Historic Philadelphia

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James Logan (right), who had arrived
humbly as William Penn’s secretary a half
century before, died wealthy and famous in
1751. He knew seven languages, and was a
mathematician and scholar. Between 1714
and 1747, he had assembled 511 acres just
northwest of the city, and built a fine
mansion he named Stenton after his father’s
birthplace in Scotland (above). There, Logan
amassed a library of more than three
thousand books, unrivaled in the colonies,
which he willed to the city. The Library
Company ultimately took custody of the
books. His son, William, succeeded him as
Penn family attorney and added to the book
collection. Six generations of the Logan
family occupied Stenton before it was
acquired by the city a hundred years ago.
MANSION PHOTO COURTESY OF THE AUTHOR. PORTRAIT
COURTESY OF THE DICTIONARY OF AMERICAN PORTRAITS.
HISTORIC PHILADELPHIA
28
make a frequent practice thereof.” This, naturally,
would “encourage idleness.” City government
should “take the most effectual
means for suppressing the disorder.” The
“company of comedians” in question, known
as Murray & Kean’s, five men and three
women including the debauched Nancy
George, moved to New York in March of 1750
and opened with Richard III.
A BELL &
OTHER IMPROVEMENTS
The brick base of a tower for the Provincial
State House had been finished in 1741. In
1750 the Assembly finally got around to
passing a resolution “That the Superintendents
of the State House proceed as soon as
conveniently they may to carry up a building
on the south side of the said house to contain
a staircase, with a suitable place thereon for
hanging a Bell.” In 1751 State House Trustee
Isaac Norris wrote to Robert Charles,
Pennsylvania’s agent in London, instructing
him to buy a bell.
Charles ordered a bell from Whitechapel Bell
Foundry, founded in 1570 (and still in
business.) The one-ton bell bore on its face the
name of Whitechapel’s master founder, Thomas
Lester. It also bore the inscription specified by
Isaac Norris: “Proclaim Liberty Throughout All
the Land, Unto All the Inhabitants Thereof.”
The idea was to commemorate the fiftieth
anniversary of William Penn’s charter of 1701.
The quotation is from Chapter 25, Verse 10, of
the Bible’s book of Leviticus, which begins,
“And ye shall hallow the fiftieth year, and
proclaim liberty….” Norris was a Quaker
student of the Bible who read the scriptures in
the original Hebrew.
Norris cautioned Charles, “Let the bell be
cast by the best workmen, and examined carefully
before it is shipped….” He also warned,
“Let the package for transportation be examined
with particular care….” The bell, shiny
and uncracked, was loaded aboard the
250-ton armed merchant ship Myrtilla,
owned by Nathan Levy and David Franks of
Philadelphia. On September 1, 1752, Norris
sent a report to Charles: “The bell is come on
shore and in good order and we hope it will
prove a good one, for I have heard that it is
approved by all hitherto, though we have not
yet tried the sound.”
A few days later, Norris recorded bad news:
“…it was cracked by a stroke of the clapper
without any other violence, as it was hung up
to try the sound.” Not to worry. Charles Stow,
doorkeeper of the governor’s executive council
that met in the State House, had a son, John,
who, with his partner, John Pass, knew how to
recast bells. Pass and Stow made a mold of the
bell, melted it down, added a little copper, and
remade it. They produced the new bell on
March 10, 1753, “the greatest bell,” wrote
Norris, “for ought I know, in English America.”