The Return of Jacob Bates?

You thought I was done with Jacob Bates when we saw him off to London four days before the Boston Tea Party.

However, in The Circus: Its Origin and Growth Prior to 1835, Isaac J. Greenwood wrote:

…he is said to have been conducting a riding-school in Philadelphia after 1786.

Incidentally, Greenwood also published on his ancestor John Greenwood and early American naval hero John Manley.

S. L. Kotar and J. E. Gessler echoed that report in The Rise of the American Circus, 1716–1899, stating:

Bates returned to Philadelphia in 1787 and rented an equestrian building from Thomas Pool and established a riding school.

I’m not completely convinced this man in Pennsylvania was the same Jacob Bates who billed himself as an equestrian before the war. He did display horses, but as a breeder rather than a performer. He did offer riding lessons, but didn’t promise any special tricks. But maybe he was getting too old for that stuff.

The name of Jacob Bates appears in the city of Philadelphia’s roll for the “effective supply tax” in 1781 and 1782, even before the formal end of the war. This Bates’s property in the “Northern Liberties,” north of the city, was valued at somewhat over £900. In 1781 the entry just below Bates was “for Thomas Hopkins’s,” and in 1782 it was “Robert Hopkins.”

The next sign of Jacob Bates that I’ve found is an advertisement in the Pennsylvania Packet on 30 Apr 1782:

ECLIPSE,
A beautiful high-blooded bright-bat STALION, will COVER this season, at Point-no-Point, on the Farm late the property of Robert Hopkins, deceased.

HE is full 15 hands high, entirely free from blemish and well marked, bread from Fearnought and Herod, and out of a Juniper Mare; for beauty, carriage and speed ’tis supposed that no horse on the continent excels him, now rising five years old, and in fine order. His Pedigree will be given to those who send their Mares.

The Price is FIVE POUNDS for each Mare and a Crown to the Groom.

Good Grass and careful Attendance given to the Mares on the Farm. The Money to be paid before they are taken away.

JACOB BATES.
April 6.

He will be shewn on Market-days (if the weather proves fair) at the Coffee-house.

Bates advertised Eclipse at much greater length on 12 Apr 1785. Later that month he offered to sell a mare named the Ulster Lass. In 1789 he offered the stud services of Atlass, the Ulster Lass’s colt.

Point-no-Point was a spot on the Delaware River north of Philadelphia. John Adams rode out there in 1777 and wrote home:

The Road to Point No Point lies along the River Delaware, in fair Sight of it, and its opposite shore. For near four Miles the Road is as strait as the Streets of Philadelphia. On each Side, are beautifull Rowes of Trees, Buttonwoods, Oaks, Walnutts, Cherries and Willows, especially down towards the Banks of the River. The Meadows, Pastures, and Grass Plotts, are as Green as Leeks. There are many Fruit Trees and fine orchards, set with the nicest Regularity. But the Fields of Grain, the Rye, and Wheat, exceed all Description. These Fields are all sown in Ridges; and the Furrough between each Couple of Ridges, is as plainly to be seen, as if a swarth had been mown along.

That was prime farmland, near the country’s largest city. The area is now the part of Philadelphia known as Bridesburg.

TOMORROW: Menage à deux?