Page images
PDF
EPUB

Chiefly from this difference of opinion, as well as to the propriety of oaths of allegiance, and the right or power in any sectarian body of disownment or excommunication, grew the formation of the Society of Free Quakers, or, as they were frequently called, "Fighting Quakers."

This body, of which Mr. Matlack was one of the founders, was not numerous, but highly respectable. He was instrumental in raising a large sum of money for building the Free Quaker meetinghouse, southwest corner of Fifth and Arch Streets. Among those whose names were obtained to the subscription list are seen Benjamin Franklin, Robert Morris, John Cadwalader, Samuel Wetherill, and others of equal renown. The property thus obtained, as well as the burying-ground in Fifth Street below Prune Street, is now held by the Society. The latter was granted to the Free Quakers, in trust for a burying-ground, the 26th August, 1786, by the Legislature of Pennsylvania.

Timothy Matlack was truly a Philadelphian, and truly an American citizen and soldier. He became a colonel in the army, and had the command of a battalion "to whom he had the resolves of Congress of the 15th of May, 1776, and the resolves made the 20th of May, 1776, at the State House, read, when it was proposed whether they should support them at all hazards, and the same was agreed to unanimously." In Duane's "Marshall's Remembrancer" we find the following: "June 14th, 1776, yesterday an express came from Harry Fisher of a numerous body of Tories assembled in Sussex County, State of Delaware, who were intrenching and had cut off the communication by land to Dover. . . . Powder and ball were sent from here under escort of a company of Colonel Matlack's battalion."

On the 14th June, 1776, he was elected one of the Deputies to attend the conference from the City and Liberties, together with Benjamin Franklin, Thomas McKean, S. Delany, John Cox, John Bayard, G. Schlosser, C. Ludwig, J. B. Smith, James Milligan, B. Loxley, C. Marshall, Sen'r, Joseph Moulder, F. Gurney, J. Schriner, J. Deane, J. Barge, Dr. Rush, S. C. Morris, William Coates, S. Brewster, J. Blewer, William Robinson, G. Goodwin, and William Lowman.

When he first wore his sword in the streets of Philadelphia,

some of his quondam Friends, or Quakers, belonging to meeting, sought to ridicule his side arms, asking him what it was, to which he replied, “it was to defend his property and his liberty." It afterwards proved that he not only knew how to wear his sword, but how to use it to some effect.

Colonel Matlack lived to be upwards of ninety-nine years of age, and retained his faculties to the last in a remarkable degree. In his youth, he was a close observer of passing events, and in old age, it was delightful to listen to his reminiscences of the past.

He was born at Haddonfield, New Jersey, in the year 1730, and died near Holmesburg, Pennsylvania, April 15th, 1829, and was interred in the Free Quaker burial-ground, South Fifth Street, Philadelphia.

Colonel Matlack held office under the early Government of the State, and was "Master of the Rolls" for many years, residing at Lancaster, where he continued to reside for a long time. Late in life he was appointed Prothonotary of one of the courts in the city of Philadelphia.

Timothy Matlack Bryan, Esq., his grandson, now living (1859), has in his possession, given to him by the family, in consequence of bearing his name, a silver urn, presented to Colonel Matlack by "The Committee of Safety of the City of Philadelphia," for his patriotic devotion to the cause of freedom, and the many services rendered by him during the entire struggle, and up to the acknowledgment of the independence of the Colonies by Great Britain, in the Treaty of Peace, Anno Domini 1783.

Indeed, Colonel Matlack was conspicuous in all the public measures of the War of 1776, was a popular and successful candidate to public offices; and finally, raised himself a respectable name and estate.

REV. PHILIP F. MAYER, D.D.

REV. PHILIP F. MAYER, D.D., died in Philadelphia, April 16th, 1858, aged seventy-seven years. The above-named divine was pastor of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of St. John, in Race Street, above Fifth. Mr. Mayer was, we believe, the oldest clergyman engaged in active ministerial duties in Philadelphia. He was much beloved by his congregation, and highly esteemed for his piety, his learning, and his many other admirable qualities, by people of all denominations.

Mr. Mayer was, we believe, a native of Auburn, New York, and resided in Albany previous to his coming to this city. He was over fifty years in the ministry, having preached his fiftieth anniversary sermon some time ago. He had been for many years President of the Pennsylvania Institution for the Deaf and Dumb, President of the Philadelphia Dispensary, and a Trustee of the University of Pennsylvania.

MATTHEW MEASE.

MATTHEW MEASE was born in Strabane, County Tyrone, Ireland, and emigrated at an early age to America, settling in Philadelphia, where his uncle, John Mease, an eminent and wealthy merchant, resided. Though educated for a merchant, he entered the American Navy, and became Purser of the "Bonhomme Richard." In the desperate encounter between that vessel and the Serapis, Mr. Mease, not relishing the thought of being an idle spectator of the engagement, obtained from Paul Jones the command of the quarter-deck guns, which were served under him until he was carried below to the cock-pit dangerously wounded on the head by a splinter. He died in Philadelphia, in 1787.

JOHN MEASE.

JOHN MEASE was born in Strabane, Ireland. He came to this country in the year 1754, and for many years was an eminent shipping merchant of Philadelphia. He was an early and an ardent friend to the cause of Independence, and one of the original members of the First Troop of City Cavalry. On the ever-memorable night of the 25th of December, 1776, he was one of twenty-four of that corps who crossed the Delaware with the troops under General Washington when the Hessians were captured.

Mr. Mease was one of five detailed to the service of keeping alive the fires along the line of the American encampment at Trenton to deceive the enemy, whilst the Americans marched by a private route to attack their rear-guard at Princeton. He served with the Troop until the end of the war, and suffered great loss of property in his warehouses and dwelling. For the last thirty years of his life he was one of the Admiralty Surveyors of the Port of Philadelphia, and died in 1826, at the advanced age of eighty-six. He subscribed four thousand pounds to supply the army in 1780. Mr. John Mease was the only man who continued in the latter days to wear the old three-cornered hat of the Revolution, and was familiarly called "The Last of the Cocked Hats."

John Adams, in a letter, dated 1774, says, he dined in Philadelphia with General Mifflin, Dr. Rush, John Dickinson, Mr. Chew, and John Mease.

JAMES MEASE, M.D.

BY THOMAS I. WHARTON.

DR. JAMES MEASE, the first Vice-President of the Philadelphia Athenæum, was a native of Philadelphia. He passed a long and active life in our midst, with credit to himself and advantage to his fellow-citizens. Dr. Mease was not very extensively engaged in the practice of his profession; but he possessed a competent

knowledge of it, and contributed to its improvement and refinement. He was the author or editor of a number of books; some of a local character, which have served to illustrate the history and statistics of his native place; others calculated to promote the cause of scientific agriculture, the moral and mental improvement of mechanics, and the general good of the community. An active member of the Philosophical Society, he contributed, by his writings and personal assistance, to many other institutions, scientific and literary; and, having paid his full share of that duty of beneficence which we all owe to the community in which we live, Dr. Mease died, at his residence in this city, on the 15th day of May, 1846, in the seventy-fifth year of his age.

JOHN MELISH.

JOHN MELISH, a geographer, was a native of Scotland; came to this country in 1809; and died at Philadelphia, December 30th, 1822, aged fifty-two years. He published "Travels in the United States, and in Great Britain and Canada," 2 vols. 8vo. 1812; “A Description of the Roads," &c., 1814; "A Travelling Directory," 1815; "Description of the United States," 1816; "Universal School Geography, and Atlas;" "The Necessity of Protecting Manufactures," 1818; "Maps of Pennsylvania and the United States;""Information to Emigrants," 1819, &c.

WILLIAM MEREDITH.

WILLIAM MEREDITH was born at Philadelphia, on the 2d July, 1772, and was the second son of Jonathan and Elizabeth Meredith, natives of Great Britain.

William Meredith, after graduating at the University of Pennsylvania, commenced the study of the law, and was admitted to the Bar in September, 1795. In the same year he married Miss

« PreviousContinue »