People | Horsham Preservation and Historical Association

Governor Sir William Keith

Posted in People.

Sir William Keith Sir William Keith (1680-1748) was the deputy governor of the province of Pennsylvania under William Penn’s widow, Hannah Callowhill Penn. “Keith was descended from that great feudal family of that name, the head of which, for about six hundred years, was Marischal to the King of Scotland, in ancient times sitting with the Constable at the monarch’s right hand in Parliament.”89 William Keith was the eldest son of Sir William Keith of Ludquhairn, and was born at the family home of Boddam Castle, near Boddam in the extreme north east of Scotland. He studied at Marischal...

Elizabeth Graeme Fergusson

Posted in People.

Elizabeth Graeme Fergusson Dr. Thomas Graeme acquired what was to become Graeme Park in 1739 sort of from his mother-in-law Lady Ann Keith (see Graeme Park timeline). The estate, then called Fountain Low, was pretty much wilderness with a large building which may have been sitting vacant due to Governor Keith’s and Lady Anne’s never ending financial problems. Dr Graeme, over time, transformed the estate by adding gardens, a 300 acre deer park, and converting this building into the beautiful, colonial mansion we know today as Keith House. The Graemes used Graeme Park as a summer retreat...

Dr Thomas Graeme

Posted in People.

Dr Thomas Graeme Dr. Thomas Graeme (October 20, 1688-September 4, 1772) was the son-in-law of Sir William Keith, and the prominent port physician of Philadelphia. He purchased the remainder of what had been Sir William Keith’s Fountain Low Estate in Horsham. Graeme transformed what was likely a failed attempt at a brewery/distillery in the middle of the forest into a working farm and country estate. Dr Graeme was born at the family seat at Balgowan, in Perthshire, Scotland, October 20, 1688. Dr Benjamin Rush described him as “”a person of excellent education and agreeable manners...

Henry Pratt McKean

Posted in People.

Henry Pratt McKean This article is based on History of Talamore by Dr James Hilty 100 except where otherwise noted. Henry Pratt McKean, born January 12, 1866, was the great great grandson of Thomas McKean, signer of the Declaration of Independence, and grandson, on his mother’s side of George Mifflin Wharton, a prominent Philadelphia attorney. Buoyed by inherited wealth and high social status, H. P. McKean became a financier, clubman, skilled horseman, and widely known “gentleman” socialite in New York, Washington and London100. He was a descendant of Samual Carpenter through his Wharton...

Archibald McClean

Posted in People.

Archibald McClean The early history of Horsham boasts two men of some renown named Archibald McClean. “The senior Archibald McClean was for sixteen years a justice of the peace in Horsham, and in 1772 was elected to the Pennsylvania Assembly. He died December 1, 1773, in his seventy-fifth year, having resided in the same place for forty years. He was buried in the graveyard attached to Abington Presbyterian Church. On the list of 1776 we find his estate rated at 220 acres.”16 McLean’s daughter was married to Col. Robert Loller of Hatboro. “Dr. Archibald McClean, a distinguished...