PREFACE.

THE lives contained in this volume will be found to be interesting, most of them being written by the contemporaries of the departed. "To arrange the worthies of humanity in groups, not so much with reference to the mere pursuits in which they were engaged, or the region in which they moved, but illustrated, rather, by the more subtle distinctions, which give a character and bias to their minds, is indeed a pleasant task."

The Editor claims no great credit for this work, other than for untiring industry in collecting, from the kindness of their authors, the memoirs now presented in this volume to the public, and in enrolling the names and memoirs of those wise, charitable, and brave men, whose fame and great actions in life, give Philadelphia a character for benevolence, science, literature, and the fine arts. The likenesses of David Rittenhouse, Stephen Girard, Bishop White, and Robert Morris, will not be found among our illustrations: their images are the household idols of many families; their portraits can be seen anywhere, and almost everywhere, and there is no danger of their memories being lost to posterity. We have done our best to furnish fine specimens of art, in likenesses of those of a more recent date.

We are under obligations to the Hon. Horace Binney, the Hon. Samuel Breck, the Hon. Joseph R. Chandler, the Hon. Henry D.

Gilpin, Charles J. Biddle, Esq., P. P. Morris, Esq., Samuel Hood, Esq., Dr. William Elder, Thomas L. Kane, Esq., Thomas Balch, Esq., C. B. Trego, Esq., Mr. William Brotherhead, and others, for important assistance rendered to us, and to whom we desire to express our thanks.

We are indebted to Messrs. Rice & Hart, the proprietors of the valuable standard work, the National Portrait Gallery, for important memoirs, and extracts of memoirs, which we could not readily find elsewhere; and to that work we take pleasure in referring for more full and extended biographies of some of our eminent Philadelphians.

We have taken the liberty of making a few extracts from Mr. John F. Watson's able and fascinating Annals of Philadelphia.

We are not asserting too much when we say, that the portraits from the burins of Messrs. John and Samuel Sartain will meet with the fullest approbation from the admirers of the fine arts.

PHILADELPHIA, October, 1859.