Quakers in Maryland

I was trying to come up with some information to help Elaine with a puzzle that she was working on last week.  It involved a Mills family in Guilford County.  There was the possibility that this Mills family had had connections to Maryland.  Because my own experience with Guilford County, NC is with Quaker families, I suggested that we might look in Hinshaw.  No entries.  But as I have thought about this since, it has come to my attention that Hinshaw did NOT index Maryland!

Then at the Ohio Genealogical Society's conference in Columbus this past week, I had the crazy serendipity that one of the speakers had to leave early and Craig Scott had a last minute fill in to talk about Quakers and Quaker migration.  And lo and behold, Craig actually mentioned a few works that pertained to Quakers in Maryland.  I might not have been as interested if I had not already realized that it was a huge hole in Hinshaw.  Craig offered to send a copy of his handout for the talk via e-mail, and I will add some of the books that he suggested when I get that copy.

Last night I looked for one of the books that Craig suggested:

Quaker Records in Maryland by John Brinkley that is now out of print.  The closest library in which I can view this book is Earlham College in Richmond Indiana.

But last night while I was searching for that book, I actually ordered two books:


and I found the following book available on-line:

The early Friends (or Quakers) in Maryland : read at the meeting of the Maryland Historical Society, 6th March, 1862

Author:	J Saurin Norris
Publisher:	[Baltimore] : Printed for the Maryland Historical Society by John Toy, [1862]
Edition/Format:	eBook : Document : EnglishView all editions and formats
Database:	WorldCat
Rating:	(not yet rated) 0 with reviews - Be the first.
Subjects	Society of Friends -- Maryland. Society of Friends. Maryland.
More like this	Similar Items

http://www.worldcat.org/title/early-friends-or-quakers-in-maryland-read-at-the-meeting-of-the-maryland-historical-society-6th-march-1862/oclc/681747329?referer=br&ht=edition

and the following that is available to read at Swarthmore:

Maryland Quakers in England, 1659-1720

Author:	Kenneth L Carroll
Edition/Format:	Print book : English
Database:	WorldCat
Rating:	(not yet rated) 0 with reviews - Be the first.
Subjects	Quakers -- Maryland. Lay ministry -- Society of Friends. Maryland -- History -- Colonial period, ca. 1600-1775.

Early Meeting Houses in Philadelphia

This post will be a mish-mash of information that I don't want to loose, but probably won't get organized.  It is dibs and dabs from different people about the early Meeting houses.

From Steve Moore:

The subject of the first meeting houses in Philly is really interesting.  I am no expert and have not done the research, but have been looking at it in passing as I look into our Moore family.   For example, I’ve just finished reading through the Philadelphia Monthly Meeting minutes from 1684 through 1742 as abstracted in the Publications of the Genealogical Society of Pennsylvania volumes I through 8.

The minutes are filled with references to the various meeting buildings but my time is so limited I was not able to jot down more than a couple of lines.  

31 11m 1695/6 - "The deed for the Lot of Ground in the second street, that was purchased of Governor Markham was read at this meeting and delivered by Samuel Carpenter…""

26 1m 1697 - "At our Monthly Meeting held at the Meeting house in the High Street…"

26 6m 1698 – “Whereas the Old Bank Meeting house is much decayed and in great danger of falling down, this meeting hath taken the same into consideration, and it is agreed that William Southeby, Anthony Morris, Samuel Richardson & James Fox do Endeavor to get it sold at publick outcry sometime between this and the next monthly meeting, and to give Robert Turner notice thereof.”

And of course they built the center meeting house which was to be THE meeting house.  According to the minutes they spared no expense in so doing.  It took several years to build and our James was one of many.  But as we know, the center of Philly did not play out as Penn had hoped and the epicenter of activity remained closer to the river.  The center house was eventually abandoned, but since they had so much money tied up in it, they made plans to dismantle it and sell the building materials.  Unfortunately, with my limited time I did not notate any of this, just bookmarked in my mind so I can go back to it down the road, so I can’t point you to the pages wherein this was all written.  Though no mention was made of the windows during their discussions of dismantling, it does stand to reason that they would also be salvaged and sold, or even reused in one of the other meeting houses.  I get the feeling that James’ windows lived on.

Next is a land transaction in which land owned originally by James Moore is being sold to be used for building a meeting house:

JAMES MOORE’S LOT ON THE WEST SIDE OF SECOND STREET IN PHILADELPHIA, PURCHASED 12 OCTOBER 1691 AND CONVEYED BY DEED FROM JOHN MOORE, HIS SON & HEIR, TO NICHOLAS PEARCE ON 2 JANUARY 1694, for use of the Quakers to build a meeting house (James Moore having prior to his death agreed to the sale to Pearce and Pearce having paid him the seven pounds price for it, the same being acknowledged in the following deed by John Moore, son of James, in order to convey title from Moore to Pearce and the Society of Friends.)  

Quakers move from Philly to Northern Virginia c. 1730

When one reads about the movement of the Quaker families out of the Philadelphia area, the movement that I first became aware of was from Philly area to Northern Virginia.  Alexander Ross and Morgan Bryan seem to have headed up this migration.  ("He" is Alexander Ross)

• He and Morgan Bryan petitioned the Council of the Colony of Virginia on 28 October 1730 that there were 100 families desirous of settling in Virginia and requested 100,000 acres on the west and north side of "Opeckon" to the North Mountain and along the River Cohongarooton (Potomac River). With the advice of the Council, the Governor gave permission to Ross and Bryan to take up the 100,000 acres; patents would be granted, providing that the 100 families were present and dwelling upon the land within two years.
  
  Ross probably moved to Virginia soon after he received notification of the Council's action. He received his patent from the Colony on 12 November 1735 for 2,373 acres. The tract is located west of Clearbrook, Virginia on Braddocks Road, Frederick County Highway 672. Interstate Highway 81 crosses the east part of the tract, Frederick County Highway 671 runs along the north side and County Highway 661 runs along the east.

from:
http://sherrysharp.com/genealogy/getperson.php?personID=I47693&tree=Roots

Joseph has told me that:

  The Mordecai we know we are related to in Pennsylvania is the son of John and Jane.  He is Steve's ancestor, who left the area about 1729, is missing for about 15 years, and then turned up in Frederick County, VA, then Granville, NC, then SC.  There is no evidence that James and Rose had more than the two children we know about---John and Mary. 

The date that Mordecai "goes Missing" is just about perfect for having been a part of Alexander Ross' early group to move from the Philly area to Northern Virginia.  I did a bit of thinking about this and remembered that Old Frederick county was not carved out of Orange until 1738.  So it is possible that Mordecai might be found among the Orange County, Virginia records in the period between 1730 and 1738.  I am doing this from memory...but I believe that early Hopewell MM records burned in a fire in someone's home.  I will work on some of this when I get home.

Here is what I found on-line (Thanks to Bruce Locken) about the original 70 families that accompanied Alexander Ross and Morgan Bryan from Philly area to Northern Virginia:

In the State Land Office at Richmond are to be found recorded in Book 16, pages 315-415, inclusive, the patents issued to the settlers who came to the Shenandoah Valley under authority of the Orders in Council made to Alexander Ross and Morgan Bryan. All bear date of November 12, 1735, and recite that the grantee is one of the seventy families brought in by them, and excepting location and acreage, are alike in wording and conditions, and are signed by William Gooch, Lieutenant-Governor of the Colony at that time. . . .

These patents were issued under the seal of the colony and were grants from the Crown, free of any obligation of feudal services to the Fairfax family, who claimed the land as lords proprietors of the Northern Neck of Virginia. The sixth Lord Fairfax, who later established his home at Greenway Court near Winchester, instituted many suits against early settlers in the Shenandoah Valley, but it does not appear that any Friend who claimed under Ross and Bryan was ever ejected from his land.

Although it is specifically stated that seventy families have been "by them brought in to our said Colony and settled upon the Lands in the said Order mentioned," only thirty-six patents issued to thirty-four grantees have been found. The names of these grantees are here given, together with sundry information gathered from the minutes of various Friends' meetings, from the records of the counties of Orange and Frederick in Virginia, and Chester County, Pennsylvania. . . .
 Frederick County, Virginia, Hopewell Friends History [database online], Orem, UT: Ancestry.com, 1997:

James and Rose Moore in Philadelphia 1684-1720

I am going to try to summarize here what I know and what I do not know about my 9-gr-grandparents, Joseph and Rose/Roose Moore.  If you scroll down you will find lots more information about my research on this couple in other posts in February 2015.  I learned so much about my ancestors and about the very early days of Philadelphia this past week that I can not begin to write it all down.  However, there were a few things I wanted to note before life begins to blur my research.  The area that is pictured below is almost certainly where the couple lived from 1684 until they sell the land in 1693.  James is listed as a blacksmith in the "Philadelphia Business Directory of 1690" in the book, Colonial Philadelphians by Hannah  Benner Roach (I own this book) for this time frame.

Everything that I have read has explained that while William Penn had a very clear master plan for the city of Philadelphia, the actual development did not follow his plan.  Penn chose the site that is shown above as the center of the town.  Of course, the City Hall pictured was built MUCH later.  This  site was to be a center open space that was square in shape.  Penn pictured Philly to be a town with much green space everywhere.  Not the helter skelter town that it has become.

William Penn had chosen the land where the Delaware and the Schuykill Rivers come close making the neck of land narrow for his new city.  You can see the Center Square right in the middle of the map.


 However, those who settled did their own thing.  You can look at Elfreth's Alley to see that there is absolutely NO green space between the row houses that were built on that site.  Jeremiah Elfreth died before 1700, so that Alley is VERY old.  What really happened is that the settlers ended up settling along the Delaware River and ignored the center of the city and the land on the side of the city nearest the Schuykill River.  So the Center square remained outside of the more heavily settled area in the early days.

Wikipedia says:

However, the Delaware riverfront would remain the de facto economic and social heart of the city for more than a century.

[…] hardly anyone lived west of Fourth Street before 1703. Consequently Penn's design of a center square as the hub of his community had to be abandoned. The large Friends meeting house which was built in 1685 at the midpoint between the rivers was dismantled in 1702. Efforts to develop the Schuylkill waterfront likewise collapsed. Of the merchants, tradesmen, and craftsmen who can be identified as living in Philadelphia around 1690, 123 lived on the Delaware side of town and only 6 on the Schuylkill side. One of the latter, a tailor named William Boulding, complained that he had invested most of his capital in his Schuylkill lot, 'so that he cannot, as others have done, Remove from the same.' Not until the mid-nineteenth century, long after the city had spilled northward and southward in an arc along the Delaware miles beyond its original limits, was the Schuylkill waterfront fully developed. Nor was Centre Square restored as the heart of Philadelphia until the construction of City Hall began in 1871.^[10]

This information gives me the idea that James and Rose may have decided to move to the Delaware River front as they found that the center of the city did not develop as they had expected.  James had spent his years while they lived at Center Square working on Penn's Mill and on the leaded glass windows at the Center Meeting house.

From  Narratives of Early Pennsylvania, West Jersey and Delaware 1630-1707 Edited  by Albert Cook Myers, Charles Scribners Sons NY 1912:

A footnote by Mr. Myers on page 271 says:  "The Friends' Meeting House in the Centre Square of the city, midway between the Delaware and Schuylkill Rivers, where the City Hall now stands, was built of brick, in 1685-1686, and was used for a time for the more important First Day (Sunday) morning and business meetings of the society.  The location being in the midst of the forest some little distance without the town, and its two or three streets along the Delaware, the meeting was not well attended;  the Friends preferred to wait for the afternoon meeting at the Bank Meeting house, near at hand, within the town proper; consequently, in a few years the Centre Square meeting was abandoned."

My best guess is that James and Rose lived these truths and when the land just to the north of Vine Street (the northern boundary of Philadelphia) opened up, decided that they would move there in order that James' business would be more accessible to the population that was more heavily settled along the Delaware River.  The area in which their land lay was in what is now the Northern Liberties:

 The historical boundaries:  Vine Street as the southern border and the Cohocksink Creek serving as the northern border. The creek now flows as a storm sewer under the following streets (starting at the Delaware River and running from southeast to northwest): Canal, Laurel, Bodine, Cambridge, and Orkney Streets.

The below is the map that Lynn sent to me that helped me locate the bank lot.  Lynn says that the maps came from:  The Philadelphia Map by Holmes was published in 1687. The northern Bank lot area came from the PA State Archive online.

James and Rose sold their Center Square lot in 
James died in 1694.

Rose sold the Delaware River bank lot in 1709.  Rose died in 1720.  It is not likely that she moved outside of the city limits as her burial is recorded in the Philadelphia Meeting records.  She is listed among the non-Quakers whose burial is recorded by.....

The one more piece of information that I want to add into this post deals with:

PHILADELPHIA EXEMPLIFICATION BOOK 7,

pp 581-582, in archives of the Historical Society of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

JAMES MOORE’S LOT ON THE WEST SIDE OF SECOND STREET IN PHILADELPHIA, PURCHASED 12 OCTOBER 1691 AND CONVEYED BY DEED FROM JOHN MOORE, HIS SON & HEIR, TO NICHOLAS PEARCE ON 2 JANUARY 1694, for use of the Quakers to build a meeting house (James Moore having prior to his death agreed to the sale to Pearce and Pearce having paid him the seven pounds price for it, the same being acknowledged in the following deed by John Moore, son of James, in order to convey title from Moore to Pearce and the Society of Friends.) [this information sent to me by Joseph Moore}

Moore land in Philadelphia

I am a bit confused on where the land on which James and Rose Moore lived in Philadelphia.  So I am trying to sort out what I can sort out.  The Philadelphia Business Directory of 1690 (WOW!  Could there really be such a thing?)  says that there are five smiths in Philadelphia:

Lyonel Brittain a blacksmith from Alney, Buckinghamshire

Thomas Peart a whitesmithwho brought a certificate of removal from Thusk Meeting in Yorkshire

Joshua Morris a tynn-plate-worker or tinsmith who arrived on the Welcome with William Penn in the fall of 1862

James Moore, blacksmith, by warrant dated 17 4m 1684, had a lot surveyed to him at Center apparently at the southeast corner of High Street and Schuylkill Eighth.  Here he built a house and presumably lived here while employed at the Proprietor's mill, and while making the windows for the Center Meeting House.  In December, 1693, he sold it to Richard Worthin, but was not taxed that year.  (the footnote says:  Pennsylvania Archives, 3rd Series, II 752, ibid, 2nd series XIX, 328, which recites Moore's said of the house and lot to Richard Worthin in  1693 , ibid, 89, 92, PGSP, II, 169, See also PGM, XX, 62 for further notes on James Moore.

Jeremiah Elfreth, blacksmith, in 1686 bought from John Wheeler the latter's lot "before Henry Flower's House."  When he came to build on this bank lot in 1690, he bought from Richard Russel the right to build into Russell's north "gavell" wall.  He was not taxed in 1693.  There was a footnote about this entry.  This is almost certainly the Jeremiah Elfreth of Elfreth's Alley fame.

All of this is taken from the book Colonial Philadelphians by Hannah Benner Roach that I bought from the Philadelphia Genealogical Society on Tuesday.  The information about the smiths was found on page 47.

OK, I just reread page 31 of the article in Ms Roach's article about the 1690 Business Directory.  It explains that John Goodson wrote a letter to friends in England in which he listed some thirty-five different grades and businesses that were flourishing in Philadelphia in 1690.  He did NOT list names.    The author has examined many sources that she names on pg 31 in identifying these individuals.  Ms. Roach has footnotes to explain her identifications of the various tradesmen.

On December 8, 1853, Councils gave them new names. Schuylkill Eighth became Fifteenth Street. Schuylkill Seventeenth Street. Schuylkill Fifth became Eighteenth Street. Schuylkill Fourth became Nineteenth Street. Schuylkill Third became Twentieth Street. Schuylkill Second, and Ashton Street to Twenty-third Street.
http://www.ushistory.org/philadelphia/formerstreets.htm

Market Street (Philadelphia) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Market_Street_(Philadelphia)

Wikipedia

Market Street, originally known as High Street, is a major east–west street in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. 

The City was laid out by William Penn, the founder of the province in 1683, and settled by a colony from England, which arrived in that and the preceding years, and was increased by a constant and regular influx of foreigners, to so great a degree, that in just less than a century, and within the lifetime of the first person born within it of European parents, it was computed to contain 6,000 houses and 40,000 inhabitants.
The ground plot of the city is an oblong square, and is intersected by a number of streets at right angles with each other, nine of which run East and West from Delaware to Schuylkill, and twenty three North and South, crossing the first at right angles, forming one hundred and eighty-four squares of lots for buildings.
The streets running East and West are named (except High Street near the middle of the City) from the trees found in the country upon arrival of the colony: Vine, Sassafras, Mulberry, High, Chestnut, Walnut, Spruce, Pine, and Cedar Streets, and those running North and South from their numeral order, Front, Second, Third, Fourth, etc. to Broad Street, which is midway between the two rivers.
http://www.fmoran.com/kuhn2.html

Thus  James Moore's land in 1690 would have been on the corner of what would now be Market and Fifteenth Street.  Literally right where Dilworth plaza is today.  I have proven for myself what my buddies told me!  So if James and Rose lived on the property from the time that he had it surveyed until the time that he sold it they were on that property for almost ten years.

So the next question is how does the land up in the Northern Liberties fit into the story of James and Rose?  Certainly this must be the bank lot?

OK...I found it.  Rose is selling this lot in 1709:

...... to wit in the first month 1689/90 surveyed & laid out to the above named James Moore The Right & property of which sd Lot as Surveyed appertaineth unto me the sd Rose Moore.....  James had sold the Center of town lot in December 1693 according to Ms. Roach.  James seemed to have died the following year.  And his widow, Rose, then sold the bank lot 3 May, 1709.  In the land transaction in which Rose is selling the land it is said that she sells the premises and appurtenances. I believe that this implies that it was not vacant land.  Perhaps she and James had moved to the bank lot on the Delaware River from the Center of the City lot for whatever reason.    

Philadelphia Historical Tour with Trevor and Historical and Genealogical Library research

This is the first day that I have been here that both the Genealogy Library and the Historical Library are open.  The Historical Library doesn't open until 12:30, so I am spending the morning at the Genealogy library.  Everyone says that the historical library is a treat in itself:

https://www.hsp.org

However, as the day unfolded, I found that  I had lots more fun at the Pennsylvania Genealogical Library!  It is a bit hard to find as it is upstairs in a nondescript building that appears to be a lawyer's office or some such thing.  But the ladies in the library are a treat!  Joyce Homan, the Executive Director knocked herself out to pull out and print out everything that she could think of that would be helpful.  I also took away the brochure about joining the first families group that the Genealogy Society supports.  I browsed through the books that they have for sale and purchased the following:

Philadelphia Maps, 1682-1982: Townships-Districts-Wards (Special Publication No 6 of the Genealogical Society of Pennsylvania)
Colonias Philadelphians by Hannah Benner Roach
I mailed the other publications home and will add them once I get home.

Later at the Historical Society library I made the following notes;

 I am looking at a volume that is a facsimile of the Philadelphia Monthly Meeting records.  It is the volume that contains Burials 1687-1826 Part I.  On page 413 there is a record of a burial of such as are not friends for the year 1694.  on 8th month, 2nd day Rebecka More daughter of Nicholas and Mary More was buried and on the 9th month  and 6th day Sam'l More son of Nicholas and Mary More was buried.  On the next page in the 9th month on the 25th day Katherine More daughter of Anthony and Jane More was buried.  ad on the 11th month 10th day Henry More was buried.  There is no mention in 1684 of burial of James More.  On page 416 there is a record of burial of Dorothy More, widow of Henry More (dec) buried in 1696.  all of these burials are for non-Friends.  In 1720 another Rebecka More but this time daughter of Anthony and Mary Moor buried as a non-friend.  This is not an oversight on my part.  It says that Rebecka is daughter of Anthony and Mary Moor....not Jane Moor.

Rose is not mentioned in this list in 1720.

Next I had  arranged for a tour that will include Elfreth's Alley and the land on which I now believe James and Rose actually lived and James conducted business as a blacksmith.  This is my last night and I decided that I wanted to see Front street and the area in which James and Rose ACTUALLY lived.  I believe now that the land here near City Hall may have been an investment.  

Trevor picked me up at the Historical Society building at 5:30.  He was a great guide as his interest is history and he has lots of knowledge about the sites and about how the sites came to be.   Of course, that is of great interest to me.  I suggested that their website should include the information that they could work with their clients to do genealogy tours.  Trevor explained that this was not the first time that he had worked with a client to find a genealogy site that was of interest.  I only wish that I had taken the tour with Trevor early in my visit as he explained several pieces of information that would have been good to know as I looked at some of the documents.

Our first stop was Elfreth's Alley.  It is the oldest continuously inhabited neighborhood in the country.

Elfreth’s Alley was home to the 18th-century artisans and trades-people who were the backbone of colonial Philadelphia. While a modern city has sprung up around it, the alley preserves three centuries of evolution through its old-fashioned flower boxes, shutters, Flemish bond brickwork and other architectural details. Two adjacent houses, built in 1755, are now a museum and are open to the public.

Trevor explained that two men (one of whom had last name Elfreth) subdivided their residence into extra housing between the two homes.  So the alley/street would have been on the boundary of their lots.

I am adding this in 2018:  Jeremiah Elfreth died in 1720.  I am not certain without looking that the man responsible for this alley was Jeremiah...but I don't want to loose this thought.  Jeremiah Elfreth is said to be a blacksmith in the Philadelphia Business Directory of 1690.  Very possible that James Moore and Jeremiah Elfreth were at least acquaintances.

Our next stop was to the area in which my James Moore owned land before 1700.  Trevor explained that that the area was called Northern Liberties.  It was outside of the official area of Philadelphia in the time period that James lived.  Vine Street would have been the northern boundary of Philadelphia.

I will add a map here when I update this site

I had done a bit of homework that I showed Trevor.  He drove me to Front Street.  We believe that we found the spot where James and Rose's property would have been.  From the map that Lynn sent me, it looked as if the lot was just where Marg (aret?) Street came into Front Street.  But the problem that I had was that I couldn't find Marg (are?) Street on a modern map.  Trevor helped me find the spot where an old street came into Front Street.....the old trolley tracks are a sure clue to the fact that it had been a street before the Interstate came through.  The area that was there was not pretty enough to photograph.  There is a storage facility in the area on which we agreed most likely for actual lot of James and Rose.  But Trevor and I were standing on the spot on the street that would have fronted their residence/land.

Front street in the area is not much different than it would have been many years ago except for the buildings and cars and etc that are built along it.  It almost looks like an alley.

In this area, the homes would have been right along Front Street.  But Penn, who was very much a proponent of everyone being equal, required that the land owners maintain steps that were public for anyone to have access to the river.  The steps would take one down from Front Street to Water Street and the actual wharves and the river itself.

The below are the original steps leading from Front Street down to Water Street and the wharves and River below.

These stairs would have been in place during James and Rose's time in Philadelphia.  However, they may not have been the stairs closest to their home.  The next photo is a photo of Front Street at the same stop as the stairs:

I am adding this in 2018:  When I took my kids and grandkids to Philly this past winter, we found this area by taking 

I would never have found any of this without Trevor!  The rest of the evening was his choice as I had seen what I most wanted to see.  Trevor made the city come alive for me!  One other thing that I want to mention is that one one the particularly interesting sites was a market site in the west of the city.  Trevor explained in early days there would have been a market similar to it on Market Street and also one up north in North Liberties on North Market Street which is the street that would have ended on the river at the land of James and Rose.  I'll try to find a photo of the market to add here when I have more time.

City Hall and James Moore's WIll

Ok, today is the big day.  I have an appointment at City Hall to view the Will of James Moore!  And if possible to get a photo of the wax seal that he used on the document.  I am to go to Room 185.  I am taking nothing with me except my phone.  And perhaps a piece of paper and a pencil in case I decide that I want to transcribe it.  However, our research group already has a typed transcription of the will.

The trip was not disappointing, but I do not feel that we know much more about John Moore from my having looked at his original will and wax seal than we knew yesterday.  It was certainly fun to just look at the actual will.  The handwriting was very nice and it was actually quite easy to read.  All of the witnesses signed the will themselves except for Sarah Cureton who signed with her mark which looked like the letter c.  However, who knows what might come of my jaunt to city hall.  The office was very relaxed and the will was in the drawer for me to view.  If someone is hoping to look at the will for oneself, you should call 215-686-6269 several days ahead of time so that the staff can have the will readily available for viewing.  It is kept off-site in some sort of storage area.  The lady with whom I had talked ahead of time made a copy of the will for me.  I took a few photos of the seal before I was told that there were no photographs allowed.  The photos are disappointing.  But I will put them below:

The other two are even blurrier.  I think that the next time one of us tries to photograph the seal, we need some sort of specialized lens....or perhaps some practice with our iPhone to take very close up photos.

I then went a block or so away and bought all sorts of magnification ....Hoping to try to take a photo of the seal when it was magnified.  However, none of the magnification yielded results that I felt were worth making someone angry in the office trying to take a photo after I had been told not to.

So I spent the rest of the time with the 6x magnification examining the seal for myself.  And I came right back to the room to write down my gut feelings....thoughts....best guesses... the things that came to me while I was looking at the seal first hand.

The seal in the above photo is somewhat magnified.  The actual seal is about the size of a dime.  It looks to me that the method used was to put a blob of wax on the paper and then to press one's seal into the wax.  There is some black that you can see around the edges.  I don't know if that is ink or if the wax has been contaminated with something.    The actual seal is about the size of a dime.  The copy from the copy made by the clerk below is a truer rendition to the size:

What did I think that I saw after studying with 6x magnification?  I did not see a clover as someone else seems to have seen.  I thought that I saw a H or an E on the far left hand side around the rim...about where the pen stroke at the end of Moore points on the seal.  I felt as if there had been other letters in the same area, but I could not make out other letters even with my vivid imagination.  the light triangles are not a part of the design.  They are spots where the wax has disappeared and one sees paper underneath.  Now my next comment is just kind of off the wall.  But my imagination caused me to "see" an arm coming from the right hand side and holding a torch. The torch was held high towards the center of the top of the seal.....then on the other side I saw another arm also holding something high in the air towards the center of the top of the seal.  Could have been another torch....but what came into my mind was that it was a bare arm with a sleeve and that it could have represented the fact that John was a blacksmith.  I'll go on line to kind of show what I imagined.....Now honestly there was very little there....I am just telling you what jumped into my mind.

So on the right hand side I imagined a torch held somewhat like that below only higher:

  And the left hand side I envisioned an arm somewhat like the one below:

or like the below only arm higher so that both arms from both sides pointed up at something in the middle of the top of the seal.

I can only say that I didn't really see these things exactly....but I felt as if perhaps I saw at least one of the arms....and not necessarily did I see both arms at the same time...but that is what jumped into my head as I examined the seal.  So imagine arms coming from both sides and raised in the air.

I think that I am headed out this afternoon.  When I was looking for the magnifying glasses, I saw a Quaker center that I will explore.

I spent a few minutes googling blacksmith in Philadelphia and found this site that I don't want to loose:

https://books.google.com/books?id=8uYkAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA2251&lpg=PA2251&dq=History+of+Blacksmiths+in+Philadelphia&source=bl&ots=6t5jr23ox9&sig=R6L6nrJKuTn-OnrMA-h0IActrrM&hl=en&sa=X&ei=jHXrVKG6I-zbsASy5IKABw&ved=0CFoQ6AEwCQ#v=onepage&q=History%20of%20Blacksmiths%20in%20Philadelphia&f=false

I want to explain a bit better about the letter or letters that I saw.  The E or H was actually the clearest thing on the seal.  I felt as if the letter was part of several letters placed much as the letters in the below example are.....that is encircling the seal:

So the letter that I saw would have been about where the V in Pennsylvania is on this example.  I though perhaps I was seeing another letter or two in the same area...perhaps where the Y and L are.  But I saw no evidence of letters anyplace else on the edges around the outside of the seal.  Best I can do.

This evening I decided to sit at the bar at Bank and Bourbon instead of sitting by myself....So I ended up drinking Old fashions because I was so well entertained by the man sitting beside me who was in town on business.  He works for an advertising company that helps explain to doctors how different drugs work for their patients.  He spent time explaining in a thoroughly entertaining way about the new drugs that are injectable and also the cancer drugs that are immunotherapy (I might have made up that word, but it will trigger for me what I learned).  At the end of the evening he showed me photos of his beautiful family.  It was a very nice ending to another great day.