Old Philadelphians

Pennsylvanians who claim descent from historic families

Old Philadelphians, also called Proper Philadelphians^[1] or Perennial Philadelphians,^[2] are the First Families of Philadelphia, that class of Pennsylvanians who claim hereditary and cultural descent mainly from England, also from Ulster, Wales and even Germany, and who founded the city of Philadelphia. They settled the state of Pennsylvania.

They are considered part of the historic core of the East Coast establishment, along with other wealthy families such as Boston Brahmins of Boston and The Four Hundred of New York City.^[2] These families were influential in the development and leadership of arts, culture, science, medicine, law, politics, industry and trade in the United States.^[2] They were almost exclusively white Anglo-Saxon Protestants (WASPs),^[3] and most belonged to the Episcopal church and Quakerism.^[4]

Families

In 1963, Nathaniel Burt, a chronicler of Old Philadelphia, wrote that of Philadelphia's most notable early figures were listed in "the ancient rhyme, rather out-of-date now, called the Philadelphia Rosary," which goes:

Morris, Norris, Rush and Chew,

Drinker, Dallas, Coxe and Pugh,

Wharton, Pepper, Pennypacker,

Willing, Shippen and Markoe.^[5]

Burt's full list of prominent families (with those in the poem in italics):

Annenberg, Bacon, Baer, Baird, Ballard, Baltzell, Barrymore, Barton, Bartram, Berwind, Biddle, Bingham, Binney, Biswanger, Bispham, Bok, Bond, Borie, Bradford, Brinton, Broadbent, Bromley, Brooke, Buckley, Bullitt, Burpee, Cadwalader, Cassatt, Castor, Carey Cheston, Chew, Clark, Clothier, Hadley, Coates, Converse, Cope, Coxe, Cramp, Curtis,

Da Costa, Dallas, Dickinson, Disston, Dorrance, Drayton, Drexel, Drinker, Duane, Duke, Elkins, Earle, Emlen, Evans, Fisher, Foulke, Fox, Francis, Franks, Furness, Gates, Geyelin, Gowen,

Gratz, Griffith, Griffitts, Griscom, Gross, Grubb, Hamilton, Hare, Harrison, Hart, Hays, Hazard, Henry, Hopkinson, Houston, Huston, Hutchinson, Ingersoll, Jayne, Jeanes, Jones, Keating, Kelly,

Landreth, Lea, Lewis, Lippincott, Lloyd, Logan, Lorimer, Lovekin, Lukens, McCall, McKean, McLean, Madeira, Markoe, Matlack, Meade, Meigs, Meredith, Merrick, Meyers, Middleton, Mitchell, Montgomery, Morgan, Morris, Mummert, Mummert-Stern, Munson, Newbold, Newhall, Newlin, Norris, Oaks, Oakes

Packard, Patterson, Paul, Peale, Pegg, Penn, Pennypacker, Penrose, Pepper, Peterson, Pew, Platt, Potts, Powel, Price, Pugh, Rawle, Randolph, Read, Redman, Reed, Rhoads, Rittenhouse, Robbins, Roberts, Rosenbach, Rosengarten, Ross, Rush, Sands, Savage, Scattergood, Scott, Scull, Sergeant,

Shelmire, Shippen, Sims, Sinkler, Smith, Stetson, Stockton, Stokes, Stotesbury, Taft, Thayer, Toland, Townsend, Van Leer, Van Pelt, Van Rensselear, Vauclain, Vaux, Wanamaker, Wetherill, Wharton, Whitaker, Widener, Willing, Wistar, Wister, Wolf, Wood, Wright, and Yarnall.

Members of these families are generally known for being fiscally conservative, socially liberal, and well educated. These families often have deeply established traditions in the Quaker and Episcopal faiths.^[6] Many Old Philadelphia families intermarried and their descendants summer in Northeast Harbor, Desert Island, Maine.^[2] Many of these families trace their ancestries back to the original founders of Philadelphia while others entered into aristocracy during the nineteenth century with their profits from commerce and trade or by marrying into established Old Philadelphia families like the Cadwaladers and Biddles and Pitcairns.^[2]^[7]

Clubs and societies

Old Philadelphia exclusive clubs and societies^[1]^[2]

Acorn Club^[8]
Athenaeum of Philadelphia^[9]
Colonial Society of Pennsylvania
Contributionship/Hand-in-Hand^[10]
Dancing Assemblies of Philadelphia^[11]
First Troop Philadelphia City Cavalry^[12]
Germantown Cricket Club^[13]
Gulph Mills Golf Club
Merion Cricket Club^[14]
Orpheus Club
Numismatic and Antiquarian Society of Philadelphia^[15]
Penllyn Club
Philadelphia Charity Ball
The Philadelphia Club^[16]
Philadelphia Corinthian Yacht Club^[17]
Philadelphia Cricket Club^[14]
Pickering Hunt
The Rabbit^[18]
Racquet Club of Philadelphia^[19]
Radnor Hunt Club^[20]
Rittenhouse Club^[21]
Schuylkill Fishing Company
Society of Colonial Wars
Sons of the Revolution
Society of the Sons of St. George of Philadelphia
Union League of Philadelphia
Welcome Society of Pennsylvania
Wistar Parties

Notes

^ ^a ^b See generally, Baltzell, Nalle , "Puritan Boston and Quaker Philadelphia" and "Philadelphia Gentlemen: The Making of a National Upper Class."
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f See generally, Burt.
^ Ivory, Karen (2011). Philadelphia Icons: 50 Classic Views of the City of Brotherly Love. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 52. ISBN 9780762767656.
^ Baltzell, E. Digby (2011). Philadelphia Gentlemen: The Making of a National Upper Class. Transaction Publishers. p. 236. ISBN 9781412830751.
^ Pronounced "MarKOO." Burt, p. 44.
^ Burt, p. 70-77.
^ "Hall Family of Tacony, Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania". JSTOR. The William and Mary College Quarterly Historical Magazine.
^ Burt, p. 269.
^ Burt, p. 19.
^ Burt, p. 141-51.
^ Burt, p. 95.
^ Burt, p. 274-77.
^ Burt, p. 305.
^ ^a ^b Burt, p. 301-08.
^ ""The Perennial Philadelphians: The Anatomy of an American Aristocracy" (1999)". Archived from the original on 2024-02-28. Retrieved 2023-03-17.
^ Baltzell, "The Protestant Establishment Revisited" p. 104.
^ Burt, p. 301.
^ Burt, p. 261-65.
^ Burt, p. 268.
^ Burt, p. 285-95.
^ Burt, p. 266-68.

References

E. Digby Baltzell, Philadelphia Gentlemen: The Making of a National Upper Class, Free Press, 1958 (reprinted 2004)
E. Digby Baltzell, The Protestant Establishment: Aristocracy & Caste in America, Random House, 1964.
E. Digby Baltzell, The Protestant Establishment Revisited, Transaction Publishers, 1991 (reprinted 2001)
E. Digby Baltzell, Puritan Boston and Quaker Philadelphia, Beacon Press, 1979 (reprinted 2004)
Nathaniel Burt, The Perennial Philadelphians: The Anatomy of an American Aristocracy, Little, Brown and Company, 1963 (reprinted 1999)