specially in
Wilmington and its neighborhood. True to their characteristics, they
left descendants who have become the most prominent and useful citizens
down into our own time. At present Wilmington has become almost as
distinctive a Quaker town as Philadelphia. "Thee" and "thou" are
frequently heard in the streets, and a surprisingly large proportion
of the people of prominence and importance are Quakers or of Quaker
descent. Many of the neat and pleasant characteristics of the town
are distinctly of Quaker origin; and these characteristics are found
wherever Quaker influence prevails.

Wilmington was founded about 1731 by Thomas Willing, an Englishman,
who had married into the Swedish family of Justison. He laid out a
few streets on his wife's land on the hill behind the site of old Fort
Christina, in close imitation of the plan of Philadelphia, and from
that small beginning the present city grew, and was at first called
Willingtown. * William Shipley, a Pennsylvania Quaker born in England,
bought land in it in 1735, and having more capital than Willing, pushed
the fortunes of the town more rapidly. He probably had not a little to
do with bringing Quakers to Wilmington; indeed, their first meetings
were held in a house belonging to him until they could build a meeting
house of their own in 1738.

* Some years later in a borough charter granted by Penn, the name
was changed to Wilmington in honor of the Earl of Wilmington.

Both Shipley and Willing had been impressed with the natural beauty of
the situation, the wide view over the level moorland and green marsh and
across the broad river to the Jersey shore, as well as by the natural
conveniences of the place for trade and commerce. Wilmington has ever
since profited by its excellent situation, with the level moorland for
industry, the river for traffic, and the first terraces or hills of
the Piedmont for residence; and, for scenery, the Brandywine tumbling
through rocks and bowlders in a long series of rapids.

The custom still surviving in Wilmington of punishing certain classes of
criminals by whipping appears to have originated in the days of Willing
and Shipley, about the year 1740, when a cage, stocks, and whipping-post
were erected. They were placed in the most conspicuous part of the town,
and there the culprit, in addition to his legal punishment, was also
disciplined at the discretion of passers-by with rotten eggs and other
equally potent encour