A History of the University of Pennsylvania from Its Foundation to A. D. 1770/Chapter 11, 1

by Thomas Harrison Montgomery

XI

Before we enter upon the further proceedings of the Trustees, let us inform ourselves upon the men, in their personal or public characters, who now took upon themselves this Trust, and who laid upon strong foundations an edifice of learning whose history their well matured plans make it worth our while to pursue through these its earliest years. In enumerating them we follow the order of their precedence which was observed in the deed of conveyance to them of the Tenth street property in 1750 and followed in their first minutes; in the conveyance they are thus recited and described:^[1]

• James Logan, Esquire
• Thomas Lawrence, Esquire
• William Allen, Esquire
• John Inglis, Merchant
• Tench Francis, Esquire
• William Masters, Esquire
• Lloyd Zachary, Practitioner in Physic
• Samuel M'Call, jr, Merchant
• Joseph Turner, Esquire
• Benjamin Franklin, Printer
• Thomas Leech, Merchant
• William Shippen, Practitioner
• Robert Strettell, Esquire
• Philip Syng, Silversmith
• Charles Willing, Esquire
• Phineas Bond, Practitioner in Physic
• Richard Peters, Esquire
• Abraham Taylor, Esquire
• Thomas Bond, Practitioner in Physic
• Thomas Hopkinson, Esquire
• William Plumsted, Esquire
• Joshua Maddox, Esquire
• Thomas White, Esquire
• William Coleman, Merchant

 

James Logan, born in Ireland in 1674 of honorable Scotch lineage, was now seventy-five years of age, and the foremost man in the province, eminent in public life, and a faithful adherent of the dominant religion. He had been the patient Secretary to William Penn who later made him Provincial Secretary, Commissioner of Property, and Receiver General. He also in turn was Recorder of the City of Philadelphia, Presiding Judge of Common Pleas, Chief Justice of the Province, and as President of the Council between the death of Governor Gordon in 1736 and the arrival of Governor Thomas in 1738 he governed the province. "Fidelity, integrity, and disinterestedness were eminently conspicuous in his character, which was indeed of that sterling worth that needs no meretricious ornament."^[2] Mr. J. Francis Fisher says of him,

A history of James Logan's public life would be that of Pennsylvania during the first forty years of the last century. Venerating William Penn, with whose noble and generous nature he was well acquainted, he stood up at all times in his defence against the encroachments of the Assembly; and, if he forfeited his popularity, and endured calumny and persecution, he preserved his fidelity, the confidence of his employers, and the respect of all good men. Weary of the burden of public office, he retired in 1738 from all his salaried employments, remaining only a short time longer a member of the Provincial Council. At his estate, called Stenton, near Germantown, he passed in retirement the remainder of his days, devoted to agriculture and his favorite studies.^[3]

At an early age he showed great proficiency in classics, comprehending Latin, Greek and Hebrew before he was thirteen years of age. His leisure days after his retirement from public concern found ample employment in his classical studies as well as his interests in matters of science. His rare collection of books "he left a legacy to the public, such at least was his intention and his children after his death fulfilled his bequest,"^[4] and these testify to his wide reading and general knowledge. It was while the humble glazier, Thomas Godfrey, was working at Stenton and had his thoughtful attention drawn by a falling piece of glass, that there sprang up in his mind the ideas of the Quadrant, which he first imparted to Logan, who found him immediately after this incident in his library consulting a volume of Newton to aid him in elucidating his thoughts; and it was due to Logan's help in furthering his experiments, that success was reached and due honor granted Godfrey as the inventor of the Quadrant, preceding by two years the claim of Hadley to the discovery.^[5]

Logan was a staunch Friend but he could not fully share in the Society's absolute views on non resistance; and quite consistently he not only took an interest in but also contributed to the Association which Franklin in 1747 originated for the defence of the city against foreign invasion which was then feared, and for which the Friends, then controlling the Assembly, would appropriate no funds. Logan writes to Franklin 3 December, 1747:^[6]

I have expected to see thee here for several weeks, according to my son's information, with Euclid's title page printed, and my Mattaire's Lives of the Stephenses; but it is probable thy thoughts of thy new excellent project have in some measure diverted thee, to which I most heartily wish all possible success. * * * Ever since I have had the power of thinking, I have clearly seen that government without arms is an inconsistency, for Friends spare no pains to get and accumulate estates, and are yet against defending them, though these very estates are in a great measure the sole cause of their being invaded, as I showed to our Yearly Meeting, last September was six years, in a paper then printed. But I request to be informed, as soon as thou hast any leisure, what measures are proposed to furnish small arms, powder, and ball to those in the country; and particularly what measures are taken to defend our river, especially at the Red Bank, on the Jersey side, and on our own, where there ought not to be less than forty guns, from six to twelve pounders. What gunners are to be depended on? Thy project of a lottery to clear £3000. is excellent, and I hope it will be speedily filled; nor shall I be wanting. But thou wilt answer all these questions and much more, if thou wilt visit me here, as on First day, to dine with me, and thou wilt exceedingly oblige thy very loving friend, James Logan.

To which in a letter written next day Franklin replied:^[7]

I am heartily glad you approve of our proceedings. * * * I have not time to write larger, nor to wait on you till next week. In general all goes well, and there is a surprising unanimity in all ranks. Near eight hundred have signed the association, and more are signing hourly. One company of Dutch is complete.

In his autobiography he says: "Mr. Logan put into my hands Sixty pounds to be laid out in lottery tickets for the battery, with directions to apply what prizes might be drawn wholly to that service."^[8]

Logan's classical studies were not intermitted during his public career, for it was in 1734 he undertook his well known translation of Cicero's De Senectute, which with explanatory Notes was published for him by Franklin in 1744. Franklin makes a preface to the book, entitled the "printer to the reader," and says:
some friends, among whom I had the honor to be ranked, obtained copies of it in MS. And, as I believed it to be in itself equal at least, if not far preferable to any other translation of the same piece extant in our language, besides the advantage it has of so many valuable notes, which at the same time they clear up the text, are highly instructive and entertaining, I resolved to give it an impression, being confident that the public would not unfavorably receive it.

He closed by adding
his hearty wish that this first translation of a classic in this Western World may be followed with many others, performed with equal judgment and success; and be a happy omen, that Philadelphia shall become the seat of the American muses.

Had Franklin known of George Sandy's translation of Ovid's Metamorphoses, in Virginia when Treasurer of that colony, more than a century before, he would not have claimed for Logan the honor of making the first American translation of a classic, but while that was "the first English literary production penned in America, at least which has any rank or name in the general history of literature,"^[9] it was printed in London in 1626, and it may be claimed for Logan that his was the first American print of such a translation. Other translations of Logan from the ancient and essays on matters of practical import testify to his learning and industry. With such training and tastes he would naturally welcome any effort to secure and extend the advantages of learning to the young generations around him, and having confidence in Franklin's executive ability to carry to maturity any scheme he would formulate in furtherance of this, and reliance on his practical judgment, he naturally gave his interest and influence to it; and his name heading the new trust in compliance with Franklin's desire, was in itself an augury of success to the enterprise. Logan writes to Peter Collinson in London 1 July 1749, "Benjamin Franklin has been here to day, to show me some new curiosities in electricity, but the weather was too warm and moist." And on 20 October
our most ingenious printer and postmaster, Benjamin Franklin, has the clearest understanding, with as extreme modesty as any man I know here. Thou hast seen several of his pieces on electricity, wherein he almost excels you all.

His practical interest in the new Academy was evidenced in his early offer to the Trustees of "the gift of a lot of ground on Sixth Street to erect an Academy upon, provided it should be built within the Term of Fourteen Years." This lot was opposite the State House Square, probably immediately North of the building for his Library which Logan had before this date erected on the northwest corner of Walnut and Sixth Streets, at that time considered out of town.^[10] To this however
the President was desired to acquaint Mr. Logan [at the meeting of 26 December] that the Trustees had a most grateful sense of his regard to the Academy, but as the New Building was in all respects better suited to their present circumstances and future views, they could only return him their sincere thanks for his kind and generous offer.
In his late years he suffered from ill health, and on 31 October, 1751 he died at Stenton. The new Trustee selected in his place was Isaac Norris, his son-in-law.

Franklin's obituary to him which appeared in the Pennsylvania Gazette of 7 November fittingly records his estimation of the man who was first in the list of the Trustees of the Academy:

Thursday last, after a long Indisposition, died the honourable James Logan, Esq.: in the 77th Year of his Age, and on Saturday his Remains were decently interr'd in the Friends Burying ground in this city, the Funeral being respectfully attended by the principal Gentlemen and Inhabitants of Philadelphia and the neighbouring Country. His Life was for the most Part a Life of Business, tho' he had always been passionately fond of study. He had borne the Several Offices of Provincial Secretary, Commissioner of Property, Chief Judge of the Supreme Court, and for near two Years govern'd the Province as President of the Council, in all which publick Stations, as well as in private Life, he behav'd with unblemish'd Integrity: But some Years before his Death he retired from publick Affairs to Stenton his Country Seat, where he enjoy'd among his Books that Leisure which Men of Letters so earnestly desire. He was thoroughly versed both in ancient and modern Learning, acquainted with the oriental Tongues, a Master of the Greek and Latin, French and Italian Languages, deeply skilled in the Mathematical Sciences, and in Natural and Moral Philosophy, as several Pieces of his writing witness, which have been repeatedly printed in Divers Parts of Europe, and are highly esteemed by the Learned. But the most noble Monument of his Wisdom, Publick Spirit, Benevolence and affectionate Regard to the People of Pennsylvania is his Library; which he has been collecting these 50 Years past, with the greatest Care and Judgment, intending it a Benefaction to the Publick for the Increase of Knowledge, and for the common Use and Benefit of all Lovers of Learning. It contains the best Editions of the best Books in various Languages, Arts and Sciences, and is without Doubt the largest, and by far the most valuable Collection of the Kind in this Part of the World, and will convey the name of Logan thro' ages with Honour, to the latest posterity.

 

Thomas Lawrence was born in New York 4 September, 1689, the grandson of Thomas Laurenszen, whose arrival in New York in 1662 and marriage in the year following are found in the records of the Old Dutch Church, where is also the record of Thomas' baptism on 8 September, 1689. He appears to have settled in Philadelphia about the year 1720, shortly after his marriage. He here entered into mercantile life, James Logan mentioning him as associated with him in shipping, and in 1730 he became partner of Edward Shippen, the elder brother of Dr. William Shippen, and who was later known as Edward Shippen of Lancaster, whither he removed about 1752, the firm being Shippen & Lawrence. He was elected a Common Councilman 3 October, 1722, an Alderman 6 October, 1724, and Mayor of the City in 1728, 1734, 1749, and 1753, during which last incumbency he died. Governor Gordon called him to a seat in the Provincial Council in April 1727, but he did not qualify until 10 May 1728. In September, 1745 he was deputed one of the Commissioners from Pennsylvania to treat with the Six Nations at Albany. When Franklin declined the Lieutenant Colonelcy of the Philadelphia Association, he recommended, his autobiography tells us, "Mr. Lawrence, a fine person, and a man of influence, who was accordingly appointed."^[11] He was for some time Judge of the County Court; and in 1721 and '22 a Warden of Christ Church. He was a frequent attendant on the meetings of the Trustees, rarely missing one in their first two years, notwithstanding his business engagements and his manifold public duties, in those securing a handsome property for his children and in these a constantly widening reputation and influence. The last meeting of the Trustees he attended was on 17 November, 1753. He died 21 April, 1754, and was buried in the Family Vault in Christ Church Burying Ground, not far from the spot where the remains of Franklin were laid thirty-five years later. We can read the latter's authorship in the obituary notice on him which appeared in the Pennsylvania Gazette on 25 April, 1754.

Last Sunday, after a tedious fit of Sickness, died here, very much lamented, Thomas Lawrence, Esq. He had the Honour to be a Member of the Council of this Province, was President of the Court of Common Pleas for the County of Philadelphia, had been five times elected Mayor of this City, and in the enjoyment of these Offices ended his life. Characters are extremely delicate, and few or none drawn with Exactness and at Length, are free of Blemish. Of this Gentleman we think it may be truly said, he was an affectionate Husband, a tender Parent, a kind indulgent Master, and a faithful Friend. The Funeral was respectfully attended on Tuesday Evening by a great number of the principal Inhabitants of the Place, who justly regret the Death of so able and diligent a Magistrate as a public loss.

But the same hand did not write the Epitaph on his Tomb Stone, namely

In Memory of
Thomas Lawrence, Esq
An eminent Merchant
A faithful Counsellor
An active Magistrate
Of Pennsylvania
Whose private virtues endeared him to his family and friends;
Whose public conduct gained him respect and esteem.
Expecting everlasting life he ended this
During his ninth Mayorality of this city
the 25th day of April MDCCLIIII.
Aged 64 years

Mr. Lawrence married at Raritan 25 May, 1719, his kinswoman Rachel, daughter of Cornelius Longfield of New Brunswick whose daughter Catherine married John Cox, and their son John Cox of Bloomsbury became father in law to Hon. Horace Binney and John Redman Coxe, M. D. Of the children of Thomas and Rachel Lawrence, the eldest Thomas was twice Mayor of the City, in 1758 and 1764; the second, John, was Mayor from 1765 to 1767, and in the latter year was appointed a Judge of the Supreme Court, and in 1750 married the daughter of Tench Francis, a Trustee of the Academy and College; and their daughter Mary married a few months after her father’s death William Masters, also a Trustee. It was she who, when the Widow Masters—her husband had died in 1760—, built the house on the south side of Market Street below Sixth, which her son-in-law, Richard Penn the Councillor, Sir William Howe during the occupation of the city by the British, and Benedict Arnold successively occupied, and on the site of which Robert Morris built the house in which Washington resided during his Presidency.

Mr. Lawrence's place in the Board was filled by the election at the September meeting of the Hon. James Hamilton, Governor of the Province. He had been a faithful attendant at its meetings; the last one he attended was on 17 November, 1753, just prior to his fatal illness.

 

William Allen was born in Philadelphia, 5 August, 1704, the son of William Allen a merchant in that city and a native of Ireland who married about 1700, Mary daughter of Thomas Budd. Mrs. Allen's sister Rose became the wife of Joseph Shippen and step mother to Dr. William Shippen. His father brought William up to the study of law, and at the time of his death in 1725, the son appears to have been in London pursuing these studies.

The father's death, however, hastened his return home, for we find him in Philadelphia prior to September 1726, as his signature appears to the agreement of the merchants and chief citizens to take the money of the Lower Counties at their face value. He now engaged in trade, relinquishing the Law. He was elected a Common Councilman of Philadelphia 3 October, 1727. In 1731 he became a member of the Assembly, serving until 1739. In 1730 he secured property for the new State House on Chestnut Street between Fifth and Sixth Streets, his father-in-law Andrew Hamilton, Thomas Lawrence, and Dr. John Kearsley being the Trustees of the State House fund; he advanced money for the purchase of certain of the lots, taking the title in his own name until the Province reimbursed him. In 1732 the building appears to have been begun.

He was chosen Mayor of the city in October, 1735; and at the close of his term, in the Hall of Assembly now just finished, he opened by a collation customary from the outgoing Mayor. This must have been had in one of the lower rooms, the upper story not being yet completed. Franklin gives us a participant's account of this notable feast in the Pennsylvania Gazette of 30 September, 1736:

Thursday last William Allen, Esq., Mayor of this city for the year past made a Feast for his citizens at the Statehouse, to which all the Strangers in Town of Note were also invited. Those who are Judges of such Things say That considering the Delicacy of the Viands, the Excellency of the Wines, the great Number of Guests, and yet the Easiness and Order with which the Whole was conducted, it was the most grand and the most elegant Entertainment that has been made in these Parts of America.

Mr. Allen became the partner of Joseph Turner, also with him a Trustee of the Academy, and in his business he was very successful and amassed a fortune which was enlarged by fortunate land investments. He was appointed Recorder of Deeds by the Common Council, 7 August, 1741, succeeding therein his father-in-law Andrew Hamilton who had died 4 August. In the local struggle to secure proper appropriations from the Quaker Assembly to put the colony in a state of defence against threatened enemies, for the war of England with Spain promised to involve the American provinces in its issues, Allen became the head of the anti-Quaker party, but the result of what was long known as the bloody election of 1742 was the return of the leader of the other party, Isaac Norris, to the Assembly; but as Recorder he could maintain the policy of the city in support of the Governor in his struggle against Norris' friends in the Assembly. Yet, but seven years later, these two united in support of Franklin's efforts to establish the great educational institution he had been planning. He continued Recorder of the City, then an important judicial office, until 2 October, 1750, when he resigned the office having been appointed Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the Province. "He was the only Chief Justice before the Revolution who was a native of Pennsylvania, and the only one before or since excepting Shippen and Sharswood who has been a native of Philadelphia." He, however, continued his business interests uninterruptedly, and from 1756 up to the Revolution was a member of the Assembly from Cumberland County. About 1750 his country seat was established at Mount Airy, now in the Twenty-second Ward of the City of Philadelphia, and in the possession of the family of the late James Gowen, Esquire. In 1765 he laid out a town in Northampton County, Pennsylvania, on a tract of land lying on the Lehigh River, which we now know as the flourishing city of Allentown.

Allen was a public spirited man, generous with his means, giving his services as Chief Justice gratuitously that he might devote the salary of the station to charities. Besides his advances on the State House purchases, he advanced on one occasion a good part of the tax payable by the Proprietaries under a bill proposed for raising revenue, in the deadlock between the Lieutenant Governor and the Assembly, the former pressing for money for military uses, and not being free to consent to a law which included the Proprietary estates in the assessment for taxation, and the Assembly refusing to vote the means of defence unless such assessment with taxation was agreed to; the gentlemen of Philadelphia made up the sum which it was estimated would be due from the Proprietaries, and then the Assembly passed the necessary money bills. When in England on a visit in 1763 he labored with the home authorities against any stamp duty, and to him was given the credit of securing the postponement of its consideration to another session of Parliament. He joined the American Philosophical Society shortly after its reorganization in 1769, as did also his three sons.

His presence at the meetings of the Trustees was sufficiently uniform to attest his continued interest in the welfare of the institution, though his regular attendance at the Trustees' meetings in the early years of its work was more marked and regular. But amid all his public duties he attended at intervals, and the last meeting we find his name recorded was 1 June, 1779, a few months prior to the abrogation of the charter. He was one of the organisers of St. John's Lodge Philadelphia, and in 1732 was elected Grand Master for one year.^[12] He was afterwards appointed Provincial Grand Master, by the Grand Master of England in 1750. He and Franklin were now making a divergence in their public paths; the sharpness of the political contests of the time began to cut into all relations of life: while Allen’s sympathies were naturally with the Proprietaries, Franklin’s were with the people; and though they had labored side by side to induce the Proprietaries to submit their lands to general taxation for the public weal, they separated, because while one saw in the attitude of resistance a special though limited cause of complaint, the other found in it heated controversies. It gave rise to the germs of those broader views which were the basis of all Franklin’s services in behalf of his country; Allen saw only the present popular clamor against the Proprietaries; the other with a wiser apprehension saw that greater and more lasting principles were involved, out of which grew further those feelings in his mind of personal disrespect for the Penns which continued with him through life, and which would necessarily in some measure alienate those friends of his, such as Allen whose friendship for the Penn family continued unbroken, strongly cemented as it was by the marriage of his eldest daughter Anne in 1766 to John Penn, then a Councillor and afterwards Governor of Pennsylvania. Allen misconceived Franklin’s course in regard to the Stamp Act, and in his absence abroad charged him with double dealing in the matter; yet when Allen called him "that Goliath," nothing more need be added showing his opinion and perhaps fear of the ability and powers of this remarkable man.^[13]

William Allen in the preliminary skirmishes of the Revolution sided with the Colonies, and he went so far as to donate shot to the Council of Safety. But his efforts to maintain peace between them and the mother country drew him away from the thought of a bloody contest, and as there could be no midway, his alienation from his country’s cause was complete. He resigned the Chief Justiceship in 1774. He retained his seat in the Assembly as late as June, 1776, but it is thought he went abroad shortly after. However, he was in Philadelphia a few months later, as he attended a meeting of the Trustees on 31 October, and again his presence is recorded at the three meetings in March 1777. This would seem to refute the statement which has been accepted that he returned to Philadelphia on the entrance of the British troops in September, 1777. We find him also at the meetings of the Trustees in February, March, May, and June 1779. He died 6 September, 1780; and it is believed his death occurred in Philadelphia, or at Mount Airy. By a codicil to his will dated 1 December, 1779 he freed all his slaves.

Chief Justice Allen married 16 February, 1734, Margaret only daughter of Andrew Hamilton, the Councillor, the most eminent lawyer of his time in Pennsylvania, who died in 1741. Her only brothers James and Andrew Hamilton were also Councillors, and the former was Lieutenant Governor of the Province from 1748 to 1754 and died unmarried. Andrew was elected a Trustee in 1754 of the Academy, in the vacancy made by the death of Thomas Lawrence. His second son William Hamilton who was born in 1745 was the builder of the beautifully located and well known Woodland Mansion, near the University Buildings, where he died in 1813. Of William and Margaret Allen’s children, besides Anne who married John Penn, there was another daughter Margaret who married in 1771 James DeLancey eldest son of James DeLancey, Chief Justice and Governor of New York, whose second son John Peter DeLancey was the father of the Rev. William Heathcote DeLancey, D. D., Provost of the University of Pennsylvania from 1828 to 1833. Of their three sons, Andrew married Sarah Coxe, granddaughter of Tench Francis, and was himself a Councillor in 1770, but becoming a loyalist, as was his father, went abroad and died in London in 1825; and James, whose wife was a granddaughter of Thomas Lawrence the Councillor, who died in 1778. Both Andrew and James Allen were graduates of the Academy in the class of 1759.

 

John Inglis was born in Scotland in 1708. He came to Philadelphia in 1736 from the Island of Nevis where he had been a merchant. He here pursued the same career, soon rising into prominence as a successful merchant, and was in partnership with Samuel M'Call, senior, his wife's brother-in-law and cousin. He was elected a Common Councilman 1 October, 1745. On 1 January, 1747–8 he was commissioned Captain of the First Company of the Associated Regiment of Foot, of which Samuel M'Call senior was a Major; and in the Association Battery Company of 1756 he was a private with his wife's brother Archibald M'Call and brother-in-law William Plumsted. During the absence of Abraham Taylor, he was Deputy Collector from 1751 to 1753. He was in the Commission of 1756, of which Alexander Stedman at that time a Trustee of the Academy was also a member, to audit the accounts of the farmers of Pennsylvania and others, who had claims for losses of horses and wagons under the contracts which Franklin had made in 1755 to supply Braddock's needs. He signed the war Importation Resolutions of 1765. He was one of the organizers of the St. Andrew's Society in 1749, and succeeded Governor Morris as its President. He died 20 August, 1775. We may recognize a familiar pen in the obituary notice of him in the Pennsylvania Gazette of 23 August:

On Sunday morning last, after a lingering and painful indisposition, which he supported with great equanimity, died John Inglis, Esq., of this city in the 68th year of his age; a gentleman who early acquired, and maintained to the last, the character of a truly honest man. Possessing a liberal and independent spirit, despising everything which he thought unbecoming a gentleman, attentive to business, frugal but yet elegant in his economy, he lived superior to the world, beloved and respected as an useful citizen, an agreeable companion, a sincere friend, and an excellent father of a family.

He married 16 October, 1736, Catherine, daughter of George M'Call, a native of Scotland then settled in Philadelphia, whose wife was a daughter of Jasper Yeates and a descendant of Joran Kyn the founder of the Swedish settlement at Upland. Of their numerous children, John was engaged in the merchant marine service, and secured a commission as Captain in the Royal Navy in which he obtained the rank of Rear Admiral; Samuel was elected in 1777 a member of the Philadelphia Troop of Light Horse and died in 1783; and Katharine lived with her cousin Margaret M'Call, daughter of Samuel M'Call, junior, who were "United through life. United in the grave" as we are told on their joint tombstone erected "Sacred to Friendship," in Christ Church Burying Ground. Mrs. Inglis' brother Samuel M'Call, junior, was a Trustee of the Academy, as was also her sister Mary's husband William Plumsted.

Mr. Inglis' attendance at the meetings of the Trustees was almost continuous; a long interval occurred from May 1762 to September 1764, which is not explained, but on his return his accustomed regularity was resumed. His last attendance was on 22 February, 1774, when the request of the Provost for the erection of a house for him on the College Grounds was unanimously granted. His place on the Board was filled on 17 October, 1776, by the election of Hon. James Tilghman.

 

Tench Francis was born in Ireland, the son of the Very Reverend John Francis, Dean of Lismore in 1722, who was the grandson of Philip Francis who was Mayor of Plymouth in 1622. Mr. Francis came to Maryland, as others of his countrymen had done under the attractions held out by the Calverts; and it was while acting as Attorney for Lord Baltimore that he married in 1724 Elizabeth Turbutt of Talbot County, Maryland. He had two brothers, Richard, author of Maxims of Equity, first published in 1729, with an American edition in Richmond in 1823; and the Rev. Philip Francis, D. D. who was father of Sir Philip Francis to whom the authorship of The Letters of Junius was for many years attributed. He appears early to have moved to Pennsylvania for we find him Clerk of the County Court from 1726 to 1734. He was Attorney General of Pennsylvania from 1741 to 1755, and Recorder of Philadelphia from 1750 to 1755. His attendance at the meetings of the Trustees was very uniform up to within eighteen months of his death, which occurred on 16 August, 1758; his last attendance was on 9 May, preceding. The family tomb in Christ Church Burying Ground was erected by his son Tench and bears this inscription in part: "The Vault over which this Monument is erected was built by the late Tench Francis, for the purpose of depositing the remains of Tench and Elizabeth Francis his Parents, and a Sepulchre for himself and his descendants." The vacancy in the Trustees made by his death was filled at the meeting of 12 September by the election of Edward Shippen, jr.

Of Mr. Francis' children, Anne married in 1743 James Tilghman the Councillor; Mary married William Coxe of New Jersey, and her daughter married Andrew Allen the Councillor; Tench married Anne daughter of Charles Willing, a Trustee of the Academy; and Elizabeth married John the son of Thomas Lawrence also a Trustee.

The Pennsylvania Gazette of 24 August, 1758, records the following obituary to his memory:

On Wednesday, the 16th Instant, died here Tench Francis, Esq., Attorney at Law. He was no less remarkable for strict Fidelity than for his profound skill in his profession. He filled the Stations of Attorney General of this Province and Recorder of this city, for a Number of years, with the highest Reputation; and when declining Health had called him from the Bar, he continued his Usefulness to his Country, by carrying on a large and honourable Trade. His domestic virtues made him dear to his Family; his Learning and Abilities, valuable to the Community; to both his Death is a real Loss.

 

William Masters was the son of Thomas Masters, who came with his children from Bermuda to Pennsylvania perhaps prior to the year 1700, and who built at Front and Market Streets in 1704 what was said to be the first three-story house in Philadelphia. He was an Alderman of the city in 1702, and Mayor from 1707 to 1709, and died in December, 1723. William inherited from his father and brother Thomas (who died in March 1740–1) a valuable tract of land in the Northern Liberties, running West from the Delaware River to beyond Broad Street and lying between the present Girard and Montgomery Avenues. He was a representative from Philadelphia County in the assembly for many years, and a commissioner to disburse the money appropriated for the defence of the Province. His sister Mercy married Peter Lloyd, the first cousin of Dr. Lloyd Zachary, a fellow Trustee. The story of William's early courtship, and reputed engagement to, William Penn's daughter Letitia, who was his senior in years, and who after reaching England at the close of 1701 forgot him and soon afterwards married William Aubrey, which was referred to with feeling by James Logan in his letter to Penn written in May 1702, forms one of the earliest romances in high life in the Province.^[14] However that may be, he remained single during her life; she died in 1746, and we find him, an elderly man, marrying in 1754 Mary, daughter of Thomas Lawrence the Councillor, who must have been his cotemporary in years. He died 24 November, 1760; of his two daughters who grew to adult years, Mary married, in 1772, Richard Penn the Councillor, the grandson of William Penn, and died in London in 1829; and Sarah married, in 1795, Turner Camac of Greenmount Lodge, County Louth, Ireland.

The Pennsylvania Gazette of 27 November, 1760, thus noticed his death:

Yesterday were interred the Remains of William Masters, Esq., who was one of the Representatives of this City in Assembly, and a Provincial Commissioner, for several years. He was not more remarkable for his Superior Fortune, than for his firm Adherance to the Constitution of his Country, and the common Rights of Mankind.

His will which was probated 30 January, 1761, appointed Benjamin Franklin, Joseph Fox and Joseph Galloway executors of his Estate and guardians of his three minor daughters; but as Franklin was absent in England, he did not qualify.

Mrs. Masters, in the year following that of the death of her husband, took conveyance from her father of a large lot on the South side of Market Street between Fifth and Sixth Streets, upon which she decided to build a handsome mansion. Here her daughter Mary lived with her, and on the occasion of her marriage to Richard Penn, who had come from England in 1771 commissioned as Lieutenant Governor, the mother conveyed the property to her. During the possession of the city by the British, General Howe occupied the Mansion, the stateliest in the city. When the city came again under home rule, and Arnold was in command, the latter here lived sumptuously until his final departure. The house was then occupied by the French Consul General Holker, and during his occupancy it was burnt down in 1780. The lot with the ruins Robert Morris leased, rebuilt the house in its former style and purchased t in 1785, and here remained until he vacated it for the use of our first President, and it then became the residence of Washington during his two terms of office, and hence bears in local history the name of the Washington Mansion. The building afterwards erected by the State on Ninth Street for the use of his successors in office was never so occupied, and was sold to the University of Pennsylvania in 1801.

Mr. Masters attendance at the meeting of the Trustees was sufficiently regular to evince his interests in their concerns, but for three years prior to his death his name does not appear as present, the last meeting at which he appears being 11 January, 1757. He was succeeded in the trust by the Rev. Jacob Duché, who was elected 10 February, 1761.

 

Dr. Lloyd Zachary, was born in Philadelphia in 1701, the son of Daniel Zachary a native of England who had emigrated to Boston, and who married 9 April, 1700, Elizabeth, daughter of Thomas Lloyd, Lieutenant Governor of the Province. Deborah Logan says of him: "This worthy man, who had settled in Boston, but had married a Pennsylvanian, a daughter of Thomas Lloyd, upon the decease of his wife, went home to England, where shortly after his arrival he also died. He left one son, Lloyd Zachary, who became afterwards a distinguished physician in Philadelphia."^[15] Young Zachary studied medicine under Dr. Kearsley, and afterwards abroad, and returning to Philadelphia began the practice of his profession with zeal and skill, becoming one of the first physicians in the city. In 1741, when Dr. Thomas Graeme was superseded as Quarantine physician wherein he had served twenty years, Dr. Zachary was elected in his stead. When the new Hospital was opened in February, 1752 in John Kinsey's house on Market street, on the site of which Widow Masters built her mansion in 1761, Dr. Zachary with the two Doctors Bond, and Graeme, Moore, Cadwalader and Redman were its first active physicians, bestowing their medicines free to its patients. The hospital received from his Aunt and Uncle Hannah and Richard Hill a valuable tract on the Ridge Road. He died unmarried 25 November, 1756. His attendance at the Trustees meetings was more constant the first two years than later. He did not qualify under the Charter of 1755; as his place was filled 11 January, 1757, by the election of Benjamin Chew.

Franklin wrote the following expressive memorial notice of him for the Pennsylvania Gazette of 16 December, 1756:

On the 26th past died here Doctor Lloyd Zachary, who in Sweetness of Temper, Politeness of Manners, and universal Benevolence, had few Equals, no Superiors. He was a Trustee of the Academy, and Charity School, and one of the first Subscribers, having given one Hundred Pound towards their Establishment. He was also an early Contributor to the Pennsylvania Hospital, and one of the first Physicians who agreed to attend it gratis; which he continued to do as long as his Health would permit. In his last Will he bequeathed Three Hundred and Fifty Pounds to that charitable Institution as a Means of continuing to do good after his Decease. An uncommonly great Number of the Inhabitants testify'd their Respect for him, by attending his Funeral.

 

Samuel M'Call, junior, as he was known by way of distinction from his cousin Samuel M'Call, senior, who married his sister Anne, was born in Philadelphia, 5 October, 1721, the son of George M'Call, before mentioned as the father of the wife of John Inglis. He early engaged in mercantile life, inheriting his father's store and wharf, and taking his younger brother Archibald into partnership. He was a Common Councilman, being chosen 6 October, 1747, and with his brother-in-law John Inglis was on the Commission to audit the accounts of Pennsylvania claimants for losses sustained in their supplies to Braddock's expedition. He became a member of the St. Andrew's Society in 1751. With his brothers George and Archibald, and brothers-in-law Inglis and Plumsted, he joined in the petition to the Proprietaries 1 August, 1754 asking the grant of the lot at Third and Pine Streets for a church and yard for the use of members of the Church of England, whereon St. Peter's Church was afterwards erected. Mr. M'Call died in September, 1762. He had married in 1743 Anne, a daughter of Capt. John Searle. His eldest daughter Anne married Thomas Willing, himself also a Trustee in 1760, and eldest son of Charles Willing, one of the original Trustees of the Academy; and Catherine married Tench Coxe the grandson of Tench Francis the Trustee. His brother Archibald's grandson, Peter M'Call, Esq., became a Trustee of the University in 1861.^[16]

Mr. M'Call's attendance at the Trustees' meetings was less regular in the years 1752, '53, and '54, than prior or subsequent, the last at which his name appears was on 1 May, 1760 when the Trustees attended the Commencement services of that day. He was succeeded by Dr. John Redman who was elected 14 December, 1762.

 

Joseph Turner, a native of Andover, Hampshire, England, was born 2 May, 1701, and came to America in January 1714. He appears to have engaged in shipping, and we find him in 1724 as the Captain of the ship Lovely. In 1726 he was one of those who signed to take the bills of credit of the Lower Counties at their face value. In 1729 he was elected a Common Councilman, and in 1741 an Alderman. He declined election to the Mayoralty in 1745, and submitted to the appropriate penalty of £30. For nearly a half century he was in partnership in commercial business with William Allen, the house of Allen & Turner for a long time before the Revolutionary War being the most prominent in the Colony; and they also engaged in the manufacture of iron, owning several mines in Pennsylvania and New Jersey. He was a member of the Provincial Council, qualifying on 14 May, 1747. He died 25 July, 1783, unmarried, leaving the bulk of his extensive property to the children of his sister Mary, who married Captain James Oswald, namely, Elizabeth who married Chief Justice Chew as his second wife, and Margaret who married Frederick Smythe, Chief Justice of New Jersey. Another sister of Joseph Turner married John Sims a merchant in Jamaica, and was the mother of Joseph and Buckridge Sims, eminent merchants of Philadelphia. There was a brother Peter, whose possessions in the Northern Liberties gave rise to the name of Turner's Lane when that road was opened, but it is now no more, the rectangular streets of modern municipal geography obliterating all traces of it.

Mr. Turner's presence in the meetings of the Trustees was very constant up to 1762, when for some years long intervals occurred between his attendances, and the last time his name is entered as being present was on 23 July, 1769, the condition of his health forbidding him to continue his attendance. This continued for another ten years when on 22 June, 1779, he wrote to the Trustees, "My advanced age and bodily infirmities not permitting my attendance as one of the Trustees of the College, Academy and charitable Schools of Philada., I think it my duty to resign a trust which I am no longer able to execute. " This was accepted at a meeting on that day, and at the meeting on 28 June, Mr. George Clymer, the Signer, was elected in his place, but the abrogation of the charter before the end of that year gave him a very brief Trust.

 

Benjamin Franklin, "who first projected the liberal plan of the institution over which we have the honor to preside, " as the Provost, Vice Provost and Professors addressed him 16 September, 1785 on his final return home from his manifold foreign duties, finds a place at this point in the list of the original Trustees. While a sketch is here attempted of the lives and actions, personal or professional or political, of his associates, but a brief one should be attempted in this place of the man whose Autobiography has to this day remained unapproached in style or instruction by any who have attempted his Biography. Nor is it needed to record in these pages in any detail the doings and works of a man who has but one peer in his country's annals, so familiar are they to all who have any knowledge of its history. In previous pages some attempt has been made to mark the various important steps in his walk of life, each one seeming to establish him more firmly in general and useful knowledge as well also in local reputation and influence. A study of this wonderful progress of one from an alien in Philadelphia in 1723, in a quarter of a century to a commanding position in the community, leaves no room to wonder how easy it was for him to draw around him for the furtherance of education in a new and liberal form men of the characters and influence whose lives are in a measure here portrayed, men who did not merely grant him the use of their names by which to manufacture a standing for the institution, but who gave their time to the meetings and committee work in a degree unusual to men who all were actively engaged in their own affairs, yet who made time to share with him in all its deliberations, and whose spirit of directness and thoroughness so infused itself into their minds as to enable the institution to proceed with the same force during his various absences, unhappily continued however at a time when his calmness and skill might have averted the charter abrogation of 1779.

We shall follow him in the coming years of his life, and give some heed to his political and diplomatic course as we proceed in the narrative of the institution, which Mr. Matthew Arnold has happily named the University of Franklin.^[17] For although new influences came with its counsels and strove for its mastery in but a few short years, to the extent of belittling his influence and clouding his title to its parentage, we must note his patience throughout all, and realise his continued interest in the institution, even to the last; and must perforce step abreast of his own busy years at home or abroad, and keep alive that connection with our Commonwealth's and indeed our Nation's history his own close participation in both of which makes it all the more necessary for those to study who claim it as their Alma Mater.

He had entitled himself among his fellow trustees bearing honored titles of rank or profession or of courtesy, simply as Printer; this he claimed as his proper designation and of equal honor to his last days, his will reciting "I Benjamin Franklin, Printer," in precedence of his further titles, "late Minister Plenipotentiary from the United States of America to the Court of France, now President of the State of Pennsylvania," when he wrote it on 17 July, 1788. Having a competency by his success in business, he had retired from the active work of his calling in September 1748, disposing of his printing establishment to David Hall, his foreman, on favorable terms to both, which were to be met by Hall within the term of eighteen years during which it was to be carried on in the names of Franklin and Hall, the former assisting in the editing of the Gazette and his Poor Richard's Almanac. But through all his changes and diversities of labors, he clung with tenacity and in honor to his cognomen of Printer.

The leisure he gained by this made no contribution to any personal idleness; he simply turned his activities into more congenial channels of science or education or philanthropy, or indeed politics. His electrical pursuits, begun in 1747, continued unremittingly over a series of years;^[18] his Academy and Charitable School of 1749 opened up still further opportunities for his time and thought; and the new Hospital in 1752, in which his fellow trustees in the Academy, the two Bonds, Zachary, and Shippen were the great promoters, found him a willing and ready coadjutor, as we in the same year find him lending his countenance and aid to the honored Friend, John Smith, who founded the first Insurance Company formed in the Colonies, the Philadelphia Contributionship. He tells us:^[19]

When I disengaged myself from private business, I flatter'd myself that by the sufficient tho' moderate fortune I had acquir'd, I had secured leisure during the rest of my life for philosophical studies and amusements. I purchased all Dr. Spencer's apparatus, who had come from England to lecture here, and I proceeded in my electrical experiments with great alacrity; but the publick now considering me as a man of leisure, laid hold of me for their purposes; every part of our civil government, and almost at the same time, imposing some duty upon me. The governor put me into the commission of peace, [in 1749 and again in 1752] the corporation of the city chose me one of the common council [4 october, 1748]; and soon after Alderman [1 october, 1751]; and the citizens at large chose me a burgess to represent them in Assembly [1750]. * * * My election to this trust was repeated every year for ten years without my ever asking any elector for his vote, or signifying, either directly or indirectly, any desire of being chosen. On taking my seat in the House, my son was appointed their clerk. * * * * I would not, however, insinuate, that my ambition was not flattered by all these promotions; it certainly was; for, considering my low beginning, they were great things to me and they were still more pleasing as being so many spontaneous testimonies of the public good opinion, and by me entirely unsolicited.

His first hearing on the Bench in the case of William vs. Till, (noted later) he was associated with Thomas Lawrence, Edward Shippen and Joshua Maddox, two of whom were to become his co-trustees in the Academy before this year was out.

The office of justice of the peace I tried a little, by attending a few courts, and sitting on the bench to hear causes; but finding that more knowledge of the Common Law than I possessed was necessary to act in that station with credit, I gradually withdrew from it; excusing myself by being obliged to attend the higher duties of a legislator in the Assembly.^[20]

He was on 3 September, 1776, appointed Presiding Judge of the Court of Common Pleas, and in October, 1785, while President Supreme Executive Council was appointed President Judge; but there is no certainty of his ever sitting. Gordon says of him, in connection with his Assembly duties:

His active, comprehensive, and discriminating mind qualified him at all times to lead in a popular body; but his knowledge of provincial affairs at once placed him at the head of the assembly, and caused him to be appointed upon every important committee.^[21]

His rank as a Philosopher was earned by his success and discoveries in Electricity which had begun about this period in his life. Mr. Peter Collinson, a member of the Royal Society, who had been commissioned to send books to the Philadelphia Library, sent out early in 1747 an "electric tube with directions for using it," which Franklin in acknowledging it said "has put several of us on making electrical experiments, in which we have observed some particular phenomena, that we look upon to be new." His friends referred to were Hopkinson, Syng and Kinnersley, the latter of whom in 1753 became the Head Master of the English School connected with the Academy, and in 1755 was chosen Professor of Oratory and English Literature in the College. In writing to Mr. Collinson 29 July, 1750 he says:
as you first put us on electrical experiments, by sending to our Library Company a tube, with directions how to use it; and as an honorable Proprietary enabled us to carry those experiments to a greater height, by his generous present of a complete electrical apparatus; it is fit that both should know, from time to time, what progress we make.

These experiments unfolded new ideas, and new forces were discovered in the Electrical Fire, and Franklin's correspondence abroad detailing them to Collinson and others, though not at first heeded in regular Scientific circles in England, found a warm welcome in France and on the Continent. To enter here upon them with any description would open a most entertaining chapter in Franklin's life, but indulgence can only be given to a summary of their results as placing Franklin's name at the head of the practical discoverers of the sources and powers of this wonderful natural force, which we one hundred and thirty years later are just beginning to chain to our will and utilize in all our practical arts.^[22]

Dr. Priestly says of Franklin's records of his discoveries:
it is not easy to say, whether we are most pleased with the simplicity and perspicuity with which these letters are written, the modesty with which the author proposes every hypothesis of his own, or the noble frankness with which he relates his mistakes, when they were corrected by subsequent experiments. * * * Dr. Franklin's principles bid fair to be handed down to posterity as equally expressive of the true principles of electricity, as the Newtonian philosophy is of the true system of nature in general.

Before Priestley wrote this, Kinnersley had written to Franklin 12 March, 1761:

I most heartily congratulate you on the pleasure you must have in finding your great and well grounded expectations so far fulfilled. May this method of security [referring to the lightning rod] from the destructive violence of one of the most awful powers of nature meet with such further success, as to induce every good and grateful heart to bless God for the important discovery. * * * May it extend to the latest posterity of mankind, and make the name of Franklin like that of Newton immortal.

To which Franklin refers in his letter from London 20 February, 1762, in conclusion "Your kind wishes and congratulations are very obliging."^[23]

This reference to the lightning rod is to Franklin's happy experiment with his kite in June 1752, in the open fields not far from his residence, by which he drew lightning from the clouds, establishing his theory that under some circumstances of peculiar attraction the electric fluid could be drawn to earth.^[24] His theories had been known abroad, and the "Philadelphia experiment" had been successful in France in May of that year, M. Dalibard drawing electricity from a thunder cloud by a pointed rod. When the tidings of this reached America, Franklin had not publicly announced his success with the silken kite, and it was not until 19 October following in a letter to Peter Collinson he wrote,
as frequent mention is made in public papers from Europe, of the success of the Philadelphia experiment for drawing the electric fire from clouds by means of pointed rods of iron erected on high buildings, &c., it may be agreeable to the curious to be informed, that the same experiment has succeeded in Philadelphia, though made in a different and more easy manner;
and he then proceeds to a description of his June experiment, though in an entirely impersonal manner.^[25] This letter was read at the Royal Society on 31 December following, and in the following November he was granted by the Society the Copley Medal for that year "on account of his curious experiments and observations on electricity, as a mark of distinction due to his unquestionable merit;" and on 29 April, 1756, he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society.

The Rev. Ebenezer Kinnersley, alike interested in these studies, gave public exhibitions of many of these experiments, and quite reasonably at the time was granted to him by the public the meed of praise as their discoverer; but Franklin's correspondence, now all brought to light, shows their letters, and the relative claims of the two to distinction in the premises can be properly measured. Franklin took the scientific into his confidence rather than the curious public. But traces of Franklin's observations can be found from time to time in the news columns (so-called) of the Pennsylvania Gazette, where frequent record is made of instances of the destructive power of lightning which had been reported to him, doubtless in answer to his request, published in the Gazette of 21 June, 1753, namely:

Those of our Readers in this and the neighboring Provinces, who may have an opportunity of observing, during the present Summer, any of the Effects of Lightning on Houses, Ships, Trees, &c., are requested to take particular Notice of its Course, and Deviation from a Straight Line, in the Walls or other Matter affected by its different Operations, or Effects on Wood, Stone, Bricks, Glass, Metals, Animal Bodies, &c., and every other Circumstance that may tend to discover the Nature and compleat the History of that terrible Meteor. Such observations being put in writing and communicated to Benjamin Franklin in Philadelphia, will be very thankfully acknowledged.

In April, 1751, Mr. Kinnersley gives^[26] "Notice to the Curious" of a "course of Experiments in the newly discovered Electric Fire," adding at foot "the experiments succeed best when the air is dry;" and "to be accompanied with Methodical Lectures on the Nature and Properties of that wonderful element." Three years later, he gave for the "Entertainment of the Curious" "in one of the chambers of the Academy, a course of experiments in that new Branch of Natural Philosophy called Electricity." And as the "modern Prometheus," as Kant had now called him, had drawn the fire down from Heaven, Kinnersley adds an expostulatory paragraph in his Advertisement," and as some are apt to doubt the Lawfulness of endeavoring to guard against Lightning, it will be farther shewn, that the doing it, in the Manner proposed, cannot possibly be chargeable with Presumption, nor be inconsistent with any of the Principles either of Natural or Revealed Religion.^[27] This good Baptist Minister did not recognise any divorce between Religion and Science.

When Franklin was sent out in 1757 on a political errand to represent his adopted colony at the home government, his reception in England was that due to a savant rather than a politician. Local politics in their intensity found but little room for the recognition of those high scientific attainments which gave a warmth to the welcome, which otherwise would have been a cold one, to a protesting colonist.

Franklin's attendance at the meetings of the Trustees of the Academy and College was constant and regular, his first absence being at the meeting of August 1751,^[28] and there was but one absence to note in 1752, "when the Trustees visited the Schools, but did no other business," the year of his most interesting electrical experiments; the year 1753 shows absence from only three regular meetings in the summer of his first duty as Postmaster General which engaged him in his travels to the Eastward, besides his two Indian Missions; in 1754 his absences were more notable, due largely to his visit to Albany with the Commissioners; in 1755 being early in the year absent on a visit to New England, and later engaged in aiding Braddock^[29] his name does not appear in two of the regular meetings; in 1756 his absence was more notable owing to his frequent journeys from home. Visiting Virginia on his post office duties in the Spring he received from William and Mary College in person on 2 April the degree of A.M., "conferred upon him by the Rev G. Dawson, A. M., President, to whom he was in public presented by the Rev. Wm Preston A. M." ^[30] On his return from there early in June we find him at the close of the month in New York, and in November at Easton attending an Indian Conference. In April 1757, he sailed on his first foreign mission to the mother country. Arriving home in November, 1762, he resumes his attendance at the meetings, but in 1763 he was frequently absent, his public duties withdrawing him from other concerns; and in November, 1764, he set sail for London on his second mission. He was elected the first president of the Board of Trustees, being succeeded by Richard Peters who was elected 11 May, 1756. The minutes give us no indication of the cause of his declining a re-election at this time: his journey to Albany in the previous year, his absences now from the first five meetings of the current year, may be indications of his accumulating public duties, but there were thus early developing some of those causes which were working to take the institution not only further out of the practical lines he had in the outset marked for its course, but also to make it more agreeable to the political party to which he was opposed. He attended the regular meeting subsequent to Dr. Peters election; but infrequently afterwards, and in the April following as stated before, he sailed for England. The heat of local politics may have fused some antagonisms which served to counteract his influence in the Board, and indicated for the welfare of the College that some one identified with the Proprietary interest should preside over their deliberations, and who so fitting as the constant churchman and faithful Secretary Richard Peters, whose election if any other was to be chosen could not but be acceptable to his friend Franklin.

 

Thomas Leech was the son of Toby and Hester Leech of Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, who came to America in the year 1682, and settled in Cheltenham township, now in Montgomery County. They are buried in Trinity Church, Oxford, Philadelphia, the inscription on their joint stone being quoted by the Rev. Dr. Buchanan in his Early History of Trinity Church.^[31] Thomas Leech was clerk to the Assembly from 1723 to 1727, and a representative of Philadelphia County for nearly thirty years, and was Speaker pro tem in 1758 "in the room of Isaac Norris, who fell sick." In the controversy in the assembly over Judge Moore's case, which must be reviewed in later pages on account of Provost Smith's part in it, Mr. Leech was an active participant, and was Chairman of the committee which framed the address to the Governor asking Moore's removal. He was a Vestryman of Christ Church for many years, and Warden in 1728 and again in 1746–47. He was with his fellow Trustees, Lawrence and Peters, signer of the letter of 23 April, 1741, from the Vestry of Christ Church to the Bishop of London announcing the death of the Rector, Rev. Archibald Cummings. And we find him in 1760 joining with many of his fellow trustees, viz: Allen, Masters, M'Call, Syng, Willing, Taylor, the two Bonds, Plumsted, and Coleman, on a subscription for restoring the Glebe House of Oxford Parish which had been destroyed by fire. He was a very regular attendant on the meetings of the Trustees until within two or three years of his death which occurred 31 March, 1762, his last attendance being 011 28 November, 1761. At the meeting of 8 June, 1762, Mr. Lyn-Ford Lardner was elected to succeed him. He married in 1722, Ann Moore, and had two sons, Thomas and William. The Pennsylvania Gazette of 8 April, 1762, thus records his obituary:

On the 31st ulto in the Evening, departed this Life, Thomas Leech, Esq, in the 77th year of his age; and in the afternoon of the Sunday following was interred in St. Paul’s Church in this city, where a Sermon suitable to the occasion, was preached by the Reverend Mr. William M'Clanachan, A. M. and Minister of that Church, to a crowded and weeping Audience. He was a citizen, not more distinguished for the Honour conferred on him, in several Offices of Public Trust (which he discharged for a long series of Years, with the approbation of his country) than for his amiable and familiar virtues in
the mild Majesty of private Life
where he shone as a practical Philosopher, and a sincere Christian, abounding with unaffected Goodness and exemplary Piety, and a most rare Pattern of that ancient Simplicity which so beautifully characterised the first Fathers of our Metropolis; so that the words of the Poet may, with the greatest Propriety, be applied to him.

'Born to no Pride, inheriting no strife,'
But led by Virtue through the Paths of life;
'Stranger to Discord, and to civil Rage
The good Man walked innoxious thro' his Age
No Courts he saw, no Suits would ever try,
Nor said an Oath, nor hazarded a Lye.'

 

Doctor William Shippen was born in Philadelphia 1 October, 1712, the son of Joseph Shippen, a native of Boston, who moved to Philadelphia about 1704, and who became in 1727 one of Franklin's Junto. He was the son of Edward Shippen, who was named by William Penn in his charter of 25 October, 1701, as the first Mayor thereunder of the City of Philadelphia,^[32] and who was President of the Council, 1702–04, and in May, 1703, became the actual head of the government until Governor Evans arrival in December following. Joseph's connection with the Junto shows him to have been a man inclined to self improvement, and whose leisure enabled him to pursue any special line of study. His eldest son Edward, William's senior by nine years, entered mercantile life under James Logan, and later was in business with him as Logan & Shippen, and in 1749 with Thomas Lawrence, one of the College Trustees, as Shippen and Lawrence; he was also Mayor of the City in 1744, and afterwards Judge of the Common Pleas. In 1748, he was one of the founders of Princeton College and one of its first Trustees, which he remained until his resignation in 1767 and was a subscriber to the Philadelphia Academy, of which his brother William was now one of the first trustees. William himself became a Trustee of Princeton College in 1765 which he remained until his resignation in 1796. His tastes for scientific pursuits were fostered by his father, and an early inclination for the study of medicine developed the rare talent he possessed for a successful practice of it, by which he attained a high reputation and secured an extensive business which remained to him through his long life. But diligent as he was in his professional duties, and reliant as he was in the medical knowledge of his day for the cure of all the ills that flesh is heir to, the story is told of him that on occasion of his being complimented by a friend on the number of cures he effected, he replied, "My friend, Nature does a great deal, and the grave covers up our mistakes." He was sensible of the necessity of more education than could be had in the colonies, and when he found his son William intending the same profession, he sent him to Europe when he was twenty one years of age, and in 1761 the latter received his degree of Doctor in Medicine at Edinburgh, and four years later we find his election in the minutes of the Trustees as the first Professor of Anatomy and Surgery in the new medical school of the college. Doctor William Shippen, Senior, as he now became known on his son's rising reputation, found his name worthily reproduced in his son, who added fresh honors and dignity to it.

Dr. Shippen interested himself in public affairs, and foresaw the coming shadows of the Revolution. On 20 November, 1778, when these shadows were the heaviest, he was elected a member of the Continental Congress by the Assembly of Pennsylvania, and was re-elected in the November following. He retained an interest in his father's associations and was Vice President in 1768 of the American Philosophical Society, the child of the Junto. He was one of the first members of the Medical Staff of the Pennsylvania Hospital, from 1753—1778; and one of the founders of the Second Presbyterian Church and a member of it for sixty years. His life was serene and useful; and possessing a temper calm and equable, and the affection of all who knew him, he died 4 November, 1801, in the ninetieth year of his age.^[33] He retained his trusteeship in the College until the abrogation of the charter in 1779, and was made one of the Trustees of the new institution created in its place, the University of the State of Pennsylvania, which he remained until 1786. His attendance at the meetings of the Trustees testifies to his interest in the institution, as his absences were very few; and the action of the Trustees were often influenced by his sage counsel, though for two years from April, 1761, he did not attend, and most of the meetings in 1764 and 1765 he missed.

Dr. Shippen married 19 September, 1735, Susannah daughter of Joseph Harrison of Philadelphia, who died some years before him. His sons William and Joseph were graduates of Princeton, 1754 and 1758. The latter also studied medicine under his father, and going abroad for further studies, took his degree at the University of Rheims. Dr. Shippen's nephew, Joseph, the son of his elder brother Joseph, was a graduate of the college in 1761. His sister Anne was wife of Charles Willing, his fellow trustee.

 

Robert Strettell was born in Dublin in 1693 the son of Amos Strettell, a native of Cheshire who had moved to Ireland about fifteen years before this. Robert left Dublin as a young man to try his fortune in London, where he passed about twenty years of his life, but losing his property in the South Sea Bubble, he came to America about 1736 to retrieve his affairs. He soon took an active part in public concerns, and was one of the Friends who favored Logan's views as to the needs of the Province to defend itself against foreign enemies. He was invited by Governor Thomas to the Council, and he qualified 14 December, 1741. He became an Alderman in 1748, and Mayor in October 1751, and on the close of the latter term, instead of giving the customary collation, contributed £75. to the Public Building. In council he was an active member, and supported the more warlike members during the French War. He died in June 1761, and was buried in the Friends Ground. He married in 1716 Philotesia daughter of Nathaniel Owen of Seven Oaks, Kent. Of their children, Frances married Isaac Jones who was a Trustee of the College and Academy in 1771; Amos succeeded to his father's interest in provincial politics and in the Trusteeship of the College and married a daughter of Samuel Hasell the Councillor; John became an opulent merchant in London; and Robert died before his father.

Mr. Strettell was not behind his fellows in their attendance on the meetings of the Trust; his last years of service found him less able to attend with regularity. The last meeting at which his name appears was 31 March, 1760; and at the meeting of 8 June, 1762, his son Mr. Amos Strettell was elected a Trustee.

 

Philip Syng was born in Ireland in November 1703 the son of Philip Syng, who with his son arrived at Annapolis, Md. in September 1714, and who there died in 1739. The son had before this settled in Philadelphia, as we find him in the Franklin circle, a member of the Junto and in 1731 one of the first Directors of the new Library Company. He acquired a high reputation as a silver-smith, his skill being shown by several works of art yet in existence, one being an inkstand made by him in 1752 for the General Assembly of Pennsylvania, and used by the Continental Congress while in Philadelphia, and at the signing of the Declaration of Independence, and yet preserved in the Hall to which the latter gave its name. He engraved the first seal for the Library Company. He was a member of the noted "Fishing Company of the State in Schuylkill" as it was called. He was one of the Associators of 1747; a Vestryman of Christ Church from 1747 to 1749; and a signer of the Non Importation Resolutions of 1765. He was devoted to scientific pursuits, and the developments of the times in the use and force of Electricity were aided by his experiments and discoveries, and Franklin made acknowledgment of the aid he had furnished him in many of his experiments. In a note to his letter of 11 July, 1747 to Mr. Collinson, Franklin refers to certain experiments "by means of little, light windmill wheels made of stiff paper vanes" as "made and communicated to me by my worthy and ingenious friend Mr Philip Syng;" and of another experiment, thus, "His simple, easily made machine was a contrivance of Mr. Syng's."^[34] Franklin could appreciate the ingenuity of such a skilful craftsman. He lived to a great age, and dying 8 May, 1789, was buried in Christ Church Burying Ground. One of his daughters married Edmund Physick and became the mother of Philip Syng Physick, a graduate in 1785 of the University, for whom the Chair of Surgery was created in 1805, which he filled until 1819 when he took the Chair of Anatomy in which he continued until 1831. The name of Philip Syng was borne to a later generation by this worthy descendant who has been called the Father of American Surgery.

Mr. Syng's attendance on the meetings of the Trustees was very constant up to the time of Franklin's departure on his first mission; but from 14 June, 1757 to 12 May, 1769 he attended but four meetings these inclusive; and this last attendance may have been due to a Minute of the meeting of 8 May previous, viz:

Dr. Smith is desired to wait upon Mr. Philip Syng to ask him whether he will be pleased to attend the future meetings of the Trustees, as the Business of the College suffers greatly for want of a regular attendance of the members; Mr. Syng in particular, not having attended more than once or twice for several years. If Mr. Syng should mention any particular Inconvenience in his attending the Duty of a Trustee, it is desired that he may be asked whether it would be agreeable to him that another should be chosen in his Room.

However, nothing was done, nor did Mr. Syng again attend, until at the meeting of 8 June, 1773 notice was given of "a new Trustee being wanted in the Room of Mr. Philip Syng who has removed with his Family to more than five Miles Distance from the City;" when at the meeting of 15 June Mr. Samuel Powel was elected. He was a member of St. John's Lodge in 1734, Junior Grand Warden in 1737, Deputy Grand Master in 1738, and Grand Master in 1741.

 

Charles Willing was born in Bristol, England, 18 May, 1710, the son of Thomas Willing, a merchant of that city, who brought the son to Philadelphia about the year 1828. A cousin of the father, also a Thomas Willing, founded and laid out Willing's Town now Wilmington, Delaware. Charles entered into mercantile business and took charge of the house his elder brother Thomas, who returned to England, had founded in 1726. He was successful in his operations and speculations, and established a credit at home and abroad which redounded to the welfare and influence of his adopted city. He was very active in the formation of the Philadelphia Associators in 1747, and must here have been much with Franklin in his efforts to make this defensive association a success. He was Mayor of the City in 1748, and again in 1754, dying 30 November, 1754, of ship fever contracted it is said whilst in the discharge of some of his official duties. Mr. Willing married 21 January, 1731, Anne, daughter of Joseph Shippen, son of the Councillor, and sister of William Shippen, M. D., the Elder, a Trustee. Of his children, his eldest son Thomas became a Trustee in 1760, and in 1761 a Justice of the Supreme Court, and married Anne, daughter of Samuel M'Call junior, also a Trustee, and was father of Thomas Mayne Willing a Trustee of the University in 1800, and of Anne who married William Bingham, a Trustee in 1789; Anne, married Tench Francis, son of Tench Francis a Trustee; Mary, married Col. William Byrd of Westover, Virginia; Elizabeth, married Samuel Powel, a Trustee in 1773; and Margaret, married to Robert Hare, a Trustee in 1789, and became the mother of Charles Willing Hare, whose son Rev. George Emlen Hare, D. D. was Assistant Professor of the Greek and Latin Languages in the University in 1844, and of Dr. Robert Hare, Professor of Chemistry in the University from 1818 to 1848, whose son John Innes Clark Hare, a graduate of the University in 1834, was a Trustee in 1858, resigning in 1868, to take the Professorship of the Institute of Law which he held until 1889, when he became Emeritus Professor.

The following obituary notice by Franklin of Mr. Willing appeared in the Pennsylvania Gazette of 5 December, 1754. The portion which is a quotation, is by the Rev. William Smith.

Last Saturday, after a short Illness, departed this Life, in the 45th Year of his age, Charles Willing, Esq^re; Mayor of this City. As it may be truly said that this Community had not a more useful Member, his Death is justly lamented as a public Loss to his country, as well as an almost irretrievable Loss to his Family and Friends.

In the Character of a Magistrate, he was patient, indefatigable, and actuated by a Steady Zeal for Justice. As a Merchant, it was thought that no Person amongst us understood Commerce in General, and the trading Interests of this Province in particular, better than he, and his Success in Business was proportionably Great. As a Friend, he was faithful, candid and sincere. As a Husband and Parent few ever exceeded him in Tenderness and Affection. Being himself a sincere Christian, he was strictly attentive to the Education of his children in every virtuous Qualification, and in a particular Manner he was remarkable in the Discharge of that essential part of a Parent's Duty, so little considered,—a regular attendance, together with his numerous Family, on the public Worship of God. And for this accordingly, they will now have Reason to bless his Memory; since the Impression, thereby received, will go farther to teach them how to bear their present heavy Affliction, and recommend them to the Favor of the World (degenerate as it is) than all the external Advantages—all the Fortune, Graces, and Good Nature he has left them possessed of.

Mr. Smith also supplied an "Ode to the Memory of Charles Willing, Esq.," of which the first Stanza is

Once more I seek the cypress shade,
To weave a garland for the dead,
Alone, dejected, wan!
Shall Willing quit this mortal strife,
And not a verse show him, in life
And death—an honest Man?

Mr. Willing gave much attendance to the meetings of the Trustees, with only an interval from July 1750 to November, 1751. The last he attended was on 17 September 1754. At the meeting of 11 February, 1755, Mr. Alexander Stedman was elected to fill the vacancy made by his death.

 

Doctor Phineas Bond was born in Maryland in 1717, the younger brother of Dr. Thomas Bond, also a Trustee. He was, as well as his brother educated in his native state, and pursued his studies during foreign travel, visiting at length Leyden, Paris, Edinburgh and London for this purpose. He did not devote himself to surgery as did his brother; but Dr. Thacher says of him "no medical man of his time in this country left behind him a brighter character for professional sagacity, or the amiable qualities of the heart." He shared with his brother many of his tastes for scientific and philosophic pursuits, and was under Franklin's lead one of the organizers of the American Philosophical Society; Franklin writes to Cadwallader Colden on 5 April, 1744, "I can now acquaint you, that the Society, as far as it relates to Philadelphia, is actually formed, and has had several meetings to mutual satisfaction." And in enumerating the members he describes Dr. Phineas Bond as General Natural Philosopher, and Dr. Thomas Bond—who heads his list—as Physician.^[35] His interest also in public affairs was evidenced by being a member of Common Council from 1747 until his death.

He married 4 August, 1748, Williamina daughter of William Moore of Moore Hall, Chester County, Penn'a, her younger sister Rebecca marrying Dr. William Smith, the Provost of the College in 1759. Dr. Bond's eldest son, Phineas,^[36] was a loyalist during the Revolution, and later was made British Consul at Philadelphia, which he remained for several years at the end of the last and the beginning of this century; he died in London 29 December, 1815. Of Dr. Bond's daughters, Williamina married General John Cadwalader who became a Trustee of the College in 1779, and Elizabeth married John Travis of Philadelphia. Dr. Bond died 11 June, 1773, and he was buried in Christ Church Burying Ground, where a simple stone marks the last resting place of "Doctor Phineas Bond, Esq." His attendance at the Trustees meetings was frequent to the last, with sometimes only intervals of a few months. His last attendance was on 1 January, 1773. On the 18 June following, Mr. Thomas Mifflin was elected his successor. An obituary to him in the Pennsylvania Gazette of 14 June, 1773 recites: "Early on Friday morning last, to the inexpressible grief of all who knew him, departed this life in his fifty-sixth year, Dr. Phineas Bond, a gentleman long and justly acknowledged to be of the first eminence in his profession."

 

Richard Peters, was born in Liverpool about 1704, the son of Ralph Peters, town clerk of that place. He was sent when quite young to Westminster School, where he finished before he was fifteen years of age. Instead of going to Oxford, his parents sent him to Leyden, and on his return to England he undertook the study of law, although against his will, for he had an inclination to take orders. He was five years in the Inner Temple, but his predilections for the ministry increasing with time, his father finally consented to his taking orders and he was ordained by the Bishop of Winchester 20 September, 1729, Deacon, and was ordained Priest 24 March, 1730. He became curate at Latham Chapel in the parish of Ormskirk, and subsequently became tutor of two young wards and kinsmen of the Earl of Derby, and lived with the latter until July, 1735. A youthful marriage which he contracted while at Westminster school, but which was not consummated, with a domestic, was the cause of his going to Leyden instead of Oxford; but the woman was supposed to have died about 1733, and he married in 1734 Miss Stanley, sister of his pupils. But within a few months, the information of the death of the woman having proven unfounded, he left England and his wife and came to Bristol, Pennsylvania, the residence of Andrew Hamilton's wife, whose first husband, Preeson, had been a maternal relative of his. He became assistant to the Rev. Archibald Cummings at Christ Church.

But in a brief space, dissensions arose between him and his Rector, and eventually the Bishop of London suspended his license. However, the Vestry showed their estimation of him in their letter of 28 July, 1737, to the Bishop, "though this gentleman," they say,
for reasons which we humbly beg leave to say appear to us to be just, has thought fit to decline continuing to give his assistance * * * yet it is true that, during the time he has exercised his ministerial function in this city, he has given great satisfaction in general to our congregation, and has been of real service to the Church of England; to which, by his conduct, both in the pulpit and out of it, he has drawn great numbers of the more understanding Dissenters of all persuasions. Failing now work in the ministry, his energies found employment as Secretary in the Land Office, and for twenty-five years he continued in that capacity, becoming in fact the real estate agent for the Proprietaries. In this office, he attained great discretion, showing how well the confidence of the Penns in him was justified. Referring to this parochial controversy, Bishop White says of it: "It was said that Dr. Peters' acquaintance had been cultivated by the genteelest families in the city; but that, being no favorite with the then rector of Christ Church, the Rev. Archibald Cummings, he accepted from the proprietary government the secretaryship of the land office, which laid the foundation of a considerable fortune." Thomas Penn said of him a few years after this appointment, "he has always discharged it with great faithfulness and his understanding and temper render him very fit for such an office where he must transact business with a great number of ignorant people closely tied to their own interests." This was in 1741, when on the death of the Rev. Mr. Cummings, the Vestry of Christ Church recommended him to the Bishop of London for a license, designing to make him Mr. Cummings' successor in the Rectorship. The petition, however, failed; his connection with the proprietary interests led to jealousies lest such influence would prevail in the Church and mar its ecclesiastical independence. Peters submitted, to save contention, though his influence was so great in the parish as to have caused an entire independency of the Bishop's license had he in any way encouraged it. He became a member of the Vestry in 1740, and again from 1745–1752 and served the Church faithfully in this capacity for these years. His secular work meanwhile grew upon him, he being appointed 14 February, 1743, Secretary of the Province and Clerk to the Council. It was in this year that Franklin having drawn up his first plans for the establishment of a charity school relied upon Peters to take the matter in hand and become the head of the needed institution; but this Peters declined. On 19 May, 1749, on a suggestion from the Proprietaries, he was made a member of the Council and at once qualified. This year saw the consummation of Franklin's proposal for an Academy and Charitable School, and he became a hearty co-worker in it, and preached a sermon at the opening. He became President of the Board of Trustees in 1756. He was one of the four representatives of Pennsylvania in the Congress at Albany in 1754; and in the year 1756, in a conference with the Indians at Fort Stanwix, he baptized several of them, of which he had record made in Christ Church registers on his return. Though thus in actual secular duties, and entitled Esquire in the organization of the Academy, he yet could not forego special exercises of his ministry. In the beginning of 1762 he resigned his Secretaryship, but continued member of the Council. In the same year, he consented to officiate regularly at Christ Church in young Duché's absence abroad seeking priests orders, and when the old incumbent Dr. Jenney died, he was elected Rector of the United Churches of Christ Church and St. Peters in December, 1762. This met the confirmation of the Bishop of London the following year. In this incumbency he continued until his resignation 23 September, 1775. He died 10 July following, and was buried in front of the chancel of Christ Church. The degree of Doctor of Divinity had been conferred on him by Oxford in 1770. In 1772 he sought the aid of two Assistants in his cure, in addition to the aid rendered by Mr. Duché, who had been Assistant from 1759, and the Vestry appointed on his recommendation two young graduates of the College and Academy, William White of the class of 1765 and Thomas Coombe of the class of 1766; and on his resignation he was succeeded as Rector by Mr. Duché who was of the class of 1757.

As Bishop White was associated with Dr. Peters in Church and in College, we may find a fitting description of him by the Bishop's pen. "Dr. Peters was a native of England * * * he was then a young clergyman, of a respectable family in Liverpool, of an excellent education, and of polished manners * * * At an age turned of sixty, he gave up his lucrative offices, and became more serious in religious concerns than at any former period of his life; although his morals had been correct, his attendance on public worship constant and solemn, and his preaching occasional. * * * He adopted the notions of Jacob Boehm and William Law; in consequence of which his sermons were not always understood. In social discourse, he could be exceedingly entertaining * * * yet from the moment of turning the conversation to religion, he was in the clouds."^[37]

Dr. Peters interest in the College and Academy was second only to that of Franklin, and he shared in all the counsels of the latter in its inception and firm establishment. He succeeded the latter as President of the Board and continued the leadership for many years. His attendance at the meetings was more constant than any other, not even excepting William Coleman, the only interval of any note being that from July 1764 to December 1765 inclusive. The last time he attended the meetings was on 19 March 1776. At the meeting of 5 October, 1778, Mr. Robert Morris by election succeeded him as Trustee. His connection with the Proprietary interests furthered the material recognition of the new institution by the Penns, and both financially and politically the association was valuable. In Franklin's early absences abroad, Dr. Peters with the Trustees and Dr. Smith in the Faculty kept in motion the busy work of the College. But, on the other hand, this particular influence may signally have failed of advantage in the trying times of the Revolution, and have contributed to those suspicions which claimed to be the basis of the charter abrogation of 1779, which alone could have been prevented by Franklin's presence, who was then too far across the seas on public duties to wrestle with a suspicious Governor and unstable Legislature.

Dr. Peters' brother, William, was father of Richard Peters, a graduate of the College and Academy in 1761, Judge of the U. S. District Court from 1791 to 1828, a Trustee of the College from 1789 to 1791; he was the owner of Belmont Mansion on the Schuylkill, now in Fairmount Park.

 

Abram Taylor was born in England about 1703, and came to Philadelphia from Bristol, and was soon engaged in a successful business; it is said his partner desiring to return to England in 1741 sold him his interest in the business for £7000 stg. Taylor was at this time in the City Corporation, and on 29 December, 1741, qualified as a member of the Governor's Council. In the latter part of 1744 the office for the collection of the customs being vacant by the death of Mr. Alexander he assumed its duties under a Deputation from Bedford the titular Collector, "rather than a friend should suffer by the office being depreciated and undervalued since the commencement of a French War." He was elected Mayor in 1745, but declining to serve was fined £30. He was made Colonel of the regiment of Associators for Defence formed under Franklin's lead in the latter part of 1747, the Lieutenant Colonelcy being offered to the latter but declined when Thomas Lawrence was commissioned. He fell into a contest with the Proprietaries on the purchase by him of a claim to about 20, 000 acres of land, which they were unwilling to grant. So persistent was he in this, that they directed Governor Hamilton to strike his name from the Council. He urged his claim in England in 1750; and returning to Philadelphia, he continued one of the members of the City Corporation until his final departure from the Province, in 1762, returning to the old country and taking up his residence in Bath where he died in 1772. His departure from the Province was signalised by a public dinner given him by his friends which attracted a notice in the Pennsylvania Gazette of 1 July, 1762:

On Thursday last an elegant Entertainment was prepared in the State House by a Number of the principal Gentlemen of this city, in order to bid Adieu to, and take their final Farewell of Abraham Taylor, Esq., late one of the Council, an Alderman of the City, and Deputy Collector of the Customs in this Port, now going to reside in England. Upwards of One Hundred Gentlemen attended Mr. Taylor on this occasion, and the greatest pleasure appeared on every countenance. Towards the close of this very agreeable Entertainment Mr. Taylor was addressed by one of the Company, in the Name of the Whole, and Thanks returned him for his faithful and upright Discharge of the several offices he had the Honour to fill, during a residence of upward of Thirty Years among us; and for his kind, prudent, blameless, and affectionate Behaviour, as a Friend, Fellow Citizen and Companion; and the best and most cordial Wishes of the whole Company attended him, for his safe Passage to, and future Health and Happiness in his native Land. Mr. Taylor then took the most decent and affectionate Farewell of the Company, wished them, and the whole Province, all possible Blessings, Happiness, and Prosperity. The Entertainment closed in the Evening with great Harmony, becoming good Citizens parting with a most worthy member.

He married about 1753, Philadelphia, daughter of Patrick Gordon, Lieutenant Governor of Pennsylvania from 1726 to 1735.

Mr. Taylor's attendance at the Trustees meetings resembled that of Mr. Syng's somewhat, in that they were quite regular up to the forepart of 1757, when Franklin had departed on his first mission abroad, his last meeting that year being 10 May, after which he attended one in May 1761, and his last on 18 May 1762. At the meeting of 14 December, 1762, election was had for a Trustee "to be chosen in the room of Abraham Taylor Esquire, departed out of the Province," when Mr. Andrew Elliott succeeded him.

 

Doctor Thomas Bond was born in Calvert county, Maryland, in 1712. He prepared himself for the medical profession under the well-known Dr. Hamilton, and afterwards traveled in Europe in furtherance of his studies, passing some time in Paris, where he attended the practice of the Hotel Dieu.^[38] Returning to America, he began the practice of medicine in Philadelphia in 1734, and soon attracted the attention and gained the confidence of the public. The pursuit of his profession did not engross his attention, for we find him an active member of the circle of young inquirers and students which grew into the American Philosophical Society, and he gave constant attention to the affairs of the young Academy and College by diligent attendance at the meetings of the Trustees, and in 1751 "conceived the idea of establishing a hospital in Philadelphia * * * which was originally and truly his," as Franklin records in his autobiography; and he was a member of the first board of managers of the Pennsylvania Hospital, as were Benjamin Franklin and Richard Peters, his fellow trustees in the Academy. On the opening of the Hospital in 1752, the patients were regularly attended by him and three other of his fellow-trustees, Drs. Zachary, Cadwalader and Phineas Bond, his brother; and in 1769 he gave the first course of clinical lectures in the Hospital. Of his introductory lecture to this course, delivered 3 December, 1766, Dr. Carson says "it is a clear exposition of the advantages of clinical instruction in connection with medical education, at the same time evincing a deep interest in the medical school recently established, to which, as a Trustee of the College, Dr. Bond had most zealously given his influence."^[39]

In 1782 he delivered the annual address before the American Philosophical Society, the subject being, "The rank and dignity of man in the scale of being, and the conveniences and advantages he derives from the arts and sciences, and a prognostic of the increasing grandeur and glory of America founded on the nature of its climate." Dr. Thatcher says of him, "he was for half a century in the first practice in Philadelphia, and remarkable for attention to the cases under his care, and his sound judgment. He was an excellent surgeon, and in the year 1768 performed two operations of lithotomy in the Pennsylvania Hospital with success."

He continued his intercourse by correspondence with Franklin during the latter's long sojourn abroad, and a letter of the latter written at Passy, 16 March, 1780, acknowledges Dr. Bond's "kind letter of September 22d, and I thank you," he says^[40]
for the pleasing account you give me of the health and welfare of my old friends, Hugh Roberts, Luke Morris, Philip Syng, Samuel Rhoads, &c., with the same of yourself and family. Shake the old ones by the hand for me, and give the young ones my blessing. For my own part, I do not find that I grow any older. * * * Advise those old friends of ours to follow my example: Keep up your spirits, and that will keep up your bodies; you will no more stoop under the weight of age, than if you had swallowed a handspike.

It is in a postscript to this letter he adds:

I have bought some valuable books, which I intend to present to the Society, but shall not send them till safer times.

Dr. Bond's daughter, Rebecca, married 21 September, 1768, Thomas Lawrence, the grandson of Thomas Lawrence, the Councillor and his fellow-Trustee, and their second daughter, Sarah Rebecca, married Warren de Lancey, a grandson of Governor Cadwallader Colden, and cousin of Provost de Lancey's father.

He was described as of a delicate constitution, and disposed to pulmonary consumption, but by unremitting care of his health he passed beyond the threescore and ten years, though his life was an unceasingly active one, both in practice and authorship; he died 26 March, 1784. His remains lie in Christ Church Burying Ground, and on his stone is engraven this epitaph:

In memory of
Thomas Bond M D
who practised Physic and Surgery
with signal reputation and success
nearly half a century.
Lamented and beloved
by many
Respected and esteemed
by all
and adorned by literary honors
sustained by him with dignity.

He was as constant as his brother in his attendance on the Trustees meeting and was one of the faithful ones who attended the last meeting on 22 November, 1779, under the charter of 1755, the only one of the original Trustees who then attended. He was a member of St. John's Lodge in 1734, Junior Grand Warden in 1741, and Senior Grand Warden in 1755.

 

Thomas Hopkinson was born in London 6 April, 1709, the son of Thomas Hopkinson a merchant of that city. His education was a liberal and practical one, and though he is said to have been at Oxford did not complete his studies there. He took up the study of law, and at twenty-two years of age decided on venturing himself in the colonies, coming to Pennsylvania in 1731, and at once engaging in the practice of his profession. He became deputy to Charles Read, Clerk of the Orphans' Court of Philadelphia County, and on the latter's death in January, 1737, succeeded him. He was Master of the Rolls from 1736 to 1741, Deputy Prothonotary and afterwards Prothonotary of Philadelphia County, and chosen in October, 1741, a Common Councilman. In the latter year he succeeded Andrew Hamilton as Judge of Vice-Admiralty for Pennsylvania, and on 13 May, 1747, became a member of the Provincial Council. But his interests were not confined to legal or political channels, and were equally given to literary and scientific pursuits in association with Franklin and his circle, and of the American Philosophical Society which had its origin in the Junto he was made the first President. And when the Academy was planned he became an active Trustee and warmly co-operated with Franklin in all its concerns, as he had in the institution of the new Library Company which was established in the year of his arrival in the Province. In scientific affairs he was a zealous amateur, and shared with Franklin in some of the wonderful developments in the knowledge of electricity. Franklin writing to his friend Peter Collinson, 11 July, 1747, "in pursuing our electrical inquiries, * * * of the wonderful effect of pointed bodies, both in drawing off and throwing off the electrical fire,"^[41] adds in later years the acknowledgment:^[42] "This power of points to throw off the electrical fire, was first communicated to me by my ingenious friend, Mr. Thomas Hopkinson, since deceased, whose virtue and integrity, in every station of life, public and private, will ever make his memory dear to those who knew him, and knew how to value him." Mr. Hopkinson died in Philadelphia 5 November, 1751. Mr. Sparks says of him, "He was distinguished for his classical attainments, general learning, the brilliancy of his conversation, and his fondness for philosophical studies."^[43]

But we must record the testimony of his friend Franklin to his worth, which we find in the Pennsylvania Gazette of 14 November, 1751:

Last week died here the honourable Thomas Hopkinson, Esq.; Judge of the Admiralty for this Province, one of the Governor's Council, and Prothonotary of the Court of Common Pleas for the County of Philadelphia, &c. A Gentleman possessed of many Virtues, without the Alloy of one single Vice; and distinguished for his attachment to the Cause of Justice and Honesty; which he practised in private Life with a scrupulous Exactness, and in Publick Affairs, with an Intrepidity and Firmness of mind that was not to be shaken; an excellent Ingredient in his character, where a quick Conception, a clear Discernment, and a solid Judgment, were happily United: In Matters of Truth so faithful, that the nearest Concerns of his own Interest had not a greater Share of his Application. His Benevolence was as extensive as the proper Object of it, the whole human Race, but his great Modesty, and his not seeking to be known caused the Number of his intimate Friends to be but small: Among those, in the Hours of Recreation, he had the particular Faculty of tempering the Facetious with the Grave, in so agreeable a Manner, as made his Conversation both delightful and instructive. He was reserved in Professions of Religion, but the Spirit of Christianity actuated the whole Conduct of his Life. Not conscious of any Guilt or Neglect of any Social Duty, he beheld the slow Approaches of Death with an amazing cheerfulness, without any Mixture of Anxiety or Fear; and at last bid adieu to the world with all the Serenity of Mind that could flow from the Wisdom of a Philosopher joined to the Innocence of a Child.

Mr. Hopkinson married in 1736, Mary, daughter of Baldwin Johnson of Appoquinimink Hundred, Delaware.^[44] Of their children, Francis, the eldest, we will learn somewhat of later as an honored alumnus of the College and Academy at its first commencement, together with Jacob Duché, Jr., and John Morgan afterward his brother-in-law; Thomas was an alumnus of 1766 and afterward entered Holy Orders, dying in 1784 without family; Elizabeth married the Rev. Jacob Duché; and Mary married Dr. John Morgan, who in 1765 became the first medical professor, that of the Theory and Practice of Physics, in the College and Academy, and consequently the first in America.

Mr. Hopkinson had attended but ten meetings of the Trustees up to 13 July, 1751, and his death made the first break among the active Trustees, for though James Logan had died but a few days before, his age and infirmities precluded his taking any active part in the proceedings. At the meeting of 12 November, 1751, Dr. Thomas Cadwalader was elected to take his trust. He was a member of St. John's Lodge, with Franklin, in 1733, was elected Junior Grand Warden in 1734, Deputy Grand Master in 1735, and Grand Master in 1736.

 

William Plumsted was born in Philadelphia 7 November, 1708, the son of Clement Plumsted the Councillor, a native of Norfolk, England. In 1724 young Plumsted was taken abroad by his father. He subsequently became a partner of his father in business, and continued the establishment after his death. He became a Common Councilman in 1739. He was made Register General of Wills for the Province in 1745, "although it was thought remarkable that a wealthy man would take it:" this office he held until his death, and on 30 May, 1752 was commissioned a Justice of the Peace of the County Courts. Brought up a Friend, about middle age he renounced the Society and became a Churchman, and joined in the petition for the lot on which St. Peter's Church was erected in 1760, and of which he became the first Accounting Warden. He was three times Mayor of Philadelphia, viz.: in 1750, 1754, and 1755: it is said he spared himself the public entertainment called for from the retiring Mayor in 1750 by donating to the City the sum of £75. He with Chief Justice Allen and others in 1755 contributed to a sum which was to represent the tax properly derivable from the Proprietaries estates, at the time the Assembly was refusing to pass any bill for raising money for defence of the province which excused the Penns from contributing. In 1757 he was a member of Assembly from Northampton County. He died 10 August, 1765, and was buried in St. Peter's Church Yard. All that now can certainly be deciphered of the inscription on his tombstone speaks of him as "An Eminent Merchant. An Alderman, and some time Mayor of Philadelphia, Whose public character as a useful Citizen and Magistrate Let his country tell." He married first Rebecca, daughter of Philip Kearny of Philadelphia, and whose sister Mary was the wife of Chief Justice John Kinsey. She died in 1741, and he married secondly, in 1753, Mary daughter of George M'Call, the sister of Samuel M'Call junior, his fellow Trustee. His daughter Elizabeth, by the first marriage, married Andrew Elliott who was elected a Trustee of the College in 1762.

The Pennsylvania Gazette 14 August records this obituary notice of him:

On Sunday last died here, after a short, but severe, Illness, William Plumsted, Esq., one of the Aldermen of this City; and the next Day was buried in St. Peter's Church Burying Ground, in the plainest Manner, at his own Request, according to the new Mode, lately used in Boston and New York, having no Pall over his Coffin, nor none of his Relations or Friends appearing in Mourning. We flatter ourselves, that this frugal and laudable Example of burying our Dead, so seasonably set by People of Family and Fortune, will be imitated by all, both in City and Country; the good Effects of which must soon be felt, especially by those in low Circumstances.

Mr. Plumsted was more regular in his attendance at the Trustees meetings in the earlier years of his service, but to the last he evinced his interest by as frequent attendance as he could give. His last meeting was that of 11 September, 1764. At the meeting of 23 September, 1765, Mr. John Lawrence was elected to succeed him. He was a member of St. John's Lodge, with others of his Fellow Trustees, in 1734, was Senior Grand Warden in 1735, Deputy Grand Master in 1736, Grand Master in 1737, and Grand Treasurer in 1755.

 

Joshua Maddox was born in 1685, a native of England. He was a member of the Vestry of Christ Church for many years, at intervals from 1728 to 1746, and a Warden, 1731–33; and was made a Justice of the Orphans' Court 1 March, 1741, commissioned 4 April following on the same day with Robert Strettell, a justice of the Court of Common Pleas, and 6 October, 1747, an alderman and associate justice of the City Court. With his associate justices, Thomas Lawrence, Edward Shippen and Benjamin Franklin (probably the latter's first hearing) he sat in trial of a case in June Term, 1749 of Lawrence William vs. William Till, of unusual magnitude at the time for the Common Pleas. Mr David Paul Brown illustrates this in the following sentences:^[45]

We have in this record a singular exhibition of the social and judicial system of the province. Taken in connection with the large influence of Friends in the civil concerns of that day, it seems to present a mixture of the times of the patriarchal government with that of the reign of the merchant princes, and that of the highest state of artificial English law. We find here four persons, not one of whom was ever at the bar, nor, so far as we know, ever professionally educated, seated on the seat of judgment, hearing an important case of commerce, and adjudging it by rules of scientific common law jurisprudence * * * He sat from March 1741 until his death in April, 1759, a term of eighteen years, upon the seat of judgment, constantly partaking in its councils and attending its adjudications; and when he died at the age of seventy four, had almost become personified in this province with the administration of its local justice.

Mr. Maddox was engaged in mercantile pursuits, with success, and was a citizen of influence and honor. His education had been a liberal one, and his library in its choice of books showed him to be a man of studious and contemplative tastes. He died 12 April, 1759. His wife survived him many years, dying in 1783, at the advanced age of 102 years, as is told on their grave stone in Christ Church Yard. His only child, Mary, married John Wallace, of Hope Farm, Somerset County, New Jersey, a native of Scotland, and was mother of Hon. Joshua Maddox Wallace, an alumnus of the College in 1767.

Mr Maddox was a frequent attendant on the meetings of the Trustees; the last he attended was on 22 November, 1758. At the meeting of 8 July, 1760, Mr Thomas Willing was elected his successor.

 

Thomas White was born in London in 1704, the son of William White of London and Elizabeth Leigh his wife; his father died when he was but four years of age, and in 1720 he came to America as apprentice to Mr. Stokes the Clerk of the County of Baltimore; he eventually became his deputy and having pursued the study of law with the limited means then at command in the colonies, he practiced it at the Maryland bar. He became deputy surveyor of the province for the then County of Baltimore, which includes what we now know as Harford County created in 1773, and gradually acquired lands and was fortunate in developing them to the cultivation of tobacco, the great staple of the day, and was successful in producing bar iron from the ores found on his estates, thus becoming one of the earliest iron producers in the colonies. He married Sophia, daughter of John Hall of Cranbury, of one of the oldest settled families in Baltimore County; but when he was left a widower in 1742 with three young daughters, he was in a few years induced to make his residence in Philadelphia not alone for their better education but as well also to increase his business connections, for when settled in the commercial metropolis of the colonies, he could more readily export the produce of his plantations and make importations in exchange therefor. He attained the rank of Colonel in the provincial militia, and bore this title to his new home. He must early have made the acquaintance of Franklin in establishing himself in Philadelphia, through a common friend Richard Peters, who as Secretary to the Pennsylvania Council must have often encountered the Maryland Surveyor in the boundary controversies between the Penns and Calverts. He was at the early age of twenty-seven made a Vestryman of old St. George's, Spesutiæ, now in Harford County, his attachment to the Church of England being drawn from the traditions of several ancestral generations who leaned rather to the House of Stuart, and when he came to Philadelphia he at once attached himself to Christ Church. He resigned his Trusteeship in the Academy and College in 1772 owing to increasing infirmities, but his young son was two years later elected a Trustee. He was one of the Commissioners of Peace in 1752, and on 30 May the same year was commissioned a Justice of the Peace of the County Courts of Philadelphia. He espoused the cause of the colonies in their struggles against the parliament, and perhaps his Jacobite traditions made it the more easy for him to seek a severance from a King of the House of Hanover; but an accident which had befallen him in 1757 forbade participation in any political or military movements of the time. When writing to his London correspondents, Messrs. David Barclay & Sons, 11 November, 1765, in ordering some articles, he adds, "But not if the Stamp Act be unrepealed." On one of his stated visits to Maryland he died, after a short illness, at his daughter's house at the head of Bush River, on 29 September, 1779, and his remains now lie in the old St. George's burying ground.

He married secondly, Esther, daughter of Abraham Hewlings of Burlington, N. J., of a family which early in the colony were Friends, but who became followers of George Keith and returned to the Church of England; and by her he had a son William, whom he lived to see Rector of the united Churches of Christ Church and St. Peter's, but did not live to see him wearing the Mitre; and Mary, who became the wife of Robert Morris the Financier, a Trustee of the College from 1778 to 1791. His eminent son records of him,

He was indulgent to his Family in all their reasonable Desires and was attentive to the keeping of a plentiful and hospitable Table. Among his many good Qualities, was strict Temperance and scrupulous Integrity. Perhaps no Man ever lived and died with a more unreserved acknowledgment of these properties of character.

His oldest grandson, Thomas Hall, a graduate of the Academy and College in 1768, while reading law in Philadelphia served for the following year as tutor in his Alma Mater.

Col. White's attendance with the Trustees at their meetings was very regular and would have been almost without intermission but for his absences from the city. The last time he attended was that of 30 May, 1769; and on 19 May, 1772, he wrote the Trustees:

As it is not any longer convenient for me to give that attendance at your Meetings which the Duty of a Trustee requires, I would request you to accept my Resignation, which I do not make out of any Disregard to the Institution, the Prosperity of which I shall always wish; but because my continuing longer in the office of a Trustee prevents you from having some more useful and active member.

And at the meeting of 25 May following:

The Hon'ble Richard Penn, Esqr., the present Governor of the Province, is unanimously elected a Trustee in the Room of Col. White who has lately resigned; and Dr. Peters, Mr. Inglis, and the Provost are desired to wait upon his Honor, and request his acceptance of a share in the Trust and Direction of this Institution.

 

William Coleman, of whom Franklin so tenderly speaks when reciting^[46] the names of his friends of the Junto, as having "the coolest, clearest head, the best heart, and the exactest morals, of almost any man I ever met with," was born in 1704, the son of William Coleman. "Our friendship," he says, "continued without interruption to his death, upwards of forty years." The meagre information we have of him does not satisfy our desires to know more of the man of whom Franklin gives such a testimony. He early attained eminence as a faithful citizen and a successful merchant. He was a Common Councilman in 1739, was appointed Clerk of the City Court, 18 September, 1747, and on 30 June, 1749, a Justice of the Peace of the County Courts of Philadelphia together with Thomas Lawrence, Abram Taylor, Robert Strettell, Joseph Turner, Thomas Hopkinson, William Allen, Joshua Maddox, Charles Willing, and Benjamin Franklin, with whom he was to be a co-trustee of the new Academy organized before the close of that year. He was again commissioned 25 May, 1752, others of the Trustees then being included, William Plumsted, Thomas White, and John Mifflin. On 27 November, 1757, he was made Presiding Justice of the Court of Quarter Sessions, and on 8 April, 1758, an associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the Province, to which he was re-commissioned in 1761 and again in 1764. He was the first clerk to the Trustees of the Academy, resigning in 1755, and its first Treasurer, resigning this office in 1764 being succeeded by Edward Shippen, jr. The last meeting of the Trustees he attended—and no one was more constant in attendance than he—was on 10 July, 1764; and on 21 February, 1769, John Allen, Esquire, was elected to succeed him. His death occurred 11 January, 1769, and on 19 January following, we find in the Pennsylvania Gazette this obituary notice of him:

On Wednesday, the Eleventh instant, died at the age of 64, The Honourable William Coleman, Esq., an Assistant Judge of our Supreme Court He was always esteemed a valuable and useful citizen, and a Gentleman of great good sense, and unblemished Virtue. Tho' much pleased with Study and Retirement, he possessed many social Virtues, and was ever fond of those Subjects which were most likely to render him serviceable to his Neighbor. He was an able and an upright Judge, and in that character gave the greatest Satisfaction to his Country. And we may say, with much Reason, that this Province has few such Men, and that few Men will be so much missed as Mr. Coleman.^[47]

He married Hannah, daughter of George Fitzwater, whom he survived and without children. By his will he freed his slaves, and including his Books and Mathematical Instruments, he left his residuary estate, which was rich in realty, to his wife's favorite nephew, George Clymer, the Signer, who had been left an orphan at an early age, and whose care had devolved upon William Coleman and his wife. Judge Coleman superintended young Clymer's education, and with his cultivated mind instilled into him a love of reading, which better fitted him for his later political duties. George Clymer became a Trustee of the College and Academy in 1779.

---

1. I am greatly indebted in compiling the personal notices of many of the Trustees to that admirable compendium of local biography and genealogy The Provincial Councillors of Pennsylvania by Mr. Charles Penrose Keith of the class of 1873. And for records of civic and judicial life, reference is also made to Mr. John Hill Martin's Bench and Bar of Philadelphia.
2. Deborah Logan in Penn and Logan Correspondence, i. liv.
3. Contributed to Sparks, vii. 25, and copied by Bigelow, ii. 94. Mr. Fisher was a descendant through his father from James Logan, and through his mother from two other Trustees, Tench Francis and Charles Willing. He was a graduate of Harvard in 1825 as was also his cousin Dr. Charles Willing. See a letter addressed to them while at Harvard by Bishop White 25 October, 1822. Memoir by Wilson, p. 414. Mr. Fisher was a member of the American Philosophical Society and a Vice President of the Pennsylvania Historical Society; he died 21 January, 1873 aged 67 years.
4. Deborah Logan P. &. L. Corres. i. iv.
5. Deborah Logan P. & L. Corres. i. liv.
6. Sparks, vii. 24.
7. Bigelow, ii. 94.
8. Ibid, i. 219.
9. Duyckinck, i, 1,77.
10. In a note to the Proposals of 1749, Franklin refers to this Library, viz: "Besides the English Library begun and carried on by subscription in Philadelphia, we may expect the Benefit of another much more valuable in the Learned Languages, which has been many years collecting with the greatest Care, by a Gentleman distinguish'd for his Universal Knowledge, no less than for his Judgment in Books. It contains many hundred Volumes of the best Authors in the best Editions, among which are, * * * . A handsome Building about 60 feet in front, is now erected in this city, at the private Expense of that Gentleman, for the Reception of this Library, where it is soon to be deposited, and remain for the publick use with a valuable yearly Income duly to enlarge it; and I have his Permission to mention it as an Encouragement to the propos'd Academy; to which this noble Benefaction will doubtless be of the greatest Advantage, as not only the Students, but even the Masters themselves, may very much improve by it." Proposals, p. 8.
11. Bigelow, i. 214.
12. Pennsylvania Gazette, 24 June, 1732.
13. See his letters in The Burd Papers for evidences of his later feelings against Franklin.
14. The element of doubt that appears in this colonial romance, is stated by Mr. Jenkins in his The Family of William Penn, pp. 62–63.
15. Penn & Logan Correspondence, i. 348.
16. Pennsylvania Magazine, v. 471, in Mr. Keen's Descendants of Joran Kyn, for reference to Mr. McCall's ancestry and kin.
17. In his paper on "Foreign Education" which he read to a distinguished audience in the University Chapel, 8 June, 1886. Mr. Sidney George Fisher makes the like nomination in his True Benjamin Franklin, p 77, "it should have been called, Franklin University."
18. These earlier experiments of Franklin were carried on in the house built by John Wister, No. 141 (now 325) Market street in 1731. "It was in this house that Dr. Franklin made his first attempt to 'snatch the lightning from Heaven' and guide it harmlessly to the earth. With this object he here erected his first lightning rod, an hexagonal iron rod, still in our possession, connecting it with a bell which gave the alarm whenever the atmosphere was surcharged with electric fluid. The ringing of this bell so annoyed my grandmother that it was removed at her request." Memoir of Charles J. Wister, by his son, 1866, vol i. pp. 21, 33. John Wister's son, Daniel, who was born 4 February, 1738–39, was a pupil at the Academy 1752–1754, as was also his cousin Caspar in 1752. Watson tells us that in 1750 Franklin owned and was dwelling in the house at the South East corner of Race and Second Streets. Annals i. 532–33.

    The earliest residence of Franklin's family known to us was in the building owned by Benjamin Hornor on Market Street above Front, now No. 131, where some of Mr. Hornor's living descendants recollect being shown in their early years traces then remaining of Franklin's printing work. See Family Memorials by Miss Mary Coates, Philadelphia 1885, p. 60. It was here that Franklin writes to Thomas Hopkinson, in 1747: "The din of the Market increases upon me, and that, with frequent interruptions, has, I find, made me say some things twice over, and I suppose, forget some others." Bigelow, ii. 103.

    In 1764 he built on his lot on the South side of Market Street between Third and Fourth Streets, the house standing southwards from the line of the street nigh where Hudson Place now bisects the block; this is the "new house" Mrs. Franklin speaks of in the letter to her husband 7 April, 1765, Bigelow, iii. 374, and where he resided the remainder of his years. For a description of these premises and the Mansion and printing offices see Scharf & Wescott's History of Philadelphia, 1. 460, for a letter from Robert Carr to John A. McAllister written 23 May, 1864.

19. Bigelow, i. 227.
20. "In the days of the Province nearly all the Justices, both of the Common Pleas and the Supreme Court, Franklin excepted, were merchants." David Paul Brown, Forum, i. 256.
21. History of Penn'a. Thomas F. Gordon, 268.
22. Bigelow, ii. 59.
23. Ibid, iii. 178.
24. See his Communication of 19 October, 1752, in the Gentleman's Magazine, for December, 1752, p. 560.
25. Bigelow, ii. 262. On Franklin's Lightning Rod vide Dr. Andrew D. White's History of the Warfare of Science and Theology, i. 365, for an interesting statement of the early opposition it engendered, and of its practical usefulness winning its way among its theological opponents.
26. Pennsylvania Gazette, 11 April, 1751.
27. Ibid, 26 March, 1754.
28. His absence from a meeting of the Common Council that day, also, would show that absence from the city was the cause.
29. Bigelow, ii. 414. Sparks, vii. 85. "Since my return, I have been in such a perpetual hurry of public affairs of various kinds," he writes 11 Sept. 1755. Paxton, i. 342.
30. Faculty Proceedings, Historical Sketch of the College of William and Mary, p. 42. He writes to his wife from Williamsburg, 30 March, 1756: "Virginia is a pleasant country; now in full spring; the people obliging and polite." Bigelow, ii. 458.
31. Two Discourses, &c., Philadelphia, 1885, p. 108. Their second son John born in Philadelphia shortly after their arrival was said to have been the first male child born here of English parents: Old York Road and its Early Associations, Philadelphia, 1890, p. 67.
32. Humphrey Morrey was the first Mayor of the City of Philadelphia under the charter of 1691. See Allison & Penrose, Philadelphia, a History of Municipal Development.
33. His mode of life was simple and it was said that up to his final illness he had never tasted wine nor spirits. His temper was never ruffled and his benevolence was without stint. Dr. Morton's History of the Pennsylvania Hospital, p. 489.
34. Bigelow, ii. 66. He writes Franklin the following letter:
    Philadelphia, March 1, 1766.

    Dear Sir—I received yours of 26th of September last with your very agreeable Present Doctor Lewis's new Work. You judged very right that I should find in it entertaining Particulars in my Way—the Management of Gold & Silver is treated of in it better & more particularly than I have met with in any Author.

    The regard you have always shewn me requires my acknowledgment, which I wish to make by serviceable Actions, because they speak louder than Words, but I fear I shall be insolvent. The Junto fainted last Summer in the hot Weather and has not yet reviv'd, your Presence might reanimate it, without which I apprehend it will never recover.

    I am dear Sir your affectionate Friend and oblig'd Humble Serv't, Phil Syng. Addressed: To Benjamin Franklin, Esq, Postmaster general of North America in London, pr Capt Sparks. —MS letter with the American Philosophical Soc'y. The gift referred to was doubtless the Commercium Philosophico-technicum, in its new and last edition, of Dr. William Lewis, who died in 1786. Allibone.

35. Bigelow, ii. 1.
36. A letter from Deborah Franklin of introduction to her husband of young Phineas Bond, dated 11 Octo., 1770, is given in the Pennsylvania Magazine, v. 510.
37. Memoir, by Dr. Wilson, p. 27.
38. American Medical Biography, James Thatcher, i. 177.
39. History Medical Department University of Pennsylvania, Joseph Carson, M. D., 57.
40. Bigelow, vii. 36.
41. Bigelow, ii. 66.
42. Ibid. 68.
43. Sparks, vi. 87.
44. Her first cousin, Dr. James Johnson, was Canon-residentiary of St. Paul's Cathedral, and was in 1752 made Bishop of Gloucester, whence in 1760 he was translated to Worcester, dying in 1774.
45. Forum, i. 237–238.
46. Bigelow, i. 143.
47. "Upon the whole I proposed to them to leave the matter to Reference, which was accordingly done by mutual consent to a very honest judicious man, Mr. William Coleman, a merchant of the place," Chief Justice Allen, 5 November, 1753. And again in a later letter to David and John Barclay of London he speaks of him as "Our Mutual Friend." The Burd Papers, 1897, pp. 9 and 75.