Logan family. - Social Networks and Archival Context (original) (raw)

The Logan family was a prominent Philadelphia family dating back to 1699, when James Logan, the family patriarch, arrived in Philadelphia to serve as the first secretary of the Pennsylvania colony. Through work in agriculture and politics, Logan and his descendants were intimately involved in the development of the Pennsylvania colony and, later, the fledging United States. James Logan's prominence resulted in connections, both professional and familial, with other prominent colonial families, including the Norris and the Dickinson families. Together these families affected and influenced the formation, progress and development of the city of Philadelphia, the colony of Pennsylvania, and the United States of America.

James Logan, the first secretary of the Pennsylvania colony under William Penn, was born on October 20, 1674 in Lurgan, Ireland, the son of Patrick and Isabel Hume Logan. His father was a scholar and an Anglican minister until his conversion to Quakerism. James was educated in his father's school, the Friar Meetinghouse School in Bristol. His early careers included working as a linen draper in 1687, as an assistant schoolmaster to his father from 1690 to 1693, and as the schoolmaster of the Friar Meeting house from 1693 to 1697. From 1697 to 1698, James Logan unsuccessfully worked in the linen trade. In 1699, he obtained the position of secretary for William Penn, who was about to sail for his province of Pennsylvania.

Upon arriving in Pennsylvania, James Logan began his service as secretary of Pennsylvania. Subsequently he served as receiver-general of Pennsylvania, member of the Provincial Council, mayor of Philadelphia, chief justice of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, president of the Provincial Council and acting governor. At the same time, he gained wealth through commerce, trade with Native Americans and land purchases.

James Logan was an intellectual. He was "a linguist of competence in a bewildering number of languages, a classicist who in the margins of his books crossed swords with the greatest European editors, and a scientist who described the fertilization of corn by pollen, understood and used the new inventions of calculus, wrote on optics, and made astronomical observations," ( At the Instance of Benjamin Franklin, page 32). He collected books and arranged for his substantial library consisting of nearly 2,600 volumes, the Loganian Library, to be made public upon his death. The Loganian Library, which was received in trust by the Library Company of Philadelphia, exists almost in its original entirety. According to Edwin Wolf II, historian and past librarian of the Library Company, Logan "brought enthusiasm, erudition, and a good Quaker sense of value to bear on his book purchases, [but was] however, finicky, bad tempered, over pedantic and hard," (Wolf, page 44).

On December 9, 1714, Logan married Sarah Read Smith, the daughter of Charles and Amy Child Read. James and Sarah became the parents of James, William and Hannah. Three other children, James, Rachel and Charles, died as children. Sarah Read Smith Logan died on December 9, 1714 and James Logan died on September 2, 1751 at the age of 77 in his country home, Stenton, which he built in Germantown, Pennsylvania.

William Logan, the son of James and Sarah, was born on July 14, 1718 in Philadelphia. At age 12, he went to England to study with his uncle, also named William, who was a doctor in Bristol. After returning to Pennsylvania, he worked with his father as a Philadelphia merchant. In 1741, he became the attorney to the Penn family. He was elected to the Common Council of Philadelphia on October 4, 1743 and continued to serve until 1776 when the Declaration of Independence dissolved the existing municipal government. He also served on the Governor's Council from 1747 until his death, in 1776. As a Quaker and a pacifist, William Logan opposed Indian wars and the Revolution. With his cousin, Israel Pemberton, Logan formed the Peace Association in order to prevent a war with the Delaware Indians in 1756 (French and Indian War, 1756-1763).

When his father, James Logan, died in 1751, William inherited the family's home, Stenton. At this point, William began working in agriculture. He also, "with his brother James and sister, Hannah Smith, … on August 29, 1754, deeded library property, designed by his father for the use of the people of Philadelphia to a board of trustees ... [and] bequeathed to the library thirteen hundred volumes bequeathed to him by his uncle Dr. William Logan of Bristol, England," (Jordan, page 31).

William married Hannah Emlen, the daughter of George Emlen, on March 24, 1740. She and William had six children, four of whom survived childhood. These children were Charles, George, Sarah, and William Jr. William died at Stenton on October 29, 1776 and Hannah died on January 30, 1777.

George Logan, the second son of William and Hannah, was born on September 9, 1753 at Stenton. He received education at Worcester, England and worked as a merchant. After his father's death, he studied medicine at the University of Edinburgh, earning his degree in 1779. He worked as a physician and a farmer and was described by Thomas Jefferson as "the best farmer in Pennsylvania in theory and practice" (Stenton). He was also a founder of the Pennsylvania Society for the Promotion of Agriculture.

George Logan was active in politics, serving in the Pennsylvania Assembly and as United States Senator from Pennsylvania. The Logan Act of 1798, which prohibited conducting foreign relations without authority, was created because of his efforts to prevent war with France in 1798.

On September 6, 1781, George married Deborah Norris, an eminent Philadelphian. She was born on October 19, 1761, the daughter of Charles Norris and Mary Parker Norris and the granddaughter of Isaac Norris, colleague of James Logan. She obtained her education at Anthony Benezet's public school for girls, the first public school for girls in America, and was considered highly educated for a woman of her time. She was "a skilled historian and writer ... [and] wrote articles and poetry into her seventies" (Stenton). She documented her life in seventeen volumes of diaries, wrote a memoir of her husband after his death, transcribed many of James Logan's papers, and was the first woman elected as a member of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. She died at Stenton in February 1839, nearly twenty years after her husband George's death on April 9, 1821 at Stenton. George and Deborah were the parents of Albanus Charles, Gustavus George and Algernon Sydney.

George and Deborah's oldest son, Albanus Charles, was born on November 22, 1783. Albanus was a physician. He married his second cousin Maria Dickinson, daughter of Mary Norris and John Dickinson, who was born in 1753. Albanus Charles and Maria Dickinson Logan had four children, Mary Norris, Sarah Elizabeth, Gustavus George and John Dickinson. Maria died in 1851 and Albanus died on February 10, 1854.

Though two generations of Logans married members of the Norris family, the Logan and Norris families were tied politically from the early days. Isaac Norris (1671-1735) moved to Philadelphia in 1690 and became involved with the politics of the colony. In 1708, he was elected to the Governor's Council, he served on the Provincial Assembly and as speaker in 1712, he served as justice for Philadelphia County in 1717, and he was elected mayor of Philadelphia in 1724. Isaac Norris married Mary Lloyd and they had a son, Isaac Norris, who was born in 1701. Norris died on June 4, 1735.

Isaac Norris (1701-1766) was educated at the Friends' School of Philadelphia and began his career as a merchant. Soon, however, like his father, he became involved in politics. Norris served as a councilman and alderman and joined the Pennsylvania Assembly in 1734, serving as speaker from 1751 until 1765. He eventually retired from politics due to health concerns. In 1739, Norris married Sarah Logan, the daughter of James Logan. Their daughter Mary Norris married John Dickinson in 1770.

The Logan family appears to have been extremely proud of their connection to John Dickinson, one of the founding fathers of the United States. John Dickinson, son of Samuel and Mary Cadwalader Dickinson, was born on November 13, 1732 at the family estate, "Crosiadore," near Trappe, Talbot County, Maryland. His family moved to Dover, Delaware in 1740, where he was educated by private tutors. He studied law under John Moland in Philadelphia and at the Middle Temple in London. In 1757, he was admitted to the Pennsylvania Bar and began practicing law in Philadelphia.

He served as a member of the Assembly of the Lower Counties (now Delaware) from 1750 to 1760; member of the Assembly of Pennsylvania from 1762 to 1764, delegate to the Stamp Act Congress in 1765; Pennsylvania Delegate to the Continental Congress from 1774 to 1776; Delaware Delegate to the Continental Congress in 1779; brigadier general of the Pennsylvania Militia; Delaware state senator in 1781; president of Delaware from 1781 to 1782; president of Pennsylvania from 1782 to 1785; member of the United States Constitutional Convention in 1787; and signer of the United States Constitution from Delaware.

After Parliament levied the Stamp Act, Dickinson wrote Resolutions of the Stamp Act Congress and Letters of a Pennsylvania Farmer, which “emphasiz[ed] the contradiction the Acts posed to traditional English liberties" (Dickinson College) and were published in London in 1768 by Benjamin Franklin. This "series of essays gained its author international recognition as a man of reason and principle," (United States Army Center for Military History). Further, Dickinson "organized Philadelphia's protest over the Coercive Acts, a series of political and economic measures that Parliament enacted in 1774 to demonstrate its control over the colonies," (United States Army Center for Military History). In 1775, he wrote a Declaration of the Causes and Necessity of Taking Up Arms with Thomas Jefferson. He served as chairman of Pennsylvania's Committee of Safety and Defense and he organized the Associators, a battalion of troops raised in Philadelphia.

Despite his opinions regarding Great Britain's injustices and the Colonies' need to defend themselves, he "was opposed to a separation from Great Britain and worked very hard to temper the language and action of the Congress, in an effort to maintain the possibility of reconciliation," (www.ushistory.org). Essentially, he was concerned about timing and preferred the creation of a confederation of colonies prior to a declaration of war. As a result, he abstained from voting on the Declaration of Independence and did not sign it. After the Declaration of Independence, Dickinson led the committee to draft the Articles of Confederation.

During the Revolutionary War, Dickinson led the Associators and served at Elizabeth, New Jersey. Under General Caesar Rodney, Dickinson participated in the Battle of Brandywine and he was commissioned as a brigadier general of militia. Following his service to the Army, Dickinson served as a Delaware Delegate to the Continental Congress in 1779; as a Delaware state senator in 1781; as president of Delaware from 1781 to 1782; and as president of Pennsylvania from 1782 to 1785. At the time Dickinson served as president of Pennsylvania, Benjamin Rush founded Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania in 1783, naming it in his honor.

He served as member of the Constitutional Convention in 1787; and as a signer of the Constitution from Delaware. During the Constitutional Convention, he wrote, under the pen name Fabius, essays promoting the Constitution. In 1792, he worked for the creation of a new constitution for Delaware.

Dickinson married Mary Norris on July 19, 1770. Marry Norris Dickinson was born on July 10, 1740, the daughter of Isaac Norris, the speaker of the Pennsylvania Assembly, and Sarah Logan. She grew up as a member of a very wealthy and influential Quaker family in Philadelphia and was highly educated for a woman of the day. John and Mary met after her father’s death in 1766 when John was involved in the settlement of Isaac Norris’ estate.

John and Mary Dickinson were the parents of five children, but only Sally and Maria survived infancy. Known by her family as "Polly," Mary Dickinson remained true to her Quaker beliefs throughout her life. She died on July 23, 1803 at the age of 61. According to the Ann Conser Curley, "Mary Norris Dickinson saw the most momentous days in the founding of this country; yet her relatively unknown place in history probably would be the one she would choose." (Curley, page 32).

John Dickinson died on February 14, 1808 at his home in Wilmington, Delaware at the age of 75. Both he and Mary are buried on the grounds of the Friends Meeting House in Wilmington.

Bibliography

Curley, Ann Conser. "Mary Dickinson: A Quiet Woman of Substance." Dickinson Magazine, October 1990.

Dickinson College. http://chronicles.dickinson.edu/encyclo/d/ed\_dickinsonJ.htm (accessed February 25, 2010).

Hicks, Lewis Wilder, ed. The Biographical Record of the Class of Seventy, Yale College, 1870-1904. Boston: Beacon Press, 1904.

Jordan, John W., ed. Colonial and Revolutionary Families of Pennsylvania . Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., Inc., 1978.

Library Company of Philadelphia. James Logan, 1674-1751: Bookman Extraordinary . Philadelphia: Library Company of Philadelphia, 1971.

Plunkett, Keving. "A Eulogy for Logan," Philadelphia Independent, 1 no. 21, October 2004.

Stenton.org. "History, Art and Collections." http://www.stenton.org/history/, accessed May 4, 2010.

United States Army Center for Military History. http://www.history.army.mil/books/revwar/ss/dickinson.htm (accessed February 25, 2010).

United States Congress Biographies. http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts;biodisplay.pl?index-D00321 (accessed February 25, 2010).

Woolman, John. "The Journals and Essays of John Woolman." New York: The Macmillan Company, 1922.

Wolf, Edwin, 2nd. "James Logan, Bookman Extraordinary," Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society, Third Series, 79 (1967), pps 33-36.

From the guide to the Logan family papers, Bulk, 1670-1872, 1638-1964, (The Historical Society of Pennsylvania)

Bibliographic and Digital Archival Resources