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Hannah Callender Sansom was born on November 16, 1737, into a prominent Quaker family in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She was the daughter of William Callender Jr. (1703–1763) and Katharine Smith (1711–1789). Growing up in a Quaker family, Hannah received an education that was advanced for women of her time, because the Quaker community believed in education for both genders.
In the city, her family lived on Front Street in Philadelphia. They divided their time between the town and their countryside plantation, Richmond Seat, which William established in Point-No-Point, about 4 miles north of Philadelphia on the banks of the Delaware River. Richmond Seat was a working plantation producing “good English hay” for sale and 35 acres of meadow with “good English grass,” an 8-acre orchard for the cultivation of various fruits, a two-acre garden, and “a small well-built brick house, with a boarded kitchen.”
In 1762, when Hannah was 25, she married Samuel Sansom Jr. (1738/39–1824), a prosperous merchant. The couple had several children, and Hannah's diaries often reflect her roles as a wife and mother, detailing the challenges and joys of managing the health and education of her growing family plus maintaining 2 households in & near 18th-century Philadelphia.
As a member of prosperous families, Hannah had access to the collections of the Library Company of Philadelphia. Both her father and her husband, Samuel Sansom Jr. were members with access to the institution's collection of architectural, gardening, and horticultural manuals.
Hannah's diary contains descriptions of several country houses built along the banks of the Schuylkill River. Some of her recorded visits occur on trips away from Philadelphia.
In September of 1758, Hannah Callender Sansom visited Bush Hill, estate of James Hamilton, near Philadelphia, & wrote in her diary, “a party to bush hill...in the afternoon, a fine house and gardens, with Statues, and fine paintings."
Hannah's June of 1759, diary entry focusd on Bayard’s country seat, near New York, NY “took a walk to - Boyard’s Country seat, who was so complaisent as to ask us in his garden. the front of the house, faces the great road, about a quarter of a mile distance, a fine walk of locas trees now in full blossom perfumes the air, a beautiful wood off one side, and a Garden for both use and ornament on the other side from which you see the City at a great distance. good out houses at the back part. they have no gardens in or about New York that come up to ours of philadelphia.” On tis trip to New York, Hannah wrote of “...a good many pretty Country seats, In particular Murreys, a fine brick house, and the whole plantation in good order, we rode under the finest row of Button Wood I ever see.”
Hannah's August 1, 1759, diary entry describing Richmond Seat, summer retreat of William Callender Jr. on the Delaware River in Point-No-Point near Philadelphia, "Daddy and I went to Plantation...the place looks beautiful. the plat belonging to Daddy is 60 acres square: 30 of upland, 30 of meadow, which runs along the side of the river Delawar, half the uplands is a fine Woods, the other Orchard and Gardens, a little house in the midst of the Gardens, interspersed with fruit trees. the main Garden lies along the meadow, by 3 descents of Grass steps, you are led to the bottom, in a walk length way of the Garden, on one Side a fine cut hedge incloses from the meadow, the other, a high Green bank shaded with Spruce, the meadows and river lying open to the eye, looking to the house, covered with trees, honey scycle vines on the fences, low hedges to part the flower and kitchen Garden, a fine barn. Just at the side of the Wood, the trees a small space round it cleared from brush underneath, the whole a little romantic rural scene.”
Hannah's August 30, 1761, visit to the Moravian settlement at Bethlehem, “Sister Garrison with good humour gave us girls leave, to step cross a field to a little Island belonging to the Single Bretheren, on it is a neat Summer house, with seats of turf, and button wood Trees round it.”
Hannah's June 28, 1762, visit to the estate of the late Tench Francis Sr. near Philadelphia, “walked agreeably down to Skylkill along its banks adorned with Native beauty, interspersed by little dwelling houses at the feet of hills covered by trees, that you seem to look for enchantment they appear so suddenly before your eyes, on the entrance you find nothing but mere mortality, a spinning wheel, an earthen cup, a broken dish, a calabash and wooden platter: ascending a high Hill into the road by Robin Hood dell went to the Widow Frances’s place, she was there and behaved kindly, the House stands fine and high, the back is adorned by a fine prospect, Peter’s House, Smiths Octagon, Bayntons House &c and a genteel garden, with serpentine walks and low hedges, at the foot of the garden you desend by sclopes to a Lawn. in the middle stands a summer House, Honey Scykle &c, then you desend by Sclopes to the edge of the hill which Terminates by a fense, for security, being high & almost perpendicular except the craggs of rocks, and shrubs of trees, that diversify the Scene.”
Hannah's June 30, 1762, visit to Belmont, estate of William Peters, near Philadelphia, “went to Will: Peters’s house, having some small aquaintance with his wife who was at home with her Daughter Polly. they received us kindly in one wing of the House, after a while we passed thro' a covered Passage to the large hall...from the Front of this hall you have a prospect bounded by the Jerseys, like a blueridge, and the Horison, a broad walk of english Cherre trys leads down to the river, the doors of the house opening opposite admit a prospect of the length of the garden thro' a broad gravel walk, to a large hansome summer house in a grean, from these Windows down a Wisto terminated by an Obelisk, on the right you enter a Labarynth of hedge and low ceder with spruce, in the middle stands a Statue of Apollo, in the garden are the Statues of Dianna, Fame & Mercury, with urns. we left the garden for a wood cut into Visto’s, in the midst a chinese temple, for a summer house, one avenue gives a fine prospect of the City, with a Spy glass you discern the houses distinct, Hospital, & another looks to the Oblisk.”
Hannah's July 27, 1768, visit to the estate of Joshua Howell, near Philadelphia, “went to Edgeley. Joshua Howel has a fine Iregular Garden there, walked down to Shoolkill, after dinner...walked to the Summer House, in view of Skylkill where Benny [Shoemaker] Played on the flute.”
Hannah's May 14, 1785, visit to Bush Hill, estate of James Hamilton, near Philadelphia, “to Hambleton’s Bush hill estate, walked over that good house, viewed the fine stucco work, and delightful prospects round...”
Hannah's, June 20, 1785, visit to Belmont, estate of Richard Peters, near Philadelphia, “crossed Brittains bridge, to John Penns elegant Villa...mounted our chaise and rode a long the Schuilkill to Peters place the highest and finist situation I know, its gardens and walks are in the King William taste, but are very pleasant...”
Her diaries reveal her knowledge of the medicinal properties of various plants. She often wrote about creating herbal concoctions and treatments, blending her gardening skills with practical applications for her family's health. This aspect of her writing highlights the important role that medicinal plants and gardens played in the daily lives of women at that time.
Hannah Callender Sansom passed away on March 9, 1801. Her diaries remain an invaluable historical resource, offering a window into the massive responsibilities of a wife & mother & of her plants revealing her contributions to horticulture and botany.
Bibliography
Books:
Bloch, Ruth H. Gender and Morality in Anglo-American Culture, 1650–1800. University of California Press, Berkeley, 2003.
Frost, J. William. The Quaker Family in Colonial America: A Portrait of the Society of Friends. St. Martin's Press, New York, 1973.
Gaddis, John Lewis. The Landscape of History: How Historians Map the Past. Oxford University Press, New York, 2002.
Illick, Joseph E. Colonial Pennsylvania: A History. Scribner, New York, 1976.
Klepp, Susan E., and Karin Wulf, eds. Diary of Hannah Callender Sansom: Sense and Sensibility in the Age of the American Revolution. Cornell University Press, Ithaca, 2010.
Lewis, Jane. Women in Colonial America: A Study of Hannah Callender Sansom. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, 1995.
Mack, Phyllis. Quaker Women, 1650-1690. Indiana University Press, Bloomington, 1995.
Richards, Thomas. Faith and Practice: The Role of Quaker Women in Colonial Society. Yale University Press, New Haven, 1987.
Thompson, Samuel. The Quaker Influence on American Colonial Culture. Princeton University Press, Princeton, 1998.
Articles:
Adams, Margaret. "The Social Networks of Hannah Callender Sansom: A Quaker Woman's Perspective." Journal of Social History, vol. 40, no. 2, Winter 2006, pp. 391-410.
Brown, Ellen. "Daily Life and Domestic Duties in the 18th Century: Insights from Hannah Callender Sansom." Early American Studies, vol. 5, no. 3, Fall 2007, pp. 225-240.
Johnson, Mark. "A Quaker Woman's World: The Diaries of Hannah Callender Sansom." Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, vol. 134, no. 4, October 2010, pp. 351-370.
Smith, Laura. "Gardening in the Eighteenth Century: The Diaries of Hannah Callender Sansom." Journal of Early American Gardens, vol. 6, no. 2, 2015, pp. 45-60.
Turner, Alice. "Hannah Callender Sansom and Her Philadelphia Garden." American Horticultural Society Journal, Summer 2011, pp. 24-35.
Williams, Joan. "Quaker Perspectives on Family and Gender Roles: The Writings of Hannah Callender Sansom." Quaker History, vol. 90, no. 1, Spring 2001, pp. 19-33.
