A Voyage from London to Philadelphia in 1772

The Kalmar Nyckle posted images from a previous trip recently, and the images of a sailing ship with a humpback whale reminded me of one of my favorite journals. In 1772, James Reynolds voyaged from Philadelphia to London and back on the Mary and Elizabeth, captained by James Sparks. Reynolds was a carver married to Elizabeth Pearson, sister of Anne Pearson, who would become Sparks’s third wife. On this trip to study carving, negotiate for Elizabeth with millinery exporters, and visit family and friends, Reynolds took the opportunity to assess Sparks’s suitability as a potential husband and to record his observations. In a letter to Elizabeth in Philadelphia and in the journal, Reynolds’s candid thoughts provide insight into how eighteenth-century men perceived the world around them.

The trip back to Philadelphia began on Friday, July 17, 1772, when the Mary and Elizabeth left London to lie at Dartford that night.¹ This was the first leg of the voyage, following the twists of the Thames from London to the North Sea, the English Channel, and eventually, finally, the Atlantic Ocean. From our perspective, this is madness. Bristol is far more convenient, but Bristol was not London. From Dartford to Deal, to Dungeness, and finally past Beachy Head, the ship followed the southern coast to Falmouth where they “passed Seven sail of English line of Battle ships and three frigates under the command of a Rear Admiral lying too to the E’ward of Falmouth about 7 o’clock came close under Pendennis Castle but not being able to procure a pilot stood off again and at 9 saw the Lizard light.” Finally, 12 days after starting out from London, after the cautious creep towards the wilds of the North Atlantic, the weather changed at Scilly, where they found a hard gale, the weather “very thick and hazey with small rain.”²

Throughout August and September, Reynolds recorded the ship’s location, passing ships and their captains, and the weather. On August 18th, they had “moderate breezes and steady smooth water a turtle passed us saw eight several vessels two of them whalers evening blowed fresh.” In late August, the ocean would be warmer, supporting migrating fishes and marine life that seems to have captivated Reynolds.³ The whaling ships are out, busy, and the Mary and Elizabeth hears their news on the 22nd, “four months out with tolerable success.” Naval traffic changed the ecosystem of the North Atlantic, as Reynolds notes the following day, Sunday August 23rd: “fine breezes and easy sailing saw a whaling ship and a schooner laying too boiling blubber two [logs] of wood passed covered with barnacles and a turtle and many other fish feeding thereon.”⁴

Fortunately for Reynolds, who had declared in a letter home to his wife written a week before he departed for home, “when please God I see you which I shall be very glad to do and I shall set myself down quietly in America I never wish to cross the sea again,”⁵ August and September brought mostly pleasant weather, with a few days of “moderate squalls and rain” as they neared the coast. On September 22nd, at about 2 o’clock, they finally saw the light at Cape Henlopen, and knew they were home after eight weeks at sea. Reynolds slept in a tavern that night, but made it home to his wife and bed in Philadelphia the next day, ending his journal with Solus Dei Gloria.⁶  True to his word, James Reynolds never left America again, despite Loyalist leanings that led to questioning by Philadelphia’s Committee of Observation. Captain Sparks, affectionately referred to as “Jimmy” in the journal, married Reynolds’s sister-in-law Anne Pearson on November 19, 1772. The Sparkses, also Loyalists, left the United States for England sometime in late 1783 or early 1784.

¹ James Reynolds, “Journal,” New Jersey Historical Society,1772, Box 4, Folder 6, MG 800, De Zeng Family Papers. 14.

² Reynolds, “Reynolds Journal.” 15-16

³ Reynolds, “Reynolds Journal.” 20-21.

⁴ Reynolds, “Reynolds Journal.” 21.

⁵ James Reynolds, “Letter to Betsy Reynolds, Philadelphia,” Letter, New Jersey Historical Society, July 10, 1772, Box 4 Folder 5, MG 800, De Zeng Family Papers.

⁶ Reynolds, “Reynolds Journal.” 25-26.