SAMUEL RICHARDSON.
A Councilor, Judge and Legislator of the Olden Time.
On the 3d of July, 1686, not quite four years after the
arrival of Penn, a bricklayer from the island of Jamaica,
named Samuel Richardson, bought five thousand eight
hundred and eighty acres of land in Pennsylvania, and
two large lots on the north side of High street (now
Market) in the city of Philadelphia, for three hundred
and forty pounds. He had probably been but a short
time a resident of Jamaica, since the certificate he
brought with him from the Friends' meeting at Spanish
Town, to the effect “yt he and his wife hath walked
amongst us as becomes Truth,” was only given “after
consideration thereoff and Enquiry made.” Of his
previous life we know nothing, unless it be the following
incident narrated in Besse's Sufferings of the Quakers:
In the year 1670 a squad of soldiers arrested George
Whitehead, John Scott and Samuel Richardson at a
meeting of Friends at the Peel in London, and after
detaining them about three hours in a guard-room, took
them before two justices, and charged Richardson with
having laid violent hands upon one of their muskets.
“This was utterly false, and denied by him, for he was
standing, peaceably as he said, with his Hands in his
Pockets.” One of the justices asked him, “Will you
promise to come no more at meeting?” S. R.: “I can
promise no such thing.” Justice: “Will you pay your
5s.?” Richardson: “I do not know that I owe thee
5s.” A fine of that amount was nevertheless imposed.
