Lost and Found Philadelphia 1778

Lost and Found Philadelphia 1778 HANNAH BENNER ROACH, F. G. S. P., F. A. S. G. This article written by the late Hannah Benner Roach was found among her papers which were given to The Genealogical Society of Pennsylvania by F. Spencer Roach. The article was in almost final draft form, except for the correlation of the footnotes. The highly descriptive account of Philadelphia after the withdrawal of the British troops in 1778 is a valuable contribution to those concerned with conditions at that time. "June 18 1778: This morning about 6 the grenadiers & light infantry left us, & in less than a quarter of an hour the Americans were in the city. Judge, 0 any impartial person, what were my feelings at this time." (The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, LXXXII (1958), 465, "A Diary of Trifling Occurrences, Philadelphia 1776.1778.") Thus did the Quakeress Sarah Logan Fisher, lament the departure of the British army from the city it had occupied for nine months. But many of those who watched the last of the army depart, or who returned to town in the following weeks, held contrary opinions, none of them impartial. There was John Mason, for instance, who in the days before the occupation had kept an upholstering shop, the Crown and Cushion, at the north corner of Market and Front Streets. On his return he "leave to inform his former friends and customers, that when the enemy marched in this city, he the said Mason marched out, and since that time has had many a march and counter-march, and now has the happiness to march back again to a city where Slavery could not thrive, because their Liberty springs spontaneous". (Pennsylvania Packet, Or The General Advertiser, 10 September 1778.) Such joy as his was considerably dampened, however, when he and other returning citizens looked about them. Noticeably absent in the hot summer sun were long-familiar shade trees, their stumps 254 The Pennsylvania Genealogical Magazine 255 now lining streets choked with rubbish. Lamps were broken and fences had disappeared. The market house and butchers' stalls back of the Court House in Market Street were gone, "destroyed by the British." Around the State House, used by the enemy as a hospital and "left in a condition disgraceful to the character of civility," the very air was scarcely fit to breathe. The British "had opened a large square pit near the House, a receptacle for filth, into which they had cast dead horses and bodies of men who by the mercy of death escaped from their further cruelties." Not surprisingly during that excessively hot summer, the townsfolk were troubled with an unusual number of flies. (Minutes of the Supreme Executive Council of Pennsylvania, XI; Harrisburg, 1853, 524, 526.) Inside the State House conditions were found to be no better than outside, the entire building having been "left by the enemy in a most filthy and sordid situation." Upstairs in the Council chamber even the chairs were missing; new ones had to be ordered and the room thoroughly cleaned before Council members could use it again. Downstairs the Supreme Court room was in such a deplorable state it was necessary to engage Robert Allison to draw a plan "for necessary repairs" and to provide suitable materials for its rehabilitation. (Council Minutes, 534-5.) Elsewhere in town the churches, and even the Playhouse, were similarly damaged, all of them having been used as hospitals during the winter. At the House of Employment, where the poor had been turned out to provide quarters for soldiers, it was only too evident that the late occupants had not been tidy housekeepers.* Private property suffered even more. Empty houses and stores stood with their windows gaping. Shutters had been torn off for firewood, window glass shattered by the explosions and bombardments in the river during the reduction of the river forts. Interior woodwork had been ripped out in many places and burned.* Furnishings left behind on hasty departure had disappeared, or were augmented by strange pieces. The problem of locating such lost belongings and restoring to rightful owners the strange articles would occupy householders and shopkeepers for months to come. One of the measures no doubt employed in resolving this perplexing and highly inconvenient problem was by word of mouth. Another was by advertisement in the local papers, as evident by the nearly one hundred such notices which appeared during the months immediately following the British evacuation. 256 Lost and Found Of these, less than ten per-cent exhorting the owner or finder "to apply to the printer hereof," were anonymously published. The great majority, interestingly enough, appeared over the names of individuals who belonged, not to the long established wealthy merchant class, but to what Sarah Fisher would have called the "lower ranks" of people. Actually these were the "artisans and mechanicks," the tradesman and shopkeepers forming an emergent middle class, who, as a result of their active participation — generally in some official capacity in the revolutionary movement—had suffered losses and listed these in the papers. Furthermore, it was invariably other members of these so-called "lower ranks" who, having remained in town all during the occupation in defiance of the British, now as finders, urged each owner of the articles presently in their possession to "come prove his property, pay charges, and take it away." Thus these notices, referring as they did to a bewildering variety of articles which turned up all over the city and suburbs, furnish a unique.picture of current middle-class domestic appointments and of typical commercial equipment, all of which was considered of sufficient importance to be worth advertising. The first of them appeared just a week after the reoccupation of the city by the Americans. Back in 1776 Sacheverill Wood had been door-keeper for the Council of Safety and since January 1777, the proprietor of the "Lamb and Star in Market-street near the Court-house," where the Board of War met. He announced in Benjamin Towne's Evening Post that he had "bought at vendu a few weeks ago, sundry old SADDLES AND BRIDLES, &C." which he thought likely "may belong to some of the inhabitants of this city." (Pennsylvania Evening Post, 25 June 1778.) The following week George Westcott, a brazier and coppersmith "in Market-street, next door to the Indian King," announced that he had "stopped some time ago, a COPPER, supposed to be stolen. The owner, proving his property and paying charges, could have it again." (Evening Post, 30 June 1778.) The same day Westcott's notice appeared, a householder living in Second Street who preferred to remain anonymous, offered 5£ reward for the return of a large silver waiter "marked MD, in a cypher," (Evening Post, 30 June 1778.) and Levi Hollingsworth reported he had lost from his store on Neil's wharf "one double and two single PINE WRITING DESKS." In their place had been left "a large mahogany WRITING DESK and a stained WRITING The Pennsylvania Genealogical Magazine 257 TABLE," the proper owners of which might have by applying to him. (Evening Post, 80 June 1778.) Hollingsworth also announced that the "DEEDS, BONDS and PRIVATE PAPERS of WILLIAM PATTERSON, ESQ. and brig. gen. Samuel Patterson of Christiana bridge, together with the public records of Newcastle county, were taken from thence by the British army." Application had been made the day before, but without success,• for these records to Grace Galloway, whose absent husband Joseph, superintendent-general of the city during the occupation, had fled with the evacuating army. As it was rumored that parts of these "records and private papers have been offered for sale by the soldiery, while in this city," a handsome reward would be given for the return of the private papers, and those possessed of any part of the public records will be compensated for their care." (Penna. Packet, 9 July 1778.) When ten days had gone by and the records and papers still had not been recovered, the Pattersons substituted Colonel William Bradford at the Coffee House, to receive them and pay charges. Six month later, when the Patterson papers were still unrecovered, William Patterson inserted a notice in the paper listing in detail his personal losses. They included . . . "several account books, amongst which were two ledgers covered with leather, a waste book and cash book covered with marble paper: likewise the first volume of Henry on the Bible, together with other valuable papers." These, and other items belonging to his son Samuel, as well as some of the "records and public writings belonging to the county of Newcastle" were still missing. Bradford, Patterson said, would handsomely reward the finder. (Penna. Packet, 10 December 1778.) William McCullough, captain of a company in the Second Battalion of Philadelphia city militia, in peace-time, had a shop in Front Street, "a few doors above Walnut" where he sold "old spirits." When he returned to town the first week in July he found in his house a mahogany chest of drawers "left by the enemy." (Evening Post, 2 July 1778.) Officers of various British regiments left mementos of their stay behind them. Those of the Fortieth Regiment, who used John Coffman's house in the Northern Liberties• for their mess-house, left a clock case behind. (Evening Post, 4 July 1778.) Edward Stroud reported that "a MAHOGANY TABLE was left by an officer of the British 42nd" at his house "at the corner of Fifth and Spruce streets." (Evening Post, 16 July 1778.) And "left in Adam Erben's house in 258 Lost and Found Front, between Arbuncle's-row and Vine-street a CHAIR HARNESS and CUSHION, two walnut chairs with leather bottoms, and a mahogany chair . . . The officers of the British Tenth Regiment had their mess in the above house." (Evening Post, 14 July 1778.) Whitehead Humphreys, since 1758 a scythesmith and cutler at the Sign of the Scythe, corner of Market and Fourth Streets, in 1770 had succeeded in developing a method for making bar iron into steel which was "equal, if not superior, to any imported from England." For this accomplishment he was awared £ 100 by the old Provincial Assembly. During the enemy occupation of the city the stock he had built up had been taken for the use of the British, and when he returned he learned that as soon as the enemy's army came into the city, "a certain JOSEPH FOX, a noted traitor, seized on and took away near four tons of BLISTERED STEEL, with the apparatus and all the utensils belonging to the subscriber's steel furnace; which, from the best information, he has sold to some persons in town." (Evening Post, 6 July 1778.) In his place all Humphreys found was "a large Iron chest," whose owner "is desired to come and prove his property and take it away." (Penna. Packet, 4 August 1778.) Apparently he was successful in retrieving his property, for by the end of November he was back in business, announcing that his steel was sold by Robert Roberts in Market Street, a little above the Conestoga Waggon.* Less vital to a war-time economy were the harmonica which a Mr. Barron in Southwark announced he had waiting "for a proper owner," and "a very large IRON KETTLE" was left at Lawrence Powell's house in Shippen Street between Second and Third Streets. (Evening Post, 11 July 1778, 6 July 1778.) Powell, "an open Countenanced man" was a baker by trade whose forthrightness, at this time, did him little good two years later when he was confined in the old gaol at Third and Market Streets. At that time he complained that he had been "very ill used by Christopher Lodowick," bakergeneral of the Continental army, and there was "much due him." Advertised anonymously was "a parchment POCKET-BOOK, with a small quantity of Continental money in it," which had been found "some time last winter, while the British army was in this city, in one of the streets." (Penna. Packet, 1 September 1778.) Also offered for sale was "part of a very elegant, sweet-toned Organ; the other part having been heroically dashed and cut to pieces by British officers," which some organ builder might be interested in repairing. (Penna. Packet, 29 September 1778.) The Pennsylvania Genealogical Magazine 259 Then there was the "riding chair" which Thomas Lake, a seacaptain who lived in Second Street "near the New Market," found had been left in his yard when he returned to Philadelphia early in July. (Evening Post, 6 July 1778.) Possibly it was the same riding chair, "top and harness," complete which the coach-maker Henry Esler "in Pine-street near the New Market," offered for sale later on in the month, no owner having appeared to claim it. (Evening Post, 23 July 1778.) By that time two more reports of a similar nature had appeared. One was for a handsome sulky "very little the worse for use," with a horse to draw it, and a "very good two-wheeled CHAISE with light standing top, harness and cushion," both of which were for sale. Perhaps the sulky proved to be the one which the firm of Fisher and Roberts later' reported was lost "out of Mr. Andrew Caldwell's yard, a little before the enemy left the city. It was painted green, with a low Windsor chair and an iron axle-tree. It is supposed to be taken by one Mercum Ross as he had taken one beam and eight fifty-sixes out of the store." Fisher & Roberts offered twenty dollars reward for the sulky, sixteen dollars for the beam and weights, and twenty dollars for the thief, and would pay "all reasonable charges." (Evening Post, 23 July 1778. Penna. Packet, 10 October 1778.) In addition, another riding chair "of chocolate colour, with hoopiron binding the wheels," had been found by Jonathan Williamson who lived in Milestown "seven miles northward of Philadelphia." Although he said it had been left "sometime in the month of December in the year 1777, just after the British troops made their excursion to Edge-hill ... on one of their encampments in the township of Abington, near the place commonly called Jenken's town," (Pennsylvania Gazette And Weekly Advertiser, 17 March 1779.) he did not explain why he had waited until March 1779 to try to locate its owner. Forms of transportation more suitable for winter weather had also been appropriated by the occupying forces. The Hessian dismounted Jagers quartered in the Neck, had abandoned a gay "two horse SLAY, painted green without and red inside, well bound with iron," at Henry Maag's place in Passayunk, (Penna. Packet, 4 August 1778.) as well as another similarly-painted one-horse sleigh. Up town, "a BLUE SLEIGH with shafts" had been left at William Brook's "in Arch-street, near Fifth-street," by a British officer "at the time the enemy left this city." (Penna. Packet, 19 December 1778.) 260 Lost and Found Creature comforts indoors had also been required by the British army. If in their opinion a house lacked adequate heating facilities, they had no hesitancy in supplying the deficiency. Thus John Birns, a hairdresser and perukemaker, found a cannon stove that didn't belong to him, in his house in Norris' Alley when he returned there early in July. (Evening Post, 11 July 1778.) Possibly it was the same one which had been left about nine months ago, in "the house of DUFFELL and MATTHEWS in Chestnut-street," which was taken possession of by the enemy and afterwards sold to some of the inhabitants of the town." (Evening Post, 23 July 1778.) In the early weeks of the summer various other miscellaneous articles turned up. Peter Chevalier found a "pair of kitchen and two pair of chamber AND-IRONS" in his house in Arch Street. (Penna. Packet, 18 July 1778.) It is hoped they were soon claimed, since Chevalier himself died the following Octobet.* Henry Moses, a saddler in Market Street, said he had a blacksmith's vise to be claimed. (Evening Post, 18 July 1778.) Godfrey Gebler, a blacksmith "living in Chestnut-street between Third and Fourth-streets," had "two frames for rollers, one pair of plow-irons, two chimney cranes, hinges and a fastening for gates" all waiting for their owners to prove their property. (Penna. Packet, 25 July 1778.) Merchandise stolen out of one store "whilst the British troops were in this city, and supposed to be sold at the City Vendue," included "21/4, 21/2, 31/4, 31/2, 4 and 41/2 inch scowered waggon boxes; sundry iron pots and kettles; a steel chocolate mill and large chocolate roaster; several dozens of reedles and reying sieves; iron bound half bushels and sundry other articles." (Penna. Packet, 27 August 1778.) Then in the Post for July 30, the blacksmith Samuel Holmes who lived "in Lombard Street, the corner of Third-street, near St. Peter's church," reported he had "a scale-beam, a pick-iron, an axletree of a potter's clay mill and a machine for the purpose of clearing wharves," left at his place. (Evening Post, 30 July 1778.) The same day in the Pennsylvania Packet, John Cornman, a sugar refiner, reported that there was "taken out of the subscriber's house, while in the country and the enemy in the city, a large SCALE BEAM, marked Hoffman and Cornman, maker's name Aquilla Jones." Whoever had it was requested to inform Cornman, otherwise, if it was found "the person shall be dealth with according to law." (Penna. Packet, 30 July 1778.) Perhaps these two beams advertised the same day in different papers proved to be identical. Generally speaking, up to this time most of the various articles The Pennsylvania Genealogical Magazine 261 reported in the papers had been commercial in character. But now detailed inventories of missing household furniture began to appear, Robert Towers being the first to list in detail his losses. Originally a skinner by trade, he had lived in Market Street since 1761 on the south side "next door but one to the Presbyterian Meeting-house" in a modest frame dwelling owned by Richard Hockley. (Council Minutes, X, 471.) To augment his income for a time he and his brother John, also a skinner "near the New Market," had kept a shallop employed in fetching "house floor Sand and white clay such as is used by Sugar bakers" to their sand store in Water a little above the South-street."• The first week of August, 1778, he took time to enumerate the goods which had been taken out of his house "during his absence from Philadelphia last winter." They included "a walnut desk, a plain walnut bookcase, a small walnut (counting-house) book case, two small writing desks, one painted blue, the other brown, an old case of low drawers, a bedstead, two sets of iron curtain rods, a set of curtain laths [venetian blinds], some chairs, a quilting frame, six maps and sundrey other articles." Whoever had them would please return them, he asked, "or leave word with Mr. Cohoon, opposite the Shambles in Market-street, otherwise (if discovered) they will be dealt with as the law directs. (Penna. Packet, 6 August 1778.) As the summer progressed, enterprising shopkeepers did what they could to supply the deficiencies caused by the occupation. Caspar Singer announced in September, that he had "at his store next door to the King of Prussia in Market" boxes of window glass to replace panes broken the previous winter. (Penna. Packet, 22 September 1778.) Earlier, the blacksmith, William Rush told "those who have been so unfortunate to have their houses or other buildings burnt or, otherwise destroyed, that there is a large quantity of hinges, some crines for chimnies, and sundry other articles, which may be seen at my store in Front-street, a few doors above Race-street." (Evening Post, 18 July 1778.) A month later he still had "some cranes for chimneys and a few hinges, also a table, a few chairs, and some pictures that have not been called for." In addition he had an unclaimed bundle of men's clothing which "was put on board of a boat, about the 20th of September last." (Evening Post, 25 August 1778.) The sixty-year old Rush had himself suffered extensively by the depredations of the enemy, possibly because of his long association with the revolutionary movement. He had been a signer of the nonimportation agreement of 1765; on the committee of correspondence 262 Lost and Found in 1774; and had been a delegate to the Provincial Convention in January, 1775. Now, Rush was again occupied with contracts for the State, and during the late summer and early fall of 1778, was much concerned by the arrest, trial and conviction for treason and subsequent hanging of Abraham Carlile, the brother of Rush's first wife, Esther Carlile.* As a result it was not until early in January 1779 that he had time to take stock of his own personal losses. In addition to the goods lost out of his store next door to his dwelling on Front Street, the furniture which he had left "on the 25th of September last was twelve months, two large mahogany tables and four walnut ones, two of them oval with turned legs; one walnut dressing table and a stand; two tea tables, one mahogany and one cherry-tree; three pairs of chests of drawers, walnut, and a desk; an eight-day clock, maker's name Rouse; six mahogany chairs, hair bottoms; eighteen walnut leather bottom chairs; one arm chair with blue damask bottom, and two rush-bottom ones; eleven rush bottom chairs, seven of them old fashioned; four high back Windsor chairs; four bedsteads and two beds; two pair sheets and eight rugs; a jack with a long spindle, three spits, a large pot and small brass kettle, a pair of kitchen dogs, tongs and shovel, a very large crane and racks, and one small crane, two pairs of iron head dogs, two looking glasses and twelve pictures; two casks of ironmongery, in which were five very large flat files; brass and brass knob locks, HL hinges, twenty dozen brass H hinges, cut cupboard locks, chissels and many other articles." Information about any of these articles, as well as "of the hinges that came off the pews that were taken out of the Presbyterian Meeting house in Market-street." would be well-rewarded, and he hoped that after this notice no one will attempt to secrete any of the above goods any longer." As an afterthought he added that he still had "some valuable pictures that are worth their owners calling for." (Penna. Packet, 5 January 1779.) Jacob Bright, related through his wife Susannah Rittenhouse to the engineer David Rittenhouse, lived in Water Street above Race not far from William Rush. He had been a city warden in 1772. In September 1776 he had been appointed by ordinance a commissioner to collect non-associators' fines, and the following December he had become a captain in the city guards. Just before the British occupied the city he was made Commissioner of Taxes and Levies. Only four days after the arrival of the British he was "taken up and imprisoned" but eventually had been allowed to sign his parole, and subsequently managed to get out of town. Now in mid-August 1778 he notified The Pennsylvania Genealogical Magazine 263 "any of the inhabitants of this city that have lost the following articles, viz: one stove, one trunk, three rush-bottomed chairs, some split hoops, one table, some mahogany, some dozen of wheelbarrow sides, some drugs, and a parcel of keys," that if they would apply at his store the owners might have them again. He himself had lost "one large and one middling size scale beam, twenty four 56 pound weights, small weights from 1 to 28 pounds, and six chains" which he would be grateful to recover. (Penna. Packet, 18 August 1778.) Bright's brother-in-law Christopher Pechin, with whom he was in business in the Water Street store, had been equally active in the city's affairs. In August 1775 he had been elected a member of the city committee of inspection and observation, authorizing certificates for the sale of goods, and had been re-elected the following February, holding the position until the committee went out of existence, with the passage of the Constitution in September 1776. When the British approached, he moved his family from their dwelling in Front Street, just above Elfreth's Alley (only two doors south of the doomed Abraham Carlile's house) out to his brother Nicholas's place in Haverford Township. This was by the old Sign of the Foxchase, nine and a half miles from Philadelphia, which their late father Pierre Pechin had formerly kept. It was not far enough out, however, for there on the twelfth of December, 1777, "Refugees who were along with the British troops," had stolen among other things, "a large Family Bible, covered with green cloth, with the subscriber's name in the title page, also his wife's and five children's names and ages registered in the first leaf." Pechin promised, when he advertised his loss the first of October 1778, that "Four Dollars reward will be given to any one who will return the said bible, and no questions asked." (Penna. Packet, 6 October 1778.) Nor was the enemy's interest in Bibles confined to Pechin. "While the British army was in this city, a large folio Bible with cuts," was taken out of Colonel Blaithwait Jones's house in Second Street near Spruce. He had been appointed chief engineer in charge of the construction at Billingsport early in 1777, "with the Rank, Pay and Rations of a Lieutenant Colonel," and had only just been discharged from that duty. Since he had been back in the city Jones and his second wife, Mary Morris, were living with his wife's relative, Deborah Morris, who had taken in the dispossessed Grace Galloway. Jones's son Gibbs, captain of a company of matrosses which had seen service with the Continental line in New Jersey, offered to pay eight dollars reward — this in continental currency, of course — if the fam- 264 Lost and Found ily Bible was returned to him "in Water-street, five doors below Chestnut." (Penna. Packet, 18 March 1779.) The merchant Joseph Turner, member of the Governor's council from 1747 to 1776, and uncle of former Chief Justice Benjamin Chew's wife, was another who lost "a large English Bible" from his country seat in Passayunk "about two miles and a half from this city, while the enemy were in possession of it." The list of articles which he lost, in addition to the Bible, indicate a somewhat more elegant type of furnishings than advertised for in most of the other pieces; at least he gave a more detailed description of them: "Six walnut chairs, claw feet, leaf on the knees, open backs and crimson damask bottoms; one half dozen walnut ditto, claw feet, shell on the knees and backs, compass bottoms covered with plain horse hair, and irons on the backs as strengtheners to the top rails; one close stool chair and pan, black walnut, claw feet, compass back; one mahogany easy chair, claw feet, leaf on knees, covered with crimson damask; one common black walnut tea table; one mahogany desk, carved furniture, with a bird's head in the middle of the furniture." (Penna. Packet, 27 August 1778.) All of these fine furnishings were his own. But in addition to these, a quantity of goods belonging to the cooper John Jones of Southwark had been left at Turner's house "in the Neck" under the care of Captain Christian Grover of the Sixth Battalion, Philadelphia City Militia. The articles which Jones lost, from both his own house and Turner's "at the time of the approach of the enemy to this city last September twelve months past," included: "two Mahogany dining tables, six ditto leather bottom chairs, two feather beds and bedsteads, twelve large glazed fine prints, one large cannon stove with pipe, &c. one pair of brass andirons, one pair of iron ditto, one walnut cradle, two kitchen tables, one large barbicuing iron, one iron kitchen crane, iron pots, kettles and sundry other kitchen furniture." Undoubtedly taken from his own place were: "two spades, and five garden hoes, one large grind stone with iron handle, four sets of hogshead trusshoops, one of which new, not rivetted; six sets of barrel ditto, and three sets of small size; eight drawing knives and four axes, three cooper's horses and three wheel-barrows iron barred; one hundred and fifty beer barrels new; also a two story ladder, the sides of red cedar and the rounds of locust; with many other things too tedious to insert." (Penna. Packet, 17 December 1778.) As Jones had fled to Mount Holly with the approach of the British and was still there, he appointed Jacob Bankson, Esq., "Attorney at Law, in Penn-street, near Messrs Willing and Morris's store," his The Pennsylvania Genealogical Magazine 265 agent in Philadelphia to receive information regarding his lost possessions."• A popular article of plunder appears to have been clocks, as nearly a dozen were reported either lost or found. The clock case, reported in early July as left at John Coffman's does not seem to have belonged to the "EIGHT-day CLOCK, without a case" which was advertised early in March, 1779, qs having been left at the house of the baker, John Tannenberger, two doors from Whitehead Humphreys, by Tannenberger's executors, John Peters and Conrad Gearhart. (Penna. Gazette, 3 March 1779.) Nor does it seem likely that the clock Stokely Hossman, keeper of the old gaol, (Evening Post, 23 September 1778.) reported late in September that he had, was the one William Rush listed as missing the following January. Philip Ling, who lived in Vine Street near Second Street, said that he had an eight-day clock made by Peter Stretch which "was brought to this city on the 11th of December last, by a party of the British army," from either Chestnut-hill or from over Schuylkill." Brought with it were "two weight-wheels and one weight, the pendle and a piece of wire with the bell crack'd; it was offered for sale at a low rate, and was purchased by an inhabitant of the city." (Penna. Packet, 15 August 1778.) The owner had only to identify the clock and pay full charges to have it again. Another eight-day clock made by Stretch, and one made by Anthony Ward had been "purchased last winter of the British soldiery, for a trifling consideration, by a young Gentleman of this city, with a view to restoring them to their proper owners." Early in October the young man urged their proper owners to come claim them. (Penna. Packet, 6 October 1778.) Obviously neither of these belonged to Philip Waggoner, a captain in the Fifth Battalion of the city militia. He said that his, which was taken out of his hand in "the Northern Liberties between Germantown and the Rising Sun, on the Philadelphia road, by some of the British troops, on the 25th and 26th of September 1777," was "a repeating 30 hour clock, with an alarum, minute hand, and day of the month, the maker's name Augustine Neisser, engraved on the circle, the face eleven inches square; it was taken without the pendulum and weight." He warned "all clock-makers and other persons that if such a clock was brought to their shops or houses to have a new pendulum and weight made, or may be brought some time hereafter either for repairing or for sale, to stop the said clock for the right owner thereof." He would give eight dollars—in continental currency —reward to anyone who told him where it was to be found "so that he may have it again." (Penna. Packet, 10 October 1778.) 266 Lost and Found Caleb Brinton, of Birmingham Township, Chester County, "at the time of the battle of Brandywine," was another who lost, among sundry "other articles," a clock of which "the pendulum or weights were left behind." His was "an Eight-day Repeating CLOCK, almost new, the maker's name Thomas Wagstaff, on the face." When he advertised its loss in the Philadelphia papers in December, 1777, he said he had "since understood it was sold to a Hessian Doctor, and that he sold it again to some person in Philadelphia." (Penna. Packet, 19 December 1778.) Another eight-day clock, this one made by Owen Biddle, was taken "at the time of the approach of the enemy, last September twelve months past, to this city," from the house of thirty-year old Daniel Clymer, Deputy Commissary of Prisoners. Still a bachelor, the establishment Clymer maintained on the south side of Market Street between Fourth and Fifth Streets was quite elegant, to judge by its stolen furnishings. "A bed cornish, covered with yellow moreen; a ditto, covered with green aratien; a ditto, with a purple and white chintz with the figures of peacocks; a feather bed and window curtains," all taken by the British, no doubt reflected the taste of Clymer's mother, Ann Judith Roberdeau, who made her home with him. More prosaic items which he lost included "twelve iron pots, one copper fish kettle, one jack for roasting, nine family pictures, chairs and a variety of other furniture. Also a merchant's double desk, with two notches at each end to let in the supporters of a top formerly used." (Penna. Packet, 14 November 1778.) Neither Clymer's clock, nor any of the others advertised in the papers, could be identified with one "found in Mr. Robert Morris's cellar, while the British troops were in the city." It had "a brass face, no pendulum nor weights, makers names Neeper and Jefferys, Glasgow." In mid-October 1778 it, along with four glass pictures, was in the custody of Mary Chew, living in Drinker's Alley. (Penna. Packet, 17 October 1778.) How these things came into her possession was not explained. The saddler Robert Porter, who lived in Market Street "opposite the Gaol," listed the goods which had been taken out of his house "last fall while the British army were in possession of the city." "Three feather beds, six walnut chairs with flowered worsted bottoms, one walnut dining table, one walnut writing desk, one walnut double corner cupboard, one bedstead painted green, and sacking bottom, one set of iron rods for a bed, three windsor chairs, one tin plate stove and pipes, one nest of drawers, one pair of large andirons with brass heads, one Dutch oven frying pan, one large china bowl, The Pennsylvania Genealogical Magazine 267 one tureen, one iron tea-kettle and iron pot, one pair of tongs and two fire shovels, two six quart bottles, one large pewter dish, two brass and one iron candlesticks, one cedar tub, one ditto for meat, and a gridiron." These, he supposed, were "in the city or its environs," information regarding them would bring "a reasonable compensation." (Penna. Packet, 17 October 1778.) Occasionally the notices which appeared in the paper indicated that goods actually found their way back to their rightful owners. Thus, one notice stated that "a Mahogany Desk and a Sopha having been advertised in the Evening Post, and the latter having found an owner, the Desk yet remains to be delivered to the person it belongs to." The "sopha" described as being "without a cover", and the desk had been advertised in the Post for July 18 by an anonymous finder. The same individual, when he reported the sofa returned but the desk still unclaimed at the end of August, suggested he be applied to "in Sixth-street, between Market and Chestnut-streets, where the War-Office was formerly kept." At said place, he added, was "a square mahogany Dining Table, with claw feet, which was supposed to belong to R. Peters, Esq. but it proving not to be his, the owner may have it by applying as above, and paying the cost of advertising." (Evening Post, 18 July 1778. Penna. Packet, 29 August 1778.) Then there was the "DOUBLE WRITING DESK, covered with green cloth" which had been left by the British at Lewis Karcher's house in Fifth Street, near Vine Street, according to an advertisement which appeared in the Post september 4, 1778. This was undoubtedly the "large double Writing-Desk, covered with green cloth, with rails on top to lay books on," the top of which could "be taken off the frame at pleasure, painted a mahogany colour," which was sought in an advertisement dated September 9, 1778, in the Packet. It had been taken our of James Loughead's store "last fall, by Arthur Thomas, John Parrock, Alexander Bartram and Welch, the Tide-Waiter, with others in company," along with a number of "long benches." Karcher in 1776, had been "Agent victualler for the three Battalions in the pay of this Province." Loughead had been appointed in 1777, paymaster of the city and Liberties militia, and was obviously fair game for the Tories who had remained in town. Of the four plunderers, Thomas, a breeches-maker, Parrock and Bartram, had now all been proclaimed "enimies of the State," while Welch had prudently fled the city upon its evacuation by the British.• On the south side of Arch Street above Second Street, David Chambers had his stonecutter's shop and dwelling. "During the stay of the enemy in this city" he had taken out of his house by them "or 268 Lost and Found their infamous abettors, a considerable part of his Furniture, particularly a desk, two dinner tables, one square and the other oval, two chamber tables, all of walnut; six crimson damask walnut chairs, four high-back Windsor ditto, with many other articles not recollected." He supposed them "to be left in some mess-house," he said, when he advertised their loss late in October, 1778. In addition to the furnishings, he had "taken out of his shop, a large cannon stove, a small smith's anvil, vise and bellows, &c." In the desk, he added, were "sundry papers, of no use to any person but the owner," which had been "left in the desk through hurry, particularly some relative to lands on Susquehanna and Juniata." Information regarding any of these articles could be given either to Chambers, "or in his absence to Mr. Ford, at the Commissary's Office in Market-street." (Penna. Packet, 24 October 1778.) Three weeks later, if the stonecutter had not located his belongings, he no doubt went to see "the oval table and three Windsor Chairs" which Peter Steel, a smith living up near Poole's bridge, advertised had been left in his house by "a British officer." (Penna. Packet, 10 November 1778.) Only two people advertised specifically for lost silverware. Besides the silver waiter "marked MD, in a cypher," advertised as lost the end of June, it was not until the following February that the second ad appeared. Then Joseph Reed, president of Pennsylvania's Supreme Executive Council, and a member of Congress, publicly proclaimed his loss, when at his "house at Norrington was plundered by the British troops in September 1777." At that time "some common soldiers carried off two large plated CANDLESTICKS with fluted pillars, a foliage at the top, and flowered at the bottoms . . . part of a set, and not to be replaced in these times." (Penna. Packet, 13 February 1779.) It is evident, however, that other silver pieces had been lost, for early in August 1778, John Brand, a rope maker in Market-street, between Fifth and Sixth Streets, had said he had "two SILVER TABLE SPOONS, supposed to have been stolen," (Penna. Packet, 8 August 1778.) which had been left in his house; and John Ord, a notary public and conveyancer since 1776, advised all and sundry "that have lost silver tea-spoons, table spoons, remnants of linen, silver buckles, gold rings, tea-tongs, and a silver watch," that the owners could have them by applying to him and paying any charges incurred. (Penna. Packet, 11 August 1778.) Furniture remained the most frequently mentioned item. By the last week of August no one had claimed the "rush bottom COUCH which had been "bought for a small trifle, just before the enemy left Philadelphia" by the proprietor of the "Tavern in Black-horse al- The Pennsylvania Genealogical Magazine 269 ley."• When Benjamin Harbeson, returned in August, to his "house the north side of Market-street opposite Strawberry alley" where he intended to carry "on the coppersmiths business as usual, he "found A small mahogany CHINA TABLE" left there by the enemy." (Penna. Packet, 5 September 1778.) As winter approached, there were still people who had not recovered their household furnishings. One of these was Jacob Schreiner, the forty-two year old skinner who lived in Second Street immediately south of Aquilla Jones below Elfreth's Alley. In the summer of 1776 Schreiner had been one of the agents named to supply the families of the men of the First Battalion of the City Associators who had gone to New Jersey, and just before the adoption of the constitution that September had been appointed a justice of the peace for the city and county. In April 1777 the War Office appointed him, along with Jacob Bright, and numerous others to the committee charged with seeing to the removal of such necessary things as tanned and dressed leather, and bar-iron, in the event of the enemy's approach, and a month later, to collect blankets in the•city for the use of the army. Like John Mason, when the enemy marched in, Schreiner marched out with his large family. When he returned to the city he learned from the neighbors who had stayed behind that it was "one M'Michael, a Commissary or Quarter Master in the British army, blind of one eye, who took possession of the house and goods when the enemy entered the city," and who had "stolen and carried the chief of the goods off with him." The list of pieces he noted as missing in late November, 1778, are particularly interesting, showing as they do the inevitable blending of his native Bavarian—he was originally from Zweibrucken — and his acquired American taste. "An eight-day clock, maker's name Thomas Wagstaff, London; a Walnut desk; one ditto high drawer; one dressing table; one oval ditto; one stand; one tea-table; one large square mahogany table about six feet wide and five feet long; one kitchen ditto painted brown; six walnut leather bottom chairs with claw feet and two shells on each; four leather bottom ditto, New England make; ten Windsor and two rush bottom ditto; one blue painted high post bedstead and sacking bottom; two green painted ditto; one cot bedstead painted blue; one small childrens ditto; two mattresses, one filled with wool and the other with hair; one new feather bed and bolster; one home made coverlid; one plush table carpet; one pair of copper scales and beam; two large maps, one pair of andirons, shovels and tongs; two axes; two wheelbarrows; one six plated stove with an iron foot made by a smith; one large brass kettle, with a variety of kitchen furniture 270 Lost and Found and other articles; also all his tools belonging to the skin-dressing business." (Penna. Packet, 21 November 1778. Just a week after Schreiner's ad appeared, the cordwainer Samuel Simpson advertised his losses. Assessor for the Middle Ward in 1774, and then active in the city associators, he became, early in 1776, the chairman of the committee of privates during their agitation for a militia law; later he was appointed a captain, like Jacob Bright, of a company of city guards. His wife Ann, a milliner, had remained at their home in Chestnut Street near Third Street when the city was occupied by the enemy, but finally had been "sent out of the city by order of the British Commander in chief" early in April 1778. Whereupon a good share of their household furnishings had been appropriated: "one mahogany desk, with a brass handel at each end; one maple ditto; one blue writing desk with pigeon holes enclosed with doors; one walnut chest of drawers, old fashioned; one large mahogany dining table and one walnut ditto; one mahogany china table, the rims taken off; one walnut tea-table; six walnut chairs and one elbow chair with blue damask bottoms, the elbow chair on brass castors; six walnut chairs with straight legs and blue moreen bottoms; six walnut chairs with leather bottoms; one dressing glass with drawers; one high-post bedstead painted chocolate colour; one field bedstead painted green; three sacking bottom bedsteads; two feather beds; one Jack with a brass front, dated 1728; one stove grate with brass legs and front, the back broken off near as low as the grate; one six-plated iron close stove with a pipe; several pewter plates and dishes, marked with a stag's head inside the rim, and on the back side stamped SS; three pairs andirons, viz. one pair with large iron flat fronts and brass knobs, one pair the fronts all brass and figured, and one pair small ditto with brass knobs; together with many other articles not recollected." (Penna. Packet, 24 November 1778.) Whoever had plundered young Mr. Lardner's family plantation "situate on the river, in Oxford township," had exhibited a nice taste in objects, both decorative and useful. Taken from the house "about twelve months ago, among other things" not mentioned, he said, had been "2 looking glasses, one with a large scene, with a finier'd frame a gilt border of flowers; a remarkable long duck gun, about eight feet in the barrel; 2 painted sea scenes, with handsome gilt frames; 11 ditto small landscapes, fruit pieces, &c." When he advertised their loss in December, he hoped that "some of them may have since come into the hands of honest people" who would immediately return them." (Penna. Packet, 12 December 1778.) The Pennsylvania Genealogical Magazine 271 There were a few notices which mentioned lost or found wearing apparel. Of the three published, only the first, printed in August 1777, asked for recovery, and that was because the clothing had been taken "by a woman who left Philadelphia when the enemy did." She took with her "a silk and worsted long gown, a blue quilt, a fine shift, a pillow case, and fifteen shillings in money." Israel Wright, of Chesterfield Township in Burlington County, offered ten dollars for her apprehension. (Penna. Packet, 11 August 1778. In October the second notice was inserted in the paper by John Crook, constable, "at the sign of the Case is Altered in Front-street," where he had "a black sattin cloak; a large blanket; and three pewter plates" to be claimed by their owners. (Penna. Packet, 20 October 1778.) The third notice did not appear until a month later. According to it, the apparel "was brought to the Northern Liberties of Philadelphia by a party of British army some time before they evacuated the city, and exposed to sale something under value, and being supposed to be plundered goods were purchased in order to be returned to the right owners." The articles so philanthropically purchased included "one dark flowered chintz gown; one small spotted cotton bed-spread; one bed-spread of coarse stamp linen, with the name David Weatherby stamped in the cloth; one long white superfine cloath cloak without a hood, and one black paduasoy ditto lined with black silk mode." The anonymous finder somewhat plaintively explained that he had "expected that the owners of the above things would have proclaimed their loss before now, other wise they would have been advertised sooner." (Penna. Packet, 19 November 1778.) That there had been other instances of stolen clothing was apparent. The Reverend Michael Schlatter, dean of the German Reformed Church, reported in January 1779, that his losses included "Cloathes of all sorts, especially womens silks and other apparel" taken, after his arrest and confinement "in Philadelphia, last winter," when his "dwelling house in Chestnut-hill was most cruely plundered by the British troops on the fifth of December." However, he very naturally considered the loss of his library more important, for "Among the missing books are, bibles in English and other languages; Morery's French dictionary, 2 vols. well bound, folio; Baile's French dictionary, vol Id; some volumes of Salmon's universal history, Dutch; a folio volume of written records, containing baptisms, marriages &c.; a small octavo manuscript of some hundred professors and other learned mens own hand-writing; Dr. Franklin's letters, well bound in quarto; and about 800 volumes of other books." 272 Lost and Found Next in importance to the aged pastor, judging by the order in which items appeared in his notice, was "a copper boiler almost round; a number of bell-metal, brass, copper and iron pots; tea kettles; an uncommon heavy red copper wash-kettle, containing half a barrel; a still-kettle of about fifteen gallons, without a stop; iron bound cags; casks of diffeent sizes; a variety of pictures and maps; carpenters tools, planes, saws, augers, chissels and files; three middle plates of a ten-plate stove; a large silver bowl, gilt inside, with two fleur-de-lis handles; a silver pint; a parcel of soup and tea-spoons, all marked MS, tea and other tables; chairs; and a number of other things too tedious to mention. Word may be left of the abovementioned or other articles, at his house on Chestnut-hill, or at Mr. Ehenzeller's in Fourth-street, Philadelphia, which shall be gratefully acknowledged, and even rewarded if required by MICHAEL SCHLATTER, V.D.M." (Penna. Packet, 2 January 1779.) Another minister who sustained losses "during the time the enemy were in possession of the city" was the Reverend John Ewing, pastor of the First Presbyterian Church. Less than a month after Schlatter's ad, the Reverend Doctor said that there had been taken out of his house "in Third-street, three pine tables; a dozen of walnut chairs without bottoms; the lower half of a large walnut chest of drawers; a low mahogany chest of drawers; an iron chest; a walnut table with a screw fixed on it for sealing instruments of writing; a low bedstead with a sacking bottom, and a cot bedstead." When he returned he had found "a walnut chest of drawers on a stand left in the house" which did not belong to him. (Penna. Packet, 30 January 1779. Possibly a troubled conscience prompted one anonymous finder to advertise, late in April 1779 — a year after their acquisition—for the owners of "a blue and white COUNTERPAIN, and a large LOOKING GLASS, with a mahogany frame" which had been "bought of some English soldiers, in April 1778", and were supposed to be plundered. (Penna. Packet, 21 April 1779.) Robert McGee also waited a long time before he announced in the papers in midMay 1779, that he had found at his shop "in Market-street, next door to the Coffee house, on his return to the city after the evacuation of the enemy, a large SCALE BEAM, makers names Whitehead and Jonathan Humphreys." (Penna. Packet, 13 May 1779.) On the other hand, Andrew Porter, since 1776 captain first of a company of marines, and then of artillery, had been fully occupied with duties precluding time to take stock of his losses from his house The Pennsylvania Genealogical Magazine 273 "in Union-street, near Third-street." It was not until just before he set off to join General James Clinton's brigade in the operations under General Sullivan against the Indians that he listed his missing property. Then he instructed his wife Elizabeth to see it inserted in the papers, as he was too busy getting ready to leave. They were all items which had either been part of the paraphernalia he had used during his school-teaching days, or were necessary adjuncts of his astronomical studies. These included "an elegant pair of fifteen-inch Globes, mounted on best mahogany claw frames; compass boxes, flower circles at each pole, entire brass ribs to support the horizon, and green covers to each; prisms; two feet Gunter's sliding rules; scales; dividers; with a number of mathematical books." (Penna. Packet, 15 June 1779.) This advertisement was inserted just three days short of one year after the evacuation of the city, and was the last to appear in the papers. In view of the extent and variety of the losses which are recorded in the papers subsequent to June 1778, one might well wonder whether any application for reimbursement was ever made by those unable to recover their property. The answer is yes, but such efforts do not appear to have been outstandingly successful. As early as the middle of August 1778, "a petition from sundry inhabitants of the city of Philadelphia, setting forth that their homes had been plundered, and their families driven out of the city by the enemy, and praying to be reimbursed for their losses" was presented to the Assembly, read, and ordered to lie on the table. (Evening Post, 31 August 1778.) Three days later a memorial from John Eyre, shipbuilder, was read, "setting forth that the British Army while in possession of the city of Philadelphia, made use of a very large quanity of his ship plank and timber, in building redoubts and a bridge over Schuylkill." He prayed that he might be "permitted to take his plank and timber, or other wise order him payment therefore." (Evening Post, 4 September 1778.) Apparently feeling his claim was more important than the earlier petition, the Assembly on the last day of August recommended to the Supreme Executive Council to appoint auditors to hear his and similar pleas. No action was taken by that body after William Rush petitioned the Council directly for the return of the bar iron used by the enemy for the gates and redoubts which they, the British, had erected about the city, and Eyre had jogged the Council's memory about the Assembly's recommendation. Then on April 22, 1779, the Council appointed a committee to hear such claims, directing them to report to the Assembly at their next session.* 274 Lost and Found Private and personal claims for damages sustained appeared to take a back seat after that; it was not until November 1781, two months after the surrender at Yorktown, that the idea of reparations for private individuals was broached. Then Robert R. Livingston. secretary of foreign affairs, made the point that "an accurate account and estimate of such damages, more especially the waste and destruction of property, may be very useful to the people of the United States of America in forming a future treaty of peace." This recommendation to the presidents of the several states, in Pennsylvania was turned over for action to the Assembly when it convened in the middle of February 1782. That body the following September finally passed "An Act for Procuring an Estimate of the Damages sustained by the Inhabitants of Pennsylvania from the troops and adherents of the king of Great Britain, during the present war."* Under its provisions, inhabitants of the areas which had been invaded by the enemy were to furnish the assessors of their several districts with "accounts and estimates of the damages, waste, spoil and destruction which hath been done and committed since April 18, 1775 " If anyone refused to make such an accounting, the assessors "from their own knowledge and by any other methods resonable and lawful" were to supply the information. In all cases the accounts were "to contain a narrative of the time and circumstances" under which the damage had been sustained, and if at all possible the names of the commanding officers, at least of the men who had committed them. (The Statutes at Large of Pennsylvania 1682-1801, (1904) 530. Regrettably, the estimate of damages in Philadelphia, city and county, the original manuscript of which survives in the library of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, contained no such detailed information. Of the twenty-five known persons who advertised losses in the papers, only ten put in any claim at all. Of these, at least half of the claims (those that exceeded a thousand pounds), were undoubtedly for merchandise lost, rather than personal possessions.* Whether the others eventually succeeded in recovering their property, or philosophically shrugged off the loss as the fortune of war, remains a matter of speculation. It should be noted that not all the footnotes included in the original manuscript have been found among the author's papers. However, trusting to the infallibility of Hannah Benner Roach's research, those not found have been allowed to stand in quotes, and are marked by asterisks.