Recent Books

RECENT BOOKS. MAYFLOWER DESCENDANTS IN CAPE MAY COUNTY, NEW JERSEY. Memorial of the Three Hundredth Anniversary of the Pilgrims at Plymouth, 1620-1920. A Record of the Pilgrim Descendants who early in its History settled in Cape May County, and some of their child¬ ren throughout the several States of the Union at the present time. By Rev. Paul Sturtevant Howe, LL.B., Ph. D. Cape May, 1921, p. 464, por., ills 7, 8°. In Cape May County are to be found, perhaps as many descendants of the Mayflower Pilgrims as in Plymouth itself, albeit the descendants in Cape May must trace their descent commonly to John Howland and his wife, Elizabeth, daughter of John Tilley and then only through Joseph Whilldin and his wife, Hannah, daughter of John and Desire (Howland) Gorham. To those long familiar with Cape May County history, the publica¬ tion, in the New• York Genealogical and Biographical Record, in January, 1898, of John Gorham’s “Wast Book,” was a thing of joy. The “ Wast Book,” compiled to relieve the tedium of a winter’s campaign in the Louisburg expedition of 1745, was a joy because of one paragraph: “ Hannah (Gorham) mary’d a Wheelding boath moov’d to Cape may.” Here was the answer to the old, old question who was Hannah, wife of Joseph Whilldin? New Jersey’s southermost-county was ,at this time, not unsupplied with valuable historical material. The county records, supplemented by those in the office of the Secretary of State at Trenton, were excellent. Aaron Learning the first, Aaron Learning, second of the name and Jacob Spicer, the last two the widely known compilers of Learning and Spicer’s “ LAWS OF NEW JERSEY,” had left manuscript diaries much prized by antiquarians. Dr. Maurice Beesley, in his “ SKETCH4 OF THE EARLY HISTORY OF CAPE MAY ”(1857), had made a wise beginning with the printed word. “THE HISTORICAL ADDRESS ON THE ONE HUNDRED AND SEVENTY-FIFTH ANNIVERSARY OF THE ORIGIN OR FOUNDING OF THE COLD SPRING PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, CAPE MAY,” delivered by the Rev. Daniel Lawrence Hughes, September 26th 1889 had been printed, to¬ gether with ‘‘CAPE MAY ’S DEAD OF TWO CENTURIES, OR A CHRONOLOGICAL LIST OF PERSONS BURIED AT COLD SPRING CEMETERY ”a volume of sixty pages. This was followed, in 1891, by Dr. Hughes’ better known work : ‘1 THE DIVINE CONVENANT FULFILLED IN PIOUS HOUSEHOLDS, FROM 1711 TO 1891.” Still later, 1897, came the “ HISTORY OF CAPE MAY COUNTY,” by Lewis T. Stevens, Fsq.; and, in 1906, a copy of the “ SESSION BOOK OF THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH OF THE LOWER TOWN- — — Recent Books. 309 SHIP OP CAPE MAY, NEW JERSEY, was made by Mrs. Annie Crowell Band and printed in the May-flower Descendant. The connecting link having been established between Cape May and Plymouth, all these publications took on an added interest and, slowly, one by one the initiated, among the widely dispersed descendants of Joseph and Hannah (Gorham) Whilldin, began to apply for admission to the various state societies of Mayflower Descendants. It was, how¬ ever, left for Dr. Howe to weld together into the present book form the hitherto published and unpublished genealogical and historical facts, sup¬ plemented by additional research work. To quote the Foreword : ' This volume, the contribution of the author to the Community, is the result of some three years investigaion of the early history of the settlement of the county, and the history of the families to the present time. It is the most complete genealogical record, aside from its special investigation of the various lines of Mayflower descent, ever published upon the subject of Cape May ancestry, and corrects misleading statements of former writers. It is the wish of the publisher [Albert B. Hand] and author that the volume may be a permanent contribution to the history of our County and the people who have gone from it.” It has a subject, name and place index. ‘ CATALOGUE or THE MEMORIAL EXHIBITION or PORTRAITS BY THOMAS SULLY. The Pennsylvania Academy of The Fine Arts, Philadelphia, 1922, p. 181, 99 por., 1 plan, 8°. In addition to being a Memorial to the artist, of whom there is a BRIEF SKETCH OF HIS LIFE,” by the Academy’s Secretary, John Andrews Myers, the Catalogue, by reason of its wealth of portraiture, is a work of art in itself, while the biographical sketches of the subject paintings, by Albert Cook Myers and Ernest Spofford, make it a valuable handbook of biography and genealogy. The helpful notation, B. F., followed by a numeral, refers to the Descriptive List of Sully ’s Paintings as numb¬ ered in Edward Biddle and Mantle Fielding’s “ LIFE AND WORK OF THOMAS SULLY, 1783-1872,” Wickersham Press, Lancaster, 1921. The broad-minded co-operation of the Academy Management, these authors and the interested public makes the Exhibition and the Catalogue a production of which every Philadelphian and art lover can justly be proud. In the words of the Academy’s President, John Frederick Lewis, “No exhibi¬ tion of Sully ’s works such as is now shown the public has been gathered before and, it can be safely said that, probably, no such exhibition can ever be gathered again.” The obvious truth of the statement only enhances the real worth of the Catalogue. One of Thomas Sully ’s con¬ tributions to posterity was his ‘‘Register ’’ of his daily work with name of subject, size of canvass, date of beginning and completion, for whom painted and price paid. At the end of each twelve months he made a summary of the total of his labor. For the years of his artistic career, 1801-1872, he has recorded the painting of 2520 pictures at a valuation of $246,744. The Register is in the Dreer Collection of the 310 Recent Books. Historical Society of Pennsylvania. An article on the Register appeared in the Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, vol. 32 (1908). THE JOURNAL AND ESSAYS OF JOHN WOOLMAN. Edited from the Original Manuscripts with a Biographical Introduction by Amelia Mott Gummere, Rancocas Edition. Philadelphia, 1922, pp. xxii, 643 ; por. 7 ; ills. 36, 8° By reason of its appealing charm and universal message of spiritual light, a half hundred or more editions of the great Quaker philanthro¬ pist’s Journal have appeared since Joseph Crukshank printed the first edition, in Philadelphia, in 1774, from the leather-bound folio, now in possession of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. Long ago it be¬ came a classic, beloved of Charles Lamb, President Eliot and many another scholar “born to blush unseen.” The present variorum and definitive edition of the Journal and Essays is the result of an extensive comparison of the two hitherto inaccessible and earlier manuscripts, and the English Journal now at Swarthmore College, with the first edition itself, together with unremitting research among court, meeting and other records both in ,England and America. All writings of the eminent Friend so far as known are included, together with an unpublished ESSAY ON HUMAN RELATIONS. AS editor, and in her carefully drawn Biographical Introduction, Mrs. Gummere has shown a rare, spiritual kinship with her subject and has succeeded in not only placing him in the proper setting of his contemporary life, but has supplied the student with rich material for a social study of large importance. The collection of brief biographical notices of one hundred and sixteen Friends men¬ tioned in the text, many of them less or more obscure, will be a joy to genealogists, The comprehensive bibliography is a valuable addition to the work while the carefully prepared general index is equally important to the reader and student. The illustrations are of unusual interest. SUPPLEMENT TO GENEALOGIES. By Edwin Jaquett Sellers. Press of Allen, Lane and Scott, Philadelphia, 1922, p. 73, 8°. Edition of one hundred and fifty copies. Between 1890 and 1916 various genealogical publications appeared from the pen of this scholarly historian, whose interest survives his first editions. From the rich quarries of research his scalpel knife brings to light new facts, and this Supplement is the major findings. Additions are made to twelve families before treated of, to wit: Jaquett (20 p.), De Carpentier of Holland (3p.), Van Eulenborg of Holland (12 p.), Stidham (3p.), Pfeiffer (lp,), Fenwick (10 p.), Kollock (7 p.), Shep¬ herd (8p.), Avery (2p.), Kipshaven (3p.), Davis (lp.), Draper (2p.). ANCESTRY OF JEREMY CLARK OF RHODE ISLAND AND DUNGAN GENEA¬ Compiled by Alfred Rudolph Justice. Philadelphia, 1922, p. 538, 10 ills., 13 por., 6 charts, 4 to. This handsome quarto, from the press of the Franklin Printing ComLOGY. 311 Recent Books. pany, with its wealth of illustration and genealogical citation, contains the first published account of the English ancestry of Jeremy Clarke, one of the founders of Newport, and acting governor of Bhode Island in 1648, an ancestry which, according to the compiler, dates to Charle¬ magne. More important than length of royal lineage, however, is the placement of Jeremy Clark’s parentage, after which so many writers had groped so long ‘‘ so near and yet so far. ’ All interested in the origin of the given name of Weston Clarke, attorney-general of Bhode Island, 1676-1686, will rejoice that Mr. Justice has settled it beyond peradventure, and dispelled the myth which had attached itself to the so called first marriage of his mother, Frances Latham, to Lord Weston, a marriage that never was. A chapter, of much that is new and invalu¬ able, is devoted to the serjeant falconer of Charles I, Lewis Latham, the ancestor of many who were eminent in the annals of Rhode Island and Pennsylvania, and whose portrait by Sir Peter Lely, brought to Bhode Island in 1634, is yet in an excellent state of preservation. A copy of this was made, in 1895, by Cecelia Beaux of Philadelphia. Some four hundred pages are given to the family ancestry, and descendants to the tenth generation, of Bev. Thomas Dungan, the first Baptist clergyman of Pennsylvania. The volume closes with a comprehensive biographical Bketch and deductions as to the ancestry of Arthur Cooke, gentleman, deputy-governor, provincial councillor and first chief-justice of Pennsy¬ lvania. Other writers had blazed the trail in some of these genealogical fields, but it remained for Mr. Justice to “carry on” to a highly success¬ ful finish. The “Sources of Information” and good index will greatly aid in the wide consultation the book is sure to have. — ’ — WILLING LETTERS AND PAPERS. Edited with a Biographical Essay of Thomas Willing of Philadelphia, 1731-1821. By Thomas Willing Balch. Press of Allen, Lane and Scott, Philadelphia, 1922; Seventy two copies printed; type distributed; pp. ix, xlviii, 227, 8°. Willing Papers The had already been presented to the Historical Society of Pennsylvania by the author, who with commendable open-mindness now gives them all, together with letters that are elsewhere, to the reading public in the form of the present volume. It is a notable con¬ tribution to the lights and shadows that preceded, enveloped and followed the Revolutionary period in Philadelphia and the Colonies. From 1754 to 1807 Mr. Willing successively held the offices of Secretary to the Congress of Delegates at Albany, Mayor of Philadelphia, her representa¬ tive in the Provincial Assembly, Justice of the Supreme Court of Pennsy¬ lvania, President of the Provincial Congress, member of Continental Congress, first president of the Bank of North America and first presi¬ dent of the Bank of the United States. The head of the mercantile house of Willing and Morris he was a leader in the movement against the Stamp Act and one of the Committee to enforce the Non-Importa¬ tion Agreement of 1765. In 1780, when the Continental Army seemed on the verge of dissolution, he was a subscriber to the amount of £5,000 “ ” 312 Recent Books. to a fund of £260,000 towards the foundation of the Pennsylvania Bank which provided means of re-organization and re-equipment. Independent in thought and action he stood four-square to the winds of public opinion and played a potent though not spectacular role in American affairs where his integrity, patriotism and public services commanded the un¬ qualified esteem of his contemporaries. It is hoped that this volume is but the preliminary to a still more comprehensive work on this financier of by-gone days. STEPHEN GIRARD FOUNDER, 1750-1831. By Cheesman A. Herrick, Ph.D., LL.D., President of Girard College, Philadelphia, 1923. Set up and printed in the Trade School, Girard College, p. ix, 203, ills. 10, por. 6, 8°. A story tellingly told and dedicated to the posthumous foster sons of the great philanthropist, the Girard College Boys of the Past, Present and Future. The author presents his subject as one of the three men who made the largest contribution to the welfare of Philadelphia, William Penn, Benjamin Franklin, Stephen Girard, and also as one of the three Philadelphia financiers who each gave practical aid in bringing to a successful conclusion one of three great wars in which the United States was engaged in their time, Robert Morris in that of the Revolu¬ tion, Jay Cooke in the Civil War and Stephen Girard in that of 1812. It is distinctly shown as the story grows that, apart from his great finan¬ cial assistance to the Country of his choice in the dark days of 1814, it is difficult to overestimate Philadelphia’s debt to Stephen Girard for his services in its yellow fever epidemics, in his establishment of the Stephen Girard Banking House upon the ruins of the Bank of United States, and for his fatherhood to fatherless sons in the Girard College Founda¬ tion. As a “human document,’’ Ur. Herrick’s Essay is of large value to the biographical and social history of Philadelphia.