McCall, Lawrence, Swift, Tilghman, Allen, Hopkinson, Willing, Morris, and Nixon. He was also an original member of "The Friendly Sons of St. Patrick" composed of persons having Irish blood, and was present at the famous dinner given to Washington on New Year's day, 1782. To the Pennsylvania Hospital he was an early and repeated contributor, and served as one of the managers from 1768 to 1772.

After the reorganization of the land office in 1792, Mr. Nixon purchased largely of lands in the outlying counties of the State which, like most of such adventures, proved unsuccessful. At the time of his death, he was the senior member of the firm of Nixon, Walker, & Co., shipping merchants, composed of himself, his only son Henry Nixon, and Mr. David Walker. His residence was on Pine Street below Third Street, adjoining that of the Rev. Robert Blackwell, Rector of St. Peter's Church, while Fairfield on the Ridge Road, immediately north of Peel Hall the site of the present Girard College, was his country seat. Mr. Nixon was married, October, 1765, in New York, to Elizabeth, eldest child of George and Jane [Currie] Davis, and had five children, four daughters and one son; Mary, wife of Francis West; Elizabeth, wife of Erick Bollman; Sarah, wife of William Cramond; Jane, wife of Thomas Mayne Willing; and Henry, who married Maria, youngest daughter of the Honorable Robert Morris. Mrs. Nixon died August 31, 1795, at the age of fifty-eight, and was buried in St. Peter's Church-yard, at the corner of Third and Pine Streets, Philadelphia, where she reposes in the same grave with her husband.

In appearance, Mr. Nixon was a fine, portly man, with a noticeably handsome, open countenance, as may be seen from his portrait by Gilbert Stuart, painted late in life, in possession of his grandson, Mr. Henry Cramond. His manners were dignified and rather reserved, while he was noted for kindness of heart, high sense of honor, sterling integrity, and firmness

A miniature painted by Peale in 1772 is in possession of his granddaughter Miss West.

of decision. In the early days of the revolutionary struggle, Mr. Nixon shared the conservative views of his fellow townsmen and copatriots Robert Morris, Thomas Willing, and. John Dickinson, but after the edict of separation had been announced, none were more eager or earnest in the cause. He was a strenuous opponent of the old constitution of the State, and a firm adherent of the party formed to effect its change. The closing item of his will shows the sentiment of the man better than any other words can portray them. "Having now, my children, disposed of my estate in a manner that I hope will be agreeable to you all, I request and earnestly recommend to you to live together in terms of the purest love and most perfect friendship, being fully pursuaded that your happiness and that of your respective families will, in a great measure, depend on this. These are my last words to you, and I trust that you will have them in particular and long remembrance."

CHIEF JUSTICE WILLIAM ALLEN.

BY EDWARD F. DE LANCEY.

(Centennial Collection.)

No Pennsylvanian of his day stood higher in public esteem than William Allen, and no name is more intimately connected with the "Old State House," or Independence Hall, both in its origin, and in its history, and with Philadelphia itself, than his.

Born in 1703, the son of William Allen, a successful Philadelphia merchant, wealthy, well educated, and of commanding intellect, he accepted judicial office at the earnest request of the most eminent men of the colony.

His father died in 1725, while his son was in Europe, leaving him a large fortune, which he so well managed that when he resigned the chief justiceship in 1774, he was probably

the richest man in Philadelphia. The salary of his office he refused to appropriate to his own use, and always gave it away in charities.

He it was, who, on the 15th day of October, 1730, made the first purchase of the ground on which Independence Hall now stands for a "State House" for Pennsylvania. He paid for it with his own money, and took the deeds in his own name, at the request of Andrew Hamilton, chairman of the committee to procure a site, and subsequently the architect of the edifice erected thereon. When all the difficulties of the enterprise were removed a few years afterwards, he conveyed the property to the appointed authorities, and was re-imbursed by the Province.

In 1735, William Allen was made the mayor of the city, and in the next year, 1736, when the "State House" was nearly completed, he inaugurated its "banqueting hall" by giving therein a great feast to the citizens and all strangers in the city, a feast described in a contemporary account, as "the most grand, the most elegant entertainment that has been made in these parts of America.”

Bred a merchant, and the son of a merchant, he was largely engaged in commercial and manufacturing enterprises in Pennsylvania, especially in iron furnaces, in several of which he had a large interest. And, like all the men of wealth in that day, he acquired and held large tracts of land. His estate lay chiefly in what is now the anthracite coal region of Pennsylvania, and from him the thriving city of Allentown derives its name. He also possessed extensive lands in New Jersey. Governor Thomas, writing to the Bishop of Exeter, on the 23d of April, 1748, relative to some funds the Bishop had raised to aid the German Palatines, says, "if I might be permitted to advise, the money raised for this purpose should be lodged in a safe hand in London subject to the draft of Mr.

His father's will, dated 30 May, 1725, proved September 30, 1775, is recorded in the Register's office of Philadelphia. The Penn proprietary estate was of course larger, but at the date mentioned, the chief justice could probably command more ready money than the Penn family, one of whom, the last governor, was one of his sons-in-law.

William Allen, a considerable merchant, and a very worthy honest Gentleman in Philadelphia, that he might see it regularly apply'd to the uses intended."

For many years Mr. Allen sat as a member of the Pennsylvania Assembly. In 1737, he was appointed justice of a special court organized for the trial of some cases of atrocious arson. In 1741 he was made recorder of Philadelphia, then an office of great responsibility.

During his entire career, he ever upheld by personal exertions, and with the most liberal pecuniary aid, whatever the interests, or the needs, of Pennsylvania, or America, required. Notably was this the case in the old French War of 17551762, a time when aid rendered was aid indeed.

In 1751, William Allen was appointed chief justice of Pennsylvania, and held the office till 1774, the long period of twenty-three years. The Supreme Court of the Province was held in the west room of Independence Hall, directly opposite that in which Independence was voted, and the Continental Congress sat.

In that chamber presided Chief Justice Allen, with a dignity, learning, impartiality, and intellectual force, equalled by few, and exceeded by none, of those great jurists who have ever adorned the ermine of Pennsylvania, and made immortal the renown of her supreme judiciary. There, too, is now preserved with care, the very bench upon which he sat, when before him pleaded the gifted fathers of that illustrious bar, which, a little later, gave a national fame to "Philadelphia lawyers," which is still, after the lapse of a century, most brilliantly maintained.

No law reports were published at that day, and none of his decisions are now accessible, except the few that Dallas collected after the revolution from lawyers' notes and prefixed to the first volume of his reports, the first ever issued in Pennsylvania.

Appreciating the pleasures of literature, and the need of learning to the well-being of a state, he joined heartily in 1 Historical Collections, American Colonial Church, vol. ii. Pennsylvania, p. 257.

educational measures with Franklin, and gave him effectual aid, in founding that "College at Philadelphia," which is now so well known, as "The University of Pennsylvania.”

He was prominent among those gentlemen of Philadelphia who were the first Americans to originate an expedition to the Arctic regions to discover the Northwest Passage—a field in which a New York merchant,' a century later, acquired great credit. To Pennsylvania, and to William Allen and his friends, is due the high honor of first projecting and endeavoring, by American enterprise, to effect the solution, in the middle of the eighteenth century, of that great geographical problem, which still defies the science of the world.

The following extract from a letter of Chief Justice Allen to Governor Penn, on this subject, shows at once the breadth of mind of the man, and his great appreciation, in a public point of view, of what he well terms "the noble design."

PHILA., Nov. 18, 1752.

SIR: As I am quite assured that every thing that regards the interest and reputation of the province of Pennsylvania will ever be regarded by you, I therefore beg leave to solicit your favor in behalf of myself and many others of the merchants of this place. Notwithstanding the repeated attempts of gentlemen in England to discover the Northwest Passage without success, yet there has appeared among us a spirit to undertake that noble design, which, if effected, will redound to the honor of your province, and the advantage of us, the undertakers.

By the inclosed paper, over which if you will be pleased to cast an eye, you will perceive that last year we had intended to put our design into execution, but by the extremity of the winter and other accidents, it was postponed till next spring, at which time, as we have bought a vessel and all other materials, and engaged navigators and mariners, we shall proceed in the affair, and dispatch the vessel from here the latter end of March; and are in great hopes by avoiding the mistakes of former attempts, and pursuing, as we think, more proper measures, to be able to effect the discovery of the passage, or, at least, put it out of doubt whether there is one or no.2

A lover of the arts he was an early friend and patron of

1 Henry Grinnell.

MS. letter in Library of Penna. Hist. Society.