so that John Woolman has today many direct descendants, but none of the name of Woolman.1 Mary Woolman Comfort died of the scourge of smallpox, which carried away so many of her relatives, leaving her large family with the only daughter but seven years old and the youngest boy aged three. Her husband enters on the index leaf of the Larger Account Book, "My Beloved Wife Departed this life da mo with the Small pox ye 6: 4: 1797, about 12 o'clock at Night, Aged 46 and a half lacking 12 days." He married a second time, at the "Falls" Meeting House, II mo. 4, 1798, Ann, daughter of Isaac and Rebecca English of Middletown.2 There is a memorandum in the Larger Account Book, by John da mo. Comfort,-"8 6 1794-Ann English came here." Her account is balanced and settled on the 28th of Iomo. 1796. She had evidently been assisting in the care of the large family in some domestic capacity, and was probably the natural person to resume the charge of his motherless children. One of these has entered in this same book, so full of the vital interests of this family, "Our endeared Father, John Comfort, 24 departed this Life 1 day of 7m0. 1803, about 4 o'clock in the Morning." He was born 8mo. (October) 5, 1745, and was therefore fifty-eight years old. He left no will; letters of administration were granted by William Hart to his sons, John and Samuel, dated "26 July, 1803," at "The Falls." The house in which John Woolman spent most of his married life stood upon the Old Springfield Road, now Branch Street, originally "The King's Highway," on which the early settlers journeyed from New York to Philadelphia, and to Gloucester. This is confirmed by mention in old deeds of the great oak tree, on the "York Road." This ancient tree, now standing at the corner of Garden and Branch Streets, is the oldest corner named in the local deeds of Mount Holly. It was known as "Cripp's Oak" and Indian treaties doubtless took place under its ample shade. It is carefully guarded by the town. When Garden 1 See Biog. Note, 24, for the family of John and Mary Comfort. 2 Fallsington Marriage Record. Book B, 138. John Cripps was the original owner of the Holly. There are 25 witnesses. land on which now stands Mount Whereas John Comfort Son of Hephen Cornfort died Money his Miss of Miss Showers on the renty of Brands, and and prosmie of Innsylvania and Mary Moolman Saughter of John Woolman and Sarah his Wife of Mountholly in the County of Burlingtons and Western division of the province of New Jersey, having declared their intentions of marriage with eachother before several monthly matings of the People called Quak, ab Burlington avcording to the good order used amongst them, and havm's content of parenttheir said proposals of marriage was allowed of by the said meeting, now these are to cortify whom it may concern that for the full accomplishing their sail intentions this third day of the fourth month in the year of our Lord one thousand seventhundred and seventy one, they the said John Comfort appeared in apublich meeting of the said people of their meetinghouse ni mountmelly abonetary Woolm John Comfort, taking the said Mary Hoolancers by the hand, did in asclann manner openly. delare that he took her the said Mary Woolman to be in Wife fromising through through did nie afsistone to be unto her a loving and & forthful husband confics death should seperate them, and then and there in the same assembly the said Mary Moolmans did in like manmer declare that she took him the said John Confort to be her husband promising through diome afsistance to be unto him aloving and faithfull Wise until worth should seperate them ich to that effect, and moreover they the said John Comfort and Mary Moolmans who according to the Ecustoms of marriage assuming the name of her husbands as a further confirmation, there of side. then and there to this presenti set their hands and we whose names are here also subscribed being present at the solemnization of the raid. and subscription have as witnesses hereunto sob our haseds the day and year above writted. William Calvert PoDillwyn Marriage Certificate of Mary Woolman and John Comfort, 4 mo. 3, 1771. In handwriting of John Woolman. Original in Possession of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. street was laid out in 1775, with John Woolman's brother Jonah as a Commissioner, its description was given in one of the old "Road Books" now in the Court House. It was opened from "the Burlington Road" to the "bars of John Comfort's apple orchard." The "Burlington Road" has now become Main, or High, street, and the old tree must have stood in Woolman's time at his orchard bars. The house is probably represented with reasonable accuracy in the photograph here given of a sepia drawing in the Historical Society of Pennsylvania.1 It stood not far from the present Woolman Memorial, and was built of wood, remaining until 1858 in its original location, when Leander J. Budd, its then owner, removed it to form the front of a stable, after building the house near by, now owned and occupied (1922) by Herbert L. Crippen. The portion which formed the dwelling is still distinguishable from the rest by the cornice which runs about the eaves, and the filled-up blanks in the openings for the upper windows. Within can be traced the marks of the staircase, and the bricks still surround the ancient fire-place, whose early workmanship was known as "brick-pane." The house was bought in 1851 by Leander J. Budd, of Reuben Forker who had previously owned and occupied it. Reuben Forker was a son of the Adam Forker who did the glazing in the brick house adjoining, now the "Memorial," " and who was the first tavern keeper in Mount Holly. The Forkers were a Huguenot family whose several brothers fled from France to Ireland after the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, and soon removed to America. The name was originally Farquhar, or Fauquier, and the Virginia branch had the good taste not to alter the spelling of the name. Descendants of the Forkers are still living.1 1 Collection of Samuel Parrish. Scrap Book, entitled "Quakers and Indians." The same view is crudely illustrated in James Bowden's "History of Friends in America." Vol. II, p. 393. * See Appendix, "Cost of building a Brick House." * The Minutes of Phila. "Mtg. for Sufferings" in 1760 mention William Farquhar, of Virginia. The authority for the Editor's statements as to the removal of this house comes from Miss Mary W. Budd, daughter of Leander J. Budd, who lived in it while her father was building the new house. She perfectly recalls seeing it moved and altered into the stable, in 1858. There is at present no proof that the brick house occupying a slight elevation on the old Springfield Road, nearer the stream (lately occupied by G. W. Moore) was John Woolman's residence, although it stood on his farm and was sold by John Comfort to Samuel Stockton in 1791. If the frame house was once The line of the public road which passed Woolman's house was altered between the date of his purchase in 1747 and the year 1760, when he sold the original eleven acres of land from the rest of his farm to Benajah, son of Peter Andrews," who had died in 1756. This gives a slightly different angle to the road, in the illustration of the house, as shown. He evidently had a "noon mark" upon his floor, and an undated memorandum shows his calculations for drawing "hour lines," which we may be sure he placed for his neighbors as well. "A Course directed to the Sun at Noon would be I believe about S. 4. W."1 Woolman's orchard was his great delight and recreation, and his book shows sales and purchases of apple trees, and the care with which he grafted and trimmed his stock. John Candler, an English Friend who traveled through the United States in 1841, visited what was supposed to be the house of John Woolman, on May 31st of that year, while he was the guest of John Cox at Oxmead, near Burlington. He thus describes the house at that time: "The habitation of John Woolman was a small farm house with two low rooms on the ground floor, standing in the midst of a green paddock or pasture, close by the roadside, about a mile from Mount Holly.2 At the time of our visit it was undergoing repair, and from the alterations and additions about to be made to it, was likely to lose much of its primitive character. We could not survey the spot without some emotion. Here lived one who, with affections strongly attached to its ancient kitchen, the front and rear portions were of different materials, as was often the case, and they were separated when the brick house was enlarged and improved. This is possible. 1 Larger Account Book, p. 1. The house was about three-quarters of a mile from the whipping post and stocks, which stood on the square in the center of the town, lately occupied by a fountain, |