A Smithsonian magazine special report
Born and Raised in Philadelphia, This Loyalist Fled to England During the American Revolution. In His Absence, the Patriots Declared Him a Traitor and Seized His Property
Matthias Aspden spent his time abroad yearning for his “native country.” His heirs later took the government to court, arguing that the estate had been confiscated unjustly
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On the eve of the American Revolution, Matthias Aspden made a decision that would change the trajectory of his life. A wealthy merchant from Philadelphia, Aspden carefully prepared to leave his home in March 1776 as rumors of war circulated. He drafted a will and appointed trusted friends to manage his property while he traveled to England.
As someone who wanted to remain loyal to the crown and the British Empire, Aspden hoped that the war would be brief. Historians estimate that at the beginning of the conflict, as many as one-third of all American colonists identified as loyalists. Aspden believed his departure would be temporary. Order would be restored, he assumed, and he would permanently return within a few years.
But that didn’t turn out to be the case.
The American Revolution is often told as a triumphant story of democracy and freedom. But this narrative leaves out a significant group: the loyalist men and women who remained faithful to Britain and, as a result, lost their homes, property and sometimes their sense of belonging.
As a historian of the American Revolution who studies Philadelphia loyalists, I believe Aspden’s story offers a glimpse into an overlooked experience of the war.
A wealthy Philly merchant exiled in England
Born and raised in Philadelphia, Aspden was not a marginal figure. He was a Quaker merchant with extensive property holdings, including a home on Water Street, in what is now the Old City neighborhood, and land in Chester County outside Philadelphia.
Did you know? Quakers during the American Revolution
- In the 18th century, Philadelphia was home to a thriving Quaker community. Many of these individuals refused to take sides in the American Revolution, citing the Quaker commitment to pacifism.
- Some Quakers “felt like God was asking them to go and fight against the British, and they were the ones who were disowned and kind of came together to be the Free Quakers,” an offshoot group of the main society, Janaki Spickard-Keeler, an editor at a Quaker learning community outside Philadelphia, told Smithsonian magazine this year. Others, like Aspden, pledged their allegiance to the crown.
When Aspden left in 1776, he abandoned nearly everything he owned, believing he would soon return. As others celebrated independence that summer, Aspden quietly slipped away to London.
In England, reality set in. Exile was not just physical; it was deeply social and emotional. In Philadelphia, Aspden had been established. In London, he was one of thousands of displaced loyalists trying to rebuild a life. He gravitated toward communities of fellow exiles. These networks offered some stability, but they could not replace what he had left behind.
Aspden’s letters to friends and family from this period reveal a man caught between hope and anxiety. He followed news from Philadelphia obsessively, requesting newspapers and updates from friends and business contacts. At one point, he described himself as “an idle man until I can return to America.” His words suggest both longing and uncertainty, as if his life were on pause.
By 1780, however, that uncertainty had turned into fear.
A “traitor” trying to come back home
Aspden began hearing about laws in Pennsylvania aimed at confiscating loyalist property. These laws required individuals accused of treason to appear in court and defend themselves. Aspden, still in England, could not do so. As a result, he was tried in absentia, declared a traitor and subjected to the state’s harshest penalties.
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The consequences were devastating. In 1782, Aspden learned that all of his property had been confiscated and would be sold to aid the patriots in the American Revolution. An official commissioner of confiscation seized his Philadelphia home and wharf, which were worth thousands of pounds, along with his land in Chester County. Aspden, facing financial ruin, decided to return to Philadelphia to defend his name and his property.
Two years after the Revolution ended, in 1785, Aspden crossed the Atlantic after nearly a decade abroad, hoping the new United States would restore his property under the terms of the peace treaty with Britain. Instead, he was met with rejection.
Pennsylvania officials informed him that individuals in his position were not protected. He had no legal claim to his property and, more shockingly, no rights as a citizen. While the peace treaty prevented further confiscation of loyalist property, his property was not restored.
The message was clear: Philadelphia was no longer his home.
One last trip to Philadelphia
Aspden left again, traveling through New Jersey and New York before securing passage back to England. Reflecting on his departure, he wrote of the pain of being “forced from my native country.”
In the years that followed, Aspden sought compensation wherever he could. The American government offered nothing, so he turned to Britain. The American Loyalist Claims Commission, established to reimburse those who had lost property during the war, eventually awarded him just over £1,100—a fraction of his estimated losses.
Aspden made one final visit to America in the early 1790s. By then, he had received a legal pardon and could travel without fear of arrest. But he still could not recover his property or successfully pursue compensation in American courts. Once again, he left—this time for good.
Heirs recover his fortune
Aspden died in England in 1824, having spent nearly 50 years in exile from the city he always considered home.
Decades after his death, his heirs pursued a legal claim in the U.S. against Pennsylvania, arguing that his estate had been unjustly seized. After years of litigation, the court ruled in their favor in the 1840s, awarding them more than $500,000—approximately $20 million today. It was a remarkable reversal, but Aspden never saw justice.
In an ironic twist, one of Aspden’s heirs died on the day that the estate was divided. “At the time of his death, his pockets contained a solitary cent!—his entire fortune!” a local newspaper reported. “Today, the man who might have been the possessor of a quarter of a million of dollars will be borne to his grave from an obscure part of the District of Southwark.”
Aspden’s life raises difficult questions about loyalty, identity and belonging. He didn’t see himself as disloyal to Philadelphia. To him, loyalty to the British crown and loyalty to home were not opposites.
His story reminds us that the Revolution was not just a fight for independence. It was also a civil conflict that divided communities and reshaped lives. For every celebrated patriot, there were loyalists like Aspden who lost so much during the American Revolution.
This article is republished from the Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
Kimberly Nath is dean of the School of Arts and Humanities at San Juan College in New Mexico. She was previously a historian at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater.
