Susanna Wright's "The Grove": A Philosophic Exchange with James Logan

"I am causing some land to be surveyed near the late Shawana town to John Wright and others for settlement," James Logan (1674–1751) wrote in 1726 to the Lancaster County Indian leader known to the British as "Captain Civility."¹ According to Frederick B. Tolles, Logan's biographer, there are many good reasons that Logan would have wanted to establish a Quaker settlement on the eastern shore of the Susquehanna River at a time when the general area was dominated by Germans and Scots-Irish. Having served the province of Pennsylvania and its proprietary Penn family as secretary of the province, commissioner of property, president of the Governor's Council, and chief justice, Logan certainly had the power to allocate Pennsylvania's real estate. One reason for choosing the Wright family as recipients of land near the Susquehanna might have been his unique friendship and regard for a remarkable woman many years his junior, Susanna Wright (1697–1785).

Susanna Wright lived most of her life in Lancaster County, near what is now Columbia, Pennsylvania.² An educated and energetic woman who never married, Wright thrived on this frontier, finding in it an opportunity to develop her many interests in medicine, horticulture, politics, law, and poetry. Her correspondence reveals that she also kept her city friendships with Philadelphians, among them the Logan and Norris families, and Benjamin Franklin. Although her contemporaries referred to her as the "Susquehanna Muse," only four poems survived until the discovery of Milcah Martha Moore's commonplace book (published in 1997), which included another 24 poems and the extract of a letter. "The Grove" is one additional example of her poetry—one that may have survived thanks to her relationship with James Logan. This poem is a historical artifact providing insight into the intellectual relationship shared by this man and woman, as well as evidence of Wright's development as a poet.

Susanna's Wright's "The Grove" resides in folder 37 of box 24 (marked "miscellaneous") in the Logan/Fisher/Fox collection at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. This collection was donated by Joseph M. Fox, a descendent of James Logan, in 1968–1969 in honor of his father, William Logan Fox. In a letter to Mr. Fox, Nicholas Wainwright of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania commented that the materials in this collection had "descended generation by generation in Mr. Fox's family, passing by inheritance and not by sale."³ This same collection contains two letters from Logan to Wright, one dated 2 December 1723 and the other 24 March 1738.⁴ The letters do not appear to be drafts or letter book copies. "The Grove" is written in Wright's handwriting, probably sent to Logan for comment or review.

Although only seven letters between James Logan and Susanna Wright have been found, these depict a warm and intimate relationship, beginning with Logan's first extant letter in 1718, addressed to "Dear Susannah," followed by others, to "dear Susy."⁵ The latest is dated 1748, three years prior to Logan's death. Presumably they corresponded regularly, and many more letters that passed between them have been lost or destroyed. Logan, who was 23 years her senior, with the library of a classical scholar, took the part of mentor in the relationship. He sent or loaned Wright books and papers (in 1718, a dictionary and a book in French), which she was frequently slow to return. They had a mutual interest in philosophical books like William Wollaston's Religion of Nature Delineated (1722), which Logan studied enthusiastically and then sent to Wright. In 18 June 1728, Logan complained that he was "discouraged by . . . Things being buried with thee when in thy hands. Wollaston has been long & often enquired for by those I long since promised him to."⁶ In November of 1728, Logan acknowledged her "short flight of Poetry once more," indicating that it was probably Wright's practice to send Logan her verses for his criticism and enjoyment.⁷ Logan shared his translation of Cato's distichs with Wright, noting in...