the second, who supported the war, attracted to their new character more than the natural influence of their former colonial standing.* IV.. EMINENT among the English families of this second class were the Willings, who for strong social connections and great weight * The following document, never before published in a form likely to be preserved, is curious and interesting. It is a copy of the original subscription list to the first city dancing assembly, held in Philadelphia in the year 1748. It contains a record of most of the persons then in Philadelphia belonging to the second class of which I have spoken. Some of the names, such as those of Kidd, Mackimen, Sober, Wiseheart, Polyceen, Boyle, Godons, Cottenham, Maland, and Cozzens, are, I believe, hardly now known even to antiquaries in that city. They were probably strangers or temporary residents. A few, like those of Bond, Stedman, Franks, Inglis, and Levy, are now represented in female lines. But notwithstanding the change often made upon the structure and chances of our society by our transatlantic brethren, it will be obvious that now, at the distance of one hundred and twenty-five years from its date a revolution having occurred in the meantime, and a republican commonwealth having taken the place of a proprietary and royal province-many of the remaining names still subsist and are well known in the identical form on which they appear on the original subscription list, made twenty-eight years before the Declaration of Independence. A list of subscribers for an Assembly, under the direction of John Inglis, Lynford Lardnor, John Wallace, and John Swift: Each subscription forty shillings, to be paid to any of the directors on subscribing. The above list is older than the one given by Mr. Watson, in his "Annals." That careful antiquary furnishes the following catalogue of fashionable "belles and dames" for the ball of the City Assembly in 1757: Mrs. Alex. Steadman, Miss Betty Plumsted, Miss Peggy Oswald, Miss Nancy Willing, Mrs. Peter Bard, of both public and private character enjoyed an enviable dictinction. The name, though found in Germany, has become nearly extinct in England, where it originated, and in our own country has hardly been known out of Philadelphia. The family has however in later days given a member to the peerage of Great Britain,* and the wife, first of a count and afterwards of a marquis, of France,† while, without any title, a third has illustrated for a long time the beauty of American women in the metropolis of Europe. The first of this family of whom I have heard, although I believe it is traced much further, was Joseph Willing, of Gloucestershire, who married about two centuries since Ava Lowre, of that county, the heiress of a good estate which had descended to her through several generations of Saxon ancestors, and whose arms he seems to have assumed, on their marriage, in place of his own. Their son Thomas married Anne Harrison, a grand-daughter in the paternal line of Thomas Harrison, and in the maternal of Simon Mayne. The former was a Major General in the Protector's army and a member of the long Parliament; the latter was also a prominent actor in Cromwell's time; and both were members of the court which condemned Charles the First to death. Whether he considered this part of his ancestral history a good title to consideration in a country settled by puritans, in the "dissidence of dissent," or whether he was attracted by the rising commercial glory of this country, I am not sufficiently informed to say; but having visited America in 1720, and spent five years here, Mr. Thomas Willing brought his son Charles over in 1728 and established him * The present Lord Ashburton, great-grandson of Thomas Willing of Philadelphia. + La Marquise de Blaisel. "Sable a hand, couped at the wrist, grasping three darts, one in pale and two in sallure, argent." § The late President William Henry Harrison, was, I believe, a descendant of Major General Harrison, of Cromwell's army. At the time of his death a copy of an original painting of the Protector's friend was just completed for his gratification. in commerce in Philadelphia, himself returning home. Charles, the first who remained in the country, may therefore be considered the founder of the American family. Few men in a private station have any where enjoyed greater influence or attained to a more dignified respectability. His house, still standing at the southwest corner of Third street and Willing's alley, though now deprived of its noble grounds, running back to Fourth street* and far onward down to Spruce street, and shaded with oaks that might be regarded as of the primeval forests,† is still remarked for its spacious comfort and its old-fashioned repose. He pursued for a quarter of a century with great success and with noble fidelity to its best principles the profession of a merchant, in which he obtained the highest consideration, by the scope, vigor and forecast of his understanding, his great executive power, his unspotted integrity, and the amenity of his disposition and manners. Toward the close of his life he discharged with vigilance, dignity, and impartiality, the important functions of the chief magistracy of the city, in which he died, respected by the whole community, in November, 1754— just one century ago-at the early age of forty-four. His wife was Anne, grand-daughter of Edward Shippen, a person of com * The west end of this lot, fronting on Fourth street, Mr. Thomas Willing, son of the person here mentioned, surrendered to his son-in-law and nephew, Mr. Thomas Willing Francis, who built upon it the beautiful mansion now occupied by Mr. Joseph R. Ingersoll. On the southern part, Charles Willing himself built a residence, which has since given place to other buildings, for his son-in-law, Colonel William Byrd, of Westover, in Virginia. General Washington for some time had his head-quarters at Philadelphia in this house. It was afterwards the residence of Chief Justice Chew. The now venerable buttonwood, standing in front of the old mansion at the corner of Third street and Willing's alley, was planted in 1749, and is therefore one hundred and five years old. William Shippen, of York, gentleman, had three sons, 1, Robert, rector of Stockport, in Cheshire, and father of Robert, Principal of Brazen Nose, Oxford, 2, William, a leader in Parlia ment in Robert Walpole's time (the "downright Shippen" of Pope), 3, Edward, born in 1639, who, having by the death of his brothers inherited their estates, came to America in 1672. In 1695 he was elected Speaker of the Assembly of Pennsylvania, and under the city charter appointed in 1701 the first mayor of Philadelphia. From 1702 to 1704 he was president of the governor's council. He died in 1712, leaving a vast landed estate. manding influence in the early history of Pennsylvania. His son was Mr. Thomas Willing, a man whose virtues have been recorded with a truth and eloquence which heighten the dignity of even such a character as his.* V. In all civil wars men of hereditary rank and fortune are apt to adhere to the established authority, and this was eminently true in the war which led to American Independence. The loyalists were in a large degree people of good condition, accomplished in manners as well as in learning, and by their defection the country lost many persons who at the end of the contest would have been among her most useful citizens, and the brightest ornaments of her domestic life. The Fairfaxes, Galloways, Dulaneys, Delanceys, Robinsons, Penns, Phillipses, Whites, and others, if of the Whig party would probably have been even more distinguished in society than in affairs, though the military and civil abilities which some of them displayed against us, or in foreign countries, showed that they might have nobly served their fatherland in these capacities, and participated with the most successful and most honored of her faithful sons, in her affections and her grateful rewards. However strongly influenced by considerations of justice, many of them must have shared the feelings attributed by Freneau to Hugh Gaine, on dis *The following inscription, copied from a monument in Christ Church grounds, Philadelphia, is understood to be from the pen of Mr. Horace Binney: "In memory of Thomas Willing, Esquire, born nineteenth of December, 1731, O. S., died nineteenth of January, 1821, aged eighty-nine years and thirty days. This excellent man, in all the relations of private life, and in various stations of high public trust, deserved and acquired the devoted affection of his family and friends, and the universal respect of his fellow-citizens. From 1754 to 1807 he successively held the oflices of secretary to the Congress of Delegates at Albany, mayor of the city of Philadelphia, her representative in the General Assembly, President of the Provincial Congress, delegate to the Congress of the Confederation, President of the first chartered Bank in America, and President of the first Bank of the United States. With these public duties, he united the business of an active, enterprising, and successful merchant, in which pursuit, for sixty years, his life was rich in examples of the influence of probity, fidelity, and perseverance upon the stability of commercial establishments, and upon that which was his distinguished reward upon earth, public consideration and esteem. His profound adoration of the Great Supreme, and his deep sense of dependence on his mercy, in life and in death, gave him, at the close of his protracted years, the humble hope of a superior one in Heaven." covering that he had connected himself with the losing side. One, a young gentleman of Maryland, who held a commission in the British army, after the war was over addressed from London to his sister, in this country, a poem on the subject, in which there are some passages of generous feeling and considerable literary merit, as will be seen from the following extracts, in which he laments the mistake so fatal to his happiness. Referring to his sister's portrait he says: "Methinks now starting from my trembling hands, Kissed into life, thy glowing image stands, While vivid fancy lends me power to trace The strong similitude of mind and face. Ah, what avails it, but in me to show How near are joined the extremes of bliss and woe!.... Not twenty summers had matured my prime When civil Discord, nurse of every crime, To active life had every bosom fired. To loyal arms with eager haste I flew, And, in my sovereign's service, early drew A faithful sword, that boldly dared oppose The sons of Freedom-then, I thought, her foes! While sober Prudence o'er each step presides, With nice precision dubious currents weigh, |