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Tag: Dr. Thomas Graeme

Samuel and Sarah Penrose

Graeme Park in Horsham, PA was established in 1720 by the Deputy Governor of Pennsylvania, Sir William Keith. Keith called his plantation Fountain Low. Originally about 1,800 acres, parcels were sold off in the 1730s after Keith returned to England. His son-in-law, Dr. Thomas Graeme acquired 835 acres of Fountain Low in 1737 and renamed this parcel Graeme Park. Graeme turned his park into a summer retreat and during the period of the 1760s it became a stop for many of the more prominent people in Philadelphia. Dr. Graeme’s daughter, Elizabeth, inherited the property in 1772 upon her...

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Elizabeth Graeme Fergusson

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...

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Dr Thomas Graeme

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...

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