The Winterthur Library

 The Joseph Downs Collection of Manuscripts and Printed Ephemera

Henry Francis du Pont Winterthur Museum

5105 Kennett Pike, Winterthur, Delaware  19735

Telephone: 302-888-4600 or 800-448-3883

 

 

OVERVIEW OF THE COLLECTION

 

Creator:         Pancoast-Massey-Coppock families                                      

Title:               Papers

Dates:             1710-circa 1850, bulk 1805-1817

Call No.:         Col. 953

Acc. No.:        16x8

Quantity:        10 items

Location:        34 J 6, map case 2, drawer 1

 

 

 

BIOGRAPHICAL STATEMENT

 

Members of the Pancoast, Massey, and Coppock families were Quakers living in Chester County, Pennsylvania, in the 18th and early 19th centuries.  Bartholomew Coppock married Phebe Massey in 1710, and their daughter Esther Coppock married Seth Pancoast. 

 

Eliza Tatnall Sipple was also a Quaker, but from Wilmington, Delaware.  There is no known close connection between her and the Pancoast family. 

 

Sarah Boardman of Newburyport, Massachusetts, has no known relationship to Quakers, Pennsylvania, or any of the other people represented in this collection.

 

 

SCOPE AND CONTENT

 

A small collection of papers, many pertaining to members of the Pancoast family of Chester County, Pennsylvania.  The oldest item is the 1710 certificate of the marriage of Bartholomew Coppock and Phebe Massey.  Two items are from Westtown School, a Quaker school outside West Chester, Pennsylvania.  These include a practice daybook done by Anna Pancoast and a list of students kept by Eliza T. Sipple.  Ann Stroud recorded poetry in her book, and she may have attended Westtown School.  Mary Pancoast’s exercise book is now only blank pages.  Her school is simply listed as S.B. School. 

 

In 1817, Stephen Pancoast rode a horse from Chester County to Ohio and back.  He kept a brief record of his trip.  Sarah Boardman of Newburyport made an elaborate cut-work Valentine in 1813 and sent it to a young man.  It includes a marriage proposal.  Two ink drawings of roses and a sheet of very small colored prints round out the collection.

 

           

ORGANIZATION

 

The items are in accession number order.

 

 

LANGUAGE OF MATERIALS

 

The materials are in English.

 

 

RESTRICTIONS ON ACCESS

 

Collection is open to the public.  Copyright restrictions may apply.

           

 

PROVENANCE

 

Purchased from M. Finkel & Daughter.        

 

 

RELATED MATERIALS

 

Winterthur Museum owns a high chest of drawers and a dressing table made by Seth Pancoast. 

 

 

ACCESS POINTS

 

People:

            Boardman, Sarah.

Coppock, Bartholomew, 1681-1761

            Coppock, Phebe Taylor Massey.

Pancoast, Anna (Anna Pancoast Levis), 1790-1884.

            Pancoast, Mary.

Pancoast, Stephen, 1794-1873.

            Sipple, Eliza T. (Eliza Tatnall Sipple Canby), 1795-1865.

            Stroud, Ann (Ann Stroud Pancoast), 1795-1872.

           

Topics:

            Harmony Society.

Westtown Boarding School.

Accounting – Study and teaching.

Courtship - Massachusetts - 19th century.

Exercise books.

Marriage records - Pennsylvania - Chester County.

Poetry.

Roses in art.

Students.

Valentines.

Drawings.       

 

           

 

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE COLLECTION

 

Location: 34 J 6, map case 2, drawer 1

 

 

 

16x8.1             Quaker marriage certificate of Bartholomew Coppock and Phebe [Taylor] Massey, both of Marple township, Chester County, Pennsylvania, 3d month, 11th day, 1710 [May 11, 1710].  They married in the Springfield meeting house.  The certificate is signed by the bride and groom and the 63 people who witnessed the ceremony.  Written on vellum.

 

                        Batholomew Coppock (1681-1761) and Phebe Taylor Massey (died 1749) had several children, including daughter Esther Coppock (1714-1764).  Esther married Seth Pancoast (1718-1792).  Their children included son Seth, who married Abigail Ogden.

 

 

16x8.2             Anna Pancoast: school exercise book, Westtown School, 1806.       

                        Anna created this day book in 1806 as part of one of her classes at Westtown School.  As the individuals in the book were listed as living in English cities (York, Bath), she may have been copying an English example book.

 

                        Book is covered with marbled paper.  On front is a label, bearing on which is written Anna Pancoast, Weston, [month illegible], 12th, 1806.  The book was sold by Kimber, Conrad, & Co. of Philadelphia.  On the front flyleaf, Anna wrote Day-Book, 1806, inside an oval with a decorative border.

 

                        Anna Pancoast was the daughter of Abigail Ogden and Seth Pancoast, Jr., of Springfield, Pennsylvania, and was born on March 24, 1790.  Anna married Osborn Levis in 1845 and died in 1884.  Anna Pancoast was the great-granddaughter of Bartholomew Coppock and Phebe Massey [see acc. 16x8.1].

 

 

16x8.3             “A Short History of a long travel to the West,” by Stephen Pancoast.  Endorsed in pencil” “A description of a trip out west taken by Stephen Pancoast and Abram Powell on horse back in the fall of 1817.”  

 

The trip began on September 14, and at least one other person started with them, but he stayed behind at Bedford Springs.  Pancoast and Powell rode to New Lisbon, Ohio, where they stayed with Stephen Odgon [perhaps Ogden was meant, and perhaps this was a relative] and Thomas Ball.  They left Ohio on October 11, 1817.  It took about 2 weeks to travel each way.  Mostly this is a record of how far the men travelled each day, through which towns they passed, and where they spent the night.  However, special mention was made of one of the travelers losing his pocketbook (thankfully found), the magnificent building at Bedford Springs, and the “wonderfull works of the Harmony Society” in Harmony, Penn.

 

                        Stephen Pancoast (1794-1873) was a son of Abigail Ogden and Seth Pancoast, and a brother of Anna Pancoast.  Stephen married Ann Stroud (1795-1872).

 

 

16x8.4             Ann Stroud poetry notebook, 1809.

 

                        Ann Stroud copied several poems into this home-made notebook.  The poemw with titles are: “An Address at Parting,” “Solitude,” “A Fragment” (from Evelina), “On Youth” (by E.N.D.), “Rural Love,” “My Brother,” and “The Close of the Year.”  In addition, there are some short, untitled pieces.

 

                        The home-made notebook is covered with pages from a Philadelphia newspaper, with notices dated 1798 and 1799.  The pages were folded and stitched down the middle.  Two pages bear the watermark of T. Gilpin & Co., while other pages have a pictorial watermark.

 

                        Ann Stroud (1795-1872) married Stephen Pancoast.  A girl of that name, from Philadelphia, attended Westtown School beginning in 1802.

 

 

16x8.5             Mary Pancoast school book, kept at S.B. School.

 

                        This exercise book has plain covers, although marbled paper was used for the spine.  It has a label on the front cover, on which is written Mary Pancoast, S.B. School.  The book was sold by T.E. Chapman of Philadelphia.  Many of the pages have been removed, and those that remain are blank, but they are lined.

 

                        It is not clear who Mary Pancoast was.  Seth and Ann Stroud Pancoast had a daughter with that name (lived 1821-1880).  Doubtless a Pancoast family genealogy would uncover other possibilities.

 

 

16x8.6             Eliza T. Sipple book, with names of monitors and girls.

 

                        A small, home-made volume, kept by Eliza T. Sipple.  The monitors were all students at Westtown School, and possibly were older girls who helped look after the younger students.  The girls were listed “agreeably to their sizes.”  Anna Pancoast is listed among the girls.  Eliza T. Sipple signed her name at the end of the lists.

 

                        Home-made volume, with marbled paper covers, and blank pages stitched together.

 

                        Eliza T. Sipple was from Wilmington, Delaware.  She entered Westtown School in April 1806 and re-entered in June 1807.  Eliza Tatnall Sipple was the daughter of Ann Tatnall and Thomas Sipple, born Sept. 6, 1795.  She married Merritt Canby in 1830 and died in 1865.  Although she was a Quaker, there is no known relationship to the Pancoast family.

 

 

16x8.7             Cutwork Valentine made by Sarah Boardman, Feb. 14, 1813, and sent to Thomas F[illegible]nald, Jr., Newburyport, [Massachusetts]

 

                        Sarah Boardman of Newburyport, Mass., made this Valentine and sent it to Thomas [surname illegible, but begins with letter F, and ends in –nald].  In it, she declares that she loves Thomas, not his brother Joseph, and several times she asks that Thomas marry her. 

 

                        How this Valentine became mixed with the Pancoast family papers is unknown. 

 

                        A transcription of the Valentine is found at the end of this finding aid. 

 

                        NOTE: THIS ITEM IS IN A MAP CASE DRAWER

 

 

16x8.8             drawing of a rose and rose bud on a thorny stem, in ink.

 

 

16x8.9             drawing of a branch of roses and rosebuds, ink over graphite

 

 

16x8.10           sheet of very small colored prints with mottoes; these sorts of graphics were often used to decorate cards. 

 

Some of the pictures and mottoes are patriotic (“Hail Columbia” with an American flag; “Liberty” on an American shield).  Others are sentimental (“For Ever” with an arrow piercing a heart; “From a Friend” within a wreath of flowers).  But others are just miscellaneous: “Strike while the iron is hot” (with a blacksmith at work), “Keep Dark” (with a bat), “Be Industrious” (with a bee hive), etc. 

 

This was found inside acc. 16x8.5.


Newburyport Valentine with marriage proposal, from Sarah Boardman to Thomas F[illegible] (acc. 16x8.7)

 

NOTE: THIS ITEM IS IN A MAP CASE DRAWER

 

 

Only the first three lines were easy to follow, because they were numbered.  The other passages were put into an order which made some sense, but another person might organize the passages differently.

 

 

1.      Newbury Port/ February ye fourteenth/ eighteen hundred/ and thirteen my Dearest Dear/ and Constant tine O once/ I thought your heart was mine/ but now I find I have lost you/ I will seek a nother love.

2.      I thought you/ was as true to me/ As the Angels Are/ Above. But now alas/ I am Ondone for once/ I thought I had your/ Fond heart in keeping/ but I have seekt [?[ A nother

3.      love but I fear/ I have done Wrong/ but your bright eyes/ And Sweet company/ it has my tender heart/ Beguiled you are/ the fust young man/ that After me did come.

 

This is the beginning of every line.

 

[Here there are two different thoughts intermixed – one thought being inside hearts, and the other thought mostly written in the spaces between the hearts, although some comments inside hearts seem to belong to the thought outside the hearts.  The transcription below is one person’s ideas of how the thoughts should flow.]

 

[thoughts in spaces between the hearts:]

 

I give you my heart and hand and [illegible] go you my dear

 

Out of this town for fear that I should see your brother Joseph when he comes down again and so if you are amind Marry Me and take me by

 

The hand[.]  I prey [sic] that you would send a line or two from you my sweet young man.

 

For the thoughts my Dear Thomas my hand did thus tremble I prey [sic] you would not slite [sic, i.e. slight] me

 

When I love you so sincere.  I hope that you will Marry Me my Dear and make me your Wife

 

So no more at present.  So I will seal with love to you and O if I could once think that I should be your wife

 

So must bid you good night for it gones cold and I had not much lite [sic] so [illegible] I will ondress me and jump into bed

 

[this phrase is inside a heart, but seems to belong here:] and if you was here with me my dear my bosom should be a piller [sic, i.e. pillow] for your head.

 

That’s for your brother Joseph I cannot marry with him.  I do not love him such a man nor any could have but [illegible] the offer to marry with you my dear

 

[again, a phrase inside a heart, but perhaps belongs here:] This is from your true love Sarah Boardman work Thomas F----nald, Jr.

 

[these phrases are inside hearts:]

 

[heart] my youthful heart to love inclined little Cubit’s [sic] arrow has

 

[heart] Bend his bow Thomas you have less[? Loose perhaps is meant?] the fatal dart

 

[heart] of love behind but because I once thought

 

[heart] you always would be mine but I still hope

 

[heart] that you will love me and I still wish you was

 

[heart] mine than [or thou, meaning though] with your brother I have staid to tone[?] him

 

[heart] I do not incline for I only done it for to ease

 

[heart] him of his love sick mind and with you [thought is not finished]

 

 

[Now: a thought which circles around the middle, but it was difficult to figure out where it began and ended.]

 

I never spent witch [i.e. which] fills my heart much Discontent but if with you I could take one slay ride I [illegible] thot[?] should live in me night[?]/ hopes that after that I should be your neat and sweet loving bride

 

[Again, a section with two different thoughts intermixed – one thought being inside hearts, and the other thought written in the spaces between the hearts.  The transcription below is one person’s ideas of how the thoughts should flow, although she would agree that the thoughts do not always flow freely.]

 

[thoughts in spaces between the hearts:]

 

I wish you would keep this as a secret[?] to let you

 

Of your own for I wrote now how it  [illegible] I was a  [illegible]

 

and let no one see this love you

 

And if you

 

[these phrases are inside hearts:]

 

[heart]  But if my pearents [sic] was to know that I was

 

[heart]  in love with you they would not allow me

 

[heart]  to write one line to you but with the

 

[heart]  greatest pleasure I write this few lines to you.

 

 

[And finally, a line written in a circle around the hole in the middle of the paper, and again, difficult to know where to start:]

 

If you do not marry me twill prove my ever th[illegible] hand[?] no other girl might beg that you after go.