Penn, retaining, however, his place at the council board, but otherwise retiring from public life. He was always a liberal supporter of all public and useful measures and improvements. He gave a strong impulse to the collegeassisted Benjamin West in his early efforts, and had his own full length portrait executed by him. He had inherited from his father a strong attachment to the Penn family and their interests, strengthened also by the marriage of his neice to John Penn, the governor. He had also loyal feelings to the crown. It consequently followed that he was unfriendly to the Revolution, but quietly submitted for a season to what he could not control. He died soon after the peace, an aged gentleman. James Pemberton. This gentleman, born, educated, and reared in Philadelphia, in the bosom of Friends, possesses in his personal characteristics the beau ideal of a genuine Quaker of the old school, and it is because that we have had a favourable opportunity of sketching the individual from the life, that we here annex a portrait of himself in propria persona-such as it once was, as a walking figure in the streets of Philadelphia. His whole figure, garb and air are primitive, and serve to show and perpetuate the Quaker characteristics, as shown down to the year 1800. When shall we look upon his like again? I have spoken a little about the dress of Friends, under the head of "Friends," and this portrait may serve to exemplify more fully what was intended to be there described. He was born at Philadelphia the 26th of August, 1723-son of Israel, and grandson of Phineas Pemberton, one of the early and distinguished settlers of Pennsylvania. His education was conducted at the Friends' school. From his youth he was distinguished for diligence, integrity and benevolence. In 1745 he travelled to Carolina, and in 1748 he visited Europe and travelled much in England. On his return he engaged extensively in commerce, in which he received successful returns, and always by prescribed rules of the most punctilious probity-some instances of which are remembered to his honor. He was an ardent agent in all measures of decided good. He was a liberal contributor and useful manager of the Pennsylvania Hospital-an active member in the Friendly association for preserving peace with the Indians—one of the founders of the Pennsylvania Abolition Society. He was a leading member of his own religious society-always loved and always respected. He was averse to war, and to our revolutionary movements, because he was a Friend, and besides this, he did not suppose that differences could only be settled by arms. The consequence was, venerable and peace-loving as he looks in his portrait, he was included in the sixteen or seventeen other citizens of Philadelphia who were banished to Virginia in 1777, "to keep the peace." There he spent a couple of years and wrote out a journal, some of which has been published in the Friends' Miscellany, volume 7. He died, a patriarch, at Philadelphia, February, 1809, in his 87th year-almost the last of the race of the "cocked hats" and certainly one of the very best pictorial illustrations of by-gone times and primitive men. The Rev. Jacob Duche. He was the son of a respectable merchant of the same name, and grandson of Andrew Duché, a worthy Huguenot, who fled from France and came to this country with William Penn. The reverend subject of this notice, Jacob Duché, was born about the year 1740. He was educated in the Philadelphia College, where he often distinguished himself. He was a good orator, and a ready versifier. In time he studied theology-went to England for holy orders, and after his return became an assistant and afterwards, in 1755, a rector in Christ Church and St. Peter's. As a preacher he enjoyed great popularity. His appearance and manners were imposing--his voice was full and musical-his elocution uncommonly graceful, and his sermons oratorical. But what made his name and fame most conspicuous was his attempt, by letter to General Washington, to bring him over to the British side in the Revolution! It was of course an abortive effort, and had the effect to drive himself away, by flight, from his country and home, so that he remained abroad-in England, till after the peace then he returned and died among us, repentant and humbled at the course he had taken. His conduct was not so much the result of defection as discouragement. He had at the beginning of the struggle set out as an ardent whig-he had preached on public occasions sermons full of patriotic ardour, and had been elected chaplain of the American Congress, in July, 1776 and while he held this office he had appropriated his salary to the relief of the families whose members had been slain in battle. But alarmed and terrified, at length, by the increasing gloom and despondency of the period, when the British marched successfully through the Jerseys, and at length occupied Philadelphia, he forsook his former principles and bias,— went over to the stronger side, and then wrote his well known letter to General Washington, to urge him to make the same peace for himself and country! AGED PERSONS. "The hands of yore That danced our infancy upon their knee THERE is something grateful, and perhaps sublime, in contemplating instances of prolonged life,-to see persons escaped the nume rous ills of life unscathed. They stand like venerable oaks, steadfast among the minor trees, e'en wondered at because they fell no sooner. We instinctively regard them as a privileged order, especially when they bear their years with vigour, "like a lusty winter," they being alone able to preserve unbroken the link which binds us to the remotest past. While they remain, they serve to strangely diminish our conceptions of time past, which never seems fully gone while any of its proper generation remains among us. These thoughts will be illustrated and sustained by introducing to consideration the names and persons who have been the familiars of the present generation, and yet saw and conversed with Penn, the founder, and his primitive cotemporaries! How such conceptions stride over time! All the long, long years of our nation seem diminished to a narrow span!-For instance: Samuel R. Fisher, a merchant, late in this city, in his 84th year, told me he well remembered to have seen, at Kendall Meeting, James Wilson, a public Friend, who said he perfectly remembered seeing both George Fox, the founder of Friends, and William Penn, the founder of our city! Often, too, I have seen and conversed with the late venerable Charles Thomson, the secretary of the first Congress, who often spoke of his being curious to find out, and to converse with the primitive settlers, which still remained in his youth. Every person who has been familiar with Dr. Franklin, who died. in 1790, and saw Philadelphia from the year 1723, had the chance of hearing him tell of his seeing and conversing with numerous first settlers. Still better was their chance who knew old Hutton, who died in 1793, at the prolonged age of 108 years, and had seen Penn in his second visit to Philadelphia, in 1700,-and better still were the means of those now alive, who knew old Drinker, who died as late as the year 1782, at the age of 102 years, and had seen Philadelphia, where he was born, in 1680, even at the time of the primitive landing and settlement in caves! Nor were they alone in this rare opportunity, for there was also the still rarer instance of old black Alice, who died as late as the year 1802, and might have been readily seen by me, she then being 116 years of age, with a sound memory to the last, distinctly remembered William Penn, whose pipe she often lighted, (to use her own words,) and Thomas Story, James Logan, and several other personages of fame in our annals. The late Mrs. Logan has told me, that much of her known affection for the recitals of the olden time were generated in her youth, by her frequent conversations with old Deborah Claypole, who lived to the age of 95 years, and had seen all the primitive race of the city,-knew Pennknew the place of his cottage in Lætitia court, when the whole area was tangled with a luxurious growth of blackberries. Her regrets now are, that she did not avail herself more of the recollections of such a chronicle, than she then did. The common inconsideracy of youth was the cause. It may amuse and interest to extend the list a little further, to wit: The late aged Sarah Shoemaker, who died in 1825 at the age of 95 years, told me she often had conversed with aged persons in her young days, who had seen and talked with Penn and his companions. In May, 1824, I conversed with Israel Reynolds, Esq., of Nottingham, Maryland, then in his 66th year, a hale and newly married man, who told me he often saw and conversed with his grandfather, Henry Reynolds, a public Friend, who lived to be 94 years of age, and had been familiar with Penn, both in Philadelphia and in England; he had also cultivated corn in the city near the Dock creek, and caught fish there. Mrs. Hannah Speakman, who died in 1833, aged 80 years, has told me that she has often talked with aged persons who saw or conversed with Penn, but being then in giddy youth, she made no advantage of her means to have inquired. Her grandfather, Townsend, whom she had seen, had come out with Penn, the founder. But now all those who still remain, who have seen or talked with black Alice, with Drinker, with Hutton, with John Key, the first born, are fast receding from the things that be. What they can re late of their communications must be told quickly, or it is gone! "Gone! glimmering through the dream of things that were." We shall now pursue the more direct object of this article, in giving the names and personal notices of those instances of grandevity, which have occasionally occurred among us,-of those who, "Like a clock, worn out with eating time, The wheels of weary life at last stood still!" 1727. This year dies Grace Townsend, aged 98 years, well known among the first settlers, and who lived many years on the property nigh the Chesnut street bridge over Dock creek, at the Broad Axe Inn. 1730-January 5, died at Philadelphia, Mary Broadway, aged 100 years, a noted midwife; her constitution wore well to the last, and she could read without spectacles. 1731-May 19, John Evet, aged 100, was interred in Christ Church ground. He had seen King Charles the First's head held up by the executioner, being then about 16 years old. 1739-May 30, Richard Buffington, of the parish of Chester, a patriarch indeed, had assembled in his own house 115 persons of his own descendants, consisting of children, and grand and great grandchildren, he being then in his 85th year, in good health, and doubtless in fine spirits among so many of his own race. His eldest son, then present at 60 years of age, was said to have been the first Englishman born in Pennsylvania region, and appears to have been three or four years older than the first born of Philadelphia, or than Emanuel Grubb, the first born of the province. Speaking of this great collection of children in one house, reminds one of a more extended race, in the same year, being the case of Mrs. Maria Hazard, of South Kingston, New England, and mother of the governor; she died in 1739, at the age of 100 years, and could count up 500 children, grandchildren, great grandchildren, and great great grandchildren; 205 of them were then alive. A grandaughter of hers had already been a grandmother 15 years! Probably, this instance of Rhode Island fruitfulness may match against the world. 1761-Died, Nicholas Meers, in his 111th year; he was buried in Friend's ground at Wilmington. He was born in the year 1650, under the government of Cromwell, and about the time of the rise of the society of which he became a member. He lived through eventful periods, had been the subject of ten successive sovereigns, including the two Cromwells. He saw Pennsylvania and Delaware one great forest,-a range for the deer, buffalo, and panther; and there he lived to see a fruitful field. If those who were conversant with him in his last days, had conversed with him on his recollections of the primitive days of our country, what a treasure of facts might have been set down from his lips! So we often find occasions to lament the loss of opportunities with very aged persons, of whom we hear but little until after their death. "First in the race, they won, and pass'd away!" 1763-Miss Mary Eldrington, of Elizabethtown, New Jersey, died at the age of 109 years. "She still looked for a husband, and did not like to be thought old." 1767-Mrs. Lydia Warder died this year, aged 87 years; she was born in 1680, came out with Penn's colony, had lived in a cave, and had a lively memory of all the incidents of the primitive settlement. This same year, 1767, was fruitful in passing off the primitive remains from among us; thus showing, that in the deaths of those named in this year, of the first settlers, there were inhabitants lately alive, who must have had good opportunities of making olden time inquiries. |