n Chapter V. As in the
latter, a broad central hall extends entirely through the house, and the
staircase is located in a small side hall. The rooms throughout are
large and contain excellent woodwork and chimney pieces.

Port Royal House was erected in 1762 by Edward Stiles, a wealthy
merchant and shipowner, who like many others emigrated from Bermuda to
the Bahama island of New Providence and thence to Philadelphia about the
middle of the eighteenth century, to engage in American commerce. He was
the great-grandson of John Stiles, one of the first settlers of Bermuda
in 1635, and the son of Daniel Stiles, of Port Royal Parish, a vestryman
and warden of Port Royal Church and a member of the Assembly of Bermuda
in 1723. Commerce between the American colonies and Bermuda and the West
Indies was extensive, and Stiles' business prospered. He had a store in
Front Street between Market and Arch streets, and a town house in Walnut
Street between Third and Fourth streets. In summer, like other men of
his station and affluence, he lived at his countryseat, surrounded by
many slaves, on an extensive plantation in Oxford township, near
Frankford, that he had purchased from the Waln family. To it he gave the
name Port Royal after his birthplace in Bermuda.

To Edward Stiles in 1775 befell the opportunity to carry relief to the
people of Bermuda, then in dire distress because their supplies from
America had been cut off by the Non-Importation Agreement among the
American colonies. In response to their petition to the Continental
Congress, permission was granted to send Stiles' ship, the _Sea Nymph_
(Samuel Stobel, master), laden with provisions to be paid for by the
people of Bermuda either in gold or arms, ammunition, saltpeter, sulphur
and fieldpieces.

During the occupation of Philadelphia by the British in 1777 and 1778,
Frankford became the middle ground between the opposing armies and
subject to the depredations of both. Port Royal House, like many other
estates of the vicinity, was robbed of its fine furniture, horses,
slaves and provisions.

Under the will of Edward Stiles his slaves were freed and educated at
the expense of his estate. In 1853 the Lukens family bought Port Royal
House and for several years a boarding school was conducted there. As
the manufacturing about Frankford grew, the locality lost its
desirability as a place of residence. The house was abandoned to chance
tenants and allowed to fall into an exce