The following is a my typewritten trancript of the James Logan  bio provided by John W Jordan, L.LD originallypublished 1911. It has been reissued and is available at the source given below following the editor's note on the text given
 

• Editor's Note: Please consider that the history of the barrony of Restalrig is in MUCH DISARRAY and many errors have been found regarding the geneology of the ancient Logans of that Barony and their own importance to James LOGAN of Pennsylvania's line. It is, however, given as presented. The bio on James Logan himself  herein likewise included is considered of greater historical value than the purported alliance to the Admiral LOGAN associated with ancient Scotland and any descendancy described to that ancient house.

J W Jordan's bio on James Logan  appeared originally inColonial & Revolutionary Families of Pennsylvania; Geneological and Personal Memoires, Vol. I, Early Pennsylvania Land Records; Minutes of the board of Property of the Province of Pennsylvania, John W Jordan, L.LD, Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Ex-General Registrar of Sons of the Revolution, and Registrar of Pennsylvania Society, Originally published New York and Chicago 1911. It wasReprintedfor Clearfield, Inc by Geneological Publishing Co., Inc. Baltimore, Md., 1994, Copyright 1978 Geneological Publishing Co., Inc. Baltimore, Md.

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"James Logan, William Pennís Secretary, confidential friend and adviser, as well as of his sons and grandsons, and for nearly half a century the factotum of the Colonial government of Pennsylvania, and one of its most prominent officials, Provincial Councillor, Judge, Assemblyman, Surveyor General, and at times all of these and more; came of an ancient and honorable family of Scotland, and is thought to have been a grandson or great grandson of Logan of Restalrigg, who in the year 1600 conspired with the Earl of Gowrie to kidnap James VI of Scotland, later James I , of England, for which complicity, discovered after his death, his estate was confiscated and his name, memory, and dignity abolished; his arms cancelled, so that his posterity be excluded from any offices, honors, lands, tenements, etc.î

"The Barony of Restalrigg, Scotland, originally was vested in the Leith family and  in the reign of Robert the Bruce came into the Logan family by the marriage of and heiress of the Leiths with a Logan. Sir Robert Logan, of this family, accompanied Sir James Douglas on his way to the Holy Land with the heart of their royal master Bruce, and with Douglas was slain by the Saracens in Andalusia, Spain in 1330.

" In 1398 Robert Logan, of Restalrigg, who married a daughter of Robert II, of Scotland, and was Admiral of Scotland, etc, bore the coat-of-arms granted to the family in commemoration of the heroic services and death of Sir Robert Logan, before mentioned, viz.: 'Three passion nails piercing a manís heart'

 "Sir Robert Logan, son of the Admiral, married Geilless, daughter of the fourth Lord Seton, and a descendant, another Sir Robert Logan, married about 1650, Agnes, daughter of Patrick, Lord Gray. Another Logan of Restalrigg, in the sixteenth century, married Elizabeth, daughter of David Magill, of Cranstonriddel, Kingís Advocate; and the attainted Logan of Restalrigg married a daughter of Patrick Home, of Fastcastle, in Berwickshire. They had at least four sons-Robert, who succeeded his father as Laird of Restalrigg, and was summoned to answer his fatherís treason; George; John, and Archibald. Patrick Logan, the father of James, of Pennsylvania, was born in East Lothra, Scotland, and is said to have been a son of George and grandson of Logan of Restalrigg. He graduated with the degree of M. A. from the University of Edinburgh, and became a clergyman of the Established Church, but becoming a convert to Quakerism, in March, 1671, he removed to Lurgan, county Armagh, Ireland, and had charge of a Latin school there until the landing of William of Orange in 1689,  when he removed with his family to Edinburgh, and soon after to Bristol, England, where he took charge of a Latin school under the care of Friends. He had married while in Scotland, Isabel, Daughter of James Hume, a young son of the House of St. Leonardís m the south of Scotland, by his wife Bethra Dundas, sister to the Laird of Dundas, of Didiston, about eight miles from Edinburgh, and a descendant of Lord Panmure. James Logan says, 'The Earl of Murray assisted my grandfather to carry off my grandmother.'

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"William Logan, eldest son of Patrick and Isabel (Hume) Logan, became an eminent physician at Bristol, England , and his nephew, William Logan, son of James of Philadelphia, was sent to his uncle by his parents at the age of twelve years and was educated under his supervision. At the death of his uncle, his nephew and namesake received under his will a legacy of considerable estate.

"James Logan was born at Lurgan, Ireland, October 20, 1674, and was educated in his fatherís school there, acquiring a fair knowledge of Latin, Greek and Hebrew before he was thirteen years of age. In his fourteenth year he apprenticed to a linen draper in Dublin, but he writes in his autobiography,  ìthe Prince of Orange landing before I was bound, (tho I served my Master for 6 months) in the winter of 1688, I went down to my Parents, and the wars of Ireland coming on, in the Spring I went over to Edinburgh with my mother after which my father soon followed, who being out of employment, repaired to London and was there gladly received by our friends, Deputies to the General  Meeting from Bristol in that city, as their School Master for the Latin language and I followed him the next year.î  Patrick Logan returned to Ireland in 1693, leaving James in charge of the school. He retained his position there, continuing his studies until 1697, when he engaged in the shipping trade between Dublin and Bristol.  His father died in 1702, and his mother married again ìout of meetingî , and in 1717, again a widow, came to Pennsylvania and lived with her son until her death, January 17, 1722. Logan, when invited by William Penn to become his Secretary and accompany him to Pennsylvania, had in prospect a successful business career. The promise and prospects of material advancement in the new country, however, induced him to accept the offer and he sailed with ìthe Founderî and his family in the ìCanterbury, î for Pennsylvania , September 9. 1699.

 

"James Logan was born and reared a Quaker, and held to that faith through his life; but, aristocratic by birth and tendency, ambitious and courageous by nature and always tenacious of his rights, the stricter tenets of the faith of his sect had little hold on his outward life; particularly was this so in reference to the defense of inherent rights and liberties by force if necessary. These traits, which marked his whole after career, were thus early made manifest to  his distinguished patron before their arrival in America. The vessel in which they were passengers being attacked by pirates, Logan took an active part in its defense, while Penn, the great apostle of peace, retired ìbelowî.  After the Pirates had been driven off and Penn reappeared, had reproved Logan for engaging in force of arms. Logan, with characteristic bluntness, entered into no lengthy defense of what he considered a perfectly natural action, but contented himself with inquiring of his patron and master, since he did not wish that he should take part in the sanguinary struggle, ìWhy then did you not order me down too?î

"They arrived in Philadelphia in the early part of December, 1699, and he took up his residence in the family of William Penn, in Anthony Morrisí 'slate roof house', on Second street, and remained there after Penn had returned to England two years later. Penn at once made him Secretary of the Governorís Council, and when about to depart for England made him also his Commissioner of Property and Receiver General, and he thereafter had principal charge of the

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"making of titles to lands, and the collection of quit rents, and had a general supervision of the vast business interests of Penn and his family in America. He gained and held the confidence of the Found, and that of his heirs and successors in the proprietary interests, and his recommendations, as to the policy of government, the selection of members of Council and other high officials, even the Deputy or lieutenant Governors of the Province, as well as in all matters pertaining to the proprietary interests, had great weight as abundantly evidence in the correspondence with Penn and his family.

"Logan became a voting member of the Governorís council, April 21, 1702, and after the arrival of Lieutenant Governor John Evans was formally qualified as a member. February 8, 1703-4; and he continued an active and often a dominant member of that body until his voluntary retirement, May 29, 1747, and during nearly two years, after the retirement of Gov Patrick Gordon, August 4, 1736, to June 1, 1738, as President and senior member of Council, he was acting Chief Executive of the Province.

 "At the time that Logan became an acting member of Council and assumed the administration of the business affairs of the Proprietary, troubles were crowding about his great patron on both sides of the ocean. He was involved in various disputes with the Crown, and had quarreled with the settlers on the question of quit rents, large arrcarages of which remained unpaid, and Loganís  insistence on a perhaps too rigid enforcement of his masterís rights and perquisites, further aggravated the trouble with the anti-proprietary party, and on him as the confidential clerk and devout friend of Penn devolved cares too manifold for his youthful shoulders. By nature and inheritance and aristocrat, he resented the pretensions of the democratic element in the Assembly, always too read to ignore the prerogatives of the Proprietary, and his haughty manner and want of diplomacy embroiled him in a quarrel between the young and dissolute Governor Evans and the Assembly, which culminated in the articles of impeachment against him, exhibited February 26, 1706-7, charging him with  inserting in the Governorís  omissions, clauses contrary to the Royal Charter. He was also charged with holding two incompatible offices, of Surveyor General, which he had held since its vacation by the death of Edward Pennington in 1702, and that of Clerk of the Council. The Governor notified  the Assembly that he could find no warrant under his commission of the Royal Charter, to conduct a trial of impeachment, and Logan having sent to the Assembly a specific answer to the several charges separately, the Assembly still clamored for an impeachment. Logan petitioned the Governor and Council to permit the Assembly to present their charges, but since the Governor declined to act in a judicial capacity at the trial the controversy continued with much bitterness for over two years, Governor John Evans having in the meantime been superseded by Colonel Charles Gookin. The controversy was more in the nature of a contest between David Lloyd, Speaker of the Assembly and the leader o the anti-proprietary party, and James Logan as the direct representative of the Proprietary.  Lloyd having issued addresses abusing and maligning Logan, he replied with some spirit, the Assembly on November 25, 1709, issued an order to Peter Evans, High Sheriff of Philadelphia, to take Logan into custody and confine him within the county jail' '& him therein safely to detain & keep until he shall willingly make his submission to the satisfaction of this House&c.'

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"Evans communicating with the Governor was directed by him, 'that you suffer not the said James Logan to be in anywise molested by virtue of any order, or pretended order of Assembly whatsoever; and in case any of the said Assembly or others under pretense of any authority derived from them, shall attempt to molest or attach the said James Logan in his person, I do hereby Command you to oppose such attachment; &c.'

 "Logan had been long making preparation to sail for England, having about concluded his arrangements when the attachment was issued and soon after sailed. He remained abroad for over two years, and on the eve of his return to Pennsylvania, under date of November 30, 1711, was commissioned by the trustees to whom William Penn had made over all his interests in Pennsylvania, as their Commissioner of Property and Receiver General.

" To these trustees, Henry Gouldney and Sylvanus Grove, he writes from 'Spitthead, 19th 10mo ' (ed note: Oct?), '1711, after beginning his journey homeward, urging them to use their utmost endeavors to have Penn execute ìa good substantial will, such as may be seen to the honor of his name after he is gone which is not yet done.'  He arrived in Philadelphia, March 11, 1711-12, and at once resumed his seat in the Provincial Council and the duties of Clerk, as well as the many other duties in the interest of the Proprietary. In a a letter to Hannah Penn, under date of April 27, 1716, he recommended the appointment of Sir William Keith as Governor to succeed Gookin, and he arrived and assumed his  , May 31, 1717, from which date Logan relinquished the duties of clerk to his deputies, Ralph Asheton and George Barclay. He was elected a member of the Board of Aldermen of the city of Philadelphia, October 17, 1717, and as Mayor of the city, October 2, 1722. He and Governor Keith did not get along very smoothly after the first few years of the latterís governorship, for the reason that Keith began to ignore the recommendations of Council and the interests of the Proprietaries to propitiate certain wealthy and influential members of the anti-Proprietary party, whose interests and friendship he thought it to his personal interest to cultivate, and Logan always true to his trust as the representative of the family, resented any abrogation of these r rights or interests. The breach widened and on May 20, 1723, Keith appointed his private secretary, Patrick Baird, Secretary of Council, to succeed Logan. On his retirement from the active work of Secretary of the Council in 1717, Logan engaged extensively in mercantile business and in the Indian trade. He had always been on intimate terms with the leading Indian chiefs and had negotiated many important treaties with them in the Proprietariesí interest, almost from the time of his arrival in Pennsylvania. He always retained the friendship of the Indians, and it was their custom to pay him periodical visits, late in his life, while residing at ìStentonî, where he frequently entertained large members of them, as many as three and four hundred of them being hospitably entertained at ìStentonî for days at a time.

"On the expiration of this term of office as mayor  of Philadelphia, he again went abroad, and as a result of his conference with Hannah Penn, and the Trustees of the Penn estate, Keith was withdrawn and Patrick Gordon was commissioned Deputy Governor, June 22, 1726, with instructions to immediately re-instate James Logan as Secretary of Council, and to ìbe ruled by himî.  Gordon also named him, on August 25, 1726, as one of the Justices of Phila-

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dephia county, and he was recommissioned September 2, 1727, and became one of the Judges of the Court of Common Pleas.

" On August 25, 1731, he was appointed Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, on the unanimous recommendation of Council, to succeed his old adversary, David Lloyd, who had recently died. He filled this  position until August 9, 1739, with marked ability. A volume of his decisions and charges to juries was published in England in 1736.

"On the death of Governor Patrick Gordon, in August 1736, James Logan as senior member of Council, became its President, and as such filled the position of Chief Executive of the Province until the arrival of George Thomas, the next Deputy Governor, June 1, 1738, Logan having been offered the  position of Deputy Governor, but declining. His two years administration of the affairs of the Province as Chief Executive were marked by the Border War, resulting from the dispute over the boundary between Maryland and Pennsylvania.

"It was at Logan'sí urgent request to be relieved from the burden of the government of the Province, that George Thomas was sent to take the position of Deputy Governor. Down to this time his untiring industry had been taxed to the utmost by the cares of many offices, he having  for many years been the general factotum of the government, bringing to bear upon its multifarious affairs all the force of his intellectual and business capacity. His correspondence with the Penn family, covering a period of nearly forty years, during which he had been actively employed in their interest and during the greater part of which he had been the most prominent figure in the government, are a mine of historical information, and reveal his marvelous industry, carefulness in all the details of the business, and an intellectual breadth and capacity for business that demand the admiration of posterity. An amateur in every act he was called to perform, when he undertook the work on the departure of Penn in 1701, having no private means, he espoused the cause of the then much abused founder of the Province, and undertook the herculean task of protecting and husbanding his interests and those of his family, against the opposition of some of the most prominent and influential men in the Colony, and for years carried the heavy burden of clerk, agent, book-keeper, steward, Surveyor and Receiver General, Councillor, and later Judge and Governor.

"In the midst of all this business and official activity, he found time for reading and the most exhaustive researches in the realms of science, letters, history and languages. Nearly all his business letters abroad contained orders for books, and he carried on an extensive correspondence with many of the most learned men of Europe and there was no topic of science or literature that he was not qualified to discuss with the most learned scholars of his time. He sometimes indited a lively Greek ìOde to a friendî, and often his letters were indited in the Latin tongue.

"He was an intimate friend and correspondent of Linnaeus, who in complement to the botanical knowledge transmitted to him by Logan, named for  him an order of herbs and shrubs ìLoganiaceaeî, containing thirty genera in over three hundred and fifty species. He was a close student of scientific phenomena and contributed a number of papers, now in the Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, on the result of his scientific observations

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on lightning; "Apparent increase of the Magnitude of the Sun and Moon near the horison', 'Davisí Quadrant'  ' Experimenta et Meletemara circa Planarium Generationem' etc. He published Latin essays on reproduction in plants, and the aberration of light, translated Catoís ìDistichî, and Ciceroís ìDe Senectateî and issued many other works many of which still remain in manuscript.

 
 "With his withdrawl from the governorship in 1738, he retired almost entirely from public business and passed the remainder of his days at 'Stenton', his country seat near Germantown, erected in 1728, on a plantation of five hundred acres. The mansion house, raised on the very day his son James was born, is still to be seen on an eminence a short distance east of Wayne Junction and is still owned by his descendants.

"This picturesque and dignified old mansion is rich in historic associations, and is one of the finest specimens of Colonial architecture. The Pennsylvania Society of Colonial Dames have recently restored it, and under their guardianship it is open to the public. It is built of variegated brick, two stories, surmounted by a pyramidal shaped roof, pierced by dormer windows, and is approached by a long avenue of grand old sycamore trees. The Colonial doorway is reached by three curious circular stone steps firmly clasped together with iron. The doorway opens into a great hall, paved with brick and wainscoted in white to the ceiling, with an open fireplace on the right, and a stately double staircase  ascends through an archway in the rear. On either side are lofty rooms also wainscoted in white. Over the large fireplace in the room to the left is an ornamental iron back plate inscribed ìJ.L. 1738.î In another room some of the original blue and white Dutch tiles, in grotesque pattern, still adorn the fireplace.

"One of the most attractive rooms in the house is the library, where the  Illustrious book-loving statesman and scholar spent most of his time during his declining years. It is a fine room, recently taking up half of the front of the house, on the second story, and once contained the finest collection of books of any private library in Colonial America, later presented by the collector to the city of Philadelphia, through the medium of the Loganian Library, founded by him, and later merged with the Philadelphia Library.  The ancient house, so long inhabited by the Logan family, is full of interest to the lover of the oldentime. From cellar to garret there are all sorts of quaint nooks and corners, and leading from the cellar to the stables is a long underground passage, which is the subject of many a strange legend.  No longer surrounded by its ample estate, ìStentonî at this time presents a pathetic appearance, as to surroundings. Within a few hundred yards of the mansion on the south and west terminate the rows of brick houses and intervening streets-the built up portion of the city of Philadelphia once miles away-on the northwest overshadowed by the elevated tracks of the Philadelphia and Reading Railway, at Wayne Junction, and beyond, to the north and east, encompassed by the Irregular gradings and elevations of new streets and buildings of a great city which in its onward march of expansion has leaped over this little oasis of faded Colonial grandeur and pushed for miles beyond, leaving 'Stenton', the old home of the departed statesman with only a pathetic semblance of its departed grandeur and magnificence.

"James Logan, at the time he settled at 'Stenton', had acquired a fortune

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"in commerce, in trade with the Indians, and by the purchase and sale of desirable tracts of land in all parts of the Colony, which his position as Surveyor General gave him opportunity of securing. He was therefore able to live in princely style, and entertain with a free-hearted hospitality. For more than a century ìStentonî as the home of the Logan family was the resort of notable and distinguished persons of the Colonies and from abroad, and its mistresses were among the most accomplished women of their time.

"James Logan voluntarily retired from the Provincial Council, May 29, 1747, having taken little part in its deliberations for several years previously. He died at  'Stenton', December 31, 1751, and was buried at the Friendsí Burying Ground, in Philadelphia.

 "James Logan married, at Friendsí Meeting, Philadelphia, December 9. 1714, Sarah Read, daughter of Charles Read, a prominent merchant of Philadelphia, by his second wife, Amy (Child) Stanton, widow of Edward Stanton, and a half-sister of Charles Read, the Provincial Councillor. Amy Child, ìOf Herford, in the County of Hertford, Spinsterî, by lease and release, dated January 24 and 25, 1681, purchased of William Penn five hundred acres of land to be laid out in Pennsylvania. After her purchase she married Edward Stanton, who obtained a warrant of survey for the said five hundred acres of land, dated 9mo. (november) 1686, and it was surveyed in Solebury township, Bucks county, Pennsylvania. Edward Stanton died, and Amy was married to her second husband, Charles Read, at Middletown Monthly Meeting, in Bucks county, September 23, 1690. He joined her in a conveyance of the Solebury plantation to John Scarborough, December 19, 1698, and the resurvey to Scarborough, with the information above noted, is mentioned in the Minutes of the Commissioners of Property, under date of May 19, 1702.  Amy Child was probably of the same family as Henry Child, of Coleshill, Amersham, county Herford, who purchased one thousand five hundred acres of William Penn at about the same date and came to Pennsylvania, but later returned to England, leaving here a son, Cephas Child, who has numerous descendants in Bucks county, Philadelphia, and elsewhere in Pennsylvania.
Charles Read, father of Mrs. Logan, was a member of the Board of Aldermen of Philadelphia, under the Charter of 1701, and represented Philadelphia in the Assembly in 1704. Charles Read, the Councillor, is said to have been a son of a former marriage, while Sarah Logan and Rache (Ed note, this is shown as Rache with an accent over the e extending to the right) Pemberton were the daughters of Amy (Child) Stanton, the second wife.

"James Logan had many years prior to his marriage been an ardent suitor for the hand of Anne Shippen, the beautiful daughter of Edward Shippen, but she rejected his suit and married Thomas Story, Loganís colleague in the Board of Property, with whom he seems to have had considerable controversy, as evidenced by his correspondence with Penn, probably owing largely to their rivalry for the hand of Anne Shippen. Under date of 11mo 16, 1704-5, Penn writes Logan ' I am anxiously grieved for thy unhappy love for thy sake and my own, for T.S., and thy discord has been for no service here any more than there, and some say that come thence that thy amours have so altered or influenced thee that thou art grown touchy and apt to give rough and short answers, which many call haughty. I make no judgment, but caution thee, as in former letters, to let truth preside and bear impertinence as patiently as

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"thou canst.' Logan in his reply 3 mo 17, 1705, represents himself as very much abused and maligned by Thomas Story, whom he says ' in the middle of a pleasant discourse broke out into such a Thunder as if he carried ye whole magazine of anathemas in his breast, and so continued for 5 months his blow at Meetings.'   After further explanation of their differences he concludes ' I am sorry I spent so much paper on it & therefore shall close ye subject when I have added that I wish he had some more Honour to season his religion, it would keep much ye sweeter.' " ⁹

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