Historic Philadelphia

Governor Hamilton died in 1703. Penn’s
next appointment was John Evans, twentysix,
“sober and sensible, the son of an old
friend,” according to Penn. Evans arrived in
Philadelphia in 1704, and with him came
William Penn, Jr.
Young Billy was twenty-three, a widower of
about a year, who left behind two hundred
pounds of entertainment debts for his father
to pay in London. Penn wrote to James Logan
to keep an eye on Billy, pleading: “Allow no
rambling in New York.” Logan permitted Billy
one pound a week spending money.
John Evans made a stab at governing, but
his interests lay elsewhere. He and Billy lived
in William Clarke’s “Great House” at Third
and Chestnut Streets, and kept it well
equipped with liquor, hunting dogs, and
visiting young women.
One muggy September evening, Billy,
Governor Evans and some cronies were
hoisting a few in the not completely reputable
tavern of Enoch Story in Pewter Platter Alley,
near Christ Church. Things got a bit
boisterous, and the watchmen were called.
Led by Alderman Joseph Wilcox, the
watchmen suggested that the carousers hold it
down. The situation escalated, and at one
point, Wilcox punched Billy Penn in the face.
The episode was smoothed over. A few weeks
later, Billy Penn renounced the Society of
Friends, buckled on a sword, sold his
Philadelphia land cheaply to Isaac Norris,
and went back to England after only nine
months as a Pennsylvanian, leaving a stack
of unpaid bills. (The Norris holdings would
one day bring forth Norristown and two
Norriton townships.)
Evans stayed on, and soon was in another
tavern brawl. Constable Solomon Cresson
reported that he was “bidding a lewd tavernkeeper
disperse her company” when some
patrons got rough. Alderman Wilcox was
summoned, and took the opportunity to slug
the governor with a cane before (he maintained)
he recognized him. The incident made Wilcox a
celebrity. The next year he was elected mayor.
Common Council’s minutes in 1712
indicated that, “The Poor of this City Dayly
Increasing,” a workhouse was needed. In
1713 it was ruled that a new gaol (pronounced
jail) was also needed. The Quakers built an
Almshouse to shelter the homeless, on the
south side of Walnut between Third and
Fourth. There would be charitable buildings
there through the years, as late as 1876.
William Bradford had come from England in
1685 and did the first printing in town.
His work included some religious pamphlets
the Quaker establishment didn’t care for. In
1693 he was run out of town and moved to
New York. His son Andrew brought the print
shop back to Philadelphia in 1718, and in
1719, Andrew Bradford published the American
Weekly Mercury, the city’s first newspaper.
The Quaker administration was undoubtedly
disturbed to find that the Swedes
and the Dutch were inclined to boisterous
holiday celebrations. Much musket firing was
done on New Year’s Eve, March 24 by the
calendar then in use, and at Christmastime. A
British custom of going door-to-door in
costume, asking for food and drink, also had
aspects that upset the Quaker authorities. In
1702 a grand jury accused a man of “being
maskt or disguised in women’s apparel; stalking
openly through the streets of the city from
house to house” on the day after Christmas,
which is still a traditional day for Christmas
pantomiming in England. A woman was
charged with being on the street “dressed in
man’s Cloathes, contrary to ye nature of her
sects.” Both the costumes and the gunfire were
early stages of the Mummers tradition that still
erupts, in more organized form, every New
Year’s Day.
✧
In 1709, the first city government building,
a town hall and courthouse, was built in the
middle of High Street at Second Street, at
the head of the developing market sheds
which would soon lead High to be popularly
called Market Street. The site was across
from the Great Meeting House the Quakers
had erected in 1695. The balcony of the
Courthouse became a speaking platform for
politicians and preachers. The Provincial
Assembly and City Council would meet
there for a quarter century.
COURTESY OF THE AUTHOR.
CHAPTER I
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