This day, till
twelve o'clock, the road was mighty quiet, when Hobson Jones came riding along.
About that time he made a stop at our door, and said the British were at
Skippack road; that we should soon see their light horse, and [that] a
party of Hessians had actually turn'd into our lane. My Dadda and
Mamma gave it the credit it deserv'd, for he does not keep strictly to the
truth in all respects; but the delicate, chicken-hearted Liddy1 and
I were wretchedly scar'd. We cou'd say nothing but "Oh! what shall we do?
What will become of us?" These questions only augmented the terror we were
in.
Well, the fright
went off. We saw no light horse or Hessians. O. Foulke2 came here in
the evening, and told us that Gen'l Washington had come down as far as the
Trappe, and that Gen'l McDougle's brigade was stationed at Montgomery,
consisting of about 16 hundred men. This he had from Dr. Edwards,3 aid-de-camp;
so we expected to be in the midst of one army or t'other.
* This date,
presuming the day of the week to be accurately given, should be the
24th, and it may be here observed that the dates of the month are not
for some time correctly given in the Journal, being a while one day ahead,
and then two days, until December 5th, when they become correct. — H. M. J.
1 LYDIA FOULKE,
daughter of William and Hannah, born April 9, 1756. She afterward
married John Spencer, born 1756, died 1799, son of Jacob and
Hannah, of Moreland. — Н. М. Ј.
2 OWEN FOULKE,
son of Caleb and Jane (Jones) Foulke, was born in Philadelphia, June
27th, 1763, died at Gwynedd, August 30, 1808. He was afterwards a partner with
his father in business in Philadelphia, and in 1798 was a member of the
First City Troop. In the late years of his life he practiced law at
Sunbury, Pa. He was Sally's first cousin, their mothers being sisters. — H. M.
J.
3 DR. ENOCH
EDWARDS, brother of Major Evan Edwards, was born in Byberry,
Philadelphia County, in 1750. He became an Ensign of the Pennsylvania
Flying Camp, in 1776. He was a Justice of the Peace and a practicing
physician in Byberry until 1792, when he sold his property there and moved to
Frankford. In 1791 he was commissioned an Associate Judge of the
Court of Common Pleas of Philadelphia. He died April 25,
1802. "Penna. in Rev.," III., 558; Phila. Amer. Daily Ad.,
Apr. 27, 1802; "Hist. Moreland"; Martin's "Bench and Bar."
SOURCE: Albert Cook
Myers, Editor, Sally Wister's Journal A True Narrative Being A Quaker
Maiden's Account Of Her Experiences With Officers Of The
Continental Army, 1777-1778, pp. 67-70
