Francis Daniel Pastorius letterbook, 1700-1719
Permanent ID:
8631Date:
1700 – 1719Image Description:
This Pastorius letter book contains his copies of letters written to friends between the years 1700 and 1719. There are two copies of this volume in the collection: the original, written in Pastorius's hand, and a Photostat copy. The vast majority of the letters are written to Lloyd Zachary (1701-1756), the nephew of his friend Richard Hill. Zachary would later become a medical doctor and one of the founders of the University of Pennsylvania. He would have been sixteen years old when this correspondence began, so most of the letters contain advice and mentoring that Pastorius offered on the subjects of friendship, the importance of studying Latin, spirituality, and even marriage. (In a letter from 1718, Pastorius writes: "I give thee free leave to put unto me any question either theological, moral, physical, yea and meta-physical too, as thou please…")Other letters include evidence of a frequent correspondence with Richard Hill (d. 1729), uncle of Lloyd Zachary, friend of William Penn, and mayor of Philadelphia. The letters written in the last few years of Pastorius's life contain mentions of his declining health. Other recipients of his letters include many important figures in colonial Philadelphia: Samuel Jennings (d. 1708), John Penn (1700-1746), Samuel Carpenter (1649-1714), Caspar Hoedt, James Logan (1674-1751), Isaac Norris (1761-1735), Sarah Owen (related to Griffith Owen), Matthias van Bebber (d. c. 1730), and Lydia Norton.