Rawle Family Papers, The Historical Society of Pennsylvania

The Rawle family, which produced some of the leading legal minds in early Pennsylvania history, first immigrated to America in 1686 to escape the persecution their Quaker faith invited in England. From his arrival in Pennsylvania, Francis Rawle Jr. (1663-1727) became involved in the religious and legal life of the colony, a position bolstered by his marriage to Robert Turner's daughter Martha in 1689. Francis's grandson William (1759-1836) was the first Rawle to rise to prominence in the legal profession, serving as Pennsylvania's first U.S. attorney and founding a prestigious law office, now known as Rawle and Henderson and recognized as the country's oldest practice. Rawle was followed in his legal career by a number of subsequent generations of Rawle men, most of whom were also named William. This list includes William Rawle Jr. (1788-1858), his son William Henry Rawle (1823-1889), and William Rawle Brooke (1843-1915), known for most of his life as William Brooke Rawle. In addition to their legal activities, the Rawles served as founding and/or contributing members of a number of Philadelphia institutions, including the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, the American Philosophical Society, the University of Pennsylvania, the Library Company of Philadelphia, and the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts.

This collection contains legal documents related to the firm of William Rawle and his descendants, personal and professional correspondence, and a substantial amount of genealogical material. The personal material is mostly found in the correspondence of William Rawle Sr., William Rawle Jr., William Brooke Rawle, and Rebecca Rawle Shoemaker, as well as journals kept by William Rawle Sr. and Rebecca Rawle Shoemaker. Professional materials document William Rawle Sr.'s career and term as Pennsylvania's U.S. Attorney and William Brooke Rawle's research on the cavalry conflict at Gettysburg. Genealogical material includes numerous newspaper clippings related to the family, a book of family trees, and four large scrapbooks further documenting the family history. A number of related families are also represented in this collection, including the Shoemaker, Brooke, Porter, and Hall families. There are also portraits of various Rawles, as well as a set of portraits produced by the Treasury Department and ostensibly purchased by the Rawles, which includes images of prominent political, military, and literary figures.

Background note

The first Rawles to convert to Quakerism were Francis and Francis Jr., then residents of Cornwall, who became followers of George Fox in the late seventeenth century. Both father and son were imprisoned for their beliefs in 1683 and both, upon their liberation in 1686, decided to sail for America in search of religious freedom. Jane Rawle, the wife of Francis and mother of Francis Jr., stayed in England to care for her daughter, who was too ill to travel. Jane joined her family in Pennsylvania following the girl's death, not long afterward.

Before their departure from England, the younger Francis Rawle had purchased a large tract of land in what is now Plymouth Township, Montgomery County (then a part of Philadelphia County); upon his arrival in Pennsylvania, Francis Jr. settled on this land, providing a home for his mother and father. In 1689, Francis Rawle Jr. married Martha Turner, daughter of Robert Turner, and so became a member of one of the most prominent families in the colony. Francis had embarked upon a career in public service the preceding year, when he was appointed a justice of the peace and of the county courts of Philadelphia. Francis's social standing and career only advanced after his marriage to Martha Turner. In 1691, he was appointed as one of Philadelphia's first six aldermen. Rawle would go on to serve in the Provincial Assembly and the Provincial Council, considered a place of considerable repute.

In 1725, Francis published a controversial pamphlet, entitled "Ways and means for the inhabitants on the Delaware to become rich," which was the first publication of Philadelphia printer Benjamin Franklin. The publication actually predates the founding of Franklin's own business, which opened its doors in 1728. As a member of the Turner family, Francis Rawle was in regular social contact with Franklin, to say nothing of their many joint civic endeavors. In fact, Rawle has the distinction of having introduced Franklin to the idea of paper money, which Franklin went on to champion as a means of stabilizing the economic system of the new nation.

Francis and Martha Rawle had ten children: Robert, Francis, William, Joseph, John, Benjamin, Mary, Rebecca, and Elizabeth, and Jane. As an adult, Francis and Martha's son Francis purchased a tract of land and a mansion he called Laurel Hill, sometimes known as Randolph Mansion in Fairmount Park. It was on this property that Francis Rawle settled with his wife, Rebecca Warner, whom he married in 1756. Within five years Francis and Rebecca had three children, Anna, William, and Margaret. On June 7, 1761, Francis Rawle accidentally shot and killed himself while hunting at Point-no-Point, his country estate on the Delaware. Two years later, his widow Rebecca Warner Rawle married Samuel Shoemaker, who would go on to serve as mayor of Philadelphia and lead the loyalist cause in the city during the Revolutionary War. Anna Rawle, who married into the prestigious Wharton family, became well known among revolutionaries and loyalists for her journal, kept throughout the war, in which she described the experiences of loyalist Philadelphians during and after the war.

William Rawle, born on April 28, 1759, became the most prominent member of the Rawle family, rising to distinction as a lawyer and philanthropist. After studying law both in Philadelphia and in London, Rawle was admitted to the bar on September 15, 1783, and so began a distinguished legal career that would earn him national recognition. In the same year, Rawle founded his law office, now known as Rawle and Henderson. In 1983, on the two-hundredth anniversary of its founding, the firm was officially recognized by the Pennsylvania General Assembly as "the oldest law office in continuous practice in America." Rawle helped establish the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, serving as the institution's first president. He also served terms on the boards of the University of Pennsylvania, the Library Company of Philadelphia, and many other Philadelphia institutions.

Like his grandfather, Rawle was elected to the Assembly in 1787, and was appointed Pennsylvania's first United States attorney in 1791. During his tenure in this post, the insurrection in Western Pennsylvania known as the Whiskey Rebellion broke out, and Rawle was called in by George Washington to help the federal government assert its authority. Traveling to the scene of the insurrection with Washington and his troops, Rawle collected information and suspects for trial in Philadelphia. Although many of the rebels were taken into custody, a large percentage of the men were freed due to insufficient evidence.

Although William Rawle was a favorite of Washington's, and was offered the positions of U.S. attorney general and federal court judge in Philadelphia, he preferred to focus his energies on his family and his firm. In November of 1783, Rawle married Sarah Coates Burge. The two had twelve children: Elizabeth Margaret, Francis William, Samuel Burge, William, Beulah, Rebecca Shoemaker, Sarah, Francis William, Edward, Henry, Horatio, and Juliet. Rawle lived in greater Philadelphia throughout his life, and died at his 12th and Spruce residence on April 12, 1836. Sarah Burge Rawle died twelve years before her husband, when William was fifty-three, but he never remarried.

William Rawle Jr., born on July 19, 1788, followed in his father's footsteps, not only joining his law firm but also holding a membership at the American Philosophical Society and positions on the boards of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, the Library Company of Philadelphia, and the University of Pennsylvania, as had his father. In addition to his own family legacy in the legal profession, William Rawle Jr. married into a prestigious legal family-his wife, Mary Anna Tilghman, was the daughter of prominent Philadelphia lawyer Edward Tilghman and the granddaughter of Chief Justice Benjamin Chew.

William and Mary Tilghman Rawle had two children, Elizabeth Tilghman Rawle and William Henry Rawle. Elizabeth married Charles Wallace Brooke and had four children, one of whom, William Rawle Brooke, followed in the family legal profession. To avoid confusion within the family, Brooke changed his name to William Brooke Rawle relatively early in life. Rawle served in the Union cavalry during the Civil War, and would continue to reflect on and document this experience throughout his later life, publishing a number of books on the subject. Rawle also joined the family law firm, where he worked closely with his uncle, William Henry Rawle.

Scope and content

This collection pertains mostly to William Rawle Sr. (1759-1836) and his descendants. In addition to the many legal documents relating to Rawle's work and his law firm, there is also a great deal of professional and personal correspondence pertaining to him and to other members of the family, and a great deal of genealogical material is included as well. The personal material mostly relates to William Rawle Sr., William Rawle Jr., William Brooke Rawle, and Rebecca Rawle Shoemaker, and mainly consists of correspondence. William Rawle Sr.'s career and term as Pennsylvania's U.S. Attorney is well documented, as is William Brooke Rawle's research on the cavalry conflict at Gettysburg. Related families represented in this collection include the Shoemaker, Brooke, Porter, and Hall families. Genealogical materials, in the form of clippings, family trees, and scrapbooks, document all of these families.

The materials in Series 1 relate to the life and career of William Rawle Sr., focusing on his legal contributions. Much of the correspondence pertains to Rawle's professional activities, although there are also letters sent while traveling that provide a view of Rawle's personal relationships with his family, particularly his mother and sisters. A number of letters from Rawle's later life offer insight into his relationship with his children and his wife, Sarah Burge Rawle. In addition, Rawle's journals and poems offer a view of his thoughts and reflections as well as his travels and day-to-day activities in the period from 1782-1792. Legal materials include papers relating to Rawle's membership on the board of attorneys enlisted to revise and rewrite the Pennsylvania Civil Code, an activity that occupied the final years of Rawle's life. The collection also includes material from Rawle's time as Pennsylvania's U.S. attorney, including papers related to his detention and prosecution of rebels during the Whiskey Rebellion. Miscellaneous materials include tributes and obituaries drafted upon the death of William Rawle in 1836.

Series 2 contains material related to the life of Rebecca Warner Rawle Shoemaker, the mother of William Rawle Sr. After the death of her husband Francis, Rebecca Rawle became the owner of their Laurel Hill estate, which was subsequently taken from her during wartime as a consequence of her marriage to loyalist Samuel Shoemaker. This series contains a folder of material relating to Rebecca's ownership of Laurel Hill, which provides insight into the financial experience of loyalists during and after the Revolutionary War. Although relatively limited in volume, the correspondence in this series, along with the journal and other writings, give a sense of Rebecca's character and daily activities.

Series 3 contains papers relating to the life, career, and research of William Brooke Rawle. Rawle, who was born William Rawle Brooke and changed his name, lived and went to school in Philadelphia before embarking on a military career. This series contains Rawle's diplomas and documents relating to his military service and promotions, as well as a folder of membership materials from various Philadelphia groups and institutions and another folder of documents relating to Rawle's philanthropic donations and positions. Much of the correspondence in this series, incoming and outgoing, relates to Rawle's research of the conflict at Gettysburg. Rawle served as a cavalry soldier in the Union army during this battle, and wrote extensively on the engagement later in his life. The legal materials in the series pertain primarily to estates for which Rawle was the executor, including those belonging to the Penn, Beckett, and Waln families.

The legal materials that make up Series 4 cannot be attributed to any one member of the Rawle family. The two major cases documented are the estates of Lloyd Preston Carpenter, including the indenture of Carpenter's son to the Rawle family, and the estate of Robert Fleming, including his reburial upon the rezoning of the boundaries of the cemetery in which he had been laid to rest.

Other members of the Rawle family are represented in Series 5, which contains materials relating to Francis Rawle (1662-1727), Sarah Burge Rawle, William Rawle Jr., William Henry Rawle, and a few other miscellaneous members. There are three volumes relating to Francis Rawle, the first of which is a copy of the 1682 First Frame of Government for the colony of Pennsylvania, which Francis had a hand in drafting. This is the oldest item in the collection, and gives a sense of the depth of the Rawle family's involvement in the shaping of Pennsylvania law. The other volumes relate to Rawle's pamphlet, the first publication by Benjamin Franklin and reportedly the first original work publication produced in Pennsylvania. Although there is no copy of the pamphlet itself, this collection does contain a copy of a pamphlet written in response to Rawle's work, as well as Rawle's rebuttal. The series also contains a folder of correspondence relating to Sarah Burge Rawle; correspondence and legal materials relating to the professional life of William Rawle Jr.; correspondence, legal materials, and a few bills and checks relating to William Henry Rawle; and a folder of miscellaneous material, most of which apparently originated with William Rawle Sr.'s children Horatio and Beulah.

The materials in Series 6 pertain to members of the extended Rawle family, including members of the Shoemaker, Brooke, Porter, and Hall families. Most of the Shoemaker material is contained in a volume entitled "The Shoemaker Papers, I," which is the only included volume of what is ostensibly a set. This volume contains typed copies of letters sent between members of the Shoemaker family and their relations, including many members of the Rawle family. There is also a "Preliminary Index to the Shoemaker Papers," which is an alphabetical listing of people and subjects without any additional location reference. The Brooke subseries contains seven school books kept and used by Robert Brooke, mostly relating to mathematical subjects. The Porter subseries contains two similar school books, contemporary with the Brooke books, kept by Andrew Porter. There is also one thin folder of material relating to Charles Hall, whose daughter married into the Rawle family.

The Rawles, like many prominent Philadelphia families, were proud of and interested in their lineage, and the materials in Series 7 provide a fairly detailed view of their family history. In addition to his Gettysburg research, William Brooke Rawle collected notes on the history of his extended family, of which several folders appear in Series VII. There are also loose newspaper clippings of unknown origin pertaining to family events and history and four scrapbooks containing similar clippings, notices, and other materials charting the history of the Rawle, Shoemaker, Tilghman, and Burge families. Many family-related clippings and other materials, such as invitations and notices, were pasted into the four scrapbooks in this series. In addition, there is one volume containing the extended family tree of the Rawles from before their arrival in American into the twentieth century.

Series 8 contains portraits of various Rawles, a collection of engraved portraits collected by the family, and some miscellaneous materials. At least one member of the Rawle family collected engraved portraits issued by the federal government, which apparently date from the late nineteenth century. In addition, this series includes a number of portraits of the Rawles, including William Rawle Sr., Rebecca Rawle Shoemaker, William Rawle Jr., William Henry Rawle, and William Brooke Rawle. There is also a folder containing envelopes stamped with Columbian stamps, sent in 1894 and 1895, and two folders of land records with an unclear connection to the family.

Arrangement


Series I	William Rawle Sr. (1759-1836), 1770-1836, n.d.	6 boxes, 5 volumes
	a. Incoming correspondence, 1790-1835, n.d.	2 folders
	b. Outgoing correspondence, 1770-1834, n.d.	10 folders, 1 volume
	c. Writings, 1782-1792, n.d.	2 box
	d. Legal, 1793-1835, n.d.	1 box, 1 FF
	e. U.S. Attorney, 1791-1800, n.d.	1 box, 7 folders
	f. Miscellaneous, 1720-1836	5 folders, 4 volumes
Series II	Rebecca Warner Rawle Shoemaker (1730-1819), 1780-1821, n.d.	5 folders, 1 volume
	a. Correspondence, 1784-1816, n.d.	2 folders, 1 volume
	b. Miscellaneous, 1780-1821, n.d.	3 folders
Series III	William Brooke Rawle (1843-1915), 1861-1921, n.d.	4 boxes, 4 volumes
	a. Incoming correspondence, 1878-1905, n.d.	1 box
	b. Outgoing correspondence, 1878-1910, n.d.	7 folders
	c. Legal, 1867-1921, n.d.	2 boxes, 4 volumes
	d. Miscellaneous, 1861-1905, n.d.	5 folders, 1 FF
Series IV	Legal, 1858-1913, n.d.	5 folders
Series V	Other Rawle family members, 1682-1877, n.d.	10 folders, 5 volumes
	a. Francis Rawle (ca. 1662-1727), 1682-1727, n.d.	3 volumes, 1 FF
	b. Sarah Coates Burge Rawle, 1783-1812	1 folder
	c. William Rawle Jr. (1788-1858), 1815-1841	1 volume
	d. William Henry Rawle (1823-1889), 1849-1877	5 folders
	e. Miscellaneous, 1720-1814, n.d.	1 folder, 1 volume
Series VI	Related Families, 1782-1857, n.d.	6 folders, 12 volumes
	a. Shoemaker, n.d.	1 folder, 3 volumes
	b. Brooke, 1783-1807, n.d.	1 folder, 7 volumes
	c. Porter, 1782-1857	3 folders, 2 volumes
	d. Hall, 1794	1 folder
Series VII	Genealogy, 1758-1889, n.d.	7 folders, 5 volumes
	a. Scrapbooks, 1758-1889, n.d.	4 volumes
	b. Miscellaneous, n.d.	7 folders, 1 volume
Series VIII	Miscellaneous, 1795-1895, n.d.	1 box, 1 vol., 4 folders
	a. Portraits, 1880, n.d.	1 box
	b. Land records, 1795-1823	5 FF
	c. Miscellaneous, 1894-1895, n.d.	2 folder, 1 volume, 1 FF

Administrative information

Restrictions

The collection is open for research.

Provenance

Gift of the Rawle family and gift of Mrs. Charles Sanderson.

Zachariah Poulson letter to William Rawle Sr. (17 August 1791): Gift of Stephen Weissman, 1992. Accession 1992:78.

Preferred citation

Cite as: [Indicate cited item or series here], Rawle Family Papers (Collection 536), The Historical Society of Pennsylvania.

Processing information

Processing made possible by a grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

A portion of this collection was formerly known as Collection 1206, which was also a collection of Rawle Family Papers. The two collections were merged when processed.

Duplicates of prints have been removed from the collection.

Alternate formats

Extracts from William Rawle's journal published in PMHB, 25 (1901): 114-117, 220- 227.

Additional information

Separated material

None.

Related material

Biddle Family Papers, Collection 2146
Meredith Family Papers, Collection 1509
Morris-Rawle Family Papers
Daniel Parker Papers, Collection 466
Daniel Parker Papers, Collection 1587
Pemberton Family Papers, Collection 484
Rebecca Warner Rawle Shoemaker Diary, Am .137458
Rebecca Warner Rawle Shoemaker Pocket Notebook, Am .8812
Rebecca Shoemaker Papers, Am .13745
Samuel and Rebecca Shoemaker Papers, Am .151 and Am .152

References