Emlen, Samuel, 1730-1799

EMLEN, Samuel, 1729/30-1799. Born in Philadelphia, 3mo. (May) 15, 1730; only child of Joshua (died 1776) and Deborah (Pcwel) Emlen. Joshua Emlen's first wife had been Mary (Holton) widow of Samuel Hadson. Slight and delicate of frame, Samuel Emlen was never very robust, but was given an excellent education, which developed his fine mind. He spoke the modern languages fluently, and was an accomplished Greek and Latin scholar, once addressing a learned audience in the Latin tongue. When the Frenchman, Jean de Marsillac, attended Philadelphia Yearly Meeting in 1795, Samuel Emlen acted as his intepreter when he addressed the meeting. As a young man he was for a time employed in the counting house of James Pemberton, but his frail health and defective eyesight, coupled with the fact that he inherited an ample fortune, led him at an early period in his life to give up any mercantile pursuits. His figure was short and slight, he always dressed in drab, and his personality was rather remarkable.

Samuel Emlen traveled in the Southern colonies with the preacehr, Michael Lightfoot, and in 1756 went with Abraham Farrington to Great Britain and Ireland, during which visit he first spoke in the ministry. (He paid a total of seven visits to England.) He married first Elizabeth Moode, by whom he had two sons, William and Samuel, both born in Bristol, Eng. He married second Sarah Mott, and had two daughters, Elizabeth and Deborah. Samuel Emlen and his intimate friend Rebecca Jones, had promised each other that the survivor would attend the other's funeral. He died December 30th 1799, and she preached his funeral sermon in the "Great Meeting House" on Market Street, Philadelphia, on New Year's Day, 1800.

p. 443-449. Testimony of the Monthly Meeting of Friends in Philadelphia for the Northern District concerning our dear friend Samuel Emlen, deceased. Born in Philadelphia on the 15th of the then 1st month called March in the year 1729/30 O.S. of religious parents Joshua and Deborah Emlen; about age 26 travelled to Europe with Samuel Fothergill, Mary Peisley, Catherine Payton, and Abraham Farrington; died about 4:30am on the thirtieth of twelfth month 1799.