Delaware gazette and state journal. (Wilmington, Del.) 1883-1902, 1893-10-19
RELICS OF DANIEL DEFOE.
Owned by. Maryland Descendants
of Elizabeth Job.

One of Defue's chairs Now In the Possess
sion of the Delaware Historical Society
--Snid to no the Chair In Which He
Wrote "RobinsUn Crusoe."
New York sun, Oct Is.
Daniel DeToe, great, great, great,
grandson of him that wrote "Robinson
Crusoe," reached New York the other
day, naval apprentice on board the
British merchant ship Priorhill. He is
not the first Of his race to visit America,
and he could find some Of his kinsfolk
and many relics of his famous ances-
tor down on the eastern shore Of Mary
land. When Daniel Defoe, political
pamphleteer and novelist, was in fear
of imprisonment for political offences
he found asylum with his widowed sis
ter, Elizabeth Maxwell Of London. He
set up his study in her house, and sent
forth from that study not only many
political pamphlets, but as well the
manuscript of Robinson Crusoe."
When Defoe went to live with his
sister he found there Elizabeth, her
daughter then child Of years. When
Elizabeth was IL years old, and a year
before Robinson Crusoe was written,
being forbidden to marry the man Of
her choice, she fled to America. As she
was penniless she arranged with the
captain that he should sell her to service
for term of years, when they should
reach the new country and apply the
proceeds of the sale to the payment of
her passage. This was no uncommon
arrangement in those days, and immi-
grants who came thus were called re-
demptionors. Many respectable Southern
families are descended from such an.
cestors, but tradition lives long
in the South, and somo Southerners
set up as superior to neighbors that
come of redemptioner stock, Daniel
Defoe's niece Elizabeth was sold as a
rcdemptioner at Philadelphia about the
year, .l7lS, and her purchaser was
Andrew job, a resident Of what is now
Cecil county, Maryland. Elizabeth be-
came in 1875 the wife Of her purchaser IS
son Thomas, and, seemingly regarding
this rs II rise In the world, she for the
first time since her flight, wrote to her
mother and her uncle Daniel. The re-
ply came from her uncle, and told that
ner mother was dead and the girl her
self heir to u large property and her
mothers furniture. An inventory of
the goods accompanied the letter, and
uncle Daniel babe his niece have a
special care Of such furniture as he had
used in his study, because il had de-
scended in the family from Flemish
ancestors, refugees from the tyranny Of
Philip ii.
Elizabeth Job died in 1882, a very old
woman. One of her grandsons, Daniel
Detoe Job, was much with the old lady,
and he was long accustomed 10 retail
the stories Of her youth, received from
her own lips. She remembered, among
other things, the way in which uncle
Daniel used to expel her from his study
when vexed by her childish meddling
with his papers.
There were some eccentric characters
among the descendants of Elizabeth
dob, among them her grandson, Andrew
long hermit, living in woodland on
the ancestral acres near Brick Meeting
House IN Cecil county. lie clothol
himself in blanket only, ground hi;
own wheat and corn by pounding il
| with stones, and made his own cider by
squeezing the apples between his grea
hands. A family of Jobs, great-great
grandchildren OF Elizabeth, recent,
lived near Brick Meeting House, and thu
Grifllths of the same region are de
scended from her on the mothers side
The late James Trimble of Wilmington
Del, was a descendant OF Elizabeth
and there is preserved in the house o
the Delaware Historical Society one o
the Defoe chairs, gift from Mr.
Trimble. This chair is one of two indi
Gated by Daniel Defoe as having beer
part of his study furniture, and there i
a tradition that he occupied this yer,
chair when writing "Robinson Crusoe.