the key to the cowperthwaite house - drexel university

The Key

To The

Cowperthwaite

House

The Key to theCowperthwaite House

The Story of

A Brick House,

A Quaker Family &

A Great American Painter

The drawing on the cover and the drawings on the following pages are from the Historic American Building Survey (HABS) Report for The Cowperthwaite House (Survey no. N.J. 471) carried out by the Works Progress Administration (WPA) under direction of the United States Department of the Interior

National Park Service, Branch of Plans and Design

Term Paper for Quakers in West Jersey, Winter 2004Lisa Knell

IntroductionThe historic Thomas Cowperthwaite House (c.1742) in Moorestown stands at the inter-

section of King’s Highway, where Hessians marched in service to George III during the Revolutionary War, and Lenola Road, originally an Indian trail that “started at the river bank . . . a little above Riverton and crossing King’s Highway at its highest point skirted

the Mount at Mount Laurel and passed on through the pines to the seashore.” 1

Today the once grand Cowperthwaite “plantation” sits like a relic of another time at a busy intersection, barely visible through the overgrowth of trees and bushes. Once sur-rounded by fields and meadows now the house is surrounded by gas stations, a bank, and a strip mall. Hundreds of cars and passengers roar by the house every day. Furniture and debris are scattered in the yard. The brick house sits on a prime piece of real estate in the year 2004 and developers have expressed an interest in purchasing the property.

The Historical Society of Moorestown wants to save this important and historic house and is exploring whether to nominate it to the National and State Historic Registers. I am a member of the society’s board and its Historic Preservation and Community Awareness Committee, so I have been interested for some time in the house and in the effort to save it. Which brings us to Thomas Eakins (1844-1916), a Philadelphia native and one of America’s foremost painters.

In 2001, I attended an exhibition of Thomas Eakins’ work at the Philadelphia Art Museum called Thomas Eakins: American Realist. The exhibition was large and compre-hensive, showing how Eakins’ work progressed throughout his life. Towards the end of the collection there was a photo of an elderly woman sitting in a decorative chair with an open book on her lap. A tag identified the woman in the photo as “Aunt Eliza Cowperth-waite.”

It occurred to me that if Thomas Eakins had an aunt who was a Cowperthwaite, could he be related to our Thomas Cowperthwaite House in some way? And, if so, could that association help save the house? A little research on Eakins revealed that his middle name was “Cowperthwaite” and that his mother was Caroline Cowperthwaite Eakins, the daughter of a Quaker cobbler.

The following paper explores the history of the house, the Cowperthwaite family, and the Eakins connection, all in the context of the Quakers and their influence on West Jersey and Philadelphia.

1. George DeCou, Moorestown and Her Neighbors (The News Chronicle, Moorestown, NJ, 1929), p. 21.

PART I — A Brick HouseAn abundant spring of good water existed at the foot of the ridge; . . . on the South side of Main street, below Union street, West Moorestown. Tradition says that that spring, with its bountiful supply of pure and sparkling water, decided the location of Moorestown. The Indians understood its advantages and settled on the ridge in its neighborhood. 2

According to the law of primitive growth the navigable water-courses controlled the loca-tion of the first settlement in the region. Penisauken and Rancocas creeks were such water-courses, and the first English settlement in this vicinity was planted between the branches of the Penisauken; and all Chester township, including what are now Cinnaminson and Delran townships, was originally named Posomokin, or Penisauken, from the Indian town already existing there when the first white settlers came. The banks of the Rancocas gained their share of settlers not long afterwards, and the holdings of white men gradually extended along both streams. People are easily crowded in a new country. Where there is plenty of room everybody wants a good deal; and so the pio-neers and their civilization are shouldered farther and farther into the wilderness. So the first creek settlements soon began to throw out off-shoots; but not, at first, into the interior.

Moorestown has no navigable streams, and so it had to wait for roads. The Burlington and Salem road, called “King’s Highway,” was laid out in 1682, and passed along the ridge on which Moorestown stands.3

Some time after 1684, John Cowperth-waite built a house by the King’s Highway, atop a hill, just above the north branch of the Pennsauken Creek. His son Thomas inherited the land from his father and in 1742 built a fine brick house there. The decorative arched brick niche on the gable, where the construction date of the house was painted, shows that this was an impor-tant house for its time.

Today that house is called the Thomas Cowperthwaite House. Its foundation is brick and stone with exterior brick walls. The brick is laid in common bond on the front and back elevations, and in Flemish bond on the southwest end.

2. James C. Purdy, Moorestown Old and New (The Historical Society of Moorestown, New Jersey, 1976) p. 3.

3. Purdy, p. 3–4.

Photo of the Thomas Cowperthwaite House from the HABS Report, 1938. The niche with the painted date is located just below the attic window (most likely the win-dow was added at a later date). The bricks on that side are done in Flemish bond—alternate headers and stretchers in each course.

Drawn detail of the arched brickwork niche and painted date. Note that the paint has worn off and the date can no longer be seen in the arch.

Details from the Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS) Report.

SOUTH-EAST ELEVATION

Location of Thomas Cowperthwaite House

Built In Chester Town-ship, Burlington County, New Jersey, 1742

Details from the Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS) Report.

SOUTH-WESTELEVATION

FLOOR PLAN – FIRST FLOOR

PART II — A Quaker FamilyThomas Cowperthwaite, the namesake of the brick house, was a Quaker. His grandpar-

ents Hugh and Elizabeth Cowperthwaite left England with many others to avoid religious persecution and arrived in Flushing, Long Island, NY around 1674. Their two sons John and Hugh, also born in England, arrived at Long Island at a later date.

Thomas’ grandfather was a minister of the Society of Friends and found work as a schoolmaster and tailor. As a minister, Hugh made frequent trips to meetings in New Jer-sey and Pennsylvania. When he died in 1720 the Flushing Monthly Meeting described

him as “A substantial Friend, a minister nearly forty years and universally beloved.” 4

Thomas’ father, John Cowperthwaite purchased 292 acres of land in Chester Township, Burlington County in West Jersey.

At the western end of the township, between and at the junction of the north and south branches of the Penisaukin Creek, there was surveyed and laid off to John Clark and John Rudderow, in the tenth month, 1684, six hundred and fifty acres of land. About the same time, and in between the branches of the said creek, land was located or settle-ments made by John Roberts, Timothy Hancock, William Matlack, Samuel Coles, and John Cowperthwaite . . .5

In 1690, John married Sara Adams in Queens, NY. Sara was a native-born American from Flushing, NY. They joined the Haddonfield Monthly Meeting as there was no meeting house in Chester at that time.

The first Meeting House in Moorestown erected in 1700 was a small log affair and stood on the northwest corner of Main Street and Chester Avenue . . . The lot on which the Meeting House stood was conveyed by James and Esther Adams to Matthew Allen, John Adams, William Hollinshead, Thomas French, Joseph Heritage, Thomas Wallis, John Cowperthwaite, William Matlack, Sarah Roberts (widow of John Roberts), Rich-ard Heritage, all of Chester Township and Thomas Hooton and Timothy Hancock of Eve-sham Township trustees of Chester Meeting for fourteen shillings lawful money on Second month 9th, 1700. The deed read, "all that acre of land on King's Highway on the west together with all that house or building now erected and being upon said acre of land called the Quaker Meeting House." For many years the Meeting was called the Adams' Meeting.6

John Cowperthwaite was a shoemaker by trade, but also farmed. We know that he had cattle because his “earmark” (the distinctive and unique cut put on the ears of animals to

4. J. Eliot Woodbridge, Cowperthwaite — Seven Generation from Hugh born 1648 (privately printed Princeton, NJ, 1983) p. 1.

5. Purdy, p. 189.6. DeCou, p. 53–54. Note the number of Adam’s family names listed—they may have been broth-

ers or other relatives of Sara Adams Cowperthwaite and could explain why the couple moved to Chester after living in New York.

determine who they belong to) is described in the Chester records: John Cowperthwaite

is two half peny under side of the near ear.7

John and Sara Cowperthwaite had five children: Thomas, John, Hugh, Elizabeth, and Susannah. The marriages of these children show the extent to which the early Quaker families interacted with each other—despite the fact that they were spread over a large distance. While Thomas married a woman from Chester township, John married a woman from Gloucester County, NJ, and Hugh spent much of his early life on Long Island

living with his uncle, who had no children.8 Elizabeth was married at Flushing to a man from Woodbridge, NJ, and Susannah also married a man from Woodbridge, NJ.

John was an active member of the community, serving in many of the early “civil organi-zations” for Chester township including: overseer of highways (1710), constable (1700,

1742), freeholder (1715), and collector (1718, 1720–22).9

When John Cowperthwaite died in December of 1732 he left his property to his sons

John and Thomas10. Thomas’ portion included the house (described in the deed as a

“plantation and meadowland”11). Soon after taking possession of his father’s house and land, Thomas Cowperthwaite married Mary Borden on February 19, 1733. They pro-duced eight children. Thomas completed his own house on the property ten years later—in 1742—the brick house that we call the Thomas Cowperthwaite House.

Thomas, like his father, was active in the community and served in Chester’s civil orga-nizations including: overseer of highways (1735–36, 1747), constable (1757), and collec-

tor (1742–43).12

Thomas’ wife Mary died in 1771 and two years later there was a transfer of the house

and land to his son Job for the amount of “one shilling.”13 (Perhaps he no longer wanted to keep up the house.) At that time the “plantation” was about 250 acres. Thomas died in

1781.14

7. Purdy, p. 196.8. Woodbridge, p. 2.9. Purdy, p. 203–207.10.His other son, Hugh, had probably spent most of his early life on Long Island, living with his

uncle. Hugh was disowned by the Friends for a marriage in 1734 that did not follow the Quaker custom. He eventually bought land on Crosswicks Creek in Upper Freehold, Monmouth County. (Woodbridge, p. 2.)

11.Note that “plantation” had a specific connotation in 18th century West Jersey. A successful farmer would show himself off by building an important house. We don’t know what John’s house looked like, but the fact that it was called a “plantation” shows that it would have been substantial for its time.

12.Purdy, p. 203–207.13.Nan Pillsbury, Thomas Cowperthwaite builds home on site of homestead (NEWSWeekly, Decem-

ber 2, 1999) p. 13.

Job, who had married Ann Vickers from Haddonfield in 1777, died intestate in 1813 and his estate was divided between his twelve children. His son Joseph inherited the house.

He left it to his brother Stacy, who left it to his brother Ambrose.15

The house was in the Cowperthwaite family until about 1855 when Lehman Cowperth-waite sold fourteen acres and the house to Thomas S. Rogers for seven thousand dol-lars. From that time until 1927 the ownership of the house changed hands eleven times.

The Cowperthwaite family was active in the affairs of the Meeting and community in the early days but apparently has entirely disappeared from the neighborhood of Moore-stown.16

PART III — A Great American PainterThomas Eakins was born in Philadelphia on July 25, 1844. Both the place and time of his birth were significant preconditions for the development of one of this nation’s most insightful, revered, and enigmatic painters. An established center for arts and sciences, Philadelphia at mid-nineteenth century provided rich and rigorous educational opportuni-ties.17

Thomas C. Eakins is considered to be one of the great American painters, using dis-tinctly American subjects in his art. He attended the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in Philadelphia and then spent several years in Paris at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts before returning to Philadelphia.

Eakins painted the people and the world that he knew best—family members, friends, and people in and around Philadelphia. He painted many landscapes including scullers and sailors on the Delaware River. He broke new ground with paintings that showed the human anatomy, including ones that showed intricate medical procedures. Eakins was a professor of drawing and painting and then director of the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, helping to establish the reputation of the academy as a one of the best places for art instruction.

Eakins never became very famous in his time (though he was often at the center of a controversy) or made a lot of money — but he influenced other artists through his various teaching positions and many artist friends.

14.An interesting item in his will read, “I do hereby manumit and give my negroe man Tony, my negroe woman Hagan, and my negroe woman Hannah their natural freedom.” (Pillsbury, p. 13) This follows the Quaker belief that slavery was wrong.

15.Pillsbury, p. 13.16.DeCou, p. 34.17.Amy B. Werbel, Thomas Eakins (Philadelphia Museum of Art, 2001) p. 1.

Here is the photo of Aunt Eliza Cowperthwaite that I saw at the Eakins retrospective at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. The photo made me wonder if Thomas Eakins could be connected to the Thomas Cowperthwaite House.

Part of the fun of genealogy is the thrill of discovery — finding a tidbit of information or a long-buried connection. I went to the Burlington County Historical Society library to do research for a paper about Burlington Island. When I couldn’t find an interesting angle, I decided to see if they had anything about the Cowperthwaite family so I could investigate my hunch about Eakins.

I found a self-published manuscript by J. Eliot Woodbridge entitled “Cowperthwaite — Seven Generations from Hugh born 1648”. It contained an extensive genealogy for seven generations of descendents of Hugh Cowperthwaite. I opened the document and began at the end, scanning the members of the seventh generation.

There, on page 34, was a listing for Thomas Cowperthwaite Eakins the “noted Philadel-phia artist.” He was the first son of Benjamin and Caroline (Cowperthwaite) Eakins. So Eakins the artist was part of Hugh Cowperthwaite’s family, but would I find our Thomas Cowperthwaite and, if so, would he be in the same line as Eakins? I worked my way for-ward looking for the parents of Caroline.

Page 21 listed Caroline as the daughter of Mark and Margaret (Jones) Cowperthwaite. In addition, the description of Caroline’s siblings listed an older sister Elizabeth (Eakins’ Aunt Eliza and the woman in the photo that I had seen at the exhibition) who never mar-ried and had died in 1899.

showed Mark (born circa 1765) to be the son of Thomas and Mary (Willis) Cowperthwaite. He had moved from Salem County, NJ to Philadelphia in 1789 where he worked as a shoemaker.

Thomas Cowperthwaite Eakins’ study of his aunt, Eliza Cowperthwaite (photo from the 1880s).

Note that the chair where Aunt Eliza sits appears in several of Eakins’ paintings including An Actress (Portrait of Suzanne Santje) and Portrait of Amelia C. Van Buren.

Page 4 showed that Mark’s father Thomas was the second son of Thomas and Mary (Borden) Cowperthwaite of Chester Township—the builders of our Moorestown house. A direct line from our Thomas to his great-great-grandson the painter Thomas Cowperth-waite Eakins!

Seven Generations of Cowperthwaitesa: From Hugh Cowperthwaite to Thomas Cowperthwaite Eakins

a. Woodbridge includes a note about the different spellings of Cowperthwaite: The name Cowperthwaite has been found as: Cooperthwaite, Copersthwaith, Coperthaite, Coperthrite, Coperthwait, Coperthwiate, Copert-wate, Copethwaite, Copperthwait, Copperthwaite, Coppertwait, Copperwaithe, Coppotite, Couperthwait, Cowperthwait, Cowperthwaite, Coperthwart, Cowperthwate, Cowperthwest, Cowperwiat. The form “Cowper-thwaite” has been used unless specifically quoted, even though a few branches have dropped the final “e” believing that thirteen letters in a name are unlucky. The “Cowper” portion of the name would appear to mean “one who raises cows.” The “thwaite” portion of the name is a noun of Scandinavian origin and means “cleared land” —e.g., “cattle rancher.”

Cowperthwaite Generation Details Issues

1 Hugh and Elizabeth Cowperthwaite Hugh born 1648, Kentmere, Westmoreland, England. Arrives at Flushing, Long Island, NY from England c1674

Two sons:John, Hugh

2 John and Sara (Adams) Cowperthwaite John born 1667, Nottingham England. Moves to Chester, Burlington County a shoemaker and farmer.

Five children:Thomas, John, Hugh, Elizabeth, Susannah

3 Thomas and Mary (Borden) Cowperthwaite

Thomas born 1703, Chester (Moorestown) Township, NJ.Builds house in Chester (Moorestown), Burlington County, NJ, 1742.

Eight children:John, Thomas, William, Hugh, Job, Phebe, Mary, Elizabeth

4 Thomas and Mary (Willis) Cowperthwaite Thomas born Chester Township, NJ.Moves to Mannington, Salem County, NJ.

Three children:Thomas, Samuel, Mark

5 Mark and Margaret (Jones) Cowperthwaite

Mark born circa 1767, Mannington, Salem County, NJ.Moves to Philadelphia in 1789 where he worked as a shoemaker.

Five–ten childrenb:Elizabeth, Clementine, Caroline, Emmore, Thomas (and maybe others)

b. Woodbridge lists five children; Sewell says Caroline was the youngest of ten children. I find no mention of her birth year in any source.

6 Caroline Cowperthwaite and Benjamin Eakins

Caroline marries Benjamin Eakins (a writer and teacher), and son of an Irish immigrant; the couple reside at the home of Caroline’s mother Margaret for about 10 years.

Five children:Thomas, Frances, Benjamin, Margaret, Caroline

7 Thomas Cowperthwaite Eakins Thomas, Noted artist, born 1844; died in 1916.Married the painter Susan Macdowell in 1884.

None

PART IV — Quaker InfluencesHugh Cowperthwaite and his descendents seem to be a typical Quaker family of their

times. For the most part, the first three generations were devout Quakers that moved around New York and New Jersey settling in Quaker communities including those in Mon-mouth and Burlington counties. Later generations are found in many places including New York City, Philadelphia, and Canada.

The first Cowperthwaites subscribed to the rigorous conservatism of the Society of Friends. Later a gradual loss of members takes place to the “outter” world due to individ-ualism, unapproved marriages, or nonconformism.18

Beginning in the fourth generation, family members begin to leave the strict Quaker faith. Many descendents were condemned for unapproved marriages (i.e., marrying someone outside of the Society of Friends). Thomas Cowperthwaite’s son Hugh was dis-owned for disunity. His oldest son, John was disowned by the Rahway and Plainfield Meeting for marrying out. By the time that this John married in 1774, the Quaker popula-tion was declining while the total population of the states was quickly rising. There was a move by the Quakers to exert more control on their members to keep them from straying and part of this control was the enforcement of marriage rules.

In the fifth generation, Thomas Cowperthwaite Jr., was disowned because of his mar-riage. After his first wife died he married Margaret Tucker in 1791 and was the proprietor

of a boarding house near Tuckerton, NJ. 19 His brother, Mark (Thomas Eakins’ grandfa-ther) married an Episcopalian and moved to Philadelphia. The influences of the outside

world were becoming harder for the Quakers to overcome.20

18.Woodbridge, p. i.19.“. . . there are but few, if any persons now living, who once had a transient home and ‘made

merry’, in the pleasant seaside resort presided over by Thomas Cowperthwaite and his sociable wife.” Woodbridge, p. 10.

20.Another fifth generation member, Job Cowperthwaite, Jr., likely the son of Thomas’ son Job Cowperthwaite, seems to have fallen extremely far from the Quaker faith. A story in the Burlington Mirror newspaper (published in Mt. Holly) from November 13, 1851 entitled THE MURDER OF ROBERTS recounts the following story: It will be recollected by many of our readers, that about four years ago, a wealthy farmer named Ezra Roberts, living a short distance below Moorestown, was murdered and robbed near Camden. No clue could, at that time, be obtained of the perpetrator of the deed, but circumstances have recently transpired leading to the suspicion of a person confined in the State Prison. The person suspected of the murder of Mr. Roberts, is Job Cowperthwaite, Jr., who was tried and convicted at the last term of our Court, for shooting a Mrs. Vansciver at Moorestown. The report, it is said, originated from a declaration of the wife of Cowperthwaite, previous to her death, which occurred a short time since, and who had hitherto concealed it because Cowperthwaite threatened her life, if she disclosed the horrid deed. We know not what reliance is to be placed in this statement, but we understood at the time of Cowperthwaite's trial, that circumstances had come to light relative to this murder, by which a strong case could be made out against him.

Unfortunately we know very little about the lives of most of the Cowperthwaite descen-dants. Most of the information we have is recorded data about births, deaths, marriages, and property ownership. However, because Thomas Eakins was an important artist and famous person, we have a window into some of the details of his life.

Eakins, in the seventh generation, still had Quaker influences coming from his mother’s

family.21 His mother’s two older sisters, Eliza and Clementine, lived in the Eakins’ house-hold on Mount Vernon Street in Philadelphia; Aunt Eliza until she died there at age 89.

The spirit of the household is more difficult to establish. The Quaker background of his mother’s family must have nurtured Eakins’ quiet courtesy and sympathetic interest; the frank honesty evident throughout his life may well stem from this background.22

Although their father had been “a stern Quaker” his mother and her sister Eliza were much more relaxed, even permitting themselves occasionally a charming frivolity of detail in their dress, and probably also in their manner.23

While the extent of its influence is difficult to establish, the formalities of the Quaker way of life were evident in his life from time to time. On October 3, 1883, Eakins and his wife-to-be acted as witnesses at the Quaker wedding of young friends, and when a few months later they too were married, it was in a Quaker fashion.24

Indeed, the willingness with which Thomas Eakins devoted endless hours to those in need—one thinks of his friendship in Paris with his mute fellow student, Harry Moore; of his dedicated support of the failing Schussele; or of his affection for the painter George W. Holmes, who in later years became blind—may well be seen as a reflection of the particular concern for others characteristic of the Quaker outlook.25

Philadelphia’s Roman Catholic Cardinal Dougherty wrote of Eakins:

He told me he was a man who didn’t believe in the divinity of Christ; whether or not he was an atheist I have not heard. He seemed to be an amiable character.26

When you look at some of the themes in Eakins’ paintings and his life, you can see the Quaker influences. One of Eakins’ talents was capturing on canvas, the spirit of the per-son he was painting. Perhaps Eakins’ unique style was his artistic expression of the Quaker belief in each individual’s “inner light.”

. . . Eakins developed a splendid skill in experiencing through every part of the body the dominant character of an individual . . .27

21.His father was the son of an Irish immigrant and was not a Quaker.22.Theodor Siegl, The Thomas Eakins Collection (Philadelphia Museum of Art, The Falcon Press,

Philadelphia; 1978) p. 27.23.Siegl, p. 27.24.Siegl, p. 27.25.Siegl, p. 27.26.Siegl, p. 38.27.Siegl, p. 30.

As an artist, Eakins was interested in the human body and how the bones and muscles worked. Though Eakins’ Quaker ancestors may have been shocked at this fixation on the naked human body (he was dismissed from various teaching posts over his use of nude models), they might have approved of his advocation of equality for the sexes. Following the Quaker belief in educational equality for women, when Eakins taught at the Pennsyl-vania Academy he insisted that both male and female students study anatomy and con-duct dissections.

The poet Walt Whitman (who, interestingly, also had Quaker influences in his life) lived across the river from Philadelphia in Camden. He and Eakins met in 1887 and formed a close friendship—both having an interest in the human body.

In Whitman’s autobiographical poem “Song of Myself,” the images found in the sweeping examination of his life repeatedly invoke motifs or attitudes that are also found in Eakins’s pictures. Each man’s work was a reflection of life as he had experienced it. While there are more mystical overtones in the poet’s words than in the painter’s images, there is a frank honesty in each that is far removed from the romantic perceptions char-acteristic of the work of so many of their contemporaries.28

Eakins painted a portrait of Whitman that seems to embody the Quaker tenet of plain-ness and simplicity. As Whitman puts it: “without any fuss of any sort”.

Whitman’s own reaction to his portrait, his favorite of the many that had been done, is evident in his having stated: “The Eakins portrait gets there—fulfills its purpose; sets me down in correct style, without feathers—without any fuss of any sort. I like the picture always—it never fades—never weakens.” 29

While the later descendants of Hugh Cowperthwaite and the 17th century West Jersey Quaker settlers might no longer be practicing Quakers, many of the Quaker beliefs and the results of their progressive educational philosophies seem to have filtered down all the way to the 20th century.

28.Siegl, p. 25.29.Siegl, p. 25.

PART V — Saving the Brick HouseDoes the history and legacy of one’s family going back four or five generations have any

influence on a person? David Scull Bispham would probably say that it does. Bispham was the first American-born baritone to achieve international acclaim. He performed around the world and was a star at the New York Metropolitan Opera. His mother was a

Lippincott, whose Quaker family had settled in Salem County, West Jersey.30 His father’s family had first settled in Burlington and were part of the early settlers of Chester Town-

ship. Bispham himself spent his boyhood in Moorestown.31

In his autobiography, A Quaker Singer’s Recollections, David Bispham wrote:

. . . for am I not the concentrated essence of the experiences of my ancestors as well as myself? 32

You could argue that Eakins’ art was influenced by his Quaker background—and his deepest Quaker roots were in that house and property in one of the early Quaker settle-ments in West Jersey, but Thomas Eakins’ ties to the Thomas Cowperthwaite House might best be described as distant. It’s not likely that he ever even saw the house—his grandparents and great-grandparents had lived in Salem County. By the time Eakins was a young man the house had passed out of the hands of the Cowperthwaite family.

While researching the Eakins connection to the house I came across another interesting association. The house may have been used as the first local Quaker school. Susanna Green inherited the house from her parents (they bought it in 1927). She gave a tour of the house to Dr. Nan Pillsbury, a local historian, who wrote:

. . . she showed one room on the second floor which was the local school classroom before a nearby school was erected in 1785. In fact, the old coat pegs remain on the wall around the room.33

In 1784, Job and Anna Cowperthwaite sold the Friends of Chester Meeting one and one

quarter acres of land “for one shilling hard money.” 34 A brick school house was built on

30.Interestingly there is no record of David Bispham’s birth in 1857 in the archives of the Society of Friends because his mother was disowned for marrying out of meeting (though she was received back into the fold at a later date). His father—though from a Quaker family—was a “free thinker” and had left the Quaker body. (David Scull Bispham, A Quaker Singer’s Recollec-tions, The MacMillan Company, New York, 1920, p.v2)

31.Bispham writes about Moorestown: “I had often been there before on the old stage-coach, and used to be shown the place under the bank of Pennshawken Creek where the first members of my family to pass that way had slept in a cave. William Penn had granted lands to my people, and they were going to them through the forests that then covered the country to take up their land and settle down among the Indians.” (Bispham, p. 6.)

32.Bispham, p. i (preface).33.Pillsbury, p. 13.34.Purdy, p. 88.

this land, located “near the King’s Highway not far from its junction with the old Ferry

Road leading to Camden.” 35 The school opened on “the 6th day of 12th month, 1785.” 36

Purdy writes in his book that it is probable that this brick school house was the first school established by the Friends as a Society in Moorestown. DeCou’s version varies slightly from this; he writes:

A minute of Evesham Monthly Meeting dated Ninth month 10th, 1784, clearly indicates that neither the brick school on the Matlack farm nor the stone school in Moorestown was the first to be established under the care of Chester Meeting. This minute records “that a school at Moorestown had been established in Chester (Township) near Job Cowperthwaite’s and that the above named school at Evesham is established.” I have found no other reference to a school having been held in Moorestown under the care of the Meeting prior to 1785 and I assume it was held in the Meeting House.37

Local legend (as well as the coat pegs in the second floor room) points to the Cowperth-waite house as the site of this first Quaker school. Since Job and Anna Cowperthwaite sold the land for the first official Quaker school building and no source is certain where a Quaker school would have been held before that school was built, it certainly seems pos-sible.

Thomas Eakins’ connection to the Cowperthwaite house is distant, but definite. We don’t know for sure, but the house may have been the site of the first Quaker class-room in Moorestown. (Nonetheless, we do know that the Cowperthwaite family was instrumental in the establishment of the first Quaker school house since they provided the land for it.)

These are both key connections, but even without them the Thomas Cowperthwaite House is important and distinctive just because of its age and architecture. Its brick pat-terns and arched date niche show it to have been an important plantation house for its time. The Quakers wanted to make an impact on the land and their new country and one of the ways they did this was to build brick houses with patterns, initials, and dates that could permanently record where they had lived and prospered.

There is no question that the Thomas Cowperthwaite House is an important link to the history and Quaker heritage of West Jersey and should be preserved.

35.DeCou, p. 66.36.Purdy, p. 88.37.DeCou, p. 66.

SourcesBispham, David Scull, A Quaker Singer’s Recollections, The MacMillan Company, New York, 1920.

Burlington Mirror, The Murder of Roberts. Searchable Index at http://index.burlco.lib.nj.us/Mirror (Hit# 13; Acsn# 52605; Category: Obituaries; Headline: Local Facts and Fancies) November 13, 1851, p. 3, Col. 1.

DeCou, George, Moorestown and Her Neighbors, Historical Sketches, The News Chroni-cle, Moorestown, NJ, 1929.

Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS); Survey Number HABS NJ-471: “Cowperth-waite House, King's Hwy., Moorestown vicinity, Burlington County, NJ”, Library of Con-gress, documentation compiled after 1933.

Pillsbury, Nan, Thomas Cowperthwaite builds home on site of homestead, NEWSWeekly, December 2, 1999.

Purdy, James C., Moorestown Old and New, The Historical Society of Moorestown, New Jersey, 1976.

Siegl, Theodor, The Thomas Eakins Collection, Philadelphia Museum of Art, The Falcon Press, Philadelphia; 1978.

Thomas Eakins, organized by Darrel Sewell, Philadelphia Museum of Art in association with Yale University Press, 2001.

Woodbridge, J Eliot, Cowperthwaite — Seven Generations from Hugh born 1648, pri-vately printed Princeton, NJ, 1983.

Enthusiasm for one's goal lessens the disagreeableness of working toward it.

—Thomas Eakins

the key to the cowperthwaite house - drexel university

Documents