and modernized by its purchaser of 1795, Samuel Lewis, the architect, who was living in it when he built the Court House. The dormer windows which he added closely resemble those of the Georgian period which adorn that handsome building, and the doorway has been remodeled. Traces of the earlier simplicity, however, are visible at the back of the house, and in the windows not on the street, and the old walls bear witness to their substantial character. Stucco over the exterior and over the extended base beneath the front windows, has taken away the last touch of antiquity which the building still reveals only to the careful scrutiny of the antiquarian.

It has long been the desire of historians, local and other, to discover John Woolman's shop, but only now has the search been successful. In the recent settlement of an estate the deeds for this property have come to light, and references in the Larger Account Book go to confirm these. The circumstances point to John Ogborn as possibly John Woolman's "employer," but he never names him, and there is, as yet, no positive proof. Behind this house stood the "Little Meeting House" to which access was had from Mill street through "Meeting House Alley," which is described in the original deed as on John Woolman's line. The meeting house is referred to in several old deeds owned by Burlington Monthly Meeting, but for years its exact site has been forgotten. The building was used as a school house, and there is little doubt that this was also the scene of John Woolman's labors as teacher.

This location was at the time in the centre of trade in the little town, nearly opposite the mills of Josiah White,18 the enterprising Quaker merchant who came from Salem in 1730, and as preacher and manufacturer, gave a double impetus, commercially and morally, to the town. The shop also adjoined the Three Tuns tavern, owned and kept by Daniel Jones,1 the brother of Woolman's friend, Rebecca Jones, of Philadelphia. Daniel Jones was not a Quaker. The inevitable result of prompt and honest dealing followed, and Woolman's trade so prospered that he feared he might eventually grow rich! He therefore began to reduce the volume of his business, disliking to feel himself involved in too

1 Daniel Jones (1730- ). He remained an Episcopalian, and was a warden of St. Andrew's Church, Mt. Holly.

much "cumber." May 16th, 1753, he sold the Mill street property to his mother, Elizabeth Woolman, and it is not at all unlikely that for a few years before her death, in 1772, she and her unmarried daughter, Rachel, may have lived in the Mill street house together, as her son Asher had a large and growing family.

John Woolman wrote his mother's will "the 11th of 2mo. in the year 1772," not long before he left for England, when she was too feeble to do more than make her trembling mark. In her will she leaves her "brick house in Mount Holly with the framed shop, and all the lot to them belonging," to her daughter Rachel, who held the property for twenty-three years and sold it March 22d. 1795, three years before her death, to Samuel Lewis. The "framed shop" at the side adjoining the house was bought by Josiah White 18 and moved off the premises. Rachel Woolman let out the house, or a part of it, to tenants, and the Pennsylvania Gazette for September 25th, 1776, contains the following advertisement:

"Mount Holly, September 23, 1776.
John Shields

has opened a new store at the Upper end of Mount Holly (in the house where the late Mr. John Woolman lived) where he proposes to keep a neat Assortment of Dry and Wet Goods, suitable to that Part of the Country, whose Custom he hopes to obtain by the Moderation of his Prices."

John Shields does not appear to have owned the property in the town for his shop, and while the family name is known, his own identity is not established.

The second purchase of property made by John Woolman was on May 20th, 1747, when he bought of Peter Andrews,1 his neighbor and intimate friend, eleven acres of land which had originally formed part of the great tract which John Haddon of London had taken up as a Proprietary of West Jersey, and which was inherited by his daughter, Elizabeth Haddon,20 afterwards Estaugh, the founder of Haddonfield. She had sold to Peter Andrews 17 this small portion only the year before. The purchase price was twenty-five pounds, "proclamation money.'

1

There are not many young men of twenty-seven in John Wool1 The original deed is in possession of the Editor.

man's position in life who are possessed of sufficient means to acquire two such pieces of property, even with the prices of the colonial period. This circumstance is in itself enough to refute the charges of extreme poverty which have been made. To this farm, which was increased to nearly two hundred acres by the time it was sold in 1791 by John and Mary Comfort, John Woolman appears to have retired at some period between 1753 and 1760, and he continued at his home to manage the farm and orchard, at the same time that he pursued his tailoring, for the Account Book shows that he was making leather breeches for his customers within a few weeks of his departure for England.

CHAPTER III

1749

MARRIAGE AND SETTLEMENT

Early marriages were universal in this period of colonial life, since a farming community can easily support itself upon productive land like that in West Jersey. But Woolman's tastes were inclined toward a less laborious means of living, as he tells us himself, and he was besides of a slight and rather frail build. Hence he was twenty-nine years old before he married, and had for six years been a recognized preacher. Settling down to his home life, with his tailoring and conveyancing, his legal duties as occasion called him to draw the will of a dying neighbor, or to lay out the property of an heir or new-comer, John Woolman began what was a happy married life, interrupted only by the absences which took him long distances from home, in pursuance of his duties, and at his Master's call.

Of the wife of John Woolman singularly little is known. The family memoranda of her son-in-law, John Comfort,24 give us the dates of her birth and death. She is sometimes named on her meeting's committees, and she served as the first Treasurer of the Woman's Meeting, when the Monthly Meeting of Mount Holly was separated from that of Burlington in 1775, after her husband's death. A few letters remain to or about her, but none of her own to her husband. A word or two stating the bare fact is all that his Journal tells us of his marriage. "The Lord," says Woolman, "gave me a well inclined damsel named Sarah Ellis," ,"25 and this is all that he records. They were married at Chesterfield, New Jersey, 8mo. (October) 18, 1749, when he was twenty-nine and she a year younger. Their marriage certificate is well written on parchment, but the name is very curiously spelled throughout, "Wollman." 1

1 See Appendix, original in Woolman Papers, Historical Society of Pennsylvania.

Sarah Ellis was the daughter of Benjamin Ellis and Mary Abbott, who were married at Chesterfield, N. J., 9mo. (November) 22, 1720. Her father was the son of Josiah Ellis, of Woodenbury, Chester, England. Josiah Ellis married for his third wife, 7mo. (September) 16, 1697, Mary, the daughter of William Adams, of Monmouth, and widow of Thomas Wilcox, goldsmith, of the Savoy, whom she had married at Westminster meeting, 9mo. (November) 22, 1680. Josiah Ellis had many children and grandchildren, all of his wives having left descendants. Benjamin and his twin sister Mary, eldest children by the third wife, were born 8mo. (October) 16, 1698, in the Savoy.

Upon attaining his majority Benjamin Ellis came to America. The first record of him is his certificate to Great Britain from Chesterfield, N. J., dated 6mo. (August) 6, 1719. He brings one from Hammersmith, Middlesex, London, to Philadelphia, dated "29 of 2m0. (April) 1720," and the latter monthly meeting, 7mo. 30 (September) appoints Anthony Morris and Thomas Griffith to prepare another directed to Chesterfield, N. J., "touching his clearness in relation to marriage." At that meeting, 9mo. (November) 24, 1720, he married Mary, daughter of John and Ann (Mauleverer) Abbott.1 They went to Philadelphia to live, and Mary Ellis's certificate of removal to that place is dated on the records, "ye 2nd. of ye 12th mo. (February) 1720." There had been Ellises in Burlington County from the time of William Penn, but they do not appear to be of this family. A George Ellis of Higham, in Derbyshire, sold some land in West Jersey in 1682.2

The day before the birth of their only child, Sarah, Benjamin Ellis requested another certificate to London, "he intending there on business." The minute is dated, "6mo. (August) 25, 1721." The death of Josiah Ellis does not appear on the London records, but this may have been the cause of his son's departure so soon after his arrival and marriage. This is the last evidence of any kind that has been found respecting Benjamin Ellis, and the presumption is that he died, or was lost at sea. There is no clue to the circumstances which had brought together this pair; there

1 Andrew Bradford is a witness from Philadelphia.

N. J. Archives, XXI, 429. For facts of Benjamin Ellis' ancestry, the Editor is indebted to Gilbert Cope.