Continuing with the experience of Quaker Elizabeth Sandwith Drinker as she struggled adjust to the British occupation of Philadelphia in the winter of 1777 (see previous posts here and here): quartering troops of the occupying army in the homes of civilians was a standard practice during the war.

Dec. 28. First day [Quaker designation for the first day of the week]. It begun to snow last night, and has snowed a great part of this day. . . .

Dec. 29. Very clear and cold. Crammond [the British officer who wanted quarters in Drinker’s house] was here this morning. We have at last agreed to his coming to take up his abode with us—I hope it will be no great inconvenience. He came again in the evening, with a servant, to look at the Stable, and stayed to Tea. . . . The Troops have all returned from foraging.

Dec. 30. Major Crammond took up his abode with us this day—one servant is to be with him here—two others he has boarded at our Neighbor Wells’s in the Alley. He has 2 Horses and Cows which are to be put in our Stable.

Relations between Mrs.Drinker and Crammond seem to have been quite friendly—he “stayed to Tea”. And he seems to have had quite the entourage: cows as well as horses, in addition to several servants. I wonder if he shared the meat from the cows with the Drinker family.

Dec. 31. J. Crammond who is now become one of our family, appears to be a thoughtful sober young man, his Servant also sober and orderly; which is a great favour to us. . . . A number of vessels are run ashore, ye ice being in ye way. They were set on fire—I know not by which party. I am fearful something disagreeable is going on, by ye many messages sent this evening to J. C. [Crammond]

The entries are from Extracts from the Journal of Elizabeth Drinker, from 1759 to 1807, A.D. edited by Henry Biddle (Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott Company, 1889), page 78. It can be found online HERE.

Margaret Hill Morris, the eighth daughter of Dr. Richard and Deborah Moore Hill of Maryland was raised by her older sister Hannah in Philadelphia. At twenty-one, she married William Morris, Jr., a dry-goods merchant, who died in 1765, leaving her with three small children and expecting another. After struggling for some years to provide for her family, Margaret decided to move in with her sister Sarah Moore Dillwyn, wife of the Quaker preacher George Dillwyn, who lived in Green Bank, New Jersey. The house overlooked the Delaware River. Another sister Milcah Martha Hill Moore lived nearby. As warring factions approached Philadelphia, people fled their homes seeking safety. Milcah Moore moved her family north of Philadelphia. Margaret began a Journal to amuse her sister, commenting on events that were unfolding around her. The Journal begins in early December 1776, as General Cornwallis and his army marched through New Jersey, the British fleet blockaded the Delaware, and General Washington and his troops fled into Pennsylvania. On the river near Margaret Morris’s house “galleys” or “gondolas” of the Pennsylvania navy were positioned to prevent the crossing of British troops. Here are several entries from Morris’s Journal in late December.

. . . to day (the 22d) we hear Gen: Howe is at trenton, & it is thought there will be an engagement soon. . . . We hear this afternoon that our Officers are afraid thier Men will not fight & wish they may all run home again. A peaceable Man ventured to Prophesy to day, that if the War is continued thro the Winter, the British troops will be scard at the sight of our Men, for as they Never fought with Naked Men, the Novelty of it, will terrify them & make them retreat, faster than they advanced to meet them, for he says, from the present appearance of our ragged troops, he thinks it probable, they will not have Cloaths to cover them a Month or 2 hence. . . .

26th—the Weather very stormy. . . . a great Number of flat Bottom Boats gone up the River, we cant learn where they are going to

27th—a letter from Gen [Joseph] Read to his br[other: Bowes Reed]—informing him that Washington had had an engagement with the Regulars on the 25th early in the Morning, taking them by surprize, killd fifty, & took 900 prisoners. The loss on our side not known, or if known, not sufferd to be publick.—It seems this heavy loss to the Regulars was oweing to the prevailing custom among the Hessians of getting drunk on the eve of that great day which brought peace on Earth & good Will to Men—but oh, how unlike Christians is the Manner in which they Celebrate it, can we call ourselves Christians, while we act so Contrary to our Masters rules—he set the example which we profess to follow, & here is a recent instance that we only profess it; instead of good will, envy & hatred seem to be the ruling passions in the breasts of thousands. This evening the 27th about 3000 of the Pensylvania Militia, & other Troops landed in the Neck, & marchd into Town with Artillery, Baggage &c, & were quarterd on the inhabitants, one Company were lodged at J Vs & a guard placed between his house & ours, We were so favord as not to have any sent to our House. An Officer spent the Evening with us, & appeard to be in high spirits, & talkd of engaging the English as a very triffling affair, Nothing so easy as to drive them over the North River &c—not considering there is a God of Battle, as well as a God of peace, who may have given them the late advantage, in order to draw them out to meet the Chastisement that is reservd for them.

The Journal entries above can be found on pages 101-102 of In the Words of Women.

Elizabeth Sandwith Drinker (see previous post) continues to describe in her diary the quartering of British troops in the houses of her friends in occupied Philadelphia of 1777.

December 19. E. Story called this evening; he says he thinks he shall be able to get us, whose Husbands are gone from us, clear of ye military gentlemen. He says they are much chagrined at the difficulty they find in getting quarters, and ye cool reception they have met with, or something to that effect; that several young Noblemen are at this time obliged to sleep at Taverns, on Board ship, or in ye Redoubt, for which I think they may, in great measure, thank goodness; tho’, at the same time, it appears to me there was, perhaps too much backwardness shown towards them in the beginning. We are told this evening that Owen Jones’s family has been very ill-used indeed, by an officer who wanted to quarter himself, with many others, upon them. He drew his sword; used very abusive language, and had ye Front door split in pieces. Mary Eddy has some with her, who, they say, will not suffer her to use he own Front door, but oblige her and her Family to go up and down the alley. Molly Faulke has been affronted, and so have many others. We have come off, as yet, wonderfully well. My resolution and fortitude have failed me much of late; my dear Henry’s absence, and ye renewed fears on his account, and thoughts of our dear children, and my health but very middling—all together—it seems, at times, hard to bear up against.

Lord Cornwallis had embarked for England, which occasions various conjectures. Lord Howe is going to New-York. Genl Howe, it is said, intends to winter with us. It has cleared up very cold’ ’tis now between 12 and one o’clock. high time for me to go to Bed, tho’ I seem sleepless.

Dec. 20. Crammond called a third time with ye same story over again. I put him off as before; he said he would call again tomorrow. After he was gone, sister went down to consult Abel James. . . He believes we shall not be able to free ourselves from them. . . . on the whole I fear we shall have our Family disagreeably encumbered.

Dec. 23. Monthly meeting. Sister and ye 4 children went to meeting this morning.

The entries are from Extracts from the Journal of Elizabeth Drinker, from 1759 to 1807, A.D. edited by Henry Biddle (Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott Company, 1889), pages 74-77. It can be found online HERE.

Elizabeth Sandwith Drinker kept a diary from 1758 until a day before her death in 1807. Her entries provide intimate glimpses of life during the heady period of the Revolution and the establishment of the new nation. The daughter of a well-to-do Quaker family in Philadelphia, Elizabeth received an education unusual for women of the time: she attended Anthony Benezet’s Friends school. In 1761 she married Henry Drinker and the two continued to be active members of the Quaker community.

With the Declaration of Independence and the beginning of the war for independence Quakers came under intense scrutiny because of their belief in nonviolence. In Pennsylvania those who refused to take an oath of allegiance to the new state government were suspected of being Tories. Many of the so-called “disaffected” were detained in “an illegeal, unprecedented manner,” according to Elizabeth Drinker, and sent into exile. Her husband was one of these, leaving Elizabeth and their children to manage as best they could in the house on the corner of Front Street and Drinker’s Alley.

When the British occupied Philadelphia in the fall of 1777, Elizabeth, as a lone woman, feared for the safety of her family and herself. Imagine her anxiety when, with winter approaching, she had to deal with a British officer seeking lodgings on December 18, 237 years ago.

An Officer who calls himself Major [Crammond], call’d this Afternoon, to look for Quarters for some Oiffecer of distinction, I plead off, he would have preswaded me that it was a necessary protiction at these times to have one in the House; said I must consider of it, that he would call in a day or two, I desir’d to be excus’d, and after some more talk we parted, he behaved with politeness, which has not been the case at many other places; they have been very rude and impudent at some houses,—I wish I may come off so; but at same time fear we must have some with us, as many Friends have them, and it seems likely to be a general thing. This has been a trying day to my Spirits. . . . I have just finish’d a Letter to my dearest tis now past 12 o’clock, and Watch [a dog] has put me in a flutter, by his violent barking, as if some one was in the Alley, which I believe was the case—hail since Night.

The next day, December 19, Elizabeth noted:

. . . Major Crammond came to know if I had consulted any of my friends on ye matter. I told him my sister was out on that business; that I expected that we, who were at present lone women, would be excused. He said he feared not, for tho’ I might put him off (as it was for himself he applied); yet, as a great number of foreign Troops were to be quartered in this neighborhood, he believed they might be troublesome. We had a good deal of talk about the mal-behavior of British officers, which he, by no means, justified. I told him how I had been frightened by ye officer, that thief-like stole my servant Girl over ye fence, and of many other particulars of their bad conduct that had come to my knowledge. He said, that yesterday I had told him what sort of a man would suit in my Family; if I was obliged to take any, he was conscious that some of those qualities were his (which were early hours, and little company); that there were very few of ye officers he could recommend . . . and that he would call again tomorrow to know my mind further. So he went off. I am straitened how to act, and yet determined. I maybe troubled with others much worse, for this man appears to be much of a Gentleman—but while I can keep clear of them, I intend to do so. They have marked ye doors of Houses against their consent, and some of ye inhabitants have looked out for officers of reputation, (if any such be), to come into their Families, by way of protection, and to keep off others.

The entry for December 18 can be found on page 114 of In the Words of Women. The subsequent entry is from Extracts from the Journal of Elizabeth Drinker, from 1759 to 1807, A.D. edited by Henry Biddle (Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott Company, 1889), page 74. It can be found online HERE.

Henrietta and Robert Liston spent a week in Charleston before beginning the return trek to Philadelphia. (See previous posts here, here, and here). Heading for Camden, South Carolina, they now found it necessary to use the letters of introduction more frequently. Mrs. Liston noted rice and indigo plantations but commented, “Cotton seems in some measure to have succeeded to Indigo, in this part of the Country. The process of Cotton requiring fewer hands, & being less prejudicial to health, & at present, even a more profitable produce.” One night they stayed with Colonel Johann Senf*,

a native of Germany & the superintendent of a Canal, the most considerable work of that kind yet attempted, in America; it is intended to join the Santee river to the Coopers river. . . . we found Col. Sinf [sic] & his Wife [Johanna van Berckel] living on a pretty little Spot, created & Beautified by themselves, it was laid out with peculiar neatness & Taste.

As they traveled north, the roads became worse as did the weather. In the region of the Catawba River, South Carolina, the Listons visited elders of the Catawba Nation**:

The Colonel & a few of the older Men spoke a little bad English, He apologized for the smallness of their numbers saying, the Young Men had not yet come in from hunting. We had, indeed, met some of them selling their Deerskins a hundred miles to the South. On the Colonels fire stood a pot, & there was a hoecake on the hearth; I asked what was in the Pot; he said Deerflesh for breakfast, but did not offer us any.

The travelers had to deal with bad roads, rainy and cold weather, a near drowning in a swollen stream, a sick servant and a “doctor” who also was the local parson and schoolmaster. By the time they crossed the Roanoke River in Virginia, one of the horses was lame and had an eye infection. It is no wonder that once the Listons arrived in Richmond, Virginia, “we were obliged to take places in the Mail Coach, The only mode of conveyance to be found for love or money.”

Seven days later on 7 February, 1798, they arrived home in Philadelphia, having been on the road for just over three months. Once again safely ensconced by her fireside, Mrs. Liston wrote, “Pleased, on reflection, to have made this journey, but feeling that few things could tempt me to repeat it.”

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* Johann (John) Senf (c. 1740-1806), engineer of the Santee Canal, begun in 1793 and opened in 1800.
** The Catawba Nation was confined to a region of 15 square miles around Catawba River, their numbers decimated by small pox and wars with the Cherokee Nation.

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Nonetheless, over the next three years, Henrietta and Robert Liston continued to explore the East Coast as far north as Quebec, and Portland, Maine. Mrs. Liston’s Journals show her to be an intelligent and discerning guide to the country and people of the United States. Her openness to new experiences, her adventurous spirit, and the zest of her language will certainly delight all readers.

Excerpts are taken from “1797. Tour to the Southern States—Virginia, North & South Carolina” in The Travel Journals of Henrietta Marchant Liston: North America and Lower Canada, 1796-1800, published in hardcover and eBook. The illustration is of the ruins of the Santee Canal.