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Difference between revisions of "Hannah Callender Sansom"

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==History==
 
==History==
For over thirty years, between January 1758 and November 1788, Hannah Callender kept a diary in which she recorded, among many topics, her impressions of the country seats she visited, primarily in the vicinities of Philadelphia and New York. Callender was born into a wealthy Quaker family from Philadelphia. Her father, William Callender, Jr. (1703–1763), had emigrated from Barbados to America, arriving to the Delaware Valley in 1727, and married Katharine Smith (1711–1789) of Burlington, New Jersey, in 1731. They moved to Philadelphia in 1733, and Hannah, the couple’s only child to survive infancy, was born in 1737. William Callender was a prosperous merchant, who earned his wealth in the West Indian sugar trade and through Philadelphia real estate investments. He also helped found the Library Company of Philadelphia and was involved in politics, serving in the Pennsylvania Assembly from 1753–1756. Both William and Katharine were active members of Philadelphia’s Quaker community and played prominent roles in the Monthly Meetings.<ref>George Vaux, "Extracts from the Diary of Hannah Callender," ''Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography'' 12, no. 4 (January 1889): 432, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/STWXKSK3 view on Zotero]; and Hannah Callender Sansom, ''The Diary of Hannah Callender Sansom: Sense and Sensibility in the Age of the American Revolution'', ed. by Susan E. Klepp and Karin Wulf (Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press, 2010), 16–19, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/33F7ZBKJ view on Zotero].</ref>
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For over thirty years, between January 1758 and November 1788, Hannah Callender kept a diary in which she recorded, among many topics, her impressions of the country seats she visited, primarily in the vicinities of Philadelphia and New York. Callender was born into a wealthy Quaker family from Philadelphia. Her father, William Callender, Jr. (1703&ndash;1763), had emigrated from Barbados to America, arriving to the Delaware Valley in 1727, and married Katharine Smith (1711&ndash;1789) of Burlington, New Jersey, in 1731. They moved to Philadelphia in 1733, and Hannah, the couple’s only child to survive infancy, was born in 1737. William Callender was a prosperous merchant, who earned his wealth in the West Indian sugar trade and through Philadelphia real estate investments. He also helped found the Library Company of Philadelphia and was involved in politics, serving in the Pennsylvania Assembly from 1753&ndash;1756. Both William and Katharine were active members of Philadelphia’s Quaker community and played prominent roles in the Monthly Meetings.<ref>George Vaux, "Extracts from the Diary of Hannah Callender," ''Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography'' 12, no. 4 (January 1889): 432, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/STWXKSK3 view on Zotero]; and Hannah Callender Sansom, ''The Diary of Hannah Callender Sansom: Sense and Sensibility in the Age of the American Revolution'', ed. by Susan E. Klepp and Karin Wulf (Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press, 2010), 16&ndash;19, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/33F7ZBKJ view on Zotero].</ref>
  
 
The Callender family maintained a home on Front Street in Philadelphia as well as a [[plantation]], Richmond Seat, which William established in Point-No-Point, about four miles north of Philadelphia on the banks of the Delaware River.Richmond Seat was a working [[plantation]] that produced “good English hay” for sale and, by 1752, boasted thirty-five acres of meadow with “good English grass,” an eight-acre orchard for the cultivation of various fruits, a two-acre garden, and “a small well-built brick house, with a boarded kitchen.”
 
The Callender family maintained a home on Front Street in Philadelphia as well as a [[plantation]], Richmond Seat, which William established in Point-No-Point, about four miles north of Philadelphia on the banks of the Delaware River.Richmond Seat was a working [[plantation]] that produced “good English hay” for sale and, by 1752, boasted thirty-five acres of meadow with “good English grass,” an eight-acre orchard for the cultivation of various fruits, a two-acre garden, and “a small well-built brick house, with a boarded kitchen.”
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Hannah Callender’s diary also contains descriptions of various country houses situated along the banks of the [[Schuylkill River]]. In June 1762 she visited the estate of the late Tench Francis, Sr. (d. 1758), and remarked upon the “fine [[prospect]]” available behind the house, from which she could see several neighboring estates, including [[Belmont (Philadelphia)|Belmont]], Dr. William Smith’s Octagon, and Baynton’s House, as well as “a genteel garden, with serpentine [[walk]]s and a low [[hedge]].” From the garden, Callender observed, one could “descend by slopes to a [[lawn]]” with a [[summer house]] and then descend again “to the edge of a hill terminated by a [[fence]] for security”. After a visit to [[Belmont (Philadelphia)|Belmont]], the country [[seat]] of [[William Peters]], Callender described in great detail various features of the estate’s landscape design. [[Belmont (Philadelphia)|Belmont]] long remained one of Callender’s favorite sites. Twenty-three years after she first described the estate, she once again recorded her impression of [[Belmont (Philadelphia)|Belmont]], which was now under the purview of [[Richard Peters]], lauding it as “the highest and finist [sic] situation I know, its gardens and [[walk]]s are in the King William taste, but are very pleasant”.
 
Hannah Callender’s diary also contains descriptions of various country houses situated along the banks of the [[Schuylkill River]]. In June 1762 she visited the estate of the late Tench Francis, Sr. (d. 1758), and remarked upon the “fine [[prospect]]” available behind the house, from which she could see several neighboring estates, including [[Belmont (Philadelphia)|Belmont]], Dr. William Smith’s Octagon, and Baynton’s House, as well as “a genteel garden, with serpentine [[walk]]s and a low [[hedge]].” From the garden, Callender observed, one could “descend by slopes to a [[lawn]]” with a [[summer house]] and then descend again “to the edge of a hill terminated by a [[fence]] for security”. After a visit to [[Belmont (Philadelphia)|Belmont]], the country [[seat]] of [[William Peters]], Callender described in great detail various features of the estate’s landscape design. [[Belmont (Philadelphia)|Belmont]] long remained one of Callender’s favorite sites. Twenty-three years after she first described the estate, she once again recorded her impression of [[Belmont (Philadelphia)|Belmont]], which was now under the purview of [[Richard Peters]], lauding it as “the highest and finist [sic] situation I know, its gardens and [[walk]]s are in the King William taste, but are very pleasant”.
  
Hannah Callender married Samuel Sansom, Jr. (1738/39–1824), a merchant, real estate investor, and fellow Quaker from Philadelphia, in 1762. The couple had five children: William (b. 1763), Sarah (b. 1764), Joseph (b. 1767), Catherine (b. 1769), and Samuel (b. 1773). In July 1782 Samuel and Hannah moved their primary residence from Philadelphia to Parlaville, a suburban retreat located about two and a half miles north of the city on the east bank of the [[Schuylkill River]]. As the scholars Susan E. Klepp and Karin Wulf have observed, Parlaville, in contrast to Richmond Seat, “was small, private, and quite deliberately divorced from commercial concerns.” Joseph Francis was hired to plan the garden at Parlaville, and Hannah Callender evidently relished tending it, proclaiming gardening “the primitive occupation of man, ''designed'' by the almighty for a happy life!” Callender obtained a “variety of Trees, flowers, and plants” for Parlaville during the spring of 1785, including white pine that her husband and son Samuel procured from “nine miles up [the] [[Schuylkill River|Schuikill]]” and “two Tuby Rose roots” that an acquaintance had brought from Barbados. In July 1786 Hannah Callender and Samuel Sansom moved back to Philadelphia, although they continued to maintain a secondary residence at Parlaville.
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Hannah Callender married Samuel Sansom, Jr. (1738/39&ndash;1824), a merchant, real estate investor, and fellow Quaker from Philadelphia, in 1762. The couple had five children: William (b. 1763), Sarah (b. 1764), Joseph (b. 1767), Catherine (b. 1769), and Samuel (b. 1773). In July 1782 Samuel and Hannah moved their primary residence from Philadelphia to Parlaville, a suburban retreat located about two and a half miles north of the city on the east bank of the [[Schuylkill River]]. As the scholars Susan E. Klepp and Karin Wulf have observed, Parlaville, in contrast to Richmond Seat, “was small, private, and quite deliberately divorced from commercial concerns.” Joseph Francis was hired to plan the garden at Parlaville, and Hannah Callender evidently relished tending it, proclaiming gardening “the primitive occupation of man, ''designed'' by the almighty for a happy life!” Callender obtained a “variety of Trees, flowers, and plants” for Parlaville during the spring of 1785, including white pine that her husband and son Samuel procured from “nine miles up [the] [[Schuylkill River|Schuikill]]” and “two Tuby Rose roots” that an acquaintance had brought from Barbados. In July 1786 Hannah Callender and Samuel Sansom moved back to Philadelphia, although they continued to maintain a secondary residence at Parlaville.
  
 
Hannah Callender’s diary remained in the possession of her family after her death in 1801. In 1889, George Vaux, a descendent of Callender’s, published a selection of entries written by Callender between 1758 and 1762. The diary, which is now housed in the collection of the American Philosophical Society, was transcribed and published in full in 2010.
 
Hannah Callender’s diary remained in the possession of her family after her death in 1801. In 1889, George Vaux, a descendent of Callender’s, published a selection of entries written by Callender between 1758 and 1762. The diary, which is now housed in the collection of the American Philosophical Society, was transcribed and published in full in 2010.
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==Texts==
 
==Texts==
* Callender, Hannah, June 11, 1759, diary entry describing Bayard's country seat, near New York, N.Y. (quoted in Vaux 1889: 444-45) <ref name="Vaux_1889">George Vaux, “Extracts from the Diary of Hannah Callender,” ''Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography'' 12, no. 4 (January 1889): 432–56, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/STWXKSK3 view on Zotero].</ref>
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* Callender, Hannah, June 11, 1759, diary entry describing Bayard's country seat, near New York, N.Y. (quoted in Vaux 1889: 444&ndash;45) <ref name="Vaux_1889">George Vaux, “Extracts from the Diary of Hannah Callender,” ''Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography'' 12, no. 4 (January 1889): 432&ndash;56, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/STWXKSK3 view on Zotero].</ref>
 
: "[In company with several others] took a walk to Bayard's country [[seat]]. He was so complaisant as to ask us in his garden. The front of the house faces the great road, about a quarter of a mile distant. A fine [[walk]] of locust trees now in full bloom perfumes the air. A beautiful [[wood]] on one side and a garden for both use and ornament on the other, from which you see the City at a great distance. Good out-houses [at] the back part. They have no gardens in or about New York which come up to ours of Philadelphia."
 
: "[In company with several others] took a walk to Bayard's country [[seat]]. He was so complaisant as to ask us in his garden. The front of the house faces the great road, about a quarter of a mile distant. A fine [[walk]] of locust trees now in full bloom perfumes the air. A beautiful [[wood]] on one side and a garden for both use and ornament on the other, from which you see the City at a great distance. Good out-houses [at] the back part. They have no gardens in or about New York which come up to ours of Philadelphia."
  
  
* Callender, Hannah, June 23, 1759, diary entry describing the vicinity of New York, N.Y. (quoted in Vaux 1889: 447) <ref name="Vaux_1889">George Vaux, “Extracts from the Diary of Hannah Callender,” ''Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography'' 12, no. 4 (January 1889): 432–56, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/STWXKSK3 view on Zotero].</ref>
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* Callender, Hannah, June 23, 1759, diary entry describing the vicinity of New York, N.Y. (quoted in Vaux 1889: 447) <ref name="Vaux_1889">George Vaux, “Extracts from the Diary of Hannah Callender,” ''Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography'' 12, no. 4 (January 1889): 432&ndash;56, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/STWXKSK3 view on Zotero].</ref>
 
: "A good many pretty country [[seat]]s, in particular Murrey's, a fine brick house and the whole [[plantation]] in good order. We rode under the finest row of Buttonwoods I ever saw."
 
: "A good many pretty country [[seat]]s, in particular Murrey's, a fine brick house and the whole [[plantation]] in good order. We rode under the finest row of Buttonwoods I ever saw."
  
  
* Callender, Hannah, August 1, 1759, diary entry describing Richmond Seat, summer retreat of William Callender, Jr., on the Delaware River in Point-No-Point near Philadelphia, Pa. (quoted in Vaux 1889: 447-48) <ref name="Vaux_1889">George Vaux, “Extracts from the Diary of Hannah Callender,” ''Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography'' 12, no. 4 (January 1889): 432–56, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/STWXKSK3 view on Zotero].</ref>
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* Callender, Hannah, August 1, 1759, diary entry describing Richmond Seat, summer retreat of William Callender, Jr., on the Delaware River in Point-No-Point near Philadelphia, Pa. (quoted in Vaux 1889: 447&ndash;48) <ref name="Vaux_1889">George Vaux, “Extracts from the Diary of Hannah Callender,” ''Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography'' 12, no. 4 (January 1889): 432&ndash;56, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/STWXKSK3 view on Zotero].</ref>
 
: "Father and I went to the [[plantation|Plantation]]. The places looks beautiful. The plot belonging to father contains 60 acres, 30 of upland and 30 of [[meadow]], which runs along the side of the river Delaware. Half the uplands is a fine [[wood|woods]], the other [[orchard]] and garden. A little house is in the midst of the garden [which is] interspersed with fruit and trees. The main garden lies along by the [[meadow]]. By three descents of grass steps, you are led to the bottom in a [[walk]] lengthways of the garden. On one side a fine cut [[hedge]] encloses from the [[meadow]], the other a high green bank shaded with spruce, the [[meadow|meadows]] and river lying open to the eye, looking to the house covered with trees: honeysuckle on the [[fence|fences]], low [[hedge|hedges]] to part the flower and kitchen gardens, and a fine barn just at the side of the [[wood]]. A small space of [[wood|woods]] around it is clearing from brush underneath. The whole a little romantic rural scene."
 
: "Father and I went to the [[plantation|Plantation]]. The places looks beautiful. The plot belonging to father contains 60 acres, 30 of upland and 30 of [[meadow]], which runs along the side of the river Delaware. Half the uplands is a fine [[wood|woods]], the other [[orchard]] and garden. A little house is in the midst of the garden [which is] interspersed with fruit and trees. The main garden lies along by the [[meadow]]. By three descents of grass steps, you are led to the bottom in a [[walk]] lengthways of the garden. On one side a fine cut [[hedge]] encloses from the [[meadow]], the other a high green bank shaded with spruce, the [[meadow|meadows]] and river lying open to the eye, looking to the house covered with trees: honeysuckle on the [[fence|fences]], low [[hedge|hedges]] to part the flower and kitchen gardens, and a fine barn just at the side of the [[wood]]. A small space of [[wood|woods]] around it is clearing from brush underneath. The whole a little romantic rural scene."
  
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* Callender, Hannah, June 28, 1762, diary entry describing the estate of the late Tench Francis, Sr., near Philadelphia, Pa. (quoted in Vaux 1889: 453) <ref name="Vaux_1889">George Vaux, “Extracts from the Diary of Hannah Callender,” ''Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography'' 12, no. 4 (January 1889): 432–56, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/STWXKSK3 view on Zotero].</ref>
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* Callender, Hannah, June 28, 1762, diary entry describing the estate of the late Tench Francis, Sr., near Philadelphia, Pa. (quoted in Vaux 1889: 453) <ref name="Vaux_1889">George Vaux, “Extracts from the Diary of Hannah Callender,” ''Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography'' 12, no. 4 (January 1889): 432&ndash;56, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/STWXKSK3 view on Zotero].</ref>
 
: "Ascending a high hill into the road by the Robin Hood, went to the widow Francis's place. She was there and behaved kindly. The house stands fine and high, the back is adorned by a fine [[prospect]]. Peter's House [now [[Belmont (Philadelphia)|Belmont]]], Smith's Octagon, Baynton's House &c. and a genteel garden, with serpentine [[walk|walks]] and a low [[hedge]]. At the foot you descend by slopes to a [[lawn]], in the middle [of which] stands a [[summer house]] covered with honeysuckle &c. Then you descend by slopes to the edge of the hill terminated by a [[fence]] for security, [the bank] being high and almost perpendicular [with] rocks and shrubs that diversify the scene."
 
: "Ascending a high hill into the road by the Robin Hood, went to the widow Francis's place. She was there and behaved kindly. The house stands fine and high, the back is adorned by a fine [[prospect]]. Peter's House [now [[Belmont (Philadelphia)|Belmont]]], Smith's Octagon, Baynton's House &c. and a genteel garden, with serpentine [[walk|walks]] and a low [[hedge]]. At the foot you descend by slopes to a [[lawn]], in the middle [of which] stands a [[summer house]] covered with honeysuckle &c. Then you descend by slopes to the edge of the hill terminated by a [[fence]] for security, [the bank] being high and almost perpendicular [with] rocks and shrubs that diversify the scene."
  
  
* Callender, Hannah, June 30, 1762, diary entry describing [[Belmont (Philadelphia)|Belmont]], estate of [[William Peters]], near Philadelphia, Pa. (quoted in Vaux 1889: 454-55) <ref name="Vaux_1889">George Vaux, “Extracts from the Diary of Hannah Callender,” ''Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography'' 12, no. 4 (January 1889): 432–56, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/STWXKSK3 view on Zotero].</ref>
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* Callender, Hannah, June 30, 1762, diary entry describing [[Belmont (Philadelphia)|Belmont]], estate of [[William Peters]], near Philadelphia, Pa. (quoted in Vaux 1889: 454&ndash;55) <ref name="Vaux_1889">George Vaux, “Extracts from the Diary of Hannah Callender,” ''Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography'' 12, no. 4 (January 1889): 432&ndash;56, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/STWXKSK3 view on Zotero].</ref>
 
: "...went to [[William Peters]]'s house having some acquaintance with his wife. She was at home and with her daughter Polly received us kindly in one wing of the house. After a while passed through a covered passage to the large hall well furnished, the top adorned with instruments of music, coat of arms, crests and other ornaments in stucco, its sides by paintings and [[statue]]s in bronze. From the front of this hall you have a [[prospect]] bounded by the Jerseys like a blue ridge. A broad [[walk]] of English Cherry trees leads down to the river. The doors of the house opening opposite admit a [[prospect]] of the length of the garden over a broad gravel [[walk]] to a large handsome [[Summerhouse|summer house]] on a [[green]]. From the windows a [[vista]] is terminated by an [[obelisk]]. On the right you enter a [[labyrinth]] of [[hedge]] of low cedar and spruce. In the middle stands a [[statue]] of Apollo. In the garden are [[statue]]s of Diana, Fame and Mercury with [[urn]]s. We left the garden for a [[wood]] cut into [[vista]]s. In the midst is a [[Chinese Taste|Chinese]] [[temple]] for a [[Summerhouse|summer house]]. One [[avenue]] gives a fine [[prospect]] of the City. With a spy glass you discern the houses and hospital distinctly. Another [[avenue]] looks to the [[obelisk]]."
 
: "...went to [[William Peters]]'s house having some acquaintance with his wife. She was at home and with her daughter Polly received us kindly in one wing of the house. After a while passed through a covered passage to the large hall well furnished, the top adorned with instruments of music, coat of arms, crests and other ornaments in stucco, its sides by paintings and [[statue]]s in bronze. From the front of this hall you have a [[prospect]] bounded by the Jerseys like a blue ridge. A broad [[walk]] of English Cherry trees leads down to the river. The doors of the house opening opposite admit a [[prospect]] of the length of the garden over a broad gravel [[walk]] to a large handsome [[Summerhouse|summer house]] on a [[green]]. From the windows a [[vista]] is terminated by an [[obelisk]]. On the right you enter a [[labyrinth]] of [[hedge]] of low cedar and spruce. In the middle stands a [[statue]] of Apollo. In the garden are [[statue]]s of Diana, Fame and Mercury with [[urn]]s. We left the garden for a [[wood]] cut into [[vista]]s. In the midst is a [[Chinese Taste|Chinese]] [[temple]] for a [[Summerhouse|summer house]]. One [[avenue]] gives a fine [[prospect]] of the City. With a spy glass you discern the houses and hospital distinctly. Another [[avenue]] looks to the [[obelisk]]."
  
  
  
* Callender, Hannah, July 27, 1768, diary entry describing Edgely, estate of Joshua Howell, near Philadelphia, Pa. (quoted in Callender 2010: 232-33) <ref name="Callender 2010"> Hannah Callender Sansom, ''The Diary of Hannah Callender Sansom: Sense and Sensibility in the Age of the American Revolution'', ed. by Susan E. Klepp and Karin Wulf (Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press, 2010), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/33F7ZBKJ view on Zotero].</ref>
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* Callender, Hannah, July 27, 1768, diary entry describing Edgely, estate of Joshua Howell, near Philadelphia, Pa. (quoted in Callender 2010: 232&ndash;33) <ref name="Callender 2010"> Hannah Callender Sansom, ''The Diary of Hannah Callender Sansom: Sense and Sensibility in the Age of the American Revolution'', ed. by Susan E. Klepp and Karin Wulf (Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press, 2010), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/33F7ZBKJ view on Zotero].</ref>
 
: "...went to Edgeley. Joshua Howel has a fine Iregular Garden there, walked down to [[Schuylkill River|Shoolkill]], after dinner...walked to the [[Summer house|Summer House,]] in view of [[Schuylkill River|Skylkill]] when Benny [Shoemaker] Played on the flute."
 
: "...went to Edgeley. Joshua Howel has a fine Iregular Garden there, walked down to [[Schuylkill River|Shoolkill]], after dinner...walked to the [[Summer house|Summer House,]] in view of [[Schuylkill River|Skylkill]] when Benny [Shoemaker] Played on the flute."
  
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* Callender, Hannah, June 20, 1785, diary entry describing [[Belmont (Philadelphia)|Belmont]], estate of [[Richard Peters]], near Philadelphia, Pa. (quoted in Callender 2010: 296-97) <ref name="Callender 2010"> Hannah Callender Sansom, ''The Diary of Hannah Callender Sansom: Sense and Sensibility in the Age of the American Revolution'', ed. by Susan E. Klepp and Karin Wulf (Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press, 2010), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/33F7ZBKJ view on Zotero].</ref>
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* Callender, Hannah, June 20, 1785, diary entry describing [[Belmont (Philadelphia)|Belmont]], estate of [[Richard Peters]], near Philadelphia, Pa. (quoted in Callender 2010: 296&ndash;97) <ref name="Callender 2010"> Hannah Callender Sansom, ''The Diary of Hannah Callender Sansom: Sense and Sensibility in the Age of the American Revolution'', ed. by Susan E. Klepp and Karin Wulf (Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press, 2010), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/33F7ZBKJ view on Zotero].</ref>
 
: "...crossed Brittains bridge, to John Penns elegant Villa, passed a Couple of delightfull hours, mounted our chaise and rode a long the [[Schuylkill River|Schuilkill]] to [[Belmont (Philadelphia)|Peters place]] the highest and finist situation I know, its gardens and walks are in the King William taste, but are very pleasant, We had a very polite reception from [[Richard Peters|Rich: Peters]], his Wife, and mother, took our chaise and by his direction, thro a pleasent rode to Riters ferry, crossed and continued our route along [[Schuylkill River|Schuilkill]], to the falls tavern..."
 
: "...crossed Brittains bridge, to John Penns elegant Villa, passed a Couple of delightfull hours, mounted our chaise and rode a long the [[Schuylkill River|Schuilkill]] to [[Belmont (Philadelphia)|Peters place]] the highest and finist situation I know, its gardens and walks are in the King William taste, but are very pleasant, We had a very polite reception from [[Richard Peters|Rich: Peters]], his Wife, and mother, took our chaise and by his direction, thro a pleasent rode to Riters ferry, crossed and continued our route along [[Schuylkill River|Schuilkill]], to the falls tavern..."
  

Revision as of 14:24, September 13, 2016

Hannah Callender Sansom (November 16, 1737–March 9, 1801) was a Quaker woman from Philadelphia, who, between 1758 and 1788, kept a diary that records her impressions of numerous country seats in Pennsylvania and New York as well as descriptions of her family’s estates, Richmond Seat and Parlaville.


History

For over thirty years, between January 1758 and November 1788, Hannah Callender kept a diary in which she recorded, among many topics, her impressions of the country seats she visited, primarily in the vicinities of Philadelphia and New York. Callender was born into a wealthy Quaker family from Philadelphia. Her father, William Callender, Jr. (1703–1763), had emigrated from Barbados to America, arriving to the Delaware Valley in 1727, and married Katharine Smith (1711–1789) of Burlington, New Jersey, in 1731. They moved to Philadelphia in 1733, and Hannah, the couple’s only child to survive infancy, was born in 1737. William Callender was a prosperous merchant, who earned his wealth in the West Indian sugar trade and through Philadelphia real estate investments. He also helped found the Library Company of Philadelphia and was involved in politics, serving in the Pennsylvania Assembly from 1753–1756. Both William and Katharine were active members of Philadelphia’s Quaker community and played prominent roles in the Monthly Meetings.[1]

The Callender family maintained a home on Front Street in Philadelphia as well as a plantation, Richmond Seat, which William established in Point-No-Point, about four miles north of Philadelphia on the banks of the Delaware River.Richmond Seat was a working plantation that produced “good English hay” for sale and, by 1752, boasted thirty-five acres of meadow with “good English grass,” an eight-acre orchard for the cultivation of various fruits, a two-acre garden, and “a small well-built brick house, with a boarded kitchen.”

From May to June 1759, twenty-one-year-old Hannah Callender traveled to New York City and Long Island. In her diary, she notes a visit to Bowne House, the home of Samuel Bowne in Flushing, where she participated in a game of “trays-ace” in the orchard. A couple of weeks later, Callender wrote that she “took a walk to Bayard’s country seat” near New York and described the “fine walk of locust trees” that leads to the house, with “a beautiful wood on one side and a garden for both use and ornament on the other.” Despite such praise, Callender championed Philadelphia’s gardens above New York’s, claiming that New York had “no gardens…which come up to ours of Philadelphia”. After returning to Philadelphia, Callender recorded the agricultural and ornamental uses of the land at Richmond Seat, observing that half of the sixty-acre property was covered in “a fine woods,” an orchard, flower and kitchen gardens, and the house and barn, while the remaining thirty acres was given over to meadow.

Hannah Callender’s diary also contains descriptions of various country houses situated along the banks of the Schuylkill River. In June 1762 she visited the estate of the late Tench Francis, Sr. (d. 1758), and remarked upon the “fine prospect” available behind the house, from which she could see several neighboring estates, including Belmont, Dr. William Smith’s Octagon, and Baynton’s House, as well as “a genteel garden, with serpentine walks and a low hedge.” From the garden, Callender observed, one could “descend by slopes to a lawn” with a summer house and then descend again “to the edge of a hill terminated by a fence for security”. After a visit to Belmont, the country seat of William Peters, Callender described in great detail various features of the estate’s landscape design. Belmont long remained one of Callender’s favorite sites. Twenty-three years after she first described the estate, she once again recorded her impression of Belmont, which was now under the purview of Richard Peters, lauding it as “the highest and finist [sic] situation I know, its gardens and walks are in the King William taste, but are very pleasant”.

Hannah Callender married Samuel Sansom, Jr. (1738/39–1824), a merchant, real estate investor, and fellow Quaker from Philadelphia, in 1762. The couple had five children: William (b. 1763), Sarah (b. 1764), Joseph (b. 1767), Catherine (b. 1769), and Samuel (b. 1773). In July 1782 Samuel and Hannah moved their primary residence from Philadelphia to Parlaville, a suburban retreat located about two and a half miles north of the city on the east bank of the Schuylkill River. As the scholars Susan E. Klepp and Karin Wulf have observed, Parlaville, in contrast to Richmond Seat, “was small, private, and quite deliberately divorced from commercial concerns.” Joseph Francis was hired to plan the garden at Parlaville, and Hannah Callender evidently relished tending it, proclaiming gardening “the primitive occupation of man, designed by the almighty for a happy life!” Callender obtained a “variety of Trees, flowers, and plants” for Parlaville during the spring of 1785, including white pine that her husband and son Samuel procured from “nine miles up [the] Schuikill” and “two Tuby Rose roots” that an acquaintance had brought from Barbados. In July 1786 Hannah Callender and Samuel Sansom moved back to Philadelphia, although they continued to maintain a secondary residence at Parlaville.

Hannah Callender’s diary remained in the possession of her family after her death in 1801. In 1889, George Vaux, a descendent of Callender’s, published a selection of entries written by Callender between 1758 and 1762. The diary, which is now housed in the collection of the American Philosophical Society, was transcribed and published in full in 2010.

--Lacey Baradel

Texts

  • Callender, Hannah, June 11, 1759, diary entry describing Bayard's country seat, near New York, N.Y. (quoted in Vaux 1889: 444–45) [2]
"[In company with several others] took a walk to Bayard's country seat. He was so complaisant as to ask us in his garden. The front of the house faces the great road, about a quarter of a mile distant. A fine walk of locust trees now in full bloom perfumes the air. A beautiful wood on one side and a garden for both use and ornament on the other, from which you see the City at a great distance. Good out-houses [at] the back part. They have no gardens in or about New York which come up to ours of Philadelphia."


  • Callender, Hannah, June 23, 1759, diary entry describing the vicinity of New York, N.Y. (quoted in Vaux 1889: 447) [2]
"A good many pretty country seats, in particular Murrey's, a fine brick house and the whole plantation in good order. We rode under the finest row of Buttonwoods I ever saw."


  • Callender, Hannah, August 1, 1759, diary entry describing Richmond Seat, summer retreat of William Callender, Jr., on the Delaware River in Point-No-Point near Philadelphia, Pa. (quoted in Vaux 1889: 447–48) [2]
"Father and I went to the Plantation. The places looks beautiful. The plot belonging to father contains 60 acres, 30 of upland and 30 of meadow, which runs along the side of the river Delaware. Half the uplands is a fine woods, the other orchard and garden. A little house is in the midst of the garden [which is] interspersed with fruit and trees. The main garden lies along by the meadow. By three descents of grass steps, you are led to the bottom in a walk lengthways of the garden. On one side a fine cut hedge encloses from the meadow, the other a high green bank shaded with spruce, the meadows and river lying open to the eye, looking to the house covered with trees: honeysuckle on the fences, low hedges to part the flower and kitchen gardens, and a fine barn just at the side of the wood. A small space of woods around it is clearing from brush underneath. The whole a little romantic rural scene."


  • Callender, Hannah, August 30, 1761, diary entry describing the Moravian settlement at Bethlehem, Pa. (quoted in Callender 2010: 156) [3]
"Sister Garrison with good humour gave us girls leave, to step cross a field to a little Island belonging to the Single Bretheren, on it a neat Summer house, with seats of turf, and button wood Trees round it."


  • Callender, Hannah, June 28, 1762, diary entry describing the estate of the late Tench Francis, Sr., near Philadelphia, Pa. (quoted in Vaux 1889: 453) [2]
"Ascending a high hill into the road by the Robin Hood, went to the widow Francis's place. She was there and behaved kindly. The house stands fine and high, the back is adorned by a fine prospect. Peter's House [now Belmont], Smith's Octagon, Baynton's House &c. and a genteel garden, with serpentine walks and a low hedge. At the foot you descend by slopes to a lawn, in the middle [of which] stands a summer house covered with honeysuckle &c. Then you descend by slopes to the edge of the hill terminated by a fence for security, [the bank] being high and almost perpendicular [with] rocks and shrubs that diversify the scene."


  • Callender, Hannah, June 30, 1762, diary entry describing Belmont, estate of William Peters, near Philadelphia, Pa. (quoted in Vaux 1889: 454–55) [2]
"...went to William Peters's house having some acquaintance with his wife. She was at home and with her daughter Polly received us kindly in one wing of the house. After a while passed through a covered passage to the large hall well furnished, the top adorned with instruments of music, coat of arms, crests and other ornaments in stucco, its sides by paintings and statues in bronze. From the front of this hall you have a prospect bounded by the Jerseys like a blue ridge. A broad walk of English Cherry trees leads down to the river. The doors of the house opening opposite admit a prospect of the length of the garden over a broad gravel walk to a large handsome summer house on a green. From the windows a vista is terminated by an obelisk. On the right you enter a labyrinth of hedge of low cedar and spruce. In the middle stands a statue of Apollo. In the garden are statues of Diana, Fame and Mercury with urns. We left the garden for a wood cut into vistas. In the midst is a Chinese temple for a summer house. One avenue gives a fine prospect of the City. With a spy glass you discern the houses and hospital distinctly. Another avenue looks to the obelisk."


  • Callender, Hannah, July 27, 1768, diary entry describing Edgely, estate of Joshua Howell, near Philadelphia, Pa. (quoted in Callender 2010: 232–33) [3]
"...went to Edgeley. Joshua Howel has a fine Iregular Garden there, walked down to Shoolkill, after dinner...walked to the Summer House, in view of Skylkill when Benny [Shoemaker] Played on the flute."


  • Callender, Hannah, May 14, 1785, diary entry describing Bush Hill, estate of James Hamilton, near Philadelphia, Pa. (quoted in Callender 2010: 293) [3]
"...to Hambleton's Bush hill [estate,] walked over that good house, viewed the fine stucco work, and delightful prospects round..."


  • Callender, Hannah, June 20, 1785, diary entry describing Belmont, estate of Richard Peters, near Philadelphia, Pa. (quoted in Callender 2010: 296–97) [3]
"...crossed Brittains bridge, to John Penns elegant Villa, passed a Couple of delightfull hours, mounted our chaise and rode a long the Schuilkill to Peters place the highest and finist situation I know, its gardens and walks are in the King William taste, but are very pleasant, We had a very polite reception from Rich: Peters, his Wife, and mother, took our chaise and by his direction, thro a pleasent rode to Riters ferry, crossed and continued our route along Schuilkill, to the falls tavern..."

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Notes

  1. George Vaux, "Extracts from the Diary of Hannah Callender," Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography 12, no. 4 (January 1889): 432, view on Zotero; and Hannah Callender Sansom, The Diary of Hannah Callender Sansom: Sense and Sensibility in the Age of the American Revolution, ed. by Susan E. Klepp and Karin Wulf (Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press, 2010), 16–19, view on Zotero.
  2. 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 George Vaux, “Extracts from the Diary of Hannah Callender,” Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography 12, no. 4 (January 1889): 432–56, view on Zotero.
  3. 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 Hannah Callender Sansom, The Diary of Hannah Callender Sansom: Sense and Sensibility in the Age of the American Revolution, ed. by Susan E. Klepp and Karin Wulf (Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press, 2010), view on Zotero.

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