession of a law library imported from' England at a cost of £100, being admitted at Chester to practice at the Chester County Bar July 30, 1792. He lived in Chester county till about 1807, when he removed to Philadelphia, where he remained till after the death of his second wife, who died in 1814, when he again removed to Chester county to a fann at the intersection of the road from West Chester to Philadelphia with the road ininning south from Paoli to Media and Chester, about wdiere the AVest Chester road crosses Crum creek, about ten miles from Chester, probably about where Edganont P. O. now is. It was here that he died. The family tradition says in regard to him, that he was the leading mem- ber of the Bar of Chester county, a most beautiful and winning speaker, but terrible in denunciation. He had a melodious voice. He was the idol of the place, and was held by his friends to be the equal of Sargent and Binney. He drew, in 1820, the petition to the Legislature for the removal of the county seat of Delaware county from Chester. He was Deputy Attorney-Gen- eral from May, 179.3, to February, 1800; from February to November, 1816, District Attorney of Delaware county; and a member of the Pennsylvania House of Assembly, 1795. His Philadelphia home, where his son John was born in 1812, and his son Persifor in 1809, was on the site of the Mariner and Merchant building at Chestnut and Third streets. His first wife, Mary Ball, was a daughter of Joseph and Sarah Ball, born April 23, 1778. She died without issue June 21, 1800. His second wife, Elizabeth Fries, daughter of John and Ann Fries, Quakers, of Arch street, Philadelphia, was born June 16, 1778, and died in childbirth, June 19, 1815. She was the mother of all of his children, except the youngest. 58 THE SMITH COLLATERAL AXCESTEY. His third wife, Alice Yarnall, born August 28, 1778, died March 23, 1830, was a daughter of Joseph and Sarah Pennell, Quakers of Chester county. Her gi-andfather was Joseph Pennell, born August 3, 1706. Her great-grand- parents were Joseph Pennell, of Edginont, Delaware county, born December 12, 1674, and Alice Garrett, of Darby, and her great-great-gTandparents were Robert Pennell, of Middletown, and . She died and was buried at Middletown. Alice Pennell had married, first, Eli Yarnall, a son of Dr. Peter Yarnall, of Concord township, born 1754, died 1798. Mary Anne Frazer (XVII 3) has left no history that I know of, except that she was especially beloved by her namesake, my mothei". The record of her husband's life will be found in the Smith genealogy. Persifor Frazer (XVII 4). His father proposed that he should be a fuller, there beiug opportunities doubtless at some of the mills on Chester creek to learn that business. It was, however, distasteful to the son, who thought that he preferred a mercantile life. He made a voyage to Lisbon at the age of 17, the year after his father's death. The return voyage was a long one, 104 days from Lisbon to Philadelphia. They ran out of provisions, were forced to live on short allowance, and had to draw largely on the ship's store of figs, raisins and Lisbon wine. They had divided their last biscuit when they were relieved by a passing vessel. On their next voyage, which was to have ended in a French port, they were taken by an English vessel, and the whole ci'ew, except the captain, Frazer, who perhaps was supercargo, and tlie steward, were put in irons. They, however, overpowered the prize crew and regained possession of the vessel. They again shaped their course for their port, but ran into a fog. When it lifted they found themselves in the middle of an English fleet. They were recaj^tured, and Frazer was sent to Halifax, Xova Scotia. He was re- leased through the exertions of the American Consul, Phinehas Pond. This ended his seafaring life. He was appointed to a i^osition in the first United States bank, of which he became cashier. In the summer of 1798, the vellow fever raged in Philadelphia. The president of the bank died, and it was decided to remove the institution to Germantown. In making this removal in the hot humid weather of September, Frazer exerted himself greatly, with the result that he sickened and died of yellow fever after five days' illness, on the 29th of September, 1798, within a week after the bank's removal. Such was the confusion at the time, and so restricted was the intercourse, that he was dead and buried before his mother knew that he was sick, and it was \vith considerable difficulty that she discovered the place of his burial. Mary Frazer (XVII 6) was a woman of vigorous mind and body. Like her elder sister, Mary Anne (XVII 3), she was of the severe type of piety, common among Presbyterians at the beginning of the last century, and so was TilE FKAZER FAMILY. 59 less popular among lier young relatives than if she had l)een more genial, but her children always spoke in warm praise of her, and she was doubtless an estimable wonuui. Her daughter, Ehoda, says that her mother and her aunt Martha (XVII 8) had very fine voices, and in their later life often sang for hours from an old music book in Mary's possession, ^Mary's voice being a sweet soprano, and Martha's a rich contralto. If Mary had a fine voice, she did not transmit it to any of her children, who were all deficient iu musical ability. For an account of her husband, see Smith i-ecord. She was a woman who had had claims to beauty iu early life. She was of medium height (say 5 feet 3 inches), and of rather spare figure, though not abnormally thin. Martha Frazer (XVII 8) married, at the age of thirty-five (later than ■was usual in those days), William ^Morris, who was a small farmer living near West Chester. When her mother's estate was settled, she took her share of the inheritance and bought a farm in Bethel township, not far from Marcus Hook, where she lived till she was quite advanced in years, after which she made her home with her daughter, Mrs. Samuel Arthur. She followed the faith of her husband, who was a Methodist, and though she was in but moderate circumstances, she was of such smmy temper, and had so great a sense of the humorous, that she was an universal favorite in the family. Her husband, who was born in May, 1787, died about 1873. He was not a person of much culture, and it was the fashion among his wife's relatives to laugh at him, but he was an honest and upright, if not an enter- prising, man. Elizabeth Frazer (XVII 9) met an early death by drowning about sunset when two years old in a well six feet deep near her father's house, the water flowing over the edge of the well. Her father, who was at Sharpless' mill when he heard of the accident, hastened home, and the exertion of the walk, joined to his regi-et that his neglect to secure the top of the well should have caused the death of the baby to whom he was tenderly attached, brought on or aggrav- ated a heart trouble, from which he never wholly recovered. Elizabeth Frazer (XVII 10). It is not known why Colonel and ^Irs. Frazer should have been so attached to the name Elizabeth as to give the name to two of their children. Mrs. Frazer's gTandfather's second wife was named Elizabeth, as was her brother Isaac's wife, but neither of them were favorites in the family. It is probable, however, that it was the last-mentioned person for whom these children were named. The second Elizabeth was always called Eliza in the family. Henry Myers, whom Elizabeth married, was at that time a prosperous farmer of Concord township, Delaware county. He was of a family who were originally French Huguenots, living near the Swiss border. The original name was Mai, Maiere or Maiercs, which was changed to ]\[yers after the emigration 60 THE SMITH COLLATERAL AXCESTKY. to America. The gi-andfather of Henry Myers was named Henri, an officer in the Swiss army. His oldest son, John, also a Swiss farmer, was captiu-ed and sent to Holland prior to 1770, but was afterward ransomed, and sent to America, settling in Chester connty. He married one of the Mcndeuhalls of that locality, and his eldest son, born January 1, 1789, was the Henry Myers who married Elizabeth Frazer. He was the prothonotary, recorder of deeds, register of wills and clerk of the Court of Delaware county from January 17, 1824, to December 30, 1S32. In 182-t he was appointed one of the committee to receive General Lafayette. December 27, 1833, he was conmiissioned one of the Associate Judges of Delaware coimty, and while discharging the duties of that office was elected, in 1836, State vSenator for the district comprising Delaware, Cliester and Jjancaster counties, in which capacity he served for iowr years. Unfortunately, the temptations of Harrisburg were too gTeat for his strength, and his career was not a prosperous one thereafter. He lost the confi- dence of his fellow-citizens, who no longer elected him to office; he dissipated his property, and on February 23, 1855, he was frozen to death on the public road near Cobb's creek, where he was foimd the next day. The family home at that time was in Upper Darby township, Delaware county, a short distance west of Cobb's creek. It had been in Concord town- ship in their earlier life. Abraham Vernon (XVII 11) and ]\Iarv Vernon (XVIT 12) were twins. Edwai-d Hughes, born November 22, 1702, or Hewes — the name is spelled both ways — the husband of Mary Vernon, was the younger brother of Samuel Hewes, Mary's stepfather, her mother's second husband. j\Iary and her hus- band removed to Redstone, Pennsylvania. Sanmel Frazer Hewes (XVII 19) held the license for the "Seven Stars" tavern from 1824 to 1826. His wife, Margaret McCullough, was born April 16, 1797, and died May 6, ISIO. The husband of Jemina Hewes (XVII 20), Isaac Masscy, born July 10, 1795, died April G, 1825, was a son of Israel and Rachel Massey. In 1826, after her husband's death, she succeeded her brother, Samuel F. Hewes, as the proprietor of the "Seven Stars" hotel, in Aston township, Delaw'are county, and continued to hold a license for that hotel till 1834. I remember her only as a most extraordinarily ugly old woman, but she seemed to be much liked by my grandmother, her cousin, Marv Frazer (XVII 6). Anne Vernon (XVII 22). Her husband, Joshua Gibbous, born 1769, died 1855, was a son of James Gibbons, 3d, born 1736, died 1823. who married, in 1756, Eleanor Peters. He was a great-great-grandson of John Gibbons and Margery, who were of Warminster, Wiltshii-e, England, and who emigrated to Bethel, Delaware county, in 1681. THE FBAZER FAMILY. GENERATION XVIII. 61 INPE.X NO. MEMBER OF FAMILY. CONSORT. BIRTH. MARRIAGE. DEATH. RESIDENCE. The Children of Robert Frazer (XVII 2) and Elizabeth Fries. SVIII 2 3 4 5 6 John Pcisifor Frazer. Jacob Taylor Frazer. Anne Fries Frazer. Persifor Frazer. John Fries Frazer. Mai-y Worrall Frazer. John Rhea Barton, never married. Charlotte JefEers Cave. Dec. 20. 1804. Apr. 8, 1806. July 7, 1807. June 19, 1S09. July 8, 1812. Jan. 15, 1814. Dec. 28, 1825. Sept. 1, 1838. Mar. 14, 180.5. Apr. 10. 1S0(!. Nov. l.*?. 1837. Apr. 11, 1880. Oct. 32, 1872. June 11, 1814. Philadelphia, Pa. Philadelphia, Pa. Philadelphia, Pa. Tl IE Children of Robeb T Frazer (XVII 2) and Alice Tarnall. Joseph Pennell Frazer. Jane Biddle Wood. Dec. 29, 1818. May 26, 1846. May 4, 1878. Philadelphia, Pa. The Children of Mart Anne Frazer (XVII 3) and Jonathan Smith. 8 Margarettt. Smith. Aug. 14. 179.5. Aug. 14, 1795. 9 Margaretta Smith. David Correy. Aug. 7, 1796. Mar. 17, 1818. Mar. 10, 1878. Germantowu. Pa. 10 Persifor Frazer Smith. I. Frances Jeanette Bureau. Nov. 16, 179S. I. Jan. 19,1822. May 17. 1S58. New Orleans. La. II. Ann Monica Armstrong. II. Apr. IS. 1854. 11 Mary Frazer Smith. Ehakim Littell. Oct. 2S, 1800. Feb. 12, 1828. Jan. 31. 1873. Boston, Mass. 12 Beaton Smith. I. Mary Ann Huddleson. Sept. 29, 1802. I. Mar. 18,1820. Mav 20, 1861. Philadelphia, Pa. II. Theodosia Pettit. II. June 4,1839. 13 Robert Frazer Smith. never married. Nov. 1, 1804. Feb. 6. 1826. Philadelphia, Pa. 14 Marv Ann Smith. May 26. 1807. 15 Sarah Smith. Levi M. Graves. July 18, 1809. June 25. 1844. Aug. 1, 1808. Kittaning, Pa. 16 Anna Maria Smith. Samuel Robert Slaymaker. Sept. 7, ISll. Jan. 9, 1833. June 27, 1877. Evanston, 111. 17 Harriet Romeyn Smith. James Musgrave Aertsen. Sept. 1. 1813. Nov. 3, 1S34. May 7, 1RS7. Germantown, Pa. 18 Howard Smith. Oct. 18, 1815. Dec. 25. 1819. 10 Jane Correy Smith. Nov. 18, ISIS. Sept. 11. 1819. The Children of Mary Frazer (XVII 6) and Joseph Smith. 24) Elizabeth Wright Smith. never married. Jan. 6, 1801. Dec. 27, 1885. Philadelphia. Pa. 21 Emma Vaughan Henry Augustus Smith. Riley. Dec. 3, 1802. Sept. 28. 1832. Feb. 17. 1S43. Montrose. Pa. '>•> Marianne Smith. Stephen Harris. Apr. 2, 1805. Apr. 4, 1833. Mar. 12, 1890. Germantown, Pa. 23 Persifor Frazer Thomasine Susan Smith. Fairlamb. Jan. 23. 1808. July 24, 1833. May 25, 18S2. West Chester, Pa. 24 Martha Smith. never married. Jan. 13, 1810. Nov. 4, 1872. New York, N. Y. 25 Vaughan Smith. Marj- Elizabeth Shepperd. Feb. 14, 1S12. Sept. 1, 1842. Nov. 21, 1901. Wilmington, Del. 26 Rhoda Wright Smith. never married. Aug. 22. 1«17. June 27. 1903. Germantown. Pa. 62 IMDKX NO. MKMBER OF FAMILY. THE SMITH COLL.\TERAL ANCESTRY. GENERATION XVIII. MASEIAGE. BESIDBNCB. TitE Children of Martha Frazer (XVII S) and William J.Iouris. XV 1 11 27 28 29 Mary Aiine Slorris. Samuel Arthur. Nov. 17, ISIO. Robert Frazer Morris, never married. June 10, 1S22. Joseph Roberts Morris. Arabella Darlington. Mar. 26, lS2.j. 1S48. Mar. 1, 1S80. Mar. 22, 1845. Dec. 4, 1859. Philadelphia, Pa. Media, Del Co., Pa. The Children of Elizabeth Frazer (XVII 10) and Henry Myers. 30 31 32 Persifor Frazer Myers. Eleanora de Sanno. Mary Anne Myers, j never married. William Henry j Myere. .Josi'phine Rinker. Oct. 25, 1812. Jan. 31, 1815. Dec. 29, 1821. 1840. 1851. iMar. 15, 1801. Apr. 27, 1802. Feb. 20, 1865. Philadelphia, Pa. Philadelphia, Pa. Philadelphia, Pa. The Children of Samuel F. Hewes (XVII 19) and Maiig.vret McCui.lough. 33 Sarah Ann Hewes. Samuel Williams. Feb. 4, 1820. Sept. 9, 1847. 1861. Minersville, Pa. 34 James C. Hewes. Julia Y.Tlin. Jan. 26, 1822. Oct. 12, 1847. Nov., 1SU8. Ft. Wayne, Ind. 35 Samuel Frazer Hannah Maria Hewes. Woodward. Nov. 24, 1824. Dec. 25, 1855. Nov., 1903. Philadelphia, I'a. 36 Margaretta Hewes. never married. Mar. 25, 1S27. 1S73. 37 William Henry Hewes. Eliza Hutchinson. l-'eb. 11, 1829. Sept. 14, 1870. 38 Jemima Hewes. Dec. 17, 1833. JIar. 4, 1840. Bridiioville. Del. 39 Robert McCullough Hewes. Annie Howel. Oct. 1, 1837. 1840. Harrington, Del. 40 41 The Children of Jemijia Hewes (XVII 20) and Isaac Massey. Sarah Hewes Massey.' June 19, 1821. Rachel Ann Massey. Reuben J. Halderman. July 28, 1S23. Aug. 13, 1828. 1875. West Chester, Pa. 42 The Children of Ann Vernon (XVI 22) and Joshua Gibbons. Joshua Vernon Gibbons. Maria Louisa Oliphant. 1803. 1S41. 1882. Fayette Co., Pa. THE FltAZEK FAMILY. 63 Anne Fries Frazer (XVIII 3). Her husband, John Rhea Barton, was perhaps, the most distinguished surgeon of his day in Phihidelphia. x\fter the death of his first v>'ife he married Susan La Roche, born Susan Eidgeway, widow of Dr. La Eoche, and daughter of Jacob Eidgeway, a wealthy mer- chant of Philadelphia. Persifor Frazer (XVIII 4) was educated for the legal profession, but when he had finished his studies, traces of pulmonary weakness induced him to spend a considerable time abroad. After his return home he found that per- sons with whom he had commenced life had progressed so far that should he then begin the i>ractice of law he would no longer be in the same class with them, and as he had a competence, he decided that he would not embark in business. He spent much of his life abroad, though he considered it to be the dut}^ of a loyal American to be in his own country during the Civil War. But on the whole, he found a larger society of congenial people with interests similar to his own on the continent of Europe, so that he returned there from time to time, and he was in Eome, Italy, when he died from an attack of typhoid fever. He was a man of literary tastes, well read in history and belles lettres. He had kindly impulses, and a strong family affection, and he did many things to make easier the lot of those of his relatives who were less fortunate than himself. He gave a good deal of attention to the question of the Frazer ancestry, and his researches in France, Ireland and Scotland throw a srood deal of lieht on the question. John Fries Frazer (XVIII 5) was graduated from the University of Penn- sylvania with the highest honors in the class of 1830. He afterw-ard took com- plete courses of study in medicine and law, and was admitted to the Bar of Philadelphia in 1835. As he had a taste for scientific pursuits, he entered the service of the First Geological Survey of Pennsylvania, in which he was an assistant in 1836 under Henry D. Eogers, State Geologist. Upon the organization of the Central High School of Philadelphia by his life-long friend, Alexander Dallas Bache, as the capstone of the structure of public school education in Philadelphia, John Frazer was ap]iointed Professor of Natural Philosophy in that institution, wdiich position he held from October, 1842, to April, 1844. In 1844 he was appointed to a similar position in the University of Pennsylvania and continued to discharge the duties of that position during the rest of his life. He received from the University of Lewisburg the degree of Ph.D. in 1854, that of LL.D. from Harvard" College, in 1857, was the Vice-Provost of the University of Pennsylvania from 1855 to 1868, a Vice- President of the American Philosophical Society from 1855 to 1858, a life member of the Academy of X'atural Sciences, one of the incorporators of the 64 THE SJIITH COLLATERAL ANCESTRY. National Academy of Science, of which he continued a member throughout his life, and Editor of the Journal of the Franklin Institute from 1850 to 1867. He had, to an exceptional degi-ee, the family gift of wit and humor. He was the intimate associate of many of the leading scientific men of his day. He was very much respected and admired by those who came under his influ- ence as a teacher, and was one of the strongest men who have held a professorial chair in the University of Pennsylvania. He died suddenly of a heart attack at the University soon after its removal to its present position in West Philadelphia, the day after the faculty took possession of the new buildings. His wife, who was a daughter of Thomas and Sarah HoUinshead Cave, of Philadelphia, born September 12, 1815, died at Lennox, Massachusetts, August 19, 1881. Her father was a merchant of Philadelphia, and her mother was a daughter of Major John HoUinshead, of New Jersey, an officer of the line of the Continental Army in the Revolutionary AYar, and a member of the Society of the Cincinnati. Joseph PenucU Frazer (XVIII 7), was also educated as a lawyer, and was admitted to practice at the Bar of Delaware county, February 24, 1845. His inheritance was left in the hands of Henry Myers, husband of his aunt, Elizabeth Frazer (XVII 10), who failed to account for it satisfactorily, so that his fortune proved less than that of his half-brothers and half-sister. His name was changed at his father's death, and it was Robert Frazer after that time. He was Deputy Attorney General of Pennsylvania in 1845, being appointed in February of that year. He was the second President of the Camden and Atlantic Railroad, and was afterward President of the "Wilming- ton and Reading Railroad. He died of apoplexy. Plis wife was a daughter of Samuel and Fanny Collins Wood, born Feb- ary 14, 1820. She died AiTgiist 29, 1879. For sketches of XVIII S to XVIII 2G, see Smith Record. Mary Anne j\Iorris (XVIII 27). After the death in 1870, by consump- tion, of her husband, Samiiel Arthur, who for some years conducted a boys' school at Chester, in which service his wife was his able assistant, and who afterward was a clerk in the banking house of Jay Cooke and Company, Phila- delphia, she lived vv'ith her father in Philadelphia, and later, for some years, with her cousin, Mrs. William Darraeh, in Germantown. Robert Frazer Morris (XVIII 28), was a law student with his coiisin, Persifor Frazer Smith, in West Chester. Of somewhat delicate constitution, he had lowered his vitality by hard study and brought on a fatal sickness by over exertion in walking over to East Whiteland to summon my father, Dr. Stephen Harris, on the occasion of a serioiis illness of his cousin and pre- ceptor, Persifor Frazer Smith. One account says he died of bilious fever. THE FRAZER FAMILY. 65 Joseph Eoberts ]\Iorris (XVIII 29), was also educated as a lawyer, and lie also studied under Persifor Frazer Smith. He was admitted to practice at the Bar of Delaware county, August 28, 1848. He acquired a large practice and prospered until on Sunday, December 4, 1859, while talking to a friend in Media, he suddenly dropped dead of heart failure. Persifor Frazer Myers (XVIII 30), was a commissary storekeeper at the Philadelphia United States Navy Yard. William Henry Myers (XVIII 32), was for many years agent of the Estate of George Pepper in Philadelphia. The husband of Sarah Ann Hewes (XVIII 33), Samuel Williams, was born July, 18 IG, and died March 15, 1864. The wife of James C. Hewes (XVIII 34), Julia Yahn, died December, 1902. Samuel Frazer Hewes (XVIII 35) was a carpenter. His wife, Hannah Maria Woodward, died May, 1898. She was of Woodsville, X. J. The wife of William Henry Hewes (XVIII 37), Eliza Hutchinson, was horn December 2, 1845. Robert McCullough Hewes (XVIII 38) is a real estate agent. The husband of Eachel Ann Massey (XVIII 41), Reuben J. Haider- man, born June 16, 1818, was a Baptist clergyman. They lived in West Chester until the time of her death. Joshua Vernon Gibbons (XVIII 42). His wife, Maria Louisa Oliphant, born 1805, died 1884, was a daughter of Colonel John Oliphant and Woodbridge. The Oliphants were of Scotch origin. TTIE FRAZER FAMTT.Y. NOTES. TlfE FRAZER rA:MII.Y. NOTES. THE FRAZKI! FAMILY. NOTES. THE FRAZER FAMILY. NOTES. THE VAUGHAN FAMILY. Vaiiglian means "little of stature." Lower says, ''It is a family name of great antiquity. The Vaughans of Burlton Hall, Salop, descend from Tudor Trevor, tlie patriarch of many Welsh nobles and gentles ; the Vaughans of Pen- maen from Seissylt, lord of Mathavarn in the 14th century, through Jenkin Vychan, body squire to Henry VII, whose son adopted the name Vychan or Vaughan. The Vaughans of Court Field, Monmouth county, are of good antiquity, dating beyond the IGth century." This family of Vaughans were Welsh Baptists, and came to America as a land of I'cligious freedom. The family tradition says that the first Vaughan who came to this country took up a large tract of land in company with many of his countrymen who left Wales at the same time. This refers perhaps to the purchase of the Welsh tract. The Vaughans settled north of Downingtown in a hilly country, which they preferred to the more fertile Great Valley, because it was more like their own old home, because the valley was thought to be less healthy, and largely because they preferred the taste of the water of the hills, which came from the rocks underlying the limestone, to the limestone water of the valley, which created bowel disturbances. They called the settlement "L'wchlan"' or "Ywchlan," '"Upland" or "higher than the valley." The Vaughans do not appear as holders of property in the township in 1715, but John is on the list for 1721. In 1728 David Lloyd, of Chester, who in 1718 had purchased at sheriff's sale a part of "Cox and Company's 30,000 acres," sold 200 acres of his purchase to John Vaughan (XV 1). This tract, which includes what is now known as ''Lionville," and was then, or soon after, known as "Red Lion" tavern, passed to John's son, Jonathan, who with Ann, his wife, sold it to Dennis Whelen, September 21, 1761. This was probably a part of the transaction in which Jonathan Vaughan and Samuel Kennedy, of Whiteland, raised money to buy Sarum Forge in 1760. They then made an agreement with Dennis Whelen. GENERATION XV. INDEX NO. MEMBER OF FAMILY. CONSOHT. BIBTH. MAIililAGE. DEATH. RESIDENCE. XV 1 John Vaughan. I. II. Emma Parry (XV 14). June 5, 1G90. I. II. 1729. May 24. 17,50. UwcUlau Twp., Chester Co., Pa. John Vaughan (XV 1) was a man of education. His family Bible, which remains in the family, printed "Yn Llundain in 1677" in the Welsh language, contains a record of the birth of his five children. For his four boys he used 67 68 THE SMITH COLLATERAL ANCESTRY. the English language, but for his only daughter the records read — "Margaret Vaughan was born the first of November, 1735 Anno Christi, near three- quarters of an hour to the southing of the seven, stars — or Vel Septimo Stella — in the conjunction of the moon Vel Luna 1 to the planet Mars d, about eleven o'clock at night Vel ISTocte Milesimo Septingentesimo thricessimo Quinto N^ovembris die." "Johanis Vaughauuni His Liber Scriptsiaris probatum est." John Vaughan M'as allowed a license in 1740. This is the first notice of a tavern at Lionville. In his will, made December 30, 1749, probated May 30, 1750, he mentions all of his family, but adds John to the number of his children, placing him first. He provided for the education of his three younger children. His wife long outlived him. For an account of her, see Parry Record. GENERATION XVI. MEMBER OF FAMILY. MARRIAGE. RESIDENCE. The Children of John Vaughan (XV 1) and XVI I . John Vaughan. Ruth. about 1720. The Children of John Vaugh.\n (XV 1) and Emma P.\eby (XV 14). <> Joshua Vaughan. Sept. 1!X 1730. 3 Jonathan Vaughan. Ann. Aug. 7. 1732. Worcester Co., Md. 4 , Margaret Vaushau. Robert Smith. Nov. 1. 1735. Dec. 20. 1758. 1S22. Uwchlan Twp. o , .Joseph Vaughan. June 3, 173S. 6 1 Isaac Vaughan. Oct. 23, 1743. died young. John Vaughan (XVI 1), who is mentioned first in his father's will, and who is to have an equal share in his estate, may have been a child of an early marriage, which seems likely, as the first John Vaughan was thirty-nine years old when he married Emma Parry. In 1748 he appears as one of the lieutenants in Captain George Taylor's company in one of the "Associated Regiments." In 1759 he appears as hav- ing furnished one wagon and ten barrels of flour to the supplies that were gath- ered for General Stanwix's ex])edition to rebuild Fort DuQuesue, which had been destroyed in 1758 by General Forbes when he abandoned it. My great- grandmother, Margaret Vaughan (XVI 4), often spoke of Colonel John \"aughan of the Revolutionary army, who migrated to Sottth Carolina, as a near relative of hers, which, if he were an elder half-brother, she might well do. Jonathan Vaughan (XVI 3) is said to have built the oldest end of the present Red Lion tavern; it is of l)rick. a rare building material in those days. THE VAUGHAN FAMILY. 69 He sold the property in 1761 to Dennis Whelen, who laid out there the town of Welshpool, which did not succeed as a land speculation. Lionville is about four miles north of the Steamboat Inn, in the highland north of the Great Valley. Jonathan is taxed in Uwchlan in 1757 and 1758, but not later, his property interests being then transferred to Delaware and Maryland. This transaction probably furnished the money with which Jonathan Vaughan started work at Deep Creek furnace. He was an iron master, and was inter- ested in Deep Creek furnace, Worcester county, Maryland, and in Sarum forge, in regard to which the first notice we have is that in 1760 Jonathan Vaughan, Dennis Whelen, both of Uwchlan, Chester coimty, and Samuel Ken- nedy, of Whiteland, entered into agreements in relation to the working of Sarum Forge ; Dennis Whelen apparently being the capitalist of the partner- ship. Persifor Frazer seems to have been interested in these enterprises, and to have been originally the storekeeper and the cashier. Jonathan Vaughan and Persifor Frazer were also interested in the operation of iron works in Oxford township, Chester county, near the Maryland border. These interests continued till 1767, and probably to a later date. In the agreement about a settlement of the interests in Sarum Forge, May 16, 1770, Jonathan Vaughan is recorded as of Worcester Co., Md., ironmaster. Jonathan Vaughan calls himself of Uwchlan, Pa., in 1760. After begin- ning to take an interest in the Deep Creek enterprise he apparently removed to Maryland. There are very numerous notes in the Frazer correspondence in regard to Jonathan Vaughan. Vaughan and Company, who were Jonathan Vaughan, of Worcester Co., Md., ironmaster; William Douglass, of Worcester Co., Md., ironmaster; Persifor Frazer, of Thornbury township, Pa., fanner, and David McMurtrie, of Philadelphia, merchant, found deposits of iron ore at Deep Creek, Delaware, but the development of works there had to await the settle- ment of the Delaware-Maryland boundary, which was nm in 176.3. They applied about that time to Pennsylvania for a grant of 5,000 acres of land con- taining timber suitable for making iron. This was given them, and John Lukens, Surveyor General, was appointed to survey it. The building of the furnace must have commenced in 1762. As was frequently the case in the colonies, with a scarcity of money and little knowledge of the cost of new enterprises, the com- pany soon found itself short of money, and it was reorganized May 18, 1764, Daniel Wishart and Jemina Edwards, both of Philadelphia, becoming partners. The purpose of the reorganization was stated to be to enlarge, complete and finish Deep Creek furnace and Nanticoke forge, the former being on Deep Creek, a tributary of Nanticoke river, three miles from the present town of Concord, Del., and Nanticoke forge being three miles to the west of the furnace. These operations developed into a large business, and produced what was called "Old Meadow" ii-on imtil the breaking out of the Revolution, when the busi- ness ceased, Chesapeake Bay being blockaded by the British. After the Rev- olution the iron business was not resumed, but the grist and saw mills and the 5 70 THE SMITH COLLATERAL ANCESTRY. stores continued to do business. The estate was divided in 1802. In relation to Saruui forge, Jonathan Vaughan and Joim Chamberlain operated it in January, 1764. November 20, 1769, Jonathan Vaughan contracts with George Pearcth he and Isaac Taylor had more than an ordinary surveyor's knowledge, or they would not have been chosen to trace State boimdaries, which required astronomical determinations. Furthermore, Jacob Taylor adopted as his first choice of a profession, that of a teacher, and, like Christopher, his classical school was one of good repute. Isaac Taylor, like Christopher's oldest son, Israel, was a physician, and they may have been educated together under Christopher's giiidance, or, Israel may have acquired his medical knowledge at an English school, and Isaac may have been his pupil. It is also noteworthy that John Taylor who came to America holding an important commission from Penn's father-in-law, Thomas Callowliill, to locate a large tract of land in and about Philadelphia, part of which land was to have been his own, should go at once to Christopher's home on Tinicum Island, and settle there, as if the ties between them were so close that this was the nattiral thing to do. Isaac Taylor's grandson, John Taylor, named his oldest son Israel, which was the name of Christopher's oldest son. This was an unusual name among the early settlers of Pennsylvania, but if the older Israel Taylor was Isaac Taylor's near relative and his preceptor, there would be reason for the bestowal of the name. Christopher and John Taylor were nearly of the same age, and emigrated to Pennsylvania nearly at the same time. It is probable that Penn's friend- ship for Christojiher may have influenced Thomas Callowhill to appoint John as his agent in Pennsylvania ; and on the whole it seems that their fortunes were so closely linked that it is natural to suppose that they were brothers. On this supposition, Christopher Taylor is introduced into these papers, and his family line is followed a little way. Martha Gray Thomson (Taylor XVII 17), born 1777, who was a great- great-great-grandchild of John Taylor (XII 2), said that the Taylors were the county family in Wiltshire, but I know of no other testimony to their greatness. Christopher Taylor (XII 1) was probably born near Skipton in York- shire, England. Ilis profession was that of a schoolmaster, and he was suc- cessful in his calling, and had a classical school which was somewhat famous. He became a convert to the* faitli of the Puritans, and one of their preachers, but having taken one step away fi-om the form of faith of his fathers it was easier to take the next step, and under the teaching of George Fox he became a Quaker and in 1652 a preacher of tiiat doctrine. lie rose to eminence in that calling, traveled largely around England as an advocate of the tenets of the faith of the Quakers, and suffered persecution for his belief. He was THE TAYLOR FAMILY. 75 imprisoned several times, once for a term of two years, and met with much cruel treatment in prison. These persecutions broke up his classical school several times, and caused him to remove it from place to place, his last location in England being at Edmonton, in Middlesex. Such men as Christopher Taylor, possessed of a good and well stored mind, of good judgiuent, and weaned by persecution from his native land, were welcome to William Penn, and he made emigration to his new colony attractive to them. Taylor purchased from Pemi 5000 acres of land, to be located in Penns,ylvania, May 22, 1682, and he probably came over with Penn on his first voyage in the ship "Welcome," Robert Greenaway, Commander, sailing from Deal, England, August 30, 1C82, and lauding at New Castle, Delaware, October 27, 1682, for we find him present at the first meeting of the Assembly of the new colony held at Chester, December 4, 1682. He left his school in England in the hands of George Keith, who was also an eminent Quaker preacher. Keith soon followed him to Pennsylvania, where his return to the faith of the Church of England, caused great dis- sension among his co-religionists, and troublous times in the colony. Christopher Taylor first settled in Bucks county, and represented that county in the first Assembly. Thomas Holmes' "Map of the Improved part of the Province of Pennsylvania," begun in 1681 shows several tracts of land in Bucks county belonging to Christopher Taylor, the principal ones being on Neshaminy creek, about eight miles above its mouth, and another lying on the Delaware river. William Penn showed Taylor many marks of his esteem, making him a member of the Provincial Council, in which body he sat from its first meeting at Chester, December 14, 1682, till the end of his life. He at once took a prominent part in its work, served on the most important committees, and it was probably the need of constant attendance there, that led him to remove from Bucks county in 1684, and take up his residence on Tinicum Island in the Delaware river, ten miles south of Philadelphia. Thig island had a somewhat interesting history. Being fertile and easily accessible, it was early considered a desirable residence, and it was the first point within the present limits of Pennsylvania at which a permanent settle- ment was made by Europeans. In its immediate vicinity the whole popula- tion of the Swedish colony was settled for some years, and upon the island their chief defensive work, Fort Cristinu, was located. A tablet has been erected near the Swedes church, Wilmington, to mark the site of Fort Cris- tina. The island was given by Queen Cristina, of Sweden, to Governor John Printz, the third Swedish Governor of the colony of New Sweden, November 6, 1643. Governor Printz took command of the colony February 16, 1643, and lived on Tinicum Island, having named his residence there "Printzdorp," till the fall of 1653, when he returned to Sweden, leaving Lieutenant Pape- goya, who had married his daughter, Armegat Printz, to hold the command till the arrival of the new Governor, John Rysingh. 76 THE SMITH COLLATERAL ANCESTRY. Printz left the island in fee or in trust to his daughter Amiegat. Lieut. Papegoya, who had brought to Printz a letter of commendation from his sovereign in 1643, and had married Armegat in 1644, is supposed to have left the country about 1656, and to have returned to Sweden. His wife, who was a woman of strong character, resumed her maiden name, remained in Penn- sylvania, and figures frequently for some years in the public records. She sold Tinicum Island to Joost Delagrange, May 9, 1662, and returned to Sweden, but the failure of the purchaser to complete payment required her to come back and commence a litigation to recover possession. After many delays she succeeded, in 1675, only to see the property again slip from her hands in October, 1683, through the technicality that the son of the defendant had not been named in the suit, and his title, therefore, had not been extinguished. This brought the island into the possession of Arnoldus Delagrange, the son of Joost, who sold it February 2, 1685, to Christopher Taylor. He gave it the name "College Island," and is said to have had there a school in Avhich the higher branches of education were taught. With all the honors that came to him, he still, in 1685, styled himself ''schoolmaster," considering, doubtless, that there was no more honorable occu- pation. Dr. Smith says: "He was well acquainted with Latin, Greek and Hebrew, and in 1679 published his Compendium Trium Linguarum of those languages. His literary qualifications were considerable, and he frequently exercised his pen in the cause of truth. He and his brother Thomas wrote much in England in the Friends' cause." Christopher Taylor was constantly in request for public duties duriug the short term he had to live after his emigration. June 6, 1683, the Proprietor appointed him one of the Commissioners to the Government of East Jersey to remonstrate against certain misrepresentations which had been made by that colony to England, and which were bringing Perm's colony into discredit, and June 11, 1683, he names Taylor first in a similar Commission to treat on a similar subject with the Governor and Council of West Jersey. Upon his removal to Chester county he was appointed President Judge of the county court, which position he retained till his death in 1686, and March 17, 1686, he was by jiarticular commission constituted one of the Justices of the Peace — or Judges, for the ofhce then had that dignity — for the town and county of Philadelphia. He was also for some time and until his death Register General of the Province. He died in June, 1686, the office of Register General being put into other hands July 5, 1686. It is possible that his pleasant home on TiniciTm Island may have been responsible for his short life there, as settlers in the new land had not then learned by experience what deadly fevers lurked in such beautiful spots. At a later time Tinicum Island was reported as being so unhealthy "that farmers were compelled to get their work done before September, by which time ague and remittent fever left nobody able to work." THE TAYI.OK FAMILY. 77 John Taylor (XII 2) is stated in his letter of instructions from Thomas Callowhill to have been of Alderton, in Wiltshire, England, though the usually accurate family tradition reports him to have been of Staffordshire. He is supposed to have been a surveyor, as Callowhill, who was the father of William Penu's second wife, in a letter of instructions to him, gives him directions about locating and mapping a tract or tracts of land, amounting to iifty-five hundred acres, which he has bought from Peun. He may have paid an earlier visit to America, for the family tradition says that he came over before Penn did, and it is recorded that in July, 1679, the Court of Whorekills county, now Sussex county, Delaware, orders that "A Magistrate of the city of ]^ew York having unadvisedly taken an oath of one Taylor concerning fees which he claimed for surveying at Whorekill (Cape Henlopen), the Magistrates of that city having nothing to do in any other part of the Government of these pre- cincts, and the said oath being taken contrary to law, you are to take no cog- nizance of it and by no means admit it as proof of evidence for Taylor." The Taylors who were surveyors in those parts at that period must have been few in niunber, and it is probable that John Taylor was the surveyor referred to. It is also noticeable that Callowhill gives him no instriictions about his work in the neighborhood of Philadelphia, such as would naturally be given to a stranger to the country, from which it may be inferred that the locality was not new to him. He was, however, doubtless in England in July, 168-t. Callowhill's letter speaks of him as a basket maker, which occupation may have been his ordinary business, as surveying in England would not probably occupy his time fully. Callowhill's instructions, dated July IS, 1684, provide for Taylor's depart- ure with his family on the first opportunity. He advances him £18 for this purpose, and appoints him his attorney to take up 5500 acres of land which Callowhill had bought of William Penn. Taylor is to receive -±00 acres of these lands, to continue to be Callowhill's agent in charge of his property, and he is to pay for the advance of money and the land allotted to him a quit rent of three pence per acre yearly, the grant being a perpetual one, but the quit rent being reserved as was originally intended by Penn in all his grants. Until the 25th day of December, 1685, however, the rent tO be paid is to be only one dressed buckskin. For Taylor's services he and his heirs are to receive sixteen shillings and four pence yearly, and one shilling out of every twenty shillings of rent that may be collected. Five hundred acres are to be laid out in the first and second streets of the city of Philadelphia, and the other five thoiisand are to be laid out in one township "accommodated with a navigable river and convenient harbor" (as if these were to be had on demand), and Taylor is to "draw the said five thou- sand acres in a figure or map expressing what rivers and other bounds is on the South, jSTorth, West and East part thereof." At the usual rate of voyaging in those days, John Taylor with his family probably reached Pennsylvania in the fall of 1684. They presented in 1684 78 THE SMITH COLLATERAL ANCESTRY. two certificates of recommendation from Wiltshire to the Philadelphia Friends' Meeting, but there is no record that the elalwrato instructions of Thomas Callowhill about locating his lands and building houses and mills were ever carried out. John Taylor leased a plot of ground on Tinicum Island from Christopher Taylor soon after its purchase by Christopher, March 10, 1685, to be used as a_ garden or nursery, but it did not prove a suitable location, and he took up, in 1G85, a jilot of sixty-three acres of land in Middletown township, near what is now called Glen Riddle, in Delaware county, but I have found no other note than these of his work after his arrival in America. Callowhill had anticipated some diiliculty in having his lands satisfactorily located, aiul dir(>cted Taylor in that case to refuse to lay them out, and to report to him for further instructions, but communication between Pennsyl- vania and England was very slow; John Taylor probably died in 168G, and no actual location of Callowhill's lands seems to have been made by him. The land m Middletown township was sold in 1717 by his grandson, John Taylor (XIV 15), to William Pennell, who built a saw mill there. It is noteworthy that among the early settlers of Pennsylvania, the men, who were more exposed to the hardships of out-door life than the women, were ordinarily much shorter lived. After his death, John Taylor's family removed to Thornbury township, Chester county, and December 12, 1687, they presented their certificates of membership to the Concord Friends' Meeting. The certificate of John Taylor and Daniel Osborn was from Kineton Mee'ting in AViltshire. His marriage to Hannah Osborn is recorded in the parish register of Alderton, in Wiltshire, England. The date of his wife's death is not knowTi. She probably did not long survive the removal to Thornbury. Hannah Taylor and Daniel Osborn were appointed administrators of the estate of John Taylor. Daniel was probably Hannah's brother. Thomas Taylor (XII 3), of Worthenbury, Flintshire, Wales, bought land of William Penn, March 8, 1682, but did not so far as is known come to America. His widow, Frances Taylor, passed meeting with John Worrall in October, 1683. She married John Worrall in December, 1683. Little else is known of Thomas Taylor excejjt that, as has been said before, he acted with Christopher Taylor in England as an advocate for the doctrines of the Friends. Israel Taylor (XIII 1) was a surgeon. Governor Goodkin in 1709 speaks of Israel Taylor, "whose daughter liad like to have been stolen by color of a license lately granted to one James Barber, of Chester county." He represented Chester county in tiie Pennsylvania Assembly in 1720, 1721 and 1722. He was_ Sheriff of Bucks county in 1693, and had the unenviable distinction of having hanged the first man who suffered death for crime there. He was his father's principal heir, receiving at his death 500 acres of land on the Nesham- THE TAYI.OE FAMILY. 79 iny creek, and 1000 acres on the Delaware river; and he i)nrchased from his brother and sister their interests in Tinicum Ishnid, ilarch 1), 1698. He lived after that time on Tinicum Island, and practiced his profession there. In his will, dated November 17, 1725, he speaks of himself as of Mattiniclinck Island, and directs that he shall be buried by his wife in his orchard, where several of his children lie. ISTotliing but her marriage is known of Mary Taylor (XIII 3). The husband of Elizabeth Taylor (XIII 4), Hugh Durborow, was boru in Somersetshire, England, about 1660, became a Quaker in early life, suf- fered persecution therefor, and emigrated to Pennsylvania in 1684, being then apparently engaged to marry Elizabeth Taylor. He probably came over in the company of John Taylor. He brought to America a certificate of membership from the Friends' Meeting of Ilchester, England, which he presented Decem- ber 12, 1687, to Concord Meeting, at the same time as John Taylor's family presented theirs. Both he and his wife were preachers. They removed to Thornbury township, Chester county, with the rest of John Taylor's family in 1687. He bought 100 acres of land in Thornbury township from Thomas Bradford, March 1, 1692. In 169.3 they removed to Philadelphia, where he died in 1740. He was Constable of Thornbury township in 1687. Jacob Taylor (XIII 5) is supposed to have received his early education in Christopher Taylor's school, but his father died when he was about thirteen years old, and as we find a record of his having been instructed by Thomas Holme, Surveyor General, July 5, 1689, when he was sixteen years of age, to copy some papers relating to a Iwundary line to be run for the purpose of locating one of Penn's purchases of land from the Indians, it is evident that he early began life on his own account. He seems to have retained a connection with the Surveyor General's office, but his first profession was probably that of a schoolmaster. He is said to have been teaching in Abington, now Mont- gomery county, in 1701, and Davis in his history of Bucks county says that he taught an academy in Philadelphia in 1738, and he elsewhere speaks of his "celebrated classical school" in Philadelphia. In the earliest days of Penn's colony, when every grantee was urgent to have his laud surveyed, and the supply of competent surveyors was inadequate, there was much inaccurate work done, the errors made being generally in favor of the purchaser, who received much more land than his warrant entitled him to have. Many also of those who purchased failed to complete their pay- ments and allowed their grants to lapse, so that Penu finding the land accounts in confusion, and his revenue quite inadequate to the maintenance of his government, was obliged in 1701 to order resurveys made, to define the relative rights of himself and his grantees. These resurveys were naturally unpopular, the community making practically common cause against the proprietor, and they were the cause of nuich heart-burning for several y( ars. 80 THE SMITH COLLATERAL ANCESTRY. James Logan, Secretary of the Province, wrote to \Yilliam Penn under date of May 3, 1702 :— "Very much as regards reveniie depends upon resurveys, which go on briskly enough in such places where we can expect to get anything. "We are all well provided" (with surveyors) "in Bucks and Chester. Jac. Taylor, the young man there mentioned, who has wrote a pretty almanac for the year, one of which comes enclosed, has also had the same distemper, now greatly reigning amongst lis, which has been a second hindrance." The previous mention of the "yoimg man" Jacob Taylor had been in a letter from Isaac Norris; the "distemper" was the small-pox, and the first "hindrance" to the resurveys was the death, by that disease, of the Surveyor General, Edward Pennington, which occurred Januai-y 10, 1702. Penning- ton was the third Surveyor General of the province, having succeeded John Wilkinson, April 26, 1C9S. Upon his death Jacob Taylor, who was then teach- ing in Abiugton, was put in charge of the land office, but he was not com- missioned Sui'veyor General till March 20, 170G. The reeoi-ds of his work in this capacity are very vobiminous, but are not generally of special interest in a narrative of his career. A few notes of the siirveyor's work which he did outside of his regular land office duties will suffice to illustrate this depart- ment of his activity. December 14, 1719, Mayor William Fishbourne and Alderman Hill, in conjunction with the Regulators, were requested by the Philadelphia City Council "to Imploy Jacob Taylor to run out the seven streets of this city, and that they cause the same to be staked out to prevent any Incroachment that may happen for ye want thereof." A draft of this survey is among the Taylor papers. He accompanied Governor William Keith in 1722 to locate lands west of the Susquehanna river, which were in the belt so long in dispute between Penn- sylvania and Maryland. In 1729 he surveyed for the proprietor "Conestoge Manor," in what is now Lancaster county. But while all of his work as Surveyor General seems to have been well done, that which brought him most esteem and praise among his contempo- raries was in the direction of literature, and while his attempts in that line are as likely now to create anuisement as any other emotion, they are of interest as showing what were the highest attainments of the literary art in this province in those days, and what entitled a man in the estimation of his contemporaries to the hope of lasting renown. He compiled from his own original writings, from the contributions of his fellows, and from standard works, an almanac, to the first number of which, that for the year 1702, James Logan alludes in the letter quoted above. This he continued to publish for many years. Bean in his history of Montgomery county says that the publication was carried on from 1702 to 1746, with the probable omission of the numbers from 1715 to 1718, both inclusive, and tlio number for 1722. An almanac in these THE TAYLOR FAMILY. 81 days in an unimportant affair, but in the beginning of the eighteenth century it was the sole literary equipment of many a household, the Bible being, per- haps, the second book in frequency of possession, and a book or two of theology the third and fourth, but after a long interval. Paul Leicester Ford, in his late introduction to the republication of some of Benjamin Franklin's wise and witty sayings originally published in Poor Richard's Almanac, says: "Few, if any, now living can appreciate how large a space this little pamphlet of a dozen leaves filled only one hundred years ago, and this importance increases as we trace it back to its first appearance in this country * * *. With the exception of the Bible, it was often the year's sole reading matter in many families * * *. To their readers, who still believed in witchcraft, governing stars and horoscopes, the composition of an almanac savored of magic, sorcery, if not illicit communication with departed spirits, and the authors were therefore to them most awe inspiring beings." "Perhaps nothing better illustrates the place once held in American literature by these ephemera than the annals of American printing. A col- lection of the first issues of the early American presses established in the various towns would, with hardly an exception, consist of these little waifs." Franklin commenced the issue of Poor Richard's Almanac in 1733, and continued it for twenty-five years. Jacob Taylor's Almanac, therefore, ante- dated it a quarter of a century. Ford says, quoting largely from Poor Richard's Almanac for 1747, "In 1746 by the death of that 'Ornament and Head of our Profession, Mr. Jacob Taylor, who for upwards of forty years (with some few intermissions only) supplied the good people of this and the neighboring Colonics with the most complete ephemeris and the most accurate calculations that have hitherto appeared in America, and who was said to have assisted in the preparation of Poor Richard's, the most serious rival of this latter was removed.' " Franklin says further of Jacob Taylor in the same article, "He was an ingenious mathe- matician, as well as an expert and skilful astronomer, and, moreover, no mean philosopher, but what is more than all, he was a pious and honest man. Requiescat in pace." Franklin goes on to announce that, "since my friend Taylor is no more, whose ephemerides so long and agreeably served and entertained these Provinces, I have taken the liberty to imitiate his well known method." He follows this notice by nineteen lines of poetry, apostrophizing Taylor's blest spirit now gone into the starry heavens, and asking his guidance there, but rather, apparently, for astronomical purposes than for any spiritual end. But the poetry is too poor and too pointless for quotation, though it seems quite sincere in its panegyric. Franklin's pen was usually somewhat caustic, and there must have been few persons whom he so unreservedly praised as he did Jacob Taylor. The "accurate calculations" are said to have been made by Jacob Taylor 82 THE SMITH COLLATERAL ANCESTRY. himself, and this alone showed an amount of mathematical and astronomical knowledge which was probably possessed by but few people at that time, so that his contemporaries were probably right in considering him one of the most learned men in the colony. He probably wrote a large part of the literary contents also, but as the almanac became famous many of the aspiring writers of his time contributed "copy" which they hoped he would find good enough to print. The almanac evidently, in addition to all its other uses, filled the place now taken by the magazines, and many young birds essayed in its pages to try their wings for their first flights in literature. There are among the Taylor papers many of these offerings, and most of them are very poor stuff. Xo doubt they are mostly rejected work, and they generally richly deserved to die. Perhaps the best of them, which modesty, or want of space, may have prevented Taylor from publishing, is the following, which well shows the esteem in which he was held as a man and as a teacher: "The Toil of teaching, and the Master's s-kill, To lead his Pupils up that arduous hill Which he himself ascended long before. Repeats the Labours which in youth he bore; As then he knew that in the steep ascent Laborious days and studious nights' were spent, So still he feels the beating Pulse of art; No less the Task that Learning to impart In human Life and all below the Sun, Such constant Streams of Endless Labours run; The patient Plowman suff'ring cold and heat. In harvest reaps the price of dripping sweat. "So learning grows, with hard and bitter roots. But fragrant branches and delicious fruits; But fruits unknown, and strangers to the taste. In rural groves where now your Lot is cast; What Muse can sing, what Prophet can declare, What strange caprice of Fortune brought thee here? And say yet further with unerring s-kill. If your approach presages good or ill. The work is good with skilful hand to sow. The seed of Learning where the Grain will grow: • ' •■ But tender hearts the dreadful sound may fear Of Moods and Tenses, Tropes and Figures here. • ' • "Survey the spot, consider well the ground. With ten mile Radius- draw the circle round; Some pretty schools within the circle lie. Whose Masters may your labored art defie, The case is past dispute, for one of these In half a year, a quarter, if you please. May by his- Dictates bring young men or boys To as much Learning as himself enjoys; But thy Disciples must with patience bear Some years of Labour, and thy forming care. Before their Learning will with thine compare." The allusion to "rural groves" relates probably to Taylor's announcing, in 1733, hi.s purpose to call his nephew's residence in Chester county his home, THE TAYLOR FAMILY. 83 and tlie "circle with ten miles radius" was, perhaps, suggested by the circular northern boundary of Delaware which his brother Isaac surveyed in 1701. In his almanac for 1723 he calls in his art as a writer and his science as an astrologer, to portray the future destiny of the infant city whose streets he had laid out four years before, and we have the following prediction : — "Pull forty years have now their changes made, Since the foundations of this town were laid; When Jove and Saturn were in Leo joined. They saw the survey of the place designed; Swift were these planets, and the world will own Swift was the progress of this rising town. The Lion is an active regal sign, And Sol beheld the two superiors join; A City built with such propitious rays. Will live to see old walls and happy days; But Kingdoms, Cities, men in every State Are subject to vicissitudes of fate, An envious cloud may shade the smiling morn. Though fates ordain the beaming sun's return." One contributor sends material for Taylor to work over into an epitaph to Dr. John Keariley, and asks him "to compose it in a few verses to be set up in a frame in our church," which was Christ church, Philadelphia. Examples appear among the communications sent him of rhyming rules to ascertain the content of ground ; and suggestions of various sorts are made in the hope that Taylor will find them worthy to be worked up for his almanac. Among these papers are some of scientific interest. Thomas Godfrey, M-hose invention of the sextant in November, 17-'jO, conferred honor on the city in which he lived, and has ever since proved the greatest of boons to all who navigate the seas, sends him, under date of November 4, 17-41, observations made with a twelve-foot telescope of "the transits behind the moon of Jupiter on March 12, 1741, and of Venus October 31, 1741, which phenomena," says Godfrey, "you had foretold in your almanack." James Logan forwards to him similar observStions of the transit of the star Aldebaran on February 25, 1718. James Logan, who was, perhaps, the most learned man in Pennsylvania, apparently considered Taylor's almanac a very serious production. He writes him, December 20, 1743, in the playful and affectionate tone which one so rarely finds in the writing of his strenuous and uncompromising time in a post- script to his letter: "Since ye above I have got thy new Almanack, and I wish thou wouldest inform mc where thou pick't up that ridiculous story of the Tyrant Cloritius Censorious, and ye ingenious villain (as thou calls him) Paterculus. If from Plutarch's Parallels, the parallels there to ye other more credible stories are generally accounted Greek fictions, and tho' they may do for an Almanack, they are unworthy of thine. I like thy last Invectives against Lies, which prevail most exceedingly, much better than thy Collection of Stories in thy last." 84 THE SMITH COLL.VTEEAL ANCESTRY. Taylor's almanacs were published iu Philadelphia. Bean, in his history of Montgomery county, says that Jansen and Johnson were two of his pub- lishers. Andrew Bradford was the publisher in 1739, and for some years pre- viously; Isaiah Warner, from 1743 to 1745, and in October, 1745, William Bradford writes Taylor that he would like to become the publisher, Mr. Warner being dead. The edition for 1743 consisted of two thousand copies. Mr. J. Breintnall, himself an author, writes to Andrew Bradford, printer, October 29, 1739, that he, as publisher of Jacob Taylor's Almanacs, should publish "An Enchiridion that should contain a collection from his Almanacks for some years past, of Poetry, pieces of History, and useful observations of various kinds, with some of his Prefaces and Chronologies, which would afford good Entertainment to curious Readers, and be serviceable to all sorts." Among the Taylor papers there is a list of books, with prices attached, which is endorsed ''Acct. of Books delivered R. Gunter, 2nd mouth, 1701," and another list headed "Account of ye disposal of ChurchiU's Books," which accounts for the sale of several hundreds of valuable books, such as 25 volumes of Locke's various works, Dampier's Voyages, Hennepin's Voyages, Milton's works, Machiavelli, Sir William Temple, Diodonis Siculus, etc., etc. They vs^re bought by varioiis persons, the proprietor, S. Carpenter, P. Fainnan, James Logan and others. These transactions might indicate that libraries were consigned to him from England to be disposed of by him; and that he sold them shows that there was a market for such wares in Pennsylvania. Another paper seems to suggest that Jacob Taylor had charge of a library belonging to the proprietor. These books were loaned to proper persons, and charges to them for these loans appear in the account. Thomas Fairman, one of the prominent men iu the early history of the Colony, agent in Pennsylvania of the "Pennsylvania Land Company in Lon- don," one of Governor Markham's Council, and a Justice of the Upland Court before the arrival of William Penn in 1682, left to Jacob Taylor, by his will, dated December 12, 1710, his globes and his chime of bells; to be held by Taylor during his life, and to revert, after Taylor's death, to the testator's son, Thomas Fairman. When Jacob Taylor reached his sixty-first year, he was probably no longer able to lead so active a life as the duties of the Surveyor General's office required, and his other occupations may have been more congenial to his tastes. He retired from the position, and Benjamin Eastburn was commissioned as his successor October 29, 1733. He seems thereafter to have considered the house of his nephew, John Taylor (XIV 15), his home, but he must have spent most of his time in Phila- delphia, where his academy and his literary work largely engrossed his attention. Benjamin Eastburn, who was Taylor's assistant before he became his suc- cessor, had apparently incurred some pecuniary obligation to him, about which there was some curious correspondence. Till'; TAYI.OII KA.MII.V. 35 Nicholas Scull, who in turn succeeded I'.cnjainiu Kastl)urn as Surveyor Gfueral, writes February 5, 1736, to Jacob Taylor, askinji; him for an order on Benjamin Eastburn for some money. With an expression of the highest esteem for Jacob Taylor, Scull concludes his letter with the hope that this modest request for money will not lessen their ancient friendship, and his emotions being stirred, he drojis into poetry after this fashion: — "Shall sordid Pelf our ffriendshii) ee'r Distroy" "Or want of Cash the sacrod Knot untie" "No! Jacob, No! I hope our ffriondship's pure" "And will whilo we have beating hearts endure." Eastburn does not seem to have responded satisfactorily, and it became necessary for Taylor to write him June 2, 17;59: — "Me. Eastburx : — "These few lines are to desire about as many from you in answer to my last. Procrastination (if too long) is equal to a Denial, and sometimes worse, but from vou T expect better. "I am. Sir, 1 ours, "J. T." Eastburn replies very amiably September 19, 1T:)0, acknowledging his indebtedness and remitting an account thereof. The correspondence closes with a letter from Scull to Taylor, dated -TiJy 10, 1743, in which he makes some suggestions as to interesting matter to he put into Taylor's Almanac, which he seems to consider a wonderful production. Jacob Taylor never married. He seems to have always retained an affectionate regard for his kindred, and, in fact, the records disclose in him the kindliest character that I have met among the eighteenth century members of my family. He writes to Isaac Taylor, who was his Deputy Surveyor, and whom he addresses as "Loving Brother," under date of May 14, 1713, a letter about some surveys that were needed, and says, referring to Isaac's illness, of which he has just heard — "I much prefer to hear of thy recovery, and then furnish thee with more of these worldly affairs." He continues — "Jose])h Robinson is now in haste (it's the fa.shi(m of several to come when liieir horses are saddled), and I shall only say with jiraycrs for the return of thy sanity and strength, "Thine, "Jacob Taylor." He writes to his nephew, John Taylor, July 1."), 1731 — "If you .send me a line by the messenger of this, it will seem to add something to my little life, much more if that informs nie that yourself will eoTue soon after." 6 86 THE SMITH COLLATERAL ANCESTRY. His kindly nature elicited kind feeling in return. James Logan, who was one of the first men in the Province in position, in learning and in sterling worth, seems to have had a sincere affection for Taylor. He writes him from Stenton December 20, 1743, sending him two treatises which he had written — one on "Generation," and another on "Optics," the deep calculations of which latter treatise, Logan says, are entirely his own. He closes his letter thus — "As I am lame thou knows, and now grown vory feeble, I can but rarely visit Philadelphia ; were it otherwise thy distance from hence should not, I assiire thee, prevent me of the pleasure of one other sight of my old friend thyself ; their number being now so exceedingly reduced, and I never forget such, but more especially those of such worth as I well know thee to be, and I would account it a very great obligation to be favored by a visit from thee, in which I hope thou would find some entertainment from the company of thv old affectionate friend. "J. Logan." His life drew peacefully to its close. His humor grew gradually in bis later years to be rather serious ; he has a kindly sarcasm for what he calls "the little foolish farse of life," and he fell in his writing, as ageing men are apt to fall, somewhat into the vein of "the weary king Ecclesiast." He ended his life March 2, 1746, at the house of his nephew, John Taylor, who was then his nearest living relative. He was always a member of the Society of Friends. His nephew, John Taylor (XIV 15), was appointed to administer his estate. Isaac Taylor (XIII 6) was a "practitioner of Physick," as well as a sur- veyor. As there was no school of medicine in America in his time, and the "art and mystery" of healing had, therefore, to be handed on from physicians who had been educated in the older countries to their pupils, it is probable that he gained his knowledge from his cousin, Israel Taylor. He was too intelligent a man to have entered upon the practice of that profession without proper instruction, and his calling as a physician was admitted, and was recog- nized in some of the documents that still siirvive. He married, in 1694, Martha, daughter of Philip Roman, and soon aftei'- ward settled in Thornbury township, Chester county, which remained his home during his whole life. Tlis name does not appear among the taxables in Thornbury in 1693, but is on the list for 1696. The tradition of the family, as voiced by his great-granddaughter, IMrs. Martha Morris, born 1783 (Frazer XVI 8), represents that "they must have been accustomed to pretty high living, for their house in Thornbury was superior to houses in this country generally, and they had a separate house for their servants. Isaac's wife also kept a dressing maid." Mrs. Morris says further that Isaac and Jacob Taylor were men of superior education, and there is other testimony, notably that of Smith in his History of Delaware County, to the same effect. THK TAYLOK FAMILY. 87 Isaac Taylor was certainly a man in comfortable circumstances. In Thornbury township his property was assessed in 1722 at £80. Ilis Thorn- bury farm was on the east side of Chester creek. The existing records of his life, however, refer chiefly, not to his activities as an owner of real estate, or as a physician, but to his work as a surveyor. He was, in 1701, appointed Deputy Surveyor for Chester county, succeeding Henry Hollingsworth, and he was actively engaged during the rest of his life in the duties pertaining to that oiHce. Soon after his appointment he was commissioned on the part of Pennsylvania, October 28, 1701, to run the boundary lino dividing New Castle county from Chester county, Thomas Pier- son, Surveyor of New Castle county, holding a similar commission on the part of that county. The warrant for the work required the surveyors to meet the Magistrates of the two counties, and "in their presence to admeasure and survey from the town of New Castle, the distance of twelve miles in a right line up ye said river, and from ye said distance, according to ye King's letters patent and deeds from the Duke, and ye said circular line to be well marked two-thirds parts of ye semi-circle." There is among the Taylor papers a draft of the tovm of New Castle, Delaware, showing the beginning of the boundary line, and another showing in detail the streams crossed by the circidar line as it sweeps around from the Delaware river to the crossing of the Christiana creek. This work was performed December 4, 1701, and Ashmcad, in his His- tory of Delaware County, says that this survey is the only one ever made of the circular boundary between Delaware and Pennsylvania. A resurvey was ordered May 28, 1715, but it was not made, and the line traced by Isaac Taylor still remains the boundary after two hundred years. The survey was less costly than some later ones have been. The Grand Jury for Chester county found, February 24, 1702, that the proper charges for the work amounted to twenty-six pounds, nine shillings, and they therefore allowed the account. The circular boundary line was confirmed by the Pennsylvania Legisla- ture in 1715; and by the Council November 7, 1710, and Governor Keith, under date of August 12, 1724, notified the Assembly of Delaware that he "will observe it as their boundary in all fviturc orders." It is curious to note how much our family has been connected with bound- ary surveys. Isaac Taylor, who was my great-grandmother's great-grand- father, in 1701 ran the boimdary between Delaware and Pennsylvania; his son, John Taylor, ran the Pennsylvania-Maryland boundary as far west as the Susquehanna river, and in 1732 continued the suiwey ninety miles to the west- ward of the Susquehanna; my grandfather, Joseph Smith, was, in 1795, one of the party who surveyed the western part of the boundary between Pennsyl- vania and New York; and I was, from 1857 to 1864, one of the astronomers on the survey of the northwestern boundary of the Fnited States, from the Rocky mountains to the Pacific ocean. 88 THE SMITH COLLATERAL ANCESTRY. Tliis survey, in 1701, was by no means the last that Isaac Taylor was to liear about provincial boundaries. In November, 1722, Governor William Keith reported to the Council Board that the Magistrates of Cecil county, Maryland, had very unkindly made prisoners of Isaac Taylor, the Surveyor, a Magistrate and member of Assembly for the County of Chester, and Elisha Gatchel, another Magistrate of the same county, and bound them over to appear at Cecil Court. The Governor reasons that, as Isaac Taylor was taken only for surveying to the northward of the line which this province has always claimed, and Elisha Gatchel on an action founded on falsehood, and as to try such a case by either province on a matter in dispute between them would be no better than determining it by force, therefore, the Board should advise, and it did advise, that the Governor of Maryland be asked to stay proceedings, and the proprietor be asked to press in England for a final adjustment of the boundary line. Governor Keith asks his Council to advise him whether these men should report to the authorities of Maryland, as they have agreed to do, on November 24. Council advises that they ought not by any means to do so, and that the Governor ought to support them in defence of their just rights. Isaac Taylor rendered an account against the proprietor for his time and expenses in this afFair, which aggregate £47 5s. lOd. Under date of December 16, he charges "to four and twenty days I was kept in prison in Maryland with expenses £20," so that it is probable that Isaac was as good as his word, and went back to Maryland, and stood his trial as he had promised to do. December 15, 1702, he was ordered by the Council to lay out on Kidlcy creek, in Willistown township, Chester county, a tract of four hundred acres of land as a reservation for the Okekocking Indians. On this tract they lived for many years. He held various offices in the county, and under the Proprietor. James Logan, as Eeceiver General for the Proprietor, appointed him, December 11, 1704, Collector of Quit rents for the County of Chester. The latest record of his discharge of the duties of this position is in 1711. He was a member of the Pennsvlvania Assembly in 1704, 1705, 1710, 1712, 1719, 1721 and 1722. He was appointed a Justice by Governor Evans in 1719, and was reap- pointed from time to time till his death, in 1728. He was County Commissioner of Chester county from 1726 till his death. So far as we can gather from the records of his life, Isaac Taylor, like Isaac of the Biblical story, was a quiet man. His career was not as full of interest as that of his brother, Jacob, and not as intense as that of his son, John, but he apparently filled creditably all positions in which he was placed, and was a worthy and estimable citizen. He was a member of the Society of Friends, and a subscriber June 10, 1697. to the erection of the Concord Meeting house. THE TAYLOR FAMILY. 89 The date of his death is not exactly known. His will is dated May 14, 1728, and proved June 4, 1728. It appoints his wife and his son, John, his executors, and his brothers-in-law, Philip and Jacob Roman, assistant executors, He gives his home plantation in Thornbury township, containing 146 acres, to his wife, Martha, during her life, to go to her son, Philip, after her death. To his son John 100 acres in Concord township, bought of James Chevers. To his son Jacob the northern half of his tract of 500 acres in Bradford township. He disposes of his large surveying instrument to Jacob his son. "What little is known of his wife, Martha Roman, will be found in the history of the Roman family. GENERATION XIV. anx so. MEMBER OP TAMILT. CONSORT. BIRTH. MARRIAGE. DEATH. RESIDENCB. The Children of Israel Taylor (XIII 1). IV 1 Christopher Ta.vlor. Dec, 1748. 2 Thomas Ta.vlor. 3 Benjamin Ta.vlor. Israel Taylor. about 1734. 4 Samuel Taylor. Elizabeth Wright. 5 Mary Taylor. I. Jonas Sandelands. II. Arthur Shield. « Diana Taylor. Oartman. 7 Hannah Taylor. Lloyd. 8 Eleanor Taylor. Molloy. » Sarah Taylor. Bailey. 10 Martha Taylor. Enoch Elliot. The Children of Elizabeth Taylor (XIII 4) and Hugh Durborow. 1 John Durborow. Sarah Day. Dec. 24, 1686. Oct. 12. 1710. Philadelphia, Pa. 2 Hugh Durborow. Hannah Albertson. Jan. 11. 1689. July 11, 1723. Kent Co., Md. 3 Daniel Durborow. Sarah Coleman. May 4, 1691. 4 Hannah Durborow. Jan. 20, 1696. T, Elizabeth Durborow. Oct. 21, 1700. 6 Isaac Durborow. Jan. 8. 1694. 7 Joseph Durborow. Apr. 20, 1699. 8 Mary Durborow. Jan. 1, 1703. 19 Jacob Durborow. Feb. 3, 1705. 1 'HE Children of Isaac Taylor (XIII 3) and Martha Roman. 20 John Taylor. I. Mary Worrilow Baker. II. Elizabeth Moore. 1697. I.Sept.10,1718 II. Oct., 1734 March, 175G. Thornbury Twp., Chester Co. 21 Jacob Taylor. Grace Worrilow. about 1700. Oct. 13, 1728. about 1745. Whiteland Twp., Chester Co. 22 Philip Taylor. never married. about 1702. about 1749. 23 Ann Taylor. I. Sam'l Savage. Jr. II. George Taylor. about 1705. 1733. a Mary Taylor. I. Harry Young. II. Samuel Brogdon. about 1706. I. 1733 II. 1737 Chester Twp., Chester Co. 90 THE SMITH COLLATERAL ANCESTRY. John Taylor (XI\' 30). The date of his birth is approximate. He says, September 'J, 17;35, in his deposition before Thomas Lawrence, Mayor of Piiiladelphia, in regard to the running of the Pennsylvania-Maryland Boundary, west of the Susquehanna, that "be is thirty-seven years of age or thereabouts," and while this statement for some reason does not claim to be exact, it is best, perhaps, to take his birth year as 1697, though an earlier year would fit better with the dates of his mother's marriage and his own. He was live years younger than his wife, which would lead bini to state his age as being as great as truth would allow. Our information in regard to his adult life is very voluminous. There are few men who lived a century and a half aoo in Pennsylvania who have left more documentary evidence of the work of their lives. lie kept, for many 3'ears, a memorandum book into which went all sorts of details of business and family affairs, and hundreds of his papers of various sorts are still in existence. He married, as a very young man, Mary, the widow of Joseph Baker, Jr., and the daughter of John Worrilow. She was somewhat of an heiress in the right of her father and her husband, having large landed possessions in Thorn- bury township. John Taylor's father and the widow were the executors of the estate of her deceased husband, Joseph Baker, Jr., but the business soon fell into the hands of the son. Pie and Mrs. Baker were near neighbors, and the intimacy which gTew up during the settlement of Joseph Baker's estate ended in mar- riage, after which John Taylor took up his residence at his wife's home, and he s]ient there his whole life. He bought from the estate of Joseph Baker 430 acres of land in Edginont, where he settled, so that the farm became his own. I can find no record of the date of her death. In an agreement, dated April 17, 1723, relating to the settlement of the estate of Mary AVorrilow's grandfather, Thomas Worrilow, the names of all her brothers and sisters are recited, except the youngest, who was then a child of 13. Mary's name is missing, but it seems hardly credible that she, who bore at least five children to John Taylor, should have died in less than five years after her marriage, and I can only account for her name not appearing by the fact that her hus- band, John Taylor, was the jiarty with whom all the Worrilow heirs were mak- ing an agreement, and she probably could not appear on their side, as her interest would then be opposed to her husband's. If this view is correct, I think it probable that she lived till aboxit 1733. John Taylor, ado])ted the profession of his father, and is styled in some of the extant official documents "Practitioner of Physick." There are many notes in his memorandum books which relate to his medical career. Besides noting several medical and surgical cases, for some of which he makes a charge, while he makes none in other cases, he casually mentions the remedies used in his practice, such as Camphor, Sal. Epsom, Ipecacuanha, Sal. Vit., Mer- curius Ihdc, Calomel, Gum Arabick, Tart. Emetic, etc., vigorous remedies, and no doubt applied in heroic doses, such as befitted a sturdy race engaged in the THE TAYLOR FAIIIIA'. 91 hard and manly work of anbduing a continent. He is said to have been the only practicing physician between Chester and Lancaster, so that he probably was not called in for trifling ailments. He was a farmer on a large scale. His home farm is said to have con- tained twelve hundred acres, and he followed his father's example in picking up choice pieces of ground which his practice as a surveyor brought to his notice in different parts of the county. Pie notes the sale on several occasions of his crop of hemp to his father-in-law, John Worrilow, and of wheat to his brother Jacob. In 1741t he desires James Webb to send him from Lancaster county as much red clover seed as will sow ten acres of land for pasture. At that time the use of red clover was just commencing, its virtues having been discovered in Great Britain only a few years before, and the seed was not easily obtainable. He is said to have had a large house, and a beautifully cultivated garden, and to have been learned in botany, which was probably considered a more necessary part of medical lore in days when the i>hysician had, to a great extent, to grow and compound his own remedies, than it is now. Scientific botany was then unknown of course but there was perhaps as umch practical knowledge of the value of herbs as there is at present. He grew large quanti- ties of the old English red rose, the leaves of which had a medicinal use, and from them, from lavender and other hcrlw he distilled "waters" on a large scale. In a community which had been set as Penn's colony was, to learn by experience the art of self-government, the strong men naturally gravitated toward public life, and John Taylor held many positions in the service of the colony. He was the Sheriff of Chester county by annual appointment of the Governor from 1720 to 1731, a longer time than the office has been hehl by any other man; he was a member of Assembly in 1730 and 1731, and a Justice of the Peace, ajipointed in 1741, and holding office till 1745. Several drafts of political papers, and of addresses to the authorities, and to the public remain to attest his activity in this line. January 2, 1741, he addresses a letter to the Commissioners and Assessors of Chester county, who probably were re- sponsible for the nomination to the Governor of fit persons for the position of County Treasurer. In this letter he recites "various efforts he had made for several years past to introduce economy in the management of public affairs, and feeling himself obliged, in regard to the repeated favors which the freemen of Chester county have shown him, to make such an acknowledgment to them, in defence of any unnecessary expense or exorbitant demands that should be attempted to be laid on them, and understanding that the Treasurer charged exorbitant sums for handling the public money," he advises them "that he is willing to ser\'e the county as Treasurer without bringing any account against the public for the same." The Commissioners and Assessors decide that, as the present Treasurer (who was Joseph Brinton) makes the same offer, they see no reason to change the incumbent. His proposition, if made now, would be considered a sus- 92 THE SMITH COI.LATERAL ANCESTEY. picioiis one, but as he was a man of large means and excellent position, and unblemished character, it is probable that his offer was declined chiefly because it was thought that he had held a sufficient number of public positions. Pos- sibly, too, as he grew somewhat imperious in his later years, he was no longer popular, and the authorities may have preferred to appoint a more flexible person. He seems to have drafted papers on all sorts of subjects for all sorts of people, such as Wills, Deeds and Agreements, and to have been executor or ad- ministrator of a numlier of estates, so that it seems marvelous how any one could have found time to do all that he did. December 2, 1742, he makes for William Plumstead, Registrar-General, an elaborate statement of "the practice of Justices of the Peace in Philadelphia, in settling intestates' accounts in the Orphans' Court ;" and for his own use he prepared a "Memorandum of Wills," showing the points to be made, and to be guarded in drawing them. In his memorandum book he notes that he requires a copy of Swinburne's Treatment of Testaments and Last Wills, and The Clerk's Remembrancer, by G. Jacobs. Among the Taylor papers is a vigorous letter to William Moore, who I conjecture was his second wife's brother-in-law, taking him to task for some political intrigue in which he was engaged with Isaac Wayne, father of Anthony Wayne. This letter was apparently written about 1741. Evidently, the coalition of interests between Wayne and Moore was not to Taylor's profit, and he speaks harshly of both of the men. But his imperiousness comes out nowhere so noticeably as it does in his quarrel with his second wife. This marriage was apparently an imhappy one. There had been trouble from the beginning. Something in the manner of the marriage did not please the Society of Friends. It may have been that his Avife was not of that persuasion, but whatever it was, they called him to account, and set a day for a hearing. He did not attend, and afterward plead the urgency of the Proprietor's business as an excuse ; but he writes, December 7, 1734, to his friends, Harry Obourn and Ralph Eavenson, expressing his desire for peace and harmony, but plainly intending that the case shall not be decided adversely to him without his defence having been first heard. June 2, 1735, he made an acknowledg-ment in regard to his second marriage, which was ac- cepted by the Meeting. The matter ended, however, by both of them being disowned in 1745 and May 3, 1746. Started badly, it continued to go badly, and at a later date he denounces his wife most roundly for extravagance, neglect of his interests, and of his children, and proceeds to such length that it would seem as if there could have been no reconciliation. Put after his death she received her share of the estate, which she con- trolled and managed during her widowhood. She oiitlived him sixteen years, and in her M'ill, dated Eebruary 28, 1772, after leaving some small legacies to THE TAYLOK FAMILY. 93 her own relatives, she, having herself no children, bequeaths all the remainder of her estate to Dr. Taylor's grandchildren, Mary Worrall Frazer and Sarah Thomson, so that some way of healing the breach must have been found. Her own property she left to her friend, Daniel Calvert. There remains, so far as I can discover, no unfavorable tradition in regard to her, and it may be that her husband judged her too hardly. This second wife's maiden name was Elizabeth Jones, but at the time of her marriage to John Taylor she was the widow of John Moore, who Gilbert Cope suggests was John Moore, Jr., of Birmingham, Pa., a son of John and Margaret Moore, of Thornbury, Delaware Co., Pa. John Moore, Jr., made his will October 8, 1733, and left his widow, Elizabeth, executrix. They apparently had no children. John Taylor evidently was a masterful man, accustomed to rule, and not easy to deal with when his will was thwarted, and his temper did not improve as he grew older. For his time, he must have been in affluent circumstances. He was evi- dently the capitalist of the family; his books abound with memoranda of advances to his own and his first wife's family. He continued to loan money or to give credits at his store to his children for some years after their marriages, giving his sons positions in his service, but not dividing his estate. It may iiave been that his denial of initiative to them prevented their business develo]> ment. Certain it is that the ability of the family died with him, and after his death one gets from the family papers an impression that the business had no head, and that his large estate was unskillfully administered. One of the greatest business interests of his life was in connection with the iron works which he called "Sarum Forge." There is no definite note of the commencement of the manufacture of iron about the locality which is now known as Glen ilills, in Thornbury towmship, Delaware county. Dr. John Huddleson (XVIII 1), born 1800, who was a great-great-gi-audson of Dr. John Taylor (XIV 20), and who lived on the old Taylor place, and, therefore, was probably well informed as to the family his- tory, believed that Sarum forge antedated Dr. Taylor's ownership of the prop- erty. The land came into his possession through his marriage with Mary Baker, born Worrilow. It was part of a tract of 1,500 acres granted originally by William Penn to John Simcock, a member of the Free Society of Traders, and one of the largest purchasers of Pennsylvania lands in England. Joseph Baker, John Worrilow and Daniel Iloopes bought 500 acres of this tract, March 12, 1699. Mary Worrilow, who was a daughter of John Worrilow, a daughter-in-law of Joseph Baker, and a niece of Jean Worrilow, the wife of Daniel Hoopes, combined, curiously, parts of the interests of all the owners of this land, upon which, as the wife of Joseph Baker, she lived. John Taylor, who married her September 10, 1718, bought out the titles of the partners so far as his wife did not inherit them. If, then. Dr. John Huddleson is right, Sarum forge antedates 1718. The 94 THE SMITH COLLATERAL ANCESTRY. name given to the forge is the old name of Salisbury, the capital of Wiltshire, England, from which county so many of our ancestors came. The first notice of the forge that I have found is in that record of things great and small that occurred in Dr. John Taylor's busy life, his memorandum book, and it is dated January 2.5, 1721. Its l)0giiuiing must date back of this time, of course, and if Dr. Huddleson is right, we may assume 1715 as its probable beginning. Just what it was at first does not appear. It may have been but a country blacksmith shop, as the work done at it was such as "A pair of old plov*' irons £0 16s. Od. ;" "A pair of shoes £0 6s. Od." John Taylor's interest in iron works on a larger scale probably originated in his intercourse with JSFutt and Branson, who were among the earliest iron workers of Pennsylvania. As early as 1720, and occasionally for some years after, he was engaged in making surveys of iron ore lands for these men about the forks of French creek, in Coventry township, in which locality Reading and Warwick furnaces were afterward located — Reading going into blast in 1737, and Warwick a few years later — and from the numerous papers which refer to Nutt and Branson's affairs he evidently had an intimate connection with them. John Potts became connected with Nutt and Branson in 1736, and they and Taylor evidently thought out the plan by which the pig iron of Reading and W^arwick could be worked into bar iron, so utilizing Taylor's water powers on Chester creek. Acrelius says that Dr. John Taylor built Sarum forge in 1742. It must soon have gi-own to something more important than a blacksmith shoji, as July, 1742, John Taylor gives an order to his son Isaac, his storekeeper, to take "half a ton of pig iron" in trade from his sister, Mary Brogdon, so that at least by that time the forge must have been in operation, as pig iron would not be used in an ordinary blacksmith shop, and August 31, 1743, Obadiah Bonsall petitions the court for license ''to open an Inn at his house on the road leading from the French creek Iron Works to Thornbury forge, for the accommodation of the public, because there were many people resorting to and working at or near to the said forge." Cope in his history of Chester county says that horses were not shod till the middle of the eighteenth century, and Ashmead in his history of Delaware county says that as at that time not one horse in fifty was shod, and wagons were but little used, it could not be said that an ordinary blacksmith shop in a sparsely settled region could give employment to many persons. In 1743 the forge was apparently called ''Thornbury," the first use of the name "Sarum" appearing in the contract with Thomas Wills in 1745. The forge once established it appeared important to carry the manu- facture further than the production of bar iron, and a rolling and slitting mill was added in 1746, as is proved by the returns made in 1750 by John Owen, Sheriff. As the processes then used for the manufacture of iron are now obsolete, it may be well to pause for a moment to consider what they were. THE TAYLOR FAMILY. 95 The forge establishment consisted essentially of a water power derived from the fall of Chester creek, which operated the hammer and also fnrnished by means of a bellows, made of two large cedar '"blowing tubs," bound with hoop iron, and furnished with valves made of wood and leather, the blast necessary to drive two open heating charcoal tires, one of which was called "the finery," and the other the "chafery," and a trip hammer. The work of the forge consisted in taking a portion of pig iron, of say a hundred weight, which after heating in the finery was drawna down under the hammer, the dross being thus worked out, and the iron formed into "a bloom," about four inches square and two feet long. By two or three alterna- tions of heating in the finery and hammering, an "ancony" was produced, which was a bar of the diameter desired, three feet long, with a roughly square head at each end. These heads were reheated in the chafery and rehammered iintil a round bar of the desired diameter was produced. The rolling and slitting mill, which was the first built in Pennsylvania, was for the purpose of reducing these bars into smaller iron, such as nail rods. The bars were broken into suitable lengths, heated and passed through grooved rollers, which reduced them in diameter, after which tliey were cut to lengths in the slitting mill. These operations represented in the middle of the eighteenth century the most advanced processes of iron making. They used no better methods in England, or on the continent of Europe, and his erection of such works proves that John Taylor was an enterprising man, and that he could command a capital which was considerable for that period. His method of working would not now be possible, for, not to speak of the crudeness of his mechanical contrivances, the assembling of his materials must have been very expensive. Charcoal he could get from his own forests, and June 20, 1746, we find him making a contract with Keese Jones to burn two hundred cords of wood in iliddletown, at lis. 8d. per hundred bushels, to be paid for "half money, half goods, as customary." His forge work was also done under contract, Thomas Wills, forgeman and finer, agreeing, January 18, 1745, to work in the forge two years in mak- ing "anconies" at 22s. 6d. per ton. But his raw material, pig iron, had to be brought from Reading Furnace in Coventry township, which was probably twenty-five miles distant, over roads built in 1727, that were hilly and other- wise atrocious, and his finished product, except such as had a local sale, had to be carried to Marcus Hook, on the Delaware, which was a journey of twelve miles. Peter Kalm, the Swedish naturalist, who visited Pennsylvania in the autumn of 1748, says of Chichester or IMarcus Hook, "They build here every year a number of small ships for sale, and from an iron work which lies higher up in the country they carry iron bars to this place and ship them." This iron work was Sarum Forge. Pig iron cost at Reading Furnace £7 per ton in 1750; £7 10s. in 1752, and £6 10s. in 1755. Bar iron, v.hich was Sarum's product, sold for £18 per 96 THE SMITH COLLATERAL ANCESTRY. ton ill 174(t, and for £-2i) ]ipi' ton in 1754. His tilt liaiiiiiur, which weighed 10 cwt. 2 qrs., cost him, at £16 per ton, £8 8s. By the time he had fairly embarked iu the iron business, Taylor found that to build his works, and to carry them on with the long credits that had to be given in those days, would require additional capital, and he made a business connection with AVilliam Plumstead, who was flavor of Philadelphia in 1750 and in 1754-5, and Registrar-General of the Province from 1745 to 1765. Plumstead furnished Taylor, at first, supplies, such as sugar, molasses, nam, osnaburgs (a coarse cloth used for workmen's clothing), etc., taking pay in casli, flour, etc., but later, advancing cash and receiving bars and other products of the iron works. The first note of these transactions is made June 12, 1741, and they con- tinued till 1753, when the account was closed. The first shipments of bar iron to Plumstead's order were made in 1740. On April 12, 174G, the advance amounted to £850 2s. lid., which sum was reduced by various payments, standing, November 16, 1751, at £671 18s. 2d.; and when a final settlement was made April 12, 1753, Taylor was in credit £381 6s. 2d., so that notwith- standing the great cost of manufacture, there was a profit in the iron business in the middle of the eighteenth century. The pounds were doubtless Penn- sylvania currency, worth $2.fi6|, and not pounds sterling. In 1754 ancj 1755 Taylor purchased pig iron from Col. Samuel Flower, then in charge of Heading Furnace, and in 1775 the then proprietors bought pig iron from Potts and Putter, who then owned Warw'ick Furnace. March 8, 1754, he bought of Joseph Wharton a lot of plates, "the new at 16 pounds per ton, the old at two-thirds the price, and all the remainder of the castings at five pounds per ton, to be paid in bar iron at twenty-six pounds per ton." These plates were, I suppose, to be worked over in his rolling mill, and the cast iron to be first treated at the forge. The supply of skilled labor was deficient in the country at that time, and after the expiration of the contract with Thomas Wills, as forgeman and finer, he contracted June 25, 1748, with Csesar Andrew, of Chester county, as hammerman for three years. He is to work the chafery and the hammer, and to receive fifteen shillings per ton for all the good and merchantable iron he may prodiice, besides six pounds per year for cutting hammers and anvils, and keeping the forge in order. His wages were to be increased to 17s. 6d. per ton, if he could so improve himself as to become a complete hammerman. In this contract John Taylor speaks of himself as "of Saraim Forge and Iron Works in the said county of Chester." Taylor complains in 1752 that he, Andrew, did not jjrove satisfactory, and had absconded, not having settled his accounts with him. "Ca?sar neglected my business, destroyed my hammer and gears, and wasted my aneonies and coals, so that, upon a moderate computation, I am damaged by his ill conduct above £100." He says that "the practice is to pay for drawing the aneonies, 35s. per ton, and 5s. per ton is allowed for coal. Each ton finer's weight is twenty-two hundred, which will yield twenty TI£K TAYLOR FAMILY. 97 hundred bar iron, and what more the luunnicruian useth he always pays for, and this is the rule among all ironmasters who understand their business." Taylor brings suit against Andrew, and sends very shrewd instructions to his lawyers as to the points to be nuule against him in the Lancaster county court, but as Andrew ran away to Maryland, it is probable that "he had his ti'ouble for his pains," and got nothing more. Andrew had produced during his engagement 143 tons 19 cwt. 1 qr. 18 lbs. of iron, at rates of pay varying from 15 shillings to 20 shillings per ton, but he drew money so liberally that, as Taylor makes up the account, Andrew remains £93 7s. lid. in his debt. Robert Moulder was at this time his factor at Marcus Hook. One of Taylor's letters to William Plumstead refers to this, and otherwise exempli- fies the business between them so well that I quote it here. The letter is evi- dently a copy and is unsigned. "Sir :— "I have sent you by Robert Moulder two tons one hundred of bar iron, be pleased to ship it for Boston and let the return be made in oil, loaf sugar and rum, or such other goods as you may think most suitable, if these can't be had, in this you will extremely oblige your "Assured friend and very humble servant." "April 11, 1751. "To Mr. Plumstead." To the manufacture of bar iron at the "Pennsylvania Slitting Mill," as it was called, was added the production of hoop iron, sheet iron, nail rods for horse shoes, and deck nails for ship building. Soon after the erection of the mill, his storekeeper, probably his son Isaac Taylor, on one of his periodical visits to England, after pricing nails in Liverpool, told the merchant with whom he was dealing that he could buy them cheaper at Taylor's mill in Penn- sylvania. This alarmed the English ironmasters, and led to a Parliamentary inquiry as to the condition of the iron manufacture in the colonies. Pending this inquiry, however, it is said that an order reached Pennsylvania, before Taylor's storekeeper returned, forbidding the erection of any more iron works. In due time, September 18, 1750, John Owen, Sheriil of Chester county, certified to James Hamilton, Lieutenant Governor, as the result of this inquiry, "That there is hut one mill or engine for slitting and rolling iron within the county aforesaid, which is situate in Thornbury township, and was erected in the year One Thousand Seven Hundred and Forty-six by John Taylor, the present proprietor." The order in regard to the erection of iron mills did not forbid the work- ing of those already in existence, and these works were kept in repair and in operation, though running sometimes at a loss until after the Revolution. Acrelius writing soon after John Taylor's death, of the iron industry 98 THE SMITH COLLATERAL ANCESTEY. in T'onnsvlvania, says, "Sarum belongs to Taylor's heirs, has three stacks and is in full'blast." In addition to the forge and the rolling and slitting mill above spoken of, John Taylor had, on Chester creek, a grist mill and a saw mill, each, apparently, having its own dam for the creation of a water power, the several industries being extended along the creek for a distance of about a mile. The saw mill probably only produced' lumber for local consumption, but as John Taylor had flour for export, the grist mill evidently worked for a more exten- sive market. His factor, Robert Moulder, in 1755, besides advising him that the West Indies is a good market for his flour, beef and pork, tells him that he will do well to make a shipment of iron there, as the freight is but one pound per ton, and it will bring thirty pounds per ton there. There is a tradition in the family that John Taylor had blast furnaces also on Chester creek, and Acrelius in 1756 speaks of there being "three stacks in blast." It is certain that he was a large purchaser of pig iron, and while it may have been that he had one or more charcoal furnaces, which did not make enough iron to supply his forge, I think that as there is no mention of blast furnace operations among his accounts, and as I know of no iron mines in his neighborhood, the probability is that the report in regard to the blast furnaces is incorrect, and that Acrelius referred to heating furnaces connected with the forge. This sketch of John Taylor's industrial operations will show that with his iron works of various kinds, his grist mill, his saw mill, his store, which evidently gathered in the produce of a considerable section of country for shipment by way of Marcus Hook, and supplied the same section with grocer- ies, clothing and various imported articles in exchange, and his several farms in Chester and Delaware counties, his home farm alone containing twelve himdred acres, he was no inconsiderable personage as an employer of labor and a distributor of the products of labor. John Taylor died at the comparatively early age of fifty-nine. Like many another busy man, death came to him unawares, and he left no will. His wife, through her widow's life-interest in the estate, came into control of a large portion of his property, including in her possessions the plot of ground, thirty-four acres in extent, on which all his mills were located. After his death the widow leased for the term of her life, this plot, with all the works thereon, to Daniel Calvert, who had been six years before con- nected with the iron works, possibly as John Taylor's foreman. In 1760 the property seems to have been in the control of Jonathan Vaughan and Samuel Kennedy, who bound themselves October 4, 1760, to Dennis Whelen in the sum of £1000 to carry out a contract which they made on the same day for the purchase and management of Sarum forge, and March 21, 1770, Daniel Calvert leased to James Thomson, who had married, in 1768, John Taylor's granddaughter, Sarah, and to Pcrsifor Frazer, who had married, in 1766, his THE TAYLOR FAMILY. 99 granddaughter, Mary, both wives being children of John Taylor, the younger, a two-thirds interest in the saw mill and grist mill, for the term of Elizabeth Taylor's natural life, they stipulating to pay a rental of twenty-three pounds, six shillings and eight pence, annually, therefor, and to keep the works in repair. This rental, which was at the rate of thirty-five pounds per annum, for the three-thirds interest, cannot have been a large rent, considering the cost of the manufacturing plant. The works were evidently somewhat out of repair — possibly through dis- use for a time — and Daniel Calvert agreed to put them "into reasonable and tenantable repair" at his own sole cost and charge. He also leased all of the works, including the grist and saw mills, to John Potts, of White Marsh township, Philadelphia county, reserving the rights of James Thomson and Persifor Frazer, under the agreement of March 24, 1770, for the annual rental of seventy-six pounds, and May 21, 1771, Potts, Thomson and Frazer join their interests, agreeing to rebuild the slitting mill, and to carry on the biisiness. It is stated that John Taylor's son, John Taylor (XV 3), had operated the works after the death of his father, but the agreement imder which he had done this does not appear. He died in 1761, and apparently the iron works as well as the saw and grist mills, had had a period of idleness, though Sarum forge, in 1766 was operated by John Chamberlain. To complete the history of these several mills — Elizabeth Taylor prob- ably died in 1772, her will having been made on March 30 of that year, and in 1775 the estate of John Taylor the younger was divided. Anthony Wayne, later known to fame as "Mad Anthony," who was then following his calling of civil engineer, made the surveys preparatory to the partition. In the partition deed made March 13, 1775, a tract containing one hundred and sixty-nine acres and thirty-four perches, "on which are erected an iron forge, slitting mill, gi-ist mill and saw mill, with other valuable improvements," was divided between John Potts and Ann, his wife, James Thomson, and Sarah, his wife, Persifor Frazer, and Mary, his wife, and Thomas Bull, of East Nantmeal, and Ann (Hunter), his wife. Potts received a tract of eight acres sitviated where Wilcox's Upper Glen Paper Mill now stands, with the saw mill, gi-ist mill and the seat for a slitting mill, and Thomson and Frazer received thirty-one acres and eighteen perches of land, with the forge thereon erected, the forge being where Wilcox's lower Glen Paper Mill now stands, and the mansion house which stood about whore the Wilcox mansion stands now. The slitting mill was out of repair, having prob- ably not been rebuilt, as proposed under the partnership of Potts, Thomson and Frazer in 1771, but Potts proposed now to rebuild it and obtained the necessary water rights for that purpose. Potts also received four and three- fourths acres lower down Chester creek, and above the forge lot. Thomas Bull and his wife received in the division one hundred and twen- ty-five acres, being the upper part of the tract. 100 THE SMITH COLLATERAL ANCESTRY. I suppose the reason of this division to be that in the confused state of affairs, after the death of the elder John Taylor, for there were several changes of management that are not noted here, the works had lieen run at a loss. John Potts was one of the owners of Warwick furnace, and Thomas Bull, bom 1744, afterward Lieut.-Col. Bull, of the Kevolution, was a manager of Warwick furnace. As this was one of the principal sources of supply of pig iron ior Sarum forge, I suppose that the forge owners got into debt to Potts and Bull, either for pig iron or for advances of money, and that the indebtedness was liquidated liy their taking a portion of the land and of the works. Persifor Frazer and his wife were interested in the operation of these works till after the Revolution, and Sarah Thomson had an interest in the forge as late as 1784, but the Taylor family ceased to have much to do with the industrial operations, and they gradually passed into other hands. There is no note of work done at the forge later than 1807. The grist mill, the saw mill and the slitting mill, which latter mill was re-built in 1779, were kept in operation until April 2, 1830, when the whole estate became the property of James M. Wilcox, who erected there the Glen Mills for the manufacture of paper, which manufacture has been continued ever since. In digging for the foundation of the lower one of these mills, the workmen unearthed one of the old anvils belonging to Sarum forge which stood upon that site. The records of John Taylor's surveyor's work are still more voluminous than those of his iron business, and are of themselves evidences of sutHcient activity to satisfy the desire of an ordinary man for employment. Hundreds of deeds, agreements and notes of surveys remain to attest these occupations. He was at first his father's deputy, and after his father's death succeeded him as Surveyor of Chester county, which then extended to the Susquehanna river. He was ordered to run the boundary, which set off Lancaster county in Feb- ruary, 1729, but he continued to act as surveyor for Lancaster county also. This district was fast settling up. Before the Proprietor could make deeds, the lands must be surveyed, his own manors, which were numerous, needed to be laid out, that his grants to settlers might not conflict with them, and many of the original surveys had been so carelessly or unskillfuUy made, the boundaries of each man's land generally enclosing a much larger acreage than he had paid for, that there was a constant demand for resurveys on the part of the Proprietor, who found himself defrauded of his revenues, so that the lot of the surveyor was not a happy one. There are numerous letters from James Logan, who, in one of them, signs himself "President of the Province," to John Taylor as Surveyor for Chester county. These all relate to land surveys. Logan made the sales and advised Taylor, who selected the lands and laid them out. These letters indi- cate a continuation of the close personal relations that had existed between James Logan and Jacolj and Isaac Taylor, and all went harmoniously as long as Logan was the active director. He practically leaned on John Taylor iu THE TAYLOR FAMILY. 101 the management of the personal estate of the Proprietor, especially as to Fagg's Manor, the property of William Penn's daughter, Letitia Aubrey. He ap- points him, September 22, 1737, his attorney in his beiialf "to take the charge and management of her estate of Fagg's Manor, of which charge and manage- ment tb.ou art undoubtedly the most capable of any I know." lie comidains, however, to Taylor, January 24, 1738 — "the people who squatted on Fagg's Manor come to me constantly to settle their cora]ilaints, I knowing nothing of the merits. I leave them wholly to thee, and beg thee not to disappoint me, who am, as I have ever been, very sincerely, thy friend, "J. Logan." As James Logan advanced in years, and had many other duties, the corre- spondence with Taylor fell into the hands of James Steel, who had the man- agement of the land office. Either because Steel was naturally less genial or courteous than Logan, or because the Proprietor was pressing him hard to get his landed interests into better shape, and he had to pass the pressure on to Taylor, the relations soon began to be strained between them. The final breach, which was not far off, came in relation to the affairs of Spriugton Manor. This was a large body of lands which the Proprietor desired to reserve to himself, and he had directed, March 6, 1700, that "100,000 acres in one tract out of the nearest of land unsurveyed in the County of Chester should be erected into a manor, and called by the name of 'SpringtoAvn.' " Several attempts were made to locate it, and in John Taylor's memorandum book he notes, under date of Mai'ch 18, 1730 — "finished Spring-town Manor" — but in this, and in each other case, the location interfered with gi-ants previously made, and the lines were still unadjusted in 1740. A tract of land in what is now Wallace, Honeybrook and West Nantmcal townships was decided on, but the region was not easily accessible. John Taylor was very busy about other affairs, some of them the Proprietor's and some of them his ovm, and, though he had been urged to complete the work several times after 1730, it was still unfinished. The last two letters which are now known, though there were probably others intervening, are these : — "My Friend John Taylok : "Since I last parted with thee (which I think was at Chester) our Proprietor has frequently asked me if the manor of Spriugton was yet divided and the vacant lands in that neighborhood, Coventry and Nantmeal, viewed and described as was desired to be done by thee. To which I could only answer in the terms given by thee at Chester, viz. : That as soon as the weather was fit to go into the woods for that purpose, thou would, without further delay, finish that work, but not having heard anything since relating thereto, T now again request that if it be not already done, it may no longer be delayed. "Thy assured friend, "Philadelphia, 23d, 2d mo., 1740." ' "J. Steel. 7 102 THE SMITH COLLATERAL ANCESTEY. This was plain and urgent, but there must have been another still more peremptory, to which Taylor replied in a letter directed to the Proprietor — "May it Please Your IIoxoue— "Upon my return from the woods last night, I received James Steel's letter of the 6th instant, signifying that your Honour required me to bring you in a week's time a Draught of Springtown Manor with the divisions therein, as also Draughts of all your vacant lands in the Townships of Cov- entry and Nantmcll. "The last part of this demand is more than any one surveyor can comply with in a month's time, and is ten times as much as your Honour ever before gave me in charge, your directions being only for Draughts of Lands taken up by Nutt and Eranson, which were accordingly prepared. "But the danger of your displeasure in case of failure in any part as signified in James Steel's letter, instead of hurrying me on so vast a Task, has given me an entire discharge from all Diiidgery of the kind, and I have no more to do than to wish you a better surveyor than one who is notorious to have done more for your interest when your affairs seemed to have called for the strictest assiduity than any surveyor now living, and I can wish your Honour no greater felicity than to be as well pleased and easy as I am. "Your most humble servant, "Chester, May 12, 1740." "John Taylor. So it was evident that John Taylor had grown tired of bending his back and of taking peremptory commands, and there was a vacancy in the office of surveyor for Chester and Lancaster counties. He did important work in connection with the boundary line between Pennsylvania, Delaware and Maryland, which had been the subject of much correspondence, negotiation and litigation, which began in 1680 and lasted till Mason and Dixon ran their famous line in 1764-7. After much work and much controversy, in both of which John Taylor's father took part, but which reached no result, as is narrated in the sketch of Isaac Taylor, an agreement between the sons of William Penn and Charles, Lord Baltimore, the gi-eat- grandson of the original Proprietor of Maryland, wfis entered into on the 10th of May, 1732, and John Taylor was commissioned to trace on the ground the lines which were so glibly described on paper. Voluminous notes and drafts of depositions in regard to these surveys and drafts of the surveys themselves are in existence. They show that between December, 1732, and April. 1733, he had traced part of the circular line which forms the northern boundary of Delaware, and had made some other pre- paratory surveys. In September, 1733, he went to New Castle, Delaware, to wait upon the Commissioners for dividing the provinces, but nothing was accomplished at that meeting. In May, 1734, he went to Annapolis, and stayed there through the session of the Provincial Court. THE TAYLOR FAMILY. 103 October 19, 1734, the Proprietors, John and Thomas Penn, direct Samuel Blunston, Esq., Clerk of our County of Lancaster, and John Taylor, Surveyor of the said county, to "go to the Susquehanna, on the west side of which you are, by the best methods you can, to find a station in the Parallel of Latitude that is fifteen miles south of the southernmost part of our City of Philadelphia, and from thence extend a line due west as far as the branch of Patowmack (Potomac), called Conegochega (Conococheague), and further, if when at that place you shall judge it necessary." This survey was ordered because it was reported that several persons claiming to hold grants from the Proprietor of Maryland had settled in Penn- sylvania territory. If they find any persons north of the line who claim under the Proprietaries of Pennsylvania, Blunston and Taylor are authorized to make terms with them and to give them warrants for proper amounts of land. If the settlers claim to hold lands under any other authority, means will be taken to remove them. It does not appear whether Samuel Blunston ever acted imder this au- thority, but in due time, September 9, 1735, John Taylor deposed that he found Thomas Cresap, John Hendricks and Joshua [Minshall living from two and one-half to six miles north of the boundary, though claiming to hold under the authority of the Proprietor of Maryland. He had run the line from the Susquehanna to the Conococheague in Octo- ber and November, 1734. In running previously the line east of the Susque- hanna he says that he came across the line called Lord Baltimore's line, which had been run 53 years before by Colonel Talbot and other persons appointed by Lord Baltimore, and that he had been familiar with that line for fifteen years. The maps accompanying these notes make the distance from Philadel- phia to the crossing of the Susquehanna 70 miles, and thence to Conogochega, 90 miles. These surveys, which were not made with the concurrence of the Maryland authorities, settled nothing, and the controversy went on till both parties applied to the King's Council for an order which should solve the difiiculty. It was finally settled July 4, 1760, by an agreement between Frederick Lord Baltimore and the Penns, though the final s\irvey of the line was not finished till seven years later, when it was completed to a point two hundred and thirty miles from the northeastern corner of Maryland, at which point the siirveyors were stopped by the Indians, who could not be made to understand what right white men had to be planting jxjsts in territory which still belonged to them. As John Taylor left no will, Edward Brinton and John Hannum were appointed administrators to take charge of his property March 10, 175C, and May 3, 1758, were appointed full administrators. For an account of Mary Baker, the first wife of John Taylor (XIV 20), see Worrilow genealog;y'. Elizabeth Moore, his second wife, was born Elizabeth Jones. She mar- ried first John ^loore, Jr., of Birmingham township, wlio made his will 101- THE SMITH COLLATERAL ANCESTKr. October 8, 1733, proved January 7, 1734. His father, John Moore, of Thorn- bury township, made his will October 29, 1750, proved December 29, 1750. His Avife's name was Margaret. Elizabeth Taylor left no children. Her husband, John Taylor, was complained of in Chester Meeting December 2, 1745, for administering oaths as a magistrate, and for publishing a scandalous paper about her. Isaac Taylor (XIII 6) took up 500 acres of land in East Bradford town- ship in the right of ten servants. He devised the northern half of this to his son, Jacob Taylor (XIV 21), who, on October 3, 1728, purchased the remaining half from his father's executors. This was on the east branch of the Brandy- wine and on Valley creek. Jacob seems to have lived there till 1735, when he sold the whole tract to his brother, John, and removed to Whiteland town- ship, a letter dismissing him and his wife being granted by Concord Meeting to Goshen Meeting June 4, 1739. He and his wife and a child died at nearly the same date, and letters of administration on his estate were granted to his brother, John Taylor, February 26, 174G. Jacob Taylor was a blacksmith. Ann Taylor (XIV 23). Her husband, Samuel Savage, Jr., was a son of Samuel Savage and Anna Rutter. Anna was a daughter of Thomas Rutter, of Germantown, who was one of the earliest iron masters of Pennsylvania. She was born October 25, 1686, and died August, 17C0. The elder Samuel Savage died in 1719. Samuel Savage, Jr., and his sister, Rebecca (N^utt), inherited from their father the French creek ore property, and Samuel also inherited an interest in Warwick furnace. His will is dated September 22, 1741. Ann Taylor was disowned by the Friends for marriage by a priest December 3, 1733. No issue of this family was known in 1821. There is no record relating to Mary Taylor (XIV 24), except a letter from her brother, Dr. John Taylor, to his son and storekeeper, Isaac Taj'lor (XV 2), ilatid July 22, 1742: — "Let Sister Mary Brogdon have goods to tlie value of Three pounds five shillings, being for half a Ton of Pig Iron ;" and a paper dated November 8, 1732, in which she signs '"Mary Taylor," so that she Avas vmmarried at that time. She seems to have married Harry Young soon after, and was disovmed Jime 4, 1733, for marriage by a priest. Harry Young died intestate, and letters of administration were granted to Mary Young February 12, 1736. She probably soon after married Samuel Brogdon, of Chester to\\niship. Susanna Brog-don, who was probably their daughter, married Joshua Sharpless, who was born aboiit 1744, and settled in Providence tOAvnship. TUE TAYLOR FAMILY. GENERATION XV. 105 MEMBER OF FAMILY, BIRTH. MARBIAGE. EBSIDENCB. The Children of John Taylor (XIV 15) and Mary Bakeb. XV 1 2 3 4 5 Martha Taylor. Isaac Taylor. John Tavlor. Pliilip Taylor. Jacob Taylor. William Enipson. Helena Stevenson. Sarah Worrall. Mary Riley. 1710. 1720. 1721. Nov. 23, 1738. Jan., 1742. 1744. Oct. 26, 1748. Nov., 174.^. 1701. 1754. Wilmington. Del. Chichester, Pa. Thornbury Twp, Thornbury Twp, Hrandywine Hundred. »> Mary Taylor. died young. The Children of Jacob Taylor (XIV 16) and Grace Worrilow. Israel Taylor. Isaac Taylor. Thomas Taylor. Jacob Taylor. Joseph Tiiylor. James Taylor. Hannah Taylor. Ann Taylor. JIary Taylor. Elizabeth Beaumont. Susanna Rowles. I. Eleanor McDever. 1 II. Lydia Taylor. Edith Gnihb. Jane Bonsall. Joseph Robinet. McDever. about 1730. about 1745. Aug. 28. 1756. Oct. 6, 1701. I. 1764. II. Jan. 10. 1771. 1773. Feb. 19, 1762. about 1764. before 1806. 1740. The Children of Ann Taylor (XIV IS) and Samuel Savage, Jr. 16 Samuel Savage. never married. about 1734. 17 Ann Savage. Lewis Walker. 18 Martha Savage. Thomas Hockley. I'J Ruth Savage. James Hockley. 20 Mary Savage. William Crooks. about 1740. The biisl):ui(l of Martha Taylor (XV 1), William Empson, wa.s received into the Friends' Meeting October 3, 1738, as a preliminary to marriage, I snppose. They were married at Concord Meeting house. Martha Taylor's father, John Taylor, says he advanced to William Empson £217 7s. 7d., and to Martha Empson £16G 8s. 7d. Little is known of the history of Isaac Taylor (XV 2), who died in his early manhood. He is spoken of in an official document as "Merchant of Chi- chester." He was probably his father's factor at that place, otherwise called by its earlier name, "Marcus Hook." It was a ship])ing port, and a shipbuild- ing locality of some importance in the middle of the eighteenth century, and it was the point through wliich Dr. John Taylor's export and import trade passed. 106 THE SMITH COLLATERAL ANCESTRY. Isaac Taylor's wife, Helena Stevenson, was probably of New York, though Mrs. Morris (Frazcr XVII 8) thinks she was of Rhode Island. After her husband's death she declined to act as administratrix, and returned to her early home soon after. She had one child, who died young. Helena Stevenson was perhaps not a Friend. The marriage was held by Concord Meeting September 5, 1743, to be "not with regard to the rules estab- lished among us," and Isaac Taylor was further accused of "using some words and customs that is contrary to the rules established among us, as putting off his hat and bowing by way of compliment, and saying 'you' to a single person." As he declined to make satisfaction, they declared him to be "no member (in unity) of our religious Society until he shall make satisfaction," which he apparently never did. He admitted the charges November 7, 17-13, but was finally disowned. In 1741, the Grand Jury and some of the substantial citizens of Chester county having complained of the abiises practiced in that county by the use of defective weights and measures, the Justices petitioned the Governor for the appointment of a Regulator of Weights and Measures. "Standards of brass for weights and measures according to his Majesty's standards for the Ex- chequer" were purchased of Thomas Morgan for £7 12s. lid., and the Lieutenant-Governor having appointed Isaac Taylor as the Regulator, the standards were placed in his custody September 2, 1742. When he went to New York to be married he appointed his father, John Taylor, his deputy, so that he probably exercised the functions of his office before he received the brass standards. John Taylor (XV 3) was, at least in his later life, a man of wealth. Besides Sarum Iron Works, he owned a very large farm, but he was apparently a quiet man, being probably dwarfed by the activity and masterfulness of his father. He held no public positions, and there are but few remaining records of his life. His father claims to have advanced to him July 20, 1744, £215 13s. Id. His wife, Sarah Worrall, made acknowledgment to Chester Meeting for "marrying out" May 28, 1744. His marriage offended in some way the Society of Friends, and he was disowned by them in 1745, but as his family in the next generation were mem- bers in good standing, there was probably some way found for a reconciliation. Slany of the Friends were married at this time out of conformity to the rules of the Meeting, and a determined effort was made to stop the careless practice. His wife was a daughter of John Worrall. For her history, see Worrall genealogy. John Pierce was appointed administrator of John Taylor's estate August 14, 1762, and, as seems to have been the custom of the day, in due time married the widow. The marriage was not a happy one, and Mrs. Pierce took refuge, at least for a time, with her daughter, Mary Worrall Taylor (XVI 3) (Mrs. Colonel Frazer). Her health was poor in her later years. She died of apoplexy. THE TAYLOR FAMILY. 107 Philip Taylor (XV i) was apparently a farmer, living in Tliornbury township. He was Treasurer of Chester county in 1775. His father's account of advances to him foots up £1C2 7s. 3d., besides £114 15s. 2d. advanced between October 26, 1718, and Augiist, 1751. His wife, who died 1754, was a daughter of John Riley, Esq., and his wife Margaret, of Marcus Hook. Her brother, Richard Riley, born Marcus Hook, December 14, 1735, died August 27, 1820. He was an Associate Judge of Delaware county from 1791 to 1808 — a member of the Legislature in 1790 — an active patriot during the Revolutionary war, and an influential citizen throiighout his life. After Philip Taylor's death his widow, Mary, married December 26, 1755, Thomas Cheyney, born December 12, 1731, died January 12, 1811, son of John Cheyney, who married November 3, 1730, Ann Hickman, bom February 14, 1713, daughter of Benjamin Hickman and Ann Buffington, of Westtown. This Thomas Cheyney was the 'Squire Cheyney who was an intimate friend of Colonel and Mrs. Frazer. His wife, Mary, died in 1766. Jacob Taylor (XV 5) left no children. Mary Taylor (XV 6) is said to have died at 16 or 17 years of age of fits, which were probably epileptic. The wife of Israel Taylor (XV 7) was a sister of William Beaumont. They bad several children, two of whom were Grace and William Taylor. Isaac Taylor (XV 8) also had several children, as had also bis brother Thomas. Thomas Taylor (XV 9). He was complained of December 7, 1764, for marriage by a priest. His acknowledgment was accepted. Jacob Taylor (XV 10). He was married at Concord Meeting. James Taylor (XV 12). His wife, Jane Bonsall, was of Birmingham township. Hannah Taylor (XV 13). She probably died with her mother about 1746. All of the children of Jacob Taylor (XIV 21) and Grace Worrilow except Hannah returned from Whiteland to Thornbury or Concord. Samuel Savage (XV 16) inherited from his father, Saunicl Savage, Jr., who died in 1742, an interest in the French creek ore properties, and in War- wick furnace. He died intestate and childless, and his sister, to whom these interests passed, sold the property to Rutter and Potts, ironmasters. There were said, in 1824, to be no children, the issue of the marriage of Ann Taylor (XTV 23) and Samuel Savage, Jr. 108 THE SMITH COLLATERAL ANCESTRY. GENERATION XVI. INDEX NO. MEMBER OF FAMILY. BIETH. MABRIAQE. BESIDBNCB. The Children of Martha Taylor (XV 1) and William Empson. XVI 1 Mar.v Empson. Martha Empson. I. Jonathan Hulings. II. Robert Ta.vlor. Nov., 1739. Apr.. 1741. The Children of John Taylor (XV 3) and Sarah Worr.^ll. 3 Marv Wonall Persifor Frazer. Apr. 8, 174.5. Oct 2, 1766. Nov. 30, 1830. Thombury, 4 Taylor. Chester Co. Isaac Taylor. Elizabeth Townsend. Oct. IS, 1747. 17G7. about 1781. Thornbiiry. Chester Co. 5 Sarah Taylor. James Thomson. Jan. 2.5, 1751. Feb. 28, 1708. Oct. 2, 1836. Aston, Chester Co. The Children op Philip Taylor (XV 4) and Mary Riley. John Taylor. Margaret Taylor. I. Elizabeth Moulder II. Susan Price. John Moulder. about 1750. 178.5. The Children of Israel Taylor (XV 7) and Elizabeth Beaumont. Grace Taylor. William Ta.vlor. The Children of Thomas Taylor (XV 8) and Eleanor McDever. 10 Isaac Tavlor. 11 Martlia Taylor. 12 Marv Tavlor. 13 Agnes (Nancy) Taylor. 14 Phoebe Taylor. 15 Joseph Taylor. Catharine Scrooss. 16 John Taylor. The Children of Thomas Taylor (XV 8) and Lydia Taylor. 17 Sarah Taylor. 18 Hannah Tavlor. 19 Rachel Tavlor. 20 Elizabeth Taylor. 21 Isaac Taylor. Marv Jackson. 22 Thomas Taylor. May 31, 1791. Sept. 18, 1793. I THE TAYLOU FAJIILY. 109 The first husband of ]\Iai-y EiiipsDii (XVI 1) was a merchant of Wilming- ton, Delaware. She had no children by her second husband. Martha Empson (XVI 2) was, in early life, engaged to be marricKl. Her betrothed died, and his death distressed her so much that slie expressed a wish that she might drop dead if she ever married any one. The time came when she changed her mind, and did marry. The curse she had invoked on her head fell — she did drop dead, and licr sjiirit was supposed to haunt the bouse where she died. Mrs. Morris told another version of this story. It states tliat on the night of the marriage of Mary Empson (XVI 1) her mother died suddenly, having an apoplectic seizure, which ended her life the next moming. She haunted the house in which she died. The daughter was very gay, though of Quaker origin, Aveariug a scarlet riding habit trimmed with gold lace. Mary Worrall Taylor (XVI 3) exhibited during her life the most marked character of any woman among my ancestry, partly because of her strength and the sweetness with which she was endowed by nature, and partly because she was placed during a critical ]ieriod of her life — the Eevolutiouary war — in circumstances in which she had to guide the business of her own estate, as well as to take some part in public affairs. It is through her that a large part of the traditional lore of the family has been preserved. She outlived her husband nearly forty years, and during most of that time her home in Thornbury was the gathering place of her chil- dren and grandchildren, who learned much of the past family history from her, and who, without exception, conceived the highest admiration tor her abilities, for the excellence of her character, and her charm. The grandchildren have now all passed away, my Aunr Khoda Wright Smith, who died in June, 1903, in her eighty-sixth year, being the last survivor of the band which once was fifty in number. She was her father's principal heir, her only brother dying in early middle age after removing his family to Xorth Carolina, and as their mother, Sarah Worrall Taylor, outlived him for ten years, she inherited largely from her also. She spent almost all her life on her farm in Thornbury township, leaving it only a short time before her death, to make her home with her daughter, ]\Iary, wife of Joseph Smith. She married at the age of twenty-one; children came into the family as rapidly as they ordinarily did in those early wholesome days, and her life for the first ten years after her marriage was doubtless the ordinary life of a pros- ])erous matron of the time, except that her husband's business interests and his absorption in public affairs took him a good deal from home, and left the management of the estate somewhat in her hands. His public duties became more absorbing in the year 1775, and after January, 1770, his seiwice with the 110 THE SMITH COLLATERAL ANCESTRY. army laid the care of the farms and of the Sarum Iron Works very largely upon her shoulders. A number of the letters that passed between her husband on one side, and herself and some of the members of his family and his neighbors on the other side, have been presented, and well illustrate what has been said above of her character. They show great affection between them, and on her part the feel- ing that life in her husband's absence had lost its charm, but they also show that she is vigorously attending to her duties of supervision over her domestic and her business affairs. In her first letter, written August 25, 1776, to "Captain Persifor Frazer, at Ticonderoga, IST. Y.," she says — "May you still enjoy that greatest of bless- ings" (his health), "and return to me, who cannot regard life without you." She adds, "I often paint to myself your coming, and your little babes all around you," and with a beautiful woman's desire to remain beautiful in her husband's eyes, she continues, "and your surprise at seeing your Polly turned into a yellow Dutch-looking woman." Fortunately, the sim and the wind, which she encountered in her care of the estate, wrought no such havoc in her appearance as she feared, as we shall see a little later. His sister, Ann Frazer, writes him August 21, 1776 — "Your wife drives your business on extremely well, I assure you. It would please you very much to see what pretty order she has everything in." And she writes again, October 8, 1776 — "It must give you the greatest satisfaction to hear that no person ever behaved in a more prudent, prettier manner than your wife doth. I assure you she is admired by every one in the neighborhood, for her good conduct and excellent management." And his old friend, the sterling patriot farmer, Thomas Che_\^ley, tells him October 15, 1776 — "Your wife, I do assui-e you, has managed your busi- ness to admiration. She has the new land cleared completely, twice ploughed, and sown in good time. She turns out a very good farmer. I believe the buffet must be neglected, for the farming seems to engage all her attention." The wife writes October 20, 1776, while he is still in the wilds about Saratoga with the rigors of a northern winter in near prospect — "I can scarcely bear to think that you are now so uncertain of coming home, when you gave me so much hope in your letter by Colonel Hausegger. If you cannot come this winter, pray let me know for certain, and give me leave to come to you, and you shall see that neither mountains nor lakes, frost nor snow, shall Ije able to keep from me the delight of seeing you. "Your being promoted, I fear" (will delay your return); "if so, I could wish it otherwise, my love outbalances my pride." But at the time when she thus expresses her pain at separation, she is evidently diligent in her business. She writes him October 2 — "I have spent the greater part of the day in the new land." And, October 15 — "I have got the new land sown, and have done all but a little rve that we shall finish this THE TAYLOR FAMILY. Ill week. The neighbors have been very good. They brought their ploughs and helped me. Your old friend Cheyney brought his negro, and stayed and sowed all the field." Many of her letters tell of the provision she is making to replenish his wardrobe, going frequently to Philadelphia to get articles to send to him in camp. In July, 1777, he is with the army in New Jersey. Being a con- noisseur in horses, she writes him July 6th of "a very gay horse about four years old that she is trying to buy for him." July 9th she writes — "I reaped the new-land wheat yesterday, and part of the rye, with 26 hands. Every man tried who could do the best for you. There were both Whig and Tory in the field, and not the least dispute among them." Soon after this Major Frazer was stationed nearer home, about the time of the Battle of Brandywine, September 11, 1777, and afterward for six months he was a prisoner in Philadelphia, so that there is a gap in the correspondence until 1778. About October 1, 1778 — the letter has several dates, he being then with the army in New Jersey — his wife writes him, as she so often does, first about the comforts she is about sending him in the way of suitable clothing. She has been ill with fever, and the little children have been sick, and life seems hard to her. ";My dearest Percy, I little thought that ever such a dreadful separation would fall to our lot. O ! this unhappy war, that has made life almost unsup- portable to me! If it was not for the pleasing thought of seeing you some time, and in that how often am I disappointed!" But all the while, though her woman's heart must now and then have its word, her care for him, and her sympathetic interest in seeing that he has all obtainable comforts, and her humorous narration of the little incidents in the life of their children, show that she is by no means always dwelling on her own deprivations ; and she tells him of the little ones going to school, Mary Anne amone thorn, who at tlie mature age of two is coming on nicely with hrr letters, of their childish ailments and recoveries, and of the news and gossip of the neighborhood. Another side of her character appears in her relation to the stirring public events of her life. Her daughter, Sarah Frazer (XVII 1), writing in 1840, says that she was at school with her younger brother and sister on the morning of the Battle of Brandywine, when her teacher, coming into the school house about 9 or 10 o'clock, after listening intently outside for some minutes, said — "There is a battle not far off, children, you may go home." "As we returned, we met our mother on horseback, going over to the place of action, knowing that her hus- band and our father nuist be in the affray. She rode first to the house of John Pierce, her stepfather, who lived about half-way between our house and Chads- ford. Where else she went I do not know, but she was riding all day. She came home once, but was off again until dark." 112 THE SMITH COLLATEUAL ANCESTRY. She, herself, gave this accoivut of the pillage of her house to her gi'and- daiighter, Elizabeth Wright Smith (Smith XVIII 62), Aiigiist 17, 1822, who wrote it down immediately afterward. I follow her manuscript closely, but have made a few verlial changes : The next day after the battle, a party of (American) Riflemen came, and as there was the baggage of ten Regiments in the house (there had been a good deal of ammunition and some arms which had been removed long before this time), they advised Col. Frazer to go away, for if the British got wind of the baggage and ammunition being stored there, they would probably come to plunder the house, and he would be taken prisoner. He, however, did not think there was any danger. The Riflemen, after taking some refreshment, went away. Early on Saturday, your gi'andfather rode on to the Blue Ball, on the Chester road, two or three miles from home, to join a reconnoitcring party, upon which he had been ordered. * * * * I had four children — Sally, Mary Anne, Robert and Persifor. Aunt Nancy Frazer lived with me at that time, and Polly Follows, a woman whom I had brought up from childhood, black Rachel. These, with two black men who worked on the farm, and who belonged to us, made up my family. I had been afraid of the British coming to the house, and had sent many things of value to neighbor Hemjihill's. Your grandfather's papers, and £200 in pa]ier money, some gilver and other things, I liad hid in the garden, and in some bushes in the woods. In the morning, after Col. Frazer had gone away, as I sat by the open door carding and spinning wool, we heard wagons coming along the road over yonder hill; it was covered with woods, and we could not see the top of it as we do now. I thought they might be American wagons, coming here to take away the baggage of the regiments. Major Christy (who, being disabled by a sprained ankle, was nursing it THuler Airs. Frazer's care) waited for them to come out of the woods, and see- ing the drivers wearing riflemen's shirts, still thoiight they were our own people. As they came nearer he discovered them to be British just in time to give the alarm, to send one of the black boys to Uncle Jacob Vernon's, and to escape with the children, Aunt Nancy Frazer and Polly Follows to the woods back of the house, where they hid behind some large boulders of rock and among the branches of a large tree that had been felled. The other boy was sent for the party of riflemen who had been at the place the night before, but who had unfortunately gone away early in the morning. All had now left the hoxise but myself and black Rachel. She took two large cheeses and threw them over the fence among some weeds and briers. I sat carding my rolls to pieces, when a British ofiicer, though not the commander of the party, entering, accosted me in broad Scotch with, "Where are the damned rebels V In those days, when I was frightened, I always became angry. I have often thought since I did wrong to exasperate him; however, I always did say everything against them I could. So I said to the officer — "I know of no rebels ; there is not, I believe, a Scotchman about the THE TAYLOR FAMILY. 113 place." He flew into a great rage (the Scotch officers being sensitive about alhisions to their own rebellion in 1745), and used very abusive language. By this time mauy of the soldiers were in the house, and were ransacking the lower part of it. Some had gone into the cellar, and had brought up a barrel of salt. It was very scarce and very valuable, and both armies were much iu need of it. He thought he had brought all there was, but he missed a bushel that was hidden in a barrel under some beer bottles. Some of the salt they tied up in bags and put in their jiockets, and they gave a great deal to their horses. The commander of the party, which consisted of two hundred foot and fifty horse- men, now came up. He divided the horse into two companies, stationing them at a considerable distance from the house, but so as to surround it completely. They were afraid that the riflemen, who they had heard were in the neighbor- hood, shoidd surprise them. They had seen Major Christy go into the woods as they came up the hill, they knew the American uniform he wore, and thought he might be one of the party of riflemen, and that the rest were not far off. This did not tend to lessen their fears. They had also a line of sentinels placed within their line of horse. The alarm that had been given by the black boy brought many of my friends and neighbors to the spot. When I saw them standing about with my own servants, for the other black men had joined them, I thought it was the hardest thing that not one of them came near to say a single word to me in my great difficulty and distress, for I did not then know what prevented them. After these arrangements had been completed. Captain De West, who was Captain of the Guard, and ranked equal to a Colonel, came iuto the house just as one of the men was going to strike me. They had got at the liquor and were drunk. The officers were obliged to drive them off with their swords. However, as I said, the Captain came in, and told me that he had heard that the house was full of arms and ammunition, and asked me to open the door at the foot of the stairs. He was afraid that some one was concealed on the stair case who would shoot him. I told him I knew of no ammunition in the house, and that I would not open the door ; if he wanted it opened he could do it himself. He then opened the case of the clock, hoping to find money. He found an old musket with the lock broken off. This he jammed up into the works of the clock and broke them. He again insisted on my opening the stair-foot door, but I persisted in refusing to do so, and he was obliged to open it himself. He then told me to show him wliat property belonged to me, promising that none of it should be touched. This I did, yet he went to your grandfather's desk, and took out and carried off his flute, his music books, and a large French Bible, beside many other French books. He took a heavy silver-handled riding whip of mine, which had belonged to my Grandmother Taylor, saying: "I am just in want of a riding whip." T took it out of his hand, and told him that it was an old family piece, and I 114 THE SMITH COLLATERAL ANCESTRY.