The only armorial book-plate of the early days known to have been used by a lady, was used by Elizabeth Graeme, daughter of Dr. Thomas Graeme, whose lovely estate, " Graeme Park," situated a score of miles from Philadelphia, was a very favorite meeting-place of the cultured people to whom its hospitality was warmly extended. Miss Graeme was quite literary in her tastes, and among her accomplishments was the translation of 'Telemacbus into English, the writing of many original poems and no small amount of prose which, according to the judgment of Dr. Rush, showed " strong marks of genius, taste, and knowledge." She married Hugh Fergusson, the British Commissioner of Prisoners, which union seems, unfortunately, not to have brought her much happiness, so that she occupied herself much with those literary occupations she loved so well.
Conspicuous among the early Pennsylvanians and coming to be known as the greatest of American botanists, was John Bartram, whose fine gardens were planted near to Gray's Ferry. In this delightful spot was that study over the window of which those two lines were painted which testified to his faith in the Almighty. The books in this little secluded spot were marked with an armorial book-plate of the Chippendale style of ornamentation, which bore the mottoes Foy en Dieu and J'avance. The home of Bartram, which was near to "Woodlands," the residence of Alexander Hamilton, still stands surrounded by some of the trees beneath which Jefferson and Adams, Wistar, Rush, and Rittenhouse have reclined and conversed with the royal botanist.
Eiias Boudinot (the wealthy and studious President of Congress who was a bit surprised at the dance which he saw at the Macomb House in New York, upon the occasion devised by the Comte de Moustier in 1778, to celebrate the French alliance) used in his books a simple but well-engraved plate, the work of Maverick, the famous New York engraver, who came to America from his native land just before the Declaration of Independence separated the two countries forever.
Those old dwellers in the City of Brotherly Love, Quakers though many of them were, and so, to our thinking, of necessity somewhat distant toward gaieties of the "world outside," had their good times, lived upon fine estates, and enjoyed life as fully as did their far-away neighbors at the lower end of Manhattan Island, There was old Isaac Norris, who directed the placing of the motto upon the Liberty Bell. He was a Quaker, and he lived in a delightful old home going by the name of " Fair Hill," which lay between Philadelphia and Germantown. A student he was by nature, and he gathered a good-sized library in which he pasted a neat but small book-plate bearing heraldic devices. Ultimately his books went to Dickinson College in the city of Carlisle, Penn.
When General Washington came to the city of Philadelphia in 1790, the house of Robert Morris was considered the fittest for his use within the city, and so it was placed at his disposal. It is related that the house of the Morris family had more of the luxuries than had any other house in America. Indeed, in all the appointments of his estate, even to his equipage, this brilliant financier and statesman was fond of the best and had it; and yet in his old age he was imprisoned for debt. There is a small and exceedingly interesting book-plate which bears the inscription Rob. et. Tho. Morris fratres, Philadelphia, which has rather recently come to light, and which is regarded by collectors as of the highest interest on account of the position of its owners, as well as by reason of the unique manner of recording the fact of common ownership in the books the plates were destined for. It was Robert Morris who persuaded old Mr. Head, the Quaker, whose conscience would not let him do anything active towards the support of the war of the Revolution, to pass into an adjoining room while he, Morris, left alone with key to the strong box, should take from it such an amount as was needed at the moment. Then, too, it was at the elegant home of Robert Morris that the Prince de Broglie drank twelve consecutive cups of tea, not knowing how to refuse the different ladies who offered him the thin beverage! Books there must have been in plenty among the furnishings of this attractive house whose very hospitality had that quality of abundance which is well-nigh a luxury. The kindly and earnest face of Mr. Morris is well known from his portraits, and one can easily picture him in his elegant home entertaining the President, always an imposing figure, with round them a little company of delegates and men of affairs.
Edward Shippen, a descendant of the first mayor of Philadelphia and the father of the Misses Shippen, who were quite the gayest of the gay young ladies of the " Neschianza," used the old book-plate which his father before him had used in England. This plate belongs to a style not used very much in America, in which the shield of arms is surrounded with elaborate mantling.
Among others who used book-plates and who made for themselves a name in the affairs of Pennsylvania were William Augustus Atlee; Dr. John Beatty; Robert Aitkin, who printed the early and historic American edition of the Bible; Bancker, the merchant, who instead of the arms used his old "merchant-mark," a figure 4, upon the shield of his book-plate; Albert Gallatin, who rejected the family motto, and adopted for himself the one word Persevere; William Hamilton, who became the owner of the fine estate "Woodlands," which is now the Woodland Cemetery of Philadelphia; old William Keith, the Governor of the colony in the early part of the eighteenth century, and who was so " desperate an intriguer"; Lynford Lardner, grandson of the Councillor ; Morgan Lewis, who was on the staff of General Gates; Joseph Priestley, theologian, chemist, and philosopher; Sir John St. Clair, a British soldier associated with Braddock, but who had a book-plate engraved by Turner; and Joseph Wood, a colonel in the revolutionary army.



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