Preface
Introduction
President's Address
The Ancestry of Edward Foulke
Edward Foulke — A Narrative of His Removal
A Visit to Coed-y-foel
Edward and Eleanor Foulke's Descendants
Our Ancestors, a Poem
General Remarks
Edward Foulke's Exhortation Addressed to His Children
PREFACE
In May, 1698, Edward and Eleanor Foulke, with their four sons and five daughters, landed in America.
In May, 1898, over five hundred of their descendants met at Gwynedd Meeting House to celebrate that event.
The attractive surroundings of Gwynedd never looked more beautiful than on this 30th of May, 1898, and nature gave a smiling welcome to all who came.
A special train over the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad brought the guests, stopping on the way to give time for a visit to the old home of Edward Foulke, at Penllyn, now occupied by Albert E. Caldwell, Jr., who most kindly opened it for inspection. Here was given some Welsh music, vocal and instrumental. The guests again took the train and were soon at Gwynedd Station and by coach taken to the spot where, shaded by fine old trees and surrounded by well-kept grounds, stands the Friends' Meeting House. All here registered name and line of descent and then separated, some to the lunch tent, and some to visit the house of Charles O. Beaumont, where were exhibited (thanks to the kind offer of the owners) articles of family interest loaned for the occasion. The collection consisted of old Bibles, old deeds, old marriage certificates, some family silhouettes, old silver, etc. Later in the day the two trees (named in the order of exercises) were planted near the meeting house, many present adding a shovelful of earth, with a hearty good wish for rapid growth and a long life.
In the afternoon the papers prepared for the occasion were read and heard with much interest; none bearing so deep a significance as the exhortation of Edward Foulke to his children. These words of fatherly interest, written nearly two hundred years ago, seemed almost a benediction as they were this day read by Samuel Emlen, than whom none could so impressively have delivered the earnest message they bore to those present; a message, that "human hearts remain unchanged, the hopes and loves and fears of old are to our own akin; and, though centuries pass, there still remains unbroken the tie of human kinship."
The few moments of perfect silence observed before the meeting closed, paid a beautiful tribute to the well-known Quaker sentiments and customs of Edward and Eleanor Foulke.
The guests returned as they had come, by special train, and the universal verdict pronounced the day well spent. Should our descendants a century hence hold a similar Reunion, here is a special greeting to them in the best wishes for as pleasant an occasion.
In this volume are published the papers read at this meeting together with other articles which the Committee considers of interest. It also contains reproductions of photographs of Edward Foulke's Welsh home and its surroundings, a copy of the program of exercises for the day and a short account of the inception and development of the Reunion.
Great care has been taken to make every record as authentic as possible, and nothing has been inserted as fact unless it has a recorded foundation. The well prepared genealogical chart, arranged by Edwin R. Booth, contains the names of the descendants of Edward and Eleanor Foulke down to the sixth generation, and is available in book form to all who desire it; so no attempt has been made here to insert a complete family list, or even a list of those present at the Reunion, but only the names of those directly connected with the planning and execution of the work incident to the occasion.
The Coat-of-Arms, represented on this cover, is the one borne by Rhirid Flaidd, which, by right, Edward Foulke inherited. With it there seems to have been used two different mottoes: One Welsh: "Blaidd Rhudd Ar Y Blaen" — "The Red Wolf to the Front." One Latin, "Consequitir quod conque petit" — "He Gets What He Seeks."
It was often the habit of a branch of the family to select its own motto, and, therefore, the choice is left to the personal preference of the descendants.
The earliest suggestion of a meeting of the descendants of Edward and Eleanor Foulke, commemorative of their arrival in this country in 1698, was made by Lydia A. Foulke Wilson, of Wenona, Illinois, perhaps as early as 1895. Partly on account of her earnestness and partly from his own interest in the subject, Howard M. Jenkins called a meeting of some of the descendants at 921 Arch Street, Philadelphia, on the 7th of January, 1898.
At this meeting, a proposal to hold a Reunion of the family was considered and approved. Howard M. Jenkins acted as Chairman, and Charles F. Jenkins as Secretary.
It was then thought best that a general meeting should be called to assume authority for action, and circulars were sent to descendants, generally, whose names could be obtained, inviting their attendance at a meeting on the 28th of January, at the same place.
At this meeting, it was decided to form an association of descendants of Edward and Eleanor Foulke for the purpose of holding the proposed Reunion, and it was then directed that the charge of the Reunion should be submitted to an executive committee, which the Chairman of the meeting was authorized at his convenience to appoint and announce and of which he should be Chairman. The meeting also appointed William Dudley Foulke, of Richmond, Indiana, President of the Association, and Edward M. Wistar, of Philadelphia, Treasurer. The executive committee was authorized to appoint all other offices.
February 10th, 1898, notices were issued by the Chairman announcing the appointment of seventeen persons to form the executive committee; additions were subsequently made to it. A meeting of this committee was called for February 22nd, at 921 Arch Street, Philadelphia, and here all subsequent meetings were held. The executive committee was composed of the following named persons, and they took charge of the work:
The first meeting of this committee was held February 22nd, 1898, and the following officers were elected:
It was decided to hold the Reunion at the Friends' Meeting House, at Gwynedd,
Pennsylvania, Monday, the 30th of May. Further meetings of the Executive Committee
preceding the Reunion were held as follows:
March 18th,
April 15th,
April 29th,
May 14th,
May 25th.
At these meetings the arrangements for the Reunion were perfected and the work was placed in charge of several sub-committees as follows:
It was directed that all living descendants of Edward and Eleanor Foulke and those whom such person had married, should be invited by card to the Reunion. Those invited became "ipso facto" members of the Association.
The Chairman of the Committee was also directed to invite the attendance of those members of Friends' Meeting, at Gwynedd, not enrolled as descendants, and was authorized to invite at his discretion any others whom he might think proper.
The following copy of the program which was adopted
by the Executive Committee, and carried out on the day of the celebration.
9.04 A. M.— Special train will leave Philadelphia, Reading Terminal.
9.46 A. M.— Arrive at Penllyn, where a stop of three-quarters of an hour will be made to examine the old homestead and grounds, directly at the station. On arriving at the house, its history and objects of family interest in the immediate neighborhood will be explained by some one familiar with the neighborhood.
10.35 A. M.— Leave Penllyn
10.38 A. M.— Arrive at Gwynedd
11.00 A. M.— Arrive at Gwynedd Meeting House where the exercises will be held. The exhibit of old letters, pictures, manuscripts, etc., etc., will be held in the parlors of Mrs. Charles O. Beaumont, a short distance away from the Meeting House.
11.30 A. M.— Planting of two trees, one each for Edward and Eleanor Foulke, on the Meeting House grounds, in commemoration of the Reunion. A short address will be made by Daniel Foulke Moore.
11.45 A. M.— Photographing the family in front of the Meeting House. Copies of the photograph may be had of J. Mitchell Elliot, West Chelten Avenue, Germantown, Philadelphia.
12.00 M.— Lunch will be served to all present in a tent on the grounds. Tickets for lunch will be distributed when the members of the Association register their names. All are requested to register as soon after arrival as possible.
1.45 P. M.— The exercises will be held in the Meeting House.
4.30 P. M.— Leave Meeting House for Gwynedd Station.
5.00 P. M.— Special train will leave Gwynedd Station.
5.45 P. M.— Arrive at Philadelphia, Reading Terminal.
At the final meeting of the committee the following persons were directed to collect and arrange the papers read at the Reunion, adding them to such other items of interest as they thought best, and to edit and publish the same in book form; such book to be published as a Souvenir of the Reunion. This little book is the result of their labors.
J. ROBERTS FOULKE
HUGH FOULKE
HOWARD M.
JENKINS
WILLIAM G. FOULKE
JESSE FOULKE SPENCER
WILLIAM W.
COMFORT
ROBERT R. CORSON
November, 1898
Blood is thicker than water, and it is according to nature that men of the same kith and kin should not only come together as we do now, but should stand together in life. Families do not always do this. The bitterest animosities and most deadly feuds have occurred in cases where kindred have fallen out, and it is one of the marks of a good family that the members do not fall out but keep united as kindred should. It is evidence that in such a family there has prevailed a spirit of fair dealing, of reasonable tolerance of mutual help.
Now my acquaintance with the Foulke family is, perhaps, more limited than that of others in this large gathering to-day, but such it is that I can say that I have never known of a serious and lasting disagreement between the members of that family. I have never heard any of these speak in terms of serious reproach of any others. I have never heard of contests over wills or inheritances, of law suits or other feuds. I have never heard a harsh word from any blood relative. I believe that the spirit of back-biting, which is often most intense between different branches of the same family is mostly absent. I think that this harmony, which so generally prevails, is not the least creditable feature which characterizes the descendants of Edward and Eleanor Foulke. For we must remember that the family has a strong tincture of the original Adam in its composition, which we are fond of calling, euphemistically, our "Welsh blood;" a quality, which although greatly sobered by the non-resistant principles of Quakerism, is still prone to break out once in a while in a most disagreeable fashion for somebody and occasionally to the discomfiture of its possessor. Yet if this "Welsh blood" has broken out for brief periods and on trivial occasion even among ourselves, I think we may all feel assured that, if any man who did not belong to the family should attempt to impose on any one who did, he would have a great deal of "Welsh blood" to contend with. Even if we could not agree with each other, I think we would agree in resisting such an agressor, and that the peace principles of Quakerism would find great limitations in such a case.
Even among members of the same family, physical, mental and moral characteristics are widely diverse. So to-day it is to be seen that we do not all look alike and I believe and hope that we do not all think alike, nor act alike. The Roman nose has a pretty strong representation among us. So similar were the profiles of my father and my uncle that I could not tell them apart a little way off. Yet the Roman nose is here not universal. And with some the "Welsh blood" is more diluted. Some dispositions are sweeter, and the "old Adam" is more nearly extinct; yet I fear that there is a drop of it left for extreme emergencies even among the best.
Of course we have many different views of things, and whether right or wrong, reasonable or unreasonable, our convictions are generally strong ones. It has always seemed to me that the other members of the family were apt to be extremely obstinate in maintaining them, even after they had been convinced, or ought to have been convinced they were wrong. A Foulke is a little like the old village school-master, of whom it was said: "In arguing too, the parson owned his skill, for e'en though vanquished he could argue still." The saving grace about this perversity has been that it leaves no footprint of unfriendliness behind it. We can differ and love each other all the same. For my own part, I do not like a man who always agrees with me, and I feel there is no danger of disliking any member of the Foulke family for any such reason.
Another characteristic of the most of us (and the Foulke family is not at all singular in this) is that we do not in the least underestimate ourselves. I remember a story which my father told of a very old lady, living I think somewhere in the neighborhood of Gwynedd, who, learning of the marriage of a some one of her acquaintance with a member of the family, remarked: "Oh, yes, the Foulkes; I know them well; they all married the Shoemakers. Hugh married Martha, Joseph married Elizabeth, and Thomas married Hannah, and the other Thomas married Phoebe. Oh yes, the Foulke are very great people indeed, of at least they think they are."
Perhaps that is one reason why we are here today. If we were ashamed of ourselves I am sure we would not be here. And while we have thus come together to celebrate our greatness, I think it is quite wise that we have kept others out; that none but a Foulke must come within these precincts at this sacred hour. For the great world of those who are not Foulkes may look with envy upon heights forever unattainable by them, and may be tempted to dispute that supremacy in excellence which we, the initiated, know belongs of right to the Foulke family.
Those who are not asked to an entertainment are prone to disparage it, and the foxes outside the vineyard are pretty certain to say that the grapes are sour. But we know better. And I feel sure that in speaking of the virtues of the family I am addressing an appreciative audience.
We differ greatly in our lives, our occupations, our capacities. A considerable portion of [those who] have been eminent in the family still follow that ancient and honorable calling, the tilling of the soil. Some have chosen mercantile pursuits, some the ministry of the Society of Friends, while a few of us have followed the law, a profession to which, it is said, the Welsh characteristics are well adapted. Some have remained distinguished for piety, while there are others of us who have wandered pretty far from the fold. But I think I may say, that whatever the shortcomings of these, the members of the family as a whole have a reputation for honesty and fair dealing, for an absence of diplomacy and cunning, and for a disposition to follow, even at some personal disavantage, their own convictions of public and private duty.
In religion, the simple and democratic faith of the Society of Friends is the prevailing one. And those who have gone elsewhere I think still cherish an affection for the organization, even though they may have abandoned the drab and the broad-brim, and may call the days of the week and the months of the year after those names of heathen deities which caused such horror to their ancestors.
In politics, I presume that a great majority of the Foulke family belongs to the Republican party. That was the party which freed the slaves, and the ancestors of many of us were among the original abolitionists. Still in politics as well as religion there is no doubt a good deal of dissent, and we find in our midst not only Democrats and Prohibitionists, but even Mugwumps. And so it ought to be. For it is recorded of one of our Mugwump ancestors that he left the party of the House of Lancaster to take up the party of the House of York, and if I remember aright, he lost his head in consequence. The Mugwump to-day is not quite in the same danger. Society does not cut off his head. It merely seeks to decapitate his political aspirations.
Some time since I picked up a stray copy of one of
our comic papers, "Truth." There was a picture of two young women in
conversation and underneath the following dialogue:
What I want to impress upon those who go back to King Cunedda Wledig in the fourth century and who even from that remote point can see dim vistas of still more remote ancestry looming in the distance beyond, is that this doesn't even give us the right to snub any honest man even if he doesn't know who was his own grandfather, and cannot tell to save himself from perdition, whether his family was Celt or Saxon.
If there be any detestable quality it is the snobbishness of the man who seeks, by the vicarious virtues of his ancestors, to claim superiority over others that have become what they are through their own exertions. A good ancestry is an excellent thing in this, that it gives us an incentive to live up to it, to be no discredit to the name. But we ought to do more. We ought to live beyond it. If we have no name we should make one. If we have a name we should seek to make it brighter by our own talents, energy, industry, and worth. It is better to be the first of one's line than the last. It is better to be Augustus than Augustulus, and the man who rests his title to respect upon nothing more than the faded parchment, or obsolete coat of arms of his ancestry, will go down in the competition of this newer and better civilization of the Western world. The Foulke family may trace its lineage to illustrious names, but the path which leads to them crosses the annals of poverty, suffering and humble life. And yet the lives of plain farmers who found refuge in the log cabins of the early settlement of Gwynedd, are in our eyes I hope, just as honorable as the feudal dignities of Rhirid Flaidd; just as worthy of our respect as the exploits of Sir Griffith, who fought at Crecy and commanded the free lances on the Loire.
The ultimate standard of our excellence rests in
ourselves. It does not depend upon inherited wealth, nor upon inherited
name. It does not depend upon whether we live upon the North or the South
side of Market street; upon whether our lineage be as exalted as that of
Washington or as humble as that of Lincoln.
A good ancestry is valuable only because the presumption is that it has made a better man. Let us live that our generation shall be one of the bright links in the ancestral chain when our descendants meet to celebrate the next centennial of the coming of Edward and Eleanor Foulke.
By Charles M. Ffoulke
COLWYN AP MOREIDDIG was a descendant of the king of Gwynedd who reigned in Anno Domini 330.
II. Gwrgenen, son of Colwyn, was Lord of the Comot of Penllyn in Merionethshire, and was a half brother on his mother's side to the Prince of Powys, who bestowed upon him the aforesaid Lordship of Penllyn.
III. RHIRID FLAIDD (or Rhirid the wolf), son of Gwrgenen, was, like his father, Lord of Penllyn, and lived during the reigns of Henry II and Richard I, Kings of England.
Although believed to have been of Norman blood, on his mother's side, yet the evidence collected thus far upon this point, is so slight that it was deemed inadvisable to introduce it here without further investigation. He was a distinguished warrior and chieftain and was designated by the Bards as a "wolf of the field of battle." He resided in his principal castle called "Neuaddau Gleision" in the township of Rhiwaedog, was a friend of the Norman English, when it suited his purposes, and was entrusted by them with several high offices within the bounds of his own domains. He married Gwenllian, daughter of the Lord of Broughton, and had three children.
IV. MADOC, the eldest son became, upon his father's demise, Lord of Penllyn. He married Ardun, daughter of Philip, Lord of Eyfeiliog, and had two children.
V. IORWERTH, the eldest son, became in turn, Lord of Penllyn, married Gwerfyl, daughter of the Lord of Cedigfa and Deuddwr, and had five children.
VI. MADOC, the eldest son, was the last of the race bearing the title of Lord of Penllyn. Among the petitions presented to the Prince of Wales at Kensington, in 1305, is one by Madoc praying that he might peacefully enjoy certain lands in the Bailiwick, not of Cors-Y-Gedol as stated in some pedigrees, but of a "tract in Penllyn and Ardudwy," which the King had granted him for services rendered his Majesty. He married Eva, daughter of Griffith ap Einion ap Griffith, by whom he had two sons and three daughters.
VII. SIR GRUFFYD, the eldest son, Knight "of Llan Uwch Tegid," became one of the richest and most distinguished men of his race. He led a band of Welshmen to the French Wars, and was with Edward III at Crecy, and subsequently commanded a company of free lances, which terrorized the departments of the Seine and Loire. The Chronicles of 1357 state:
He married Alice Vaughan, daughter of Bleddyn Vaughan, and had three children.
VIII. SIR IEVAN, the eldest son, was, like his father, a soldier in the French Wars. It is stated by some authorities that he died in 1370, but it appears by other records that he survived until some years later, probably until 1379. He lies buried in the ancient Church of Llan Uwch Llyn, near Bala, where his tomb still exists. His figure, cut in stone and clad in full armor, rests upon his tomb and supports a shield upon which is emblazoned the three wolves' heads, the armorial insignia of his house.
He married first Gwenllian, daughter and heiress of the Lord of Evionydd and Ardudwy, head of one of the Noble Tribes of Wales. Upon her death, he married Annesta, daughter of the Lord of Tref Gynon.
He is stated, in a manuscript, in the handwriting of Robert Vaughan, of Hengwrt, to have "lived in great credit and esteeme in the dayes of King Edward 3, who allowed him an annuall stipend for guarding and conducting of ye Justice of North Wales with a companie of archers whilst he should sojourne and stay in ye countie of Merionethshire."
IX. IEVAN, his eldest son by his second wife, married Anne, daughter of Sir Griffith Vaughan, knight Banneret of Agincourt. Sir Griffith Vaughan was knighted on the battlefield of Agincourt, in the year 1415, but was in 1447, suspected of holding secret correspondence with the Yorkists, and being summoned to the castle of Pool, was seized upon his arrival and beheaded in the Court Yard.
X. DAVID, the eldest son of Ievan, married a daughter of David Lloyd, who was also a descendant of Rhirid Flaidd, Lord of Penllyn, and had two children.
XI. DAVID LLOYD, the elder son married Annesta, daughter of Griffith ap Ievan, and had by her one son.
XII. This son, ROBERT LLOYD succeeded to a portion of his father's possessions in Llanderfel, mostly that part lying in the township of Nant Y Friar, i.e., "The Foaming Brook," naturally therefore in the MSS. records of the celebrated antiquity, Robert Vaughan, of Hengwrt, he is designated as "Robert Lloyd of Nant Y Friar, son of David Lloyd of Glanllyn." The farm of Gwern y Brechwn formed part of his father's estate, and subsequently became the principal place of residence of the head of the family.
Robert married, (according to an ancient MSS. pedigree brought to Pennsylvania by the ancestors of Edward Rees) a daughter of Reynold ap Griffith, of Upper Brannas, and had six children.
XIII. The eldest son, THOMAS, inherited a considerable portion of his father's estates in the township of Nant Y Friar, including the farm in Gwern y Brechtwn. He married, (according to the MSS pedigree of the Rees family), Catherine, daughter of Robert ap Griffith, whose ancestor was Lord of Isaled, and had six children.
XIV. EVAN, the second son, married Dorothea Evans and had five children.
XV. THOMAS, the eldest son, who was generally designated in the documents of the period as "Thomas Lloyd Esquire of Nant Y Friar," must have been born as early as 1578-80, unless he was under age at the time of his marriage, which is quite possible. He became one of the most prominent men of his county, and had the honor of receiving the appointment of Justice of, and in 1623 that of High Sherriff of, the county of Merioneth.
He married Catherine, daughter of William ap David, of Llanderfel. Although the entry of their marriage is made upon a page which bears at its top the date 1599, yet, as the books were imperfectly and carelessly kept, some entries appear under a certain year when they ought to have been placed under dates much earlier or later. Consequently, it is very probable that in writing the words, "within the year aforesaid," instead of designating the year in numerals, the Registrar unwittingly recorded the marriage as having taken place at a date considerably in advance of its actual occurrence.
XVI. FOULKE AP THOMAS LLOYD, or Foulke Thomas, the third child of this union, was baptized at Llanderfel Church, on the 14th of April, 1623, but it is probable that he was born some years before that date. He was a tenant on the farm called "Coed-y-foel" on the Rhiwlas estate, which belonged to the Lloyd-Price family, and his son, Edward Foulke, our common ancestor, succeeded the tenancy, and held it until he decided upon removing to the new world.
XVII. This Edward Foulke was the third son of Foulke Thomas, and was born in the Parish of Llandderfel, most probably in the farm house of Coed-y-foel, where his ancestors had held lands for centuries. He emigrated with his family to Pennsylvania, sailing in the ship, "Robert and Elizabeth," which cleared from Liverpool, England, April 18th, and arrived at Philadelphia, July 17, 1698. He bought and settled upon a plantation of four hundred acres of land, according to the original survey, in the township of Gwynedd, County of Philadelphia. The deed for the purchase was, however, not executed until July 5, 1699. Some years afterwards, the plantation was resurveyed, and found to contain seven hundred and twelve acres, whereupon a patent was issued to him covering the additional three hundred and twelve acres.
He married, in Wales, about 1682, Eleanor, daughter of Hugh ap Cadwallader, and had nine children. The subsequent pedigree will be found in the "History of Gwynedd," by Howard M. Jenkins.
By Howard M. Jenkins
Our knowledge of Edward Foulke, considering that the activities of his life which we now commemorate are two hundred years past, is remarkably full and precise. Few of the immigrants of his time, men like him in private station, and of the untitled class, can be so well distinguished and defined at this long distance.
Of his ancestry you have heard. His home, as it appears in our own day, we shall presently have described. We know of him in these particulars quite well-- not so completely as we should like, but still, as I have said, in a notable degree of fullness. He gives us his descent traced back in his father's line for fourteen generations, in his mother's for six, in his wife's for fourteen, and research in our own time has gone even farther. The place where he lived is identified, his occupation is known, the time of his birth given with exactness.
Beginning, then, with his own concise but clear account of himself, and omitting the genealogical details, let us see what he says: "I was born on the 13th of Fifth month (July), 1651, and when arrived at a mature age, I married Eleanor, the daughter of Hugh, ap Cadwallader, ap Rhys, of the Parish Spytu, in Denbighshire. I had by my said wife nine children, whose names are as follows: Thomas, Hugh, Cadwallader and Evan; Grace, Gwen, Jane, Catherine, and Margaret. We lived at a place called Coed-y-foel, a farm belonging to Roger Price, Esquire, of Rhiwalas, Merionethshire, aforsaid. But in process of time, I had an inclination to remove with my family to the Province of Pennsylvania; and in order thereto, we set out on the 3d day of the Second (April) month, A.D. 1698, and came in two days to Liverpool, where, with divers others who intended to go the voyage, we took shipping, the 17th of the same month on board the 'Robert and Elizabeth,' and the next day set sail for Ireland, where we arrived and staid until the 1st of the Third month (May), and then sailed again for Pennsylvania, and were about eleven weeks at sea. And the sore distemper of the bloody flux broke out in the vessel, of which died five and forty persons in our passage. The distemper was so mortal that two or three corpses were cast overboard each day while it lasted. But through the favor and Mercy of Divine Providence, I, with my wife and nine children escaped that sore mortality, and arrived safe at Philadelphia, the 17th of the 5th month (July), where we were kindly received and hospitably entertained by our friends and old acquaintances.
"I soon purchased a tract of land of about seven hundred acres, sixteen miles from Philadelphia, on a part of which I settled, and divers others of our company who came over sea with us settled near me at the same time. This was the beginning of November, 1698, aforsaid, and the township was called Gwynedd, or North Wales. This account was written the 14th of the Eleventh month (January), A.D., 1792, by Edward Foulke."
Edward Foulke, therefore, in the beginning of the year 1698, was a farmer, a yeoman in the phrase of his day, a tenant at Coed-y-foel, near Bala, in Merionethshire. Nine children were in his house, four sons and five daughters. The farm belonged, he says, to Roger Price, Esquire, of Rhiwlas. The Prices were large land owners in that part of Wales. Roger Price was High Sheriff of Merionethshire in 1710. In our own time, 1883, Rhiwlas was the property of his descendant, Richard J. Lloyd-Price, and it is, I believe, still in the family, though its owners have sustained vicissitudes of fortune.
In process of time, says the narrative, Edward Foulke had an inclination to move to Pennsylvania. We can easily imagine how this inclination was formed. Fifteen years earlier, the movement from Wales to settle on the great "Welsh Tract," in Pennsylvania -- Merion, Radnor, Haverford -- had carried with it many neighbors of Edward Foulke, and the reports of their well-doing had been coming back year by year to the old home. These settlers, says Samuel Smith, in his history, came chiefly from Merionethshire, "being mostly relations and neighbors in their own country, several of them being tenants and having great families. They had heard a good report of Pennsylvania, that lands were cheap, taxes light, clear from oppression as to tithes and church rates," etc.
It was of matters like these that the Welshmen about Bala, including the yeoman of Coed-y-foel, were talking in their animated Celtic tongue, in the year 1697, as they had been no doubt, in time before. In that year 1697, Hugh Roberts, of Merion, in Pennsylvania, a preacher among the Friends, and an active "live" man, who had gone from Llanavawr, in Merionethshire, a little distance from Coed-y-foel, in 1583, with a certificate from the Penllyn meeting, came back to visit among his old neighbors, and encourage them to transplant themselves to Penn's Colony. It was Hugh Roberts, of Merion, who gathered at the Gwynedd company, and he came over with them in the same ship.
Edward Foulke was not then a Friend. He had known, no doubt, of the movement that followed upon George Fox's ministry, and the preaching in Wales of John ap and John Richard Davies, and had heard the persecutions of the Lloyds of Dolobran, the Humphreys, and others in his part of the country, whose names are now recorded in the sad folios of Beses's "Sufferings," but it does not appear that he had definitely severed his connection with the Established Church before his emigration. He was a sober-minded man, it seems, -- as the father of fours sons and five daughters has need to be, -- and he had been thinking of removal to Pennsylvania. He hesitated to undertake the difficulties and perils of the long voyage with his large family. He "opened" the matter with his wife, however, and she, as the tradition says, regarded the impression that had been made upon his mind as having a Divine origin, and while he hesitated and argued the pecuniary disadvantage a removal might entail, she earnestly declared to him that "He that revealed this to thee can bless a very little in America to us, and can blast a great deal in our native land."
There had been, somewhat earlier than this, gatherings at Coed-y-foel on the first day of the week to sing. Edward Foulke, as the tradition says, was himself a fine singer. But he became uneasy about these gatherings, and his wife, he found, was no less so. She urged that instead of their songs he read the Bible to them, and this plan being adopted, the light and giddy among the visitors soon fell away, while the weighty and serious remained. Their meeting and Scripture reading continued for some time, and the gathering at Coed-y-foel increased. At length Eleanor reminded her husband of his exercise of mind on the subject of emigration, and said that as they had so evidently benefited by their following the path of duty in regard to the observance of First-day, it remained for them to proceed in the removal to Pennsylvania, which had also been indicated to them. It was at this juncture, perhaps, that Hugh Roberts' visit occurred, and as the winter of 1697 closed, the migration from Wales had been resolved upon.
They left Coed-y-foel on the 3d day of the Second Month (April, Old Style), and reached Liverpool in two days. There they remained nearly two weeks, and on the 17th sailed. Their ship, the "Robert and Elizabeth," belonged to Robert Haydock, of Liverpool, and was commanded by Ralph Williams. They went first to Dublin, and lay there until the 1st of May; then all being ready for the Atlantic voyage, they cleared for Philadelphia. Their passage was a fairly good one for that day. "We are about eleven weeks at sea," says the account. They reached Philadelphia on the 17th of July, three months after leaving Liverpool. No incident of the voyage is preserved for us except one, and that, we may be sure, was indelibly impressed upon the minds of those who came safe to land. The scourge of dysentery fell upon them, so mortal that forty-five of the passengers died of it, and two or three were cast overboard each day while it continued. This father, writing his account four years later, whose family of ten and himself had all escaped, might well feel that it had been "through the favor and mercy of Divine Providence," and record it with a thankful heart. As their ships bore westward from the southern coast of Ireland, the emigrant company were sailing on the very track of a famous compatriot, that Madoc, the Welsh voyager and explorer, who, it is claimed, discovered America in the Twelfth Century, more than four hundred years before Columbus. Madoc was a child of the Welsh mountains, from which they themselves came, the son of Owain Gwynedd, and very nearly a contemporary of Rhirid Flaidd. Possibly, as the emigrants sailed on, they may have recalled the story of Madoc, and repeated that Welsh Triad, which includes his second and final voyage, from which he never returned, as one of "the Three Losses of Disappearance," sustained by "the Isle of Britain." They could hardly have known, however, what legends, traditions and learned disputations the question as to Madoc's discoveries, and the ultimate fate of himself and companions, would occasion in a later day.
It was precisely midsummer when they landed in Philadelphia. It may well have been the intense head of that season in Pennsylvania that they experienced when they came ashore, and the change from the air at sea, and from the cooler climate of their Welsh mountains would be great. But they had been warned, no doubt, by those who had already settled here that they must expect extremes of heat and cold.
From the time of their landing, July 17th, to the time when Edward Foulke says he was settled in his new home, "the beginning of November," we can only imagine how they were employed. But they were "kindly treated and received" by their old neighbors and acquaintances, the account says -- as of course they would be; -- and while the men were clearing the forest, and building log cabins, the women and children, it is safe to say, were taken into the Welsh homes in Philadelphia and Merion.
We know that the cabins built were of logs, for in 1701, when William Penn came up to Gwynedd to visit the new settlement, he lodged at the house of Thomas Evans, and it was accounted superior to the others because the logs had been "barked." Edward Foulke's house, at Penllyn, on the site of the mansion which you visited this morning, was no doubt a cabin of logs, built from the woods, between the middle of July and the beginning of November, and in it, as the frosts became killing, and the falling leaves from the forest trees gave out their autumn odors, the Welsh yeoman gathered his family to await the season when they could resume their pioneer labor of clearing and planting.
Of the life at the new home at Gwynedd we know a few facts. The tract of land he had purchased, 712 acres, as they survey of David Powell showed, in 1702, extended more than half across the township. Its lower line was substantially the present turnpike road from Spring-House to Penllyn. Its eastern corner was very near Spring-House. It is rolling land, mostly a light clay; sand lies in the knolls just across the turnpike to the south.
An early event in the little settlement was the establishment of the Friends' Meeting at the place where we now are. The ground for it was given by Robert Evans. The time was 1700, two years after the arrival. In this, no doubt, Edward Foulke joined. When the larger Meeting-house was built, 1712, he subscribed five pounds, and was one of the eight persons who had charge of the erection. His son Thomas was one of the two appointed to collect subscriptions and pay the bills. When the Monthly Meeting was established, 1714, he was appointed one of the new overseers. In 1718, his name appears on the list of the signers for the memorial for Ellis Pugh.
Earlier than this his children had begun to form new homes. Gwen, his oldest (or second) daughter was married in 1703, in the Meeting-house here, to Alexander Edwards, of the neighboring township of Montgomery. Thomas, the oldest son, married in 1706, also at this Meeting-house, Gwen Evans, of Radnor. Grace, the second (or eldest) daughter, married, in 1707, John Griffith, of Merion. In 1713 three children were married -- Hugh, to Ann Williams; Jane to Ellis Hugh, and Catherine, to Theophilus Williams, so that then but three were left at home, Margaret, who married Nicholas Roberts, in 1717; Cadwallader, who married Mary Evans, in 1719, and the youngest son, Evan, the date of whose marriage I do not know.
The daughters went with their husbands as is the custom of marriage, but Thomas Foulke took part in his father's tract, and built a new house. Hugh removed, later, to Richland, in Bucks County. Evan took the eastern portion of his father's tract by Spring-House. Cadwallader bought, in 1718, a tract of 307 acres, on part of which the borough of North Wales now stands, and in 1732 sold it and removed to Philadelphia.
The time of the marriage of Edward and Eleanor is not so far as I am aware, known. But he was born in 1651, and he says he married "when arrived at mature age." In his "Exhortation to His Children," he refers to his wife as then surviving, and says they had lived together "above fifty years." These data may serve to fix the marriage as about 1675. Eleanor died at Gwynedd in First Month, 1733. Edward died in 1741, according to all the accounts, -- none of them so precise as we should like--that I have seen. That in "Friends' Miscellany" says he was about ninety years old, as in that year, being born in 1651, he would be. The remains of both his wife and himself were interred, of course, in the burial ground here, but no marked grave, as far as appears, can be fixed on for either of them. If we recall his birth-date, July 13th, 1651, and it will be seen that he was four days more than forty-seven years old when he reached Pennsylvania; yet there lay before him, to 1741, forty-three years of life in his new home.
I may not conclude this paper without a reflective word. The qualities of this ancestor most worthy of remembrance must surely be those which in all time have dignified and honored the human family-- courage, integrity, perseverance, faith. The language of his address to his children discloses a Christian character broad and deep. The arms of the Welsh chieftain, the "Flaidd" of the Twelfth Century, bring down to us less of honor than the sound and sterling merits, as we may perceive them, though two hundred years away, of his descendants in the Seventeenth, who transplanted the family line to the New World, and whose action we now commemorate.
By Edward M. Wistar
During the past decade, there have been several pilgrimages made by descendants of Edward and Eleanor Foulke to their old home across the sea. Of these the writer has made two, one, alone, in November of 1888 and one with a family party, July 4th, 1892.
These two visits, with recollections kindly furnished by other pilgrims, give material for this account of Coed-y-foel.
Bala of to-day may be reached by rail from three different directions. It is a market town, pleasantly situated upon the meads, a quarter of a mile from the lower or northeastern end of Bala Lake. The surrounding scenery is very attractive to pedestrians, and this region ranks well with the many beautiful ones in the north of Wales.
The high ridge of the Arans and a steep escarpment of a low mountain to the northwest, form a prominent part of the background of the view looking towards the head of the lake. A good road leading from the main street of town encircles the lake, a distance of about eleven miles.
It was a pleasant summer afternoon, with the clouds that are rarely absent from an English scene chasing each other over the sky and their accompanying shadows over the landscape, with a bluish haze softening the distant view and resting on the hills that close in the southern end of the lake, that our little party drove about two and one half miles from the "White Lion Inn" to Coed-y-foel, the home two hundred years ago of our common ancestor, Edward Foulke.
The road leads north from Bala, and much of the way follows a beautiful stream, the Treweryn, which flows into the river Dee just after the latter leaves the lake. About two miles on the way the road passes over a substantial stone bridge of three arches, and follows the northeast bank of the Treweryn, a stream about the size of the lower part of the Wissahickon, and at times very like it in its more rapid and stony part. Beyond the bridge the course of the stream and that of the road diverge, and following the latter, we passed a couple of gates and, by a third, entered a lane on the right which leads up to another gate or two over a hill to the farm house. The first view of this shows only the roof, as it is in a depression beyond the hill over which a lane passes, nestling under the shelter of a rounded hill, with a bit of open woodland to the east, or rather northeast. Part of the hill itself has been cut away in the erection of some of the farm and out-buildings. Flanking these latter, and dangerously near the house in case of fire, are the hay-ricks filled with the newly-harvested sweet-smelling upland and meadow hay.
The house is a long, low, two-and-one-half story building facing the south, with living rooms at the western end-- with stables on the east, apparently now used only for storage and granary purposes.
The farm of one hundred acres belongs now, as it did in the days of Edward Foulke's tenancy, to the estate of the Price family, who still reside at Rhiwlas, a mile or so away. They are the Lords of the Manor, and have a holding of nearly 60,000 acres, of which 16,000 are farm land.
The following quotations from accounts of visits to Coed-y-foel made at different times by different members of the family are interesting, as giving an idea of the interior of the house, and are quite corroborative of each other.
Rebecca J. F. Corson writes as follows, in 1898: "In the centre of the house is a living room of quite good size which we entered from the [rear]. A large open fire-place occupied nearly the entire eastern side of this room. Hanging on nails on the edge of the mantel were over thirty china drinking mugs, while the mantel shelf was filled with tankards, candle-sticks and a variety of other things, the walls of the room being covered with bridle bits, chains, spears, buckles and old horse shoes, all highly polished. On a huge oak settle in the corner of the fire-place, leaning on a staff, sat Mr. Davis who lived in the house with his sister.
"Mr. Davis was over eighty years of age at the time and quite feeble. As he spoke only the Welsh language, Rev. Robert Jones, who went with us, acted as interpreter. Mr. Davis being somewhat childish, expressed surprise when told that I was the daughter of Edward Foulke, and remarked that I carried my age well, believing me to be the daughter of Edward Foulke who lived there in 1698.
"Miss Davis took us into the cheese house and showed us the large cheese she was making, and then upstairs to the spare sleeping room. Here we saw the old-fashioned high bedstead, with the high feather bed, which required the aid of a stool or chair to get into. On the walls of this room were the portraits of several of the family who were deceased; while on the table near the bed was hair work made from the hair of the departed, and the name-plates taken from their coffins."
Charles F. Jenkins writes as follows of his visit: "The old housekeeper, who met us at the door of the house pleasantly invited us to have a look through, although it was Seventh-day morning, when kitchens are usually being put in order, and housekeepers are busy as they can be. But she had every reason to be proud of her housewifery skill; the row of old brass candle-sticks over the wide old-fashioned chimney-place, now, however, filled by a more modern range, shone like stars; the copper warming pans hanging over the settle alongside the fire were much better looking-glasses than the old one of poor Mary, Queen of Scots, which we saw in Holyrood Palace. The old dishes fastened up along the wall and in the corner closet were all of that deep shade of blue which makes modern young folks who never had a chance to use them, envious of their possession, the flag stone floor was swept clean, and the old oaken table top was as if newly planed.
"From the ancient black rafters were hanging utensils and belongings each, no doubt, in its proper place ready for use. In the open fire grate of the range a few soft coals were smoking and gave out a gentle head, which made the settle a pleasant resting place after a rather damp and chilly ride.
"Off from this living room on one side was a secondary kitchen, and on the other a sitting room, with a collection of Welsh and English books. Beyond these rooms were the storerooms and granaries mentioned afore.
Of her visit Margaret C. Wistar gives the following account: "We stepped into a kitchen with tables and floor white with scouring, and were pleasantly welcomed by an elderly woman, who at once was interested when she found that it was some of the descendants of Edward Foulke who were visiting her. A huge fire place was flanked by a queer little three-cornered seat at one side which turned its back to the door.
"Brightly polished brasses adorned the wall above, while opposite on wooden racks against the walls stood rows of quaintly flowered china. I was taken into the parlor beyond, with its cheap showy ingrain carpet, and poor modern furniture and hideous pictures, and up a narrow winding stairs to a comfortable room, where stood a bed with snowy white tester and home-made patchwork quilt.
"Opening again from another side of the kitchen we were shown a wide, low brick-paved room, where evidently dairy and other farm work was done, and where we saw a long slender horn some four feet in length, and a lanthorn that looked as though it might have been a couple of centuries old, with its thin slats of cow horn set in lead and tall extinguisher-shaped tops.
"We were offered milk, sweet with the flavor of the hill grasses, and then said farewell to our cordial hostess, and drove away trying to impress upon our children the facts and incidents of the occasion and that they must store away memories beyond forgetfulness of their visit to the home of their Welsh ancestors."
By Susan Foulke Lukens
We have heard this morning of how Edward Foulke, of Wales, came to this country, in 1698, with his wife, Eleanor, and family, and settled here in Gwynedd, with his relatives and friends, to struggle along as best he might in the then wilderness. His heart no doubt failed him many times in his struggles, and he must have longed often to be back in his old home, Coed-y-foel, in Wales; but those old Welsh settlers, of whom Edward Foulke was one, had stout hearts, and bore their trials bravely, and history has little to record of them save that they married, raised large families and died. Our ancestor, Edward Foulke, left a brief narrative of his removal and his pedigree, and also an "Exhortation to His Children," and these records have been sufficient to make his name better known than those others who came over with him.
Here at Penllyn, Edward and Eleanor made their home, and in this same home they died. From here their descendants went forth over the land, and to-day they have re-assembled from the north, the south, the east, and the west, to celebrate the two-hundredth anniversary of their ancestors' removal to America.
Edward had several children, and his descendants have been numerous, for while the name of Foulke one hundred years ago was quite a common one in Montgomery County, there are now few of the name left there; and in tracing the family records one finds many of the lines extinct.
Of the nine children of Edward and Eleanor Foulke, the descendants of the sons only are well known, although it is possible that those of the daughters also are represented here to-day. All of the five daughters were married. Gwen married Alexander Edwards and left children, and in the marriage certificate of Alexander Edwards and Gwen Foulke, dated Tenth month, 6th, 1703, her name is given as Gwen Edwards, and her brothers, Thomas, Hugh and Cadwallader signed their names as Thomas Edwards, Hugh Edwards and Cadwallader Edwards respectively. Grace married John Griffith, of Merion, and left issue. Jane married Ellis Hugh, of Gwynedd, and removed with him to Berks County, where they left many descendants.
Catherine Foulke married Theophilus Williams and left children.
Margaret married Nicholas Roberts, of Gwynedd, and left three daughters, one of whom married an Humphreys, and removed to Maryland, where in and around Baltimore she left many descendants, having the surnames of Dukehart, Riley, Pope, Fowler, Davenport, Roberts, Ball, Matthews, etc.
Of the four sons of Edward and Eleanor, three, Thomas, Hugh and Cadwallader left sons. Evan, who lived in Gwynedd, left two daughters, both of whom married leaving families. The elder daughter, Margaret, married John Evans, of Gwynedd, and their son, Cadwallader Evans, Jr., was a noted man, and as he is the only descendant in Evan Foulke's line of whom much is know, he deserves brief mention. Cadwallader Evans, Jr., was born in Gwynedd, Christmas Day, 1762, and lived there until he was fifty years old, when he removed to Philadelphia, where he died in his seventy-ninth year. He was well educated, and early showed unusual promise. He became a surveyor, and in the later years of his life did important work in surveying the western counties of the State. In 1790, when he was twenty-eight years old, he was elected to the Pennsylvania Legislature, and re-elected in 1794. Almost immediately upon assuming the duties of State Senator, Cadwallader Evans took an active part, and was placed on important committees, and his name appears in the House Journal coupled with that of Albert Gallatin and other prominent members. In 1798, just one hundred years ago, and the last year the Legislature met in Philadelphia, he was unanimously chosen Speaker of the House. Again in 1802, and in 1805, he was elected from Montgomery County, and in 1814, after his removal to Philadelphia, was elected a member from that city.
In 1813, he was among the first to actively urge the construction of a canal along the Schuylkill River, from Philadelphia to the coal regions, and was the first President of the Schuylkill Navigation Company, and served in that capacity for several years. When in his sixty-eighth year he resigned his position, and the stockholders presented him with a silver vase as a testimonial of their high appreciation of his service.
He also served on the Board of Directors of the United States Bank, after its re-charter in 1816.
Joseph Foulke, in his manuscript reminiscences, says of him: "The last office that he filled I think, was that of one of the electors that made General Harrison President in 1840."
Cadwallader Evans, Jr., married Harriet Musser, and left nine children, only four of whom married and left families, and of his eleven grandchildren I know of but two that lived in Pennsylvania. These are Rowland and Allen Evans, living in Haverford, in this county.
Ellen Lyle Evans, wife of Capt. Alfred T. Mahan, U.S.N., is another grandchild, as is Hartman Kuhn Evans. These are all great-grandchildren of Margaret Foulke, daughters of Evan, youngest son of Edward Foulke, of Gwynedd. I will now take up the line of Cadwallader, third son of Edward Foulke. He was born in Wales, and when about forty years old removed from Gwynedd to Philadelphia where he died in 1743. He was a merchant, and lived on the north side of High street, near the court house; and was Justice of the Peace for Philadelphia County in 1736, and in those days that office was a much more important one than at present. He was a useful and active Elder in the Church, and was well respected and exemplary in his life. He had many children, but only one, Judah, lived to an adult age. Judah, who lived in Philadelphia, was a prominent and active citizen, with refined and cultivated tastes, and of large means for those days. From 1745 to 1750 he was Collector of Excises for Philadelphia, and in 1770, 1771 and 1772 Sheriff of the City and County of Philadelphia. It is to be hoped there was not so much corruption in politics in those days as at present, or the honor of the latter office would be doubtful.
A quaint document, dated December 11, 1772, recites that "His Excellency, John Penn, with the advice of council, constitutes and appoints, Judah Foulke, gentleman, keeper of the Standards of Brass for Weights and Measures for the County of Philadelphia."
I was given quite recently a deed conveying in 1763 from "Owen Biddle, of Philadelphia, watchmaker, and Sarah, his wife, and Joseph Fox, of said city, Esquire, and Elizabeth, his wife, and Judah Foulke, of Philadelphia, merchant, and Mary, his wife," "to John Pemberton, of said city, gentleman," a lot of land and steel furnace, at, or near Trenton, New Jersey. This furnace was erected in 1750, it having been built in accordance with an Act of Parliament in the twenty-third year of the reign of George the Second, which was entitled "An Act to Encourage the Importation of Pig and Bar Iron from His Majesty's Colonies in America, etc."
Judah Foulke left four children, only one of whom, Dr. John, left a family. Dr. John Foulke was a man of learning and high repute in his profession, and I am sorry time does not allow me to give him more notice.
In Ann Warder's Journal, written in 1787, and published a few years ago in the Pennsylvania Magazine of History, she lets in a side light on his courtship of her husband's niece, "Nellie Parker," as she calls her -- the English aunt quite disapproved of his attentions to Nellie on account of difference of age of the parties, but notwithstanding her objections, the courtship evidently progressed, as the family records show that Dr. John Foulke married Eleanor Parker, May 8, 1788, and a footnote adds that Dr. Foulke died eight years after his marriage, and his widow survived him sixty-four years; so perhaps the English aunt knew what she was talking about when she objected to the match.
Miss Anne H. Wharton in her "Colonial Days and Dames," says that Dr. Foulke, when a young man, was a noted skater, whose "High Dutch" style was much admired. In 1780 Dr. Foulke went abroad with the intention of improving himself in surgery and physics, and returned much benefited in many ways by his trip. He was a member of the American Philosophical Society, and in 1786, became one of its secretaries, Benjamin Franklin being president.
Dr. John Foulke and Eleanor had three children, Richard Parker Foulke, the son, being the only one who left a family; Eleanor Parker Foulke, a daughter, married Burgess B. Long. She survived her husband and left no children, and devised all her fortune, amounting to about $300,000, to establish and support an industrial home for orphan girls of Philadelphia, especially for the orphan children of soldiers who served in the late Civil War in defense of their country, and for the orphan children of firemen whose lives have been sacrificed for the public benefit and in the discharge of their duties. It is called "The Foulke and Long Institute for Orphan Girls," and is situated at Thirty-fourth and Locust Streets, West Philadelphia. It was, I believe, the first industrial school for girls in the State, and was opened in March, 1887, and has since grown steadily in importance and usefulness. William Parker Foulke, of Philadelphia, the son of Mrs. Long's brother Richard, was an eminent man; he studied law, and for a while practised his profession, and later abandoned it in order to devote himself to philanthropic and scientific work. The late Fred. A. Packard speaks of Mr. Foulke as a member of the Pennsylvania Society for Alleviating the Miseries in Public Prisons, and of the years of work devoted to its interests. He was also active in the promotion of the Arctic expedition of 1860 under Dr. Isaac I. Hayes who gave the name Port Foulke to the winter harbor of the explorers in North Greenland. He was an interested member of the Academy of Natural Sciences, and one of the prominent objects in its cabinets is the skeleton of an immense lizard of an extinct type, which was presented by him in October, 1858. This fossil was found in the marl beds near Haddonfield, New Jersey, and was classified by Dr. Joseph Leidy and named Hydrosaurus Foulkii. He was also a valued member of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, and the American Philosophical Society. After his death, in 1868, before the latter[, he] was presented a memoir of his life, prepared and read by Prof. J. P. Lesley.
William Parker Foulke's wife was Julia DeVeaux
Powell, daughter of Col. John Hare Powell, of Philadelphia, a woman well
suited to be the sympathetic champion of such a man. She died in 1884. In
1883 she wrote that there were then but twelve living
representatives of
Cadwallader Foulke's line. Her youngest son, George Rhyfedd Foulk, is a
member of the Executive Committee of this Association.
[see also "Foulke Discovers
First Dinosaur in America"]
We now come to Hugh Foulke, of Richland, Bucks County, Pa., second son of Edward Foulke, the founder of the family in America. Hugh married Ann Williams, and probably removed from Gwynedd to Bucks County. Gen. W. W. H. Davis, says of the Foulkes: "The family has always been one of consideration and influence, and several of its members have occupied responsible positions of public trust." A memorial of Richland Friends' Meeting says of Hugh: "He was a member of our meeting for thirty years, the latter part of his life, and had a good gift in the ministry." Howard M. Jenkins writes: "From Hugh are descended all the Foulkes whose origin is traceable to Richland, and no doubt a majority of the members of the family now living are of his line." A family memorandum states that, "all their children lived to marry except Edward. In seventy years after their marriage the number of their posterity was three hundred and forty-three, and in 1810 was estimated at upward of five hundred, of whom one hundred and fifteen bore the name of "Foulke." In the face of such numbers of names it is easy to see that it is impossible to go into any description of the descendants except the briefest mention of some of those best known to me. Hugh's eldest child, Mary Foulke, married James Boone, who was an uncle to Daniel Boone, the Kentucky pioneer, and her daughter Ann Boone, married, in 1807, Abram Lincoln, a member of the Pennsylvania Legislature, and of the Pennsylvania Constitutional Convention of 1787. He was of the family of Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States. Hugh's sons, Samuel and John Foulke, were both prominent men. John served in the Provincial Assembly from Bucks County from 1769 until its discontinuance in 1775. Samuel was a prominent member of the Society of Friends from 1761 to 1768 inclusive. He was a member of the Provincial Assembly of Pennsylvania, and extracts of his journal kept at that time have been published. It was he who made the translation from Welsh into English of the narrative of his grandfather, Edward Foulke.
Among his large family of children, Cadwallader, a surveyor, was a noted man. At his death he left his only child, Benjamin Franklin, (usually called Franklin Foulke,) a large collection of papers prepared by himself and by others that were of much value in recording the genealogy of the Welsh settlers in Gwynedd. Another son of Hugh of Richland, was Theophilus Foulke, whose two sons, Theophilus and Benjamin, were both members of the House of Representatives. Doctors Antrim and John L. Foulke, of Gwynedd, father and son, were also of Hugh's line. Also Dr. Hannah E. Longshore, of Philadelphia. Dr. Longshore is a member of the first class graduated by the Women's Medical College of Pennsylvania, taking her degree in 1851. She was a pioneer amongst women physicians, and has attained eminence through her ability, and her close attention to her chosen line of work. After forty years of active practice she has retired to private life.
Dr. Jane V. Myers, is also a descendant of Hugh, second son of Edward, and is living in Philadelphia, after many years of successful medical work.
Mrs. Letitia Foulke Kent, one of the Executive Committee of this Association, is a granddaughter of Dr. Antrim Foulke. Howard M. Jenkins, the Chairman of the Executive Committee of our Association, is a descendant of Theophilus Foulke, through his daughter Sarah. Mr. Jenkins is a writer who stands in the front rank as a journalist, and for his "Historical Collections of Gwynedd," the Foulke family owes him a debt of gratitude for his very accurate genealogy of the family, and the writer of this paper is indebted to him for the most of the information contained herein. He also wrote Volume I of the "Memorial History of Philadelphia," a very valuable work.
Benjamin G. Foulke, of Quakertown, Bucks County, Pa., was a descendant of Hugh, of Richland, He was a valued member of the Society of Friends, and for fifteen yeas served as Clerk of the Philadelphia Yearly Meeting.
William G. Foulke, of Germantown; J. Roberts Foulke, of Philadelphia, and Charles M. Ffoulke, of Washington, are also descended from Hugh, of Richland. Some of the family have resumed the old Welsh spelling of the name, using the two F's. There is ample authority for this; as in the fac-simile of the signature of Hugh Foulke given in Gen. W.W.H. Davis' History of Bucks County, the name is spelled with two little ff's, and in a deed dated 15th day of December, 1725, given by Edward and Eleanor Foulke to their son Evan Ffoulke, the name is spelled with two F's. Apropos of this, I would like to quote a few lines from Mrs. Gaskill's delightful little book "Cranford." It is in the chapter on "visiting," and they are discussing the Fitz Adams family -- if they are suitable persons to be admitted to their exclusive circle, and Mrs. Forrester says: "She had always understood that Fitz meant something aristocratic; there was Fitz Roy -- she thought that some of the King's children had been called Fitz Roy; and there was Fitz Clarence, now they were the children of dear good King William the Fourth. Fitz Adams! It was a very pretty name, and she thought it probably meant 'Child of Adam.' No one who had not some good blood in his veins would dare to be called a Fitz; there was a deal in a name-- she had a cousin who spelled his name with two little ff's-- ffoulkes, and he always looked down on capital letters, and said they belonged to lately invented families. She had been afraid he would die a bachelor, he was so very choice. When he met a Mrs. ffaringdon, at a watering place, he took to her immediately, and a very pretty genteel woman she was-- a widow with very good fortune; and 'my cousin' Mr. ffoulkes married her; and it was all owing to her two little f's."
I have now to trace the line of Thomas Foulke, of Penllyn, eldest son of Edward, the emigrant. He lived with or near his father all his life, and being the eldest son, inherited, as was customary in those days, the greater part of his plantation, and after his marriage built his house not far from his father's home, which was near the present railroad station at Penllyn, and which you all have no doubt seen this morning. On Thomas Foulke's place was standing a few years ago an old milk house bearing the date of 1728, and the initials T. and G. F. Thomas married Gwen Evans, of Radnor, Delaware County, who was the daughter of one of the Welsh settlers there -- they had eight children, but of these eight there are comparatively few descendants. One daughter, Susanna, married Rowland Evans, a man prominent in public affairs, and for several years a member of the Provincial Assembly for Philadelphia County.
Rowland and Susanna Evans left six children, all of whom lived to adult age, but only one of whom married, and he died leaving no family. The Meeting records show Thomas to have been a good and trustworthy man, and it was he who was appointed to receive the money to build the first Meeting-House in this neighborhood.
Edward, Thomas Foulke's eldest son, left a large family. He was a man of fine education and good business capacity, and lived in Philadelphia many years; which probably accounts for his father having left to his younger brother, William, the greater part of his land in Gwynedd. There have been, and there are at present, several ministers of the Society of Friends who are descendants from this Edward Foulke. Among these are Hugh Foulke and his son, Joseph Foulke. Joseph, besides being a minister, was for thirty years the principal of a flourishing boarding school for boys. He also made the astronomical calculations and furnished the literary matter for the Friends' Almanac from 1832 to 1847. Joseph had a son, Thomas Foulke, of New York City, also a minister among the Friends. He was a man of fine appearance, and as a child I remember being quite impressed by his preaching, he having much more elegance of language and manner than most of our ministers of that day.
Of Thomas' son, William Dudley Foulke, our honored president, it is not necessary that I should make special mention, as he is well known by reputation to all of you.
Samuel Emlen, of Germantown, a well-known minister in the Orthodox branch, and Robert Hatton, on the Hicksite side, are also Thomas' descendants through his son Edward.
William Foulke, Thomas' second son, inherited, as I said above, the greater part of his father's farm in Gwynedd, but he built his house at Penllyn, on the site of his grandfather's home. This house, was for a short time, during the Revolutionary War, the quarters of General Smallwood, and it is well known as being the house in which Sallie Wistar wrote her famous diary, while she and her family (who were nearly related to the Foulke family) lived there during the British occupation of Philadelphia. This journal, written by a young girl of eighteen years of age, has been published several times, and is well worth perusal. It is perhaps the brightest record left of the Revolutionary period. Sallie seems to have been little concerned about the war, but she was principally interested in exacting all the admiration she could get from young officers quartered in the house. Her description of the joke they played on Lieutenant Tilly with the figure of the British Grenadier is vivid and lively. She says: "Figure to theyself this Tilly, of a snowy evening, no hat, shoes down at the heel, hair untied, flying across meadows, creeks and mud holes. Flying from what? Why a bit of painted wood." This grenadier mentioned is still preserved in Mr. Charles Wistar's residence in Germantown.
The Lydia Foulke spoken of in the Journal married John Spencer, and their family occupied the old homestead after the death of Jesse Foulke, and left several descendants represented here to-day, and bearing the names of Spencer, Morris, etc.
It was William Foulke, of Penllyn, who built the grist mill on the Wissahickon creek about 1740. This afterwards belonged to his grandson, Edward, and was pulled down only a few years ago. William Foulke's wife was Hannah Jones, a grand-daughter of Rees ap John William. William and Hannah had a large family. William died just before the Revolution, leaving his wife with a family of grown children, and it was she and her children who lived in the old homestead when General Smallwood occupied it.
From William's eldest daughter, Jane, who married George Maris, came the only poet of the family, Susan Wilson Lukens, who published in 1873 her "Gleanings at Seventy-Five," a book of 216 pages, consisting of reminiscences and sixty-two pages of poetry. Among her poems is "The Painter of Seville," the longest, and perhaps the most important. Edward Maris, and the family of his brother, John M. Maris, of Philadelphia, are also descendants from Jane Foulke.
Levi Foulke, a son, married Ann Evans, and many of their descendants have found homes for themselves in the West. One of Levi's grand-daughters, Anna M. Foulke, married Aaron Lukens, and their marriage is said to have been the first one celebrated in this Meeting-House. It took place Fourth Month 13, 1824.
Caleb and Amos, sons of William, married daughters of Owen Jones, Sr., of Wynnewood, Lower Merion, who was the last Colonial Treasurer of Pennsylvania. Neither Caleb nor Amos left large families. Frank Foulke, of New York City, the Secretary of the Association, and Mrs. Jane Foulke Rutter are descendants of Caleb.
Edward, the son of Amos, left a large family, only two of whom are now living, Mrs. Robert R. Corson, and Mrs. Francis Bacon. Of this line, are Edward M. Wistar, who recently made a trip to Armenia, with supplies and money to help alleviate the distress in that unhappy country; Dr. Richard Foulke, of New Hope, Pa.; Edward Foulke, of Washington, D.C., and Dr. Joseph K. Corson, U.S.A., the latter a son of Dr. Corson, and Ann Jones Foulke, his wife.
In preparing a paper of this character, the writer is much embarrassed in mentioning the names of certain members of the family, while those of many others equally honorable, are unnoticed, and in summing up the descendants of Edward Foulke, as a whole, one can only say that the record shows that while a not unusual proportion attained active prominence, it has at least the negative distinction of not furnishing to her knowledge, a single disreputable character.
And now, dear friends and kinsfolk, I thank you very much for your kind attention to a dull paper on a very dry subject, and will say to you, Farewell, adding in the words of Tiny Tim: "God Bless Us Every One!"
By Robert R. Corson
What is the meaning of this crowd,
Where everybody seems so proud,
While all of them are talking loud
Of their
ancestors?
The Gwynedd Station 's all a-hum,
The "special" 's in; the crowd has come
To visit at the ancient home
Of their
ancestors.
Who was it left his native land,
And sought this country with his band
Of sturdy Welshmen? 'Twas their grand
Old ancestor.
King Roderick and Charlemagne,
Or any crowned head you may name,
All hands here will quickly claim
As their
ancestor.
Who cared for Romulus of Rome,
And kept the wolf "on tap" near home?
The author of this little poem
Says: "My
ancestor."
Who set the Pyramid's corner-stone,
Of which so little now is known?
Ask any Foulke, and he
will own
'Twas
his ancestor.
Who built the Sphinx so it would stand
For centuries amidst the sand?
The records show no other hand
Than our
ancestor's.
I gazed upon the silent Sphinx,
And asked "Who built it?" when, I think,
I noticed, in one eye, a wink
On mentioning my
ancestors.
Who laid the keel of Noah's Ark,
And helped to load the precious barque?
Ask of this crowd, and they'll remark:
"Why, our
ancestors."
If one should doubt and ask for proof,
They all refer to Edwin Booth,
And say: "His chart will tell the truth
About our
ancestors."*
I most sincerely do believe
That if you'd mention Adam and Eve
There' Foulkes I know who would conceive
They, too, were
ancestors!
By Those Present
The Chairman: We desire to close the exercises here in about twenty minutes, so as to leave abundant time for the purpose of getting to the train. We have, therefore, about fifteen minutes time for general remarks by those present:
WILLIAM G. FOULKE said: Mr. Chairman, with your permission, I am requested to devote a few minutes of our limited time to a matter that is somewhat foreign to the regular order of exercises. You will not find it on the program; nevertheless, I think it will pass as "Foulke"-lore here today. I appear in behalf of the Executive Committee, of which our friend, Howard M. Jenkins, is Chairman, and I am sorry to be compelled to acknowledge that, as chairman of that committee, and as the originator of this Association, he has had the lion's share of work to do in making it a success. You all know that our friend Howard is a modest man. I don't wish to embarrass him by uttering words of praise in his presence; but I do want to say that I think we are indebted to him for this Association, and also for this meeting here to-day. The whole matter originated with him several months ago, and I must say that he has worked it up with a great deal of zeal and perseverance. Of course the committee appreciates all this (committees always do), but it was thought nothing more than right that we should show that appreciation by a little outward token of esteem; and I have therefore been requested to present him with this cane which I hold in my hand. (applause.) You will all observe that it is not an article of much intrinsic value. It is not a gold-header, neither is it a silver-header; nevertheless, it is valuable in its associations. This is but a plain hazel stick; but it was cut on the farm occupied by Edward Foulke, in Wales, and brought to this country by one of his descendants, and that makes it valuable, and, by the way, that descendant is here to-day; but he is so modest as to request me not to mention his name in connection with this presentation. It was cut there a few months ago and brought here, and we have had this inscription engraved upon it: "From Coed-y-foel. Presented to Howard M. Jenkins by Edward Foulke's descendants, Fifth Month, 30th, 1898." I do not wish to prolong my remarks, for we have been reminded that our time is limited; but I think you will all join me in saying (or in thinking, at least) that it gives us great pleasure to present this little token of our esteem to our friend, as a sort of souvenir of this very interesting and happy occasion, for which we are indebted to him. (Applause.)
HOWARD M. JENKINS: I assure you, friends, that this is a complete surprise. I have been associated with the Executive Committee of the descendants of Edward and Eleanor Foulke now for three or four months, and I had no idea that they were getting up anything of this kind, nor, indeed that they were capable of it. They seemed to be entirely guileless, open and straightforward, and I had no idea that such a thing as this would occur. I can assure my friend, William G. Foulke, and all of you whom he represents, that I appreciate the gift very much, and only feel that it is quite in excess of any merits I have in connection with getting this celebration together. As any one can see, the years grow upon me, and canes are not at all an unuseful article; and whatever my merits may be, I never had anything of this sort but once before, and that was for propounding the best conundrum, so that it was quite a different reward of merit from this. I am, I assure you, very much obliged, and shall keep the cane with a great deal of satisfaction. (Applause.)
THE CHAIRMAN: I would like to read a telegram just received from Colonel and Ellie Everett von Montbe, the Colonel being a son of Gen. von Montbe (second in command of the German army in Saxony). The telegram is as follows:
THE CHAIRMAN: I have also received the following letter:
To my Cousins, the Descendants of Edward and Eleanor Foulke.
A greeting from the quaint old City of Venice.
Finding that I cannot reach America in season to join you in commemorating the arrival of our ancestors in the country of their adoption, I beg to say that I join you in rejoicing that their good judgment led them to seek a home for themselves and their descendants, in a land of liberty, of progress, of enlightenment, of freedom of thought, of religious toleration -- in short, in America!
No one, I think, can spend much time among such scenes of squalor and degradation as are seen among the common people here in Europe (tho' I presume Wales may not be so bad as this section) without rejoicing that his ancestors sought another and a "better country." For I can but often ask myself the question, had I been born here and spent my youth in these surroundings, would I not have been like the miserable creatures I see daily, and my heart wells up in thankfulness, that I have not been compelled to rear my children in such an atmosphere, and amid such ignorance, want and superstition.
I am the last descendant of Edward and Eleanor Foulke, born in the house built for, or perhaps by, his son Thomas, on the land originally purchased by Edward Foulke from William Penn. This house was built in 1734, and it stands within a few feet of the first house built and occupied by Edward and Eleanor Foulke, and my birthday was the last day of December, 1833, thus rounding out the First Century of the old house. I do not recall the date of Edward Foulke's decease; but, if after 1733, it probably occurred in this house, in which I was born a century later, both of my grandmothers being great-granddaughters of Edward and Eleanor Foulke. But enough of personal matters-- may all the descendants of Edward and Eleanor Foulke during the two coming centuries emulate their virtues and prove themselves worthy of their ancestry.
With an affectionate greeting to you all, I
remain, Yours,
[Signed] WILLIAM
FOULKE SPENCER
HOWARD M. JENKINS: It is very important, in considering the number of friends who are here, that we close our exercises in good time, in order to give time to get down to the station, and I think we had better draw our proceedings to a close a little earlier than we announced on the program. I have a suggestion to make. It seems to me it would be very interesting to know in regard to those who are here how they are descended from Edward Foulke, and I suppose they are practically all -- though some, I know, are not quite -- sure about the line of their descent; practically all could act on the proposition that we should rise according to the son or daughter of Edward Foulke, from whom we are descended; and if that meets your approval I think we might try it. It will certainly not take very long-- I suppose a half a minute each. I suggest we take them up.
THE CHAIRMAN: All those who know themselves to be
descendants of Thomas Foulke will please rise.
The Descendants of Hugh Foulke.
Descendants of Cadwallader Foulke.
Descendants of Grace Foulke, who married John
Griffith. None present.
Descendants of Gwen, who
married Alexander Edwards. None present.
Descendants of Jane, who married Ellis Hugh.
Descendants of Catharine, who married Theophilus
Williams. None present.
Descendants of Margaret,
who married Nicholas Roberts.
HOWARD M. JENKINS: I should like to say, with reference to the allusion made by our friend, Susan Foulke Lukens, to my book, in which I thought the majority of the family were descended from Hugh, that that is a mistake. I think when I wrote it I must have meant the descendants from the sons only, and not from the daughters. There must be a very large number of descendants from the daughters who are not represented at all here to-day.
I was going to mention two little matters. In the account that we had of the home in the old country, the stream was mentioned-- the Treweryn. That name is transplanted here; and the little creek which falls into the Wissahickon, as you go to the station, is the Treweryn.
Speaking of Thomas Foulke, Edward's son, there was, I can remember seeing, on the old horse-block here, the initials "T.F.," cut I think, about "1749." I have not looked for a long time, and I doubt very much whether they could now be seen. They were cut here by him.
THE CHAIRMAN: We will close the exercises to-day by the reading of "Edward Foulke's Exhortation Addressed to His Children," which will be read by Samuel Emlen, of Germantown.
CHARLES F. JENKINS: There will be an abundance of time, I think, for everybody to make the train in good order, and I would propose that when Samuel Emlen gets through reading the exhortation, we might fittingly observe a moment of silence before the meeting concludes.
"Edward Foulke's Exhortation Addressed to His Children" was then read by Samuel Emlen, of Germantown, Philadelphia.
After a brief season of silence, the meeting adjourned.
Read by Samuel Emlen
My dear children: There has been for a considerable time, something on my mind to say to you by way of advice, before I return to dust, and resign my soul to Him who gave it: though I find some difficulty in delivering my thoughts in writing.
My first admonition to you, is, that you fear the Lord, and depart from evil all the days of your life.
Secondly, as you are brothers and sisters, I beseech you to love one another, and your neighbors too. If any of your neighbors injure you, in word or deed, bear it with patience and humility. It is more pleasing in the sight of God and good men, to forgive injuries, than it is to revenge them. Rather pray for them, than wish them any evil: Lest that text in scripture, which requires an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, come into your minds when you leave this world, and you be found wanting. For without doubt, he that is thoughtless and negligent all his days about the welfare of his soul, will some day or another, in the midst of his extremity, call on the rocks and mountains to secure him from the vengeance of an offended God.
My dear children, accustom not yourselves to loose, vain talking, which the scriptures declare against. It was hurtful to me in my youth, and stopped my virtue. The temptations of this world are very powerful, as Job said by experience. Be watchful over your evening conversation. Let pious thoughts possess your souls for the moment before you close your eyes for sleep. If you do that, you will be more likely to find yourselves in the morning in a meek, humble posture before God, who preserved you from evil. This will produce peace and calmness of mind, with a blessing in your outward affairs: as we read of Isaac, whose pious meditations in the field, was rewarded with outward and inward blessings.
I desire you not to reject the least appearance of good which may arise in your minds as if it could be obtained at pleasure. Give speedy obedience unto God who begets this diving emotion in your hearts. For a man's abode in this world is very doubtful. It often happens that death comes without warning: yet we must go whether ready or not -- where the tree falls, there it must be. I knew a man in the land of my nativity, that went to bed with his wife at night and died before morning, unknown to her. Such things are designed, I believe, as a warning to us, that we may arm ourselves agains the terrors of such a day.
And of such as die after that manner, we have little to say, save that they died and were buried; placing the rest amongst the mysteries of the Almighty. Hence let us take a view of our own weakness, and judge of one another with charity.
I feel sorrow now in my old age, for want of being more careful and circumspect in my youth. Although I did nothing that brought shame on myself, or grief on my parents; yet there was amongst the loose, inconsistent youth, too many things which they called innocent, without considering they were building on the sand; and I was often drawn into vain mirth with them,. There is a vast difference between the two sentences, delivered to those who built on the rock, and those who built on the sand. Our Saviour said of the latter, their fall shall be great.
Let me entreat you, my dear children, assume not the appearance of religion, without a real possession of it in your hearts. Our Saviour compared such as did so, to sepulchres, white without, but within, full of dead men's bones. Yet I have better hopes of you, though I mention this.
I have known, at times, something pressing me to read good books, or to go aside in private, to pray: which, if I neglected, and took my liberty other ways, then indifference and hardness would prevail, which deprived me of those good inclinations for a considerable time after. I have also to tell you of my own experience, concerning attending week-day meetings. Whenever I suffered trifling occasions, or my outward affairs, and business, if not urgent, to interrupt my going, a cool reflection and serious view, made me look upon it as a loss or injury done to my better part; and generally, the business done that day, did not answer my expectations of it in the morning.
One thing more comes into my mind, by searching myself; which is, that it had been better for me, if I had been more careful, in sitting with my family at meals, with a sober countenance; because children and servants have eyes and observations on those who have the command and government of them. It has a great influence on the life and manners of youth.
So my dear children, perhaps some of you may get some advantage by this. If you consider with attention this innocent simplicity of life and manners I have been speaking of, you need not fear but that God will preserve you in safety from the snares of the devil, and the storms of this inconstant world. By diligence also you shall obtain victory over the deceitfulness of riches. I fear there are too many of this age, who suffer themselves to be carried away with the torrent of corruption. And not only such as content themselves, as it were, in the outward porch; but also such as make greater pretences than those: even they who ere looked upon as pillars in the church, have, I fear, turned their backs upon it. I lay these things close to you, that you may be careful and diligent, whilst you have time left, lest by degrees, indifference creep upon you, under the disguise of an easy mind, and you forget, it is he who holds out to the end shall be saved.
And as for your father and mother, our time is almost come to a period. We have lived together above fifty years, and now in our old age, the Lord is as good and gracious as ever He was. He gives us a comfortable living. Now in the close of our days, we have fresh occasion to acknowledge His benevolence and abounding goodness to us.
Now I think I can with peace of mind conclude, with hopes that your prayers will be for us in the most needful time, especially on a dying pillow, when our time in this world comes to an eternal rest. I conclude in the words of the prophet Jeremiah, "See thee up way marks, make thee high heaps, set thy heart toward the highway, even the way that thou wentest. Turn again, Oh Virgin of Israel, turn again to these thy cities."