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Galloway (Joseph) Papers
mssHM 36839-36895
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Contributing Institution:
The Huntington Library
Title: Joseph Galloway papers
Creator:
Galloway, Joseph, 1731-1803.
Identifier/Call Number: mssHM 36839-36895
Physical Description:
10.66 Linear Feet
(1 box, 4 oversize folders)
Date (inclusive): 1717-1874, bulk
1770-1803
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.
Language of Material: Materials are in
English.
Open for use by qualified researchers and by appointment. Please contact Reader Services at
the Huntington Library for more information.
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.
[Identification of item]. Joseph Galloway papers, The Huntington Library, San Marino,
California.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Purchased from Sotheby's, November 20, 1972.
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.
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.
Arranged chronologically.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
American loyalists -- Pennsylvania -- Archives
Bucks County (Pa.) -- History -- 18th century -- Sources
Estate records -- Pennsylvania
Executors and administrators -- Pennsylvania -- Archives
Family papers -- Pennsylvania
Land surveys -- Pennsylvania
Letters (correspondence) -- Great Britain
Letters (correspondence) -- Pennsylvania
Marriage customs and rites -- Pennsylvania -- History -- 18th century
-- Sources
Pennsylvania -- History -- 18th century -- Sources
Philadelphia (Pa.) -- History -- Colonial period, ca. 1600-1775 --
Sources
Philadelphia (Pa.) -- History -- Revolution, 1775-1783 -- Personal
narratives
Quaker women -- Correspondence
Quakers -- Correspondence
United States -- History -- Revolution, 1775-1783 -- Foreign public
opinion, British -- Sources.
United States -- History -- Revolution, 1775-1783 --
Sources.
Women -- Pennsylvania -- Correspondence
Abel, James, -1790
Abel, James, -1790 -- Correspondence
Collier, Ann, active 1779-1782
Durham Iron Works
Galloway family
Galloway, Grace Growden, -1789
Galloway, Joseph, 1731-1803 -- Archives
Galloway, Grace Growden, -1789 --
Correspondence
Growden family
Growden, Lawrence -- Family -- Archives
Growden, Lawrence -- Estate.
Metford, Ellis Button
Metford, Ellis Button -- Correspondence.
Napoleon I, Emperor of the French, 1769-1821 --
Captivity, 1815-1821
Nickleson, Thomas
Nickleson, Thomas -- Archives
Roberts, Elizabeth Galloway
Ross, Charles Bayne Hodgson
Thompson, John, 1744-1819
Thompson, John James, 1815-1875