Rash's Surname Index


Notes for Clement PLUMSTEAD

Clement Plumstead, of London, draper and merchant, was a large purchaser of land in East Jersey and was one of the Proprietors there. His lands descended to his eldest son and heir, Robert Plumstead, a merchant of London, who conveyed a portion of them to his relative, Clement Plumstead, of Philadelphia. There was also a Thomas Plumstead, of Bartholomew's Lane, London, who married Anne Whitlock in 1672. Clement Plumstead, of Philadelphia, by his will in 1745, makes his cousin, Thomas Plumstead, of London, a trustee of his minor sons's estate, but his parentage or the exact connection with the Plumstead family of London has never been ascertained.
Clement Plumstead, Provincial Councillor, of Philadelphia, makes his first appearance in that city in 1697, when he witnessed a deed made by Samuel Carpenter. On August 20, 1700, Clement Plumstead, of London, makes Samuel Carpenter and Clement Plumstead, of Philadelphia, his attorneys to collect moneys of George Wilcocks. From the declaration as to age made in the opening clause in his will, 1745, it is shown that he was born in the year 1680.
He was probably a clerk in the employ of Samuel Carpenter, then a leading merchant in Philadelphia, until attaining his majority, and entering the mercantile and shipping business, which he followed nearly his whole life, and became one of Philadelphia's most prominent and wealthy merchants, as well as one of her most prominent citizens and officials. He was elected to the Common Council of the city in 1712, and advanced by that body to the Board of Aldermen, October, 1720, and three years later was elected Mayor of the City. At the close of his term he made a trip to England, taking his son William with him, and remained there the greater part of the year. As a member of the Board of Aldermen, his forensic ability easily made him one of its prominent members, and he was frequently appointed to prepare petitions and other addresses to the Governor and Assembly. In 1730 the one thousand pounds appropriated by the Assembly to build Almshouses in the city was placed in the hands of the Mayor, Aldermen Clement Plumstead, and James Steele, one third to be expended by each of them. In 1736 he was again elected Mayor, and again in 1741. It was customary for the retiring chief magistrate of the city, when about to relinquish the honorable position, to give a supper to his fellow officials and friends, and the American Weekly Mercury of Philadelphia of September 30, 1742, has the following report of that given by Mayor Plumstead: "This day Clement Plumstead Esqr. Mayor of the City, made the customary Feast at the expiration of the Mayoralty, when the Governor, Council, Corporation, and a great number of the inhabitants were entertained at the Andrew Hamilton House, near the Drawbridge, in the most handsome manner." He was commissioned a Justice of the Peace, September 2, 1717, and was recommissioned fourteen times, the last time in April, 1743, and was likewise commissioned a Judge of the County Courts in 1717, and sat as President Judge thereof from 1720 until 1745. On July 23, 1730, he was appointed Master of the Court of Chancery, and was commissioned by the English Court of Chancery, to examine witnesses in the contest between Penn and Lord Baltimore, in relation to the Maryland line. Both he and his son William were witnesses to the deed from the Five Nation Indians to Thomas, Richard and John Penn, October 11, 1736, by which was conveyed to the Penns "All the River Susquehannah, with the Lands lying on both sides thereof to extend eastward as far as the heads of the branches or springs which run into the said Susquehannah, and all the Lands lying on the west side of the said River to the setting sun, and to extend from the mouth of the said River northward up the same to the Hills or Mountains called the Endless Hills."
Clement Plumstead was elected to the Colonial Assembly from Philadelphia in 1712, and at once assumed a prominent position in that body, serving on a number of important committees. He was again returned at a special election held 11mo. 17, 1714, and was chairman of the Committee on Public Accounts. In the quarrel between the Governor and Assembly in 1714-15, he was several times selected as one of the delegation to wait upon the Governor, and was also directed to prepare an address to the King and the Proprietaries on the enactment of measures for the suppression of vice. He was again returned to the Assembly in 1716-18-20; and in 1727 was called to the Governor's Council where, as in the Assembly, he was a staunch supporter of the Proprietary interests. He became a large landowner in various parts of Pennsylvania and New Jersey; was one of the founders of the Durham Iron Works, Bucks county, 1726, and owned large mining interests in the vicinity of Tulpehocken, now Berks county, as well as lands at Perth Amboy and Crosswicks, New Jersey, and much valuable property in Philadelphia. On May 26, 1745, he died in Philadelphia, and was buried in the Swedes' Church graveyard. He married (first) Sarah, widow of William Righton, and daughter of William Biddle, of Mount Hope, New Jersey, March 1, 1703-4, taking a certificate to Crosswicks Monthly Meeting, from Philadelphia Monthly Meeting of Friends, of which he was a member, dated 12mo. 25, 1703. In 1704 he obtained a certificate to Friends in Virginia, "intended to Virginia and that way, trading." His wife died 6mo. (August) 17, 1705. He married (second) 8mo. 15, 1707, Elizabeth Palmer, who had brought a certificate from Bridgetown, Barbadoes, 11mo., 1706. She was probably a sister of Anthony Palmer, who was a resident of Barbadoes in 1685, and in 1704 purchased land in Kensington, and became a prominent man in Philadelphia, filling the position of Judge, and was a member of Provincial Council from 1709 to his death in 1748, and its president in the latter year. The name of Clement Plumstead frequently appears on the records of the Philadelphia Monthly Meeting of which he seems to have been a consistent member. He was frequently appointed as an arbitrator of disputes and differences between mmbers. On 4mo. 25, 1709, he is granted a certificate to visit Barbadoes, and on the occasion of his visit to England with his son William, at the close of his first term as Mayor, he took a certificate dated 8mo. 30, 1724, but he had made an earlier trip taking certificate 6mo. 25, 1715, and his return is noted on 9mo. 30, 1716. On 10mo. 30, 1720, his second wife Elizabeth was buried, and 9mo. 30, 1722, he is dealt with by the Meeting for having married "Out of Unity." His third wife, Mary, is thought to have been Mary Curry. She survived him and died February 6, 1755. The Rev. Richard Peters, many years pastor of St. Peter's Church and a Provincial Councilor lived for some years with Clement Plumstead. Richard Hockley, a protégé of Hon. John Penn, and later a large landholder in Pennsylvania, was a clerk in Plumstead's counting house.
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