F 142 
 
 B9 H64 
 Copy 1 
 
 PAPERS OF THE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF BURLINGTON COUNTY. 
 
 Vol. I 
 
 No. I 
 
 Maudies, Remedies and Physicians 
 
 Of Colonial Days in Burlington County 
 and other kindred topics 
 
 BY 
 A. M. STACKHOUSE, 
 
 OF MOORESTOWN, N. J. 
 
 Read before the Hisforical Society of Burlington County, December Utii, 1908. 
 
 SETTLE PRESS PRINTING COMPANY. 
 
 MOORESTOWN, NEW JERSEY, 
 1908. 
 
HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF BURLINGTON COUNTY 
 
 NEW JERSEY 
 
 Founded, February 28, 1908. 
 OFFICERS : 
 
 President, George Cuthbert Gillespie. 
 Vice President, William R. Lippincott. 
 Curator, Dr. A. M. Stackhouse. 
 Recording Secretary, William D. Lippincott. 
 Corresponding Secretary, George Abbott, Jr. , 
 
 Riverton, N. J. 
 Treasurer, William H. Roberts. 
 
PAPERS OP THE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OP BURLINGTON COUNTY. 
 Vol. I " No. I 
 
 Maladies, Remedies and Physicians 
 
 Of Colonial Days in Burlington County 
 
 AND other kindred TOPICS 
 
 BY 
 A. M. STACKHOUSE, 
 
 OF MUORESTOWN, N. J. 
 
 Read before ihe historical Society of Burlington County, December iUh, i908. 
 
 SETTLE PRESS PRINTING COMPANY, 
 
 MOORESTOWN, NEW JERSEY, 
 1908. 
 
 Co'.'.ficted set. 
 
■^\*^' 
 
 1^^ 
 
 Gift 
 Author 
 (Por«on> 
 
 5 IH;. '09 
 
EDITION LIMITED TO 225 
 SIGNED COPIES OF WHICH 
 THIS IS NO. 
 
F 
 
 OR several years past I have taken deep interest in 
 everything relating to the early history of West New 
 Jersey and especially of Burlington County, for 
 among those who helped to make that history were several of 
 my ancestors bearing the names of Budd, Kendall, Elton, 
 Coles, Scattergood, Antrim, Stockton, Butcher, Brian, Powell, 
 Matlack, Eldridge, Parker and Engle, and because their blood 
 courses through my veins I have wanted to know more about 
 them and their neighbors and to make their acquaintance. 
 But they died and I presume went to heaven long before I 
 had a chance to interview them and learn more about their 
 social customs, habits of life, trials, sufferings, joys, failures 
 and successes of which we know so little. When in the 
 course of my researches I have come across anything out 
 of the beaten track of the historian I have followed Captain 
 Cuttle's advice, — "When found make a note of . " Another 
 matter that possesses considerable interest to me is the question 
 of health among those early settlers ; the maladies that afflict- 
 ed them, the herbs, simples and medicines they used and 
 the doctors that killed or cured them. And so when request- 
 ed by the Council of our Historical Society to prepare a pa- 
 per for this occasion, it occurred to me that this might be a 
 
 5 
 
good subject to talk about inasmuch as so little attention has 
 been paid to it. It is one of the objects of an Historical 
 Society, I apprehend, to gather up the fragments that nothing 
 be lost, but when I came to gather them I found I had so 
 little to tell that I was compelled to enlarge the scope of my 
 paper to take in kindred topics and I am ruefully compelled 
 to confess that the tail "kindred topics" comes dangerously 
 near wagging the dog. Perhaps you will agree with me be- 
 fore I am through. Right here I want to acknowledge the 
 obligations I am under to that excellent work, Wickes' 
 "History of Medicine and Medical Men in New Jersey", for 
 some things that I have to say relative to some of our earlier 
 physicians. 
 
 I do not want to go back to the garden of Eden to begin 
 my [story but for purposes of contrast I begin at the planting 
 of the first permanent English Colony in America at James- 
 town in 1606. This is what Capt. John Smith says about 
 those Colonists : — "All this time we had but one Carpenter 
 in the country and three others that could doe little but desir- 
 ed to be learners ; two Blacksmiths ; two Saylors and those 
 we write Laborers were for the most part Footmen and such 
 as they that were Adventurers brought to attend them or such 
 as they could persuade to go with them, that never did know 
 what a day's work was : except the Dutch men and Poles 
 and some dozen others. For all the rest were poore Gentle- 
 men, Tradesmen, Serving men. Libertines and such like, ten 
 times more fit to spoil a Commonwealth than either begin one 
 
or but help to maintain one. For when neither the fear of 
 God, nor the law, nor shame nor displeasure of their friends 
 could rule them here (in England) there is small hope ever 
 to bring one in twenty of them ever to be good there." (in 
 Virginia. ) 
 
 I suppose all those "Poore Gentlemen" had Coat Armor, 
 something of much more use now to decorate our writing pa- 
 per than it could possibly be to them. They came to pick 
 up gold and silver and go back rich with the hope of being 
 raised to the peerage, for that canny Scotchman King Jamie 
 was always ready to grant a title — for a consideration. But 
 being gentlemen they would not I work and when time hung 
 heavy on their hands they managed to pick quarrels with the 
 Indians. The food supply was cut off and in consequence 
 the early history of the Colony is one of famine, pestilence 
 and Indian massacre. 
 
 In 1620 the Mayflower "steered boldly through the des- 
 perate winter sea" to the shores of Massachusetts. These 
 colonists were of a totally different stamp, men not ashamed 
 to work, but they came in the dead of winter to a sterile coun- 
 try and inhospitable climate and they made the fatal mistake 
 of loading down the little Mayflower with crockery ware, old 
 furniture and grandfather's clocks to such an extent that too 
 little room was left for provisions. The Old Testament part 
 of their Bibles was well thumbed. The Indians were as the 
 children of Amalek and they smote them hip and thigh. The 
 story of the Virginia Colony was repeated — famine, pestilence 
 and Indian massacre. 
 
A little over half a century elapsed and West New Jersey 
 was open to colonization and the Quakers, perhaps through 
 the foresight of William Penn, profited by the example of 
 Virginia and Massachusetts and the story reads quite differ- 
 ently. There were no gentlemen among them. They were 
 almost all, artisans or tradesmen but all willing to work to 
 possess the soil and subdue it. These modern Argonauts 
 sought the Golden Fleece and found it too later, in the golden 
 harvests that covered the swelling uplands of our State. Pre- 
 caution was taken to cultivate the friendship and good will of 
 the Indians. The land was purchased from them and there 
 was no famine, no pestilence and no Indian massacre. Until 
 the colonists succeeded in raising crops they received much 
 of their food supply from the Indians but from letters written 
 home by some of the colonists, during the first three years at 
 Burlington we learn that fruit was abundant here, as were also 
 fish and flesh. There were plenty of deer and also swine 
 and oxen. Even as early as April 1680, less than two and a 
 half years after the settlement of Burlington, Mahlon Stacy 
 writes that he has seen eight or nine fat oxen and cows killed 
 on a market day and all very fat. Query ? Where did the u 
 come from ? Perhaps those Swedes had more to do with the 
 settlement of our country than any of our historians have 
 given them credit for. While there were times when the food 
 supply was limited, especially in 1682 when Smith our histor- 
 ian says "several got the chief of what they ate by the gun", 
 there appears to have been no failure of crops until 1687 when 
 
 8 
 
several families were reduced to dependence on their more 
 fortunate neighbors. The timely arrival of a vessel load of 
 corn from New Englandihowever relieved the situation. 
 
 The ships in which the early immigrants came hither, — 
 the barks, snows and flieboats were all tiny crafts compared 
 with the vessels of to-day. Even the Mayflower was of only 
 180 tons burden. They were all devoid of sanitary arrange- 
 ments and in matters of appointment were not to be compared 
 with the cattle transports of to-day. In the graphic pages of 
 Mittelberger we learn of the frightful mortality on board the 
 vessels that brought the Palatines to Pennsylvania and it is not 
 likely that any of those that brought our early settlers to Bur- 
 lington were any better fitted to carry their human cargos. 
 The Kent's voyage seems to have been particularly fortunate 
 as there is no record of any serious mortality on board of her. 
 Only two passengers, John Wilkinson and William Perkins 
 are reported to have died. The smallpox frequently broke 
 out on the vessels that came hither and raged with violence. 
 It did so on the "Welcome" in which William Penn came 
 and several died from it. This disease was then very pre- 
 valent and when the settlers had any to spare it was gener- 
 ously handed over to the Indians and was as fatal as whisky 
 in their case. It was suspected that attempts were made to 
 foment a hostile feeling among the Indians against the 
 Kent's passengers by insinuating that the English sold them 
 the small-pox in their match-coats. Smith says "This dis- 
 temper was among them and a company getting together to 
 
consult about it, one of their chiefs said — 'In my grand- 
 father's time the small-pox came, in my father's time the 
 small-pox came and now in my time the small-pox is come. 
 'Then stretching his hands towards the skies said 'It came 
 from thence' To this the rest assented." This disease ap- 
 pears to have been generally present to a greater or less 
 degree. In 1716 it raged in Burlington and the Assembly 
 met at Crosswicks to avoid it. Again in the Spring of 1731 
 it prevailed to an alarming extent in Salem and Philadelphia 
 and in consequence the Fair usually held in the spring at Bur- 
 lington was prohibited at a "Petty Session of the Peace" on 
 April 16th of that year. 
 
 There seems however to have been a sort of fatalism 
 connected with this disease and in general it was accepted as 
 a matter of course, I fancy very much as Macpherson did the 
 National disease of Scotland when he prayed 
 
 "But save us frae those maladies 
 Thou sendest on the rich, 
 
 Sic heathen ills as grip and gout ; 
 We dinna mind the itch." 
 There was plenty of nerve in the Colony but no nerves. 
 We never hear of neuritis, neurasthenia, neuralgia or any nui- 
 sances of that ilk. People were to busy in leading the stren- 
 uous life, and besides that, they were too poor to afford it. 
 They were satisfied with just plain "rheumatiz". Some years 
 ago there appeared in the Scientific American some remedies 
 and hints in regard to the treatment of this complaint. I will 
 
 10 
 
mention a few of them— "Kill a big dog and after taking out 
 his intestines put your feet where they came from; wear sul- 
 phur in your shoes; hard rubbing; wear silk; wear flannel; 
 wear buckskin; gin and hemlock; exercise and keep it off; 
 keep as quiet as possible; pray fervently; do not eat meat: 
 do not eat potatoes or eggs; eat anything you please; do not 
 smoke; smoke all you like; drink nothing but beer; drink 
 nothing but whiskey; do not drink anything at all; bathe in 
 cold water frequently; do not bathe at all until you are nearly 
 well; catnip tea; wrap fresh lambs entrails around your neck; 
 drink brandy; brandy is the worst thing for rheumatism; wear 
 a horse chestnut in your left hand breeches pocket; wear a 
 potatoe in the other; read Job; do not swear." They are all 
 valuable. I have tried most all of them but the first. If Dr. 
 Thorne would loan me his big dog I might be induced to try 
 that. I mention these incidentally because they are hoary with 
 age. They must have been brought here on the Kent, the 
 Willing Mind or the flie boat Martha. 
 
 In a letter writen by John Talbot, Rector of St. Mary's 
 Church, Burlington to the Secretary of the S. P. G. dated 
 October 28, 1714. he says— "I have been sick a longtime this 
 fall with a burning fever which made me so weak I could 
 scarcely speak. * * * * * We have had a sickly time 
 this year; I have buried more than in ten years before; and 
 many Church people died that had nobody to visit 
 them when sick nor bury them when dead. ' ' Fever and ague 
 it is presumed must necessarily have been common but I find 
 
 11 
 
little mention made of it in our county. It prevailed however 
 generally all over South Jersey especially in Gloucester 
 County among the Swedes. In 1728, a malady that Kalm 
 called Pleurisy appeared at Raccoon Creek and was very fatal. 
 In the winter of 1735-6 an epidemic of throat disease evident- 
 ly of diphtheritic nature swept off many at Crosswicks. In 
 the newspapers of the day various remedies v/ere suggested. 
 
 Under the date of February 20, 1777, John Hunt, a 
 Quaker preacher who lived in Chester Township tells us in 
 his diary — "There was a distemper seemed to be going about- 
 about this time something like a Pleuracy, mostly beginning 
 in the Head and so working down to the Stomach, of which 
 many were suddenly taken away," and again in March he 
 says "my oldest son lay very ill of a fever then very pre- 
 valent. We hear of burials almost every day. They call it 
 the camp disorder." This fever raged during most of the 
 year as did the small-pox and measles. 
 
 But perhaps of all the diseases that prevailed in our 
 county, and I presume elsewhere in New Jersey from its 
 earliest settlement until well along in to more recent times: 
 none appear to have been so virulent and so difficult to con- 
 trol as the dysentery, or bloody flux as it was called, espec- 
 ially among children. In the old genealogies and diaries that 
 I have seen it is more often mentioned as the cause of death 
 than all other maladies combined. In an address delivered 
 by Col. Timothy Matlack before the American Philosophical 
 Society in 1780, he says: "Pennsylvanians and Jersey men 
 
 12 
 
eat more meat than any other nation. Hence many fatal dis- 
 eases take their rise, especially dysenteries and putrid fevers" 
 and he recommends full ripe fruit as the best preventative and 
 remedy. "The effect produced" says he " by the best kind 
 of free-stone peaches in dysenteries render it probable that 
 general cultivation of that fruit alone would within twenty 
 years save more lives than we have lost in the present cruel 
 and bloody war." The doughty Colonel can hardly be con- 
 sidered competent medical Authority but his statement shows 
 how serious were the ravages of this fatal disease. While 
 mentioning his address I want to make one more quotation 
 "But thanks to that kind Providence which governs all with 
 equal Wisdom and Benevolence, we have no need of foreign 
 wines. Our Orchards yield us a juice which well improved 
 may justly vie with the best the world affords. The art of 
 fermenting will bring this delicious drink to perfection. And 
 our fields produce Hops and Barley in Abundance. These 
 afford a Liquor which when the sons of Britain were brave 
 and virtuous was their boast. It is a fact that those who 
 drink Beer well tinctured with the Hop are not afflicted with 
 the Agues while those who drink Spirits of any kind are 
 doubly afflicted with them. The Colonel, were he living 
 here to-day would certninly join our Local Option League. 
 Many years ago a family from Holland came to this 
 country and settled in Chester Township not far from Coles- 
 town, and among the treasures the thrifty row brought with 
 her, was a little package of the seeds of purslane or "pusley" 
 
 13 
 
as it is called in the vernacular. The good woman did 
 not know that she could gather enough " pusley " in the 
 sweet potatoe patches of New Jersey to feed all Hol- 
 land. But she loved boiled "greens" and she provided her- 
 self with wise forethought for the new life in the new land. 
 "One touch of nature makes the whole world kin," and this 
 incident suggests what our good old Quaker ancestors did in 
 the colonial dav/n. Anxious hours were no doubt spent 
 during those last months in their quiet English homes as the 
 time approached when they were to cut loose from old ties 
 and old associations to cross the broad Atlantic, to find a new 
 home under other skies and other conditions that were matters 
 of conjecture only. What ought we to take with us to our 
 new home where contingencies may arise that we know not 
 of? What shall we need when we get there? Many a pray- 
 er for guidance I question not, went up to Him who had so 
 far led them through trials and difficulties, and who would 
 still be with them. One thing surely was needed and that 
 was the preservation of health and the means to recover it 
 when impaired; and so along the lanes and hedge rows of 
 Merrie England and in those old gardens, I fancy they col- 
 lected — reverently it may be —the seeds of such herbs and 
 simples as from time immemorial they and their fathers had 
 been accustomed to use to combat the ills that flesh is heir 
 to. So the seed of the burdock, hoarhound, chamomile, 
 peppermint, spearmint, St. John's-wort and many others were 
 collected and in little packages carefully preserved, came 
 
across the sea with them. Perhaps I am drawing on my im- 
 agination you will say, but these plants are here now and bot- 
 anists agree that they are not indiginous. Somebody must 
 have brought them here and who so likely as those good old 
 Quaker matrons. Here in the little gardens among the stumps 
 they round a new home — and how humanly they behaved. 
 Some shrunk undv'^r our fierce summer sun and longed for 
 the cool moisture of England. Others again caught the in- 
 fection of the spirit of liberty and silently and stealthily es- 
 caped through the garden fence and wandered away. What 
 cared they for the House of Stuart and the divine right of 
 Kings? What cared they for parson Talbot with the whole 
 power of the Church of England behind him. What cared 
 they whether Burlington Monthly Meeting disowned them or 
 not? Long, long before July 4th, 1776, they declared their 
 independence and what is more, maintained it is spite of hoe 
 and plow and they are our neighbors to-day. They are freer 
 than we are for they pay no taxes. Far afield wandered the 
 St. John's-wort in search of dry places. To the fence cor- 
 ners and road sides went the great celandine and tansy. 
 Here perhaps they found American cousins, married and 
 settled down. The spearmint sought out moist places, be- 
 came aggressive, drivmg out the aboriginal plants wherever it 
 chose to stake out its claim, lost caste and became a weed. 
 The peppermint, of less aggressive nature sought the mead- 
 ows. The hop staid in the garden or at least lingered lov- 
 ingly around it. The chickweed started in to monopolize all 
 
 15 
 
the richest spots in the garden, resented interference and be- 
 came a general nuisance. The burdock and hcr^rhound, of a 
 more sociable nature located around the barn and out build- 
 ings where the soil was rich and deep. Like Israel they saw 
 the land was good and went up and possessed it. Here too the 
 catnip strayed and settled, finding perhaps aboriginal rela- 
 tives with which it intermarried. It always staid near the 
 farm garden so as to be within easy call when the naughty 
 wind ran riot in baby's 'ittle tummick mindful of the fact that 
 there was not a single bottle of Mrs. Winslow's Soothing 
 Syrup to be had for love or money from one end of the col- 
 onies to the other. The smartweed probably came over as a 
 stowaway uninvited, and when here, finding lots of cousins as 
 disreputable as itself at once exercised the right of squatter sov- 
 ereignty. The chamomile was little inclined to wander from 
 the garden but like the good child staid where it was put. 
 Years ago it was no uncommon thing to see in cool moist 
 places in the garden, beds of chamomile with the soil be- 
 tween the stems closely covered with clam shells with their 
 convex sides uppermost — as a protection from weeds, to keep 
 it clean or for ornamental effect. I suspect that this mode 
 of planting it was handed down from colonial times. Several 
 old friends greeted the settlers when they came. The penny- 
 royal grew wherever the soil was thin and poor. The dan- 
 delion turned up its smiling face to bid them welcome and the 
 blackberry seemed very unwilling to let them go when it 
 caught them in its affectionate embrace. They all furnished 
 
 16 
 
their quota cheerfully when a draft was made on them in time 
 of sickness.— Of one thing I can acquit our forefathers. They 
 brought many plants hither, some good ones and some not 
 so, but they never brought over that pestiferous little imp of 
 a weed that in these last few years has infested the gardens 
 of Moorestown and elsewhere— I mean the Galinsoga. It 
 never came over in the Kent. 
 
 For some time after the first settlement of cur county 
 there were Indians living here and no doubt our old Quaker 
 mothers in times of dire necessity when all other means failed 
 had recourse to them to learn whatever they had to teach 
 concerning the healing art. Heckewelder tells us much about 
 the diseases of the Indians, their remedies and mode of prac- 
 tice. Rheumatism, pulmonary consumption, dysentery and 
 intermittent fevers were very common among them. Their 
 Materia Medica was composed almost entirely of roots, barks 
 and herbs. Bleeding and sweating were practiced; in fact 
 they had recourse to the sweating process at any time they 
 felt slightly indisposed. The healing art was practiced among 
 them by men and women. It was founded entirely upon 
 observation and experience. Only one superstitious notion was 
 recognized and practiced by them which was certainly harm- 
 less enough. In administering an emetic, the water in which 
 the potion was mixed was drawn up stream— in case of a 
 cathartic it was drawn down stream. They were very suc- 
 cessful in their practice, especially in the treatment of gun- 
 shot and other wounds. He tells us that on one occasion he 
 
 17 
 
suffered excruciating pain for two days and nights from a 
 felon or whitlow when he applied to a squaw who relieved 
 him in less than half an hour by means of a poultice made of 
 the roots of the common blue violet. 
 
 He tells us their method of compounding their medicines 
 was kept a profound secret and they disliked to make their 
 remedies known to strangers. He mentions whiteoak, black 
 oak, white walnut, cherry, dogwood, birch, and maple among 
 their remedial agents. 
 
 John Dunn Hunter, whose early life was spent among 
 the Indians, if his account is given credence, tells us in his 
 'Narrative" of medicinal agents made use of by them and 
 makes mention of the black walnut, horse chestnut, dewberry 
 Indian turnip, may apple, pipsissewa, sassafras, sumac, 
 (Rhus Glabra) tulip tree and slippery elm which latter among 
 the Western Indians bore the suggestive name meaning "It 
 won't go down". Not all of these are I believe indigenous 
 to Burlington County but many of them are, and while the 
 merits of some were recognized in England before the times 
 of our Colony these Indian remedies no doubt helped to en- 
 rich the domestic Materia Medica of our settlers. Pipsissewa 
 and Indian turniplwere used for coughs and colds. The tulip 
 tree and dogwood furnished remedies for the intermittent 
 fever and Kalm tells us that down in Gloucester County, 
 branches of the dogwood were tied around the necks of the 
 cows in the spring when they were weak from semi-starvation 
 during the winter. He does not tell us however what benefit 
 
 18 
 
the cows derived from it. The poke grew quite sociable and 
 crept up in the fence corners and waste places and fairly rev- 
 elled in the newly cleared soil. Kalm says it was a worth- 
 less weed, nevertheless it is an old simple. The yarrow 
 growing by the road side and the boneset in the meadows 
 were gathered and a tea made of them when the "shakes" 
 came on. In fact every plant possessing bitter or astringent 
 principles was laid under contribution to combat the ague as 
 were many nauseous compounds. Every family had a sover- 
 eign remedy for the chills but none proved reliable and their 
 use has been discarded. Life everlasting was used as a reme- 
 dy for the gout. Sassafras was supposed to possess wonder- 
 ful properties It was used for dropsy and other ailments. 
 The young mucilaginous shoots were chewed and applied to 
 cuts and sores. The wood was used to make bed steads and 
 was exported in large quantities to Europe. It was supposed 
 not to harbor the bug that stalketh by night and biteth uncere- 
 moniously. Kalm says of the Magnolia Glauca or beaver tree 
 as it was called , "Coughs and pectoral diseases are cured by 
 putting the berries into rum or brandy of which a draught 
 every morning may be taken. The virtues of this remedy 
 ''says he "were universally extolled and even praised for their 
 salutory effects in consumption." Sometimes they forgot to 
 put the "berries" in the rum or brandy — but it helped all the 
 same. 
 
 But interesting as this part of my subject may be, to me 
 at least, I must pass on. But should any be desirous to pur- 
 
 19 
 
sue the matter farther, I would recommend you to obtain the 
 three volume edition of Kalm's "Travels In North America" — 
 if you are lucky enough to do so as it is not to be picked up 
 at any old book stand. No more charming work on our local 
 flora and fauna was ever written. 
 
 But I almost forgot to say that ours settlers did not rely 
 entirely on the vegetable kingdom for their medicinal agents. 
 Calomel played an important part in the treatment of most all 
 diseases, not only by the profession but in domestic practice. 
 Tradition tells us of one family that v/as accustomed to buy 
 it by the pound. 
 
 I am inclined to believe that a good many of our early 
 Quaker settlers brought no bibles with them especially during 
 the first twenty-five years cr so from the arrival of the Kent. 
 I have never seen one that could be traced to Quaker owner- 
 ship during that period although they are occasionally men- 
 tioned in wills; while the so called "Old Quaker books" are 
 more numerous and in them are frequently found famiily rec- 
 ords of births, deaths and marriages that are usually recorded 
 in bibles. During this period the charge was persistently 
 made by Churchmen that the Quakers were heathens arid 
 worse than the Indians. This may however be ascribed to 
 sectarian rancor. While the Quaker books were of use for 
 edification.they were the text books of the doctrine of the In- 
 ner Light. It was a controversial age and they were needed 
 in the defense of their tenets against the assaults of the Church- 
 men. Many doubtless were the discussions between Parson 
 
Talbot and the Quakers. They would produce the works of 
 Penn, Fox and Barclay and he would go into the rectory and 
 bring out Bugg's" Pilgrim's Progress from Quakerism to Christ- 
 ianity" and Leslie's "Snake in the Grass" and they hammered 
 away at each other and made things lively. The Friends felt sore 
 over the defection from their ranks to the Church, of the Leeds, 
 Budds, Heulings and other families of wealth and influence. 
 But I find I am wandering again. We have nothing to do with 
 the spiritual health or disease of those colonists, although the 
 acrimonious religious disputes tended to keep them from dying 
 of stagnation. What I wanted to say is, that in those days 
 writing paper was scarce and costly. In the inventory of the 
 estate of John Mann of Cohansey, Salem County in 1727,there 
 is mention of one "reame" of fine paper valued £1.5 s,and 12 
 quires of course, at 12s. Now in these old books, especially 
 the folios, there were several blank pages and they were made 
 available to jot down memoranda of things considered worthy 
 of record. For instance, on the inside cover of a copy of 
 ' 'Truth Exalted in the Writings of that Eminent and Truthf ull 
 Servant of Christ — John Burnyeat, London, 1691", appears the 
 
 following — "Benjamin, Joseph, Susannah, Elizabeth, Ann and 
 Samuel Furnis all hady^ Smallpox in y^ 2 and 3 months 1702." 
 This book belonged to Samuel Furnace, one of the early settlers 
 mentioned by Smith in his History of New Jersey as coming 
 tothis country in 1678. But I am wandering again. Among these 
 old books will frequently be found recipes of various ailments. 
 There was extant some years ago a volume entitled "Balm 
 
 21 
 
From Gilead, A Collection of the Living Divinei Testimonies, 
 Written by the faithful Servant of the Lord, Willam Smith, 
 London 1675." This belonged to John and Esther (Borton) 
 Haines. John Haines, son of the first of the name in this 
 county came from Northamptonshire, England in 1680 and 
 lived for a time in a cave on the banks of the Rancocas Creek 
 near Lumberton. In this old book in the hand-writing of 
 John Haines, appears the following: — 
 
 "Griffith Owen's*Poultice for a sore leg that is cut:- 
 Take wheat meal mix it with milk in a small skil- 
 let full: put in the yolk of one egg and a little honey 
 and a very little Rosin, warm it and lay it on once a 
 day. Let a plaster of salve cover the sore. 
 To stop bleeding of a Cut: — 
 
 Take Burdock Leaves and pound them and lay to 
 the cut; if the Leg swell it must be swathed as 
 hard as thou canst bear. 
 For Pain and Heat at the Heart: — 
 
 Take the paunch of a Sheep just killed, fasten the 
 oozing and little gut and lay the paunch to the side 
 all night." 
 In a folio copy of a work entitled ' 'The Memorable Works of 
 a Son of Thunder and Consolation. Edward Burrough, 1672" — 
 in the penmanship of two centuries ago is the following:- 
 "for a burn or scald take the White of Egg and bet 
 them very well, then put by the froth and anoint 
 the sore, then take fine wheat meal and salitoyle and 
 some of the Egg for plasters." 
 
 * Grifith Owen was one of the early settlers of Pennsylyania. He was a physician 
 and also a member of the Society of Friends. 
 
 22 
 
Again;- 
 
 "for a bruise and spreane take plantain, thorn apple 
 * * * * smart v/eed" [I use a somewhat more ref- 
 ined name for this weed than appears in the text.] 
 leaves and sheep's dung, boyle all these in fresh butter 
 or hog's fat over a small fire." 
 
 It does not state whether this is to be taken internally or 
 externally! This book has the following printed name plate 
 on the inside of the cover: — 
 
 7th Moneth 
 Elias ) Farr ( 
 
 [ ] Their Book 
 
 Sarah ) 1672 ( 
 
 They probably came to Burlington in 1681. Elias Farr 
 was one of the West Jersey Proprietors, a member of the As- 
 sembly and Governor's Council. 
 
 Oldmixon tells us in his "British Empire" that in Car- 
 teret's time, New Jersey was singularly blest. In natural ad- 
 vantages there was every thing that could be desired and there 
 were no lawyers, no parsons, no physicians! Of course New 
 Jersey has fallen from her high estate. The lawyer, appear 
 not to have been cordially welcome in the Colonies especial 
 where the Quakers predominated. The parson was still less 
 so in all the colonies where the dissenting element was in the 
 majority. He was apt to be arrogant and dissenters lived in 
 constant fear of the establishment of a Colonial Episcopate 
 which meant as they believed, the importation to this side of 
 
 23 
 
the Atlantic of the pomp, officiousness and tyranny of the 
 ecclesiastical hierarchy. The parson was tolerated because there 
 was no help for it. He had the pov/er of the Colonial Govern- 
 ment behind him. We learn that a strange fatality attended 
 those who went from the Colonies to take holy orders in Eng- 
 land. One out of every four perished by smallpox or ship- 
 wreck or were taken prisoners and never returned and there is 
 no record of any extravagant manifestations of grief by the 
 Quakers at their loss nor would there have been if the 
 mortality had been even greater. The colonies fairly swarm- 
 ed with quacks, empirics, charlatans and the like, and a few 
 regular physicians. Which of them did the most harm it 
 would be difficult to say. I am inclined to believe it was the 
 regulars. Anyhow, they seemed to be a necessary evil. 
 Their system of practice — bleeding, sweating, purging, 
 salivating &c. would not be tolerated to-day, That system 
 has fallen into "innocuous desuetude". Wickes says that the 
 practice of the healing art was chiefly in the care of the clergy. 
 "Many of them were men of profound minds and highly 
 educated. For several years previous to their leaving Eng- 
 land, anticipating the loss of their situations as clergymen, many 
 of them turned their attention to the study of medicine and 
 for upwards of a century after the settlement of New England, 
 numbers of the native clergy were continually educated to both 
 professions." This does not appear to have been the case in 
 Burlington County. There were very few resident clergymen 
 here before the Revolution, John Talbot the first Rector of 
 
 24 
 
St. Mary's Church, Burlington did not practice medicine, at 
 least there is no record of it. A list of his books is extant 
 and there are no medical works among them. Robert Talbot 
 who is said to have been his son was an apothecary in Burling- 
 ton as we learn from his Will dated Jan. 8, 1725-6. He was the 
 only apothecary in the county at that time as far as I have 
 been able to learn. I can find no record of Talbot's success- 
 ors Rev. Robert Wyman and Rev. Colin Campbell ever 
 practicing medicine. Their successor the Rev. Jonathan 
 Odell who became Rector in 1767 was however also a physi- 
 cian. His income as parson proved insufficient for his sup- 
 port and he began to practice the healing art about 1769. 
 But our interest centres rather in the doctors of the early 
 colonial period. 
 
 One of the most noted physicians in our colony in those 
 early days who was also the first in Burlington County was 
 Daniel Wills. He was a native of Northampton, England 
 and was bom about 1630. He cast in his lot with the Qua- 
 kers and what we know of him as regards his life previous to 
 his coming to this country is entirely owing to that fact. In 
 December 1660 a meeting of the Quakers was held at Middle- 
 town and he was among those who were arrested. The oath 
 was tendered him but he declined to take it and was in con- 
 sequence committed to jail where he spent several months. 
 In the following year a meeting was held in his house at 
 Northampton and a raid was made by the authorities on those 
 who attended it and several were sent to jail, but his name 
 
 25 
 
does not appear among them. Besse relates the fcllcwing in- 
 cident as occuring in 1661. "Daniel V/ills of Northampton 
 being concerned to testify against the Vanity of acting a Play 
 in the Free-School there, got up with much Difficulty to the 
 Peace where the Scholars were, and said thus. Hear the 
 word of the Lord God that made Heaven and Earth, who 
 sai'th, Bring up your children in the fear of the Lord God in the Days 
 of their Youth before the evil Days come upon them, for the Spirit 
 of the Lord God is grieved with your unrighteous Actions. Pie had 
 no sooner said thus, but a Priest present pluckt him down and 
 another of the same Function pulled him by the hair, and 
 beat him very much. And another Person there present 
 struck him several Blowslon the bare Head with an iron Chain." 
 Again in 1662 he was sent to jail for attending a meeting 
 in Northampton. In 1663 while attending a meeting at Mus- 
 kett the v/as once more arrested and sent to jail. In 1666 he with 
 several others was brought before the court at Northampton 
 to be tried on "the Act for Banishment for the third offence." 
 Owing to some doubt arising, the case was postponed and 
 he was finally released, thus narrowly escaping transportation 
 to Jamaica, at that time the Quaker Botany Bay. Whether 
 the fires of persecution had slackened in his case or the mo- 
 notony of jail life palled upon him, we do not know but he 
 seems to have been undisturbed during his subsequent stay in 
 England. When it was decided to colonize West New Jersey 
 he became interested in the venture and in connection with 
 Thomas Olive became the owner of one share of the Pro- 
 
 26 
 
prietary holdings. He v/as appointed one of the commission- 
 ers to establish the colony. He came hither in the Kent, laid 
 out the town of Burlington and located 600 acres in what is 
 now the extreme western side of Westampton Township 
 boardering along the east side of the road leading from Cen- 
 treton to Rancocas. In the marsh along this road between 
 the Friends' Graveyard and the lane leading up to the site of 
 his house may still be seen an old mill stone with a birch sap- 
 ling growing up through the hole in the middle of it, which 
 tradition says belonged to a corn mill built by him in that vi- 
 cinity. He seems to have been a man of means and brought 
 with him several servants who became the progenitors of in- 
 fluential families in our county, among whom were George 
 Elkinton, William Matlack, Thomas Kendall, Thomas Brian 
 and John Stokes son of Thomas. Daniel Wills possessed abil- 
 ity as a manager and organizer and much of the success of 
 the colony is due to him, He was the author of two books 
 — one, a small quarto entitled "A Few Quaeries to Simon 
 Ford, Priest at the Town of Northampton" published in 1682. 
 The other, "An Exhortation to all Friends to Dwell in the 
 Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ" appears as an appendix to 
 "A Relation in Part of what passed through a true and faith- 
 ful Servant and Handmaid of the Lord, Mary Page, when she 
 lay upon her Bed of Sickness, — by Bridget Nichols and 
 others." This was published about 1665. The title of this 
 last is vague and ambiguous, I have never seen a copy but 
 I suspect it refers to Mary Page's spiritual experience and 
 not to impaired digestion. 
 
 27 
 
Daniel's brother WUliam lived in Barbadoes and also ap- 
 pears to have been a man of wealth. In his will dated Octo- 
 ober 2, 1671 he devised his estate to his two sons but in the 
 event of their death without issue the major part of the estate 
 devolved upon Daniel Wills and his children. It is presumed 
 that this so happened for Daniel went to Barbadoes on bus- 
 iness connected with his brother's estate and there died in 
 1698. Daniel Wills is mentioned in the old records as "Doc- 
 tor of Physsick," '-Surgeon" or as he styles himself "Pract- 
 icioner in Chymistry." It is not known whether he was a reg- 
 ular physician or not, nor where he received his medical ed- 
 ucation. In fact little is known of him as a physician. In 
 his will is mentioned "a negro boy, a book of Chirurgery 
 called. Ambrose Parry, other books and a watch." The 
 ' 'book called Ambrose Parry" is no doubt the folio edition, 
 London, 1634, of Johnson's edition of the works of Ambroise 
 Pare\ the famous French surgeon who flourished in the 16th 
 century, who first instituted the method of ligating arteries to 
 prevent hemorrhage. Wills also owned a copy of Gerard's 
 Herbal, the greatest publication of the kind in the English 
 language. Some of his surgical instruments are still in exist- 
 ance I believe. 
 
 Another physician in the early days of the Burlington 
 Colony was John Gosling. It is not known where he came 
 from originally. I find the name among the early Quakers in 
 Suffolk, England. He may have came from thence. He 
 was one of the signers of "The Concessions and Agreements 
 
 28 
 
of the Proprietors." He probably came to Burlington from 
 New York in 1682 or 3, as in a memorandum of a conveyance 
 in 1684, he is mentioned as "of Burlington merchant". He 
 is also mentioned in some of the records as a physician. He 
 married in 1685 Mary Budd, who is supposed to have been a 
 sister of Thomas Budd. He was a large land owner and filled 
 important positions in the colony, being a member of the Col- 
 onial Assembly and also of the Governor's Council, and con- 
 tinued to hold them during his stay in Burlington. In 1685 
 he went to Barbadoes and there died. Before leaving Bur- 
 lington he made his will. Sixty nine names are mentioned 
 therein of those indebted to him and among them are many 
 of the wealthiest and most influential colonist. It is possible 
 that many of these may have been indebted to him for med- 
 ical services rendered. If so, it would appear that he had a 
 goodly clientele. All the certain knowledge we have of him 
 as a physician is that he was called one. 
 
 There came to America inl683 with William Pcnn, a 
 friend who was called Doctor. His name was Robert Dims- 
 dale. John Clement says he came from Chatteris Cambridge- 
 shire, England. I find his name in Besse as suffering im- 
 prisonment in the jail at Hertford along with Nicholas Lucas 
 and others. He bought of Lucas a one third proprietary in- 
 terest in West Jersey and located a large tract of land on both 
 sides of the stream called after him and built a large brick 
 house thereon near the present site of Lumberton. It is not 
 known that he practiced medicine here. It has been suggest- 
 
 29 
 
ed that he was more interested in real estate speculations. 
 His wealth and influence brought him into prominence and 
 he at once became a member of the Assembly and the Gov- 
 ernor's Council. He married the second time, Sarah, daugh- 
 ter of Francis Collins. He returned to England in 1688 and 
 settled near Epping in Essex and died in 1718. In 1684 he 
 caused to be printed his "Advice — How to take his Medicines 
 (in the several Distempers herein mentioned) as also, where 
 they are to be had, with their Price." This shows him to 
 have been an Empiric or Charlatan. His grandson was a 
 physician of some note and became, "First Physician and 
 Actual Counseller of State to her Imperial Majesty, Catherine 
 II, Empress of All the Russias.'' 
 
 In the records of St. Mary's Church, Burlington, we find 
 the name of Dr. John Robards as one of the contributors to 
 the Church on the day of its opening, August 22, 1702. He 
 was in 1717 one of his Majesty's Justices of the Peace. He 
 was the son-in-law of Nathaniel Westland, a generous contrib- 
 utor to the church and one of its first Wardens. Robards 
 died in 1724. In the inventory of his personal estate men- 
 tion is made of a library of 91 titles some of which are those 
 of medical works. 
 
 Between 1722 and 1727, Dr. John Rodman came to Bur- 
 lington, settled there and practiced medicine. In a letter da- 
 ted. New York, June 20, 1731., written by Governor Montgom- 
 ery to the Duke of Newcastle, he says: — "There is also a 
 vacancy in His Majesty's Council in the Province of New 
 
 30 
 
Jersey, John Hugg being dead, I beg your Grace will recom- 
 mend Doctor John Rodman to succeed him. He is well af- 
 fected to the Government, a man of sense, very much esteem- 
 ed and has a good estate in the Province." Montgomerie died 
 soon after this and Governor Crosby also suggested the ap- 
 pointment but nothing was done in the matter until 1738, 
 when he was appointed to the office under the administration 
 of Governor Lewis Morris and held the position until his 
 death in 1756. In recommending the appointment, Morris 
 says of him : — "John Rodman a Quaker, a man of good tem- 
 per, of a good estate in Jersie and Pcnnsilvania and generally 
 esteemed both by Quakers and others." His father John 
 Rodman of Rhode Island and his uncle Thomas Rodman of 
 Long Island both of whom were physicians, at one time own- 
 ed nearly all the land on which Moorestown is now built. Its 
 first name "Rodmantown" was derived from them. 
 
 A Doctor Brown is mentioned in Dr. Franklin's "Auto- 
 biography'' as living in Bordentown in 1723 and keeping an 
 inn. Franklin staid with him all night and says :— "He had 
 been I imagine an ambulatory quack doctor for there was no 
 town in England nor any country in Europe of which he could 
 not give a very particular account." In the records of Ches- 
 terfield Township occur the following items : — "At a Town- 
 ship Meeting in 1738., 4 shillings to Mr. Brown for ye cure of 
 a poore woman ; £1. 1 s. 8 d. to Joseph Brown for ye trouble 
 he had with a man who died in his house." It is supposed 
 this Joseph Brown is the same as Franklin's innkeeper. The 
 
 31 
 
name of a Doctor Baillergeau is mentioned with Dr. Brown's 
 in the settlement of the estate of Joseph Scott of Chesterfield 
 in 1726; they having received £2. 4 s. 5 d. for "medicines 
 and visits." In the settlement of the estate of Nathaniel Pope 
 of Chesterfield a Dr. Julian is mentioned. Who Julian and 
 Baillergeau were and whether they were Burlington County 
 men I have been unable to learn. 
 
 In the Town Meeting Records of Chester Township ap- 
 pears the following: — "At a Town Meeting at Thomas Lip- 
 pincott's, 15, January 1747-8 by Warrant from Jacob Heu- 
 lings to consider on some measure for the relief of Susanna 
 Leelock, ordered, (Thomas Lippincott consenting) yt ye Ov- 
 erseers of ye Poor bring Her to His house ; get Dr. Overton 
 to restore her Health and Lameness, — if Doctor Overton can- 
 not attend, ye Overseers to apply to Doctor Hall and provide 
 another place for Her to be at. Per Joshua Bispham, Clerk." 
 It is probable that both Overton and Hall were residents of 
 our county but we know nothing more of them than their 
 names. 
 
 In this connection I might say, there was born in 1764 
 near Moorestown, John H. Stokes who practiced medicine 
 here and was the progenitor of a family of physicians of the 
 name that has continued to this day ; honored by the profes- 
 sion, loved in the community, upright Christian gentlemen. 
 May the tribe increase. 
 
 In the columns of the newspapers of the period we learn 
 something of the quacks and their nostrums. 
 
 32 
 
In the Pennsylvania Journal of March 13, 1766, we find 
 a Doctor Thomas Ware or Wire of Burlington advertising for 
 an Irish servant girl who had run away from him. In the 
 following year we find him advertising the fact that he had 
 removed from Burlington to Philadelphia. He undertakes 
 particularly "to cure with small Expence and Pain to the 
 Patient, Cancers and Wens without cutting them; the King's 
 Evil without Sallivation, and as he has great Experience and 
 Success in all the above Diseases, he hope by divine Bless- 
 ing to be able to give Relief to any distressed Persons afflict- 
 ed with them that shall apply to him." 
 
 We do not feel any particular interest in his medical 
 practice, but I have considerable curiosity which I fear will 
 never be gratified to know whether he ever recovered his 
 Irish servant girl. Her name was "Joanna Dunagan, aged 
 about 20 years, middle stature, brown complection, grey eyes 
 and a down look, short black curled hair, much like that of 
 a mulatto, pretty much pock-marked, has a very short walk 
 and is given to liquor; had on and took with her an old cam- 
 blet and two callico gcwns, one marked with spade and club, 
 a quilt petticoat one side callimancoe the other linsey-wolsey, 
 a pair of shoes that has been cap'd and soaled, white wor- 
 sted and other stockings, a white straw bonnet with a green 
 ribbon round the edge and crown, a short red cloth cardinal 
 much worn, also a black silk short cloak, two coarse and and 
 one fine shifts, and a black silk handkerchief. She has sev- 
 eral other things out of the house. It is suspected she is 
 
 33 
 
gone off with some soldiers. Whoever takes up said servant 
 and secures her so she may be had again shall have five 
 pounds reward and reasonable charges." 
 
 In 1770 a Dr. George Weed advertises in the Pennsyl- 
 vania Chronicle. He claims to have practiced physic and 
 surgery for 13 years in West Jersey and calls the attention of 
 the public to his Royal Balsam and Pulius Polychrestum. A 
 John Griffith, who may have been a Burlington man attests 
 the merits of the Pulius. 
 
 In 1778, Mary Middleton of Crosswicks advertises in the 
 New Jersey Gazette that she has for sale "Dr. Ryan's Incom- 
 parable Worm Destroying Sugar Plumbs, necessary to be 
 kept in all families". She says "they are exceedingly valued 
 by all people who have had of them in Great Britain and 
 Ireland for their transcendent excellency. * * * * These 
 plumbs enrich and sweeten the whole mass of blood, carry 
 off all gross, corrupt and putrid humors and create a fresh 
 and healthy complection in such as as are affected by any 
 putrid matter." 
 
 What an irreparable loss to mankind ! Dr. Ryan has 
 departed this life and all of the "sugar plumbs" have been 
 consumed. 
 
 I have mentioned the fact that a Robert Talbot of Bur- 
 lington kept a drug store there. It is probable that in col- 
 onial days there were few if any drug stores or apothecary 
 shops outside of the largest towns but from the advertise- 
 ments in the newspapers of the time it would appear that the 
 
 34 
 
general stores carried a line of the more common drugs and 
 medicines. Isaac Collins, the New Jersey printer, combined 
 the sale of drugs and medicines with his publishing and book 
 selling business. The following advertisement appeared in 
 the Pennsylvania Gazette of March 21, 1771. 
 
 "To be sold on reasonable Terms at the Printing 
 Office at Burlington, 
 
 The following Patent Medicines 
 Godfrey's Cordial, Say's Balsam, Turlington's Bal- 
 sam, Bateman's Pectoral Drops, Daffy's Elixir, 
 British Oil, Anderson's Scot's Pills, Hooper's Fe- 
 male Pills, Lockyer's Pills, Camphire, Cream of 
 Tartar, Lavender Compound, Salvolatile, Court- 
 Plaister, Flour of Brimstone, Quicksilver Ointment, 
 Glauber Salts, Epsom Salts, etc." 
 The business was doubtless lucrative as we find him 
 continuing it after removing to Trenton. The mention of 
 Collins, the printer, reminds us of the fact that in 1770 he 
 published the Burlington Almanac for 1771, the first almanac 
 published in New Jersey. He continued to publish them 
 during his stay in Burlington and after removing to Trenton 
 he began the publication of the New Jersey Almanac. A 
 very prominent feature of the Collin's Almanacs and in fact 
 of all the Almanacs published in Pennsylvania and New Jer- 
 sey during the latter half of the eighteenth century is the 
 number of recipes and prescriptions for rheumatism, bloody 
 flux and other ailments. In some instances they occupy 
 more space than any other variety of reading matter. 
 
 35 
 
In Poor Richard's Almanac for 1761 published in Phila- 
 delphia by Franklin & Hall, a curious account is given of a 
 child aged seven years, afflicted with convulsions, and some- 
 what idiotic, who ate nearly a pound of white lead, lamp black 
 and linseed oil. It acted as a vermifuge and the child entire- 
 ly recovered. The moral of this affecting little story is that 
 linseed oil is an excellent vermifuge — to say nothing of the 
 white lead. Some of these Almanac receipts possess merit; — 
 some are at least harmless, but most all of them like the 
 "barty" Hans Breitmann gave, have gone 
 "Afayin de Ewigkeit." 
 Of the system of practice in vogue in our county in those 
 days, the medical education of the physicians and the medi- 
 cines they used, but little has come down to us, but they were 
 doubtless the same that prevailed in England before and dur- 
 ing that period. A few remarks concerning them may not be 
 amiss as it illustrates our subject. The student then received 
 his medical education as an apprentice under some physician 
 and it was supplemented usually by attending some lectures 
 at the medical schools or hospitals. Smollett, in his "Rod- 
 erick Random" gives what we may suppose a fairly truthful 
 picture of it. Alchemy was intimately associated with chem- 
 istry and not until the discovery of Oxygen by Scheele in Swe- 
 den and Priestly in England in 1774 were they finally divorced. 
 We can consequently imagine that Dr. Wills," Practicioner 
 in chymistry' ' was not a very profound scientist. 
 
 36 
 
The history of medicine is one of which the profession 
 has little to be proud. It is the story of ignorance.superstition, 
 credulity and blind adherence to the dogmas of the ancients. 
 To question them was rank heresy. Besides this, astrology 
 was closely interwoven with it. One of the features of the 
 olden times that has not yet entirely disappeared is a picture 
 of a nude man surrounded by the signs of the zodiac with lines 
 connecting them with various parts of his anatomy. The 
 human body was supposed to be under the influence of the 
 sun, moon, planets, and zodiacal signs. So also the various 
 plants and herbs. Thus the dandelion belonged to Jupiter; 
 daisies were herbs of Venus; the peony was an herb of the 
 sun and underthe Lion; hops belonged to Mars and so on. Only 
 since medicine has been emancipated from this superstition 
 has it been entitled to the name of science. Even yet how- 
 ever a vestige of Astrology remains. The letter R with a 
 line across the tail that heads the doctor's prescription is a 
 variant form of the old astrological sign for Jupiter. 
 
 The entire kingdom of nature was ransacked for remedial 
 agents, many of which are entirely inert and some could only 
 have been selected for there superlative nastiness. Sir Theo- 
 dore Mayerne who died in 1655, was an eminent physician. 
 For hypochondriacal affections he recommended as an ungu- 
 ent, his "Balsam of Bats" composed of snakes, bats, sucking 
 whelps, earth worms, hog's grease and the thigh bone of an 
 ox. "Raspings of a human scull unburied" was his favorite 
 remedy for gout, Dr. Bulleyn prescribed a "smal yong 
 
 37 
 
mouse rested" as a remedy for a nervous malady, perhaps 
 on homoeopathic principles, as a live mouse has been known 
 to make a whole room full of women nervous. In 1685, was 
 published in London "The London Practice of Physic", em- 
 boding the system of practice of Dr. Thomas Willis a Profes- 
 sor in the University of Oxford and Physician in Ordinary to 
 Charles the Second. Anthony Wood says he was the most 
 famous physician of his time. Among the remedies he re- 
 commends for various diseases are powder of toads, frogs, 
 crows, cuckoos and viper's flesh : — oyl of Frogs and Earth 
 worms ; —livers of the pup, frog and wolf .-^water of snails ; 
 — snails boiled in milk ; — "gelly" from the skins of vipers ; — 
 tinctures of bees, millipedes and grass-hoppers and many 
 other things I dare not mention. But all these are nectar and 
 ambrosia compared to the remedies mentioned on page 40, 
 Bohn's edition of the "Table Talk of Martin Luther," the cor- 
 pulent gentlemen who it will be remembered threw his ink- 
 stand at the devil and missed him. The following is one of 
 Dr. Willis' prescriptions for asthma : — 
 
 * 'Take roots of Elecampane, and of Floren- 
 tine Orris of each half an Ounce, Leaves of 
 Hyssop, and of Horehound dry'd, of each 
 six Drams, Carthamus Seeds one Ounce, 
 Anniseeds and Dillseeds, of each two 
 Drams, Licorice slic'd and Raisins cleans'd 
 of cath three Drams ; let them be prepar- 
 ed and sewed up in the Belly of an old 
 
 38 
 
Cock which must be boiled in fifteen 
 pounds of fountain water till the flesh falls 
 from the Bones ; strain it and let it settle. 
 The Dose of the Clear Liquor is six Oun- 
 ces with an Ounce of Oxymel simple ; Let 
 it be taken for many days together, some- 
 times for a whole Month." 
 The old rooster I fancy would be somewhat stale by the 
 end of the month. From all this we may judge what must 
 have been the practice of the early physicians in our county. 
 Some vipers may have been brought over in the Kent, or per- 
 haps they substituted black snakes. 
 
 Let us turn and notice two of the famous English empir- 
 ics of the time. I have a reason for mentioning both. Nich- 
 olas Culpeper bom 1616, died 1654, was the son of a clergy- 
 man in Surrey. He went to Cambridge, and acquired a good 
 knowledge of Greek and Latin. He studied the old medical 
 works, apprenticed himself to an apothecary and finally set 
 up near London as as astrologer and physician. In 1649, he 
 published an English translation of the Pharmacopoeia of the 
 College of Physicians and Surgeons and thus won their un- 
 dying hatred for giving away their secrets. He had served in 
 the Parliamentary army however and being a good fighter 
 struck back at them by publishing in 1653, "The English 
 Physician Enlarged, with 369 Medicines made from English 
 Herbs," in which he retaliates with caustic wit. This work 
 was reprinted many times and had an enormous sale. In fact 
 
 39 
 
outside of the standard religious publications of the time few 
 books had a greater circulation. Justice has never been done 
 to Culpepper. I am satisfied that the book apart from its as- 
 trological nonsense, had much to do in reforming medical 
 practice. No doubt many copies found their way to this 
 country ; — the copy I hold in my hand among the number — 
 and furnished a text book for the empiric and charlatan to 
 begin business with. The following is his description of the 
 Woodbine or HoneySuckle: — 
 
 "It is a Plant so common that every one that hath 
 Eyes knows it and he that hath none, cannot read a 
 Description if I should write it. 
 Doctor Tradition, that grand Introducer of Errors, 
 that Hater of Truth, that Lover of Folly and that 
 Mortal Foe to Dr. Reason, hath taught the common 
 People to use the Leaves or Flowers of this plant in 
 Mouth waters, and by long Continuance of Time, 
 hath so grounded it in the Brains of theVulgar, that 
 you cannot beat it out with a Beetle. All Mouth 
 waters ought to be cooling and drying, but Honey- 
 Suckles are cleansing, consuming and digesting 
 and therefor no way fit for Inflammations thus Dr. 
 Reason, Again, if you please we will leave Dr. 
 Reason and come to Dr. Experience, a learned Gent- 
 leman and his Brother. Take a Leaf and chew it in 
 your Mouth and you will quickly find it likelier to 
 cause a sore Mouth and Throat than to cure it. Well 
 
 40 
 
then, if it be not for this, what is it jjood for? 'Tis 
 good for something.f or God and Nature made Nothing 
 in vain; it is an Herb of Mercury and approp- 
 riated to the Lungs; and the Celestial Crab 
 claims Dominion over it; neither is it a Foe to 
 the Lion; if the Lungs, be afflicted by Jupiter this is 
 your Cure: It is fitting a Conserve made of the 
 Flowers of it were kept in every Gentlewoman's 
 house. I know no better cure for an Asthma than 
 this, besides it take away the Evil of the Spleen, 
 helps Cramp, Convulsions and Palsies, and whatever 
 Griefs come from Cold or Stopping; if you please to 
 make use of it in an Ointment it will clear your Skin 
 of Morphew, Frecklesiand Sunburnings, or whatever 
 else discolors it and then the Maids will love it. 
 I have done when I have told you what Authors 
 says, and cavilled a little with them; they say, 
 The Flowers are of more Effect than the leaves and 
 thats true but they say the Seeds are least effectual 
 of all. But Dr. Reason told me, That there was a 
 vital Spirit in every Seed to beget its like; and Dr. 
 Experience told me. That there was a greater heat 
 in the Seed than there was in any other part of the 
 Plant: and that withal. That Heat was the Mother of 
 Action; and then judge if old Dr. Tradition (who 
 may well be honored for his Age, but not for his 
 Goodness) hath not so poison'd the World with 
 
 41 
 
Errors before I was born that it v/as never well in its Wits 
 since, and there is great Fear it will die mad." 
 
 The other empiric, William Salmon, born 1644, died 
 1713, was a man of considerable learning. He established 
 himself near the gate of St. Batholomew's Hospital in London 
 to catch such patients as that institution would not or could 
 not receive. Here he practiced medicine; sold nostrums 
 and cast horoscopes. He published several v/orks on various 
 subjects. In 1710-1, he published his Botanalogia or the 
 English Herbal which he dedicated to Queen Anne. 
 Wickes says of this book: — 
 
 "We have seen a copy of Salmon's Herbal which 
 was the text book of a New Jersey physician of 
 large practice, and in his day of much reputation. 
 Being a man of property he paid the expenses of a 
 messenger to England to obtain the volume. It is 
 a folio of 1300 pages; cost £50. It was the text 
 book of our New Jersey doctor between 1758 and 
 
 1777." 
 
 Throughout all the colonies in the early days the practice 
 of midwifery was entirely in the hands of midwives and this 
 condition of things continued to nearly the middle of the 
 eighteenth century. Even as late as 1800, the midwife was 
 still in many instances called upon in preference to the male 
 physician. She was usually a middle aged woman or even 
 older, who had herself been a mother. Oftentimes, perhaps 
 more often than not she was of good family and took up the 
 
 42 
 
profession for the love of it. Her services were of course 
 liable to be called for at any time and one important part of 
 her outfit was a good riding horse and she knew how to ride 
 for it was before the days of good roads and comfortable 
 vehicles. 
 
 A little girl it is said once gave this definition of a lie : — 
 ' 'a heinous offense in the sight of God but a very present help 
 in time of trouble." — When that little package of mortal 
 mystery, that bundle of infantile humanity, the new born 
 babe, red in the face, awkward, helpless, without form or 
 void, with no language but a cry, — is shown to the small fry 
 of the family, the moral uses of a lie have been recognized 
 from time immemorial, to answer embarrassing questions. I 
 am sure that even the grave and sober members of the Histor- 
 ical Society of Burlington County have lied outrageously on 
 occasions like this. I will go still farther. Should the fate 
 of Ananias and Sapphira come upon this assembly to-night 
 for lapses in this particular, — well, Mr. Rambo would have 
 the busiest time in his history during the next few days. We 
 never hear of the midwife now at all, the blame is laid entirely on 
 the stork ; and as the stork is found in Germany I suspect 
 this particular lie should be labelled. Made in Germany. 
 
 The families of the settlers who were married before they 
 came hither were usually small. Daniel Wills brought over 
 eight children and his case is somewhat exceptional. The 
 small family was perhaps due to the fact that the expense of 
 coming hither deterred those who had a large number of child- 
 
 43 
 
ren. But there seems to be something in colonization in a 
 new land that is conducive to fecundity and our colony rapid- 
 ly increased in population by reason of the large birth rate as 
 much as from accessions from without. The woods swarmed 
 with babies. The storks were exceedingly busy and many a 
 time they raced with the midwife to see who should be on 
 hand first. Large families were usual. Families of twelve, 
 thirteen, fourteen or even more, children were very common. 
 Three times the stork visited the home of John and Hannah 
 (Horner) Matlack and when John married the second time, 
 Mary Lee, they came nineteen times making twenty-two trips 
 in all. The names of thirteen of these children have come 
 down to us but the other six escaped to the woods and we 
 have lost them. Joseph and Dorothy Haines were visited by 
 the storks seven times and when Joseph married again they 
 brought thirteen more little bundles . Fourteen trips were made 
 to the home of Thomas Stokes who married Deliverance 
 Horner and Rachel Wright. Fifteen times they came to Jar- 
 vis and Elizabeth Rogers Stokes. Seventeen times they came 
 to Robert and Ruth(Haines) Miller, Thirteen times they came 
 to Thomas and Sarah (Inskeep) Stokes and three times they 
 were overloaded for they carried two little bundles instead of 
 one, making sixteen in all. Friend Thomas was cast down 
 but not dismayed. He accepted the situation gracefully and 
 did not demand a recount. All that was needed was to buy 
 a new cow occasionally and plant another row of potatoes a 
 little closer to the fence. Sixteen times the storks came to 
 
 44 
 
John Warrington and his two wives, Mary and Susanna. 
 Thirteen visits were paid to Samuel and Elizabeth (Butt) 
 Woolman, and one of those little bundles fretted and squalled 
 like other infants, but he was moulded somewhat on the mo- 
 del of St, Francis of Assisi and his saintly life, character and 
 utterances induced Charles Lamb to say "Get the Writings of 
 John Woolman by heart." The Lippincott family — well they 
 multiplied like sparrows. On one occasion three storks came 
 at one time with little packages, but this is more modem his- 
 tory. As a matter of course all these families and many 
 others kept their own private storks, occasionally lending 
 them when urgent necessity demanded. 
 
 The first visit the stork paid in Burlington County of 
 which we have any definite knowledge occurred soon after the 
 arrival of the Kent's passengers at Burlington. We find the 
 following entry in the early records of Burlington Monthly 
 Meeting:- 
 
 "Elizabeth Powel Daughter of Robert & Prudence 
 
 Powell was 
 
 Borne in Burlington the 7th Seauenth month, 1677 
 Latte of London, Chandlar. Witnesses then p'sent. 
 Ellen Harding, Mary Cripps, Ann Peachee." 
 
 Robert Powell located in Wellingboro Township and his 
 sons in Northampton. From them a numerous progeny has 
 sprung. Little Elizabeth grew up to womanhood and found 
 favor in the sight of James Newbold, who married her. After 
 
 45 
 
his death she married Jacob Decou. Eight little Decous 
 comprised the next generation. It would seem that the above 
 mentioned Ellen Harding, Mary Cripps and Ann Peachee 
 were present at the storks visit. Why it seemed necessary to 
 record this fact is something I am unable to understand. 
 
 Many years ago, an old uncle of mine, a staid member of 
 Arch Street Meeting, v/ho had a fondness for genealogical re- 
 search, learned that there was a family bearing our name liv- 
 ing in South Philadelphia. So one fine day he put on his 
 broad brim and set out to make their acquaintance and 
 find out where the relationship came in. On reaching the 
 place he found to his consternation that they were negroes as 
 black as a kitchen range. Abolitionist as he was, this was too 
 much for him and he returned without claiming them as re- 
 latives. Some years ago I found a colored family bearing the 
 the name of Matlack in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, and I 
 am told that there is or was a colored family named Roberts 
 in this community, and no doubt we could find lots of our 
 good old Burlington County names borne by colored people. 
 This is a usually accounted for on the theory, that some- 
 time in the past the ancestors of these colored families were 
 slaves and adopted the family name of their masters. Now 
 this theory has never been entirely satisfactory to me and I am 
 half inclined to hold these storks responsible for this. From 
 what I have already said it will be seen that the storks were 
 overworked. Why may not some of them, grown tired, care- 
 less and perhaps a little spiteful, like Little Buttercup in Pin- 
 afore, have 
 
 46 
 
"mixed those babies up 
 And not a creature knew it?" 
 This is only a suggestion however. I do not ask you to 
 
 accept it. 
 
 To-day the storks have all joined the labor union and 
 
 never work overtime. 
 
 So much for the babies. To tell about the young and 
 middle aged men and women in those days is to tell the whole 
 history of the Colony and I am not equal to that, so we will 
 pass along to the old men. 
 
 The following appears in the records of Chester Town- 
 ship: — 
 
 • 'At a Town Meeting at Henry Warrington's 9, March, 
 
 1756. 
 
 Agreed that y^ Eldest settler in y^ sd Township who 
 have never served the Constable's Office shall be 
 chosen for Constable— per John Cox. Clerk." 
 They knew the value of money quite as well then as they 
 do now and evidently there was little or none of it in the office 
 or else some patriot would have sought it and there would have 
 been no occasion to saddle it on the old men. Even in those 
 Arcadian Days there were always some offenders against law 
 and others who drank too much liquor and made nuisances of 
 themselves, some who appropriated what did not belong to 
 them and some who had a constitutional disinclination to pay 
 their debts. Hence there were times when writs had to be 
 
 47 
 
served and arrests made. Neverthless the majesty of the law 
 may have been so fully recognized and the duties of the office so 
 few and trifling, that any old man or any old woman for that 
 matter, could perform them, and so old Billy, or Tommy or 
 Sammy as the case might be who was too old and feeble to do 
 a good hard day's work could easily manage to toddle around 
 and keep the peace. It is a curious fact that even in our day, 
 in rural section, the constables are apt to be old men. A 
 Samuel Davis was constable in Chester Township in 1756 and 
 Thomas Cowperthwaite in 1757. They had never filled the 
 office before. 
 
 I am glad that the rule of appointing the oldest men, con- 
 stables, who have never held the office before is no longer in 
 force. Mine honored friend William R. Lippincott, the 
 worthy vice-president of our Society and myself are not old 
 men yet but we are walking down the road where the shad- 
 ows are growing longer and cooler and we do not want to 
 look forward to such a fate as in our old age to be chosen 
 constables and perhaps have to chase some colored brother 
 through the wilds of Mt. Laurel because he loved chicken 
 not wisely but too well. 
 
 One more "Kindred topic" and I am done. We have 
 touched on the beginning of life and on old age and only one 
 thing remains; — to bury our settler. In Salem County it was 
 rather an expensive performance to die. The funeral charges 
 were from five to ten pounds, sometimes more than a tenth of 
 the amount of the mventory of the personal estate of the de- 
 
 48 
 
ceased. In one Instance, George Ross, minister at New Castle 
 was paid £3. or more than one seventh of the amount of the 
 inventory "for trouble in crossing the river and preaching the 
 funeral sermon." From what little has come down to us it 
 would seem to have been somewhat more economical to die 
 and be buried in our County. In the records of Burlington 
 Monthly Meeting is the following: - 
 
 "At our Monthly Meeting held at Thomas Gardiner's 
 (1685) 
 
 "Peter Woolcot was willing to make graves and look 
 to ye Fences of y^ burying-ground and Friends are 
 willing to see him paid an old English shilling for 
 such men's or women's graves y* may not be paid 
 for by ye persons y^ employ him." 
 It is no wonder that we do not find Peter's name as a 
 member of the Colonial Assembly. At the rate of one shill- 
 ing per grave he could never earn enough money to make him 
 eligible for anything else than the office of sexton. 
 
 In the accounts of William Cook, administrator of the 
 Estate of William Duckworth of New Hanover Township who 
 died in 1737, we find he paid Paul Watkings, sexton of the 
 church at Burlington for digging two graves, 14 s. and William 
 Ashton for two coffins £1. 13s. But they knew how to charge 
 and eat up an estate when the opportunity offered quite as well 
 then as we do now. The Rev. Nathaniel Horwood, mission- 
 ary of St. Mary's Church, Burlington, died in 1730. Heap- 
 pears to have had no heirs in this country, his widow was prob- 
 
 49 
 
ably living in England. His estate was appraised at £71. 
 12s. Id. It looks as if the good people of St. Mary's Church 
 knew a good thing when the saw it and thought the money 
 might as well stay on this side of the Atlantic, for £35. 5s. 
 Id. or one half of the appraised estate was paid for funeral 
 expenses and I am afraid that a good many that attended the 
 missionary's funeral saw double before the day was over. 
 Mention is made in Administrator's accounts of that period of 
 monies used to defray the expense of rum, sugar, spices, cider 
 and cakes consumed at funerals, and in one instance a little less 
 than one fourth of the personal estate was used for this pur- 
 pose. The result may be better imagined, than described. 
 In the Advices of the Yearly Meeting in 1719 I note 
 the following; — ' 'Whereas, at some burials where 
 people may come far, there may be occasion for re- 
 freshment yet let that be done in such moderation, and 
 the behavior of all Friends be with such gravity and 
 sobriety as become the occasion; and if any appear 
 otherwise, let them be reproved and dealt with as is 
 advised in cases of misbehavior or indecencies at 
 marriages. And it may be further noted, that any 
 excess in this case, and the making so solemn a time 
 as this ought to be, and really is, in its own nature, 
 to appear as a festival, must be burdensome and 
 grievous to the sober Christian mind, which will of 
 course, be under afar different exercise at such times. 
 Friends are desired, therefore, to have great care 
 
 50 
 
therein and use all endeavors everywhere more and 
 more to break from and avoid that offensive and un- 
 suitable custom of large provisions of strong drink, 
 cakes, etc. and the formal and repeated servings and 
 offers thereof. This indecent and indiscreet custom 
 and practice has run to such excess that invitations 
 being made to greater numbers than their own or 
 neighbor's houses can contain, the very streets and 
 open places are made use of for the handing about 
 burnt wine and other strong liquors. And besides these 
 indecencies above mentioned, the custom of waiting 
 for the last that will please to come (though ever so 
 unseasonable) and the formality of repeated servings 
 to each, breaks in upon another decent order among 
 Friends of keeping to and observing the time 
 appointed." 
 
 Many of the early Friends in their polemic writings 
 came close to the boarder line of Billingsgate in the language 
 they used and some crossed over the border; but in all their 
 official utterances. Friends as a rule have never made use of 
 superlatives. They have always used the utmost moderation 
 and decorum in their deliverances. In speaking of offences 
 against the discipline, general and not specific terms seem to 
 be used whenever possible and details and particulars avoided, 
 so much so is this the case that an expression like "unbecom- 
 ing behavior" may be used to describe offences deserving 
 harsher names. In the light of these facts, we may well ima- 
 
 51 
 
gine from the vigorous and unambigous language used in the 
 above recited quotation from the Advices of 1719 that the true 
 condition of things was very much worse than appears on the 
 surface. 
 
 If rum and spirits flowed freely at funerals in those good 
 old times it is not unlikely, that occasionly at least, the per- 
 formance was varied with scenes resembling some of those 
 that Father Prout tells us occurred on 
 
 "The night before Larry was stretched." 
 
 And now that the funeral is over, I close. I think that 
 you will now agree with me that the tail has indeed wagged 
 the dog. 
 
 52 
 
J*. ERRATA j^ 
 
 The following errors occur :- 
 
 Page 8, 23 line from top. for country read county. 
 
 " 9, 
 
 13 
 
 cartas read cargoes. 
 
 " 13, 
 
 9 
 
 Authority read authority. 
 
 ' 13, 
 
 26 
 
 row read vrow. 
 
 " 15, 
 
 3 
 
 iniigimus read indigenous. 
 
 " 15, 
 
 16 
 
 is read in. 
 
 " 21, 
 
 14 
 
 after valued insert at. 
 
 " 21, 
 
 15 
 
 for course read coarse. 
 
 " 26, 
 
 5 
 
 Peace read P/cJce. 
 
 ' 28. 
 
 16 • 
 
 edition read translation 
 
 " 29. 
 
 13 
 
 colonist read colonists. 
 
 " 30, 
 
 26 
 
 Montgomery read Montgomerie 
 
 ' 31 
 
 5 
 
 Crosby read Cosby. 
 
 ' 38. 
 
 5 
 
 emboding read embodying. 
 
 ' 40, 
 
 3 
 
 Culpepper read Culpeper. 
 
 " 42, 
 
 5 
 
 Batholomew read Bartholomew. 
 
 ' 51, 
 
 18 
 
 Billingsgate read billingsgate. 
 
 ' 52, 
 
 5 
 
 occasionly read occasionally . 
 
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 
 
 160 0^