Footnotes

21 John W. Jackson, With the British Army in Philadelphia 1777-1778 (San Rafael, 1979), 147-8; Sept. 28, 1777, in "Diary of John Miller," Sept. 1777-June 1779, Reed Papers, Vol. IV, NYHS, as cited in INDE note cards; Franks to Ann Paca, as quoted in Jackson, With the British Army, 213.
22 As quoted in Thompson Westcott, The Historic Mansions and Buildings of Philadelphia (Philadelphia, 1877), 254.
40 Samuel Holten Diary, (July 7-8, 1778), and Henry Laurens to President of South Carolina, July 15 (1778), Edmund C. Burnett, ed., Letters of Members of the Continental Congress, Volume III, January 1 to December 31, 1778 (Washington, D.C., 1926), 322, 333.
41 Pennsylvania Packet 14 July 1778, as cited in Roach, "Newspaper Excerpts," V. 34, Roach Coll., HSP.
42 Carl Van Doren, Secret History of the American Revolution (New York, 1941), 170; Henry Laurens to President of South Carolina, July 15 (1778), Burnett, ed., Letters to Members, 332-333.
43 Engle, Women in the Revolution, 42. James Thomas Flexner, The Traitor and the Spy (New York, 1953), 227, maintains that Reed hated Arnold, because "their convictions and temperments were opposite." He also pointed out that Arnold's socializing included flirting "with a whole garland of Tory belles." 233, and gave testimony on the "very gay" life Arnold enjoyed, 236.
47 Arnold purchased Mount Pleasant in March of 1779 and gave it as a wedding present to Peggy Shippen. There is some question whether they lived at Mount Pleasant. The evidence is clear, however, that Holker was tenant during the fire. Eberlein and Hubbard, Portrait of a Colonial City, 352.
48 The Arnolds had moved out to Mount Pleasant, the striking villa overlooking the Schuylkill River that Arnold had purchased as a wedding present for his bride.
[Note: Mount Pleasant was never occupied by the Arnolds. In 1779 they moved to a house owned by Peggy Shippen Arnold's father.]
PP Nov. 14, 1780, in Roach, "Newspaper Excerpts," v. 34; For more on Holker, see section below on Morris as Financier. Parsons, ed., Hiltzheimer, 43; PG Jan 5, 1780; Van Doren, Secret History, 177; "Notes and Queries," PMHB 39 (1915), 115 quotes a sales announcement for the elegant house and lot of Samuel Shoemaker, occupied by John Holker, Esq..
80 Pennsylvania Journal(PJ) of Aug. 8, 1781 notes lots for sale adjoining the walled lot "late of R. Penn, now of Robert Morris, Esq." Tax records for 1781 list Robert Morris on Market Street, at a value of [Ł]3500. Middle Ward Tax Assessment, 1781, INDE microfilm roll 569. Effective Supply Tax for City of Philadelphia, 1781, in PA Archives, 3rd ser., XV, 708; Morris evidently still lived on Front St. as of Nov. 1, 1781, when PP noted that Richard Humphreys was located near Morris' on Front, near the Drawbridge.
81 Howard Swiggert, The Extraordinary Mr. Morris (New York, 1952), 92, dates Washington's visit as Aug. 30, 1781. Gouverneur herein also described watching the troops "in a dust like a smothering snowstorm" with all the ladies "watching from the open windows of every house."
82 Diary: April 5, 9, June 11 and 12, 1782, Catanzariti, ed. Papers of Robert Morris, 5, 518, 551 (agreed to pay Barge $350 per year for a house at Fifth and Market and another adjoining, on Fifth Street), and 385. This writer is conjecturing that Barge's two houses were on the northwest corner. In 1778 Jacob Deuran, a surgeon, advertised he had moved to Fifth, between Market and Arch, near Jacob Barge. PG Aug. 18, 1778. Mrs. House's boarding house was on the southwest corner, and William Sheaff, on the southeast. It also may have been the northeast corner. More research in deeds or tax records may locate it more exactly. Diary: January 3, 1784, Nuxoll and Gallagher, eds. Papers of Robert Morris, 9, 4.
83 Robert Morris married Polly White, daughter of Colonel Thomas White, in March 1769. PG Mar. 9, 1769.
84 Account of Prince de Broglie in 1782, "Notes and Queries," PMHB 1 (1877), 224; Young, Forgotten Patriot, 168-9, also cites de Broglie, with a slightly different translation.
85 The Morris children by birth: Robert (1769), Thomas (1771), William (1772), Hetty (1774), Charles (1777), Maria (1779), and Henry (1784). Genealogy provided by David Kimball, for the U.S. Constitution's Bicentennial in 1987.
86 Morris to Ridley and Franklin, Oct. 14, 1781, Catanzariti, ed., Papers of Robert Morris, 3, 53-59.
87 Young, Forgotten Patriot, 175 alludes to young Henry playing in the yard, wheeling dirt in a wheelbarrow to make a garden for his brother, William, an incident recorded in a letter written later in the 1780s to Morris by wife, Molly. See "Diary of James Allen, Esq., of Philadelphia, Counsellor-at-Law, 1770-1778," PMHB 9 (1885), 43, which gives a Loyalist's point of view on patriots in Philadelphia, particularly the tragic case of Dr. Kearsley, who died shortly after being carted through the streets of Philadelphia. His offense, Allen noted, "was writing a passionate letter to England abusing the Americans long before the commencement of Independency,: Weigley, ed., Philadelphia, 152, comments on the city's rise in crime and vice. Parsons, ed., Hiltzheimer, 44, records a brawl between Timothy Matlack and Whitehead Humphreys on Market between Fifth and Sixth Streets on New Year's day, 1781.
88 Kimball, Jefferson War and Peace, 355-6.
108 No date is given in the deed for the acquisition of the 3-foot strip. See Appendix G for a typescript of the August 5 [sic 25], 1785 deed recorded at PCA as Deed Book 15, pp. 117-120. My thanks go to Edward Lawler, researcher on 190 High Street, for a copy and typescript of this deed provided in Appendix G.
109 See "Burnt House" plan, 1780 [sic 1785], Illustration 5.
110 Contributionship Survey Bk 1, 49; Mutual Policy #891-896, Mar. 18, 1795, Andrew Kennedy.
111 The only reference to Morris' buildings in contemporary literature came from Hiltzheimer's diary for February 12, 1782, that noted Robert Erwin hauled ice that day from the Schuylkill River to the "ice-house of Robert Morris in the rear of his house on Market." Parsons, ed. Extracts from the Diary of Jacob Hiltzheimer, 48.
[Note: If "contemporary literature" is limited to the Revolutionary years, this claim is true. But there are numerous references the backbuildings beginning in 1790 when Washington was ordering changes to the house to accommodate his presidential household. There is no evidence that this building was ever an icehouse, and it is all but certain that it was the smokehouse Washington ordered converted into housing for his stableworkers.
Although, six months before this report was published, I informed National Park Service officials of the strong likelihood that enslaved Africans were housed in the smokehouse, it appears no where here. In fact, even the word "smokehouse" does not appear in this report.]
112 See "Burnt House" plan and plan [description?] of Morris property in the deed of 1785.
113 Washington to Morris, June 2, 1784; Morris to Washington, June 15, 1784, Abbot, ed., The Papers of George Washington, Confederation Series, I, 420-21 and 450-52; Rebecca Yamin and Tod L. Benedict, "Phase II Archeological Investigation Liberty Bell Complex, Block 1, Independence Mall, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania," John Milner Associates, 2001, has an excellent graphic illustrating the ice house, based on Morris' letter; Parsons, ed., Hiltzheimer, 48; Policy No. 895, Mutual Assurance, June 1798, for Andrew Kennedy, lists the property's back buildings, including the ice house, but does not give the customary dimensions for it. See Appendix I for a copy of the policy. My thanks to Ed Lawler, and Dr. Jed Levin, NPS, for their generous sharing of sources and thoughts on the ice house. see also the NPS website for Independence NHP for Levin's excellent descriptive text on Morris, his property and ice house.
114 Research by Edward Lawler, 1999. Lawler has compiled a file on the illustrators and found the May 1, 1832 drawing of the house showing four bays, by William L. [sic G.] Mason. Lawler provided this writer with his composite sketch of Morris' house after the fire of 1780. The five-bay version is published in Oberholtzer, History of Philadelphia, I, opp. 342. Zachariah Poulson, Jr. [sic Charles A. Poulson] published and promoted this inaccurate view.
144 In 1785 Morris was a legislator in the Pennsylvania Assembly. Francis White, The Philadelphia Directory (Philadelphia, 1785); Pennsylvania Packet, Sept 1, 1781, Roach, "Newspaper Extracts," v. 34, for wild fanfare at Washington's arrival and his stay at Robert Morris' house.
145 Federal Journal, May 5, 1784, Roach, "Newspaper Extracts," v. 34. Washington stayed in the city from May 4-18, the duration of the meeting. His account for attending listed "Mr. (Robert) Morris's Servants & other Exps. There [Ł]5.15" W. W. Abbot, Editor, The Papers of George Washington, Confederation Series, I, January–July 1784 (Charlottesville, 1992), 402 and 327-401. Washington kept no diary during most of 1784. Biddle later was elected vice president for Pennsylvania.
146 Pennsylvania Gazette, Mar. 20, 1784, Roach, "Newspaper Extracts," v. 34.
151 Donald Jackson and Dorothy Twohig, editors, The Diaries of George Washington, Volume 5, July 1786-December 1789 (Charlottesville, 1979), 155; Ketcham, James Madison, A Biography (Charlottesville, 192), 192; Catherine Drinker Bowen, Miracle at Philadelphia: The Story of the Constitutional Convention, May to September 1787 (Boston, 1966), 16.
161 Ketcham, Madison, 191.
166 As quoted in Bowen, Miracle at Philadelphia, 193.
167 The INDE Museum Coll. #39095 includes a charming letter dated Nov. 11, 1787, from Robert Morris' son, William, to Washington thanking him for the gift of a fusee (gun) sent from Mount Vernon after his return home. "I shall allways remember with pleasure the time when I received a presint from that Patriotick Chief," he enthused. Taken from a typescript copy.
168 Jackson and Twohig, eds. Washington Diaries, 5, 185-6.
174 November 27, in Jacob Cox Parsons, ed. Extracts from the Diary of Jacob Hiltzheimer of Philadelphia, 1765-1798 (Philadelphia, 1893), 165; Tobias Lear to John Shee, Oct. 1, 1791, transmitting a year's rent of Ł500 beginning Oct. 1, 1790. Cat. #6803, INDE Mus. Coll.
179 Washington's formal levees with local politicians aroused sharp criticism in some circles where they were labeled "certainly anti-republican." Senator Maclay as quoted in Leonard D. White, The Federalists: A Study of Administrative History, (New York, 1961), 108.
180 "Historic Structures Report Part II on Old City Hall," Independence National historical Park, February 1961; for information on Washington's modifications and use of the house, see Harold Donaldson Eberlein, "190 High Street, (Market Street below Sixth) The Home of Washington and Adams, 1790-1800," Historic Philadelphia, 166-174.
181 Francis Paul Prucha, S.J. "History of the United States Presidential Medal Series," Medals of the United States Mint (Washington, D.C., 1972), 286; Cornelius Vermeule, Numismatic Art in America (Cambridge, 1971), 17; Martha Grandy Fales, Joseph Richardson and Family, Philadelphia Silversmiths (Middletown, 1974), 159-162; Harold E. Gillingham, "Indian Silver Ornaments," Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography 58 (1934), 97-126; Edwin Wolf 2nd, Philadelphia, Portrait of an American City (Harrisburg, 1975), 105; Gerald H. Clarfield, Timothy Pickering and American Diplomacy, 1795-1800 (Columbia, MO, 1988), 131; Oberholtzer, Philadelphia, 3, 365; Brant quote in Wm. Irvine to Anthony Wayne, 5 July 1792, Irvine Papers, I, Draper Collection, State Historical Society of Wisconsin, as cited by INDE note card file. In 1797 the Connecticut Courant (Mar. 6) called Brant "the famous Mohawk Chief"; "Captain Brant in Philadelphia, 1792," Account No. 3232, Miscellaneous Treasury Records of the General Accounting Office 1790-1814, as cited by INDE note card file; Robert Morris to Charles Williamson, Mar. 14, 1792, Chas. Williamson Coll., Rochester Public Library, as cited in INDE note card file; Stephen Decatur, Jr., Private Affairs of George Washington, From the Records and Accounts of Tobias Lear, Esquire, his Secretary (Boston, 1833 [sic 1933]), 326; Henry Lewis Carter, The Life and Times of Little Turtle First Sagamore of the Wabash (Urbana and Chicago, 1987), 158, notes that Washington gave Little Turtle a ceremonial sword which was buried with him. Miller, Peale, 2, 160; 1796 dinners described in letter from John Adams to wife Abigail, as quoted in White, The Federalists, 108, ft, nt. 32.
182 Eleanor Parke Custis (born 1779) and George Washington Parke Custis (born 1781) were raised and adopted by the Washingtons and both lived the seven presidential years with their grandparents in Philadelphia. William M.S. Rasmussen and Robert S. Tilton, George Washington and his American Journal 1794 (Philadelphia, 1970), 99.
183 Jeremy, ed. Wansey, 99. Wansey here noted that he was quoting the words of the just-deceased Count Mirabeau, his former general.
184 Jeremy, ed., Wansey, 100; Parsons, ed., Hiltzheimer, 171, 193.
185 Eberlein, "190 High," 167; "190 High Street typescript, Works Progress Administration, 1937 and 1938, at APS. This report cites only 18 servants, 7 of them black, and is based on Stephen Decatur, Jr. Private Affairs of George Washington, (1933), 151-52;
[Note: This is a list of the servants from the New York household who moved with Washington to Philadelphia, not a list of the complete staff. Additional servants were hired in Philadelphia, two additional enslaved Africans were brought from Mount Vernon, and one of the enslaved Africans who had worked in New York, Will Lee, was returned to Mount Vernon.]
Washington at least twice took action to discipline wayward servants. He put his "disorderly Servant," Wilhelmina Tyser, in jail for 5 or 6 days and specified she be kept "at hard labor" in July 1794 and Martin Cline went the next month to jail at the president's orders for being "frequently Drunk, neglecting his duty, and otherwise misbehaving." R.S Rowe and Billy G. Smith, "Prisoners: the Prisoners for Trial Docket and the Vagrancy Docket," in Billy G. Smith, ed., Life in Early Philadelphia Documents from the Revolutionary and Early National Periods (University Park, 1995), 84.
186 Douglas Southall Freeman, George Washington A Biography, 7 Volumes, 6, Patriot and President (New York, 1954), 226; Oberholtzer, History of Philadelphia, I, 340; as quoted in Rasmussen and Tilton, George Washington, 227-228.
187 For a biographical essay on Genet, see John Catanzariti, Editor, The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, Volume 26, 11 May to 31 August 1793. (Princeton: 1955), 46-7.
188 Washington to Henry Lee, July 21, 1793, as quoted in William Spohn Baker, Washington After the Revolution MDCCLXXXIV-MDCCXCIX (Philadelphia, 1908), 261.
189 Adams to Jefferson, June 30, 1813, Lester J. Cappon, The Adams-Jefferson Letters The Complete Correspondence Between Thomas Jefferson and Abigail and John Adams, Two Volumes, II, (Chapel Hill, 1959), 346-7. This year, 1793, has been written about at length in many histories, due to the complexity of the yellow fever, the French Revolution and European war, the dangers on the frontier, and the internal enmity within Washington's cabinet. A recent history focused on the period: Stanley Elkins and Eric McKitrick, The Age of Federalism (New York, 1993), covers the impact of this turbulent year in a chapter, "The French Revolution in America," 303-373.
190 As quoted in Jacob E. Cooke, Tench Coxe and the Early Republic, (Chapel Hill, 1978), 252; John Harvey Powell, Bring Out Your Dead The Great Plague of Yellow Fever in Philadelphia in 1793 (Philadelphia, 1949, 1993) is perhaps the best general account of the yellow fever epidemic in Philadelphia. J. Worth Estes and Billy G. Smith, Editors, A Melancholy Scene of Devastation The Public Response to the 1793 Philadelphia Yellow Fever Epidemic (Philadelphia, 1997), 7 discusses the disease and its morbidity and the fact that still there is no cure. Ibid., 13, describes the sharply divided medical community.
191 Feb. 7, 1793, "Washington's household Account Book, 1793-1797," PMHB 31 (1907), 334.
192 Sept. 19, and Oct. 1,2, 179, Jacob Hiltzheimer Diary, MSS, APS. The Oct. 1 date notes the opening of a new burial ground "on the public square between Race and Vine" on the far end of town; Mathew Carey, Account of the Malignant Fever Lately Prevalent in Philadelphia: ... Third Edition, Improved (Philadelphia, November 30, 1793), end tables give a break down of deaths and burials by location.
193 The Washingtons stayed at the Deshler-Morris house, (now so named), today a unit of Independence National Historical Park. The following year they again took the house. Anna Coxe Toogood, "Historic Structure/Furnishings/Grounds Report, Deshler-Morris, Bringhurst House, Historical Data Section, Independence National Historical Park." (Denver Service Center, 1990), 32-45.
194 Nathan G. Goodman, Benjamin Rush Physician and Citizen 1746-1813, (Philadelphia, 1934), 202-209, 222-5; Coxe to John Adams, Nov. 11, 3, 6, 1793, as quoted in Cooke, Tench Coxe, 252; Parsons, ed., Hiltzheimer, 196; Scharf and Westcott, History of Philadelphia, I, 495, ft, nt. 1; Martin S. Pernick, "Politics, Parties, and Pestilence: Epidemic Yellow Fever in Philadelphia and the Rise of the First Party System," William & Mary Quarterly 29 (1972), 566 ff, deals with the theories on what caused the epidemic and measures taken to prevent future outbreaks.
195 The political scene is oversimplified for this report, but is covered in depth in many published sources on this decade, among them, Eugene R. Sheridan, "Thomas Jefferson and the Giles Resolutions, " W&MQ 49 (1992), 589-608; quote describing Freneau from Philip S. Foner, Editor, The Democratic-Republican Societies, 1790-1800 (Westport CT, 1976), 3; Nathan Schachner, Alexander Hamilton (New York, 1946), 299.
196 For strong urgings from Thomas Jefferson, May 28, 1792, Alexander Hamilton, July 30, 1792, and from Randolph on Aug. 5, 1792, see Baker, Washington After The Revolution, 241-242.
197 As quoted in William C. Di Giacomantonio, "All the President's Men, George Washington's Federal City Commissioners," Washington History 3 (1991), 52-75.
198 Benjamin Rush in a letter to John Adams, June 4, 1812, tells an anecdote given him by Jefferson who claimed he "once saw him (Washington) throw the Aurora hastily upon the floor with a ‘dam' of the author..." Butterfield, Letters of Rush 2, 1139. Irving Brant described a cabinet battle, when Edmund Randolph, Jefferson's replacement as Secretary of State, was accused of accepting a treasonable bribe from France. "Randolph's misfortune" was to "have against him two of the most malevolent men who ever decorated a presidential Cabinet — Timothy Pickering and Oliver Wolcott." Brant, "Edmund Randolph, Not Guilty!: W&MQ 7 (1950), 180. Benjamin Franklin's grandson, Benjamin Franklin Bache, published the Aurora. Bache on one occasion wrote of Washington's "Vituperous drivel." Aurora Mar. 5, 1797.
199 For an abbreviated version of his daily schedule as president, see Baker, Washington After the Revolution.
200 As quoted in Ellen G. Miles, George and Martha Washington Portraits from the Presidential Years (Washington, 1999), 44.
201 Washington wrote 116 letters to his manager at Mount Vernon between October 1793 and January 1797. Baker, Washington After the Revolution, 274. Shortly after retirement Washington lamented, "an eight years absence from home ... had so deranged my private affairs; had so despoiled my buildings; and in a word, had thrown my domestic concerns into such disorder, as at no period of my life have I been more engaged than in the last six months, to recover and put them in some tolerable train again." Washington to Reverend William Gordon, Oct. 15, 1797, Fitzpatrick, The Writings of Washington, 36, 49.
202 John E. Ferling, The First of Men A Life of George Washington (Knoxville, 1988), 355; Miriam Anne Bourne, First Family George Washington and His Intimate Relations (New York, 1982), 139-173.
203 As quoted in Ferling, George Washington, 466.
204 Martha to Lucy Flucker Knox, n.d., Joseph E. Fields, compiler, "Worthy Partner" The Papers of Martha Washington (Westport CT, 1999), 303.
205 Page Smith, John Adams, Two Volumes, 2, 1784-1826 (Garden City, NY, 1962), 915-6, 919, 928, 929, 937. Adams always showed irritation at the adoration for Washington. Niemcewicz recorded that he publicly refused to attend the ball honoring Washington's birthday in February 1798, even sending the managers an "ill-tempered note." Niemcewicz concluded that such a display showed him to be "a little man, envious and quick tempered." Under Their Vine, 44. Adams even felt irked by the outpouring of grief expressed at Washington's death in December 1799, Smith, Adams 2, 1021.
206 As quoted in Smith, Adams, 2, 923, 925 and 927; Eberlein, "190 High," Historic Philadelphia, 176 gives details of Tobias Lear's frustrating effort to ready the house for Adams.
207 As quoted in Smith, Adams, 2, 807.
208 As quoted in Paul C. Nagel, Descent from Glory Four Generations of the John Adams Family (New York, 1983), cover; Smith, Adams, 2, 808.
209 As quoted in Nagel, Adams, 59, 79, 31, 45-52, 57-61, 79-80, 128. Adams to Jefferson, Mar. 24, 1801. Cappon, ed., The Adams-Jefferson Letters, 264; Page [Smith], Adams 2, 808-10; Lynne Withey, Dearest Friend A Life of Abigail Adams (New York, 1981), 262.
210 Smith, Adams 2, 928, and quote, 944.
211 Smith, Adams 2, 944; Smith, Adams 1, 593-4, explains that the Brieslers joined the family right after the war, Esther as the nurse for Nabby's son, and John as an assistant for the family. They married in London while John Adams served as ambassador. 2, 761, 769, 809, 813, 821, 838, 923; Eberlein, "190 High," 177.
212 As quoted in Smith, Adams 2, 939 and 938; for Abigail's daily routine, Eberlein, "190 High," 177.
213 As quoted in Smith, Adams 2, 913; 912, 921, 923-4.
214 As quoted in Smith, Adams 2, 930; 928.
215 Smith, Adams 2, 935-6, 931-2, 939, 940, 947.
216 As quoted in Smith, Adams 2, 952; 947.
217 As quoted in Smith, Adams 2, 965; Niemcewicz, Under Their Vine, 67, dates this as May 6 (1798); Parsons, ed., Hiltzheimer, 252 dates the fight as May 9; Withey, Abigail Adams, 255.
218 Smith, Adams 2, 974, 986, 1004, 1006-7, 1011, 1015; Withey, Abigail Adams, 255.
219 Smith, Adams 2, 986, 1005, 1014, 1038. In 1798 Congress didn't adjourn until August, when the first family finally got out of town, just before yellow fever forced the government to move to Trenton. Abigail did not return with the president in November because of her health. Withey, Abigail Adams, 258, 262;
220 Smith, Adams 2, 1011, 1021, 1027, 1030, 1032, 1044-5.
221 Adams to James Lloyd, March 31, 1815, Charles Quincy Adams, The Works of John Adams, Second President of the United States: ... 10 Volumes, X, (Boston, 1856), 154.
222 Nathaniel Burt, Address on the Washington Mansion (Philadelphia 1875), 32, as cited in INDE note card file; Mutual Assurance Policy #891, Andrew Kennedy, June 19, 1798; PG Oct. 5, 1796, also lists Kennedy on the city's Common Council; Harold Donaldson Eberlein, "When Society First Took a Bath," PMBH 67 (1943), 30-48.
223 Smith, Adams 2, 1049; Scharf and Westcott, Philadelphia, I, 503; Roach, "Historical Report," 31-2; Jackson, Market Street, 70; Philadelphia City Directories, 1800-1807.