Springfield Township.

arrived home he met his future wife. This romantic incident in his life is thus told by an accomplished author:

"About the middle of the [eighteenth] century young West had an obscure lodging in Strawberry Alley, and painted portraits at a guinea a head, - painted signs, too, for a few shillings, when portraits and guineas were not to be had, - 'The Cask of Beer,' or 'The Jolly Fiddlers.' A picture of St. Ignatius, after Murillo, having been captured on a Spanish brigantine by the 'Britannia,' fell into the possession of Governor Hamilton at Bush Hill. West copied it, and humored some of his portly patrons by painting them in the attitude of the saint. Mad Anthony Wayne, then a handsome, gallant, showily-dressed young fellow, was often seen on the streets with the mild-mannered, apple-cheeked Quaker lad. He brought as many of his fashionable friends as he could persuade to sit for their portraits to the hungry young artist, and it is hinted not only made a military man of him, but introduced him to charming Miss Betty Shewell, with whom West, in his orderly, proper way, fell in love. Miss Shewell's brother, however, being a man with an income, had no mind that his pretty sister should marry a man who had none, and whose occupation was held to be not half so genteel as that of a tailor. He therefore locked Miss Betty up in her room, just about the time that one of the Allans, who was sending a ship laden with grain to the starving Italians, offered Benjamin a passage on her to Leghorn. But love laughed at locksmiths then as now. The Quaker Romeo and his Juliet saw each other, though one was in the garden and the other in the window, and vowed eternal faith. West promised to win fame and money, and his sweetheart promised to come to him to the ends of the earth as soon as he should send her word he had enough of the latter necessary to keep them from starvation. The remainder of the story Bishop White told to Dr. Swift, of Easton, Pa. West, as we all know, succeeded rapidly in winning both the fame and the money, and as soon as he was established first favorite at Hampton Court, he sent to Miss Shewell to claim her part of the promise. Her brother was still inexorable, and did not consider a painter, though he were George's own, a fit match for the daughter of a blue-blooded Philadelphia family. He locked Miss Betty up again in her chamber. The story went out through the town. Popular sympathy was with the lovers; Stephen Shewell was denounced as a tyrant, and many glances of pity and encouragement were cast at the high-latticed window behind which was the fair captive maiden. The ship was in the harbor ready to sail in which West had arranged that his bride should come to him, under the escort of his father. The day arrived for her departure. At this crisis Dr. Franklin appeared as the good angel, and proved himself quite as competent to direct a love-affair as the lightning or the draught in a stove. W ith Bishop White, then a lad of eighteen, and Francis Hopkinson, he went to the ship's captain and arranged with him to delay starting until night, but to be ready to weigh anchor at a moment's warning. Old Mr. West was then taken on board, and at midnight Franklin, young White, and Hopkinson repaired to Stephen Shewell's house, fastened a rope-ladder to Miss Betty's window, held it while she descended, and conducted her safely to the ship, which set sail as soon as she was on board. The lovers were married when she landed, and lived long and happily together. But Stephen Shewell never forgave his sister, nor did she or her husband ever return to this country.

"The story is romantic enough for fiction, but bears every weight of authority. Dr. Swift states that when he rallied the venerable bishop on his part as knight-errant to this modern Dolorida, he replied that he had done right, adding with warmth, that 'if it were to do over again, I should act in precisely the same way. God meant them to come together.'"¹

The subsequent career of Benjamin West, his rapid achievement of fame and fortune in Great Britain, and his death on Friday, March 10, 1820, at the advanced age of eighty-two, occupying at the time the position of president of the Royal Academy, is matter of general history and need not be at large alluded to here. It is proper, however, that the fact that in 1874 the upper part of the West house was injured by fire, but the room in which Benjamin was born was untouched by the flames, should be mentioned in this work. The old structure was renovated as when first constructed, and is now occupied as residences by two of the professors of Swarthmore College.

Pennsdale Farm. - On the Delaware County turnpike, directly opposite Lownes' Free Church, is the Pennsdale farm, which, for nearly a century, has been owned by men who have been prominent in the history of the State and nation. Prior to 1800 the farm was owned by John Thomson, a noted engineer, who, when a young man, engaged in the service of the "Holland Land Company," an organization which controlled much of the land in Northwestern Pennsylvania. After several years, having completed the duties required of him, he determined to make his return to his home useful in aiding the development of that section of the county. He to that end, with one assistant, with no other tools than were ordinarily carried with an engineering expedition, at Presque Isle (now Erie), built a small schooner, in which he and his assistant made the journey to Philadelphia. This was the first vessel that ever passed from Lake Erie to New York and Philadelphia. The "White Fish" was taken to Independence Square, where it remained until it decayed.

The following account of the voyage of the "White Fish" is given in Dunlap & Claypole's American Daily Advertiser of Nov. 12, 1795, under the heading "Philadelphia News":

"On Tuesday last arrived here, after a passage of seven weeks, the schooner 'White Fish,' built last summer at Presque Isle, on Lake Erie. The tediousness of the voyage was owing to the inclemency of the weather. She is only seventeen and a half feet keel and five feet seven inches beam. This small vessel was built and navigated by two young men, citizens of the United States, born in the vicinity of this city. They had neither chart or compass. Her departure was from Presque Isle, along Lake Erie to Falls of Niagara, one hundred and ten miles, thence by land to the landing below the Falls of Niagara ten miles, then to the garrison of Niagara seven miles, then along the south coast of Lake Ontario to the river Oswego one hundred and forty miles, thence up the river Oswego to the Falls twenty miles, then by land round the Falls one mile, thence up the same river to Three Rivers Point twelve miles, thence up the straits leading to the Oneida Lake nineteen miles, thence through the Oneida Lake twenty-eight miles, thence up Wood Creek thirty miles to the landing between Wood Creek and the Mohawk River, thence by land passing Fort Schuyler, formerly Fort Stanwix, one mile into the Mohawk River, then down the Mohawk River sixty miles to the Little Falls, thence round the Falls by land one mile to the landing, thence down the same river sixty miles to Schenectady, thence by land sixteen miles to Albany, thence down the river Hudson one hundred and seventy miles to the city of New York, thence by sea one hundred and fifty miles to the Capes of Delaware River, thence up the Delaware to this city one hundred and twenty miles, making in all nine hundred and forty-seven miles.

"The design of this voyage (the only one ever attempted in the same way) was a disinterested experiment to prove some of the great advantages which may in future be derived to the United States from a speedy settlement in and about the new Town of Erie, in this State. The 'White Fish' (so named from a luxurious fish, in Ichthyology, peculiar to the lakes), cast anchor opposite Market Street wharf, and gave the city a Federal salute of fifteen rounds from a Blunderbuss, which was returned by three hearty cheers from a multitude of citizens, who crowded the wharves and vessels in this port to receive them, for accomplishing this hitherto unexperienced navigation. The two gentlemen certainly deserve well of their country.

"The writer, who is well known to the printers, was present at the