Dr. Enoch Edwards

The Edwards famly were prominent during the American revolution.

"Dr. Enoch Edwards was associated with James Monroe when the latter was minister to France, and was also on the staff of Lord Sterling.

A brother, Major Evan Edwards, was on the staff of General Charles Lee, and was General Lee's second in his celebrated duel with Laurens, in which Alexander Hamilton was the second on the other side. It is said that Jefferson made his first draft of the Declaration of Independence in the summer house located in the garden of Dr. Edwards, in Frankford. The mansion on these grounds, which was only recently torn down, was in its day the resort of the most eminent men of the time, including George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Monroe, and many others foremost in the history of our country.
Aaron Burr, who was a cousin of Dr. Edwards, and of Dr. Britton's great-grandmother, was also a frequent visitor." [Genealogical and Personal Memorial of Mercer County, New Jersey, pg. 160 By Francis Bazley Lee, Lewis Publishing Company, Lewis Publishing Company, 1907 ]

An eyewitness to Jefferson's return to Frankford, records the following in her memoirs:

After my uncle's return, he purchased a place in Frankford of Mr. Drinker. The house was pleasantly situated at some distance from the street, but the beauty of the place consisted in the lovely view presented from the summer-house, of the pastures, streams, bridges, mills, the village, numberless roads winding through tall trees, luxuriant shade, and rising above all other objects, was seen Christ Church steeple, five miles distant.

One day when Mr. Jefferson was on a visit to my uncle, they walked up to this summer-house. He looked round and said: "This is the spot on which the signers of the Declaration of Independence dined the day they signed the Declaration." [FANNY SALTAR'S REMINISCENCES OF COLONIAL DAYS IN PHILADELPHIA. CONTRIBUTED BY MRS. E. B. HOSKTNS., Page 198PA. MAG. HIST., XL (Apr. 1916)]

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* [http://www.brynmawr.edu/iconog/nwl/p906253b.jpg"House and ground where the 1st "4th of July" was celebrated." Enoch Edwards, Womrath property; 4216 Frankford Ave."] ,ca 1870, P.9062.53b (Brenner) 7 1/8" x 9 1/2" Notes: Reduced image in HSP: Bd 862 N447, 6th Series with printed label.