The papers of the Edmund Physick family span the years 1759-1899 and consist of thirty-three volumes and additional loose account book pages, letters, notes, receipts, and clippings (many inside the volumes) mostly of the Physick and Syng families of Philadelphia. The volumes are mostly financial account books and receipt books, and many of them document the settlement of the estates of members of the Physick and Syng families. Household, business, and farming accounts are recorded in these volumes. Many accounts relate to Philadelphia real estate transactions: purchases, rentals, construction, repairs, and payments of taxes. People represented include Edmund Physick (1725?-1804), a Pennsylvania official and agent for descendants of William Penn; his wife Abigail Syng Physick (died 1791); her father, Philadelphia silversmith Philip Syng (1703-1789); their son surgeon Philip Syng Physick (1768-1837); their daughter Abigail Physick (1763-1854), who managed real estate in Philadelphia; and physician Theodore Physick (1805-1834), who is represented by an undated book of medical recipes. Many volumes contain accounts of different people from different times, as remaining blank pages were filled in. The collection is organized by type of material and therein chronologically.

Also included are four volumes documenting the estates of brothers James and Robert Bremner (Edmund Physick helped settle their estates); a receipt book belonging to Parry Hall (probably Philadelphia printer Parry Hall [1755?-1793], see the entry regarding a printing press, March 29, 1787, in the receipt book and the 1790 federal census); an order book of the Dolphin, 1821-1822, kept by a descendant, David Conner; and a fragment of a logbook of the Erie, 1829. Blank pages in the Erie volume were later filled with accounts, 1843-1847.

Two volumes document Edmund Physick’s dealings with cousins John Penn (1729-1795) and John Penn (1760-1834), descendants of William Penn, proprietors of Pennsylvania before the Revolution, and Pennsylvania landowners afterward. They lived in Pennsylvania and England. Edmund Physick’s receipt book (Box 5, volume 2) contains notes from 1774- July, 1776 documenting construction of the older John Penn’s house on the Schuylkill River, probably the mansion known as “Lansdowne.” Physick’s book for 1789-1795 (Box 6, volume 5) contains notes and receipts from a 1789 trip to London. These document his meetings with the Penns and his payments for his son Philip Syng Physick’s medical training in England. Both of these volumes contain notes and accounts from later periods.

The account books of Philip Syng contain only a few references to his career as a silversmith. His account for 1789-1803 (Box 3, volume 2, page 21), for example, refers to gold clippings, gold and silver solder, and tea tong patterns that were part of his estate after his death in 1789.