Humphrey Morrey was a wealthy Quaker merchant and the first mayor of Philadelphia. Although he lived in comfort to a ripe old age, there were disappointments in his family. He and his wife lost four children in infancy and another son died before Humphrey did. Humphrey wanted to leave a legacy of land to his descendants, but the family name was lost when his two grandsons did not marry. His two sons turned away from the Quakers and became Anglicans. While the family did not follow in Humphrey’s path, nonetheless he became wealthy and well-respected among the elite of Pennsylvania.

Humphrey was born about 1640 in England, and his first known child was baptized in 1661 in London. No records have been found of Humphrey’s birth, but his brother Leonard lived in Buerton, Cheshire, and it is probable that Humphrey was born there.1  He named his sons Humphrey, John, Leonard and Richard.2 The registers of Audlem, Buerton’s parish, show various Morreys with these given names, but no birth of Humphrey or Leonard in the right time.3 Humphrey’s family in Pennsylvania stayed in contact with Morreys in Buerton, even for two more generations. Thomas Morrey, Humphrey’s grandson, in his will of 1735 left a legacy to the children of John Morrey “on the Meer in Cheshire in old England”.4 Leonard Morrey, one of John’s children, came to Pennsylvania, since in 1745 Humphrey’s son Richard sold land to his cousin Leonard Morrey “of Buerton in the County of Chester now residing in Cheltenham Township”.5 The land was 700 acres of Richard’s property in Cheltenham, sold to Leonard for 5s in consideration of the “affection he hath for his kinsman”. A deed in 1757 from Leonard Morrey to Robert Greenway for part of the same land confirmed the relationships, naming Leonard as the son of John and grandson of Leonard, Humphrey’s brother.6

At some point Humphrey married a woman named Ann. A record of marriage has not been found, but the assumption is that she was the mother of his children. In the 1660s Humphrey and Ann were living in London, where several of their children were baptized at St Bartholomew the Great, in Smithfield. If this was their home parish, they were living north of the City in a suburb.

“London, in 1654, was a quaint mediaeval city, not a tenth the size of the present metropolis, but within its confined area densely populated. Surrounded by walls whose foundations had existed from the times of the Romans, its only entrances were through embattled gateways, jealously guarded by a local militia; within these it was a labyrinth of narrow lanes and winding streets…Looking beyond his city’s walls, the Londoner of 1654 found strong lines of distinction between what he knew as the city and those surrounding places now indefinitely merged within it. To him Islington, Hoxton, Homerton, Clerkenwell, Stepney, Shadwell, meant villages separated from his city wall and” ditch by pleasant fields…”7

Smithfield was not as far north as Hoxton or Islington, but it was northwest of the City proper. Life in the city was primitive by our standards.

“Few of our modern comforts were then known. The pavements, where any, were so rough that no carriages could go over them save at a footpace. Most of the sewers were open brooks that in storms rushed brawling in torrents to the Thames. There was no lighting of the streets at night, each one who ventured out after dark having to carry his own torch or lanthorn, and his own weapon of defence, for, except the trainbands or local militia, there were no watchmen. The tradespeople kept shop in open places unprotected by glass, and closed at night by doors or shutters. The citizens lived with but few of our social appliances; they fetched their own water either from the conduit or the public pump…”8

The baptisms of Humphrey’s children extended from 1661 to 1675, suggesting that he spent much of his young adult life there. It is possible that Humphrey and his brother Leonard were in business together in London. A Leonard Morrey, probably Humphrey’s brother, had a son Richard baptized at St. Martin in the Fields in December 1674, just two months before Humphrey’s son Richard’s baptism.9 In all Humphrey and Ann had five children baptized at the church of St. Bartholomew the Great, plus another son, John, who was apparently not baptized there.10

It was a difficult time to live in the crowded city. In 1665 London was struck by the bubonic plague, in its last major eruption in England. Over 100,000 people were killed.11 There are no records of children born to Humphrey and Ann during that year. They may have left London for the countryside, or a birth record in London may have been lost. If they left for Buerton, they would have had a week’s travel by horses; it was 170 miles north of London. The death rate from the plague peaked that summer and many people returned in the spring of 1666. In fact Humphrey and Ann were living in London in 1666 when another child was baptized at St Bartholomew. This was the year of the Great Fire, the second calamity to strike the city in two years.12 Much of the center city burned, but the suburban slums did not.

At some point Humphrey and Ann left London and moved to New York, presumably taking their two surviving children with them. It is not known when they became Quakers and little is known of their life in New York. Some have speculated that they lived in Oyster Bay, Long Island, where there was a small Quaker community.13 By early 1684 they were planning to move to Philadelphia. On February 11, 1683/4 Humphrey paid £50 for a house and lot on the south side of Chestnut Street between Front and Second.14 In a letter to William Penn in August 1685, Robert Turner wrote, “Humphrey Murray, from New York, has built a large Timber House with Brick Chimnies.”15 Apparently this replaced the earlier house. This property became the foundation of Humphrey’s wealth, as he eventually owned the entire block.

Humphrey was a merchant and distiller, and a land speculator. His account book shows that he sold wine by the bottle and barrel, “Canary wine, Madeira, claret and ‘cyder royall’.”16 He also sold provisions such as Indian corn. The wine was imported from London and Dublin and unloaded at his wharf at Front and Chestnut Streets.17

They obviously came with some capital, which they increased through land speculation. Humphrey himself owned property in the city, in Cheltenham and in West Jersey, while his sons and grandsons owned thousands of acres in the province. Humphrey bought, while still in England, rights to 250 acres to be laid out in Pennsylvania.18 This purchase entitled him to a lot in the city, but not on the Delaware waterfront, since 250 acres was considered a small purchase.19 This led to some confusion when he arrived in 1683 and asked for his land to be laid out. The 250 acres were laid out in Cheltenham, ten miles north of the city.20 The city lot was laid out on Mulberry Street between 4^th and 5^th streets from the river.21 Apparently Penn had promised Morrey that the lot would be on Delaware Front Street, probably in an effort to encourage merchants to settle and trade in the city.22 Four months later Penn sent another warrant to Holme for a lot for Morrey, this time on the waterfront, “by order of the governor”. However this warrant was apparently never executed.23 A note on the reverse said, “Vacat.. make void.” A few months later Morrey got what he wanted by buying a lot with 30 feet of frontage on the Delaware; he bought it from Mercy Jefferson for £50. It was on the south side of Wynne Street, later renamed Chestnut Street.24 In 10^th month 1688 Morrey bought the bank lot opposite this house. Front Street at that time lay along the waterfront, before later land fill moved it back. The Delaware front lots were on the west side of Front Street, while the land between the street and the river was known as the bank. With the purchase of the bank lot, he now had a way to build a wharf adjoining his house and lot on the other side of Front Street.25 He later bought another bank lot from the Commissioners of Property, but sold it in 1702 to Thomas Oldman.26

In 1684 Morrey added to his Cheltenham land by buying 100 acres from Thomas Fairman, one of Holme’s assistant surveyors.27
In 1686 he bought more adjoining land from Fairman, and in 1692 completed his Cheltenham tract with another 109 acres from John and Susanna Colley.28 At the same time Morrey was buying more land in the city. In 10^th month 1685 he bought a lot on Second Street from Richard Ingelo for £39.29 The next year he bought a lot, 49 feet by 300 feet, on Mulberry and Third Street.30 Morrey bought his West Jersey land in pieces, 315 acres on the Delaware River from William Steel and an adjoining 105 acres from Philip Richards.31

By 1692, just ten years after he had arrived in Pennsylvania, Morrey’s land holdings were at their peak. In Nicholas Wainwright’s Plan of Philadelphia, we see the location of Humphrey’s city lots.32 He owned a lot on Chestnut Street between Front Street and the Delaware River, and another on Chestnut between Front and Second, and one on Mulberry between Fourth and Fifth Streets. He owned over 500 acres in Cheltenham and over 400 acres in Gloucester County, West Jersey, on the Delaware River. His Front Street property was assessed for £500 in the tax list of 1693, and his Mulberry Street lot for another £30.33

After 1693 Humphrey began to sell some of his properties. He sold the Ingelo lot, on Second Street from Delaware, to Andrew Robeson and two other men.34 He sold his Mulberry Street lot to the tavernkeeper Adam Birch.35 In a complex and puzzling transaction in 1696 Morrey sold his four Cheltenham pieces, a total of 559 acres, to the merchant Samuel Spencer. But Spencer apparently did not pay as agreed, and the land reverted to Morrey.36 In 1702 Morrey sold the lot and brick house on Chestnut and Front Streets to Thomas Oldman.37 In 1707 Morrey sold 50 acres of the Cheltenham land to Matthias Tyson, of the Tyson family of adjoining Abington.38 Over several years he sold lots on the south side of Chestnut Street in four transactions, keeping the valuable yearly rents for himself.39 These rents eventually became the property of his son Richard.

As usual in the times, wealth brought influence in the government. The early government in Pennsylvania went through several changes because of disagreements between Penn and the leaders of the colony, and among the leaders themselves. In 1685 he pleaded with them, “”For the love of God, me, and the poor country, be not so governmentish”.40 One constant, from 1682 on, was the existence of two bodies: the Council and the Assembly. Their number and powers fluctuated, but the Council was always a smaller group with more executive power while elected Assembly was more legislative.41 Morrey served on both bodies. He was elected to the Assembly in 1687 and 1690, but was not active there. In October 1700 Penn appointed him to the Provincial Council, where he served for a year.42 In addition he was a Justice of the Peace for Philadelphia County in 1685 and 1686.

Finally, in 1691, when Philadelphia received a city charter, Humphrey was appointed as its first mayor. The position must not have been very powerful; several early council members were known to decline the honor. The Minutes of the Provincial Council for June 1691 gave one of Humphrey’s official acts as mayor. “Humphrey Morrey, the present Mayor of the city of Philadelphia, on behalf of the said city moves the Governor and Council to lay out and regulate the landing place near the Blue Anchor. Where upon was ordered that the said Mayor and the Aldermen of Philadelphia have notice to attend the Governor and Council about the 8^th hour in order to view the said landing.”43 It is interesting to remember that the entire government of the city of Philadelphia and colony of Pennsylvania lived in Philadelphia, probably a few blocks from each other.

In 1695 Morrey and other prominent men of the city presented a petition to the Assembly, stating their grievances about conditions in the city of Philadelphia. They complained about the “many ordinaries and tipling houses in this town of Philadelfia Kept by several as are not well qualified for such undertakings, tending to debauchery and corrupting of youth.” They wanted more law enforcement with “stocks, or cages be provided for the incarceration of drunkards or other violators of the good laws of England and this province, when taken up by the watch or constables”. They complained that the Indians were “reeling and bauling on the streets, especially by night, to the disturbance of the peace of this town”. And, as good Quakers, they wanted more social controls – “a check put to hors raceing, which begets swearing, blaspheming God’s holy name, drawing youth to vanaty, makeing such noises and public hooting and uncivil riding on the streets; also that dancing, fiddling, gameing, and what else may tend to debauch the inhabitans and to blemish Christianity and dishonour the holy name of God, may be curbed and restrained, both at fairs and all other times.”44 This was not his only activity on behalf of the city. He helped arrange for a prison, petitioned for the laying out of a street under the bank, and petitioned for laws regulating watercourses and wharfs.45

Humphrey and his wife Ann were not particularly active in Quaker affairs. The only time her name appears in the records of Philadelphia Monthly Meeting is a notice of her death. Humphrey and Ann were both middle-aged by the time they immigrated. She may have been in poor health. Humphrey did participate in the meeting affairs, but less often than many of his peers. He did not do routine work such as clearing young men for marriage. Typically he was called on for financial affairs, such as securing the estate of a widow who wished to remarry or settling a difference between two Friends (often the wealthy merchants such as John Jones or David Lloyd).46 Humphrey was a witness at several weddings between 1688 and 1699.47

Ann died in 8^th month (October) 1693.48 By then her son John was married and living in Philadelphia. John married Sarah Budd and had a son Humphrey. Ann’s other son Richard married twice and had three children with his first wife, as well as children with his long-term mistress Cremona. Humphrey (the elder) was still living in Philadelphia until about 1710, but in a deed in 1713 he was described as “Humphrey Murray late of the city (but now of Murray at Edge Hill in the twp of Cheltenham)”. He had retired to his country estate. This was an extensive landholding and valuable farmland.49 Did Humphrey own slaves as part of his labor force? His son Richard did. No slaves were mentioned in Humphrey’s will or the inventory of his estate.50 Many early Quakers, including William Penn himself, did own slaves; it took years before the Quakers condemned slaveholding by their members.

Humphrey lived in comfort in Cheltenham.51 As befits a good Quaker gentleman, he did not have an extensive wardrobe: two coats with plate buttons, a riding coat, a vest, an old hat, three shirts, stockings and shoes. He owned 14 coverlets and blankets, piles of sheets, table cloths and napkins. His furniture included beds, chests of drawers, tables, stools, and cane chairs. His kitchen was stocked with pans, tongs, kettles, pots, and a frypan. He ate off of pewter dishes and drank from a silver tankard, and drank his cocoa in cups trimmed with silver. His livestock included three horses, twelve cattle, 29 sheep and lambs. He still kept his house in the city, but with only one room of furniture: a bedstead and table, a case of drawers, a few dishes and some candlesticks.52

Humphrey died on the 28^th of second month 1716.53 In his will he named his brother Leonard and first cousin John, along with Mary Kimball, a friend Jane Laurence, his son Richard, two daughters-in-law (not named), and two grandsons Humphrey and Thomas.54 Nicholas Hickst was one of the witnesses.55

Much of Humphrey’s estate was tied up in his landholdings. In the will he left it to his son Richard and grandsons Humphrey and Thomas. The tract to Thomas was given to him in fee simple, that is to say, in outright ownership. The land to Richard and Humphrey included the Cheltenham estate “adjoining to William Harmer”, the lot in Philadelphia next to James Sickles, the water lot in Philadelphia, and the 400 acres in Gloucester, West Jersey. The land was given to them during their “natural lives” but it was entailed to their male heirs. The younger Humphrey died unmarried, and after Richard’s son Thomas died in 1735, Richard had no heirs through the male line.56 Eventually in 1748 Richard went to court to break the entail and enable him to sell the land.

In the will Humphrey asked his heirs to follow the Quaker way of arbitration. “If my son and grandson should not agree they shall not go to law but Apply themselves to the Monthly Meeting of Philadelphia and the Meeting shall appoint two men out of the meeting to end such differences as may arise between them and those men shall have reasonable satisfaction….So I warn you to take Joseph’s Council which he gave to his Brethren: fall not out by the way. If I see cause either to add or diminish of this my Will it shall not lessen nor break the value of it.” Humphrey remained a Quaker to his death, although his sons and grandsons became Anglicans.

Children of Humphrey and Ann:57 Humphrey and Ann are both named as parents in four of the baptisms; the Ann who died as his wife in 1693 is presumed to be the same woman and the mother of all the children.

Elizabeth, bapt. September 1661, daughter of Humphrey and Ann, no further record

Humphrey, bapt. August 1663, son of Humphrey and Ann, died in infancy

Humphrey, bapt. August 1666, son of Humphrey and Ann, no further record

John, born between 1665 and 1669, d. 1698 in Phila., married in 1689 Sarah Budd, daughter of Thomas and Susanna58. They had five children: four who died in infancy (John, Elizabeth, Thomas and another John), and Humphrey, who died unmarried in 1735. John and Sarah were extensive land speculators before his death.59 After his death she continued to buy and sell land with her brother John Budd.

Leonard, bapt. July 1671, son of Humphrey, died in 167660

Richard, bapt. February 1675, son of Humphrey and Ann, died in 1754 in Philadelphia.61 He married twice and left descendants, although none in the male line. His first wife Ann died before 1746, when he married the widow Sarah Allen. He had two children with Ann: Thomas, who died unmarried in 1735 (the same year as his cousin Humphrey), and Matilda, who married Anthony Kimble and left descendants. Richard also had a long-term liaison with his slave Cremona and had five children with her: Robert, Caesar, Elizabeth, Rachel, Cremona.