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On George Maris and Descendants

THE FARM-HOUSE AND GROVE

Its location is about three miles north of Morton village and one mile east of the old Springfield meeting-house, where George Maris of old worshipped nearly two hundred years ago. This house was his particular place of worship, and in this connection it is worthy of mention that on this day, 8th mo. 25, 1703, he was made the custodian of its title deeds, he being a worthy one in the minds of his people to take charge of its valuable papers.

SPRINGFIELD MEETING HOUSE, BUILT IN 1738

The house which the ancestor built, and in which he lived and died, has long passed away, and on its site is a quiet, quaint and staunch stone structure of two and a half stories, erected by his grandson George, in 1722. The pioneer with his wife and family left England in 1683, and settled in Pennsylvania. Soon after his arrival he took up his abode in Chester county, (now Springfield township, Delaware county), and named his residence the "Home House," and a spring on his farm is supposed by many to have given the name to the township - Springfield.

The original tract was 400 acres, but it has, during the lapse of the long term of intervening years, been divided and sub-divided until only 70 acres remain in the name - two tracts, owned respectively by George and Joseph P. Maris, of the sixth generation. The site proper, where the old house stood, is owned by George. Near by, the old spring feeds a handsome public fountain or trough by the public's roadside, which is built of beautiful stone and in a very symmetrical and durable manner. In its construction a large pillar-block, taken from Swarthmore College, after its recent fiery ordeals, forms a conspicuous as well as an attractive part.

The grove, about four acres in extent, is composed of fine old lords of the forest, and is situated a little distance to the rear of the farm. From it the near surroundings gracefully slope toward Darby Creek on the eastern side, and the entire absence of undergrowth makes it a beautiful spot indeed, just such a one as conforms to the desires and tastes of those who delight in spending a summer's day in the woods.

Here ample provision for the comfort, convenience and pleasure of this family assemblage was provided, consisting of a speaker's platform, 10x30 feet, and seats for the audience.

In front of the stand or platform an arch was tastefully erected and most beautifully decorated. Upon the arch evergreens and pretty flowers were woven into shapely designs, forming a beautiful edging to the motto "Esse quam videri." Immediately below, a board was gracefully swung, bearing the honored name:

1683 GEORGE MARIS 1883

the whole being decorated by a generous expenditure of ivy and choice wild flowers, in which the aster and golden rod were conspicuous, and the whole setting forth the evidence of taste, coupled with patience and a love for the beautiful.

THE MARIS FAMILY IN EUROPE:

The earliest mention of the name Maris is in the "Iliad" of Homer. It occurs in the account of the 6th battle before the walls of Troy, in which Maris and Atymnius, sons of the Trojan, Amisodarus, die fighting with the two sons of Nestor. The objection to any attempt on our part to make this Lycian the founder of the family who now bear the name, lies in the fact that his father, Amisodarus, led by the Furies became the sire of a crocodile and the body of a goat. To establish claim to common inheritance with such a baleful personage, is hardly to be desired, although it would give almost unrivalled antiquity.

I quote the lines in which this mention is made from Pope's translation of Homer:

"In equal arms of two sons of Nestor stand,
And two bold brothers of the Lycian band;
By great Antilochus Atymnius dies,
Pierced in the flank, lamented youth, he lies;
Kind Maris, bleeding in his brother's wound,
Defends the breathless carcass on the ground.
Furious he flies, his murderer to engage,
But godlike Thrasymed prevents his rage;
Between his arm and shoulder aims a blow-
His arm falls spouting on the dust below.
He sinks with endless darkness covered o'er,
And vents his soul effused with gushing gore.
Slain by two brothers, thus two brothers bleed,
Sarpendon's friends, Amisodarus' seed-
Amisodarus, who, by Furies led,
The bane of men, abhorred Chimera, bred,
Skilled in the dart in vain, his sons expire,
And pay the forfeit of their guilty sire."

The historical and biographical value of the statements of Homeric poetry may be questioned, but that Maris was a common name among the citizens of Lycia as early as the time of Solomon cannot be doubted.

In Roman history appears a man whose valor, perhaps rivaling that of the Trojan warrior, is exhibited in the fearlessness of standing a professed Christian before a pagan prince who ridicules his faith in God.

From Bingham's history I quote: "Julian the Apostate, in a dialogue with old blind Bishop Maris, said by way of scoff: 'Thy Gallilean God cannot cure thee.'" As the Emperor Julian became an apostate in 362 A.D., and died only three years later, the chronology of our Bishop is closely given.

In the Sixth century a Sir Ector de Maris figures prominently in Arthurian romance, as a rich and valiant knight and the foster father of King Arthur.

In the "Historie of King Arthur" there is a dialogue between Utherpendragon and his court magician which runs as follows:-"Soone came Merlin unto the King, and said 'Sir, you must provide you for the nourishing of your child.' 'As thou wilt,' said the King, 'be it.' 'Well,' said Merlin, 'I know a lord of yours in this land that is a passing true man and a faithful, and he shall have the nourishing of your child; his name is Sir Ector and hee is a lord of faire livelyhood in many parts of England and Wales.' So the child was delivered unto Merlin, and so hee bare it forth unto Sir Ector, and made an holy man to christen him and named him Arthur; and so Sir Ector's wife nourished him."

The valor of this ancient Maris is well told in history "How Sir Ector de Maris followed to seeke his brother Sir Launcelot." "When Sir Ector de Maris wist that Sir Lancelot was passed out of court to seeke adventures, hee was wroth with himself and made him ready to seeke Sir Lancelot."

His exploits on this occasion did not, however, add so much to his renown as the part he took in the slaying of the four green Knights, before whom all the Knights of Orkney had fallen, and who had slain nearly half a hundred of the proved Knights of King Arthur. The narrative of the killing of these Knights by Sir Ector, his brother Sir Lancelot, their cousin Sir Bleoberis, and King Arthur, closes thus: "Then Sir Ector de Maris smote Garet so hard that downe hee fell from his horse. And then King Arthur encountered with Sir Dinadan and hee smote him quite from his saddell, that hee fell downe to the earth and then the noise turned a while how that the greene Knights were slain."

The next account of members of the family is traditional. In France, persecuted for conscience sake, they appear as Huguenots worshipping in fear and by stealth in the seclusion of forests and in the gorges of the Pyrenees. At some time during the interval of the 26 years, between the massacre upon Saint Bartholomew's Day and the promulgation of the Ediet of Nantes in 1598, they escaped to England.

But they had not yet found a country in which they might worship the true God after the manner dictated by their consciences, and to this fact do we owe our birthright to a State whose history bears no shameful blot recording persecution on account of religious opinions.

It seems that the family have been from the earliest date amongst those who have been classed as religious fanatics. First in the then pagan Italy; next of outlaws as Protestants against Catholicism in France; then derided and imprisoned in England. What eminence is more enviable than that from such suffering?

The heads which tower sufficiently above the common level to be seen in looking back over the centuries, are a mitred Bishop, next a helmeted Knight, and last the Quaker's beaver.

Richard Maris was one of the jury before whom the political agitator John Horne Tooke was tried for his life, in London, in 1794. Tooke had previously been imprisoned for a year, because he started a subscription for the families of those who fell in the battle of Lexington, and charged the British government with murdering Americans. Subsequently he became a leader of the Constitutional Society, and was indicted for high treason. After having been twice convicted, he was given another trial, and the jury, in spite of the pressure of the Crown, acquitted him. The Constitutional party, in commemoration of their victory, had medals struck, upon one side of which were the names of the counsel and jury, on the obverse a bust of Horne Tooke. The cut is a fac simile.

It was this celebrated case that first brought Thomas, afterward Lord Erskine, prominently before the public and made the foundation for his great reputation as an advocate.

The Marises now found in England reside in London and the county of Sussex. An account of them, however, can have nothing of interest to us; for the name this family bore at the time of the coming of George Maris to this country was Marias, the second, "a" having been dropped only a generation since. In a residence of two years in England at different times, I found no person to whom we can prove kinship.

The two eminent painters of London who bear the name Van Maris were originally from Amsterdam, but I was unable to find any of the family in that city.

I have carefully searched the post-office directories of nearly all the capitals of Europe, and of many of the smaller cities, and the business directories as well. The only Maris found aside from the two families mentioned, is Guisseppe Maris, an accountant in Milan, Italy. Lack of knowledge of the language he speaks prevented my learning anything of his ancestry. The name is of Latin origin, but a search through the names of residents in all the principal cities of Italy finds but the one in Milan. Spain has a noble family of our name, and the name is also found in France.

Next in order, Prof. Geo. L. Maris, of West Chester, was introduced. To him had been allotted the preparation of the "History of George Maris, the Pioneer." This paper we give entire, as follows:

LIFE OF GEORGE MARIS, THE PIONEER

Two hundred years ago the whole country by which we are surrounded was a dense forest. Deer and game of all sorts wandered at will over these hills as untamed as the red men who made them their abode. How changed in these beautiful hills gently sloping toward the Delaware. The same streams still gladden the hearts of all dwelling near. The long lapse of years has not changed the peaceful, quiet aspect so in accord with the feelings of him whose landing on this soil we are here to celebrate. No noise of mills or railroad, nor the bustle of city life, disturbs the repose of two hundred years.

Glowing reports of the "Indian country on the western side of the great river Delaware" had been sent home to England by those who had before settled in the low lands of New Jersey, and an impetus had been given to emigration by the broad and generous terms offered by that great philanthropist, William Penn, and the oppressed of all nations began to look toward Pennsylvania as a sweet asylum where they might worship God according to the dictates of their own conscience.

"The plains," say these enthusiastic settlers, "along the winding flood are, in most places, covered with corn and natural meadows, and marshes; while all on the back of this a mighty forest rose, tall and stately, darkening the western sky with its blue shade, and stretching itself north and south with the river as far as the astonished eye can travel. And as to the country we can truly say of it that it is a land most rich, and desirable to dwell in - a land of fountains and brooks - a land of might oaks and elms, and all manner of precious trees for timber - a land whose soil, especially on the water courses, was a black mould, very deep and rich, insomuch that Indian corn, without the aid of a plough, grew there to an enormous size, with two and sometimes three large shocks [ears] on a stalk; and we have counted seven and eight hundred grains on a shock.

And then for the game in the ancient forests; it is wonderful to look at, far surpassing in abundance anything we had ever thought of. For, in walking through the woods, we were ever and anon starting up deer in droves, and also frequently within sight of large herds of buffalo, all perfectly wild and wallowing in fat, and seeming in their course to shake the earth with their weight. And, indeed, no wonder; for the grass, particularly in the lowlands, grew so rank and tall that the buffalo and deer on flying into it, which they were wont to do when frightened, would disappear in a moment."

One can readily imagine how gratefully such accounts fell upon the persecuted followers of Penn and Fox, as they lay suffering in the filthy dungeons of England; how such an asylum seemed to them like a sign from God himself that they should go where freedom of conscience was the law of the land.

Among those who determined to try the fortunes of that pioneer life were George Maris, and his wife Alice, with their six children, of Grafton Flyford, and county of Worcester. His life in England had been rendered oppressive, because he could not conform to the customs of the established church; for having a religious meeting at his house he was fined 20 pounds. Afterwards "he was taken by an assize process and sent to prison on the 23rd of the month called July, 1670, and continued there above eight months, but never knew for what cause he was so long imprisoned." As persecutions in England continued there seemed to be no way left but to emigrate, and as the Colony of Pennsylvania had been founded a year or two before, and William Penn, whom all Friends so much admired, had already sailed for the shores of the Delaware, our common ancestor, as was customary, laid his intentions before the Monthly Meeting to which he belonged, and in response thereto received a testimonial, of which the following is a copy, taken from the 3d page of the oldest records of the Darby (Pa.) Monthly Meeting:

"From our meeting at Hattswell, in the pish (parish) of Inkborough, and county of Worcester, in Old England, to which meeting our friends hereafter mentioned did belong, the 6th of the 3d month, 1683.

TO FRIENDS IN PENNSYLVANIA--Dear Friends--We, whose names are here subscribed, thought good to give you this short testimony concerning our friend George Maris, with his wife and children, of the pish of Grafton, of the county and nation aforesaid:

WHEREAS, Our dear friend before mentioned, hath laid before us his intention of transporting himself and family into your country, he being free to leave our country, we have nothing against his going, but do condescend to him therein. And this may certify to all Friends and others whom it may concern, that we have this further to say for our dear friend, George Maris, that we have had good knowledge of his life and conversation, and we have known it to be such that hath adorned the gospel of Christ; and hath been a good example in his place, and a man ye bent of whose heart hath been to serve ye Lord and all people in love, and hath not spared to spend and be spent in the service of Truth; and this we can say, we do not know of any person, Friend or others, that hath aught against him, his wife or children, upon any just account whatsoever; and surely friends, we could have been glad, if it had been so ordered, that they might have spent the remaining part of their days with us, who have lived together in true love and unity for many years. And, dear friends in the unknown parts of America, having given you this short account of those, our friends, though far short of what we have testified, we remain your dear friends, Brothers and Sisters, in the love that makes us willing to submit to the will of God in all things." (Signed by fourteen men and women Friends).

Previous to leaving England our ancestor had purchased from Robert Toomer, of Worcester, 1,000 acres of land in Pennsylvania, but unlocated. In a short time after his arrival he took up a tract of 400 acres and built upon it a house on the exact spot now occupied by the residence of Geo. Maris, by whose generosity we are permitted to gather upon the land where our pioneer ancestor took up his abode 200 years ago; the house now standing on this ground was erected in 1722 by George Maris, a grandson of the immigrant.

Scarcely had he time to begin the work of clearing the timber from his farm before he was commissioned Justice of the Peace, and empowered with six others, Christopher Taylor, Wm. Wood, Robert Wade, John Blunstone, James Saunderlaine and John Warding, to hold the Courts of Chester for the County of Chester.

The oldest official Court records of Chester county (now at West Chester, Pa.), dating back to 1681, show that he took his seat on the Bench on the "1st of 5th mo., 1684," and from that time until the year 1690 he attended every sitting of the Court, when he was allowed a rest for one year; but from the beginning of 1691 till the close of 1693 he was just as assiduous in his attention to his judicial duties. Though the sessions of the Court occupied much of his time, his public service did not end with his duty, but the demands of the State were laid upon him, and he was chosen a member of the Assembly in 1684, and annually elected thereafter till the year 1693, with the exception of the year 1689; and I might state in passing that throughout this long period there is no record of his absence from a single sitting of the Court or from one session of the Assembly -- a faithful attention to duty of which we may all feel proud.

While he was thus busily engaged with affairs of justice and State, and he and his family were occupied in making a home in the wilds of a new country, he was not unmindful of his duty to his Maker, who had so blest his faithfulness to conscience and right. He was acknowledged minister in the Society of Friends, in regular attendance at its meetings for business and worship.

In those early days the cases that came before the Court were not what we, in these times, would call heavy or important, yet when we consider that all transactions in real estate, that all brands and marks on cattle, all proceedings in the laying out of roads, as well as the ordinary civil and criminal cases, had to be passed upon by the Court, we can easily imagine that his duties in this direction were by no means light.

It would be useless to give in detail many of the cases passed upon by our honored ancestor, yet I have deemed it not improper to give one or two from the records of those times.

"9th of 12th mo., 1687. By virtue of an order from ye last County Court given unto us whose names are hereunto subscribed, being of the Grand Jury, for to lay out a road way that should serve for Newtown, Marple, Springfield and ye inhabitants that way to ye landing Place at Amosland, did upon ye day above written Begin att a Road way in ye lands of George Maris which road goeth from Chester through Marple to Newtown, and from that road through Bartholomew Coppock's land, near to his house, his house being on ye left hand. Soo on through Robert Taylor's land, straight on through more land of George Maris his land, leaving his Plantation on ye right hand, through George Simcock's land, leaving his plantation on ye left hand, soo on straight through land Joining to Amosland unto ye King's road from Darby, marking ye trees as we came, soo on to ye landing place by Maine'screek's side, beyond Morton Morton's son's house. Signed, William Garrett," and others.

1-16-1687. "This court being informed that Richard Crosby was Drunk on the 6th instant last, he was upon ye same called to ye Barr, and upon his submission was amerced tenne shillings to the Governor's use to be levied upon his goods and chattles, this being his second offence."

2-18-1693. "George Maris the elder acknowledged a deed in open court, unto his son George Maris the younger foe one hundred acres of land in Springfield, bearing date the seventeenth day of ye second mo., 1693."

The sessions of the Legislature during the eight years George Maris was a member were short, occupying on an average nine days each. They began at 7 o'clock in the morning and continued till noon, and, after a recess of two hours, extended late into the afternoon, every day of the week, except the Sabbath. The pay was six shillings a day.

I shall quote a very few of the bills acted upon while our ancestor was a member of Assembly. - "It was put to vote whether a Bill relating to corporal punishment by stripes might be passed into law; this was carried in the affirmative."

"The bill relating to the Grant of Liberty for selling Rum to the Indians, upon condition, etc.; this was answered in the negative."

"Proposed to a vote, as a Rule, in the House, That whatsoever member shall not attend the House, but shall wilfully absent himself therefrom without lawful and satisfactory Reason given, shall be expelled from the House; this was carried in the affirmative."

"Put to a vote whether any member that doth not appear in due Time, according to Adjournment, shall be fined one shilling." --Carried.

"By vote Simon Irons was fined 1 shilling, 6d, for absence, and 5 shillings for being disordered with Drink."

"Carried that Custom of the Country to servants shall be two suits of apparel, ten Bushels of Wheat or fifteen Bushels of Indian Corn, one Axe and two Hoes."

This applied to apprentices who had completed their term of service.

The session of Assembly in 1692, the last attended by the pioneer, George Maris, was the longest and much the most exciting up to this time. The opponents of William Penn, who were assiduous in their efforts to prejudice the new King and Queen, William and Mary, against Penn, succeeded in their purpose in the year 1692, whereby Benjamin Fletcher, Governor of New York, received a commission giving him authority over Pennsylvania, and superseding the authority of Penn.

I shall give an outline of this controversy, because George Maris took an active part in the proceedings. At the opening of the session of the Assembly in 1693, Queen Mary's letter to Gov. Fletcher was read as follows:

"Trusty and well beloved, we greet you well. Whereas, it has been represented unto us in Council in Behalf of our province of New York in America, that same having been at great expense for the Preservation and Defense of Albany, its Frontier against the French (by the Loss of which Province the Inhabitants of Maryland and Virginia would not be able to live only in Garrison) and having hitherto preserved that Post, the Burden whereof is intolerable to the inhabitants there, we think it reasonable and necessary that our several Colonies and Provinces of New England, Virginia, Maryland and Pennsylvania should be aiding and assisting from Time to Time the Governor or Commander-in-Chief of our said Province of New York in the Maintenance and Defense of it during the present War; and accordingly our Will and Pleasure is that upon the Application of the Said Governor or Commander-in-Chief, you do immediately send him such Aid or Assistance, in men or otherwise, for the security of our said Province from the Attempts of the French or Indians, as the conditions of the said plantations under your government shall permit, &c., and that you return a Speedy Account of your Proceeding herein to the End that such further Directions may be given as shall be necessary for Securing the Fort at Albany from the Attempts of our Enemies in those Parts. And so we bid you farewell.

"Given at our Court at Whitehall, the seventh day of October, 1692, in the fourth year of our Reign. By Her Majesty's command. "Nottingham."

In reply to Governor Fletcher's request that Supplies be voted to equip eighty (80) soldiers for the defence of Albany, etc., the Assembly replied: "We earnestly beseech that our Procedure in Legislature may be according to the usual method and Laws of this Government founded upon the late King's Letters Patent which we humbly conceive to be yet in Force, and therefore we desire the same may be confirmed unto us as our Rights and Liberties. -- And we (with all Faithfulness and Sincerity) do give what answer we are capable of, in the present circumstances we are under, to answer the Queen's Letter and thy Request according to our ability.

"3-mo. 17, 1693."

The same day the Governor replied: "The Constitution of their Majesties Government and that of Mr. Penn's are in a direct opposition, one to the other. If you will be tenacious in sticking to this, it is a plain Demonstration, use what words you please, that indeed you decline the other. *** Time is very precious to me. I hope you will desist from all unnecessary Debates, and fall in earnest upon those matters I have already mentioned and shall have to recommend to you, and for which you are principally convened." He also spoke of the Want of Necessary Defence against the Enemy, and the danger of being lost from the Crown.

The Assembly replied the same day: "We do not apprehend that the Province is in Danger of being lost from the Crown, although the Government was in the hands of some whose Principles are not for War. And we conceive that the present Governancy hath no direct Opposition (with respect to the King's Government here in General) to our Proprietary's, William Penn, though the exercise of the Authority at present supersedes that of our said Proprietary's."

When the Assembly met next day (3-mo. 18, 1693), the following record was made upon the minutes: "Ordered that Samuel Richardson, **** George Maris [and others] be a committee to consider that Part of the Governor's speech relating to a supply for the support of the Government and Fortifications of the Province, etc., as also what measures and course may be taken to raise money for the same; and what sum may be thought expedient, and make report thereof to-morrow morning."

At the appointed time this committee reported as follows: "The Committee appointed to consider that Part of the Governor's Speech relating to Supplies, &c., report to the House, they believe there is an absolute necessity of raising money to support the Government, and the most expedient way is, viz:

By tax on a Strong Beer and Ale retailed; by Deer Skins raw and dressed; by the Pole; by Land, per hundred acres, by rent of Houses; upon Wine and Cyder imported; but have not considered how much is needful to be raised, desiring that the house would ascertain the sum.

The report was adopted and a protest signed by ten members, our ancestor among them, placed on record.

The protest is as follows:

PHILADELPHIA, 4th mo. 1st, 1693.

"We, whose names are hereunto subscribed, Representatives of the Freeman of this Province in Assembly, do declare, it is the undoubted right of this House to receive back from the Governor and Council, all such bills as are sent up for their approbation or Amendment: and it is necessary to know the Amendments and debate the same as the Body of the Bills: and that the denial of that Right is destructive of the Freedom of making Laws. And we do also declare it is the Right of the Assembly that before any Bills for supplies be presented for the last Sanction of a Law, Aggrievances ought to be redressed: Therefore we with Protestation (Saving our just Rights in Assembly) do declare that the assent of such of us as were in Favor of sending up the Bill for Supply this morning, was merely in consideration of the Governor's Speedy Departure; but that it should not be drawn into example for the Future."

This was George Maris's last act in the Assembly. During his term of service therein he was frequently appointed on committees having in charge important subjects, among them one "to draw up a Bill for the erecting of a Post Office, and also a bill against Privateers and Pirates."

He was a member of the Council only one year - 1695 - during which time the controversy in regard to raising troops for the defense of New York was carried on with considerable spirit between Governor Wm. Markham and the Council, the details of which it is not within the purpose of this paper to name.

One circumstance, however, is thought worthy of mention in this connection as it illustrates the condition of the people at this time.

When the Governor asked the advice of the Council, whether to call another meeting of the Assembly before the 9th of September, which day seems to have been previously appointed, he received the following reply, our ancestor being at the time in the Council:

"It was the unanimous opinion of all the members present that it would be of no service to call ym (thyem) sooner. The Governors having asked them the reason of their opinion, one of the members answered:

Because by the Great Mortalities of the Cattle and stock of the inhabitants last year, the people have been and still are under great straits for corne and provisions, and the substance of the Province and the Territories consisting altogether in stock, provisions, and corne, if the inhabitants should call off from getting in their Harvest and Cropts to attend Assemblie, whose number with the Council, are 54 persons, it would tend to their utter ruine." "To which the rest of the members unanimouslie assented."

George Maris was a member of Chester Monthly Meeting of Friends, and was an active worker for the cause of Truth; he was also a member of the Yearly Meeting of Ministers, which met at Burlington and Philadelphia in the early days, but afterward only in Philadelphia. During the latter part of his life, and especially after he had retired from the active participation in judicial and legislative duties, he was almost always one of the Committee appointed to represent his Monthly Meeting at the Quarterly Meeting, and was as uniformly appointed a representative to the Yearly Meeting. As early as 1688 he was one to sign "a petition against selling Rum and other Strong Liquors to the Indians." The early records if the Monthly, Quarterly and Yearly Meetings of Friends are very brief, merely naming the subjects treated of and giving account of his active work in the Ministry; but is frequent appointment to visit and labor with the erring where the finest qualities of a loving heart are most effective bears testimony to his amiable disposition; for the records speak of his being appointed on such visits even after the labors of many others had proven intellectual; and on the other hand his appointment by the Yearly Meeting to visit George Keith, the leader of almost determined faction in the Society of Friends, and deliver to him the censure of the Meeting for certain of his acts, shows their estimate of is his good judgement and courage. George Maris lived in this company twenty-two years (being over fifty years of age when he left England), during the first twelve of which he was constantly occupied with affairs of Church and State; he was not a man of many words, nor did he push himself forward into public place; he was clearly a man of gentle manners and of unswerving integrity and courage, whose purpose was "to serve the Lord and all people in love."

To Hon. John M. Broomall, of Media, was given the subject - "The Descendants of George Maris," which was also a very valuable historical production; we give it entire, as follows:

THE FAMILY OF GEORGE MARIS

We are as we are, very much by reason of our antecedents and surroundings. The line of ancestry through which we came, and the associations among which our advent as conscious beings has thrown us, in the main make us what we are. The former of these we have no control over. No man is consulted about who shall be his parents. As far as inheritance is concerned he must take his being as it is cast upon him. Within certain limits, we can modify the inheritance after it comes to us. Within certain limits, we are free agents. We can vary our surroundings. We can choose our associations, and thereby make for ourselves a new creation, to some small extent, a changed estate, so to speak, to transmit to our heirs. It is certainly no merit to be descended from a line of worthy and virtuous ancestors; as it is no demerit to be the offspring of vicious and ignoble parents. But the former is as certainly a blessing as the latter is a misfortune.

The man who can trace his parentage back for two hundred years, without finding qualities he would not wish to inherit, is to be envied; and such a man is base indeed if he fails to transmit untarnished the inheritance he received.

The desire to know something of the stock from which we came is a laudable one; and while there a few of us but will find something of which we have reason to be ashamed, yet, as a rule, the descendants of the first settlers of Pennsylvania have good cause to congratulate themselves that their line of ancestry at that point of time commenced well. They are doubly fortunate, first, in the fact that their fathers were emigrants, and second, in the fact that they fled from ecclesiastical tyranny at home.

All other things being equal, it requires more force of character, and, therefore, more mind to dissent than to conform. It is easy to go with the current. A log does that. But to shape a course against the current or independent of it requires a higher power than mere gravity. Hence the English dissenters of two centuries ago, and possibly ever since, possessed more than the average mental force of Englishmen. However wrong they might be, at least they were sincere in their opinions. They acted from a sense of duty whether mistaken or not, and by that fact they manifested a more than average moral force of Englishmen. Grant that they were wrong, the error was one of judgment only, which would have yielded to time and the spirit of inquiry. But no time and no inquiry would correct an error of intention. Surely there has been no period in the history of England of a scarcity of intentional wrong-doers sufficient to keep the government busy.

Only the energetic emigrate voluntarily. Hence emigration always deprives the parent stock of its energy for the benefit of the new country. It requires more force of character to expatriate one's self to avoid the ills that threaten than to remain and bear them. True, this extra force of character may not be in the direction of morals, and so the result may be lawless, as well as strong and energetic stock. But in those who fled from persecution at the hands of the State Church in England, in the seventh century, we find the force of character that led to emigration combined with the moral force that led in the line of duty, making the best possible combination of elements for a new stock. Having more than the average mental, and more than the average moral, force of Englishmen, they were just the people whom England should have labored to keep at home.

A government that undertakes to control the citizens in their religious opinions and in their acts that concern only private duty, always find it most difficult to manage the great energetic middle ranks, the higher order of producers. It may bribe its nobility with power and titles, for they are few. It may coerce or frighten the very low, because they are weak. But the shrewd, thinking middle classes cannot be reached by either of these means. Hence, in England the ranks of the dissenters have always been kept up mainly from those below the nobility, and above the average of the commonality.

Considered in the light of these obvious propositions much of American history becomes plain. We derived from England more than average energy, more than her average moral sense, more than her average obstinacy in demanding on the one hand, and fairness in conceding on the other, all we believed to be right. With this it was impossible that we should remain a dependency of the mother country. Our enormous strides in material well-being, our vast and increasing national and individual wealth, our readiness to embark in all moral and material projects, our jealousy of governmental assumption of power - all these are the natural result of our English antecedents and our American surroundings.

Two hundred years ago George Maris, and Alice, his wife, selected the spot on which we stand, for their future home. They were emigrants from Worcestershire, England years before, the husband had had his goods distrained and sold to the value of twenty pounds sterling, equal to four hundred dollars now, and had been imprisoned eight months, for the crime of permitting a religious meeting to be held at his dwelling house, without having the services conducted by a priest of the State Church. Learning from bitter experience that God was not at that time free by the laws of England to receive such worship as His creatures, under all the light He gave them, could tender Him, these worthy people sought and found here a country where there is no embargo on religious worship. And now, after the lapse of the two centuries, we, the present audience, some of the descendants of the worthy couple, have met to clasp hands as brothers and sisters, to recognize a common parentage, to cultivate those sentiments of affection which should pervade and animate persons of one blood, to study the character and emulate the virtues of our first American parents, and to carry to our widely scattered homes the sentiment that it was good for us to be here.

It is with design that I speak of Alice, as well as of her husband, for we must not forget that we are of her blood as well as his. Indeed it is possible that she contributed more to the family traits than he. It is believed by many that Nature reproduces the mother in the children more faithfully than the father. However this may be, the descendants of our venerated ancestors have exhibited the peculiar American modifications of British character. They have largely diverged. Numbering the thousands they do, they have scattered themselves all over the United States. They are of every grade of society, and of every shade of political and religious opinion. Comparatively few of them remain attached to the Society of Friends of which George Maris was so active and so worthy a member. Under the same sense of duty that governed him; claiming and conceding the same right of individual opinion for which he so suffered, that even banishment was a relief, they formed from time to time new religious associations as they themselves guided by the inner light of which he was so distinguished a follower.

The descendants of George and Alice Maris have been more or less distinguished in the diplomatic service of the country, in the halls of State and National legislation, in the political and constitutional conventions, in the army and navy, in the learned profession, in the college, the school, the work-shop, the counting house, and largely in the field. It is true we have furnished no President of the United States, no Governor of a State; but on the other hand we have contributed little, if anything, toward the occupation of the prison and the almshouse. Mainly the family has been of the great middle rank of the people, in comfortable circumstances, with probably more than the average American education.

John Welsh, late Minister to England, of whom Philadelphia is so justly proud; Washington Townsend, who represented our district in Congress so ably for four successive terms; Dr. John T. Huddleson, a former State Senator; General Persifor Frazel Smith, of the United States Army; Simon Barnard, an active operator on the Underground Railroad, as long as its functions lasted; Edward H. Magill, President of Swarthmore College; George L. Maris, formerly Principal of the West Chester State Normal School and now Principal of Friends Central School, Phil'a, and many others might be named to show that the mental and moral force which characterized George Maris is still potent and active in his progeny.

The family has furnished at least six members of Congress, and while it may not be entirely proper to speak of the four living ones, yet a few words may well be devoted to the dead - the gifted dead. John Edwards Leonard, a Representative from Louisiana, was born September 22, 1845, near Fairville, Chester county, and was the only child of John E. and Mary H. Leonard. He died of yellow fever at Havana, March 15, 1878. He was a graduate of Harvard University, and he completed his studies at Heidelberg, Germany, receiving the degree of Doctor of Laws. He settled in Louisiana in 1870, practiced law the Thirteenth District of the State, and became a Judge of the Supreme Court. Finally he was elected to the Forty-fifth Congress and died while a member.

Though so young a man, Mr. Leonard was a ripe scholar. He was the author of some legal works, and a volume of poems of considerable promise, published in 1871. The memorial addresses delivered in Congress April 18, 1878, show that he had acquired quite a standing among his fellow members, and testify a universal regret at his untimely end.

It is a remarkable coincidence that John Edwards, a great uncle of Mr. Leonard, and the line of the family of George Maris, also died while a member of Congress. He was elected in 1838, again in 1840, and again in 1842, and died June 25, 1843. He was a prominent lawyer of our county; and he owned and operated the iron works at Glen Mills.

Mr. Leonard was not the only poet in the family. Susan Wilson, the gifted author of "The Painter of Seville," was also of the lineage of George Maris and Alice, his wife, and we have just reason to be proud of the relationship. Judging of her talent from that production, it is a pity that she wrote so little. That certainly is a sample of word painting rarely excelled in the language, and as such it deserves the place it has among the choice specimens of English poetry. We do not merely read the incidents; we see, for example, the slave boy with the brush in his hand to efface, standing at dawn before the canvas which contained his surreptitious workmanship. We see the coming day light up the picture until its beauties stayed his hand, as

"He cried: Shall I efface it? No!
That breathing lip; that beaming eye,
Efface them? I would rather die."

In the living words of the author we see the day slowly opening, while touch after touch of the brush in the slave hand brings out new beauties, making the picture what it still is after the lapse of centuries. We see the stealthy approach of the master and his pupils. We see them, gazing in silent wonder at the glowing and breathing madonna. We see the discovery, the terror, the crouching at the feet of his master as only a slave can crouch, to receive, not the punishment he expected, but the reward he hardly dared ask for, his father's freedom and his own.

The family of George Maris furnished some of the most prominent anti-slavery men of the days when it cost something to avow their sentiments; and when the time of terrible reckoning came, the dies(?) irae(?), a goodly number of them espoused the cause of the nation in the field. Among them was George W. Roberts, whose last promotion to Generalship came after he had fallen in battle. He had distinguished himself in various ways in his early service; and his most daring deed was the spiking of the rebel guns on Island No. 10. From that time onward his short life exhibited a series of brilliant achievements, and he fell at Stony River, gallantly repulsing the enemy. Distinguished as he was in the early years of the war, at the age of twenty-nine, what might have been expected of him if he had lived until its close?

Among the gifted dead may be mentioned Professor John F. Frazer, of the University of Pennsylvania, who occupied a most enviable position among his fellows; and Persifor Frazer Smith, of West Chester, a prominent member of the Bar and of the House of Representatives, who has left a durable record of his name upon his Supreme Court Reports, as well as other legal productions. We might speak of others of the lineage who who have gone before us, leaving us still less by which to remember them, "Mute, inglorious Miltons," "Cromwells guiltless of their country's blood," examples to us in the common everyday walks of life. We might mention John Talbot, of Upper Chichester, a prominent member of the Society of Friends; a successful farmer, and the wealthiest man of his day in the two counties of Chester and Delaware. He died at an advanced age in 1821. Caleb Maris, of Willistown, who was born one hundred and thirty-nine years ago to-day, and lived to be ninety-four. He was noted for his benevolent disposition and his desire to aid the afflicted of all races, ranks, classes and religions. George Maris, of Willistown, who was born one hundred and eight years ago to-day, and lived to be ninety-five. He remembered the closing scenes of the Revolution, and was fond of relating interesting incidents of our early history. It is remarkable that the day we celebrate is the anniversary of the birthdays of both these old men. Thomas Dutton, of Aston, who died at the age of a hundred years in 1879, leaving a numerous family of four generations. Jesse J. Maris, of Chester, for many years the President of the Bank of Delaware County, and a most useful citizen in every walk of life.

But the list of those who have left us an example we can scarcely hope to follow, would be too long; and the details may be left for the proposed Maris family history. There are also many more living members of whom it would be quite pleasant to speak, but it is difficult to speak aright of the living. The history of these people is still being made, and no man should be called famous until he is dead.

Counting an average of four children to the family, the descendants of George and Alice Maris, unaffected by inter-marriages, would number over sixteen thousand. As this average is probably large, we may set the number down safely at six thousand. These would probably be of the sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth and tenth generations. The sixth, seventh, eighth and ninth generations, are no doubt represented on the grounds to-day, and although the present company comprises but a small portion of the family, yet no doubt there are representatives of the families of all the grand-children of the first settler among them.

Counting that the average of this company is of the sixth generation from George Maris, and supposing the case unaffected by inter-marriages, there are sixty-four of the contemporaries of George and Alice Maris represented in the present audience. And the descendants of those contemporaries, at the same rate of increase, would exceed three hundred thousand. Reducing the number to one-half on account of inter-marriages, and the result would be a fair estimate of our individual kindred. It is no fiction of language to speak of the universal brotherhood of man when we reflect that each of us has probably one hundred and fifty thousand blood relations within the period of two hundred years. Beyond all doubt all persons whose parents and grandparents were born within the limits of the old Chester county, are related to one another by blood or marriage within a very few generations past; and it is reasonably certain that all men of the Teutonic and Celtic races are related to one another by blood within fifty generations.

These considerations, so far from making us value one another the less as of the blood of George and Alice Maris, should simply enlarge the sphere of clanship, causing it to comprehend new classes as they come up to our knowledge, and making us recognize all we meet in our passage through life as brothers and sisters.

Let us carry the remembrance of this meeting to our various homes, and transmit to our children and our children's children the fact that we gathered at this place on this day to recognize, and seal, and perpetuate the bond of union that should link together those who feel that they are of one blood. Let us collect and perpetuate the evidence of our re;ationship, so that two hundred years hence the descendants of George and Alice Maris, who will not then find standing room in the township of Springfield, will look back over the ages to our meeting here, as we look back over the ages to the first settlement; will point out to one another the particular ancestors of each group here assembled; and as they learn to venerate the memory of the patriarch from whom they take their being, will feel for one another that affection and sympathy that arises from, as well as demonstrates, a unity of blood.

"The Maris Family in the West," was a lengthy and well-prepared paper, closely devoted to the subject. It was read by its writer, Mr. JARED MARIS, of Columbus, Ohio, as follows:

THE MARIS FAMILY ON THE WEST.

MR. CHAIRMAN, RELATIVES AND FRIENDS: - When I came upon this stand I thought to offer an apology for appearing a stranger before you, but finding myself related to such gentlemen a surround me, and that I may say of the author of the "Painter of Seville," she was my cousin, why should I apologize for appearing anywhere? The marked attention given by you to the addresses you have heard is a high compliment to those who delivered them. There are two things connected with my address with you will be ultimately pleased. First, it will not be published in the book of chronicles in its present form; secondly, much of it will not appear at all. Before opening the manuscript I will outline the narrative.

George Maris, grandson of George, the immigrant, has been called George the patriarch, because of his numerous family, he having been married four times. His eldest son, James, was the father of David and Levis. David, with five adult sons, Nathaniel, Jonathan, Lewis, Owen, and Isaiah, removed to Ohio about the year 1814. These were the progenitors of that branch of the Maris family of which I shall speak.

The value of history and biography consists in the amount of truth it embodies, and the motto of the biographer should be

"Nothing extenuate
Nor nothing set down aught in malice."

One may write of the dead and their deeds with little embarrassment, but he who writes truthfully of the living, and especially if they be relatives, has an undesirable task, or, very desirable relatives. In the economics of nature ancestors are a commn inheritance, and, whether good or bad, they are the links which bind us to the past, and the channel through which we receive the image of our Maker. Though the proper subjects of critical inspection, they are doubtless entitled to a certain degree of veneration. Each succeeding generation should inherit the experiences of the past.

Recent discoveries in the laws of heredity show the desirability of family history, as well as the importance of a record of a Nation's growth. The peculiar nature of a genealogical history demands fair, careful, and accurate statement.

Saxe cautions against climbing the family thread, lest we "find it waxed at the other end by some plebian vocation." Better it were waxed at both ends than stained with blood or scorched in the fires of licentiousness.

We have the Maris thread unbroken for two hundred and fifty years, and find it strung with ornaments of society as seamstresses, shoemakers and tailors, and it has survived these oft repeated waxings. The forthcoming book will, I trust, give such information touching the physical, mental, and moral status of the family as will furnish data for the sociologist.

Investigation concerning all the branches of the family in the West was denied me on account of limited time. I must therefore confine this paper to that division of which I am a member.

Our ancestor was assigned to us in a very undemocratic manner, without consent of ours. The fates were kind, however, for having none who had been imprisoned for conscience sake, or fined for "the meeting being at his house," they gave us one whose conscience never got him into any such trouble.

In middle life he, with his family, moved West beyond the Alleghenies, presumably to "grow up with the country;" and grow they did.

Isolated from our kindred by this mountain barrier, we lost our ancestral thread. Our generation have longed for a knowledge of their ancestry; and now after a lapse of three score and ten years, weare glad to be invited to meet with you at the "Home House."

When scarce half a year ago I met by accident our good cousin, Prof. George L. Maris, and told him how the long lost David, son of James, eldest son of the abundantly and well married George the patriarch, had crossed the mountains in 1814, taking with him six adult children, who traveled behind the wagon that carried the parents and household effects, and also that two married sons, with their families, had emigrated to the same place, Nathaniel with three, and Jonathan with four children, and how they planted homes and reared families, to one of which I had the fortune to belong, he looked somewhat as one who would know more, and yet feared to know too much.

He kindly told me of the effort making good friends to gather up the family threads with their many ties, and to show the one pattern the Master has been weaving all these years. He gave me a little book of the Maris generation, to the present him, and we were left out. I felt that we were the orphans of the period, and insisted (quite unnecessarily) that we be admitted to the fold. He asked for names, and received names of David's descendants in many States and Territories, and numbering hundreds. He in turn told me of unnumbered cousins and those united to them who, I learn, detract nothing, but rather add to the honor of the cherished name. This kindled fire of consanguinity ran in circulars, letters and missives over all the West. Nine-tenths of David's descendants had no knowledge of eastern connections. None of us heard of George the first, or of the patriarch, and more than all, we did not know that a Maris had ever been in jail. We did not even know whence our lineage came. The intelligence received at this interview, coupled with an invitation to meet you here, stirred our hearts to right loyal depths. I can assure you that there are many scores of your cousins and mine in many western homes, who talk of our communion here this day with warm hearts and right spirits, and who will anxiously await the printed reports and enduring mementoes of this grand occasion. We rejoice to know that the common home-place of which we had never heard, had not been alienated, but is ours still; held in trust by one who bears honorably the ancestral name.

The generous bestowment of these grounds, so sacred to us, for the purposes for which they are used to-day, shows that he appreciates the fiduciary character of his title.

We trust it will by his descendants whose name shall be Maris, a thousand years to come. Or if some Maris who thirsts for fame among his kindred, would buy and dedicate it to holding of family anniversaries forever, we would vote him a right royal, loyal benefactor; would teach our children to speak of him as cousin Richard, of George (as the case might be), and adorn the next centennial medal with his medallion.

About one hundred and ten years ago, at a farm house not many miles from here, David Maris, grandson of George the Patriarch, was married to Sarah, daughter of Richard Fox (Fawkes), and sister of Ann, wife of Caleb Maris, whose grand-sons, Norris, John, and Caleb, still survive, and grace us with their venerable presence.

To this wedded pair, David and Sarah, children came till they numbered nine. As they arrived at proper age, the mother, who was a wise, judicious woman, put the sons out to service under indenture in good homes, and afterward apprenticed them to trades. This she did because the husband and father held chronic consultation with his cups and his comrades.

Many years passed, and all the family but Curtis emigrated to Belmont county, Ohio. Of Curtis I know nothing but the report of a brother that he married, and died, leaving a daughter. Nathaniel was married to Elizabeth, daughter of Matthew Wood, a Friend, of Chester county, with whom he removed to Ohio. Jesse Maris, their oldest son, still lives at the home in Ohio, where they settled in 1812. As he is the oldest one of our generation I may speak of him as having a blameless life, and though blind for many years, is a cheerful, joyous man of seventy-seven. Susan (a note on this page says, "Rebecca") married Jacob Hoopes, and died early. Rachel married John Harbin, and at an advanced age died of paralysis. Mary married a Friend by the name of Thomas Deweese.

Jonathan married Sarah Thomas, of Delaware county, Pa., of whose family I know nothing. I knew her many years as an excellent wife and a devoted mother of twelve children.

Owen married Rachel, sister of George K. Jenkins, a noted educator and prominent advocate of pacific measures in the Government's treatment of the Indians. She was a very queen among women. Of this marriage there were eight children. She died in life's prime. He afterwards married Amy Spencer Vanlaw, who lived but a few months. He subsequenly married Anna Worthington Vanlaw. Of this marriage there were six children, the eldest of whom died in the Union Army. His three wives were Friends.

Isaiah married Phebe, daughter of David Fawcett, an Ohio Friend. She died early of consumption, leaving five children. He afterwards married Mary, daughter of Benjamin Street, widow of Mark Yocum. Of this marriage there were five children. The mother still lives, the only surviving member of a long-lived family. She is the mother of nine living children, ranging in age from 25 to 52 years. Her home is in Salem, Iowa. I sometimes visit her, my only living aunt. I wish you could see her, dressed, as she always is, in simple Quaker garb, in apparent contentment, waiting, not for the little feet that come no more, but for the sure reward of faithful life.

As he crossed the mountains on foot to visit the place of his birt about the year 1818, Lewis Maris met Sidney, daughter of Isaac Hoopes, of Goshen, as she journeyed to Ohio in company with William Dewees and wife, her elder sister, who with their family, were emigrating to Ohio. They had met in earlier youth. It was now nearing night, and he retraced his steps upon the mountain road with her to an inn, where the company stopped for the night. While sitting near each other in the moonlight on the porch, the landlady came to them and said, as if by some strange inspiration, that they were suited to each other and they were superstitious enough to think her a prophetess.

On the morrow both went their ways, he to visit the place of his birth, and she to a new home in the west. Not as the day before, weary trudgers on the highway, but with a new life, and hearts singing a new song - the one song whose infinite variety never "stales."

At her home in Ohio, they met again and resumed their journey on life's valley and mountain road, and walked together to the measure of that ever new song for nearly sixty years. Ten years of the way she was blind, and he was eyes for her. Love never grew weary or faltered even once, but his body failed, and one early morning as I watched beside his chair, his head fell upon his breast. "The silver cord was loosed." My father had left life's highway, and rested not at the wayside inn, but Home.

The story of the landlady and her lover guests was told me by the woman who was the heroine more than sixty years before the telling. She was now eighty-seven years of age, and yet she told it with almost bated breath, a though it were a secret still, and in tender accents, as if her lover three years in spirit land, might hear and feel that she might not tell it even to her son.

She seemed to trip along the mountain road once more, though her feet refused the carpet floor of home. Her eyes were long since dead to the light of Heaven or loving face of friends, and every physical power faltered at the threshold of dissolution, yet manner, tone and accent showed love was strong. The very day following, while in my arms, she ceased to breathe and rested; not as one who lies down to dream, but as one whom the light of morning waketh.

Of eight children of Lewis, five are living. The brothers, Nathaniel, Jonathan, Lewis, Owen and Isaiah, pursued their mechanical trades in connection with clearing lands and farming. Being men of honest character, and allied by marriage to good families, they exercised a large influence for goof in this new country. They were all families, they exercised a large influence for good in this new country. They were all total abstinence men except Jonathan, who in his early life was not. In politics they were all Whigs and among the few men of their time who took a newspaper. Their descendants are to a man and woman Republicans or Prohibitionists. Many were in the Union army, some wounded and some slain. Upon moral and educational questions they uniformly occupy advanced ground. Their position on questions pertaining to good order may be inferred from the fact that all except Jonathan adhered to the distinguishing doctrines of the Society of Friends.

The family of Jonathan, however, has demonstrated that this was not necessary to the development of good sterling character. The five brothers were all ready talkers and though high-tempered, wore bright, kindly faces. With one exception they were in stature above medium and all of fine personal appearance. A personal pride bordering on vanity was characteristic of them all. They had a certain habit of moderate strutting, rising slightly on tiptoe, which told of blood descended from knights of old who choose for their helmet's crest a peacock in full bloom. None of the descendants of the five have died of intemperance, and among them all there are not three moderate drinkers. In religion some of them adhere to the spiritual faith of their fathers. Many are Methodists, Presbyterians, and Baptists.

No imbecile or congenitally deformed child has been born to any of David Maris's descendants, and there is no evidence of hereditary taint of any kind in the family. No man has died of consumption, though three women have. Of the five brothers, Nathaniel, the eldest, died at the age of near 70 of paralysis, the others from disorders consequent upon senile decay. At one time during the life of the four younger brothers, their ages aggregated three hundred and twenty year.

Western Marises have not accumulated large property. They are fair moneymakers, but not disposed to invest for accumulation. It requires but little money to make the average Maris rich. Ambition and necessity have developed in us a more desirable quality, viz., ability to command good position in society without it.

The domestic qualities of the connections are of a very high order. Levis, the revolutionary soldier brother of David, was our only confirmed bachelor. Marrying well, early and often as circumstances require, is characteristic of the family.

When you consider the fact that the average distance the western members would have to travel is more than one thousand miles, you will not be surprised that they are not all here. I desire on their behalf to assure the active working members of your committee, our hearty thanks. Our family, which now numbers hundreds, would I doubt not, sanction my saying to you that we are a fair class of common people, and I am equally sure that when you become acquainted with us you will be impressed with the idea that it were well if such common people were more common. Members of our family have held places of public trust from school directors to Legislatures.

This reunion will be to us "little less than a liberal education." We had not dreamed of ancestral bishops, barons or knights, and were innocent of any suspicion that we were entitled to an heraldic coat-of-arms.

But even if our veins are warmed by noble blood, we would be humbled if asked "to what purpose" in a land where every drop of blood is royal, and emblems of distinction are the ornaments of children. Some of our people have a knowledge of the distinguishing characteristics of the Society of which our ancestor of the line of true nobility was a distinguished member, a few of the favored ones who in youth were compelled to sandwich "piety promoted" between Dickens and Thackeray, and Barclay's Apology and John Dymond's Essay's, between Robinson Crusoe and Sandford and Merton.

A knowledge of life and its incidents has shown us that the good boys and girls that were painted and died to order, were feeble imitations of real religious character and their chroniclers not having a spark of genius, the youths and the books are alike dead to some of us. Not so with Barclay, whom, to follow and understand, is a thorough course in logic; or John Dymond's essays, whose technical morality no philosopher dare with logic attack. The conflict, with error, of these giants we do not forget. Neither do we forget our own conflict with error, when, with simple argument and pleading faces we fought earnestly as ever Paul fought with beasts at Ephesus for the privilege of whistling a tune, singing a sentimental song or devotional hymm, or playing a Jews-harp. The conflict grew hot if we sought the privilege of going with some youthful friends to even a Friends' meeting, if of an opposite ite or dox. Consigned, as we were, to wear clothing invented to invite the terrible sword of ridicule, we stood between its biting edge and disobedience to parents, who, in their tender love for us, would have saved us from both but for the tyranny of society. The placard advertisements of spiritual life were burned into us and, like all other surface burning, left a scar.

We learn from the opening address that our family name is almost extinct in Europe, and, from statistics, that it is waning here.

Luxury is doubtless preying upon your vitals. We of the West have escaped its inroads and are waxing to fine proportions.

We trust you will not regard us presumptuous in claiming that some of the mantles of our ancestors have fallen upon western shoulders.

Our fathers taught and suffered for such doctrines as these: Woman is man's, equal, before God, in the church. No priest stands between the Soul and God. There can be no connubial relation between the State and the Church. That where God's children meet regularly for worship, there is a church, priest or no priest. That temperance is a virtue. That black men should be equal in Church and before the law. That slaveholders should not be compromised with. No Western Maris votes the Democratic ticket.

We hold that woman is superior before God in the Church, and should be equal before the law, and most of us advocate her right (as a right), to every position and franchise within the gift of the State.

Protection to industry and capital; advertisement of civilization by compulsory education, and the aid by General Government in this regard for the Southern States; absolute control by law of the liquor traffic, are also in our political creed.

You may be glad to learn that our worthy ancestor has a descendant of the same name who has been doing good battle for prohibition in the Legislature of Iowa, and he writes me that the temperance canvass in that State keeps him from being with us to-day.

Hoping that you have some faith in us, we trust that you will add it to charity for our failings and a generous appreciation of our successes. We will covenant with you on this to us sacred day to remember the motto of our ancestors, inscribed on the beautiful memorials of this good time. Be what we seem. Then, "If God be for us, who can be against us?"

With the reading of this entertaining production of Mr. Jared Maris the prepared programme of the occasion terminated.

The President having announced that Hon. John Welsh, late Minister from the United States to Great Britain and Ireland was present, he would take the liberty of introducing him. Mr. Welsh came forward and spoke in substance as follows:

"MY KINSMAN: - Although unauthorized by me, I cheerfully respond to the call of our honored President, with the assurance that it affords me great pleasure to meet you all and to find before me so large a gathering of our now numerous and widely-spread family. I may well be proud of such a connection.

A single household driven by religious persecution, in 1683, sought a home here on this very spot, then a dense wilderness, and behold what a multitude it has become!

I am fifth in descent from our revered ancestor, George Maris. My mother was Jemima Maris, daughter of Jesse, son of Joseph, son of Richard, son of George, and I am one of one hundred and twenty-five descendants from my mother, now living. Thus I am one of you, and with you, I have cordially and earnestly united honoring him, of whose character and life we have so much reason to be proud.

Having done so, ought we not take our minds from the past and fix them on the future? In the years to come, we are to hold the same relation to our descendants, that George Maris does. Now is the moment that we should impress this though upon ourselves - each one individually, so that we may so order our lives that our descendants may have no less cause to honor our memories, that we now have to honor the memory of George Maris of 1683, who endured persecution for conscience sake, and imparted to us, through our blood; as we trust, some of the virtue with which he was imbued.

I must say no more, you are already weary, and the day is far spent, therefore, I bid you goodbye."