James Logan was born October 20, 1674, at Lurgan, County Armagh, Ireland. He was the son of Patrick Logan of East Lothian, Scotland, and Isabella Hume. He was the descendant of a long line of the flower of Scottish chivalry, scholars, and gentlemen, Chief Logan being the Laird or Baron of Restalrig, earlier called Lestalric. Patrick Logan was graduated Master of Arts at Edinburgh University, was a clergyman of the established church of Scotland and chaplain to Lord Belhaven. In 1671 he sought refuge from the turmoil by removing to Ireland and joining the Society of Friends. He took charge of the Latin School at Lurgan and here James Logan learned Latin, Greek, and Hebrew before he was thirteen years of age, and became a master of mathematics at sixteen. James later removed to London where he was, for a while, a schoolmaster, but soon entered the shipping trade at that place and at Bristol. In the spring of 1699, William Penn engaged him as his secretary and together they came to America in the Canterbury. On Penn's departure for England he left him in charge of the Province, saying, "I have left thee an uncommon trust, with a singular dependence on thy justice and care."

An account of James Logan's life is an account of Pennsylvania. For half a century he was a most potent factor in the Provincial affairs and was the centre of the volcanic disturbances which affected the Colony. Faithful to the Penn family and loyal to the desires of the Founder, he managed Indian affairs with great skill and it was largely due to him that the friendship and alliance

between them and the Province was so long maintained. His correspondence was much with the literati of Europe and often embraced Hebrew or Arabic characters and algebraic formulas. Sometimes his letters convey a lively Greek ode and often they were written in Latin. He published essays on reproduction in plants, aberration of light, translated Cicero's "De Senectute," Cato's "Disticha," and treatises on history, archæology, criticism, theology, ethics, natural philosophy, anatomy, and law. There was no topic of science or literature that he could not discuss with the scholars of his time. He is described as tall and well made, with a graceful yet grave demeanour, a good complexion, quite florid even in his old age. His hair was brown and never grey, but he wore a powdered wig. He was intolerant of the narrow distinction of some Friends and believed in a defensive war of resistance to aggression. Thus he supported Franklin for the protection of Philadelphia in the French Wars. He engaged in business with Edward Shippen, but his trade or his public service never led him from his affection for the muses. He was Chief-Justice, Provincial Secretary, Commissioner of Property, and President of the Council. He acquired a fortune in commerce, in trade with the Indians, and by the purchase and sale of desirable tracts of land in all parts of the Colony which his position of Surveyor-General gave him the opportunity of securing. Thus he was able to live in princely style and to entertain with a free hand. For more than a century Stenton was the resort of notable and distinguished persons of the Colonies and from abroad, and its mis

tresses were among the most accomplished women of the time. Among the visitors to the house were John Dickinson, Edward Shippen, John Randolph of Roanoke, Thomas Pickering, the learned and witty Portuguese, Abbé Correa, the French minister Genet, Doctor Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, Richard Peters, and President Washington. At Stenton, Thomas Godfrey, glazier, by accident discovered the principle upon which he invented the quadrant. He saw a piece of broken glass which had fallen so as to reflect the sun, and upon consulting a volume of Newton which he found in the library, and with advice from James Logan, he constructed an instrument according to the plan in his mind.

James Logan was a suitor for the hand of the beautiful Anne Shippen, Edward Shippen's daughter, who married Thomas Story, and there sprung up a bitter rivalry between the colleagues in the board of property, which troubled the Founder very much. On the sixteenth of the eleventh month Penn wrote to Logan:

I am anxiously grieved for thy unhappy love for thy sake and my own, for T. S., and thy discord has been for no service here any more than there; and some say that come thence that thy amours have so altered or influenced thee that thou art grown touchy and apt to give rough and short answers, which many call haughty. I make no judgement, but caution thee, as in former letters, to let truth preside and bear impertinence as patiently as thou canst.

After the marriage of Anne Shippen and Thomas Story, he wrote Penn, August 12, 1706:

Thomas Story carries very well since his marriage. He and I are great friends, for I think the whole business is not now worth a quarrel.

On the ninth of the tenth month, 1714, he married Sarah, daughter of Charles and Amy Read, after a romantic courtship. His letters to her are very tender and full of spiritual power. To them were born seven children: Sarah, who married Isaac Norris of Fairhill and whose daughter Mary married John Dickinson; William, who married Hannah Emlen and succeeded to Stenton; Hannah, who married John Smith, and James, who married Sarah Armitt. The rest died without issue.

Perhaps the first and most numerous guests at Stenton were the Indians, who came very often and in great numbers, three or four hundred at a time, and stayed for several weeks. They lined the staircase at night and passed the days in the maple grove. Smaller bands made huts on the grounds and remained a year at a time. The good chief, Wingohocking, standing with Logan on the border of the beautiful stream that wound through the place, proposed a change of names after the Indian custom of brotherhood. Logan explained the difficulty to him and said:

Do thou, chief, take mine, and give thine to this stream which passes through my fields, and when I am passed away and while the earth shall endure it shall flow and bear thy name.

Hannah Logan, the youngest of the two daughters of James Logan, was named after Hannah Penn; Sarah, of whom the father writes in 1724 to Thomas Story in England, was an elder sister.