Robert Wade, the Earliest Quaker Settler on the West Side of the Delaware River, in 1676, and the First American Host of William Penn, in 1682

ROBERT WADE53 James Sandelands and His Mural Gravestone.—By George Norman Highley, of West Chester, Pennsylvania. Part IV Return to the Meeting House about 6 P.M. Daylight-Saving Time, for Supper. ROBERT WADE, THE EARLIEST QUAKER SETTLER ON THE WEST SIDE OF THE DELAWARE RIVER, IN 1676, AND THE FIRST AMERICAN HOST OF WILLIAM PENN, IN 1682 By Albert Cook Myers x The place of origin in England of Robert Wade, the first Quaker to settle on the west side of the Delaware River, in 1676, hitherto has eluded the search of the historians. Now, however, it is a gratification to state that the missing information has been received from England and is here presented for the first time in public. As might be expected from the name Essex House, which he applied to his Chester home, Robert Wade was an Essexman. His father was Robert Wade, yeoman, of Earls Coinè, County Essex. This is a parish town, about forty miles northeast of London and ten miles northwest of the ancient Roman city of Colchester, in the same county. The parish takes its name from a nearby stream, the River Coinè, and from the family of de Vere, Earls of Oxford, who had a seat here, given to the first of the line, Alberic de Vere, by his brother-in-law, William the Conqueror. The old church contains the arms of John de Vere, Earl of Oxford, who restored it in 1532. Several older monuments in the church of this noble family were brought from the earlier church of a Benedictine priory, founded in the eleventh century by Aubrey de Vere, one of the monks. It was of this family, it would seem, that the poet Tennyson, in 1A paper read at Chester, Pennsylvania, 5 mo. 21, 1932, at the summer meeting of Friends' Historical Association in observance of the 250th anniversary of the first arrival of William Penn in America, 1682-1932. In introducing the above paper, the author also presented valuable data concerning William Penn. 54 BULLETIN OF FRIENDS' HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION his " Lady Clara Vere de Vere—The daughter of a Hundred Earls," sings these familiar lines : " Howe'er it be, it seems to me, 'Tis only noble to be good ; Kind hearts are more than coronets, And simple faith than Norman blood." While yet in his teens, Robert Wade, the younger, came up to London, in the time of Oliver Cromwell, the Protector, to learn the carpenter trade. He was placed as an apprentice for seven years, on November 25, 1656, to Robert Leane, of the Houndsditch. This place to which Robert came to live with his master was in East London, just outside the City wall upon the then filled-in moat, so named because it was once a repository for dead dogs and like carrion. In the year 1659 our young carpenter's apprentice had become a Quaker, and in April of that year he and many others of his sect delivered " A Declaration to the Parliament," protesting against Quaker persecutions. Staunchly they awaited a reply in majestic old Westminster Hall, builded by William Rufus, in 1099 and Richard II in 1394, an edifice with a thousand memories of the chief scenes in English history, of famous trials, and of coronation feasts, still standing, one of the glories of England. In 1662 and 1664 Robert Wade was a prisoner for his belief in London. As a carpenter of the city he was married Fourth Month 28, 1664, in Friends' Meeting at the Peel, in St. John's Street, London, to Lydia Evans, of St. Botolph's, Aldgate, London. In 1667, when he himself received an apprentice for seven years, he was styled Citizen and Carpenter of Houndsditch, indicating that he had attained to the dignity of membership in that important corporation of London, the Carpenters' Company. June 28, 1675, while still a resident of London, he received a deed from John Fenwick for 500 acres of land in West New Jersey. Leaving his wife behind, he came over to that Province with Fenwick in the Ship Griffin, arriving at Salem, September 24th of the same year. Dissatisfied with the wrangling that went on in...