Annual Delaware Antiques Show 2019

Quaker Friends Who Made History By Stacey Inglis The historic Tilton Mansion, located behind the stone wall at 9th and Broom streets, sits just outside downtown Wilmington. Built in 1802, its owner, Dr. James Tilton, was a Revolutionary War surgeon, graduate of the first medical class at the University of Pennsylvania in 1768, and a delegate to the Continental Congress in 1783. Tilton was born in 1745 in Duck Creek, Kent County, one of eleven children. His family emigrated from England in the 1600s, settling in Lynn, Massachusetts. A few generations later, a branch of the Tilton family, led by his grandfather John, made its way south to Long Island. Eventually, James’s father, Thomas, and his grandfather brought their family to Kent County, which at the time was one of the three lower counties of Pennsylvania. Thomas Tilton died when James was just 3 years old, and the young Tilton was sent to be educated in Cecil County, Maryland, at West Nottingham Academy. The boarding school was founded in 1744 and run by Presbyterian preacher Samuel Finley, who became president of the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University). James’s brother Nehemiah fought in the Kent County Militia and eventually became the burgess (or Mayor) of Wilmington. He and his wife, Lydia, lived at 6th and Shipley streets. James was quite close to Nehemiah and made his way north about the same time as his brother and sister-in-law. Lore has it that he came to Wilmington for the “air” and that he believed the marshes of Kent County were not good for one’s health. Tilton was a Quaker and frequented the Friends Meeting House in Wilmington, where he met Bancroft Woodcock. Woodcock was born into a Quaker family in Wilmington in 1732 and was considered Delaware’s foremost 18th-century silversmith. Both he and Tilton exemplified the simplicity of Quakers. Tilton grew his own food and made his own clothing. The men were also good friends with George Washington. In 1760, Woodcock purchased the land on which the Tilton Mansion now stands. At the time, the population of Wilmington was nearing 1,000, and the site was rural. It had a view of the spires of Philadelphia to the north, the Maryland countryside to the south, the town of Wilmington directly below and, beyond that, the shoreline of New Jersey. Woodcock built a small house there in 1766 and named it Bellevue. James Tilton, M.D. — 134 —