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University Microfilms INFORMATION TO USERS This dissertation was produced from a microfilm copy of the original document. While the most advanced technological means to photograph and reproduce this document have been used, the quality is heavily dependent upon the quality of the original submitted. The following explanation of techniques is provided to help you understand markings or patterns which may appear on this reproduction. 1. The sign or "target” for pages apparently lacking from the document photographed is "Missing Page(s)". If it was possible to obtain the missing page(s) or section, they are spliced into the film along with adjacent pages. This may have necessitated cutting thru an image and duplicating adjacent pages to insure you complete continuity. 2. When an image on the film is obliterated with a large round black mark, it is an indication that the photographer suspected that the copy may have moved during exposure and thus cause a blurred image. You will find a good image of the page in the adjacent frame. 3. When a map, drawing or chart, etc., was part of the material being photographed the photographer followed a definite method in "sectioning" the material. It is customary to begin photoing at the upper left hand corner of a large sheet and to continue photoing from left to right in equal sections with a small overlap. If necessary, sectioning is continued again — beginning below the first row and continuing on until complete. 4. The majority of users indicate that the textual content is of greatest value, however, a somewhat higher quality reproduction could be made from "photographs" if essential to the understanding of the dissertation. Silver prints of "photographs" may be ordered at additional charge by writing the Order Department, giving the catalog number, title, author and specific pages you wish reproduced. University Microfilms 300 North Zeeb Road Ann Arbor, Michigan 48106 A Xerox Education Company Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. I I MASTERS THESIS M-3989 DEPENDAHL, Deborah Louise JOHN FANNING WATSON, HISTORIAN 1779-1860. University of Delaware (Winterthur Program), M.A., 1971 History, modern University Microfilms, A XEROX Company, Ann Arbor, Michigan b | THIS DISSERTATION HAS BEEN MICROFILMED EXACTLY AS RECEIVED. i Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. JOHN FANNING WATSON, HISTORIAN 1779 — 1860 by Deborah Louise Dependah! A thesis submitted to the Faculty of the University of Delaware in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Early American Culture M ay, 1971 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Approved: ^ pnn chargecProfessopnn of thesis on behalf of the Advisory Committee Approved: inatof the Winterthur Program Approved: ______________________________________ Dean of the School of Graduate Studies Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. PLEASE NOTE: Some pages may have indistinct print. Filmed as received. University Microfilms, A Xerox Education Company Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS My thanks to Dr. George Frick, for his patience and understanding as I blundered through innumerable drafts, and to Dr. Frank H. Sommer, who introduced me to the writings of John Fanning Watson. The bulk of Watson's manuscripts are preserved in the collections of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania and in the Joseph Downs Manuscript Collection, the Henry Francis duPont Winterthur Museum. M r. Peter Parker, HSP, and Mrs. Betty H ill, Winterthur, and their staffs obtained materials and answered questions with rare good humor. For permission to use other Watson materials I thank the American Philosophical Society, the Library Company of Philadelphia, the New York Historical Society, the Manuscript Division of the New York Public Library, the Quaker Collection of Haverford College, the Germantown Historical Society, and the Chester County (Pennsylvania) Historical Society. I owe special thanks to M r. and Mrs. Robert Rubin for the use of their apartment while I worked in Philadelphia repositories in June and July, 1970. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. CONTENTS Page Acknowledgments .............................................................................................................. ii List of Illustrations .................................................................................................................iv A b stract ................................................................................................................................. v Introduction .......................................................................................................................... I Chapter |. "A Respectable Man in the W o rld " ................................................................... 5 II. "Boswell for P h ilad elp h ia" ....................................................................................... 19 III. "The Hidden and Curious P ast" .............................................................................. 43 IV. A Friend and a Disciple ............................................................................................56 V. "Relics & Remembrancers" ..................................................................................... 68 VI. Conclusion .....................................................................................................................87 A p p e n d ix .................................................................................................................................. 94 Bibliography ............................................................................................................................97 iii Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Figure Page 1. John Fanning Watson, circa 1860 13 • 2. Handle of W illiam Penn's Bookcase, with label in J . F. Watson's hand 74 3. Casket of 'felic woods" belonging to John Fanning Watson ..................... 78 4 . Watercolor, "The great Elm Tree of Kensington, ..." in lid of cas­ ket shown in Figure 3. Signed lower left "J. F. Watson Fecit./1823 " 79 iv Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. ABSTRACT John Fanning Watson (1779-1860), a Germantown, Pennsylvania, banker with an avocation for antiquarian investigations, became an historian in both his aims and methods. Best-known as author of Annals of Philadelphia (1830), Watson gathered anecdotes through oral interviews, questionnaire responses from "aged persons, " archival research, and archaeological evidence as a foundation for a local mythology to be erected by authors of the caliber of Cooper or Irving. Reverence of "olden times" prompted Watson's preservation efforts. He sought to save the "Letitia Court" House, employed artists to take views of significant Philadelphia buildings, and gathered relic wood fragments associated with historic happenings. A school of local historians and antiquaries inspired by Watson followed his model in research, publication, and collecting. Despite his occasional errors of fact and judgment, Watson's works remain a primary source for study of colonial Philadelphia and New York City history. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. INTRODUCTION Watson's Annals is a familiar reference to the student of Philadelphia history. The second and subsequent editions represent the sum of customary transmitted knowledge about the growth of colonial Philadelphia.^ Yet the banker with an avocation for antiquarian pastimes who compiled the Annals, John Fanning Watson, is little known. Writers dismiss him as either an "indefatigable and 2 irascible chronicler of early Philadelphia" or a "good but not entirely trustworthy 3 old chronicler." Such judgment is unfair. Contemporaries knew Watson best for his valuable additions to local history "with which he was perfectly familiar."^ He preserved the most striking adventures of the founders and settlers of Philadel­ phia and Pennsylvania, as they had no historian of their own. Watson's work clearly falls within John Higham's definition of history as "any story about human experience that tries to exclude fable and error in the interest of truth ..." As an amateur historian or antiquary, Watson collected "the dust of perished matter, " and with his recreative power stamped the past with a kind of immortality. He pioneered usage of such scholarly techniques as oral history and public opinion questionnaires in preparing histories of Philadelphia, Germantown and New York. His concern for the historic artifact and building presaged that of the twentieth-century historic preservation movement. Dr. Frank H. Sommer called Watson the "first historian of American decorative arts" on the basis of his attempt to undertake a systematic study of American interior design and furnish­ ings.^ Materials gathered from the aged populations of Philadelphia and New York resulted in chapters on "Furniture and Equipage" in both the Philadelphia and New York Annals. When the Historical Society of Pennsylvania was founded,
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