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  • Philip Lehman, an Early Secretary and Commissioner to William Penn:His Milieus and his Work
  • Louise McCabe (bio)

The main purpose of this paper is to use various early sources to relate what is known and what can be conjectured about the elusive Philip Theodore Lehman, a secretary to William Penn. Lehman began to work for the future proprietor in 1672/3. He facilitated Penn's early steps to-ward founding his colony and was appointed commissioner for Penn's personal holdings in Pennsylvania before the proprietor returned to London in 1684. 1 On the one hand, the emphasis of scholars using early documents has been mainly on the content. For example, Richard and Mary Dunn's collection of Penn's manuscripts illuminated the life of Penn while Joseph Besse and William C. Braithwaite have quoted the text of many testimonials in order to publicize Quaker distress. 2 On the other hand, Lehman was a scrivener. Therefore, this paper necessarily focuses not only on the content of the documents, but also what the scribe's script and writing style suggest about his life and historical context.

Along the way, the present biography of "Secretary" Lehman presents a number of new ideas. For example, while Catie Gill attributes the various tracts printed about Quaker oppression in Bristol to "anonymous," the present study proposes Lehman as the source and main author. 3 In addition to documenting abuse, an important purpose of these tracts was to promote fair enforcement of the law; Quaker writers were conscious of the order and predictability that fair procedure might provide for business, [End Page 27]


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December 25, 1681 entry, Bristol manuscript.

In the left margin are the initials "PL" for Philip Lehman.

The manuscript has been referred to as Bristol MSS V in previous journal articles.

Image courtesy of Bristol Archives, Bristol, England, reference number Bristol Archives SF/C/1/1a.

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as well as for freedom of expression and conscience.

Lehman, variously written "Lehnman[n]," "Lehenman[n]," "Teleman," "Lemon," etc., was a contemporary of Penn and lived between 1645 and 1687. He was something of a chameleon, for he absorbed the culture of his work surroundings; he failed to bequeath a strong continuous legacy. Among the first traces of his work was a signature as witness on Penn's "Instructions" to Nathaniel Allen and John Bezar in 1681. On June 21, 1682 he signed a letter to the Indians as "Philip Theodore Lehnmann, Secrety." 4 Contemporaries and writers of early times mentioned Lehman in passing. Quakers documented his marriage in 1678 and the birth of his child in 1680. 5 In a letter from Philadelphia, dated December 21, 1682, Penn alluded to Lehman by the term "secretary," understood by the Dunns to be Lehman. Philip Ford recorded Lehman's first job for Penn on January 27, 1672/73. 6 Francis Daniel Pastorius, looking back from 1700 at meeting Lehman in 1684, noted how Penn's secretary "Johann Lehennmann, treated him with brotherly affection." He misremembered Philip's first name as that of his grandfather John George. 7 Family members, including Lehman's siblings and those who descended from Philip's brother George's line, listed him in their genealogies, including Christian Lehman, a surveyor from Germantown, who "transcribed and continued" a genealogical history of the family in 1770. Thus, whatever Christian wrote about George's place of birth must also refer to Philip Theodore, younger brother of George.

George and Philip lived as boys at what was then the family homestead in Putzkau, east of Dresden. 8 There the lay deacon of the moderate Lutheran church was merchant tailor, capable of exposing Lehman to the cloth trade. 9 Lehman developed elegant handwriting. The aftermath of the Thirty Years' War must have made it hard to establish a career in war-torn Saxony. While Philip's brother George managed to remain in the area of Dresden and Putzkau, Philip, who demonstrated handwriting and notary skills, took a different path. His route may have echoed that of Marc Swanner, a Nonconformist who was older than Philip by six years. Swanner traveled from Zittau to Hamburg, became a tutor, converted...

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