Another Pennsylvanian of distinguished name was James Logan, founder of the Loganian Library in Philadelphia, and who was first persuaded to come to the colony by his friend, William Penn. His plate was made in England, and is a very graceful design, of the Chippendale style. Mr. Logan was strict in some of his ideas, agreeing with Penn as to simplicity in religious forms and customs. He was a friend to the Indian, was prominent in the government of the colony, and was possessed of uncommon ability united to great wisdom and a singularly dignified disposition. He had a charming seat, " Stenton," to which the Indians came in such numbers that they were encamped upon its spacious lawns a good share of the time, and he had a goodly collection of books in his comfortable library. He left about two thousand volumes of a valuable character, for the use of the public. This bequest was the beginning of the library which bears his name.
Early in the present century, Henry Troth came to Philadelphia, and engaged in the drug business. He was a man of enterprise, forethought, and executive ability; and it is owing to his efforts that the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy was established. He was a member of the Orthodox branch of the Society of Friends, and was active in numerous charities, as well as prominent in the advancement of scientific researches. During the first quarter of the present century, his book-plate was engraved by Samuel Tiller, an engraver of whom little is known, the design being Mr. Troth's own. It is a library interior, and represents the student in his book-room, deep in thought. In its use of serious reflections as a motto, it resembles the Village Library plate (Farmington, Conn.), but it is said that the line of thought they indicate is a correct reflection of the habitual attitude of the owner's mind. The plate is one of uncommon beauty, and the collector will regret the meagreness of information concerning its engraver. Tiller was in partnership with a man named Winship in 1832; and in that year they engraved a portrait of Washington, and sorrfe bits of ornamentation for use on a silk badge commemorating the celebration in honor of the centennial anniversary of Washington's birth. Subsequently, he was in business with his own brother, and finally dropped out of sight in Mexico. His work is so good that one hopes other bookplates by him will come to sight.
Among other interesting plates which are worthy the attention of the collector are those of the Apprentices' Library, the Carpenters' Company, and the Library Company, all of them numbering among the early semi-public libraries of the city of Philadelphia, and each of them having an interesting history.
In the city of New York, during the last quarter of the last century, lived and worked the famous engraver, Peter Rushton Maverick; and to his skill in the art of engraving on copper must be laid, to a considerable degree, the large number of bookplates which that period of the history of the city reveals. He was a rapid worker and a skilful. It seems to have been quite the thing to have a bookplate by Maverick; and so the richest of the city's citizens employed him; and, not to be outdone by those above them in social grade, some of those whom fortune had not so plentifully blessed used plates by this noted copper-plate engraver. Among these was a very popular hairdresser.
The richest man in the colony of New York was Frederick Phillipse, who carried on so profitable a trade with the Five Nations, and whose ships sailed to the East as well as the West Indies. Perhaps his wealth was in some measure due to the fortune his wife must have had; for she, who had been the widow of the rich trader, Rudolphus de Vries, had, during the period of her widowhood, carried on with considerable sagacity the business her late husband had built up. Just how much Mr. Phillipse inclined to books, we do not really know; but he had a book-plate of an early style of ornamentation. It was his daughter Mary who, tradition says, had the honor of being an early love of George Washington, and it was at the old' Phillipse Manor that these two met. In this interesting spot the family for many years exercised jurisdiction over immense estates lying in three counties. They were known among their tenants as the Junkers (pronounced as if spelt Yonkers), and around their homestead grew up the village now going by the name of Yonkers. But the charming Mary finally married Colonel Roger Morris, who built a noble house on the banks of the Harlem River, which has passed through many hands and has had several names, and which still stands upon its wooded height. Long known as the Roger Morris house, it passed, after the war of the Revolution, into various hands, before it was bought by Stephen Jumel, and was known as the Jumel Mansion. At the age of seventy-eight, the still gallant Aaron Burr married the widow of the French wine-merchant, when the place became known as the residence of Aaron Burr; and, as is well known, it was not very far from its site that Alexander Hamilton received his fatal wound. This house is one of the most interesting in New York history, and its appearance has been preserved by the Society of Iconophiles, of New York, in an excellent engraving by Edwin D. French. Colonel Morris used an interesting book-plate of the popular Chippendale pattern; and so did Lewis Morris, brother of Gouverneur, whose fine estates were destroyed by the British. The great estate of Morrisania, in Westchester County, was founded by an ancestor of these patriots in the seventeenth century. Another daughter of Frederick Phillipse married the dashing Colonel Beverly Robinson, who was so stanch a loyalist, and whose estate was the headquarters of Arnold while negotiating with the British officers in the matter of his contemplated treason. Colonel Robinson had a son of the same name, who was an officer in the English army; and this family was one of the largest losers by reason of its loyalty. The book-plate bearing the name of Beverly Robinson was probably used by the son.


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