Logan-Story Correspondence

Logan-Story Correspondence INTRODUCTION With Biographical Sketches of James Logan and Thomas Story The original letters forming the "Logan-Story Correspondence ," printed in the following pages, are preserved at the headquarters of the Society of Friends, Euston Road, London, N. W. 1, within the covers of a wide-margined copy of The Journal of Thomas Story, published 1747. This volume, with others, was presented to Friends' Reference Library (D), in 1903, by the executors of George Stacey Gibson (1818-1883), who obtained them by purchase for £150 from Silvanus Thompson, of York, son of Thomas Thompson of Liverpool (1775-1861), the great collector of Quaker books and manuscripts. The Story volume is grangerised with numerous original documents of great interest. The Letters were copied for the printer at the expense of Charles F. Jenkins, of Philadelphia. They were all in proof and one copy at Devonshire House, when, in 1906, a fire took place at the printers, and the type was melted. This proof is now being used for copy. See Journal of the Friends Historical Society (London), II. III. Wilson Armistead included most of the Letters (with omissions and alterations) in his Memoirs of James Logan, London , 1851. There is a résumé of the Correspondence in Ferguson's Early Cumberland and Westmorland Friends, 1871, pp. 130 ff. The Friend (Phila.), vol. 45 (1872), printed extracts provided by "Alpha," with much comment on their subjectmatter . This Correspondence between the two scientists must have been a great source of pleasure to both. Logan lamented the lack of "any. acquaintance here, or any correspondents there, who could or would be of use" (Letter XV) ; and we think of Story also lacking congenial scientific comradeship. A standard biography of both men is still to be written. (1) 2 LOGAN-STORY CORRESPONDENCE. JAMES LOGAN James Logan (1674-1751) was the elder of the two surviving children of Patrick and Isabel (Hume) Logan, of Ireland and Scotland and England. There is an account of his descent given in Memoirs of James Logan, by Wilson Armistead; Recollections of John Jay Smith, Phila. 1892, p. 338; JnI. F. H. S. VII. 47, 86. His brother was Dr. William Logan (1686-1757) referred to in a note to Letter VII. James received a liberal education, and was with a linen draper in Dublin till his parents and their family removed to Bristol, Eng. The father took charge, for a time, of the Friends' school in that City; about 1694 it was in the hands of James, and later in the charge of Alexander Arscott (Knight, Hist, of Sidcol School, 1808-1908, pp. 5 ff.). In 1698, there was a prospect for our schoolmaster to become engaged in trade between Bristol and Dublin, but early the next year he was urged by William Penn to become his secretary and go with him to his new possessions beyond the sea. This offer he accepted despite the objections of his friends, and he sailed with Penn in the Canterbury, VII. 1699. In this choice Penn was more successful than in some others; Logan's abilities were soon recognised and at the age of twenty-five he was appointed Secretary to the Province. On leaving again for Europe in 1701, Penn wrote to Logan: " ...... My dependence is on thy care and honesty. Serve me faithfully, as thou expects a blessing from God, or my favour, and I shall support thee to the uttermost" {Penn and Logan Correspondence, copied from the originals by Deborah Logan (1761-1839), being vols. IX and X of the Memoirs of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Phila. 1870, I. 61). In IV. 1702, Penn wrote to Logan: "Thou hast heard of the death of thy father and marriage of thy mother to one not a Friend ; an exercise." Logan replied : "My mother's misfortune is my affliction, and not my crime; what most troubles me in it is my ingenious little brother, who I fear is ruined." William was then sixteen. Deborah Logan INTRODUCTION.3 added a note: "This was an unfortunate second marriage. She afterwards came over to this country and was affectionately received and provided for by her son : he also procured the education of...