shade trees along a public highway, should consist of the most delicious fruit!

An original paper, by F. D. Pastorius, found at Stenton, of March 1708-9, presented to the council, sets forth his difficulty of getting redress against one John Henry Sprogel, through the plotting and contrivance of Daniel Falkner, pretended attorney for the Frankford Company, for lands in Germantown-and to effect his fraudulent purposes, he had feed or retained the four known lawyers of the province, so as to deprive the said Pastorius, (himself a civilian,) and John Jawart, of all advice in law; and being in himself unable to fetch lawyers from New York, he therefore prays the interference of the governor and council, so as to restrain further proceedings, until further action from the principals in Germany.

I have seen an old family Bible, 8vo., of the Shoemaker family, which came out with the first settlers in 1682, printed at Zurich in 1538, by Christoffel Froschouer, in Switzer-German, done so early as to be without verses. In many pages, verses are marked with a pen, and many passages are underscored to add to their force. It was marked as being bought for 50s. at second hand, in 1678. In it was a record of family marriages, births, and deaths. Isaac Schumacher, the head of the family, was born in Cresheim in Germany, married in Pennsylvania Sarah Hendricks, who was born in the same town, the 2d of 10 mo., 1678. She died a widow the 15th June, 1742, her husband having died the 12th February, 1732. Benjamin, a son of the above, was born in Germantown, the 3d August, 1704, married in Philadelphia, the 18th June, 1724, to Sarah Coates, daughter of Thomas and Bulah Coates. Benjamin died at Philadelphia in 1767; the wife died the 8th June 1738, leaving four children. I have indulged in this lengthened detail, because this venerable old relic has got out of the family, by some means, and fallen into the hands of strangers; and thus shows, how strangely families will sometimes allow their records to sink into oblivion! It is since given by me to Samuel M. Shoemaker, in Baltimore.

There is, I presume, a great mass of citizens, who having never Deen in battle, feel a desire to have a close insight into the incidents. which must there occur;-this, as a means to remove some of the vagueness of their imaginings and conjectures. Such feelings I have had myself; and which have been in part relieved, by such enquiries as I have occasionally made among the few remaining individuals who had witnessed the doings in the battle, and at the British encampment, &c., in Germantown, to wit:

The most of the conflict was on the north-eastern side of Germantown. That part of our troops which encountered the Hessians and British, near the junction of the Wissahiccon with the Schuylkill, had defiled for that purpose, after they arrived at Chestnut hill, going thence, as led by two guides, of whom Geo. Danenhower, lately alive, was one.

When the battle began, the fathers of families were quickly busied

in disposing of their children and women in cellars. In the present C. M. Stoke's house, then belonging to Squire Feree, there were collected two dozen of weeping and terrified women. George Knorr and other boys ran towards Philadelphia, as far as Nicetown, where they met the Hessians coming out, and then stopped. One cannon ball struck a tree at Haines' brewery, as they passed, and then went before them down the street.

Boys were very curious and venturous; and several of them plucked up courage and got to the tops of houses, and even into the streets, to see what could be seen. Such as some of them saw, I shall relate-Such as the battallion of tall Virginians, under Col. Matthews, brought in prisoners from Kelley's place, and lodged in the church at the market house. The faces of the prisoners and their guards were well blackened about their mouths with gunpowder, in biting off their cartridges. These Virginians had just before captured a party of British in the fog, and set up a hurrah, which brought a greater force upon them, and caused their own capture.

The roar and rattling of discharges of musketry and cannon, was incessant: and the whistling of balls, were occasionally heard. Combatants could be seen, from the house top, occasionally in conflict, then obscured by smoke, and then again exposed to view.

The battle, though begun at day light, was continued till after 10 o'clock. The retreat, when it began, a little before 11, must have been skilful as to general arrangement and orders, for it went off with entire silence. It seemed like a conflict and a great outbreak, suddenly hushed.

The battle was but little witnessed in the town, after the first onset, and but few of the military were seen along the main street. It was chiefly on the north-eastern side, on the tillage ground; and the fences were mostly down. A great deal of fighting must have occurred in Joseph Magarge's field, near Branchtown, (probably with Stephens' division,) ascertained from the great number of leaden bullets found in his ten acre field, for years afterwards. Stephens himself had been set aside some time before, by his own officers, as too much inebriated to command. This was told me by one of his captains.

The present Dr. George de Benneville, of Branchtown, now aged 83 years, was a lad of sixteen, at the time of the battle of Germantown, and saw much of the fight, and of the preceding and succeeding operations of the two armies. They had the Highlanders and British cavalry quartered in his neighbourhood. They were always cheerful, and always seemed to go gaily and confidently into expected fights. On such occasions, the kilted Scots went off in full trot, keeping up with the trot of the cavalry. The soldiers made free to take and kill the cows of his family, and their neighbours; but the officers were gentlemanly in their deportment, and seemed to try to put them in a way to get some recompense. Seve ral of the British officers were quartered in Thomas Nedrow's house

the same now Butler's house, opposite to the residence of the present Pierce Butler. When the battle came on, the British made a barricade across the York road, at the place of those two houses. Our militia, in the time of the battle, made no stand of resistance in the neighbourhood of Branchtown, but seemed quickly to make their retreat; and for this non-defence, as many of them were known in the neighbourhood, they did not fail, afterwards, to receive the jibes and jeers of the people. They accused them of throwing away their cartridges, as a feint of having exhausted them in fight! Dr. de Benneville saw the British army come down the York road, on their return and defeat, after they had had their affair at Edge hill, where Gen. Morgan, with his riflemen, had so ably discomfited them. The British still looked well, and as if able to make a bold stand, if pressed to it. The doctor has described to me, with lively vivacity, his vivid recollections of those days; and says they were daily of the most stirring interest to him, and others of his neighbourhood. They kept them daily excited, and interested in every thing doing around them; and almost every day brought something new to pass, which in some way or other, might engage the feelings, or the wonder, of himself, and his youthful companions. Such recollections, to their possessors, at least, are even now felt to be worth a whole age of lesser years!

A British officer, wounded, was seen near the market house, in Germantown, led by two soldiers;-he unexpectedly met there a surgeon, and said to him, all pale and faint, "I believe it is all over with me, doctor-I have got a mortal wound?" The doctor opened his breast, while still standing in the street, and turning aside his linen, soon said,-"Don't fear, I shall save you-go on.' went, quite a renovated man.

On he

Mr. John Ashmead, still alive, and then an intelligent lad of twelve years of age,-as soon as the battle ceased, started from the market house, with a young companion, to "range o'er the tented field to note the dead." He saw several lots of dead, in parcels of sixes and sevens; none of the wounded remaining. They visited Chew's house-there they saw before the house about thirty dead, whom citizens were already beginning to bury, north-west of the house. They went into the house and all over it-saw blood in every room-noticed where a six pounder, which had come in at the front window, had gone through four partitions, and then out at the back of the house. Observed that some of the British therein, had used the back windows on the roof to get out, and under the shelter of that roof, to fire upon assailants approaching the front. They saw a dead American soldier, lying by his still smoking fire brand, who had evidently gotten there under the shelter of a board fence, joining the house to the kitchen out-house, and had been shot, (vainly seeking "the bubble reputation,") as he was about setting fire to the same, by a soldier from the cellar window. Another, a fine young warrior, volunteering to effect the same purpose, with a VOL. II.-G

5

bundle of straw at a window, at the north-west corner, was also shot down on the spot. The same persons saw some six or seven bodies of soldiers, partially interred, back of the Methodist meetinglane; ground was heaped upon them just where and as they fell. Their feet were partly uncovered, and told their tale.

In R. Smith's woods, in Branchtown, were lately taken up the remains of three American soldiers, buried there, and reinterred by him with a head stone; part of their clothes and caps still remained, also their buttons and flints. They were there as an advanced picket guard, and were surprised.

One

Persons who saw our retreating men at Chestnut hill, say they passed there with some show of order and control. It is, however, surprising how very few seem to have seen the whole scene, with sufficient intelligence to afford a picture to any inquirer now. wants to know how they looked and did, how fared the wounded, and how they got on, &c., &c. Some of those in the retreat passed by the way of Oxford, thus showing a wide dispersion. Sundry of our wounded were deemed far enough removed when taken into the Episcopalian church, as their hospital, at Flour town.

The British, shortly after the battle, concentred in Philadelphia and vicinity. Directly after they left Germantown, a troop of American horsemen came through the town upon their rear, so closely, that a British surgeon, who had just left dressing the wounds of three American officers, prisoners in the Widow Hess' house, was overtaken on foot in the street. When they were about to arrest him, W. Fryhoffer, who saw it, and knew the facts in the case, proclaimed his useful services, and he was told to walk to the city at his ease. In the mean time, the three officers were taken as prizes, and thus unexpectedly liberated. The same troop, advancing a little further, encountered a Quaker looking man in a chaise, who, in trepidation, made a short turn at Bowman's lane and upset, and thus exposed a large basket full of plate. He and his treasure were captured and ordered off to head-quarters.

One of the boys of that day has told me how he used to go to mill, to bring flour to an individual in Germantown, who used to deliver it out to women coming from Philadelphia, at high prices, and carrying it in small parcels concealed about their persons. These were probably petty dealers for the wants of the town, and thus made their gain. The same returned with salt, &c.

British officers were generally quartered in houses in the town, and demeaned themselves very civilly to the families therein. The officers, very many of them, were young; only the superior grades were aged. The soldiers were well disciplined, and did not commit any severe aggressions. The 33d one night stole a neighbour's cow, killed her, and covered her with straw, behind the late Wm. Keyser's

* It was carried to Philadelphia, and brought $8 per cwt. I knew a man to carry ⚫ cwt., and boys that carried cwt., but they had to take a by-road for fear of losing it.

bark house; a sham search was made next morning, but it was soon hushed, and the cow cut up. They were said to be the clearings of the jails. The 33d were noted thieves, but they had to do it quietly.

Two of the inhabitants of the town, Andrew Heath and young Sowers, became guides to the British, and wore their green uniform when so acting, intending, probably, to pass unnoticed; but they did not, and had to leave the place till the peace. At the same time, the brother of Sowers was an active whig. The honest father was abused as a tory, although he had actually given many blankets to the town militia.

Sundry of the whig persons, engaged with the army, used to make, occasionally, hazardous excursions to visit their families stealthily, by night, &c. On one occasion, Mr. Denny, who was a militia lieutenant, came to his father's, near the market house, and when going away on horseback, at midnight, he chanced, as he was intending to turn into the church lane, to encounter the advance of a secret silent detachment going against La Fayette, at Barren hill. As he whipped up to turn the corner, they let fly a platoon, a ball from which, passed through his thigh, scarcely making him sensible of a wound, for he actually got over to the Branchtown tavern before he stopped. Such an alarm, at midnight, soon startled the whole town, and rapidly brought up the whole force of the expedition, at the same time breaking the intended secrecy.

On another intended secret invasion of the British at midnight, a Mr. Lush, who was an acting wagoner for the gunpowder for the American army, was apprised to be on his guard. He geared up his team, and had it ready at the door for a start if needful; finding no approach, he concluded to ride down the city road to reconnoitre, and there he soon fell into their hands a prisoner. But his wagoner, more alert than his master, saw the approach in time to mount his team, and at full whip, dashed up the street, waking up all the inhabitants, to look abroad for something strange, and to see the exposure of the British array.

Mr. John Ashmead, when a lad of twelve, had the exciting spectacle of seeing the whole British army come down the main street of Germantown, at their first entry. He was allowed, unmolested, to set in the street porch. Their whole array seemed in complete order-the display of officers, the regular march of red coated men, and refugee greens, the highlanders, grenadiers, their burnished arms, &c. There was, however, no display of colours, and no music every thing moved like machinery in silence. In all their progress there was no violence and no offence. Sundry men occasionally came up and said, "Can you give us a little milk or any cider." On being referred to the father, who purposely kept in door, as he was a known whig, it was deemed expedient to give out readily. In time, the cider barrel began to fall low, when it so occurred that a young officer came to ask a like indulgence ;-when it was said to