BUCKS COUNTY. 



THE PEMBERTON FAMILY. Four 

 miles south of Morrisville, Bucks county, 

 Pennsylvania, on the mainland, near the 

 Delaware river, opposite Biles' Island, 

 there is an old family graveyard, dating 

 back to the ninth decade of the seven- 

 teenth century. It is one of the oldest 

 graveyards in the county, if not in the 

 state. Within its walls, measuring two 

 rods square, lies the remains of four gen- 

 erations of one family, all of whom died 

 in the short space of fifteen years. There 

 rest the five j'oung children of Phineas 

 and Phebe (Harrison) Pemberton, as well 

 as both the parents of these children. Near 

 them also repose their grandparents. Ralph 

 Pemberton, and James Harrison and Anne 

 his wife; and adjoining lies the remains of 

 their great-grandmother, Agnes Harrison, 

 born in one of the last years of the reign 

 of Queen Elizabeth. Not often, even in a 

 well settled and long established country, 

 is found such a number of generations, en- 

 compassed by one enclosure. The early 

 history of the family that lies buried in this 

 ancient burying ground is so closely inter- 

 woven with the history of the founding 

 of Penn's colony on the Delaware and 

 the causes that led up to that event, and 

 so typical of that of most of the early 

 families that formed the van guard of the 

 Quaker emigrants to Pennsylvania, — ex- 

 plaining, as it does, the motive that led 

 these early settlers to leave the land of 

 their birth' and seek homes in an unknown 

 wilderness — that we wish to preface a brief 

 account of the family with some account 

 of the early sutTerings of the Society of 

 Friends, of which they were representa- 

 tive members. Let us take a glance at the 

 condition of the Friends in England, prior 

 to Penn's establishment of his colony in 

 America. 



The development of Quakerism in Eng- 

 land under, let us say, the reign of Henry 

 VIII, would have been an impossibility: 

 but the growth of popular government and 

 freedom of thought which were so firmly 

 established by the genius and power of 

 Oliver Cromwell, rendered possible that 

 which would have been entirely impossible 

 a century earlier. All the force of gov- 

 ernment, however, and all the power of 

 the church were thrown against the So- 

 ciety of Friends, and no means were spared 

 1-3 



to persecute them and subject them to 

 ignomy and contempt. No class of life- or 

 society was spared in these persecutions. 

 Many of the early converts to Quakerism 

 were of noble birth or people of power 

 and influence in the realm. William Penn 

 was "the companion of princes and the 

 dispenser of royal favors." Thomas El- 

 wood was «of gentle birth, being nearly 

 related through his mother to Lady Wen- 

 man. George Barclay was of good stock 

 and a fine classical scholar. Yet all these 

 men, because of their religious convictions, 

 were frequently imprisoned, sometimes 

 herded with the lowest felons and vilest 

 prostitutes — "nasty sluts indeed they were," 

 says Elwood in his autobiography. "Re- 

 member," said Phineas Pemberton, in an 

 epistle that was intended as a preface to 

 the "Book of Minutes of the Yearly Meet- 

 ing of Friends," on the setting up of that 

 body at Burlington, New Jersey; "Remem- 

 ber, we were a despised people in our 

 native land, accounted by the world scarce 

 worthy to have a name or place therein ; 

 daily liable to their spoil ; under great 

 sufferings, by long and tedious imprison- 

 ments, sometimes to the loss of life — ban- 

 ishment, spoil of goods, beatings, mock- 

 ings, and ill treatings ; so that we had not 

 been a people at this day had not the Lord 

 stood by us and preserved us." (Friends' 

 Miscellany, vol. vii, p. 42.) His descrip- 

 tion is not overdrawn : "Come out," they 

 cried before Phineas Pemberton's door in 

 1678 ; "Come out, thou Papist dog, thou 

 Jesuit, thou devil, come out." He was 

 several times imprisoned in Chester and 

 Lancaster castles, being confined in the 

 latter prison in 1669 nineteen weeks and 

 five days, and this, too, before he was 

 twenty-one years of age. 



James Harrison, who lies buried beside 

 Phineas Pemberton and who was his 

 father-in-law, was very active as a minis- 

 ter among Friends and was imprisoned in 

 1660, in Burgas-gate prison for nearly two 

 months; in 1663 in the county jail of Wor- 

 cester; in 1664, 1665 and 1666 in Chester 

 castle : "But none of these things," says 

 Phineas. were done unto us because of our 

 evil deeds, but because of the exercise of our 

 tender consciences towards our God." Nor 

 were these cases exceptional ; to such a 

 pitch of nervousness had the government 



