William Penn and Mystery

[Elam]

There are two pieces of brick or cement I found a few years ago. The first appears to say "Wm. Penn" and the second looks almost like "Mystery". I doubt it actually said "mystery". Was "Myster" an old spelling of "Mister"...?

Thanks for your help!

~Elam

 

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[taz42o]

Mystic?

 

[Elam]

I suppose that's a possibility, too. I found the first brick in a brook downhill from where a barn once stood. The second brick I can't remember where I found it, but probably near where the farmhouse once was.

 

[HutSiteDigger]

I agree with Mystic or something in that nature. I don't think it is "mystery" but it could be.

 

[Elam]

Do any of you have an idea what the ridges on the back of the first one might have been for? It makes me think it probably wasn't from a wall as if the other side served some sort of purpose. But I could be wrong. For extra information, the first brick is flattened on top, but the second one slopes down to the back.

 

[cudamark]

The ridges could be a design pattern or for holding the thin set or mortar. Kinda depends on which side is the front. Judging by the photo, it looks like the grooves are in the front so I would say it's decorative.

 

[Back-of-the-boat]

There is a town in Connecticut named Mystic maybe they had a place that made or sold those bricks its on the mystic river so transport was possible.

 

[surf]

Do any of you have an idea what the ridges on the back of the first one might have been for? It makes me think it probably wasn't from a wall as if the other side served some sort of purpose. But I could be wrong. For extra information, the first brick is flattened on top, but the second one slopes down to the back.

The left one looks like a piece of cornice material to me.

​

 

[Elam]

These are some good ideas, but perhaps I should have mentioned that this was found far away from any towns. Thus, it would be unlikely that it came from a cornice. I always figured that the ridges would be the back and the name would be on the front...? It just seemed logical that the company (or person) would want their name displayed.

The idea of the ridges being used to hold mortar or thin set is closer, I believe. A nearby barn was built using mortar and stones.

 

[DCMatt]

Mystic?

William Penn, whose 350th birthday has been celebrated this fall, is best known as a man of action in a political arena--a courtier, statesman, lawgiver, city planner. Also, of course, a Christian and a Quaker. But a mystic? A universalist? Yes, says Elizabeth Gray Vining in her Pendle Hill Pamphlet (#167, available from Pendle Hill, Wallingford, PA 19086) entitled "William Penn: Mystic." In this study she has mined his voluminous writings--many of them tedious, many with a simple beauty--and has revealed his persistent expressions of a deep belief in the universal "Light, Spirit, Grace, and Truth [that] is given to every man and woman to see their way to go by." She presents him as a representative of the mysticism and universalism that was part of 17th century Quakerism. The material that follows is paraphrased or quoted from a 1969 pamphlet that is well worth reading in its entirety.

DCMatt