Dillingham 
 A Tribute to the Memory 
 
 Peter 
 
 of 
 Collinson
 
 
 
 ^TRIBUTE TO THE MEMORY 
 
 PETER COLLINSON, 
 
 WITH SOME NOTICE OF 
 
 DR. DARLINGTON'S MEMORIALS 
 
 JOHN BARTRAM AND HUMPHRY MARSHALL. 
 
 Second Edition. 
 
 WITH ADDITIONAL NOTES AND AN APPENDIX, 
 
 BYWM. H. DILLINGHAM 
 
 PHILADELPHIA : 
 HENRY LONGSTRETH, 347 MARKET STREET, 
 
 1852.
 
 P.R.S. S.A.S 
 
 ACAD.REG. BEROL: et SVEC. soc
 
 TRIBUTE TO THE MEMORY 
 
 PETER COLLINSON, 
 
 WITH SOME NOTICE OF 
 
 DR. DARLINGTON'S MEMORIALS 
 
 JOHN BARTRAM AND HUMPHRY MARSHALL. 
 
 Second Edition, 
 
 WITH ADDITIONAL NOTES AND AN APPENDIX. 
 
 BY WM. H. DILLINGHAM 
 
 PHILADELPHIA: 
 
 HENRY LONGSTRETH, 347 MARKET STREET, 
 1852.
 
 PETER COLLINSON. 
 
 THIS name indicates where those who would profit by the 
 teachings of history may find a happy illustration of the many 
 excellent traits of character which result from a life conformed 
 to principles of Friends. The sect has been much criticised ; 
 the number of its adherents is limited in extent ; we do not our- 
 selves see things spiritual in the light they do, and we have 
 heretofore expressed our dissent and given our reasons as occa- 
 sion prompted.* But the truth of history must concede to them 
 rare virtues, characterized as they are by self-denial, and emi- 
 nent success in their efforts to relieve suffering humanity. In- 
 deed they deny themselves the use of some agencies which most 
 Christians think powerful and effectual as means of doing good. 
 They have had the test of time ; they have had their trials, 
 neither few nor small; they have been sifted and scanned; 
 and, while differing from almost all the rest of the world in 
 some great leading rules of life and conduct, they have perse- 
 vered and have been sustained : after the lapse of more than 
 two centuries, the world sees a vast product of good to the 
 whole human family from the labours of these few men.f Upon 
 whom else in the wide world, since time began, has the sun of 
 truth shone with a brighter light to carry him to the dark re- 
 cesses and secret depths of sorrow, suffering, sin and shame, 
 to relieve the miseries of a brother sinner, a fellow immortal ? 
 Wherever man presents himself, of whatever race or kind; 
 
 * This was the expression of the Princeton Review, where the original 
 article appeared. 
 
 f They seek to personify the practical benevolence which their name 
 indicates, in humble imitation of the example set them by the one great 
 " Friend of Sinners." 
 
 (3)
 
 however wrecked in body, in mind, or in estate ; however savage, 
 barbarous, and idolatrous ; however vicious and corrupt, the 
 slave of his appetites and passions ; nay, however sunk in the 
 depths of infamy and crime, Friends regard him still as a fellow 
 creature, to whom " our Father in heaven" has imparted an 
 immortal soul, and who, while life lasts, should be treated and 
 cared for as a fellow traveller to eternity.* 
 
 Their success in these efforts has certainly been pre-eminent. 
 Witness their treatment of the criminal and of the insane. We 
 cite this as one of the good traits for which Friends are distin- 
 guished, and it is one which has contributed to give character 
 to the age. Who does not rejoice to live in an age when the 
 insane are no longer treated with cruelty, and when the most 
 wretched in crime may be taught that there is still, for them 
 even, a God of infinite mercy ? How do we look back with 
 wonder upon the thousands of years the world had existed be- 
 fore it was discovered that a grand panacea for diseases of the 
 mind was to be found in the law of love ? And how does the 
 world seem to have forgotten that one came down from heaven 
 " and abode awhile in the flesh," to teach man how he should 
 treat his brother sinner, and to point the dying malefactor to 
 the gate of heaven ? For the general prevalence, blessed in- 
 fluence, and practical application of these truths, we are greatly 
 indebted to Friends. 
 
 Their quiet virtues, happy amenities, and silent worth, do 
 not attract the gaze of the world ; but they will repay us for 
 seeking out and looking into them. Their simple habits ; their 
 industry, integrity, and thrift ; their pleasure in doing good ; 
 their intense interest in nature's varied handiwork ; their esti- 
 mate of things conducive to comfort, peace, and happiness, over 
 things luxurious and things ostentatious ; their abhorrence of 
 war ; their active sympathy with all in distress, and their pre- 
 ference of the " good name which is better than precious oint- 
 
 * Many believe that there is a light in the breast of every human being 
 which should enable him to discriminate between good and evil, and 
 which, however it may become clouded and darkened, is never wholly ex- 
 tinguished while life lasts. To this spark of reason and conscience they 
 address themselves with the law of brotherly kindness, and seek to kindle 
 the light within.
 
 ment" over worldly glory, had all a faithful representative in 
 Peter Collinson.* In their full representation we do not think 
 the Society has produced his superior. We do not say that he 
 was a better man than George Fox or William Penn ; that he 
 was so deep a thinker as Dr. Fothergill ; that he did more to 
 leave a name behind him than James Logan ; that he was so 
 great a naturalist as John Bartram ; or that he relieved as 
 much distress as Elizabeth Fry. But, studying his character 
 as it has been recently developed, it does appear to us that he 
 combined more of all these respective qualities than either of 
 the individuals named. One who has done more than any ether 
 towards this development, and who understands the whole sub- 
 ject as well as any man living, says of him, in a manuscript 
 now under our eye "he was one of the earliest and most dis- 
 tinguished cultivators, and most distinguished patrons, of the 
 Natural Sciences in the Society of Friends ; and, at the same 
 time, an honour and an ornament to the sect." It must be 
 acknowledged that the same authority says of Dr. Fothergill, 
 the intimate friend of Peter Collinson, that he " regards him 
 as the most accomplished Quaker that ever lived, whether con- 
 sidered as a man of science, or as a philanthropist" adding, 
 " while the Society of Friends may ever be proud of their 
 great lawgiver, Penn, the lovers of nature among them may 
 boast of a Logan, a Collinson, a Fothergill, and a Marshall; 
 to each of whom a, genus has been dedicated, that will preserve 
 the memory of their worth and services as long as the plants 
 which bear their names shall continue to grow." But the pre- 
 eminence in accomplishments among Friends, which our corres- 
 pondent assigns to Dr. Fothergill, relates particularly to science 
 and philanthropy. As a practical utilitarian, a helper of others 
 to do good to their fellow-men, and to attain the heights and 
 depths of scientific discovery ; to push their researches through 
 difficulties and dangers to earth's remotest bounds, and perhaps 
 in some other characteristic excellencies, Peter Collinson sur- 
 passed him ; although it must at the same time be confessed 
 
 * Enclosed in Peter Collinson's Will was found a paper importing, 
 " that he hoped he should leave behind him a good name which he valued 
 more than riches : that he had endeavoured not to live uselessly ; and that 
 all his days he constantly aimed to be a friend of mankind." 
 1*
 
 6 
 
 also, he was not so good a Whig, nor so great a friend to our 
 revolutionary movement. 
 
 Could we ask Dr. Franklin " who, of all men, best deserved 
 a statue, in commemoration of active, disinterested, and valua- 
 ble services in building up the Philadelphia Library ?" he would 
 say, " Peter Collinson." Those most knowing in the early his- 
 tory of this institution now say, that the marble which occu- 
 pies a niche in its front, would have found a more fitting place 
 in front of the Philosophical Hall opposite. Ask Franklin 
 again, " from whom he derived the information, and who fur- 
 nished him with the hints, and put into his hands the actual 
 mea.ns, whereby he made his splendid discovery of the identity 
 of lightning and electricity," and he will tell you, "Peter Col- 
 linson."* It is melancholy to think that his thirty years gra- 
 tuitous and invaluable services for the Library should have 
 been terminated by this excellent man, as we have good author- 
 ity to believe, under a sense that they had not been duly esti- 
 mated by those having it in charge. 
 
 He was the only man in the Royal Society at London who 
 appreciated Franklin's letters announcing his discovery; which, 
 when first communicated there, were frowned down, sneered at, 
 and refused a place in their published transactions. Peter 
 Collinson had them published, drew the attention of knowing 
 
 * In Dr. Lettsom's edition of Dr. Fothergill's works we find a letter 
 from Dr. Franklin to Michael Collinson, Esq., on the occasion of his 
 father's death, dated "Craven Street, Feb. 8, 1770," from which we 
 give an extract. After referring to and describing the valuable services 
 rendered to the Philadelphia Library, by Peter Collinson, he goes on to 
 say: 
 
 " During the same time he transmitted to the Directors of the Library 
 the earliest accounts of every new European improvement in agriculture 
 and the arts, and every philosophical discovery ; among which, in 1745, 
 he sent over an account of the new German experiments in electricity, 
 together with a glass tube, and some directions for using it, so as to repeat 
 these experiments. This was the first notice I had of that curious sub- 
 ject, which I afterwards prosecuted with some diligence, being encouraged 
 by the friendly reception he gave to the letters I wrote to him upon it. 
 Please to accept this small testimony of mine to his memory, for which I 
 shall ever have the utmost respect ; and believe me, with sincere esteem, 
 Dear Sir, your most obedient, humble servant, 
 
 B. FRANKLIN."
 
 men to them, excited admiration of the wonderful secret dis- 
 closed, and was among the very first to foresee and proclaim 
 Franklin's undying renown. 
 
 He did more than any man living to help to make John 
 Bartram what he became, and without his aid Bartram could 
 never have accomplished one half his wonderful achievements. 
 Dr. Fothergill goes so far as to say, " That eminent naturalist, 
 John Bartram, may almost be said to have been created such 
 by my friend's assistance," ' constantly exciting him to perse- 
 vere in investigating the plants of America, which he has exe- 
 cuted with indefatigable labour through a long course of years, 
 and with amazing success." 
 
 It is an interesting fact, that it should have been reserved 
 for our own time and for our own country, to bring to light far 
 more than was before known of the life, history, and scientific 
 habits and correspondence of that eminent and excellent man, 
 who was a London merchant, and who died about the middle of 
 the last century. True, the English themselves acknowledge, 
 that it was an American who first told them what they wanted 
 to know about Sebastian Cabot. The Edinburg Reviewers, 
 even before that, had found out that " they should soon learn to 
 love the Americans if they sent them many more such books," 
 as one which Robert Walsh had written about France. 
 
 The recent work by Dr. Darlington, a Pennsylvanian, has 
 awakened deep interest in England, with regard to one of their 
 own sons collaterally introduced, and is equally well spoken of 
 on both sides of the water. It is entitled, "Memorials of John 
 Bartram and Humphry Marshall ;" but nearly one half of its 
 five hundred and ninety-five pages of fair, large, open type, is 
 occupied with the letters of Peter Collinson. No Philadelphian 
 can read it without feeling that the next statue erected in the 
 city of brotherly love after those of Penn and Franklin, and 
 that contemplated in honour of Washington, should be one to 
 perpetuate the memory of what she owes to Peter Collinson. 
 Whoever reads it will find interesting matters of colonial 
 history; minute particulars illustrating the character of the 
 intercourse between this country and the old for fifty years 
 before the Revolution, which he sees nowhere else. 
 But to return to Peter Collinson since sounding his praises
 
 so loud, we must be permitted to call up Southey to our sup- 
 port. He thus sums up in few words, what was known and 
 thought of this London friend of our own Logan, Franklin 
 and Bartram, in his time : 
 
 "Peter Collinson, whose pious memory ought to be a stand- 
 ing toast at the meetings of the Horticultural Society, used to 
 say that he never knew an instance in which the pursuit of such 
 pleasure as the culture of a garden affords, did not find men 
 temperate and virtuous, or make them so. And this may be 
 affirmed as an undeniable and not unimportant fact relating to 
 the lower classes of society, that whenever the garden of a cot- 
 tage or other humble dwelling is carefully and neatly kept, 
 neatness, and thrift, and domestic comfort will be found within 
 doors. 
 
 " When Mr. Allison settled at Thaxed- Grange, English gardens 
 were beginning generally to profit by the benevolent and happy 
 endeavours of Peter Collinson to improve them. That singu- 
 larly good man availed himself of his mercantile connection, 
 and of the opportunities afforded him by the Royal Society, of 
 which he was one of the most diligent and useful members, to 
 procure seeds and plants from all parts of the world, and these 
 he liberally communicated to his friends. So they found their 
 way first into the gardens of the curious, then of the rich, and 
 lastly, when their beauty recommended them, spread themselves 
 in those of ordinary persons. He divided his time between the 
 counting-house in Grace-church street, and his country house 
 and garden at Mill Hill near Hendon ; it might have grieved 
 him could he have foreseen that his grounds there would pass 
 into the hands of a purchaser who in mere ignorance rooted 
 out the rarest plants, and cut down trees which were scarcely 
 to be found in perfection anywhere else in the kingdom at 
 that time. 
 
 " Mr. Collinson was a man of whom it was truly said that, not 
 having any public station, he was the means of procuring 
 national advantages for his country, and possessed an influence 
 which wealth cannot purchase, and will be honoured when 
 titles are forgotten. For thirty years he executed gratuitously 
 the commissions of the Philadelphia Subscription Library, the 
 first that was established in America ; he assisted the directors
 
 9 
 
 in their choice of books, took the whole care of collecting and 
 shipping them, and transmitted to the directors the earliest 
 account of every improvement in agriculture and the arts, and 
 of every philosophical discovery. 
 
 " Franklin, who was the founder of that library, made his first 
 electrical experiments with an apparatus that had been sent to 
 it as a present by Peter Collinson. He deemed it, therefore, a 
 proper mark of acknowledgment to inform him of the success 
 with which it had been used, and his first essays on electricity 
 were originally communicated to this good man. They were 
 read in the Royal Society, ' where they were not thought worth 
 so much notice as to be printed in their transactions ;' and his 
 paper in which the sameness of lightning with electricity was 
 first asserted, was laughed at by the connoisseurs. Peter Collin- 
 son, however, gave the letters to Cave for the Gentleman's 
 Magazine. Cave, forming a better judgment than the Royal 
 Society had done, printed them separately in a pamphlet, for 
 which Dr. Fothergill wrote a preface ; the pamphlet by succes- 
 sive additions swelled to a volume in quarto, which went through 
 five editions, and, as Franklin observes, ' cost Cave nothing for 
 copy money.' 
 
 " What a contrast between this English Quaker and Monsieur 
 La Cour at Leyden, who, having raised a double tuberose from 
 the seed, and propagated it by the roots till he had as many as 
 he could find room to plant, destroyed the rest as fast as they 
 were produced, that he might boast of being the only person in 
 Europe who possessed it." 
 
 We present this passage entire, from that curious book of 
 miscellanies, "The Doctor," which having no index, and one 
 part having no connection with another, except that each was 
 written down by Southey, few know all the good things it con- 
 tains. The author's allusion to Franklin and the conduct of 
 the Royal Society, are in a spirit above the prejudices which 
 sometimes influence the judgment of a poet-laureate, and there 
 are some who will suspect that Southey was not aware of the 
 high compliment he was bestowing upon this country in his 
 praise of Peter Collinson ; or, where it was that Peter found 
 such extensive means of conferring good upon his fellow sub- 
 jects of the kingdom of England. It has a marked emphasis
 
 10 
 
 as coining from a high churchman, in reference to a simple 
 Quaker. 
 
 There is true magnanimity in the manner he speaks of, and 
 leaves behind him an abiding testimonial to reprove, the Royal 
 Society's treatment of Franklin's great discovery ; his political 
 affinities, for the greater part of his life, were of the Wedder- 
 burne school, and those prejudices and partialities which influ- 
 ence most men, imparting a tinge to their feelings and clouding 
 their judgments, were in sympathy with the king's attorney- 
 general in his signally notorious arraignment of Franklin 
 before the British nation.* Whoever looks at his likeness in 
 the life just published by his son, will see more of the expres- 
 sion of a lover of truth and nature, than of a servile hanger-on 
 to monarchy and aristocracy. Its pages tell us also, that in his 
 college days he planned, with Coleridge and others, a settle- 
 ment in this Western world, as Hampden and Cromwell had 
 once done. He was, perhaps, the best informed man upon the 
 greatest variety of subjects of his day ; and, if we mistake not, 
 will in time be judged more charitably by our countrymen. 
 
 But what about this book which tells us so much that we did 
 not know before of Peter Collinson, without any reference to 
 him in the title-page ? 
 
 Its first few pages are devoted to a brief sketch of the pro- 
 gress of botany in North America comprehensive and con- 
 densed beginning with the work of Jac. Cornutus on the 
 plants of Canada, published in 1635, and John Josselyn's New 
 England rarities of 1672, and coming down to the doings of the 
 "accomplished and indefatigable" Asa Gray now in medias 
 res. In looking over this sketch it is interesting to see such 
 names as those of Logan, Clayton, Golden, Mitchell, and 
 Muhlenberg, intimately connected with the history of natural 
 science. 
 
 We next find a biographical sketch of John Bartram, princi- 
 pally taken from a work by his son ; followed by a description 
 of a visit to him at the age of seventy, purporting to be from 
 
 * Those who search out the secret springs of action which produce 
 great events, may discover here what gave that intenseness to the animo- 
 sity which prepared our countrymen for blood.
 
 11 
 
 the pen of a Russian gentleman, which is a perfect daguerreo- 
 type picture of him and his surroundings, giving us an equally 
 life-like sketch of the inner as of the outer man.* 
 
 * As this paper is a literary curiosity, we copy a letter from " the 
 honourable and venerable Samuel Breck, of Philadelphia," to be found in 
 a note at page 44 of the memorials, which gives the following account of 
 Hector Saint John de Crevecoeur, who published letters as an American 
 Farmer, and is now ascertained to have once appeared as Iwan Alexio- 
 witz, the Kussian gentleman referred to. 
 
 " In the year 1787 (says Mr. Breck) I arrived at Paris from the Royal 
 and Military College of Soreze, in the then province of Languedoc, where 
 I had spent more than four years. Thomas Jefferson, who was our 
 plenipotentiary at the Court of Louis XVI., was travelling in Italy. A 
 young Virginian, Mr. Short, received me in the minister's name, being 
 his secretary, and made me acquainted with a very amiable Frenchman, 
 who had resided in the United States, and written there a work, entitled, 
 'Letters from an American Farmer/ flattering and favourable to our 
 country. This gentleman was Hector Saint John de Crevecoeur. His 
 work was exceedingly popular in France, and the fame acquired by it 
 was a passport to the highest circles. The romantic descriptions in which 
 he had indulged, in reference to the manners and primitive habits of our 
 countrymen, made some of the great lords and ladies of Paris desirous 
 to see a native American : among others a Polish princess took a fancy to 
 see me, upon St. John's report to her of his acquaintance with me, and 
 invited me to dine with her. I went there accompanied by Mons. 
 Crevecoeur. 
 
 " That gentleman took me another day to dine with Mons. De Beaume- 
 noir, at his apartments at the Hotel des Invalides, of which he was gover- 
 nor, and who had a daughter about to embark for New York, in the same 
 packet that Mr. De Crevecceur and I had both taken passage. She was 
 coming out to America, under St. John's protection, to marry M. De La 
 Forest, who was then French consul at New York, and afterwards became 
 a man of some note, as a diplomatist under Napoleon, who raised him to 
 the dignity of a baron of his empire. St. John himself had been made 
 consul-general by King Louis. 
 
 " That kind friend took me, one morning, to visit Brissot De "Warville, 
 who served Philip d'Egalite (father of king Louis Phillippe) in some 
 capacity, and had apartments at his residence, the Palais Royal. There 
 we were received by Brissot. The Marquis de Valady, son-in-law of the 
 Marquis de Vaudreuil, presented me with a copy of St. John's letters, 
 which I still possess. St. John was by nature, by education, and by his 
 writings, a philanthropist ; a man of serene temper and pure benevolence ; 
 the milk of human kindness circulated in every vein ; of manners unas- 
 suming, prompt to serve, slow to censure ; intelligent, beloved, and highly
 
 12 
 
 The greater part of the volume is then taken up with the 
 correspondence of John Bartram. The reminiscences of Hum- 
 phry Marshall and his correspondence occupy comparatively 
 few pages, hut all instructive and interesting. 
 
 The letters of Peter Collinson spread over a period of thirty- 
 four years, and furnish a large portion of the materiel of which 
 the work is composed. This materiel has been reclaimed from 
 the dust, and mould, and lumber, of seventy years gone by, 
 furbished up, arranged, and presented to us in an intelligible 
 
 worthy of the esteem and respect he everywhere received. His society 
 on shipboard was a treasure. 
 
 " He had a daughter, whose early history was marked by passages 
 sufficiently curious and eventful to make her the heroine of a novel. She 
 married Mr. Otto, a French gentleman, who was an attache", I think, to 
 the Consular Office ; and who rose under the revolutionary government 
 of France to considerable diplomatic rank, even to the embassy to England 
 for a short time." 
 
 The voyage above referred to is the same mentioned by Mr. Breck in 
 his interesting letter recently published, wherein he describes New York 
 as it appeared on his landing there, before we had a Constitution. 
 
 As it cost no little effort to trace the real authorship of the letter pur- 
 porting to have been written by " a Russian gentleman/' the result is 
 here added; in a letter from the Editor of the " memorials." 
 
 WEST CHESTER, April 17, 1851. 
 
 Dear Sir : I think I mentioned to you, soon after the publication of the 
 Memorials of Bartram and Marshall, that I had some doubts even while 
 compiling that work, whether the interesting account of &Visit to John Bar- 
 tram, by " a Russian gentleman," named IWAN ALEXIOWITZ, was exactly 
 what it purported to be. The fidelity of the sketch I could not doubt. But 
 the failure of all my inquiries to learn any thing of such a visitor together 
 with the peculiarity of the name (which seems evidently coined for the 
 occasion,) led me to suspect that the " Russian gentleman" was a ficti- 
 tious character ; and that HECTOR ST. JOHN himself might have been the 
 writer of the narrative. This suspicion was greatly strengthened by 
 some contemporaneous criticisms of ST. JOHN'S productions, which I 
 afterwards saw in an old English catalogue of rare books, wherein that 
 gentleman was charged with the practice of writing under feigned names 
 and characters : and I have recently come into possession of an auto- 
 graph letter of ST. JOHN, which entirely confirms me in the opinion, that 
 the Visitor and Eulogist of " the celebrated Pennsylvania Botanist," was 
 no other than the amiable and enthusiastic author of the Letters from 
 an American Farmer. 
 
 The Atitograph referred to, is a letter to the sons of JOHN BARTRAM
 
 13 
 
 and attractive shape, without any apparent ambition on the 
 part of the editor, but to do justice to his subject. His in- 
 tense love of this is apparent from the care, and time, and 
 labour bestowed upon it. That it was worth all it cost to bring 
 these mouldering relics to light, every man of science, every 
 man of sense, and every man of heart will say, who reads the 
 book. 
 
 Some have thought it required sifting, and that there was 
 some chaff which might be dispensed with in another edition. 
 This may have been the general opinion on its first appearance ; 
 and we confess ourselves to have been of this mind until after 
 perusing it carefully. But the oftener we read it, the more 
 difficult do we find the task to point out anything that should 
 be omitted the more unwilling are we to part with a single 
 page or an individual letter. It abounds in those blessed little 
 amenities which go to make life happy and a book entertaining ; 
 intermixed with ten thousand minutiae of the observations, stu- 
 dies and speculations of diligent inquirers into the secrets of 
 Natural History, at the first dawn, as it were, of the sun of 
 science. Its naivetS and simplicity, nay, its very imperfections 
 even, add to its interest, after we become a little accustomed 
 to them, inasmuch as they make it all a reality, taking us into 
 the actual presence of those who lived a hundred years agone. 
 
 The editor cannot fail to attract to himself some portion of 
 
 (viz. WILLIAM and JOHN), and is chiefly filled with inquiries concerning 
 plants and seeds ; but commences as follows : 
 
 " NEW YORK, 26th December, 1783. 
 
 " GENTLEMEN : I have just received your kind letter ; I am very happy to 
 think you still remember the connection which once subsisted between your 
 industrious parent and me. His industry, simplicity, and virtue, I have 
 taken the liberty of recording in a book, called Letters from an Ameri- 
 can Farmer, published in London two years ago, the translation of which 
 is now printing in Paris." 
 
 This extract seems, to me, to be conclusive of the question of the 
 authorship of that graphic sketch of the Botanical Patriarch of our coun- 
 try, hitherto attributed to a Muscovite traveller. 
 
 Very Respectfully, 
 
 WM. DARLINGTON. 
 To WM. II. DILLINGHAM, Philadelphia. 
 
 2
 
 14 
 
 the admiration he has awakened for those whose memory he 
 embalms. The work is worthy of the expense, good taste, and 
 artistic skill with which it has been presented to us by the pub- 
 lishers* if it were only to illustrate the truth of what Linnaeus 
 said of Bartram, and what Fothergill said of Collinson's rela- 
 tions to him " The greatest natural botanist in the world." 
 This from one to whom botanists concede the title of " The im- 
 mortal Swede," is, most truly Laus, laudari a laudato viro 
 the greatest natural botanist in the world, in the time of Lin- 
 naeus, upon the authority of Linnaeus ! And Peter Collinson 
 " may almost be said to have created him such !" The lovers 
 of nature everywhere, to whom the London merchant pointed 
 him out, regarded him with admiration ; the savans of Europe 
 anxiously sought his correspondence ; nobles and princes patron- 
 ized his labours, and learned societies conferred upon him the 
 highest testimonials of esteem. He was ^not only a man of 
 science, but a man of genius. He was also endowed with ex- 
 traordinary capacities of body as well as mind, enabling him to 
 endure fatigue, encounter danger, overcome difficulties, un- 
 dergo privation, and persevere to the end, whatever great 
 object he had in view. Like Newton, in simple facts he saw 
 great principles, and traced them out with profound interest 
 and untiring assiduity. Thus he became a man of great attain- 
 ments. But he was not only a man of science, a man of genius, 
 and a man of great capacities he was a man of great virtues. 
 His life is scarce more distinguished by his discoveries in the 
 secrets of nature, than by his reverence for the great Author 
 of those secrets, and love of his fellow creatures, for whose 
 enjoyment in common with his own, they were in infinite wis- 
 dom contrived. His enthusiastic devotion to the study of 
 nature's handiwork did not prevent his attention to the com- 
 mon business of life, the cultivation of his fields, provision for 
 his family, building his house " with his own hands," "train- 
 ing up his children in the way in which they should go," and 
 settling them in life. He was prudent, temperate, charitable, 
 hospitable, maintaining a strict regard for the rights of others, 
 and being scrupulously attentive to all the proprieties of life. 
 It is among the most striking and interesting things to be re- 
 marked upon the long and cherished intimacy between him 
 * Messrs. Lindsay & Blakiston.
 
 15 
 
 and the excellent Peter Collinson, that Peter's early letters 
 abound with oft repeated and emphatic cautions to his friend 
 John, not to allow these delightful studies of nature, equally 
 cherished by them both, to interfere with attention to the 
 duties of life, industry in business, economy, and care of his 
 private affairs ; and that the result should have been, while 
 the London merchant, the prudent counsellor, was successful 
 in business for a time, amassed a large estate, and to the last 
 was highly and universally esteemed for substantial virtues, 
 fell himself into the enticing snare against which he had BO 
 anxiously guarded his friend, leaving an estate greatly dilapi- 
 dated when he died ; while John Bartram held on to the last, 
 with his industries, economies, and care of his estate. The 
 arrears of his claims upon Peter Collinson had accumulated to 
 an amount which gave great anxiety to the son who succeeded 
 him, and drew out the melancholy fact, that his father had 
 felt himself obliged, at over seventy years of age, after a life 
 so much devoted to the public, to ask a small pension from the 
 king, and that it had been denied him. 
 
 Our authority for what Linnaeus said of Bartram is Francis 
 Lieber. Such applause from one so much applauded, must of 
 itself cause naturalists to look with intense interest into memo- 
 rials of his life and doings. All liberal and inquiring minds 
 must be interested to know something of his biography, of 
 whom one of the highest compliments which could be paid to 
 so good a man as Peter Collinson by the just and discriminat- 
 ing Fothergill, was to say, that he made John Bartram what 
 he was. 
 
 He was of the third generation after those who came over 
 with Penn, and settled as agriculturists upon the banks of the 
 Delaware along side of their predecessors, the Swedes, and 
 where the two races have since mingled their blood and ex- 
 tended themselves, constituting now an industrious, virtuous 
 and thriving population, with agricultural improvements, and a 
 general state of worldly prosperity arising from this source, 
 unsurpassed in any quarter of the Union. In his early career 
 he was coteniporary with James Logan, who was himself a dis- 
 tinguished naturalist, and one of the first to appreciate the 
 great idea of Linnaeus ; having tested by his own experiments,
 
 16 
 
 early, the truth of the sexes of plants. This learned and emi- 
 nent man took a deep interest in John Bartram's devotion to 
 natural science, and helped to give him character with Peter 
 Collinson, and make him known to the savans abroad, to whom, 
 at that time, an opportunity to correspond with a great natural 
 botanist in the new world was of inestimable value. lie was 
 also, as we have already seen, cotemporary with Benjamin 
 Franklin, who contributed in no small degree with Logan and 
 Collinson to extend his reputation abroad. Indeed it may 
 with truth be said that there was scarcely an individual in this 
 country, after Logan and Franklin, who made himself more 
 highly esteemed in Europe in the age in which he lived, than 
 this Pennsylvania farmer. 
 
 The ancient county of Chester, adjoining Philadelphia on the 
 south and west, was originally settled by the countrymen of 
 Linnaeus, and their descendants still nourish in the same region. 
 When William Penn came over, many of his agricultural friends, 
 with ample means and the characteristic virtue of thrift, located 
 themselves, as before observed, in this county. But little more 
 than a century and a half has rolled by, and there are now near 
 a hundred houses of worship of the society of Friends in what 
 was once Chester county ; the county of Delaware having since 
 been divided off from it on the south-east. This county gave 
 birth to John Bartram and Humphry Marshall, and it was fit 
 and proper that their natal soil should also produce for them a 
 memorialist. Its capital town, from whence this work origi- 
 nates, is not a little signalized for its attention to botanical 
 and horticultural pursuits. It has its Hall of the Cabinet 
 of Natural Science and its Horticultural Hall, with extensive 
 collections in the various departments of the works of nature. 
 A taste for the study of the natural sciences, and special de- 
 light in the cultivation of trees, plants, fruits and flowers, would 
 seem to be indigenous with the dwellers in that region. Their 
 anniversary horticultural exhibition is a great gala day, bring- 
 ing together thousands of the substantial citizens, with wives 
 and children, their countenances lighted up with a smile which 
 indicates the joy they take in it. 
 
 Bartram and Marshall were farmers, and the sons of farmers ; 
 they cultivated their own acres and built their own houses
 
 17 
 
 "with their own hands." The woodcuts of these houses as 
 they now stand, which we see in Dr. Darlington's book, give 
 some idea of the substantial and the comfortable which pre- 
 vailed among Friends in the construction of their dwellings, in 
 Chester county, a hundred years gone by. In mind, and in 
 reputation, these sons of the soil and distinguished naturalists 
 were also self-cultivated, self-educated men. Brought into 
 intimate contact, by their daily avocations, with some of the 
 most interesting works of nature, they did not close their 
 eyes, as so many of us do, to the beauties and wonders by 
 which they were surrounded. They regarded with scrutinizing 
 curiosity the springing blade, the opening bud, the blooming 
 flower, the ripening fruit, with which nature seemed alive in 
 all but infinite varieties. They soon found it to be among 
 their highest earthly pleasures to make themselves acquainted 
 with the secrets, principles, and unnumbered varieties of the 
 system, in this department of nature's wonder-workings. The 
 enthusiasm with which respectively and successively they de- 
 voted themselves to the study, and the industry and perseve- 
 rance with which they followed it, was accompanied with a 
 modesty, prudence, worth, and other sterling virtues, which 
 must endear their memory 'to all who read their lives, and give 
 it a place in the inner shrine of every naturalist. Linnaeus, 
 Sir Hans Sloane, Solander, Philip Miller, Gronovius, and Dil- 
 lenius were among the correspondents of John Bartram. Dr. 
 Fothergill, Sir Joseph Banks, and Dr. Franklin were among 
 those of Humphry Marshall. 
 
 No two men in this country ever contributed so much to the 
 botanical treasures of England, nor anything like so much to 
 the chief ornaments of her grounds. 
 
 In proof of Bartram's genius, some letters of this self-educated 
 Pennsylvania farmer may be cited, which are scarcely surpassed 
 in beauty of thought and style by anything in our language. 
 
 The following passage from the work before us, teaches us 
 how naturalists give their hearts to each other : 
 
 In a letter from * Dr. Garden to Limueus, dated Charleston, 
 
 * In Nichols's Literary Anecdotes, there is a notice of the celebrated 
 Dr. James Parsons, of the last century, where we find in an Eloge by Dr. 
 
 2*
 
 18 
 
 South Carolina, March, 15, 1755, that gentleman says : "When 
 I came to New York, I immediately inquired for Coldenhamia, 
 the seat of that most eminent botanist, Mr. Golden. Here, 
 by good fortune, I first met with John Bartram, returning 
 from the Blue Mountains, as they are called. How grateful 
 was such a meeting to me ! And how unusual in this part of 
 
 Maty, a list of the intimacies which he formed with " some of the greatest 
 men of his time," which concludes with the names of COLLINSON and 
 GARDEN and again, in speaking of his correspondence with men of 
 "the most distinguished rank in science," DR. GARDEN is placed along 
 side of Buffon, Beccaria, &c., by Nichols himself, who adds in another 
 Note. :" Mrs. Parsons had several letters subscribed by the illustrious 
 names above mentioned ; and one from Dr. Garden shall be here inserted." 
 The letter is then given at length. Such a selection was a high compli- 
 ment to this name, and as the work in which it appears is rarely to be met 
 with here, some extracts are presented, which speak of -Golden, Clayton 
 and Bartram. 
 
 It is dated CHARLES TOWN, South Carolina, May 5th 1755. 
 
 "It is now about three years and a half since I first arrived in South 
 Carolina, where I have practiced Physic ever since, and employed every 
 spare hour in Botany ; but my progress has been much retarded for want 
 of the proper books and assistance. There is only my learned and in- 
 genious friend, the honourable Dr. Bull, who knows the least iota of 
 Botany or any part of Natural History here, which, with my small 
 Botanical Library, (which only consisted of Tournefort, Ray, and Lin. 
 Fund. Botan. with the Flora Virgin. Gron.) was a great hindrance and 
 loss to a beginner. I have lately had a copy of all Linnaeus' s works, ex- 
 cept the late performance of the species plantarum, which I have only 
 just heard of in a letter from a German correspondent. This last year 
 I was obliged to leave Carolina, and go to the Northern Colonies, in 
 search of a cooler and freer air, on the account of health ;" " In the 
 Province of New York I met with the Honourable Cadwallader Golden, 
 a truly great Philosopher, and very accurate and ingenious Botanist ; as 
 his Philosophical performances, and his 'Genera Plantarum' published 
 in the ' Acta Upsaliensa.'>^ v ^--^' 
 
 " Mr. Clayton in Virginia, and John Bartram in Pennsylvania, are the 
 only Botanists or Naturalists that I know of, besides Mr. Colden, on the 
 Continent. And I doubt not that you are well acquainted with the cha- 
 racter and genius of both these men. Mr. Bartram is certainly a most 
 surprising man, who, without any assistance of conversation or of books 
 (he understands a very little Botanical Latin) should have arrived at so 
 great a knowledge of plants, especially in a systematical way. It is a 
 great pity that he does not understand Mr. Loefling's Dissertation on 
 Gems : for I am fully persuaded he is amongst the best qualified men to im-
 
 19 
 
 the world ! What congratulations and what salutations passed 
 between us ! How happy should I be to pass my life with men 
 so distinguished by genius, acuteness, and liberality, as well as 
 by eminent botanical learning and experience ! Men, in whom 
 the greatest knowledge and skill are united to the most amiable 
 candour, 
 
 Anirnce, qiiales neque candidiores 
 
 Terra tulit.' 
 
 Such an estimate of Bartram, and such a report of him to the 
 great master of the science in which they all rejoiced, is con- 
 firmed by the following letter, which bears date in 1762, and 
 shows that their kind feelings were reciprocal. If there is 
 anything to surpass it in our language, it has not met our eye. 
 The letter is from John Bartram to Dr. Garden. 
 
 " My dear worthy friend, I am much affected every time 
 that I read thy pious reflections on the wonderful works of the 
 omnipotent and omniscient Creator. The more we search and 
 accurately examine his works in nature, the more wisdom we 
 discover, whether we observe the mineral, vegetable, or animal 
 kingdom. But, as I am chiefly employed with the vegetable, 
 I shall enlarge more upon it. 
 
 " What charming colours appear in the various tribes, in the 
 regular succession of the vernal and autumnal flowers these so 
 nobly bold, those delicately languid ! What a glow is enkin- 
 dled in some, what a gloss shines in others ! With what a mas- 
 terly skill is every one of the varying tints disposed ! Here, 
 they seem to be thrown on with an easy dash of security and 
 freedom ; there, they are adjusted by the nicest touches. The 
 verdure of the empalement, or the shading of the petals, impart 
 new liveliness to the whole, whether they are blended or 
 arranged. Some are intersected with delicate stripes, or stud- 
 ded with radiant spots ; others affect to be genteelly powdered, 
 
 prove that part of the science. How often have I been pleased, delighted, 
 and instructed by many of his lively and strong natural thoughts on 
 gems, as to their structure, vxe, time, and properties ! I shall not detain 
 you longer, but again beg leave to request the favour of your correspon- 
 dence, and your forgiveness for this trouble. I am, with great esteem, 
 Sir, your most obedient and very humble servant, 
 
 ALEXANDER GARDEN.
 
 20 
 
 or neatly fringed ; others are plain in their aspect, and please 
 with their naked simplicity. Some are arrayed in purple ; 
 some charm with the virgin's white ; others are dashed with 
 crimson ; while others are robed in scarlet. Some glitter like 
 silver lace ; others shine as if embroidered with gold. Some 
 rise with curious cups, or pendulous bells ; some are disposed in 
 spreading umbels, others crowd in spiked clusters ; some are 
 dispersed on spreading branches of lofty trees, on dangling 
 catkins ; others sit contented on the humble shrub ; some seated 
 on high in the twining vine, and wafted to and fro ; others gar- 
 nish the prostrate, creeping plant. All these have their par- 
 ticular excellences ; some for the beauty of their flowers ; others 
 their sweet scent ; many the elegance of foliage, or the good- 
 ness of their fruit ; some the nourishment that their roots afford 
 us ; others please the fancy with their regular growth ; some 
 are admired for their odd appearance, and many that offend the 
 taste, smell, and sight, too, are of virtue in physic. 
 
 " But when we nearly examine the various motions of plants 
 and flowers, in their evening contraction and morning expan- 
 sion, they seem to be operated upon by something superior to 
 only heat and cold, or shade and sunshine ; such as the sur- 
 prising tribes of the sensitive plants, and the petals of many 
 flowers shutting close up in rainy weather, or in the evening 
 until the female part is fully impregnated : and if we won't 
 allow them real feeling, or what we call sense, it must be some 
 action next degree inferior to it, for which we want a proper 
 epithet, or the immediate finger of God, to whom be all glory 
 and praise." ****** 
 
 " I don't dwell so long on the vegetable kingdom, as though 
 I thought the wisdom and power of God were only manifest 
 therein. . The contemplation of the mineral, and especially the 
 animal, will equally incline the pious heart to overflow with 
 daily adorations and praises to the grand Giver and Supporter 
 of universal life. But what amazing distant glories are dis- 
 closed in a midnight scene ! Vast are the bodies which roll in 
 the immense expanse ! Orbs beyond orbs without number, suns 
 beyond suns, systems beyond systems, with their proper inhabi- 
 tants of the great Jehovah's empire, how can we look at these 
 without amazement, or contemplate the Divine Majesty that 

 
 21 
 
 rules them, without the most humble adoration? Esteeming 
 ourselves, with all our wisdom, but as one of the smallest atoms 
 of dust praising the living God, the great I AM." 
 
 The promptings of this beautiful effusion will be better under- 
 stood perhaps by here perusing one or two extracts from 
 Dr. Garden's prior letters to him : 
 
 " How eminently happy are those hours, which the humble 
 and philosophic mind spends in investigating and contemplating 
 the inconceivable beauties and mechanism of the works of nature ; 
 the true manifestations of that supremely wise and powerful 
 Agent who daily upholds and blesses us. 
 
 " May that Fatherly Being continue to enlighten your mind, 
 till that hour come, when the parting of this veil will lay before 
 your eyes a new and more glorious field of contemplation, and 
 still more unutterable sights of bliss." 
 
 Dr. Garden had before written to him in these words : 
 
 " I rejoice with you, on your increasing collection of these 
 curious productions of the all-wise hand of our omnipotent 
 Creator. May your soul be daily more filled with an humble 
 
 admiration of his works, and your lips exercised in his praise." 
 ****** 
 
 " When this scene of things passes away, and the great and 
 first Author of all leads us to fields of a more rich and fertile 
 clime, there shall we proceed with fresh vigour and enlarged 
 faculties to view him nearer, worship and adore more strongly, 
 and live more willingly within the pale of universal love. How 
 great is our God ! How wonderful are his works, sought out 
 of all them that take pleasure therein. Your letters, particularly, 
 give me pleasure. They always contain something new and 
 entertaining on some new-discovered work of God." 
 
 We now cite some passages from the correspondence, to show 
 how Peter Collinson helped John Bartram, and was in truth 
 the great means whereby he became so distinguished as to be 
 "the greatest natural botanist in the world." Peter Collin- 
 son's first published letter is dated in 1734. In 1736, we find 
 this paragraph : " Thy kind neighbour, James Logan, is so 
 good as to order me to buy thee Parkinson 8 Herbal. He 
 has shown a very tender regard for thee, in his letter to me. 
 It may look grateful, every now and then, to call and inquire
 
 after thy friend Logan's welfare. He is a great man in every 
 capacity, and for whom I have the highest value." 
 
 A.hout the same time James Logan writes thus to the young 
 but rising naturalist : 
 
 " FRIEND J. BARTRAM Last night, in the twilight, I re- 
 ceived the enclosed, and opened it by mistake. Last year 
 Peter sent me some tables, which I never examined till since I 
 last saw thee. They are six very large sheets, in which the 
 author * [Linnaeus] digests all the productions of nature in 
 
 " His method in the vegetables is altogether new, for he 
 
 * In a letter to Col. Byrd, a distinguished citizen of Virginia, in 1739, 
 Bar tram says: 
 
 " I have this spring made several microscopical observations upon the 
 male and female parts in vegetables, to oblige some ingenious botanists 
 in Leyden, who requested that favour of me, which I hope I have per- 
 formed to their satisfaction, and as a mechanical demonstration of the 
 certainty of this hypothesis of the different sex, in all plants that have 
 come under my notice. 
 
 * * * I have made several successful experiments, of joining 
 several species of the same genus, whereby I have obtained curious mixed 
 colours in flowers, never known before ; but this requires an accurate 
 observation and judgment, to know the precise time. * 
 
 I hope by these practical observations to open a gate into a very large 
 field of experimental knowledge, which, if judiciously improved, may be a 
 considerable addition to the beauty of the florist's garden." Mem. p. 315. 
 
 Writing to Philip Miller in 1755, Bartram thus refers to this subject. 
 
 " I take thy offer very kindly, to assist me in understanding LINN^EUS'S 
 system, which I am acquainted with in some degree ; having several 
 books of his setting forth, which Dr. GRONOVIUS, my good friend, hath 
 sent me ; and Mons. DALIBARD sent me his Catalogue of plants growing 
 near Paris ; and HILL hath nearly translated LINN^GUS'S Characters. 
 But I find many plants that do not answer to any of his Genera, and are 
 really new. 
 
 I have an account that he hath published, lately, two books containing 
 all our North American plants which KALM observed, when he was with 
 us. I showecl him many that he said were new Genera, and that LIN- 
 NAEUS must make many alterations, when he was by him more truly in- 
 formed of their true characters, as I should soon see when they were 
 printed. I long to see these books, to see if they have done me justice. 
 as KALM promised me. Dr. GRONOVIUS promised to send them to me, as 
 soon as they came to his hand.' 1 Ib. p. 377. 

 
 23 
 
 takes all his distinctions from the stamina and the styles, the 
 first of which he calls husbands, and the other wives. 
 
 " The performance is very curious, and at this time worth 
 thy notice. I would send it to thee, but, being in Latin, it will 
 want some explanation, which after I have given thee, thou 
 wilt, I believe, be fully able to deal with it thyself, since thou 
 generally knows the plants' names. If thou wilt step to town 
 to-morrow, thou wilt find me there with them at E. Shippen's, 
 or J. Pemberton's, from twelve to three. I want also to say 
 something further to thee, on microscopical observations. 
 
 " Thy real friend, 
 
 " J. LOGAN. 
 
 " Stenton, 19th of June, 1736." 
 
 This letter furnishes the evidence that Peter Collinson was 
 the first one to call Logan's attention to the great discovery of 
 Linnaeus, and put the means in his power which led him to 
 those experiments whereby he tested its truth, and made the 
 publication which added so greatly to his own fame. 
 
 The next year Peter concludes a letter to his friend thus : 
 
 " Now, dear John, I have made some running remarks on 
 thy curious letter, which contains so many fine remarks, that it 
 deserved to be read before the Royal Society ; and thee has 
 their thanks for it, desiring thee to continue thy observations, 
 and communicate them. I say make no apology. Thy style is 
 much beyond what one might expect from a man of thy educa- 
 tion. The facts are well described, and very intelligible." 
 
 In another, the same year, he says to him : 
 
 " Thy map of Schuylkill is very prettily done, and very 
 informing ; now I can read and travel at the same time. Lord 
 Petre has seen it, and is much pleased with that and thy jour- 
 nal ; one helps to illustrate the other. I intend to communi- 
 cate it to a curious map-maker ; it may be of use to him in 
 laying down that part of the river Schuylkill undescribed." 
 
 March 3, 1741-2. He writes : 
 
 " DEAR FRIEND JOHN : By our good friend Captain Wright, 
 I have sent Sir Hans's kind present, of his Natural History of 
 Jamaica, in two volumes. These I have put in a box I hal 
 made on purpose for them, and directed it on two places for
 
 24 
 
 thee ; and with it I sent on board, in a canvass wrapper, a 
 large bundle of paper, a present from Dr. Dillenius, which, I 
 think, will furnish thee with paper for specimens, and for seeds, 
 for thy life time. It is fine Dutch paper, and very fit for such 
 purposes, because it will bear ink." 
 
 (Then, after cordially thanking him for divers rare and curi- 
 ous objects of Natural History, just received, a bare reference 
 to each of which occupies two printed pages, he goes on,) 
 
 " I thank thee for thy curious present of thy map, and thy 
 draught of the fall of the river Owegos (?). I was really both 
 delighted and surprised to Bee it so naturally done, and at thy 
 ingenuity in the performance. Upon my word, friend John, I 
 can't help admiring thy abilities in so many instances. I shall 
 be sparing to say what more I think. A man of thy prudence 
 will place this to a right account, to encourage thee to proceed 
 gently in these curious things, which belong to a man of leisure 
 and not to a man of business. The main chance must be 
 minded. Many an ingenious man has lost himself for want of 
 this regard, by devoting too much of his time to these matters. 
 A hint thee will take in friendship : thy obliging, grateful dis- 
 position may carry thee too far. I am glad and delight much 
 in all these things none more : but then I would not purchase 
 them at the expense of my friend's precious time to the detri- 
 ment of his interest and business, (now, dear John, take me 
 right.) I showed them to Sir Hans. He was much pleased. 
 Lord Petre deservedly much admires them ; and, indeed, does 
 every one that sees them, when they are told who was the per- 
 former. 
 
 "All this is writ by rote, or from memory, for I dare not, nay, 
 I cannot, look into my letters ; for I have no time to add more, 
 but to tell thee in the trunk of the Library Company, thee'll 
 find a suit of clothes for thyself. This may serve to protect 
 thy outward man, being a drugget coat, black waistcoat, and 
 shagg breeches. And now, that thou may see I am not 
 thoughtless of thy better part, I send thee R. Barclay's Apolo- 
 gy, to replenish thy inward man. So farewell." 
 
 In a postscript he adds : 
 
 " There is a map, and another parcel or two besides for thee.
 
 25 
 
 and Catesby's books ; and Dr. Dillenius will send thee his 
 History of Mosses." 
 
 It is but just that we should say, John Bartram's views dif- 
 fered in many respects from those of his friend Collinson, both 
 in his religious and political creed, and this is perhaps the 
 proper place to refer to it. 
 
 When Bartram acknowledged the receipt of the last letter 
 and its accompaniments, he concludes thus : 
 
 " I am greatly obliged to thee for thy present of a suit of 
 clothes, which just came in the right time ; and Barclay's 
 Apology I shall take care of for thy sake. It answers thy 
 advice much better than if thee had sent me one of Natural 
 History, or Botany, which I should have spent ten times the 
 hours in reading of, while I have laboured for the maintenance 
 of my family. Indeed, I have little respect to apologies and 
 disputes about the ceremonial parts of religion, which often 
 introduce animosities, confusion, and disorders of the mind 
 and sometimes body too : but, dear Peter, let us worship the 
 One Almighty Power, in sincerity of heart, with resignation to 
 his divine will, doing to others as we would have them do to us, 
 if we were in their circumstances. Living in love and inno- 
 cency, we may die in hope." 
 
 There are many other passages throughout the correspon- 
 dence, which indicate that the germ of those seeds which have 
 since rent the society in twain, was cherished by these friends 
 respectively, in opposition to each other, a century past. 
 
 John Bartram also seems to have agreed with Logan* as to 
 the necessity of defensive war, while Peter Collinson adhered 
 to strict views of Friends on this subject. 
 
 It still remains a study for the casuists, and is worthy of the 
 best thoughts and most profound consideration of the wisest 
 men, whether William Penn's great idea of founding a State, 
 upon the principle of "love to God, and good will to man;" 
 without recourse, under any conceivable circumstances to defen- 
 
 * See " A letter from James Logan to the Society of Friends, on the 
 subject of their opposition in the Legislature to all means for the defence 
 of the colony, September 22d, 1741." Article V. of the Collections of the 
 Historical Society of Penmylvania, Vol. I, No. 1, May, 1851. 
 3
 
 sivo war to all necessary resistance to attack, or assault, could 
 have been carried into effect without such men as James 
 Logan at his right hand, whose principles so far adapted them- 
 selves to the actually existing state of things as to do what was 
 necessary to be done, when the alternative came ; to die your- 
 self, suffer wives and children, old and young, the brightest and 
 the best, to be cut down and all your human hopes destroyed, 
 or to take the lives of your murderous assailants. 
 
 Logan's idea was, "that all government is founded enforce," 
 and involves the necessity of defensive war ; and he expresses 
 the surprise with which he learned from Penn, on their first 
 voyage to this country, the different views held by his patron 
 the great philanthropist. 
 
 Franklin relates a singular anecdote of great point, as having 
 come from Logan himself, detailing an occurrence on this 
 voyage which led to an interchange of views. 
 
 Many distinguished individuals conforming to the principles 
 of Friends in other respects, have been of James Logan's mind, 
 in this particular. Of this number may be mentioned, John 
 Dickinson and William Rawle, as well as John Bartram. 
 
 But the letter of James Logan, which now first appears in 
 print, we are told was held by the committee of the yearly 
 meeting to which it had been referred "unfit to be read to 
 the meeting." 
 
 There were frequent passages between them as to Pitt, of 
 whom Bartram was a great admirer. The following is from 
 Collinson, in 1763 : 
 
 "But my dear John, I am sorry to say thou art of that 
 unhappy cast of mind there is no pleasing. 
 
 "Look into Pitt's peace, and see what a pitiful figure we 
 should have made when he adopted Montcalm's boundary for our 
 colonies. As Pitt did it, and accepted it, and made it the foun- 
 dation of his peace it was glorious ! Pray look back and see 
 what slaughter and destruction the Cherokees made (when Pitt's 
 British glory was lost in Germany) on the back settlements of 
 Carolina ; but every thing the turn-coat did was glorious with 
 my dear John ! He heard all their cruelties, but did not then 
 open his lips to complain. Whilst Pitt was sacrificing thousands
 
 27 
 
 of the best British heroes to his projects on the coast of France, 
 to gratify his vanity all was glorious ! 
 
 " My dear John, take heart, and don't he carried away with 
 reports. Revive thy drooping spirits, and look forward and 
 hope for the hest." . . . 
 
 " Glorious Pitt so presides in my dear John's mind he is in- 
 vincible to complaints, except on the sorry peace that hath 
 given so great an empire to Britain !" . . . 
 
 " I have a great respect for Pitt, and he has his merits ; but 
 every thing he did was not glorious, though my friend John 
 thinks so." 
 
 But their most remarkable difference of views perhaps one 
 frequently, fully, and we may say ably discussed between them, 
 was as to our treatment of the Indians. Bartram seems to have 
 felt that their extermination was inevitable upon the approach 
 of civilized man ; as much so as that of the beast of the forest, 
 and the most venomous reptiles ; that they were irreclaimable ; 
 incapable of civilization; that all Christian efforts were lost 
 upon them ; while Collinson uniformly, earnestly, and perse- 
 veringly inculcated opposite views. 
 
 All will be interested to see a portion of this correspondence 
 respecting the natives. It will be found curious, interesting, 
 and instructive. 
 
 JOHN BARTRAM TO PETER COLLINSON. 
 
 "February 21, 1756. 
 
 DEAR PETER We are now in a grievous distressed condi- 
 tion ; the barbarous, inhuman, ungrateful natives weekly murder- 
 ing our back inhabitants ; and those few Indians that profess 
 some friendship to us, are watching for an opportunity to ruin 
 us. And we that are near the city are under apprehensions 
 too from the neutral French,*~which are sent among us full of 
 resentment and revenge, although they yet appear tolerably 
 civil when we feed them with the best we can afford. They are 
 very fond of their brethren, the Irish and Dutch Romans, 
 which are very numerous amongst us, many of which openly 
 declare their wishes that the French and Indians would destroy 
 us all ; and others of them privately rejoice at our calamities. 
 deplorable condition ! that we suspect our friend of treachery
 
 while he is willing to assist us, and can't discover our enemy 
 till it is too late ! 
 
 " By what we can understand by the reports of our back 
 inhabitants, most of the Indians which are so cruel, are such as 
 were almost daily familiars at their houses, ate, drank, cursed, 
 and swore together were even intimate playmates ; and now, 
 without any provocation, destroy all before them with fire, ball, " 
 and tomahawk. They commonly now shoot with rifles, with 
 which they will at a great distance, from behind a tree, fence, 
 ditch or rock, or under the covert of leaves, take such sure aim 
 as seldom misseth their mark. If they attack a house that is 
 pretty well manned, they creep behind some fence, or hedge, or 
 tree, and shoot red hot iron slugs, or punk, into the roof, and 
 fire the house over their heads ; and if they run out they are 
 sure to be shot at, and most or all of them killed. If they 
 come to a house where most of the family are women and chil- 
 dren, they break into it, kill them all, plunder the house, and 
 burn it with the dead in it ; or if any escape out, they pursue 
 and kill them. If the cattle are in the stable, they fire it and 
 burn the stable ; if they are out, they are shot, and the barn 
 burnt. If our captains pursue them in the level woods, they 
 skip from tree to tree like monkeys ; if in the mountains, like 
 wild goats they leap from rock to rock, or hide themselves, and 
 attack us in flank and rear, when, but the minute before, we 
 pursued their track and thought they were all before us. 
 They are like the angel of death give us the mortal stroke 
 when we think ourselves secure from danger. 
 
 " Pennsylvania ! thou that was the most flourishing and 
 peaceable province in North America, art now scourged by 
 the most barbarous creatures in the universe. All ages, sexes, 
 and stations, have no mercy extended to them." . . . 
 
 History does not contain a more graphic description of the 
 character of early Indian warfare. Those amongst us who are 
 disposed to be very severe upon the first settlers in New Eng- 
 land for their frequent contests with the natives, and indulge 
 themselves in invidious comparisons, might read this corres- 
 pondence with profit. The question has two sides ; and let us 
 ever remember, with Jeremy Taylor, that severe judgment 
 should begin at home.
 
 JOHN BARTRAM TO PETER COLLINSON. 
 
 September 30, 1763. 
 
 DEAR PETER I have now travelled near thirty years through 
 our provinces, and in some, twenty times in the same provinces, 
 and yet never, as I remember, once found one single species 
 in all after times, that I did not observe in my first journey 
 through the same province. But many times I found that 
 plant the first which neither I nor any person could find after, 
 which plants, I suppose, were destroyed by the cattle. . . . 
 The first time I crossed the Shenandoah I saw one or two 
 plants, or rather stalk and seed of the Meadia, on its bank. 
 I jumped off, got the seed, and brought it home, sent part to 
 thee, and part I sowed myself both which succeeded ; and 
 if I had not gone to that spot, perhaps it had been wholly lost 
 to the world. John Clayton asked me where I found it ; I 
 described the very spot to him, but neither he nor any person 
 from him could find it after. ! what a noble discovery I 
 could have made on the banks of the Ohio and Mississippi, if 
 I had gone down, and the Indians had been peaceably in- 
 clined, as I knew many plants that grew on its northern 
 branches. But we are at present all disappointed. 
 
 I read lately, in our newspaper, of a noble and absolutely 
 necessary scheme that was proposed in England, if it was prac- 
 ticable ; that was, to search all the country of Canada and 
 Louisiana for all natural productions, convenient situations for 
 manufactories, and different soils, minerals and vegetables ; the 
 last of which I dare take upon myself, as I know more of the 
 North American plants than any others. But this would alarm 
 the Indians to the highest degree. All the discoverers would 
 be exposed to the greatest savage cruelty the gun, tomahawk, 
 torture, or revengeful, devouring jaws. Before this scheme can 
 be executed, the Indians must be subdued, or drove above a 
 thousand miles back. No treaty will make discovery safe. 
 Many years past, in our most peaceable times, far beyond the 
 mountains, as I was walking in a path with an Indian guide, 
 hired for two dollars, an Indian man met me and pulled off my 
 hat in a great passion, and chawed it all round I suppose to 
 show me that he would eat me if I came into that country again." 
 3*
 
 30 
 
 October 23d, 1763. 
 
 DEAR PETER ***** 
 
 ** ****** 
 
 The most probable, and only method to establish a lasting peace 
 with the barbarous Indians, is to bang them stoutly, and make, 
 them sensible that we are men whom they for many years 
 despised as women ; until then, it is only throwing away men, 
 blood, and treasure, to make peace with them. They will not 
 keep to any treaty of peace. They all are, with their fathers, 
 the French, resolved to drive the English out of North America. 
 And although some tribes pretend to be neutral friends, it is only 
 with a design to supply the rest with ammunition to murder us. 
 Perhaps now, and only now, is the critical time offered to 
 Britain to secure not only her old possessions, but her so much 
 boasted new acquisitions, in sending us sufficient supplies to 
 repel effectually those barbarous savages." 
 
 PETER COLLINSON TO JOHN BARTRAM. 
 
 " Ridgeway House, December 6, 17 C3. 
 
 "I am here retired, all alone, from the bustle and hurry of 
 the town, meditating on the comforts I enjoy ; and while the 
 old log is burning, the fire of friendship is blazing warms my 
 imagination with reflecting on the variety of incidents that hath 
 attended our long and agreeable correspondence. 
 
 " My dear John, thou dost not consider the law of right, and 
 doing to others as we would be done unto. 
 
 " We, every manner of way, trick, cheat, and abuse these 
 Indians with impunity. They were notoriously jockeyed and 
 cheated out of their land in your province, by a man walking a 
 tract of ground in one day, that was to be purchased of them. 
 
 " Your Governor promised the Indians, if they would not join 
 the French, that when the war was over our troops would with- 
 draw from Pittsburg. They sent to claim this promise, but 
 were shuffled off. They resented it, as that fortress was situated 
 on their hunting country. 
 
 " I could fill this letter with our arbitrary proceedings, all the 
 colonies through ; with our arbitrary, illegal taking their lands
 
 31 
 
 from them, making them drunk, and cheating them of their 
 property. As their merciless, barbarous methods of revenge 
 and resentment are so well known, our people should be more 
 careful how they provoke them. Let a person of power come 
 and take five or ten acres of my friend John's land from him, 
 and give him half price, or no price for it, how easy and 
 resigned he would be, and submit to such usage ! But if an 
 Indian resents it in this way, instead of doing him justice, and 
 making peace with him, nothing but fire and faggot will do with 
 my friend John ! He does not search into the bottom of these 
 insurrections. They are smothered up, because we are the 
 aggressors. But see my two proposals, in the October Gentle- 
 man's Magazine, for a peace with the Indians. 
 
 ***** 
 
 " What a glorious scene is opened in that rich country about 
 Pensacola if that despised country is worthy thy visitation. 
 But because Pitt did not get it, thou canst not venture there on 
 any pretence ! All beyond the Carolinas is forbidden ground. 
 They are none of thy darling Pitt's acquisitions ! 
 
 ***** 
 
 " I hope what I have writ will be read with candour. Our 
 long friendship will allow us to rally one another, and crack 
 a joke without offence, as none was intended by thy sincere 
 friend, 
 
 P. COLLINSON. 
 
 " London, January 1, 1763-4. 
 
 " I am very thankful to the great Author of my being that I 
 enter the new year in perfect good health and spirits. I 
 heartily wish the like comfortable situation may attend my dear 
 friend and his family. 
 
 ***** 
 
 " Thy quick discernment of plants is a knack peculiar to 
 thyself, and is attained by the long exercise of thy faculties in 
 that amusement, and is like the hare finders with us. Some 
 can't discover them if close under their feet ; others see them at 
 a great distance. 
 
 " Indeed, my dear John, I must congratulate you on that
 
 32 
 
 happy discovery of my favorite Meadia. It is really remarka- 
 ble none should be found since. 
 
 " I hear nothing more of that proposal thee mentions ; but 
 if there were any real intention of carrying it into execu- 
 tion, no one properer than thyself for Natural History and 
 Botany. 
 
 " That the Indians should be alarmed at our sounding or 
 measuring I don't wonder they should be jealous of our inva- 
 sion of their property. Every man is tenacious of his native 
 rights, and if you invade their rights, you must take the conse- 
 quences. Let those be well banged I may say well hanged 
 that, by their unjust proceedings, provoked the Indians to 
 hostilities, knowing before-hand their cruel resentments." 
 
 Bartram says to Collinson : 
 
 "March 4, 1764. 
 ****** * * 
 
 " I think our Indians received a full value for that cheating 
 walk, and pretended to be fully satisfied with what they re- 
 ceived above the first agreement ; and as for Pittsburg, they let 
 the French settle and build there ; then why may riot the Eng- 
 lish, after they had drove the French out, keep possession of 
 it ? And as the Indians have committed such barbarous de- 
 struction on our people, we have more reason to destroy them 
 and possess their land than you have to keep Canada. And 
 must all our provinces suffer a prodigious yearly expense, and 
 have thousands of our innocent people barbarously murdered, 
 because some of our traders made them drunk to get a skin 
 cheap ? or an Irishman settles on a bit of their land which 
 they will never make use of ? And if we must settle any more 
 land, or any of the branches of the Mississippi, pray say no 
 more about our great British empire, while we must not be a 
 farthing the better for it. 
 
 " I should be exceedingly pleased, if I could afford it, to 
 make a thorough search, not only at Pensacola, but the coast 
 of Florida, Alabama, Georgia, and the banks of the Missis- 
 sippi. I make no difference who got it, if I could but safely 
 travel in it. 
 
 " My dear friend, I am so far from taking offence at thy 
 familiar way of writing, that it gives me much pleasure."
 
 33 
 
 COLLINSON TO BARTRAM. 
 
 "March 7, 1764. 
 
 * * * * * * 
 
 " Is it reasonable to think the Indians will love us, after such 
 a cruel, unprovoked slaughter at Lancaster, &c. ? I hope the 
 authors will be made examples of justice." 
 
 "MiU Hill, May 28, 1766. 
 ****** 
 
 " In all thy expeditions, didst thee fall in with any Indians ? 
 what nation ? and how did they behave ? Is there any dispo- 
 sition in them to continue in peace and friendship ? There is 
 much talk of civilizing them. A good, sensible man, named 
 Hammerer, a foreigner, who was long in London, could not be 
 easy without going to reside among the Cherokees, in order 
 to try to bring them to a sense of moral duties." 
 
 What Bartram saw and had to encounter in his botanical 
 excursions through western New York at that early day, will 
 be better understood by those who read the " Narrative of a 
 Journey made in the year 1737, by Conrad Weiser, from Tul- 
 pehocken to Onondago," lately published by the Pennsylvania 
 Historical Society. After overcoming all but unendurable 
 hardships on his journey, in the months of February and March, 
 upon his arrival among the natives of that then savage frontier, 
 he gives us this account of a conversation with them. " I asked 
 them how it happened that they were so short of provisions 
 now, while twelve years ago they had a greater supply than all 
 the other Indians ; and now their children looked like dead 
 persons, and suffered much from hunger. They answered, that 
 now game was scarce, and that hunting had strangely failed 
 since last winter ; some of them had procured nothing at all. 
 That the Lord and Creator of the world was resolved to de- 
 stroy the Indians. One of their seers, whom they named, had 
 seen a vision of God, who had said to him the following words : 
 1 You inquire after the cause why game has become scarce. I 
 will tell you. You kill it for the sake of the skins which you
 
 34 
 
 give for strong liquor, and drown your senses, and kill one an- 
 other, and carry on a dreadful debauchery. Therefore have I 
 driven the wild animals out of the country, for they are mine. 
 If you will do good and cease from your sins I will bring them 
 back ; if not, I will destroy them from off the face of the earth.' 
 
 "I inquired if they believed what the seer had seen and 
 heard. They answered, yes, some believed it would happen 
 so, others also believed it, but gave themselves no concern 
 about it. Time will show, said they, what is to happen to us ; 
 rum will kill us, and leave the land clear for the Europeans 
 without strife or purchase." p. 17. 
 
 Upon another occasion he tells us : 
 
 " This was the hardest and most fatiguing day's journey I had 
 ever made ; my bodily strength was so much exhausted that I 
 trembled and -shook so much all over, I thought I must fall from 
 weariness, and perish. I stepped aside and sat down under a 
 tree to die, which I hoped would be hastened by the cold 
 approaching night. When my companions remarked my ab- 
 sence, they waited for me some time, then returned to seek me, 
 and found me sitting under a tree. But I could not be per- 
 suaded to proceed, for I thought it beyond my power. The 
 entreaties of the old chief and the sensible reasoning of Shi- 
 kelimo* (who said that evil days were better for us than good, 
 for the first often warned us against sins and washed them 
 out, while the latter often enticed us to sin), caused me to alter 
 my resolution, and I arose.'' 
 
 Peter Collinson enlistecl several of his friends to contribute 
 ,10 each, as a yearly stipend, to stimulate, and partially remu- 
 nerate Bartram for his researches and the treasures he sent 
 them from the new world ; and finally had him appointed king's 
 botanist, with a salary of .50 a year. 
 
 The interest expressed by Lord Petre was truly wonderful, 
 and nothing can exceed the mournful outpouring of the heart in 
 a letter which announces the early death of this excellent noble- 
 man, and which, for the pathos of its allusion to the parting, is 
 worthy to be placed along side of Dr. Garden's illustration of 
 how naturalists become attached to each other on their first 
 acquaintance. But the letter must speak for itself. 
 
 * Father of the Logan whom Jefferson has made memorable.
 
 35 
 
 " London, July 3^ 1742. 
 
 " OH ! FRIEND JOHN : I can't express the concern of mind 
 that I am under, on so many accounts. I have lost my friend, 
 my brother. The man I loved, and was dearer to me than all 
 men is no more. I could fill this sheet and many more ; but 
 oh ! my anxiety of mind is so great, that I can hardly write ; 
 and yet I must tell thee, that on Friday, July 2d, our dear 
 friend Lord Petre was carried off by the small pox, in the 
 thirtieth year of his age. Hard, hard, cruel hard, to be taken 
 from his friends, his family, his country, in the prime of life ; 
 when he had so many thousand things locked up in his heart, 
 for the benefit of them all now lost in embryo. 
 
 " I can go no further, but to assure thee that I am thy friend. 
 
 P. COLLINSON. 
 
 " All our schemes are broke. 
 
 " Send no seeds for him, nor the Duke of Norfolk ; for now, 
 he that gave motion is motionless all is at an end. 
 
 " As I know this will be a great disappointment to thee, if 
 thou hast a mind to send the seeds, as was ordered for Lord 
 Petre and Duke of Norfolk on thy own account and risk I 
 will do what I can to dispose of them. The Duke of Norfolk 
 shall have the preference ; but there is no obliging him to take 
 them, as I had not the order from him, but from Lord Petre. 
 
 " Send those for the Duke of Richmond and P. Miller. 
 
 " Lord Petre was a fine, tall, comely personage handsome 
 had the presence of a prince ; yet was so happily mixed, that 
 love and awe were begot at the same time. The affability and 
 sweetness of his temper were beyond expression, without the 
 least mixture of pride or haughtiness. With an engaging 
 smile he always met his friends. But oh ! the endowments of 
 his mind were not to be described. Few or none could excel 
 him in the knowledge of the liberal arts and sciences. He was 
 a great mechanic as well as a great mathematician ; ready at 
 figures and calculations, and elegant in his tastes. 
 
 " In his religious way,* an example of great piety ; his 
 morals of great temperance and sobriety ; no loose word, or 
 
 * Lord Petre belonged to the Roman Catholic Church.
 
 36 
 
 double entendre, did I ever hear (this is something of the 
 man.) i For his virtues, his excellencies, and his endowments, I 
 loved him, and he me, more like a brother than a friend." 
 
 Thirty years after their correspondence had commenced, 
 Peter Collinson writes thus to John Bartram : 
 
 " I have pleasure upon pleasure beyond measure, with perus- 
 ing my dear John's letters of October 31st, with the rare plants 
 in Eden." 
 
 " Think, my dear John, with what amazement and 
 
 delight I, with Dr. Solander, surveyed the quire of specimens. 
 He thinks near half are new genera. This will enrich the 
 
 fountain of knowledge." "But what surprises us most, is 
 
 the Tipitiwitchet Sensitive. It is quite a new species, a new 
 genus." (Dioncea muscipula.) " 
 
 Again soon after 
 
 " I am glad, my dear John, I can send our friend Solander's 
 catalogue of thy last curious collection of specimens. There 
 are wonderful things amongst them, especially the Sensitive, 
 JEmpetrum" &c. * * * * * * 
 
 " They enrich our knowledge, and anticipate our pleasures, 
 and give us a good idea of the riches in store, to gratify the 
 botanists of after ages. 0, botany ! delightfulest of all sci- 
 ences ! There is no end of thy gratifications. All botanists 
 will join with me in thanking my dear John for his unwearied 
 pains to gratify every inquisitive genius. I have sent Lin- 
 naeus a specimen, and one leaf of Tipitiwitchet Sensitive : only 
 to him would I spare such a jewel. Pray send more speci- 
 mens. I am afraid we can never raise it Linnaeus will be in 
 raptures at the sight of it." 
 
 Again under date of August 4th, 1763 : 
 
 " My garden, like thine, makes a glorious appearance ; with 
 fine long-spiked purple Ononis ; with the all-spice of Carolina 
 [Oalycanthus floridus, L.,~\ abundantly in flower spreading 
 its perfumes abroad ; the delectable red-flowering Acacia ; my 
 laurel-leafed Magnolia, with its noble blossoms, which will con- 
 tinue for two months or more. The great Rhododendron has 
 been glorious beyond expression ; and before, I told thee of 
 the mountain Magnolia, and the surprising flowers of the red 
 and yellow Sarracenia. Thus, my dear John, thou sees I am
 
 3T 
 
 not much behind thee in a fine show, but when thy Eden plants 
 flower, I shall not be able to bear the report of them." 
 
 " Consider, my dear John, what pleasure I feel now. 
 
 I can give thee an order for a ten guinea box, for young Lord 
 Petre. Little did I think, when I gave thee the first like order 
 for his valuable father in 1735 or 1736, that I should live to 
 give the like for his son. It may be truly said that the spirit 
 of Elijah rests on Elisha, for he began this year with a box 
 of thy seeds." 
 
 In acknowledging this, Bartram thus expresses himself : 
 
 " I am heartily glad that young Lord Petre is possessed of 
 the botanical taste of his father. I wish he may resemble him 
 in virtue. I have intended to inquire after him and his mo- 
 ther in every late letter. The pear raised from her seed hath 
 borne a number of the finest relished fruit. I think a better 
 is not in the world." 
 
 In a note to which, the editor informs us, " This tree, known 
 as * Lady Petre's Pear tree,' is still (1848) flourishing at the 
 Bartram garden, standing close by the house. 
 
 Peter Collinson, in 1764, when noticing Bartram's last re- 
 mark, says : " It has been thy patience to wait, but my plea- 
 sure to hear of the delicious pear raised from Lady Petre's 
 seed ; but she, dear good woman, is gone to rest." 
 
 In 1765 he makes this announcement : 
 
 " I have the pleasure to inform my good friend, that my 
 repeated solicitations have not been in vain. I this day re- 
 ceived certain intelligence from our gracious king that he had 
 appointed thee his botanist, with a salary of fifty pounds a 
 year." 
 
 These are a few of the many, many specimens of the acts of 
 kindness, expressions of sympathy and admiration, and long 
 abiding, devoted friendship, which these letters present, hold- 
 ing up Peter Collinson as a pattern for the doers of good in 
 all succeeding ages. 
 
 " He was one of the earliest and most constant correspon- 
 dents of Linnaeus, and was highly distinguished in the circle 
 of naturalists and antiquaries in London, for nearly half a 
 century." 
 
 An interesting little tract giving some accounts of him, 
 4
 
 38 
 
 which appeared soon after his death, and is generally ascribed 
 to Dr. Fothergillf gave rise to a correspondence with Dr. 
 Franklin as to its authorship. 
 
 The following passage is from one of Franklin's letters 
 " If we estimate the goodness of a man by his disposition to 
 do good, and his constant endeavours and success in doing it, 
 I can hardly conceive that a better man has ever existed ;" 
 speaking of himf who was first to sound Peter Collinson's 
 praises, when he went from earth to heaven. 
 
 But even Peter Collinson, with Dr. Fothergill at his right 
 hand, could hardly have made Bartram what he became, but 
 for what he says of himself ; 
 
 " I had always since ten years old, a great inclination for 
 plants, and knew all that I once observed by sight, though not 
 their proper names, having no persons or books to instruct me ;" 
 and, for what his son says of him " He had all, or most of 
 the education that could at that time be acquired in our country 
 schools ; and whenever an opportunity offered, he studied such 
 of the Latin and Greek grammars and classics as his circum- 
 stances enabled him to purchase, and always sought the society 
 of the most learned and virtuous men." The son also says, 
 that the intimate friendship and correspondence between his 
 father and Peter Collinson continued fifty years, although the 
 letters brought to light by Dr. Darlington, cover a period of 
 but thirty-four. He purchased the place which his garden has 
 made classic ground, at sheriff's sale in 1728, and built the house 
 still standing there in 1731. 
 
 Bartram's garden has been an object of interest the world 
 over, for a century past. Unique in its character and extent 
 on this side the water, it became early somewhat famous. It 
 was not only attractive to naturalists, but was generally visited 
 by strangers who came to Philadelphia to spend any time, and 
 frequently by the passing traveller. Its precise location is on 
 the west bank of the Schuylkill, a little below Gray's Ferry, an 
 intervening bluff hiding it from the Woodlands, originally retired 
 from the great public road leading south. Now, indeed, the 
 
 * See a fuller sketch of his life and character in the Appendix, 
 f Dr. Fothergill.
 
 railroad passes through a deep cut directly in rear of the house. 
 We rejoice that since the appearance of these memorials it has 
 fallen into hands which, as far as possible, will preserve what 
 may keep alive its interesting memories. It was once feared, 
 that in the changes of time, and chance, and fortune, this classic 
 spot, where for many a long year things curious and beautiful 
 in nature were cultivated, trained, and developed by a master 
 hand, might become desecrated by occupation for the business 
 purposes of every day life ; and that not being able to preserve 
 both "the beautiful and the useful," we should have had to 
 console ourselves that our own Franklin had classic authority 
 for placing " the useful" first, had we been condemned to see 
 Bartram's Garden transformed to a coal yard. Philadel- 
 phians may thank Dr. Darlington's book, probably, for the 
 escape. 
 
 Whoever visits the Bartram garden now, let him be sure to 
 inquire for the " Lady Petre's pear tree ;" and when he next 
 attends the anniversary exhibition of the Pennsylvania Horticul- 
 tural Society, let him remember to look at a specimen of its 
 fruit which he will certainly find there. The president, secre- 
 tary, or the second of the committee on fruits, while they live, 
 will as certainly one of them be at hand to point out this pro- 
 duct of a tree from seed planted more than a century ago, of 
 fruit grown on the grounds of a noble horticulturist who was 
 also a horticulturist nobleman in England, in Bartram's 
 garden, on the banks of the Schuylkill, by the agency of Peter 
 Collinsou. 
 
 We have referred to three officers of an existing society in 
 connection with reminiscences of their distinguished predeces- 
 sors in horticulture, because we know of no others who have 
 done more to promote and extend the usefulness of this society ; 
 and we know of no society which has added more to the worldly 
 comforts, the cheerfulness and happiness of all, in a city famed 
 for its abounding good things, and more especially for the 
 number of institutions, where " wisdom dwells with prudence, 
 and finds out knowledge of witty inventions" to do good. 
 
 We had intended giving a passage or two from Dr. Fother- 
 gill's letter, on the death of his friend, but our prescribed limits
 
 40 
 
 forbid.* For an opportunity to do this, copying from the origi- 
 nal edition, we are indebted to that indefatigable and accom- 
 plished naturalist, Dr. Francis Boott,f of London, who, com- 
 bining American sympathies from his birth among us, with 
 
 * One of these passages is here given : 
 
 " Planting, he used to say, and gardening, supply a fund of entertain- 
 ment, the most lasting and reasonable of any occupation in this life, 
 pleasures not to be purchased. The trees which we ourselves have 
 planted, the fruits we have raised, the plants we have cultivated, seem to 
 be like our children, a kind of new creation. Their shade, their taste, 
 their fragrance and their beauties, affect us with a richer repast than any 
 other. What a pleasing scene, would he observe, lies open to a young 
 man of fortune devoted to such amusements ! Each succeeding year 
 produces new shades, other fruits, fresh beauties, and brings besides, 
 most certain profit. To behold the rising groves, barrenness made fertile, 
 our country improved, ourselves made useful and happy, and posterity 
 enriched ! When on this favorite subject, a very natural expression often 
 escaped him, that he seldom knew a man possessed of a taste for such 
 pleasures, who was not at the same time temperate and virtuous. And 
 indeed he had a right to make the observation ; for he had the satisfaction 
 of reckoning among his most intimate friends, men of the most amiable 
 and unblemished character, in all stations, parties, and distinctions." 
 
 " The quantities of new seeds he received from America not only sup- 
 plied his own garden with every thing that was curious in that region 
 but furnished him with the means of procuring others in exchange from 
 other parts of the globe." 
 
 f Since this article was commenced, we came across, at the Philadel- 
 phia Library, unlocked for, in a volume labelled " Pamphlets on Eth- 
 nology, &c.," a work with this title page " Hortus Collinsonianus. An 
 account of plants cultivated by the late Peter Collinson, Esq., F. K. S., 
 arranged alphabetically, according to their modern names, from the 
 catalogue of his garden, and other manuscripts. Not Published. Swan- 
 sea: Printed by N. C. Murray and D. Rees, MDCCCXLIII." Its pre- 
 face signed L. W. Dillwyn, Sketty Hall, March 8, 1843, in a full and 
 interesting account of the work, gives us the following facts. " The 
 gardens at Peckham and Mill Hill had attained such a high celebrity, 
 that a publication of Mr. Collinson's Catalogue appears to have been 
 called for by some of the most distinguished naturalists, and the reason 
 for his noncompliance with their wishes is thus given in a letter of his, 
 dated May 12, 1756, to his friend Linnaeus : ' You must remember I am 
 a merchant, a man of great business, with many affairs in my head and 
 on my hands. I can never pretend to publish a catalogue of my garden, 
 unless I had one of your ingenious pupils to digest or methodize it for 
 me. It only serves now for my own private use.' " See Sir J. E. Smith's 
 Correspondence of Linnoms, Vol. 1. p. 39.
 
 41 
 
 intimate relations to the many eminent lovers of nature around 
 him, since this correspondence appeared, has furnished evi- 
 dence of an intense desire to bring to light all that pertains 
 to one who did so much good in his day and generation on 
 both sides the water, and made so little noise in doing it. 
 
 We hope to be excused for indulging in so many extracts, 
 if the reader shall find them give reality to the idea of the 
 great and good John Fothergill, that Peter Collinson made 
 John Bartram what he was ; and if they shall lead more peo- 
 ple to know than knew it before, that this Pennsylvania gar- 
 dener of the London merchant's training, was, himself, a great 
 man, in other respects, besides being the greatest natural bo- 
 tanist of his time. 
 
 He closes his prefatory remarks with the copy of a memorandum, to 
 which Mr. Collinson had added his signature in 1763. 
 
 " I often stand with wonder and amazement when I view the incon- 
 ceivable variety of flowers, shrubs, and trees, now in our gardens, and 
 what were there forty years ago ; in that time what quantities from all 
 North America have annually been collected by my means and procur- 
 ing, and for some years past a great variety of seeds are brought from 
 China, and many fine plants raised ; the China Mulberry I first raised, 
 and from Siberia many curious shrubs and flowers. Very few gardens, 
 if any, excel mine at Mill Hill, the rare exotics of which are my delight." 
 
 The horticulturist will find himself amply repaid by looking over this 
 rare and curious, "not published" work, which he will find bound up 
 with the pamphlets on Ethnology, in the Philadelphia Library, as stated. 
 But where did it come from, and how did it get there ? We have before 
 referred to the interest awakened by Dr. Darlington's late work in Eng- 
 land. One of the many interesting tokens of this was the reception by 
 the author, from L. W. Dillwyn, through the agency of Dr. Boott, of five 
 copies of the Hortus Collinsonianus, one of which Dr. Darlington pre- 
 sented to the Philadelphia Library. These are the only copies, probably, 
 to be found here. 
 
 In connection with this subject, it should also be stated, that the letter- 
 book of James Logan, containing copies of many letters to Peter Collin- 
 son, is still extant, and a large file of the original letters of this prince 
 of horticulturists in his day, is carefully preserved among the archives of 
 the Logan family. Let us hope that some gifted one may yet arise, 
 who will do more justice than has yet been done to each of these distin- 
 guished names.
 
 42 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 IT should have been observed in the notice of Dr. Darlington's 
 work, that there is prefixed to the letters of each of John Bar tram's 
 and Humphry Marshall's distinguished correspondents, a condensed 
 but careful, authoritative and interesting sketch of their respective 
 lives and characters. For that of Peter Collinson, Dr. Fothergill's 
 letter, and the Linnaean correspondence by Sir James Edward Smith, 
 are referred to as his leading authorities. It has been suggested that 
 it might be gratifying to those who take a lively interest in Peter 
 Collinson's history and character, to append to this edition, a brief 
 sketch of his Biography j and also to add the history of his descen- 
 dants, to the present time. This last has been furnished to Dr. 
 Darlington at his request, by the great-grand-daughter, Miss Anna 
 Maria Collinson, in a letter to him, dated Leamington, Warwickshire, 
 England, May 14, 1850, with which we have been kindly favoured. 
 
 We learn from the letter published soon after his death, usually 
 ascribed to Dr. Fothergill, and re-published as such by Dr. Lettsom 
 in his edition of Fothergill's worksf that the family of the COLLIN- 
 SON'S is of ancient standing in the North : PETER and JAMES were 
 the great-grand-sons of Peter Collinson, who lived on the paternal 
 estate called Hugal Hall, or Height of Hugall, near Windermere 
 Lake, in the parish of Stavely, about ten miles from Kendal, in 
 Westmoreland. 
 
 Peter was born January 28, 1693-4, in a house opposite to Church 
 Alley, St. Clement's Lane, Lombard street, London. He resided 
 for many years at the Red Lion, on Grace Church street, where as a 
 wholesale woollen draper, in company with his brother James, he 
 accumulated a handsome estate. In 1724, he married Mary, the 
 daughter of MICHAEL RUSSELL, Esq., of Mill Hill, Hendon. The 
 wife died in May, 1753, leaving him a son MICHAEL, and a daughter 
 MARY, married to the late JOHN CATOR, Esq., of Beckenham, Kent. 
 Both inherited many of the good qualities of their father, but Michael 
 is said to have allowed his political feeling to carry him away when the 
 war broke out with this country, even to the undervaluation of his 
 father's most intimate friend, Dr. Fothergill, and extending to both 
 
 * Entitled " Some Account of the late Peter Collinson, Fellow of the Koyal Society, and of 
 the Society of Antiquaries in London, and of the Society of Berlin and Upsal. In a letter to 
 a friend, 1770."
 
 43 
 
 Dr. Franklin and John Bartram.* Peter Collinson's attachment to 
 Natural History, led him early to make a collection of dried speci- 
 mens of plants, and he availed himself of his ready access to the best 
 gardens around London. He became intimate with the most eminent 
 Naturalists of his time and was one of the few who visited Sir 
 Hans Sloan, at all times familiarly ; a firm friendship having been 
 early established between them which lasted while they lived. There 
 were but few articles in that superb collection, now the British 
 Museum, commenced by his friend, with which he was not familiar. 
 He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1728, and became 
 one of the most diligent and useful members. While unremitting in 
 his attention to business, he extended his correspondence upon Na- 
 tural History, and all matters connected with the arts and sciences, 
 the world over. Such was his diligence and economy of time that he 
 never appeared to be in a hurry, while he maintained this extensive 
 correspondence with great punctuality, and laid so many of the 
 learned and ingenious under obligations to him, in distant parts of the 
 globe, by acquainting them with the discoveries and improvements 
 in Natural History around him, that he received like information 
 from them in return. Cadwalader Golden, Esq. of New York, and 
 Dr. Franklin and James Logan, of Philadelphia, as well as John Bar- 
 tram, were among his particular, and most valued correspondents. 
 His aid to the Philadelphia Library was extended, in a similar manner, 
 to many others in the vicinity ; and was promotive of widely ex- 
 tended and lasting good, which entitle his name to our grateful 
 remembrance, and secure to Dr. Darlington many thanks for bringing 
 it vividly to mind. During the residence of Linnaeus in England, 
 
 *R is but just to add thefdUauriny testimonial by his son. 
 
 "At Sproughton Church, near Ipswich : 
 
 " This monument is erected 
 
 by Charles Streynsham Collinson, Esquire, 
 
 to the memory of his father 
 
 MICHAEL COLLIXSON, Esquire, 
 
 late of the Chantry in this parish, and also 
 
 of Hendon in the County of Middlesex; 
 
 who died the llth of August. 1795, aged 67 years 
 
 He was distinguished for his knowledge of Natural History, 
 
 And for the attention he pave to botanical subjects in particular. 
 
 From- his generally well-informed mind and polished manners, 
 
 his company was much esteemed by persons of the first eminence; 
 
 And he endeared himself to his more immediate connections. 
 
 by his 
 
 benevolence and liberality. 
 
 The enjoyment of the latter part of his life was greatly interrupted 
 by a series of painful disorders, which he sustained 
 with much exemplary resignation and fortitude." 
 
 Nich. Lit. An. 5th To?, p. 315.
 
 44 
 
 he contracted a close intimacy with him, which continued a life long, 
 and abounded in the reciprocation of kind offices. As an Anti- 
 quarian, he was not less eminent and distinguished. 
 
 His first improvements, and collections in Horticulture were at Peck- 
 ham, in Surrey j* here they became extensive and very interesting. 
 In 1749, when he removed to Ridgway House at Mill Hill, he began 
 the transplanting of them, which occupied him for two years. He 
 was sometimes despoiled of these treasures so near his heart, but 
 always bore his loss patiently, while he strove to supply their place. 
 
 " While in the country he spent most of his time in his garden, 
 taking care of the trees and plants, and observing the operations of 
 nature : he was exceedingly fond of fruit, and a perpetual admirer of 
 flowers, always having them in his house, from the early snow-drop to 
 the autumn cyclamen."f 
 
 The Hortus Collinsonianus, prepared and printed by L. W. Dillwyn, 
 before alluded to, will fully illustrate his habits in this respect, and 
 well repay diligent and close perusal by every lover of horticulture. 
 
 His person was rather short than tall ; he had a pleasing and 
 social aspect ; was of a temper open and communicative, capable of 
 feeling for distress, and ready to relieve and sympathise. Excepting 
 some attacks of the gout, he enjoyed, in general, perfect health, and 
 great equality of spirits, and had arrived at his 75th year ; when, 
 being on a visit to Lord Petre, for whom he had a singular regard, 
 he was seized with an attack, which, baffling every attempt to relieve 
 it, proved fatal, on the llth of August, 1768.J 
 
 For the following letter, from Mr. Thomas Collinson,* a nephew 
 of Peter Collinson, addressed to Dr. Bucarel, giving some account of 
 his illness and last hours, we are indebted to " Nichols's Literary 
 Anecdotes of the Eighteenth Century." 
 
 * His brother had a garden near him. 
 
 t We are indebted for several hints and facts in this notice to a manuscript sketch from the 
 collections of a lady in this city, illustrative of the mysteries of nature's handiwork, and which 
 we trust may some day see the light 
 
 t Peter Collinson, born January 14th, 1693-4, I Mary, daughter of Michael Russell, Esq., 
 died August 11, 1768. of Mill Hill, died March 28, 1753. 
 
 Michael Collinson, died August 11, 1795. I .... Mary Collinson, John Cator, Esq., of 
 aged 67. Beckenham, Kent, M. P. 
 J for Callington. 
 
 Charles Streynsham Collinson, Esq. High Sheriff 
 fSUff0 ' k ' 1801 - 
 
 * We add a few words on the life and character of this nephew, whose name, stock, early 
 training, and whole life, further illustrate the idea with which this Tribute commences, as to 
 the excellent traits of character resulting from " a life conformed* to principles of Friends." 
 We learn from the Gentleman's Magazine, Vol. 73, p. 878, that Thomas Collinson died August
 
 45 
 
 " The sympathising concern expressed in yours makes me believe 
 the following particulars of my late worthy uncle's illness will not be 
 altogether uninteresting. [A brief account is then given of the painful 
 disease, with which he was attacked, while on a visit at Lord Petre's, 
 whereupon he immediately returned to town.] Doctors Reeves and 
 Russell, Surgeons Crowell and Adair attended him, but all was in 
 vain. On Thursday last, about 20 minutes before two, he quitted 
 this world. 
 
 " Through the whole of his disorder he expressed the most cheerful 
 patience and humble fortitude. He told me at first that let the event 
 be what it might, he was content : that it was totally indifferent to 
 him whether he was to go then, or to continue four or five years 
 longer.' 'Few men/ he added, 'have enjoyed life more, been more 
 exempt from pain and disease; and now (he subjoined,) it is come so 
 late in life, I am thankful to Providence he has preserved me so 
 long. I cheerfully resign, and am not afraid to die.' No complaint, 
 no murmer was heard. He accepted with the kindest notice all the 
 assistance administered ; told us, he submitted to the various medical 
 and chirurgical operations, both, as being his duty, and to give satis- 
 faction to his family : if success attended, it was well ; if the contrary, 
 it was also well. Thus the good man took leave of all visibles ; he had 
 used them, without abusing them. He had lived pleasantly, usefully, 
 and honourably ; might be justly called a friend to mankind, and an 
 unwearied promoter of knowledge in general, and of Natural History 
 in particular. What can humanity have attained to more desirable ? 
 so to have lived, and thus to have died. Yet though reason almost 
 forbids, still the feelings of nature compel me to weep." 
 
 22d, 1803, in his 77th year, and that he was a man of Intellectual superiority and distinguished 
 worth. " He was not one of the multitude whose passage through life resembles that of an 
 arrow through the air, leaving not a trace behind. In his youth, by passing much of his time 
 with his uncle PETER, he formed an acquaintance with many of the scientific characters of that 
 period; and his mind became impressed with that lore of knowledge, and energy in its pur- 
 suit, which attended him through a long life, and only ceased with his existence." Then after 
 giving an account of his extensive travels, his many accomplishments, his varied and exten- 
 sive knowledge of Nature and Art, and especially of the topography and Structures of Ancient 
 Rome, it is said of him : " His acquaintance with Natural Philosophy was considerable; and to 
 some branches of the mathematics he had attained distinguished eminence. His conversation 
 was uncommonly animated and energetic ; his memory most retentive, bringing forward from 
 its rich treasury the most appropriate illustration of the subject. From his society, few retired 
 without improvement, none without pleasure; his lucid and happy mode of communicating 
 instruction, especially to young people, was a marked feature in his character; while they 
 eagerly listened, and imbibed the streams of knowledge, they felt rather conferring than re- 
 ceiving an obligation, such was the urbanity and fascination of his manners. As an (econo- 
 mist of his time, few equalled, none surpassed him ; its minutest divisions were not suffered to 
 pass away unheeded or unimproved. To this, his constant habit of registering the transactions 
 of each day materially contributed ; and that which was terminated without some advance to 
 learning or science, he considered as lost. These memoranda, regularly entered at the close of
 
 46 
 
 All accounts agree that Peter Collinson left behind him many ma- 
 terials to aid and interest in the study of Natural History. The devo- 
 tion to Horticulture for the last half century, on both sides the water, 
 and its present refined taste, owe much to his untiring industry and 
 successful exertions in its behalf. Philip Miller, the great London 
 gardener, whose " Gardener's and Botanist's Dictionary," as edited 
 by Martyn, has never been surpassed either in extent of information 
 or accuracy, and which furnishes so large a portion of the contents of 
 all the most valuable recent works on the subject, was his right-hand 
 man and frequent fellow counsellor. The Duke of Richmond of his 
 time, as well as both the Lords Petre in succession " and others of 
 the first rank in life and letters were his friends j and he was continu- 
 ally urging them to prosecute the most liberal improvements." 
 
 The portrait of him, by Miller, prefixed to Dr. FothergilTs letter, 
 is said by those of high authority, to be " excellent." 
 
 The one preceding this Tribute is copied from it, being selected as 
 the best among five sent over by Dr. Boott, with a very curious and 
 interesting collection of Collinsoniana, gathered and neatly bound up, 
 for the author of the Memorials after their appearance in England. 
 Indeed, many have recently interested themselves to hunt up every 
 thing pertaining to the cherished name and good doings of this most 
 excellent and extraordinary man. 
 
 We follow out the suggestion as to his descendants. 
 
 the day, throughout a long series of years, form a very extensive and valuable collection of facts, 
 respecting both men and things. His application, even at that period of life when, with most 
 indulgence takes place of activity, and intellectual exertions yields to necessary repose, was truly 
 extraordinary. To a new object, or to the renewal of acquaintance with one imperfectly inves- 
 tigated, he applied with all the ardour of youth, but with the perseverance of more mature 
 age. Of the evils and afflictions incident to humanity he experienced a full proportion. On 
 being married to the daughter of Mr. Hinton Brown he became a partner in the banking house 
 of Brown & Co., the unexpected failure of which closed his prospects of future affluence for- 
 ever. He declined again entering into business, preferring the independence of leisure, which 
 enabled him to follow his favourite pursuits in science, to the risk and toil of renewing his for- 
 tune, which he felt was not a duty incumbent on him, having only one child, of whom and of 
 his wife he was the survivor. In the first calamity, among other keenly-felt disappointments, 
 he witnessed the dispersion of his noble library, of more than 10,000 volumes collected with 
 superior judgment and attention. On this melancholy reverse he was surrounded by a few 
 much respected and truly respectable friends, who administered every consolation to his 
 wounded feelings that benevolence and philanthropy could suggest (for to a mind liko his. of 
 exquisite sensibility, his sufferings were in the highest degree acute;) but after his first shook 
 had subsided, his conscious rectitude and unimpeached integrity enabled him to sustain his 
 situation with the dignified composure of a philosopher, and the resignation of a Christian. 
 He was a member of the religious society of Friends, to which he adhered through life, and 
 maintained its principles with unvarying consistency. His political sentiments were uniform, 
 and were those of the Old Whigs ; to several of the leading characters of which party he was 
 intimately knp,wn about the middle of the last century. Of so excellent, so estimable an indi- 
 vidual, this is a brief, and very imperfect record; but while memory remains, his friends will 
 not cease to revere a character equally distinguished by powers of intellect, moral rectitude, 
 liberality of sentiment, and urbanity of manners."
 
 47 
 
 Miss Collinson thus continues the history of the family, in her 
 letter to Dr. Darlington, " Michael Collinson died in 1795, leaving 
 a son (my father), Charles Streynsham, and a daughter Marian, 
 (Mrs. Close,) who died in 1826. Mary (Mrs. Cator) died in 1804, 
 without children. 
 
 My father returned to England in 1798, after thirty years residence 
 in India. My aunt, Mrs. Close, left one son, Edward, now (I believe) 
 a judge in New South Wales, married, and has children j but soon 
 after his mother's death he dropped all correspondence with my 
 father. My father had eleven children ; one boy died in childhood ; 
 but ten survived their father, and lived to grow up ; and now we are 
 but five. My three beloved, amiable, and brave brothers, were all 
 taken from us within two years ! The second (William Clinton 
 Peter,) in the 37th Regiment, N. T., died on the 30th January, 1840, 
 of a severe wound received at the taking of Pushoot ; the third 
 (Henry Redfearn,) of yellow fever, 8th May, 1840, in Jamaica, 
 whilst with his Regiment, the 64th ; and the eldest, a captain in the 
 18th Royal Irish, was killed, July 21st, 1842, at the taking of Chin- 
 Kang-Fou, in China : all three deserving of the numerous and high 
 testimonies to their worth, which we have received in letters from 
 the officers of their several regiments. One sister died in Leaming- 
 ton of a decline, in 1843 ; and another, last year, fell a victim to that 
 fearful scourge, cholera, at Boulogne, in France. It has pleased our 
 Almighty Father most repeatedly and severely to afflict us; and 
 though his mercy has enabled us to bear these heavy trials, yet no 
 time has yet enabled me to dwell or write upon them with compo* 
 sure. 
 
 Two of my sisters are married, and have children. I believe, now, 
 all the descendants of our worthy ancestor, bearing the name of 
 Collinson, are my two sisters, Emily Frances, and Louisa, and 
 myself. It is a sad retrospect I have gone through, and you must, 
 dear sir, pardon any expression of my feelings, I have been led to 
 intrude upon you, in writing upon this melancholy subject." 
 
 In a recent communication to the writer, Dr. Darlington says, 
 " From subsequent letters of my esteemed correspondent, Miss Anna 
 Maria Collinson, we learn that her two married sisters are named 
 Octavia Aylmer, and Georgiana Custance. Which is the elder we 
 know not ; but we gather from the letters, that Mrs. Aylmer resides 
 at Bath, and Mrs. Custance at Brussels. They have also an uncle 
 (Colonel Sowcrby) in Hertfordshire, Wales. It seems truly remarka- 
 ble, and melancholy, that nearly all the male posterity of the good
 
 48 
 
 old Quaker should have become soldiers, and died in the military 
 service of their country !" Miss Collinson says : 
 
 " We were always brought up to venerate the name of Peter Collin- 
 son. My dear father (who truly was worthy of the name, and 
 inherited the virtues, if not the extent of knowledge, of the great 
 Peter,} was excessively fond of, and understood his garden." 
 
 In closing this appendix we borrow from Dr. Wood's late centen- 
 nial discourse upon the Pennsylvania Hospital, his reference to Dr. 
 Fothergill, the most intimate friend of Peter Collinson ; and whose 
 relations to the Hospital were analogous to those of Peter to the 
 Library. 
 
 " It would be unpardonable to pass without notice the name of 
 Dr. John Fothergill, of London, who was untiring in his good offices, 
 not only subscribing largely of money, and making valuable dona- 
 tions of books, anatomical models, drawings, &c., and exerting his 
 influence in England in various ways for the good of the Hospital." 
 
 In a note to this interesting discourse he gives us a particular 
 description of the character and important influence of these donations. 
 
 Dr. Wood brings prominently to view how much one of our first 
 and best public Institutions owes to the efforts of FRIENDS, and par- 
 ticularly to a London Friend, who was also Peter Collinson's friend.
 
 a 
 
 SPEEDY BINDER 
 
 Syrocuie. N. Y. 
 ^ Stockton, Calif. 
 
 THE LIBRARY 
 
 * ' ~*~- o^ <~* AT T