James Logan

Logan was born in Lurgan, County Armagh in present-day Northern Ireland, on 20 October 1674, to parents Patrick Logan (1640–1700) and Isabella, Lady Hume (1647–1722), who married in early 1671, in Midlothian, Scotland. His father had a Master of Arts degree from the University of Edinburgh, and originally was an Anglican clergyman before converting to Quakerism.

James Logan apprenticed with a Dublin-based linen draper, received a good classical and mathematical education, and acquired a knowledge of modern languages not common at the period. The War of 1689–91 obliged him to follow his parents, first to Edinburgh, and then to London and Bristol, England where, in 1693, James replaced his father as schoolmaster. In 1699, he came to the colony of Pennsylvania aboard the Canterbury as William Penn's secretary. Logan is described as "tall and well-proportioned, with a graceful yet grave demeanor. He had a good complexion, and was quite florid, even in old age; nor did his hair, which was brown, turn grey in the decline of life, nor his eyes require spectacles."

Logan supported proprietary rights in the colonial-era Province of Pennsylvania and became a major landowner in the growing colony; he was also a slave-owner. Logan advanced through several political offices, including clerk (1701), commissioner of property (1701), receiver general (1703), and member of the provincial council (1703).

In 1717, Logan's mother came to live with him in Philadelphia; she died on 17 January 1722, at his family home at Stenton in present-day neighbourhood of Logan, named in Logan's honour, in Philadelphia.

Philadelphia and Pennsylvania government

In 1722, Logan was elected mayor of Philadelphia. During his tenure as mayor, Logan allowed Irish Catholic immigrants to participate in the city's first public Mass. He later served as the colony's chief justice from 1731 to 1739, and in the absence of a governor of Pennsylvania, became acting governor from 1736 to 1738.

On October 9, 1736, Logan responded to requests from Native American leaders to control the sale of alcohol, which was creating serious social problems, by prohibiting the sale of rum in indigenous communities, but since the penalty was merely a fine of ten pounds and the law was poorly enforced, it did not have a significant effect.

During his tenure as acting governor, Logan played an active role in the territorial expansion of the colony. While William Penn and his immediate successors pursued a policy of friendly relations with the Lenape Indian tribe, Logan and other colony proprietors, including William Penn's indebted sons, John, Richard and Thomas Penn, pursued a policy of land acquisition. Such efforts to expand were spurred by increased immigration to the colony and fears that the New York Colony was infringing on Pennsylvania's northern borders in the Upper Delaware river valley. In addition, many proprietors (including Logan and the Penn brothers) had engaged in extensive land speculation, selling off lands occupied by the Lenape to new colonists before concluding an official treaty with the tribe.

Wealth and writings

Throughout his life in the Province of Pennsylvania, Logan engaged in various mercantile pursuits, especially fur trading, with such success that he became one of the wealthiest men in the Thirteen Colonies. Logan authored several scholarly papers published by the American Philosophical Society and European journals. Logan was also a natural scientist whose primary contribution to the emerging field of botany was a treatise that described experiments on the impregnation of plant seeds, especially corn. He tutored John Bartram, the American botanist, in Latin and introduced him to Linnaeus.

Logan's daughter, Sarah, married Isaac Norris, a Philadelphia businessman and statesman.