James Logan of Phildelphia: Statesman, Scholar
Posted: Thursday, September 29, 2011
by Jack H. Schick
James Logan (1674-1751) is one of the most significant men in the early history of Pennsylvania. He was William Penn’s personal secretary and Penn’s primary representative in the Colony of Pennsylvania beginning in 1701. He was involved in innumerable activities and held many positions of power over the next 50 years. He is truly a monumental figure in the first half of the 18th Century Pennsylvanian and in American history.
Familiar with William Penn and his writings, James Logan soon became a companion and personal secretary of the great Proprietor. In 1699, on Penn’s last trip to Pennsylvania, Logan accompanied his benefactor. They sailed together on the ship Canterbury for the rapidly growing port of Philadelphia. Both Penn and Logan had committed to never return to Britain. Though wife Hannah finally convinced Penn to return to their home country, Logan never again left America. He was instrumental in building a thriving colony and city, and established a legacy remembered and respected over 300 years later.
Throughout his entire career there was never a question of Logan’s loyalty to the vision of William Penn. He continued Penn’s work long after the Proprietor died and he became subordinate to his non-Quaker heirs. Logan became Commissioner of Property in 1701, Receiver General of the Colony in 1703, Clerk (1701) then Member (1703), of the Provincial Council. He was elected Mayor of Philadelphia in 1722. As mayor he permitted Catholics to hold the city’s first public Roman Catholic Mass (there had not been total religious freedom in Pennsylvania until then). He was the Colony’s Chief Justice from 1731 to 1739, and served as acting Governor from 1736 to 1738.
James Logan also engaged in various business pursuits. He was a property speculator, selling land at reasonable prices to many settlers. Because of their respect for him and his close relationship with the Indians he developed a large fur trading company that was so successful he became one of the richest men in the colony. He invested in and was personally involved in, many other businesses in Philadelphia.
Logan was an exceptionally intelligent and well educated man. He collected a personal library of over 3,000 volumes. He published many scholarly papers in European journals and for the American Philosophical Society. He was interested in the natural sciences, particularly the new field of botany. He contributed an essay describing experiments he’d done on the impregnation of corn seeds. He was Latin tutor for renowned American botanist John Bartram, who he introduced to Linnaeus, father of the science. He was a mentor of Benjamin Franklin. Franklin’s printing company produced Logan’s translations of Cicero’s essays.
Logan was a devout Quaker. He believed in Penn’s Holy Experiment, and directed his efforts toward its realization. He saw the Light of God in all men and consequently dealt fairly with the Native American inhabitants. He recognized the hierarchy among the tribes and developed a good relationship with the Iroquois, who were overlords to the local Lenape and Susquannoks. The Indian negotiators and chiefs held him in high esteem for his honesty and sincere efforts to satisfy and protect their interests. The Iroquois’ prime diplomat during negotiations, Shikellamy, named his sons James Logan and John Logan to honor his friend.
Logan did hold several opinions that differed from his employer, William Penn. In the matter of the state’s responsibility to protect its citizens, especially on the fringe of the wilderness, as Pennsylvania certainly was, he sided with the opinion of Isaac Pemberton of London Yearly Meeting rather than George Fox and Penn. Logan believed the Provincial Assembly could not abstain from action in typical Quaker pacifism in times of danger. He felt it was the government’s responsibility to maintain public safety and supported a war tax. He encouraged some Quakers to give up their seats in the Assembly “for the good of the whole,” to achieve that end.
Throughout his career James Logan was able to perform a delicate balancing act, satisfying many diverse interests. In his lifetime in public service he saw Pennsylvania, established as a Quaker colony, swell with the influx of Germans and Irish non-Quakers. He saw the Lenape fade from prominence and move to beyond the Allegheny Mountains. By the time of his death Pennsylvania had become a wealthy thriving colony and Philadelphia was well on its way to becoming the most important city in North American and the British Colonial Empire.
James Logan died in Philadelphiain 1751. He was buried at the site where the Arch Street Friends Meetinghouse would be built in 1804. His estate, “Stenton”, built in 1730, is now a National Historic Landmark located in the Logan section of the city near Logan Square. He is one of the greatest men in Pennsylvania history.
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