é 
1884.] 429 (Ruschenberger. 
was said that he was “read out of meeting,” expelled from the 
society, for the reason that he indulged in the frivolity of writ- 
ing verses. If no other cause of expulsion existed, it is demon- 
strable that Friends of the present time are not so austere as 
they were then. But there is .proof that other reasons probably 
influenced the decision. The preface of a volume of “ Poems, 
chiefly occasional, by the late Mr. Cliffton,” printed for J. W. 
Fenno, in 1800, claims that he was “an expert swordsman, a 
scientific and admirable musician, an accomplished painter 
and a graceful dancer,” clearly showing that his acquirements 
were of a kind not likely to be commended in the community 
of Friends, 
William Cliffton, blacksmith, resided, 1785, in Water street 
between Almond and Catharine streets,* andin 1797, at No. 74 
Swanson street.t About this date he seems to have transferred 
his business to his sons, William and John, for the City Direc- 
tories of 1798, and subsequent years, give his residence at No. 
76 Swanson street, and style him “gentleman,” a term used in 
those days to designate a man of income sufficient to live at 
2ase without work or a vocation. 
This outline of lineage, which is purely English, implies that 
the ancestors of Dr. Bridges were vigorous, enterprising, intel- 
ligent, industrious and respectable. 
Both sons were liberally educated, both were pupils in the 
University Grammar School. William Cliffton graduated from 
the department of arts of the University of Pennsylvania in 
1821. Robert was for a short time one of the sophomores of 
the University—there was no freshman class: at that period— 
and then, for no assigned reason, entered Dickinson College, 
Carlisle, Pa., from which he graduated 1824. In July of the 
same year he was elected a member of the Societas Philosophize 
Consociata of the College. 
Immediately after his return to Philadelphia he became a 
pupil of Dr. Thomas T. Hewson, and remained under the 
*The Philadelphia Directory, by Francis White, made upto September 1, 1785. 
It was the first work of the kind published in the city. Up to that time num- 
bers had not been attached to the houses. 
+ Philadelphia Directory, by Cornelius William, Stafford, 1798, 1802. 
