Such was the condition of Mr. Rittenhouse, while he remained under the same roof with his father and mother, and some of their unmarried children. It was a mode of life which his disposition was calculated to enjoy; for, strongly attached to his kindred and friends by the benevolence of his nature, he derived much of his happiness from the reciprocal affections of a domestic circle and the kind intercourses of friendly esteem.
There does not appear to have been, for a long time, any occurrence that could have much disturbed the placid composure of our philosopher’s mind,—until 1762; in which year his sister Anne died, in the twenty-sixth year of her age. She was the wife of Mr. George Shoemaker, a respectable citizen of Philadelphia, and a member of the religious society of Friends. A letter which Mr. Rittenhouse wrote to his brother-in-law Mr. Barton, in October 1762, announcing this event, indicates the keenness of his sensibility on the occasion. Mrs. Shoemaker was a woman of intrinsic worth; she died in the prime of life; and it is believed, she was the first of Mr. Rittenhouse’s affectionate little band of brothers and sisters who had attained to the age of maturity, that he had then lost. After giving a circumstantial account of his sister’s illness and death, he informs Mr. Barton, that Mr. Daniel Stanton, an eminent public speaker in the society of Friends,[[100]] attended her in her last illness, at her particular request;—and, added Mr. Rittenhouse, “the same worthy gentleman who visited her in her sickness, delivered an excellent exhortation at the grave,—giving, in a few words, a very just character, I think, of our deceased sister.”
Mr. Shoemaker (who married again) had an only child named Jacob, by his first wife here mentioned. This son became a young man of promising character: but, having entered the American army at the commencement of the revolutionary war, and attained (it is believed) the rank of captain, under the patronage of his uncle David Rittenhouse, he was slain in the campaign of 1781, in South-Carolina. Mr. Rittenhouse was much afflicted by the death of this gallant young man, who fell in the flower of his age.
An occasion presented itself, in which Mr. Rittenhouse, when only in the thirty-second year of his age, was employed in transacting an important piece of business of a public nature: it was as follows.
In consequence of a petition of the Messrs. Penn to the court of chancery in England, exhibited in the year 1735, it was decreed by the lord chancellor, in 1750,—That an agreement which had been entered into between the Penns and Lord Baltimore, concerning the long-subsisting controversy relative to the boundary lines between Pennsylvania and Maryland, should be carried into specific execution: and, accordingly, a final agreement was executed by those proprietaries of the two provinces, on the fourth day July[day July], 1760.
In pursuance of the chancellor’s decree, provision was made for ascertaining and fixing the “circle,” to be “drawn at twelve miles distance from New-Castle, northward and westward, unto the beginning of the fortieth degree of north latitude;”—and thence, running a straight line westward, five degrees in longitude, to be computed from the eastern boundary; as described in the royal charter to William Penn. Commissioners were appointed under the chancery-degree, for settling these boundaries. But nothing was definitively done in the business, until the eleventh of January, 1769; when the line which was run by Messrs. Mason and Dixon in the years 1767 and 1768, in pursuance of the final agreement between the parties before mentioned, was approved and ratified by the king in council.
So early, however, as about the close of the year 1763, four or five years before the running and marking of Mason and Dixon’s line, Mr. Rittenhouse was employed by the Penn family in making some geographical arrangements, preparatory to the final establishment of those boundaries. He was engaged to perform this service, by the Rev. Mr. Richard Peters, (afterwards D. D. and rector of the united churches of Christ-Church and St. Peters, in Philadelphia,) who then officiated as the Governor’s provincial secretary; a gentleman of learning and great worth; and one who, on various occasions, manifested a friendship for Mr. Rittenhouse, as well the high opinion he entertained of his abilities.
The particular department of that business thus committed to Mr. Rittenhouse, seems to have been the fixing of the Circle,—or at least, the tracing of its course or route, topographically; and this was, certainly, a matter of no little difficulty. That this service was performed to the satisfaction of the then administrators of the government of Pennsylvania, and that it was an arduous one, will appear by the following extract of a letter from Mr. Rittenhouse to the Rev. Mr. Barton, dated the sixteenth of February, 1764.[[101]]
“I hope,” said he, “you will never believe that I am determined to disclaim all kind of intercourse” with you: for I can say with the greatest sincerity there are very few things I so much regret, as that I have it not in my power to spend a great part of my time with you. My attention has, for some time past, been engaged with such a multiplicity of things, that I may with some reason claim your indulgence for my not writing. Have I not, indeed, an equal right to complain?—for, I think this letter will balance our accounts, from the time I last saw you.
“I waited on Mr. Peters, as you desired me to do. He treated me kindly, and made an offer of doing me some services; for which I am greatly obliged to him. He likewise paid me for my attendance at New-Castle, and much more generously than I expected;—though I found it a very laborious affair; being obliged, singly, to go through a number of tedious and intricate calculations.”