Two Elizabeths

Being the story of two remarkable women and their achievements in 18th century New Jersey


Chapter One


Imagine what an utter act of faith it was to board a two-masted ship in London to sail across the ocean to the New World, in 1700, when the risks of the journey itself paled in comparison to the dangers of a successful voyage. With primitive navigation, no modern weather detection that might warn of a hurricane mid-voyage,, the very real threat of very real pirates, and no possibility of a quick rescue at sea if one was needed, I wonder how many would take such a trip in order to leave behind everyone they knew and everything they were accustomed to, to go and live in a place that can only be compared today to the furthest recesses of the Amazonian jungle.
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But that is the choice Elizabeth Haddon made when, as a young woman of 20 years old in 1701, she journeyed alone, without family or friends, to make a new home in a new world.
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Her early years were spent in Southwark, across the Thames from London , daughter of a respected Quaker family, respected by Friends, at least, for it was a time of relentless persecution of Quakers by the Crown.
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She was a studious, but lively girl, curious about her world, devoted to the principles of the Friends instilled in her by her family, and intrigued by the charitable work her mother was often engaged in.

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On one notable occasion, before she was six years old, she begged her family to let her have a little tea party for her friends. She was made to help with the baking of cakes and to buy fruit for the occasion with her meager savings, and all preparations, and on the appointed day, the "friends" arrived, six young street urchins straight out of Oliver Twist, whom she had seen around her neighborhood and took pity on, and who made short work of the cakes and fruits that had been laid out. Her parents were taken aback by this display of kindness, but withheld praise from her, not wanting her to believe anything other than that charitable acts are their own reward, and not done for the praise or admiration of others.
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Her father was a blacksmith by trade, most notably as a maker of anchors, which was a profitable enough enterprise near a seaport the size of London. After losing three of Elizabeth's siblings to health problems related to the unsanitary and otherwise unhealthy conditions of early urban centers, her father moved the family down the river to the countryside. It was a mere half-mile from the Horselydown Friends Meeting-House, where Elizabeth would worship right up until she left for America.

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Being a prominent member of the meeting, her father was visited by other Quakers of note, including William Penn, who visited the Haddon household when Elizabeth was six. She was captivated by this charismatic man's tales of the new world across the ocean, his "green country towne" of Philadelphia, where Quakers could meet without fear of having the meeting house burned down by British troops, which had already happened to her meeting. As his stories of the new colony moved onto descriptions of the native people and their customs, young Elizabeth moved closer, wanting more detail about papooses, and teepees and mocassins and the natives' natural harmony with the land.
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Her interest became obsession, and in the ensuing years, her playthings were Indian dolls and moccasins, and her daydreams were about America. She would set up little doll diaramas with figures representing the Natives, and "read " from a newspaper the treaty with the Indians that Penn had negotiated. Her siblings grew tired of Elizabeth's obsession with America and the natives, and begged her to play some other games. But these were the only games that gave her any satisfaction.

As she got older, a practicality crept into her fantasies that would eventually lead her to step onto the gangplank of that ship a few years later.

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When she was 14, a young man named John Estaugh spoke at the Yearly Meeting in London, and young Elizabeth was quite taken with his passion for Quakerism and his deep, strong voice echoing through the Meeting House. She must have been beside herself when, on one occasion, John Estaugh was a guest at dinner in the Haddon household, and being just 14, she could not join them at the table. I imagine her crouched in a corner somewhere nearby, noting his every word. Estaugh had been to America, and gave the family an ear of Indian corn, one of several he had brought back to give as curiosities. The fact that he had been to the land of her dreams only amplified the magnetism she felt toward him. At some point in the evening, she managed to speak to him, and Elizabeth would never forget that short, probably most proper, conversation, for it was with the man she would eventually marry.

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In 1698, Elizabeth's fate was sealed when her father purchased a 500 acre plantation, across the river from Philadelphia. She was 18 at the time, and for the next two years, she could think of nothing else but of making a home there, in that new, exciting world.