Joseph Galloway papers, 1717-1874, bulk 1770-1803

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Summary

Creators:
Galloway, Joseph, 1731-1803.
Abstract:
This collection contains the papers of American British loyalist and statesman Joseph Galloway (1731-1803) and his wife, Grace Growden (1727-1782), daughter of wealthy Pennsylvania landowner Lawrence Growden, Jr. (1694-1770). Many of the documents relate to the Growden estate, as well as Galloway and Growden social life, business affairs, family matters, Pennsylvania real estate transactions, Life in exile following the American Revolution, and Napoleon.
Extent:
10.66 Linear Feet (1 box, 4 oversize folders)
Language:
Materials are in English.
Preferred citation:

[Identification of item]. Joseph Galloway papers, The Huntington Library, San Marino, California.

Background

Scope and content:

This collection contains the papers of American British loyalist and statesman Joseph Galloway (1731-1803) and his wife, Grace Growden (1727-1782). The bulk of the collection consists of correspondence, legal instruments, plans, surveys, appraisals, accounts and other documents related to the Growden legacy; including the shares in Durham Iron Works, the properties in Durham, Bensalem, and Richland Townships, an upper lot of the Delaware River, and houses in Philadelphia. The materials cover the 1773 partition of the Growden estates and their fate after Pennsylvania Act of Attainder (1778) and the death of Joseph Galloway.

Correspondents include: Joseph Galloway, his brother-in-law Thomas Nickelson and their Philadelphia representatives Abel James and John Thompson; Nickelson's sons-in-law Ellis Button Metford and John Jeffery; Grace Galloway's granddaughter Ann Grace Roberts Burton; John Thompson's grandson John James Thompson (1815-1875); and others.

Personal correspondence of Grace Galloway and her family, including her daughter Elizabeth Galloway Roberts (d. 1815) and Ann Collier, an English cousin and a Quaker who lived in Topsham, Devon. In the letter of November 6, 1753, to her sister, Grace Galloway gives an account of her wedding and decries the "ceremonious farse" of society's demands on the new bride. The letter to her daughter and husband (1779, May 17 and 22) vividly describes the privations and distress of a British loyalist woman in the revolutionary Philadelphia. Ann Collier's correspondence contains local and family gossip, news from America, particularly from Philadelphia, and inquiries regarding American Quakers, including the descendants of William Penn. There is also the letter from Deborah Morris, a close friend of Grace Galloway's, to Joseph Galloway that recounts Grace's last days.

Also included are copies of newspaper publications regarding the trial of Abraham Carlisle and John Roberts convicted of treason in 1779, a note about "a party of Rebel Troops" raiding Joseph Galloway's house in 1779, and a newspaper clipping related to Sir William Howe's attack on Joseph Galloway (1780, Nov. 11). Also included are contemporary copies of accounts of Napoleon's voyage to St. Helena onboard of the Northumberland (1815): "An extract of letter to a particular friend", by Charles Bayne Hodgson Ross, and an anonymous "Remarks of Buonaparte" [sic].

Some letters bear notes and remarks by William S. Metford.

Biographical / historical:

Joseph Galloway (1731-1803), was born at West River, Anne Arundel County, Md., son of Peter Bines Galloway and Elizabeth Rigbie, Maryland Quakers. In 1740, Galloway moved with his father to Kent Pa. In the late 1740s, Galloway began practicing law in Philadelphia; in 1748 he became member of the Schuyhill Fishing Company.

In 1753, he married Grace Growden (1727-1782), the younger daughter of Lawrence Growden, Jr. (1694-1770), one of the wealthiest and most powerful men in colonial America. Although Grace and her elder sister Elizabeth were brought up by the Friends, she joined the Church of England and was married in Christ Church. Her elder sister Elizabeth had married Thomas Nickelson, an English Quaker merchant, and lived in Poole.

Following the Quakers' withdrawal from the Pennsylvania assembly in the spring of 1756, Galloway was elected, with the Quakers' support, to the Assembly. With Benjamin Franklin, he became one of the leaders of the anti-proprietary faction. Galloway held his Assembly seat from 1757 to 1766 and from 1766 to 1775 was the speaker of the House of Representatives. As the Pennsylvania delegate to the Continental Congress in 1774, he signed the non-importation agreement, but refused to sign the Declaration of Independence.

In December 1776, Galloway joined Howe's army in New York and was appointed civil commissioner and superintendent of policy in the British government. In 1778, the General Assembly of Pennsylvania convicted him of high treason and confiscated his estates, including the family home on the south-east corner of the 6th and High Street, which was seized and sold at an auction, in accordance with the state Assembly's Act of Attainder (1778) in September 1778. (It was appropriated by the state of Pennsylvania as the residence of the President of the Supreme Executive Council and later sold to Robert Morris.)

In October 1778, Joseph Galloway and the couple's only surviving child, Elizabeth, fled to England. In the spring and summer of 1779, he gave damaging testimony against Howe for the House of Commons inquiry and worked on the loyalists' claims for compensation. His own claim was settled in 1790 when he was allotted annual pension of 500 pounds.

Grace Galloway remained in Philadelphia to ensure that the properties that she had inherited from her father would remain in the family. Two prominent Philadelphia Quakers, Abel James (1724-1790) and his son-in-law John Thompson (1744-1819), acted as legal representatives for the family. Following her eviction from her home in March 1779, she stayed with Deborah Morris, a Quaker friend; she died in 1782.

The Growden estate was settled only after Galloway's death in 1803. The Pennsylvania properties were legally inherited by the children of Grace Galloway and Elizabeth Nickelson and their families. The beneficiaries were Grace's daughter Elizabeth Galloway Roberts(d. 1815)and her daughter Ann Grace Galloway Burton (d. 1837), and Elizabeth Nickelson's daughters Elizabeth who married John J. Jeffery; Hannah whose second husband was Joseph Metford, and Ann, wife of Ellis Button Metford (d. 1820), a physician of Taunton, England, and their son William. John Thompsons's son Jonah and grandson John James Thompson (1815-1875) represented them in Philadelphia.

Acquisition information:
Purchased from Sotheby's, November 20, 1972.
Arrangement:

Arranged chronologically.

Rules or conventions:
Describing Archives: A Content Standard

Access and use

Restrictions:

Open for use by qualified researchers and by appointment. Please contact Reader Services at the Huntington Library for more information.

Terms of access:

The Huntington Library does not require that researchers request permission to quote from or publish images of this material, nor does it charge fees for such activities. The responsibility for identifying the copyright holder, if there is one, and obtaining necessary permissions rests with the researcher.

Preferred citation:

[Identification of item]. Joseph Galloway papers, The Huntington Library, San Marino, California.

Location of this collection:
1151 Oxford Road
San Marino, CA 91108, US
Contact:
(626) 405-2191
reference@huntington.org
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