1738. 
Pennsylvania, on the 10th 0f'()ut0ber, 
The 
of the 
branch 
West family, to which 
he belongs, 
has been traced 
in an unbroken series to the Lord 
Delawarre, who distinguished himself in the great 
wars of King Edward the Third, and particularly 
at the battle of Cressy, under the immediate com- 
mand of the Black 
Richard the Second, 
Prince. In the reign of 
the ancestors of Mr. West 
settled 
at 
Long 
Crandon 
in 
Buckinglxamshire. 
About the year 
1667 
the tenets of 
they embraced 
the Quakers ; 
and Colonel James West, the friend 
and companion in arms of the celebrated Hamp- 
den, is said to have been the First proselyte of the 
family. In 1699 they emigrated to America. 
II. Thomas Pearsdn, tHe maternal grandfather 
of the Artist, was the coniidential friend of Wil- 
liam Penn, and the same person to Whom that 
venerable legislator said, on landing in America, 
" Providence has brought us safely hither; thou 
hast been the companion of my perils, what wilt 
thou that I should call this place P" Mr. Pearson 
replied, 
that 
" since he 
had honoured 
so far 
him 
as to desire him to give that part of the country 
a name, he would, in remembrance of his native