A memoir of Enoch Lewis

Front matter

ENOCH LEWIS.

A MEMOIR

OF

Chapter I. Ancestors

The ancestors of Enoch Lewis came early to Pennsylvania. They were among those earnest and devoted men, who, preferring political and religious liberty, attended by privation and hardship in the New World, to a life of comparative ease subject to aristocratic and- ecclesiastical domination in the Old, sought, under the auspices of a governor with whose pacific principles and benevolent purposes they thoroughly sympathized, to become the pioneers of a new civilization in which Christianity should be a pervading and informing element.

In the latter part of 1681, or the beginning of 1682, Henry Lewis emigrated from Narbeth, a small market-town in Pembrokeshire, South Wales, and arrived at Upland, afterwards Chester, on the west bank of the river Delaware. He was accompanied by his father, Evan Lewis, then an old man, and his family, consisting of his wife, Margaret, and three children, two sons and one daughter, an elder daughter having died prior to his emigration. The eldest son, whose name was also Henry, was a lad of less than eleven years. He wTas born, as appears by a record still existing in Friends' Library in London, "10th month 26, 1671." (o. s.) Samuel, the second son, was born " 8th month 1, 1676," (o. s.) and Elizabeth, the daughter, was born " 12th month 14th, 1677." (o. s.) Henry Lewis, the elder, brought with him from the Monthly Meeting of Friends at Narbeth, a certificate of membership of himself and family. His father, Evan Lewis, does not appear to have joined the Society. The Monthly Meeting at Narbeth, prior to 1682, was in a flourishing condition, but it has now become extinct, having lost its members, mainly, by emigration to America. Even the house in which it was held has disappeared. A gentleman of high respectability in Narbeth, who has made the antiquities of the place a subject of study, showed, in 1876, the spot where the meeting-house stood. It was on the top of the hill, the western slope of which is occupied by the town, and commands a view, wide as the horizon, of a country of wonderful fertility and picturesque beauty. The gentlemen had, himself, when a boy, attended meetings for worship in that quaint old edifice, in which George Fox, John Ap John, and William Penn, had preached, and he stated that there was an existing tradition that the lot on which the building was erected was a donation to the Society from the Lewises, whose large family mansion he pointed out from a station in the highway, opposite the meeting-house grounds. It stands from half a mile to a mile east of Narbeth, and is embowered by venerable oaks and elms, and surrounded by fields bounded by trim hedges, and glowing with rich verdure. Till within thirty years it was still in the family name, having descended through successive generations from father to son, for some centuries, to the last proprietor, but it has now passed into the hands of strangers.

William Penn obtained his charter as proprietary and governor of Pennsylvania, on the Fourth of Third Month, 1681, and the province was immediately open for settlement. As an inducement to his Welsh friends, who were then suffering persecution from the bigotry and intolerance of the English church, which had not learned the first principles of religious liberty, the proprietary promised to erect a barony of about forty thousand acres of land outside of the limits of the intended city, and not including any prior grants, for the special accommodation of the Welsh emigrants. Their object was to have a separate municipal district, in which the business of the municipality should be transacted by officers of the barony, and in which the proceedings of the courts should be conducted in their own language. The erection of a baronial division, indeed, implied the institution of a court baron, with a jurisdiction co-extensive with the barony. To the native Welsh, this was important, as, to the. great majority of them, the English was an unknown tongue. They have always been, and still are, strongly attached to the language and customs of their country, and do not easily become Anglicized. Narbeth, even now. contains two distinct populations almost equal in number — one English and the other Welsh — each occupying separate portions of the town, and ignorant of the language of the other. Although the forty thousand acres were not actually surveyed till 1684. it was understood that the survey would include lands lying immediately west of the Schuylkill river.

Henry Lewis, though an educated man, and speaking, as is believed, both languages, preferred to establish a settlement within the limits of the projected barony, where he expected to be soon surrounded by many friends and neighbors, who were preparing to follow him to Pennsylvania. He, therefore, in conjunction with William Howell, purchased of Lewis David, a tract of a thousand acres, bounded on the south by Darby, and the city liberty land, and on the east by Merion : and a conveyance by lease and release, dated the 10th and 11th days of Fifth Month, 1682 (o. s.), was made to the purchasers as tenants in common. This was at the eastern end of the forty thousand acres, which was afterwards called " The Welsh Tract," but which never became a barony, in the proper sense of the term, much to the disappointment of many of the settlers. The grantees, very soon after obtaining their title, made partition of the land purchased. The part which fell to Henry Lewis, according to a subsequent survey, contained five hundred and fifty acres. On the same Tenth day of Fifth Month, 1682 (o. s.), Henry Lewis bought an adjacent piece of land, containing two hundred and fifty acres, which had been recently patented in the name of Arthur Buse. On the first mentioned of these tracts, he proceeded to erect a commodious two-storied house, for a residence for himself and family. As soon as Philadelphia was laid out, which was in the Autumn of 1682, he purchased a lot of ground and built upon it a house, within the limits of the new city, in which it appears, that he resided a part of each year. How he divided his time between his country and his city residences, does not appear, but circumstances seem to indicate that the greater part of each year was spent in Philadelphia. His settlement in Haverford was one of the first three in the township, and the probability is, that the want of society in his forest home induced a preference for city life, which, full of energy and enterprise in its primitive phase, may well have worn a charm even for the sedate and self-denying Friend ; and it certainly opened a wider sphere of usefulness and presented larger demands on benevolent effort in the existing condition of the infant colony, than a rude frontier with the wild men of the woods for neighbors.

The emigrants were advised by Penn of the severe extremes of the climate of Pennsylvania ; and of the necessity of making provision before leaving their native country, for their wants during the first winter after their arrival in the colony ; but this advice was in many instances, unheeded, especially by people of the poorer sort. Many of these arriving at Philadelphia late in the year, became objects of charitable attention, until they could obtain employment or find places for settlement. Henry Lewis was appointed by the Monthly Meeting of Philadelphia, one of a committee of two to look to the wants of these and others needing relief, and to distribute among them the funds provided for the emergency, according to the judgment and discretion of the committee. For the duties thus assigned him, he was well fitted by the benevolence of his disposition, and by his active temperament. A number of the emigrants had, like himself, suffered severely from religious persecution by imprisonment and loss of property, and were in haste to escape from their persecutors, and his profound sympathy with them in their troubles, stimulated him to vigorous efforts on their behalf. In 1683, the Indian title was wholly extinguished, and such friendly relations established between Penn and the natives as left the adventurous colonists to prosecute their peaceful pursuits without apprehension of hostile interference ; and they applied themselves with the characteristic energy of freemen hopeful of the future, to the task of subduing the wilderness. The Welsh settlers were principally farmers ; but the necessities of their new condition compelled many of them to use implements to which they had been unaccustomed, and to build their own houses, shoe their own horses, repair their own carts, harrows and plows, and make their own clothes, as generally happens in recent settlements and sparsely populated districts. This habit of relying on their own ingenuity and skill rather than on commercial exchanges for a supply of necessaries, became impressed on their descendants, and remained with them for several generations.

Some of the Welsh immigrants were members of the Society of Friends, but many were not. Those who were not members of the Society were impelled to leave their native country, less by zeal for religious liberty than to escape the tyranny of the nobles, of whose exactions they bitterly complained, and their fortunate experience and favorable representations of the country, led others to follow speedily in their track. They were an industrious, frugal people, of innocent lives and simple manners, and generally joined the Friends soon after their arrival in the province, and assisted in forming meetings of worship and discipline. A large proportion of them spoke only their native language, and when William Penn once visited them as a preacher, but few knew enough of English to understand him. We know little else of the life of Henry Lewis, though we are told that he took a lively interest in the political government of the province, and in the success of the " holy experiment " which Penn came to institute, by establishing a colony unprotected by arms, and founding a commonwealth on principles of universal peace, in the midst of a warlike and barbarous people. He seems to have been well acquainted with the proprietary, and was one of those to whom William Penn, in a letter written soon after his return to England, desired to be especially remembered. In municipal affairs we meet with his name only as foreman of the first grand jury that sat for Philadelphia County, under the provincial organization ; as one of three peace-makers for the same county, and as an officer of Haverford township for 1682.

This institution of peace-makers provided, by a sort of arbitration, a means of settling differences without resort to the ordinary legal tribunals, and was intended to prevent unnecessary litigation. It operated beneficently in the infant colony, and it would, if wisely administered, be a useful auxiliary to any modern judicial system. It is difficult to understand why it was abolished in Pennsylvania. A similar institution exists in France, and is found to produce the most satisfactory results.

After a little more than six years1 residence in the province, Henry Lewis died in the vigor of his manhood. He was buried at Haverford, so says the minute of the event in the books of the Monthly Meeting to which he belonged, " on ye I7th day of ye Sixth Month, 1688." (o. s.) He left a widow, Margaret, two sons, Henry and Samuel, and a daughter, Elizabeth, afterwards the wife of Richard Hayes, one of the leading men of the province.

The site which Henry Lewis selected for his family mansion in Haverford, was remarkable for the beauty of its position, and the charming view it commanded. It was the subject of general admiration, and no passer by could fail to note its attractions. It became the property of Henry Lewis the second by the will of his father. He reared there a large family, and added to the tract an adjoining one of ninety acres, by purchase. At his death, his son Henry, the third of the name, became the proprietor. He, on the Fifteenth day of Sixth Month, 1749, sold the mansion house with three hundred and twenty-two acres of land, constituted partly of the original five hundred and fifty acres, and partly of the ninety acres purchased in 1722, to Captain John Wilcox, of the British army. Captain Wilcox, soon after his purchase, demolished the plain old dwelling built by Henry Lewis the first, and erected on its ruins a large and elegant structure, and added tp the natural beauties of the place, such adornments as the best taste of the period could suggest. He called it Clifton Hall, and occupied it for some years as a country seat. In 1761 it passed into the hands of Captain Charles Cruickshank, also an officer of the British army, who changed its name from Clifton Hall to The Grange, and expended largely of his ample means in its ornamentation. He, it was, it is believed, that cut the terraced walks, established the green-house and gardens, and made the spot what it came to be, the seat of luxurious repose and elegant refinement, where the elite of Philadelphia society in ante-revolutionary times were often entertained. Dr. Charles Caldwell, afterwards Professor of Natural History in the University of Pennsylvania, and still later Professor of Medicine in the Transylvania University, when a young man, made " The Grange " the subject of a poem, written much in the style of Darwin's " Botanic Garden,1' which Dr. Smith has published in the appendix to his History of Delaware County. The Grange Farm has been shorn of its ancient glory by repeated divisions and subdivisions, since the days of Captain Cruickshank, and is now owned by several proprietors. The house and the grounds immediately surrounding belong at this time to John Ashurst, Esq., of Philadelphia.

Henry Lewis the second was in his seventeenth year when his father died. " On ye 20th of ye 10th month, 1692, (o. s.) at the age of twenty-one, he married Mary Taylor, daughter of Robert Taylor of Springfield, at the house of Bartholomew Coppock.11 This is the substance of the minute on the books of the Springfield Monthly Meeting, still extant. How it happened that the wedding took place at a private house and not at a public meeting for worship of the particular organization to which the bride belonged, is not explained, and might at first view lead us to suppose that the marriage was not in conformity with the usages of the Society, which require that the marriage ceremonies shall be performed in meetings for worship. But it is to be remembered that in the early days of the province, meetings for worship were frequently held at private houses, and that was no doubt the case in the present instance. By this marriage Henry Lewis had seven children, of whom John, born " ye 23d of ye 3d month, 1697," (o. s.) was the third. By a second marriage, which occurred about the beginning of the year 1710, he had four sons, of whom Henry, who on the death of his father became owner of the " Clifton Hall " estate, was the eldest.

Henry the second, though a devoted member of the Society of Friends, and actively engaged in promoting its religious welfare and business interests, was not indifferent to public or political duties. He took an active part in the affairs of the colony, was elected a member of the Assembly, and served during the sessions of 1715 and 18, and occupied other positions of official trust. One of his daughters, Margaret, married Isaac Price, the grand-father of Philip Price, and greatgrand-father of Eli K. Price, Esq., a distinguished member of the Philadelphia Bar, born in 7th month, 1797, and still living. Henry Lewis, the second, was a man of superior intelligence, a sturdy farmer, a consistent Friend, and a highly respected citizen.

John Lewis, the second son of Henry Lewis the second, learned the trade of a mason, and married in 1725, Katharine Roberts, daughter of Abel Roberts, at Friends' Meeting in Radnor. Her mother, Mary Roberts, was the owner of a farm of a hundred acres of land in Radnor, about fifteen miles from Philadelphia. On the death of Mary Roberts, the property descended to her two children ; and John Lewis, who resided on the farm during the life of his mother-in-law. soon after her death, purchased the interest of his wife's sister. He subsequently purchased a tract of one hundred and sixty acres of land adjoining. He had four sons and three daughters. Evan, the youngest son, was born 4th month 13th, 1740. In 1770, he married Esther Massey. Three years after, Esther died, leaving two children, Thomas and Sarah. In 1775, he married Jane, a daughter of John Meredith. She was born 1st month 12th, 1743, and was therefore about thirty-two years old at the time of her marriage. She was a woman of superior mind, had a taste for learning, especially delighted in computation, and in resolving difficult problems in arithmetic ; and acquired knowledge with great facility. I was once told, by a worthy old gentleman, who had been one of her school-mates, that in school she stood at the head of her classes, and easily outstripped all competition. " Though a little girl," said he, " not more, apparently, than ten or twelve years of age, she was more than a match, especially in figures, for the biggest boys amongst us. The master would ^often send her to show us how to work out our questions in arithmetic. It was pleasant enough to see her so smart, but not to be instructed by her. It made us feel like boobies." Her father, John Meredith, came to this country from Radnorshire, Wales, with his father's family, in 1708, when he was about nine years old. He appears to have been a man of unusual force of character. He became a member of the Society of Friends in 1753, and died 3d month 4th, 1769. In my father's family record her first paternal ancestor appears to have been David Vaughan, and the record runs thus :

1. David Vaughan.

2. Evan David, his son.

3. William Evan, his son.

4. Meredith WTilliam, his son.

5. Hugh Meredith, his son.

6. Simon Meredith, his son.

7. John Meredith, his son.

This mode of giving to the son the first name of the father for his family name, appears to be peculiarly Welsh.

Her mother was a daughter of Lewis William.-, who was usually called the King of Goshen, because of his being the first settler in the township, and for some time its only inhabitant, as well as because of some eccentricities of character. William Penn once paid him a visit in his forest home, and Williams, in honor of his expected visitor, planted a number of young trees on the sides of the path that led to his house, and bending the tops of the trees over the path, tied them together, so as to form a rude alcove, beneath which the proprietor must pass to reach the dwelling. " What means this ? " said Penn, as, alighting from his horse, he observed the preparation made for his reception. u These are my life-guards," answered the monarch of Goshen, " so poor a kingdom as mine can afford no better." The house, built by this original settler, stood but a short distance northeast of Goshen meeting-house, and some of its ruins were visible within the memory of persons now living.

The Merediths were Welsh. Simon, the grand-father of Jane, born in 1663, was among the early colonists, who settled first in Vincent, Chester County, where a number of his descendants still reside. Jane had a brother Simon, well remembered in the neighborhood of Coventry, where he resided. He lived to his hundredth year, and was a man of superior intelligence, highly respected for the purity of his life and the benevolence of his disposition. He died 5th month 29th, 1828.

Evan Lewis, about the time of his second marriage, removed to the family homestead in Radnor, and took charge of the farm, and his father and mother continued for the rest of their lives to be members of his family. John, the father, died in 1780, having first conveyed his moiety of the one hundred acres which he purchased of his wife's sister, to his son Abel ; and devised by will, the one hundred and sixty acres adjoining, to Evan, subject to legacies payable to the other children. Catharine survived her husband, and died in 1781. She left the moiety of the homestead tract to Evan, charged, however, with the payment of more than three-fourths of its value. Evan purchased of the heirs of Abel their moiety, and thus became owner of all the land held by his father and mother,and being industrious and frugal, in due time removed all incumbrances.

Chapter II. Early Life

Enoch Lewis was the eldest son of Evan and Jane Lewis, and was born on the 29th day of 1st month 1776. When very young, he manifested a singular fondness for books, and learned to read, almost by dint of his inquisitiveness, without assistance except from his mother, who was compelled by his persistence in asking questions to satisfy his curiosity. The libraries of Chester County farmers, in the days of his boyhood, were usually limited to a very few volumes, and that of Evan Lewis was but little superior to those of his neighbors. During the revolutionary war, the industry of the country was depressed, and its agriculture, for some years afterwards, remained in a languishing condition. Farmers in debt, though not very deeply, had enough to do to support their families and educate their children in the plainest manner, without indulging them largely in the luxury of books. The few that fell in his way, Enoch read with avidity before he was thought able to understand their purport. His mother's instructions assisted to direct his inquiries and form his tastes. Although her opportunities of education were limited to what could be learned in a common day-school in the country, she had a decided inclination for literature, and was particularly fond of arithmetical questions and calculations, in which she contrived very early to interest her eldest son. When upwards of eighty years of age, he answered a question of a near relative, respecting this period of his life, by remarking — " I do not remember the time when I did not know the first three rules in arithmetic — Addition, Subtraction and Multiplication.

Among the amusements of my earliest recollection, was that of setting down columns of figures on a slate and adding them up and then subtracting the sum of one column from that of another, and afterwards multiplying the result by some other number, and thus continuing till I had filled the slate. This early formation of a taste for figures, I attribute to the judicious training of my excellent mother. In consequence of this attention to arithmetical exercises, I was much further advanced in the knowledge of figures, than other boys of my age at the schools I attended, and they never seemed to think it worth while to attempt to compete with me.1' He might have added what has been repeatedly stated by some of his school-mates at the old Radnor school, that he was particularly distinguished among his fellows for his facility in working with figures, and that his teachers were accustomed to avail themselves of his superior knowledge of arithmetic, in solving questions which baffled their own skill. The American Tutor's Assistant, which was for many years a popular schoolbook, was published when he was a lad of about fourteen years. He soon made himself thoroughly acquainted with it, which was more than many of the school-masters of the day were able to do, and they often applied to him, some coming from a distance beyond his own immediate neighborhood, to be relieved of the difficulties they experienced in the use of the new treatise. Such applications were responded to with alacrity, and as he took pains to explain clearly the processes of his solutions, he profited in no small measure by his own efforts to instruct.

His demeanor was habitually grave and serious. One who lived several years in the same house with him during his boyhood, remarked in my presence : " I never knew Enoch to laugh aloud. He seemed to have his own thoughts apart from the rest of us young people, and to be always shooting over our heads. He was earnest and inquiring, yet he was not morose. He enjoyed an innocent joke and the tone of his conversation was cheerful ; but the subjects which engaged his attention were, usually, beyond and above those which interested boys of his age." His associates, indeed, so far as he had any, were all older than himself and of sedate and thoughtful dispositions. An elderly gentleman once said to me, 14 1 knew your father when a boy — that is to say, a boy in years, for as to being a boy like other boys, he never was. At school, he spent noon-time figuring on his slate, or reading some book, and rarely joined in our plays, but when he did he played with all his might, and with a determination not to be beaten. He was high-spirited and quick-tempered, but somehow or other never got into quarrels ; and if there was a dispute about any matter of which he was a witness, he was the one to be appealed to, to know how it was, for we all had confidence that he would tell exactly the truth. He never whistled, nor sang, nor played tricks, nor teased the girls, nor helped bar out the master like the rest of us. Though so sober-minded that most of us were rather in awe of him, he would not tell tales on his mischievous school-fellows, but would persist in keeping silence when he could not deny his knowledge of our pranks."

A brother, Elijah, rather more than two years his junior, thus spoke of him as to his school-boy period. " I cannot now recollect an instance of brother Enoch ever participating in our games or plays. While the other boys at school would be amusing themselves with hand and corner ball, prisoner base, chase the fox, wrestling, and such like sports, he would pour over his books or work with his slate and pencil on some arithmetical question. I remember well, we used to get up quarrels amongst us, for the pleasure of seeing a fight, especially among the smaller boys, and I had my full share in broils brought on by the encouragement of others or my own impetuous temper, but, in no instance was Enoch involved in them. He quarrelled with no one, but went on his way, and pursued his own thoughts without interfering with us, or we generally, with him. In going to and returning from school, we passed the log dwelling of an old couple, who lived by the road-side, and who, cohabiting without any legal tie, were supposed by us boys to be fair subjects of any tormenting tricks that we might choose to play upon them. We used as we passed to throw stones on the roof till we would excite the old man to come out and threaten and swear at us, which, as we could always keep at a safe distance, was fun for us to hear. But Enoch took no part in this cruel sport, nor, indeed, in any other ; nor, did he wait to be a spectator of our mischief. When we began to loiter, he would. push on ahead, sometimes merely saying, ' you had better come on'; butgenerally, without speaking a word, or even turning to look back to see what we were doing. He was stout for one of his age, active and athletic, and he seemed older, considerably, than he really was."

His first efforts to extend his acquisitions beyond the limits of common arithmetic, were in the winter of 1789-90. His teacher, however, though an amiable and respectable man, was not competent to instruct him, and it was not till some time after that he fully comprehended the idea that mathematical science is sustained by incontestable evidence, and that its results are indubitable truths. He was then a strong, robust and active lad, and, his services being valuable as an assistant to his father, he was principally occupied with the labors of the farm. His time for reading and study was at night after his day's work was done, and he was accustomed to retire early to his chamber in order to enjoy his favorite pursuits without interruption. Pope's translation of Homer's Iliad, having fallen in his way when he was in his fifteenth year, he read it with enthusiasm, and committed to memory many pages, which, to the last week of his life, he could repeat with accuracy. I well remember his reciting at length the parting scene between Hector and Andromache, a few months before his death ; and stating that he had not read a line of it for upwards of sixty years. He also read other works of Pope with interest and admiration. His memory easily took hold of the pointed and sententious couplets of the poet, and the smooth and delicious harmony of his numbers pleased his ear and gratified his taste. He was, however, offended by his impurities, which he attributed to the habitual study of the Latin poets, whose wit is too apt to be tainted by indelicate allusions.

In the first reading of Milton the ardent mind of the young student was captivated by the lofty magnificence of the poet's strain, and delighted by the facility and grace with which he alternates from the grand and the sublime, to the tender and the beautiful, and brings to the relief of the mind burdened with images of horror, the sweetest and softest pictures of love and joy. But, after the tumult of his feelings, surprised and overcome by the magic power of the author's genius, and the excitement caused by the tremendous imagery which gives to visionary horrors a startling reality, had passed away, his religious sensibilities were affected by the impression that the subject was not within the proper sphere of poetry and that there was a near approach to impiety in using the sacred name of Deity and that of the Immaculate Son to identify and individuate spiritual forms, employed as machinery in the action of an epic poem. Shakespeare's plays were to him a sealed book, as long as he remained in his father's house, and as he read nothing of which his father disapproved, it was not till several years after this period that he ventured to read them. His opinions and prejudices against the drama were then too decided, perhaps, to permit him to appreciate fully the brightest genius that has ever given its inspirations to English literature, because of the forms chosen for its development ; and he agreed with a majority of Friends, that the works of the great poet of nature, are, in the main, inimical to the interests of virtue and religion, and therefore, not to be recommended to general perusal.