Griffith Jones: Fourth Mayor of Philadelphia, Man of Property
Posted: Friday, September 23, 2011
by Jack H. Schick
A man named Griffith Jones, commissioned the first survey of land in the Great Swamp in 1701. Measured and staked out for him were 6,000 acres (9.37 square miles), in the area of Bucks County that would become Richland. His claim was the fulfillment of a purchase he made from William Penn twenty years earlier. There were a few farmsteads already established in the area. There were rugged trails leading to Philadelphia and to Durham, but The Swamp was still a virtual wilderness inhabited mostly by Lenni Lenape Indians. Jones had first tried to claim his property in the vicinity of Gwynedd, but previous settlement made that inconvenient. He “took up” his land in Richland purely for investment. Jones was an important citizen in The City and had no intention of leaving there.
Griffith Jones came to America in the fleet of 23 ships that joined Penn on his first voyage. It is believed he sailed on the ship Jeffrey, with the eleven other Free Society of Traders members who chose to relocate to the New World. When they arrived in Pennsylvania there was already a Swedish settlement on the Delaware River centered on a small cove and the Blue Anchor Tavern. Penn chose the site for his new capital city. Griffith Jones took possession of two lots, one on Front Street facing the Delaware River and one on the southeast corner of High (now Market) Street at Third Street, when the city plan was laid out. He was also co-owner, with the other Society members, of vast acreage throughout the colony. He delayed selecting his personal “release” of 6,000 acres.
Jones was soon appointed as a magistrate and was elected to represent Philadelphia County in the first Provincial Assembly of 1682/83, which established the laws and government of Pennsylvania. William Penn was present and led the framing of one of the freest, fairest and most democratic societies the world had ever seen. Not all assemblymen were Quakers and the Swedes were given a voice. There was some squabbling and disagreement, but the Proprietor had the final word, by the grace of King Charles II.
Early in 1683, Griffith Jones bought the Blue Anchor (“Blew Anker”), from William Dare. Jones had previously imported 15,000 bricks and tiles and began re-facing the building with some of them On March 7, 1683, Jones, Dr Thomas Wynne (Penn’s personal physician, court justice and Speaker of the Assembly), and five other men were called before a Grand Jury at the Third Court of Philadelphia County. They were charged with selling "drink & strong Liquors by Retail & suffer it to be drunk in their houses without a License, contrare to ye 40th Law of this Province." Licensed under a 1676 law imposed when the Duke of York still controlled the area, liquor could be consumed only on the premises. It is apparent that Jones was already involved in the growing liquor trade, as were many other members of the Free Society of Traders. The penalties they received are not recorded, but both men continued to prosper in their positions of power in the colony. Jones was appointed Justice to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court in 1690.
Griffith Jones’ Blue Anchor continued to be an important Philadelphia gathering place and commercial and transportation hub for many decades. It was located adjacent to the docks in the fast growing port city and was designated as one of two a free landing place by Penn. City government meetings, business meetings and clandestine gatherings of smugglers and pirates were often ‘hosted’ there. There is little record of Jones’ other business activities during that time other that he was a Philadelphia merchant.
Jones appears on the roster as an Assemblyman representing Kent County in what would become Delaware, in 1700. The Free Society of Traders and the Provincial Assembly often “elected” cronies to represent the Lower Counties in an effort to control the recalcitrant parts of the colony where there was substantial resentment toward the growing power of the Quaker businessmen in Philadelphia. Jones acquired a 500 acre plantation in Kent County in 1699 making him eligible to represent that county, regardless of his place of residency.
By the time William Penn returned to Britain for the last time in 1701, Philadelphia had grown to a city of nearly 5,000. The colony was one of the most populous in America. The Proprietor’s personal secretary and representative in America, James Logan, became Commissioner of Property and recognized the need to expand the area of settlement. Griffith Jones, undoubtedly privy to much ‘inside information,’ seized the opportunity and finally claimed his 6,000 acres—in the Great Swamp of Upper Bucks County.
Logan became Receiver General of the colony and member of the Provincial Council in 1703. Retaining his position as Commissioner of Property, he ordered the establishment of the Manor of Richland that summer, and promoted settlement in the Great Swamp. At the time, he also ordered the re-survey of the Griffith Jones property, 2,000 acres to be deeded to himself and large tracts for Lawrence Growdon, another Assemblyman, and several other Philadelphia businessmen. The Manor of Richland included about 16,000 acres that reached from the Durham Road (now Main Street, Quakertown), to the Philadelphia (now Montgomery), County line. Jones’s acreage included all of the area that would become Quakertown and large areas to the east and south.
None of the original landowners had any intention of relocating to “Ye Swamp.” They were merely land speculators. Logan soon divested himself of all interests in the region. The first ‘officially recorded’ property transfer in Richland was on November 1, 1705. Griffith Jones sold property to David Lloyd, another Provincial Assemblyman. The contract was drawn up by Attorney William Biles (also an Assemblyman). Biles, who held various positions in Pennsylvania Government and courts for many decades, was involved in innumerable property ‘deals’ in Bucks County and was a large landholder himself. An island in the Delaware River was named for him.
It was in the ‘paperwork’ associated with the 1705 sale from Jones to Lloyd that the Great Swamp was first ‘officially’ call “the Township of Richlands.” There were apparently a substantial number of farms already operating in the area because the quality of the soil was recognized, giving the region its new name. Promoting it as The Richlands was much more likely to encourage settlement (and land purchases), than referring to the area as “Ye Swamp.” It can be assumed that the new designation was eagerly supported by the Philadelphia land speculators, including Griffith Jones.
Abraham Griffith and his wife Hannah Lester are the first recorded members of the Quaker community that became Richland Friends Meeting to settle in The Swamp. Abraham Griffith is reported to have been a relative of Griffith Jones, having initially settled with his parent on one of Jones’ lots in The City. He purchased 600 acres from Jones in 1708, and “soon after removed to [Richland], and settled on Griffith Jones’ Bog.” The Griffith property is speculated to have straddled Beaver Creek where it crosses the Road to Philadelphia (current day Old BethlehemPike) extending westward and including the current route of Highway #309.
By 1712, Peter Lester, John Ball (Lester’s son-in-law), and George Phillips (Griffith’s brother-in-law), had also purchase land from Griffith Jones and settled along the Road to Philadelphia extending south to within a mile of Rich Hill. Other Quakers from Gwynedd, Abington and Byberry began to arrive in the area: Everad Bolton, Edward Roberts, Hugh Foulke and others. This group was the core of the community that, over the next several decades, would become Richland Friends Meeting and the village called “the Quaker’s Town.”
As far as can be determined, Griffith Jones never came to Richland. He represented Philadelphia County in the Assembly again in 1703. He served as the fourth Mayor of Philadelphia in 1704 and 1705. He returned to the Assembly, again representing Philadelphia from 1706 through 1709. His name appears on records as a speculative property holder in Towamencin in 1714. Second generation Richland land baron Morris Morris acquired some of his vast holding from Griffith Jones beginning about 1717, particularly the tract that is today the west half of Quakertown Borough and the site of the current Richland Friends Meetinghouse.
The Great Swamp gradually changed over the next several decades. The Road to Philadelphia was improved from a rough Indian trail to a serviceable wagon road. A grain mill was built on Swamp Creek near the present day Milford Squarein about 1715. A new road was built to access the Perkiomen Valley and the Montgomery Road in the 1720’s. The first Quaker Meetinghouse—the first “church” of any kind in The Swamp—was built in 1723. Swamp Road was completed in 1730, linking Richland to the county seat at Newtown. When the Great Swamp officially became Richland and Bulla (later Milford), Townships in 1734, a full 20% of Richlandwas still deeded to Griffith Jones.
It is not Known when Griffith Jones died or where he is buried. In 1687, on what then was a “suburban” farm, he constructed a substantial brick home. The site is at what is now the intersection of Wyoming Ave.and Rising Sun Lane, south of Torresdale Boulevardin Philadelphia. His step daughter Ann Powell married their neighbor, Joseph Willcox, who was also an early mayor of Philadelphia. They continued to live on Griffith Jones’ estate which they called Annsberry Farms. The home stood until 1917, when it was demolished for a building project.
Griffith Jones was a key player in the early history of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia and the Great Swamp. His name is omnipresent in real estate transactions in early Richland Township. Nearly all of the founding fathers of Richland Friends Meeting and Quakertown settled on property that once belonged to Griffith Jones. The present Borough of Quakertown is situated on the land that Griffith Jones had surveyed in 1701, as part of his personal ‘release’ from William Penn.
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Top-level comments on this article: (1 total)I spent many years in the Quakertown area and am related to a Henry Taylor. He was an early settler and was either a Mennonite or Quaker. He resided in Richland and helped build an early road which ran to the Friend's meetinghouse (circa 1720). Do you have any records or info on Henry Taylor? Thank you.
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