Marple Tutors

About Marple

One of the most famous landmarks in the township of Marple is the Thomas Massey House.

When William Penn was granted a large tract of land by the King of England, numerous followers of Penn’s religion, known as the Quakers, relocated from the United Kingdom to America. Thomas Massey was one of Penn’s religious brothers in the “Religious society of Friends.” Massey was a humble servant in his hometown of Marpool, in Cheshire, England. On relocating to America, through fulfilling his role of servitude to his master Francis Stanfield, he was bestowed fifty acres of land. This was enough to make him a bonafide landowner, and on it, he built his very own house by himself. Marple tutors frequently refer to Massey’s story to describe the pursuit of the “American Dream.”

Like many Quakers, Massey arrived in Marple on the ship named “Endeavour” which docked near Chester, (which was then called Upland). He was only twenty years old when he arrived. What he did not know at the time was that his future wife Phoebe was on-board the very same ship. It was nine years before he and she became married.

It was more than a decade after working very hard on his land and building his family that Massey was in a position to buy more land. He extended his original lot by buying an additional three hundred acres from Francis Stanfield’s son who had inherited his father’s land. On this newly extended lot Massey developed a plantation, here the family settled and together Phoebe and Thomas Massey had seven children.

Massey’s house was originally a log-framed house, and just before the turn of the eighteenth century he added a brick portion onto it. Before he could make any further changes Massey sadly passed away in 1707. It was then Massey’s eldest son Mordecai who conducted further renovations in the 1730’s when he replaced the log part with a more resilient stone structure. This improvement is no doubt why the building has remained in tact to this day. According to Marple tutors it is one of the oldest buildings in the commonwealth of Pennsylvania having been standing for over three hundred years. It is now protected and listed on the National register of Historic Places. Many of the features that existed in the 1730’s are still in sound working order today, and on visiting the property you can see them in action in person.