Hannah Callender Sansom

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.

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.

"[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)

"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)

"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)

"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)

"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)

"...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)

"...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)

"...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)

"...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..."

Images

• 

  William Russell Birch, "View from Belmont Pennsyl.^a the Seat of Judge Peters," in The Country Seats of the United States (1808), pl. 16.

Other Resources

Library of Congress Authority File