money appropriated for the defence of the Province. His sister Mercy married Peter Lloyd, the first cousin of Dr. Lloyd Zachary, a fellow Trustee. The story of William's early courtship, and reputed engagement to, William Penn's daughter Letitia, who was his senior in years, and who after reaching England at the close of 1701 forgot him and soon afterwards married William Aubrey, which was referred to with feeling by James Logan in his letter to Penn written in May 1702, forms one of the earliest romances in high life in the Province.[1] However that may be, he remained single during her life; she died in 1746, and we find him, an elderly man, marrying in 1754 Mary, daughter of Thomas Lawrence the Councillor, who must have been his cotemporary in years. He died 24 November, 1760; of his two daughters who grew to adult years, Mary married, in 1772, Richard Penn the Councillor, the grandson of William Penn, and died in London in 1829; and Sarah married, in 1795, Turner Camac of Greenmount Lodge, County Louth, Ireland.
The Pennsylvania Gazette of 27 November, 1760, thus noticed his death:
Yesterday were interred the Remains of William Masters, Esq., who was one of the Representatives of this City in Assembly, and a Provincial Commissioner, for several years. He was not more remarkable for his Superior Fortune, than for his firm Adherance to the Constitution of his Country, and the common Rights of Mankind.
His will which was probated 30 January, 1761, appointed Benjamin Franklin, Joseph Fox and Joseph Galloway executors of his Estate and guardians of his three minor daughters; but as Franklin was absent in England, he did not qualify.
Mrs. Masters, in the year following that of the death of her husband, took conveyance from her father of a large lot on the South side of Market Street between Fifth and Sixth Streets, upon which she decided to build a handsome mansion. Here her daughter Mary lived with her, and on the occasion of her marriage to Richard Penn, who had come from England in 1771 commissioned as Lieutenant Governor, the mother conveyed the property to her. During the possession of the city
- ↑ The element of doubt that appears in this colonial romance, is stated by Mr. Jenkins in his The Family of William Penn, pp. 62–63.
