house, and his setting me up was always mentioned as a fixed thing. I
was to take with me letters recommendatory to a number of his friends,
besides the letter of credit to furnish me with the necessary money
for purchasing the press and types, paper, etc. For these letters I
was appointed to call at different times, when they were to be ready;
but a future time was still named. Thus he went on till the ship,
whose departure, too, had been several times postponed, was on the
point of sailing. Then, when I called to take my leave and receive the
letters, his secretary, Dr. Baird, came out to me and said the
governor was extremely busy in writing, but would be down at Newcastle
before the ship, and there the letters would be delivered to me.
Ralph, though married, and having one child, had determined to
accompany me on this voyage. It was thought he intended to establish a
correspondence, and obtain goods to sell on commission; but I found
afterward that, through some discontent with his wife's relations, he
proposed to leave her on their hands, and never return again. Having
taken leave of my friends, and interchanged some promises with Miss
Read, I left Philadelphia in the ship, which anchored at Newcastle.
The governor was there; but when I went to his lodging, the secretary
came to me from him with the civilest message in the world, that he
could not then see me, being engaged in business of the utmost
importance, but should send the letters to me on board, and wished me
heartily a good voyage and a speedy return, etc. I returned on board a
little puzzled, but still not doubting.
[Footnote 38: Kill von Kull, the strait between Staten Island and New
Jersey.]
[Footnote 39: That is, John Bunyan, the author of the book.]
[Footnote 40: In New Jersey.]
[Footnote 41: Learning.]
[Footnote 42: English penny pieces. The coin money used by the
colonists was at this time of foreign make.]
[Footnote 43: This market stood on the southwest corner of Second and
Market Streets.]
[Footnote 44: A composing stick is a small tray which the compositor
holds in his left hand and in which he arranges the type that he picks
out of the cases with his right hand.]
[Footnote 45: A false reasoner, and hence a deceiver.]
[Footnote 46: The name of a kind of type.]
[Footnote 47: Manuscript or printing of original matter.]
[Footnote 48: Boarded.]
[Footnote 49: The Camisards, who broke away from the state religion of
France, and suffered persecution at the hands of Louis XIV. They
showed their spiritual zeal by the prophetic mania and by working
miracles, as well as by a stout attachment to their creed.]
[Footnote 50: "Both governments," i.e., both Pennsylvania and Delaware.]
[Footnote 51: Peep show.]
[Footnote 52: "Piece of eight," i.e., the Spanish dollar, containing
eight reals. The present value of a real is about five cents.]
[Footnote 53: The seats across the boat on which the oarsmen sit.]
[Footnote 54: For Governor Keith's character and popularity, see p. 58.]
[Footnote 55: Captain Annis, commander of the ship, is here referred to.]
[Footnote 56: Entrapped.]
[Footnote 57: Lev. xix. 27.]
[Footnote 58: An agent or commission merchant.]
[Footnote 59: In 1728 Alexander Pope published his Dunciad, and in Book
III. lines 165, 166, he refers to Ralph, who was then living in London:
"Silence, ye wolves! while Ralph to Cynthia howls.
And makes night hideous--answer him, ye owls!"
Later, his History of England during the Reigns of King William, Queen
Anne, and King George I. was highly praised (see pp. 177, 178).]
§ 3. FIRST VISIT TO LONDON.
Mr. Andrew Hamilton, a Famous Lawyer of Philadelphia, Had Taken
Passage in the same ship for himself and son, and with Mr. Denham, a
Quaker merchant, and Messrs. Onion and Russel, masters of an iron work
in Maryland, had engaged the great cabin; so that Ralph and I were
forced to take up with a berth in the steerage, and, none on board
knowing us, were considered as ordinary persons. But Mr. Hamilton and
his son (it was James, since governor) returned from Newcastle to
Philadelphia, the father being recalled by a great fee to plead for a
seized ship; and, just before we sailed, Colonel French coming on
board, and showing me great respect, I was more taken notice of, and,
with my friend Ralph, invited by the other gentlemen to come into the
cabin, there being now room. Accordingly, we removed thither.
Understanding that Colonel French had brought on board the governor's
dispatches, I asked the captain for those letters that were to be put
under my care. He said all were put into the bag together, and he
could not then come at them; but, before we landed in England, I
should have an opportunity of picking them out; so I was satisfied for
the present, and we proceeded on our voyage. We had a sociable company
in the cabin, and lived uncommonly well, having the addition of all
Mr. Hamilton's stores, who had laid in plentifully. In this passage
Mr. Denham contracted a friendship for me that continued during his
life. The voyage was otherwise not a pleasant one, as we had a great
deal of bad weather.
When we came into the Channel the captain kept his word with me, and
gave me an opportunity of examining the bag for the governor's
letters. I found none upon which my name was put as under my care. I
picked out six or seven, that, by the handwriting, I thought might be
the promised letters, especially as one of them was directed to
Basket, the king's printer, and another to some stationer.
We arrived in London the 24th of December, 1724. I waited upon the
stationer, who came first in my way, delivering the letter as from
Governor Keith. "I don't know such a person," says he; but, opening
the letter, "Oh! this is from Riddlesden. I have lately found him to
be a complete rascal, and I will have nothing to do with him, nor
receive any letters from him." So, putting the letter into my hand, he
turned on his heel and left me, to serve some customer. I was
surprised to find these were not the governor's letters; and, after
recollecting and comparing circumstances, I began to doubt his
sincerity. I found my friend Denham, and opened the whole affair to
him. He let me into Keith's character; told me there was not the least
probability that he had written any letters for me; that no one who
knew him had the smallest dependence on him; and he laughed at the
notion of the governor's giving me a letter of credit, having, as he
said, no credit to give. On my expressing some concern about what I
should do, he advised me to endeavor getting some employment in the
way of my business. "Among the printers here," said he, "you will
improve yourself, and when you return to America you will set up to
greater advantage."
We both of us happened to know, as well as the stationer, that
Riddlesden, the attorney, was a very knave. He had half ruined Miss
Read's father by persuading him to be bound[60] for him. By this
letter it appeared there was a secret scheme on foot to the prejudice
of Hamilton (supposed to be then coming over with us), and that Keith
was concerned in it with Riddlesden. Denham, who was a friend of
Hamilton's, thought he ought to be acquainted with it; so, when he
arrived in England, which was soon after, partly from resentment and
ill will to Keith and Riddlesden and partly from good will to him, I
waited on him, and gave him the letter. He thanked me cordially, the
information being of importance to him; and from that time he became
my friend, greatly to my advantage afterward on many occasions.
But what shall we think of a governor's playing such pitiful tricks,
and imposing so grossly on a poor ignorant boy! It was a habit he had
acquired. He wished to please everybody; and, having little to give,
he gave expectations. He was otherwise an ingenious, sensible man, a
pretty good writer, and a good governor for the people, though not for
his constituents, the proprietaries,[61] whose instructions he
sometimes disregarded. Several of our best laws were of his planning,
and passed during his administration.
Ralph and I were inseparable companions. We took lodgings together in
Little Britain[62] at three shillings and sixpence a week,--as much as
we could then afford. He found some relations, but they were poor, and
unable to assist him. He now let me know his intentions of remaining in
London, and that he never meant to return to Philadelphia. He had
brought no money with him, the whole he could muster having been
expended in paying his passage. I had fifteen pistoles;[63] so he
borrowed occasionally of me to subsist while he was looking out for
business. He first endeavored to get into the playhouse, believing
himself qualified for an actor; but Wilkes,[64] to whom he applied,
advised him candidly not to think of that employment, as it was
impossible he should succeed in it. Then he proposed to Roberts, a
publisher in Paternoster Row, to write for him a weekly paper like the
"Spectator," on certain conditions which Roberts did not approve. Then
he endeavored to get employment as a hackney writer,[65] to copy for the
stationers and lawyers about the Temple,[66] but could find no vacancy.
I immediately got into work at Palmer's, then a famous printing house
in Bartholomew Close, and here I continued near a year. I was pretty
diligent, but spent with Ralph a good deal of my earnings in going to
plays and other places of amusement. We had together consumed all my
pistoles, and now just rubbed on from hand to mouth. He seemed quite
to forget his wife and child, and I, by degrees, my engagements with
Miss Read, to whom I never wrote more than one letter, and that was to
let her know I was not likely soon to return. This was another of the
great errata of my life, which I should wish to correct if I were to
live it over again. In fact, by our expenses I was constantly kept
unable to pay my passage.
At Palmer's I was employed in composing[67] for the second edition of
Wollaston's "Religion of Nature." Some of his reasonings not appearing
to me well founded, I wrote a little metaphysical piece, in which I
made remarks on them. It was entitled, "Dissertation on Liberty and
Necessity, Pleasure and Pain." I inscribed it to my friend Ralph; I
printed a small number. It occasioned my being more considered by Mr.
Palmer as a young man of some ingenuity, though he seriously
expostulated with me upon the principles of my pamphlet, which to him
appeared abominable. My printing this pamphlet was another erratum.
While I lodged in Little Britain I made an acquaintance with one Wilcox,
a bookseller, whose shop was at the next door. He had an immense
collection of secondhand books. Circulating libraries were not then in
use; but we agreed that, on certain reasonable terms, which I have now
forgotten, I might take, read, and return any of his books. This I
esteemed a great advantage, and I made as much use of it as I could.
My pamphlet falling into the hands of one Lyons, a surgeon, author of
a book entitled "The Infallibility of Human Judgment," it occasioned
an acquaintance between us. He took great notice of me, called on me
often to converse on those subjects, carried me to the Horns, a
pale-ale house in ---- Lane, Cheapside, and introduced me to Dr.
Mandeville, author of the "Fable of the Bees," who had a club there,
of which he was the soul, being a most facetious, entertaining
companion. Lyons, too, introduced me to Dr. Pemberton, at Batson's
Coffee-house, who promised to give me an opportunity, some time or
other, of seeing Sir Isaac Newton, of which I was extremely desirous;
but this never happened.
I had brought over a few curiosities, among which the principal was a
purse made of the asbestos, which purifies by fire. Sir Hans Sloane[68]
heard of it, came to see me, and invited me to his house in Bloomsbury
Square, where he showed me all his curiosities, and persuaded me to let
him add that to the number, for which he paid me handsomely.
In our house there lodged a young woman, a milliner, who, I think, had
a shop in the Cloisters. She had been genteelly bred, was sensible and
lively, and of most pleasing conversation. Ralph read plays to her in
the evenings; they grew intimate; she took another lodging, and he
followed her. They lived together some time; but, he being still out
of business, and her income not sufficient to maintain them with her
child, he took a resolution of going from London to try for a country
school, which he thought himself well qualified to undertake, as he
wrote an excellent hand, and was a master of arithmetic and accounts.
This, however, he deemed a business below him; and, confident of
future better fortune, when he should be unwilling to have it known
that he once was so meanly employed, he changed his name, and did me
the honor to assume mine; for I soon after had a letter from him,
acquainting me that he was settled in a small village, (in Berkshire,
I think it was, where he taught reading and writing to ten or a dozen
boys, at sixpence each per week,) recommending Mrs. T---- to my care,
and desiring me to write to him, directing for Mr. Franklin,
Schoolmaster, at such a place.
He continued to write frequently, sending me large specimens of an
epic poem which he was then composing, and desiring my remarks and
corrections. These I gave him from time to time, but endeavored rather
to discourage his proceeding. One of Young's[n] satires was then just
published. I copied and sent him a great part of it, which set in a
strong light the folly of pursuing the Muses with any hope of
advancement by them. All was in vain; sheets of the poem continued to
come by every post.
A breach at last arose between us; and, when he returned again to
London, he let me know he thought I had canceled all the obligations he
had been under to me. So I found I was never to expect his repaying me
what I lent to him or advanced for him. This, however, was not then of
much consequence, as he was totally unable; and in the loss of his
friendship I found myself relieved from a burden. I now began to think
of getting a little money beforehand; and, expecting better work, I left
Palmer's to work at Watts's, near Lincoln's Inn Fields, a still greater
printing house. Here I continued all the rest of my stay in London.
At my first admission into this printing house I took to working at
press,[69] imagining I felt a want of the bodily exercise I had been
used to in America, where press work is mixed with composing. I drank
only water; the other workmen, near fifty in number, were great
guzzlers of beer. On occasion, I carried up and down stairs a large
form of types in each hand, when others carried but one in both hands.
They wondered to see, from this and several instances, that the
"Water-American," as they called me, was stronger than themselves, who
drank strong beer! We had an alehouse boy who attended always in the
house to supply the workmen. My companion at the press drank every day
a pint before breakfast, a pint at breakfast with his bread and
cheese, a pint between breakfast and dinner, a pint at dinner, a pint
in the afternoon about six o'clock, and another when he had done his
day's work. I thought it a detestable custom; but it was necessary, he
supposed, to drink strong beer that he might be strong to labor. I
endeavored to convince him that the bodily strength afforded by beer
could only be in proportion to the grain or flour of the barley
dissolved in the water of which it was made; that there was more flour
in a pennyworth of bread; and therefore, if he would eat that with a
pint of water, it would give him more strength than a quart of beer.
He drank on, however, and had four or five shillings to pay out of his
wages every Saturday night for that muddling liquor--an expense I was
free from. And thus these poor devils keep themselves always under.
Watts after some weeks desiring to have me in the composing room, I
left the pressmen; a new _bien venu_,[70] or sum for drink, being five
shillings, was demanded of me by the compositors. I thought it an
imposition, as I had paid below; the master thought so too, and
forbade my paying it. I stood out two or three weeks, was accordingly
considered as an excommunicate, and had so many little pieces of
private mischief done me, by mixing my sorts,[71] transposing my
pages, breaking my matter, etc., if I were ever so little out of the
room, and all ascribed to the chapel[72] ghost, which they said ever
haunted those not regularly admitted, that, notwithstanding the
master's protection, I found myself obliged to comply and pay the
money, convinced of the folly of being on ill terms with those one is
to live with continually.
I was now on a fair footing with them, and soon acquired considerable
influence. I proposed some reasonable alterations in their chapel laws,
and carried them against all opposition. From my example, a great part
of them left their muddling breakfast of beer and bread and cheese,
finding they could with me be supplied from a neighboring house with a
large porringer of hot water gruel, sprinkled with pepper, crumbed with
bread, and a bit of butter in it, for the price of a pint of beer,
namely, three halfpence. This was a more comfortable as well as cheaper
breakfast, and kept their heads clearer. Those who continued sotting
with beer all day were often, by not paying, out of credit at the
alehouse, and used to make interest with me to get beer, their "light,"
as they phrased it, "being out." I watched the pay table on Saturday
night, and collected what I stood engaged for them, having to pay
sometimes near thirty shillings a week on their accounts. This, and my
being esteemed a pretty good "riggite,"--that is, a jocular verbal
satirist,--supported my consequence in the society. My constant
attendance (I never making a Saint Monday[73]) recommended me to the
master; and my uncommon quickness at composing occasioned my being put
upon all work of dispatch, which was generally better paid. So I went on
now very agreeably.
My lodging in Little Britain being too remote, I found another in Duke
Street, opposite to the Romish Chapel. It was two pair of stairs
backward, at an Italian warehouse. A widow lady kept the house; she
had a daughter, and a maidservant, and a journeyman who attended the
warehouse, but lodged abroad. After sending to inquire my character at
the house where I last lodged, she agreed to take me in at the same
rate, three shillings and sixpence per week; cheaper, as she said,
from the protection she expected in having a man lodge in the house.
She was a widow, an elderly woman; had been bred a Protestant, being a
clergyman's daughter, but was converted to the Catholic religion by
her husband, whose memory she much revered; had lived much among
people of distinction, and knew a thousand anecdotes of them as far
back as the time of Charles II. She was lame in her knees with the
gout, and, therefore, seldom stirred out of her room, so sometimes
wanted company; and hers was so highly amusing to me that I was sure
to spend an evening with her whenever she desired it. Our supper was
only half an anchovy each, on a very little strip of bread and butter,
and half a pint of ale between us; but the entertainment was in her
conversation. My always keeping good hours, and giving little trouble
in the family, made her unwilling to part with me; so that, when I
talked of a lodging I had heard of, nearer my business, for two
shillings a week, which, intent as I now was on saving money, made
some difference, she bid me not think of it, for she would abate me
two shillings a week for the future; so I remained with her at one
shilling and sixpence as long as I stayed in London.
In a garret of her house there lived a maiden lady of seventy, in the
most retired manner, of whom my landlady gave me this account: she was
a Roman Catholic, had been sent abroad when young, and lodged in a
nunnery with an intent of becoming a nun; but, the country not
agreeing with her, she returned to England, where, there being no
nunnery, she had vowed to lead the life of a nun, as near as might be
done in those circumstances. Accordingly, she had given all her estate
to charitable uses, reserving only twelve pounds a year to live on,
and out of this sum she still gave a great deal in charity, living
herself on water gruel only, and using no fire but to boil it. She had
lived many years in that garret, being permitted to remain there
gratis by successive Catholic tenants of the house below, as they
deemed it a blessing to have her there. A priest visited her to
confess her every day. "I have asked her," says my landlady, "how she,
as she lived, could possibly find so much employment for a confessor."
"Oh," said she, "it is impossible to avoid vain thoughts." I was
permitted once to visit her. She was cheerful and polite, and
conversed pleasantly. The room was clean, but had no other furniture
than a mattress, a table with a crucifix and book, a stool which she
gave me to sit on, and a picture over the chimney of St. Veronica[74]
displaying her handkerchief, with the miraculous figure of Christ's
bleeding face on it, which she explained to me with great seriousness.
She looked pale, but was never sick; and I give it as another instance
on how small an income life and health may be supported.
At Watts's printing house I contracted an acquaintance with an
ingenious young man, one Wygate, who, having wealthy relations, had
been better educated than most printers,--was a tolerable Latinist,
spoke French, and loved reading. I taught him and a friend of his to
swim at twice going into the river, and they soon became good
swimmers. They introduced me to some gentlemen from the country, who
went to Chelsea[75] by water to see the college and Don Saltero's[76]
curiosities. In our return, at the request of the company, whose
curiosity Wygate had excited, I stripped and leaped into the river,
and swam from near Chelsea to Blackfriar's,[77] performing on the way
many feats of activity, both upon and under the water, that surprised
and pleased those to whom they were novelties.
I had from a child been ever delighted with this exercise, had studied
and practiced all Thevenot's motions and positions, and added some of
my own, aiming at the graceful and easy as well as the useful. All
these I took this occasion of exhibiting to the company, and was much
flattered by their admiration; and Wygate, who was desirous of
becoming a master, grew more and more attached to me on that account,
as well as from the similarity of our studies. He at length proposed
to me traveling all over Europe together, supporting ourselves
everywhere by working at our business. I was once inclined to it; but,
mentioning it to my good friend, Mr. Denham, with whom I often spent
an hour when I had leisure, he dissuaded me from it, advising me to
think only of returning to Pennsylvania, which he was now about to do.
I must record one trait of this good man's character. He had formerly
been in business at Bristol, but failed, in debt to a number of
people, compounded, and went to America. There, by a close application
to business as a merchant, he acquired a plentiful fortune in a few
years. Returning to England in the ship with me, he invited his old
creditors to an entertainment, at which he thanked them for the easy
composition[78] they had favored him with, and, when they expected
nothing but the treat, every man at the first remove found under his
plate an order on a banker for the full amount of the unpaid
remainder, with interest.
He now told me he was about to return to Philadelphia, and should carry
over a great quantity of goods, in order to open a store there. He
proposed to take me over as his clerk, to keep his books (in which he
would instruct me), copy his letters, and attend the store. He added
that, as soon as I should be acquainted with mercantile business, he
would promote me by sending me with a cargo of flour and bread, etc., to
the West Indies, and procure me commissions from others which would be
profitable; and, if I managed well, would establish me handsomely. The
thing pleased me, for I was grown tired of London, remembered with
pleasure the happy months I had spent in Pennsylvania, and wished again
to see it; therefore I immediately agreed on the terms of fifty pounds a
year, Pennsylvania money; less, indeed, than my present gettings as a
compositor, but affording a better prospect.