BULLETIN HISTORICAL 50CIETY MONTGOMERY COUNTY PENNSYLVANIA J^ONR/STOWJV S2>iery PUBLISHED BY THE SOCIETY AT IT5 BUILDING )6S*^ DEKALB STREET NORRISTOWN.PA. SPRING, 1969 VOLUME XVI No. 4 PRICE $1.50 The Historical Society of Montgomery County OFFICERS Hon. Alfred L. Taxis, President Robert B. Brunner, Esq., Vice President J. A. Peter Strassburger, Vice President Hon. Robert W. Honeyman, Vice President Howard W. Gross, Treasurer Eva G. Davis, Recording Secretary Mrs. Earl W. Johnson, Corresponding Secretary Mrs. LeRoy Burris, Financial Secretary TRUSTEES Herbert T. Ballard, Jr. Merrill A. Bean Kirke Bryan, Esq. Norris D. Davis Mrs. Andrew Y. Drysdale Donald A. Gallager, Esq. Hon. David E. Groshens Howard W. Gross Kenneth H. Hallman Arthur H. Jenkins Ellwood C. Parry, Jr. Willum S. Pettit John F. Reed Hon. Alfred L. Taxis Mrs. Franklin B. Wildman fir •T '}}• BENJAMIN EASTBURN'S SURVEY IN UPPER MERION TOWN SHIP NOTING AN ERROR IN AN EARLIER SURVEY OF MOUNT JOY MANOR. (See article for interpretive map.) Courtesy Historical Society of Pennsylvania THE BULLETIN of the HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY Published Semi-Annmlly—Spring and Fall Volume XVI Spring, 1969 No. 4 CONTENTS Editorial 259 Traitors by Choice or Chance (concluded) Ellwood C. Parry, Jr. 261 A Palatine Boor, A Short Comprehensive History of the Life of Christopher Sauer I Herbert Harley 286 Benjamin Eastbum John F. Reed 298 The United States Census of 1850, Montgomery County Edited by Jane K. Burris New Hanover Township 313 Whitemarsh Township 383 Reports John F. Beed, Editor PUBLICATION COMMITTEE The Editpr, Chairman Mrs. Leroy Burris William T. Parsons Mrs. Earl W. Johnson Mrs. William H. Smith Copyright, 1969, by The Historical Society of Montgomery County 257 EDITORIAL In order to celebrate the nation's bicentennial in 1976 the first assurance that Americans must have is that they still have a country in which and for which to celebrate. The present external and internal forces that are attempting to tear the nation apart in all too frequent cases are determined that, de spite all our planning, there will be no anniversary to cele brate; that there will no longer be a "home of the free and the brave" on this distracted planet. These sinister forces are daily taking action, both overtly and covertly, to destroy the very liberties the bicentennialists wish to celebrate, the very liberties that permit dissent, the liberties that are the hope of thinking mankind. Their actions should enlighten patriots not only to the destructive aims of this dissident minority, but also to the only effective countermeasure that can be employed to combat this political destructiveness—ACTION BY THE PATRIOTIC MAJORITY. Let patriots say, "We the American people mil not let anarchy and destruction rule us!'* If the subversive ele ment depends on action for publicity and threat, why not more public action on the part of the multitudes of patriots to defeat the enemy's sinister purposes? Not action outside the law, but more action unthin the law—^more expressions of patriotism and love of country, more support of freedom, more show of majority strength via patriotic meetings and oratory, more personal consideration of what the nation and human freedom stand for and less consideration of self-satisfaction and selfish ends. Has patriotism become such a "dirty word" that Ameri cans are willing to surrender their sacred liberties in order to avoid saying it? Extract from a speech by THE EDITOR at Freedoms Foundation at Valley Forge, October SI, 1968. 259 TRAITORS BY CHOICE OR CHANCE (Concluded) By Ellwood C. Parry, Jr. No matter how endless the winter of 1777-78 seemed to the naked and hungry Continental soldiers at Valley Forge, the months which followed must have seemed even longer and more perilous to their countrymen who actively aided the British in and around Philadelphia. There was no Montgomery County then, but the townships which formed our county after the Rev olution contributed about 50 persons to the "Black List" of those attainted of treason and thereby threatened with con fiscation of all their property and possible hanging. In the preceding issue of this Bulletin are recounted the slow and often uncertain steps taken by the Continental Con gress and the Supreme Executive Council of Pennsylvania to identify, apprehend, and punish those "who went over to the enemy." Also in that article are the names and misdeeds of several men of Cheltenham, Horsham, Moreland, and Abington Townships who carried their Toryism beyond the bounds of forgiveness by their Whig neighbors. Those bounds were con siderably more elastic, despite many isolated acts of persecu tion, than can easily be imagined today. A letter from the Su preme Executive Council, two years after the Declaration of Independence, complains: ... As to 'concealed enemies,' it is the duty of every good citizen to make diligent enquiry after them, and to report what they know of them and of their effects to the Magis trates and Commissioners: but it is too evident that there is a great unwillingness in the people of the city to give the necessary information against the disaffected. This subjects both the Council and the Chief Justice to very great difficulties. 261 262 bulletin op historical society of Montgomery county At the end of the article mentioned above is recorded the fact tiiat John Knight's farm in Abington was confiscated "for the use of the University," and that the price was ^41,000.Two points here need further clarification, since they apply to several other properties of attainted persons. The charter of the Academy and College of Philadelphia (founded by Franklin) provided that its trustees take an oath of allegiance to the King of Great Britain. After the war began some of the trustees, particularly Provost Dr. William Smith, took seriously the obligations of that oath and were more than a little vocal in the British cause. Peter Cress, a Sadler and harness maker, in a deposition of March 20, 1779, is quoted as saying: ... That on the day on which the attack was made by the Vigilant on the fortification at Mud Island, Doctor Will iam Smith,... with a number of other people of the city of Philadelphia, was on the banks near the mouth of the river Schuylkill, viewing the attack with a large Spy- Glass or Telescope. That after the firing from the Round tops of the Vigilant began and was returned from the fort he the said Peter Cress was standing behind and veiy near the said Doctor Smith, and heard him the said Doctor say, that if they, the men in the fort meaning, do not surrender they ought every man of them to be put to the Sword, or words to this effect. By July of 1779 Council began to concern itself with the administration of the college, called for its Book of Records, and referred its charterto the Attorney General for his opinion as to its compatability with the laws of Pennsylvania. In Sep tember Joseph Reed, president of Council, in an address to the General Assembly, observed: ... it might well have been presumed they [the trustees of the college] would have sought the aid of Government for an establishment consistent with the revolution and conformable to the great changes of Policy and Govern ment ... The influence of a seat of learning upon the TRAITORS BY CHOICE OR CHANCE 263 peace and good order of Government, have, we think, been too fully exemplified in the country from which we have separated, to permit any well regulated State to neglect or overlook it. The Assembly forthwith annulled the Academy's charter and created The University of Pennsylvania to take its place. It further authorized Council "to reserve such and so many of the Confiscated Estates as maybe necessary to Create a fund for the support of the Provost [no longer Dr. Smith], and other officers of such University of the State." Accordingly, begin ning in 1780 all such outright sales included a 25% reserve for the university, and in John Knight's case the entire proper ty was turned over to the University of Pennsylvania. In other words, purchasers acquired title by paying three-fourths of the sale price and agreeing to pay an annual return (like a mortgage interest) on the other quarter. This proved to be an ingenious way of endowing the university without taxing the citizens of the state directly. The university, in most instances, took its income in the form of bushels of wheat—a more stable commodiiy than the rapidly depreciating Continental currency. John F. Watson, in his Annals, presents a scale of depreci ation prepared by an old Philadelphia merchant. It shows month-by-month from January 1777 to February 1781 how the paper money declined from nearly par with specie to 75 to 1. Later it became completely worthless. In August 1780, when Knight's farm brought £ 41,000, the rate was 70 to 1, or about £ 588 ($2,800) in "hard money"—a much more realistic figure for 107 acres in those days. Canny purchasers of these pro perties often delayed making payment until the currency de preciated still further. After the Knight brothers, the only other Abington link to so-called treason is a brief note in the Pennsylvania Arch ives: "James Stevenson, late of Abington township, Practition er in Physick; Charged on Oath of Matthias Bush & Jacob S. Miller with Treasonable Practices," supposedly for having gone to join the enemy on the frontiers. A Philadelphia baker, named James Stevens, or Stevenson, was accused, surrendered. 264 bulletin of historical society of Montgomery county and was acquitted. It may have been the same man.A week after the proclamation was issued, Dennis O'Neal, of McAllesters Town, wrote to Council President Wharton: The traitor who is noticed in your Proclamation by the name of James Stevenson, late baker, should have been called James Stevens, late baker.