New Garden Historical Commission - Lamborn House

<body text="#000000" bgcolor="#FFFFFF" link="#0000FF" alink="#FF0000" vlink="#990099" > <table border="0" cellpadding="5" width="100%" bgcolor="#999999"> <tr> <td><p align="center"><img src="../lyceum/lyceum.jpg" width="200" height="114"></p> </td> <td align="center"> <h1><font color=black>New Garden Historical Commission</font></h1> <p><a href="../index.htm" target="_top"><font color=black>Click here</font></a> <font color=black> to return to the home page and links to other articles</font></p> </td> </tr> </table> <p align="center"><font size="5"><strong>The Lamborns and Their House</strong></font></p> <p align="center"><font size="4"><strong>presented at an Annual New Garden History Night<br> November 11, 2011<br> Margaret B. Jones, Ph.D.</strong></font></p> <p align="center"><font size="4"><strong><img src="DSC01023.jpg" width="500" height="375"></strong></font></p> <p>Land that today constitutes the New Garden Township Park is part of the 350 acres granted in 1716, to James Starr by William Penn, Jr. Starr was one of the 27 Irish Quakers who took up land in New Garden Township in the early 1700s. Starrs wooded tract, spliced by two streams, extended, using modern roads as approximate boundaries, from Penn Green Road to Starr Road, to Newark Road and north to the southern boundary of New Garden Meetings cemetery. Almost immediately James Starr began to sell off parcels. The 200 acres, of which we are interested, had several owners before being purchased by Thomas Lamborn in 1783. </p> <p>But this is getting ahead of our story of the Lamborn family. We begin with a young man named Robert Lamborn, born in 1697 in Berkshire, England. According to baptismal records Robert was born of Episcopalian parents. When he was a young teenager, Robert fell in love with a girl named Sarah Swayne, whose parents were Quakers. This attachment seemed hopeless. Both sets of parents were opposed to an alliance and furthermore, the Swaynes were planning to leave England; they were going to immigrate to America.</p> <p>In 1711, the Swayne family, seeking relief from persecution for their Quaker beliefs, set sail for the New World. Robert had no idea where in America the family might have settled, so there wasnt even any correspondence between the two young people. Despite the separation, Robert was determined to find his love. He was not going to let a vast ocean do what a parental veto as well as time and distance might do. He determined to find Sarah and finally in 1713, at the age of 16, he secured permission from his parents to immigrate, going as an indentured servant to New Castle, Delaware. </p> <p>The story goes that upon completing his seven years indenture, Robert went to Philadelphia to search for Francis Swayne, Sarah father. He was successful; one of the first persons he met on the street was Francis Swayne. Not knowing how he would be received, he approached Swayne and was delighted to see a welcoming smile. Francis Swayne invited young Robert to his home near London Grove, (a distance of about 30 miles) saying, I have only one horse, but we will ride and hitch. (One rode a few miles and hitched the horse some distance ahead of the walking traveler, who coming to the horse would ride until he passed the walker. This would continue giving each an opportunity to ride as well as to walk.) Francis Swayne arranged the hitches so that he was the first to arrive home. He immediately sent his daughter, Sarah, to meet Robert. With this romantic reunion accomplished, and the opposition of her parents removed, Robert and Sarah were free to eventually marry.</p> <p><strong>Robert Lamborn (1697-1775) Sarah Swayne (1700-1776)</strong></p> <p>The Swayne farm was on Street Road, east of London Grove. Robert Lamborn, using a gift from his father, also purchased land on Street Road, but a mile west of London Grove. Here he built a log house and created a farmstead of outbuildings. Eventually, Robert joined the Society of Friends and in 1722, he and Sarah Swayne were married. Thomas and Sarah Lamborn reared a family of nine children. (Robert, William, Ann, Elizabeth, Francis, John, Thomas, Josiah, Sarah)</p> <p>(The first crossroads west of London Grove on Street Road, today is known as Lamborntown. You can see the large brick house built by Roberts son, William. which stands near the site of Robert Lamborns log homestead.)</p> <p><strong>Thomas Lamborn (1738-1812) Dinah Carson (1744-1807)</strong></p> <p>We are interested, however, in Robert and Sarah Lamborns son Thomas, born in 1738. In 1763, when Thomas was 25 years old, he married an 18 year old Quaker minister, Dinah Carson. (In Quaker circles in those days, the ability to provide vocal ministry in Meeting was considered very high status and Dinahs messages were much appreciated.) In 1777, Thomas Lamborn rented the land that would one day become our Park and in 1783, he purchased this 200 acre farm he had been renting. Here he, and his wife Dinah, would rear 9 children in the log house, built in the early 1740s, probably by an earlier owner, one Robert Brown. </p> <p>This land that Thomas Lamborn purchased, was to be in Lamborn hands for more than a century. But for a 24 year interval, it was Lamborn land from 1783 until 1929, a time period of 146 years. Most likely the appeal of this land to Thomas was the stream that flowed through the valley. Thomas Lamborn was a tanner and to establish a tannery, he required a reliable source of water in which to treat the hides. Given the multiple uses of leather in the colonial economy, tanneries abounded in southern Chester County.</p> <p>Think now of what was happening in 1777. Thomas and Dinah had moved their family to the log house in April. Their first harvest was in the barn. Then in early September, General Howes British army was poised, ready to march to from the head of the Elk River to Chadds Ford. Howe deployed his Hessian allies under General Knuthausan to protect the western flank. The route of the Hessian army was from the Delaware line to the intersection of Sharp and Rt 41, then called the Gap-Newport Pike. The Hessians camped around the Allen Tavern; they were living off the land, and they were less than a mile from the Lamborn farm. For these soldiers, the motto was take anything you can carry. Dinah Lamborn was reputed to have met the stripping of their possessions by both armies by firmly stating her testimony, Let us trust in the Lord. </p> <p>Thomas and Dinah Lamborn were staunch pacifists, plain spoken advocates for peace. In the face of the Revolutionary War, they experienced deprivations both from the marauding Hessian Army, and also from Colonial Militiamen. The colonial militia viewed anyone who refused to paying the levied taxes or to contribute to the war effort as a traitor and therefore fair game.</p> <p>On one occasion Thomas Lamborn was plowing in the field when some militiamen detached his horses from his plow, appropriated them for the use of the army and left Thomas standing by his plow. Another time, the militia beat sheaves of wheat against the posts in his barn to remove the grain, threw the straw back into the mow, saying, There, Lamborn may have that. In the winter of 1781, in lieu of war taxes that Thomas Lamborn had refused to pay, Colonial authorities confiscated 2 cows, 6 sheep, 4 lambs, 2 pewter dishes, and 2 plates. Altogether, during the War years, Thomas Lamborn was fined about 769 pounds or $4000, all because he refused to support the Patriot cause. </p> <p>With all of these losses, it is no wonder that in 1787, there is a record of Thomas Lamborn being sheriffed out. When the sale day occurred, however, Thomas brother, William Lamborn, was the buyer. Brother, William came to Thomas rescue, buying the farm, selling off 120 acres to recover his cost and returning the remaining 100 acres to Thomas. During the last years of Thomas and Dinahs lives, their son, Thomas,Jr., to whom they had deeded the farm, and his sister, Miriam, who never married, cared for their parents. Thomas was afflicted with asthma and Dinah had such rheumatism that for the last 8 years of her life, she could not walk. Dinah died in 1807, Thomas in 1812. Both were buried near members of his Lamborn family in the Friends Burying Ground at London Grove Meeting.</p> <p><strong>Thomas Lamborn, Jr. (1774-1843) Phoebe Hobson (1777-1836)</strong></p> <p>Thomas, Jr.. born in 1774, married Phoebe Hobson; a girl he probably had known all his life. Phoebe was three years his junior and had grown up on the neighboring farm. They married in 1807, the year his mother, Dinah died. Thomas Jr. and Phoebe Lamborn reared 5 children on the farm.Hannah, John, Hobson, Elizabeth and Thomas III. </p> <p>Writing of his father in later years, Thomas, Jrs son, Thomas,III said, Father prospered. In 1816, just four years after his fathers death, Thomas, Jr. built a two story brick addition to his log house. And about a decade later, he demolished the old log house that was probably about 80 years old and replaced it with a stone kitchen wing. Apparently the Franklin stove was not in common use because this kitchen included a large cooking fireplace and a built in bake oven. Thomas, Jr. was also able to repurchase the 120 acres of land that his Uncle William had sold to pay his fathers debts. The farm once again contained 200 plus acres. In 1817, Thomas Lamborn was taxed for a brick house, frame barn, log barn and two log tenant houses.</p> <p>There is a story that involved Thomas, Jr. .an account of an accident that occurred in the early 1820s. One evening after dark, Adam Musketeer, a Lancaster County farmer, and his son were driving down Rt 41, then the Gap Newport Pike, with a 4-horse team. Their wagon was loaded with 3 hogsheads of whiskey. Father and son were hurrying to reach the New Garden Tavern (on the corner of Sharp Road) for the night. In the darkness, they drove off the edge of the little bridge spanning the stream that crossed the road (located today in the edge of the woods on the St.Gabriels property). The wagon overturned and Musketeer was thrown from his seat.</p> <p>The son called to his father, but receiving no response, set off in the dark for help. The first house he reached was a tenant house on Thomas Lamborns farm. A black family who had a real fear of kidnappers, occupied the house. They refused to open the door or to believe the boys story. Seeing a light in the distance, the boy then hurried across the fields, knocked and roused Thomas Lamborn,Jr. Taking a lantern, and saddling his horse, Lamborn returned with the boy to the scene of the accident. Here they found the elder Musketeer lying beneath one of his hogsheads, dead.</p> <p>Placing the dead man across his horse, Thomas Lamborn carried him to his house for an inquest the next morning. Kind neighbors took the boy home and the local storekeepers each purchased a hogshead of whiskey. To this day, the small stream that flows from Ellis Allens farm (now Marsden) across the road to Thomas Lamborns farm is known as Whiskey Run. </p> <p>Thomas Lamborn, Jr. was much involved in the life of his Quaker Meeting at New Garden. For many years he opened graves for burial in the cemetery. In the summer of 1824, he reported opening 62 graves in two months during an epidemic of typhoid fever. Can you imagine the loss to the community of 62 lives in two months?</p> <p>Thomass wife, Phoebe Hobson Lamborn, died in 1836, in her 59th year. Her obituary read: She was of a meek and quiet spirit, her patience continued under suffering, and resignation to the divine will. From this one might guess that Phoebe had a long final illness. A year after her death, Thomas Jr., married again, marrying Rachel Yarnell. She survived him.</p> <p>The Thomas Lamborn, Jr. family attended Meeting for Worship in what we call the Lower New Garden Meeting House. Orthodox Friends built this Meeting House in 1831. In 1827, there had been a schism among Friends. Those who were concerned with social issues such as abolition of slavery, followed a Quaker preacher named Elias Hicks and called themselves Hicksite Friends. By contrast, Orthodox Friends were more concerned with words of the gospel and the life of the spirit. The Lamborns belonged to the group called Orthodox and worshipped in the Lower Meeting House. (All the Friends Meetings in the Philadelphia area suffered the same schism.)</p> <p>Apparently Thomas Lamborn, Jr. suffered from heart disease for many years and anticipated a sudden death. Consequently, at different times, he wrote words of advice and counsel to his surviving children. He gave these to a trusted friend writing, If thou survive me, please come to our house and read them in a solemn and deliberate manner to my family when I am no more. </p> <p>Thomas Lamborn (Jr.) several times said he thought he should suddenly leave this world; adding, It matters not how or when or what pains of body I have, for the peace of my soul is above all. The world cannot give it, and thanks be to God, it cannot take it away. I believe death will leave no sting and the grave have no victory. </p> <p>One First Day morning at Meeting for Worship, Thomas Lamborn, Jr. spoke aloud, repeating the language of the apostle: For I am now ready to be offered and the time of my departure is at hand; I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith; henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, shall give me at that day; and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing. Five days later he retired for the night as usual and was found, expired in his bed. He died on 9th month, 28, 1843 at the age of 69 years.</p> <p>Thomas Lamborn, Jr. willed his farmland to his two sons, each to have a farm. Thomas III inherited the eastern parcel, and John received the western farm. Thus the Lamborn house whose occupants we have been following, became the home of Thomas III. (John built the red brick house which today sits in the center of Landenberg Hunt residential development.)</p> <p><strong>Thomas Lamborn III (1821-1892) Mary Hayes (1826-1919)</strong></p> <p>Yhomas, III, born in 1821, had been the student in his family. For several years he attended Enoch Lewis academy on the adjoining farm (the farm south of New Garden Elementary School) and then he went to Westtown Boarding School. In 1839, when he was 18, he served as an assistant mathematics teacher there. His interest in astronomy had been fostered during his years in Enoch Lewis school when he anticipated several eclipses as well as the transit of Venus for the year 1882 (which he lived to witness as he had predicted).</p> <p>In 1846, Thomas III married Mary Hayes, who was described as an estimable young woman, who proved herself a good wife and mother. The couple had nine children, three of whom died as infants. (Israel, Hayes. d., Isaiah, Mary, Thomas H., Charles, Joseph, Edward. d., Hannah. d.)</p> <p>Born into an Orthodox Quaker family, Thomas III was a bit of a misfit at Lower New Garden Meeting. He often provided vocal ministry and was a registered minister, but his messages were not well received. He felt charity and fellowship should not be confined to the narrow limits of the Quaker community. His public ministry was activated by love to God and goodwill to men. Thomas III exerted his voice, his pen and his influence against the social issues of the day. He strongly opposed slavery, advocated peace, and decried the manufacture of intoxicating beverages. Soon, he was deemed out of unity, and was dismissed or read out of Meeting. </p> <p>In 1854, Thomas IIIs brother, John, sold his farm, the western tract of their fathers farm back to Thomas. Once again, the Lamborn farm was an intact 200 acres. But in December of 1858, just four years later, Thomas III advertised his farm for sale. He listed the never failing springs and streams, wells of good soft water, ten acres of timber, a good apple orchard, cherry trees and other fruit, described his land as smooth and rolling, divided into convenient fields with good fencing. Why did Thomas III wish to sell his ancestral land?</p> <p>Thomas III felt it his place as a Quaker minister to uphold the spirituality of the gospel and to extend love to all branches of the Christian church and he needed to live where there were others who agreed with him. The Lamborn farm was sold to Pennock Hoopes. ThenThomas III and Mary were free to leave New Garden. They moved first to Scipio, NY and then to Kansas, to a farm much isolated from society, where Thomas felt free to speak when he felt it right to do so and as the way opened.</p> <p><strong>Josiah Lamborn (1850-1929) Mary Hoopes (1852-1898)</strong></p> <p>Pennock Hoopes owned the Lamborn homestead from 1860 to his death in 1884. The farm then came back into the Lamborn family when it was sold to Josiah Lamborn, nephew to Thomas III. (His father was Thomas IIIs brother, John.) Josiah, who had been born in 1850, was married in 1879, to Mary Hoopes, daughter of Israel and Mary Hoopes. The couple had four children: Percy, Nathan, Robert and Sarah. </p> <p>Josiah Lamborns contemporaries described him as  a man of unquestionable ability and sagacity for business, possessing great energy and strength. This enabled him to carry on successfully whatever he undertook on his farm. Soon after purchasing the farm of his uncle, grandfather and great-grandfather, he began to make improvements. In 1888, he reroofed his house and made changes in the east room configuration.</p> <p>Other additions to the house were the two porches and ultimately stucco to cover the soft brick. The major construction on the farm was a 65 by 18 foot hog house. (Josiah Lamborn had been a butcher prior to purchasing the Lamborn homestead.) His business included not only butchering, but also processing milk. Josiah operated a creamery on the farm as well as one in Avondale, making butter. To separate the milk into cream and whey, make butter of the cream and feed the whey to his hogs, illustrates his efficient operation. For 50 years Josiah Lamborn maintained a stall at the Reading Terminal Market where he sold his butter and pork. For 50 years, he went weekly to Philadelphia, probably carting his products by wagon to the train station in Toughkenamon, or perhaps Avondale.</p> <p>Mary Lamborn died in 1910 by which time son, 25-year-old Nathan, was a partner in his fathers farming/marketing enterprise. In 1924, Josiah decided to retire. He spent his last five years with his brothers, Alfred and Hugh Lamborn in Colorado. Illness brought him home to the Chester County Hospital where he died following surgery. The year was 1929. With the onset of the great depression, farm prices were at an all time low. Nathan sold the farm, probably to settle his fathers estate. And the tenure of the Lamborns on their ancestral land, broken by only the 24 years interval, was at an end after 146 years,. Today the Lamborn farm is our Township Park and its centerpiece is the farmhouse which sheltered the Lamborn family for so many years. The history of the house and the Lamborn family is so very typical of the history of most of New Gardens farms and of their Quaker farm families. From the Revolutionary War to the Great Depression, the Lamborns story mirrors the story of New Gardens Quaker farm families during the 18th and 19th centuries.</p> </body>