Journal of Samuel Curwen, May 4, 1775

Philadelphia. Since the late unhappy affairs at Concord and Lexington, finding the spirit of the people to rise on every fresh alarm, (which has been almost hourly,) and their tempers to get more and more soured and malevolent against all moderate men, whom they see fit to reproach as enemies of their country by the name of tories, among whom I am unhappily (although unjustly) ranked; and unable longer to bear their undeserved reproaches and menaces hourly denounced against myself and others, I think it a duty I owe myself to withdraw for a while from the storm which to my foreboding mind is approaching. Having in vain endeavoured to persuade my wife to accompany me, her apprehensions of danger from an incensed soldiery, a people licentious and enthusiastically mad and broken loose from all the restraints of law or religion, being less terrible to her than a short passage on the ocean; and being moreover encouraged by her, I left my late peaceful home (in my sixtieth year) in search of personal security and those rights which by the laws of God I ought to have enjoyed undisturbed there, and embarked at Beverly on board the schooner Lively, Captain Johnson, bound hither, on Sunday the 23d ultimo, and have just arrived. Hoping to find an asylum amongst quakers and Dutchmen, who I presume from former experience have too great a regard for ease and property to sacrifice either at this time of doubtful disputation on the altar of an unknown goddess, or rather doubtful divinity.

My fellow-passengers were Andrew Cabot,* his wife and child, and Andrew Dodge.* My townsman, Benjamin Goodhue,† was kind enough to come on board, and having made my kinsman and correspondent, Samuel Smith, acquainted with my arrival, he was pleased to come on board also, and his first salutation, "We will protect you though a tory," embarrassed me not a little; but soon recovering my surprise, we fell into a friendly conversation, and he taking me to his house, I dined with his family and their minister, Mr. Sproat, suffering some mortification in the cause of truth. After an invitation to make his house my home during my stay here, which I did not accept, I took leave, and went in pursuit of lodgings, and on enquiring at several houses, ascertained they were full, or for particular reasons would not take me; and so many refused as made it fearful whether, like Cain, I had not a discouraging mark upon me, or a strong feature of toryism. The whole city appears to be deep in congressional principles, and inveterate against "Hutchinsonian Addressers." Happily we at length arrived at one Mrs. Swords', a widow lady, in Chestnut-street, with whom I found quarters, rendered more agreeable by S. Waterhouse's company, who also lodges here.

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* Merchants of Beverly.

† See Supplement.

SOURCE: George Atkinson Ward, Journal and Letters of the Late Samuel Curwen, Judge of Admiralty, etc., An American Refugee in England from 1775 to 1784, pp. 25-6

Journal of Samuel Curwen, May 5, 1775

I find the drums beating, colours flying, and detachments of newly raised militia parading the streets;—the whole country appears determined to assume a military character, and this city, throwing off her pacific aspect, is forming military companies, a plan being laid for thirty-three; composed of all ranks and nations, uniting shoulder to shoulder, they form so many patriotic bands to oppose like the invincible Macedonian phalanx, the progress and increase of parliamentary authority. The Quakers, not to be behind in manifesting their aversion, have obtained permission of the city committee to make up two companies of Friends exclusively, and they are to be commanded by Samuel Marshall and Thomas Mifflin,¹ both of that persuasion.

So powerful is the love of liberty, and so great the dread of ministerial designs, that the strongest prejudices and habits have given way and are controlled by the former.

The House this day having received a message from the governor with Lord North's conciliatory plan, has on a full debate rejected it, being resolved to adhere to the union.

Joseph Lee² hearing I was in the city, came to see me, and advised my going to London.

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¹ See Supplement.

² See Supplement.

SOURCE: George Atkinson Ward, Journal and Letters of the Late Samuel Curwen, Judge of Admiralty, etc., An American Refugee in England from 1775 to 1784, pp. 26-7

Diary of Anna Rawle, October 26, 1781

Sixth day. Neighbor Waln and Ben. Shoemaker were here in the afternoon. Juliet,¹ Polly Foulke and James Fisher² came to see us in the evening; the conversation as usual on the late disturbances. It seems universally agreed that Philadelphia will no longer be that happy asylum for the Quakers that it once was. Those joyful days when all was prosperity and peace are gone, never to return; and perhaps it is as necessary for our society³ to ask for terms as it was for Cornwallis. Juliet says all Uncle Penington's fine pictures are broken; his parlour was full of men, but it was nothing, he said, to Nancy's illness, who was for an hour or two out of her senses and terrified them exceedingly.

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¹ A fancy name given to and used by Sarah Burge (see note, ante) in correspondence during the Revolutionary War.

² The late James Cowles Fisher.

³ The Society of Friends.

SOURCE: “A Loyalist's Account of Certain Occurrences in Philadelphia After Cornwallis's Surrender at Yorktown. Extracted from the Diary of Miss Anna Rawle.” The Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Publisher, Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, Vol. 16, 1892 No. 1, p. 107