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State of Pennsylvania
History & Genealogy

Immigration of the Irish Quakers
into Pennsylvania

1682 - 1750
With Their Early History in Ireland
by
Albert Cook Myers, M. L.
Member of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania
"There is not one of the family but what likes the country very well and wod.  If we were in Ireland again come here Directly it being the best country for working folk & tradesmen of any in the world, but for Drunkards and Idlers, they cannot live well any where."  - Letter of an Irish Quaker, 1725
The Author
Swarthmore, Pennsylvania
1902

PART 3*

CHAPTER II.
SOCIAL LIFE OF THE IRISH FRIENDS

Page 186

Introductory   OF the social conditions among the Irish Friends in early Pennsylvania some idea will have been formed from the preceding chapters, particularly from Robert Parke's long letter1; now let us consider this phase of our history more in detail, dwelling especially upon some of the more important sides of country life.  The diaries, wills and inventories of the time, and then ancient records of friends, abound in quaint and interesting items reflecting the manners and customs of the period, and it is the rich stores chiefly that have been drawn upon.  On many points, however, authentic material was not at hand, and this in part accounts for the somewhat inadequate and fragmentary character of portions of the chapter.
 
Irish Friends Well Adapted for Pioneer Life -        The Irish Friends were in active and enterprising people, particularly well adapted for pioneer life doubtless more so than the English and Welsh Friends; for the unsettled state of Ireland through so long a period, - that of the Cromwellian Settlement, the raids of the Rapparees, the troubles
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     1. Pp. 71-79.
   

[Pg. 187]

between James II. and William III., and the religious persecutions and other causes of emigration - had inured them to privation and hardship and prepared them to contend with the difficulties of the new country.
 
   
     Although the majority of these Friends were of English stock, yet those families that had been in Ireland for a generation or more had become modified by their Irish environment and by contact with their restless and aggressive Celtic- and Scotch-Irish neighbors, and developing habits and characteristics that distinguished them from the English Friends of the Province.
     These characteristics crop out in the old meeting records, which show that the younger Irish Friends especially were impulsive and full of spirit, chafing under the restraint of the strict and repressive discipline of the Society as enforced in those days; and it is quite common, as we shall see, to find them "Marrying out by ye priest: and otherwise breaking the rules.  In this connection it is also worthy of note that in those meetings in which the Irish element was strong there was a tendency to be more liberal in belief and less stringent in the administration of some of the rules of discipline.
     In those neighborhoods where the clan spirit was strong, and where most of the marriages occurred among their own number, these Friends
  Mostly of English Stock but Modified by Irish Environment
     

[Pg. 188]

    preserved much of their Irish identity for generations; but by the early years of the nineteenth century then had lost much of this peculiarity and were becoming rapiddly absorbed in the new composite American race.
The Arrival        On their first arrival from Ireland, and before their own homes could be provided, immigrant Friends did not want for food and shelter; in that
Hospitality of Old Settlers   era of simple kindliness and free-hearted hospitality the old settlers were ever ready with open door to receive the newcomers and to assist and counsel them in choosing a location.  The great
Small Capital of Immigrants   body of these Friends brought only small capital with them, but they were young and vigorous and the favorable opportunities offered here enabled the most of them to begin a fairly comfortable
Household   settlement.  Men with families usually brought their household goods with them, purchasing in the Colony, horses, cattle, and such other necessaries that could be bought to better advantage on this side of the water.
     It was customary for those Friends who in-
Temporary Home near Landing Place   tended to establish themselves upon inland plantations, first to provide temporary homes for their families near the place of landing, and then to go, often several in a company, prospecting for farm land in the interior.
The Settlement          Ties of kin and of friendship had an important bearing on the selection of lands; those who had

[Pg. 189]

been kinsmen or old friends in Ireland naturally desired to locate near each other in Pennsylvania, and in consequence we find such distinctive Irish Quaker settlements as those of Newark and Centre in New Castle County, New Garden in Chester County, Sadsbury in Lancaster County, and Menallen in the original York County.   Selection of Land Affected by Ties of Kin and Friendship.
     Once the land was selected and steps taken to secure the title thereto, usually by warrant1 from the Proprietary, haste was made to remove the families thither so that the settlement might be well advanced before the winter season had begun.2  Pack-horses, almost the only means of transportation, were now made ready with saddles and pillions, and the women and children and farm and household effects were loaded upon them, the men frequently travelling on foot, leading the horses and driving the flocks and herds before them.  Thus equipped the little procession would set off through the dark and lonely woods, follow-   Journey to New Home
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     1. The planter applied at the land office for the warrant, which was issued by the Proprietary, or the Commissioners, and addressed to the Receiver-General, authoring that official that official to have a survey made on terms described in the document.  The warrant then passed to the Surveyor-General, who made a copy, returning the original to the warrantee to be held as evidence of title until the patent was issued.  The Surveyor-General gave the copy of the warrant with an order to the Deputy-Surveyor of the county in which the land was located, directing the survey to be made.  After the Deputy-Surveyor had completed his measurements, he reported to the office of the Surveyor-General, who then issued a patent to the purchaser of the land.  It usually happened that the patent was not issued until some years after the warrant.
     2. In this connection see Robert Parke's letter, pages 71-79.
   

[Pg. 190]

    ing the Indian trails and the paths marked by blazed trees to the new abode.
Clearing the Land        The site of the dwelling on the plantation was generally near a spring of water, either on low ground or on the warm southern slope of a hill, for the sake of protection from the bleak and piercing winds of winter.  With an energy and enthusiasm born of the thought that they were no longer tenants but absolute owners of the soil, the whole family now worked to win a home from the unconquered wilds.  The trees fell quickly under the sturdy blows of the woodman's sharp-edged axe, and soon a little clearing appeared amidst the encircling forest.  The next concern was the erection of a house.  This first habitation was only a rude cabin built of timber hewn and sawed by hand from the fallen trees; but before many years had elapsed, with the large increase that blessed his labors, the farmer was enabled to erect a more comfortable and commodious dwelling of brick or stone, often making it an addition to the original house.
House Building        There were several methods of constructing the first wooden house.  One of those suggested by Pennin his Direction to Such Persons as are inclined to America,1 issued about 1682, was doubtless
The Clapboard House   followed by many of the early settlers.  He writes:2
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     1. Reprinted in Penna. Mag., IV., 329-342; see also Oldmixon's British Empire in America printed in 1708), reprinted in Hazard's Register Phila., 1830), V., 177.
     2. Penna. Mag., I., 334-5

[Pg. 191]

     To build them, an House of thirty foot long and eighteen foot broad, with a partition neer the middle, and an other to divide one end of the House into two small Rooms, there must be eight Trees of about sixteen Inches square, and cut off, to Posts of about fifteen long, which the House must stand upon, and four pieces, two of thirty foot long, and two of eighteen foot long, for Plates, which must lie upon the top of those Posts, the whole length and breadth of the House, for the Gists to rest upon false Plates of thirty-foot long to lie upon the ends of the Gists for the Rafters to be fixed upon, twelve pare of Rafters of about twenty foot, to bear the Roof of the House, with several other small pieces; as Windbeams, Braces, Studs, etc. which are made out of the Waste Timber.  For Covering the House, Ends, and Sides, and for the Waste Timber.  For Covering the House, Ends, and Sides, and for the Loft, we use Clabboard, which is Rived feather-edged, of five foot and a half long, that well Drawn, lyes close and smooth:  The Lodging Room may be lined with the same, and filled up between, which is very Warm.  These homes usually endure ten years without Repair . . . . The lower flour is the Ground, the upper Clabboard.  This may seem a mean way of Building but 'tis sufficient and safest for ordinary beginners.

     Dankers and Sluyter1 the Dutch Labadists, on their journey from New York to the Delaware, in 1679, met with this form of house at the Falls of Delaware, now Trenton, New Jersey, and have left the following description:

     Nov. 17th. - Most of the English, and many others, have their houses made of nothing but clapboards, as they call them there, in this manner: they first made a wooden frame, the same as they do in Westphalia, and at Altona, but most so strong; they then split the boards of Clapboard, so that they are like cooper's pipe staves, except they are not bent.  These are made very thin with a large knife, so that the thickest end is about a pinck (little finger) thick, and the other is made sharp, like the edge of a knife.  They are about five or six feet long, and are nailed on the outside of the frame, with the ends lapped over each other.  They are not usually laid so close together, as to prevent you from sticking a finger between them, in consequence either of their not being well joined, or the boards being crooked.  When it is cold and windy the best people plaster

   
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     1. Memoirs of the Long Island Historical Society, I., 172.
   

[Pg. 192]

    them with clay.  Such are most all the English houses in the country, except those they have which were built by people of other nations.  Now this house was new and airy; and as the night was very windy from the north, and extremey cold.
     The description is confirmed in "An Account of East Jersey, in 1684": 1 Country Houses are built of Wood only Trees split and set up on end on the ground, and coverings to their Houses are mostly Shingles made of Oak, Chestnut and Cedar Wood, which makes a very neat covering:"

     The most common form of the early dwelling, however, was the more permanent log

The Log House   cabin,2 built of squared logs, placed horizontally one upon the other and notched together at the corners.  The interstices between the logs were filled in or "chinked" with stones or wedges of wood, and then plastered over with mortar or clay.  The roof was covered with boards or oak shingles, either pinned by wooden pins or pegs or held in place by "Weight tibmers"3  Says Ash-
     1. Hart's American History told by Contemporaries, I., 569.
     2. Dankers and Sluyter (
Memoirs L. I. Hist. Soc., I., 175) in their journey of 1679, give an account of the log house of Jacob Hendricks, a Swede, of Burlington, New Jersey, stating that it was "made according to the Swedish mode, and as they usually build their houses here, which are block houses, being nothing else than entire trees, split through the middle, or squared out of the rough, and placed in the form of a square, upon each other, as high as they wish to have the house; the ends of these timbers are let into each other, about a foot from the ends, half of one into half of the other.  The whole structure is thus made, without a nail or a spike.  The ceiling and roof do not exhibit much finer work, except among the most careful people, who have the ceiling planked and a glass window.  The doors are wide enough, but very low, so that you have to stoop in entering.  These houses are quite light and warm; but the chimney is placed in a corner."
3. Isaac Weld, Travels through the States of North America, in 1795, 21-22; Peter Kalm, Travels into America, in 1748, p. 166; Lodge's
       

[Pg. 193]

Mead:1 "Locks in ordinary use were unknown; the doors [were hung on wooden hinges or straps of hide and] were opened by strings which on being pulled from the outside raised heavy wooden latches within, to which they were made fast, and intrusion was prevented when the inmates pulled the latch-strings in at the outer doors.  From this common practice originated the ancient saying descriptive of generous hospitality, 'the latchstring is always out.' "    
     A Stone Chimney of immense size, capable of receiving a whole cord stick on the hearth, was built into one end of the house.  The great fireplace was used for cooking and heating.  Here   Equipment of House and Farm.
were to be found frying-pans, chafing-dishes, and spits, and suspended over the andirons by pothooks from an iron bar or crane, were the pots and kettles, which were so highly prized by the settlers that they were frequently bequeathed by will.  George Harlan, of Kennett, in his will of 1714, devised to his son Aaron a "great brass kettle," and William Halliday of New Garden, in 1741, left "unto my Daughter Deborah Lindly my big pott that I brought from Ireland."  We made be sure that his bequest was all the more highly regarded because it had come over sea.   The Hearth

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Colonies, 248; Ashmead's Delaware County, 179; Alice Morse Earle's Home Life in Colonial Days; Acrelius, History New Sweden in Memoirs Hist. Soc. Penna., XI., 157.
1. Delaware County, 179.
   

[Pg. 194]

    Halliday also gave to his daughter-in-law, Mabel Halliday, "a gridle."
     The great hearth fire was the center of attraction in the long winter evenings.  Its dancing flames filled the room with a good cheer, throwing into the shadow the bare and homely outlines and lighting up with gentle touch the prominent features, - the rude furniture, the floor bare save for a rug or two, the overhanging beams, the mantel bright with pewter and brass,1 and the walls unadorned excepting perhaps for a map or sampler or a fowling-piece.  Here by the fireside the household and perhaps a few neighbors would assemble to enjoy the evening fire and to chat of affairs of common interest and to exchange the marvelous stories current in those days; but no one has equalled the gentle Whittier in giving the spirit of this scene of domestic peace and contentment:
Shut in from all the world without,
We sat the clean-winged hearth about,
Content to let the north-wind roar
In baffled rage at pane an door,
While the red logs before us beat
The frost-line back with tropic heat;
And ever, when a louder blast
Shook beam and rafter as it passed,
The merrier up its roaring draught
The great throat of the chimney laughed;
The house-dog on its paws outspread
Laid to the fire his drowsy head,
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     1. Dublin Half Year Meeting, in writing to Friends on the Delaware, in 1681, advise them to avoid "Flourishing needless Pewter and Brass" in their kitchens.
     

[Pg. 195]

The cat's dark silhouette on the wall
A couchant tiger's seemed to fall;
And, for the winter fireside meet,
Between the andirons' straddling feet,
The mug of cider simmered slow,
The apples sputtered in a row,
And, close at hand, the basket stood
With nuts from brown October's wood.

What matter how the night behaved?
What matter how the north-wind raved?
Blow high, blow low, not all its snow
Could quench our hearth-fire's ruddy glow.
1
   
     A study of the inventories of the estates of some of the deceased Irish Friends shows quite accurately the character and extent of their possessions, and enables us to form a fairly clear idea of the furnishings of the houses and of the stock and implements of the farms, and to compare the wealth of the settlers with that of their   Inentories
neighbors.2  The inventory3 of "all & Singlular ye Goods & Chattels Rights & Credits of John Lowdon Late of New Garden in the County of   John Lowden's Goods, 1714
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     1. Snow-Bound
    
2. Extracts from the inventory of George Harlan, of Kennett, made Oct. 29, 1714: wearing apparrell
£5; I Bed I Bolster
2 pillows & pillow Cases; 2 _ of Sheets; I Rug and I blanket; I Bedstead; I Chest; I Table; I Couch; I old warming pan; two Chests; 6 pieces of pewter; I Bress Skillet; I frying pan; 3 floats 3 pails I Churn I wooden bottle; I gun; 2 Cows I black * Red; I Stone horse; I Dark brown meare Called Midge & this yeas horse Colt; I Black Ridgelin (?); I Dark Brown mare with a bay yearling; saws, augers, planes, axes, etc.; one old Bed tick and Bolster; one Bay mare about 15 years old in the woods; one Brown Bay Horse Colt about I year old; I bay horse one bay mare; one Sorril Colt; I Grey Mare and Colt [Total value of estate £270. 8. 2]
     3. Made 3 Mo. 10, 1714, by James Starr and Michael Lightfoot. -
Papers No. 3, Register's Office, West Chester, Pa.
   

[Pg. 196]

    Chester, weaver," made in 1714, after Lowden had been in this country about three years, indicates how bare and meagre were some of these homes:

     One Cow and Calf; a horse; wheat 6 acres; a ffeather Bedd and Bedding; a fflock Bedd and Bedding; Course Sheets; Table Linnen Wareing Apparell; Linnings; 2 Saddles and a pair of Boots; Iron Tools; Gun and Gunn Barrell; Small irons; Twoo potts; Pewter & two Brass Candlesticks; two Chests; An Old Box; Some Wooden Vessels; A Spade; Three Hundred Acres of Land. [Total value of estate £ 205-2-0].

     The absence of the items of furniture such as chairs, tables, and bedsteads, from this and other inventories of the time seems due to the fact that much of the furniture was of such crude construction, that it was not considered worthy of inclusion in the list.  John Miller, yeoman and miller, one of the largest land owners of the New Garden settlement, died in the same year as

John Miller's Inventory   Lowdon, but seems to have been more well-to-do.  His househood goods were: 1
 
         Three Ruggs; two pare of Sheets; fourteen yards of Cloath; two pillows; two bed ticks; three bedd steds; twelve napkins & two table Cloaths; twelve felt hats; one Christ; I beef barrell; I brewing Ceive; one washing tub & a half Bushell; two dozen of trenshers fourteen noggens and three platters; one Couch & two tables; three puter dishes; twelve plates; one tankard a Saltseler & a mustard cup; two brass and one Iron Candlestick; one beef barrell; A Copper kettle & three Iron
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     1. Inventory made "ye 122th of ye I mo 171-4/5" by Simon Hadly, Thomas Garnett, Michael Lightfoot, and James Starr.  - Papers No. 9, Register's Office, West Chester, Pa.

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